00:00We're going to start in the NBA, where Danny, I said earlier, lived up to the hype, man.
00:06The Spurs, the Thunder, double overtime in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
00:12We see San Antonio ultimately survive this thing, 122-115, Victor Wemanyama, insane.
00:1941 points, 24 rebounds, a few blocks as well, just continues to outdo himself.
00:24But outside of the stats, what were the big takeaways from this game?
00:29I mean, the biggest takeaways are just that Oklahoma City finally has met its match.
00:34And this is kind of what we assumed in terms of, you and I have talked about it numerous times,
00:38being kind of the pseudo-championship, because whichever team moves on from the West,
00:43you really think that it's going to be a dominant showing in the championship against whether it's Cleveland or New
00:49York.
00:49So this feels like this pseudo-championship spot here.
00:53And Oklahoma City can't be them goofy selves here.
00:55They can't just breeze past this opponent like they've done in the past couple of other series
01:00and like they can essentially do in any game during the regular season.
01:03And even what we witnessed in a lot of series last year's playoff run,
01:07of course, that was a different beast when they barely got past the Indiana Pacers in the actual championship.
01:13But Wemby, as we all know, makes such a massive difference.
01:16And it's one thing to just have his length and athleticism,
01:20but it's another when you can have a guy who pulls up from damn near half court to knock down
01:25a triple in overtime to tie the game.
01:28Over 40 points, 24 rebounds.
01:30It's truly remarkable what this kid is doing, Adam.
01:34And more importantly, I mean, the circle here is Chet Holmgren.
01:38You knew it was going to be a struggle for him in this series,
01:40given how tall of an order it is to try to contain Wemby.
01:43But then on the offensive side, in his own right, what, he had like eight points, eight rebounds.
01:48I mean, Chet obviously has to step up and he's got to find other ways to create shot opportunities.
01:53That's certainly easier said than done.
01:55But that's really going to be the X factor is what the big man can or cannot do on the
02:00side of Oklahoma City.
02:01It was good to see them get Jalen Williams back in the mix.
02:04He really looked like he didn't miss a step.
02:06But yeah, they need those big guys to counter Wemby or at least contribute offensively in some capacity
02:11in order to feel good about their chances in this series.
02:15Maybe part of the production was the lack of De'Aaron Fox.
02:18But honestly, that was kind of made up by Vassell, by Castle, by Harper, guys like that.
02:23And the scoring numbers just get bloated when a game goes to double overtime in general.
02:28But in terms of Wemby, I'm looking at Wednesday's game, too.
02:32And we're talking about 41 and a half as the PRA points, rebounds, assists.
02:37There comes a point, I realize, where the numbers, they just get too big.
02:41But this dude just went for almost 70 PRA in game one.
02:45Do we have to ride his overs just believing that, one, if the Spurs can win this series,
02:50it all rides on Wemby anyway?
02:53And two, who's going to stop him?
02:56Right.
02:56That's the million-dollar question.
02:58Who the hell is going to stop this kid?
03:00I think at the very least, you know, unless I haven't looked for game two.
03:05But if his rebounds prop is posted in that range of 13 and a half again, I think that's
03:10one that we just got to pull the trigger on.
03:12I mean, this is going to be exactly where it is.
03:15Minus 130, 13 and a half.
03:17All right.
03:17See, and again, you know, that's probably going to get shot up to 14 and a half and then
03:21hover there.
03:22But that may be the best way to go about it because I am, I don't want to say like
03:26hesitant to back Wemby's scoring props over, but I am more so curious, Adam, to see what
03:31kind of defensive scheme Oklahoma City comes out with.
03:35It's the old narrative of the rest versus rust and how are we going to approach them
03:38going forward?
03:39And clearly coming off of that series for San Antonio helped them right out of the gates
03:43and it took a little bit for Oklahoma City to dig them out of that hole, finally catching
03:47up in the fourth, had a chance to win it at OT and then blew it.
03:50How can you counter Wemby?
03:52Are you going to force them more so along the perimeter and hope and tempt them to shoot
03:56more threes?
03:57And if that's going to be their strategy or they just straight up double from the gun,
04:01then maybe we don't get as much production from him scoring.
04:03So I'm just a bit timid in betting his points, but I still clearly think is anybody would
04:09that his rebounding production is going to stay up there, especially with two top tier
04:13defenses, a lot of missed shots, plenty more rebounding opportunities.
04:17That's the one where if you just told me, hey, I'm betting it till he comes back down
04:20to earth, I would have no qualms with you doing so.
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