Jason reacts live after the Minnesota Timberwolves fight for a big win over the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 without Steph Curry. He discusses Anthony Edwards big second half to overcome Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green’s effort. Then he discusses Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics bouncing back with a big win over Jalen Brunson’s New York Knicks to tighten that series.
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co slash audio. All right, welcome to you, said I
(02:33):
here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody up. All of
you guys are having a great weekend. Got a jam
pack show for you guys tonight. We're hitting Wolves Warriors
off the top, kind of a typical type of what
you would expect from the best defense in the league
since the end of January versus Minnesota. In a game
like this, Minnesota has struggled against Golden State's defense. Kur
(02:54):
leans into Jonathan kaminga Jimmy Butler. We finally get the
Jimmy Butler hyper aggressive offensive game and we get a
hyper competitive, very entertaining basketball game until late in the
second half. Over the last quarter and a half, Anthony
Edwards and Julius Randall completely find a groove and build
some margin. The Warriors offense cools off late and the
(03:16):
Timberwolves take a two to one lead in that series.
Breaking down that game from the perspective both teams. After that,
the Boston Celtics looked like the Boston Celtics for the
first time in their series against the Knicks. I want
to go into some of the specific dynamics at play,
and I want to talk about what the rest of
this series is going to look like, because the Celtics
have to win four out of five games in order
(03:37):
to come back and win this series. And I want
to talk about the idea of how every basketball game
kind of takes on a different feel and how in
each specific type of basketball game it calls for different
types of approaches from both teams. And so we're going
to talk about what Boston needs to do in order
to get the additional three wins they need in the series.
And then the Knicks as well, we're going to dig
(03:59):
into some of the issues they were having with their
pick and roll coverage versus their switching and containing in
one on one situation. So lots of interesting stuff to
get into in both of these games. At the tail
end of the show, we'll take about ten to fifteen
minutes of questions from the chat, and then when we
are done here tonight, we're gonna head over to playback
dot tv slash Hoops Tonight for our usual after show.
(04:23):
There we get to have callers on stage, we look
at film, we get into more of an informal, interactive
kind of vibe over there. On playbacks, you guys can
join us again the links in the description, but playback
dot tv slash Hoops Tonight is where we will be
for the after show tonight. You guys have the joke
before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys
(04:44):
don't miss show announcements. So forget about a podcast few
wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's
also super helpful if you leave a rating and a
review on that front. Don't forget about the new social
media feeds we have on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where
Jackson's doing great work. Follow us there. The last but not least,
keep dropping those mail back leussons in the chat so
we can get to them at the tail end of
the show. So this game pretty quickly took on a
(05:08):
simple dynamic. You have two elite defenses, right and especially
with the Golden State. Playing at home, you're going to
get an exceptionally good effort and in a desperation type
of situation too. Right, we've talked before after the Steph
curR hamstring injury, the Warriors basically have to get one
of these two games at home, because if they do,
(05:29):
that puts a game six guaranteed on the calendar. In
a game six is still more than a full week
from now, that is on May eighteenth, and so there's
a real opportunity there for Steph to potentially get back
and have a chance to play at the tail end
of this series. Now, as we know that's a tricky
hamstring injury, it might not even matter, but for any
(05:52):
hope that the Warriors have to advance in this postseason run,
it was going to depend on them getting one of
these two games at home. So you're expecting a certain
type of super intense effort, and so it pretty much
settled down into a shot creation contest between Julius Randall
and Anthony Edwards and the new iteration of the Warriors
without Steph. We talked last night about how Steve Kerr
(06:14):
got into the idea of how you have to basically
play a completely different brand of basketball in order to
make the situation work when you lose your star. One
of the things that's interesting about the Warriors roster construction
is it's built on a lot of defensive minded athletes
that are good read and react, players that operate well
in the inverted spacing that Steph provides. Meaning as Steph
(06:38):
is coming off of action and he's bringing multiple players out,
often bringing a big man out and a ball screen coverage,
there are these four on threes or three on two's
quick advantage situations that break down on the back line,
and on the back line it becomes very much a
make decisions athletes. You know, it's a very different game
than spacing the floor for a rim pressuring forward, right
(06:59):
Like if you're playing with Luca or Jannis sir Lebron,
it's like you need shooting. But the Warriors, they emphasized
more versatile athletes that can work with the advantages that
Steph creates on the perimeter to have success on the interior.
And so Steve Kerr essentially had to rebuild a basketball
team on the fly, and so he used Game two
as a launching ground. And what did we get. We
(07:20):
got a high dose of Jonathan Kaminga. We talked after
Game two about how Jimmy Butler would likely be much
more aggressive at home. We got a much more aggressive
version of Jimmy Butler tonight. He went for twenty six
shot attempts in this game. And then the same steady
died of Buddy Healed running off of screening action. So
essentially it turned into this new dynamic of the Warriors
(07:42):
versus the same old Minnesota Timberwolves with Anthony Edwards and
Julius Random And for the first two and a half quarters,
the Warriors were really controlling things and was in a
pretty big funk. Golden State's defense, as I mentioned earlier,
in their last thirty four games this season ample size
of almost a half of the season, they're the number
(08:02):
one defensive rating in basketball. They are I was thinking
about this earlier. I think this is the best defense
that Ant has played in his time in the NBA.
They are not as good at the rim in terms
of rim protection as Dallas was, but I think they're
much faster on the perimeter, much smarter, more well coached.
I think they're just a more dynamic defense overall. And
(08:23):
it's not exactly a slump in Draymond Green that you
have at the basket, or a slouch or whatever you
want to call it. Draymond's, you know, one of the
better rim protecting smaller bigs that we have in the league,
right And one of the things that Warriors have done
with Ant that's caused some problems for him is ball pressure.
They're picking him up and making him uncomfortable in his
like kind of dance with the basketball situations, and it's
(08:45):
forcing him to drive earlier in the schedule than he
wants to. And then in those situations, they keep throwing
bodies at him. He's over penetrating and trying to find
kickout opportunities while he's kind of indecisive in the lane.
He's slaloming through two or three guys at the basket,
trying to find a finishing angle to finish, and he's
smoking layups. He just was struggling for really the first
(09:07):
two and a half games of this series, but into
the second quarter tonight, and Julius Randall was struggling a
little bit too.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Tonight.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I was confused a little bit with his strategy because
he kept just trying to attack Draymond Green one on
one and like, I get it if it's late in
the shot clock, and like the you got toss a
grenade with five seconds left and you have to create something.
But with the way that you should look to approach
on offense for the first fifteen seconds of the shot clock,
(09:34):
you need to be hunting easier opportunities, a better matchup,
an advantage. You can create an action, some sort of
easier opportunity before you rely on isoting their best defender.
Like you, if you repeatedly attack their best defender, you're
just making life harder on you than it needs to be.
And so Julius was struggling a little bit, and then
with the Warriors, they were getting great production. Jimmy was
fantastic tonight scoring the basketball. We got that aggression from him.
(10:00):
Jonathan Comigio goes for thirty points. The Warriors actually won
his minutes tonight. Buddy healed early in the second half,
gets going, starts hitting some threes, and so the Warriors
built a little bit of margin. I think they ended
up going up by as much as seven. I'll pull
up the largest lead, but I think they want Yeah,
the largest lead was seven for the Warriors in that
early third quarter.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Stretch.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Right around that time, a couple things started to go
Minnesota's way. Ant got a couple decent catch and shoot
looks in off ball situations. We talked a little bit
about this in the Lakers series, the idea of Ant
being really good attacking closeouts off of Julius Randall post ups,
Ant got a little bit more rhythm with his jump shot.
Julius Randall started to have a little bit of success
(10:39):
against Raymond in large parks. Draymond got into some foul
trouble and then Draymond had to be a little bit
more conservative with his approach.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So he's like more gambling on.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Julius further out from the basket, trying to like disrupt
him before he even got into his attack, because he
knows once he gets into his attack, there's not much
contact that he can get away with there. And so
all of a sudden, these cracks started to open up
and starts hitting even some tough pull up threes. I
was talking with Jackson before the show, like, you know Jackson,
obviously Jackson's a Celtics fan, but he also roots for
(11:09):
the Warriors, and he was like we were talking to
just about what it was like for me as a
Lakers fan watching Aunt repeatedly in these early fourth quarter stretches,
just hit these crazy difficult pull up threes, and it's
like you're in a groove, you're playing hard, your defense
is locked in, and it just doesn't matter because when
Ant goes into that step back move, there's really nothing
you can do but just hope he misses. And it's
(11:31):
just such a remarkable piece of athleticism to be able
to separate from a defender, a great defender late in
the clock, and then set your base and elevate up
over the top of a great contest, sometimes a double team,
and rise up and knock down a shot like that,
and all of a sudden it just was cooking and
gets a huge driving dunk on Kevon Looney, another amazing
(11:56):
dunk to add to Anthony edwards highlight reel of playoff
dunks in his career. Started in general to find some
more seams right at the front of the rim where
he was getting cleaner finishing angles, and all of a sudden,
what looked like a puzzle that Ant was struggling to
solve the finishes with thirty six points in this game,
and that was kind of my takeaway when we were
in that mid second quarter, mid third quarter stretch, I'm thinking, Okay,
(12:18):
this is the best defense that Aunt has ever played
in his career. They're kind of kicking his butt a
little bit. We talked about this after Game one. Let's
see if it can figure it out, like is this
going to be like the Dallas series where it didn't
really seem like he ever made any headway, or is
he going to make some headway? And like, here's the thing,
there's no doubt that not having Steph Curry out there
(12:40):
changes the dynamic of the game. And I'm not trying
to sit there and pretend like this is the most
challenging win of Anthony Edwards's career.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
But this is a very good defense. And he did
start to find some ways that he could get going
off ball and catch and shoot situations, driving closeouts, got
a little bit more comfortable and in a rhythm as
a pull up shooter and starting to find those driving
angles closer to the basket. I think there's even more
room for improvement with him. He gets a little bit
rushed going downhill to where there's not a lot of
(13:07):
change of pace. We talked about this on playback a
couple nights ago, But Anthony Edwards is taking about half
as many mid range jump shots as he did in
last year's postseason run. He just was a little bit
more willing to work in the middle of the floor
at that point, and I think there's a little there's
still a growth that can that grant and can benefit
(13:28):
from in the form of just being more comfortable operating
at a slower pace or with change of pace in
the middle of the floor and making better use of
that mid range jump shot. I think there's a lot
of opportunity for him to improve. But the indomitable scoring
talent was on display in that second half. It didn't
matter that he's a little one dimensional at this point
in time, or that he still isn't reading the floor
(13:50):
as great as he could potentially thirty six points against
the best defense in the NBA. In my opinion and
Julius Randall, he's been sneaky, fantastic stick this entire postseason run.
I didn't like his game one of this series, but
for the most part in the Lakers series, in the
most part in this series, he's consistently been very comfortable
(14:10):
operating out of the mid post and out of the
low post. He's been playmaking at an extremely high level.
Goes for a triple double tonight twenty four, ten and twelve.
His passing out of the mid to high post has
been a consistent, kind of like underrated part of his game.
He's actually one of the better, like kind of entry
points for Minnesota to use, just because at this point
he's more willing to hunt those advantages than ant Is.
(14:32):
And again ant will figure that stuff out in time.
But at the end of the game, you know, it
was funny because Jackson and I were talking, like the
Warriors did everything tonight that they could have done. You
get two thirty point performances out of at Like if
you if you would have told me before this game
that you're gonna get thirty three out of Jimmy and
thirty out of Jonathan Kaminga, you're thinking a Warriors win, right,
(14:54):
But it just was that much better for Manton Julius.
They were able to get the job done second half.
And here's the thing, Like, I think the Warriors have
exposed some obvious flaws in this Minnesota attack on both
ends of the floor in terms of their attentiveness to ball,
in player movement, in terms of their vulnerability to the
offensive glass when they're in rotation, in terms of just
(15:15):
their ability to handle ball pressure and physicality in a
better defensive construct than what they've attacked in some of
these playoff series. But you just need to get through
this series and then maybe, if you're lucky, Denver beats
Oklahoma City and that's a team that you've had their
number for the last two years now. So like the
finals are there there, there there's a pathway there for
(15:37):
Minnesota to get through this and to get all the
way to the finals. And I think they match up
pretty well with the teams coming out of the Eastern Conference.
And you know, I was actually thinking about this the
other day. I think you could talk me into all
eight teams in this postseason run being a legitimate championship contender.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Indiana.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
You know, obviously, at a rough game three, I wouldn't
be the least bit surprised if they beat Cleveland, beat
whoever came out of the Nix Celtics series, and then
beat whoever came out of the West. That's certainly a possibility.
I could see Denver winning the West. I could see Okay,
see still coming back and win the series. I could
see Boston repeating. I could see Cleveland getting, you know,
just wiping the floor with Indiana for the next three
(16:15):
games and then running into a Celtics team that's stilling
a little bit of a funk and getting it done. Like,
it feels wide open at this point, and there is
a legitimate pathway for Minnesota to work through.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Here. You get a really.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Good opportunity to finish this series off against a Warriors
team that's missing their best player. You have a potentially
great matchup waiting for you with the team leading to
one in the next round, and Denver a team that
you've had their number consistently. And then I can't think
of a type of team that I'd like to see
more against a Boston I think, you know, I think
after today we could all agree that Boston is still
(16:47):
probably the favorite to win the East and Minnesota would
just be such a fun matchup in that series with
their ability to switch and contain. Basically, Minnesota is a
much much better version of Orlando, and we saw what
Orlando was able to do at times against the Celtics.
So super super interesting series on the Warriors front. A
(17:07):
couple of specific things. You This was the game that
I had kind of marked as the best chance they
had to steal one, but it was very unlikely you
were going to get both. You really just need to
get one. So it's just all eyes turned to Monday
night now and you got to figure out a way
to get that particular game. And again, as you've proven
you can make this offense uncomfortable, you can slow them down. Minnesota,
(17:30):
to their credit, kind of got going in that second half.
They had sixty two points. That goes to show you
how important it is for your best player to produce
when you get into these settings. But this is going
to be fun series, and it's going to come down
to Game four. Whoever wins Game four is going to
be in a really good position moving forward. If the
Warriors win, then they got Steph coming back and a
good chance to win the series. And if Minnesota wins,
are going home three to one and probably closing this
(17:52):
thing out in five. All right, let's move on to
Celtics Knicks. Over the course of the last two games,
we've been talking a lot about the concept of offensive
versatility and essentially what that means is like, you know,
we were talking about this with the Thunder Denver series
last night, right, Like the uh for Denver, they just
have so many different ways that they can attack, Like, Okay,
this is a series where we're just spamming Yokic post ups. No,
(18:15):
this is going to be a series where we're running
a ton of Jokic Murray two man game right in
the middle of the floor. Oh, we got this matchup.
Aaron Gordon is a legitimate post matchup hunter, Like we
can go to him. There there's like a five out
flow with ball and player movement, with Yokic kind of
flowing side to side and everyone involved in sweeping side
to side action that they could go to. They have
a devastating transition attack. They have just such a versatile
(18:37):
offense that they can like identify the situation and be like,
this is the way we're gonna go kind of like
for instance, late in game one, Denver spams post ups
for Yokics right in the middle of the floor because
Yokic is having the greatest game of his life. Game three,
Yokic just having probably the worst game I've seen him play,
and all of a sudden, you know, Yokic is still
involved late and he still is looking to score, but
(18:58):
it's a lot more diverted to Jamal Murray and letting
him be aggressive in those situations. Trusting Aaron Gordon to
take a big three in the left corner when he
gets left open in the transition sequence. There's just they
have the ability to adapt to the surrounding circumstances. The
reason why that matters is every basketball game is different.
Your stars are in different rhythm from game to game.
(19:20):
Like we talked Jamal Murray great rhythm Game three, jokicnot
Jokics great rhythm. In game one, Murray not right. You
go into tonight's game with the Celtics, it's like Game one.
In game two, Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown consistently kind
of like in a funk out of rhythm. Tonight Tatum
and Brown in great rhythm. Fundamentally different basketball game, different
(19:42):
role players. Oh, Like tonight, this guy's really engaged, locked in,
he's doing his job, he's not making mistakes, he's hitting shots. Well,
this next game he's just a little bit more off
in those areas. That's why their role players. Role players
are inherently inconsistent. If they were amazing at knocking down,
catching ju threes, an amazing at offending every single night.
They'd be a thirty million dollar player on the wing.
(20:04):
That's what that type of position, a bona fide great
two way, three and D wing, is a thirty million
dollar player in today's league. And so the point is
is there is a lot of inherent inconsistency in the
way basketball games go. So, for instance, the Celtics have
like a core basketball philosophy, their willingness to create advantages
(20:25):
hunting mismatches and to drive and kick for quality catch
and shoot threes. That's like their foundational approach on the
offensive end of the four. Game one, they just played
the dumbest half of basketball I've ever seen. There's not
a whole lot to get into other than they just
played really dumb basketball in the second half. Game two
was very different. Their core philosophy failed them. They played
(20:50):
Celtics basketball just fine in the second half and missed shots. Now,
they didn't have another method that they could. We'll talk
more about that concept in a little bit, but the
point is is that their core offensive philosophy failed. Tonight
was a classic example of the Celtics core formula working
(21:12):
and working extremely well. We've all seen the Celtics win
exactly that type of game one hundred times over the
last couple of years. They came right out and hit
six of their first seven threes, and they were the
same types of shots they were missing in the first
two games. Tatum hits a pull up three and against
drop coverage. Jalen Brown same Shoty bricks at the tail
(21:34):
end of Game two that dropped coverage three right at
the top of the key, hits it to start this game.
Derek White hits like a contested step back three in
a late clock situation. Kat sinks in a little too
far off Al Horford swing pass. There's a contest, but
Horford knocks down that mildly contested three that he was
missing in the first two games of the series. You
(21:54):
could feel the confidence dynamic completely swing after that happened.
Boston only had one thirty point quarter in the entire
series before today. Then they had two back to back
thirty five point quarters. To start today's game, Peyton Pritchard
exploded for twenty three points. The Celtics offense hummed at
the level we knew they were capable of humming at
(22:17):
because we've seen it one hundred times. They got that
engine going. New York just folded from there. And by
the way, Boston's defense was incredible. We're about to talk
about that in a minute. But New York also just
kind of lost their confidence and played some really poor
offensive basketball. Brunton all the way down. Kat was the
guy hitting a couple shots early in the game, but
he was the primary defense of culprit. No one was
(22:37):
really playing well. Mkhale and o g were both at rhythm.
Josh Hart's first couple catch and shoot threes were like
very clearly, very short, right out of his hand, Like
you could just tell. Everybody was like shook by the
way that Boston was playing, and they were just never
able to recover. Now, again, there will be different types
of games in this series. Let's shelf that con set
(23:00):
for just a second. I want to just shout out
Boston's defense. I thought down the line, everyone was great,
Tatum and Brown switching in and out of action with
pressure and physicality efforts at the rim from Derek White.
Drew Holliday did another great job on Jalen Brunson tonight.
But I want to specifically highlight the Biggs because I
thought Horford, Porzingis, and Cornett were all amazing in this game.
(23:21):
Cornett continues to impress he's become like a legitimate playoff
rotation piece for this team, especially in the universe forar
Houser is injured. But like, all three of the bigs
just kicked New York's butt on both ends as athletes.
They combined for six blocks with their efforts around the rim.
(23:41):
Horford and Cornett had five offensive rebounds. Those dudes were
throwing people around like rag dolls to try to find
offensive rebounding opportunities. I just thought all three of those
guys played with more force than the New York front
court and really controlled this game. I mean, like this
was the first game of the series where the Mitchell
Robinson minutes did not New York's way. They just got
(24:02):
physically dominated while also throwing a great offensive punch, and
the result is thirty point lead, completely insurmountable. Yeah, there's
a couple of third quarter pushes from the Knicks, but
when you're pushing down from thirty one, it's different than
when you're pushing down from twenty. The eight to zero
run doesn't cut the lead to twelve and let light
the crowd on fire.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
The eight to zero run.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Cuts the lead to twenty three, and it's a bigger
lead than it was even in those peak moments in
Game one in Game two. Now, looking forward in this series,
a couple of things for the Knicks. I still think
they're conceding too many openings. What I mean by that
is like in their natural ball screen coverages when they're
(24:44):
hedging and recovering with Brunson, but mainly the drop with Kat,
they're getting fried in those situations. They were giving up
quality looks in those situations in the first two games,
they just weren't going in. They have consistently been better
in this series when they've just switched and contain the ball.
Simple stat to demonstrate this tonight, the Celtics shredded the
(25:07):
Nickson pick and roll. They got an offensive rating over
one twenty, including passes on ball screens where they were
using some sort of traditional ball screen coverage post ups
and ISOs. Boston ran twenty seven post ups and ISOs
in this game and got just sixteen points out of them.
It's very clear in the numbers that when they switch
(25:30):
and contain like there was a like there are examples
where you know, Tatum's got cat on the wing, and
they just kind of gap off of him pretty well,
and he's kind of sitting up there stunting, and they
just throw a swing pass and get out of it.
Like they're not doing a good job hunting these things
one on one. They're just taking advantage of the natural openings, like, Oh,
you're going to concede a pick and pop three to Horford.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
That's going in.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Oh you're gonna sit back the cat like in a
deep drop coverage against Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. Like, Yeah,
they've been missing their pull up threes in this series,
but they're sht capable of making them, and so I
still think their pathway moving forward is switch contain, bait
them into those poor isolation decisions. And then for the Celtics,
as I mentioned, there will be very different types of
(26:12):
games in this series, just purely jump shooting. Result Boston
got one point two eight points per jump shot tonight,
the Knicks got zero point eighty five. Another simple way
to explain that is over the course of one hundred
jump shots, the Celtics produced at a rate of forty
three points more per one hundred jump shots than the Knicks.
(26:36):
They out shot the shit out of them tonight. Okay,
that will probably happen again in this series. Like I
think we all could probably agree, this series is going
at least six and there's gonna be another game in
this series where Boston just does what they did tonight
and you basically just shake their hand and say congrats
on the win. But there will be different types of games.
(26:56):
There will be a game, for instance, where the Knicks
just shoot better, and if they do, it's a closer game,
and if they do, there's more pressure on some of
these tougher shots that's Boston's taking. And it's very possible
that they find themselves in a situation where they go
cold and the Knicks get a bunch of momentum in
it's early fourth quarter, and all of a sudden, that
thirteen point third quarter lead for Boston is down to five.
(27:19):
The crowd is raucous. There's a timeout called Boston goes
in their next couple of possessions, misses a couple of threes,
and it's.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Like, what do you do now?
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Because if you allow that situation to play out and
you stay cold like you did in the first two games,
it doesn't matter what kind of large volume production you're
getting from your three point shot, if you can't score
on those key possessions late while Jalen Brunson has been
the best closer in the league this season, and he's
killing you on the other end of the four and
(27:49):
so that's where I want to see what Boston does.
There will be there if Boston's gonna win the series,
they got to win four out of five games. I
find it highly unlikely that they just shoot the piss
out of the basketball for straight times and win the series.
Maybe they do, but I think if Boston's gonna win
this series, they're gonna have to win another one of
those ugly rock fights. And I'll just be really curious
to see what Boston's attack looks like when they end
(28:11):
up in that situation. All right, Jackson, Let's do a
solid ten minutes of questions here.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Let's do it.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
First question, Well, all of our questions are basically about
the Warriors Wolves. First question, POD's was awful tonight, shot
one of ten and only had two assists. Should the
Warriors shorten his minutes?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
So I this is complicated because I saw a lot
of people saying stuff about how about how Pozemski was
playing throughout the game, and I think it's more nuanced
than I'm seeing on Twitter, Like I'm seeing people that
are just saying he sucks, and then.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
I'm seeing, you know, I'm seeing.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Tim Legler talk about how he's being, you know, amazing
in all these other ways, and I'm seeing Pojemski being
really effective in every single way except for offense, and
on that offensive end of the floor, I still think
there's some poor shot selection going on. Like, on the
one hand, you have to empower him a little bit
(29:16):
to where because without Steph you need offensive production. There's
got to be a certain amount of leash that he has.
But there were like three or four shots he took
tonight where I was like, that's not the one you
need to pay like, And so you need to acknowledge
that he's defending like crazy, and he's rebounding extremely well,
(29:37):
and he's making good connective passing leads. But I would
love to see him trim like two or three of
those bad shots out. Another way to another way to
look at it, guys, is like this game was winnable
three or four possessions go a different way. You win
if instead of a seven point lead, you get it
up to thirteen, you probably win. And so I just
(29:57):
think that there's a there's still a little bit of
refinement Jackson, And you mentioned to me before we went live,
like the just a couple of mistakes Kaminga made late,
like just hesitating on that last little catch in the
middle of the lane that allowed him to get stripped
before he went up, Just like little tiny things that
could make a big difference over the course of the series.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
It's easy to nitpick pause, but to your point, when
Steph is out, you kind of got to just say
play free to everybody, right, you can't be like, you
can't be encouraging people to pass up open shots. Really
you're you're struggling to create offense, and it doesn't mean to
take bad shots, but you can't be trying to limit
your players, especially ones like Pods who are usually operating
off someone off in a sort of secondary sort of situation.
(30:40):
There were a couple very very open threes that he
missed that would have been big run extenders for the Warriors,
And I can definitely understand getting upset that feeling like
he needs to make those but the the critique about
the assist number, he's not tripped playing tree youngbo, No, No,
he is. He's important to their offensive flow even though
he needs to make more shots, and he led the
(31:02):
team in rebound. So like it or not, this is
sort of with Moses Moody playing that's bad, especially like
you don't have a lot of options.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
What are supposed to do?
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Who are supposed to get more minutes to if you're
taking away pods, if you're dropping his minutes, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
And he was minus two and thirty nine minutes. Like again,
he's one for ten from the field. There's he takes
two or three better shots or like passes up on
two or three bad ones. To your point, hit a
couple of those run extending type of threes. All of
a sudden, he's playing a fantastic game. And we're talking
about like kind of like a like a special game
in his career. The big thing that I'm seeing on film,
(31:37):
he's shooting a little bit of a flat ball right now,
so he's getting some unfortunate bounces and this dude is
getting clean opportunities in the mid range for floaters.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
He has got to get that floater, polished up.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
That needs to be a shot that he can hit
consistently because that's there for him. But once once again
with the floater, he's shooting it flat and so he's
not getting very good roles on it.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
And I think we got also remember that he is
a still a very very despite him playing kind of
not a not young style of game. He plays a
very veteran game. For the most part, I think he
is still a very very twenty two. He's younger than
a and he had and because of that, he's gonna
have some really good like he had some a couple
two games, I want to say, in the Houston series
where he was cashing all of his mid range pull ups,
(32:19):
he's hitting those awkward step throughs, he's getting people up
in the air. And then he had a couple of
games where he shot really poorly. And that's for a
guy who's no one is expecting to become a high high,
high level scorer like I just don't think that's really
in his range of outcomes, even though I think he's
a very good player. That's what's gonna happen to a
guy who's in his what is the third year, like
it just sort of he's.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Got such good lift and his he's got a nice
compact release to where like I do think he could
be a very good catch and shoot player eventually me too.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
It's there, It's there. It just it's and that's the thing,
like this is with Pods.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
I'm glad you brought up his age because I think
I think there's a he does just play like Vet
and he's been one of the guys that's consistently been
and Steve's like kind of inner circle of guys that
he trusts, and he's he gets so much more leeway
for poor shooting result than Moody does because he's just
such an impact in all these different areas. But like, ultimately,
(33:16):
like this is a development process and in the same way,
like I feel like Austin Reeves has to make substantial
improvements in terms of his strength, dealing with like bigger
physical players and holding up better defensively. With Pods, it's
becoming a more consistent offensive player.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
We saw it.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
I mean we watched that chunk of games there towards
the end of the season. There was like a multi
month stretch where Pods shot like forty two percent from
three and was getting buckets and having some really big games,
and so it's in there. But as we always talk about,
it's like the the hot stretches for younger players tend
to be shorter and the slumps tend to be longer.
And part of being a VET is like extending your
(33:56):
success and limiting your failure and failure, and it just
takes time. It just takes time to figure that stuff
out for sure.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Next question about Anthony Edwards. Do you think with Ant
was having a difficult time figuring out the defense in
the first half or did he have low focus or intensity?
I believe Ant has a focus issue sometimes when there's
no pressure. What do you feel like was going wrong
for Ant in the first half compared to the second
In general?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I felt like it was a combination of two things.
The ball pressure just kind of rushing him into like
kind of like attacks without a plan, so to speak.
And then the jump shot. Like the Ant's jump shot.
He's a very good jump shooter, but he can go
through kind of like extended stretches where it's like a
little flat and he's leaving it short and it just
is like a little bit off. And I think like
(34:38):
some of that is natural, like you shoot yourself out
of a slump and then suddenly the shots start to
go down, And that's very much what happened in that
second half. But my biggest thing with him moving forward
is just like having a little bit more of like
a controlled approach to his drives. It almost reminds me
of like watching the young Lebron and young Wade type athletes,
(35:00):
where like they kind of just only know one speed
going downhill, but then all of them when they got older,
they became these guys that would put guys in jail
and do some more methodical work in the middle of
the floor. And that's really the big thing for me
with An and his growth is I think he just
has to become a guy. He's never going to be
able to process moving at that speed. He's too fast.
(35:20):
He's too fast for his own good. Like he's got
to find a way to like, oh, I see it, seem,
I'm going for it. But if I don't see it seem,
don't just go and then improvise because that's where he
ends up trying to knife through three bodies and he
smokes a layup. It's like if you see an opening
and you see congestion behind it, beat your man off
the dribble, get him stuck on your side or behind you,
(35:43):
and let the play develop, and they're going to be
easier opportunities that come from that. I think it's all
just part of his growth process.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
I think that young Lebron and Wade comparison is so true.
And I was thinking about it just in comparison to
someone like Luca who has never been a superstar athletes.
So he's forced if he's gonna be, you know, a
high level player, which he is, obviously, to play that
stop and start, have the change and pays master all
of the sort of nuances of playing offense, where when
you're Anthony Edwards you haven't had to until right now.
(36:13):
Basically you've been able to just be a super athlete
and a great shooter. And that gets you pretty frickin' fass.
It does, and that and and he's also very young,
and so now he's reaching a point where he if
he wants to take the next step, he's gonna have
to do those things.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
And I don't doubt he's going to. That's the that's
the fun thing with Anthony Edws.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
We were literally talking about this last night, like he's
so far from where he's going to be. Like, this
kid's gonna get so much better. It's like he's what
twenty three played up. Yeah, he played like very much
like a ram his head into the brick wall type
of game tonight and still had thirty six. So like
there's a there's there's just a version of this kid's
career that could go to Like I, I do not
(36:49):
know how good it can be, but I do know
that he can be the best player in the league.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Will he get there?
Speaker 2 (36:54):
I don't know, but like I, he legitimately has that potential.
He's that type of special athlete that dunk on lou
there's like a the dunky miss the one he missed
on Trace Jackson Davis, the two hand like cockback, like
like like.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Dude, that was from Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
That like he we were talking about this last night
with respect to like Donovan Mitchell. There's like athletic and
then there's transcendently athletic, and it's just one of those
guys and that just means that any skill development is
going to leap him up another level. It's like, how
did he produce at this playoff level in his playoff career.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
He's just been a steady.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Forty three point shooter in his playoff career like that,
because he gets such great lift in separation. Once he
adds the methodical processing and all that stuff and all
the in between game, it's just gonna the skuy's.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
The limit for him, for sure. Let's say one more
question and then we'll go over to playback.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
If the Wolves win Game four, do you think Steph
will push himself to come back maybe a little earlier
than he should with their.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Season on the line. Obviously you can't come to his brain.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
No, you know, if Steph, if the Wolf lose Game four,
I shut Steph down for the season, and that the
reasoning is pretty simple. Like the Warriors made it pretty
clear to Steph by all indications after they made the
Jimmy Butler trade that this was a two year window
that they were gonna try this year and that they
would try again next year. They have the assets at
(38:18):
their disposal to make a substantial move this summer to
anchor them with even more talent. They can go get
a you know, potentially a guy like a Cam Johnson,
or they could go get like a or like a
Patrick Williams from Chicago something like that, Like they can
go get a good player that can be useful for
this team and and and and potentially have more firepower
(38:40):
for this setting. Next year, I think we'll even look
I think we'll even see them look for I think
Cam Johnson is just such an obvious fit because it
kind of checks two boxes. It's like the it's the
clear three that they desperately need in terms of just
like that rangy athlete that can guard the ball, but
also that provides a legitimate scoring pop instead of inconsistent
role player like maybe Pods is making a shot today
(39:02):
kind of stuff. It's like Cam, Cam's gonna average twenty
points a game for you.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Cam's just a better version of Buddy Hoult.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Kind of absolutely great.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
That's a great point looking at how useful Buddy's been
in this offense, Like.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
So he's been so good, Yeah, and like that, that
would be the.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Buddy Heal's trajectory from his early career to what he's
done for Golden State, where like last year, in addition
to him just being a guy that was a frustrating
player for his entire career, it was it two years
ago that he played for Philly or was it last year.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
I think it was last year.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, the the series where he steps in for Philly
and everyone's like, man, Buddy Heel, it's like useless in
the playoffs, Like what does he do?
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Like?
Speaker 2 (39:34):
And he's been like legitimately reliably good night tonight for
them for the last couple of weeks in a way
that's been really important. And so if they can take
Buddy Heel, which to your point is just literally a
lesser player than Cam Johnson in every single way and
turn him into like a core part of their five
best players in these lineups, then you can only imagine
what a guy like Cam could do. But the point is,
(39:56):
if you go down three to one, you're not winning
Game five that Minnesota without Steph, even if you did,
like he's got to turn around and play again and
again and again and go right into the next round.
Like your best case scenario is coming back from down
three to one and winning in a Game seven before
you roll up either into the Denver Nuggets will beat
you up on the inside or the Oklahoma City Thunder
(40:16):
will beat you up on the outside. There's just like
no version of that that like Steph is gonna be
near the peak of his ability where he needs to
be to be good enough to win that that type
of stretch of games. And so at that point, you
cut your losses, You let Steph get a good summer rehab,
no chance of re injuring that hamstring. We've seen a
lot of examples in NBA history of like dudes hurting
(40:38):
their hamstring and then not being the same, like Devin Booker,
like James Harden like, but a lot of that is
like them trying to come back and play and re
injuring it and re injuring it and re injuring it,
and so like there's a version of this where Steph
could get one hundred percent recovery and then you're just
a better basketball team next year. I do think, And
let me ask you this, Jackson, before we move over
to playback. Do you think the Warriors have done enough
(41:02):
to this point. Let's say they lose Game four and
they lose Game five, do you think the Warriors have
done enough at this to this point to justify making
a really aggressive trade this summer and going for it
next year.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
I do. I think so too. I do.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
This defense is real, It's so real. Their defense is real.
Steph has proven that he can still reach that level
in this postseason. Jimmy Butler has as well every time
that they've needed him to do. So there's you know,
there's there's just there's still Like we talked about the
young players, Moody and Pajemski and Trace Jackson, Davis and
all those guys getting another year, Quintin post getting another year.
(41:37):
You know, you make another nice move on the margins,
you make a bigger trade. This is absolutely a team
that has some legitimate chance next year, and so everything
has to be a calculated risk. I wouldn't bring Steph
back under any circumstances unless it's Game six, and like
it's unless the series gets pushed to game six. That's
the only scenario where I would consider it. All right, guys,
that's all we have for tonight. As far as YouTube,
(42:00):
we're gonna be heading over to playback again. That's playback
dot tv slash Hoops tonight. You can also find it
in the description. We'll hang out for another forty five
minutes or so, we'll take callers. We'll just kind of
hang out and talk hoops for a little bit longer.
What's up guys, As always, I appreciate you for listening
to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really
helpful for us if you guys would take a second
and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
As always, I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
The volume
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co slash audio. All right, welcome to you, said I
(02:33):
here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody up. All of
you guys are having a great weekend. Got a jam
pack show for you guys tonight. We're hitting Wolves Warriors
off the top, kind of a typical type of what
you would expect from the best defense in the league
since the end of January versus Minnesota. In a game
like this, Minnesota has struggled against Golden State's defense. Kur
(02:54):
leans into Jonathan kaminga Jimmy Butler. We finally get the
Jimmy Butler hyper aggressive offensive game and we get a
hyper competitive, very entertaining basketball game until late in the
second half. Over the last quarter and a half, Anthony
Edwards and Julius Randall completely find a groove and build
some margin. The Warriors offense cools off late and the
(03:16):
Timberwolves take a two to one lead in that series.
Breaking down that game from the perspective both teams. After that,
the Boston Celtics looked like the Boston Celtics for the
first time in their series against the Knicks. I want
to go into some of the specific dynamics at play,
and I want to talk about what the rest of
this series is going to look like, because the Celtics
have to win four out of five games in order
(03:37):
to come back and win this series. And I want
to talk about the idea of how every basketball game
kind of takes on a different feel and how in
each specific type of basketball game it calls for different
types of approaches from both teams. And so we're going
to talk about what Boston needs to do in order
to get the additional three wins they need in the series.
And then the Knicks as well, we're going to dig
(03:59):
into some of the issues they were having with their
pick and roll coverage versus their switching and containing in
one on one situation. So lots of interesting stuff to
get into in both of these games. At the tail
end of the show, we'll take about ten to fifteen
minutes of questions from the chat, and then when we
are done here tonight, we're gonna head over to playback
dot tv slash Hoops Tonight for our usual after show.
(04:23):
There we get to have callers on stage, we look
at film, we get into more of an informal, interactive
kind of vibe over there. On playbacks, you guys can
join us again the links in the description, but playback
dot tv slash Hoops Tonight is where we will be
for the after show tonight. You guys have the joke
before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube
channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys
(04:44):
don't miss show announcements. So forget about a podcast few
wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's
also super helpful if you leave a rating and a
review on that front. Don't forget about the new social
media feeds we have on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where
Jackson's doing great work. Follow us there. The last but not least,
keep dropping those mail back leussons in the chat so
we can get to them at the tail end of
the show. So this game pretty quickly took on a
(05:08):
simple dynamic. You have two elite defenses, right and especially
with the Golden State. Playing at home, you're going to
get an exceptionally good effort and in a desperation type
of situation too. Right, we've talked before after the Steph
curR hamstring injury, the Warriors basically have to get one
of these two games at home, because if they do,
(05:29):
that puts a game six guaranteed on the calendar. In
a game six is still more than a full week
from now, that is on May eighteenth, and so there's
a real opportunity there for Steph to potentially get back
and have a chance to play at the tail end
of this series. Now, as we know that's a tricky
hamstring injury, it might not even matter, but for any
(05:52):
hope that the Warriors have to advance in this postseason run,
it was going to depend on them getting one of
these two games at home. So you're expecting a certain
type of super intense effort, and so it pretty much
settled down into a shot creation contest between Julius Randall
and Anthony Edwards and the new iteration of the Warriors
without Steph. We talked last night about how Steve Kerr
(06:14):
got into the idea of how you have to basically
play a completely different brand of basketball in order to
make the situation work when you lose your star. One
of the things that's interesting about the Warriors roster construction
is it's built on a lot of defensive minded athletes
that are good read and react, players that operate well
in the inverted spacing that Steph provides. Meaning as Steph
(06:38):
is coming off of action and he's bringing multiple players out,
often bringing a big man out and a ball screen coverage,
there are these four on threes or three on two's
quick advantage situations that break down on the back line,
and on the back line it becomes very much a
make decisions athletes. You know, it's a very different game
than spacing the floor for a rim pressuring forward, right
(06:59):
Like if you're playing with Luca or Jannis sir Lebron,
it's like you need shooting. But the Warriors, they emphasized
more versatile athletes that can work with the advantages that
Steph creates on the perimeter to have success on the interior.
And so Steve Kerr essentially had to rebuild a basketball
team on the fly, and so he used Game two
as a launching ground. And what did we get. We
(07:20):
got a high dose of Jonathan Kaminga. We talked after
Game two about how Jimmy Butler would likely be much
more aggressive at home. We got a much more aggressive
version of Jimmy Butler tonight. He went for twenty six
shot attempts in this game. And then the same steady
died of Buddy Healed running off of screening action. So
essentially it turned into this new dynamic of the Warriors
(07:42):
versus the same old Minnesota Timberwolves with Anthony Edwards and
Julius Random And for the first two and a half quarters,
the Warriors were really controlling things and was in a
pretty big funk. Golden State's defense, as I mentioned earlier,
in their last thirty four games this season ample size
of almost a half of the season, they're the number
(08:02):
one defensive rating in basketball. They are I was thinking
about this earlier. I think this is the best defense
that Ant has played in his time in the NBA.
They are not as good at the rim in terms
of rim protection as Dallas was, but I think they're
much faster on the perimeter, much smarter, more well coached.
I think they're just a more dynamic defense overall. And
(08:23):
it's not exactly a slump in Draymond Green that you
have at the basket, or a slouch or whatever you
want to call it. Draymond's, you know, one of the
better rim protecting smaller bigs that we have in the league,
right And one of the things that Warriors have done
with Ant that's caused some problems for him is ball pressure.
They're picking him up and making him uncomfortable in his
like kind of dance with the basketball situations, and it's
(08:45):
forcing him to drive earlier in the schedule than he
wants to. And then in those situations, they keep throwing
bodies at him. He's over penetrating and trying to find
kickout opportunities while he's kind of indecisive in the lane.
He's slaloming through two or three guys at the basket,
trying to find a finishing angle to finish, and he's
smoking layups. He just was struggling for really the first
(09:07):
two and a half games of this series, but into
the second quarter tonight, and Julius Randall was struggling a
little bit too.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Tonight.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I was confused a little bit with his strategy because
he kept just trying to attack Draymond Green one on
one and like, I get it if it's late in
the shot clock, and like the you got toss a
grenade with five seconds left and you have to create something.
But with the way that you should look to approach
on offense for the first fifteen seconds of the shot clock,
(09:34):
you need to be hunting easier opportunities, a better matchup,
an advantage. You can create an action, some sort of
easier opportunity before you rely on isoting their best defender.
Like you, if you repeatedly attack their best defender, you're
just making life harder on you than it needs to be.
And so Julius was struggling a little bit, and then
with the Warriors, they were getting great production. Jimmy was
fantastic tonight scoring the basketball. We got that aggression from him.
(10:00):
Jonathan Comigio goes for thirty points. The Warriors actually won
his minutes tonight. Buddy healed early in the second half,
gets going, starts hitting some threes, and so the Warriors
built a little bit of margin. I think they ended
up going up by as much as seven. I'll pull
up the largest lead, but I think they want Yeah,
the largest lead was seven for the Warriors in that
early third quarter.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Stretch.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Right around that time, a couple things started to go
Minnesota's way. Ant got a couple decent catch and shoot
looks in off ball situations. We talked a little bit
about this in the Lakers series, the idea of Ant
being really good attacking closeouts off of Julius Randall post ups,
Ant got a little bit more rhythm with his jump shot.
Julius Randall started to have a little bit of success
(10:39):
against Raymond in large parks. Draymond got into some foul
trouble and then Draymond had to be a little bit
more conservative with his approach.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So he's like more gambling on.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Julius further out from the basket, trying to like disrupt
him before he even got into his attack, because he
knows once he gets into his attack, there's not much
contact that he can get away with there. And so
all of a sudden, these cracks started to open up
and starts hitting even some tough pull up threes. I
was talking with Jackson before the show, like, you know Jackson,
obviously Jackson's a Celtics fan, but he also roots for
(11:09):
the Warriors, and he was like we were talking to
just about what it was like for me as a
Lakers fan watching Aunt repeatedly in these early fourth quarter stretches,
just hit these crazy difficult pull up threes, and it's
like you're in a groove, you're playing hard, your defense
is locked in, and it just doesn't matter because when
Ant goes into that step back move, there's really nothing
you can do but just hope he misses. And it's
(11:31):
just such a remarkable piece of athleticism to be able
to separate from a defender, a great defender late in
the clock, and then set your base and elevate up
over the top of a great contest, sometimes a double team,
and rise up and knock down a shot like that,
and all of a sudden it just was cooking and
gets a huge driving dunk on Kevon Looney, another amazing
(11:56):
dunk to add to Anthony edwards highlight reel of playoff
dunks in his career. Started in general to find some
more seams right at the front of the rim where
he was getting cleaner finishing angles, and all of a sudden,
what looked like a puzzle that Ant was struggling to
solve the finishes with thirty six points in this game,
and that was kind of my takeaway when we were
in that mid second quarter, mid third quarter stretch, I'm thinking, Okay,
(12:18):
this is the best defense that Aunt has ever played
in his career. They're kind of kicking his butt a
little bit. We talked about this after Game one. Let's
see if it can figure it out, like is this
going to be like the Dallas series where it didn't
really seem like he ever made any headway, or is
he going to make some headway? And like, here's the thing,
there's no doubt that not having Steph Curry out there
(12:40):
changes the dynamic of the game. And I'm not trying
to sit there and pretend like this is the most
challenging win of Anthony Edwards's career.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
But this is a very good defense. And he did
start to find some ways that he could get going
off ball and catch and shoot situations, driving closeouts, got
a little bit more comfortable and in a rhythm as
a pull up shooter and starting to find those driving
angles closer to the basket. I think there's even more
room for improvement with him. He gets a little bit
rushed going downhill to where there's not a lot of
(13:07):
change of pace. We talked about this on playback a
couple nights ago, But Anthony Edwards is taking about half
as many mid range jump shots as he did in
last year's postseason run. He just was a little bit
more willing to work in the middle of the floor
at that point, and I think there's a little there's
still a growth that can that grant and can benefit
(13:28):
from in the form of just being more comfortable operating
at a slower pace or with change of pace in
the middle of the floor and making better use of
that mid range jump shot. I think there's a lot
of opportunity for him to improve. But the indomitable scoring
talent was on display in that second half. It didn't
matter that he's a little one dimensional at this point
in time, or that he still isn't reading the floor
(13:50):
as great as he could potentially thirty six points against
the best defense in the NBA. In my opinion and
Julius Randall, he's been sneaky, fantastic stick this entire postseason run.
I didn't like his game one of this series, but
for the most part in the Lakers series, in the
most part in this series, he's consistently been very comfortable
(14:10):
operating out of the mid post and out of the
low post. He's been playmaking at an extremely high level.
Goes for a triple double tonight twenty four, ten and twelve.
His passing out of the mid to high post has
been a consistent, kind of like underrated part of his game.
He's actually one of the better, like kind of entry
points for Minnesota to use, just because at this point
he's more willing to hunt those advantages than ant Is.
(14:32):
And again ant will figure that stuff out in time.
But at the end of the game, you know, it
was funny because Jackson and I were talking, like the
Warriors did everything tonight that they could have done. You
get two thirty point performances out of at Like if
you if you would have told me before this game
that you're gonna get thirty three out of Jimmy and
thirty out of Jonathan Kaminga, you're thinking a Warriors win, right,
(14:54):
But it just was that much better for Manton Julius.
They were able to get the job done second half.
And here's the thing, Like, I think the Warriors have
exposed some obvious flaws in this Minnesota attack on both
ends of the floor in terms of their attentiveness to ball,
in player movement, in terms of their vulnerability to the
offensive glass when they're in rotation, in terms of just
(15:15):
their ability to handle ball pressure and physicality in a
better defensive construct than what they've attacked in some of
these playoff series. But you just need to get through
this series and then maybe, if you're lucky, Denver beats
Oklahoma City and that's a team that you've had their
number for the last two years now. So like the
finals are there there, there there's a pathway there for
(15:37):
Minnesota to get through this and to get all the
way to the finals. And I think they match up
pretty well with the teams coming out of the Eastern Conference.
And you know, I was actually thinking about this the
other day. I think you could talk me into all
eight teams in this postseason run being a legitimate championship contender.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Indiana.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
You know, obviously, at a rough game three, I wouldn't
be the least bit surprised if they beat Cleveland, beat
whoever came out of the Nix Celtics series, and then
beat whoever came out of the West. That's certainly a possibility.
I could see Denver winning the West. I could see Okay,
see still coming back and win the series. I could
see Boston repeating. I could see Cleveland getting, you know,
just wiping the floor with Indiana for the next three
(16:15):
games and then running into a Celtics team that's stilling
a little bit of a funk and getting it done. Like,
it feels wide open at this point, and there is
a legitimate pathway for Minnesota to work through.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Here. You get a really.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Good opportunity to finish this series off against a Warriors
team that's missing their best player. You have a potentially
great matchup waiting for you with the team leading to
one in the next round, and Denver a team that
you've had their number consistently. And then I can't think
of a type of team that I'd like to see
more against a Boston I think, you know, I think
after today we could all agree that Boston is still
(16:47):
probably the favorite to win the East and Minnesota would
just be such a fun matchup in that series with
their ability to switch and contain. Basically, Minnesota is a
much much better version of Orlando, and we saw what
Orlando was able to do at times against the Celtics.
So super super interesting series on the Warriors front. A
(17:07):
couple of specific things. You This was the game that
I had kind of marked as the best chance they
had to steal one, but it was very unlikely you
were going to get both. You really just need to
get one. So it's just all eyes turned to Monday
night now and you got to figure out a way
to get that particular game. And again, as you've proven
you can make this offense uncomfortable, you can slow them down. Minnesota,
(17:30):
to their credit, kind of got going in that second half.
They had sixty two points. That goes to show you
how important it is for your best player to produce
when you get into these settings. But this is going
to be fun series, and it's going to come down
to Game four. Whoever wins Game four is going to
be in a really good position moving forward. If the
Warriors win, then they got Steph coming back and a
good chance to win the series. And if Minnesota wins,
are going home three to one and probably closing this
(17:52):
thing out in five. All right, let's move on to
Celtics Knicks. Over the course of the last two games,
we've been talking a lot about the concept of offensive
versatility and essentially what that means is like, you know,
we were talking about this with the Thunder Denver series
last night, right, Like the uh for Denver, they just
have so many different ways that they can attack, Like, Okay,
this is a series where we're just spamming Yokic post ups. No,
(18:15):
this is going to be a series where we're running
a ton of Jokic Murray two man game right in
the middle of the floor. Oh, we got this matchup.
Aaron Gordon is a legitimate post matchup hunter, Like we
can go to him. There there's like a five out
flow with ball and player movement, with Yokic kind of
flowing side to side and everyone involved in sweeping side
to side action that they could go to. They have
a devastating transition attack. They have just such a versatile
(18:37):
offense that they can like identify the situation and be like,
this is the way we're gonna go kind of like
for instance, late in game one, Denver spams post ups
for Yokics right in the middle of the floor because
Yokic is having the greatest game of his life. Game three,
Yokic just having probably the worst game I've seen him play,
and all of a sudden, you know, Yokic is still
involved late and he still is looking to score, but
(18:58):
it's a lot more diverted to Jamal Murray and letting
him be aggressive in those situations. Trusting Aaron Gordon to
take a big three in the left corner when he
gets left open in the transition sequence. There's just they
have the ability to adapt to the surrounding circumstances. The
reason why that matters is every basketball game is different.
Your stars are in different rhythm from game to game.
(19:20):
Like we talked Jamal Murray great rhythm Game three, jokicnot
Jokics great rhythm. In game one, Murray not right. You
go into tonight's game with the Celtics, it's like Game one.
In game two, Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown consistently kind
of like in a funk out of rhythm. Tonight Tatum
and Brown in great rhythm. Fundamentally different basketball game, different
(19:42):
role players. Oh, Like tonight, this guy's really engaged, locked in,
he's doing his job, he's not making mistakes, he's hitting shots. Well,
this next game he's just a little bit more off
in those areas. That's why their role players. Role players
are inherently inconsistent. If they were amazing at knocking down,
catching ju threes, an amazing at offending every single night.
They'd be a thirty million dollar player on the wing.
(20:04):
That's what that type of position, a bona fide great
two way, three and D wing, is a thirty million
dollar player in today's league. And so the point is
is there is a lot of inherent inconsistency in the
way basketball games go. So, for instance, the Celtics have
like a core basketball philosophy, their willingness to create advantages
(20:25):
hunting mismatches and to drive and kick for quality catch
and shoot threes. That's like their foundational approach on the
offensive end of the four. Game one, they just played
the dumbest half of basketball I've ever seen. There's not
a whole lot to get into other than they just
played really dumb basketball in the second half. Game two
was very different. Their core philosophy failed them. They played
(20:50):
Celtics basketball just fine in the second half and missed shots. Now,
they didn't have another method that they could. We'll talk
more about that concept in a little bit, but the
point is is that their core offensive philosophy failed. Tonight
was a classic example of the Celtics core formula working
(21:12):
and working extremely well. We've all seen the Celtics win
exactly that type of game one hundred times over the
last couple of years. They came right out and hit
six of their first seven threes, and they were the
same types of shots they were missing in the first
two games. Tatum hits a pull up three and against
drop coverage. Jalen Brown same Shoty bricks at the tail
(21:34):
end of Game two that dropped coverage three right at
the top of the key, hits it to start this game.
Derek White hits like a contested step back three in
a late clock situation. Kat sinks in a little too
far off Al Horford swing pass. There's a contest, but
Horford knocks down that mildly contested three that he was
missing in the first two games of the series. You
(21:54):
could feel the confidence dynamic completely swing after that happened.
Boston only had one thirty point quarter in the entire
series before today. Then they had two back to back
thirty five point quarters. To start today's game, Peyton Pritchard
exploded for twenty three points. The Celtics offense hummed at
the level we knew they were capable of humming at
(22:17):
because we've seen it one hundred times. They got that
engine going. New York just folded from there. And by
the way, Boston's defense was incredible. We're about to talk
about that in a minute. But New York also just
kind of lost their confidence and played some really poor
offensive basketball. Brunton all the way down. Kat was the
guy hitting a couple shots early in the game, but
he was the primary defense of culprit. No one was
(22:37):
really playing well. Mkhale and o g were both at rhythm.
Josh Hart's first couple catch and shoot threes were like
very clearly, very short, right out of his hand, Like
you could just tell. Everybody was like shook by the
way that Boston was playing, and they were just never
able to recover. Now, again, there will be different types
of games in this series. Let's shelf that con set
(23:00):
for just a second. I want to just shout out
Boston's defense. I thought down the line, everyone was great,
Tatum and Brown switching in and out of action with
pressure and physicality efforts at the rim from Derek White.
Drew Holliday did another great job on Jalen Brunson tonight.
But I want to specifically highlight the Biggs because I
thought Horford, Porzingis, and Cornett were all amazing in this game.
(23:21):
Cornett continues to impress he's become like a legitimate playoff
rotation piece for this team, especially in the universe forar
Houser is injured. But like, all three of the bigs
just kicked New York's butt on both ends as athletes.
They combined for six blocks with their efforts around the rim.
(23:41):
Horford and Cornett had five offensive rebounds. Those dudes were
throwing people around like rag dolls to try to find
offensive rebounding opportunities. I just thought all three of those
guys played with more force than the New York front
court and really controlled this game. I mean, like this
was the first game of the series where the Mitchell
Robinson minutes did not New York's way. They just got
(24:02):
physically dominated while also throwing a great offensive punch, and
the result is thirty point lead, completely insurmountable. Yeah, there's
a couple of third quarter pushes from the Knicks, but
when you're pushing down from thirty one, it's different than
when you're pushing down from twenty. The eight to zero
run doesn't cut the lead to twelve and let light
the crowd on fire.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
The eight to zero run.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Cuts the lead to twenty three, and it's a bigger
lead than it was even in those peak moments in
Game one in Game two. Now, looking forward in this series,
a couple of things for the Knicks. I still think
they're conceding too many openings. What I mean by that
is like in their natural ball screen coverages when they're
(24:44):
hedging and recovering with Brunson, but mainly the drop with Kat,
they're getting fried in those situations. They were giving up
quality looks in those situations in the first two games,
they just weren't going in. They have consistently been better
in this series when they've just switched and contain the ball.
Simple stat to demonstrate this tonight, the Celtics shredded the
(25:07):
Nickson pick and roll. They got an offensive rating over
one twenty, including passes on ball screens where they were
using some sort of traditional ball screen coverage post ups
and ISOs. Boston ran twenty seven post ups and ISOs
in this game and got just sixteen points out of them.
It's very clear in the numbers that when they switch
(25:30):
and contain like there was a like there are examples
where you know, Tatum's got cat on the wing, and
they just kind of gap off of him pretty well,
and he's kind of sitting up there stunting, and they
just throw a swing pass and get out of it.
Like they're not doing a good job hunting these things
one on one. They're just taking advantage of the natural openings, like, Oh,
you're going to concede a pick and pop three to Horford.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
That's going in.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Oh you're gonna sit back the cat like in a
deep drop coverage against Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. Like, Yeah,
they've been missing their pull up threes in this series,
but they're sht capable of making them, and so I
still think their pathway moving forward is switch contain, bait
them into those poor isolation decisions. And then for the Celtics,
as I mentioned, there will be very different types of
(26:12):
games in this series, just purely jump shooting. Result Boston
got one point two eight points per jump shot tonight,
the Knicks got zero point eighty five. Another simple way
to explain that is over the course of one hundred
jump shots, the Celtics produced at a rate of forty
three points more per one hundred jump shots than the Knicks.
(26:36):
They out shot the shit out of them tonight. Okay,
that will probably happen again in this series. Like I
think we all could probably agree, this series is going
at least six and there's gonna be another game in
this series where Boston just does what they did tonight
and you basically just shake their hand and say congrats
on the win. But there will be different types of games.
(26:56):
There will be a game, for instance, where the Knicks
just shoot better, and if they do, it's a closer game,
and if they do, there's more pressure on some of
these tougher shots that's Boston's taking. And it's very possible
that they find themselves in a situation where they go
cold and the Knicks get a bunch of momentum in
it's early fourth quarter, and all of a sudden, that
thirteen point third quarter lead for Boston is down to five.
(27:19):
The crowd is raucous. There's a timeout called Boston goes
in their next couple of possessions, misses a couple of threes,
and it's.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Like, what do you do now?
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Because if you allow that situation to play out and
you stay cold like you did in the first two games,
it doesn't matter what kind of large volume production you're
getting from your three point shot, if you can't score
on those key possessions late while Jalen Brunson has been
the best closer in the league this season, and he's
killing you on the other end of the four and
(27:49):
so that's where I want to see what Boston does.
There will be there if Boston's gonna win the series,
they got to win four out of five games. I
find it highly unlikely that they just shoot the piss
out of the basketball for straight times and win the series.
Maybe they do, but I think if Boston's gonna win
this series, they're gonna have to win another one of
those ugly rock fights. And I'll just be really curious
to see what Boston's attack looks like when they end
(28:11):
up in that situation. All right, Jackson, Let's do a
solid ten minutes of questions here.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Let's do it.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
First question, Well, all of our questions are basically about
the Warriors Wolves. First question, POD's was awful tonight, shot
one of ten and only had two assists. Should the
Warriors shorten his minutes?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
So I this is complicated because I saw a lot
of people saying stuff about how about how Pozemski was
playing throughout the game, and I think it's more nuanced
than I'm seeing on Twitter, Like I'm seeing people that
are just saying he sucks, and then.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
I'm seeing, you know, I'm seeing.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Tim Legler talk about how he's being, you know, amazing
in all these other ways, and I'm seeing Pojemski being
really effective in every single way except for offense, and
on that offensive end of the floor, I still think
there's some poor shot selection going on. Like, on the
one hand, you have to empower him a little bit
(29:16):
to where because without Steph you need offensive production. There's
got to be a certain amount of leash that he has.
But there were like three or four shots he took
tonight where I was like, that's not the one you
need to pay like, And so you need to acknowledge
that he's defending like crazy, and he's rebounding extremely well,
(29:37):
and he's making good connective passing leads. But I would
love to see him trim like two or three of
those bad shots out. Another way to another way to
look at it, guys, is like this game was winnable
three or four possessions go a different way. You win
if instead of a seven point lead, you get it
up to thirteen, you probably win. And so I just
(29:57):
think that there's a there's still a little bit of
refinement Jackson, And you mentioned to me before we went live,
like the just a couple of mistakes Kaminga made late,
like just hesitating on that last little catch in the
middle of the lane that allowed him to get stripped
before he went up, Just like little tiny things that
could make a big difference over the course of the series.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
It's easy to nitpick pause, but to your point, when
Steph is out, you kind of got to just say
play free to everybody, right, you can't be like, you
can't be encouraging people to pass up open shots. Really
you're you're struggling to create offense, and it doesn't mean to
take bad shots, but you can't be trying to limit
your players, especially ones like Pods who are usually operating
off someone off in a sort of secondary sort of situation.
(30:40):
There were a couple very very open threes that he
missed that would have been big run extenders for the Warriors,
And I can definitely understand getting upset that feeling like
he needs to make those but the the critique about
the assist number, he's not tripped playing tree youngbo, No, No,
he is. He's important to their offensive flow even though
he needs to make more shots, and he led the
(31:02):
team in rebound. So like it or not, this is
sort of with Moses Moody playing that's bad, especially like
you don't have a lot of options.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
What are supposed to do?
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Who are supposed to get more minutes to if you're
taking away pods, if you're dropping his minutes, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
And he was minus two and thirty nine minutes. Like again,
he's one for ten from the field. There's he takes
two or three better shots or like passes up on
two or three bad ones. To your point, hit a
couple of those run extending type of threes. All of
a sudden, he's playing a fantastic game. And we're talking
about like kind of like a like a special game
in his career. The big thing that I'm seeing on film,
(31:37):
he's shooting a little bit of a flat ball right now,
so he's getting some unfortunate bounces and this dude is
getting clean opportunities in the mid range for floaters.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
He has got to get that floater, polished up.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
That needs to be a shot that he can hit
consistently because that's there for him. But once once again
with the floater, he's shooting it flat and so he's
not getting very good roles on it.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
And I think we got also remember that he is
a still a very very despite him playing kind of
not a not young style of game. He plays a
very veteran game. For the most part, I think he
is still a very very twenty two. He's younger than
a and he had and because of that, he's gonna
have some really good like he had some a couple
two games, I want to say, in the Houston series
where he was cashing all of his mid range pull ups,
(32:19):
he's hitting those awkward step throughs, he's getting people up
in the air. And then he had a couple of
games where he shot really poorly. And that's for a
guy who's no one is expecting to become a high high,
high level scorer like I just don't think that's really
in his range of outcomes, even though I think he's
a very good player. That's what's gonna happen to a
guy who's in his what is the third year, like
it just sort of he's.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Got such good lift and his he's got a nice
compact release to where like I do think he could
be a very good catch and shoot player eventually me too.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
It's there, It's there. It just it's and that's the thing,
like this is with Pods.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
I'm glad you brought up his age because I think
I think there's a he does just play like Vet
and he's been one of the guys that's consistently been
and Steve's like kind of inner circle of guys that
he trusts, and he's he gets so much more leeway
for poor shooting result than Moody does because he's just
such an impact in all these different areas. But like, ultimately,
(33:16):
like this is a development process and in the same way,
like I feel like Austin Reeves has to make substantial
improvements in terms of his strength, dealing with like bigger
physical players and holding up better defensively. With Pods, it's
becoming a more consistent offensive player.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
We saw it.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
I mean we watched that chunk of games there towards
the end of the season. There was like a multi
month stretch where Pods shot like forty two percent from
three and was getting buckets and having some really big games,
and so it's in there. But as we always talk about,
it's like the the hot stretches for younger players tend
to be shorter and the slumps tend to be longer.
And part of being a VET is like extending your
(33:56):
success and limiting your failure and failure, and it just
takes time. It just takes time to figure that stuff
out for sure.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Next question about Anthony Edwards. Do you think with Ant
was having a difficult time figuring out the defense in
the first half or did he have low focus or intensity?
I believe Ant has a focus issue sometimes when there's
no pressure. What do you feel like was going wrong
for Ant in the first half compared to the second
In general?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I felt like it was a combination of two things.
The ball pressure just kind of rushing him into like
kind of like attacks without a plan, so to speak.
And then the jump shot. Like the Ant's jump shot.
He's a very good jump shooter, but he can go
through kind of like extended stretches where it's like a
little flat and he's leaving it short and it just
is like a little bit off. And I think like
(34:38):
some of that is natural, like you shoot yourself out
of a slump and then suddenly the shots start to
go down, And that's very much what happened in that
second half. But my biggest thing with him moving forward
is just like having a little bit more of like
a controlled approach to his drives. It almost reminds me
of like watching the young Lebron and young Wade type athletes,
(35:00):
where like they kind of just only know one speed
going downhill, but then all of them when they got older,
they became these guys that would put guys in jail
and do some more methodical work in the middle of
the floor. And that's really the big thing for me
with An and his growth is I think he just
has to become a guy. He's never going to be
able to process moving at that speed. He's too fast.
(35:20):
He's too fast for his own good. Like he's got
to find a way to like, oh, I see it, seem,
I'm going for it. But if I don't see it seem,
don't just go and then improvise because that's where he
ends up trying to knife through three bodies and he
smokes a layup. It's like if you see an opening
and you see congestion behind it, beat your man off
the dribble, get him stuck on your side or behind you,
(35:43):
and let the play develop, and they're going to be
easier opportunities that come from that. I think it's all
just part of his growth process.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
I think that young Lebron and Wade comparison is so true.
And I was thinking about it just in comparison to
someone like Luca who has never been a superstar athletes.
So he's forced if he's gonna be, you know, a
high level player, which he is, obviously, to play that
stop and start, have the change and pays master all
of the sort of nuances of playing offense, where when
you're Anthony Edwards you haven't had to until right now.
(36:13):
Basically you've been able to just be a super athlete
and a great shooter. And that gets you pretty frickin' fass.
It does, and that and and he's also very young,
and so now he's reaching a point where he if
he wants to take the next step, he's gonna have
to do those things.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
And I don't doubt he's going to. That's the that's
the fun thing with Anthony Edws.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
We were literally talking about this last night, like he's
so far from where he's going to be. Like, this
kid's gonna get so much better. It's like he's what
twenty three played up. Yeah, he played like very much
like a ram his head into the brick wall type
of game tonight and still had thirty six. So like
there's a there's there's just a version of this kid's
career that could go to Like I, I do not
(36:49):
know how good it can be, but I do know
that he can be the best player in the league.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Will he get there?
Speaker 2 (36:54):
I don't know, but like I, he legitimately has that potential.
He's that type of special athlete that dunk on lou
there's like a the dunky miss the one he missed
on Trace Jackson Davis, the two hand like cockback, like
like like.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Dude, that was from Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
That like he we were talking about this last night
with respect to like Donovan Mitchell. There's like athletic and
then there's transcendently athletic, and it's just one of those
guys and that just means that any skill development is
going to leap him up another level. It's like, how
did he produce at this playoff level in his playoff career.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
He's just been a steady.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Forty three point shooter in his playoff career like that,
because he gets such great lift in separation. Once he
adds the methodical processing and all that stuff and all
the in between game, it's just gonna the skuy's.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
The limit for him, for sure. Let's say one more
question and then we'll go over to playback.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
If the Wolves win Game four, do you think Steph
will push himself to come back maybe a little earlier
than he should with their.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Season on the line. Obviously you can't come to his brain.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
No, you know, if Steph, if the Wolf lose Game four,
I shut Steph down for the season, and that the
reasoning is pretty simple. Like the Warriors made it pretty
clear to Steph by all indications after they made the
Jimmy Butler trade that this was a two year window
that they were gonna try this year and that they
would try again next year. They have the assets at
(38:18):
their disposal to make a substantial move this summer to
anchor them with even more talent. They can go get
a you know, potentially a guy like a Cam Johnson,
or they could go get like a or like a
Patrick Williams from Chicago something like that, Like they can
go get a good player that can be useful for
this team and and and and potentially have more firepower
(38:40):
for this setting. Next year, I think we'll even look
I think we'll even see them look for I think
Cam Johnson is just such an obvious fit because it
kind of checks two boxes. It's like the it's the
clear three that they desperately need in terms of just
like that rangy athlete that can guard the ball, but
also that provides a legitimate scoring pop instead of inconsistent
role player like maybe Pods is making a shot today
(39:02):
kind of stuff. It's like Cam, Cam's gonna average twenty
points a game for you.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
Cam's just a better version of Buddy Hoult.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Kind of absolutely great.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
That's a great point looking at how useful Buddy's been
in this offense, Like.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
So he's been so good, Yeah, and like that, that
would be the.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Buddy Heal's trajectory from his early career to what he's
done for Golden State, where like last year, in addition
to him just being a guy that was a frustrating
player for his entire career, it was it two years
ago that he played for Philly or was it last year.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
I think it was last year.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, the the series where he steps in for Philly
and everyone's like, man, Buddy Heel, it's like useless in
the playoffs, Like what does he do?
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Like?
Speaker 2 (39:34):
And he's been like legitimately reliably good night tonight for
them for the last couple of weeks in a way
that's been really important. And so if they can take
Buddy Heel, which to your point is just literally a
lesser player than Cam Johnson in every single way and
turn him into like a core part of their five
best players in these lineups, then you can only imagine
what a guy like Cam could do. But the point is,
(39:56):
if you go down three to one, you're not winning
Game five that Minnesota without Steph, even if you did,
like he's got to turn around and play again and
again and again and go right into the next round.
Like your best case scenario is coming back from down
three to one and winning in a Game seven before
you roll up either into the Denver Nuggets will beat
you up on the inside or the Oklahoma City Thunder
(40:16):
will beat you up on the outside. There's just like
no version of that that like Steph is gonna be
near the peak of his ability where he needs to
be to be good enough to win that that type
of stretch of games. And so at that point, you
cut your losses, You let Steph get a good summer rehab,
no chance of re injuring that hamstring. We've seen a
lot of examples in NBA history of like dudes hurting
(40:38):
their hamstring and then not being the same, like Devin Booker,
like James Harden like, but a lot of that is
like them trying to come back and play and re
injuring it and re injuring it and re injuring it,
and so like there's a version of this where Steph
could get one hundred percent recovery and then you're just
a better basketball team next year. I do think, And
let me ask you this, Jackson, before we move over
to playback. Do you think the Warriors have done enough
(41:02):
to this point. Let's say they lose Game four and
they lose Game five, do you think the Warriors have
done enough at this to this point to justify making
a really aggressive trade this summer and going for it
next year.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
I do. I think so too. I do.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
This defense is real, It's so real. Their defense is real.
Steph has proven that he can still reach that level
in this postseason. Jimmy Butler has as well every time
that they've needed him to do. So there's you know,
there's there's just there's still Like we talked about the
young players, Moody and Pajemski and Trace Jackson, Davis and
all those guys getting another year, Quintin post getting another year.
(41:37):
You know, you make another nice move on the margins,
you make a bigger trade. This is absolutely a team
that has some legitimate chance next year, and so everything
has to be a calculated risk. I wouldn't bring Steph
back under any circumstances unless it's Game six, and like
it's unless the series gets pushed to game six. That's
the only scenario where I would consider it. All right, guys,
that's all we have for tonight. As far as YouTube,
(42:00):
we're gonna be heading over to playback again. That's playback
dot tv slash Hoops tonight. You can also find it
in the description. We'll hang out for another forty five
minutes or so, we'll take callers. We'll just kind of
hang out and talk hoops for a little bit longer.
What's up guys, As always, I appreciate you for listening
to and supporting OOPS tonight. It would actually be really
helpful for us if you guys would take a second
and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
As always, I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
The volume
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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