Dean Blevins: Edwards' Exhaustion Difficult To Comprehend In NBA Playoffs

We've got a serious question for you.

Mere hours before Dallas is favored to advance to the NBA Finals, which of these three options best describes you?

Question: What does Dallas being up 3-0 over the higher-seeded & homecourt-advantaged Minnesota Timberwolves mean for Your Beloved OKC Thunder?

A: The Thunder team that led in second halves of its semifinal series against the Mavs coulda'/shoulda' been the team that's one game from a return trip to the NBA Finals.

B: A return to the NBA Finals is inevitable in the next 2-3 years.

C: The Thunder is not quite ready for primetime success when it comes to closing time.

D: The Thunder had best keep improving because your fiercest competition sure is.

Arguably, if you answered A then you are correct.

If you answered B then you are correct.

If you answered C then you are correct.

If you answered D then you are correct, my wise friends.

We believe your devotion will soon be rewarded with sustained success from the Big Blue Machine. 

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Can’t get this off my mind as we watch Dallas host Minnesota looking for a Western Conference Finals series sweep.

Unacceptable and nonsensical playoff excuses continue as loud and long-standing national media persist and insist the following cockamamie analytical theory: that Minnesota’s chiseled 22-year-old AntMan, Anthony Edwards, who is just beginning-to-enter-his-prime; the finely-tuned bouncing bundle of astonishing physical and freak-of-nature talent, vociferously pedaled as the ‘next Michael Jordan,' is, wait for it … The Ant is .. struggling mightily in this pressure-packed best-of-seven-series due to .. wait again ... due to exhaustion.

Repeating, the guy you and I love to watch run fast, jump high, defend like an assassin and score theatrically is proposedly too exhausted to continue his early 2024 playoff display of extraordinary performances. Why the confusion? Because on First Take, second take and every stinkin' time you want to make a take, the former Georgia Bulldog is so physically blessed that he'd be the heavy fave to win Ultimate Universal Triathlon. 

I’d bet my bottom-dollar that Atman could win that extreme global test of conditioning; requiring entrants run from Paris to Pamproux, then swim The Nile, and finish with biking from Chechnya to the Champs-Élysées. 

WHAT? WHY? How’s this Greek God-looking force of a man exhausted when teammates and Luka and Kyrie ‘ain’t. The Wolves and Ant’s Minny sycophAnts lamely continue with the blathering excuse after the Game 1 loss: ‘We were probably a little tired, came out flat, found energy, then flat again.’

Hey, this is only the Western Conference Finals! Not a pickup game at the Y. The deep-run spot in the playoffs where truly great players evolve into legendary status. No big deal.

Nothing personal .. because we are all entertained by AntMan’s electrifying off-chart talent.

Maybe just getting a new job is the answer. Yes, a ‘Sitting Job.' Maybe one day a ‘Desk Job,' guaranteeing less stress. And best of all, wiping away that NBA playoff-inducing fatigue thing.

Where ‘coming out ‘flat’ and ‘fatigued’ should be harder to comprehend than listening to a speed reader speaking Swahili. Backwards. 

P.S. and BTW -- The Antster should recognize a couple of things up front requiring a couple of ... we'll call it 'alterations' from his lifestyle:  

1 - Your ten$ of million$ of dollar$ of income will dip a tad -- to twenty buck$ an hour.

2 - No one will care.

Here's to hoping AE is rested and ready tonight. An 0-3 underdog's chance to outshine the most unlikely tandem of best new pals in Luka and Kyrie. I'll root to see you reboot. But personally root for the Mavs to advance. 

We've seen you do it. And quite frankly, I'm exhausted just thinking about it.