ESPN FIRST TAKE (3/3/2016): THE THUNDER ARE RUINING THE PRIMES OF KEVIN ...

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The morning everybody come on in here to first take skip bayless Molly Karen stephen a smith gentlemen how we doing what's up yo ma are you doing good morning how are you doing I'm good man I'm good.
Well the Red Road then let's roll alright alright let's do it let's start the session get cracking quack-quack what do you get with you hear them from yeah all right coming up in today's extra moly that's a little bit up sorry i'm awake happy chick right quack quack.
You know what we're really don't know what it's from my know when all my wednesday and mom has been doing like four hours of Mike Mike drinking like 19 coffees and she just out of him I was here where we are yeah that's right now I'm like I'm strong I know alright let's do this pantry start Josh Norman whole enjoy my humor your whole stop by the desk what did he think of Cam Newton's reaction to the Super Bowl loss and where does he rank among the best shutdown corners in the league but we will start here with the NBA so last night the Thunder law has a title contender with all these finishes yes i am to be quite honest with you I'm incredibly disappointed at what I saw last night.
Happy for cp3 and go on in Los Angeles Clippers they stepped up defensively they were down by 22 have 58 238 the you know they had a 22-point lead okc I'm talking about right here you have a 17-point lead and ultimately you get outscored 3513 in the fourth quarter you surrender 27 26 25 run in the last 7 25 and that same span you to oklahoma city thunder and all you can muster with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on the floor is one feel go one jumper by Kevin Durant on the baseline are you kidding me.
That doesn't make any sense whatsoever the Russell Westbrook to be 0 for 6 in the fourth quarter that was alarming enough but the combination of his five turnovers kevin durant six turnovers these are 11 turnovers by your two stars and not only that I thought offensively they were predictable it got to a point skip where they were pushing the ball up the floor are not really pushing it up walking it up in a four-quarter as the Clippers were making their run as the game Wayne you have Russell Westbrook with the ball on the left side of the court you had Kevin Durant on the right side absolutely positively no movement whatsoever it's just all right it's Russell in Kevin Durant and it was obvious it was going to have to be one of those two that came to the rescue nobody else was going to get the ball and I think it's having a residual impact on the defensive side of the ball they've lost like five of the seven games since all-star break skip bayless in that span the Oklahoma City Thunder have surrendered a hundred and eleven points7 points per game ok so it's affecting you defensively as well you've got defensive lapses it makes no sense whatsoever I don't understand what's going on I see no difference no improvement whatsoever for what Scott Brooks was doing there for years to what Billy Donovan is doing now I was happy to see Billy Donovan you know basically call out the team respectfully of course he was basically saying that they beat us or do we beat ourselves he threw out that question because he was highlighting some of the deficiencies in the execution and how they gave away a game that they were pretty much dominating so we see the Oklahoma City Thunder we know they're ultra-talented we know talent-wise they can and should be able to compete with anybody in the game of basketball but as things get tight they get tight they start turning the ball over I think skip i wrote down something here they've lost nine games this year when leading to begin the fourth quarter here leading to begin for ya they've lost not games and there's only one of the team in the entire NBA who has lost more games than Oklahoma City under those conditions they are the pathetic woeful Philadelphia seven sixes so you're the go-to your the oklahoma city thunder and you're being mentioned in the same breath as the Philadelphia 76 is you've got to be kidding me man so they're going to have to get it together otherwise they're going to go home very very early i have no doubt in my mind they would need to change this up quick fast in the Harvey because whether there is not about their record right now it's still 42 in nineteen it's about the fact that they should be looking much better they shouldn't come across as predictable as they are and defensively where is Serge Ibaka where's his presence.
I'm just not seeing it skip I mean you know I I don't know what's going on i'm not i'm used to see a surgeon bakr have far more of an impact and he had 16 shots last night so he was active to what he's what they're doing defensively is just so unimpressive they're not going to win when it matters unless they fix unless they fix things in re so so quantify it for me.
You like this team a lot more than I've ever like this team this year quantify your loss of faith for me like what what what where are you right now we still have a little ways to go do you think they have no shot of getting to the finals now like that we and i would tell you right now the way they're looking i wouldn't give them better than a 20-percent ok I got it all right back to Molly's question how much faith of I lost again I didn't have as much as you i gotta tell you straight up I've lost no faith in this team this team is who i thought it was and wasn't in yet.
I i do think i'm i'm i'm not going to so to speak dare the devil here because obviously I'm asper supporter i'm not going to rattle this cage any more than it's already been rattled i still have immense respect to the point of all for the oklahoma city thunder again they are a two-man show and that's their problem right now that the two superstars seem not to trust anybody else maybe they shouldn't like he said he baka III don't know what's happened to him he that guy used to kill the Spurs in the playoffs he's disappearing quickly he's not the defensive presence as you said any slumping offensive Lee slumping from the three-point line.
I don't know what happened last year I feared anthony Morrow now he's he's long gone forgotten he used to be a deadly sniper for them late in games.
Not anymore so it's KD or westbrook or bust for them but listen once again last night for most of the game they look dominant to me for most of the game on Saturday night they look dominant to me I mean lethal like like this team's got a shot to win the whole thing this year and then we knew what happened we know what happened down the stretch but last night I just quick personal aside here obviously I gotta get up at five o'clock every morning so I lasted until it was 93 277 with 726 to go and they got can't Westbrook got Cantor a dunk and that made it 93 277 visiting team and I just said that's it man i'm out i I can't do is I don't know what time was 1215 1220 I just said I can't do it anymore and fall asleep I said they got this one surely and I take the rest of the game so I could watch it just in case and I woke up in the middle of the night and I just walked over to my computer just a glance at the score like at three o'clock in the morning I said you are they blew that with that they gave up at 26 25 run late that game at 22 23 run in the last five minutes of the game that's impossible when you have to the best three players in basketball ok so now let's go back to those two guys kevin durant look at the numbers he put up Steven a last night if I just glanced at the big box score the total box score 30 and 11 rebounds five assists and five blocks big-time and Westbrook didn't have his usual game but he still had 24 and 12 assists big time and look at the clippers and nobody really had a hot hand on the Clippers and and I look at the rebounds mirror what Pat Riley said no rebounds no rings on Saturday night Oklahoma City outrebounded Golden State by 30 rebounds last night they outrebounded the Clippers 63 245 by 18 rebounds they outrebounded.
You're saying how can you lose that game they both shot about but Oklahoma City shop 40-percent Clippers shop 41-percent how do you lose it you turn the ball over like crazy so who's the biggest culprit here I I gotta go back to the point guard.
I've never been a big fan he's got it just off-the-charts ability but russell westbrook has to get these games home and Stephen a he now leads Westbrook does he leads the NBA in fourth-quarter turnovers that will not fly with this team because it's one guy or the other is going to have to do it and I i still think Russell tries too hard in the fourth quarter now from the three-point line in close late games or whatever you call clutch time it's with five minutes earlier or less to go with the score within five Russell this year is 34 22 from three-point line and last night late in the game 6.9 seconds to go Westbrook had a chance to tie it and remember this shock we see again if we haven't seen it already Westbrook on the fly he shoots a running three-point shot to tie with spot seven seconds to go and and it's just an outrageously out-of-control bad shot I assume he was trying to draw the foul and get three free throws out of it maybe luck went in but Stephen eh that's your point guard he's been around long enough he's obviously MVP of the last two all-star games.
You gotta find a better shot take a better shot than that one so again I'm gonna put a lot of this on Russell you pointed out he was over six in the fourth quarter remember against Golden State he was one for seven in the fourth quarter and 145 and over time so he was 2 for 12 in the fourth quarter and overtime against Golden State he is killing them he's way better than that you can say it's just a blip instead of a trend that that he'll snap out of it but between he and it between him and rant making fourth-quarter blunders turnovers dumb fouls dumb plays dumb pass is that they're just so much better than then they then they play and again this does not even deserve some blame here i have no idea.
I i gotta give him an incomplete I don't know what he's doing I and III don't people around the league have a lot of respect for him but but they don't play much defense but but they didn't that they have never played a whole lot of defense they gave up 35 in the fourth quarter they gave up 65 in the second half.
It's just you're not going to win that way and the other team doesn't have that much fire power.
So again I i still think they'll figure it out but in this case whether Luke is gonna have to figure it out first well listen i agree with you I definitely put most open most of the culpability on done the Russell Westbrook shoulder because you know how I feel about him I think he's a superstar think he's a top five talent there's no question in my mind but the leadership in terms of running the show for your particular Lee as games wait I have to look at the point god you gotta settle things down you gotta call the right plays you've gotta make the right decisions and that is advised shot that he took that launched way they showed the three-point up.
Yeah the three-point he that was just an awful shy up there was an awful decision making on the part of Russell Westbrook i'm not going to completely absorbed kevin durant oh because if you can make all of these shots as the game is going on how come you can't make it to close it is a level of car look of culpability that he cheers but the larger onus is on the shoulders of Russell Westbrook we're constantly talking about the double-doubles he had 24 and 12 last night he's piling up the assist numbers he's passing the ball more he's gays definitely doing that but when its time it doesn't seem to be like he's capable of settling folks down yeah because he can't settle himself down well say what makes it most glaring and what makes it most glaring is that when you look at Steph Curry ignore the shot selection.
It's a normal shot for steph curry so he's playing within himself Chris Paul the quintessential point guard in the NBA playing within himself but then you look at Russell Westbrook and he does all of these things throughout the game but then as it gets tight when they're given up one of their fourth quarter leaves he becomes erratic turnovers it ill advised times poor decision-making and so for me that's what I'm concerned about here because the games are going to be tight and once again this is the biggest reason I've lost faith in Oklahoma City everything is difficult.
Why can't you just blow people out and finish the deal because your talent is that surreal you can get it done they seem to make everything hard well if it's hard in February in january-february and March skip bayless it doesn't get any easier in april and may know and so that's the way I'm looking at it and that's why i say i've lost faith.
The talent is there they can beat anybody they have the talent to close the deal but your decision-making making what you use up here matters to particularly come playoff times against some of the better teams and everybody seems to have an edge over them right now if i had to put my money on it i would bet that Oklahoma City Thunder go home in the second round second round Wow second-round they would get to the Conference Finals trying because Jack what you got right now is gonna be golden State got you gotta remember it's going to be go to state san antonio identity they're going to be the clippers or okc in at three or four spot ok so either you're going to face san antonio in the second round where you're going to face go to state in a second-round yeah it's going to be one or the other and if that happens it's Iraq okay I got you.
Ok here's my bottom line i talked about how Oklahoma City is crushing these good teams on the backboards absolutely annihilated him with rebounds but here's the bottom line to both these games against Golden State Saturday night at oklahoma city oklahoma city turned it over 22 times at home to Golden State's 11 points off turnovers 24 for Golden State.
15 for Oklahoma City that's the difference in the game right there last night Oklahoma City turn it over again on the.
Old at the Clippers 17 times to the Clippers the Clippers 6 x 17 26 points off turnovers 16 24 for the Clippers you can't win like that against good teams and these are already good teams that they're playing against and in very good and golden slain obviously but let me add this skip don't ignore the rebound understand why they have a rebounding advantage they have a rebounding advantage because people know that Oklahoma City is most lethal in the open court.
So you don't have people crashing the boards with abandonment try to outrebound them where people long shots the rule is that you have to hurry up get the hell back on defense and turn them into a half-court game because when their half-court off its then they're relatively predictable it's Durant are Russell Westbrook that's going to get one of these shots and we could do it that way but when in the open court they lead to because West Russell Westbrook is coming at you like a locomotive and kevin durant can pull up from 30 so you don't want that you want to turn him into a half-court teen which means that you run back on defense as opposed to crash the boards and that's why you have a rebound event but having said all of that skip DeAndre Jordan had 18 rebounds last last night yeah but not only did he have 18 rebounds.
It was two key plays two and one that he converted and went up and made a free throw a counter to that you made it look good doing it i agree so to me that's a very very big deal for the Los Angeles Clippers because of the Andre Jordan could do that.
You got a problem everybody's got a problem.
Everybody's got a problem one more thing to add in the final five minutes the Thunder are combined 4 for 22 from the field in their last two games against the Clippers and warriors just 18% outscored by combined 28 points in the final five minutes of those losses so obviously lots of issues facing the Thunder right now who do you blame for their struggles they'll let us know by taking part in our Twitter poll if you think it's Durant Westbrook or their head coach Billy Donovan will reveal those results a little later in the show meanwhile the Thunder have a chance to rebound tonight when they travel the Golden State to face the Warriors okc is looking for revenge after saturday nights classic heartbreaking loss and over time the Warriors hero from that game step curry is questionable to play though tonight skip how much of a shot do you have the Thunder against the Warriors this evening stephen a smith i'm going to dare to do this i tweeted this at halftime last night i'm going to stick with it I just have a feeling and I'm daring did to have this feeling again I don't know steps gonna play or not i'm going to guess he will play I think the Thunder are going to win this game tonight there's something about the psyche of this team these collapses don't seem to bother them as in devastate them as in crushed their psyche as you often say about Russell Westbrook I I don't think anything bothers in I think he shakes it off not in a bad way in a good way he's goes on let's let's get him tonight he will play his tail off tonight I think this team is still young enough and it's two superstars are young enough that we won't see the effects of the late collapse physically or mentally on the oklahoma city thunder at golden state that the Thunder have to look at at glass-half-full because they dominated Golden State for much of the game on Saturday night at home and then they dominated the Clippers for what three and a half quarters last night that you you gotta hold onto that and I think they will I just don't think they care and if they can figure out how to stick with it and let maybe Durant close tonight more than Westbrook because kevin durant played one of the best games of his career on Saturday night against Steph Curry matched him 343 down to the bitter end then we know what happened it was Kevin Durant you through the turnover pass and kevin durant who made the silly foul that put Iguodala on the free-throw line to make the to send it to overtime.
I just got a feeling they will make those blunders tonight I think some pressure will be off them because they did collapse last night maybe Golden State won't see them coming unless they're watching the show right now because that often happens to me but I again maybe steph won't quite be right tonight maybe he'll be a little bit ginger on that ankle maybe he won't play quite as many minutes and I just have a feeling that the Oklahoma City Thunder will win this game 1052 101 i must admit i might be picking with my heart because my Spurs need somebody to knock off Golden State skip is real simple for me if steph curry plays go to stay wins if he doesn't play go to state loses because I think Oklahoma City is going to be akin to get back on the court after last night's loss i think they'll be ready for this challenge in terms of playing a competitive basketball game meaning they're not going to get blown out on anything like that i think it's going to come down the late-game heroics but i think that if steph curry is playing I think psychologically he just seems to have their number and as a result they'll find a way to win this game with him on the court but if he's not on the court.


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