Colin’s joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight” to break down all the NBA playoffs action!
They begin with why the Warriors age and experience was able to win out in a tough game 7 over the Rockets youth and inexperience (3:45), and how Steph Curry was able to find a way to make an impact despite shooting poorly in the first half (8:15).
They preview the upcoming Wolves vs. Warriors series (16:00), and dissect a near perfect performance from the Pacers to upset the Cavs in Game 1 (26:45). They debate whether the Nuggets were more impressive, or the Clippers are more disappointing (32:15), and credit Russell Westbrook for his self-awareness and being a “force of nature” on the court (37:30).
Finally, Colin credits Steve Kerr for coaching the Warriors to victory (47:00), and they discuss the coaching struggles of J.J. Reddick in his rookie season as the head coach of Luka, LeBron and the Lakers (52:00), and what roster adjustments they need to make in the offseason (57:30).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(01:08):
a sigh of relief with the with the Knicks holding
on to beat the Pistons, and the Warriors holding on
to beat Houston. So I had picked Houston in seven.
I thought their depth and athletic ability. I knew they
weren't a great half court offense, and in the end,
Jason timp hoops to night. In the end, they got
so many bad, awful half court possessions. And you know,
(01:34):
it's funny, just for all the Curry struggles in the
first half cominga you can't have him on the floor
in the end, I'll say this, And it wasn't a
great night offensively. I mean it's one o three eighty nine.
It was not a great night for the Dubs, and
their defense was tremendous. But I did think Jason, on average,
(01:54):
they just got more organized, better looks. Even when Curry
was struggling, Buddy Heel was getting good looks, Pods was
getting good looks. And in the end, it's just youth.
It's like, it's like watching the most talented college basketball
team of all time with Houston. You're like, could have
could we run a play if not for a men
(02:15):
Thompson in the first three quarters, I'm like, would they
even be in the game. So again, just the experience
those crucial second half possessions, Warriors looked more organized, they
looked more experienced.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
To me, Yeah, you know, the Margins are pretty slim.
Calling like it was here we were Houston Game seven,
They're on a run. It's sixty three to sixty. As
a men, Thompson starts taking over there in the third
quarter and it's like literally could have gone either way
at that point. But what happened at that point, which
I thought was super fascinating, was that was really when
Steph Curry started to assert himself. And as I came
out of Game six, there were two main areas where
(02:50):
I thought Golden State had obvious ability to just play better,
so to speak. And it was one they had completely
lost control of Fred van Vliet and Albern Shangoun defensively. Yeah,
they have fifty points in game six. Those two guys
both looked completely held under control into night's game. And
so that was the first big one. Get control of Fred,
get control of Shane gun. Shout out to Looney and Draymond.
(03:13):
I thought those two guys just did an unbelove was huge.
Oh yeah. And then as all of their guards did
a great job on Fred van Vliet throughout the game.
A bunch of different guys got minutes on him. The
second piece of it was there's a pretty strong correlation
in this series. With exception of Game four, there was
a pretty strong correlation in this series between Steph's shot
(03:33):
making and the Warriors winning. When he was going offensively,
they were in control, and when he would cool off,
Houston was able to get enough stops to kind of
get in transition and get going. And one of the
things that Steph did in that second half was he
just stopped running off ball and he just started bringing
the ball to the floor, and he brought the ball
to the floor and he just started spamming high ball
(03:54):
screens and he got a bunch of good looks for
himself and for his teammates out of that. That has
been kind of the break last in case of emergency
Warriors offense for years now is when things bogged down
for them, they'll just let Steph run high, pick and
roll and again, like he had. I think he finished
with twenty or twenty something points. That's that's under selling
his impact because he only had he had zero up
(04:15):
until the very end of the first half, and so
he scored at a top tier, superstar level during that
second half stretch when they really pulled away. And the
last piece I wanted to shout out was Buddy Heel.
The numbers coming out of Game six were pretty strong
that the Warriors were better with Buddy Healed on the
floor versus Gary Payton. And this is not an anti
Gary Payton take. I'm a big Gary Payton fan. It's
(04:37):
just they don't need his upside as much in this
particular matchup because they're not guarding, you know, really high
level guards. Next round, they're gonna need him for Anthony Edwards,
they're gonna need him in a big way. But in
this series, with the way Houston was guarding, having that
other shooter on the floor that could really compliment what
Steph was doing, that was a big I thought Gary
Payton getting sick almost helped Steve Kerr in that way
(04:59):
because it don't almost forced him to lean into Buddy Moore,
and Buddy was fantastic. But that was just Championship Warriors
basketball when it mattered, and a lot of immature basketball
from Houston, and that was the difference.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, I mean, shot making matters Buddy, I think finished
was seven and threes. You know, it was an interesting
game when Curry was struggling in the first half, Buddy
was huge. I thought Pod toed a couple of big baskets.
You know, there's gonna be a people that are just
never gonna like Draymond Green, Like I get it. But
he had a couple of big plays, just big baskets,
(05:33):
and you know, then he was shooting back to back
threes and that was the end of the clock. And
it was bad Warrior possessions. But when when stead I mean,
at one point, I'm looking up and I'm like, Warriors lead,
and Steph it had like two points or four points.
I'm like, God, they're in good shape. This is just incredible.
(05:53):
And you know the thing about Curry when you watch
him and Steph has these games, Steph has these halfs
here where'd you go? And it's not that he needs
the confidence, but Steph is not a He's such an
collaborative force that if he's off, he's really good at decoy,
(06:15):
he's really good at off ball stuff. And sometimes I
almost feel like Kurs say, bro, this is your offense,
Like we're not gonna do this you're gonna bring the
ball up and make shots. And I don't know, I
just I felt like the team knew Steph wasn't playing
great and everybody else gonna And then did you notice
when Steph was playing great, everybody finds their perfect role,
(06:39):
you know. Butler's like, okay, now they need me late,
I'm gonna take He had like a little six nothing run.
But I find that the team there's a harmony, especially
with like Pods has it now like he knows Okay,
Steph's on a heater, Steph's hot set screens for Steph.
You can sense the team's senses. Okay, Steph's back, guys,
everybody get the pitching staff order. Now everybody knows where
(07:01):
they're spot on the floor, is right.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, In general, you can tell that the team kind
of senses whether or not Steph's in one of those zones.
And I mean Steph will send his own signals, like
there are stretches. There were stretches over the entire second
half of the series where you could tell Steph was
like in this part of the game, I'm not really
looking to be aggressive, I'm looking to save energy. And
(07:24):
I thought it was really interesting. I don't know if
you notice as Colin, but whenever he would in the
second half, he was doing this to save energy. He
would come off the high ball screen and if they
ever if Houston ever defended it, well like if they
didn't get anything out of that first action, he would
like take whoever was guarding him, whether it was Dylan
Brooks or Men Thompson or whatever. He goes stand out
by almost half court and just let them faceguard him
(07:45):
out there so the other guys could play four on four.
And it's just part of the energy conservation piece of
it that you could tell Steph was finding little parts.
The point is is like with Steph, it's flurries. It's
these six or seven possessions where he makes four or
five shots and it blows a five point lead to
a seventeen point lead. Steph is very much an avalanche
type of player, and that's the entire team is built
(08:06):
around that. And to your point, like I mentioned off
the top, when we were talking about the defensive end,
the two things they had to fix where they needed
to get Steph going and they needed to get Fred
and Shangoon under control. You want to know why the
Warriors had a lead. Despite Steph not playing so well.
They completely shut down Shangouon and Fred to start the game,
and look, Draymond had a really bad offensive series. There
(08:27):
were some very specific reasons for that. The Rockets put
Fred van Vliet on him so that they could switch
ball screens. One of the biggest pieces of offensive utility
for Draymond on this team is him running ball screens
with Steph and getting to make the decisions as the
guy leading the four on three on the other side
of the team, blitzing Steph Curry. As soon as they
(08:47):
put Fred van Vliet on him, it kind of neutralizes
Draymond offensively and turns him into a spot up shooter,
which by the way, he did hit a couple threes
to start this game. But that puts Draymond in a
predicament where he has to be fantastic defensively to really
be valuable, and I thought Draymond was amazing defensively in
this game. He was the one who stonewalled Shane Gun
(09:08):
was not getting to his short hook in this game.
He kept having to turn over his right shoulder and
take one like fadeaways along the baseline. Draymon had Shane
Gun in jail tonight, and so like you always have
to look beyond just the box score with him, he's
the foundational piece of everything that makes them great.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Defensively, It's gonna be interesting for Houston because, like a men,
Thompson was so valuable to them tonight when especially when
Van Vliet, I mean Jalen Green to me, I'd move
him tomorrow. He's a little like Coamingo, where I know
I'm getting a world class athlete, but Jonathan just doesn't naturally.
He doesn't feel natural Offensively, he doesn't. Sometimes he's like
(09:46):
a lost kid at the park, like he's just kind
of like I'm not sure where I fit and you're like, dude,
you are long an athletic, get near the rim, something
good will happen, and he's hovering on the outside.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
A men.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Thompson makes himself so it's so useful. It doesn't matter
what it is. It's keeping a ball active, it's on
the floor, it's being a defender, Like the dude is
just a classic an annoyance. And then offensively, he's just
so aggressive. It's it's not Westbrook, but it's some guys
(10:17):
in this league that are so aggressive they just players
don't want to face them, they don't want to guard them,
they don't want to be in their space. Butler's got
a little bit of that, but he's a much better
offensive player. But I was thinking, as I watch Houston,
I would keep Shangoon who Milwaukee would want to be
on at trade. Anybody would, And I would keep Aman Thompson.
But I was talking to an NFLGM years and years ago.
(10:40):
He goes, when you make a big trade, everybody thinks
we want draft picks, but I don't want nine draft picks.
Your team gets too young, and like veteran coaches get
really frustrated with twenty two year olds, Houston is literally
too young. Like they go to the bench and it's
a twenty two year old and there's and I and
I said, I keep Shangoon young, I keep Amen Thompson.
(11:04):
I would move some of those young players. I felt like,
I mean, Van Vliet's great, doesn't he really knows his role.
But I think sometimes they need to develop these offensive players.
These young guys, they're dependent. If Fred's not hitting, they
can really struggle Jason at half court, and I mean
just getting good looks if he's struggling.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
There were points in this game where I was like, man,
I kind of think a Men Thompson or Jabari Smith
Junior going one on one is a better option than
Shangun and Fred because of how in jail those two
guys were. You know, I was thinking about it tonight
as we were watching these crazy Amen Thompson like wing
drives where they kind of just let him if he
brings the ball up in transition and he comes up
(11:47):
the left wing and he likes the matchup in front
of him, they'll kind of just space and let him
go one on one. And it actually reminds me a
little bit as Ion Williamson in the sense that like
no one can keep him in front off the dribble,
and then he just pops up off the ground just
short of the rim, and he could shoot little floors,
short jump shots and little scoops all over the place.
He had an insane move tonight where he had a
behind the back dribble into like a crazy up and
(12:09):
under on the other side of the rim, and I
was like, good God, this is like an NBA Superstar
type of play. But Amn Thompson to me is completely untouchable.
Shane Goon, It's one of those things where you barter
with him. But if if Milwaukee goes we're hanging up
the phone, but push in the table, I'll call it
in right, then you make that sort of deal. But ultimately,
like there's a Men Thompson succeeding in this series and
(12:33):
guys of Kaminga and Jalen Green not succeeding in this series,
I actually think is a very interesting kind of storyline
in the sense that they're all freaky athletes. But there's
two things with the men Thompson that separates him from
the other two athletes. Amen Thompson is an elite on
ball defender, yes Kaminga and Jalen Green are not. And
(12:54):
then a Men Thompson is elite processor in the middle
of the floor. He is he makes quick decisions, and
he gets the ball where it needs to go. Those
are both the specific reasons why Jalen Green and Kaminga
struggles so much on offense. Amen Thompson is useful athleticism
because he has a really high basketball IQ and he's
great at one thing on defense already, which is what
(13:17):
he can do on the ball. Kaminga and Green, they're
not great at anything, and they're both poor processors, which
is kind of a death sentence for an athlete, especially
when you get in the postseason and all of a
sudden like quickly reading the forlor and making decisions is
the difference between success and failure in many cases.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I think the Warriors could struggle against Minnesota because Minnesota
offers you size, but with veteran half court experience, so
you like it. Sometimes with Houston, you know when the
Golden State waive the white flag and that Game five,
they were telling you this theme's not beating us back.
(13:53):
We feel really good about this series. You can't give
games to Minnesota. You're not giving anything to Minnesota. I
think I think Minnesota size. I think they're coaching staff.
I mean, I think Ant won't have as many great
looks as needed against the Lakers. They're gonna throw more
bodies at him. I think, you know, I think Draymond Green.
I mean, they'll just throw different looks and bodies. So
(14:15):
I don't think Ant will have Maybe he will, but
I don't think. I think sometimes Ant saw Lucas straddle
over to him and thought, Okay, this is a bucket.
Which way do I want to take him? But I
don't know if this is it doesn't feel like a
great matchup for Golden State here.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
So you know, it's interesting, Colin. I came away from
the first round feeling like Golden State has no chance
against OKAC, but I actually think that they have a
pretty decent chance against Minnesota. Let me let me give
my two cents here because it's it's kind of a
basketball matchup piece. So one of the reasons why Houston
(14:51):
guarded Steph so well is they have a bunch of
really quick players and that quickness was very attentive to
the detail and they didn't let Steph get easy ones
off ball. Oklahoma City is Leyden. Their roster is Layden
with players like that, super fast, super smart. Minnesota is
a little bit more upright and big. And one of
(15:15):
the things that stood out to me in this series
was Steph felt really comfortable one on one against Jabari Smith.
We had a late iso against him in this game
and against Dylan Brooks. They're bigger wings that struggle to
shift their weight from side to side. That's the first
piece of it. I think Steph is gonna like his
matchups against nas Reed, Julius Randall, even Jada McDaniels a
(15:37):
little bit as a taller wing. The second piece of
it is, I spent this last week watching a bunch
of Minnesota Golden State film because I just assumed they
would close it out, which took to this point. But
they did end up closing it out, and Golden State
won three straight games against Minnesota, and in the last
two games in particular, they were clutch time games and
nos Reed, Anthony Edwards, and Julius Randall multiple times lost
(15:57):
focus off ball when Steph was running around and they
left him wide open and he burned them. Here's why
that matters. The Lakers series was very different. You have
these two really big forwards and Luca and Lebron. There
are these big, strong forwards that are playing one on
one basketball. There's no fancy approach other than I'm better
(16:18):
than you one on one trying to score because I'm
bigger and stronger. That fed right into the strength of
Minnesota's defense, which is they have a bunch of big, strong,
perimeter afletes. Golden State presents an entirely different challenge. It's
a mental challenge, not a physical challenge. It's he's running
in circles. There's all this ball in player movement, and
you've got to be paying attention. And we even have
(16:40):
a recent example with Anthony Edwards in the Conference finals
last year where he got cooked by Kyrie Irving because
Dallas was running him through a bunch of off ball
screening actions. Yes, I remember, so one of the things
that I'm looking at in this series. And by the way,
for the record, Colin, I think Minnesota probably will be favored,
and I'm not saying I'm gonna pick Golden State, but
I've seen enough from the specific ways that Minnesota guards
(17:03):
Golden State in the way that Steph can succeed against bigger,
taller players because he's just so much faster. I do
think Golden State's gonna present some problems for them, and
that's not even before we even get to the fact
that Golden State is a flat out substantially better defense
than the Lakers were, and it will be a very
different challenge. They're more athletic on the perimeter, and they're
much better on the back line. They have the best
(17:24):
defensive player of our era there, so I do think
it'll be a closer and more competitive series than people realize.
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Speaker 1 (19:15):
I want to talk Cleveland getting beat in Game one
against Indiana. So this won't get as much publicity as
a Warriors game. But the first thing is Darius Garland's out,
so your point person's out, and again Donovan Mitchell's a score.
They have scoring guards, but it's like losing your quarterback.
(19:39):
Whereas Indiana. I think Indiana plays esthetically as pleasing a
game to watch as anybody in the league. They play
with pace. They can shoot threes, but don't rely on them.
They're young, they're athletic, they have length, don't depend on it.
And Halliburton just doesn't turn the ball over. He's an
incredibly smart player who they're pacing their ball movement. They
(20:03):
get good shots, they're not they they rarely are sloppy.
They're rarely out of control, which for a team that
plays with pace, often you get out of control. And
I'm and some of this, I'm just like, Okay, Cleveland
doesn't have their their setup guy in the back court.
Like some of this is great backcourt missing their missing
their guy. But another part of this is when I
(20:23):
watched it, I just thought, Oh, the Pacers are playing
their game. This is what they look like when they're
playing their best basketball. Good pace, good shots. Halliburton's controlling
all of it. And I'm like this this could be
a problem. Like, I mean, Cleveland can really defend rim wing,
(20:45):
like they're really good and we all know this, but boy,
they there were there were pacing things today where I'm like, man,
Cleveland just looks out of sorts. That's what it looked
like to me, just visually. Cleveland was not in sync today.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Why this was a really fascinating game. One, I think
you're hitting the nail on the head in the sense
that I thought today was mostly that the Pacers, just
the Pacers just send a message to the basketball world,
like this is what they look like when they're at
their best. I thought you put that perfectly. They did it.
First of all, they defended Donovan Mitchell extremely well, pressured
him all over the place, played him into a really
inefficient game. I want to get to that in a second,
(21:20):
because that's Donovan Mitchell tried to conquer his demons today
by scoring, and I thought that that was a mistake.
That's something to keep in mind. But specifically with Indian offense,
they do such an amazing job of taking every single
easy opportunity that ever presents itself in the game. If
you're running up the floor and Tyree sees you, he's
(21:40):
throwing the kick ahead pass. If he's just dribbling on
the wing and you're on the opposite wing and your
man kind of sinks in towards the top of the key,
he's just gonna swing it to you every single time.
And if you're on the opposite corner and your man's
got a foot in the paint because he's trying to help,
Tyresee is gonna throw it over the top and he's
gonna hit you every single time. And there is very
much an empowerment from Rick Carlisle goes down the roster. Yes,
(22:01):
everyone is encouraged to be aggressive on the catch every
single time, and so Tyresee is the relentless advantage hunter.
And I thought the Cavs were entirely caught off guard
by that. Today. They were really sloppy off ball, left
a ton of easy openings that they can clean up
in game two, and I'm sure Kenny Atkinson will be
all over that. But Tyresee was hunting those advantages and
(22:23):
then everybody was just in a groove playing off of him,
attacking every single time time Tyree hits them. And Tyrese also,
this is the subplot here. Tyres is what's bringing the
real ceiling here where they look like they can actually
beat anybody, and it's because Tyres is playing like he
did to start last year. There was this thing that
happened at the start of last year before he heard
(22:44):
his hamstring, where he was killing everybody Colin. Remember he won,
Remember he won the n season tournament Eastern Conference and
ended up losing it.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Then he disappeared like then he just he got injured
and he just got hurt. Everybody went what happened to him?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
That hamstring piece is his downhill ability to beat bigs
and switches, because the key with Tyree Salliburton is he's
such a gifted passer that if you run traditional ball
screen coverages against him, he'll pick you apart. So what
you have to do is you have to switch against him.
He scored or generated a basket in a switch against
Jared Allen six times today. Literally five of five of
(23:18):
his nine made baskets were directly against Jared Allen in switches.
And what that is is it's the explosiveness. You saw
that step through bank shot he hit on Jared Allen late,
he was driving past Dean Wade on switches like ty
Reese when he's explosive, is a bigger, more athletic Steve Nash.
He just needs to have that extra bit of explosion,
which has been inconsistent since he heard his hamstring. But
(23:40):
The subtle thing that makes Indiana like a legitimate puncher's
chance threat to win the conference is just how high
of a level Tyrese is playing on the other side
of the floor. Like Donovan Mitchell, I was watching the
I rewatched the game during the commercial breaks of that
Houston game, and I just it was almost like a
dude trying to ram his head through a brick wall.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
It was like, no questions, two guys took yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
And it's like what made Cleveland so great all year
the drive in kick game, Max Strus hitting catch and
shoot threes, Sam Merril hitting catch and shoot threes, DeAndre
Hunter hitting catch and shoot threes. That's their game in
the game calling. Indiana generated seventeen unguarded catch and shoot
jump shots. Cleveland generated ten. That's the difference in the approach.
Donovan Mitchell four assists, thirty shot attempts. He tried, He
(24:27):
tried to win this game playing hero ball, and it
got the entire team out of rhythm. And so even
if Darius Garland is hurt and not at one hundred percent,
just having him back out there to help the flow
of the offense I think will go a long way.
And Cleveland does have a lot to clean up on defense.
Andy threw a great punch. I do think this is
gonna be a long series.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Though, Okay, I gotta pay respect to Denver, so I
took you know, it's really interesting for those listenings. So
the Clippers go into a Game seven, and you think,
to your I said before the series, I said, Tyler
is worth a game because generally Denver's playing badly. At
the end of the year, they replace their coach, like
everything just spells trouble. Then they play an experienced Clippers
(25:06):
team with an excellent coaching staff, and I'm like, this
is bad news. And yet the late game execution, the
adjustments my Denver. It's like, all right, maybe it's the players,
maybe it's the staff, but I felt late in games
(25:26):
first credit to Westbrook who I Westbrook has found some
sort of self awareness in the last month. He's had
these quotes. It goes to the podium and he's like,
you know, my game doesn't look like everybody else's. He goes,
but I know what I am. I bring a lot
of energy. Now sometimes that energy is a turnover, and
(25:48):
I'm like, oh my god, who unlocked this? Who unlocked this? Westbrook.
But it's like, I have no problem with that game
if you know it. And he was for years he
get very defensive, and now he's like, hey man, my
game doesn't look like everybody. So it's like, that's right, Russell,
that's exactly right. He's such a tone setter, he's so relentless,
(26:10):
and now he's already come to terms with me. Hey listen, man,
it's a different game. It's not always great. He like
almost laughs at it. He's like, it just doesn't look
like yours. But I got to tell you, Denver, considering,
I mean, you would predict. I thought, who's playing poorly
at the end of the year. Fires a respected coach
plays a veteran team that's well coached and win. I
(26:33):
don't know why the reason was, but some of it
is Yokich, some of it's Westbrook. Is more of a
just disappointment from the Clippers.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
It's all of it, Colin, because I mean, to your point,
you want to know how a team that is, in
my opinion, more talented. I think the Clippers have more talent,
and they were playing substantially better, better, more experienced game.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
They're on fire for the last forty days.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Oh yeah, and they were in commanding position to win
the series call and they were up two to one,
like they should have that series. Like there's a whole
there's a whole other conversation to have about the Clippers
being in the position that they're being in. But I
want to credit Nicole Jokic. He's the main one that
stood out to me. What happened after Game three when
the Clippers bloom really blew them out and took control
of the series. Jokic got on his guys in the
(27:16):
huddle and was like, this is this is not good enough?
In Game three though in the third quarter, or excuse me,
in Game four, So Clippers up to one in Game four,
it was close at the half. In that third quarter,
Jokic played one of his best offensive quarters of the
of the series to that point and built that first
bit of margin. And really since that point, for the
(27:38):
entire second half of the series, the Nuggets scored the
ball extremely well. They had like a one to twenty
seven something offensive rating with Yokic on the floor, like
they they were excellent offensively after that third that Game
three kind of blow up that they had, and I
thought jokicch in his overall intensity really led the way.
Jamal Murray obviously was fantastic. Aaron Gordon was amazing in
(28:00):
Game seven.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Christian Brown to start Game seven was really good.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
And he was yes, and he was the guy who
did the great job on James Harden throughout the series.
In general, throughout the tail end of the series, I
just thought Denver was in control. I never really was.
Once we got to that point, I felt pretty sure
that Denver was going to close the deal. I picked
the Clippers to win the series at the start of
the series, but once we got to once we got
(28:24):
to Game four, I picked Denver. I just felt like
I felt like Jokic was just so much more in
control of the half court dynamic, and you know, then
to take it over to the Clippers side, you know,
with James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, the two of them,
they just aren't they just aren't good enough right now
to be able to compete in the Western Conference with
their shot creation. Kawhi Leonard struggled to handle double teams
(28:44):
all series and just wasn't aggressive enough. James Harden, it
was like feast or famine with him. I mean, he
has eleven in game five. He has seven in game seven,
and one last thing to before I kick it back
to you about Westbrook. One of the things I loved
about his quote and he used the same phrase that
you used when we did the pop on Wednesday. You
said a force of nature, and he was like, I'm
a force of nature. This is what I do. And
(29:05):
the way I interpreted it, it was almost like he
was saying, like, my style is to not think but
just to just act. Yeah, which is funny because in
the quote he was like, I definitely think, like I'm
a smart player, and I know he is, and that's
not what I mean, but like, he's definitely an instinct player,
like he follows his gut and he doesn't second guess himself,
(29:25):
and that comes with mistakes naturally. But when you combine
that like audacity and confidence with his overwhelming athletic traits,
it makes him a wrecking ball in like the best
possible way, and he can god like that stretch towards
the end of the game where he's just getting steals
and going out and transition and dunking everything like that
is force of nature basketball, and yeah, comes laid in
(29:48):
with mistakes. But I would argue the thing that's put
him over the top is one his ability to operate
as a cutter around Jokic, and two just him becoming
a better three point shooter. Him becoming a better three
point shooter has gotten rid of all the claimings that
were part of those bad plays and mistakes that were
really causing him to hurt his impact.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
He's also a momentum player, so you notice this in
this series. If he hit a three, he hit another.
And I think sometimes, I mean, he's obviously a very
confident guy. The way he dresses and his attitude, he's
a very confident guy. But even the most confident Alex
Rodriguez got dropped to eighth in a batting order once
for the Yankee. I don't care how confident you are.
Everybody struggles, right, Like basketball is so much of basketball,
(30:30):
more than any sport, is a confidence game. Like even
Steph Curry will have these zero for six stretches. You're like,
this is just not a good steff and he'll go
off ball and move around, and so Westbrook can have
these bad stretches. But the truth is when I watch him,
and like a Men Thompson, a Men Thompson has so
(30:53):
much value because he's so relentless and so aggressive that guys,
he's a pain in the ass to guard. He's you
know what I mean, Like he's Westbrook's hard. He's hard
to guard. He's in your face. He's physical and by
the way, like a running back that's five to eight
with leverage, Russell's got those this trunk and like he's
(31:16):
really strong. And so you're a six seven guy and
Westbrook's got leverage on you and he's banging you around.
He rebounds exceedingly well for his size. And so there
are these basketball players and they're very rare that there.
It's just like a genetic, like a they're just relentless
athletes and it's and so I love that Westbrook's like listen, man,
(31:40):
it doesn't look like everybody else's game, but I know
what I bring and it's like, that's exactly what you do.
And like a lot of times, like Jalen Green doesn't
know what he is and I don't think he even
has a pathway to it. Like Westbrook's come full circle
to being a guy that I always thought lack of
self awareness, having total self awareness. It's like, hey, man,
(32:00):
I'm going to a thousand miles an hour. I know
what I'm doing in this series, so I think when
you do what we do for a living, and I'm
critical of people, you also have to be fair. I
don't care if it's Baker Mayfield or Russell Westbrook. I
watched him in this series, and Yokich is obviously the
best player in the world I thought. I thought Westbrook
was really valuable to the Nuggets. Do they match up
(32:22):
with OKC at all?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
This is a matchup I was hoping for. As much
as I thought the Clippers would beat Denver, I didn't
think the Clippers had nearly the playmaking talent to beat
Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City plays very aggressively up in passing
lanes and on the ball and ball pressure to try
to force turnovers and get out in transition. That's like
one of their foundational traits. They're the best defense in
the league and they get out and transition and run
(32:47):
on you like crazy. Denver is an elite, like top
tier passing team. They passed the ball extremely well. They're
also a great screen setting team, which is very important
because that's how the get free. Guys like Jamal Murray
are gonna be go by lou Dort. You've got to
get lou Dort off of Jamal Murray. The main thing, though,
is Jokich is a superpower. Okay See cannot guard him.
(33:08):
He posted up sixty two times against Oklahoma City this year.
That's over fifteen times per game. He averaged only ten
against everyone else. This is a matchup that he loves
to post up again against a lot they successfully can
set screens to get Jamal Murray open. He had a
big game in this matchup this year. They each one
on each other's floor once it was two and two
(33:28):
in the season series. Denver's gonna be able to score though,
and that's the main reason why I think it'll be
a longer, more interesting series. In their last matchup, they
hung one hundred and forty points on him. The Jokich machine,
the Jokich Murray machine. They're gonna score against ok See
now in theory on the other side of the floor.
This is a type of matchup that favors Denver in
(33:48):
the sense that they can load up and it's not
a real like space you out type of team. Oklahoma
City can get cold from three. Sometimes they can be,
you know, a little bit sloppy with their passings sometimes.
But that said, Oklahoma City's a lot older than they
were last year, more mature than they were last year,
more experienced than they were last year. I was really
impressed with them in their first round series because Memphis
(34:10):
actually plays a similar style of defense to Denver in
terms of loading up the strong side, and I thought
Oklahoma City passed through Memphis really well, so okay Se
should be favored. I was stunned at how much they
were favored by. They were like minus seven hundred to
win the series, which I thought was crazy on DraftKings,
like I would have thought more like a minus three
hundred minus three fifty kind of favorite. Like I think
(34:31):
Okayse should be favored, but Vegas is saying Denver doesn't
have a chance. I think Denver's going to score, and
that is just more than enough to make this a
competitive series in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
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Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
You know, it's let's go back to the Warriors and
we can finish it with this. Jason timf obviously hoops tonight.
A lot of the old teams lost. The Clippers were
an old team they lost. The Lakers were an old
team they lost. Milwaukee was an old team they lost.
You know, Golden State's an old team and they won.
Some of that is because they were playing a young
team that feels like they're a year or two bind okase,
(35:30):
Like they're just not like Cleveland was three years ago. Okay,
see was last year. Some of it's just the baby
step nature of this league. Houston wasn't ready to win
a series and even though they had some clear athletic
length and depth advantages. But there is something to be
said about Kerr was really I mean, Peyton's sick cominge
(35:53):
he doesn't want. Basically, they had five guys and then
like a Looney that was the lineup. It's like five
guys Looney. There is something to be said for Steve Kerr.
He was a great broadcaster, smart executive, really good player.
He did a lot of coaching tonight, there was a
(36:13):
lot of I mean, when Curry's struggling, he is going
through lineups. I mean, in Cominga's off the floor, Loony's in.
I'm keeping Looney in. I want to talk a little
bit about Kerr. All these old teams lost. It would
have been very easy on a night if I'd have
said to you didn't watch the game. Yeah, Curry was
awful in the first half, and it was just Warriors
(36:36):
really struggled offensively and they won. I think some of
it is I think Kerr has such a heartbeat. I
mean we said into this series, Jason, oh, they have
to play Cominga, and they really didn't and it worked.
I mean, and I've got have told you, yeah, Comingo
won't play much. What he does he clearly frustrates the
(36:56):
hell out of Kerr. Oh yeah, Game seven, Peyton, They'll
be sick as a dog. There was a million reasons
why they should have lost this series. I mean, wasn't there.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah. I texted our mutual friend Logan Swain in the
middle of this game and I said, man, because you
know he's a fellow Lakers fan, as we've been lamenting
the disappointing end of the season, and I said to him, like,
I still think Kerr and the Warriors are just miles
smarter than the Lakers, And it just drives me crazy
when I'm watching him, because Kurr just played every button
(37:27):
right tonight. Now, obviously there was the illness to GP two,
but it was right. Buddy was the guy. He needed
to lean his buddy. That was the right move. Quick
hooks with Kaminga. He got two quick shifts. He made
a bunch of mistakes right away and he was They
called it. He called the time out to get him
out in one of them. So like like like, so
he had quick hooks on Kaminga going towards Kevon Looney
in this game instead of Quinton Post. He understood this
(37:49):
is going to be a bloodpath. This game is going
to be about rebounding, not about spacing, So we're going
to go towards Kevan Luney. I thought that was smart.
The the against the zone. I won't get into the
the intricacies on here because it just would take too long.
But there were a couple of specific things that they
tried right away and got really good looks against the zone,
which was the big story because in Game six when
they lost control, Houston zoned them eighteen times in the
(38:12):
fourth quarter and they scored three times in eighteen possessions.
So that was a huge storyline coming into game seven.
Would Kurr and the guys be able to solve the zone.
They did a much better job against it tonight. Every
single little button that needed to get pushed got pushed,
and it was the difference. I mean, this game was
a three point game in the second half. I think
we underestimate how much these series come down to pretty
(38:34):
tight margins. Like if you really look at Denver, look
at Denver versus the Clippers, You've got an overtime game.
You've got Aaron Gordon dunking at the buzzer to win
one of the games. Look at Detroit versus New York.
All those games swung on crunch time sequences. Lakers Minnesota
Game three in Game four were where the series were decided.
Both of those games were tied in the final minutes,
(38:56):
in Minnesota pulled away. Like, the margins are slim, and
if you haven't advanced in the strategic side of things,
with your coaching staff. It makes a massive difference.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Hey, so we all make mistakes, but owning up to
them is the right thing to do. So you know
Degree cool Rush deodorant right, Well, last year they changed
the formula and it did not go over well with
their fans. So Degrees the whole thing is it turns
up the sweat and odor protection when you turn up
the effort, and good thing it does, because cool Rush
fans really turned up the effort to bring the original
(39:25):
formula back. One guy even started an online petition and
Degree listened. They admitted they ft up. They're bringing back
the original cool Rush scent. They're bringing it back and
it's exactly how you remember it, cool, crisp and freshness
back in Walmart, Target and other stores now for under
four dollars. There's a reason that's been the number one
men's anti persprint for the last decade. It's the same
reason why people were not happy when it changed. So
(39:45):
if you've never tried it, it might be a good
time to see what the fuss is about. Head to
your local Walmart, Target and try the og degree cool
Rush for yourself. Well, I do want to talk about
this obviously, JJ Reddick. I didn't think JJ had a
great last couple of games in the series, okay, And
I was thinking about this. I wanted a walk this
morning in Chicago, and I thought about this. So when
(40:07):
Matt Lafleur got the Green Bay Packers job, he'd never
been good looking, smart guy and Tennessee coordinator, but had
never been a head coach, had never owned the room.
So he goes to this iconic organization, replaces a super
Bowl winning coach, Mike McCarthy. And the first thing I
noticed is they became a very good first quarter team,
(40:29):
much like JJ Reddick, very intentional, you know, classic coordinator,
becomes a head coach the Packers offense first quarter. It
was clearly that he was a great in the film
room coach. That's why he got the Packer job. But
I didn't love his halftime adjustments because as a coordinator,
the coach is doing a lot of the half. He's
(40:49):
doing the talking at half, right, so you're doing a
lot of what the coach wants at half. And then
I thought by year two, Matt Lafleur became a really
good full coach. He came in his first year, he
was a great They took leads that you win seventy
percent of your games in the NFL if you take
a lead, But he wasn't a great adjustment coach he
was year two. Similarly, JJ Reddick Lakers were a very
(41:11):
good first quarter team many times this year that have
these great stretches, very intentional, very good in the film room,
very smart guy. But I do think adjustments take time
to be a great adjuster. Kerr is a great adjuster,
I think Joe. I think Missoula and Boston's gotten much
better at that. It's the you know, playoffs series have
(41:34):
four and five adjustments. Chris Finch's team very good at layering,
and I just think JJ, I think it's just part
of being a rookie head coach. Jason Kidd his first
go around. You know, you're good in the film room,
you're intentional, you come out this is what we do well,
and they don't so much to this league is second half,
(41:56):
last four minutes out of a timeout, and it is
a fair criticism on the film you watch to say
that JJ will become a better overall coach, that there
were times this year that he wasn't. Now maybe I'm
the opposite, is true? But I just didn't think he
was always the greatest adjuster.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
I thought he was a little slow to adjust at times.
I think, you know, I think in general with JJ,
I have had no big picture concern just simply because
I think he's smart, and I think he's hyper competitive
and like kind of obsessive, which I think is what
you just need to be to be good at that job.
Is I think he'll I think he'll have some issues
over over his career with just how hot tempered he
(42:39):
is and how that can rub people the wrong way.
I mean, we saw that with Mike Malone. You can
wear out the room pretty quick, sure if you're a
great coach, and I think those will be things that
he'll have to work out. The perfect example of that
to me was the Warriors Lakers regular season game towards
the end of the year, where like Steve Kerr comes
out for his little interview at the end of the
first quarter, and he's just so calm and cool and collected,
(42:59):
and then they go to JJ for his interview and
he's like clearly mad and angry and agitated, and it's
like it's like you learned too that, like your players
start to I actually learned this from the high school
coach that I coached with. Like you, your players take
on your personality in a lot of cases, and which
is why it's so important for you to kind of
stay as even keeled as you can, because if you
get super emotional and worked up, your players will get
(43:20):
emotional and worked up and stuff like that. But over
the course of the series, I thought he made several mistakes.
There was the at the beginning of the series, the
Lakers just came out looking flat out unprepared for Game
one in terms of the intensity. JJ admitted after the
fact that he thought he made a mistake by not
scrimmaging at all in that week before the game, which
I when I heard that, I was like, wait, you
guys didn't play basketball for a week. I'm like, you're
(43:42):
about to play the Timberwolves. It's going to be a war.
You need to be ready. But to JJ's credit, he
acknowledged it. He understood that there was a mistake there. Offensively,
I thought the team made a key mistake in the
series by not attacking Minnesota's smalls at any point at
any At any point in the series, there was no
extended stretch where Lebron or Luca attempted to post up
in that series. Lebron shot call, This is a crazy
(44:03):
post Lebron. Lebron shot out of the post in that
entire series five times, five times in five games. This
is like literally what he's done in his career, as
like the thing he goes to when his back is
against the ball. He was just unwilling to do it.
But it also goes to Luca. Luca was in attacking smalls.
They were only attacking bigs. There was the substitution pattern
(44:27):
at late in game four, which I think again is
a little bit more convoluted, because you know they win
that game. You're playing Monday morning quarterback in a lot
of ways. But Game five, though, in particular, he switched
his scheme towards double teaming, and they looked completely unprepared,
meaning like they were giving up wide open layups and
dunks to where like if they were a little bit
more schematically prepared for that, they should have been able
(44:49):
to at least tilt that towards the three point line
in certain guys shooting. They looked like an unprepared team
for that scheme, which I think reflects poorly on JJ
but at the end of the day, like I thought,
JJ overwhelmingly in his first year exceeded expectations. Same same,
I don't think JJ is the reason they lost to Minnesota.
I think the reason they lost to Minnesota is Austin
Reeves was awful for the majority of the series and
(45:12):
like literally the Minnesota took him out and Luca when
whenever the series was hanging in the balance, late in
game five, late in game four, late in game three,
Luca was bad and that really was the series. And
like I will, I will always kind of look at
the stars before I look at coaches. But there's no
doubt that JJ's got a lot of room to grow.
I'm just not worried about it because of how competitive,
(45:34):
how smart he is. That stuff will come in time.
I do.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
I do think they have to consider there's some duplication
with Austin Reeves, and they just need somebody's gonna want
Austin Reeves and somebody's gonna be looking to get rid
of a big And it's nothing against Austin. I think
he has value. That wasn't a great series for him, Well,
wasn't a great matchup. I mean, the truth is Minnesota's
athletic and strong and physical, and they pounced on it
(46:00):
and he just couldn't get to the free throw line.
But I look at it and I think he has
served his purpose. He's an unranked player. Use him as
a trade piece. But if you're not going to play
Jackson Hayes against the team with Ruby Gobert, you need
some size. You got to get a legitimate big in here.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Austin Reeves is one of my favorite players, and so
it hurts me to say this because rooting for him
has been and watching him go from like literally an
undrafted guy to like a legitimate player probably deserves thirty
million dollars a year in this league, like he's so good.
And by the way, Colin, this is the first time
in several playoff series that I've watched Austin and thought
that he was overwhelmed, Like he's been very good in
(46:38):
four previous playoff series. So, like Austin, this was a
really bad matchup for him. They're just so athletic. He
caught the Anthony Edwards matchup most of the series and
ant Yeah put him in jail, and Dante DiVincenzo defended
him really well. My thing is it's more just about
roster construction. I don't think you can build a lineup
that succeeds in the modern NBA with two inferior perimeter athletes.
(47:00):
I think that's where you're you're reaching. You're reaching kind
of like below the like mandatory minimum level of athleticism
that you try. And so even though even though like
it makes some sense in the context of Lebron, when
Lebron retires, you're now building around Austin and Luca, and
you would need the other three guys in that lineup
(47:22):
to be like absolute peak athletes for that to work. Yep,
And that's just difficult to do in terms of roster allocation.
And so honestly, when I look at it this summer,
you know, that doesn't mean you get rid of Austin
for nothing, but I begin to look at Austin as
a key asset with which to return somebody that actually
fits this timeline better. And there's the second piece of it,
(47:43):
which is, if you get rid of Austin, you better
have a plan for another ball handler because Lebron is forty,
so like there's got to be a this is this
is gonna be a really fine line that they're walking
this offseason because they need to walk the win now
line alongside Lebron, but they also need to have some
sort of plan post Lebron, and so that's where it
(48:04):
gets tricky. I look at like, you know, if you
could call a Brooklyn and see if you can't package
together Austin and another salary and get like a Cam
Johnson and a Nick Claxton, so you get like a
legit three and D guy and a real center to
put next to Luca and Lebron. But even then you
better be calling behind the scenes to stars and be like, hey,
we're gonna need somebody to come in here and be
(48:25):
Luca's number two pretty soon. And you know, maybe it
ends up being a Kyrie after his injury or something
like that. Who knows, But there's there's definitely a fine
line here that they have to walk in a lot
of different pieces gotta go right. But I left the
series thinking the same way you did, Colin. I'm like,
I love Austin, I'm not sure if he makes a
lot of sense here.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
In the Big Listener, Nico Harrison gave you a little
bit of a roadmap when he had Kyrie and Luca
and like, okay, I need size and rim protection.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
And they were really good and got to the finals.
And I just think that's the reality. It was the
reality with Carmelo Anthon, who wasn't a willing defender. It
was James Harden. There are just players in this league
who are so gifted offensively you overlook stuff. If if
Lebron is old and Luca is your star, you're gonna
need some elite defenders. You need rem protection. That's just
(49:15):
the way it is. It's okay, and you can get it.
I mean they almost pulled off that deal for was
that Mark Williams.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Yeah, And I don't think I don't think he's the
answer either. Colin.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
No, he's always hurt.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Uh, He's not a good defender.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Oh so, he's just a big guy.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
He's just a big guy. He's got a little bit
of Charlotte Hornets itis, so there's always a little bit
of that. Like maybe maybe he bring him in and
make him better. But I didn't love the film that
I saw with him playing defense at Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
All Right, so we get ready for some more unbelievable
NBA playoffs have been so damn fun, just so great
and I could not wait for this game to start,
and I was so too.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
This was one of the biggest games I can remember
in recent history. The ramifications of Golden State.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
The number is going to be huge. The number is
going to be huge for this. And by the way,
let's give credit to the Pacers. Fun watch. If you're
a casual NBA fan, they're just a great pacing, really
smart Halliburton's a tremendous playmaker and passer. They've got well coached,
they've got physicality, they can shoot it. To me, they
(50:21):
don't depend on it. Just a really nice pacing and easy, fun,
smart basketball watch. And they're going to give Cleveland some trouble.
So as always, Jason, this was great.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
As good to see Youconnell, See you next week.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
The volume blending Vice's signature dynamic storytelling with the high
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The volume. The NBA playoffs are heating up. But if
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(01:08):
a sigh of relief with the with the Knicks holding
on to beat the Pistons, and the Warriors holding on
to beat Houston. So I had picked Houston in seven.
I thought their depth and athletic ability. I knew they
weren't a great half court offense, and in the end,
Jason timp hoops to night. In the end, they got
so many bad, awful half court possessions. And you know,
(01:34):
it's funny, just for all the Curry struggles in the
first half cominga you can't have him on the floor
in the end, I'll say this, And it wasn't a
great night offensively. I mean it's one o three eighty nine.
It was not a great night for the Dubs, and
their defense was tremendous. But I did think Jason, on average,
(01:54):
they just got more organized, better looks. Even when Curry
was struggling, Buddy Heel was getting good looks, Pods was
getting good looks. And in the end, it's just youth.
It's like, it's like watching the most talented college basketball
team of all time with Houston. You're like, could have
could we run a play if not for a men
(02:15):
Thompson in the first three quarters, I'm like, would they
even be in the game. So again, just the experience
those crucial second half possessions, Warriors looked more organized, they
looked more experienced.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
To me, Yeah, you know, the Margins are pretty slim.
Calling like it was here we were Houston Game seven,
They're on a run. It's sixty three to sixty. As
a men, Thompson starts taking over there in the third
quarter and it's like literally could have gone either way
at that point. But what happened at that point, which
I thought was super fascinating, was that was really when
Steph Curry started to assert himself. And as I came
out of Game six, there were two main areas where
(02:50):
I thought Golden State had obvious ability to just play better,
so to speak. And it was one they had completely
lost control of Fred van Vliet and Albern Shangoun defensively. Yeah,
they have fifty points in game six. Those two guys
both looked completely held under control into night's game. And
so that was the first big one. Get control of Fred,
get control of Shane gun. Shout out to Looney and Draymond.
(03:13):
I thought those two guys just did an unbelove was huge.
Oh yeah. And then as all of their guards did
a great job on Fred van Vliet throughout the game.
A bunch of different guys got minutes on him. The
second piece of it was there's a pretty strong correlation
in this series. With exception of Game four, there was
a pretty strong correlation in this series between Steph's shot
(03:33):
making and the Warriors winning. When he was going offensively,
they were in control, and when he would cool off,
Houston was able to get enough stops to kind of
get in transition and get going. And one of the
things that Steph did in that second half was he
just stopped running off ball and he just started bringing
the ball to the floor, and he brought the ball
to the floor and he just started spamming high ball
(03:54):
screens and he got a bunch of good looks for
himself and for his teammates out of that. That has
been kind of the break last in case of emergency
Warriors offense for years now is when things bogged down
for them, they'll just let Steph run high, pick and
roll and again, like he had. I think he finished
with twenty or twenty something points. That's that's under selling
his impact because he only had he had zero up
(04:15):
until the very end of the first half, and so
he scored at a top tier, superstar level during that
second half stretch when they really pulled away. And the
last piece I wanted to shout out was Buddy Heel.
The numbers coming out of Game six were pretty strong
that the Warriors were better with Buddy Healed on the
floor versus Gary Payton. And this is not an anti
Gary Payton take. I'm a big Gary Payton fan. It's
(04:37):
just they don't need his upside as much in this
particular matchup because they're not guarding, you know, really high
level guards. Next round, they're gonna need him for Anthony Edwards,
they're gonna need him in a big way. But in
this series, with the way Houston was guarding, having that
other shooter on the floor that could really compliment what
Steph was doing, that was a big I thought Gary
Payton getting sick almost helped Steve Kerr in that way
(04:59):
because it don't almost forced him to lean into Buddy Moore,
and Buddy was fantastic. But that was just Championship Warriors
basketball when it mattered, and a lot of immature basketball
from Houston, and that was the difference.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah, I mean, shot making matters Buddy, I think finished
was seven and threes. You know, it was an interesting
game when Curry was struggling in the first half, Buddy
was huge. I thought Pod toed a couple of big baskets.
You know, there's gonna be a people that are just
never gonna like Draymond Green, Like I get it. But
he had a couple of big plays, just big baskets,
(05:33):
and you know, then he was shooting back to back
threes and that was the end of the clock. And
it was bad Warrior possessions. But when when stead I mean,
at one point, I'm looking up and I'm like, Warriors lead,
and Steph it had like two points or four points.
I'm like, God, they're in good shape. This is just incredible.
(05:53):
And you know the thing about Curry when you watch
him and Steph has these games, Steph has these halfs
here where'd you go? And it's not that he needs
the confidence, but Steph is not a He's such an
collaborative force that if he's off, he's really good at decoy,
(06:15):
he's really good at off ball stuff. And sometimes I
almost feel like Kurs say, bro, this is your offense,
Like we're not gonna do this you're gonna bring the
ball up and make shots. And I don't know, I
just I felt like the team knew Steph wasn't playing
great and everybody else gonna And then did you notice
when Steph was playing great, everybody finds their perfect role,
(06:39):
you know. Butler's like, okay, now they need me late,
I'm gonna take He had like a little six nothing run.
But I find that the team there's a harmony, especially
with like Pods has it now like he knows Okay,
Steph's on a heater, Steph's hot set screens for Steph.
You can sense the team's senses. Okay, Steph's back, guys,
everybody get the pitching staff order. Now everybody knows where
(07:01):
they're spot on the floor, is right.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, In general, you can tell that the team kind
of senses whether or not Steph's in one of those zones.
And I mean Steph will send his own signals, like
there are stretches. There were stretches over the entire second
half of the series where you could tell Steph was
like in this part of the game, I'm not really
looking to be aggressive, I'm looking to save energy. And
(07:24):
I thought it was really interesting. I don't know if
you notice as Colin, but whenever he would in the
second half, he was doing this to save energy. He
would come off the high ball screen and if they
ever if Houston ever defended it, well like if they
didn't get anything out of that first action, he would
like take whoever was guarding him, whether it was Dylan
Brooks or Men Thompson or whatever. He goes stand out
by almost half court and just let them faceguard him
(07:45):
out there so the other guys could play four on four.
And it's just part of the energy conservation piece of
it that you could tell Steph was finding little parts.
The point is is like with Steph, it's flurries. It's
these six or seven possessions where he makes four or
five shots and it blows a five point lead to
a seventeen point lead. Steph is very much an avalanche
type of player, and that's the entire team is built
(08:06):
around that. And to your point, like I mentioned off
the top, when we were talking about the defensive end,
the two things they had to fix where they needed
to get Steph going and they needed to get Fred
and Shangoon under control. You want to know why the
Warriors had a lead. Despite Steph not playing so well.
They completely shut down Shangouon and Fred to start the game,
and look, Draymond had a really bad offensive series. There
(08:27):
were some very specific reasons for that. The Rockets put
Fred van Vliet on him so that they could switch
ball screens. One of the biggest pieces of offensive utility
for Draymond on this team is him running ball screens
with Steph and getting to make the decisions as the
guy leading the four on three on the other side
of the team, blitzing Steph Curry. As soon as they
(08:47):
put Fred van Vliet on him, it kind of neutralizes
Draymond offensively and turns him into a spot up shooter,
which by the way, he did hit a couple threes
to start this game. But that puts Draymond in a
predicament where he has to be fantastic defensively to really
be valuable, and I thought Draymond was amazing defensively in
this game. He was the one who stonewalled Shane Gun
(09:08):
was not getting to his short hook in this game.
He kept having to turn over his right shoulder and
take one like fadeaways along the baseline. Draymon had Shane
Gun in jail tonight, and so like you always have
to look beyond just the box score with him, he's
the foundational piece of everything that makes them great.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Defensively, It's gonna be interesting for Houston because, like a men,
Thompson was so valuable to them tonight when especially when
Van Vliet, I mean Jalen Green to me, I'd move
him tomorrow. He's a little like Coamingo, where I know
I'm getting a world class athlete, but Jonathan just doesn't naturally.
He doesn't feel natural Offensively, he doesn't. Sometimes he's like
(09:46):
a lost kid at the park, like he's just kind
of like I'm not sure where I fit and you're like, dude,
you are long an athletic, get near the rim, something
good will happen, and he's hovering on the outside.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
A men.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Thompson makes himself so it's so useful. It doesn't matter
what it is. It's keeping a ball active, it's on
the floor, it's being a defender, Like the dude is
just a classic an annoyance. And then offensively, he's just
so aggressive. It's it's not Westbrook, but it's some guys
(10:17):
in this league that are so aggressive they just players
don't want to face them, they don't want to guard them,
they don't want to be in their space. Butler's got
a little bit of that, but he's a much better
offensive player. But I was thinking, as I watch Houston,
I would keep Shangoon who Milwaukee would want to be
on at trade. Anybody would, And I would keep Aman Thompson.
But I was talking to an NFLGM years and years ago.
(10:40):
He goes, when you make a big trade, everybody thinks
we want draft picks, but I don't want nine draft picks.
Your team gets too young, and like veteran coaches get
really frustrated with twenty two year olds, Houston is literally
too young. Like they go to the bench and it's
a twenty two year old and there's and I and
I said, I keep Shangoon young, I keep Amen Thompson.
(11:04):
I would move some of those young players. I felt like,
I mean, Van Vliet's great, doesn't he really knows his role.
But I think sometimes they need to develop these offensive players.
These young guys, they're dependent. If Fred's not hitting, they
can really struggle Jason at half court, and I mean
just getting good looks if he's struggling.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
There were points in this game where I was like, man,
I kind of think a Men Thompson or Jabari Smith
Junior going one on one is a better option than
Shangun and Fred because of how in jail those two
guys were. You know, I was thinking about it tonight
as we were watching these crazy Amen Thompson like wing
drives where they kind of just let him if he
brings the ball up in transition and he comes up
(11:47):
the left wing and he likes the matchup in front
of him, they'll kind of just space and let him
go one on one. And it actually reminds me a
little bit as Ion Williamson in the sense that like
no one can keep him in front off the dribble,
and then he just pops up off the ground just
short of the rim, and he could shoot little floors,
short jump shots and little scoops all over the place.
He had an insane move tonight where he had a
behind the back dribble into like a crazy up and
(12:09):
under on the other side of the rim, and I
was like, good God, this is like an NBA Superstar
type of play. But Amn Thompson to me is completely untouchable.
Shane Goon, It's one of those things where you barter
with him. But if if Milwaukee goes we're hanging up
the phone, but push in the table, I'll call it
in right, then you make that sort of deal. But ultimately,
like there's a Men Thompson succeeding in this series and
(12:33):
guys of Kaminga and Jalen Green not succeeding in this series,
I actually think is a very interesting kind of storyline
in the sense that they're all freaky athletes. But there's
two things with the men Thompson that separates him from
the other two athletes. Amen Thompson is an elite on
ball defender, yes Kaminga and Jalen Green are not. And
(12:54):
then a Men Thompson is elite processor in the middle
of the floor. He is he makes quick decisions, and
he gets the ball where it needs to go. Those
are both the specific reasons why Jalen Green and Kaminga
struggles so much on offense. Amen Thompson is useful athleticism
because he has a really high basketball IQ and he's
great at one thing on defense already, which is what
(13:17):
he can do on the ball. Kaminga and Green, they're
not great at anything, and they're both poor processors, which
is kind of a death sentence for an athlete, especially
when you get in the postseason and all of a
sudden like quickly reading the forlor and making decisions is
the difference between success and failure in many cases.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I think the Warriors could struggle against Minnesota because Minnesota
offers you size, but with veteran half court experience, so
you like it. Sometimes with Houston, you know when the
Golden State waive the white flag and that Game five,
they were telling you this theme's not beating us back.
(13:53):
We feel really good about this series. You can't give
games to Minnesota. You're not giving anything to Minnesota. I
think I think Minnesota size. I think they're coaching staff.
I mean, I think Ant won't have as many great
looks as needed against the Lakers. They're gonna throw more
bodies at him. I think, you know, I think Draymond Green.
I mean, they'll just throw different looks and bodies. So
(14:15):
I don't think Ant will have Maybe he will, but
I don't think. I think sometimes Ant saw Lucas straddle
over to him and thought, Okay, this is a bucket.
Which way do I want to take him? But I
don't know if this is it doesn't feel like a
great matchup for Golden State here.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
So you know, it's interesting, Colin. I came away from
the first round feeling like Golden State has no chance
against OKAC, but I actually think that they have a
pretty decent chance against Minnesota. Let me let me give
my two cents here because it's it's kind of a
basketball matchup piece. So one of the reasons why Houston
(14:51):
guarded Steph so well is they have a bunch of
really quick players and that quickness was very attentive to
the detail and they didn't let Steph get easy ones
off ball. Oklahoma City is Leyden. Their roster is Layden
with players like that, super fast, super smart. Minnesota is
a little bit more upright and big. And one of
(15:15):
the things that stood out to me in this series
was Steph felt really comfortable one on one against Jabari Smith.
We had a late iso against him in this game
and against Dylan Brooks. They're bigger wings that struggle to
shift their weight from side to side. That's the first
piece of it. I think Steph is gonna like his
matchups against nas Reed, Julius Randall, even Jada McDaniels a
(15:37):
little bit as a taller wing. The second piece of
it is, I spent this last week watching a bunch
of Minnesota Golden State film because I just assumed they
would close it out, which took to this point. But
they did end up closing it out, and Golden State
won three straight games against Minnesota, and in the last
two games in particular, they were clutch time games and
nos Reed, Anthony Edwards, and Julius Randall multiple times lost
(15:57):
focus off ball when Steph was running around and they
left him wide open and he burned them. Here's why
that matters. The Lakers series was very different. You have
these two really big forwards and Luca and Lebron. There
are these big, strong forwards that are playing one on
one basketball. There's no fancy approach other than I'm better
(16:18):
than you one on one trying to score because I'm
bigger and stronger. That fed right into the strength of
Minnesota's defense, which is they have a bunch of big, strong,
perimeter afletes. Golden State presents an entirely different challenge. It's
a mental challenge, not a physical challenge. It's he's running
in circles. There's all this ball in player movement, and
you've got to be paying attention. And we even have
(16:40):
a recent example with Anthony Edwards in the Conference finals
last year where he got cooked by Kyrie Irving because
Dallas was running him through a bunch of off ball
screening actions. Yes, I remember, so one of the things
that I'm looking at in this series. And by the way,
for the record, Colin, I think Minnesota probably will be favored,
and I'm not saying I'm gonna pick Golden State, but
I've seen enough from the specific ways that Minnesota guards
(17:03):
Golden State in the way that Steph can succeed against bigger,
taller players because he's just so much faster. I do
think Golden State's gonna present some problems for them, and
that's not even before we even get to the fact
that Golden State is a flat out substantially better defense
than the Lakers were, and it will be a very
different challenge. They're more athletic on the perimeter, and they're
much better on the back line. They have the best
(17:24):
defensive player of our era there, so I do think
it'll be a closer and more competitive series than people realize.
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Speaker 1 (19:15):
I want to talk Cleveland getting beat in Game one
against Indiana. So this won't get as much publicity as
a Warriors game. But the first thing is Darius Garland's out,
so your point person's out, and again Donovan Mitchell's a score.
They have scoring guards, but it's like losing your quarterback.
(19:39):
Whereas Indiana. I think Indiana plays esthetically as pleasing a
game to watch as anybody in the league. They play
with pace. They can shoot threes, but don't rely on them.
They're young, they're athletic, they have length, don't depend on it.
And Halliburton just doesn't turn the ball over. He's an
incredibly smart player who they're pacing their ball movement. They
(20:03):
get good shots, they're not they they rarely are sloppy.
They're rarely out of control, which for a team that
plays with pace, often you get out of control. And
I'm and some of this, I'm just like, Okay, Cleveland
doesn't have their their setup guy in the back court.
Like some of this is great backcourt missing their missing
their guy. But another part of this is when I
(20:23):
watched it, I just thought, Oh, the Pacers are playing
their game. This is what they look like when they're
playing their best basketball. Good pace, good shots. Halliburton's controlling
all of it. And I'm like this this could be
a problem. Like, I mean, Cleveland can really defend rim wing,
(20:45):
like they're really good and we all know this, but boy,
they there were there were pacing things today where I'm like, man,
Cleveland just looks out of sorts. That's what it looked
like to me, just visually. Cleveland was not in sync today.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Why this was a really fascinating game. One, I think
you're hitting the nail on the head in the sense
that I thought today was mostly that the Pacers, just
the Pacers just send a message to the basketball world,
like this is what they look like when they're at
their best. I thought you put that perfectly. They did it.
First of all, they defended Donovan Mitchell extremely well, pressured
him all over the place, played him into a really
inefficient game. I want to get to that in a second,
(21:20):
because that's Donovan Mitchell tried to conquer his demons today
by scoring, and I thought that that was a mistake.
That's something to keep in mind. But specifically with Indian offense,
they do such an amazing job of taking every single
easy opportunity that ever presents itself in the game. If
you're running up the floor and Tyree sees you, he's
(21:40):
throwing the kick ahead pass. If he's just dribbling on
the wing and you're on the opposite wing and your
man kind of sinks in towards the top of the key,
he's just gonna swing it to you every single time.
And if you're on the opposite corner and your man's
got a foot in the paint because he's trying to help,
Tyresee is gonna throw it over the top and he's
gonna hit you every single time. And there is very
much an empowerment from Rick Carlisle goes down the roster. Yes,
(22:01):
everyone is encouraged to be aggressive on the catch every
single time, and so Tyresee is the relentless advantage hunter.
And I thought the Cavs were entirely caught off guard
by that. Today. They were really sloppy off ball, left
a ton of easy openings that they can clean up
in game two, and I'm sure Kenny Atkinson will be
all over that. But Tyresee was hunting those advantages and
(22:23):
then everybody was just in a groove playing off of him,
attacking every single time time Tyree hits them. And Tyrese also,
this is the subplot here. Tyres is what's bringing the
real ceiling here where they look like they can actually
beat anybody, and it's because Tyres is playing like he
did to start last year. There was this thing that
happened at the start of last year before he heard
(22:44):
his hamstring, where he was killing everybody Colin. Remember he won,
Remember he won the n season tournament Eastern Conference and
ended up losing it.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Then he disappeared like then he just he got injured
and he just got hurt. Everybody went what happened to him?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
That hamstring piece is his downhill ability to beat bigs
and switches, because the key with Tyree Salliburton is he's
such a gifted passer that if you run traditional ball
screen coverages against him, he'll pick you apart. So what
you have to do is you have to switch against him.
He scored or generated a basket in a switch against
Jared Allen six times today. Literally five of five of
(23:18):
his nine made baskets were directly against Jared Allen in switches.
And what that is is it's the explosiveness. You saw
that step through bank shot he hit on Jared Allen late,
he was driving past Dean Wade on switches like ty
Reese when he's explosive, is a bigger, more athletic Steve Nash.
He just needs to have that extra bit of explosion,
which has been inconsistent since he heard his hamstring. But
(23:40):
The subtle thing that makes Indiana like a legitimate puncher's
chance threat to win the conference is just how high
of a level Tyrese is playing on the other side
of the floor. Like Donovan Mitchell, I was watching the
I rewatched the game during the commercial breaks of that
Houston game, and I just it was almost like a
dude trying to ram his head through a brick wall.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
It was like, no questions, two guys took yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
And it's like what made Cleveland so great all year
the drive in kick game, Max Strus hitting catch and
shoot threes, Sam Merril hitting catch and shoot threes, DeAndre
Hunter hitting catch and shoot threes. That's their game in
the game calling. Indiana generated seventeen unguarded catch and shoot
jump shots. Cleveland generated ten. That's the difference in the approach.
Donovan Mitchell four assists, thirty shot attempts. He tried, He
(24:27):
tried to win this game playing hero ball, and it
got the entire team out of rhythm. And so even
if Darius Garland is hurt and not at one hundred percent,
just having him back out there to help the flow
of the offense I think will go a long way.
And Cleveland does have a lot to clean up on defense.
Andy threw a great punch. I do think this is
gonna be a long series.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Though, Okay, I gotta pay respect to Denver, so I
took you know, it's really interesting for those listenings. So
the Clippers go into a Game seven, and you think,
to your I said before the series, I said, Tyler
is worth a game because generally Denver's playing badly. At
the end of the year, they replace their coach, like
everything just spells trouble. Then they play an experienced Clippers
(25:06):
team with an excellent coaching staff, and I'm like, this
is bad news. And yet the late game execution, the
adjustments my Denver. It's like, all right, maybe it's the players,
maybe it's the staff, but I felt late in games
(25:26):
first credit to Westbrook who I Westbrook has found some
sort of self awareness in the last month. He's had
these quotes. It goes to the podium and he's like,
you know, my game doesn't look like everybody else's. He goes,
but I know what I am. I bring a lot
of energy. Now sometimes that energy is a turnover, and
(25:48):
I'm like, oh my god, who unlocked this? Who unlocked this? Westbrook.
But it's like, I have no problem with that game
if you know it. And he was for years he
get very defensive, and now he's like, hey man, my
game doesn't look like everybody. So it's like, that's right, Russell,
that's exactly right. He's such a tone setter, he's so relentless,
(26:10):
and now he's already come to terms with me. Hey listen, man,
it's a different game. It's not always great. He like
almost laughs at it. He's like, it just doesn't look
like yours. But I got to tell you, Denver, considering,
I mean, you would predict. I thought, who's playing poorly
at the end of the year. Fires a respected coach
plays a veteran team that's well coached and win. I
(26:33):
don't know why the reason was, but some of it
is Yokich, some of it's Westbrook. Is more of a
just disappointment from the Clippers.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
It's all of it, Colin, because I mean, to your point,
you want to know how a team that is, in
my opinion, more talented. I think the Clippers have more talent,
and they were playing substantially better, better, more experienced game.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
They're on fire for the last forty days.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Oh yeah, and they were in commanding position to win
the series call and they were up two to one,
like they should have that series. Like there's a whole
there's a whole other conversation to have about the Clippers
being in the position that they're being in. But I
want to credit Nicole Jokic. He's the main one that
stood out to me. What happened after Game three when
the Clippers bloom really blew them out and took control
of the series. Jokic got on his guys in the
(27:16):
huddle and was like, this is this is not good enough?
In Game three though in the third quarter, or excuse me,
in Game four, So Clippers up to one in Game four,
it was close at the half. In that third quarter,
Jokic played one of his best offensive quarters of the
of the series to that point and built that first
bit of margin. And really since that point, for the
(27:38):
entire second half of the series, the Nuggets scored the
ball extremely well. They had like a one to twenty
seven something offensive rating with Yokic on the floor, like
they they were excellent offensively after that third that Game
three kind of blow up that they had, and I
thought jokicch in his overall intensity really led the way.
Jamal Murray obviously was fantastic. Aaron Gordon was amazing in
(28:00):
Game seven.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Christian Brown to start Game seven was really good.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
And he was yes, and he was the guy who
did the great job on James Harden throughout the series.
In general, throughout the tail end of the series, I
just thought Denver was in control. I never really was.
Once we got to that point, I felt pretty sure
that Denver was going to close the deal. I picked
the Clippers to win the series at the start of
the series, but once we got to once we got
(28:24):
to Game four, I picked Denver. I just felt like
I felt like Jokic was just so much more in
control of the half court dynamic, and you know, then
to take it over to the Clippers side, you know,
with James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, the two of them,
they just aren't they just aren't good enough right now
to be able to compete in the Western Conference with
their shot creation. Kawhi Leonard struggled to handle double teams
(28:44):
all series and just wasn't aggressive enough. James Harden, it
was like feast or famine with him. I mean, he
has eleven in game five. He has seven in game seven,
and one last thing to before I kick it back
to you about Westbrook. One of the things I loved
about his quote and he used the same phrase that
you used when we did the pop on Wednesday. You
said a force of nature, and he was like, I'm
a force of nature. This is what I do. And
(29:05):
the way I interpreted it, it was almost like he
was saying, like, my style is to not think but
just to just act. Yeah, which is funny because in
the quote he was like, I definitely think, like I'm
a smart player, and I know he is, and that's
not what I mean, but like, he's definitely an instinct player,
like he follows his gut and he doesn't second guess himself,
(29:25):
and that comes with mistakes naturally. But when you combine
that like audacity and confidence with his overwhelming athletic traits,
it makes him a wrecking ball in like the best
possible way, and he can god like that stretch towards
the end of the game where he's just getting steals
and going out and transition and dunking everything like that
is force of nature basketball, and yeah, comes laid in
(29:48):
with mistakes. But I would argue the thing that's put
him over the top is one his ability to operate
as a cutter around Jokic, and two just him becoming
a better three point shooter. Him becoming a better three
point shooter has gotten rid of all the claimings that
were part of those bad plays and mistakes that were
really causing him to hurt his impact.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
He's also a momentum player, so you notice this in
this series. If he hit a three, he hit another.
And I think sometimes, I mean, he's obviously a very
confident guy. The way he dresses and his attitude, he's
a very confident guy. But even the most confident Alex
Rodriguez got dropped to eighth in a batting order once
for the Yankee. I don't care how confident you are.
Everybody struggles, right, Like basketball is so much of basketball,
(30:30):
more than any sport, is a confidence game. Like even
Steph Curry will have these zero for six stretches. You're like,
this is just not a good steff and he'll go
off ball and move around, and so Westbrook can have
these bad stretches. But the truth is when I watch him,
and like a Men Thompson, a Men Thompson has so
(30:53):
much value because he's so relentless and so aggressive that guys,
he's a pain in the ass to guard. He's you
know what I mean, Like he's Westbrook's hard. He's hard
to guard. He's in your face. He's physical and by
the way, like a running back that's five to eight
with leverage, Russell's got those this trunk and like he's
(31:16):
really strong. And so you're a six seven guy and
Westbrook's got leverage on you and he's banging you around.
He rebounds exceedingly well for his size. And so there
are these basketball players and they're very rare that there.
It's just like a genetic, like a they're just relentless
athletes and it's and so I love that Westbrook's like listen, man,
(31:40):
it doesn't look like everybody else's game, but I know
what I bring and it's like, that's exactly what you do.
And like a lot of times, like Jalen Green doesn't
know what he is and I don't think he even
has a pathway to it. Like Westbrook's come full circle
to being a guy that I always thought lack of
self awareness, having total self awareness. It's like, hey, man,
(32:00):
I'm going to a thousand miles an hour. I know
what I'm doing in this series, so I think when
you do what we do for a living, and I'm
critical of people, you also have to be fair. I
don't care if it's Baker Mayfield or Russell Westbrook. I
watched him in this series, and Yokich is obviously the
best player in the world I thought. I thought Westbrook
was really valuable to the Nuggets. Do they match up
(32:22):
with OKC at all?
Speaker 2 (32:26):
This is a matchup I was hoping for. As much
as I thought the Clippers would beat Denver, I didn't
think the Clippers had nearly the playmaking talent to beat
Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City plays very aggressively up in passing
lanes and on the ball and ball pressure to try
to force turnovers and get out in transition. That's like
one of their foundational traits. They're the best defense in
the league and they get out and transition and run
(32:47):
on you like crazy. Denver is an elite, like top
tier passing team. They passed the ball extremely well. They're
also a great screen setting team, which is very important
because that's how the get free. Guys like Jamal Murray
are gonna be go by lou Dort. You've got to
get lou Dort off of Jamal Murray. The main thing, though,
is Jokich is a superpower. Okay See cannot guard him.
(33:08):
He posted up sixty two times against Oklahoma City this year.
That's over fifteen times per game. He averaged only ten
against everyone else. This is a matchup that he loves
to post up again against a lot they successfully can
set screens to get Jamal Murray open. He had a
big game in this matchup this year. They each one
on each other's floor once it was two and two
(33:28):
in the season series. Denver's gonna be able to score though,
and that's the main reason why I think it'll be
a longer, more interesting series. In their last matchup, they
hung one hundred and forty points on him. The Jokich machine,
the Jokich Murray machine. They're gonna score against ok See
now in theory on the other side of the floor.
This is a type of matchup that favors Denver in
(33:48):
the sense that they can load up and it's not
a real like space you out type of team. Oklahoma
City can get cold from three. Sometimes they can be,
you know, a little bit sloppy with their passings sometimes.
But that said, Oklahoma City's a lot older than they
were last year, more mature than they were last year,
more experienced than they were last year. I was really
impressed with them in their first round series because Memphis
(34:10):
actually plays a similar style of defense to Denver in
terms of loading up the strong side, and I thought
Oklahoma City passed through Memphis really well, so okay Se
should be favored. I was stunned at how much they
were favored by. They were like minus seven hundred to
win the series, which I thought was crazy on DraftKings,
like I would have thought more like a minus three
hundred minus three fifty kind of favorite. Like I think
(34:31):
Okayse should be favored, but Vegas is saying Denver doesn't
have a chance. I think Denver's going to score, and
that is just more than enough to make this a
competitive series in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
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Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, the.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
You know, it's let's go back to the Warriors and
we can finish it with this. Jason timf obviously hoops tonight.
A lot of the old teams lost. The Clippers were
an old team they lost. The Lakers were an old
team they lost. Milwaukee was an old team they lost.
You know, Golden State's an old team and they won.
Some of that is because they were playing a young
team that feels like they're a year or two bind okase,
(35:30):
Like they're just not like Cleveland was three years ago. Okay,
see was last year. Some of it's just the baby
step nature of this league. Houston wasn't ready to win
a series and even though they had some clear athletic
length and depth advantages. But there is something to be
said about Kerr was really I mean, Peyton's sick cominge
(35:53):
he doesn't want. Basically, they had five guys and then
like a Looney that was the lineup. It's like five
guys Looney. There is something to be said for Steve Kerr.
He was a great broadcaster, smart executive, really good player.
He did a lot of coaching tonight, there was a
(36:13):
lot of I mean, when Curry's struggling, he is going
through lineups. I mean, in Cominga's off the floor, Loony's in.
I'm keeping Looney in. I want to talk a little
bit about Kerr. All these old teams lost. It would
have been very easy on a night if I'd have
said to you didn't watch the game. Yeah, Curry was
awful in the first half, and it was just Warriors
(36:36):
really struggled offensively and they won. I think some of
it is I think Kerr has such a heartbeat. I
mean we said into this series, Jason, oh, they have
to play Cominga, and they really didn't and it worked.
I mean, and I've got have told you, yeah, Comingo
won't play much. What he does he clearly frustrates the
(36:56):
hell out of Kerr. Oh yeah, Game seven, Peyton, They'll
be sick as a dog. There was a million reasons
why they should have lost this series. I mean, wasn't there.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah. I texted our mutual friend Logan Swain in the
middle of this game and I said, man, because you
know he's a fellow Lakers fan, as we've been lamenting
the disappointing end of the season, and I said to him, like,
I still think Kerr and the Warriors are just miles
smarter than the Lakers, And it just drives me crazy
when I'm watching him, because Kurr just played every button
(37:27):
right tonight. Now, obviously there was the illness to GP two,
but it was right. Buddy was the guy. He needed
to lean his buddy. That was the right move. Quick
hooks with Kaminga. He got two quick shifts. He made
a bunch of mistakes right away and he was They
called it. He called the time out to get him
out in one of them. So like like like, so
he had quick hooks on Kaminga going towards Kevon Looney
in this game instead of Quinton Post. He understood this
(37:49):
is going to be a bloodpath. This game is going
to be about rebounding, not about spacing, So we're going
to go towards Kevan Luney. I thought that was smart.
The the against the zone. I won't get into the
the intricacies on here because it just would take too long.
But there were a couple of specific things that they
tried right away and got really good looks against the zone,
which was the big story because in Game six when
they lost control, Houston zoned them eighteen times in the
(38:12):
fourth quarter and they scored three times in eighteen possessions.
So that was a huge storyline coming into game seven.
Would Kurr and the guys be able to solve the zone.
They did a much better job against it tonight. Every
single little button that needed to get pushed got pushed,
and it was the difference. I mean, this game was
a three point game in the second half. I think
we underestimate how much these series come down to pretty
(38:34):
tight margins. Like if you really look at Denver, look
at Denver versus the Clippers, You've got an overtime game.
You've got Aaron Gordon dunking at the buzzer to win
one of the games. Look at Detroit versus New York.
All those games swung on crunch time sequences. Lakers Minnesota
Game three in Game four were where the series were decided.
Both of those games were tied in the final minutes,
(38:56):
in Minnesota pulled away. Like, the margins are slim, and
if you haven't advanced in the strategic side of things,
with your coaching staff. It makes a massive difference.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Hey, so we all make mistakes, but owning up to
them is the right thing to do. So you know
Degree cool Rush deodorant right, Well, last year they changed
the formula and it did not go over well with
their fans. So Degrees the whole thing is it turns
up the sweat and odor protection when you turn up
the effort, and good thing it does, because cool Rush
fans really turned up the effort to bring the original
(39:25):
formula back. One guy even started an online petition and
Degree listened. They admitted they ft up. They're bringing back
the original cool Rush scent. They're bringing it back and
it's exactly how you remember it, cool, crisp and freshness
back in Walmart, Target and other stores now for under
four dollars. There's a reason that's been the number one
men's anti persprint for the last decade. It's the same
reason why people were not happy when it changed. So
(39:45):
if you've never tried it, it might be a good
time to see what the fuss is about. Head to
your local Walmart, Target and try the og degree cool
Rush for yourself. Well, I do want to talk about
this obviously, JJ Reddick. I didn't think JJ had a
great last couple of games in the series, okay, And
I was thinking about this. I wanted a walk this
morning in Chicago, and I thought about this. So when
(40:07):
Matt Lafleur got the Green Bay Packers job, he'd never
been good looking, smart guy and Tennessee coordinator, but had
never been a head coach, had never owned the room.
So he goes to this iconic organization, replaces a super
Bowl winning coach, Mike McCarthy. And the first thing I
noticed is they became a very good first quarter team,
(40:29):
much like JJ Reddick, very intentional, you know, classic coordinator,
becomes a head coach the Packers offense first quarter. It
was clearly that he was a great in the film
room coach. That's why he got the Packer job. But
I didn't love his halftime adjustments because as a coordinator,
the coach is doing a lot of the half. He's
(40:49):
doing the talking at half, right, so you're doing a
lot of what the coach wants at half. And then
I thought by year two, Matt Lafleur became a really
good full coach. He came in his first year, he
was a great They took leads that you win seventy
percent of your games in the NFL if you take
a lead, But he wasn't a great adjustment coach he
was year two. Similarly, JJ Reddick Lakers were a very
(41:11):
good first quarter team many times this year that have
these great stretches, very intentional, very good in the film room,
very smart guy. But I do think adjustments take time
to be a great adjuster. Kerr is a great adjuster,
I think Joe. I think Missoula and Boston's gotten much
better at that. It's the you know, playoffs series have
(41:34):
four and five adjustments. Chris Finch's team very good at layering,
and I just think JJ, I think it's just part
of being a rookie head coach. Jason Kidd his first
go around. You know, you're good in the film room,
you're intentional, you come out this is what we do well,
and they don't so much to this league is second half,
(41:56):
last four minutes out of a timeout, and it is
a fair criticism on the film you watch to say
that JJ will become a better overall coach, that there
were times this year that he wasn't. Now maybe I'm
the opposite, is true? But I just didn't think he
was always the greatest adjuster.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
I thought he was a little slow to adjust at times.
I think, you know, I think in general with JJ,
I have had no big picture concern just simply because
I think he's smart, and I think he's hyper competitive
and like kind of obsessive, which I think is what
you just need to be to be good at that job.
Is I think he'll I think he'll have some issues
over over his career with just how hot tempered he
(42:39):
is and how that can rub people the wrong way.
I mean, we saw that with Mike Malone. You can
wear out the room pretty quick, sure if you're a
great coach, and I think those will be things that
he'll have to work out. The perfect example of that
to me was the Warriors Lakers regular season game towards
the end of the year, where like Steve Kerr comes
out for his little interview at the end of the
first quarter, and he's just so calm and cool and collected,
(42:59):
and then they go to JJ for his interview and
he's like clearly mad and angry and agitated, and it's
like it's like you learned too that, like your players
start to I actually learned this from the high school
coach that I coached with. Like you, your players take
on your personality in a lot of cases, and which
is why it's so important for you to kind of
stay as even keeled as you can, because if you
get super emotional and worked up, your players will get
(43:20):
emotional and worked up and stuff like that. But over
the course of the series, I thought he made several mistakes.
There was the at the beginning of the series, the
Lakers just came out looking flat out unprepared for Game
one in terms of the intensity. JJ admitted after the
fact that he thought he made a mistake by not
scrimmaging at all in that week before the game, which
I when I heard that, I was like, wait, you
guys didn't play basketball for a week. I'm like, you're
(43:42):
about to play the Timberwolves. It's going to be a war.
You need to be ready. But to JJ's credit, he
acknowledged it. He understood that there was a mistake there. Offensively,
I thought the team made a key mistake in the
series by not attacking Minnesota's smalls at any point at
any At any point in the series, there was no
extended stretch where Lebron or Luca attempted to post up
in that series. Lebron shot call, This is a crazy
(44:03):
post Lebron. Lebron shot out of the post in that
entire series five times, five times in five games. This
is like literally what he's done in his career, as
like the thing he goes to when his back is
against the ball. He was just unwilling to do it.
But it also goes to Luca. Luca was in attacking smalls.
They were only attacking bigs. There was the substitution pattern
(44:27):
at late in game four, which I think again is
a little bit more convoluted, because you know they win
that game. You're playing Monday morning quarterback in a lot
of ways. But Game five, though, in particular, he switched
his scheme towards double teaming, and they looked completely unprepared,
meaning like they were giving up wide open layups and
dunks to where like if they were a little bit
more schematically prepared for that, they should have been able
(44:49):
to at least tilt that towards the three point line
in certain guys shooting. They looked like an unprepared team
for that scheme, which I think reflects poorly on JJ
but at the end of the day, like I thought,
JJ overwhelmingly in his first year exceeded expectations. Same same,
I don't think JJ is the reason they lost to Minnesota.
I think the reason they lost to Minnesota is Austin
Reeves was awful for the majority of the series and
(45:12):
like literally the Minnesota took him out and Luca when
whenever the series was hanging in the balance, late in
game five, late in game four, late in game three,
Luca was bad and that really was the series. And
like I will, I will always kind of look at
the stars before I look at coaches. But there's no
doubt that JJ's got a lot of room to grow.
I'm just not worried about it because of how competitive,
(45:34):
how smart he is. That stuff will come in time.
I do.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
I do think they have to consider there's some duplication
with Austin Reeves, and they just need somebody's gonna want
Austin Reeves and somebody's gonna be looking to get rid
of a big And it's nothing against Austin. I think
he has value. That wasn't a great series for him, Well,
wasn't a great matchup. I mean, the truth is Minnesota's
athletic and strong and physical, and they pounced on it
(46:00):
and he just couldn't get to the free throw line.
But I look at it and I think he has
served his purpose. He's an unranked player. Use him as
a trade piece. But if you're not going to play
Jackson Hayes against the team with Ruby Gobert, you need
some size. You got to get a legitimate big in here.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Austin Reeves is one of my favorite players, and so
it hurts me to say this because rooting for him
has been and watching him go from like literally an
undrafted guy to like a legitimate player probably deserves thirty
million dollars a year in this league, like he's so good.
And by the way, Colin, this is the first time
in several playoff series that I've watched Austin and thought
that he was overwhelmed, Like he's been very good in
(46:38):
four previous playoff series. So, like Austin, this was a
really bad matchup for him. They're just so athletic. He
caught the Anthony Edwards matchup most of the series and
ant Yeah put him in jail, and Dante DiVincenzo defended
him really well. My thing is it's more just about
roster construction. I don't think you can build a lineup
that succeeds in the modern NBA with two inferior perimeter athletes.
(47:00):
I think that's where you're you're reaching. You're reaching kind
of like below the like mandatory minimum level of athleticism
that you try. And so even though even though like
it makes some sense in the context of Lebron, when
Lebron retires, you're now building around Austin and Luca, and
you would need the other three guys in that lineup
(47:22):
to be like absolute peak athletes for that to work. Yep,
And that's just difficult to do in terms of roster allocation.
And so honestly, when I look at it this summer,
you know, that doesn't mean you get rid of Austin
for nothing, but I begin to look at Austin as
a key asset with which to return somebody that actually
fits this timeline better. And there's the second piece of it,
(47:43):
which is, if you get rid of Austin, you better
have a plan for another ball handler because Lebron is forty,
so like there's got to be a this is this
is gonna be a really fine line that they're walking
this offseason because they need to walk the win now
line alongside Lebron, but they also need to have some
sort of plan post Lebron, and so that's where it
(48:04):
gets tricky. I look at like, you know, if you
could call a Brooklyn and see if you can't package
together Austin and another salary and get like a Cam
Johnson and a Nick Claxton, so you get like a
legit three and D guy and a real center to
put next to Luca and Lebron. But even then you
better be calling behind the scenes to stars and be like, hey,
we're gonna need somebody to come in here and be
(48:25):
Luca's number two pretty soon. And you know, maybe it
ends up being a Kyrie after his injury or something
like that. Who knows, But there's there's definitely a fine
line here that they have to walk in a lot
of different pieces gotta go right. But I left the
series thinking the same way you did, Colin. I'm like,
I love Austin, I'm not sure if he makes a
lot of sense here.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
In the Big Listener, Nico Harrison gave you a little
bit of a roadmap when he had Kyrie and Luca
and like, okay, I need size and rim protection.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
And they were really good and got to the finals.
And I just think that's the reality. It was the
reality with Carmelo Anthon, who wasn't a willing defender. It
was James Harden. There are just players in this league
who are so gifted offensively you overlook stuff. If if
Lebron is old and Luca is your star, you're gonna
need some elite defenders. You need rem protection. That's just
(49:15):
the way it is. It's okay, and you can get it.
I mean they almost pulled off that deal for was
that Mark Williams.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Yeah, And I don't think I don't think he's the
answer either. Colin.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
No, he's always hurt.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Uh, He's not a good defender.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Oh so, he's just a big guy.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
He's just a big guy. He's got a little bit
of Charlotte Hornets itis, so there's always a little bit
of that. Like maybe maybe he bring him in and
make him better. But I didn't love the film that
I saw with him playing defense at Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
All Right, so we get ready for some more unbelievable
NBA playoffs have been so damn fun, just so great
and I could not wait for this game to start,
and I was so too.
Speaker 2 (49:56):
This was one of the biggest games I can remember
in recent history. The ramifications of Golden State.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
The number is going to be huge. The number is
going to be huge for this. And by the way,
let's give credit to the Pacers. Fun watch. If you're
a casual NBA fan, they're just a great pacing, really
smart Halliburton's a tremendous playmaker and passer. They've got well coached,
they've got physicality, they can shoot it. To me, they
(50:21):
don't depend on it. Just a really nice pacing and easy, fun,
smart basketball watch. And they're going to give Cleveland some trouble.
So as always, Jason, this was great.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
As good to see Youconnell, See you next week.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
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