 things shipped a little bit at the top of the West, Oklahoma City beating the Suns 118-110 and of course now they're in that top spot. SGA 35.8 rebounds nine assists it's his 45th 30 point game this season. Beale had 31 and Nurkic 14 points 31 rebounds which broke a franchise record in most in a game in 14 years. Thunder go on the road beating the Suns and somehow also overcome 31 rebounds from Nurkic. Welcome back Lou. I'll go to you first. You've had a rest. What did you make of that? I thought this young team played well and and it's the tale of two teams right. So we talk about Minnesota being a young team having issues and clutch situations and that being a little concerning. I don't have this concern at all with this Oklahoma City Thunder team. They play well together. They move the ball. They play fast. They play at a great pace and at the same time they're able to execute in half court offense. You know it looked like this team this young team got it really figured out and they may be the real deal and they're going to have to be a team that you got to deal with coming out of the West. So for Nurkic to have 31 rebounds and this team still outplayed him with a Kevin Durant on the floor with a Brad Bill on the floor and they just look like the better team. They look like the more equipped team going into this playoff run and so you got to give them a lot of credit. Very impressive win for the OKC Thunder. This is what we talked about kind of that hole in this Thunder team. If there was one it's the size right going to be on but playing chat at the five. He's going to get banked up. He's going to have nights where he's going against just a physical brute like Nurkic and he's going to have his way with him on the glass which he did last night 31 rebounds is shocking like that. That's crazy. But that is the that is the weakness. I think for the court they're a little thin up front outside of you know they can go small with Gordon Hayward and I've seen Lou Dorton and Jalen Williams at the four but they don't have that physical Andre Drummond type guide to go and bang with a Nurkic in these situations. So they're talented. They're more skilled. They're more youthful than these teams. But that would be the kind of weakness if you look at this team that they're going to get killed on the glass some nights. But I think their talent will still overcome that. It makes me a little nervous that they're in that top spot because it feels very fun right now and I'm sure that fans are having a blast. But it almost feels like this young squad is being set up for something crazy come playoffs Chandler. Is that wrong? Are we buying them yet? Yeah. This could be the first round matchup for them and if the Suns are healthy this could be a real damper on a great season for them if they get you know you know beat in the first round to the Suns and think about it. The Suns the Mavericks the Warriors the Lakers if they stay in that one seed it's going to be one of those teams and none of those it's going to that's not going to be a sweep that's going to be a competitive series. It's going to be a tough series and all of those teams have size. They have physically they have their physical teams. So all of those teams are going to present some sort of challenge. Now they also present a crazy challenges to them with the way they can shoot the ball away can score the ball their quickness with their guards and transition. They have they have a lot of things on their side as well. But yeah this team this team could be a mismatch problem for a lot of these these situations that they're going to get it in the playoffs because the West is so so stacked the days of like a one seed versus an eight seed is being like an automatic sweep that's not happening this year in the Western Conference they are all going to be competitive series. Yeah I don't know if I mentioned it but I'm excited Lou. Okay can we talk about Nurkic for one second because we've mentioned the 31 rebounds. He still wasn't happy though after this one because he said he had 13 offensive rebounds and 16 shots and zero free throws. So if you hear that Lou do you think to yourself all right he might have an actual point here. He may have a point. He may have a point but a lot of those offensive rebounds were getting kicked out and some were finishes around the rim and right there like it's not much contact. I don't no fouls here. So again those are offensive rebounds. He's working but I don't see a lot of fouls. I don't honestly I don't yeah he's banging. Seems good. Yeah. Yeah it seems good. It seems good to me. He's banging you know he makes a point. There can be some contact but clearly we're looking at these clips. You don't see a lot of fouls being called. They look like he's initiating a lot of the contact. That's how you get yourself to a 30 rebound game. I don't I don't see what the what the beef was here. He couldn't make a point if you didn't look at the clips but obviously clips tell different stories. I don't know here. Yeah I know right just by the words. That's what I was going to say. Dirkage is a guy that he kind of brings the fight to you right. He starts the physicality and then he tries to sell it. So I don't agree with him on this point. Also like Dirkage you took 16 shots. How many more shots how many more shots do you want now if it's about the fouls and not getting the whistle that's another thing but like we said he's the one that's initiating. He's the one that's grabbing holding. He's the one kind of tying up a lot of those shots that he even tried to put back up. They're shooters. That's the best three you can get off an offensive rebound. So he honestly two or three or four of them he shouldn't even shot. He should have just kicked it out to the Brad Beals to wide open for a three. So I think as a big guy that bangs and gets the offensive glass as hard as he does it's hard to complain about not getting the whistle when you're the one initiating the contact. This the Sun's team by the way they're snake bitten as far as I'm concerned because somehow some way one of the big three is missing in a lot of games this season of course this time was Booker. I don't know Lou how it's an easy question is how important is it for them to all play together. But is it vital are they good enough and veteran enough that let's say that this is sort of how the season plays out that they would be OK come playoffs. No this is it's going to it's going to be vital because this is a this is a team that very much like the Clippers for them to be successful they're going to have to be whole everybody that they had on their roster needs to be accounted for and needs to be part of what they need in order for them to be successful going into this postseason and we're yet to see this team complete we get to see that chemistry. They hadn't went on one of those runs yet where you know they strike fear in some teams where you say wow this is a this is a team we really got to deal with you know like they just lost last night to the OKC Thunder. There are teams that are playing better than them that has more chemistry than them and we just hadn't seen it from this Phoenix Suns team yet and so that's a that's slightly concerning for me but they're veteran enough where I feel like they can turn it on. Usually a team doesn't have one of those switches where you can just start playing really well start getting your chemistry and getting everybody on the same page but they got enough talent to do it and so I'm not counting this team out but there are teams that are playing better basketball together than they are so we really need to start seeing these guys on the floor together as the big three as their unit as they start to build out and try to get all the pieces around them together as well from the bench players to the role players everybody that's going to play a role in them trying to win a championship but we've yet to see it. Got to be frustrating Chandler to each night sort of have to deal with something. Yeah that's tough and this is this is this team is built to win now and there's three guys that's for all the hype all the expectations come from from those three so if anything I think there's light at the end of the tunnel because they are treading water they are hanging in there without being fully healthy and they did just make moves like getting a Roy Sonio and Eric Gordon's been solid I think they should free bowl bowl I think they should get him more minutes because when he plays he's effective you know and he's talented he presents numerous challenges for the for the defense but yeah this team is going to go they're going to live and die by this big three and unfortunately they haven't been on the floor together reminds me of that Brooklyn big three a little bit where they just haven't got the reps and all the expectations of winning a championship come with those three so hopefully we see it hopefully they get healthy soon at least in the postseason because this team fully loaded is is a monster. The strategy in this one we it's very similar to what we saw in that Celtics game but this time as you guys mentioned Josh Giddy was not respected he did make two or four from three he had ten points I guess you could make the argument Chandler this is better this strategy worked out much better well yeah this isn't this this isn't this isn't Jalen Brown this guy and he's guys shooting thirty one hundred two percent from the three so I think when you're playing against a team like this and you have a Jalen Williams you have an SGA you have a chat that are so good offensively this guy is kind of he's that he's kind of the weakness it's like playing off dream on green but it's a give and take this guy's such a good passer when you give him space to operate he's tall and you can see the floor that also makes his job easier remember garden rondo back in the day he couldn't necessarily shoot effectively from the field but you almost it hurts you more playing off him sometimes because then you just give him the freedom of dropping dimes and seeing the entire floor sometimes better to pressure the guys that can't shoot just to kind of be physical with him and force them away from the basket this worked out sometimes he made a couple last night I don't really like the strategy against anybody because it's you're just you're giving them too many options and this guy is a point guard he can pass the rock he's a smart player so it's going to work sometimes I think on a closeout on a swing swing if he has the ball you kind of stunt and fake it him and let him take the shot but just to violently play off anybody in the NBA they're going to make some it looks nice yesterday channel I think both of these teams screwed it up they both they both teams lost giddy shot 50 from the field won the game and like you mentioned very much like rondo you opened up passing lanes for him to attack attack your rim and get kickouts and it worked for him I think both of these teams got it got it tragically wrong last even though this is not as crazy as jaylen browns it still worked in the favor of the okc thunder so I disagree with this game plan as well it would piss me off and hurt my feelings all at once it's a crazy thing to see in video form but here we are I think it is more of a shock and almost like an embarrassment when you see in the paint it's almost like god damn this is what you think of me exactly that that's hurtful we take a quick break we come back that man has a family