August 8, 2024 • 20 mins
Jason Timpf reacts to LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant saving Team USA in their dramatic 95-91 comeback win vs. Nikola Jokic and Serbia in the Paris Olympics. Jason discusses Curry's 36-point eruption, Joel Embiid's incredible performance, and shares why this is one of his favorite basketball memories of all time. Later, Jason reacts to Victor Wembanyama and France's semifinal win over Germany to set up an epic final vs. Team USA for the gold medal.
Timeline:
6:00 - USA stuns Serbia
13:00 - LeBron, Steph & KD save Team USA
16:00 - Joel Embiid has his moment
20:00 - France beats Germany
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
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(01:49):
to tonight. You're at the volume heavy Thursday, everybody. If
all you guys are having a great week, Well, I
just witnessed my favorite basketball moment as a fan that
I can remember in my time watching the game. That
is incredible as Team usay straight up dead to rights
for three and a half quarters with about seven minutes
left in the fourth quarter, lock in and come back
(02:11):
to beat Serbia on the strength of incredible performances from
Steph Curry and Lebron James, some great late game contributions
from Kevin Durant. Joel Embiid contributed a lot as well.
We're going to get into it from the perspective of
both teams, and then we'll talk briefly about France Germany
at the end. I have a flight to catch, so
I only have about twenty minutes here, so I can't
get into as much detail as I usually do, but
(02:32):
I really wanted to get this reaction out before I
head out of town. You guys know the Joe. 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 json lts. You guys, don't
miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever
you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. And the last
but not least, keepdropping mail back questions and those YouTube
comments so that we can keep hitting them throughout the
rest of the summer. And then real quickly, before we
get started, I want to talk to you guys about
(02:54):
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There's Major League Baseball games going on. I'm going to
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price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, first
of all, what a game like I That was probably
the most stressed out I've been watching a basketball game
since the twenty sixteen finals in Game seven, when obviously
(04:44):
as a Lebron fan, I was rooting for them in
that crazy game. But even then, the Cavaliers kind of
controlled that game. They took a I want to say
they went up by like eleven or twelve points in
like the mid third quarter, and yeah, it was close
and it was hectic and back and forth, but this
game had a very different type of feel. Serbia straight
up controlled this game for more than three quarters, and
(05:07):
every time the US team would make a little run
and cut it to eight or cut it to nine,
Serbia would hit a couple shots and they'd get it
right back up to fourteen to fifteen points. They came
ready to play today and it was everybody. Nikole Jokich
is the best player in the world, and he was
the best player in this game, and all of that
was on display. Only weird thing with Jokich is he
still can't hit a jump shot to save his life,
(05:27):
which has been a continuing trend dating back to last season.
Don't know what's going on there. Hopefully he gets that
worked out in time for next season. I just think
they're going to need him to be able to hit
those shots in order to get to where they want
to go next year. But Jokic was incredible, And what
was kind of funny is that the narrative if USA
would have lost, would have been like, Jokic defeats the
Stars of the USA by himself, but like anybody who
(05:50):
watched that game knows, like, even though Jokic is the
best player in the world, the Serbian dudes came ready
to play. Bogdn mcdonovich was absolutely who was cooking, hitting
super tough shots. They had five different players hit multiple threes.
They were defending well, they were flying around in rotation,
they were crashing the glass. That Serbian team came ready
(06:12):
to play, and they played well enough to give themselves
a really good chance to win the game. So I
just want to tip the cap to Serbia, tip the
cap to Jokic. He's an indomitable force and that and
is so stressful watching him as like you're watching him
back down Anthony Davis, or back down Lebron James, or
back down Kevin Durant, and you're like, you feel hopeless,
(06:33):
you feel utterly hopeless. And to those Serbian role players
credit every single time they double teamed, every single time
they came off the baseline cutter, it was a dunk
Eruza three or it was a dunk Eruza three. Those
guys just had their tic tac toe in terms of
how to handle the double teams down. Pat Jokis was
making the right. Read every time shout out to the
Serbian team, they they brought something special out of this
(06:57):
team USA team that I think, as bad basketball fans
we were dying to see. And it's something that if
you look at the twenty eight team, the twenty twelve team,
the nineteen ninety two team, the three other like kind
of like super super stacked team. USA rosters those teams.
Even though the twenty eight team and twenty twelve team
ended up in semi competitive games like they were never
(07:17):
like profoundly threatened. And that really is what you saw
in that fourth quarter is like what it looks like
when you watch the best players in the world, specifically
a team USA squad that usually doesn't get pushed to
this point when you watch them play desperate basketball, and
desperate basketball is a very different type of basketball than
(07:38):
the type of basketball that you see in a regular
eighty two game regular season. Right there's a fierce attention
to detail that you need. Every box out matters, every transition,
sprint matters, every single decision you make with the basketball,
every jump shot carries a world of pressure. And what
I thought was super fascinating is here we are in
(07:59):
this predicament for Team USA, and the three greatest players
of this era, Lebron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant
were the three guys for Team USA that stepped up
and got it done. Steph in the early portion of
the game, in particular, when Serbia was red hot and
hitting everything, Steph was red hot two and he kept
(08:20):
USA close enough for them to kind of remain in
that striking distance so they could give themselves a chance
to come back and make it a game. And then
late in the game, off of a monster screen from
Joel mb It, a huge play from him there, Steph
breaks three on the left wing and knocks down the
lead changing shot to put Team USA up one, and
then a big time transition layup from him two a
(08:42):
couple of clutch free throws. Steph Curry, who's had a
nightmare time with Team USA, who I think his values
understated because even though he's not making shots or hasn't
been making shots, he's still been one of their primary,
like player movement pieces that's kind of maintained spacing. I
think there's a lot of value that comes from that.
Like again, even though Steph hasn't been making shots, he's
been guarded like he's Steph Curry, which carries a great
(09:04):
deal of value. But as we were hoping, eventually Steph
would break out, and he broke out in a huge
way tonight, thirty four points, made a bunch of huge
plays at a huge steal late to just tip of
the cap to Steph Curry. That was a legendary performance
from him. Lebron James a triple double. I think he
had sixteen points if I remember correctly, ten assists to
just two turnovers, twelve rebounds. Was battling the Kola Yo
(09:29):
Kitchen that fourth quarter, fronting the post, absorbing the blows
that allowed Joel Embiid to kind of be in that
back line ready to help behind him. He got a
huge stop on Yo Kitchen, a one on one situation
along the right side where he forced Yo Kitch into
a tough one like fade away and gotta stop. Bunch
of big situations where he was battling with Yo Kicch
like situations where like Lebron knew.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
He wasn't even gonna get the ball, but he just.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Was like, I'm putting everything I have into this jump
to just get a piece of it so that someone
else might. His only job was to make sure Jokic
didn't get the basketball. That is a tough job, and
then on top of that to dig deep for two
massive transition drives, the one with where Kadi was in
with him in transition he finished with his right hand
(10:15):
on the left side of the basket. Look At how
explosive he was off of that left knee on that play.
Like you could tell he poured everything he had into
that play. And it kind of reminds me of like
other moments in Lebron's career where it's like when push
comes to shove, Lebron knows that he can just get
that athleticism to engage in a way that makes him
(10:36):
truly unstoppable in these short bursts. Even at his old age,
I thought that was an incredible Lebron James performance. And
then Kevin Durant, who had a rough first three quarters
and was struggling to knock down shots, hit several huge
jump shots late Stephan Lebron were tired. They desperately needed
someone to create a bucket and there it was up
(10:56):
to late clock situation. If you don't score there, Herbia
has a chance to go down to tie or take
the lead, and it's like, you either leave Yokic on
an island and he ties the game, or you double
team and you give up a three point shot to
one of these guys that's been hitting, and KD hits
a nasty left to right crossover dribble and gets to
that one dribble, pull up off that right wing and
effectively ice is the game for Team USA.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I was.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I tweeted after the game about how I just that
was just such a cool moment for me as a fan,
and one of my buddies, Tommy, ended up quote tweeting
in it said something that I thought was interesting. He said,
one of the last legitimately legacy defining moments for all
three of these guys, and they came through. And it's true,
Like I don't think everybody's like worried about what Steph
(11:41):
can accomplish with that limited Warriors roster, what Lebron can
accomplish at forty years old with the Lakers team that's
super incompetent and doesn't have another player other than Ad
that can play both ends of the floor, Like I
don't think anybody really cares too much about that, Like
KD post Achilles, like I think people know what Katie
is and what he's capelove, but here in this setting,
(12:02):
with this roster against a Serbian team that doesn't have
as much talent, this was a true high pressure, legacy
defining moment for all three of these guys, and all
three of them came through in a huge way. And
as a basketball fan, I just I was that was
just a really cool moment. And guys, we're not gonna
(12:24):
get very many moments like that as basketball fans in
our lives, and I'm just it was one of those
days where I'm thankful to get to do what I
do for a living so that we can come on
here and talk about it. It was just a ton
of fun. Shout out to those three guys. I literally
can't say enough about those three just in that situation.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
There's so much part.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They were down fifteen I think in the fourth quarter,
like Steve Kurr like they the starters came in to
start the second half and they were playing some really
good basketball and they got it to like seven, I
think in the mid third, and then Kerr went to
an all bench group to end the third quarter in Serbia.
Immediately balloon the lead back up and by the time
the starters came back in, they were in a deep hole.
(13:03):
And you got to imagine that going out there. You're
walking out onto the for Steph Curry, Lebron James. You
guys have the reputation as being the best American players
of this era, and all of it is on the
line in a small sample with a huge deficit. You
have to play damn near perfect basketball to close that
game out, and they did just I can't say enough
(13:26):
about those guys, and I can't wait to get more
and more into this when I have some more time
and I'm not running out the door to get to
a flight. But one other USA player I wanted to
shout out before we move on, Joel Embiid nineteen points
on eleven shots. It was kind of a frustrating experience
for me as a basketball fan rooting so hard in
this game, because like Embiid got so many huge buckets
in the fourth quarter, but he also gave up four
(13:48):
offensive rebounds where he was just getting beat to the
ball by that slower center I can't remember his name,
the other center that was playing with Jokic, And I
was like, it was like I'd be like grab the
fucking basketball and then like five seconds later he hit
a huge shot.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I'd be like, damn, that's a huge shot. That he'd
give it up again.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I'd be like, what are you doing, and then he'd
go down to the other end he hit a huge shot.
It was like just an incredible roller coaster as a
fan rooting for Joel Embiid in that moment. But I
thought that was Joel Embiid's first like huge moment for
Team USA, And I will always remember when we think
back to the twenty twenty four Olympic team USA basketball team,
I will always think back to the fact that Joel Embiid,
(14:25):
after really struggling through the exhibition games and through the
pool play games, and even a little bit in that
first round game against Brazil, he although he hits a
bunch of threes in that game, but he's been struggling defensively.
He's been struggling in a bunch of like specific details,
And all I can remember now looking back is like
when the shit hit the fan and they needed somebody
(14:46):
to step up, and a bunch of guys on that
team couldn't. Joel Embiid was one of the guys who did,
and I thought that was a huge winning moment for him.
I'd like to see him tighten up some of those details.
He needs to come down with some of those loose balls,
and those are the little details that'll be the next
step that Joel takes to win the championship. If he
wants to be an NBA champion, he's got to just
(15:07):
bring that extra level of level of competitiveness, that extra
level of conditioning, that extra level of just of just
savage competitiveness to get it done. And I think he's
gonna get there. I think it's only a matter of time.
But I that was a that was just a really
cool moment for him to and I'll always remember his
contributions in that particular game. Shout out to Team USA,
shout out to Serbia. Really cool moment. I want to
(15:30):
move on France, Germany really really quick. Uh Germany jumped
him early. They went up double figures a couple of
separate times, and offense is always the issue for France.
Their guards just aren't very good. Evan Fournier didn't have
as good of a night tonight. They really rode their
their big guys, they're uh gershon Yabuselli and mattheisl sort.
Those two guys were just bullying guys on the block.
(15:52):
Ya Yabuselei. I'm trying to get better at pronouncing these names.
I appreciate you guys who have been correcting me in
the comments. Yabuseli had a bunch of really nice slashing
possessions too, where he was getting downhill. He had a
nasty dunk. Actually, Yabuseli's an interesting player. I'm not sure
what his contract situation is overseas, but he looks like
a guy who could play in the NBA to me.
And then the sort just Mattheisa sort, just big time
(16:15):
post moves down the stretch. There was a huge moment
where he had a big step through for like a
little lamp right at the front of the rim. And
he had a huge moment where he's just running up
and down the floor just screaming he's too small, and
I love That's why I love basketball so much. There's
like these unbridled, unfiltered moments of pure competitive expression that
(16:35):
just that just make it like really truly special and
like today the today was just a fun day as
a basketball fan to watch all these games. But shout
out those guys for carrying things on offense, but I
really thought the defense was what got the job done
for France.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
They had a stretch.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Where in the late third quarter they had like forty
seven points I think, and they didn't score. They had
like fifty three points like ten minutes later on. I
can't remember the exact I have to look it up again.
I don't have the time for it today, but like,
they really locked in on defense in that late.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Third quarter early fourth quarter stretch.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And they just gave them enough opportunities to get out
in transition enough times to make enough plays to build
enough of a margin to give them a chance to
win that game. They almost blew it late as Germany
came back hit a bunch of threes, but they ended
up closing the deal. Victor wimen Yama classic box score
watching games, same thing happened last game, where it was
(17:27):
like I had a lot of the guys going like, oh,
he wouldn't even the best player on the team. There
was like he only had seven points, and it's like
he just does so much defensively to impact the game
that extends so far beyond the box score. He was
four for seventeen today and I thought he had a
really good game. He was getting tons of deflections, tying
up Dennis Schroeder on switches, had a huge block on
(17:49):
Dennis Schroeder on a switch in the second half, he
had three blocks. He was just he was just an
absolutely disruptive force. Hit a huge three points shot late.
He had another nice post feed to I think it
was Cardinia cutting down the middle Cordina, I think cutting
down the middle, and he just ended up smoking the dunk.
But it was a really nice pass that just just
kind of had an unfortunate finish. But I again, just
(18:12):
France USA is gonna be a ton of fun. The
home crowd element for France is gonna be big. I
would imagine that we'll see a little bit more of
go Bar in that game, just because of how much
interior size that team USA has. But man, that was
what a great day of basketball. I'm sorry I can't
get into more detail for you guys today, but I
get back from Vegas on Saturday afternoon, so I do
(18:33):
plan on doing a video on Saturday where we break
down the gold medal game. Keep dropping mail bag questions
because we're gonna do a full mail bag after the
Gold Medal game because I leave for vacation to the
Pacific Northwest on Sunday, so I want to have some
stuff to run while I'm out of town. So I've
already recorded three player rankings videos that are gonna run
(18:54):
next week, and I have the and then I'll do
that mail bag tomorrow, so I'll have like four episodes
worth of content that'll berunning while I'm out of town.
And then I get back a week from Sunday and
will continue the player rankings from then. As always, I
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show,
and I'll see you guys next time the volume.
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(01:49):
to tonight. You're at the volume heavy Thursday, everybody. If
all you guys are having a great week, Well, I
just witnessed my favorite basketball moment as a fan that
I can remember in my time watching the game. That
is incredible as Team usay straight up dead to rights
for three and a half quarters with about seven minutes
left in the fourth quarter, lock in and come back
(02:11):
to beat Serbia on the strength of incredible performances from
Steph Curry and Lebron James, some great late game contributions
from Kevin Durant. Joel Embiid contributed a lot as well.
We're going to get into it from the perspective of
both teams, and then we'll talk briefly about France Germany
at the end. I have a flight to catch, so
I only have about twenty minutes here, so I can't
get into as much detail as I usually do, but
(02:32):
I really wanted to get this reaction out before I
head out of town. You guys know the Joe. 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 json lts. You guys, don't
miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever
you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. And the last
but not least, keepdropping mail back questions and those YouTube
comments so that we can keep hitting them throughout the
rest of the summer. And then real quickly, before we
get started, I want to talk to you guys about
(02:54):
game time. There are lots of amazing shows to see
this summer. You can see your favorite comedians, your favorite musicians.
There's Major League Baseball games going on. I'm going to
see Dead and Company at the Sphere tonight. That's literally
why I'm flying out. They've got three shows left tonight, Friday,
and Saturday. If you haven't seen them yet, I highly
recommend you guys checking it out. But when you're trying
to get tickets, especially close to the showtime, it can
(03:15):
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worry about what you're getting for your money. You can
get a good idea of what the view is from
(03:37):
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(04:20):
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That's hops. Download game Time Today, last minute tickets, lowest
price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, first
of all, what a game like I That was probably
the most stressed out I've been watching a basketball game
since the twenty sixteen finals in Game seven, when obviously
(04:44):
as a Lebron fan, I was rooting for them in
that crazy game. But even then, the Cavaliers kind of
controlled that game. They took a I want to say
they went up by like eleven or twelve points in
like the mid third quarter, and yeah, it was close
and it was hectic and back and forth, but this
game had a very different type of feel. Serbia straight
up controlled this game for more than three quarters, and
(05:07):
every time the US team would make a little run
and cut it to eight or cut it to nine,
Serbia would hit a couple shots and they'd get it
right back up to fourteen to fifteen points. They came
ready to play today and it was everybody. Nikole Jokich
is the best player in the world, and he was
the best player in this game, and all of that
was on display. Only weird thing with Jokich is he
still can't hit a jump shot to save his life,
(05:27):
which has been a continuing trend dating back to last season.
Don't know what's going on there. Hopefully he gets that
worked out in time for next season. I just think
they're going to need him to be able to hit
those shots in order to get to where they want
to go next year. But Jokic was incredible, And what
was kind of funny is that the narrative if USA
would have lost, would have been like, Jokic defeats the
Stars of the USA by himself, but like anybody who
(05:50):
watched that game knows, like, even though Jokic is the
best player in the world, the Serbian dudes came ready
to play. Bogdn mcdonovich was absolutely who was cooking, hitting
super tough shots. They had five different players hit multiple threes.
They were defending well, they were flying around in rotation,
they were crashing the glass. That Serbian team came ready
(06:12):
to play, and they played well enough to give themselves
a really good chance to win the game. So I
just want to tip the cap to Serbia, tip the
cap to Jokic. He's an indomitable force and that and
is so stressful watching him as like you're watching him
back down Anthony Davis, or back down Lebron James, or
back down Kevin Durant, and you're like, you feel hopeless,
(06:33):
you feel utterly hopeless. And to those Serbian role players
credit every single time they double teamed, every single time
they came off the baseline cutter, it was a dunk
Eruza three or it was a dunk Eruza three. Those
guys just had their tic tac toe in terms of
how to handle the double teams down. Pat Jokis was
making the right. Read every time shout out to the
Serbian team, they they brought something special out of this
(06:57):
team USA team that I think, as bad basketball fans
we were dying to see. And it's something that if
you look at the twenty eight team, the twenty twelve team,
the nineteen ninety two team, the three other like kind
of like super super stacked team. USA rosters those teams.
Even though the twenty eight team and twenty twelve team
ended up in semi competitive games like they were never
(07:17):
like profoundly threatened. And that really is what you saw
in that fourth quarter is like what it looks like
when you watch the best players in the world, specifically
a team USA squad that usually doesn't get pushed to
this point when you watch them play desperate basketball, and
desperate basketball is a very different type of basketball than
(07:38):
the type of basketball that you see in a regular
eighty two game regular season. Right there's a fierce attention
to detail that you need. Every box out matters, every transition,
sprint matters, every single decision you make with the basketball,
every jump shot carries a world of pressure. And what
I thought was super fascinating is here we are in
(07:59):
this predicament for Team USA, and the three greatest players
of this era, Lebron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant
were the three guys for Team USA that stepped up
and got it done. Steph in the early portion of
the game, in particular, when Serbia was red hot and
hitting everything, Steph was red hot two and he kept
(08:20):
USA close enough for them to kind of remain in
that striking distance so they could give themselves a chance
to come back and make it a game. And then
late in the game, off of a monster screen from
Joel mb It, a huge play from him there, Steph
breaks three on the left wing and knocks down the
lead changing shot to put Team USA up one, and
then a big time transition layup from him two a
(08:42):
couple of clutch free throws. Steph Curry, who's had a
nightmare time with Team USA, who I think his values
understated because even though he's not making shots or hasn't
been making shots, he's still been one of their primary,
like player movement pieces that's kind of maintained spacing. I
think there's a lot of value that comes from that.
Like again, even though Steph hasn't been making shots, he's
been guarded like he's Steph Curry, which carries a great
(09:04):
deal of value. But as we were hoping, eventually Steph
would break out, and he broke out in a huge
way tonight, thirty four points, made a bunch of huge
plays at a huge steal late to just tip of
the cap to Steph Curry. That was a legendary performance
from him. Lebron James a triple double. I think he
had sixteen points if I remember correctly, ten assists to
just two turnovers, twelve rebounds. Was battling the Kola Yo
(09:29):
Kitchen that fourth quarter, fronting the post, absorbing the blows
that allowed Joel Embiid to kind of be in that
back line ready to help behind him. He got a
huge stop on Yo Kitchen, a one on one situation
along the right side where he forced Yo Kitch into
a tough one like fade away and gotta stop. Bunch
of big situations where he was battling with Yo Kicch
like situations where like Lebron knew.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
He wasn't even gonna get the ball, but he just.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Was like, I'm putting everything I have into this jump
to just get a piece of it so that someone
else might. His only job was to make sure Jokic
didn't get the basketball. That is a tough job, and
then on top of that to dig deep for two
massive transition drives, the one with where Kadi was in
with him in transition he finished with his right hand
(10:15):
on the left side of the basket. Look At how
explosive he was off of that left knee on that play.
Like you could tell he poured everything he had into
that play. And it kind of reminds me of like
other moments in Lebron's career where it's like when push
comes to shove, Lebron knows that he can just get
that athleticism to engage in a way that makes him
(10:36):
truly unstoppable in these short bursts. Even at his old age,
I thought that was an incredible Lebron James performance. And
then Kevin Durant, who had a rough first three quarters
and was struggling to knock down shots, hit several huge
jump shots late Stephan Lebron were tired. They desperately needed
someone to create a bucket and there it was up
(10:56):
to late clock situation. If you don't score there, Herbia
has a chance to go down to tie or take
the lead, and it's like, you either leave Yokic on
an island and he ties the game, or you double
team and you give up a three point shot to
one of these guys that's been hitting, and KD hits
a nasty left to right crossover dribble and gets to
that one dribble, pull up off that right wing and
effectively ice is the game for Team USA.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
I was.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I tweeted after the game about how I just that
was just such a cool moment for me as a fan,
and one of my buddies, Tommy, ended up quote tweeting
in it said something that I thought was interesting. He said,
one of the last legitimately legacy defining moments for all
three of these guys, and they came through. And it's true,
Like I don't think everybody's like worried about what Steph
(11:41):
can accomplish with that limited Warriors roster, what Lebron can
accomplish at forty years old with the Lakers team that's
super incompetent and doesn't have another player other than Ad
that can play both ends of the floor, Like I
don't think anybody really cares too much about that, Like
KD post Achilles, like I think people know what Katie
is and what he's capelove, but here in this setting,
(12:02):
with this roster against a Serbian team that doesn't have
as much talent, this was a true high pressure, legacy
defining moment for all three of these guys, and all
three of them came through in a huge way. And
as a basketball fan, I just I was that was
just a really cool moment. And guys, we're not gonna
(12:24):
get very many moments like that as basketball fans in
our lives, and I'm just it was one of those
days where I'm thankful to get to do what I
do for a living so that we can come on
here and talk about it. It was just a ton
of fun. Shout out to those three guys. I literally
can't say enough about those three just in that situation.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
There's so much part.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They were down fifteen I think in the fourth quarter,
like Steve Kurr like they the starters came in to
start the second half and they were playing some really
good basketball and they got it to like seven, I
think in the mid third, and then Kerr went to
an all bench group to end the third quarter in Serbia.
Immediately balloon the lead back up and by the time
the starters came back in, they were in a deep hole.
(13:03):
And you got to imagine that going out there. You're
walking out onto the for Steph Curry, Lebron James. You
guys have the reputation as being the best American players
of this era, and all of it is on the
line in a small sample with a huge deficit. You
have to play damn near perfect basketball to close that
game out, and they did just I can't say enough
(13:26):
about those guys, and I can't wait to get more
and more into this when I have some more time
and I'm not running out the door to get to
a flight. But one other USA player I wanted to
shout out before we move on, Joel Embiid nineteen points
on eleven shots. It was kind of a frustrating experience
for me as a basketball fan rooting so hard in
this game, because like Embiid got so many huge buckets
in the fourth quarter, but he also gave up four
(13:48):
offensive rebounds where he was just getting beat to the
ball by that slower center I can't remember his name,
the other center that was playing with Jokic, And I
was like, it was like I'd be like grab the
fucking basketball and then like five seconds later he hit
a huge shot.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I'd be like, damn, that's a huge shot. That he'd
give it up again.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
I'd be like, what are you doing, and then he'd
go down to the other end he hit a huge shot.
It was like just an incredible roller coaster as a
fan rooting for Joel Embiid in that moment. But I
thought that was Joel Embiid's first like huge moment for
Team USA, And I will always remember when we think
back to the twenty twenty four Olympic team USA basketball team,
I will always think back to the fact that Joel Embiid,
(14:25):
after really struggling through the exhibition games and through the
pool play games, and even a little bit in that
first round game against Brazil, he although he hits a
bunch of threes in that game, but he's been struggling defensively.
He's been struggling in a bunch of like specific details,
And all I can remember now looking back is like
when the shit hit the fan and they needed somebody
(14:46):
to step up, and a bunch of guys on that
team couldn't. Joel Embiid was one of the guys who did,
and I thought that was a huge winning moment for him.
I'd like to see him tighten up some of those details.
He needs to come down with some of those loose balls,
and those are the little details that'll be the next
step that Joel takes to win the championship. If he
wants to be an NBA champion, he's got to just
(15:07):
bring that extra level of level of competitiveness, that extra
level of conditioning, that extra level of just of just
savage competitiveness to get it done. And I think he's
gonna get there. I think it's only a matter of time.
But I that was a that was just a really
cool moment for him to and I'll always remember his
contributions in that particular game. Shout out to Team USA,
shout out to Serbia. Really cool moment. I want to
(15:30):
move on France, Germany really really quick. Uh Germany jumped
him early. They went up double figures a couple of
separate times, and offense is always the issue for France.
Their guards just aren't very good. Evan Fournier didn't have
as good of a night tonight. They really rode their
their big guys, they're uh gershon Yabuselli and mattheisl sort.
Those two guys were just bullying guys on the block.
(15:52):
Ya Yabuselei. I'm trying to get better at pronouncing these names.
I appreciate you guys who have been correcting me in
the comments. Yabuseli had a bunch of really nice slashing
possessions too, where he was getting downhill. He had a
nasty dunk. Actually, Yabuseli's an interesting player. I'm not sure
what his contract situation is overseas, but he looks like
a guy who could play in the NBA to me.
And then the sort just Mattheisa sort, just big time
(16:15):
post moves down the stretch. There was a huge moment
where he had a big step through for like a
little lamp right at the front of the rim. And
he had a huge moment where he's just running up
and down the floor just screaming he's too small, and
I love That's why I love basketball so much. There's
like these unbridled, unfiltered moments of pure competitive expression that
(16:35):
just that just make it like really truly special and
like today the today was just a fun day as
a basketball fan to watch all these games. But shout
out those guys for carrying things on offense, but I
really thought the defense was what got the job done
for France.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
They had a stretch.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Where in the late third quarter they had like forty
seven points I think, and they didn't score. They had
like fifty three points like ten minutes later on. I
can't remember the exact I have to look it up again.
I don't have the time for it today, but like,
they really locked in on defense in that late.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Third quarter early fourth quarter stretch.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And they just gave them enough opportunities to get out
in transition enough times to make enough plays to build
enough of a margin to give them a chance to
win that game. They almost blew it late as Germany
came back hit a bunch of threes, but they ended
up closing the deal. Victor wimen Yama classic box score
watching games, same thing happened last game, where it was
(17:27):
like I had a lot of the guys going like, oh,
he wouldn't even the best player on the team. There
was like he only had seven points, and it's like
he just does so much defensively to impact the game
that extends so far beyond the box score. He was
four for seventeen today and I thought he had a
really good game. He was getting tons of deflections, tying
up Dennis Schroeder on switches, had a huge block on
(17:49):
Dennis Schroeder on a switch in the second half, he
had three blocks. He was just he was just an
absolutely disruptive force. Hit a huge three points shot late.
He had another nice post feed to I think it
was Cardinia cutting down the middle Cordina, I think cutting
down the middle, and he just ended up smoking the dunk.
But it was a really nice pass that just just
kind of had an unfortunate finish. But I again, just
(18:12):
France USA is gonna be a ton of fun. The
home crowd element for France is gonna be big. I
would imagine that we'll see a little bit more of
go Bar in that game, just because of how much
interior size that team USA has. But man, that was
what a great day of basketball. I'm sorry I can't
get into more detail for you guys today, but I
get back from Vegas on Saturday afternoon, so I do
(18:33):
plan on doing a video on Saturday where we break
down the gold medal game. Keep dropping mail bag questions
because we're gonna do a full mail bag after the
Gold Medal game because I leave for vacation to the
Pacific Northwest on Sunday, so I want to have some
stuff to run while I'm out of town. So I've
already recorded three player rankings videos that are gonna run
(18:54):
next week, and I have the and then I'll do
that mail bag tomorrow, so I'll have like four episodes
worth of content that'll berunning while I'm out of town.
And then I get back a week from Sunday and
will continue the player rankings from then. As always, I
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show,
and I'll see you guys next time the volume.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Preparing for your upcoming fantasy football draft, do you wish
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who exactly your league mates are going to take?
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