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Speaker 2: Slash baseball all right, olcod to hoops tonight here at
Speaker 2: the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody, Oh, all of you guys
Speaker 2: are having a great weekend so far. Well Tmusa comes
Speaker 2: away with the gold medal today, an incredible steph flurry
Speaker 2: down the stretches. They would stand a hectic French comeback
Speaker 2: and Timyo s gets the gold. We're gonna be breaking
Speaker 2: that game down from the perspective of a bunch of
Speaker 2: different angles, a bunch of different players. Talk a little
Speaker 2: bit about Victor Webbin Yam as well. You guys know
Speaker 2: the job before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops
Speaker 2: and Out YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of
Speaker 2: our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so
Speaker 2: you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a
Speaker 2: podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 2: don't forget. It's also helpful if you leave a rating
Speaker 2: in a review on that front. And the last, but
Speaker 2: not least, keep dropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments
Speaker 2: so we can keep hitting them throughout the remainder of
Speaker 2: the summer. All right, guys, let's talk some basketball. So
Speaker 2: the story of this game was obviously Steph Curry. This
Speaker 2: was a very very close game late, kind of unexpectedly,
Speaker 2: and this was kind of the story for France in
Speaker 2: the entire tournament. Right. They were the three best defensive
Speaker 2: teams by the metrics in the tournament were USA, Germany
Speaker 2: and France. And France in particular really dependent on their
Speaker 2: defense to get out in transition because they don't really
Speaker 2: have a great half court offense. They struggle to score
Speaker 2: when things really really slow down. But what they do
Speaker 2: is they just keep playing hard the entire game. They
Speaker 2: apply a ton of ball pressure, they play passing lanes.
Speaker 2: They try to get out in transition as much as
Speaker 2: possible because that's where it gets easier for them to score.
Speaker 2: And they did forced a bunch of turnovers. In that
Speaker 2: mid fourth quarter stretch. There was this chaotic sequence where
Speaker 2: kd ends up getting a wild chase down block and
Speaker 2: the ball just kind of in that ensuing chaos just
Speaker 2: lands in Victor women Yama's hands right at the basket.
Speaker 2: He gets a little easy bucket there where he shoots
Speaker 2: a bang shot and then just follows it and just
Speaker 2: stuffs it through the rim. It's kind of interesting watching
Speaker 2: FEBA rules because it's like guys are just literally like
Speaker 2: as the ball goes up to the rim, everyone's just
Speaker 2: jumping up to the rim to try to either force
Speaker 2: it down or force it back out. It's kind of
Speaker 2: a funky thing with FIBA basketball. We even saw like
Speaker 2: a dunk attempt where Gray Shan Yabuseli tried to dunk
Speaker 2: on Steph and like as he went up, like the
Speaker 2: balls like in the rim, and Lebron's like not swiping
Speaker 2: at the ball is slapped the swiping at the top
Speaker 2: of the rim. It's kind of just an interesting angle
Speaker 2: to basketball with those FEBA rules. But anyway, Wemby gets
Speaker 2: to put back. All of a sudden, France is within
Speaker 2: three with three minutes left, and then Team USA begins
Speaker 2: to just spam Lebron's Lebron's Steph two man game, and
Speaker 2: Steph hits I think what was it. It was either
Speaker 2: three or four consecutive threes, and they were able to
Speaker 2: withstand because France kept hitting shots. Nick Tuom hit a
Speaker 2: three in the right corner, Victor Wimbenyama hit a three
Speaker 2: along the left wing. They kept hitting shots, and Steph
Speaker 2: just kept stiff arming them. Every time Franz got it
Speaker 2: to six, He'd hit another. Di'd get it to six,
Speaker 2: he hit another. And it was just an awesome Steph
Speaker 2: moment specifically in the context of how the tournament went.
Speaker 2: And you know, I thought a lot of people were
Speaker 2: overblowing Steph's struggles early in the tournament, because again, Steph
Speaker 2: obviously has some shooting variants that is kind of baked
Speaker 2: into his game, right that's that's just how it works
Speaker 2: when you rely on jump shooting, right, And I mean
Speaker 2: this tournament has been the most hilarious, exaggerated example of
Speaker 2: that because it could make shit for the first half
Speaker 2: of the tournament, and then he makes obviously every single
Speaker 2: big shot in the semi final and the final game.
Speaker 2: So we all know that variance plays a certain role
Speaker 2: in Steph's game. That said, that's it's not just about
Speaker 2: making shots with Steph, like he puts, he took an
Speaker 2: important role in this team it specifically as the guy
Speaker 2: who's running a lot of off ball action and just
Speaker 2: staying active moving around. And remember, when it comes to
Speaker 2: the offensive end of the floor, how you're guarded matters
Speaker 2: every bit as much as whether or not you're actually
Speaker 2: making shots. And even though Steph was missing, he was
Speaker 2: still being guarded like he was Steph Curry, which opens
Speaker 2: up things for the US team, who, by the way,
Speaker 2: had a really really effective offense in the Olympics. I
Speaker 2: remember after the quarterfinals, throughout the stat they were at
Speaker 2: like one point one four points per half court possession,
Speaker 2: which is completely off the charts good. And so that
Speaker 2: was with Steph missing shots. And obviously there are a
Speaker 2: lot of other talented players that are benefiting from that.
Speaker 2: But I did think some of Steph's struggles were overblown.
Speaker 2: That said, you bring Steph Curry on Tsai because you
Speaker 2: need him to hit shots, And he hit so many
Speaker 2: big shots in these last two games. From all those
Speaker 2: shots early in the semi final game, as Serbia would
Speaker 2: not miss, just to keep USA attached close enough so
Speaker 2: that a comeback was feasible. To the big shot that
Speaker 2: was the lead changing shot in the fourth quarter after
Speaker 2: Serbia went back up by two. He hit that three
Speaker 2: curling around the screen, from Joe El Embiid to every
Speaker 2: shot he hit down the stretch today, when France tried
Speaker 2: to make their comeback. I'm glad he was missing when
Speaker 2: he was missing, because basketball gets like that sometimes, Like
Speaker 2: i'ven't actually looked at the numbers, but I imagine if
Speaker 2: you zoom out, it looks kind of like typical Steph
Speaker 2: shooting in the larger sample, right, But in the small
Speaker 2: sample it was like couldn't make anything to making everything.
Speaker 2: And I am glad, thankfully as a basketball fan, as
Speaker 2: a team USA fan, that he was broke when he
Speaker 2: was because we didn't need him in that game. We
Speaker 2: needed them in the Serbia game, we needed them in
Speaker 2: the France game. Steph got it done. And I will
Speaker 2: say being on this side of it was a hell
Speaker 2: of a lot more fun than being on the other
Speaker 2: side of it, because as a Lebron fan, I've rooted
Speaker 2: against Steph a ton in my life, not just in
Speaker 2: the Calves years, but even extending into these Lakers years
Speaker 2: with the play in tournament and then that series in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, which was a crazy, hectic series. Like,
Speaker 2: I've had to root against Steph a lot, and like
Speaker 2: there was a different version of Steph in that Lakers series.
Speaker 2: It was very on the ball and like we couldn't
Speaker 2: do anything with him, and pick and roll is very different.
Speaker 2: But like being on this side of it and actually
Speaker 2: rooting for him for a change was very, very nice,
Speaker 2: and I understand why you Warriors fans love rooting for
Speaker 2: him so much. Step It's interesting, like so many Lebron
Speaker 2: fans hate Steph and so many Steph fans hate Lebron
Speaker 2: for whatever reason, and that's somewhat to be expense to
Speaker 2: be expected when it comes to rivalries. But Lebron's my
Speaker 2: favorite player, Steph's literally my second favorite player. I absolutely
Speaker 2: love watching him play basketball, and it's been an absolute
Speaker 2: joy rooting for him with Team USA this year. I
Speaker 2: do want to take a look a little closer look
Speaker 2: at the Lebron Steph two man game. You know, I've
Speaker 2: always been fascinated by basketball tactics, and this was a
Speaker 2: very specific action that was deadly against France at the
Speaker 2: tail end of this game, and I want to get
Speaker 2: into the specific reasons why. So. Obviously, when this team
Speaker 2: was conceptualized and put together a lot of different things
Speaker 2: to be excited about as a basketball fan, right Like,
Speaker 2: Timosa has an awesome front court, Right Like, it was
Speaker 2: fun to watch Ad and Bam play together, Ad Bam,
Speaker 2: Lebron kd Jason Tatum, even Joel Embiid coming over and
Speaker 2: not playing for France, Like it just we had a
Speaker 2: really fun front court that was fun to look at,
Speaker 2: right Like, There's all these different exciting things to look at,
Speaker 2: But Lebron and Steph playing together was obviously the thing
Speaker 2: that we were most excited for. These are the two
Speaker 2: greatest winners of this era. They have four titles each
Speaker 2: since twenty twelve, just do basic, Matt, there have been
Speaker 2: thirteen NBA champions that have been crowned since twenty twelve,
Speaker 2: eight of them involved Lebron James and Steph Curry. That
Speaker 2: is unbelievable dominance from those two guys. That is why
Speaker 2: they are the two greatest winners of this era. But
Speaker 2: it extends further into the basketball fit. Obviously, there was
Speaker 2: an aura piece where it's like, it's gonna be fun
Speaker 2: watching Lebron and Steph play together and try to win
Speaker 2: basketball games. But there's also a basketball fit element, and
Speaker 2: this has been a little bit up for debate over
Speaker 2: the course of the last couple of years. I remember
Speaker 2: around the trade deadline when there was some buzz about
Speaker 2: the Warriors maybe trying to go after Lebron. How some
Speaker 2: people were hesitant to think that the Lebron and Steph
Speaker 2: fit would work. I always thought it would work very well.
Speaker 2: And the main reason why, before we get into the
Speaker 2: specific basketball tactics, is they're two of the greatest winners,
Speaker 2: meaning they understand how to win basketball games, but they
Speaker 2: do very different things. And when you get basketball players
Speaker 2: that do very different things and feel very different responsibilities,
Speaker 2: like that's just going to kind of accentuate each other
Speaker 2: in a way that gets more complicated when guys play
Speaker 2: similar roles, right like Lebron and Lebron this entire tournament
Speaker 2: was like a Swiss army knife. He was a dominant
Speaker 2: defensive reboundary guarded Jokic in the fourth quarter of the
Speaker 2: semi final game, like, he just did all sorts of
Speaker 2: crazy shit because he's six ' nine and this freaky athlete,
Speaker 2: right like Steph Curry that over the top shot making
Speaker 2: is so important in FOBA because of the defense of
Speaker 2: three second rule. Obviously, he's a movement shooter who constantly
Speaker 2: stays active in off ball situations. They just do very
Speaker 2: different thing. So I just had a feeling that they
Speaker 2: would impact each other or help elevate each other, and
Speaker 2: that the two of them would impact winning at an
Speaker 2: amount even greater than the sum of their parts would
Speaker 2: lead you to believe. But specifically the Lebron Steph two
Speaker 2: man game was something that I was very excited about
Speaker 2: because of the dynamic of trying to defend it. Now,
Speaker 2: what is two man game? Two man game is just
Speaker 2: any action that you run between two players, right. That
Speaker 2: could be a bunch of different things. It could be
Speaker 2: a dribble hand off, It can be a ball screen
Speaker 2: it could be an off ball action. You can there's
Speaker 2: so many different ways that you can run two man game.
Speaker 2: And for Lebron Steph at the tail end of this game,
Speaker 2: it was some Lebron on the ball with Steph screening
Speaker 2: for Lebron, some Steph on the ball with Lebron screening
Speaker 2: for Steph. But it all effectively is the same thing,
Speaker 2: which is two man game. Right now, What makes guarding
Speaker 2: the Lebron Steph two man games so difficult is that
Speaker 2: both guys have to be guarded by very different types
Speaker 2: of defenders. Lebron James has to be guarded by a big,
Speaker 2: strong forward. If you don't put a big, strong forward
Speaker 2: on him, Lebron's just gonna bully that dude everywhere on
Speaker 2: the floor. If not on the ball, then he'll do
Speaker 2: it off the ball on the offensive glass, right like that,
Speaker 2: that's a physical matchup that you have to account for.
Speaker 2: Right for France at the end of this game, that
Speaker 2: was Gershan Yabuseli, right, big strong forward that can hope
Speaker 2: to hang a little bit with Lebron in some of
Speaker 2: those physical situations. Right for Steph, it's a moving shooter.
Speaker 2: He's chasing around like crazy, right so you need a
Speaker 2: guy who can navigate, navigate screens, you need a lock
Speaker 2: in trail defender. That's typically going to be a smaller guard, right,
Speaker 2: And so in this particular case, Steph's being guarded by
Speaker 2: a small guard, Lebron's being guarded by a big Ford.
Speaker 2: That's what starts to cause these particular issues. And so
Speaker 2: for France, the smaller player that was guarding Steph down
Speaker 2: the stretch ended up being Nick patumbho by the way,
Speaker 2: six foot eight, but skinny, slender, quick footed. This was
Speaker 2: a guy, if you guys remember in the Knick series
Speaker 2: that was guarding Tyrese Maxi for a large portion of
Speaker 2: that series. Nick Batum guards guards pretty well. That's why
Speaker 2: you put him there. Right. He's not quite as quick
Speaker 2: as some of the quicker guards, but he can get
Speaker 2: a hand up and get some good contests in. Right.
Speaker 2: So we saw quite a bit of Lebron on Steph
Speaker 2: two man game throughout the game, but they started spamming
Speaker 2: it at the end. Now, there was a play in
Speaker 2: the third quarter where Lebron hit Steph for three and
Speaker 2: two man game, which was the first iteration of how
Speaker 2: you expect teams to guard it. So Lebron was being
Speaker 2: guarded on this play by Gershan Yabuselli, and Steph was
Speaker 2: being guarded by one of the French bench guards. I
Speaker 2: can't remember his name. He was number six, right, Steph
Speaker 2: goes to set the screen for Lebron on that play,
Speaker 2: Steph's defender has no choice but to hedge. He absolutely
Speaker 2: has to hedge, because if he doesn't, Steph will just
Speaker 2: screen Yabuselli and Lebron just go downhill because Yabuseli cannot
Speaker 2: recover to get in front of Lebron James while he's
Speaker 2: getting screened. That's just not gonna happen. Right now, Lebron's
Speaker 2: barreling downhill. He's gonna draw to help defender make a pass,
Speaker 2: or he's gonna get it dunk, right, So you have
Speaker 2: to hedge. So number six throws out a hard hedge
Speaker 2: to try to stop Lebron from driving past Yabuseli. Steph
Speaker 2: identifies this slips right out to the left wing. Yah
Speaker 2: Bucelli is kind of like stuck in no man's land
Speaker 2: because he sees the hedge. He's getting ready to recover
Speaker 2: to Lebron, but he identifies that the last second, Lebron's
Speaker 2: going to pass to Steph, so he throws his hands up.
Speaker 2: Lebron just jumps and throws a beautiful over the top pass.
Speaker 2: Steph is wide open because Steph's defender had to hedge
Speaker 2: on Lebron. Lebron, so Steph can switch a slip out
Speaker 2: of it and he has an opening there on the
Speaker 2: left wing. By the way these plays, I put together
Speaker 2: a thread on Twitter at underscore json lt where every
Speaker 2: single one of these plays you can see the video,
Speaker 2: so you guys can get a visual example of what
Speaker 2: I'm talking about. But that was the third quarter example.
Speaker 2: On the third quarter example, they try to hedge in
Speaker 2: the hedge, Steph got wide open, wide open three, he
Speaker 2: hit it. That's not gonna work. So Victor wimin Yama
Speaker 2: gets his put back of his own miss. That puts
Speaker 2: him back within three with three minutes left, and so
Speaker 2: Tosa decides to start running Lebron Steph two man game.
Speaker 2: So at this point, remember Nick toomb is guarding Steph. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Buceli's guarding Lebron. Steph sets the screen for Lebroun once again.
Speaker 2: Lebron's kind of at the top. Step sets it on
Speaker 2: his right side, slips out of it. On this play,
Speaker 2: Batoum and Yabu Seli decide to switch. But on the
Speaker 2: switch yabu Selli because he's not used to guarding movement shooters.
Speaker 2: That's the reason why you don't switch. Right. If you
Speaker 2: switch yabu Selli onto Steph, he's too slow. You switch
Speaker 2: but tomb onto Lebron, he's too small. So it just
Speaker 2: presents all these issues. They switch yabu Selli onto Steph.
Speaker 2: They Lebron throws you over the top pass to Steph.
Speaker 2: All Steph does is just throw pump fake. Why Because
Speaker 2: Yabu Selli hasn't guarded movement shooters, he doesn't face guys
Speaker 2: that pump fake a lot. He's not used to like
Speaker 2: kind of like chasing and recovering. In this type of situation,
Speaker 2: Boom pump fake easily gets yabu Seli out of position.
Speaker 2: Quick little side step boom knocks down the three. There's
Speaker 2: just nothing that France can do there. Okay, so we
Speaker 2: tried hedging, that didn't work. We tried switching, that didn't work.
Speaker 2: What's the next thing that we can try? So this
Speaker 2: next possession down the floor, tm Usa switches to Steph
Speaker 2: being on the ball and Lebron being the screener. So
Speaker 2: it's a little bit of a different look than the
Speaker 2: previous two possessions, right, but the same like overarching problems exist. Right,
Speaker 2: You can't switch the action because you don't want Yaboucelli
Speaker 2: on Steph on an island. You can't hedge because Steph's
Speaker 2: gonna get open, or in this case, with Steph on
Speaker 2: the ball, if you hedge, Lebron's gonna get open. He's
Speaker 2: just gonna barrel down the lane and make something happen.
Speaker 2: So what's the next logical progression. Well, they try to
Speaker 2: get Nick Patum just to chase over the top of
Speaker 2: the screen. So Lebron goes up and sets a screen.
Speaker 2: Nick Patum goes way out on the high side to
Speaker 2: try to chase Steph. Yabuceli doesn't hedge. He just kind
Speaker 2: of like sits in like a little bit of like
Speaker 2: a defensive stance right on the other side of the
Speaker 2: screen in case Steph tries to curl, but he stays
Speaker 2: home on Lebron. So now you didn't switch, you asked
Speaker 2: Nick Patum to chase. Now Steph is coming off with
Speaker 2: Nick Patum in trail position. Steph has the ball live dribble.
Speaker 2: Batum is trailing him down the top of the key.
Speaker 2: Just it's a simple step back dribble into a pump fake.
Speaker 2: But since Batum is completely out of position, he's sprinting
Speaker 2: back into the play. He has no choice but to
Speaker 2: sell out to stop that shot, so he jumps out
Speaker 2: of his shoes to try to block the step back.
Speaker 2: Steph just simple pump fake, leans over, knocks down the three.
Speaker 2: So now we've tried hedging. That didn't work. We tried switching,
Speaker 2: that didn't work. We tried asking Nick Patum just to
Speaker 2: chase over the top. That didn't work. And after that
Speaker 2: that's when it turned into double team. So very next
Speaker 2: trip down the floor, they just try switching yabousellly onto
Speaker 2: Steph and they double team him. Swing past to Kevin Durant.
Speaker 2: Devin Booker's wide open in the left corner because you
Speaker 2: just threw a double team swing to Devin Booker. Victor
Speaker 2: wemen Yama closes out hard. Booker has an advantage, so
Speaker 2: he just rips to the baseline, beats women Yam off
Speaker 2: the dribble. All of France collapses, easy kickout pass to Steph.
Speaker 2: Now STEP's open again because you're in rotation, and guess
Speaker 2: what Kevin Durant Devin Booker know how to play in rotation?
Speaker 2: Boom pump fakes gets another clean look. And then the
Speaker 2: final possession was just silly, like Franz tried switching Abu
Speaker 2: Sally on to Kevin Durant and putting Evan Fournier onto Lebron,
Speaker 2: and so then they just brought Kevin Durant into the action,
Speaker 2: same sort of thing they switched and they doubled, and
Speaker 2: then guess what, Steph hit a step back three over
Speaker 2: a double team, because that's what can happen when Steph
Speaker 2: enters into that transcendent zone. But I think it's I
Speaker 2: do think it's fascinating because like that was what was
Speaker 2: interesting about watching those two together in that final sequence. One,
Speaker 2: Like Lebron James doesn't care about how they win. He
Speaker 2: just wants to win. Steph had a heater, He's gonna
Speaker 2: trust him. There were earlier moments in this tournament where
Speaker 2: Lebron had it going in clutch time and Steph just
Speaker 2: back the hell off and let Lebron do his thing, right,
Speaker 2: Like that's trust in each other, that's understanding what your
Speaker 2: advantages are that's sticking with something like if an action
Speaker 2: isn't broke, you stick with it. You run the exact
Speaker 2: same thing over and over again until they figure out
Speaker 2: how to get a stop. And France could not get
Speaker 2: a stop on that Lebron Steph two men. I thought
Speaker 2: it was just a really fascinating kind of basketball chess piece.
Speaker 2: They tried everything. They tried the hedge and recover, got burned.
Speaker 2: They tried switching, got burned. They tried asking Nick Patum
Speaker 2: to chase, got burned. They tried switching and double teaming,
Speaker 2: got burned. Like there was literally nothing that they could do.
Speaker 2: Even the one possession they defended perfectly where they doubled
Speaker 2: and rotated. Well, Steph just hit a shot over a
Speaker 2: double team. And that's what's so much fun about watching
Speaker 2: the all time great basketball players is there's not a
Speaker 2: coverage that works. There's not a trump card, there's not
Speaker 2: a fix that you can throw out there to stop
Speaker 2: these guys. And honestly, it's a little unfair to have
Speaker 2: all that talent on tmusa right, like, oh, you want
Speaker 2: to switch so that Lebron's not in the action, Well,
Speaker 2: here comes Kevin Durant. It's gonna be the same sort
Speaker 2: of issue, right, or like the end of the Serbia
Speaker 2: game where Lebron and Steph were both clearly tired at
Speaker 2: the end and so they just tossed the ball to
Speaker 2: KD and then KD went and got a bucket. It
Speaker 2: was a lot of fun watching this team. I will
Speaker 2: say this in general was one of my favorite memory
Speaker 2: as a basketball fan, the watching all of my favorite
Speaker 2: players that caused me to fall in love with the
Speaker 2: game as I was growing up, play in this high
Speaker 2: stakes environment when everything was on the line, and to
Speaker 2: watch how much it meant to them to watch their
Speaker 2: competitiveness shine through the big one. I tweeted this out
Speaker 2: after the Serbia game like that it was the last
Speaker 2: legacy defining moment for Katie, Stephan Lebron And like, you
Speaker 2: guys know me, I don't do the first take thing.
Speaker 2: I'm not here to like to just sit here and
Speaker 2: debate legacies all day long. That's that's not really my
Speaker 2: favorite thing to do as a basketball fan. However, these
Speaker 2: guys do have a legacy, and their legacy to me
Speaker 2: is they are winners. These guys have ten championships between
Speaker 2: the three of them, and the main thing that stands
Speaker 2: out to me when I watched this tournament was seeing
Speaker 2: the little things that led to them winning in the
Speaker 2: NBA come together in this environment to help this team win.
Speaker 2: And it's a reminder that it's not a coincidence, it's
Speaker 2: not fluky. These guys are These guys are as successful
Speaker 2: as they have been because they do the things on
Speaker 2: the basketball court that you watched them do with Team USA.
Speaker 2: And when it all came together, that's what made this
Speaker 2: team unbeatable, even against a red hot Serbia team that
Speaker 2: made over fifty percent of their threes through three quarters
Speaker 2: and is led by Nikola Jokich, the most indomitable force
Speaker 2: in the game of basketball right now in my opinion.
Speaker 2: All of that was the set of circumstances in that game,
Speaker 2: and it still wasn't enough to beat them because Lebron,
Speaker 2: Steph and KD and everyone else on this roster has
Speaker 2: that winning character that they've leaned on in the NBA
Speaker 2: and then they leaned on here with Team USA. It
Speaker 2: was just as a basketball fan, I just I can't
Speaker 2: believe it. I can't believe that we had this much
Speaker 2: fun in August in July watching basketball our video the
Speaker 2: Serbia instant reaction video was the most watched video in
Speaker 2: the history of the new channel, not counting the volume stuff,
Speaker 2: but since we've been on our own channel, it's the
Speaker 2: most watched video we've ever had. That tells me is
Speaker 2: that it tells me you guys loved it. That tells
Speaker 2: me if we got more views for that than we
Speaker 2: did for Luca's game winner, or for that crazy Nuggets
Speaker 2: Lakers series or some of the other big moments that
Speaker 2: we encountered along the way, Like this seemed to be
Speaker 2: a real moment that resonated with basketball fans. It almost
Speaker 2: felt like it just felt like we were all kind
Speaker 2: of enjoying it together. There was no fan bases. We're
Speaker 2: all kind of together, just kind of having fun enjoying it.
Speaker 2: And I just had a ton of fun.
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Speaker 2: A couple other shout outs. Kevin Durant I thought he
Speaker 2: was so good defensively in this game. Spent a good
Speaker 2: amount of time on Victor webbin Yama. That block, the
Speaker 2: chase down block that he had. Again it ended up
Speaker 2: not mattering because the ball ended up popping back to
Speaker 2: Victor webbin Yama. But that's that type of like championship level,
Speaker 2: complete and total commitment to leaving everything on the line
Speaker 2: type of defensive play that is memorable. And that's a
Speaker 2: little one that might get lost to the shuffle year,
Speaker 2: but that was an incredible defensive play I thought, just
Speaker 2: in general, KD just he brought the vitally important, like
Speaker 2: juiced up superstar version of Michael Porter junior to this team,
Speaker 2: meaning like excellent help side defense, excellent defense of rebounding,
Speaker 2: excellent weak side scoring, and again like that, all of
Speaker 2: this stuff had a vital importance to this particular team.
Speaker 2: They needed an initiator, a guy who could just focus
Speaker 2: on feeding guys in their spots. Lebron fed into that
Speaker 2: spot perfectly. They needed a guy who could just run
Speaker 2: around and be a movement shooter and just be really
Speaker 2: active off the ball. That ended up being Step. They
Speaker 2: needed a guy who was just a green light jump
Speaker 2: shooter who would just make the defense pay every single
Speaker 2: time they helped off of him. That was Kevin Durant. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Devin Booker did a little bit of that as well.
Speaker 2: A lot everybody filled in unique roles, but for those
Speaker 2: specific three guys, you saw them all kind of slot
Speaker 2: into their unique roles, and I thought KD was awesome
Speaker 2: in this particular game. Anthony Davis a monster game in
Speaker 2: this one. Got a huge series of stops on Evan
Speaker 2: Fournier on a switch in crunch time when they were
Speaker 2: trying to pull away late. He did a bunch of
Speaker 2: work on the gloves. He had four offensive rebounds, he
Speaker 2: had four blocks. He was just an absolute monster in
Speaker 2: this game. I thought it was the right Reid two
Speaker 2: to go with him instead of him beat given the matchup,
Speaker 2: and just how most like Victor wemen Yama was going
Speaker 2: right at Joel Embiid early in this game. He was
Speaker 2: just kind of struggling with his foot speed, and I
Speaker 2: thought that was the right read. Really good game from
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis. And then Devin Booker just once again solid
Speaker 2: fifteen points, six rebounds, three assists, hit some big shots.
Speaker 2: That huge drive drive of the Victor wemen Yama close
Speaker 2: out late that got the wide open shot for Steph.
Speaker 2: I thought that was a huge play. Everyone played awesome.
Speaker 2: I just had a blast. I can't even tell you,
Speaker 2: guys how much I enjoyed watching this team USA. All right,
Speaker 2: let's talk MVP and then we'll talk some Victor wemen
Speaker 2: Yama and then we'll be out of here for the day.
Speaker 2: So Lebron wins MVP of the tournament. I thought he
Speaker 2: deserved it. I thought he was the player on TMUSA
Speaker 2: that impacted winning the most overall throughout the tournament. I thought,
Speaker 2: even though he didn't score as many points as Steph
Speaker 2: Curry did in the semi final, I thought he was
Speaker 2: equally important to the win in that particular game. It's
Speaker 2: so much work defensively and just battling Yokic on the
Speaker 2: glass and just doing a lot of the dirty, ugly
Speaker 2: work in the physical battle that was that game. I
Speaker 2: thought he was incredible. That said, I thought Steph had
Speaker 2: a real case. I thought him and how well he
Speaker 2: played in those last two games. If you told me
Speaker 2: that you thought Steph deserved MVP, I don't think you're
Speaker 2: wrong necessarily. Like I think both guys deserved it. I
Speaker 2: think I think Steph had a really good case. I
Speaker 2: think Lebron had a slightly better case, and I thought
Speaker 2: he deserved to win it. But I didn't really have
Speaker 2: a problem with it either way. The most important thing
Speaker 2: is is they don't care. Lebron and Steph don't care,
Speaker 2: and that's why they've won like they've won in their career.
Speaker 2: They care more about winning than they do whatever the
Speaker 2: accolades are that come from it. If Steph cared about MVPs,
Speaker 2: he wouldn't have brought Kevin Durant to the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 2: If Lebron cared about MVPs, he wouldn't have asked Kyrie
Speaker 2: irving to take that big shot at the end of
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, he wouldn't have kind of seeded. Lebron controlled
Speaker 2: the offense this entire tournament, and then when it mattered
Speaker 2: against Steph, when Steph had it going, he was like,
Speaker 2: here you go, it's your moment, Steph, because he didn't
Speaker 2: give a damn. They just want to win. Steph wants
Speaker 2: to win. Lebron wants to win. Yeah, Lebron ended up
Speaker 2: getting the MVP, but like, it just doesn't matter. That's
Speaker 2: for the kids to argue about on Twitter and let them.
Speaker 2: I know there's a big appetite for that sort of thing,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure the stand bases will be going at
Speaker 2: it over the course of the next forever. I'm sure
Speaker 2: they'll be arguing the twenty twenty four Olympic MVP for
Speaker 2: a while. But to me, they both had a real
Speaker 2: case and I just don't care. But I'm happy for Lebron.
Speaker 2: I thought he was a deserving winner in the same
Speaker 2: way that Steph would have been. Here's a crazy Lebron
Speaker 2: stat for you. Lebron was twenty seven for thirty at
Speaker 2: the RIM in this tournament. Jannis led the tournament with
Speaker 2: thirty four makes and the restricted area, Yokich was second
Speaker 2: with twenty eight. Lebron was third with twenty seven, and
Speaker 2: he was the only guy like the Both Jannis and
Speaker 2: Jokic shot below eighty percent in the restrict at the rim.
Speaker 2: Lebron shot ninety percent at the rim. It was just
Speaker 2: completely insane. Again, that's the I will miss watching this
Speaker 2: tm USA group, and I'm really curious to see where
Speaker 2: what the team looks like in twenty twenty eight, obviously,
Speaker 2: with so many of these guys aging out. Last note
Speaker 2: for today, Victor wibin Yama twenty six points, seven rebounds,
Speaker 2: just an absolute competitive monster. He broke a d off
Speaker 2: for a step back three at the tail end of
Speaker 2: the game up at the top of the key where
Speaker 2: he made a dbuckle and got great separation and great
Speaker 2: lyft and it looked like a good release too. He
Speaker 2: just left a little short, and I just remember sitting
Speaker 2: there thinking like, this guy is gonna be so insanely
Speaker 2: good when all this stuff clicks for him in the
Speaker 2: long run. He is so physically competitive for a guy
Speaker 2: who's thin that I think is a huge piece. Like
Speaker 2: I've just I've told you guys many times on the show. Like,
Speaker 2: I think basketball is a is a very very physical game,
Speaker 2: and most big basketball games are bloodbaths physically, and so
Speaker 2: he just seems cut out for that. He's really aggressive
Speaker 2: around the rim. There's a confidence piece there, there's a
Speaker 2: competitiveness piece there. We saw him crying after the loss.
Speaker 2: I I'm so excited to see what that kid can
Speaker 2: do in the long run in his career. I was
Speaker 2: impressed by him in this tournament, even beyond the stuff
Speaker 2: he did in the box score. He's just such an
Speaker 2: impactful defensive players, just a guy that's gonna be fun
Speaker 2: to root for over the course of the rest of
Speaker 2: his career. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 2: for today. I'm back for the evening. I'm actually after
Speaker 2: this going to record a mail bag episode for just
Speaker 2: to help have some more content while I'm out of town.
Speaker 2: I am turning around and flying out of flying out
Speaker 2: again tomorrow to Seattle. I've recorded three player rankings videos
Speaker 2: as well, so you guys will get the mail bag.
Speaker 2: You'll get three player rankings videos. All that's going out
Speaker 2: while I'm in Seattle, and then I return a week
Speaker 2: from Sunday and that following Monday, we'll get right back
Speaker 2: into those player rankings from there. As always, I appreciate
Speaker 2: you guys, and I will see you soon. The volume