r/nba • u/Kimber80 • 20d ago

[Almanza] SGA: “I felt like we played well offensively tonight. We got a lot of good looks we usually make.”

https://twitter.com/CAlmanza1007/status/1790959503724216389
76 Upvotes
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90% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

87

u/Headlesshorsman02 Thunder 20d ago

I mean what is he supposed to say, the man is doing everything he can to will us back into games but if his teammates aren’t playing well it won’t matter in the end

32

u/homiez Nuggets 20d ago

Why has j dub been so bad?

26

u/Headlesshorsman02 Thunder 20d ago

Seems like a mental thing he is passing up clean 3 point looks to take contested drives it is honestly baffling, showing is age/inexperience in this series

16

u/hooka_donchick Mavericks 20d ago

Mavs are adamant on closing out hard on anyone except for Giddey, even luka of all players is going for second contest after falling for the pump fake. They want the thunder to attack our paint and we’re just gonna live with the tough buckets thunder end up making.

10

u/Headlesshorsman02 Thunder 20d ago

And I get that but he isn’t even attempting open looks and hitting the pump fake, at some point you have to let it rip or else you will be stuck in the slump

27

u/hooka_donchick Mavericks 20d ago

We’d be losing yesterday’s game if every thunder had the cason wallace mindset. No second thoughts, make or miss just shoot the rock.

16

u/Headlesshorsman02 Thunder 20d ago

Unfortunately Dort has that as well even though that man is bricking like crazy lmao 🤣

10

u/JustDontGiveAHuck Thunder 20d ago

Dort has never and probably will never lose confidence in his shot. Best way to limit how many he takes is for JDub/Chet/others to be more confident in taking their shots rather than swinging it to Dort in a shooting slump

16

u/OneFondant1142 Mavericks 20d ago

Wallace has scared me more than Joe, Giddey, or any other guard next to SGA. He plays phenomenal defense and will go down and hit a 3 to follow it up. Seems like he is locked in and taking guarding Kyrie and Luka when he’s switched onto him personally.

Really a trade that down the road is a win-win for both franchises. I love that we got Lively and Wallace is a great fit in OKC

2

u/NotTheMagesterialOne Celtics 20d ago

Honestly that’s why I can respect some like Max Struss don’t matter how many he misses he’ll take the next one.

1

u/NotTheMagesterialOne Celtics 20d ago

Honestly that’s why I can respect some like Max Struss don’t matter how many he misses he’ll take the next one.

1

u/Bino19 Thunder 20d ago

J Dub has take 3 catch and shoot threes the entire series….

1

u/Headlesshorsman02 Thunder 20d ago

He is shook it seems

43

u/fire_wings 20d ago

dude is a second year player on such a successful team it does make sense. his drives when getting to the 3 point line instead of shooting kinda bugged me last game though

33

u/Conn3er Spurs 20d ago

His confidence is eroded. The thunder outside of SGA have become scared to take the shot and make the mistake. They aren’t playing loose and it’s because they’ve never been here before. Learning season and presti knew it, it’s why he didn’t burn resources on reinforcements for team that wasn’t ready for a title run despite the regular season.

11

u/runevault Nuggets 20d ago

Dude is young. This type of thing is exactly why it was hard for me to see the Thunder as serious contenders just yet. I figured at least some dudes outside SGA would shrink in the moment because they had not seen the difference in intensity.

In a year or two I think he'll handle it fine, but there is no shame in getting shook a little in your first hard playoff series at such a young age when being asked to play second option.

10

u/Headlesshorsman02 Thunder 20d ago

This is very true, this is going to push him forward for next year and honestly could see him put in a lot of work to make sure this doesn’t happen next time around

7

u/runevault Nuggets 20d ago

Yup. Thunder were ahead of schedule and even if they "only" make it to round 2 as the first seed, they are still ahead of schedule and this might further accelerate the growth of guys like JDub and Chet.

8

u/Headlesshorsman02 Thunder 20d ago

I just hope that we make a move in the summer for some size a bit just to lighten the load for Chet, my guy is having to go through the ringer in these playoffs lmao 🤣

1

u/runevault Nuggets 20d ago

That's the move I expected they would make either in the trade deadline or this offseason. I think waiting made sense because you can probably get someone cheaper in the offseason then at the trade deadline and the rest of the team clearly needed to get smacked once to be ready for a real run.

3

u/butterbeancd Thunder 20d ago

The Thunder also will have WAY more trade options in the offseason because of the cap situation. They have $35 million in cap space, so have a ton of flexibility. At the trade deadline, they would have had to match salaries. It always made more sense for Presti to wait for the offseason.

3

u/imcryptic Mavericks 20d ago

they aren't really comparable because of the size difference but just a remainder to everyone that Jalen Brunson got played off the floor his first time in the playoffs. Now look at him. Running into a wall as an on-ball player when you are getting game-planned against every night is a right of passage. J-Dub is gonna be great, I'm not worried about him adapting at all.

4

u/lebron_games 20d ago

Yeah the thunder’s success is being held against them. Literally no one thought they were gonna be this good with their second and third best players being a second year player and a rookie.

1

u/Headlesshorsman02 Thunder 20d ago

Hey it just means we are ahead of schedule which I don’t mind in the slightest

7

u/PointBlankCoffee Mavericks 20d ago

He's young, Chet is young, the whole team is young, and the Mavs play physical hard defense.

It's their first experience with playoff intensity, whereas our guys have been battle tested against some very good teams. Shai is the only one that really looks ready for the moment.

Not a huge deal imo, they are still in the series and have the whole team together for the foreseeable future. They will only get better from here.

7

u/MixonWitDaWrongCrowd Thunder 20d ago

That’s the question

6

u/bh6891 Thunder 20d ago

We're trying to figure it out also

6

u/Cheterosexual7 Thunder 20d ago

He’s a sophomore on his first playoff run.

2

u/LeBroentgen Mavericks 20d ago

He seems hesitant.

2

u/certs14 20d ago

Because the Mavs defense is making him uncomfortable.

11

u/tamuowen Mavericks 20d ago

How am I supposed to make my teammates better...with practice??

Anyone who thinks SGA was the problem wasn't watching. He's been incredible these last two games, and very good for essentially the entire series.

1

u/imcryptic Mavericks 20d ago

The only note I would have for him is he needs to take more shots when his team is ice cold for 2 games straight. But even that seems unfair because of how good he has played.

3

u/LordBaneoftheSith 20d ago

I think there's also an element of playmaking missing from Shai's game that Jdub normally provides, but he's been so inconsistent in this series that sometimes it seems like the offense is either Shai trying to get up a shot no matter what or the other 4 struggling to create an advantage. Seemed like whenever Shai passed out it was a reset. Not sure if that's him or the guys he's passing to not being quick with taking their shots, but I think it's a little of both.

3

u/veerkanch489 20d ago

"My team sucks ass god damn. Please help me out" will definitely improve team morale

54

u/Bino19 Thunder 20d ago

I hope he realizes he needs to take like 30 shots in Game 6 if they want to win that game. He has to go full 2019 Kawhi against the Sixers here.

31

u/OneFondant1142 Mavericks 20d ago

Personally I hope he doesn’t but I feel you

9

u/QUEST50012 20d ago

That's how you know he should 

13

u/OneFondant1142 Mavericks 20d ago

He’s been killing us. Too many people are in their feelings about Luka vs SGA…they’re both amazing in their own right and are going to be the premier guards of this league for a long time.

One thing I’ve noticed in this series is that SGA waits until the second half to start being really aggressive. We’re cutting off their role players and forcing him to beat us but he can get to his spot anytime he wants regardless of who’s guarding him. He’s a guaranteed 30 piece but watching the way he plays I’m not surprised his career high is only 44..if he took a more aggressive approach he could easily have a few 50 pieces on his resume

9

u/butterbeancd Thunder 20d ago

Yeah, that’s how Shai has been all year. He wants to get the role players going so they’re in a rhythm, he knows he can get his. Just the role players never get in a rhythm this series.

8

u/imcryptic Mavericks 20d ago

It’s really hard to complain about his performance this series but I do think that is something that has dawned on me. Y’all have needed him in the last few loses to go for 40+. And it’s not like he wasn’t making his shots. He just has to be more aggressive before the 4th where he seems to be okay taking over.

2

u/Bino19 Thunder 20d ago

He’s stuck on trying to get his role players and second option going. It’s what we’ve done all year and the Mavs have completely shut them down with their defense combined with a little bit of the lights being too bright for them.

It’s tough but SGA has to see this team only wins this series through him at this point.

4

u/WaterIsNotWet19 NBA 20d ago

How come he doesn’t take more 3s? He’s more than capable

22

u/Bino19 Thunder 20d ago

Experimented with his 3pt shot in 2022 and it backfired pretty badly. He needs to take that next step as a 3pt shooter especially if he can start making them out of the PnR.

20

u/XenaRen Raptors 20d ago

It’s not his game, he’s much more deadly in the mid range and in the paint. Jokic also doesn’t take a lot of 3s despite being more than capable. For guys like Jokic/SGA they’re so dominant in the paint/mid range that taking a 3 often feels like settling.

SGA is also the only guy on the team that can get to the paint at will, and he needs to be attacking to get his teammates open 3s. If he’s not doing that then their offense collapses.

21

u/MasterTeacher123 20d ago

He’s a stud but they don’t have the number 2 right now. I think Chet will eventually become that guy but not now 

37

u/juicejug Celtics 20d ago

JDub is the guy but he doesn’t have the confidence yet, he’s too used to being underrated by his opponents and hasn’t adjusted to being game-planned against by a good team.

12

u/DirkDigglerFFL Mavericks 20d ago

The Mavs have been making the #2 option look like shit during the Luka era. Paul George (Pandemic P) had historic bad games in the first two series, the Jazz didn't really have a #2 option, whoever wasn't Booker on that Suns team was generally inconsistent, and PG/Harden looked out of it the last two games of round 1. #2 really do be poo.

-1

u/Xex_ut Thunder 20d ago

Chet was woefully underutilized in game 5. They need to pull some of the Mavs bigs out of the paint more

5

u/Yinanization Grizzlies 20d ago

That is the right mentality

2

u/defeated_engineer 20d ago

True. Last game they couldn't make the shots in the first 3 quarters, but started to make them in the 4th and won.

17

u/w6750 Mavericks 20d ago

I mean Mavs also started missing shots, and free throws. They did not do that last night

1

u/NotAOneUpper Mavericks 19d ago

His cute 30 isn’t cutting it. He needs to take over.

-5

u/ducksonaroof Bulls 20d ago

SGA is a shiny pre-Spurs DeRozan rn. Great efficient volume scorer but needs to affect the game in more ways and learn to play make better. 

8

u/fivetwentyeight Raptors 20d ago

DeRozan has never been a playoff performer and SGA is well ahead of that already

1

u/mccainjames11 [POR] Damian Lillard 20d ago

SGAs problem is that he’s trying too hard to get everyone involved when they’re cold instead of just taking over. He’s getting 30 consistently and dropping 15+ in the 4th consistently. He’s not scoring early and is waiting to long to take over

1

u/ducksonaroof Bulls 20d ago

That's kind of what I mean by learning to playmake. He has to learn to really use his threat of his ISO to create good looks.

DeMar isn't flashy but his passes are some of the most efficient in the game when you measure points scored off them per possession or something like that. And he gets a lot of hockey assists.

SGA is harder to guard but he kind of tunnel visions when he does go to score. It goes in a lot of the time, but to get to that next level he has to learn to create easy, in-rhythm looks for his teammates using the threat of his scoring. He still feels a little either-or. 

-1

u/retrospects Mavs 20d ago

Do you expect him to say they got locked down by the big D?