And We Have Series!

 Big conference finals weekend! I was starting to get nervous that both the East and West series were going to shockingly be shorter than expected. Although I did call OKC in 4 which is now guaranteed to be incorrect, I am happy to see both the Wolves and Knicks win game 3 to keep their hopes alive. I'll talk a bit about the OKC game because I feel I have to after being so hard on the Wolves, but I'll mostly focus on the East because that was actually an interesting game. 

Wolves Dominate Game 3

This was a tough one for me! I was hoping OKC put their foot on the throat and really drove home that they're the better team on Saturday. I invited friends over to watch with the hope of drinking and making fun of Anthony Edwards with an audience. Instead I got the Wolves blowing out the Thunder by 40+ points. No notes from this game, the Wolves came out of the gates on fire, the Thunder couldn't hit any open 3s and the lead snowballed until the Thunder just pulled the plug. Random blowouts happen in the playoffs I am not too worried about the Thunder, but that was the response you obviously want to see if you're a Wolves fan. I already see the discourse flipping from OKC is amazing to Wolves got this, and rightfully so, they won by more than 40. Big test tonight to see how the Thunder respond, if they head back to OKC with the series knotted up, I will never hear the end of it. That's what I get for hating the league's chosen one I guess. 

Knicks Somehow Stay Alive

It was really funny seeing the reaction online in the second quarter of that Knicks Pacers game last night. The Pacers got off to a great start opening up a 20 point lead in the second quarter. Siakam, Haliburton, and pretty much everyone was playing great basketball on both ends. It helped that the Knicks big players got into early foul trouble forcing Thibs to go deeper into his bench than he ever does even in the regular season. The Knicks battled back and cut the lead to 13 at the half and this is where I felt they weren't just going to roll over. The third quarter was thrilling. The Knicks came out firing and cut the lead down to single digits, but the Pacers had a response and wound up getting the lead to 10 going into the 4th quarter. Brunson quickly picked up his 5th foul in the fourth and had to sit on the bench, leaving the job of coming back to KAT. KAT was brilliant, 20 points in the 4th hitting deep 3s, barreling to the basket and doing whatever he could to keep the Knicks season alive. The Knicks defense really turned up the heat in the 4th quarter. One play that really stood out to me, at the end of the shot clock Aaron Nesmith got the ball against OG with no choice but to go at him. He tried to post up OG who is basically a bigger and stronger version of Nesmith, this got him nowhere. He finally had to put up a shot which OG angrily swatted into the 3rd row. The game devolved into a foul contest, which the Knicks did lose in game 1, but this time they nailed all their free throws in the clutch to put it away and keep their season alive. 

Honestly, I am pretty happy with both outcomes! I want the Pacers and Thunder to win their respective series, but neither of those are my teams and I won't be heart broken if they lose. We now are guaranteed to have at least 2 pivotal game 4s, what more can you ask for as a fan. I am keeping it short today because I don't have it from a writing perspective, but don't let that make you think I am not hyped for the games ahead!