Thunder ‘roll’ to 1st NBA title, Haliburton injury was ‘unfortunate’ | NBA | FIRST THINGS FIRST

Thunder ‘roll’ to 1st NBA title, Haliburton injury was ‘unfortunate’ | NBA | FIRST THINGS FIRST

live from New York it’s the show that celebrated a Thunder victory by wearing shorts to the office is it not summer is it not basically 100° outside feel feels like 100 kw Brew has some oddly almost like puritanical rules about what men wear to the office wearing shorts i look at him he can’t believe it i used to go on the air with shorts and I’d be dressed from the waist up suit shirt tie you never saw him when back when we were on Zoom when he would stand up after the show and he’d be wearing like some and one mixtape shorts that really All right first things first starting with the champions thunder rolled to a 14-point victory sj had 29 12 assists playoff high for him regular season MVP finals MVP first time champion quick stat correction turns out it was a 12-point victory someone step on a line or something must have been a one of those stat corrections uh what was your number one takeaway from the victory i hate to do it to you Kevin Wilds defense wins champions that’s fine you can’t that’s literally what I said that’s what I have written down i got a whole take on it i know you made up that slogan yes but that’s my biggest takeaway this is my whole take i know the big three of Cadet SJ Jaylen combined for what 67 points yesterday but that defense that led them to 68 wins that led them to the NBA finals is what got them the championship and it was the key to the whole series yesterday they forced I was saying it every game Indiana can’t turn the ball over and if you do you can’t let them score in transition they forced 23 turnovers yesterday okc and scored 32 points on those turnovers that’s the same exact thing they did in game five those were the two pivotal games in the series they go up 3-2 in game five they win yesterday same exact numbers number of turnovers number of points off turnovers so that enabled them to with withstand SJA look he was great 29 and 12 but he shot eight for 27 that’s 29% the team Indiana shot better from the field better from three better from the free throw line and outrebounded OKC without Hallebertton and still lost because of the turnover so and and I I know we going to get to the dynasty stuff but I would just say this if you look at most not necessarily all but most of the recent dynasties the Jordan Bulls the Steph you know Warriors the LeBron and Wade in Miami those were based on defense obviously you had great offensive players but it was those were great defensive teams every single year and so this is that’s a good sign for this OKC team to maybe do something in the future but that’s what it was it was the defense do you want to build on that KW build on it it’s my idea i got it stolen right uh no I have some gra uh graphics o OK OKC’s ranks this season defensive ranks in the uh regular season they had the best defensive rating in the playoffs they had the best defensive rank uh opponents field goals first second in the playoffs steals which you talked about a little bit Brew first and first so I’ll just I I always have a backup take yeah the other biggest takeaway from last night or OKC’s season was they were good all year long and for how much drama this playoffs had like guess who ended up winning the team we thought was going to win in October so I was surprised that they’ve had this level of consistency little bit of of health uh luck but they’ve been good this whole time um defensively offensively they’ve just done it but I mean despite that they didn’t skate through the playoffs right you know what I mean like they they faced elimination twice in these playoffs it was weird they had kind of two easy rounds and it every other it was easy very difficult easy very difficult and this series ended up following the exact same pattern of the Denver series as far as wins and losses flow and the game seven ultimately being a factor right and an injury being a factor obviously in different ways but they we all had kind of cousins of the same take because it’s the right take it’s they won the exact way they were supposed to torturing the other team defensively and the the way OKC the reason they won 68 games was not because even though Shay was great almost not every game but basically he was wildly consistent the difference for them in the regular season was this if we’re having a good offensive game we will blow you out and if we’re having a mediocre offensive game we’ll beat you by 6 to 10 because the defense was always there and Brew’s point about the stats being all equal or favoring Indiana I can show it to you because look as far field goal percentage essentially equal three-pointers made equal free throws made equal offensive rebounds essentially equal so how do you win you take 17 more shots it’s the field goal attempts they got 17 more shots than Indiana and that’s because of the line above it indiana had 15 more giveaway possessions than OKC did that was the game and as I was saying I forget which series we first started talking about this but where I said they are the first team for me since the ‘9s Bulls that with consistency can go on these 12-2 or 18-3 runs that are based purely on defense you know what I mean and that’s exactly what they did from the end of the third quarter let me just show it real quick Br the third quarter beginning of the fourth quarter it was a four-point game even even with Hallebertton now with four minutes left in the fourth in the third quarter it was a four-point game and then OKC didn’t get by i mean they hit three threes but that’s not an insane number it was They had four stocks the Pacers had four turnovers they locked him down defensively poor TJ McConnell looked like he was in hell in a cell and it’s the game’s over i know that the Pacers valiantly cut it to 10 later but that that turned it from four to 21 and that was not because Shay got redot that was not because all of a sudden you know anything Case Wallace no none of them were it was because of their defense and it was their identity all year i’m glad you brought up McConnell who who was great like what even yesterday 16 points you know just the turnovers yeah well that that’s what the difference was like he had a great series but yesterday even though he was scoring and he kept scoring you saw the difference between being an 18 to 23 minute a night guy a lot of that against the reserves versus being a 30 minute guy that they got to count on against starters a lot like that that showed you why I don’t know if some people were looking at like oh M mcconnell should start somewhere he is a fantastic backup point guard and he showed it in this series but yesterday you saw the difference between facing the frontline defenders versus the reserves can I show you some other things so we talked about uh point differential that they were blasting teams all year and it felt like we took it a little bit with a grain of salt because we were like well the threepoint era now that they’ve officially like you know cemented the championship does this resonate any more for you i I I think adjusted for inflation yeah i don’t think that they just had the fourth most dominant season in NBA history you know what I mean but I do think that it is a lot of it says that like they had two 40point wins in the playoff they have they have massive Well then they won yeah yeah they had the most 10 point wins I think so I think that they OKC has the ability because of the defense and because they can get hot from three and they do have Shay to blow anyone out and because of the defense they are almost unblowoutable but they got blown out several times the They got blown out or Minnesota blew him out by 40 oh so I thought that was like an emot that sounds right an emotional blowout rather than a strategic blowout the I mean fine but I’m just saying they they were blown I doubt any of those teams on that graphic and I don’t know off top of my head were blown out like that well actually the 71 Bucks uh and no but so what I would the other thing I would say is this i I do think that when we are talking about all-time great and all-time greatest that facing elimination twice puts a ding in that like I’m a big the the I would love to be able to when we talk about the greatest teams of all time throw in the 2013 Heat because of the 27game winning streak i thought that was in the I thought that was one of the most underrated crazy things that’s happened in modern NBA history but the fact that in the finals they were down 32 and on the brink of you know what I mean losing and then that that kind of takes the wind out of the sales from that one and so when I think of the the most dominant juggernaut teams they are they are not backs against the wall at any point in the postseason and so I think that to me that’s the kind of they’re kind of confused well particularly against an Indiana team that you know wasn’t like didn’t have a superstar you know wasn’t I know they got club superstar but you know what I mean like going into the playoffs didn’t have a superstar and then Denver with the injuries it was a great I mean statistically and on paper to be one of the greatest seasons yep but you can have one of the greatest seasons and not be one of the greatest teams ever i can have a great show all time great show but not necessarily be the greatest well I think how about this the So I’m just saying or I’m just saying like you know I think that just they had sports for a moment had the Chiefs not gotten blown out by the Eagles in the Super Bowl had they won it that would have been by any metric one of the greatest seasons of all time and I think most people most maybe not me but most Chiefs fans would be like “That wasn’t even the best Chiefs team of the last five years.” You know what I mean and so like I do think that’s a thing that can exist yeah um all right on the other side Hallebertton looked to be on pace for a stellar game seven had nine early points but went down in the first quarter uh what we think is an Achilles tear uh he greeted his teammates postgame in the tunnel uh he later left on crutches so this what happened in that game is why Brew always makes sure to say on the front end of stuff when we’re talking about things like after game six we’re not doctors because I I was on here on Friday after game six like man he played too well for that like I I said flatly I was like let’s it’s not a Kevin Durant situation and it turns out tragically it interestingly on that quickly when you saw Durant and I I didn’t re remember this until we saw the highlights Durant walked off after his Achilles tear whereas obviously Hallebertton Yeah so it was even a different level but regardless like I and I I talked to some active players actually texted and talked to during the game right after it happened cuz I was trying to ask the question like how if the if it was that close to tearing how could he look so fluid and good in game six and the answer that I got was it’s not like a hamstring or some of these other injuries where having the calf strain always severely limits your mobility sometimes you do not that you feel fine but you can move so different it’s just that the only way to heal it is totally get off it for a few weeks and if you don’t you’re just rolling the dice like this and that’s what he did and so on the front end I mean I I felt bad about my opinions which were like actually wasn’t knocking him but I was like man he played great how could he have been quite as injured the other thing I will say is this and I this might be controversial but it’s I think it’s right i think it’s good he played i think that that’s what he he wanted to he knew the risks they were real risks the goal of team sports is to win a championship and people can say well now you know next year is lost as far as Tyrese Hallebertton and his team winning a championship games six and seven of these finals had more championship equity associated with it than all of next season like you you you when you’re that close you you were right there and so the fact I also you know he had just started a 5year $250 million contract so the finance is stuff he’ll still be well under contract when he comes back you feel terribly for him but I don’t think he made a mistake i think that he took a calculated risk and calculated risks can blow up on you but I think he knew this is a moment that I am not guaranteed to get back and he was he went into it eyes wide open and made that choice i’m going to piggyback on what you just said and maybe take it even further he had to play if he had sat out and they lost in six or seven games I think within himself he would have been always wondering i think it would have haunted him throughout his career or you know until he wins a championship or throughout his career or maybe longer cuz he he would not know I would have got hurt correct he would have always been sitting there like “Yep man.” Like should I have gone we could have beat you know whatever it was so I I think the number one if you had the options on in his situation the number one option was play and don’t get hurt of course the number I think two and I hate to like you said you don’t want to sound hopefully this going off the wrong way but two was play and you get hurt but there’s closure there it’s like okay I’m going to be out a year i’ll come back i’ll be fine if he had not played there’s no closure that’s right this is like maybe the next 12 years you’re like and you never get a championship that was there moment right and so it’s it obviously we all were heartbroken for him and it was just and especially he was off to such a hot start and who who knows what they have won i I think it’s ve it’s definitely on the board that they would have won because you you’ve been talking about it he’s due a 30-point game in each of the past two series he had had a 30-point game this looked like it was going to be his 30 point historic game and he gets up for the big moments yes so he came out more aggressive that was my first second thing is this i’m trying to remember remember what Oh oh my thought throughout like especially as they were playing well early and then had the one-point lead at the half yeah i was thinking this is the year they got to win this game they have got to win this game because next year it’s a wrap well you thought they could at halftime oh yeah i thought they had a shot yeah I definitely thought they had a shot one with two i mean you knew the their backs the odds were against them but I I thought they had a great chance especially going in i think that made OKC feel like okay they’re they’re up and Hallebertton’s been out the whole second quarter but the thinking was cuz next year you’re not you’re not going to be close to a championship so you know what we hear a lot let’s go until the wheels come off hey let’s go out tonight till the wheels come off and then at like 11:00 a.m 11:00 p.m I’m like I got to go i can’t you don’t even tell people the wheels are starting to wobble and I’m You don’t even tell people yeah you just disappear this is what I thought this guy knew he this might happen like you said eyes wide open he’s like and he literally was like “Let’s go till I’m going to go until I can’t walk.” And you don’t really see it in sports willis Reed is the shining example willis Reed walked onto the court walked off the court this is literally putting next season i don’t care about this will alter the trajectory of my career and career earnings i don’t care about it when people talk about oh he put his body on the line he took an offensive foul oh look at him put it all on the line he dove for the ball like this is literally putting it all on the line and Winhorse had this stat this morning and I just want to reiterate it because it speaks to what you said 23 uh diagnosed calf strains o over the court in this year 22 players missed time from winhorse he’s the only guy that said I’m not going to miss time so he knows that he’s like I don’t care and I kind of know what’s going to happen especially in the east he just saw Dame go down he just saw Tatum go down and it’s right there for him and I that’s one of the reasons why I think he started off so hot it’s like I’m not there’s not I might not make it this whole game i’m going to start to I’m going to go to the mountain the one thing that will really and and obviously it’s bad enough that he got hurt but what would really bother me over the course of his career is if and I don’t think this will happen but if he was never the same player well that’s you know what I mean like I think he will be not a guarantee it’s not a No it’s not a guarant we’ve just seen like Durant and you know we’ve seen players nowadays come back but with how listen sports at the highest level this is not breaking news and mostly physical but a lot of it is psychological and to Bru’s point he might not have been the same player if he decided not to play because of what it would do to his mental like that’s a the and so there have not there are not many I I’m sure I’m forgetting some but like catastrophic injuries in championship game like deciding games like obviously Kyrie got hurt early in the finals KD got hurt in the game five the one that but like in a do or die game the one that always sticks in my mind is Mahhee in college football you know when he got the kid got his knee turned around on him um it’s rare and seeing it happen and because and we’ll talk more about this later because of this scourge of Achilles injuries we’ve all become Achilles experts where it’s the only injury that we d like the broadcast won’t say it because they shouldn’t but everyone watching was like “Oh I know yeah we know exact we know the reaction we know the spring we know all of it.” And on the to Bru’s kind of other point about Indiana next year overarching for the league as a whole we’ve never seen a conference as discombobulated as the Eastern Conference is going to be next season yeah the three best players in the conference arguably Giannis whose second best player to Achilles Jason Tatum who tore his Achilles and Tyres Hallebert who tore his Achilles the the Vegas favorites for the East right now are the Cavs who we discussed like do they need to they’ve never been past round two and the Knicks who fired their coach a few weeks ago and so like there it is such a a such a upside down situation and it is primarily because of the same injury to three different stars in the league it’s remarkable and it’s it is it is in a weird way and I don’t know enough about Tommy John but it’s becoming like what we see in where we’re just used to it in baseball like oh there’s going to be a number of pitchers every year that it’s like oh they they need Tommy John like I don’t think the NBA can afford for the Achilles to become that because there’s fewer players and fewer stars and all of it but that’s the only comp for it well there’s a lot of talk within league circles about just the stress on the players nowadays because we always talk about it was more physical in the 90s and it obviously was but it was packed around the paint it was more banging more bumping but you weren’t moving as much defensively now even bigs are guarding out to the three-point line guarding hard cuz teams really emphasize defense nowadays so you’re guarding out hard your your joints have more pressure on them you’re doing more movements more starting and stopping herkyjerky and so I think that has something to do with feet and they’re running it’s just it’s a it’s kind of a untold ground we’re about to cover in the league yeah i hope this injury goes down as a heroic moment for him right now it’s a it’s a tragic moment but I hope it’s remembered as a heroic moment as a guy knowing the risks and being willing to put it all on the line and having it not work out but that is part of I think it I would hope so but I don’t know could go down yeah but it was I I KD doesn’t get that totally so I I agree with you it should but KD listen KD it was it was different but it was same the same katie it was it felt like oh Katie you know took his time but Katie obviously was not ready to come back feeling of there is a little feeling out there that he with all due respect to the words he was pressured yes he felt you know I mean I I felt totally different about KD than I felt about Hallebertton like I was like there’s obviously not a doctor there’s no way KD should be playing I just I really felt like there’s no way he can go out there and play whereas Hallebertton I didn’t feel that way didn’t seem like it was the same degree of strain thanks for watching subscribe here to get more from the show and to check out clips from other shows on FS1

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the 2024/25 NBA Champions following a 103-91 victory over the Indiana Pacers. Tyrese Haliburton suffered a game-ending injury in the 1st quarter. Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes look back at the series and the biggest takeaways from the game, and discuss Haliburton’s unfortunate injury.

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Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes team up on First Things First. The trio offers their take on a bevy of sports stories alongside special guests from across the sports world.

Thunder ‘roll’ to 1st NBA title, Haliburton injury was ‘unfortunate’ | NBA | FIRST THINGS FIRST
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