Draymond makes eye-opening claim about Caruso’s role on Thunder originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Oklahoma City Thunder have a new Big Three, and AT&T might want to re-think its commercial.

Warriors forward Draymond Green broke down Oklahoma City’s win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on the latest episode of his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show With Baron Davis,” and explained why veteran guard Alex Caruso, not young center Chet Holmgren, is the Thunder’s third-most-important player behind his undisputed No. 1 and No. 2 options, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams.

“When I look at this OKC team, I actually think the third-most-important player is Alex Caruso …. I think Caruso is so important to what they do and I feel like you never game plan for him,” Green said. “So because you don’t game plan for him, he comes into these Finals and he goes crazy. But the reality is, he’s a champion, so he actually knows what to expect.”

Green believes the Pacers ultimately need to prioritize stopping a proven player like Caruso over an unproven player like Holmgren.

“If I’m an opposing coach, I’m saying ‘Caruso’s been in this moment, he’s shown us over and over again he can deliver in this moment, I’m going to make him so important to our game plan,” Green explained. “I’m going to make less of an importance in our game plan to the guy who hasn’t done it’ …

“Place that bet on the guy that hasn’t done it, and Chet hasn’t done it. I know Caruso can beat me, he’s shown he can beat me at several different points. Back then when he won a championship he showed you he can beat you. So I’m just not sure that would be the bet that I would be making.”

In 54 regular-season games, Caruso averaged 7.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game on 44.6-percent shooting from the field and 35.3 percent from 3-point range. In 18 playoff games this year, the 31-year-old is averaging 9.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 steals per game on 46-percent shooting from the field and 41.6 percent from 3-point range while being one of Oklahoma City’s most consistent two-way players.

“He’s so important to everything they do,” Green added. “Defensively, he’s so important to everything they do. Offensively, he can be another guy that can handle the ball that’s smart, that makes decisions, that’s going to shoot the right shots, not take the wrong shots.”

If there’s one player who knows how important steady two-way play in the Finals is, it’s Green, who, similarly to Caruso, might not be the Warriors’ third-highest scorer on any given night but, without a doubt, was, at least, the third-most-important player during Golden State’s dynastic run.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge is kind of like the Hulk, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. One Boston Red Sox rookie pitcher found that out the hard way during Sunday’s game. 

In his first at-bat Sunday night, Judge smacked a solo home run against Red Sox starter Hunter Dobbins. It was a 108.6-mph blast to right center that traveled 436 feet. And Judge probably felt a little extra satisfaction after he hit it.

Prior to the contest, Dobbins caught some attention after saying he would rather retire than play for the Yankees. Dobbins, whose father is a die-hard Red Sox fan, said he was really looking forward to playing against the Yankees, and that if New York was “the last team to give me a contract, I’d retire,” per the Boston Herald.

Those comments made it over to the Yankees’ clubhouse before the contest, and some players took exception to them. Following the game, Judge said he was “surprised” when he was informed about Dobbins’ comments, per ESPN.

“I’ve only heard Ken Griffey say that, so I was a little surprised,” Judge said.

Griffey made similar comments during his playing career. The Hall of Famer held a grudge against the Yankees after the way the team treated him when his father — Ken Griffey Sr. — played for the franchise.

Griffey made those comments in the midst of a Hall of Fame career. Dobbins made them prior to appearing in his 10th game in the majors. After hearing what Dobbins had to say about the Yankees, Judge admitted he was thinking about those comments when he stepped into the batter’s box Sunday, per ESPN.

“Well, once somebody tells you, yeah,” Judge said.

That may have given Judge a little extra motivation prior to his home run.

While Judge won the first battle against Dobbins, the Red Sox rookie won the war. Dobbins was awarded with the win after allowing three runs over five innings of work. Despite not recording any strikeouts, Dobbins was able to out-duel Yankees starter Carlos Rodón, who allowed five runs over five innings. The Red Sox went on to win the contest 11-7. 

The loss can’t be blamed on Judge, who walked, singled and hit another home run following his first-inning blast. He finished the contest 3-for-4, with three runs scored and four RBI. 

Despite the loss, the Yankees are still in fantastic position overall. Entering Monday, the team sits at 39-25, leading the American League East. 

If Judge and his teammates want to enact revenge against Dobbins, they could have that opportunity soon. Various injuries have pushed Dobbins into the Red Sox’s rotation, ensuring he should get at least another start or two. The Red Sox and Yankees begin another series June 13, and Dobbins would be scheduled to face them again assuming he stays in his normal rotation slot.

OKLAHOMA CITY — After blowing a fourth-quarter lead in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder spent every waking hour since Thursday night hearing about it.

About how they galaxy-brained themselves with their starting lineup switch. About how blinking first and going away from playing two-big lineups cost them not just a game, but home-court advantage. About the myriad tactical adjustments they desperately needed to make to stem the tide of the rampaging, team-of-destiny Indiana Pacers. About everything.

So Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault got in the lab, pored over the film and came up with the most brilliant adjustment that any coach can make:

Hey, everyone: play better.

“I think we were just a little bit better in a lot of different areas — of execution, of pace, organization, decision-making in the paint, aggressiveness at the basket, gathering the ball,” Daigneault said Sunday, after Oklahoma City returned serve in a dominant 123-107 win to level the 2025 NBA Finals at one game apiece. “We just were a tick forward in all those areas … I thought everyone played better individually, and I thought we played better collectively.”

Masterful gambit, Coach.

The Thunder did on Sunday what they’ve done after losses all season: punch back. Hard. They’re now 17-2 after a defeat this season, including 5-0 in the playoffs, with those five wins coming by an average of 19.6 points — right in line with their 20.5-point average margin of victory following a regular-season L.

“I think tonight was a better representation of how we play,” said Thunder reserve Alex Caruso, who scored 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting in 27 characteristically hyperactive minutes off the bench.

It was, in virtually every capacity.

After combining for 23 points on 28 shots in Game 1, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren combined for 34 on 25 in Game 2. Holmgren also provided strong rim protection and held his own on multiple possessions when switched out onto the perimeter, while Williams drew praise from Daigneault for an attacking approach that saw him draw seven fouls and dish five assists.

“He didn’t get off to a great start in his first stint, but he really settled into the game,” Daigneault said of Williams. “He’s huge for us. All the things he brings to the game — defensively, size, versatility, physicality, offensive, on-ball, off-ball … that floor is really high. We really need him every single night.”

The uptick from Williams and Holmgren was emblematic of the overall bounce-back for Oklahoma City, which scored a scorching 128.1 points per 100 possessions against an overwhelmed Pacers defense.

After going just 28 for 68 (41.2%) inside the 3-point arc in Game 1, Oklahoma City shot 26 for 46 (56.5%) on 2-pointers in Game 2, a dramatic improvement finishing on the interior. After notching a season-low 13 assists in Game 1, the Thunder nearly doubled their dimes, dishing 25 against 13 turnovers. They got to the line more often: 20 for 24 in Game 1, 29 for 33 in Game 2. They created and made more 3-pointers: 11 for 30 in Game 1, 14 for 36 in Game 2.

After decisively losing the rebounding battle in Game 1 — though, as both Daigneault and Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle noted, that was partly a function of there being fewer defensive rebounds for OKC to get, considering how often they turned Indiana over in the first half — the Thunder earned a 43-35 edge on the glass. After giving up 12 buckets at the rim in Game 1, they allowed just five in Game 2, doing a better job of forcing the Pacers into contested midrange looks. While they allowed 40 3-point attempts, those looks more often felt harried and off-rhythm, launched over crisp and hellacious Thunder closeouts.

They smothered Tyrese Haliburton, holding him to just 5 points on 7 shots with 4 assists against 3 turnovers through three quarters. They better matched the physicality of Pascal Siakam, Myles Turner, Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith, refusing to concede space and clean shots to the Pacers’ other starters, short-circuiting Indiana’s offensive ecosystem in the process.

“I thought the guys did a really good job of keeping the foot on the gas, especially defensively,” Daigneault said after Oklahoma City held Indiana to just 104.4 points per 100 possessions — a worst-in-the-league-caliber offensive performance — through the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter, when Carlisle waved the white flag and pulled his starters. “I thought we really amped it up on that end of the floor.”

The Thunder rolled on the offensive end, too, with the NBA’s Most Valuable Player continuing his assault on both the Pacers defense and the record books.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a game-high 34 points in Game 2, giving him a total of 72 in the series — a new high-water mark for any player in his first two career NBA Finals games, surpassing the 71 that Allen Iverson poured in back in 2001. But unlike in Game 1, where the Pacers were able to (somewhat) limit the MVP’s damage to tough self-created buckets, Gilgeous-Alexander needed just 21 field-goal attempts to crack 30 on Sunday — and also added eight assists to six different teammates, breaking down the defense and drawing help before kicking it out to create 22 more Thunder points through his passing.

“The way I see it, I have no choice,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of relying on his teammates. “No one-man show achieves what I’m trying to achieve with this game. All the stats and the numbers, they’re fun. I don’t play in space as much as I do without having them out there. I don’t get open as much as I do without having the screeners out there … those guys are the reason why we’re as good of a team as we are. I just add to it.”

The Thunder are hard enough to beat when Gilgeous-Alexander’s going off by himself. But when he’s got help — to the tune of four other Thunderers scoring 15 or more points, the first time five teammates have done that in a Finals game since the Raptors did it against the Warriors in 2019 — they’re damn near impossible to deal with.

Caruso drilled four 3-pointers off the bench. Aaron Wiggins, relegated to just nine minutes in Game 1, came out firing in the second quarter, scoring eight points in eight minutes as part of a trademark 19-2 Thunder run that turned a two-possession game into a 23-point boatrace. (Indiana promptly ripped off 10 points, if only to remind Oklahoma City that, as Jalen Williams said before Game 1, “They’re never too far behind, and we’ve always got to keep that in the back of our mind.”)

“I think we just kind of found a rhythm on both ends of the court,” said Wiggins, who finished with 18 points on 6-for-11 shooting, including a 5-for-8 mark from long range, in 21 minutes. “We were able to get stops, get out in transition, hit a couple shots. Once we kind of got going, you could kind of just feel the energy playing a factor in that.”

And, crucially, that energy never really waned. When the Pacers started drawing fouls early in the third quarter, getting into the bonus early and giving themselves a chance to march to the free-throw line to get their offense unstuck, the Thunder remained poised, took care of the ball and continued to generate good looks for themselves, scoring 34 points on just 23 possessions in the frame to keep them at bay. When Indiana had a shot to cut the deficit to 16 in the closing seconds of the third — an opportunity to maybe grab a sliver of momentum, some steady footing from which to mount one last furious charge — Cason Wallace swatted the hell out of it:

The Thunder never eased up. Not when they once again started small, with Wallace in place of Isaiah Hartenstein. Not when Hartenstein checked in for Holmgren midway through the first quarter — or when Holmgren checked back in for Luguentz Dort with 3:51 to go in the first, as Daigneault went double-big against Indiana’s reserve frontcourt of Obi Toppin and Thomas Bryant, kicking off a 9-0 Thunder run to end the quarter. Not when they turned to Wiggins and rock-solid small-ball 4 (and sometimes 5) Kenrich Williams to better match Indiana’s size on the perimeter. (“I don’t know if there was any lineup that they used that wasn’t impactful for them,” Carlisle said.)

Not when the Pacers made a couple of runs to cut the deficit to 13 — the moments where things got wobbly in Game 1. The Thunder never wobbled on Sunday. They stood tall, firm, sovereign. The 68-win juggernaut we watched all season showed up in Game 2, giving the Pacers plenty to think about as they board the plane to head back home.

“Another bad first half,” Carlisle said. “Obviously, it was a big problem, and we just played poorly. A little bit better in the second half, but you can’t be a team that’s reactive and expect to be successful or have consistency. So we’re going to have to be a lot better on Wednesday.”

As will Oklahoma City. Daigneault said that the Thunder try to use the early games of a series “to learn what our options are, and what our trade-offs are, and … just get a little bit more information.”

“Now we have it,” he said. “We’ll apply that as we move forward in the series.”

Gilgeous-Alexander highlighted one specific thing they learned the hard way in Game 1 and applied in Game 2 — and, in the process, looked a hell of a lot more like the Thunder team that dominated the league this season.

“You can’t just throw the first punch,” he said. “You’ve got to try to throw all the punches, all night. Yeah, that’s what we did: We threw enough punches tonight to go get a W.”

OKLAHOMA CITY — Perhaps Tyrese Haliburton’s limp is nothing. The way he gingerly exited Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center was far different from the confident stroll with which he came into the night.

It could be some WWE-style ploy to get the Oklahoma City Thunder to take him off their “most wanted” list, to get them to let their guard down just a bit as the scene for the 2025 NBA Finals shifts to Indianapolis after OKC tied the series 1-1 with a 123-107 win in Game 2 on Sunday.

But by his own admission, Haliburton has had “two really poor first halves” in the first two games of the Finals. You make up for it by capping off a late comeback with a game-winning jumper that takes the air out of a home building. There was no such elixir Sunday night, though, as the swarming Thunder defense played to its reputation in stymieing Haliburton and, thus, grinding the Pacers’ offense to a halt. 

The stat sheet says Haliburton finished with 17 points and six assists — which is actually a better scoring output than Game 1, but most of those buckets came in the fourth quarter when the Pacers couldn’t mount a cursory comeback. The Thunder never sweated in Game 2 because they kept Haliburton feeling the heat, holding him to three points in the first half, as they retook control and set the terms of engagement to tie the series.

It’s their physical style that kept Haliburton out of the paint and roaming the perimeter, probing and praying for a crack in an impenetrable defense. The paint was off limits in Game 2, and the Pacers were relegated to passing the ball around the perimeter — perhaps paying a bit too much respect to the Thunder’s historic defense.

“This is who they are defensively,” Haliburton said. “A lot of guys who can guard the ball fly around.”

In the aftermath of a drama-less Thunder win where the most compelling moment of the evening was Hall of Fame coach Don Nelson protesting the Luka Dončić trade by wearing Dončić’s sneakers upon being honored with the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, all eyes are naturally looking to Haliburton.

Baked into the Thunder’s scheme is giving up a lot of 3s, and giving up a lot in the corner, which is technically the easiest shot. But when their big people are flying around to those spots, you’re not playing your game — it’s actually going right into the Thunder’s plans.

“I think you have to choose on getting 3s your way,” Haliburton said. “We gotta do a better job of getting downhill and just playing from the inside out. You know, they are a team, like you said, it really takes away the paint, does a great job of swarming the ball. It feels like there’s five guys around here every time we’re in the paint.”

There’s an up-and-down nature to Haliburton’s production in these playoffs, the sterling moments immediately followed by pseudo-disappearing acts. Or at least an inability to recapture magic two nights later. This isn’t a referendum on his stardom or validation to the “overrated” talk. It just shows how difficult it is to produce on-call.

Following the wild finish in Game 2 of the semifinals against Cleveland, Haliburton put up a stinker with four points and five assists in a blowout loss at home that temporarily gave the Cavaliers hope. After he painted his Mona Lisa in Game 4 of the East finals against the Knicks — that perfect 32-15-12 game — he followed it up with eight points and six assists in a 111-94 Game 5 loss. This one followed the exact same script, even if Game 1 wasn’t a statistical marvel. The Thunder just applied extra attention, and Haliburton was content in not forcing the action.

“They’re really physical, force the officials to let us play a little bit more,” Haliburton said. “Gotta do a better job of playing through there.”

There was light hinting by the Pacers about the Thunder being given more leeway physically, but nothing close to anything being fine-worthy. Haliburton’s words were the strongest on the matter.

We haven’t reached the “plant a seed with the officials” stage of the Finals quite yet, although a similar performance in Game 3 could produce some crowing from veteran coach Rick Carlisle. Carlisle wanted to take the spotlight off the 25-year-old point guard and focus on the Pacers’ lack of production as a whole.

“There’s a lot more to the game than just scoring, so everybody’s gotta do more,” Carlisle said. “It starts with the best players, with Tyrese and Pascal [Siakam] and Myles [Turner] and it goes from there. People shouldn’t look at his points and assists and judge how he played, or judge how any of our guys played.

“We’re an ecosystem that has to function together.”

Haliburton is the biggest cog in the ecosystem, but is also the player the Thunder are best equipped to handle with physical play. Lu Dort and Jalen Williams are on the All-Defensive team, and Alex Caruso might as well be — there’s no rest or easy matchup for Haliburton to pick at. And with Siakam struggling to create his own offense (3-for-13 shooting), the Pacers’ options to get reliable shots dwindle.

It sounds simple, but the Pacers do have to screen better to spring Haliburton while he’s on the ball. Caruso and Dort navigate screens as well as anyone in the league, so the Pacers have to walk the line of being physical without drawing too much of the ire from the officials.

“Screening, there’s an art to it,” Turner said. “You have to be able to set the guy up. It’s a matter of timing it and getting on the same page. There’s plenty of stuff we can do. But I don’t think we did a good enough job of executing.”

Haliburton was far more aggressive in the fourth quarter when he played off the ball a lot more, which might be what Carlisle was hinting at when referring to an ecosystem. He’s not the point guard who needs to control every possession and it’s a gift in not being in the same spot all the time. That’s how the Thunder were able to corral Anthony Edwards in the conference finals. They knew exactly where he would be at all times.

“We had some success in me playing off the pitch, flying around, rather than that high-ball screen, which I feel I’m really successful at,” Haliburton said.

The problem is, the Thunder are excellent at defending that and, by playing smaller, they can switch and chase, matching the speed of the Pacers’ offense with some of their own.

“That gives them a chance to load up, pack the paint,” Haliburton said. “They got a couple steals in there, I had some really dumb turnovers tonight. They’re giving me different looks.”

He’s not running from accountability or the moment. It’s just the moment isn’t as easy as it looks and it’s doubly hard to repeat such rare feats.

Problem is, the Pacers need three more of those rarities just to have a shot.

Subscribe to The Kevin O’Connor Show

Check out the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at Yahoo Sports Podcasts

The St. Louis Cardinals, it seems, got under Clayton Kershaw’s skin Sunday afternoon.

Kershaw led the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-3 win on Sunday in Missouri. He had seven strikeouts and didn’t give up a run in five innings on the mound. It marked the 37-year-old’s first seven-strikeout game since 2023.

But before the contest at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals’ video team opted to play a video from more than a decade ago that featured Kershaw. The Cardinals showed Matt Adams hitting a go-ahead three-run homer off Kershaw in Game 4 of the National League Division Series in 2014. That helped lead the Cardinals to a 3-2 win that day and eliminated the Dodgers from the postseason.

Kershaw took notice of the video stunt, and he wasn’t happy.

“It’s a little bush league, but I don’t expect anything less from these guys,” Kershaw said, via The Los Angeles Times. “So it’s no worries. No problem.”

Fair or not, Kershaw certainly came out on top Sunday.

The win marked just the fifth start for Kershaw this year. He missed the first two months of the season while recovering from knee and toe injuries, and he didn’t make his debut until May 17. The three-time Cy Young award winner holds a 4.35 ERA with 15 strikeouts over his five starts this season.

The win for the Dodgers allowed them to avoid the series sweep with the Cardinals, who won the first two games. The Dodgers now sit at 39-27 heading into a three-game series with the San Diego Padres starting on Monday night.

“The results haven’t always been there, but I feel like there’s been a little bit of progress in each [start],” Kershaw said, via The Times. “Probably the biggest thing, I had a little bit better command.

“I felt like I had an idea where the ball was going. When it was going bad, I didn’t really know how to correct it. [Today] when I threw a bad one, I had some ideas on how to fix it with the next pitch. Pitching is just making the adjustment as quick as you can. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s getting better.”

The Oklahoma City Thunder are facing the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 NBA Finals. The odds heavily favor the Thunder over the Pacers, which is no surprise considering the Thunder were 68-14 in the regular season and the No. 1 overall seed in the Western Conference. This is also the Pacers’ first NBA Finals since 2000. Game 1 of the NBA Finals saw the Pacers pull off a major comeback in the fourth quarter, narrowly beating the Thunder 111-110. Game 2 tips off in Oklahoma City on Sunday, June 8, at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch the Pacers vs. Thunder NBA Finals.

How to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Indiana Pacers:

Game 2 date: Sunday, June 8

Game 2 time: 8:30 p.m. ET

TV channel: ABC

Streaming: DirecTV, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV and more

NBA Finals channel:

All games in the NBA Finals will air on ABC — sweet and simple! 

How to watch the NBA Finals without cable:

Who is playing in the NBA Finals?

The Oklahoma City Thunder will face the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 NBA Finals.

2025 NBA Finals TV schedule:

All times Eastern.

Thursday, June 5

Game 1 – Indiana at Oklahoma City: 8:30 p.m. (ABC)

Sunday, June 8

Game 2 – Indiana at Oklahoma City: 8 p.m. (ABC)

Wednesday, June 11

Game 3 – Oklahoma City at Indiana: 8:30 p.m. (ABC)

Friday, June 13

Game 4 – Oklahoma City at Indiana: 8:30 p.m. (ABC)

Monday, June 16

Game 5 – Indiana at Oklahoma City, if necessary: 8:30 p.m. (ABC)

Thursday, June 19

Game 6 – Oklahoma City at Indiana, if necessary: 8:30 p.m. (ABC)

Sunday, June 22

Game 7 – Indiana at Oklahoma City, if necessary: 8 p.m. (ABC)

*if necessary

More ways to watch the NBA Finals:

MUNICH (AP) — Another trophy for Cristiano Ronaldo. More records, more adulation.

The Portugal star shed tears after helping his team win the Nations League on Sunday.

Ronaldo scored to help Portugal draw level with Spain 2-2 in the final, then watched as his teammates won the penalty shootout 5-3.

“I have many titles with my clubs, but nothing is better than winning for Portugal,” Ronaldo said. “These are tears. It’s mission accomplished and so much joy.”

The 40-year-old Ronaldo had been the first to run out onto the field for the pre-game warmup, sparking a huge roar from the Portugal supporters, including many wearing jerseys emblazoned with his name.

His appearance prompted many supporters to pull out their cell phones to record the superstar while they could still see him in action. Ronaldo conceded Saturday that he won’t be able to play forever.

That was three days after he helped Portugal to its first win over Germany for 25 years, scoring the winner for a 2-1 victory in the Nations League semifinals.

On Sunday he was driving the team again, though it was initially a frustrating game as his chances were limited by Spain’s hard-working defenders.

Nuno Mendes fired Portugal level after Martin Zubimendi opened the scoring for Spain. Then Mikel Oyarzabal put Spain ahead 2-1 at the break.

But Ronaldo was in the right place at the right time to fire home the equalizer from Mendes’ deflected cross in the 61st, setting off joyous scenes among his faithful fans. It was Ronaldo’s 138th goal for Portugal. Nobody has ever scored more for their country.

Ronaldo kept trying in what was his record-extending 221st appearance for the country, but eventually had to go off exhausted in the 88th to standing ovations from fans and a hug from coach Roberto Martínez.

Ronaldo said he was carrying an injury into the game.

“I had already felt it during the warmup, I had been feeling it for some time, but for the national team, if I had to break my leg, I would have broken it,” Ronaldo said. “It’s for a trophy, I had to play and I gave it my all.”

Ronaldo’s future is uncertain as his contract with Saudi club Al-Nassr only runs to the end of June. He posted “this chapter is over” on social media after the club’s last Saudi Pro League game of the season.

On Saturday he said he had all but decided not to go to the Club World Cup despite “quite a few” offers from participating clubs to play there.

Whatever club Ronaldo plays for, he will keep striving for Portugal.

“I have lived in many countries, I have played for many clubs, but when it’s about Portugal, it is always a special feeling,” he said.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer