Top 3 Stories: The Pacers take 2-1 lead over the Thunder | Utah Big 12 Basketball Schedule releas…
it’s time to break down the biggest stories of the day this is the top three stories of the day on kslsports.com ah 975 the ksl sports zone rebound hallebertton at the oklahoma city free throw line to a cutting top and down the lane to matan who lays it in and draws the foul jacob b 975 the ksl sports zone patriots go up 2-1 in the series we’ll talk about that coming up in the top three stories momentarily uh coming up at 10:50 bob cask bob casper is going to join us getting you ready for the us open this weekend mike smith’s going to join us at 11:05 we’ll talk about the utah jazz we’ll talk about the finals we’ll talk about the nba draft and then cole bagley will join us coming up at 11:30 getting a preview on uh the mammoth off season again and we are two weeks from tomorrow away from the nhl draft uh including some new names climbing up the draft board that seem to be in contention for the mammoth coming up at 5 so we will talk to or at 4 excuse me we’ll talk to uh cole bagley coming up at 11:30 but uh let’s get your top three stories brought to you by our friends at jbrooks jewelers jbrooks cherish your loved ones with jbrooks jewelers experience or explore their expertly crafted engagement rings made from the finest materials jbrooksjwers.com or two locations up and down the wasatch front go check out our friends at jbrooks jewelers all right christian we heard the sound coming in there what’s number one number one ben the tough gritty blue collar pacers they’re up 2-1 their depth is shining through at a time when that is what i think the thunder have been able to abuse opposing teams with is that they could go seven eight players deep we know they’ve got the excellent starting five though they’ve changed it in this series isaiah hartenstein had been starting quite a bit with chad homegrren and jaylen williams and lou dort and shay gildis alexander and then you could bring kase wallace and alex caruso off the bench and that’s a very solid seven eight players i just mentioned but now you start relying on some other players like aaron wiggins who is a dynamite shooter was a great pick in the 50s has made the nba was on a good contract had a really good stretch in the middle of the season but when push comes to shove in the postseason you know is he better than the opposing team the seventh eighth best player and you look at the pacers and they’re able to play tyres hallebertton pascal seakum miles turner aaron nesmith uh andrew nehard who are five guys who are very well established i am shocked at how good aaron neart or excuse me andrew nehart has become uh and the types of shots he hits he only took five shots last night but hit some absolutely huge baskets in this series already including a huge jump shot last night but then they go to their bench and they get guys like obi toppin who was a castoff from new york they’ve got uh tj mcconnell who we know is one of the steadiest backup guards in the nba and then you get a star in a former top 10 pick and star might be a stretch but he you know you heard it on the broadcast last night if you watch ben mattherin was the eighth overall pick by indiana a few years ago we remember how good he was at arizona and i think got them to a final four as the best player on that roster and now he’s coming off your bench he’s putting up 27 points in just 22 minutes and you don’t need him to do that every night but the night that he does that you’re probably going to win uh and he did that last night he took over the fourth quarter for long stretches and provided them with some athleticism some confidence uh and some big-time shot making that just changed the game and all of a sudden their sixth seventh eighth players uh when they’re playing at home are as good if not better than the thunder and that’s where this the difference in this this series is is so far through three games and i think the consistency aspect is the most important thing i mean wiggins had a huge game too and everybody’s talking about like oh my gosh this is like their bench player and he’s this good and he’s on the bench and then he puts up a bagel in game three and it’s like yeah i mean you mentioned nemhard and nmith and matin it’s like these guys and and tophin to an extent too these guys have been consistent games one through three and so yeah when the thunder get the big spikes from their role players they’re likely to win those games but i mean if you look at their bench points they had what 15 bench points caruso had yeah caruso had eight um isaiah hartenstein had four isaiah joe had six so they had 18 but yeah not a lot yeah not not certainly not what uh what the pacers were able to run out and then again when ben mathan comes off the bench and has 27 points outscores the opposing bench by himself you’re going to give yourself a huge opportunity to win this game but uh it’s just incredibly impressive their offense is dynamite uh again i do think you’re going to get some people who misdiagnose what the pacers actually are which is this you’re right i mean they are a bluecollar team they are a stellar offensive team which has been what rick car rick carile’s calling card has been throughout his entire career they’re also excellent defensively and yes tyresese hallebertton is their best player and he’s their most flawed player as far as being a two-way guy goes he does not he’s not a very good defensive player though he’s even showing with his length his ability to jump passing lanes and get steals uh like he was able to last night but everybody else on the floor plays two ways name hart took shay away when they were on it one-on-one and they did the same thing with brunson too uh in the conference finals and you just run they just run a lot of bodies at you it’s just really difficult to do so again when it comes down to the nba draft for the jazz i think one of the questions you really do have to ask yourself again is is the guy who you want to draft who doesn’t play any defense good enough to be a legit number one player you know is he good enough to be so dynamite offensively that he can carry your team and there are a handful of those guys tyresese hallebertton is showing he can be one of those guys i think luca is still one of those guys james harden in his prime was probably close to being one of those guys but you better recognize if you’re doing that the whole rest of the team has to be designed to make up for that flaw and in the pacers case it is they have guys all around tyresese hallebertton who can defend who are willing to defend who have the energy who have the hustle in them there aren’t guys taking plays off and you still get to possessions late in series uh probably not getting into the thunder so much anymore but guys just take plays off you know guys just are not equipped to to play these full minutes and even you know late in the game last night as good as chad was statistically where he finished with 20 and 10 like he’s not boxing out late in games he’s chucking threes he’s 06 last night from the three-point line uh he’s just not quite at that point yet and he’s young it’s only his what third year in the nba missed his rookie season with the injury missed a lot of his second season with the uh the broken hip but he’s just not quite at that point as good as he is he’s just not quite there to recognize the need to hustle every single possession and the pacers are and that’s why they’re up 2-1 i saw a screenshot last night of late in the fourth quarter there was like an out of bounds or a timeout or something and all of the thunder players were like doubled over hands on their hips you know and all the pacers players are like standing up straight ready to go and this is just what indiana does they wear you out i said in the last segment i i rewatched the fourth quarter today and i was thinking about something dj told us on monday and dj was recounting a conversation he had with jeff hornac and he said getting booed doesn’t matter playing on the road that’s not what matters that’s not why it’s hard to play on the road we’ve heard everything we’ve been yelled at we’ve had everything yelled at us but when you’re at home and you have the crowd and they give you that little extra burst because the cheer comes off of the missed you know the the the rebound off the missed shot and you’ve got the ball and it’s 102 100 you get that little bit of extra energy and the opposing team doesn’t get it and i absolutely saw that last night i mean that felt totally accurate and when the thunder are doubled over and tired and can’t box out and can’t do can’t save the ball anymore when it’s going out of bounds can’t make the big play somebody inevitably on the pacers and i’d have to pull up just the fourth quarter box score by itself but if you were to look at offensive rebounds i bet you they won like 3-0 maybe 4-1 in the in the uh fourth quarter and that’s yeah that’s just that that energy you have of being at home and having the crowd behind you and now you talk about yesterday i mean how important winning one of these two home games is for the pacers and now they basically force at minimum a game six that would be indiana in indiana again so that’s that’s big because having that homecourt advantage again i know they’re up in the series but that they still feel like the david to oklahoma city’s goliath because they’ve been you know okc’s been such a big favorite in every game so now guaranteeing that you come back to indiana at least one more time that’s what was so important about this win uh offensive rebounds actually identical three for each team but uh indiana did get three more rebounds total than the thunder in the fourth quarter but going back to dj’s point fourth quarter uh the thunder managed to score just 18 points they shoot six of 17 from the floor 0 of four from three totally gassed right this is a team that doesn’t have any energy the pacers on the flip side 13 of 21 from the floor 61% three of five from three and they outscore him 32 to 18 you just you have that crowd in the fourth quarter at your back and you can play so deep that you can wear the opposing team out uh and that’s what the pacers are doing i worry for the pacers because we’ve seen it now i think a couple of times they did it in game two in this series they did it in game five of the last series they seem to play a little bit with house money they seem to feel like oh well we’re up whatever this is a time to take the foot off the gas technically a must-win and it’s not you know as jake likes to make fun of me for saying there’s a must-win it’s like they don’t have to win this game they can still win the series even if they lose game four uh i don’t think you want to put yourself in that spot go up 3-1 you’ve got them on the ropes they look tired visually physically you can see it i’m sure emotionally they’re exhausted richard jefferson i thought was good in his analysis last night this point in the finals everyone’s exhausted you have nothing left emotionally to offer really it’s just got to about digging deep if the pacers are able to do that and steal this game uh they’re going to wrap up the series i mean you go up 3-1 and for the most part with the exception of the lebron superhero performance against the warriors the series is going to be over so the pacers need to come out on friday night only two days rest uh and treat this like this is game seven and i hope they do it because i’d love to see this pacers team win a title all right what’s next number two going back to the big 12 basketball schedule release you covered uh byu’s schedule in the last segment we can get to utah here uh utah men’s basketball does not have the non-conference schedule certainly that uh that you’ve seen from byu but uh they do have the opportunity now to get some wins in conference and that’s the nice thing about the big 12 you win enough of these games and you are going to be in contention to go to the conference tournament alex jensen’s debut the home games uh that uh the youths are going to play home only against arizona iowa state tcu houston central florida and oklahoma state that’s pretty advantageous uh you look historically arizona houston and iowa state are three of the better teams only having to play them once is very good their away games are cincinnati west virginia kansas very tough kansas state tough texas tech uh very tough and then baylor we’ll see where they are this year but generally quite good and then they’re home in a ways arizona state byu and colorado pretty advantageous in all honesty i look at that schedule if i’m a utah fan if alex jensen can get this team on the same page get a lot of these transfers to come in and start to click together home games against houston arizona iowa state if you can steal one of those i think you’re feeling good about that you know with getting a victory against one of those three teams and then not having to go back and play on the road if you could find a way to steal a couple of games on the road maybe you’re not going to beat kansas but if you could beat either kansas or baylor or kansas state on the road i think you’re in pretty good shape and then uh honestly you look at the home and away against arizona state byu and colorado four wins is good five wins would be exceptional um and that’s that’s kind of your pathway to getting up over 20 wins in the big 12 and utah going dancing they don’t need to in their first year under alex jensen but at some point you also have to stop just saying like well maybe there’s next year maybe next year everything will come together that’s how you end up in a situation like you had with craig smith where you’re always just waiting for the next season of the transfer or whatever or the momentum to build or the fans to come back to the to the stadium and then it just never happens and you’re looking for a new coach it’s almost like your must-win thing like it’s not technically a must-win but it’s like yeah they it kind of is like they they kind of do need to go dancing i would say in this in this first year i mean it’s there’s a lot of expectation coming in and they’re you know thinking about the future’s changing with alex jensen and the new culture and everything and i think that it would be a pretty big disappointment if they if they didn’t make the tournament it’s difficult to be a new head coach who’s coming in to take over a team that has so little momentum and utah has no momentum and alex jensen understandably so i think human nature would allow him to come in and say “well it’s my first year.” it’s like whatever it’s my first year like game four for the patriots like you’re saying you just come in and say “well i need a building year i got to put this together i got to figure out what this is all about for me.” the problem is the fans will say “well this is our 10th straight year of watching a team do this.” uh and any momentum he did have any goodwill he did have will go out the window very quickly so yes i don’t think you can come out and actually take a step back from last season where first half of the year they were good i mean they looked like a tournament team to the first half of the year last year uh and then fell apart a little bit late they need to find a way to improve upon last season and if you’re much better than you were last year you’re going to have a chance to make the tournament and that’s where they’d be beneficial obviously a win over byu would go a long ways and then yes beaten arizona or beat a houston houston probably comes into the season ranked number one overall and then go get a big road win uh and gives uh some fans and uh more importantly maybe some donors reason to give you some money to get some of these players in all right number three number three sticking with the running utes our guy steve bartle had a nice article about this utah got kind of a surprise ad german guard jacob patrick uh and this is the type of advantage that you should get from alex jensen alex jensen has coached the german national team before he’s got ties there he played there uh during his international career and you would hope that that allows you to get some of these a international players they also had the finnish guard who committed last week which alex played with hano metala he should have some of those connections and then played overseas himself so as you are seeing more players come over from europe to play in the united states because the money is comparable in college to what they’re getting in their lower levels in uh in europe i think you’re going to you should have an opportunity to build out your rosters a little bit deeper now this isn’t exclusively an advantage for utah anymore i mean if you follow basketball twitter at all draft twitter at all you look at the players that are coming over and committing to colleges in uh in the states as european players who used to just play for their you know b or c level pro clubs they tried to work their way up through real madrid or whatever it was they’re now coming to college because they can make a little bit more money with the nil and i think that’s advantageous but most people are benefiting from the depth now it’s not like utah has found some hack the way i think uh rick majeras did early in his career where he was willing to go out and recruit internationally and get a couple of players now you’re having a lot of teams that have four and five international players on the roster uh utah included but these are the types of players that yeah if you can get them in to uh step in and contribute and have some experience playing at a high level don’t really care about where they’re playing necessarily it’s not like a recruit coming from arizona who’s going to say “well why would i go to utah?” historically that’s not been the type of team i would look at someone coming over from europe probably doesn’t have that same nuance as far as where they’re going they just want to play for a good coach and they want to play for a place where they can make some money and that might be an advantage alex jensen has over potentially some other coaches all right we’ll talk to steve bartle about that tomorrow he’s going to join us we’ll get a full breakdown on utah’s basketball schedule and their roster which they finalized as well bob caser uh bob casper is going to join us coming up next previewing the us open stick around i’m jake and ben 975 the ksl sports zone this is this is dj and pk joined now by danny a utah jazz ceo austin is going to be good at this there’s nobody that i’ve enjoyed working with more not just because he’s my son but it is a unique relationship and it does have his advantages as we can knock down dragout fight and go to dinner 2 minutes later and i think the relationship is very very healthy for what the jazz are trying to do and i thought that ryan made a great great move in coming up with that idea and i couldn’t agree with him more austin has learned a lot from his mother obviously and the thing that he’s learned the most is he likes to boss me around yeah i still think that when it comes to who has the final say it’ll be michelle maybe so maybe ashley and michelle together they’re having their own meetings [Music] catch dj and pk mornings from 6:00 to 10 on 975 the ksl sports zone
Top 3 Stories of the Day: The Pacers take 2-1 lead over the Thunder, Utah Big 12 Basketball Schedule release, Runnin’ Utes get a big addition
