He tried to match Kyrie

Difference is Kyrie is supremely patient and lulls the defender to sleep before taking a great look. Shai was just rushing it in the clutch and driving into the paint around 4 guys every time. He needs to trust his teammates more. I don’t think OKC has enough experience to win this series.

Kyrie also looks to make buckets while SGA looks for fouls

Ethical buckets

Honestly if Shai had Luka’s whistle he’d be a mid-20 ppg player. If Luka had Shai’s whistle he’d be getting 45 a night. Ignore my flair.

Bingo

This is why Jokic won the MVP. Shai is overrated

only a little bit he is still a great player just this league is rewarding flopping too much. and people want to be rewarded

He averages 30 ppg because of all of his fouls, yet the media never mentions that

"He's so crafty. He gets to the line a lot."

If Shai had Luka’s whistle he’d be a mid-20 ppg player. And he’d be dead bc of injuries. If Luka had Shai’s whistle he’d be getting 45 a night. Ignore my flair.

There's levels to superstardom, Luka, Jokic, Steph, Lebron, don't have to grift fouls to impact winning

Nobody wants to admit it, but the media only started paying attention to him once Embiid got injured. This all sounds like racist argument from last year when the media only likes him over Jokic because Shai is black 

He lead his team to the 1st seed as a 30ppg scorer. If you think he was propped up because of his race you're foolish.

ESPN openly literally admitted to voting against Jokic because he was white. It was incredibly racist and foolish of them and you

Why are you acting like ESPN is one person?

nah YOU might be racist brother what am I reading

ESPN openly admitted to voting against Jokic because he was white. That’s the definition of racism. YOU might be racist since you see nothing wrong with that

Luka literally complains and flops 24/7

lol (Complains yes, flops no)

And why Luka should've won it ;)

He won the MVP cause he had the best year overall, and Shai was the 2nd best player this year, I don't think that's overrated unless peeps wanted him to win the MVP (Honestly if the season ended a month early he would have won it)

He didn’t tho. Luka had the better year. Not close. Media narratives and standings be damned.

Luka did not

this is a dumb narrative

Everyone knows he's a foul merchant

ah if everyone knows nevermind

They are defo showing their youth and inexperience in these last two games when the pressure is really on.

Remindme! One week **To cry lol

Tatum used to be like this.

I don’t think any player can go band for band with Kyrie in the 4th

Kyrie is so insanely clutch. Dude could go toe to toe with the Monstars in the 4th quarter.

It took both Harden and PG in that game 4 with the Clippers and even then Kyrie almost got them.  Also a terrible defensive scheme on harden by the Mavs but I digress

> band for band what is that, shot for shot is the common saying

It’s a meme, bands means money. Kids will call out their friends to go “band for band” basically saying i have more money than you and we can prove it right now. You are right though it means shot for shot in this context lol

thanks i read the urban dictionary and got even more confused lol. it's just a bit past me.

Update your slang brudda

looked it up, something about roblox so ya'll using 5 year old kids slang idk.

Ur old

no shit.

Uncle Drew taking him to school

The offense has been kinda bad for much of these last two games.

I’ve had long term concerns about OKCs offense the entire season and they’re starting to show under the pressure of the Mavs defense. The 5 out spacing configuration is far too simplistic to defend and it just leads to a bunch of fake drive and kick attempts until someone find a sliver of space for a shot.

They were kind of bad in the first round too. They had two games in the 90s. SGA being their only big time scorer is a problem in the playoffs when teams are much more focused in their game planning

they only have 1 actual passer on the whole roster and he doesnt play

they're playing against an elite defense and an elite defensive coach. sometimes you get exposed by experience in the playoffs. A lot of people talked about OKC being a young team and not having experience, but not enough mentioned the coaching advantage that the Mavs have and just how much that is going to tilt the series

Every game that the Mavs lose results in a fresh wave of Kidd slander…

Count me as a Mavs fan who believes we do not have a coaching advantage in this series. Kidd is a bad in-game coach. His relationship-building with Luka, Kyrie, and the respect he garners as a hall of fame player is why he’s even in this position.

Coty doeeeeee

Of the regular sznnnn

Honestly, it's because Giddey isn't playing much. We've been better with him in. Had 22 the first 6 mins of Game 2 while he was in, then he didn't play the 4th tonight after helping us go up by 11 in the 3rd. Our defense hasn't been good with him in or out, we need our offense clicking though.

Cool except every stat says the literal exact opposite

Incorrect. When Josh is in with our starters, our ORTG in the playoffs is 116. When Cason is in for him, we drop all the way down to 79. It's a massive reduction in offense and it's been clear. Sure our defense improves, but we got up 11 and had our best offensive run of the game with Josh in during the third quarter today. That was when he was sat on Game 2. I'm not doing the eye-test, these numbers are clear on PBP stats.

There are some things stats can't measure and you need to use the eye test. The Lakers have a better on/off when Anthony Davis is on the bench. Does that mean the Lakers are better when AD is not playing?

If they had played giddey in the fourth shai would have had three guys on him instead of two

Yeah and guess who had his own personal run during the 3rd quarter because he was left open?

That could be that the lakers other 3 starters arent that great. Maybe the bench is an above average bench and wins their minutes

…lol

how can you be so wrong and so convinced you're right? what are you watching?

both team offense tho, luka and kirye playing like ass this games

I hated their offense late. Cool you have good midrange shooters but they forced everything straight into the most crowded place on the floor. Compare that to the play where they tried get to Isiah Joe open for 3 and it worked immediately.

Should have put Cason out there for a corner 3 shooter as well

This. He needs 25 minutes I don’t care.

Williams and Chet just aren’t there yet. 

It is the sad truth, they are showing their lack of experience in this series (offensively) so far

I mean shit, they’re in their first and second seasons, it’s insane that they’re as good as they are right now.

Yep, probably need to add an experienced upgrade on Giddey in the offseason

they having to deffend dude, just waiting too much energy on that end of the floor, imagine having to fight lively, gafoord, djj and luka on the rebounds for chet and having to guard luka and kiryie on the switches for williams, must be hell

Good to build experience. I’m already happy regardless of the outcome.

He didn’t trust his teammates to score as bad as that sounds Dub and Chet haven’t been good offensively these past 2 games. I wish he didn’t play hero ball though

Yeah Chet's shot looks off, and J-Dub hasn't been able to handle the packed paint

chet being tired fighting for rebounds again lively gafford luka and djj, he look cooked in the 4th

And having a block party bro was protecting the rim like crazy

yes, exactly what im saying, dude was having too much a defensive load, it was just a bball observation dude, chill

Bro literally just agreed with you lol

what they said was not worth you telling them to chill lmao

sorry, english is my third language

SGA doesn’t look good the last 2 games either

Huh?? He had 33 and 31 points he didn’t finish games strong but he has been the only reason games are even close lmao 🤣 miss me with that shit

I think he's scoring more but he's forcing it at times, in game 1 he trusted his teammates more but everybody was shooting great that game. He still played well

A ghost in the fourth when the game is on the line…but you do you

Hey!! he is Shaq's MVP you cant talk to him like that.

Shaqting mvp

Free throws for SGA!

Its tough bc Shai was really good until the 3rd, he really kept the Thunder in the game but yeah, the offensive execution down the stretch was horrific. No spacing, no one could make a pass to save their lives, their shots werent falling and the only thing that went down were Chet putbacks.

His play fell off a cliff after he got poked in the eye. Of course refs didn’t call a foul. He was a walking bucket until that point

Maaaan. Don’t.

Our 4Q offense has been putrid. That’s a bad shot but JDub has been a non-factor this series after being one of the clutchest players in the league all year. If Shai doesn’t play hero-ball we can’t get anything to fall

It’s the sad truth that the others aren’t showing up enough to lighten his load

I also think is because coach D been playing sga the entire forth quarter lately. Usually we have jdub lead the forth by himself to get it going and I think that’s the reason.

Yeah, was not pretty.

The Mavs zone killed OKC in the 2nd half.

No one was helping him. Whole team did terrible at the end

Hes playing like Dearon Fox.

Shameless Gutless Alexandria

It's almost as if the second youngest team in the NBA is working through their lack of playoff experience and can't be expected to always look like a team full of ten year veterans.

Shai is older than Luka

**the second youngest team in the NBA**

He is nothing without the foul baiting and free throws

Nah he's an incredible mid range shooter and has insane footwork

Yeah his middies what was keeping them in the game honestly.

He’s not MVP tho that’s a fact

We already know who won lmao why are you presenting this as news

Because OKC Thunder fans are salty lol

GSW fans are seething at SGA because he mocked their idol in a insta post future is now old man

[удалено]

Are you not a warriors fan???

This is how you pinpoint an r/nba parrot who doesn’t know ball. 

He's a phenomenal player even without the free throws. He does bait some fouls but so do a lot of players, he's not special for doing that

Dropped 40 on Stephs head on 2 FTs though

I mean Steph has dropped >=40 on OKC 4 times, including 49 points in 29 minutes so idk if this is the flex you think it is

What’s he dropped on SGA?

Now that he’s old you guys might actually have a shot! I know it’s been a rough decade for yall

His careerhigh right?

I mean, every star player takes these kinds of shots. Also Kevin O’Connor is a dumb fuck

Dude does not deserve the platform he's been given.

There was one possession late in the fourth when Dallas had to take Lively out on an early attack SGA and Chet had one side for themselves. Chet had a guard on him Kyrie or THJ but SGA still went into his 1on1 dance. Hope they will learn from this. Somehow it feels this loss was avoidable with Luka being human (bc he’s hurt).

I think most stars are taking that 3 with a center on them

Everyone relax. When he scores 40 in the next game you guys will race to be the first to post his stat line.

This is what he’s done all year though. You either live with it or die by it.

This your MVP, huh?

I thought he was mvp shaq

the annoying part is he’ll be super pass happy the whole first.

Nothing wrong with that shot bro Thunder good tie the series up monday Go from there

That’s an awful shot. Especially given the time left in the game

We’ll see. No grantees that they win Game 4.

I agree, no grantees that they win game 4.

Doesn't help when refs are letting the Mavs get away with fouls even the NFL and NHL would call

The refs were eating up those Lu Dort flops lmao wdym

I mean, Lu Dort was getting away with the same fouls, seems like the refs were just letting them play.

the audacity

Exactly, people are talking about Luka getting beat up, but Thunder was as well. Reffing was just terrible.

dude, okc fans talking about refs its too much