Thunder's Elite Defense Poised to Dominate into the Finals

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00:00I think that the Thunder are so much better

00:04than who's left standing defensively on their own.

00:08Defensively, they can win a title.

00:10They can win a title just with their defense.

00:13Their perimeter defense with Caruso, Wallace,

00:16and the guys like Dort that they have out there

00:19banging on the outside.

00:21I mean, that's like the Great Wall of China.

00:23I mean, they have the best defense in the league, bar none.

00:26And they get so many transition buckets, turnovers,

00:29everything buckets off of those turnovers.

00:32Better than if they're going to kick either one of their asses.

00:35The Thunder are going to win it all with that defense.

00:37Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:38The only thing standing between now the Thunder and the title

00:40is something happens to SGA.

00:42Because if SGA goes down to an injury that compromises his play

00:47or knocks him out or he's limited, then they're sunk.

00:51Then it levels the playing field.

00:53Right now, as you saw last night, he gave an MVP performance.

00:57That's one of the great performances on the road in a hostile environment

01:01where he basically showed you why he is the MVP.

01:04I agree with you.

01:05Right now, they are set up to smoke the wolves, get rid of them,

01:09have a nice few days off before the finals.

01:12Because if this Knicks-Pacers things go six or seven,

01:16you know, which it still could, obviously,

01:18then they'll walk in there to the finals as the heavy favorite,

01:21as to do something that, it's amazing, Durant, Westbrook,

01:26and Harden never did when they were together.

01:28But their defense is phenomenal.

01:30Very great.

01:31They held Randall to five and to 16 last night.

01:36That's all you need to know.

01:38And these guys saying he didn't struggle.

01:39He didn't struggle.

01:40They shut him down.

01:42Well, here's my thing about Anthony Edwards.

01:45And it's like Carl Anthony Downs, too.

01:47These guys have to be constantly reminded of what they are supposed to do

01:52in terms of attacking and be aggressive.

01:55It drives you nuts when you hear that because they're supposed to be elite

01:58players, especially Anthony Edwards,

02:01who people think are the face of the league.

02:02He's not the face of the league.

02:04I mean, come on.

02:04Let's be honest.

02:06But it just drives you nuts.

02:07Yes, they have a great defense for him.

02:09But also, he's easy to cover in a lot of ways because he doesn't move

02:12without the ball.

02:13I just read a stat somewhere.

02:15He hasn't had a basket off a cut since, like, the Golden State Series.

02:20I mean, what's going on here?

02:21But he's the type of guy who you constantly have to remind you got to be

02:24more aggressive against these guys.

02:26But they are waiting for him.

02:27They're lying for him in wait.

02:28They've figured him out.

02:30And it's going to be tough for him to get back in this series and an imprint

02:34on this series because right now he's a detriment.

02:37You mentioned that, you know, the two guys last night, SGA and Wallace,

02:45Williams, excuse me, outscored Randall and Edwards 25-6 in the fourth quarter

02:52when the game looked like it was up for grabs.

02:55It never was because they could never stop SGA and Jalen Williams.

03:00So Jalen Williams is third team all NBA and and second team.

03:04Should it be the other way around?

03:05I think this guy, J-Will, has become an every-night badass.

03:10And they're like, there are nights when Handel have 20.

03:12To me, 20 for him is a bad night.

03:15You know, you raise a great point.

03:19He had the remarkable game.

03:21You know, he struggled against Denver.

03:22Then he turned it around late in that series, had some big moments.

03:27And now, I mean, on the road to do what he did last night with a 30-point-plus performance.

03:33Phenomenal.

03:34But he, listen, they're rolling now.

03:36They're showing you why they won 68 games.

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