Thriller in OKC: Thunder Reclaim Finals Edge = Knicks Coaching Search Makes Them Look Thirsty!

it's saturday, you know what time it is. Frontrunner podcast collective is back on the air and I am your humble host, vince, and we have a jam-packed podcast for you today. We're going to break down game four. We're also going to sprinkle in some game three and we'll tell you a little bit about why we didn't go last night. I know this is a day late and a dollar short, but there was an actual reason for that, so we'll get into that momentarily. So we're going to talk a lot about Oklahoma City, the victory, how they came about it. We're going to talk about the Pacers and some of the adjustments that they can be made in game five and how we can get to this incredible, incredible series that we're watching Tie 2-2.

Who knew it was going to be such a competitive battle? And here we are, you know, but it's all the things that we ever want of our NBA. It's the things that we absolutely are sitting here going like damn. I remember Pat McAfee talking about. I just want like a seven game series, I want something competitive, I want this, you know. Whatever. And now we got it. We got a really good series. A lot of adjustments have been made. A lot of adjustments will continue to be made and we're going to get to it momentarily, but before we do, I want to tell everybody, I want to shout out all the audience members uh, man, germany, italy, france, um, argentina, the chile, um, egypt, um, egypt, riyadh, saudi Arabia, um, and then the United States of America is just like killing it. Um, we are, we are hitting it in Baton Rouge, louisiana. We are killing it, killing the game in um places that I just couldn't even imagine. So, boardman, oregon, shout out to you downloading the podcast. We are grateful to our audience. We talk about all the time that we do not, we don't pay for ads. We don't like promote our podcast with, like google or whatever the case may be, or on x. We've not touched that market yet. So anytime we get new downloads, new like new areas of downloads, it's really by word of mouth, it's really by somebody uh, taking a chance on the podcast and taking a chance on us. And you can't to me, man, I ain't gonna get emotional. What you can't buy? That sort of feeling, that feeling where it's like somebody is really listening to us, because we do this twice a week and it's one of those things that we love doing. So, with all that being said, thank you to the audience members and again, be a friend and tell a friend about the podcast. That's how we grow.

Also, make sure that you're getting yourself to frpcpodcastpageio. Why is that important? Because when you listen to the podcast, there's also a second screen experience blog that goes along with it. So I want you to have all the ammunition. You know, I want you to miss a single stat, a single advanced metric. I don't want you to miss anything. I stat a single advanced metric. I don't want you to miss anything. I want you to have it all at the fingertips. You know, I just want you to have it at the ready. So we do tireless work to get that also involved into you. So let's break down game four, and also we're going to touch on some things that happened in game three as well. So let's get to it. Soraya, we are ready to go.

You ever watch a game and the scoreboard is just lying to you. That's how I felt last night. Like technically they're down 10. But with every possession it feels like a setup. Every missed free throw, throw a warning shot and then it happens the lead vanishes, the arena tightens and the game flip, and that is exactly what happened in game four. Oklahoma City didn't just win this game, they walked them down and they imposed their will on the Indiana Pacers. And the question certainly I had going into the postseason were how were the Thunder going to handle close game scenarios? Game four we got our answer and for the first note from serea today, the thunder outscored the pacers 35 to 18 in the final 14 minutes. They had a 12 to 1 run to close. Every stop tightened indiana's confidence and I'm gonna tell you right now that was crazy how flowing the offense was for the Pacers up until like four minutes to go in the third quarter and then all of a sudden you can't get a shot off.

Shots become premium in Cambridge Fieldhouse, in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and Shea Gilgis Alexander played like an MVP. He looked like a man rewriting the script 11 straight points in the final three minutes. That's not common. That hasn't happened in the NBA Finals in 50 years.

Another little stat from our girl, so R Soraya SGA 15 points in the fourth quarter, 11 straight in the final three minutes and four seconds. The only player to score in the fourth quarter. Zero assists he had. Also, it was pure isolation dominance from him. Sga was marvelous in this game and you go. Well, why was he only? He didn't have any assists. We'll get to that momentarily. And that and here's the twist to the whole deal he did it without the assist. Why would he not have assists? Because Jada was actually being the point guard. You know what I'm saying. It was Mahomesian-like Shea Gilchrist Alexander last night, the solo shot creation. The man put OKC on his back and he never looked over his shoulder.

But let's not pretend that Indiana didn't crack a little, because they did. The Pacers were 0-4-8 from 3 in the 4th quarter. There were 4th quarter shooting stretch all season and the rim may as well have been welded shut. It was like yo, you're not getting baskets. Baskets are now a premium and you don't have premium money to pay these prices. The Pacers didn't just miss shots, they froze. Halliburton hesitated. Siakam was uh hard to get the ball to. Toppin tried to keep the vibe up, but it was slipping and you could feel it in this, you can feel it in the arena, you can feel it within the fan base.

The comeback kings were being haunted by their own playbook. It did look eerily similar to game one and how oklahoma city got walked down by the indiana patients in that game, that fourth quarter. To me it wasn't just a win, it was like oh yeah, we gotta, we gotta right some wrongs here. This was a culture when this was a composure, when that the thunder for all case in purposes, this was the question that we had about them. We're not too young, it's not too early for us, we're right on time. All the questions that we had about the OKC Thunder, and we kind of disregarded it. We kept on saying, well, maybe, maybe, just this historic net rating. They're just going to continue to blow people out. But you have to guess at some point that there was going to be a situation where adversity was staring the Oklahoma City Thunder right in the face. And what did they do to their adversity? They punched it right in the mouth.

Okc held Indiana scoreless over three minutes in crunch time. The Thunder scored or got to the line Eight of the last ten possessions. This is the finals. This is the belief versus experience. This is what happens when your MVP gets desperate. And I'm telling you right now Now it's 2-2. Now all bets are off.

We go into game five and I don't think momentum is one of those things that, listen. I do believe in momentum, I believe in the wave of emotions coming over people, I believe in all that. But I think every game has had its own dna marker and I think what we're seeing here is just two teams that are absolutely pretty. I wouldn't have said it at the beginning of the series, but I can say it now these two teams are really evenly matched. Let's talk about game four, like, let's get into it.

It wasn't a revenge thing for game three, but what it was was a recalibration of identity by a team that is mature beyond its mileage. The oklahoma city thunder trailed for nearly 30 minutes of basketball and then they locked the door in the game where they made only three, three corners. The thunder didn't just win with spacing, they won with recognition, they won with pressure points of matchups and they had got wrong the last 48 hours before or prior. They shot like hell from the three-point line. Note from Soraya OKC was 3-17 from beyond the arc, which is 17.6%. 11 made threes by Indiana. 11 made threes. The Thunder overcame the eight-shot deficit from deep. It's the rarest win in Finals history, personally.

So what changed? What was the overlining? What was some of the theories that everybody had about this particular game. Sga wasn't just sitting there pounding the rock About this particular game. Sga wasn't just sitting there Pounding the rock, you know, and beating teams with you know Passes and allowing others to get Involved, or whatever he was like. Yo, I'm going to be on my own type situation. Dagnall brought Isaiah Hartenstein back To start anchoring A more traditional defensive backbone and the Thunder cut the delay delay game from their half court sets more than 12 seconds before initiating offense. This was a pace without panic, half court poise With purpose and pain touches.

We're going to talk a little bit about Shea Gilgis Alexander. Why not? Because he is the MVP of the NBA. Here's a guy who understands the moment. Dude scored 11 straight points in the final three minutes. He only had one three pointer, which was the one towards the end of the game. So my guy knows timing and we did talk about the zero assists, right. So why is that important? This is why his 35 points on 12 or 24 shooting, 10 to 10 from the line and no assists it's the most points without an assist in the finals since 1983. Yo, let me tell you right now, back in 1983, we was doing a lot of mano-a-mano-ish type stuff. He saw the Pacers peel the switch onto him, obi Topkin, and he went to the post calmly. He attacked them hard with single move initiations, not three dribble hesitations or what have you, and then that baseline fade with like 221 left in the game. You know what I'm talking about. That was butter, absolute butter, and you go. Well, where did the assist come from? Who was doing the ball handling? Well, that goes.

That role goes to none other than the other engine of the okc thunder, jalen williams j-dub. He was out there doing his thing. He was 11 for 11 from the free throw line. He didn't hit a jumper all night, not all night. My man was driving, he was like chauffeuring everybody around, but he had 27 points, he was 8 of 18 from the field. He had 27 points, he was 8 of 18 from the field and he just put all pressure inside 15 feet. 11 free throws made in the finals.

You know how aggressive you have to be going to the paint to get 11 free throws and you're not like a real deal superstar, and that's not disrespect to Jalen Williams whatsoever. What that is is just being truthful. But you gotta be aggressive, going to the paint and have intentionality going to the paint If this is going to be what you're going to do. And he did that. Every trip was earned from him. He attacked closeouts with discipline, he out indiana's weak side rotations and when hallowerton got caught in space, boom foul two shots. That's playoff growth, that's counter read, that's counter read offense, you know, I'm saying. And then our guy caruso and as a laker fan, this hurts me to my heart to see Caruso out here flourishing. I'm not a hater, just I miss him. Wish he was on our squad. I mean, he was really the unsung hero of this game.

Caruso checked in for Kaysen Wallace mid through, midway through the third quarter and from the moment that he entered the game, indiana didn't get a clean set. Look again, caruso was a plus 14. In the fourth quarter alone, he scored 20 points. Yet he was on 7 of 9 shooting. He had three straight defensive contests in the final five minutes. He was everywhere and he was doing all the things that brought the Lakers the championship in 2020. I know people want to call it the bubble championship. It's our championship in 2020.

Whatever, he called out goal screens, he disrupted goal screens. He forced Halliburton to reset the offense with nine on the shot clock. Three possessions in a row. Like we had Tyrese Halliburton like 34, 37 feet away from the basket trying to figure out how could he break into this impenetrable defense that he was looking at. And offensively he just had timely buckets rebound here, put back there, floater here, jump shot here. No ego just answers. And this is what our guy caruso said post-game. He said I'm robbing, I know that, I'm trying to be batman, I'm not trying to be batman, but every batman needs a guy who brings a flashlight and he's like that's me. Here's a guy who knows his role, he knows where his bread is buttered and to see him play at this level and get to play in these games. Because that trade in the offseason, before the season, started the josh giddy for alex caruso situation I was just like.

So we just gave them the thunder on the fourth quarter, no doubt because they won the possession battle. They out rebounded indiana 43 to 33. Overall they pulled down 12 offensive rebounds, including four in the fourth quarter alone. The fourth quarter offensive rebounds four to one. The thunder scored eight points off second chance um possessions in the last eight minutes. The pacers, on the other hand, were over eight from three in the fourth quarter. So we bring that stat up to tell you hey, if you don't hit threes, even though you have such an incredible margin, you knew that OKC who, let's be honest, we thought were extremely more talented than Indiana which we were wrong, because these teams seem very evenly matched so far.

I will say this about OKC the type of players they bring in is not accidental. Presti and diagonal have done what they've done here is is is not an accident. This team isn't just young, is discipline. It's not emotionally reactive, not glued to isos and hero ball like we can share the sugar. We're gonna lock in defensively. The only time that these cats ever yell at one another is like when they think that the defensive intensity is not to where it needs to be. They don't trip over shots, they shots. They don't trickle over like oh I'm, you know this is, I'm not getting enough touches, or anything like that. They just go out and play basketball.

And Diagonal he managed Shea's minutes better Than he did in game three. You saw Shea go out With like four minutes to go In the first quarter. They staggered some of his rest periods in the third just for him to be have that final kick in the fourth quarter. These are all things, little things, that that Dagnall did to preserve his superstar. He saw what he did in game 3. He wasn't reactionary coaching, he was just saying, okay, well, if we need our guy to have more stamina in the 4th quarter, we'll take him out a little bit earlier in the 1st. So it's energy, it's belief, it's execution.

Okay, c walked into the Hornet's nest and then they outscored the pacers 31 to 17 um in the fourth, not with tricks, not with threes, but with toughness, because they made a pilgrimage to the paint. They kept going like listen, we are going to get inside your, your defense, we are going to go to the paint and then we are going to then create chaos from that point on. But the chaos wasn't for the kick out for the threes, it was basically the kick out to the three. There was going to be a pump fakes and then drive to the hole and everything was inside the three point line for okc last night. Basically, let's talk about our guy, benedict mathering a little bit.

He had an incredible game in game three. He had 27 points in 22 minutes. No fluke, not an accident. He just kept on getting buckets. He was in rhythm, he was a menace on transition. His 27 points, his 10 of 13 field goal, uh shooting. His three of five from three, his four rebounds it was absolutely spectacular and breathtaking in Game 3. This young guy who we're thinking to ourselves like Whoa, this is crazy what he's doing. He was just getting buckets up, he was just doing his thing.

Indiana's biggest run in Game 3 was a 19-5 swing that featured Ben Matherin scoring or assisting on five of seven made field goals. He was the reason. Carlisle was like yo, we got a dude and he going to bring us to the promised land. Now, in game four, our guy disappeared.

Game four is a very, very, very different story, different. Benedict Matherin. He looked tight. He looked like he knew too much, like the film sessions got in his head. He only had six points on four shots. He was not aggressive whatsoever. He had zero presence in the fourth quarter. The only reason he came back in is because our guy, nismith, filed out matherin in the in the game four with the six points. He only had one rebound. He had zero assists in 15 minutes.

I'm not mad because he's still young and keep in mind he did not have the experience of the playoff run as everybody else did from last year because he was hurt. So really this is the stop starts that we're seeing with him right now, and the development that we're seeing is this is really the first time being on this stage. So Indiana can't afford that version of Matherin in game five. They're gonna need him to show a lot more aggression when he gets out there. That's the only way you're gonna be additive for this team, because you're not the best defender and those fouls when people weren't about the ball wasn't even inbounded yet. We're just absolute killers. You can't do those type of things, especially when the game is in the balance and you know you're over here just giving up like extra possessions and just allowing time to run off the clock.

Not great. Not great, benedict matherin at all. Where do we from here? We still got more to talk about. This is what the this is what Is the issue with Indiana. People want Halliburton to shoot the ball more. He's not going to. He's a facilitator, he's a distributor. He can get his offense, he can get Spectacular offense for himself, but he also wants to make sure that he is getting his teammates involved. So that means that Siakam has to be aggressive. Toppin has to be aggressive. Myles Turner passed down shot after shot last night. I don't know what was going on with him, but anything at the top of the key he's not even like thinking about shooting it most times. We also saw obi taku do the exact same thing and it led to like a 24 second violation, or yeah, it was a 24 second violation, because the shot that they threw up didn't even touch the rim when they finally got it off.

In game 3, benedict Matherin touched the paint 9 times In the second quarter alone. In game 4, he had 0 touches inside the restricted area. Tells you all you need to know. That's the glue cramp. It's not hot shooting night, it's pressure. Anytime you get purposeful paint touches, it just makes your offense so much better because you're collapsing the defense and then you know you allow your shooters to be completely wide open, whether they have a real strong closeout where then you can, then you know, pump, fake and then drive by, or you're so wide open you take the three pointer and it just goes in. These are things that you did not see out of the Pacers really at all in game four. So if you want to know if everything is right in the world with the Pacers.

If Benedict Matherin is doing these things, early drive sets. Carlisle needs to call a clear out in a or a pin down drive for him early to get him to the line or get him an easy basket where he can settle in no hesitation or corner threes. Don't overthink it. Let it fly. If you're open, let it fly. Rise the energy, not the ego. He doesn't need to be hallowed, he needs to be A agent of chaos, but control Confident Downhill Like a bowling ball with knives on it. You know what I'm saying. You got to be that dude, benadryl Master in game 3. Masterful when you can do 27 points in 22 minutes. This is crazy. But the mindset, that aggressive mindset, is what we're going to look for In game 5. Every finals has that one guy who doesn't need a statue, but you remember him.

If the Pacers take this series, we'll be looking back at game 3. As the Benedict, the Benedict Matheringin moment. But here's the real story. Great performances become legacy only if they're followed up. So game five is that the sequel? Is that what we see from benedict matherin? Or will we see what we saw in game four, which was a tentative guy, a guy who looked like he had. There was things at stake that he was starting to think about. And again, this is a young guy and this is a guy who did not go through the crucible of the playoffs last year. So when we're talking about this situation with benedict mather, we're not talking about him as like this guy who will never be able to do it, or anything like that. These are all learning steps for him, and how quickly he's able to adapt is going to be where do the Pacers have a chance continued in this series.

Also, I want to start talking about the Indiana Pacers in a little bit different way as well, and what I mean by that is that they were the plucky upstart team. They were the team that you know Vegas had counted out, and what have you? We counted them out. All the pundits counted them out as well. We counted them out. All the pundits counted them out as well, except for, I guess, udonis Haslam, who said he picked the Pacers Before the finals started. Now, with that being said, the Pacers look, I don't know if they are equal To OKC, but they are a hell of a lot closer To OKC than we ever thought they were.

Now, one thing that I am going to say, and I said it. I said it before the playoffs started. I've said it as the playoffs have gone on. The Thunder's average age is 23.3. It's the youngest finals team since 1980. The Lakers with a rookie, magic johnson. So think about what I just said. That's 45 years ago. The finals were on tape delay. And, by the way, for my youngins, in 1980 we had three channels. It was cbs, nbc and abc, and the nba finals did not go off live. They went off after the 11 o'clock news on cbs and they held the score. You know it's like hey, if you don't want to know score, turn away. We had to do all this kind of stuff back in the day. Think about that. This is 40 years ago. You might say oh, that's a long time ago. Well, I mean kind of sort of, but not that long ago.

We go back to game three a little bit, because there are still a couple things in Game 3 that I thought personally that the Pacers could use later on down the line. Shea got blitzed a lot in the half court. Mcconnell was an absolute terror in that game. Chet faded after a hot start. The Thunder led 93-89 in the fourth quarter of that game and then the pacers went on a 19 to 5 run. Okc had four turnovers and seven missed shots out of nine. So let's flip it to game four. The rotations were shorter. They gave shay control control rest early. We talked about that. We talked about his points in bunches. But here's the best part the thunder starters played 158 of 240 total minutes in game 4.

Dagnall trusted his top five. The result was a positive plus 10 in rebounding and a positive 12 in paint points. They were aggressive going to the rim. You know, I love it because it's like yo, we don't need to shoot threes. Not all the time, damn it. Not all the time do we need to shoot threes. I know three is worth more than two, I got it. But if your shot's not going in, go to the basket, and OKC did that.

This team wasn't just drafted, it was curated. Mark dagnall has built a system where the habits show up before the highlights. Loose balls matter, pause, rebounding position, it matters, and the resolve under fatigue. That's the recreation, not the personality. And they, they hold each other, they hold each other accountable.

Here's a quote from sga. He said we played with desperation, we knew 3-1 was a lot different than 2-2 and we stayed until. We stayed in it until the very end. That's a young guy talking like a vet. That's somebody who believes that, believes in the manner of what coach Dagnall is trying to preach to them. He's just so under control.

Now Halliburton has some stuff to figure out, matherin definitely has some things to figure out. And where's our guy Siakam? Because I'm gonna tell you right now, in the fourth quarter he went completely just. It was like we put him on the milk carton, put out an amber alert you what I'm saying? It was crazy, no-transcript. So how could you get basically offensive flow if you're not getting down the court and you're being completely harassed? Until there's like less than 10 seconds on the 24 second clock, siakam was 0 for 2 in the fourth quarter. Halliburton had three turnovers in the last seven minutes and again, the Pacers were 0 of 8 from 3 in the fourth quarter and, by the way, a lot of those shots were at the end of the shot clock. Desperation heaved, so the chances of those going in not great.

What we're looking at for Game 5, it's not going to be about sets. It's not going to be about sets. It's not going to be about shooting Hot shooting nights. It'll be about who plays smart While tired, who can stay connected when the crowd flips, who avoids the running back three and who's going to be able to Lock in In the final final, in the crunch time minutes if. If it comes down to it, who's going to be able to do this? I'm just saying, man, these are the things that we got to talk about. So when we talk about the okc thunder, I want to shout out our guy, sam Presti.

Shea Gilchrist Alexander. Now, he wasn't a draft pick of theirs, he was somebody they picked up in a trade. Jalen Williams of Santa Clara was a three-year starter. Chet Holmgren was on the USA Under-19 team and he was also the USA Under-19 team. He was also the captain of that team.

They pick certain types of players. You can call them choir boys, you can call them whatever you want. Oh, they're not as edgy. This is why the finals suck, because there's not a bunch of personalities in it.

Shea Gilgis Alexander ain't up here at the end of games talking trash about the other team. He's being very complimentary, uh, speaking with a lot of poise and a lot of control. When he does speak, he's very um, you know introspective when he talks about what his team is looking to do and how they're looking to achieve it. And you see, in any of the interviews whether it's Jalen Williams, shea Holmgren, sga, whoever it is, they all talk like they've been in the league, like 13 years. They all talk like they've been in a league, like they've seen a bunch of stuff go down and the like again. The average age of this team is 23.3.

So poise versus potential, that's not binary, it's balance. You don't win the finals just because you got a lot of talent. You win because when the game gets ugly, you remember who you are and you don't blink. Lkc did blink in game three, but in game four they walked through. They walked through their fear. So basically, like talladega nights, where gary cole who's will will ferrell's father in the movie he puts a cougar in the race car. He's like you need to drive with the fear. You need to drive and nothing more. Nothing's more scary than a you know, a killing machine like a cougar, right. So I don't know why I brought that up, but I just you know, I love that movie. Love that movie. Okc drove with the fear in game four.

It's like everybody would say if they lost that game oh, this is a big collapse. This is terrible. You know, oh you know, this team doesn't have it. You would have heard all kinds of nonsense about doesn't have it. You would have heard all kinds of nonsense about the thunder, and none of it would have been true. None of it because indiana did have a lead and they did. They were playing well. The thing about it is is that this team is super young and we, we continue to bring that up, not because it's some sort of catchy uh phrasing or whatever the case may be. We bring it up because, again, they aren't supposed to be here. Don't get it twisted.

Shea is a wizard. He is a perimeter shot making wizard. He's a foul curator, no doubt at the highest level. But Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams and what have you? These are young guys. Again, they have a bunch of guys under the age of 25. I know they got Shea. I know they got Shea. I know they got Kendrick Williams. I know they have Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartstein. I understand all that, but the people who handle the basketball, these kids, can barely drink. Some of them can't. I don't think Cason Wallace can drink yet.

Now, chet, our guy, guy, I'm just gonna say this game three he had 13 points. He only had two in the second half. Game four 14 points, 15 rebounded, 15 rebounds. But when you watch the tape His feet got heavier, his contest got slower In Indiana Getting second chance touches Over him and late in the third. That's what you saw in game three. Game four you saw a more invigorated Chet Holmgren. You saw a guy who was taking Like listen, I know that I'm fatigigued but I need to get to this squad to make sure that I am covering my teammates, helping my teammates. Chet missed three help rotations in the final six minutes of game three. In game four uh, he allowed four offensive rebounds to ovippen and siakam combination in the second half.

This is what we call a big man burnout. It's not lack of effort, it's a reality of that. This dude is 215 pounds and, yes, he's a unicorn but he can't play center every possession, not in the final series. Now, miles turner. Where was he in the fourth quarters? We saw game three a huge block on caruso hell side alertness, facing with the uh, facing the floor with the threes. But in game four, foul trouble, very quiet, and he didn't have any kind of. He didn't put any fingerprints On the game late. They're going to have to get something from Miles Turner. He had only one field goal attempt In the last nine minutes of game four. He finished with six boards. Mind you, miles Turner is not a huge rebound guy. He only had 2 of those rebounds in the second half.

That dude is going to have to come to play in game 5. There's going to have to be a a level up of intensity and aggressiveness from Miles Turner that we have not seen yet. And Carlisle has to go small with Ogietoppen and suddenly you're bleeding rebounds to Hardenstein and Jalen Williams because they were all over the boards. So now we're going to go and talk about some other things that I think were pressing in these games and might give us a little glimpse to what we might be looking at in game 5. You know I've talked about paint touches. You know I've talked about offensive rebounds and foul pressures. That's where this series keeps tipping to.

The Thunder had 50 paint points, to the Pacers 36. The second chance points were 23-11 in OKC's favor. And again, the offensive rebounds they had in the second half of game 4. They had 12 of them. Dagnall starts Hardenstein again Double bigss. It allows Chet to roam. The result is they bully small ball indie lineups and they outmuscle them. We didn't packing the paint. They were like, well shit, they're not gonna hit the three, so we may as well pack the paint. And you still got out rebounded because they were dominant in the paint. They drew 38 free throws. Okay, see, they cut off Indy's oxygen at the rim because they couldn't even get to the rim.

A lot of the possessions for Indiana late in the third quarter and also into the fourth quarter, a lot of their offense was on the perimeter, and I'm talking about deep on the perimeter. A lot of their offense was on the perimeter, and I'm talking about deep on the perimeter. We're not talking about right at the three-point line. I'm talking about seven to ten feet behind. The three-point line was when they were getting picked up on a man-to-man level and fighting over switches and screens and things. Fighting over screens through the switches and what have you, and screens and things fighting over screens through the switches and what have you.

This team was determined not to allow Tyrese Halliburton just free access to the lane. Can Indiana stop the bleeding in the middle without giving up everything else if Turner gets in foul trouble again or fades like he did in game four. The carlisle only choices are going topping where he got out muscled. You know saying are we going siakam and is there a jared's walker? Is jared's walker available? I know he had a nasty uh ankle injury in the in the last series but they're going to need some sort of different type of outcome from their bigs than what they're getting right now. Notice that our guy, uh, thomas bryant, didn't play a lot in game four. Notice that meanwhile, okay, see, they don't need chet to be Hakeem, they just need his rim protection, his glass security and his rotation accountability. Chet plus Hardenstein shared the floor for 19 minutes in game four. The Thunder had a plus 14 rebound margin and allowed just nine total paint points in that stretch. So double bigs are back in okc.

When the score was 96 96 in the fourth quarter and everyone's legs were jelly, the game came down to who controls the middle, and that was when the thunder said oh no, this is ours dog, this is what we do, this is how we're handling business tonight. And again, they got to the free throw line. They got there. Tyrese Halliburton in them didn't get there, they got the ass kicked at the free throw line. So our guy Tyrese Halliburton is going to have to make some adjustments into game 5. He's going to have to get off ball. You know, if OKC is hell bent on hijacking the rhythm of the game, then you need to turn. You need to turn the rhythm into chaos. They feel like a band that forgot their key change. In the fourth quarter, indiana's average possession length ballooned to 19.7 seconds their slowest of the postseason and it resulted in 17 points for the fourth quarter in game. So you rewind the tape.

Game three we had halliburton with 22 points, 11 assists, 9 boards. He hit early pull-ups, controlled closeouts, fouled Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin in stride when they were getting out, when they were leaking out, which was fantastic. He orchestrated a lot in that in that game. Game three, he didn't look nearly as comfortable. In game four. It was just a different, completely different movie and this time Halliburton was, wasn't even directing, he was kind of like. He was like the assistant director of this one. You know like got some ideas. Well, we don't want your ideas.

They flattened the indiana sets, they top locked the wings, they pushed every pick and roll out further from the nail and, as a result, it delayed, delayed the point guards decision making and they never really got into sets on their own terms. Thunder iced six ball screens and blitzed seven in four quarter possessions. Halliburton was forced into three passes out of trap coverages. That led to reset, not flow. You could see it. You could see the hesitation off the bounce, the skip passes instead of drive kicks, holding on to the ball a half second longer. It was all the things that you can't do against the OKC Thunder. And they did it.

And by the time he got aggressive it was too late. The ball got sticky, the spacing shrunk and then the pacers were stuck and their offense looked like it was in complete um quicksand. And let's be honest, edm's offense isn't a super wagon. To begin with, they use movement and they use um decisive cuts to get their offense going. This team pace is their other superstar. But if you remove how the buttons flow, suddenly you're watching Siakam fade from the elbow or DeSmith pump fake into a swing that gets blown up by Caruso.

And then Doris Burke said this. He said the clock is telling you something and it's not kind. It's like if you're starting your sets at like seven, eight, nine seconds, you're going your sets at like seven, eight, nine seconds, you're gonna have a sense of panic. You're not gonna be able to get anything of quality off to you and then boom, you're in a situation where okc is walking you down and your 12 point lead is now dwindled to two possessions. Now it's only one possession and then allow the the deluge to happen. The ben matherin fouls when people are, you know, when the ball is not inbounded, where they get a free throw and possession. These are all things that happen in that quarter.

Here's an interesting stat from Soraya in game three, halliburton scored or assisted on nine of Indiana's first 14 made shots. In game four, he didn't touch the paint until four minutes and 11 seconds to go in the first quarter. And this was at home, this was in Indianaiana. Okc isn't trying to steal the ball, they're trying to steal the comfort. They're. Basically they want indiana to be as uncomfortable and make this as unpleasant as possible.

Lou dort was everywhere last night, everywhere he was not taking. He took the challenge of Tyrese Halliburton Real serious. We saw Shea Gildress, alexander Block, a Halliburton shot. You know what I'm saying. We saw a lot of stuff go on in that game. They trapped his breathing space. They made him Into the first option and the last option. They punished him and he couldn't even thread the needle with passes because the the angles weren't there, there were hands and limbs everywhere. It was awful.

Calvertin is going to go into game five. There'll be questions about him. Can he, can he bounce back, you know? Can he get into a rhythm or dictate the tempo on the clock the way he had done previous in previous games? So preferably like game one. In game three.

That's what we're kind of talking about, because indiana plays with at howard wharton speed, they look like a final team. When they don't, they look like they're waiting for someone to solve the equation. So it has to be Halliburton, it has to be his game, it has to be the way he wants to dictate tempo and if it's not those things, they're going to lose. So Game 5's are super weird, weird. But these are the critical games, because if you win this game it is a better than like. I want to say it's like 87 percent of the time you end up winning the finals.

So game five is super important. So there's's going to be desperation. It's not an elimination game, but your chest is going to be pounding. You know what I'm saying. You're going to, there's going to be some tightness. You know to the Rectal region, you know what I'm talking about. And both teams have found Ways to counter the counters. Now it's Indiana's turn to counter the counter and we'll see what they come up with.

This, this series is flipped on every script. Just when you think Indiana has control, here comes OKC. And when you think, okay, okay, this is the OKC team that we thought we were gonna see, and then here comes Indiana. This is the first time in finals history both where both teams won a game after trailing by double digits in the second half. This is a great quote by the Sarray. I thank you, sarraya, for the note.

Indiana has a formula they need their bench to play well, pace and Halliburton and he has to be aggressive through the four quarters. But when the pace dips, they start looking around like, oh, who's got it, who's got this? Shea's not looking. He knows, like I said, he hit 11 straight in the last three minutes. That hasn't happened since the finals in 1975, say, gilgis alexander's 11 consecutive points to close game four was such a streak in the finals for a quarter. Like it, like again. It hasn't happened in 50 years. I mean so 1975, bro, I was three. I was three in 1975. I know some of you are going damn, 1975, everything was in black and white, right. You had horse-drawn carriages roaming the streets. Nah dog, we had actual asphalt. It was real serious. Now the cars look super crazy, not like today. They looked super crazy back then, but hey, it was the 70s and it was disco, so whatever.

So what prevails in Game 5? Is it going to be OKC's average age of 23? Are the lights going to be too bright? Is Mark Dagnall and Sam Cressy deserve huge credit for this roster. They built adaptability and poise, and not just upside. And will that continue to play through game five just upside? And will that continue to play through through game five? Or will we see indiana pick up the pace like they've done every single time? Every single time that we have seen them take a shot and they end up on the mat for the standing eight count, they get their ass back up and they show us that they have championship metal. And I'm gonna tell you right now, when they hear things like oh for eight from three and they see that their pace of play, when you're your average average, getting the set, getting into your set is like at nine seconds.

This is not indiana pacers basketball, so there has to be some adjustments. And where are those adjustments coming from? It's all going to be marginal in the in the margins right now. The pacers missed eight threes in the fourth quarter. Now, was there because of the fact that the defense was ramped up? Or was it the fact that, hey, you got tight? Are those threes gonna go in when you're on the road against a hostile environment because the paycom center is going to be lit? Oklahoma city fans was out there at 3 30 this morning cheering their team on coming home. Uh, victorious in game four, they were out.

Here's what we think for indiana. If you either reassert your um, your bench rye, matherin mcconnell has to play like a crazy, crazy man. Hallowburton needs to get into the paint. He needs to make sure that the okc thunder feel him, feel his presence, and then he's able to distribute the basketball to people. Okc kind of. It's just like hey, uh, which bench player is going to step up tonight? Is it going to be caruso? Is it going to be case and wallace? Who knows? We have no idea. Jaylen willalen Williams is playing like a complete stud. Chet Holmgren is giving it effort and he's making sure that, even though he's only like what? 200 pounds soaking wet, my man is out here blocking shots, getting rebounds, having hustle plays, staying in it even though he got hit in the shin really hard and it looked like he was going to be out. No, he was back in there. It didn't take long. He was out there for his guys. Shea said this. He said we played with desperation the whole night. You're damn right, you did.

If you're watching Game 5, you're looking for answers look early for the first six minutes. We'll show you who took the fork. Does Indiana re-establish their pace? Does OKC keep SGA off ball early to preserve his legs? Does Carlisle go to top and again as a second unit squark, or does he tighten the rotation too soon? I'll tell you right now. My eyes on the free throws. Okay, game four. They combine for 71 free throw attempts.

The series is turning into a street fight Because these two teams have seen each other. They're sick of one another. And now you're starting to see like the little pettiness. You're starting to see like hard fouls. You're starting to see little, you know little, extra jabs here and there. The Thunder shot 24th quarter quarter free throws. In game four, sga and jalen williams combined 21 for 21 from the free throw line. That's getting it done. My wife will love that.

Look, we said it before about this series you don't always win the finals with your best player, but sometimes you win it, uh, with the clearest identity. And in game five, that's where the identity becomes legacy. Whoever tightens up or might just be out there playing the wrong role all along. I'm gonna tell you right now, if the pers don't come out with the prerequisite aggression that they have shown in games that have ended in odd numbers so if we're talking about 1-3 and now 5, indiana must play with the aggression that we've seen in those games, with the aggression that we've seen in those games. If they allow the OKC Thunder just to continue to pound them into the ground With free throws and things of that nature, this is going to be over.

I look for a lot of Halliburton early in game 5. I think that it will be matched by Shea Gilgis-Alexander and Jalen Williams just doing what they do. I love that they got SGA off ball. I think you might see a little bit of that for Tyrese Halliburton as well, I hope. But it will be a very, very tough game.

Here's a note from Soraya. The cases are 14 and 6 in games decided by five or fewer points in this postseason. The Thunder are three, and three in the series is testing the belief of systems of both teams. What's wild is the unpredictableness of these games will feel until the last five minutes. Then we are like watching scripts, like we've forgotten what were what were written.

Mcconnell has been that guy. He was that guy in game three. Nobody saw it coming. Sb sga pulling an all-time closer move in game 4. Could we have known that that was going to happen? Yes, I guess we could have known that. They felt like something you would hear from Bill Rafferty describing it in send it home. Jerome SGA's 15 in the 4th quarter was a career high for any 4th quarter, including the only made three by either team.

So will it be poised? Will it be tactical deconstruction of a Pacers team? This is a quote from Mark Dagnall. He thought the referees did a good job. It was been a. It was a physical game. That's the way the final should be. Translation he stayed in flow. He didn't use whistles as a crutch. That's rare for a young coach.

Let's stop calling these guys second unit guys, the bench dudes, what mcconnell, what mcconnell, tj mcconconnell and obi taftman and caruso have been doing for their teams has been so electric it's been so awesome to watch just a chess match between the two teams and which bench is gonna get off the scud missile at the right time. Indiana needs their bench to break the rhythm of OKC because McConnell is an absolute like Tasmanian devil out there. He's out there just curating chaos wherever he goes. And we need OJ, we need, uh, ob talking to do the same exact thing. I almost said I didn't say OJ Simpson, I wasn't gonna say that it was gonna OJ talking, but it's OB talking. I know, calm down, because here's the thing Indiana bench points, three bench points in the final minutes of game four Topping withheld scoreless in that final stretch.

Mcconnell did not register a touch in the last two minutes. He wasn't even on the floor. Caruso had 20. If you're gonna get that kind of production out of caruso, then this is a wrap. This is going to be a fun game. Five, okay, sir, okay. C can win this series if they continue to do the things that have brought them to the dance.

Disruption on the defensive end is critical to the success of OKC If you can get the Pacers out of their game plan, out of their offensive flow. Remember, you want Tyrese Halliburton to be the engine for the Pacers and if you're OKC, you do not want him to be touching that ball. You want others to make decisions. My thing is, maybe, if you're Rick Carlisle, is, maybe Tyrese Halliburton doesn't bring the ball up the court. Maybe it's Nembhard who brings the ball up the court, maybe it's Si hard who brings the ball up the court, maybe it's siakam, uh, maybe it's a mather.

But then, once you get half past half court, maybe what you're doing is you're running some sort of like um spain, like horns or something, where then now Howard Burton is coming, is coming from the baseline, by the three-point line, like the short corner, and he's just sprinting towards the ball. Now, if he's catching the ball in like full stride, now you got some things to think about. If you're okay, see, if he's just gonna get the ball, you're gonna bring're OKC. If he's just going to get the ball, you're going to bring the ball up and then he's going to kind of slowly meander To the top of the key and then he gets the ball. That's not good. It has to be quick, decisive. Move the ball, move it, continue to move the ball. If you move the ball, okc can't load up on you, but if you don't, okc is going to sit there. They got the best defense in the league.

Anthony Edwards was talking about how frustrating he was that he was seeing double teams and blitzes all the damn time. So if this is where we're going, you have more movement and you gotta have more answers to just having Halliburton just slowly bring the ball up the court, get him off ball and then have him come screaming towards the ball once the ball is past half court and people are in positions and then we can start moving the offense forward. And what does carlisle do with mather? Because I'm not saying he has to have the exact game three numbers that he did, but the game four numbers can't be the way they were. He has to have some sort of like impact on this game and if he's not going to have impact on this game, they're not going to have a really good chance of winning it. And again with okay, see, they have so many answers. If it's not Shea Gildress, alexander, there's Jalen Williams. If it's not Jalen Williams you know we got Alex Caruso out here. If it's not Alex Caruso, chet Holmgren's out here putting up points and doing things. If he's not having a good game, we got Aaron Wiggins. If Aaron Wiggins is not having a good game, we got other people. So there's a lot of answers on the OKC side and we need to see if Indiana can match those answers on their side.

This series has had three lead changes In the final two minutes, the most through four games Since the 2016 finals. That's how close it's been. So game five is Monday. All eyes are on Oklahoma City. What do the next 48 minutes have in store for us? Will the babyface killers from OKC do their thing, or will the deep-cut Symphony of the Indiana Pacers handle their business at the pay comp Center? I can't wait to find out. I think that OKC has way too many Answers for Indiana and I think we start to. We start to put this to rest a little bit In game 5. And remember, the winner of game 5. Is like 87% 87% Go on to win the series usually. So we will see how it all plays out now.

We got some real cool stuff to talk about and I want to get into it right now. Uh, everybody knows that the knicks have been calling teams that have coaches under contract and been asking to seek permission to talk to these coaches to see about their job, and they've been hit with a bunch of resounding no's. You know, if it wasn't dallas and jason kidd, it was uh, the chicago bulls and billy donovan, and if it wasn't them, it was ema Adelka in Houston. I mean, it's been. We don't have any idea what the New York Knicks are doing. We really do not. The Knicks look thirsty. I mean, they look, you know, publicly, they look sweaty. Uh, they reach across the table in desperation. It's like a reunion of like Love Island and like the love connection.

At the same damn time, the Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau and had no clue what to do next, and now they're handing out coaching roses like the association's own version of the NBA Bachelor. We can't even make this stuff up. Let's be clear the firing of Thibodeau was the plan. The Knicks didn't stumble into this chaos, they orchestrated it. They were done with Thibbs before the confetti even stopped falling. Um, you know, you know with uh, indiana. As far as that's concerned, they were done with tibbs a while ago.

Never mind that he led them to a historic run. They got him to the. He got them to the Eastern Conference Finals. I don't know what he could have done more. Now, you can call that ruthless, you can call it what it is. I think it's thirsty, and thirsty for a new identity, a sexier system. Maybe even a better story Sounds familiar From the Knicks Really does. Maybe even a better story Sounds familiar From the Knicks Really does. This is what they do. This is reality television 101.

The Knicks didn't plan coaching strategy. They planned the breakup, though. Tibbs was 179-145 over four, four seasons, with two playoff runs and one eastern conference finals. It's the best stretch of new york knicks basketball since 1999 2000 season. But like the contestants who just here for the instagram followers, the nicks didn't come prepared for what is next. They just said, okay, we're gonna start firing off. We're gonna start firing off like hey, hey, we, you know we, we like you. What's up? We want to bring you in for a conversation, so let's talk about what's happening, okay, so ema adoka, chris finch, our guy, quinn snyder, jason kidd, billy donovan all have been denied now. Late last night, taylor jen Jenkins looked like he was being brought in for the coaching position. We'll see. There might be some recoupling ceremonies going on here.

The Knicks are out there just going into people's DMs like super thirsty, you know, like every coach they've ever liked on LinkedIn, and nobody's swiping back. And somehow Jason Kidd Was like the apple of their eye. And I'm going to tell you right now they're going to have to trade something To get Jason Kidd if they want him. Currently, they owe Coach Tibbs $30 million to sit and do nothing. It's like you love Island Brock back a contestant who already got dumped. That's a Mike Brown. That might be Taylor Jenkins Solid coaches but you're pivoting this fast to X's. You really ever had a type Like what are you looking for? Are you just looking for a coach? Are you looking for the right coach?

The Knicks are planning to finalize this list in the coming days. Translation they're winging it. The Knicks aren't even hiding this. They're not even trying to pretend that this was a deliberate plan. This is Dolan swinging with his eyes closed and praying for contact. And what's worse is the league is watching it Like it's some premium drama. The front office chatter at Game 3 Finals was dominated by the Knicks coaching mess Not actual contenders on the floor.

In any other city this might be shocking, but in New York it's just a tuesday, it's a new york brand. They love this disruption. They love the tabloid worthy comments that they're getting. I don't know why, because for the for a while y'all look like a competent team. It was literally like three years ago we was laughing at the knicks. It wasn't that long ago. We was just laughing at them. We were just like man, they ain't gonna never get it right. Never are they gonna get it right. And now they have. And then the irony of the whole thing is the knicks weren't even far off. I mean, yeah, you can tell me like hey, there might be need some roster adjustments or whatever case may be, but this is a team that was playing the indiana pacers in the eastern conference finals and we got people with injuries and stuff like that.

This is not like this team was going to go into next season as not one of the top teams in the east. Boston has a ton of injuries and they got to get off salary. We don't know what's going to happen in cleveland because of the garland injury. Do they move some pieces to stay underneath the uh, the, the salary aprons and things of that nature? We don't know. Mil Milwaukee is talking about bringing Giannis back, but what do they have on top of Giannis? The real question is what happens next?

Because if you fire your coach In two decades With no succession plan, he's your best coach that you've had in two decades and you don't have a plan. You just fire him Like, we're done with him, we're good, we can get a better one. Okay, remember, james Dolan still owns this team. Now, leon Rose and what have you have done a really incredible job In bringing, like some stability To the New Yorkork knicks and also maybe bring some like hey, we know what we're doing here. The clown that owns us. He rarely talks to us. We, we got everything under control and maybe that's good for some coaches in the NBA.

But, man, let me tell you something when you got an owner out here talking huge trash, huge trash, and you got an owner out here who does some funky things from time to time, james Dolan has done some weird stuff. Let's call it what it is, but at the end of the day, when you're looking at like Mike Brown, you know like Taylor Jenkins might be the best out of the bunch Personally, but there's been questions about him and his leadership style as well, and what to think of rick brunson as the de facto like assistant coach? No matter what your staff you bring in, rick brunson is still gonna be there. Is that gonna be a problem for coaches? Who knows? If you're a fan, you gotta wonder who's actually steering the ship. Who made the call to get tom tibideau out of there? We're saying that it was james dolan, so I'm just letting you know right now that this is one of those situations when A coach gets fired and they think we have a plan for this. We're just going to go out here and get one of these other coaches.

My wife and I always talk about Something where, when you get a chance to, or you ask somebody a question, it's a 50 50 shot that they might say no, and the knicks were acting like oh, this is pretty much a just a guarantee that we're gonna get one of these coaches. The terrain is treacherous. My guys and you guys have fallen into it like nobody's business. So good luck on your coaching search. Good luck on your thirst trap, looking asses and stuff like that. Good luck on swiping right or swiping left, whatever these, whatever these dating apps you do? I don't know, because I'm married. I don't have nothing to do with that. So, anywho, you know my young people, they know about that stuff. We want to talk to serea. Serea, you on the apps? Oh, she put in the notes. No, absolutely not. I have nothing to do with those things. Okay, fair enough. Uh, the knicks just when you think, just when you think, okay, man, they got it together. The knicks are gonna have this like long stretch of like just flourishing and fruitfulness and whatever. The knicks can't stop being the knicks and james dolan definitely can't stop being James Dolan.

So, with that being said, this has been a special edition, saturday edition of the podcast. Again two reasons for it. We had to watch game four. Uh, we wanted to know what went on. We wanted to give you some clarification to what was happening before your eyes. The other thing is is we thought there was going to be a kd trade. We still think that this kd trade is going to come down. If it does, if it does come down before tuesday, we will do a special emergency pod for that particular trade, if it doesn't just look for us on tuesday. So, with that being said, for serea, I am vince. This is front runner podcast collective, where we do the nba twice a week for you, mostly on tuesdays and fridays. Today was special because of the fact that we had a game four and also we might thought there would have been some movement on the kevin durant uh trade rumors and what have you. We were wrong, but we know it's closer than it's than it's ever been, so keep it locked here. We will also put together a blog for this as well, so we'll have that.

So, with that being said, the best part of you is you make sure that the people that surround you are supportive people. Make sure that they have your best interests at heart, that they share in your joy and they're really excited for you. And if you have people that are that supportive in your life, recognize those people, acknowledge them, send them a text, send them a facetime, get together with them, show them that you appreciate them and appreciate their support, because we don't have a lot of people out here supporting people. And if you got a good crew that supports you and your endeavors and what you're doing, as far as that's concerned, you got to make sure that you go ahead and recognize them and appreciate them. And if you're doing that, then you are a well-rounded individual and we applaud that.

So if you are looking for like-minded people like that, we have a chair for you here at front runner podcast collective always because this is where we keep it hot for the nba twice a week and we also are trying to build that community that says, hey, we want the best for you, we want to give you quality nba talk and we also want to have a damn good time doing it. So for myself and serea again, we are out of here. We'll see you on tuesday. Deuces.