<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I&#39;m not sure if tonight is a top 5 Steph Curry career moment, but it&#39;s up there.<br><br>1) Kyrie&#39;s kneecap exploding in 2015<br>2) KD averaging 35-8-5 in 2017<br>3) KD averaging 29-11-8 in 2018<br>4) Scoring 16 points on 22 shots in G5 2022 Finals<br>5) Defeating Denver without Murray &amp; MPJ in…</p>&mdash; Barry (@BarryOnHere) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarryOnHere/status/1914171086272700506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

You reply with the most random barry takes.

It was pretty fun to watch.

Getting afraid of Kawhi yet? Basically singlehandedly won that road game.

I've always maintained the Clippers and Leonard, if healthy, are the greatest threat other than OKC in the West.

That was disgraceful watching Jokic flop late in the game. He should have been thrown out for that soccer shit.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Let&#39;s see<br><br>40,000+ points, 4 rings, 4 MVPs, 4 Finals MVPs<br>5 MVPs - 6 rings - 6 Finals MVPs<br>Watched Kyrie get hurt &amp; KD win 2 Finals MVPs<br>38,000 points - 6 MVPs - 6 rings <a href="https://t.co/6Yu18G7pN5">https://t.co/6Yu18G7pN5</a></p>&mdash; Barry (@BarryOnHere) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarryOnHere/status/1914533137297891619?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

How about this one?

I loved it. That’s a guy who will do absolutely anything to win and doesn’t care what it looks like.

If Kawhi is healthy, OKC is in massive trouble.

I wish Westbrook would have stayed with the Clips to crater their chances of advancing.

The Clippers will never win anything, don't worry.

Kawhi making a solid case for load management!

Honestly Kawhi is undervalued.

If he manages to win a 3rd championship. That will be with three different teams.

Spurs, Raps, Clips.

Pushes him past LeBronzo for me :)

Definitely surpasses Curry anyway. Unlike him, Kawhi was actually the best player on all his championship teams.

OKC only on track to win game 2 by SIXTY

Yeah, their looking great. Has Memphis gone fishing already?

I’m surprised to see Chet Holmgren still playing in the league with those little toothpick legs. He’s definitely had a longer career than I thought he would

When your 7’ 1” you can last a long time in the NBA

When you sit out over half the games in your career because you skipped leg days your entire life it makes it a little easier to prolong your career too.

Played in all 82 games last year.

I don't think you understand what genetics are.

Is anyone even watching this series? Not a chance First Take will mention it anyway.

Welcome to the playoffs, LA...

Randle would've been really good in the late 90s.

Just pure bully ball.

Meanwhile Luka trying ball fakes on Gobert and doesn't realize that Gobert couldn't bite on a fake if he wanted to - he's too damn slow.

Started going through the motions again defensively that quarter.

And Luka got pissed off and off his game.

In fairness to him, the officials were letting them pretty much beat the shit out of him.

Caaaaaaareful, LA.

You're letting Ant get himself worked into a lather. That's the one guy that can drag them back into this game and he's got his energy up.

Gotta go on a run here. You cannot let him get up to full speed.

God damn it Wolves stop ****ing shooting 3s.

Good lord -- LA just getting outworked something awful this quarter. 5 or 6 loose balls going Minny's way. And Luka getting that little over the head pass swatted away because he kinda telegraphed it was at least a little bit funny.

Get your shit together, fellas.

James, if you have a little something extra in the tank tonight, now may be the time to use it. Gotta keep this on the rails through this 3rd quarter. They get this to single digits into the 4th and it's game on.

Won't be able to rest Luka for too long into the 4th I expect.

Hayes is unplayable, get him out of the game. Two incredibly stupid plays in a row.

No clue what Reaves is doing there on that 2 on 1.

I guess the Thunder are going to lose in the WCF.

Yeah - noticed that in the 2nd quarter. He can't be out there.

Lakers sure look like they're gonna lose this series. Even if they hang on here, I'm not sure how they can win on the road trying to win a game by playing a couple of 8 minute stretches of quality basketball and hanging on like grim death for the remaining 26 minutes...

WCF? Is Kawhi getting hurt or something?

Luka is capable of some crazy shit and that's what it'll take, I think.

Reaves sure seems like he can get to the rim at will.

So the Lakers should probably take more 3 pointers.

They could put the ball in Reaves hands and let him take it home, IMO.

Minnesota will have to adjust if they lean into it. He's just cutting right through them whenever he really wants to.

The Clippers are not allowed to win anything.

Helps that they usually put their two best perimeter defenders on Luka/LeBron, but I still think there might too much size around the rim for Reaves to finish consistently against this team.

I'd go to Luka.

Same for the Raptors but Kawhi fought through that in 2019.

LeBron.

Right -- eventually.

But I think you force them off him by heavily featuring Reaves until they adjust.

That will help Luka find some space. Feels like he hasn't hit a shot since the 2nd quarter and they're making him work his ass off (and really settle into a distributor role).

You could use Reaves to help him out a bit. Have Luke set some screens, get some switches onto Reaves and work a little more without the ball to create some looks.

Right now he's really struggling trying to run the offense in the half-court because they're collapsing on him with their best defenders.

It's more about the Lakers, they don't want competition for them.

Oh, I'd certainly go to Reaves more in game 3 for exactly the reasons you cite. But Luka down the stretch for me is the guy.

So it looks like they're gonna hang on.

But if I'm LA I come out of this game DAMN nervous.

Way too many things had to go well in that 1st 15 minutes or so that they just can't count on going well every night, especially on the road.

Not sure there's anything the NBA can do to make LeBron 5 years younger.

Half court offense still needs to be better. Defensive intensity was there today though.

Sure they can, he just needs to drink blood.

Goddamn that was as ugly a win as you'll see, especially at home. From a betting favorite.

Back to the drawing board, JJ -- you've got work to do.

I like what Vincent is giving them btw, I'd consider playing him more on the road. I'd probably also stop starting/playing Hayes completely.

How do you know he's not?

Excuse me Avocado Ice Cream. ;)

So from what I can tell, Luka and LeBron scored or assisted on 33 of the 34 made baskets in that game.

I'm sorry, that's asking too much of those guys with the defense that Minnesota was running. That was seeing a square peg and a round hole and just finding a bigger ****ing hammer.

Never saw any adjustments from Reddick at all.

There's a reason they only scored 60 points in the last 3 quarters of that game. Minnesota adjusted and LA just didn't adjust back at all.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Amazing defense by LeBron &amp; the Lakers tonight.<br><br>Offensively though, different story. Horrendous. No creativity at all. <br><br>I&#39;ll take the win but LA should&#39;ve won this game by 25.</p>&mdash; Barry (@BarryOnHere) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarryOnHere/status/1914901989697425807?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Found it -- DFS assisted on Vincent's 3 pointer at the end of the 1st quarter.

That's it. For the rest of the game, James and Luka scored or assisted on every single basket.

That's just awful man. That's a little kid spamming plays in Madden. Wow.

Suspend McDaniels for that Draymond-level trip.

Chuck setting in on the Lakers offensive creativity right now.

Glad these guys are seeing the same thing I was. I really am floored by how shitty they ran that offense in that game.

I haven't seen anything like that from them all year. Almost like they got the big lead and then tried to play prevent; an Andy Reid game. They didn't want to show anything in a short series so they just didn't DO anything for the rest of that game.

Just hideous, hideous offense.

Redick lying about them playing good offense and he knows it.

Yeah, I heard that but I think what he was saying (in the context of his answer) was that "We played a good offense tonight..."

Because he went on to talk about how they felt a run coming from Minnesota.

I dunno -- I can't imagine he was trying to say they played good offense themselves.

That entire presser was...odd. He was awfully strident for a guy who's team just played like shattered ass.

Man, the Thunder just have so many shotmakers.

SGA wasn't sharp tonight and wasn't really getting to the line. At a point Memphis looked to make a game of it a couple times in the 4th but Oklahoma always had a run to answer.

Then the Caruso three from the corner really was a kill-shot. Memphis just kept hanging around 8-10 points down and that shot broke their backs.

Feels like they always have one more guy than you can cover and that guy always hits the big shot when they need it.

I cant wait for the Lakers to lose. Sooo tired of hearing about them.

You better start cheering for wins then because if they lose this series "what's wrong with the Lakers?" is gonna be leading on ESPN until the draft.

I am sure I am forgetting some other team but I don't think I have seen a team just destroy another team in the playoffs like OKC has. These first 2 games aren't even competitive.

Eh -- if that game is in Memphis it might've been interesting.

In the early 4th quarter, Memphis started to find some momentum. With the crowd on their side, maybe they hit one more basket and maybe OKC has one more miss. Suddenly that 8 point gap is a 4 point gap with a raucous crowd behind them.

I wouldn't call that game non-competitive. OKC is just a better team, at home, vs. a very flawed (and perpetually immature) Memphis squad.

OKC is doing this to essentially a #2 or #3 seed profile team. Ja only played in 50 games. Had he played in more games ifs very possibly Memphis could have nabbed one of those seeds. So few games separating the teams 2 thru 8 in the West. This isnt the Bulls, the Magic or any of the shitty East teams. By point differential Memphis is also the 3rd best team in the West,

OKC is steamrolling the West to the Finals. The Lakers whistle and Kawhi Leonard are the only things standing in their way.

Just wait until Shai feels his team is being challenged. He will play better. He just played his worst two game stretch of the season and OKC absolutely demolished Memphis...twice. Last year you all said Shai needs help. Shai played well but the rest of the team didnt. Thats because the other guys took their lumps already last year.

The West will be won.

That's been my argument all along; this team is INSANELY deep, which makes the deluge of picks they have coming up all the more interesting. Honestly, I kind of wish they hadn't extended Caruso as his roster slot and salary could probably be used better elsewhere, but I probably shouldn't doubt Presti.

Don’t blame you for ignoring the Warriors as most here do just that. No chance against OKC right?

Warriors would be annihilated by OKC if they somehow lucked their way into the playoffs that far.

I think OKC is a bad, bad matchup for the Warriors.

If you go back in time and kill John Connor the Thunder will win it all.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LeBron funny af ���������� <a href="https://t.co/RgaU4A4t00">pic.twitter.com/RgaU4A4t00</a></p>&mdash; LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) <a href="https://twitter.com/LakeShowYo/status/1915129958768513484?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 23, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He fooled 'em.

What a despicable human being.

LOL

You can hate him as a basketball player but Bron is a good dude.

Warriors not looking quite as good when Houston isn’t choking and missing every shot they take.

Did Jimmy come back in?

They're keeping it close with no Butler. Gritty team.


Jimmy is out for the night. Time to see what this Warriors team is all about.

They're not winning this game. Him going out sucked the life out of them, and now they have to play with Kuminga, who doesn't want to be there.

Brandin Podziemski has been useless tonight.

Always a good day when the Warriors lose, especially in a blowout.