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Speaker 2: All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume
Speaker 2: heavy Saturday.
Speaker 1: Everybody.
Speaker 2: Hope all you guys are having a great weekend. What
Speaker 2: an incredible night of games that we just re created
Speaker 2: to Jackson and I were just joking before the show started,
Speaker 2: like this is our eighth consecutive night going, and I
Speaker 2: think we've gone six of those mornings too, So it's
Speaker 2: been like this crazy blurb. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: like Jackson says, I'm riding a high from those two
Speaker 2: incredible games, and I am too, Like it's just so
Speaker 2: much fun at least in this time of year, despite
Speaker 2: the unending train of just incredibly good basketball games. We're
Speaker 2: gonna be breaking down tonight. We're focusing on the final
Speaker 2: two games in the slate, so we're gonna be hitting
Speaker 2: that absolutely bonkers Clippers Nuggets game, and then the Golden
Speaker 2: State Warriors end up pulling out a game on the
Speaker 2: strength of their defense against the Houston Rockets, some key
Speaker 2: contributions down the roster with Jimmy Butler out, We're gonna
Speaker 2: break those two games down from the perspective of both teams.
Speaker 2: Then after that we're gonna do a mail bag from
Speaker 2: the chat and one of the things that I like
Speaker 2: about that mail bag is it allows you guys to
Speaker 2: kind of direct into certain parts of these series that
Speaker 2: you guys are interested in, that you guys want to
Speaker 2: talk about more So, come into the later portion of
Speaker 2: the show, drop your questions in that chat any other
Speaker 2: questions you have about these series any other series around
Speaker 2: the league. Make sure you guys hang out for the
Speaker 2: mail back at the end. You guys are the Joe
Speaker 2: before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
Speaker 2: on Twitter at Underscore json LTC. You guys don't misshow announcements.
Speaker 2: Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your
Speaker 2: podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if we
Speaker 2: leave a rating in a review. On that front, we
Speaker 2: also have social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
Speaker 2: where Jackson's doing some great work. Make sure you guys
Speaker 2: follow us there. In the last but not least, keep
Speaker 2: dropping mail bag questions and YouTube comments, and we can keep
Speaker 2: getting to him throughout the remainder of the postseason. All right,
Speaker 2: let's talk some basketball. So I was confident coming into
Speaker 2: this two game home set here for the Warriors that
Speaker 2: even without Jimmy Butler, they should be able to get
Speaker 2: the job done, mainly because of two things. The simple
Speaker 2: fact that Steve Kerr, as he openly said in a
Speaker 2: time out in Game one, these guys can't score on
Speaker 2: us in the half court. If we can keep them
Speaker 2: trapped there three times tonight the Warriors held the Rockets
Speaker 2: to twenty two points in a single quarter. That is
Speaker 2: going to keep things close enough. And then at home,
Speaker 2: I just believe in the Warriors role players finding enough
Speaker 2: ways to ride the energy of the crowd and find
Speaker 2: ways to contribute offensively. That's kind of been the story
Speaker 2: of the Steph Curry era is, especially when they're at home,
Speaker 2: even when guys are out of the lineup, is if
Speaker 2: STEP's out there and if Draymond's out there, they're going
Speaker 2: to get enough stops and they're going to get enough
Speaker 2: advantages to be able to win a game like this,
Speaker 2: And they were just incredible. We're gonna be going down
Speaker 2: the line here talking about all their individual contributions. I
Speaker 2: do want to start with step though, because what was
Speaker 2: actually interesting about this game is Houston controlled it early.
Speaker 2: And one of the big reasons why was that idea
Speaker 2: that I talked about with the Warriors role players being
Speaker 2: able to ride some of that energy of the crowd
Speaker 2: and their defense to be able to provide offensive punch
Speaker 2: that wasn't there to start the game. No one could
Speaker 2: make a shot to save their lives and to kind
Speaker 2: of compound the issues. Steph for the first basically till
Speaker 2: the middle of the second quarter was just like kind
Speaker 2: of easing his way into the game, not bringing a
Speaker 2: ton of aggression. I thought he was coming off of
Speaker 2: his screening actions, telegraphing that he was looking to pass.
Speaker 2: He had a couple of turnovers, he wasn't being aggressive enough,
Speaker 2: and then right around that middle of that second quarter,
Speaker 2: Steph turned it up. And there's a certain amount of like,
Speaker 2: even with that level of defensive attention, there is still
Speaker 2: a certain amount of panic that you can induce by
Speaker 2: providing the necessary scoring pop and as we saw in
Speaker 2: Game one, like Steph even in this scheme, even with
Speaker 2: the face guarding, even with the double teaming, even with
Speaker 2: the grabbing off ball, even with the blitzing of the
Speaker 2: ball screens, even with all of the physicality, Steph can
Speaker 2: cut these dudes to pieces. He's capable of doing it,
Speaker 2: and he demonstrated that in Resounding over the course of
Speaker 2: the last three and a half quarters of this game.
Speaker 2: It all just started with turning up his aggression as
Speaker 2: he started curling off of screens instead of curling off
Speaker 2: of screens, and immediately looking to get rid of the ball.
Speaker 2: He started trying to force the issue a little bit.
Speaker 2: Jay Billis was talking during the game about how he
Speaker 2: was like putting on his cape, so to speak, trying
Speaker 2: to take on multiple defenders, curling those actions and taking
Speaker 2: scoop shots in traffic, taking floaters in traffic. He started
Speaker 2: to look to be aggressive for the first three point shot,
Speaker 2: pushing it a little bit further out, taking some more
Speaker 2: heavily contested shots.
Speaker 1: He found some.
Speaker 2: ISOs, some isolation situations that he liked working against, like
Speaker 2: against Dylan Brooks there at the end of the game,
Speaker 2: that quick crossover into the pull up three, and because
Speaker 2: he brought the requisite scoring pop thirty six points tonight,
Speaker 2: that is what started to induce the final sequence of
Speaker 2: the game, which was Gary Payton the second starting to
Speaker 2: get downhill out of keepers and like fake drible and
Speaker 2: slips of ball screens even got free on a back
Speaker 2: door cut off of a classic screening action where both
Speaker 2: guys ended up running with Steph. That comes from the
Speaker 2: scoring pop that Steph brings throughout the game thirty six points,
Speaker 2: seven rebounds, nine assists, like he has been absolutely fantastic
Speaker 2: in the two Warriors wins in this series. I can't
Speaker 2: say enough about it. I want to skip ahead to
Speaker 2: Gary Payton for a second, because, you know, one of
Speaker 2: the things that was kind of standing out over the
Speaker 2: course of the early portion of the game was nobody
Speaker 2: really had anything going offensively. Brandon Pajemski had some good
Speaker 2: looks from three, he wasn't knocking him down. Jonathan Kaminga,
Speaker 2: you know, Steve Kerr places a bet on him to
Speaker 2: start this game and takes Buddy held out of the
Speaker 2: starting lineup, puts Quinton Post in there, tries to set
Speaker 2: Jonathan Kaminga up with some more cleared side ISOs, and
Speaker 2: just Jonathan Kimica couldn't get anything going. He was struggling
Speaker 2: with the physicality of the situation. The game seemed to
Speaker 2: be moving a little too fast for him. He wasn't
Speaker 2: able to get anything moving, and so all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: it's like, what do we have here? And you know,
Speaker 2: there were a couple of guys who stepped up, specifically
Speaker 2: Buddy heel To we'll talk about in a minute. But
Speaker 2: one of the things that stood out to me in
Speaker 2: that second half was Gary Payton specifically saying I am
Speaker 2: going to the rim he was decisive. He wasn't coming
Speaker 2: off of those fake dribble handoffs or slipping out of
Speaker 2: those screens trying to look to pass. He was looking
Speaker 2: to score the basketball. He went to the rim over
Speaker 2: and over and over again in that stretch, and like
Speaker 2: that was just that was such an important bit of
Speaker 2: rim pressure in a game like this where without Jimmy
Speaker 2: Butler it was difficult to come by rim pressure. I
Speaker 2: thought Gary Payton was fantastic in this game. Finished with
Speaker 2: sixteen points on seven of nine shooting, hit two massive
Speaker 2: threes as well. Massive night for Gary Payton. The second
Speaker 2: Buddy heeled though it was a little bit of a
Speaker 2: weird shift in the early third quarter where he just
Speaker 2: when he checked in where he looked like he was
Speaker 2: just a little lacking that intensity. But aside from that
Speaker 2: brief stretch to start the third quarter, I thought Buddy
Speaker 2: was fantastic all night, just bringing that requisite level of aggression. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Steve Kerr was gonna have to bump his minutes up
Speaker 2: under the circumstances. He ended up playing twenty nine minutes tonight.
Speaker 2: A lot of situations like that, a lot of Post,
Speaker 2: a lot of Gary, a lot of Buddy healed trying
Speaker 2: Jonathan Kaminga. They're doing that because they're trying to like
Speaker 2: inject some offensive firepower into the situation. Counting on the
Speaker 2: fact that Draymond and the rest of those guys, Moses Moody,
Speaker 2: Gary Payton, all those guys would be able to get
Speaker 2: another enough stops to be able to get to keep
Speaker 2: this game within reach. And Buddy, every single one of
Speaker 2: those five threes that he hit was super super important
Speaker 2: in this game. He's plus fourteen twenty nine minutes at
Speaker 2: three steals as well. Big time game from Buddy. Heel
Speaker 2: couldn't post at a really difficult job tonight. You know,
Speaker 2: sometimes you get handed a job that you're gonna lose,
Speaker 2: but your job is to just try to to shrink
Speaker 2: that gap as much as possible, to try to lose
Speaker 2: by as little as possible. I remember I played in
Speaker 2: this money tournament once up in Phoenix. There was a
Speaker 2: three on three outdoor money tournament in downtown Phoenix and
Speaker 2: we ended up winning it and winning the money thankfully.
Speaker 2: And there was a semi final game where we played
Speaker 2: and I had to guard this guy named Michael Craig,
Speaker 2: and some of you hoopers might recognize the name. He
Speaker 2: played at South Mountain Junior College in He played at
Speaker 2: South Mountain Junior College up in Phoenix, and then he
Speaker 2: ended up playing mid major D one somewhere out in
Speaker 2: the South, if I remember correctly. But he was just
Speaker 2: this behemoth of a man, like six foot four, like
Speaker 2: two hundred and sixty pounds of just solid muscle, freaky athlete.
Speaker 2: And my job in that game and that three on
Speaker 2: three was you're gonna lose some battles to Michael Craig,
Speaker 2: like he's gonna bully you. He's gonna get some layups,
Speaker 2: You're gonna take a bunch of shots to the chest.
Speaker 2: You're gonna be in pain after that game. But all
Speaker 2: you have to do is just try to not lose
Speaker 2: by that much. And that was literally the job that
Speaker 2: Quinton Post was handed tonight. On the defensive glass against
Speaker 2: Stephen Adams, he got thrown around sometimes, he gave up
Speaker 2: some offensive rebounds. He was just just his legs were destroyed.
Speaker 2: He couldn't make a three point shot to save his life.
Speaker 2: He was leaving everything short in his shot making situations.
Speaker 2: But he did the job. He won enough of the battles,
Speaker 2: nine defensive rebounds, three offensive rebounds plus seven in twenty
Speaker 2: seven minutes. Quinton Post took the assignment to just get
Speaker 2: his ass kicked by the Houston front line tonight, and
Speaker 2: he stood in there and he just held his own
Speaker 2: and did his job battling for those possessions like some
Speaker 2: nice tap out rebounds two in situations where you know
Speaker 2: other guys were engaged in box outs. I thought Quinton
Speaker 2: Post was fantastic. And then just the defensive effort all night.
Speaker 2: I mean, Draymond Green had about as bad offensive game
Speaker 2: as you'll ever see him play, making some misreads, some
Speaker 2: sloppy turnovers, struggling to finish around the rim, blaming it
Speaker 2: on the He wasn't getting fouled like Draymon had a
Speaker 2: nightmare offensive game, but he did a ton of damage
Speaker 2: defensively around the rim, especially to Alburns Shangun. How many
Speaker 2: times did you see Shangun miss a shot within like
Speaker 2: three feet of the rim tonight? Many of those were
Speaker 2: because of the disruption that Draymond was providing on Shanggun's base.
Speaker 2: He was battling down there and just winning. Like again,
Speaker 2: this is the thing with basketball, doesn't matter how bad
Speaker 2: of a game you're having, if it's close late, just
Speaker 2: make a play, find a way to make a play,
Speaker 2: do something that will help your team. And Draymond made
Speaker 2: several defensive plays down the stretch of this game, and
Speaker 2: then honestly, on the Houston front there's just too much
Speaker 2: inconsistency in the form of their shot creation. You know,
Speaker 2: shanggun kind of got figured out towards the end of
Speaker 2: the game by the Warriors front line. You Know, Jackson
Speaker 2: and I were talking last night in the mail bag
Speaker 2: about just the inconsistency with Jalen Green. Jackson and I
Speaker 2: talked last night. We were like, if is it more
Speaker 2: likely for Jen to score less than fifteen points tonight
Speaker 2: or is it more likely they'll score more than twenty
Speaker 2: five points? And both Jackson and I said he'd score
Speaker 2: less than fifteen. He had nine points and eleven shots
Speaker 2: in this game. Fred van Vliet hit a couple shots early,
Speaker 2: but went right back to the same inefficient shot maker
Speaker 2: that he was in the first two games of the series.
Speaker 2: They just don't have anything that they can rely on offensively,
Speaker 2: and ultimately that's what's going to get them beaten the series,
Speaker 2: is that if the Warriors give a concerted effort on
Speaker 2: the defensive end of the floor, they're not going to
Speaker 2: be able to score. And over and over and over again,
Speaker 2: they got the stops they needed. The Warriors were able
Speaker 2: to get the stops they needed to pull this game out.
Speaker 2: All right, we're going to talk some Nuggets Clippers for
Speaker 2: a few minutes, and then, like I said, Warriors fans,
Speaker 2: Rockets fans, if you guys have any questions surrounding that series,
Speaker 2: bring them to the mailbag portion here in about ten
Speaker 2: to fifteen minutes. So, after two very close games in Denver,
Speaker 2: it looked like we were going to get back to
Speaker 2: back blowouts. In Los Angeles, the Nuggets completely took troll
Speaker 2: a game. In that third quarter, they outscored the Clippers
Speaker 2: thirty five to seventeen. I thought Jokic was absolutely amazing
Speaker 2: orchestrating things in that stretch. He had sixteen points, eight rebounds,
Speaker 2: and four assists. Just in the third quarter, he got
Speaker 2: Michael Porter Junior going catching James Harden being lazy off
Speaker 2: of him in off ball situations. Just oh, you're sitting
Speaker 2: with your right foot by the lane line. I'm just
Speaker 2: gonna rifle this pass to Michael and he's just gonna
Speaker 2: go up and shoot it. He caught Harden in a
Speaker 2: very sloppy switch where he tried to just like shove
Speaker 2: I can't even remember who it was. I think it
Speaker 2: was Derek Jones, but he tried to like shove one
Speaker 2: of the Clippers other perimmeterive defenders out of Mike wasn't ready.
Speaker 1: Jokics rifled the pass. He knocked it down.
Speaker 2: He had a variety of insane shots, just the shot
Speaker 2: making from Yokich in that stretch. He had this like
Speaker 2: crazy high arching running floater going through the lane off
Speaker 2: of a screening action. A lot of Yokich attacking off
Speaker 2: of off ball screening actions to try to get Zoo
Speaker 2: caught up trying to chase somebody through screens, which is
Speaker 2: something that you don't see Biggs do very often. He
Speaker 2: had a tough movement three running to his right, same
Speaker 2: sort of thing off ball screening action. Just ran up
Speaker 2: to the right, got his feet set quickly knocked it down.
Speaker 2: He had a break rhythm pump fake three out of
Speaker 2: the left corner where he the same sort of thing
Speaker 2: a baseline screening action that got Zuke caught up on it.
Speaker 2: Caught on the corner, clean pump faked guy ran by.
Speaker 2: He was able to just settle into the shot and
Speaker 2: knock it down. He did damage on the offensive glass.
Speaker 2: The passing was insane. He had the speed to uh
Speaker 2: Peyton Watson underneath the basket where he got Ben Simmons
Speaker 2: in a kind of a one on two situation. I
Speaker 2: can't remember who it was in the corner. I think
Speaker 2: it was. I think it was Peyton Watson. No, no, peyt
Speaker 2: Watson was under the basket. And then I think it
Speaker 2: was Michael Porter Junior or somebody else might have been
Speaker 2: Aaron Gordon, somebody in the right corner. And Peyton Watson's
Speaker 2: the real threat, right Like He's a good athlete who's
Speaker 2: got a easy, like vertical spacing window that he can
Speaker 2: just go up and dunk. And Jokic literally just looked
Speaker 2: Ben Simmons off, just looked towards the corner, and Ben
Speaker 2: Simmons lunged the wrong way. Jokics rifled it to Peyton
Speaker 2: Watson and he got a dunk. You could literally feel
Speaker 2: Yokic suck the life out of that arena. The Clippers
Speaker 2: started to miss a lot of easy shots, like clean
Speaker 2: looks for guys like Nick Batoon that just weren't going
Speaker 2: down because you could just feel it in the arena.
Speaker 2: You could feel the momentum slipping away from the Clippers.
Speaker 2: The Nuggets also doubled Kawhi to great effect during that
Speaker 2: third quarter stretch, in large part because Chris Dunn kind
Speaker 2: of had his first really really rough offensive game in
Speaker 2: the series. He made some tough reads on short rolls
Speaker 2: where he just kind of botched advantage situations. He was
Speaker 2: unable to knock down his open catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing. You got to make Chris Dunn
Speaker 2: beat you. And that doesn't mean beat you once, like
Speaker 2: he's gonna beat you once. He had a game in
Speaker 2: the series where he went three for three from three, Like,
Speaker 2: Chris Dunn can beat you, but can he beat you
Speaker 2: four times in two weeks? That's the question. And you
Speaker 2: have to at least force him to do that. And
Speaker 2: they were able to actually kind of play him out
Speaker 2: of the rotation to where Tylu ended up closing with
Speaker 2: bog Don mcdonovitch. But the Clippers really came apart and
Speaker 2: it looked like the Nuggets were gonna get out there
Speaker 2: with a comfortable win. But then the Clippers went on
Speaker 2: a completely insane run of their own to start the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter, really started pushing the pace. You could see
Speaker 2: on the very first possession they just were running up
Speaker 2: the floor to try to get something going. They got
Speaker 2: their pick and roll game going finally with James Harden.
Speaker 2: James Harden just started to bring more energy. A couple
Speaker 2: of Nuggets like Michael Porter Junior and and Nicole Jokicz
Speaker 2: both like really relaxed on defense during that run. And
Speaker 2: you know, it's some one of those things you're up twenty,
Speaker 2: you don't want to you don't want to just blow
Speaker 2: through a ton of energy. But they almost lost control
Speaker 2: of the game during that stretch because it just was
Speaker 2: over and over and over again, James Harden getting into
Speaker 2: the teeth of the defense for layups and kickouts to
Speaker 2: guys for easy shots. Then on defense, the Clippers ran
Speaker 2: a two three zone where they used the opposite guard
Speaker 2: to deny the high post catch, which kind of baited
Speaker 2: the Nuggets into some tough above the break threes. They
Speaker 2: ran five possessions of zone in that fourth quarter and
Speaker 2: got five stops. That was a big part, but really
Speaker 2: it was the ball pressure. They just up their overall
Speaker 2: level of intensity and ball pressure, they forced a bunch
Speaker 2: of turnovers. They turned Denver over five times in the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter, and it was like one of the craziest
Speaker 2: momentum swings you'll ever see, because it just it was
Speaker 2: like stop bucket, stop, bucket, stop bucket. Crowds going absolutely insane.
Speaker 2: They were even able to weather some shots like Jamal
Speaker 2: Murray hits like a tough elbow jumper. Aaron Gordon ends
Speaker 2: up hitting a three above the break like and even
Speaker 2: then it was just but then it'd be like stop bucket, stop, bucket,
Speaker 2: stop bucket, and it just was out of control freight
Speaker 2: train towards the Clippers until the final sequence when Nikola
Speaker 2: Jokic was able to seize back the momentum. So the
Speaker 2: Clippers go up by one towards the end of the game,
Speaker 2: and on the final sequence we get this weird We
Speaker 2: get this weird kind of set of plays where Nikola
Speaker 2: Jokic gets called for an offensive foul and a play
Speaker 2: where he gets gets called for hooking Nikol Jokic's arm. Now,
Speaker 2: my biggest issue with this has just been the total
Speaker 2: inconsistency in the way that this has been called. Like
Speaker 2: I watched James Harden hook a guy like with that
Speaker 2: inside arm on a drive and get three free throws
Speaker 2: out of it early in the series. So like, what's
Speaker 2: the deal, refs, Is it the arm hook is an
Speaker 2: offensive foul? Or is it we give James Harden three
Speaker 2: free throws? Like, let's get some consistency in the way
Speaker 2: that we're calling that. So Jokic loses his mind, gets
Speaker 2: pissed off. They go to the other end after that
Speaker 2: play though, Nuggets up by Nuggets down by one. Jokic,
Speaker 2: I thought this was a genius play on his part.
Speaker 2: Just goes right back to the same damn move, just
Speaker 2: quickly makes a right handed drive against Zoo. This time
Speaker 2: he doesn't hook. He just keeps that arm in and
Speaker 2: tries to blow up that shoulder, kind of snaps his
Speaker 2: head back, gets the call. He's going to get that
Speaker 2: call in that situation after what happened, You just get
Speaker 2: call for an offensive foul. You can plain like crazy.
Speaker 2: There's a psychological element to this sort of thing, And
Speaker 2: I thought that was a genius play by Jokic to
Speaker 2: quick get himself to the free throw line. Smokes the
Speaker 2: first free throw, nearly smokes the second, but it goes
Speaker 2: in ties the game. They go down to the other end,
Speaker 2: the end of the floor, they get a stop. They
Speaker 2: come back the other end. Jokic hits this insane left
Speaker 2: shoulder turnaround jump shot right over Zoo that puts him
Speaker 2: up too.
Speaker 1: Obviously.
Speaker 2: Zubots ties the game on the offensive rebound off of
Speaker 2: the James Harden. James Harden was right at the front
Speaker 2: of the rim and like smoke the layup, but Zoo
Speaker 2: comes in and taps it in and then Aaron Gordon
Speaker 2: wins the game dunking. Kind of a weird sequence from Jokic.
Speaker 2: I didn't love the shot Jokic got there. He kind
Speaker 2: of turned into the Somber shuffle, just sprinting out to
Speaker 2: the right wing. It was a very weird final possession
Speaker 2: from Jokic, but Aaron Gordon the man in the right place.
Speaker 2: James Harden ends up missing a box out. Aaron Gordon
Speaker 2: dunks it and that was as close of a buzzer
Speaker 2: beater as I've ever seen in terms of it being
Speaker 2: released in time like at the buzzer like this, like
Speaker 2: the top third of the ball is above the rim
Speaker 2: and the bottom two thirds of the ball is below
Speaker 2: the rim. I thought it was the right call to
Speaker 2: allow the bucket. But that was about as close as
Speaker 2: it could possibly be. And and man, like what, it's
Speaker 2: impossible to overstate how important that win is for Denver.
Speaker 2: They don't play again until Tuesday. This is a team
Speaker 2: that is beat up. Michael Porter Junior is in rough shape.
Speaker 2: He's he's been dealing with some issue with his feet,
Speaker 2: he's been dealing with an issue with his shoulder.
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 2: Told an NBA reporter that he can barely jump right now.
Speaker 1: Like they're beat up. They need to go home.
Speaker 2: And sleep in their own beds, and they need a
Speaker 2: couple of nights to relax. They need to get their
Speaker 2: legs back underneath them. And so for them to pull
Speaker 2: that game out and to because they were losing by one,
Speaker 2: that could have been an absolute catastrophe heading home down
Speaker 2: three to one. Is this could have been like it
Speaker 2: felt like the entire series was hanging in the balance
Speaker 2: there and now now the Nuggets get to go home,
Speaker 2: get a little bit of rest, home court advantage the
Speaker 2: rest of the series. They just have to win two
Speaker 2: out of three, much much stronger position for Denver to
Speaker 2: be in after that incredibly insane finished, another clutch win
Speaker 2: for Denver two shouldn't have been clutch, should have been
Speaker 2: more of a comfortable win. But I still trust Joks
Speaker 2: more than I trust and James Harden in a close
Speaker 2: game late. I didn't like some of the shots that
Speaker 2: Kawhi got late in the game. He took a he
Speaker 2: had Jamal Murray on a right wing ISO late where
Speaker 2: I thought he could have worked more towards the elbow
Speaker 2: to try to get like a right shoulder or left
Speaker 2: shoulder fade away that's more of like a fifty percent
Speaker 2: shot for Kawhi. He ended up taking a pretty tough
Speaker 2: off the dribble three that I didn't particularly like, like
Speaker 2: the in crunch time. I do trust Jokic more obviously
Speaker 2: game two, notwithstanding when they ended up making their mistakes.
Speaker 2: But it's just a reminder that these series are decided
Speaker 2: by the tiniest of margins. That game could have literally
Speaker 2: gone either way, and now now the Denver's in a
Speaker 2: much much more commanding position they lose that game, Clippers
Speaker 2: are going to win the series. Denver wins that game,
Speaker 2: now it feels much closer to that fifty to fifty
Speaker 2: kind of spot that we were in after Game one,
Speaker 2: and that's kind of where I feel at this point.
Speaker 2: I'm still feeling like this series is very much a
Speaker 2: coin flip. But LA had a chance to close it
Speaker 2: there and it just couldn't close the deal. Some clip
Speaker 2: notes James Harden's overall level of intensity and focus was
Speaker 2: just off for the first three quarters. Didn't really bring
Speaker 2: aggressiveness or decisiveness and pick and roll until the fourth quarter,
Speaker 2: which I thought hurt the team. His off ball defense
Speaker 2: has been bad all series, but it was especially bad Tonight.
Speaker 2: Made several mistakes during Denver's third quarter run. I talked
Speaker 2: about Kawhi needing to be able to operate a little
Speaker 2: bit closer to the rim towards the end of games.
Speaker 2: This is it almost feels to me watching that Kawhi
Speaker 2: is a little afraid at double teams at the end,
Speaker 2: and he knows that if he works into the mid
Speaker 2: to short range, he knows he's going to get attacked
Speaker 2: and he's going to have to use his passing ability,
Speaker 2: And it almost I've seen this dating back even to
Speaker 2: the Warriors game on Sunday right before the play in tournament. Like,
Speaker 2: Kawhi is seems to be more comfortable at the end
Speaker 2: of games, settling for further jump shots to try to
Speaker 2: avoid double teams, and he just needs to embrace that.
Speaker 2: He needs to embrace set it up ty Lou needs
Speaker 2: to set up the spacing a certain way that makes
Speaker 2: Kawhi's passing reads easy so that he doesn't have to
Speaker 2: stress about it, but needs to operate closer to the
Speaker 2: basket at the end of games and the hard and
Speaker 2: pick and roll is still their best action. It just
Speaker 2: depends on James Harden bring in the necessary pop and
Speaker 2: as we know, James Harden is known for having that
Speaker 2: type of game like, oh, massively important a game, opportunity
Speaker 2: to take complete and total control of the series, and
Speaker 2: James Harden just half asleep for three quarters of the game,
Speaker 2: which we've seen over the years, like the like it
Speaker 2: you know there, we go to that back to that
Speaker 2: Spur series and there's the concussion that people point to,
Speaker 2: but there are just so many different examples throughout his career.
Speaker 2: We're like massive important game and just the energy and
Speaker 2: competitiveness isn't there the way that it needs to be.
Speaker 2: And that's one of the main reasons why, like, you know,
Speaker 2: this Clippers team, they're very very good. I ended up
Speaker 2: putting them fifth in my contender rankings before the postseason started,
Speaker 2: but I had them below that top tier. And the
Speaker 2: main reason why is just there there's the aggregate playmaking
Speaker 2: talent piece that I've talked about a lot, but there's
Speaker 2: just so many wild cards. It's like, are you going
Speaker 2: to get a focused, intense, hardened are you gonna get
Speaker 2: kind of like a sleepy Harden? Right, Like Kawhi has
Speaker 2: even had an up and down nature to his game
Speaker 2: over the course of the tail end of the season.
Speaker 2: It just I don't feel like I can count on
Speaker 2: the Clippers to be the best version of themselves night tonight,
Speaker 2: and I don't think they have enough margin for error
Speaker 2: to make up for that sort of thing, which just
Speaker 2: kept me just a little bit lower on the Clippers
Speaker 2: than many of my peers that cover the league. Are
Speaker 2: all right, let's bring Jackson up here and let's take
Speaker 2: some questions.
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
Speaker 3: Let's do it.
Speaker 4: We got a lot of questions about you know this
Speaker 4: Warriors Rockets game. Naturally, first question, you said Steph's this
Speaker 4: was written wrong.
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 4: STEP's Game one performance was one of his better playoff
Speaker 4: games because of what he was facing in the supporting cast.
Speaker 4: How does today's game.
Speaker 2: Compare the Steph didn't have as crazy of a shot
Speaker 2: making game tonight. I didn't think in terms of like
Speaker 2: that that Game one he hit four or five of
Speaker 2: some of the you know, top tier tough shots that
Speaker 2: he's hit in his career. Also, that Game one feel
Speaker 2: too like you never know what you're gonna get in
Speaker 2: terms of the defensive level of intensity, what the whistle
Speaker 2: is going to be like. I don't think it quite
Speaker 2: rises to Game one, but I did think that that
Speaker 2: was a classic and fantastic Steph Curry performance.
Speaker 4: Percent next question that we're getting a lot of from
Speaker 4: this game is is this.
Speaker 5: The end of the Jonathan Kaminga experiment.
Speaker 4: If it's not the end, what are your not If
Speaker 4: not the true true end, you know, what are your
Speaker 4: thoughts on Kaminga sort of generally on.
Speaker 5: The team as well as specifically in the rest of
Speaker 5: this series.
Speaker 2: Well, Tonight was the latest example in a very very
Speaker 2: long line of examples that Jonathan Kaminga has some potential
Speaker 2: as a one on one player, but in dead serious
Speaker 2: basketball games, he's not good enough at it to be
Speaker 2: able to really give him a lot of leeway to
Speaker 2: try to drive that part of his game, and you know,
Speaker 2: in the big picture, it's tough because there are the
Speaker 2: realities of Jonathan Kaminga being at a point in his
Speaker 2: career where a franchise needs to invest than him, and
Speaker 2: it's just tough to make that sort of decision when
Speaker 2: the development at this point at his age hasn't really
Speaker 2: come to fruition. And again, on this team, you can
Speaker 2: crack into the rotation earlier and more solidly as a
Speaker 2: reliable read and react player who also plays defense soundly
Speaker 2: both on the ball and off the ball. Then you
Speaker 2: can crack into this rotation as an on ball player.
Speaker 2: If you're going to crack into this rotation as an
Speaker 2: on ball player, you got to be really, really efficient
Speaker 2: because you're not going to run a lot of on
Speaker 2: ball sequences alongside Steph Curry. Alongside Steph Curry, the majority
Speaker 2: of the work you do is going to be operating
Speaker 2: in his ecosystem. And so Jimmy Butler has shown a
Speaker 2: wonderful ability to kind of shape shift between connective attacker, playmaker,
Speaker 2: rim pressure guy, but also be able to command a
Speaker 2: unit for these very short stretches, like here's a three
Speaker 2: minute stretch where we're going to give you the ball
Speaker 2: a bunch of times. But right now, Jonathan Kaminge is
Speaker 2: just not good enough at it to be able to
Speaker 2: justify that kind of role on a dead series team.
Speaker 2: And so here's the thing. He might be twenty six
Speaker 2: before he's ready for that role. So if he's twenty
Speaker 2: six before he's ready for that role, there are some
Speaker 2: realities about him being effectively useless on this team relative
Speaker 2: to what he could be somewhere else. And so I've
Speaker 2: been saying this since the trade deadline, this is he
Speaker 2: just needs to be it's in the best interest for
Speaker 2: all parties involved to send him somewhere else this summer.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 4: I mean, I feel like there was a period of
Speaker 4: a year or two there where it felt like maybe
Speaker 4: Steph Curry didn't have the championship ceiling that we thought
Speaker 4: he might have run out of that from a gas
Speaker 4: at an age standpoint, and it was like, well, maybe.
Speaker 1: We need to keep him in around.
Speaker 4: But now that it feels pretty clear that at least
Speaker 4: for another year or two years or three years, but
Speaker 4: at least another year or two, Steph Curry is capable
Speaker 4: of being the best player on the championship team. You
Speaker 4: gotta what's the point on Jonathan Kiming on this roster.
Speaker 2: There was a bunch of buzz last year in the
Speaker 2: middle of the season before the trade deadline, where some
Speaker 2: Warriors fans would say things to me like like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, the Clippers traded away Shake kildor Alexander and
Speaker 2: look like I I Jackson and I were talking last night.
Speaker 2: We find I find the Jalen green John, the Kaminga
Speaker 2: type of athlete to be tantalizing in a lot of
Speaker 2: ways because of just how physical these games get and
Speaker 2: the ability to get to your spots is a real
Speaker 2: asset in in super physical basketball. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: like we can also admit even though Kaminga has potential,
Speaker 2: like I think he has potential to enter into that
Speaker 2: like somewhere between the twenty fifth to thirty fifth best
Speaker 2: player in the league by the time he's in his
Speaker 2: late twenties. I really do think he has that potential,
Speaker 2: like a guy who could like make an All Star
Speaker 2: team one day, maybe one you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Here's what he's not Shake Kills with Alexander. So like
Speaker 2: let's just let's take that and set it aside. You're
Speaker 2: not giving away the future here. So even to your point, Jackson,
Speaker 2: I talked about this at the time, like like I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: but like I like, I like a lot of these
Speaker 2: young players Pajemski and Kaminga and Moody are not competing
Speaker 2: in the Western conferen It's that that team's not good enough.
Speaker 2: You're you are going to rebuild when this is all
Speaker 2: said and done, except that reality and act accordingly.
Speaker 4: Next question, If Jimmy is a fifty to fifty call
Speaker 4: by Monday, which you know, the reporting tonight was that
Speaker 4: he had a lot more swelling than maybe they expected.
Speaker 4: He was struggling to move, which is why it wasn't
Speaker 4: just a pain tolerance thing going against tonight. If he's
Speaker 4: a fifty to fifty call on Monday, the tonight's result
Speaker 4: impact Golden State's decision to play him next game? Well,
Speaker 4: should they're this result impact it?
Speaker 2: I think that if Jimmy's in a position where he
Speaker 2: genuinely feels like another couple of days off could be
Speaker 2: very good for his Actually, Jackson, can you do me
Speaker 2: a favor while I'm saying this and just look up
Speaker 2: how many days are off? I think they play Monday night, right,
Speaker 2: so they.
Speaker 4: Get one day play Monday after they play wednes so
Speaker 4: they do go every other day for the rest of
Speaker 4: the series, going every other Yeah, they're playing Wednesday back
Speaker 4: in Houston.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that is a pretty quick turnaround.
Speaker 2: But like, if you could somehow get away with sitting
Speaker 2: him on Monday, you give him an additional all day Sunday,
Speaker 2: all day Monday, all day Tuesday, most of the day
Speaker 2: Wednesday to rest before he.
Speaker 1: Has to play again.
Speaker 2: And in theory, I feel like Jimmy and Stephen Draymond
Speaker 2: with a mobile, Jimmy can go into Houston and win
Speaker 2: a game five if needed, if it was two to two,
Speaker 2: and then close the series out in six. So like,
Speaker 2: if Jimmy's not feeling like he can be a real
Speaker 2: asset on Monday, I would sit in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a tough call.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's so hard to say without knowing how
Speaker 5: bad it actually is.
Speaker 4: But it's gonna be an interesting decision. Next question, this
Speaker 4: is sort of a hard one to answer, sort of
Speaker 4: the off the cuff.
Speaker 5: But is Draymond Green the most clutch.
Speaker 4: Defensive player of all time? It does feel like he
Speaker 4: gets a lot of big stops late. I can think
Speaker 4: of a bunch off the top of my head.
Speaker 2: These Yeah, So to the to the question the when
Speaker 2: we talked about this a little bit last night, like
Speaker 2: it's really hard to do an all time list right
Speaker 2: off the cup of the cup, so that that might
Speaker 2: be more of like a long for mail bag for
Speaker 2: the summertime. But uh I, Draymond in general is a
Speaker 2: wonderful clutch defender because of the physicality. You know, the
Speaker 2: playoffs are always physical, but they get exceptionally physical when
Speaker 2: you get into the late game situations and like they
Speaker 2: even you know they're they're they You'll even see that
Speaker 2: in the uh in that last layup that Shangun missed,
Speaker 2: Like Draymond fouled him on that play. But like that's
Speaker 2: the thing, Like there's fouls all over the court, and
Speaker 2: like in a game where fouls are allowed to a
Speaker 2: certain point, Draymond is like one of the like and
Speaker 2: even just in a vacuum take away clutch defense, take
Speaker 2: away any of the details that we're specifically referencing, just
Speaker 2: Draymond is the most gifted legal fouler I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: Like this dude in regular season games in February will
Speaker 2: come out and he's gonna find a way in the
Speaker 2: early part portion of the first quarter to kind of
Speaker 2: like probe the extent of what the refs will allow,
Speaker 2: and he kind of like finds that barrier and then
Speaker 2: he operates within that barrier, and like he's just he's
Speaker 2: just so smart and he's so the physical strength element
Speaker 2: to me is so like I got into this argument
Speaker 2: with the guys from the U and I should say,
Speaker 2: a discussion with the guys from Basketball Illuminati. So like
Speaker 2: I'm in and Tom Haberstrow and we were discussing the
Speaker 2: defensive Player of the Year debate, and like I was
Speaker 2: trying to emphasize him. Like the big reason why I
Speaker 2: think Draymond's a better defender than Evan Mobley is like
Speaker 2: Evan Mobley can win a lot of battles in the
Speaker 2: air as like a shot blocker and is like a
Speaker 2: guy in rotation.
Speaker 1: But I have.
Speaker 2: Always been more drawn to the shorter, stockier defenders because
Speaker 2: I think winning battles on the ground is actually the
Speaker 2: most important part of basketball. And Draymond just does a
Speaker 2: wonderful job of disrupting your base and keeping you off
Speaker 2: balance and bringing the appropriate physicality using gamesmanship to is
Speaker 2: to his effect to like to positive effect manipulating the refs,
Speaker 2: like like like Draymond knows that he can get away
Speaker 2: with enough for a certain like that the play where
Speaker 2: he ran up on the ref after he clearly didn't
Speaker 2: get fouled, which was hilarious. He that's like it's part
Speaker 2: of his gamesman ship, if it's part of how he
Speaker 2: gets away with stuff, And like, I just think he's
Speaker 2: I just think he's the best defender I've watched in
Speaker 2: this era.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think the clutch thing, I mean, I
Speaker 5: think most of.
Speaker 4: The time, but on offense as well. The best clutch
Speaker 4: players are usually just the best players, and the things
Speaker 4: get everything just gets heightened and more challenging in the
Speaker 4: biggest moments. So it requires the best players to be
Speaker 4: able to succeed in those moments.
Speaker 3: But so because of that, Dre's unbelievable blend, like singularly
Speaker 3: unique blend of physical strength on that stocky aspect that
Speaker 3: you're describing, incredibly long wingspan and incredibly high IQ just
Speaker 3: makes him so hard to score on.
Speaker 1: At the end of games.
Speaker 4: And it allows him to cover up for mistakes he's made,
Speaker 4: cover up for mistakes other people have made. It's crazy,
Speaker 4: like all the stops he's gotten off the top of
Speaker 4: my head that I can think of. Got the big
Speaker 4: regular season stop against Kevin Durant, he got that block
Speaker 4: against Daniel Gafford in the playoffs against the Mavericks. He's
Speaker 4: getting these all and they're all different types of stops.
Speaker 4: He's able to do so many different types of things defensively.
Speaker 4: That's it's really challenging. I would just it's hard to
Speaker 4: imagine going at him.
Speaker 2: That point you made about how the best clutch players
Speaker 2: are just the best players.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: I'm stealing that. That's fantastic stuff right there, exactly, like
Speaker 2: they're just.
Speaker 1: The best players.
Speaker 4: Speaking of the best players, where does Steph Curry rank?
Speaker 4: And the best players in the world are ranking right now?
Speaker 4: Because according to this comment or nobody's playing better than
Speaker 4: him right now. I think the important context of the
Speaker 4: question we should attack here is not on an eighty
Speaker 4: two game regular season basis.
Speaker 1: No one is going to argue he's better than the
Speaker 1: Gianness on.
Speaker 4: Their eighty two game basis, right, But for four playoff
Speaker 4: series that you have to win, where would he Where
Speaker 4: would he sort of fall in that pecking order?
Speaker 2: I don't think he's playing better than everyone right now.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of guys playing really good basketball
Speaker 2: right now, But I do think Steph is operating at
Speaker 2: that tier. Like I mean, Giannis is averaging thirty six
Speaker 2: points a game right now, Like Jalen Brunson is averaging
Speaker 2: thirty four points a game right now and has like
Speaker 2: executed the pistons in the clutch over and over and
Speaker 2: over again. Like there are a lot like Nikola Jokic
Speaker 2: was playing at an insanely high level tonight, Chagos Alexander
Speaker 2: just like eviscerated the Grizzlies today, Like there's a lot
Speaker 2: of guys playing at a really high level right now.
Speaker 2: I just think Steph is operating at that tier, which
Speaker 2: is the key. Like you don't need Steph to be
Speaker 2: the best player in the world, You just need him
Speaker 2: to be able to go toe to toe with the
Speaker 2: best players in the world. That is what it will
Speaker 2: allow Golden State's number one ranks defense, post All Star break,
Speaker 2: and the overall IQ advantage and the coaching advantage and
Speaker 2: like Jimmy Butler's playoff upside, and that's what allows all
Speaker 2: of that to operate. And like the it's been abundantly
Speaker 2: clear to me pretty much since the all since the
Speaker 2: Jimmy trade, that Steph has had that top tier superstar
Speaker 2: ceiling still. And that's the key, Like, and there's a difference,
Speaker 2: Like there are guys in the league, like Lebron, for instance,
Speaker 2: is a guy that like on any one given night
Speaker 2: in the in the in this playoff run, can reach
Speaker 2: that level. He reached that level last night, but like
Speaker 2: he wasn't at that level in Game one for example, right,
Speaker 2: and you know, had a great defensive game too, but
Speaker 2: wasn't able to really assert himself offensively in Game two.
Speaker 2: And like the thing is is like Steph is night
Speaker 2: in and night out right now providing the superstar offensive
Speaker 2: upside that this team needs to reach their ceiling, which
Speaker 2: is really all you can ask from him. But like,
Speaker 2: as far as like actually officially ranking these guys, like
Speaker 2: I just want everyone to know, like we that is
Speaker 2: what we do in the summertime, and we take it
Speaker 2: very seriously. We will do extensive detailed rankings of where
Speaker 2: these guys rank in the league after what they've done
Speaker 2: this season, What I would you know rank them going
Speaker 2: into next season. Here's the thing, it's been what four
Speaker 2: playoff games or three playoff games for Steph for for
Speaker 2: a couple of these guys. It's hard to really like
Speaker 2: parse them out ranking wise until we have a larger sample.
Speaker 4: Next question, as you sort of alluded to in the
Speaker 4: interacter to the last one, does this win say more
Speaker 4: about Golden State and their championship ceiling being able to
Speaker 4: win without jim Me or is it more about the
Speaker 4: Rockets just not being on their level?
Speaker 2: Tonight was championship pedigree. Tonight was we need to get
Speaker 2: this win against this team under these circumstances. I don't
Speaker 2: think it's even like a style necessarily that the Warriors
Speaker 2: will play in future games when they're healthy and put together. Like,
Speaker 2: you're not going to see that much Quentin Post, You're
Speaker 2: not going to see that much of Buddy Heel, You're
Speaker 2: not going to see that much of Jonathan comminga That
Speaker 2: was just like, that's just championship pedigree, just getting through
Speaker 2: a tough circumstance in a series. I have been pretty
Speaker 2: consistent about how I feel about Houston throughout the entire season.
Speaker 2: I viewed them as a non threat to upset the
Speaker 2: Warriors in this series. Like I like I I was,
Speaker 2: like I told you, Jackson in a mailbag one of
Speaker 2: these last few nights that I thought they'd go to
Speaker 2: in two and zero in Golden State, even without Jimmy.
Speaker 2: So like, to me, this entire series is more about
Speaker 2: surviving the Rockets. In next round when they face either
Speaker 2: Minnesota or LA, it's gonna be a better indicator for
Speaker 2: us of where they're at in relation to their championship ceiling.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think winning games like this is sort of
Speaker 4: like in the regular season, most championship teams beat up
Speaker 4: on the bad teams. They don't just beat them by
Speaker 4: a little bit, right, Like, it's an indicator of high,
Speaker 4: high level basketball, but it's not necessarily an actionable thing
Speaker 4: you can take and say this type of game means
Speaker 4: they're going to win the bigger ones. It's a good
Speaker 4: piece of evidence, but it's not necessarily predictive.
Speaker 2: Totally totally agree, And that's the thing, like we need
Speaker 2: to see where like both LA and Minnesota present very
Speaker 2: different types of challenges to the Warriors, and so in
Speaker 2: that round we are going to get a better look
Speaker 2: at them. Again, Like, let me just put it this way.
Speaker 2: When I ranked my championship contenders, I didn't even put
Speaker 2: Rockets in the top ten like I didn't even have
Speaker 2: them on that list. So like Minnesota and LA are
Speaker 2: both legitimate second tier championship contenders, So like that is
Speaker 2: going to be a much better indicator. Like if Golden
Speaker 2: State smokes one of the teams coming out of that
Speaker 2: that series, that would be to me, like the holy shit,
Speaker 2: they've got a real chance to get this done type
Speaker 2: of series for sure.
Speaker 5: Let's say a couple more questions.
Speaker 4: First, I wasn't really going to ask this question, but
Speaker 4: since we are on the topic, you know, I'm not
Speaker 4: trying to jinx anything. If the Warriors are making able
Speaker 4: to make it past this series, we had quite a
Speaker 4: few questions about who would be the better matchup, easier
Speaker 4: matchup for them in the second round, the Lakers or
Speaker 4: the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2: This is a really good question. I think Minnesota's I
Speaker 2: think excuse me, I think Golden State's defense.
Speaker 1: And you and I talked about this the earlier in
Speaker 1: the series.
Speaker 2: I think Golden State's defense because of Draymond, because they're
Speaker 2: just a little bit faster, They're a faster team. I
Speaker 2: think Golden State's defense would be able to do a
Speaker 2: lot more damage to Minnesota's offense than this Laker defense
Speaker 2: can do. Like, the Lakers defense is very much a smart, positional,
Speaker 2: connected group. Since December eighth, which is a fifty nine
Speaker 2: game sample, the Lakers are ninth in defensive rating. They're
Speaker 2: a good defense, but they're not a great defense. They're
Speaker 2: just a good defense, and they specifically are a defense
Speaker 2: that depends on IQ and a forty year old anchoring
Speaker 2: everything for them on the back line. So like, there
Speaker 2: are obvious times where you can see them just completely
Speaker 2: overwhelmed by Minnesota's athleticism, like Jada McDaniels last night, just
Speaker 2: over and over again getting into the teeth of their defense.
Speaker 2: At the end of the game, they're complete inability to
Speaker 2: hang with Anthony Edwards. So like, there's no doubt that
Speaker 2: Golden State, just athletically is more set up to grind
Speaker 2: Minnesota's offense down into the mudd. And that's what's crazy, is, like, guys,
Speaker 2: the Lakers, I just emphasized all these details about how
Speaker 2: their defense is not as good as Golden State. The
Speaker 2: Lakers are having more luck stopping the Wolves right now
Speaker 2: then the Celtics are having stopping the Magic. So everything
Speaker 2: I just said, still, Theakers are doing a better job,
Speaker 2: Like still the Lakers are able to stop that Minnesota
Speaker 2: Timberwolves offense, but that's in reference to half court offense,
Speaker 2: by the way, per cleaning the glass. But the point
Speaker 2: I'm trying to make is I think Golden State could
Speaker 2: do some real damage to that Minnesota offense. Like I
Speaker 2: think I think they could. I think they could win
Speaker 2: that get that series with their defense in a similar
Speaker 2: manner to what they do against Houston. But I think
Speaker 2: the Laker offense can present some issues to them with
Speaker 2: perimeter size. So it's man, it's really tough, Jackson. I
Speaker 2: I think that Golden State would have a better chance
Speaker 2: of beating Minnesota.
Speaker 1: What do you think?
Speaker 5: I don't know. It's a very tough point, so different.
Speaker 5: I my gut was they'd have a better.
Speaker 4: Chance of being the Lakers thinking on the thought process
Speaker 4: of being The Timberwolves present a lot of similar challenges
Speaker 4: to the Rockets in terms of size, athleticism, but they
Speaker 4: have an actual go to scorer on the offensive, an
Speaker 4: actual offense. They have multiple scorers who are better than
Speaker 4: you know the Rockets have. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it could go either way.
Speaker 2: That's tough, now that you put it that way, I
Speaker 2: do think I'd would rather play LA but it's close.
Speaker 4: To have this size and athleticism thing. But they're also
Speaker 4: not as good of a defense statistically, as you.
Speaker 1: Say, yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 2: That's it's really tough. Also, like the the the Shane
Speaker 2: Goon problem, like the Rockets offenses looked its best when
Speaker 2: they go through Shangoon, as you know, and the Minnesota
Speaker 2: like the Shane Gun's.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, Shanguon is.
Speaker 2: A better offensive player than Julius Randalls, so like I
Speaker 2: think he could cause more problems there. Here's the other
Speaker 2: thing too, Like I I think the I think the
Speaker 2: Lakers are gonna win tomorrow. I could be wrong about
Speaker 2: that and everyone could take another victory lap on me.
Speaker 1: We'll see.
Speaker 2: I think the Lakers are gonna win tomorrow, Like I mean,
Speaker 2: they played like absolute shit in the two losses. Like
Speaker 2: they played like absolute shit. And if if we've learned
Speaker 2: anything from Clippers Nuggets, it doesn't matter if you're up
Speaker 2: to one, it's check ball. You gotta beat us again.
Speaker 2: And so like I I do think that this. I
Speaker 2: think that series is still I have it like fifty
Speaker 2: five forty five in favor of Minnesota. Like I think
Speaker 2: Minnesota is a slight favorite for me in the Jason Sportsbook,
Speaker 2: That's where I have it. But like I man, I think,
Speaker 2: I think the point you made about Houston's physicality plus
Speaker 2: a better offense would make them a slightly more dangerous
Speaker 2: team to Golden.
Speaker 1: State than the Lakers speed.
Speaker 2: So I guess I'm saying Lakers fans or Warriors fan
Speaker 2: should be rooting for the Lakers to come back and win.
Speaker 1: Come over to the dark.
Speaker 5: You're tempting, You're tempting the YouTube chat with the I
Speaker 5: think the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Are gonna win tomorrow. Let's take one more question.
Speaker 5: And then cause for the night. If Joker continues to
Speaker 5: show this is.
Speaker 4: Just the commenter's words, not mine.
Speaker 1: If the joke.
Speaker 4: If Joker continues to show that he's the actual head
Speaker 4: coach of the Nuggets, so obviously like in the game tonight,
Speaker 4: parentheses Jokick was calling in subs for context. Does that
Speaker 4: mean that is that a bad sign for David Adaman's
Speaker 4: future as the head coach?
Speaker 2: There no guys like you, don't think Steve Kerr sits
Speaker 2: down with Steph and Draymond sometimes and ask them their
Speaker 2: opinion or that Draymond is never Steph has ever run
Speaker 2: over to Steve and been like get him out of
Speaker 2: the fucking game. Like like, guys, like, that's just if
Speaker 2: you're a if it news flash. It just because your
Speaker 2: coach doesn't mean you know everything. Players are also very
Speaker 2: very smart, and every smart person that I know, every
Speaker 2: like smart, humble, like you know, kind of like well
Speaker 2: grounded person I know leans on other smart people to
Speaker 2: try to to try to answer problems. It's not I'm
Speaker 2: the coach, you shut up. I solve all the problems.
Speaker 2: Like Yo, Kitch is a basketball genius. I would recommend
Speaker 2: talking to him as much as possible. Let's call it there,
Speaker 2: all right, That's all we have for tonight, guys. Is
Speaker 2: always we sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and
Speaker 2: supporting the show. I'm gonna do a quick film breakdown
Speaker 2: that should be up in the morning that is going
Speaker 2: to cover just like some details from the two games,
Speaker 2: might hit, some shake kills Alexander stuff in there too,
Speaker 2: So keep an eye on the feed tomorrow morning for
Speaker 2: some film. And then we have four two one series tomorrow,
Speaker 2: So tomorrow is gonna be an old fashioned show like
Speaker 2: last weekend. We're we have to hit four games at
Speaker 2: the same time, so be ready live on YouTube after
Speaker 2: the final buzzer of Pacers Bucks tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys then. What's up guys?
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 2: OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 2: if you guys would take a second.
Speaker 1: And leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 2: you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
Speaker 1: The volume