FIRST TAKE | Stephen A. BOLD-predict to Thunder vs. Nuggets Game 3: “SGA or Jokic will WIN tonight?”

FIRST TAKE | Stephen A. BOLD-predict to Thunder vs. Nuggets Game 3: “SGA or Jokic will WIN tonight?”

Nuggets are all tied up after the first two games of their series. Joic helped his team stage a huge comeback in game one while SGA and the Thunder had their way in a game two blowout. Now the two superstars will battle it out tonight for control of the series in a pivotal game three. Wendy, we begin with you. Joic SGA. Who needs game three more? I think it’s Jokic because I think the position that you want the Thunder in in this series is to feel a little pinch, a little heat. Over the last couple of years, the Thunder have basically been untouchable, but the the times where they’ve struggled is when they’ve been down. This happened last year against the against the Mavericks. And you know, they felt a little bit of pressure in game one here in this series against the Nuggets and they didn’t perform well. I think I’ve been on the Oklahoma City’s winning the West train for 3 4 months, but I do think that’s position you want him in. You want him uncomfortable. And you know the game the other night where they got blown out. I think they made a strategic decision. Yic fouled himself out. He he basically was like, I’m done in the third quarter of that game. Five games in nine days, including a game seven. I think Denver was tired. They get to rest. They get to come home. This gives them an opportunity to put their best foot forward. If the Thunder win and get homecourt advantage back, I think that gets major momentum. Big game needed from Joic tonight. Wendy, I’m with you. I’m going to go with Joic. Um, first off, it it feels like Well, it should be they should be down 02. Like OKC should be up 20. I mean, if Dagno makes some of the right plays down the stretch in game one, it would have been a different scenario if they secured that game. But they just didn’t get beat up in game two. They got smacked. That was a 43point victory. I mean, damn, that’s a lot of point. And by the way, Joic was minus 36. That’s his worst plus minus of his career of his career. So, I I understand fouling out. I understand the amount of games and the amount of days, but SGA has been living up to it. He He bowled out last game. He bowled out game one, too. I I think in order to secure homecourt advantage, I want to see Jokic, who needs game three more for this series to continue considering the way the first two games went. I don’t disagree with y’all, but for the sake of this discussion, let me go in a different direction because everything y’all said is is on point and I would just be adding to that. No need. Let me go in a different direction. What if the Nuggets win game three? Then all of a sudden, everything that you just said about what game one and two was supposed to be, meaning OKC needing to be up 20, instead of being up 20, you down 2-1 going into game four. The aura of invincibility that we’ve been talking about with OKC as it pertained to the Western Conference all of a sudden gets a bit diluted to some degree. We see the level of dominance. The Thunder have outscored the Nuggets 59-19 in points off turnovers in the first two games. 53 to 29 in fast break points over the first two games, but the series is still tied 1-1. And we saw Chad Homegrren and Isaiah Hartinstein basically no matter how big you are, no matter how good you are, Jokic showed you who the hell he was in game one with 42 and 22. We get what he’s bringing to the table right now. You’re the Nuggets. The big problem is is that your best shooter is Russell Westbrook who’s shooting 50% from the field and Nicole Joic is at 47%. Everybody else, Jamal Murray’s at 40%, Gordon’s at 37%, Bronner is at 36%. Michael Porter Jr. is shooting 17% in this series. It’s unacceptable. So if you find yourself continue to look that way, but you up 2-1 on OKC and they got to go into that game four, you know, basically trying to avoid being in a 3-1 hole. That could make things very interesting, which is far more interesting than we anticipated. And that is why I would say, you know what, Jokic and those guys, they didn’t expect, you know, you could if if you go into a game four down 2-1 and you could tie the series. Okay, that that’s plausible. OKC potentially being down 3-1. Oh, no. Nobody anticipated that. Let’s say let’s go with SGA and OKC in terms of who needs game three more. Yeah, I agree. And on top of that, the MVP race between these two is going to get real close to the situation we had two years ago when Embiid beats out Joic and then Embiid flames out of the playoffs when Joic goes on to win the title. Like SGA needs to assert the dominance of the MVP in the series. Go into Denver, take out a team that’s out of gas, having played seven games, playing one guy off the bench essentially in Russell Westbrook, and then from there show that you’re the deeper team. Deep breath, abrupt transition. The shel the Celtics shock threes for the Celtics in game three more or less. I’m going to go more because they’re going to put up a ton like they always do. It’s it’s look, they’re 25 for 100 in the first two games. They’ve missed 75 three-pointers, but they’re not going to stop putting them up. If you want to give me overunder, I’ll tell you they’re going to shoot more than 40 in this game three. All right, Wendy, let’s go to Jaylen Brunson’s total 26 and 12 points. Would you go more or less? He’s been scoring less than that and the Knicks have been winning. So, I’m going to say less, but I still think he could have a very impactful game as he did in game one and game two. The length is bothering him a little bit during the course of the game, but at the end of the game, they can’t stay in front of him. He shook the great Drew Holiday and got those two points at the end the other night. Um, he can do it in the clutch though, man. And then let’s go to Tatum, Allan. 28 and a half is the points for Tatum. You go more or less. I’m going to go more because he’s faced accountability. He’s talked about it yesterday after practice about how he’s got to own how poorly he’s been shooting. The Knicks have played him well, but a great player like that, you don’t hold him down for long and he knows all eyes are on him and all the pressure is on him to perform on the biggest stage in basketball. Absolutely. All the pressure in the world, it would seem, is on the Celtics down two games to none. In fact, yesterday here on Get Up, Big Perk had this to say about Boston right now. The Celtics are done. They’re not coming back in this series. I have all the trust and faith in the New York Knicks. They’re going to win this series. The Celtics will be lucky to get one game. I I I have to be honest with you. I almost fell out of my chair when he said that. I mean, in and surprise, he just said he believes the Celtics are done. Do you? No. No. I think they can win tomorrow. Um I I just think they can I despite all the you know just hubris about what we do at some point the Celtics are champions and I expect them to actually play a game in its most elemental form. We’re we’re engaged with these people. We’re not playing a philosophy. This is not an election. Play the damn game. I I for some reason even though twice they’ve been so stubborn and arrogant and defiant they’ve refused to do it and it cost them. You do you want to really you want to just wave goodbye to the defense of a championship? I don’t believe the Celtics are that arrogant. I mean the Knicks didn’t lead in game two until the 159 mark of the fourth quarter. We’re talking about one bounce of the ball in either direction and this series is two nothing Boston. can’t believe anyone thinks the Celtics can’t come back and win. Of course, and that is what Joe Missoula is basically saying is look at all the numbers. The numbers are demanding that we make a turnaround. I’m just going to say that the Knicks have yet to play well. I know that that doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t I am not trying to diminish what they have done. Jaylen Brunson has had probably two lowest production games of the playoffs the last two games. not in the clutch, but that’s how they fell behind by 20 points. Carl Towns has done has good numbers. He hasn’t had a hot three-point shooting. Mhm. What the Celtics have done by botching these two games at home is they have opened the door for the Knicks to have a home win. What I mean by a home win is a win where Miles McBride hits five threes, where where you know, one of your role players where Bridges goes off. You get these you see these moments where these teams get hot at home. If that happens tomorrow at the Garden, it’s going to be 3-0 and the Celtics are going to be done. But I don’t think that they are overall. I think overall they still have a window because of their greatness as a team. Yeah. The expectation is the Celtics eventually are going to play to the back of their baseball card, right? Like that’s what you’re looking for. It’s what they’ve been all season. They’re high volume three. They’re not a high percentage three-point shooting team. They were 10th actually uh in the league, which is good, but not great for a team that survives for the three-point shot. But you just imagine I it sounds crazy. It almost as if some pressure comes off them getting out of Boston. I totally agree. I think there’s something about putting them on the road, especially at the Garden. Everybody always raises their game. Everybody seems to want to play on that stage and that might actually help them. I am a huge believer in energy in the building. And Michael Wilbine, you you will remember this because you were covering all of this more closely than I was. Phil Jackson always used to say he greatly preferred playing on the road in the playoffs than at home. There were a ver for you [Applause] tomorrow. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Sorry. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Get [Applause] down. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Applause] I’m holding my [Applause] hand. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Applause] Thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you. That’s it. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Hello. How are [Applause] you? Heat up [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] here. [Applause] I have to stand [Applause] up. There we go. [Applause] Fore now. [Applause] [Applause] What are you doing? [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Yeah. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

FIRST TAKE | Stephen A. Smith BOLD-prediction to Thunder vs. Nuggets Game 3: “SGA or Jokic will WIN tonight?”