And other things.

The Long Weekend was full of series finales and all of them were upsetting to me.

First, the Dallas Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 6.

I was cheering for OKC.

Second, the Indiana Pacers beat the New York Knicks in Game 7.

Again, I was cheering for the losing team.

Third -and this was the most surprising and painful- the Minnesota Timberwolves came back from a 20-point deficit to beat the defending champs, the Denver Nuggets.

I was, as you can tell, rooting for the Nuggets.

As I watched these games, feeling all of the despair that comes with watching your team(s) lose, I noticed some things as I yelled my complaints at my TV.

And I’m going to share my observations with you. I’m going to talk about it because talking about things is the best way to heal.

Observations on The OKC Thunder

 

One, the OKC Thunder needs bigger and taller players.

One of the reasons they lost was because they let Luka Doncic make plays when the defence clamped down on him.

Every time they doubled him, he’d just play the passing lanes and skip passes to open players (often it was P.J. Washington) in the corner for open 3s.

A lengthy player on the roster, I think, would’ve helped them because this player -someone like Jarred Vanderbilt or Jaden McDaniels or even Andrew Wiggins- could disrupt (or even block) Luka’s vision, forcing him to make bad passes or take contested shots more often.

Having a player like this wouldn’t stop Luka –he’s an elite player– but could slow him down.

And that’s all the Thunder needed to do because they lost Game 6 by one point.

Additionally, I think they’ll benefit from having another center, preferably someone big who can help them box out and collect boards (maybe Andre Drummond or Derrick Favors?), especially for the playoffs because they are a small team and would’ve gotten bullied by the Timberwolves if they matched up against each other.

Observations on The New York Knicks

 

Two, the New York Knicks need better trainers and regular yoga classes.

The reason the Knicks lost this series was because of injuries.

They had five injured players (Julius Randle, Bojan Bogdanovic, Mitchell Robinson, OG Anunoby and Jalen Brunson, who hurt his hand in Game 7) and Josh Hart was playing hurt.

If the team was less injury-prone, I think they would’ve taken this series in 5 games.

But they’re not and their lineup was as thin as Chet Holmgren.

So, they should spend some time this offseason checking out the yoga class schedules at their local Y.

Observations on The Denver Nuggets

 

Three, back-to-back championships are hard to attain.

The last time an NBA team won back-to-back titles was in 2018 when the Golden State Warriors did it.

Before that, it was LeBron James’ Miami Heat team, who did it in 2013.

And before that, it was Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2010.

I thought the duo of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray could lead the Denver Nuggets to repeating but I guess I was wrong.

I think they got too comfortable in Game 7 after they got the big lead and didn’t play hard enough thereafter.

They started slacking; they weren’t taking care of the ball and the Timberwolves took advantage of that sloppiness, which led to them chopping down the lead and eventually overtaking the game.

And once the Timberwolves smelt blood, they gorged on the Nuggets defensively and didn’t let the defending champs get their rhythm back.

Thus, the Nuggets need one of those hard-ass, old-school vets who’ll cuss them out when they start getting silly.

Right now, they have DeAndre Jordan as their vet. But even though he’s a big dude, he’s a nice guy and won’t aggressively call you and your B.S. out.

I also saw Christian Braun trying to fire the team up in the last quarter of this game, but he’s a young guy with a young-looking face and I don’t think many of his teammates are going to take him seriously.

The Nuggets need someone like P.J. Tucker or James Johnson or Kyle Lowry to be the mean vet who’ll hold them accountable.

So yeah, just some food for thought.

Final Thoughts

It was a weekend full of emotional roller coasters with these games.

But do you agree with my observations and solutions? What would you have these teams do differently?