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