"Smoked them like a fresh pack of Newport shorts" - Perkins reacts to Thunder's blowout Game 7 win over the Nuggets
The 2008 NBA champion not only picked the Thunder to win Game 7, but he also predicted that they would smoke the Nuggets.
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"OKC is going to smoke then like a fresh pack of Newport shorts," said Big Perk. "They gonna smoke them today. Their arena is going to be fired up. Those guys are going to be ready. Their defense is gonna get on 'em like a pack of hyenas. I got Oklahoma City winning by double digits tonight."
Spoken like Nostradamus, Perkins' pick was spot on. After the Thunder clinched the second seat in the 2025 Western Conference Finals, Perk immediately took to the former Twitter app to show that he not only guessed the winner but correctly foretold how they would emerge victorious.
It was like the Clippers vs. Nuggets Game 7 in the previous round
If you watched the Nuggets face the L.A. Clippers in the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Sunday's Game 7 had a similar plot, only that Denver was on the other side of the story this time around. The road team got off to a strong first quarter start, and then, when the adrenaline seemed to wear off, the home team picked up the slack and just dusted them off their homecourt in the next three quarters.
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The Nuggets went up by as many as 10 points in the opening quarter, but a big Thunder run to close out the opening period had the home team down by just five points at 21-26 at the end of the first quarter. But behind 17 second-quarter points from Jalen Williams, OKC broke the game wide open with a 39-20 second quarter. They then scored the first nine points of the third quarter to put the "Mile High" squad away.
"There's not many games, you wake up in the morning and you know that you're going to remember the game for the rest of your life, and Game 7 is one of them," Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said after the game. "To be able to focus through that and perform the way these guys did today was very impressive."
Related: "Graduations don't win or lose games" - Vince Carter's mom hit back at critics who said his graduation was the reason the Raptors lost Game 7 to Philly in 2001
OKC versus Minnesota in the 2025 Western Conference Finals
With Daigneault's Thunder passing their biggest test so far, they will now advance to the Western Conference Finals, where the No. 6-ranked Minnesota Timberwolves have been waiting for them. These two teams split their regular season series at 2-2, but it's worth noting that Minnesota forward Julius Randle, who has been the X-factor for the Wolves in the postseason, did not play in three of those games.
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"Julius Randle is bringing the grit that they lacked last year in the playoffs," said Paul Pierce about Randle in the playoffs. "Man, he bringing the attitude 'cuz the young bull had the attitude. He needed the sidekick, a backup to fit. Like KAT was that for him, but it was just a kind of different type of…they both dogs, but this is different. I don't know if I had to compare them to, like a doberman and a pitt."
Game 1 of the WCF will be on Tuesday night in OKC, with the home team favored to win by 7.5 points. The Thunder also opened as the heavy favorites to win the series, with an implied probability of 79.6 percent. But if Randle continues with his strong showing, it will be hard for OKC to smoke the Wolves like a pack of Newports.
Related: Mark Daigneault reveals SGA's 'secret sauce': "I always marvel at his ability to get himself back to zero after every game"
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