The NBA Finals are knotted up at 1-1, and you know what that means—time for the legends to weigh in. And when it’s Magic Johnson doing the talking, the whole basketball world tunes in. After watching the Oklahoma City Thunder dismantle the Indiana Pacers 123-107 in Game 2, Magic took to Twitter with a blueprint for how this series might unfold.
He didn’t mince words either—handing major props to OKC’s head coach Mark Daigneault for having his squad locked in, while also tossing a very public challenge in the direction of Indiana’s star. He tweeted: “You have give Oklahoma City Thunder Head Coach Mark Daigneault a lot of credit tonight because he had his team ready to play. The Thunder dominated the Indiana Pacers in every category of the game – defense, points in the paint, and they attacked the Pacers inside opening up the three!”
And Magic wasn’t just gassing him up; he saw what we all saw. The Thunder looked like a completely different team from the one that choked away Game 1. They were the aggressors.
But Magic wasn’t just handing out compliments, he had some tough love for the Indiana Pacers, identifying what he sees as their single biggest problem if they want to win this series. And he put the pressure squarely on the shoulders of their superstar, Tyrese Haliburton :“If the Indiana Pacers are going to win Game 3, Haliburton’s mindset needs to be score the basketball right from the tip and get the Pacers into their transition game. In Games 1 and 2, they played too much half court basketball and they can’t beat the Oklahoma City Thunder playing that style.”
That’s a direct challenge from one of the greatest point guards ever to the new-school star. Magic is basically screaming that Haliburton, for all his passing genius, has to stop being so unselfish and start hunting for his own shot from the jump.
(This is a developing story…)
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