Is the Thunder's defense really elite?
Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O'Connor is joined by 13-year NBA veteran Marcus Morris Sr. to discuss Oklahoma City's defensive effort in the Western Conference Finals against Minnesota and if it was really as dominant as some suggest. Hear the full conversation on 'The Kevin O'Connor Show' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Is that because of OKC's defense though?
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OKC's defense looks like an all-time level defense.
They befuddled Jokic, they shut down ants.
It's definitely was partially due to that, but if you watch the game, OKC only won that game.
By 2 points.
They uh they had 20 offensive rebounds and Minnesota had 19 turnovers.
She almost had a 40 point triple-double.
Jay Lee Williams had 30 points.
Chad Hongren had 20 something points, Anthony Edward had 16 points, and Julius Render had 2 points, and they only won the game by 2 points.
And you know why they won the game by 2 points?
It's because Anthony Edwards didn't try to find a rhythm to the second half.
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Do you know how hard that possibly can be when you're the best player and you know down the stretch, we're gonna need you to make shots and make plays and you don't have a rhythm.
There's no way.
There's no way.
So, even when it looks like that game was in control, I'm sitting there watching like, it's gonna come down to the reason why Anthony Edwards didn't have his rhythm in the start of the game and that was the series.
If he got going early, they had a better chance.
The game they beat by 40 points, he started off the game with 12 points in the first quarter.
They beat him by 40.
They dismantled them.
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143.
They dismantled them and they scored 260 points in two games.
So, is that great defense?
Like, is that like the greatest defense, 260 points in two games?
Uh, I'm not really sure about that, right?
Like, because if I, if I found something in that first game, there's no way that I go away from it in the second game.
But OKC did a really good job of making adjustments.
They, they start like switching up top and they just was pushing them out and, you know, they did, they did a hell of a job and I don't wanna take away from what I've seen from OKC because they are a really good team and make sure you clip this and, and, and when you put this out, make sure you put this out because a lot of people think I hate OKC.
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I don't.
I think.
I don't hate them.
I just, I feel like you're, you're, you don't respect like, uh, I respect OKC and I respect what they done.
What I, what I don't respect is the way the other younger teams approach series with OKC because if you, if I gotta keep talking about this, if you look at how how how Minnesota Timberwolves approached the series with Golden State and the Lakers, the energy was not the same.
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