FIRST TAKE | Stephen A. explains WHY Luka Doncic is the biggest key to Mavericks closing out Thunder

FIRST TAKE | Stephen A. explains WHY Luka Doncic is the biggest key to Mavericks closing out Thunder

continue tomorrow from Big D Luca the Mavs trying to close out the one seed Thunder while sgaa will try to rally his young Squad uh it’s been a tight Series so far it’s been a lot of fun to watch all right where are my people here perk there he is there’s my perk there’s my guy uh what’s the biggest key to the match closing it out tomorrow oh it’s gonna be Kyrie Irving Kyrie Irving like he’s the only player on the floor with championship experience okay and he knows what it means to close out game I’m not taking anything away from Luca but Kyrie has been spectacular on both ends of the floor this entire postseason and if I had to bet my money on any guy if when we’re talking about the star players on the floor whether that’s LCA SGA uh even jayen Williams I’m going with Kyrie Irving I expect him to do big things say one thing that’s that’s the one thing that’s been resonating with me K uh big perk we are on the same page with this one the thing that I I I Marvel at with Kyrie Irvin and this is what people are not realizing pay no attention to his numbers in this series here’s the reason why he’s just lurked yeah Luca you need the ball here you go PJ Washington you flowing here you here you go uh you know Derek Jones you need you need some Aly oops bro CU we gonna need you on the defensive sideboard you need some Aly oops here you go bro this is what he’s been doing and then you know scoring two points in the first this Kyrie Irving we talk about y’all it’s Kyrie Irving you understand I’m saying one of the greatest scorers this game has ever seen you know the greatest finisher at the small at the at the basket for a smaller guard in the history of the game this brother is nothing short of spectacular and I have watched him I’ve literally seen do you know that when zca hit five threes the other day at least two or three of them with tapouts to Kyrie who walked up in there and just jumped up and just tapped the ball out CU somebody missed a shot rather than grabbed the rebound just tapped it out to Luca ya this is what Kyrie was doing right now we know he could do it himself because we’ve seen him explode in the second half of games throughout these playoffs but the one thing looking at OKC knowing that Shay gilis Alexander was my MVP knowing he’s played spectacular the one thing that I’ll give Dallas credit for is they feed off of Kyrie and Luca better than OKC has fed off of of Shay gilis Alexander so even though I had Oklahoma City winning this series it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Dallas closes them out tonight they’ve been bigger they played bigger but the key is that damn Kyrie Irving I’ve watched this brother just lurking lurking and at some point in time because of who he is and how explosive he is you just get the sense that at some point he’s going to be like enough’s enough instead of moments in a game that’s what I suspect and if there’s a moment that I see him doing it it’s a moment like this weekend coming up back in Dallas when he got a chance to close them out I think OKC wins if he doesn’t do it but I think he’s gonna do it I think I I I just got this itch this sense perk yeah I’m sensing 40 or 50 from Kyrie I’m expecting one of those listen we know he can put on a show when he wants to perk let me ask you this since you don’t straddle the fence and you follow the rules of this program uh could you tell me who you think’s going to be playing in the Western Conference Finals yeah I will it’s going to be the Dallas Mavericks versus the Minnesota Timberwolves that’s going to be the Western Conference uh finals that’s going to be the match up Stephen A I agree right now at this partic at this particular moment yes I got OKC winning game seven I just don’t think Kyrie’s gonna let it get to a game seven that’s my issue I know I’m looking ahead but I can’t help it perk how do those two teams match up if if it’s Minnesota and Dallas what well I tell you what is everything and more when you talk about the perimeter defense that the Minnesota timber Woods have starting with Anthony Edward and Jay McDaniels like that that would be the perfect matchup when you talking about Antman and Luca head-to-head highlighting that right those two young superstars right taking over the league oh that’s must C TV that’s musty TV it’ll go seven games but I got Minnesota winning right I’m not gonna get into that I’m not gonna get into that just yet I need to see Minnesota go to Denver in a game seven and beat the reigning defending NBA champions then I’ll go what one other last thing here perk real quick do I have time producers okay real quick sorry I’m having a hard time hearing everybody today perk but I want to I want to know this why do you think there’s such significant swings in these playoffs like when I even when I’m looking at the Knicks and Pacer series and then also when I’m looking at Denver and Minnesota it’s just so drastic these 20o games either way game to game what do you attribute that to well I just feel like you know um when you look at it these teams are coming out and whoever punches first the other team is not fighting back but I think tonight we’ll see a better m a better game between the Knicks and the Pacers think is going to come down to to the wire and I think when we when we see on Sunday whether it’s afternoon or Sunday evening with the nuggets and uh Minnesota is going to come down to the Y as well so we’re going to get what we asking for Molly but I can’t explain why it’s been so lopsided besides the other team not punching back it’s been a roller coaster all right I’m having game sevens they happen to come against a Kendrick Perkins Le team so that’s not his fault at all he just ran into a monster that’s number one number two you talk about you talked about Chris Finch making adjustments right you talked about him making adjustments he made adjustments last night defensively and I thought Minnesota did an excellent job to say they got a mixture of vets and youth I thought when you watch them defensively how they’re tied on the string especially on the weak side like jish didn’t know if a double team was coming or not they did a great job of mixing it up and last night you talked about this Stephen A when you were saying they uh that the Denver Nuggets Miss wide open shots they were wide open for a reason because Minnesota said you know what look somebody else is going to have to beat us we’re going to get late contests sometimes we may not get the the the second or third effort to get out on those Shooters but we’re going to make sure that yish does not walk out of this place with 40 points again and they did just that and it was sometimes it was you know things are going to be difficult at times things are going to mess up right it’s part of basketball but what they did was they said here Michael Porter Jr you take these threes Aaron Gord you take these threes Carwell Pope you take these threes and jic we’re going to contain you we’re going to make you play in the crowd we’re going to send a trap you’re not going to know when it’s coming so again I’m looking at Jay McDaniels do I expect him to have 21 points on the road I don’t but would it surprise me if he have 12 or 15 it wouldn’t I expect Nas Reed to play better offensively he’s been struggling the last two games we know with him being the six-man of the year he know he’s known to have big moments as well and the most dangerous part about this is that car Anthony towns and Anthony Edwards never played in the game seven and that’s scary to two guys two especially a young fell like Anthony Edwards who don’t know no better he don’t know what pressure is when it comes to a game seven walking into a hostile Arena that is dangerous all right uh leaving it there guys up against it when we come back here on First Take will the Nova boys stand on business tonight and punch a ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals we dive into that next ESPN bet is the official sports book of ESPN and the only place to find exclusive offers like Stevens aist an ally has been defeated enemy Onslaught your tower has been destroyed hey enemy blood our base is under attack here we come [Music] out of my way defeat for e e [Music] got don’t so l you meet interesting people on a rough Adventure First Blood shuno Bor an enemy has been defeated an ally has been defeated an enemy has been defeated I fix what I see you can’t now R the power return you have been defeated enemy ultimate shut down even though Edris is gone I can still hear him you have defeated an enemy your team has destroyed the tower an ally has been defeated

.FIRST TAKE | Stephen A. explains WHY Luka Doncic is the biggest key to Mavericks closing out Thunder