August 9, 2024 • 22 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses Team USA basketball's thrilling victory over Serbia in the Olympics semi-finals, why the game felt like a vindication of sorts for Steph Curry and Joel Embiid, why Steve Kerr's rotations still leave a lot to be desired and how USA matches up with Victor Wembanyama and the France team in the upcoming gold medal game on Saturday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Straight Fire Fan? It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight Fire for Friday,
August the ninth, and I should just start the podcast
by chanting you say, you say. I'm recording this Thursday afternoon,
and I have to catch a flight to San Jose
to watch Nikosa in action on Thursday night in the
(00:34):
Legua's Cup. So I'm recording this before that match. And
I just watched one of the most thrilling Yeah, I'll
just say it was the most thrilling USA men's basketball
match I've ever seen. And I know that game against Spain,
the Kobe twenty eighteen against Spain in the final was
like nipatucking good, but this was different. The US was
(00:55):
getting buried by Serbia, down fifteen in the first half,
down fifteen in the second half. I think they were
down thirteen to start the fourth quarter, and I'm watching
with the fam and I say to the family, listen,
we got to get within five to start the fourth
(01:15):
or we're not gonna have a chance. And we got
it like to six, and then they quickly scored, bing bing,
bing kept scoring, and all of a sudden, next thing
you know, down thirteen and I'm saying it's over.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
We're done.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Like we had a good run, but I don't see
them coming back. Steve Kerr been having one of the
worst games I've ever seen him. Coach goodness graciously, he
was awful and down the stretch, Kerr wisened up and
went with take a guest, take a guess, winning veteran mentality. Okay,
I love Anthony Edwards as much as a neck guy.
(01:48):
He had a brutal thirteen minute effort against Serbia.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I mean he tried.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
He basically missed his two threes white I'm talking wide
open in corner threes.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Both of them were He.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Had a couple of bad turnoversicked up a couple of fouls,
and essentially was like killing them. And Jason Tatum's not playing.
I'm ranting. I'm like, we gotta get Tatum in the game.
He can score, he can play at both ends. Drew Holliday,
a great defender, was just getting cooked alive by Jokich
in the pick and roll. The US was just not
playing smart basketball. And I told you this on the
pod yesterday. I told you, guys, Serbia is dangerous. I
(02:21):
gave out the bets Serbia getting the points. I think
it closed at fourteen and a half, so three full
point move off the seventeen and a half point favorite
that the US was, And it was very clear early
Serbia got hot from three and Jokich was doing Yokic things.
He entered with seventeen eleven and five, did miss all
six of his threes, But Yokis played thirty eight minutes
(02:43):
and he was gassed in the fourth and the fourth
quarter winning time when Serbia had a big lead. This
is what happened. The USA went to winning veteran mentality
Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Devin Booker. The five
guys who played, I think almost exclusively the fourth were
(03:05):
guys who are champions. Now I know there's champions on
the bench. You know, Anthony Davis has won a chip,
Jason Tatum, who didn't play, has a title.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And why was Joel Embid in there?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
He'd struggle. Joel Embid finally had a good game. He
had nineteen points. Now he did have a couple like
what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Turnovers?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
But ultimately this came down to Steph Curry just getting
volcanic from three, the Curry eruption you've been waiting for.
And I'm recording this without Rob g and I know
if you were here, he would be like, all right,
I'll take the l for saying cur should bench Curry
and listen. It was it was a legitimate conversation. Curry
had struggled that much. I think it was more like,
(03:42):
if he's having a one for nine game, what do
you do in the fourth with Curry? You know, with Kerr,
bench's guy. But it didn't get to that. Curry went
off early, scored the I think their first fourteen points
had thirty six and eight boards, by the way, which
was nice. Hit nine threes so close late. I mean,
he hit the free throws. Steph Curry just it was
(04:03):
the kind of game where you ended it and you're like,
I need I need more Steph Curry in my life. Hey,
Adam Silver, can we make sure either the Warriors are
good again or Curry gets on a good team so
we could see him in late May and June in
the playoff. We need Steph Curry in the playoffs. It
was scintillating watching him shoot because once he starts cooking
and in the first quarter, like he hits a couple
and you're like, oh, here we go, here we go.
(04:24):
And then he's got all of a sudden eleven points
and they find him in the corner in front of
the USA bench. He puts up the shot, turns around
to the bench, and that's the moment where you just are.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Like, oh boy, we got a curry game. It turned
around splish, splitsh splash. Obviously, just an awesome game. The
energy for the US during that comeback was incredible. Watching
with the FAMI, we were freaking out. I mean, I'm
going bonkers. I'm like, we can't lose to Serbia.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Come on, we can't.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
They're good, obviously they have they have NBA players. Butgdanovich,
who I like, maybe three years ago joked I called
him the Serbian plumber.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
He ain't.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
That guy was giving buckets to everybody. He kept them
in the game. He was outstanding, talking trash to Carmelo
Anthony courtside and then staring him down like, but bogdanovit's
got some swag.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Bogdanovitch looked to me like he was auditioning for a
role on a major contender, and he's like, yeah, listen,
I can score with the best of them, and maybe
this was one of those. Hey, this is like Evan
fourty a and we'll get to the France game in
a minute. But I can do this too. And you
know Bogdan Bogdanovic. I hope I'm saying his name right. Yeah,
(05:29):
he is currently on the Atlanta Hawks. He's only he
turns thirty two here in a minute. I don't know.
I don't know how the Hawks can't try to unload him.
His value, his stock is at an all time high.
That guy, man, he was he was awesome. But I
decided to dig into some of the numbers and they're
still trickling out. The game again, just ended like fifteen
minutes ago, but you could tell that Serbia was wearing down.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
One thing.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I was yelling at my TV. I'm like, Steve Kerr,
what are we not doing pressuring Serbia? They don't have
depth a guard. They're good, they have a lot of
bit We should be picking up full court with Drew Holliday,
Derek White, Devin Booker, full court press.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
What are we doing?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
And then in the third quarter you started to see
Jokic after the ball would go through the hoop. He
would like bounce it. The clock would keep running, and
you know, the US just milk clock and the US
is just like doing nothing about it.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
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Speaker 3 (06:33):
Finally, in the fourth quarter, late Kevin Durant starts picking
up full court and he creates a turnover on Bogdanovitch.
I'm like, you could have We could have had three
of those easily. We have amazing defensive pressure. We weren't
doing it. I was upset with Kurz rotation, lack of
defensive pressure. And what killed me was this whole defense
on Jokic. They ran the same place seventy five times.
I swear Jokic up high and you have the guard
(06:56):
running around. We want to put embid in action and
guess what if we're shooting threes and they were hitting
fifteen of thirty nine from three.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Everybody was splashing.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
And then once the US started to finally adjust a
little on the pick and roll and switched differently, they
started pounding it into Yokic and Yokich just would back
down Drew Holiday and the US would double team Jokis,
which is stupid because he's one of the great passers
we've ever seen in the sport. And he again eleven assists.
He's finding the three point shooters who are now open
(07:28):
because of the US rotations. It was just a nightmare.
I'm like, Kerr, what the hell are you doing? And
so finally he scrapped the Drew Holiday thing went with
Kevin Durant. So now, guess what when you're setting the
pick and roll with Jokic, guess who's switching on to
Nicola Kevin Durant six eleven seven feet tall, as opposed
to Drew Holiday, who Drew Holiday as an elite guard,
we know, awesome defender, Like, it's just different when Yokic
(07:53):
can't easily muscle and get a shot off over Kevin Durant.
So finally, a good move lair late by Kerr, and
I did look this up. I told I told you
Serbia was wearing down. In the fourth quarter, Serbia zero
for nine on threes, they only made one shot outside
the paint. The US turned up the pressure. Lebron, who
(08:13):
I don't even know if I've mentioned Lebron at this point,
Lebron a triple double, sixteen, twelve and ten, just a
vintage Lebron game. And I'll say this, he got into
it with Bogdanovitch because you know, Lebron's tight with Mellow,
and Bogdanovitch is chirping and doing the three shots to
the head and celebrating, and Lebron like got into it
(08:34):
with him, and they were all separated. So then like
then literally the next time down the floor, Lebron backs down,
Bogdanovitch fade away and won and then did the hit
him with the two small and you could you just
look at Lebron and you're like, oh my gosh, how
is this. This guy's in amazing shape, and he's got
like the gray beard, which even adds to the allure.
(08:54):
He just vintage Lebron, great passing, great boards, not a
lot of four shots. Didn't have to do everything like
he would with the Lakers, even though he played a
tournament high for him thirty two minutes. Curry played thirty
three and beat twenty seven KD twenty four and you know,
the bench, just the bench wasn't there. Ad struggled with
(09:17):
fouls against Yokic only played ten minutes. This was Curry
bringing them home. And this was Devin Booker hitting a
couple time. He had a timely three in the fourth.
And this was Kevin Durant one of my favorite possessions.
Late in the game. I think the US was up
too and Kevin Durant gets the ball up top against
somebody who's not Bogdanovic or Jokic, and you can see
(09:40):
Carmelo like at the bottom of the screen saying get out,
get out. Kevin Durant says, get out. I want this
this mf iso and Durant does his series of moves
crossover hesy and then he just splashes the twenty footer effortless,
and it's like, that's just awesome.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
It was just freaking incredible, just an awesome victory for
the US.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It did look bleak.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
You guys can't lie to me the you were nervous, okay,
US outscores Serbia in winning time thirty two to fifteen.
I gotta say the magic number for me with threes
is usually fifteen. If you hit fifteen threes, you're probably
gonna upset the US. Serbia fifteen of thirty nine from three.
(10:20):
They hit fifteen threes in the first three quarters. They
just ran out of gas. They're late. That's really all
this what they ran out of gas. US turn up
the d a little bit and just an incredible game.
I Or if for some reason you're like, I hate
the NBA, just watch this. I don't think anybody who
listens to this hates the NBA. But it was super physical.
(10:40):
The refs in feebaball let you play. They don't deal
with the flopping. There's none of that nonsense. It was
just an all around incredible game. And I'm just I'm
very happy for the US. I will say once once
everybody's done, you know, raving around the pomp poms and
get all excited. I just I think Kerr will come
(11:02):
under some scrutiny for some of these rotations. It was
just absolutely puzzling what he was doing.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Now.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Embiid had his best game in the tournament, Curry had
his best game, Lebron triple double, and Kad came through
in the clutch. How do sorry, how does the US
matchup against France, which is a surprise entrant into the final,
although not that much of a surprise if you listened
to the pod yesterday as I took both underdogs, robbed,
(11:33):
you took both favorites, sorry, robb Gi and both dogs
cover both dogs nearly one outright. Serbey almost pulled the upset.
France was a five point underdog and led early and often.
This is another weird game for the immortal Rudy Gobert,
who has a broken finger, maybe or had surgery or
(11:55):
maybe not. Gobert, according to the box score, played a
whopping five minutes and France hangs on to win. They
had a really bit of a slow start and then
they turn it on in the second quarter, start to
pull away in the third.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Wembin Yama a bit on the struggle bus.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
So let me just quickly say this about web Min Yama. Yes,
he was four of seventeen shooting, yes he was one
of eight from three, but his ability to impact the
game at the defensive end and with the passing, I
mean he led his team with forress the seven foot
five unicorn. He had eleven points, seven boards, forces, three blocks.
(12:34):
Really good game, but it's weird. The French coach did
just a masterful job. Again, You're like, oh, how did
the NBA guys do well? Evan forty eight, was two
of seven in twenty minutes, scored five points. Weben Yama
four of seventeen and France won. Yeah, France shot six
of twenty seven from three, six of twenty seven. That's
twenty two percent and still one. Now they are playing
(12:56):
at home. I thought there were maybe two fifty to
fifty calls that went, so they got a little home cooking.
But bottom line, if they play like this from three,
they will have no chance against the US. The US
will run them off the court. If they shoot six
for twenty seven from three.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Serbia made fifteen threes. That's why it was close. Do
better from deep. The kid who had a big.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Game in the upset of Canada Cordoneer. He had sixteen.
And then Yabosool, the kid who was drafted by Boston.
I talked about him on the Potter of this Week.
He's a good player, just physical, kind of in that
Barkley mold. He ended up fouling out. France didn't look
(13:37):
great but won Germany. Very puzzling stuff. The Wagner brothers
did not play particularly great. Dennis Shooter was kind of
in chucking mode. He was a little iso heavy and
Germany just didn't play a great game.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
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listen live.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
The US opens up as huge fourteen point favorites against France.
I guess my initial lean would be that the USA
wins and covers. But but I would be very cautious.
I think the game is Saturday morning, or maybe Sunday morning,
one of.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Those days this weekend.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
But Nick Batoum is the guy to watch here. He's
one of these crafty veterans. He's played on a lot
of good teams. He's actually not a bad matchup for Lebron.
The problem is France's guards are just really not very good.
I mean, Frank Nilikina, I don't see it. Fourty eight
can play the bogdanovit Rol. The key will be one
(14:43):
Ben Yama and how they defend victor woman Yama. I
don't know if this is an eighty game or a
Joel Embiid game. I mean, bam Adebayo didn't play much.
Let's see bam Odabio checked in at yeah ten minutes.
I knew I was getting frustrated and I like Bam
a lot, obviously having a great tournament. He took a
corner three when you're down like you know, eleven, and
(15:07):
it was like kind of contested. It wasn't like he
was super wide open like against Puerto Rico or something,
and it's like, bro, that's not what you do when
you're down double digits in the third quarter, Bam, what
are you doing? And then he committed a foul at
the other end and I think he got subbed out
like instantly. Yeah, rough game, And listen, I know BAM's
been to the finals maybe a couple times or just once.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I don't know. He's played a lot of high.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Level playoff games, but he doesn't quite yet have that
champion DNA. Anthony Edward's not there yet. And the lights
were very bright in this one. The arena was buzzing,
and I'm not saying Aunt laid an egg, but like
this this was a big moment for him, and the
physical nature almost looked like it got to Derek White.
You saw some frustration fouls from the US because Serbia
(15:53):
off the ball will play very frustrating, a little not
quite rubbing dug if you will, but they were. I mean,
there are lots grabbing. I mean, good luck setting a
screen out here in feeble rules of the Olympics, and
some of the US guys on the bench just didn't
seem to want it, and they struggled, and Kerr noticed
that and fourth quarter went with his horses. But I
will just spend a couple of minutes here talking about
(16:16):
this Jason Tatum situation.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Okay, so I'm on a ton of text chains with
you know dads.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I've got my soccer text chain, I got a couple
of Hoops text chains.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I've just got like Buddies group.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I probably have like six different groups of texts that
I'm working during high level game, Super Bowl whatever. I
had so many. Why isn't Jason Tatum playing texts from Buddies?
And these guys are not hardcore NBA fans. They're not
watching every game. I don't think they're listening to every
(16:52):
straight fire episode that they've got high level jobs, and
I know they're just not in the weeds. And they were.
Their reaction was, where's chain Sentatum? How is he not playing?
And this was one that surprised me. I mean, we
knew it was coming that Kerr would have to shrink
and tinker with the rotations because this game, the games
are gonna be closer. Now, I think the French game
(17:13):
will be close, but there's also a role where the
US opens it up in the second half.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
There is.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
I just don't see how you can't find any minutes
at all for Jason Tatum. It did not make sense whatsoever.
You know you're gonna need Lebron in the fourth quarter
of a close game. He did look a little tired
out there. There was a moment early fourth quarter again
Jokiic is annihilating them on the pick and roll, and
Lebron just comes out and you could I mean I
(17:39):
didn't get the lip reading, but you could just see
Lebron's like, I got, I got Yoker, Joker, yok and
beat you play off the ball, back line help because
they're just putting you in the pick and roll and
you're getting annihilated in the drop coverage. So Lebron went
to guard Jokich and man, it was a battle. Now
Yokich probably has him by I don't know, thirty pounds,
(18:02):
and they were going at it and you could just
tell Lebron was getting worn down again, he's thirty two.
I'm sorry he played thirty two minutes at thirty nine
years old. You're telling me you couldn't find ten minutes
for Jason Tatum. I actually like a big lineup with
like a center whoever you want, Lebron at the four,
Katie at the three, and I would tinker with Tatum
(18:23):
at the two and Curry at the one. I mean,
you can do so many different things. That's your big
lineup where you put a small forward like a Tatum
at the two, and then hell, you can put Bam
in for Lebron so Lebron could come in later. I mean,
you've got options.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I just think.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
And again, Kurr's been around the team. He knows them better.
He's one more titles than I'll ever win. Yes, even
if I call it all the youth rec League titles,
I have Curr's gonna be eaten with NBA championships. Like
I like Booker a lot. But this was a physical game,
and he picked up some fouls where he just seemed
frustrated that the game was physical. But Jason Tatum, I
(19:02):
don't think he's gonna blink at any of this stuff.
He takes on physical defenders, he could take guards, and
we went through some lapses. Remember I'm just telling you
right now. USA scored ninety five points. Thirty six came
from Kurry nineteen, Embiid sixteen Lebron. The rest of the
team was like, just didn't do much. We did not
have the ISO scorer who could finish through contact, get
(19:24):
it get to the line. We just we just did
not have that. Only attempted fourteen free throws Anthony Edwards
zero BAM zero KD zero, Like they weren't really attacking.
Joel Embiid one Tatum one on one will attack anybody,
and he's probably gonna cook a lot of guys. So
I'm just I'm disappointed the cur didn't at least mess around.
(19:45):
Derek White fell out of the lineup. He only played
seven minutes, missed his only two opening, his only two shots,
and did have a nice steal.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
From behind knock going out and he hustles.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
But like again, when you get to cry, I just
want the best players on the court. Obviously, Steph Lebron, Ktie,
we know they're the best. Joel Embiid, hey man, he
played like he played like we needed to recruit him,
right and beat out a great game, and Devin Booker
was very good. But I just it's disappointing not to
see Tatum out there. I mean, hell, when you're down
(20:18):
fifteen sixteen to Serbia, I mean, I'm surprised they didn't
just say, like, all right, Haliburton, get in there and
do some stuff, wreak some havoc, generate some interesting plays
at the defensive end, push tempo against France. I just
don't think it's going to be as difficult. This was
your survive in advance game. But if they come in
with the same mentality, Oh, we're just gonna We're gonna
(20:39):
sag off and France starts splashing threes like Serbia, Oh
we're in deep trouble deep, they don't. I'm trying to
see all the pros. I don't know what's gonna be
up with Gobert. In terms of playing time he's played,
it looks like a grand total of eight minutes in
the last two games. But I mean, you're looking at
NBA guys. I was too will play in the NBA,
(21:01):
but too obviously Wemby Nila Keina was with the next Gobert.
That's five, so they have six pros. I think Sirby
only had four, so it's not going to be a walkover.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
They are at home.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
I would you know, it would not be shocked if
there was some home cooking involved. But the US considerable favorites,
and man, that was really one of the best international
basketball games I've ever seen. I was super geeked for
it and greatly enjoyed it. All right, I have to
go catch a flight to get out of town. Remember
no pod on Monday. Back on Tuesday, we'll probably wrap
(21:38):
up the Olympics. We'll do our first preseason week one takeaways.
Maybe there'll be some quarterback separations somewhere, but at once
the Olympic. Ten guys, it's time to break out the
NFL books and start to dig into rosters, schedules, betting opportunities.
We start to get into fantasy. I mean, it's it's
going to get exciting here in August. Everybody has safe weekend.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Talk to you Tuesday,
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Straight Fire Fan? It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight Fire for Friday,
August the ninth, and I should just start the podcast
by chanting you say, you say. I'm recording this Thursday afternoon,
and I have to catch a flight to San Jose
to watch Nikosa in action on Thursday night in the
(00:34):
Legua's Cup. So I'm recording this before that match. And
I just watched one of the most thrilling Yeah, I'll
just say it was the most thrilling USA men's basketball
match I've ever seen. And I know that game against Spain,
the Kobe twenty eighteen against Spain in the final was
like nipatucking good, but this was different. The US was
(00:55):
getting buried by Serbia, down fifteen in the first half,
down fifteen in the second half. I think they were
down thirteen to start the fourth quarter, and I'm watching
with the fam and I say to the family, listen,
we got to get within five to start the fourth
(01:15):
or we're not gonna have a chance. And we got
it like to six, and then they quickly scored, bing bing,
bing kept scoring, and all of a sudden, next thing
you know, down thirteen and I'm saying it's over.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
We're done.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Like we had a good run, but I don't see
them coming back. Steve Kerr been having one of the
worst games I've ever seen him. Coach goodness graciously, he
was awful and down the stretch, Kerr wisened up and
went with take a guest, take a guess, winning veteran mentality. Okay,
I love Anthony Edwards as much as a neck guy.
(01:48):
He had a brutal thirteen minute effort against Serbia.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I mean he tried.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
He basically missed his two threes white I'm talking wide
open in corner threes.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Both of them were He.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Had a couple of bad turnoversicked up a couple of fouls,
and essentially was like killing them. And Jason Tatum's not playing.
I'm ranting. I'm like, we gotta get Tatum in the game.
He can score, he can play at both ends. Drew Holliday,
a great defender, was just getting cooked alive by Jokich
in the pick and roll. The US was just not
playing smart basketball. And I told you this on the
pod yesterday. I told you, guys, Serbia is dangerous. I
(02:21):
gave out the bets Serbia getting the points. I think
it closed at fourteen and a half, so three full
point move off the seventeen and a half point favorite
that the US was, And it was very clear early
Serbia got hot from three and Jokich was doing Yokic things.
He entered with seventeen eleven and five, did miss all
six of his threes, But Yokis played thirty eight minutes
(02:43):
and he was gassed in the fourth and the fourth
quarter winning time when Serbia had a big lead. This
is what happened. The USA went to winning veteran mentality
Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Devin Booker. The five
guys who played, I think almost exclusively the fourth were
(03:05):
guys who are champions. Now I know there's champions on
the bench. You know, Anthony Davis has won a chip,
Jason Tatum, who didn't play, has a title.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And why was Joel Embid in there?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
He'd struggle. Joel Embid finally had a good game. He
had nineteen points. Now he did have a couple like
what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Turnovers?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
But ultimately this came down to Steph Curry just getting
volcanic from three, the Curry eruption you've been waiting for.
And I'm recording this without Rob g and I know
if you were here, he would be like, all right,
I'll take the l for saying cur should bench Curry
and listen. It was it was a legitimate conversation. Curry
had struggled that much. I think it was more like,
(03:42):
if he's having a one for nine game, what do
you do in the fourth with Curry? You know, with Kerr,
bench's guy. But it didn't get to that. Curry went
off early, scored the I think their first fourteen points
had thirty six and eight boards, by the way, which
was nice. Hit nine threes so close late. I mean,
he hit the free throws. Steph Curry just it was
(04:03):
the kind of game where you ended it and you're like,
I need I need more Steph Curry in my life. Hey,
Adam Silver, can we make sure either the Warriors are
good again or Curry gets on a good team so
we could see him in late May and June in
the playoff. We need Steph Curry in the playoffs. It
was scintillating watching him shoot because once he starts cooking
and in the first quarter, like he hits a couple
and you're like, oh, here we go, here we go.
(04:24):
And then he's got all of a sudden eleven points
and they find him in the corner in front of
the USA bench. He puts up the shot, turns around
to the bench, and that's the moment where you just are.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Like, oh boy, we got a curry game. It turned
around splish, splitsh splash. Obviously, just an awesome game. The
energy for the US during that comeback was incredible. Watching
with the FAMI, we were freaking out. I mean, I'm
going bonkers. I'm like, we can't lose to Serbia.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Come on, we can't.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
They're good, obviously they have they have NBA players. Butgdanovich,
who I like, maybe three years ago joked I called
him the Serbian plumber.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
He ain't.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
That guy was giving buckets to everybody. He kept them
in the game. He was outstanding, talking trash to Carmelo
Anthony courtside and then staring him down like, but bogdanovit's
got some swag.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Bogdanovitch looked to me like he was auditioning for a
role on a major contender, and he's like, yeah, listen,
I can score with the best of them, and maybe
this was one of those. Hey, this is like Evan
fourty a and we'll get to the France game in
a minute. But I can do this too. And you
know Bogdan Bogdanovic. I hope I'm saying his name right. Yeah,
(05:29):
he is currently on the Atlanta Hawks. He's only he
turns thirty two here in a minute. I don't know.
I don't know how the Hawks can't try to unload him.
His value, his stock is at an all time high.
That guy, man, he was he was awesome. But I
decided to dig into some of the numbers and they're
still trickling out. The game again, just ended like fifteen
minutes ago, but you could tell that Serbia was wearing down.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
One thing.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I was yelling at my TV. I'm like, Steve Kerr,
what are we not doing pressuring Serbia? They don't have
depth a guard. They're good, they have a lot of
bit We should be picking up full court with Drew Holliday,
Derek White, Devin Booker, full court press.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
What are we doing?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
And then in the third quarter you started to see
Jokic after the ball would go through the hoop. He
would like bounce it. The clock would keep running, and
you know, the US just milk clock and the US
is just like doing nothing about it.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Finally, in the fourth quarter, late Kevin Durant starts picking
up full court and he creates a turnover on Bogdanovitch.
I'm like, you could have We could have had three
of those easily. We have amazing defensive pressure. We weren't
doing it. I was upset with Kurz rotation, lack of
defensive pressure. And what killed me was this whole defense
on Jokic. They ran the same place seventy five times.
I swear Jokic up high and you have the guard
(06:56):
running around. We want to put embid in action and
guess what if we're shooting threes and they were hitting
fifteen of thirty nine from three.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Everybody was splashing.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
And then once the US started to finally adjust a
little on the pick and roll and switched differently, they
started pounding it into Yokic and Yokich just would back
down Drew Holiday and the US would double team Jokis,
which is stupid because he's one of the great passers
we've ever seen in the sport. And he again eleven assists.
He's finding the three point shooters who are now open
(07:28):
because of the US rotations. It was just a nightmare.
I'm like, Kerr, what the hell are you doing? And
so finally he scrapped the Drew Holiday thing went with
Kevin Durant. So now, guess what when you're setting the
pick and roll with Jokic, guess who's switching on to
Nicola Kevin Durant six eleven seven feet tall, as opposed
to Drew Holiday, who Drew Holiday as an elite guard,
we know, awesome defender, Like, it's just different when Yokic
(07:53):
can't easily muscle and get a shot off over Kevin Durant.
So finally, a good move lair late by Kerr, and
I did look this up. I told I told you
Serbia was wearing down. In the fourth quarter, Serbia zero
for nine on threes, they only made one shot outside
the paint. The US turned up the pressure. Lebron, who
(08:13):
I don't even know if I've mentioned Lebron at this point,
Lebron a triple double, sixteen, twelve and ten, just a
vintage Lebron game. And I'll say this, he got into
it with Bogdanovitch because you know, Lebron's tight with Mellow,
and Bogdanovitch is chirping and doing the three shots to
the head and celebrating, and Lebron like got into it
(08:34):
with him, and they were all separated. So then like
then literally the next time down the floor, Lebron backs down,
Bogdanovitch fade away and won and then did the hit
him with the two small and you could you just
look at Lebron and you're like, oh my gosh, how
is this. This guy's in amazing shape, and he's got
like the gray beard, which even adds to the allure.
(08:54):
He just vintage Lebron, great passing, great boards, not a
lot of four shots. Didn't have to do everything like
he would with the Lakers, even though he played a
tournament high for him thirty two minutes. Curry played thirty
three and beat twenty seven KD twenty four and you know,
the bench, just the bench wasn't there. Ad struggled with
(09:17):
fouls against Yokic only played ten minutes. This was Curry
bringing them home. And this was Devin Booker hitting a
couple time. He had a timely three in the fourth.
And this was Kevin Durant one of my favorite possessions.
Late in the game. I think the US was up
too and Kevin Durant gets the ball up top against
somebody who's not Bogdanovic or Jokic, and you can see
(09:40):
Carmelo like at the bottom of the screen saying get out,
get out. Kevin Durant says, get out. I want this
this mf iso and Durant does his series of moves
crossover hesy and then he just splashes the twenty footer effortless,
and it's like, that's just awesome.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
It was just freaking incredible, just an awesome victory for
the US.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It did look bleak.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
You guys can't lie to me the you were nervous, okay,
US outscores Serbia in winning time thirty two to fifteen.
I gotta say the magic number for me with threes
is usually fifteen. If you hit fifteen threes, you're probably
gonna upset the US. Serbia fifteen of thirty nine from three.
(10:20):
They hit fifteen threes in the first three quarters. They
just ran out of gas. They're late. That's really all
this what they ran out of gas. US turn up
the d a little bit and just an incredible game.
I Or if for some reason you're like, I hate
the NBA, just watch this. I don't think anybody who
listens to this hates the NBA. But it was super physical.
(10:40):
The refs in feebaball let you play. They don't deal
with the flopping. There's none of that nonsense. It was
just an all around incredible game. And I'm just I'm
very happy for the US. I will say once once
everybody's done, you know, raving around the pomp poms and
get all excited. I just I think Kerr will come
(11:02):
under some scrutiny for some of these rotations. It was
just absolutely puzzling what he was doing.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Now.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Embiid had his best game in the tournament, Curry had
his best game, Lebron triple double, and Kad came through
in the clutch. How do sorry, how does the US
matchup against France, which is a surprise entrant into the final,
although not that much of a surprise if you listened
to the pod yesterday as I took both underdogs, robbed,
(11:33):
you took both favorites, sorry, robb Gi and both dogs
cover both dogs nearly one outright. Serbey almost pulled the upset.
France was a five point underdog and led early and often.
This is another weird game for the immortal Rudy Gobert,
who has a broken finger, maybe or had surgery or
(11:55):
maybe not. Gobert, according to the box score, played a
whopping five minutes and France hangs on to win. They
had a really bit of a slow start and then
they turn it on in the second quarter, start to
pull away in the third.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Wembin Yama a bit on the struggle bus.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
So let me just quickly say this about web Min Yama. Yes,
he was four of seventeen shooting, yes he was one
of eight from three, but his ability to impact the
game at the defensive end and with the passing, I
mean he led his team with forress the seven foot
five unicorn. He had eleven points, seven boards, forces, three blocks.
(12:34):
Really good game, but it's weird. The French coach did
just a masterful job. Again, You're like, oh, how did
the NBA guys do well? Evan forty eight, was two
of seven in twenty minutes, scored five points. Weben Yama
four of seventeen and France won. Yeah, France shot six
of twenty seven from three, six of twenty seven. That's
twenty two percent and still one. Now they are playing
(12:56):
at home. I thought there were maybe two fifty to
fifty calls that went, so they got a little home cooking.
But bottom line, if they play like this from three,
they will have no chance against the US. The US
will run them off the court. If they shoot six
for twenty seven from three.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Serbia made fifteen threes. That's why it was close. Do
better from deep. The kid who had a big.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Game in the upset of Canada Cordoneer. He had sixteen.
And then Yabosool, the kid who was drafted by Boston.
I talked about him on the Potter of this Week.
He's a good player, just physical, kind of in that
Barkley mold. He ended up fouling out. France didn't look
(13:37):
great but won Germany. Very puzzling stuff. The Wagner brothers
did not play particularly great. Dennis Shooter was kind of
in chucking mode. He was a little iso heavy and
Germany just didn't play a great game.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
The US opens up as huge fourteen point favorites against France.
I guess my initial lean would be that the USA
wins and covers. But but I would be very cautious.
I think the game is Saturday morning, or maybe Sunday morning,
one of.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Those days this weekend.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
But Nick Batoum is the guy to watch here. He's
one of these crafty veterans. He's played on a lot
of good teams. He's actually not a bad matchup for Lebron.
The problem is France's guards are just really not very good.
I mean, Frank Nilikina, I don't see it. Fourty eight
can play the bogdanovit Rol. The key will be one
(14:43):
Ben Yama and how they defend victor woman Yama. I
don't know if this is an eighty game or a
Joel Embiid game. I mean, bam Adebayo didn't play much.
Let's see bam Odabio checked in at yeah ten minutes.
I knew I was getting frustrated and I like Bam
a lot, obviously having a great tournament. He took a
corner three when you're down like you know, eleven, and
(15:07):
it was like kind of contested. It wasn't like he
was super wide open like against Puerto Rico or something,
and it's like, bro, that's not what you do when
you're down double digits in the third quarter, Bam, what
are you doing? And then he committed a foul at
the other end and I think he got subbed out
like instantly. Yeah, rough game, And listen, I know BAM's
been to the finals maybe a couple times or just once.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I don't know. He's played a lot of high.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Level playoff games, but he doesn't quite yet have that
champion DNA. Anthony Edward's not there yet. And the lights
were very bright in this one. The arena was buzzing,
and I'm not saying Aunt laid an egg, but like
this this was a big moment for him, and the
physical nature almost looked like it got to Derek White.
You saw some frustration fouls from the US because Serbia
(15:53):
off the ball will play very frustrating, a little not
quite rubbing dug if you will, but they were. I mean,
there are lots grabbing. I mean, good luck setting a
screen out here in feeble rules of the Olympics, and
some of the US guys on the bench just didn't
seem to want it, and they struggled, and Kerr noticed
that and fourth quarter went with his horses. But I
will just spend a couple of minutes here talking about
(16:16):
this Jason Tatum situation.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Okay, so I'm on a ton of text chains with
you know dads.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I've got my soccer text chain, I got a couple
of Hoops text chains.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
I've just got like Buddies group.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I probably have like six different groups of texts that
I'm working during high level game, Super Bowl whatever. I
had so many. Why isn't Jason Tatum playing texts from Buddies?
And these guys are not hardcore NBA fans. They're not
watching every game. I don't think they're listening to every
(16:52):
straight fire episode that they've got high level jobs, and
I know they're just not in the weeds. And they were.
Their reaction was, where's chain Sentatum? How is he not playing?
And this was one that surprised me. I mean, we
knew it was coming that Kerr would have to shrink
and tinker with the rotations because this game, the games
are gonna be closer. Now, I think the French game
(17:13):
will be close, but there's also a role where the
US opens it up in the second half.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
There is.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
I just don't see how you can't find any minutes
at all for Jason Tatum. It did not make sense whatsoever.
You know you're gonna need Lebron in the fourth quarter
of a close game. He did look a little tired
out there. There was a moment early fourth quarter again
Jokiic is annihilating them on the pick and roll, and
Lebron just comes out and you could I mean I
(17:39):
didn't get the lip reading, but you could just see
Lebron's like, I got, I got Yoker, Joker, yok and
beat you play off the ball, back line help because
they're just putting you in the pick and roll and
you're getting annihilated in the drop coverage. So Lebron went
to guard Jokich and man, it was a battle. Now
Yokich probably has him by I don't know, thirty pounds,
(18:02):
and they were going at it and you could just
tell Lebron was getting worn down again, he's thirty two.
I'm sorry he played thirty two minutes at thirty nine
years old. You're telling me you couldn't find ten minutes
for Jason Tatum. I actually like a big lineup with
like a center whoever you want, Lebron at the four,
Katie at the three, and I would tinker with Tatum
(18:23):
at the two and Curry at the one. I mean,
you can do so many different things. That's your big
lineup where you put a small forward like a Tatum
at the two, and then hell, you can put Bam
in for Lebron so Lebron could come in later. I mean,
you've got options.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I just think.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
And again, Kurr's been around the team. He knows them better.
He's one more titles than I'll ever win. Yes, even
if I call it all the youth rec League titles,
I have Curr's gonna be eaten with NBA championships. Like
I like Booker a lot. But this was a physical game,
and he picked up some fouls where he just seemed
frustrated that the game was physical. But Jason Tatum, I
(19:02):
don't think he's gonna blink at any of this stuff.
He takes on physical defenders, he could take guards, and
we went through some lapses. Remember I'm just telling you
right now. USA scored ninety five points. Thirty six came
from Kurry nineteen, Embiid sixteen Lebron. The rest of the
team was like, just didn't do much. We did not
have the ISO scorer who could finish through contact, get
(19:24):
it get to the line. We just we just did
not have that. Only attempted fourteen free throws Anthony Edwards
zero BAM zero KD zero, Like they weren't really attacking.
Joel Embiid one Tatum one on one will attack anybody,
and he's probably gonna cook a lot of guys. So
I'm just I'm disappointed the cur didn't at least mess around.
(19:45):
Derek White fell out of the lineup. He only played
seven minutes, missed his only two opening, his only two shots,
and did have a nice steal.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
From behind knock going out and he hustles.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
But like again, when you get to cry, I just
want the best players on the court. Obviously, Steph Lebron, Ktie,
we know they're the best. Joel Embiid, hey man, he
played like he played like we needed to recruit him,
right and beat out a great game, and Devin Booker
was very good. But I just it's disappointing not to
see Tatum out there. I mean, hell, when you're down
(20:18):
fifteen sixteen to Serbia, I mean, I'm surprised they didn't
just say, like, all right, Haliburton, get in there and
do some stuff, wreak some havoc, generate some interesting plays
at the defensive end, push tempo against France. I just
don't think it's going to be as difficult. This was
your survive in advance game. But if they come in
with the same mentality, Oh, we're just gonna We're gonna
(20:39):
sag off and France starts splashing threes like Serbia, Oh
we're in deep trouble deep, they don't. I'm trying to
see all the pros. I don't know what's gonna be
up with Gobert. In terms of playing time he's played,
it looks like a grand total of eight minutes in
the last two games. But I mean, you're looking at
NBA guys. I was too will play in the NBA,
(21:01):
but too obviously Wemby Nila Keina was with the next Gobert.
That's five, so they have six pros. I think Sirby
only had four, so it's not going to be a walkover.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
They are at home.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
I would you know, it would not be shocked if
there was some home cooking involved. But the US considerable favorites,
and man, that was really one of the best international
basketball games I've ever seen. I was super geeked for
it and greatly enjoyed it. All right, I have to
go catch a flight to get out of town. Remember
no pod on Monday. Back on Tuesday, we'll probably wrap
(21:38):
up the Olympics. We'll do our first preseason week one takeaways.
Maybe there'll be some quarterback separations somewhere, but at once
the Olympic. Ten guys, it's time to break out the
NFL books and start to dig into rosters, schedules, betting opportunities.
We start to get into fantasy. I mean, it's it's
going to get exciting here in August. Everybody has safe weekend.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Talk to you Tuesday,
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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