April 29, 2025 • 46 mins
Jason reacts to the Golden State Warriors getting a clutch win to take a 3-1 lead on the Houston Rockets. He discusses Steph Curry’s performance, Draymond Green’s foul trouble, Jimmy Butler’s return, and Brandin Podziemski’s great game on the Dubs side + Fred Van Vleet and Alperen Sengun leading the way for the Rockets.
#Volume #Herd
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The NBA eighty two game grind is done, and now
the real fun begins. The NBA Playoffs aren't here, and
it's time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments,
and jaw dropping plays.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I can't wait.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
If you're looking to make the playoffs even more exciting,
DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting
partner of the NBA from the playing games all the
way through to the finals. Now's the time to back
your favorite players and teams as they chase glory. All
season long. DraftKings has been the go to spot for
NBA player props and that does not stop. Now. Want
to make your playoff experience even more intense, Try placing
(00:35):
a bet on your favorite player's performance. Well they drop
thirty points, forty or more, it's your call. Ready to
place your first bet? Download the DraftKings Sportsbook gap Now
lock in your bets. Let's make this playoff run unforgettable.
Here's something special for first timers. New DraftKings customers. Bet
five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets.
Instantly make it a playoff run to remember with DraftKings.
(00:57):
Download the Draft Kings sportsbook gap and use code hoops.
That's h oops. That's code hoops for new customers to
get two hundred dollars in bonus bets when you bet
just five bucks only on DraftKings.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
The Crown is yours.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Gambling problem called Wayne hundred gambler In New York call
eight seven seven eight hope and y or text hope
and why to four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut,
help us available for problem gambling Call eight eight eight
seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Visit CCPG dot org.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction.
Void in Ontario, New customers only. Bonus bets expire one
hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms
and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co. Slash audio.
(01:57):
All right, well was with hoops tonight? You're at the volume?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Have you Monday? Everybody? Hope?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All if you guys are having a great start here,
we got a jam pack show for you guys tonight.
Tonight we're gonna be hitting that absolutely wild game four
between the Warriors and the Rockets. After that, I want
to do a dive into the Cleveland Cavaliers offense, which
hung a ridiculous one and eighteen offensive rating in the
half court versus the Miami Heap in the first round,
(02:22):
starting to have some big picture thoughts about them that
we're gonna get to. And then at the tail end
of the show, like we always do, we're gonna take
some questions from the chat, So stick around for the
end and we can bounce around to some of these
other series around the league or any follow up questions
you got. I really like when you guys use the
chat questions as an opportunity to bring up specific parts
of series that I may not get to in the
instant reaction. You guys know the joke before we get started.
(02:43):
To Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you
don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Twitter at underscore json lt so you guys don't miss
show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast for you wherever.
Get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful
if you leave a rating and a review on that front.
We also have our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
where were making content throughout there to make sure you
guys follow us there, And then, last but not least,
(03:04):
keep dropping mailbag questions in YouTube comments so we can
get to him throughout the remainder of the postseason. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So super weird game, insanely physical,
very contentious. Early, I thought the first scuffle was super dumb,
Like I thought Draymond said it perfectly legal playoff screen.
I've talked about how the Warriors set a shit ton
of illegal screens.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
That wasn't one of them. I thought he was set.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I thought I thought he leaned into it a little bit,
but that's pretty standard for a good hard playoff screen.
And I mean, Thompson just got caught off guard, bike
got knocked over, Dylan Brooks foul, Steph, Steph falls over.
Steph just points up to him like, hey, buddy, you
just gave me two free throws. And I thought Dylan
kind of initiated that by reaching down to try to
grab the basketball from him as Draymond was helping him up.
(03:47):
And I thought the technical specifically on Draymond in that
situation was really dumb, and that ended up putting the
refs into a tough spot on the next sequence because
on the Tar Easton play, you bet your ass, Draymond
Green deserved a technical as he was like grabbing his
leg and tried to supplex him on the middle of
the floor, and that put the refs in a really
tough spot. But I actually thought the ref's handled it
(04:08):
pretty well by giving him a flagrant instead of giving
him a TECH, because Draymond did not deserve to be
ejected there because the first tech was bogus. But both
Draymond and Steph were just a bit off their game tonight.
I thought Steph showed his first signs of some wear
and tear in this series, like he was struggling to
get open. He had three jump shots that he left
way short, like way short off the front of the rim.
(04:29):
That is a strong indicator of a shooter just not
really having his legs underneath him. And so I think
that under those circumstances, Draymond being in foul trouble that
really unlocked this Fred van Vliet alprin Shannghun two man game,
which we'll talk about in a second, but the yet
Fred van Vliet playing really well in this game, as
a team. The Rocket shot forty eight percent from three.
(04:51):
A lot of things went the wrong way for the
Warriors tonight, which put a lot of pressure on the
rest of the roster to be awesome, and they were.
It turned into a super tight game because, as I mentioned,
as Draymond got into foul trouble that really unlocked the
Fred van Vliet Alpern Shangun two man game. And it
was a combination of different things, Like there was a
stretch where Shangun was just going straight iso against Quinton
(05:13):
post and having some success. But when him and Fred
were out there, what they were doing is they were
just posting Alpern Shangoun with Fred van Vliet one pass away.
And the thing that makes that tough in particular is
if you double from that top side, it's just the
easiest kickout pass in the world. And so then it
turned into this like you're letting Shangun play one on
one in the post where he's scoring, or you're helping
(05:35):
off of Fred VanVleet where he's hitting all of his
wide open catch and shoot threes, and that just dragged
the game into a much more competitive situation than the
Warriors are used to specifically dealing with Rockets actually having
some success on offense in the half court.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
And then late in the game, we.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Got a steady diet of the Fred van Vliet Alpern
Shangun two man game in the form of an inverted
ball screen basically having shanggoon handle and Fred van Vliet
set a ball score, and they put Gary Payton the
second onto They put Gary Payton the second on Fred,
and they put Draymond on Shanggun. First time they ran it,
Gary Payton helped on the screen, so Draymond and Gary
(06:12):
Payton were both on the screen or Fred van Vliet
slipped out of it to the top of the key,
he was wide open again. That was how he got
the three that tied the game. Then after that they
were like, okay, well we don't want to give up
the pick and pop three in this inverted ball screen,
so let's try switching it.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So they switched it.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Draymond goes with Fred van Vliet alprin Shangun finally just
immediately punishes Gary Payton by spinning over that left shoulder
and making that scoop shot. So it gave the Rockets
like kind of like I was talking about like, what's
in these playoffs series? What's your action like if you
need to create a shot at the end of the game,
what are you going to do? And for the Rockets,
(06:48):
for the first time all series, they found something that
they could actually go to and have some real success
with in the form of the Alprin Shangun Fred van
Vliet two man game, which by the way, I would
imagine we'll see quite a bit more of when we
get into game five. But on the final possession, you
need one stop to win the game, and they run
the exact same action Shanggun at the top Fred van
(07:10):
Vliet inverted ball screen step one was not allowing the switch.
Both Gary Payton and Draymond Green did a great job
with physicality preventing the switch from occurring. Then I actually
thought there was plenty of time for them to try
to set it again, but immediately they bailed on the
screening action and Shangun went straight ISO against Draymont Now
against Gary Payton. Because of the size advantage, he was
(07:33):
able to spin over that left shoulder and get all
the way to the rim. Draymond Green beats him to
the spot, forces him into a deeper hook shot a
shot that Shangun can make. And look, here's the thing.
When you're doing that job guarding the other team's best
offensive player in a one possession situation, you're not going
to block them. In all likelihood, you're not likely or
(07:54):
going to necessarily take the ball away from them.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Although we've seen that.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Jackson squeeted after the game, making reference to our mailbag
the other night when he said that Draymond is the
clutchest defender in the league, and he's right about that,
and we have an example in the past of him
against Jokic actually stripping him clean in a.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Situation like that.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
But for the most part, your job in that situation
is just to make him take the toughest shot that
he can possibly take. That's the job. And for Shangun
in that situation, it's a physical bumped like dislodged left
shoulder hook from deeper than something closer to the basket, right,
And that's what Draymond did, and he ended up getting
the stop that was needed to close this game out.
(08:36):
And that's the thing. With all those circumstances going the
wrong way, you just need to make a play. As
I always say, it doesn't matter how bad you've played,
if you can make a play at the end of
the game that can help your team win. Draymond the
defense on Shanggon Steph Curry that baseline out of bounds
play where he comes off and gets the switch against
(08:56):
Shanguon and smartly uses the pump fake to get shangu
off of his feet. Biggs typically aren't as disciplined in
those sorts of situations. That one shot was a monster
shot from Steph Curry down the stretch. So even though
both of them were a little off their game tonight,
they both both made huge plays down the stretch. But
the circumstances Draymond's foult trouble, Steph's rough kind of like
(09:18):
athletic Night, the three point shooting from the Rockets, the
Fred van Vliet getting going. Like I always talk about,
the rockets are just so much tougher to handle when
Fred van Vliet or Jalen Green are going to the
extent that they are going. And it just a lot
went against them, and so you needed other guys to
(09:39):
step up, and a bunch of guys stepped up. Jimmy
Butler was a godsend in this game, just brought a
ton of downhill aggression. I think the first and biggest
takeaway is that he looks great physically, so any concern
surrounding the butt injury, I think you can feel a
lot better about that after this game. He did a
great job of attacking bigs and switches. The Warriors did
a great job out off of Jimmy Butler cutting off
(10:01):
the ball. Buddy healed early in the game. Like, when
those guys are driving to the basket, all eyes tend
to be directed towards them, and if you can cut
and move off the ball, you can create a lot
of opportunities there. And guys were moving off of Jimmy.
It felt like every single time they needed a stabilizing bucket,
Jimmy was able to make something happen. And then Brandon
pa Jemski six made threes some beautiful closeout attacks. Had
(10:23):
a huge stop late in the game against Fred van
Vliet with a back pressure situation where he blocked Fred
on a floater on a key possession. Late in the game,
Pods had four offensive rebounds. I thought as a team,
the Warriors did a great job in the second half
on the offensive glass, like one of the biggest ways
you can punish a team for putting two on the
(10:45):
ball or being really aggressive on a star. The way
that the Rockets have been with stephfall series is to
crash the glass, because if you're open for a three,
you're not just open for a three, you're open for
a cut. You're open for a crash to get something
off of the offensive glass, and the Warriors did a
bunch of damage in those situations. Pajemski was amazing tonight.
Buddy Heal put in fifteen points. He had some really
(11:07):
nice cuts off of Jimmy Butler drives as well. Quinton
Post scored thirteen points. Had some trouble in his minutes
because he had to play a lot of one on
one defense against Shangoon, but those buckets are important in
a series like this where the buckets are hard to
come by. In the game, just an absolutely huge win
for the Warriors to survive the type of night that
they were having. And again, it's just a completely different
(11:29):
series if one single play goes the other way. If
Steph doesn't hit that three in the left corner, if
Draymond doesn't get that stop against Shanng Gooon, if Brandon
Pajemski doesn't beat that close out late in the clock
and make that banking runner against Jalen Green, you know
like it. There are just so many examples of guys
(11:49):
just finding a way to make a play in a
game that is determined by inches. If we've learned anything
from the last few days, it's that these playoffs, the
margins are just so thin between everything looking different if
one thing goes in a different direction, Like the Piston
series has swung on a few late game sequences, the
(12:10):
Wolves Lakers game has swung on a few late sequences,
this Rocket Warriors series has swung on a few late
game sequences. It's just it's the margins are so thin,
which is why I talk so much during the regular
season about attention to detail. One mistake can be the
difference between you winning and losing not just a game,
but a series. You go on the road back to
La to two if you're the Wolves, totally different series.
(12:33):
You go on the road back to Houston to two
for the Warriors, that's a totally different series. You lose
that game last night if you're or in the morning
if you're the Knicks, totally different series going home to two,
and it's like it's just it's always comes down to
those small details. Stick around for the mail bag at
the tail end of the show if you guys have
other questions about that series. Before we talk Calves real quick,
(12:56):
I just wanted to make an announcement for the show
that is actually something very important that I'm very are
excited about. I am excited to do notes that we
are starting a partnership with Playback. This is a platform
that I really believe in. Actually personally reached out to
the Volume and asked them to explore it specifically because
I believe in it. We have a lot of big
(13:17):
picture plans. I'm excited to use playback next year potentially
as like a watch along kind of thing where we
can find Big League pass games and you guys can
come hang out during the game and we can actually
watch a game together, talk about the game together. I
can give like live play by play, live analysis of
the game as things are going on. I have a
lot of big picture plans for it. But for this
(13:38):
year's playoffs, we're starting with something that we're calling the
Oops Tonight after show, So starting on Wednesday, two days
from today, after Game five of the Warriors Rocket Series.
In Game five, of the Lakers Wolves series immediately after
we finished doing the live reaction show here on YouTube.
So we're still doing the normal live reaction show, but
(13:59):
right when we're done and we're gonna head over to
playback for an after show and playback. One of the
big things that I love about it is amazing for
interaction with listeners, So you can actually come on stage
and ask questions to myself and to Jackson. We can
talk coops as a community together. We're gonna watch film together.
So like, imagine we're watching game one of the second
(14:19):
round series between the Warriors and the Timberwolves, and the
Warriors win the game with like a huge eighteen to
two run, or like it's Thunder versus Clippers Nuggets and
they win a game on a huge fourth quarter run.
We'll watch it together and you guys will be able
to ask questions as we go. I just think it's
going to be an incredible addition to what we do
here at Hoops tonight. And I think there's a ton
of big picture potential too. So we have a link
(14:41):
in the description of this video for you guys to
follow to get set up with a playback account, and
that link will take you directly to our channel, so
you guys can get set up. Head over there, get
subscribed to our channel, and we will get started with
what is going to be a really cool new venture
for the show.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Starting Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
We have an incredible slate with Warriors, Rockets, Aakers, Wolves
game fives will be going right to play back immediately
after a live show finishes that, So do me a
favorite tonight.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
When we're done with the video, head over to playback.
Get signed up, so you guys are ready for Wednesday.
All right, let's talk some Calves and then after we're
done talking Calves, we'll take some mailback questions from the chat.
So just an unbelievable offensive avalanche from the Calves in
the last two games, or as Calves fans call.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
It, a cavalanche.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
The stats that came out of this series are absolutely crazy.
The Calves were number one in half court offense during
the regular season with an offensive rating of one oh six.
In the first round, they logged an offensive rating of
one to eighteen. Their offensive rating in the half court
in this series is higher than the Celtics last year
(15:45):
logged against the Heat overall in the first round series,
counting transition, counting everything in the game, they had a
one the heat or the Calves in this first round series.
This first round sweep logged a one thirty six overall
offensive rating counting transition, possessions and everything else, sixteen points
better per one hundred possessions than any other team in
(16:07):
this playoff run. They demolished the heat and transition. They
scored forty three transition points just in the last two
games down in Miami. Their bigs run the floor extremely well.
Jared Allen did a ton of damage there. Evan Mobley
has been kind of an interesting connective passer for them
in transition. As he catches the ball up the floor,
they move the ball well. They'll fill three or four
passes right away on these transition possessions. You're in the
(16:29):
blender immediately. But as I mentioned, in the half court,
they are lighting teams up. They got this is crazy
on pick and roll. Just on pick and rolls in
the half court, including passes, the Cavs logged one point
three to two points per possession. That's astronomical. Three of
(16:49):
the very best in the league to do it. We
all know what Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland can do
Tied Jerome in the first round, obviously in a smaller
role coming off the bench, twenty six points, six rebounds,
and eight assists per thirty six minutes. So that's the
level at which he's producing in the minutes that he's
on the floor relative to what it would look like
in a larger role. On sixty eight percent true shooting.
(17:14):
He ran forty five ball screens in the first round.
That led to sixty three points one point four points
per possession a one forty offensive rating on ti Jerme
ball screens including passes. He personally shot fourteen for twenty
three from the field out of ball screens. The shot
making is insane. Obviously the floaters, but he's been hitting
like crazy contested off.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
The dribble threes. He hit seven pull up threes in
that series. He shot nine for sixteen on pull up
jump shots. Overall, his playmaking has been amazing. Finding cutters.
He's a great cutter himself when he's off the ball
in those situations. I have to shout out to Cleveland Biggs.
Jared Allen demolished kelll Ware in this series. Just kept
(17:56):
getting behind him on the roll, kept getting above him.
On the roll kept beating him down the floor.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
In transition. Evan Mobley, who had some struggles in the
past as a short role player, has shown a lot
of flashes in this series as a better quicker processor
on the short role and finisher in the short role.
It's so equal opportunity. Everyone is in Rhythm Mobiley's still
running action, Struce's running action on the second side. DeAndre
(18:22):
Hunter is getting his ISOs, and he's getting a couple
of ball screens per game. It's so important to have
everybody involved to play at the pace that the Cavs
play at, because if you have play finishers surrounding guys
that start everything, it's hard to play in transition because
guys hesitate, they don't feel empowered to be aggressive in
those situations. You need decisive and aggression. You need decisive
(18:46):
and aggressive offense around the entire floor. In order to
run this style of offense, you gotta have Max Strews
feel like I like this shot, I'm taking it. You
have to have Max Shrew's thinking I can curl off
of this screen and make a play for myself for
my teammates. You have to have Evan Mobley feeling like
He's empowered to be aggressive off the bounce. Everybody on
the floor has to be empowered in order for this
(19:08):
style to work, and it's working. The catch and shoot
plays insane DeAndre Hunter and Max Struce. I was watching
a bunch of offensive tape earlier this afternoon and like
the kinds of like smothered catch and shoot looks that
Struce and DeAndre Hunter will knock down are insane. Guys
are right there up on them and they're just rising
(19:30):
up over the top and knocking down shots. DeAndre Hunter
shot seven for nine on guarded catch and shoot threes
in this series. Max Struce was eight for nineteen. That's
forty two percent. Those guys made fifteen catch and shoot
threes in the series with the defender right up on them.
I am dangerously close to picking the Calves to beat
(19:53):
the Celtics should they meet in the conference finals. I'm
not going to decide until after the second round. The
this is a team that is quite literally humming on
all cylinders. Again, for comparison, last year, the Celtics against
the Heat in the first round obviously a little bit
different team, but against the Heat last year logged a
(20:13):
one to eighteen offensive rating. The Calves are at one
thirty six in that first round. The Calves are operating
at a higher level offensively right now than any team
in the league by a wide margin. They have home
court advantage, They're a bit less banged up, although Darius
Garland did miss the last two games with a big
(20:33):
toast brain on his left foot. I'm leaning much closer
to that being a coin flip series with how both
teams are looking at this point, and I'm again I'm
gonna wait till after the next round. How things look
in the next round will obviously be something I keep
an eye on. As I mentioned last night, the Pacers
and Calves are a really interesting matchup because I think
the Pacers are a very similar type of team to
(20:54):
the Calves. They just are a little less talented at
most of their position groups, but they play a very
similar style. They did give the Calves some issues at
times this year, so I'm just really interested to see
how the Calves look in that matchup. The Knicks, obviously,
from this Pistons team have been forced to improve on
both ends of the floor over the course of the series,
(21:14):
as they've diversified their offense and had to get stops
in big moments late in games that they've been able
to get. Calves are Calves, Pacers and Nick Celtics is
gonna be a really fun second round in the Eastern Conference.
I'm gonna wait until we get to the conference finals
before I make any sort of pick there, but I
am dangerously close to picking Cleveland. They're just playing at
(21:38):
such an insanely high level. And when you look at
like and again, I know guys were out of the
lineup for Boston in the last win that the Calves had,
but the way that the Celtics jumped them by like
twenty in the first quarter, and the Calves just chewed
them up and spit them out over the rest of
the game, just by playing with pace and just driving
and kicking them to death. The Calves literally in this
(22:00):
first round made one of the most tough and disciplined
organizations in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Quit. They literally quit.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
The Cats destroyed them. They led by sixty today in
a playoff game. They're playing some special basketball and I
am very much taking notice, and I'm gonna be paying
very close attention as we had into that second round series.
All right, let's get into our mail bag. For about
ten to fifteen minutes before we get out here today.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Let's do it. Let's do it. Mailbag time.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Everyone, Please ask your mailbag questions in the chat and
we will get to.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
The best ones.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
First one, is it sustainable for Steph Curry to play
this many minutes?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
There's been a lot of talk surrounding this in the
in the entirety of the playoff field, different guys getting
pushed crazy minute totals, and whether or not guys are
conditioned or ready for it. And quite frankly, in this
first round setup, with all the extra days off, I
don't really have much of a problem with it. I
(22:58):
think he can get a little harry once you start
getting into a second, third round series where you start
playing every other day. But like I look at it
like this, Steph is wearing down a little bit, so
is everybody. These playoffs are extremely physical. The most important
thing you can do is end a series early. And
(23:18):
so I actually think it's more important to play an
extra three to four minutes here or there and end
of series and five than it is to cut minutes
down but then have to play an entire additional game,
an entire different especially when you get later in the series,
and the travel schedule gets crazier as you go back
and forth, like game four, Game five, Game six, Game
seven are all in different cities, so like it can
get really tough at that point. I think it's a
(23:40):
valuable I think it's a worthwhile risk to try to
end a series early.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
And even though it does feel like Steph was wearing
down physically a little bit in this game and from
this series. This is also why Steve Kerr doesn't play
him forty minutes a game in the regular season. This
is literally why, right, Like he feels more comfortab and
Steph I'm sure I feel I'm sure that it's a
two way street. They both feel more comfortable being able
to do this in the playoffs because he's not playing
(24:08):
whatever it is, thirty two minutes a game in the
regular season as opposed to Jalen Brunson playing thirty nine. Right,
that is part of the equation if you're the Golden
State Warriors.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
And for the record, there's no proven harder fast rule,
Like people disagree about it. Talk to Tom Thibodeau, see
what he says, you know what I mean, And there's
so like think of it like this if you're let's
take Steve Kerr versus like JJ Reddick and some of
Steve Kerr's philosophy over the years, Like do you remember
when Steve Kerr took Steph out for a brief stretch
in the middle of the fourth quarter in Game three
(24:36):
and you could tell Steph looked at him like, why
are you taking me out? And you I obviously I
am not a lip reader, but it looked like Steve
Kerr kind of leaned into him and said like, hey,
just get a quick breather here so that you can
come in and close the deal. And so again, there's
two different ways to look at it. There's the JJ
Reddick Tom Thibodeau type of style, where it's like, all
we have to do is survive this game when we
get this extra time off, these are my guys. I
(24:57):
trust these guys. Let's ride him through to the finish line.
And then there's the Steve Kerr approach, which is like,
if Steph is closer to one hundred percent of his
ability for five minutes, do we have a better chance
of winning the game than Steph being at eighty three
percent of his ability for seven minutes In a fourth quarter,
and I feel like he's constantly kind of weighing that balance,
(25:18):
and a lot of times it's a lot of times
it's a judgment call based on how the game's going,
Like if the bench group is struggling, he might pull
the trigger a little bit earlier. It's in that game three,
I think Steve literally was thinking, like, we're kind of
in control here. We can afford to buy Steph a
minute or two so that he has a chance to rest.
But it's always complicated, and there are conflicting ideologies, and
(25:39):
a lot of it is just playing the results. Like
if the Knicks lose a game and they look tired,
everyone's going to call Tom Thibdau an idiot. After game four,
everyone calls JJ Redick an idiot. But if it works
all of a sudden, there are geniuses, and so a
lot of it's just playing the results.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Next question, what were your thoughts on Trace Jackson Davis
getting some run today in general, but also specifically over
Jonathan Kamena.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
It was typically to guard Shangoon, and it's a really
tough spot for Trace to get put in because he
literally hasn't played and you have to go guard the
guy on the other team that's in like full rhythm,
who like guys like This is not a revelation for Shangun.
Shangun has been kicking people's asses all year. Ye I.
(26:20):
I joke on the show that he's been like the
winner of my Like Film Session award for the guy
that most frequently has to be watching the film, like,
holy shit, he's kicking his ass like Shanggun is an
ass kicker. Like he he is a very good player.
If you can't match up with him physically, and Post
was getting cooked, they needed to buy a few minutes.
It was worth the try. It didn't work out, but
I mean it is what it is. I don't blame
(26:41):
Trace though, because he got put in a really tough spot.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Yeah, I mean, I think the answer why over Jonathan
Kminga is Jonathan Minga was bad in Game three, like
actually a detriment I would, I would say to their
team in his minutes and Draymond was in a foul trouble.
He Trace isn't playing if Draymond's not in a foul trouble.
Another question, why aren't this the commentary? Why aren't Draymond
Green and Jimmy Butler looking to score more.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
It feels like.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
They passed up a couple open layups for kickouts to threes,
So a.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Couple things the uh Draymond I think needs to I
think Draymond's actually managed tonight offensively pretty well. Took a
handful of catching and shoot threes, didn't force the issue.
I thought Jimmy's aggression was perfect in this game. His
aggression on that left corner three kind of a fifty
to fifty call. We joked about it before the show.
It was like, I personally disagreed with that call, but
(27:31):
at the same time, as always say, bad calls are
a part of basketball games are just kind of like
something that you just see. But like his aggression. They
went to him on that late ISO on the right wing,
which I thought was interesting when he took the left
shoulder fate that he ended up missing. I thought Jimmy's
aggression was fine as far as the rim decisions, Like
in a series this physical, there's a lot of misses
(27:51):
around the rim that are not leading to foul shots,
and so if you don't feel really good about your
chances of making the shot, you don't want to put
the outcome in the hand of the ref. Like, that's
the big issue with grifting that I have and why
I'm not a huge fan of it in the big picture.
And by the way, I'm not. I have grifters on
the team that I root for, and the Warriors have
a grifter on their team. Like the downside to grifting
(28:13):
is you take control of the situation and you put
it in the hands of the official, whereas if you
function more as a shot maker, you put the control
of the situation into your hands. And so, honestly, like,
I think it was good that Jimmy wasn't trying to
just grift at the rim all game and that he
was trying to like make the kickout reads that were there,
because that keeps control of the situation in the hands
(28:34):
of the players.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yeah, and Draymond has talked about this before, which is
that I mean specifically with Steph Curry, but even in
general Buddy Healed, whoever you want to say of their
actual shooters, but he talks about Steph Curry where a
contested Steph Curry three point attempt is worth more than
a contested Draymond Green layup attempt. It's a better shot, period,
point blank, no matter what the context is surrounding those
(28:58):
two elements, right, And so if Draymond Green is not
gonna pass the layup, a wide open one off, a
fake handoff where the guy defense totally bites, right, But
is he is it in the team's best interest to
challenge Steven Adams, for example, who was in for long
stretch of the game in the second half at the rim.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Probably not. And he was blocking every and he was
blocking everything. He was a monster.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
And especially when everyone on all parts of the defense
are allowed to be more physical than they've been. You know,
for eighty two games of the regular.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Season, Steph Curry guarded catch and shoot jump shot is
worth one point one points. So Draymond would have to
shoot fifty five percent at minimum on a contested layup
for that to be a worthwhile shot for the offense
and Draymond Green in let's see it, Draymond Green in
this series or in the season, Draymon's shooting fifty five
(29:47):
percent on layups, and so like it's like right there
to where like for Draymond, if he doesn't feel like
he's gonna make it, it's the right decision.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
To keep it moving.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Also, there's there's everything is I'm I'm a big believer
in tracking data as an opportunity to gain advantage whenever
you have an opportunity. So like, yeah, like you should
track shot value and stuff like that, but the basketball
is way more art than science, as I always say.
And like, if you turn down one layup that is
worth roughly the same amount of points as a Steph
Curry contested three, but Steph gets another look that helps
(30:19):
him build rhythm that could potentially lead to a Steph
avalanche later on. Like you're investing, Like that's that's part
of the point guard position. Like you've got to invest
in the rhythm of your teammates over the course of games.
And like all of this stuff is intricately connected. And
you know, there's a reason why there's a Warriors culture
that's like make the extra pass. Like, hey, buddy, this
(30:40):
is your teammate. Let me introduce to you. His name
is Steph or like you know, Jimmy Butler saying, hey,
don't ever dribble the ball, buddy, healed, because like they're
all working together to maximize this offensive system through their communication,
and like the best version of the Warriors is the
version of the Warriors you saw in game three and
in game one, which is when Steph Curry is When
(31:00):
Steph Curry is cooking, the other team literally gets like
emotionally demolished, and they like curl up within themselves and
every other warrior gets invigorated on defense and they just
become incredibly difficult to handle. It's been like that for
a decade. You got to invest in Steph as much
as possible as a shot.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Maker, huntrevercent.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Next question, in your experience, does trash talking? Does talking
trash to struggling players work? Trying to figure out why
Dylan Brooks keeps talking trash and quote unquote poking bears
before seemingly getting fried every time.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
I so, I was never a trash talker in terms
of initiating stuff. I have been known to completely black
out if someone starts talking trash to me, and then
I turn into a huge asshole, and then I end
up having to apologize after the game's over because I
feel I get like overcome with guilt when the game
is over for being such an asshole. But like, I
(31:52):
can't speak for trash talking as an art because I've
only ever done it reactively in anger, as opposed to
like I've never been like a manipulative trash talker. I'm
much more of like guy state. I focused on what
I can control with my teammates, and I'm a big,
like teammate energy guy, like trying to help everybody on
my team stay confident and engaged on both ends of
(32:14):
the four throughout the game. But like I'm there's a
better person to ask that question too, I just don't
have much experience trying to manipulatively trash talk. But that said,
one thing I will say I have seen examples of
guys do that in at work, where a player succumbs
to it in the form of trying to get out
of the game and focus on just winning his individual matchup.
(32:34):
So like start to force the issue. I've also seen
guys like completely crumble in their confidence and fall apart.
So like I suppose it can work, But I've also
seen trash talkers get themselves out of whack by getting
too invested into trash talk situations, and like Draymond played
a dangerous game almost getting himself ejected today by getting
into a bunch of altercations. There was a play where
(32:56):
Jimmy Butler and Dylan Brooks were like talking shit to
each other at the fou and on the box out,
Jimmy Butler's hands ended up around Dylan Brooks's neck and
like had Dylan Brooks like thrown a hand and like
tried to hit him back or something, that could have
immediately gone into a full on like scrum, but Dylan
just fell down and it ended up just being a
(33:18):
play on. But like I would imagine, just like anything else,
there's given a take with it.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, And I think it's probably person to person. Like
I think some people the trash talking hypes them up
and gets them more into the game.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Draymond being one of those people.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
And if that is what you need individually to get
more into the game, cool. And I also think there's
probably the smart trash talkers. I would guess, like the
Draymonds of the world, the Gary Payton's of the world,
back Gary Payton, the older Gary Payton, who are being
more selective, being knowing there are guys that if you
talk trash to them, you can get on their head
a little bit easier, versus guys that if you talk
attached to them, you might be poking a bear who
(33:52):
might wake up.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
You know, it's probably a little bit of nuance to
it as.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Well, for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
And one last note, I do think there's something to
be said about it being a little less of a
there being less of a downside if it's a defensive
minded player, because any of you guys who have played
the game though that, like, if you get really emotionally
worked up, offense gets harder. Like slowing down and shooting
a jump shot is harder, slowing down and processing a
(34:18):
game is harder. You tend to like speed everything up
when you're super emotionally like worked up on the basketball court.
But for a defender who's not required to methodically run
offense or take a bunch of jump shots, they can
afford to get super worked up and have it not
have as much of a downside. So I don't think
it's a coincidence that you see a lot of guys
like Dylan Brooks, like Patrick Beverley, like dray Mungreen that
(34:41):
end up embodying that type of personality.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Yeah, that's a great call. A question about Steven Adams.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
He was got a lot more minutes tonight, was very
effective in his minutes on both ends of the court,
you know, as an offensive rebounder, primarily on offense, but
definitely as a defensive player.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
And it did feel like the rocket.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Zone, even with Adams when Itams was on the floor,
was effective, even when Steph was on the floor.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
What is your take on the Stephen Adams.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Effect and if he's going to play a lot more
in Game five or going forward in the series like
he did tonight.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So he was plus sixteen in twenty six minutes. I'm
trying to see if they've posted the zone defense numbers
yet from this game. Let's see, because I bet you
had had a lot to do with the success of
the zone that they were having. And we had thirty
one possessions of zone defense in this game, so that
was probably the big But by the way, the Warriors
(35:32):
fared well of one point per possession against the zone.
That's actually really solid, but they ran a bunch of
it steady throughout every court. By the way, they only
ran four possessions of zone total in the first three
games of the series. They ran thirty one tonight, So
definitely something we talked about that after Game three though,
that we expected them to run a lot more zone
later in the series. But honestly, I think you know,
(35:53):
we talked so much about coaching within the context of like, oh, well,
here's what this lineup data show, or oh, here's what
you know this player should theoretically do to be able
to compliment what this other player does, and often, like
as a coach, in the moment, you're trying to read
how guys are playing, like, oh, like Jalen Green doesn't
(36:13):
really have it tonight, let's lean more into Jabari Smith Junior,
Or like, oh, our zone looks are causing them some problems,
let's lean into Steven Adams more well, look at this,
like Steven Adams's rim protection is having a real impact
on the on the Warriors at the rim, Like this
is something that we should be investing in. Like that
is always a call that you're making in the moment
(36:35):
as a coach, And it's a lot harder than it
looks in the moment when everything is going down and
the game is moving way faster than you think it
would in that sort of situation, and it's just it's
a tough call. But I think I think, like whether
or not you see a bunch of Steven Adams in
game in game five is going to come down to
how it looks and by the way, we saw him
(36:56):
a lot in the second half. In those zone possessions,
the Warriors were actually one point three points per possession
in the first half, but in the second half and
twenty two possessions, the Warriors were zero point eighty six
points per possession. So emai Udoka is probably making a
call in the moment saying like, this is what.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
We should do.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
And by the way, like these these coaching staffs will
have coaches tracking behind the bench, like, hey, do me
a favor tonight. Your one job is track points per
possession on man and zone. That way, if a late
game timeout comes around, is five minutes left and they're
they're having a time out and they're in the huddle.
You guys remember that early fourth quarter time out where
Steve Kerr was like, hey, can you let me go
so I can talk to my coaches? Like that's what
(37:34):
they're doing. They're pow wowing as a group before they
go to the bench to talk like that's as soon
as the timeout is called. The players all go sit down,
they start drinking water and they take a break. The
coaches all huddle up and they decide what they're going
to do. Then they head over to the bench and
then they relay the message that they want to relay,
and a lot of times it's getting information like, oh, hey,
by the way, we're defending really well with Steven Adams,
(37:55):
were plus you know whatever in his minutes, we're getting
this point per possession on zone. And then he made
you don't come out go like Okay, I'm gonna ride
Steven Adams for longer. It's all like an in the
moment type of decision.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, And I also thought part of it was due
to the fact that Draymond was off the floor. He's
such a good passer that it's, you know, he's really
valuable against his own even though he's not He's not
really an intense shooting threat for sure.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
An interesting example on the other side is Buddy heeled
over Moses Moody starting tonight. Like Buddyhields, shooting has been
vitally important over the course of the last couple of games.
I thought his ball pressure on Jalen Green early in
the game was really valuable. He kind of sped Jalen
Green up early and forced a couple of turnovers.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
Like there there is there's value.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
In making in the moment live decisions that can maximize
the ability of your basketball.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Team one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Next question, what are your thoughts on the huge chasm
of physicality between the regular season and the playoffs?
Speaker 4 (38:53):
Are the ways to make the disparity smaller?
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Do you like the disparity, do you like the way
it's being refereed, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
I think it's really easy from our couches to be
like this is too physical. They should do something to
rein it in. I think the reality is is that
we have a bunch of really relatively even series in
the first round. Piston's Nicks, very even, Clippers, Nuggets, very
even even Celtics Magic has been like every game has
(39:19):
been close, with exception of Game two or yours. Rockets
has been closed, Lakers Wolves has been closed. So when
you get all of these teams, and by the way,
every single team I listed except for Detroit and Orlando
have like legitimate championship aspirations, like they think they're gonna
win the title. So what that leads to is like
an insane level of intensity and competitiveness that manifests in physicality.
(39:43):
And now the ref's job is to try to control it.
But if they control it by calling a bunch of fouls,
it's just gonna bog the game down into the mud.
And as you saw, like at any point tonight, did
it feel like the physicality lightened up even though the
refs were calling stuff like no, like it just it's
really hard to stop the play from competing the way
that they're competing. That said, if I had to choose
between this and the opposite, I would take this every
(40:07):
single time. You know, I just think there's a handful
of Like the big thing that I've struggled with is
the inconsistency. Like there's been a lot of instances where
like certain types of foul, like the perfect examples that
Jimmy Butler foul in the corner, so Josh Hart's foul
on Tim Hardaway Junior was substantially more of a foul,
but then this one ends up getting called. There's no
(40:27):
consistency there, and like that that really is the only
thing I'll ever get on officials about, like certain games
take on different feel based on how the teams are playing,
But inconsistency, to me is you not doing your job.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Yeah, And one of the things I was texting with
Jason about before during the game tonight, and we talked
about last night. Is the big challenge of one of
the big challenge of the increased physicality is these challenges
and the proximate fouls that they can call.
Speaker 4 (40:52):
Because the one last.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Night, for example, the lebron won on Ant, they're not
calling that. Obviously they didn't call and they're not gonna
call that in the flow of the game.
Speaker 4 (41:02):
And the one tonight as well.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
It's like there was one on Steph in the first
half where I think where he got it was an
out of bounds.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
It was called out of bounds.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
They challenge it, get the foul call because Dylan Brooks
is kind of going point A to point B type
of jump, YadA YadA, and that one was a little
more bored that one could have been potentially called a
foul in real time. But this proximate foul slow motion
review compared to the flow of the physicality of the
games is a real, real challenge. I think the league
has to like sort of wonder what to do.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
With this is a great point. And this is where
you know I've always talked about I gotten a huge
argument about this with I'm trying to remember who it was.
I got in the argument with there was a sports writer,
and it's killing me that I can't remember his name
right now because it was a long time ago. But
he did an extensive report on officiating in the NBA
and like how they do it, and they have like
(41:48):
basically these two things, this thing called the rule book
and this thing called the case book, and they basically
is like the pathway with which that they try to
like come up with a standard for officiating games. And
I one of the things I was trying to talk
to him about is like I think that you need
subjectivity in officiating. You can't be letter of the law
(42:09):
because basketball games don't work that way. Basketball games are
all unique. They're each their own kind of like individual tapestry.
Like look at how much different tonight was than Game three.
Fundamentally different game, different players were playing, different guys were
playing well, Like it was just a totally different type
of game. And so the point is is, like you
have to be willing to in the moment be like, oh, yeah,
(42:31):
Lebron fouled and a little bit there. But with the
way we've been officiating this game, that would have probably
not been called it wasn't called live, Let's not call
it now now. The one with Dylan Brooks on the
sideline with Jimmy Butler's a little tougher because it got
called a foul live, but same sort of thing. I
would have gone in there and it'd been like, okay.
In my inititional I was talking to the guys before
the show, like on the baseline angle, it looked like
(42:54):
a foul because you're like, why the hell is Dylan
Brooks like shoving Jimmy while he's shooting.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
That's stupid.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
And then you watch the sideline angle and it's like
Dylan's hand is just kind of like on his hip.
It's not really much of a shove at all, and
there's no foul up top, and you could see Jimmy
kick his right leg out, and so it's like on
the replay that was a pretty standard non call relative
to the other calls in the game. And so it's
one of those things where, to your point, they need
to be able to in the review handle it the
(43:19):
same way they do live. You can't suddenly operate by
a totally different rule book or like standard in a
slowdown than you would live.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
That makes absolutely no sense.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
Yeah, it's it's just a challenge.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
The refs have a tough job.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
The job is tough. The last thing I'll say. I've
refed one game in my life. It was a students
versus teachers game when I was at Arizona Christian and
they just asked one of the guys on the basketball
team if they'd be willing to like volunteer, and I
was like, sure, I'll do it, And like the campus
pastor was cussing me out after the game, like cussing
me out because I was the only ref reffing a
five on five game and I opted to just basically
(43:55):
not call anything unless I was one hundred percent sure.
So there was like a ton of uncalled fouls because
that was the way I chose tor. I was like,
I'm not gonna guess what happens in this game. And
it's like this casual students versus teachers and the dude
is like cussing me out, like and I'm like, this.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Is the campus pastor. This is crazy.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
But the point, the point being like there is it
is a very difficult job, but these are the best
in the world at it. This is what they do
every single day. And if there's one situation that you
should be able to get it right, it's in the
slowdown situations.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Like that for sure.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Last question, which one seed has looked more complete so far?
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Oh man, I think the Calves have looked better offensively
and the thunder have looked better defensively. Shay did have
a little bit of a rough shooting series at certain
points in the series. The thunder did show a lot
of really high level connective playmaking, which was something that
I thought was a really positive trend for them. I
(44:52):
do think that the thunder Man. That's a really really
tough question. I'm gonna go with the Calves though, I'm
gonna go the Calves. I mean the thunder got punched
in the mouth in game three.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
Yeah, good point.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
M Do you have any take there.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
I think the Calves have looked better. I think that
they probably put a worse opponent in round one, but
they they've looked They've just to your point.
Speaker 4 (45:17):
I think they've dominated every game for the most part.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
There was one little, you know, stretch there, what it
was at game two, maybe that the heat were competitive,
but for the most part, Yeah, but for the most
part they've dominated that the Calves were at no point
down by twenty.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Yeah, and they're operating at just an insane level offensively.
All right, guys, it's all I have for tonight. Remember
click the link in the description to head over to
playback and get set up there so that you guys
can be ready for our first after show on Wednesday.
And again, as always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for
supporting me and supporting the show. We will be back.
We're not doing a film session tomorrow. We're gonna be
live tomorrow night after the final buzzer of Clippers Nuggets
(45:53):
Game five, which would be a really fun one. I'll
see you guys then. Whats so, 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 (46:05):
As always, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute
to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (46:11):
The volume
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The NBA eighty two game grind is done, and now
the real fun begins. The NBA Playoffs aren't here, and
it's time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments,
and jaw dropping plays.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I can't wait.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
If you're looking to make the playoffs even more exciting,
DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting
partner of the NBA from the playing games all the
way through to the finals. Now's the time to back
your favorite players and teams as they chase glory. All
season long. DraftKings has been the go to spot for
NBA player props and that does not stop. Now. Want
to make your playoff experience even more intense, Try placing
(00:35):
a bet on your favorite player's performance. Well they drop
thirty points, forty or more, it's your call. Ready to
place your first bet? Download the DraftKings Sportsbook gap Now
lock in your bets. Let's make this playoff run unforgettable.
Here's something special for first timers. New DraftKings customers. Bet
five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets.
Instantly make it a playoff run to remember with DraftKings.
(00:57):
Download the Draft Kings sportsbook gap and use code hoops.
That's h oops. That's code hoops for new customers to
get two hundred dollars in bonus bets when you bet
just five bucks only on DraftKings.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
The Crown is yours.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Gambling problem called Wayne hundred gambler In New York call
eight seven seven eight hope and y or text hope
and why to four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut,
help us available for problem gambling Call eight eight eight
seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Visit CCPG dot org.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction.
Void in Ontario, New customers only. Bonus bets expire one
hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms
and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co. Slash audio.
(01:57):
All right, well was with hoops tonight? You're at the volume?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Have you Monday? Everybody? Hope?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All if you guys are having a great start here,
we got a jam pack show for you guys tonight.
Tonight we're gonna be hitting that absolutely wild game four
between the Warriors and the Rockets. After that, I want
to do a dive into the Cleveland Cavaliers offense, which
hung a ridiculous one and eighteen offensive rating in the
half court versus the Miami Heap in the first round,
(02:22):
starting to have some big picture thoughts about them that
we're gonna get to. And then at the tail end
of the show, like we always do, we're gonna take
some questions from the chat, So stick around for the
end and we can bounce around to some of these
other series around the league or any follow up questions
you got. I really like when you guys use the
chat questions as an opportunity to bring up specific parts
of series that I may not get to in the
instant reaction. You guys know the joke before we get started.
(02:43):
To Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you
don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Twitter at underscore json lt so you guys don't miss
show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast for you wherever.
Get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful
if you leave a rating and a review on that front.
We also have our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
where were making content throughout there to make sure you
guys follow us there, And then, last but not least,
(03:04):
keep dropping mailbag questions in YouTube comments so we can
get to him throughout the remainder of the postseason. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So super weird game, insanely physical,
very contentious. Early, I thought the first scuffle was super dumb,
Like I thought Draymond said it perfectly legal playoff screen.
I've talked about how the Warriors set a shit ton
of illegal screens.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
That wasn't one of them. I thought he was set.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I thought I thought he leaned into it a little bit,
but that's pretty standard for a good hard playoff screen.
And I mean, Thompson just got caught off guard, bike
got knocked over, Dylan Brooks foul, Steph, Steph falls over.
Steph just points up to him like, hey, buddy, you
just gave me two free throws. And I thought Dylan
kind of initiated that by reaching down to try to
grab the basketball from him as Draymond was helping him up.
(03:47):
And I thought the technical specifically on Draymond in that
situation was really dumb, and that ended up putting the
refs into a tough spot on the next sequence because
on the Tar Easton play, you bet your ass, Draymond
Green deserved a technical as he was like grabbing his
leg and tried to supplex him on the middle of
the floor, and that put the refs in a really
tough spot. But I actually thought the ref's handled it
(04:08):
pretty well by giving him a flagrant instead of giving
him a TECH, because Draymond did not deserve to be
ejected there because the first tech was bogus. But both
Draymond and Steph were just a bit off their game tonight.
I thought Steph showed his first signs of some wear
and tear in this series, like he was struggling to
get open. He had three jump shots that he left
way short, like way short off the front of the rim.
(04:29):
That is a strong indicator of a shooter just not
really having his legs underneath him. And so I think
that under those circumstances, Draymond being in foul trouble that
really unlocked this Fred van Vliet alprin Shannghun two man game,
which we'll talk about in a second, but the yet
Fred van Vliet playing really well in this game, as
a team. The Rocket shot forty eight percent from three.
(04:51):
A lot of things went the wrong way for the
Warriors tonight, which put a lot of pressure on the
rest of the roster to be awesome, and they were.
It turned into a super tight game because, as I mentioned,
as Draymond got into foul trouble that really unlocked the
Fred van Vliet Alpern Shangun two man game. And it
was a combination of different things, Like there was a
stretch where Shangun was just going straight iso against Quinton
(05:13):
post and having some success. But when him and Fred
were out there, what they were doing is they were
just posting Alpern Shangoun with Fred van Vliet one pass away.
And the thing that makes that tough in particular is
if you double from that top side, it's just the
easiest kickout pass in the world. And so then it
turned into this like you're letting Shangun play one on
one in the post where he's scoring, or you're helping
(05:35):
off of Fred VanVleet where he's hitting all of his
wide open catch and shoot threes, and that just dragged
the game into a much more competitive situation than the
Warriors are used to specifically dealing with Rockets actually having
some success on offense in the half court.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
And then late in the game, we.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Got a steady diet of the Fred van Vliet Alpern
Shangun two man game in the form of an inverted
ball screen basically having shanggoon handle and Fred van Vliet
set a ball score, and they put Gary Payton the
second onto They put Gary Payton the second on Fred,
and they put Draymond on Shanggun. First time they ran it,
Gary Payton helped on the screen, so Draymond and Gary
(06:12):
Payton were both on the screen or Fred van Vliet
slipped out of it to the top of the key,
he was wide open again. That was how he got
the three that tied the game. Then after that they
were like, okay, well we don't want to give up
the pick and pop three in this inverted ball screen,
so let's try switching it.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So they switched it.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Draymond goes with Fred van Vliet alprin Shangun finally just
immediately punishes Gary Payton by spinning over that left shoulder
and making that scoop shot. So it gave the Rockets
like kind of like I was talking about like, what's
in these playoffs series? What's your action like if you
need to create a shot at the end of the game,
what are you going to do? And for the Rockets,
(06:48):
for the first time all series, they found something that
they could actually go to and have some real success
with in the form of the Alprin Shangun Fred van
Vliet two man game, which by the way, I would
imagine we'll see quite a bit more of when we
get into game five. But on the final possession, you
need one stop to win the game, and they run
the exact same action Shanggun at the top Fred van
(07:10):
Vliet inverted ball screen step one was not allowing the switch.
Both Gary Payton and Draymond Green did a great job
with physicality preventing the switch from occurring. Then I actually
thought there was plenty of time for them to try
to set it again, but immediately they bailed on the
screening action and Shangun went straight ISO against Draymont Now
against Gary Payton. Because of the size advantage, he was
(07:33):
able to spin over that left shoulder and get all
the way to the rim. Draymond Green beats him to
the spot, forces him into a deeper hook shot a
shot that Shangun can make. And look, here's the thing.
When you're doing that job guarding the other team's best
offensive player in a one possession situation, you're not going
to block them. In all likelihood, you're not likely or
(07:54):
going to necessarily take the ball away from them.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Although we've seen that.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Jackson squeeted after the game, making reference to our mailbag
the other night when he said that Draymond is the
clutchest defender in the league, and he's right about that,
and we have an example in the past of him
against Jokic actually stripping him clean in a.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Situation like that.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
But for the most part, your job in that situation
is just to make him take the toughest shot that
he can possibly take. That's the job. And for Shangun
in that situation, it's a physical bumped like dislodged left
shoulder hook from deeper than something closer to the basket, right,
And that's what Draymond did, and he ended up getting
the stop that was needed to close this game out.
(08:36):
And that's the thing. With all those circumstances going the
wrong way, you just need to make a play. As
I always say, it doesn't matter how bad you've played,
if you can make a play at the end of
the game that can help your team win. Draymond the
defense on Shanggon Steph Curry that baseline out of bounds
play where he comes off and gets the switch against
(08:56):
Shanguon and smartly uses the pump fake to get shangu
off of his feet. Biggs typically aren't as disciplined in
those sorts of situations. That one shot was a monster
shot from Steph Curry down the stretch. So even though
both of them were a little off their game tonight,
they both both made huge plays down the stretch. But
the circumstances Draymond's foult trouble, Steph's rough kind of like
(09:18):
athletic Night, the three point shooting from the Rockets, the
Fred van Vliet getting going. Like I always talk about,
the rockets are just so much tougher to handle when
Fred van Vliet or Jalen Green are going to the
extent that they are going. And it just a lot
went against them, and so you needed other guys to
(09:39):
step up, and a bunch of guys stepped up. Jimmy
Butler was a godsend in this game, just brought a
ton of downhill aggression. I think the first and biggest
takeaway is that he looks great physically, so any concern
surrounding the butt injury, I think you can feel a
lot better about that after this game. He did a
great job of attacking bigs and switches. The Warriors did
a great job out off of Jimmy Butler cutting off
(10:01):
the ball. Buddy healed early in the game. Like, when
those guys are driving to the basket, all eyes tend
to be directed towards them, and if you can cut
and move off the ball, you can create a lot
of opportunities there. And guys were moving off of Jimmy.
It felt like every single time they needed a stabilizing bucket,
Jimmy was able to make something happen. And then Brandon
pa Jemski six made threes some beautiful closeout attacks. Had
(10:23):
a huge stop late in the game against Fred van
Vliet with a back pressure situation where he blocked Fred
on a floater on a key possession. Late in the game,
Pods had four offensive rebounds. I thought as a team,
the Warriors did a great job in the second half
on the offensive glass, like one of the biggest ways
you can punish a team for putting two on the
(10:45):
ball or being really aggressive on a star. The way
that the Rockets have been with stephfall series is to
crash the glass, because if you're open for a three,
you're not just open for a three, you're open for
a cut. You're open for a crash to get something
off of the offensive glass, and the Warriors did a
bunch of damage in those situations. Pajemski was amazing tonight.
Buddy Heal put in fifteen points. He had some really
(11:07):
nice cuts off of Jimmy Butler drives as well. Quinton
Post scored thirteen points. Had some trouble in his minutes
because he had to play a lot of one on
one defense against Shangoon, but those buckets are important in
a series like this where the buckets are hard to
come by. In the game, just an absolutely huge win
for the Warriors to survive the type of night that
they were having. And again, it's just a completely different
(11:29):
series if one single play goes the other way. If
Steph doesn't hit that three in the left corner, if
Draymond doesn't get that stop against Shanng Gooon, if Brandon
Pajemski doesn't beat that close out late in the clock
and make that banking runner against Jalen Green, you know
like it. There are just so many examples of guys
(11:49):
just finding a way to make a play in a
game that is determined by inches. If we've learned anything
from the last few days, it's that these playoffs, the
margins are just so thin between everything looking different if
one thing goes in a different direction, Like the Piston
series has swung on a few late game sequences, the
(12:10):
Wolves Lakers game has swung on a few late sequences,
this Rocket Warriors series has swung on a few late
game sequences. It's just it's the margins are so thin,
which is why I talk so much during the regular
season about attention to detail. One mistake can be the
difference between you winning and losing not just a game,
but a series. You go on the road back to
La to two if you're the Wolves, totally different series.
(12:33):
You go on the road back to Houston to two
for the Warriors, that's a totally different series. You lose
that game last night if you're or in the morning
if you're the Knicks, totally different series going home to two,
and it's like it's just it's always comes down to
those small details. Stick around for the mail bag at
the tail end of the show if you guys have
other questions about that series. Before we talk Calves real quick,
(12:56):
I just wanted to make an announcement for the show
that is actually something very important that I'm very are
excited about. I am excited to do notes that we
are starting a partnership with Playback. This is a platform
that I really believe in. Actually personally reached out to
the Volume and asked them to explore it specifically because
I believe in it. We have a lot of big
(13:17):
picture plans. I'm excited to use playback next year potentially
as like a watch along kind of thing where we
can find Big League pass games and you guys can
come hang out during the game and we can actually
watch a game together, talk about the game together. I
can give like live play by play, live analysis of
the game as things are going on. I have a
lot of big picture plans for it. But for this
(13:38):
year's playoffs, we're starting with something that we're calling the
Oops Tonight after show, So starting on Wednesday, two days
from today, after Game five of the Warriors Rocket Series.
In Game five, of the Lakers Wolves series immediately after
we finished doing the live reaction show here on YouTube.
So we're still doing the normal live reaction show, but
(13:59):
right when we're done and we're gonna head over to
playback for an after show and playback. One of the
big things that I love about it is amazing for
interaction with listeners, So you can actually come on stage
and ask questions to myself and to Jackson. We can
talk coops as a community together. We're gonna watch film together.
So like, imagine we're watching game one of the second
(14:19):
round series between the Warriors and the Timberwolves, and the
Warriors win the game with like a huge eighteen to
two run, or like it's Thunder versus Clippers Nuggets and
they win a game on a huge fourth quarter run.
We'll watch it together and you guys will be able
to ask questions as we go. I just think it's
going to be an incredible addition to what we do
here at Hoops tonight. And I think there's a ton
of big picture potential too. So we have a link
(14:41):
in the description of this video for you guys to
follow to get set up with a playback account, and
that link will take you directly to our channel, so
you guys can get set up. Head over there, get
subscribed to our channel, and we will get started with
what is going to be a really cool new venture
for the show.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Starting Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
We have an incredible slate with Warriors, Rockets, Aakers, Wolves
game fives will be going right to play back immediately
after a live show finishes that, So do me a
favorite tonight.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
When we're done with the video, head over to playback.
Get signed up, so you guys are ready for Wednesday.
All right, let's talk some Calves and then after we're
done talking Calves, we'll take some mailback questions from the chat.
So just an unbelievable offensive avalanche from the Calves in
the last two games, or as Calves fans call.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
It, a cavalanche.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
The stats that came out of this series are absolutely crazy.
The Calves were number one in half court offense during
the regular season with an offensive rating of one oh six.
In the first round, they logged an offensive rating of
one to eighteen. Their offensive rating in the half court
in this series is higher than the Celtics last year
(15:45):
logged against the Heat overall in the first round series,
counting transition, counting everything in the game, they had a
one the heat or the Calves in this first round series.
This first round sweep logged a one thirty six overall
offensive rating counting transition, possessions and everything else, sixteen points
better per one hundred possessions than any other team in
(16:07):
this playoff run. They demolished the heat and transition. They
scored forty three transition points just in the last two
games down in Miami. Their bigs run the floor extremely well.
Jared Allen did a ton of damage there. Evan Mobley
has been kind of an interesting connective passer for them
in transition. As he catches the ball up the floor,
they move the ball well. They'll fill three or four
passes right away on these transition possessions. You're in the
(16:29):
blender immediately. But as I mentioned, in the half court,
they are lighting teams up. They got this is crazy
on pick and roll. Just on pick and rolls in
the half court, including passes, the Cavs logged one point
three to two points per possession. That's astronomical. Three of
(16:49):
the very best in the league to do it. We
all know what Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland can do
Tied Jerome in the first round, obviously in a smaller
role coming off the bench, twenty six points, six rebounds,
and eight assists per thirty six minutes. So that's the
level at which he's producing in the minutes that he's
on the floor relative to what it would look like
in a larger role. On sixty eight percent true shooting.
(17:14):
He ran forty five ball screens in the first round.
That led to sixty three points one point four points
per possession a one forty offensive rating on ti Jerme
ball screens including passes. He personally shot fourteen for twenty
three from the field out of ball screens. The shot
making is insane. Obviously the floaters, but he's been hitting
like crazy contested off.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
The dribble threes. He hit seven pull up threes in
that series. He shot nine for sixteen on pull up
jump shots. Overall, his playmaking has been amazing. Finding cutters.
He's a great cutter himself when he's off the ball
in those situations. I have to shout out to Cleveland Biggs.
Jared Allen demolished kelll Ware in this series. Just kept
(17:56):
getting behind him on the roll, kept getting above him.
On the roll kept beating him down the floor.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
In transition. Evan Mobley, who had some struggles in the
past as a short role player, has shown a lot
of flashes in this series as a better quicker processor
on the short role and finisher in the short role.
It's so equal opportunity. Everyone is in Rhythm Mobiley's still
running action, Struce's running action on the second side. DeAndre
(18:22):
Hunter is getting his ISOs, and he's getting a couple
of ball screens per game. It's so important to have
everybody involved to play at the pace that the Cavs
play at, because if you have play finishers surrounding guys
that start everything, it's hard to play in transition because
guys hesitate, they don't feel empowered to be aggressive in
those situations. You need decisive and aggression. You need decisive
(18:46):
and aggressive offense around the entire floor. In order to
run this style of offense, you gotta have Max Strews
feel like I like this shot, I'm taking it. You
have to have Max Shrew's thinking I can curl off
of this screen and make a play for myself for
my teammates. You have to have Evan Mobley feeling like
He's empowered to be aggressive off the bounce. Everybody on
the floor has to be empowered in order for this
(19:08):
style to work, and it's working. The catch and shoot
plays insane DeAndre Hunter and Max Struce. I was watching
a bunch of offensive tape earlier this afternoon and like
the kinds of like smothered catch and shoot looks that
Struce and DeAndre Hunter will knock down are insane. Guys
are right there up on them and they're just rising
(19:30):
up over the top and knocking down shots. DeAndre Hunter
shot seven for nine on guarded catch and shoot threes
in this series. Max Struce was eight for nineteen. That's
forty two percent. Those guys made fifteen catch and shoot
threes in the series with the defender right up on them.
I am dangerously close to picking the Calves to beat
(19:53):
the Celtics should they meet in the conference finals. I'm
not going to decide until after the second round. The
this is a team that is quite literally humming on
all cylinders. Again, for comparison, last year, the Celtics against
the Heat in the first round obviously a little bit
different team, but against the Heat last year logged a
(20:13):
one to eighteen offensive rating. The Calves are at one
thirty six in that first round. The Calves are operating
at a higher level offensively right now than any team
in the league by a wide margin. They have home
court advantage, They're a bit less banged up, although Darius
Garland did miss the last two games with a big
(20:33):
toast brain on his left foot. I'm leaning much closer
to that being a coin flip series with how both
teams are looking at this point, and I'm again I'm
gonna wait till after the next round. How things look
in the next round will obviously be something I keep
an eye on. As I mentioned last night, the Pacers
and Calves are a really interesting matchup because I think
the Pacers are a very similar type of team to
(20:54):
the Calves. They just are a little less talented at
most of their position groups, but they play a very
similar style. They did give the Calves some issues at
times this year, so I'm just really interested to see
how the Calves look in that matchup. The Knicks, obviously,
from this Pistons team have been forced to improve on
both ends of the floor over the course of the series,
(21:14):
as they've diversified their offense and had to get stops
in big moments late in games that they've been able
to get. Calves are Calves, Pacers and Nick Celtics is
gonna be a really fun second round in the Eastern Conference.
I'm gonna wait until we get to the conference finals
before I make any sort of pick there, but I
am dangerously close to picking Cleveland. They're just playing at
(21:38):
such an insanely high level. And when you look at
like and again, I know guys were out of the
lineup for Boston in the last win that the Calves had,
but the way that the Celtics jumped them by like
twenty in the first quarter, and the Calves just chewed
them up and spit them out over the rest of
the game, just by playing with pace and just driving
and kicking them to death. The Calves literally in this
(22:00):
first round made one of the most tough and disciplined
organizations in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Quit. They literally quit.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
The Cats destroyed them. They led by sixty today in
a playoff game. They're playing some special basketball and I
am very much taking notice, and I'm gonna be paying
very close attention as we had into that second round series.
All right, let's get into our mail bag. For about
ten to fifteen minutes before we get out here today.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Let's do it. Let's do it. Mailbag time.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Everyone, Please ask your mailbag questions in the chat and
we will get to.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
The best ones.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
First one, is it sustainable for Steph Curry to play
this many minutes?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
There's been a lot of talk surrounding this in the
in the entirety of the playoff field, different guys getting
pushed crazy minute totals, and whether or not guys are
conditioned or ready for it. And quite frankly, in this
first round setup, with all the extra days off, I
don't really have much of a problem with it. I
(22:58):
think he can get a little harry once you start
getting into a second, third round series where you start
playing every other day. But like I look at it
like this, Steph is wearing down a little bit, so
is everybody. These playoffs are extremely physical. The most important
thing you can do is end a series early. And
(23:18):
so I actually think it's more important to play an
extra three to four minutes here or there and end
of series and five than it is to cut minutes
down but then have to play an entire additional game,
an entire different especially when you get later in the series,
and the travel schedule gets crazier as you go back
and forth, like game four, Game five, Game six, Game
seven are all in different cities, so like it can
get really tough at that point. I think it's a
(23:40):
valuable I think it's a worthwhile risk to try to
end a series early.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
And even though it does feel like Steph was wearing
down physically a little bit in this game and from
this series. This is also why Steve Kerr doesn't play
him forty minutes a game in the regular season. This
is literally why, right, Like he feels more comfortab and
Steph I'm sure I feel I'm sure that it's a
two way street. They both feel more comfortable being able
to do this in the playoffs because he's not playing
(24:08):
whatever it is, thirty two minutes a game in the
regular season as opposed to Jalen Brunson playing thirty nine. Right,
that is part of the equation if you're the Golden
State Warriors.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
And for the record, there's no proven harder fast rule,
Like people disagree about it. Talk to Tom Thibodeau, see
what he says, you know what I mean, And there's
so like think of it like this if you're let's
take Steve Kerr versus like JJ Reddick and some of
Steve Kerr's philosophy over the years, Like do you remember
when Steve Kerr took Steph out for a brief stretch
in the middle of the fourth quarter in Game three
(24:36):
and you could tell Steph looked at him like, why
are you taking me out? And you I obviously I
am not a lip reader, but it looked like Steve
Kerr kind of leaned into him and said like, hey,
just get a quick breather here so that you can
come in and close the deal. And so again, there's
two different ways to look at it. There's the JJ
Reddick Tom Thibodeau type of style, where it's like, all
we have to do is survive this game when we
get this extra time off, these are my guys. I
(24:57):
trust these guys. Let's ride him through to the finish line.
And then there's the Steve Kerr approach, which is like,
if Steph is closer to one hundred percent of his
ability for five minutes, do we have a better chance
of winning the game than Steph being at eighty three
percent of his ability for seven minutes In a fourth quarter,
and I feel like he's constantly kind of weighing that balance,
(25:18):
and a lot of times it's a lot of times
it's a judgment call based on how the game's going,
Like if the bench group is struggling, he might pull
the trigger a little bit earlier. It's in that game three,
I think Steve literally was thinking, like, we're kind of
in control here. We can afford to buy Steph a
minute or two so that he has a chance to rest.
But it's always complicated, and there are conflicting ideologies, and
(25:39):
a lot of it is just playing the results. Like
if the Knicks lose a game and they look tired,
everyone's going to call Tom Thibdau an idiot. After game four,
everyone calls JJ Redick an idiot. But if it works
all of a sudden, there are geniuses, and so a
lot of it's just playing the results.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Next question, what were your thoughts on Trace Jackson Davis
getting some run today in general, but also specifically over
Jonathan Kamena.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
It was typically to guard Shangoon, and it's a really
tough spot for Trace to get put in because he
literally hasn't played and you have to go guard the
guy on the other team that's in like full rhythm,
who like guys like This is not a revelation for Shangun.
Shangun has been kicking people's asses all year. Ye I.
(26:20):
I joke on the show that he's been like the
winner of my Like Film Session award for the guy
that most frequently has to be watching the film, like,
holy shit, he's kicking his ass like Shanggun is an
ass kicker. Like he he is a very good player.
If you can't match up with him physically, and Post
was getting cooked, they needed to buy a few minutes.
It was worth the try. It didn't work out, but
I mean it is what it is. I don't blame
(26:41):
Trace though, because he got put in a really tough spot.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Yeah, I mean, I think the answer why over Jonathan
Kminga is Jonathan Minga was bad in Game three, like
actually a detriment I would, I would say to their
team in his minutes and Draymond was in a foul trouble.
He Trace isn't playing if Draymond's not in a foul trouble.
Another question, why aren't this the commentary? Why aren't Draymond
Green and Jimmy Butler looking to score more.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
It feels like.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
They passed up a couple open layups for kickouts to threes,
So a.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Couple things the uh Draymond I think needs to I
think Draymond's actually managed tonight offensively pretty well. Took a
handful of catching and shoot threes, didn't force the issue.
I thought Jimmy's aggression was perfect in this game. His
aggression on that left corner three kind of a fifty
to fifty call. We joked about it before the show.
It was like, I personally disagreed with that call, but
(27:31):
at the same time, as always say, bad calls are
a part of basketball games are just kind of like
something that you just see. But like his aggression. They
went to him on that late ISO on the right wing,
which I thought was interesting when he took the left
shoulder fate that he ended up missing. I thought Jimmy's
aggression was fine as far as the rim decisions, Like
in a series this physical, there's a lot of misses
(27:51):
around the rim that are not leading to foul shots,
and so if you don't feel really good about your
chances of making the shot, you don't want to put
the outcome in the hand of the ref. Like, that's
the big issue with grifting that I have and why
I'm not a huge fan of it in the big picture.
And by the way, I'm not. I have grifters on
the team that I root for, and the Warriors have
a grifter on their team. Like the downside to grifting
(28:13):
is you take control of the situation and you put
it in the hands of the official, whereas if you
function more as a shot maker, you put the control
of the situation into your hands. And so, honestly, like,
I think it was good that Jimmy wasn't trying to
just grift at the rim all game and that he
was trying to like make the kickout reads that were there,
because that keeps control of the situation in the hands
(28:34):
of the players.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yeah, and Draymond has talked about this before, which is
that I mean specifically with Steph Curry, but even in
general Buddy Healed, whoever you want to say of their
actual shooters, but he talks about Steph Curry where a
contested Steph Curry three point attempt is worth more than
a contested Draymond Green layup attempt. It's a better shot, period,
point blank, no matter what the context is surrounding those
(28:58):
two elements, right, And so if Draymond Green is not
gonna pass the layup, a wide open one off, a
fake handoff where the guy defense totally bites, right, But
is he is it in the team's best interest to
challenge Steven Adams, for example, who was in for long
stretch of the game in the second half at the rim.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Probably not. And he was blocking every and he was
blocking everything. He was a monster.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
And especially when everyone on all parts of the defense
are allowed to be more physical than they've been. You know,
for eighty two games of the regular.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Season, Steph Curry guarded catch and shoot jump shot is
worth one point one points. So Draymond would have to
shoot fifty five percent at minimum on a contested layup
for that to be a worthwhile shot for the offense
and Draymond Green in let's see it, Draymond Green in
this series or in the season, Draymon's shooting fifty five
(29:47):
percent on layups, and so like it's like right there
to where like for Draymond, if he doesn't feel like
he's gonna make it, it's the right decision.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
To keep it moving.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Also, there's there's everything is I'm I'm a big believer
in tracking data as an opportunity to gain advantage whenever
you have an opportunity. So like, yeah, like you should
track shot value and stuff like that, but the basketball
is way more art than science, as I always say.
And like, if you turn down one layup that is
worth roughly the same amount of points as a Steph
Curry contested three, but Steph gets another look that helps
(30:19):
him build rhythm that could potentially lead to a Steph
avalanche later on. Like you're investing, Like that's that's part
of the point guard position. Like you've got to invest
in the rhythm of your teammates over the course of games.
And like all of this stuff is intricately connected. And
you know, there's a reason why there's a Warriors culture
that's like make the extra pass. Like, hey, buddy, this
(30:40):
is your teammate. Let me introduce to you. His name
is Steph or like you know, Jimmy Butler saying, hey,
don't ever dribble the ball, buddy, healed, because like they're
all working together to maximize this offensive system through their communication,
and like the best version of the Warriors is the
version of the Warriors you saw in game three and
in game one, which is when Steph Curry is When
(31:00):
Steph Curry is cooking, the other team literally gets like
emotionally demolished, and they like curl up within themselves and
every other warrior gets invigorated on defense and they just
become incredibly difficult to handle. It's been like that for
a decade. You got to invest in Steph as much
as possible as a shot.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Maker, huntrevercent.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Next question, in your experience, does trash talking? Does talking
trash to struggling players work? Trying to figure out why
Dylan Brooks keeps talking trash and quote unquote poking bears
before seemingly getting fried every time.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
I so, I was never a trash talker in terms
of initiating stuff. I have been known to completely black
out if someone starts talking trash to me, and then
I turn into a huge asshole, and then I end
up having to apologize after the game's over because I
feel I get like overcome with guilt when the game
is over for being such an asshole. But like, I
(31:52):
can't speak for trash talking as an art because I've
only ever done it reactively in anger, as opposed to
like I've never been like a manipulative trash talker. I'm
much more of like guy state. I focused on what
I can control with my teammates, and I'm a big,
like teammate energy guy, like trying to help everybody on
my team stay confident and engaged on both ends of
(32:14):
the four throughout the game. But like I'm there's a
better person to ask that question too, I just don't
have much experience trying to manipulatively trash talk. But that said,
one thing I will say I have seen examples of
guys do that in at work, where a player succumbs
to it in the form of trying to get out
of the game and focus on just winning his individual matchup.
(32:34):
So like start to force the issue. I've also seen
guys like completely crumble in their confidence and fall apart.
So like I suppose it can work, But I've also
seen trash talkers get themselves out of whack by getting
too invested into trash talk situations, and like Draymond played
a dangerous game almost getting himself ejected today by getting
into a bunch of altercations. There was a play where
(32:56):
Jimmy Butler and Dylan Brooks were like talking shit to
each other at the fou and on the box out,
Jimmy Butler's hands ended up around Dylan Brooks's neck and
like had Dylan Brooks like thrown a hand and like
tried to hit him back or something, that could have
immediately gone into a full on like scrum, but Dylan
just fell down and it ended up just being a
(33:18):
play on. But like I would imagine, just like anything else,
there's given a take with it.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Yeah, And I think it's probably person to person. Like
I think some people the trash talking hypes them up
and gets them more into the game.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Draymond being one of those people.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
And if that is what you need individually to get
more into the game, cool. And I also think there's
probably the smart trash talkers. I would guess, like the
Draymonds of the world, the Gary Payton's of the world,
back Gary Payton, the older Gary Payton, who are being
more selective, being knowing there are guys that if you
talk trash to them, you can get on their head
a little bit easier, versus guys that if you talk
attached to them, you might be poking a bear who
(33:52):
might wake up.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
You know, it's probably a little bit of nuance to
it as.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Well, for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
And one last note, I do think there's something to
be said about it being a little less of a
there being less of a downside if it's a defensive
minded player, because any of you guys who have played
the game though that, like, if you get really emotionally
worked up, offense gets harder. Like slowing down and shooting
a jump shot is harder, slowing down and processing a
(34:18):
game is harder. You tend to like speed everything up
when you're super emotionally like worked up on the basketball court.
But for a defender who's not required to methodically run
offense or take a bunch of jump shots, they can
afford to get super worked up and have it not
have as much of a downside. So I don't think
it's a coincidence that you see a lot of guys
like Dylan Brooks, like Patrick Beverley, like dray Mungreen that
(34:41):
end up embodying that type of personality.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
Yeah, that's a great call. A question about Steven Adams.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
He was got a lot more minutes tonight, was very
effective in his minutes on both ends of the court,
you know, as an offensive rebounder, primarily on offense, but
definitely as a defensive player.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
And it did feel like the rocket.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Zone, even with Adams when Itams was on the floor,
was effective, even when Steph was on the floor.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
What is your take on the Stephen Adams.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Effect and if he's going to play a lot more
in Game five or going forward in the series like
he did tonight.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So he was plus sixteen in twenty six minutes. I'm
trying to see if they've posted the zone defense numbers
yet from this game. Let's see, because I bet you
had had a lot to do with the success of
the zone that they were having. And we had thirty
one possessions of zone defense in this game, so that
was probably the big But by the way, the Warriors
(35:32):
fared well of one point per possession against the zone.
That's actually really solid, but they ran a bunch of
it steady throughout every court. By the way, they only
ran four possessions of zone total in the first three
games of the series. They ran thirty one tonight, So
definitely something we talked about that after Game three though,
that we expected them to run a lot more zone
later in the series. But honestly, I think you know,
(35:53):
we talked so much about coaching within the context of like, oh, well,
here's what this lineup data show, or oh, here's what
you know this player should theoretically do to be able
to compliment what this other player does, and often, like
as a coach, in the moment, you're trying to read
how guys are playing, like, oh, like Jalen Green doesn't
(36:13):
really have it tonight, let's lean more into Jabari Smith Junior,
Or like, oh, our zone looks are causing them some problems,
let's lean into Steven Adams more well, look at this,
like Steven Adams's rim protection is having a real impact
on the on the Warriors at the rim, Like this
is something that we should be investing in. Like that
is always a call that you're making in the moment
(36:35):
as a coach, And it's a lot harder than it
looks in the moment when everything is going down and
the game is moving way faster than you think it
would in that sort of situation, and it's just it's
a tough call. But I think I think, like whether
or not you see a bunch of Steven Adams in
game in game five is going to come down to
how it looks and by the way, we saw him
(36:56):
a lot in the second half. In those zone possessions,
the Warriors were actually one point three points per possession
in the first half, but in the second half and
twenty two possessions, the Warriors were zero point eighty six
points per possession. So emai Udoka is probably making a
call in the moment saying like, this is what.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
We should do.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
And by the way, like these these coaching staffs will
have coaches tracking behind the bench, like, hey, do me
a favor tonight. Your one job is track points per
possession on man and zone. That way, if a late
game timeout comes around, is five minutes left and they're
they're having a time out and they're in the huddle.
You guys remember that early fourth quarter time out where
Steve Kerr was like, hey, can you let me go
so I can talk to my coaches? Like that's what
(37:34):
they're doing. They're pow wowing as a group before they
go to the bench to talk like that's as soon
as the timeout is called. The players all go sit down,
they start drinking water and they take a break. The
coaches all huddle up and they decide what they're going
to do. Then they head over to the bench and
then they relay the message that they want to relay,
and a lot of times it's getting information like, oh, hey,
by the way, we're defending really well with Steven Adams,
(37:55):
were plus you know whatever in his minutes, we're getting
this point per possession on zone. And then he made
you don't come out go like Okay, I'm gonna ride
Steven Adams for longer. It's all like an in the
moment type of decision.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
Yeah, And I also thought part of it was due
to the fact that Draymond was off the floor. He's
such a good passer that it's, you know, he's really
valuable against his own even though he's not He's not
really an intense shooting threat for sure.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
An interesting example on the other side is Buddy heeled
over Moses Moody starting tonight. Like Buddyhields, shooting has been
vitally important over the course of the last couple of games.
I thought his ball pressure on Jalen Green early in
the game was really valuable. He kind of sped Jalen
Green up early and forced a couple of turnovers.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
Like there there is there's value.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
In making in the moment live decisions that can maximize
the ability of your basketball.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Team one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Next question, what are your thoughts on the huge chasm
of physicality between the regular season and the playoffs?
Speaker 4 (38:53):
Are the ways to make the disparity smaller?
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Do you like the disparity, do you like the way
it's being refereed, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
I think it's really easy from our couches to be
like this is too physical. They should do something to
rein it in. I think the reality is is that
we have a bunch of really relatively even series in
the first round. Piston's Nicks, very even, Clippers, Nuggets, very
even even Celtics Magic has been like every game has
(39:19):
been close, with exception of Game two or yours. Rockets
has been closed, Lakers Wolves has been closed. So when
you get all of these teams, and by the way,
every single team I listed except for Detroit and Orlando
have like legitimate championship aspirations, like they think they're gonna
win the title. So what that leads to is like
an insane level of intensity and competitiveness that manifests in physicality.
(39:43):
And now the ref's job is to try to control it.
But if they control it by calling a bunch of fouls,
it's just gonna bog the game down into the mud.
And as you saw, like at any point tonight, did
it feel like the physicality lightened up even though the
refs were calling stuff like no, like it just it's
really hard to stop the play from competing the way
that they're competing. That said, if I had to choose
between this and the opposite, I would take this every
(40:07):
single time. You know, I just think there's a handful
of Like the big thing that I've struggled with is
the inconsistency. Like there's been a lot of instances where
like certain types of foul, like the perfect examples that
Jimmy Butler foul in the corner, so Josh Hart's foul
on Tim Hardaway Junior was substantially more of a foul,
but then this one ends up getting called. There's no
(40:27):
consistency there, and like that that really is the only
thing I'll ever get on officials about, like certain games
take on different feel based on how the teams are playing,
But inconsistency, to me is you not doing your job.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Yeah, And one of the things I was texting with
Jason about before during the game tonight, and we talked
about last night. Is the big challenge of one of
the big challenge of the increased physicality is these challenges
and the proximate fouls that they can call.
Speaker 4 (40:52):
Because the one last.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Night, for example, the lebron won on Ant, they're not
calling that. Obviously they didn't call and they're not gonna
call that in the flow of the game.
Speaker 4 (41:02):
And the one tonight as well.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
It's like there was one on Steph in the first
half where I think where he got it was an
out of bounds.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
It was called out of bounds.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
They challenge it, get the foul call because Dylan Brooks
is kind of going point A to point B type
of jump, YadA YadA, and that one was a little
more bored that one could have been potentially called a
foul in real time. But this proximate foul slow motion
review compared to the flow of the physicality of the
games is a real, real challenge. I think the league
has to like sort of wonder what to do.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
With this is a great point. And this is where
you know I've always talked about I gotten a huge
argument about this with I'm trying to remember who it was.
I got in the argument with there was a sports writer,
and it's killing me that I can't remember his name
right now because it was a long time ago. But
he did an extensive report on officiating in the NBA
and like how they do it, and they have like
(41:48):
basically these two things, this thing called the rule book
and this thing called the case book, and they basically
is like the pathway with which that they try to
like come up with a standard for officiating games. And
I one of the things I was trying to talk
to him about is like I think that you need
subjectivity in officiating. You can't be letter of the law
(42:09):
because basketball games don't work that way. Basketball games are
all unique. They're each their own kind of like individual tapestry.
Like look at how much different tonight was than Game three.
Fundamentally different game, different players were playing, different guys were
playing well, Like it was just a totally different type
of game. And so the point is is, like you
have to be willing to in the moment be like, oh, yeah,
(42:31):
Lebron fouled and a little bit there. But with the
way we've been officiating this game, that would have probably
not been called it wasn't called live, Let's not call
it now now. The one with Dylan Brooks on the
sideline with Jimmy Butler's a little tougher because it got
called a foul live, but same sort of thing. I
would have gone in there and it'd been like, okay.
In my inititional I was talking to the guys before
the show, like on the baseline angle, it looked like
(42:54):
a foul because you're like, why the hell is Dylan
Brooks like shoving Jimmy while he's shooting.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
That's stupid.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
And then you watch the sideline angle and it's like
Dylan's hand is just kind of like on his hip.
It's not really much of a shove at all, and
there's no foul up top, and you could see Jimmy
kick his right leg out, and so it's like on
the replay that was a pretty standard non call relative
to the other calls in the game. And so it's
one of those things where, to your point, they need
to be able to in the review handle it the
(43:19):
same way they do live. You can't suddenly operate by
a totally different rule book or like standard in a
slowdown than you would live.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
That makes absolutely no sense.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
Yeah, it's it's just a challenge.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
The refs have a tough job.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
The job is tough. The last thing I'll say. I've
refed one game in my life. It was a students
versus teachers game when I was at Arizona Christian and
they just asked one of the guys on the basketball
team if they'd be willing to like volunteer, and I
was like, sure, I'll do it, And like the campus
pastor was cussing me out after the game, like cussing
me out because I was the only ref reffing a
five on five game and I opted to just basically
(43:55):
not call anything unless I was one hundred percent sure.
So there was like a ton of uncalled fouls because
that was the way I chose tor. I was like,
I'm not gonna guess what happens in this game. And
it's like this casual students versus teachers and the dude
is like cussing me out, like and I'm like, this.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
Is the campus pastor. This is crazy.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
But the point, the point being like there is it
is a very difficult job, but these are the best
in the world at it. This is what they do
every single day. And if there's one situation that you
should be able to get it right, it's in the
slowdown situations.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Like that for sure.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Last question, which one seed has looked more complete so far?
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Oh man, I think the Calves have looked better offensively
and the thunder have looked better defensively. Shay did have
a little bit of a rough shooting series at certain
points in the series. The thunder did show a lot
of really high level connective playmaking, which was something that
I thought was a really positive trend for them. I
(44:52):
do think that the thunder Man. That's a really really
tough question. I'm gonna go with the Calves though, I'm
gonna go the Calves. I mean the thunder got punched
in the mouth in game three.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
Yeah, good point.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
M Do you have any take there.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
I think the Calves have looked better. I think that
they probably put a worse opponent in round one, but
they they've looked They've just to your point.
Speaker 4 (45:17):
I think they've dominated every game for the most part.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
There was one little, you know, stretch there, what it
was at game two, maybe that the heat were competitive,
but for the most part, Yeah, but for the most
part they've dominated that the Calves were at no point
down by twenty.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Yeah, and they're operating at just an insane level offensively.
All right, guys, it's all I have for tonight. Remember
click the link in the description to head over to
playback and get set up there so that you guys
can be ready for our first after show on Wednesday.
And again, as always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for
supporting me and supporting the show. We will be back.
We're not doing a film session tomorrow. We're gonna be
live tomorrow night after the final buzzer of Clippers Nuggets
(45:53):
Game five, which would be a really fun one. I'll
see you guys then. Whats so, 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 (46:05):
As always, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute
to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (46:11):
The volume
Host
Jason Timpf
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com