NBA Conference Finals Showdown

We're breaking down the NBA Conference Finals matchups with four teams vying for their first championship. Injuries have significantly impacted the playoff landscape, creating opportunities for new contenders to emerge.

• NBA playoffs plagued by injuries across all four second-round series
• Eastern Conference: Knicks vs Pacers presents matchup questions with KAT against Myles Turner
• Knicks have experience edge while Pacers may have depth advantage
• Western Conference: Wolves vs Thunder features the Anthony Edwards and SGA rivalry the NBA has been building
• Thunder have talent but might be too young, while Wolves have the right mix of youth and experience
• Four teams with no recent championships means new faces will be in the Finals

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Chapters

• 0:00 Show Introduction
• 0:38 Playoff Injuries Overview
• 1:42 Eastern Conference: Knicks vs Pacers
• 5:24 Western Conference: Wolves vs Thunder
• 9:13 Episode Conclusion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What's up everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show. Get a Bucket. I'm your host, trey, and as usual, I hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. Today we got to talk about the NBA updates. We're at the conference finals, but before we do that, please make sure to hit that like and subscribe button, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show, try and get the ratings up a little bit, just a little bit. Like I said, ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to talk more about the conference finals than the second round.

Speaker 1: 0:38

Reason why every single round was plagued by injuries. Okay, the Cavs Pac Pacers that started off, injury prone with DG. And then Donovan Mitchell got injured. Then you got the Knicks Celtics Jason Tatum was injured. Oh my gosh, you heard, as a Duke fan, I got my Duke shorts on right now, ladies and gentlemen, you hear me, you know I'm saying. Then we got the Wolves Warriors Steph, he got injured, I've heard, because they was making a nice little run. I thought they would have made a nice little championship contender Stuff happens. And then, finally, the Thunder Aaron Gordon injured. He still played like a champ though. Hey bro, tip of the cap to you, man. That's what champions do, hence why he was a champion, just not this year though, but again second round, and that's no shade too. That is not shade either. Love that brother. He's a good man because he played in game seven with a grade two hamstring. Can't scoff on that. But unfortunately they're not in the playoffs anymore and we do have these four teams. And we do have these four teams the Pacers, the Thunder, the Wolves and the Knicks. So, with new faces, new faces, right, who's going to get their first championship? That's an interesting one.

Speaker 1: 1:56

I might not want to give my answer too early, partly because I don't know. We could go a few ways. Storylines, whether you're talking about talent, there's a lot, but let's talk about here, let's break them down Eastern, western, because we got two different conferences, right, two different conferences. So we're going to start off with the East. We're going to start off with the East. Here's my thing, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Knicks, pacers I think it's fair to say they're complete-ish teams. Okay, the Pacers have been lucky and fortunate to battle injury-prone teams for the last two seasons, but guess what you got to play, who you play? It's you know it's over here now, but they've been doing what they're supposed to do. So do they rise to the challenge against the Knicks team, which history does bode well for the Pacers, I believe. So again, I do think the Pacers can win. But if I got to be honest with y'all and I hate to say it, but the Knicks do, they might be my favorites Because Jalen Brunson has been playing well, plus he's a good leader.

Speaker 1: 3:04

Then they have the talent. But also Carl Anthony Towns, ladies and gentlemen, he's been playing at an all NBA level this year and then in the playoff. Yeah, he's. He had a little slippage moment but, like overall, I think he's doing well and he's surprising me because generally I wanted him at that power forward spot. I thought he could play the center position, thought, thought he was best served at the power forward and they have players like Mitchell Robinson to help him out in spurts. But again Kat seems to be handling the fort.

Speaker 1: 3:31

Can a Miles Turner slow down Carl Anthony Towns? That is the question. Because at least versus the Celtics, kp was injured, jason Tatum eventually was injured and you had the height matchup the majority of the time. So now let's see what you do against Miles Turner, who's around the same height, similar stocky build. You also got a Pascal Siakam who they can throw his length at you now, cooley, 6'10", 6'11". Let's see what happens.

Speaker 1: 4:00

But I do, for whatever reason, want to lean the Knicks. But I do, for whatever reason, want to lean the Knicks. It's so disgusting to say I can see the Pacers winning and I want to see what happens in game one. That might make me change my answer. But it just seems like the Knicks about to win this one, and it's because of expectations, it's because of experience. I do lean that, but again, talent-wise, the depth, it does lean. Indiana, the coaching, now that's a question mark. That's a question mark We'll have to see, because you might lean Indiana. Yeah, you can lean either.

Speaker 1: 4:37

I'm not the biggest Tibbs fan, but I mean, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not going to hem and haw too much on this Pacers-Knicks series Because again, there's a lot of other storylines to follow. Right, like Mikael Bridges, does he come back to form? Og Ananobi, og Ananobi? Can he start snapping Like, is there somebody on the Pacers who can ball outside of the big three that they have, which is Tyrese Halliburton, miles Turner, pascal Siakam? So that's enough about that series, ladies and gentlemen, because again, like I said, one player or one team is going to have a chance of going to the finals for the first time in quite some time. So let's move on to another team that's going to be in a similar situation. It's conference, which is the wolves and thunder.

Speaker 1: 5:24

Ladies and gentlemen, this one I'm looking forward to because, I said earlier in the year, the nba is trying to pit together anthony edwards and shea gildress, alex Alexander, as one of the best guard rivalries in the current NBA. And the reason why I said that was because they ended up playing three out of four times relatively recently, before the end of the season. And the reason why I said that because other teams did that, but this one was key because of the timing of it, ladies and gentlemen. It's the timing of it going into playoffs. I thought that was wonderful to note, I thought that was wonderful to watch and I commend the NBA for doing such a thing. Again, these are two dynamic guards. They're leading their teams in dynamic fashion and we should be talking about them for the next couple years. So because of that, it's it's nice that we get to see them in the western conference finals.

Speaker 1: 6:26

It just sucks that there were injuries along the way. That might have derailed this storyline just a little bit. I did think it might have been a little premature. But you know what, though we're here now and one of these two boys couldn't, they can win their first title and start to run amok in the league. Who would have thought Anthony Edwards could win a championship this year? I'm not going to lie to y'all. I thought it was a little premature. And again, you don't have just Anthony Edwards too, for this Wolves team. You have a Julius Randle who's hungry. You have a Rudy Gobert who's, I hope, hungry. They have a good team with solid experience. Mike Conley's been around and he's also a valuable leader too. Let's not forget that. So in that Wolves team they could go the distance.

Speaker 1: 7:07

On the Thunder squad, though, they got the talent, they got the MVP. I believe in Shea Gilders-Alexander. You have some wonderful talent around you with youth and experience and guys who just understand their roles. That's similarly to the Wolves, except they might have a little bit more talent on the on the Thunder side, mixed with you. So because of that, I do have some question marks about Thunder, but because of who they're going up against, it makes it a tough scenario.

Speaker 1: 7:35

I do lean the Wolves, though. I do lean the Wolves, and that sucks to say I'm not going to lie to you, I do lean the Wolves, and that sucks to say I'm not going to lie to y'all. But again, I want to wait and see what happens after game one, two, though Maybe I might want to change my pickup right quick. But I do feel the Wolves might be able to get over that hump this year. They do have the talent to combat the Thunder, and I did see some chinks in the armor for the Thunder, even though they battled against the Nuggets pretty well. Keep in mind too, they win a game seven versus the Nuggets, so does that factor in too?

Speaker 1: 8:06

Did the Wolves get too much rest? Beating the dog, breaking the brakes off the Warriors, dog walking the Warriors? Did they get too much rest? That's what I want to see. So again, ladies and gentlemen, I favor the Wolves, but you know, give me the after game one, maybe we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. But that's my expectations right now, because I do feel the Thunder is slightly too young, still just slightly too young. But overall, though, I mean these are going to be wonderful playoffs, ladies and gentlemen. And again we got to state, the playoffs thus far, while entertaining, we did have some notable injuries, and that does make me question for next season how some things are going to shake out, but it's making for a wonderful playoffs the rest of the way, plus a wonderful transition on into the offseason.

Speaker 1: 8:54

So, ladies and gentlemen, that does about conclude the episode, but I am curious who do y'all have winning the conference finals? Because it's a couple of teams that could, literally a couple of teams that could actually win. Y'all heard my answers, though, but again get me to game one. Maybe we can revisit this. But, ladies and gentlemen, like I said, that does conclude the end of the episode. So thank you all for listening. Please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey. I know it's going to bug it. I hope you all are having a good one. Oops, my bad. Wait for it, take care.