Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume.
Speaker 1: Happy Tuesday again, everybody help All of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great week so far. Don't forget if you
Speaker 1: missed it earlier, we broke down the Sixers Celtics game
Speaker 1: and Joel Embiid running away with the MVP Award. You
Speaker 1: can find that video a little bit further back on
Speaker 1: our YouTube feed. Tonight, we're gonna be breaking down the
Speaker 1: Lakers and a chaotic win in overtime over the Utah
Speaker 1: Jazz with a Lebron James game winner in the final minute.
Speaker 1: And then the Golden State Warriors, after a disaster class
Speaker 1: in the first half defensively, put together a masterclass in
Speaker 1: the second half defensively to notch a much needed win
Speaker 1: over the Oklahoma City Thunder. We're gonna be breaking down
Speaker 1: those two games. You guys know the drill before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribed to the Volumes YouTube channel so you
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Speaker 1: Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss
Speaker 1: any show. Announce spins and for whatever reason, you guys
Speaker 1: miss one of these shows and you can't get back
Speaker 1: over to YouTube to finish. Don't forget. You can find
Speaker 1: them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So this is a really weird
Speaker 1: game for the Lakers on a bunch of different levels.
Speaker 1: First of all, it's the last game of a long
Speaker 1: road trip. This is just a reality of basketball. When
Speaker 1: you're away from your family for a long time and
Speaker 1: you've got a flight home that evening, it's just really
Speaker 1: hard to get focused on the game at hand when
Speaker 1: you're really just thinking about getting on the team plane
Speaker 1: and going home to see your wife and to see
Speaker 1: your kids and stuff. Like the Lakers broadcast was actually
Speaker 1: directly saying this during the game. They're like, oh, the
Speaker 1: Lakers are clearly thinking about the team plane, and they
Speaker 1: did just about everything they needed to do to get there.
Speaker 1: They were up ten when a minute and forty five
Speaker 1: seconds left, but then then they ended up blowing it
Speaker 1: and sending it to ot. But it was a weird game.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Utah Jazz again, they're not very talented.
Speaker 1: That's just a reality. Kelly Olinok was the only starter
Speaker 1: from the season opener against the Denver Nuggets who actually
Speaker 1: played in this game. So you've got to remember that
Speaker 1: even though they like even though they are well coached
Speaker 1: and they play hard, and they got athleticism, and they've
Speaker 1: got little matchup things that can cause you problems. Pick
Speaker 1: and pop bigs have caused the Lakers problems throughout this
Speaker 1: entire season just because of the way Darvin Haam likes
Speaker 1: to keep Anthony Davis around the rim. There were matchup
Speaker 1: things there, But the reality is is that there's just
Speaker 1: it's the Utah Jazz missing a bunch of guys, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be hard to get your team fired up
Speaker 1: for even in a must win situation on the last
Speaker 1: game of a road trip against a team like the
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz. So they ended up in a little bit
Speaker 1: of trouble. But I'm honestly impressed by the way the
Speaker 1: Lakers regained control in the overtime period because it was
Speaker 1: it was a disaster. They blew the ten point lead
Speaker 1: going into ot. Then on the jump ball, they lose
Speaker 1: track of Kelly Olinik. He steals the tip, ends up
Speaker 1: running down the other way and getting an and one,
Speaker 1: and suddenly it's one twenty seven, one twenty four, and
Speaker 1: the Utah crowd is just crazy and it just feels
Speaker 1: like things have gone off the tracks, but they regained control.
Speaker 1: Lebron James goes down it hits the three and ties
Speaker 1: the game. Anthony Davis had kind of a rough a
Speaker 1: rough end of that game from an offensive perspective with
Speaker 1: his jump shot and scoring around the rim. He also
Speaker 1: missed two free throws, but he just what I always say,
Speaker 1: when your skill stuff isn't working, find a way to
Speaker 1: impact the game with your athleticism. There was a pivotal
Speaker 1: play at the end of this game or an OT
Speaker 1: where Lebron missed a little jump shot from the left elbow.
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis came flying in for the offensive rebound and
Speaker 1: hit Lebron James cutting down the lane. He tried to
Speaker 1: dunk on Kelly Olnik and got rim stuff, but he
Speaker 1: got the foul. Then Lebron made both free throws. That
Speaker 1: was actually a lead changing play at the end of OT.
Speaker 1: So Anthony Davis, again just with his athleticism, found a
Speaker 1: way to make a play that impacted the game. And
Speaker 1: then I will say, down the entire fourth quarter in overtime,
Speaker 1: with all the disaster going on for the Lakers defensively,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis was phenomenal at the rim, deterring shots and
Speaker 1: blocking shots. But then like Austin Reeves had a big play.
Speaker 1: It was one twenty eight. I think it was Kelly
Speaker 1: Olinok had a picking pop three to put them up
Speaker 1: by three. I think it was one thirty two to
Speaker 1: one twenty nine if I remember correctly. And again crowd
Speaker 1: going crazy. Only a couple of minutes left, and Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves just goes down the left side of the floor,
Speaker 1: catches a quick ball screen, goes to the elbow and
Speaker 1: knocks down like a seventeen foot jump shot early in
Speaker 1: the shot clock. How many guys have the confidence with
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis on the floor in ot
Speaker 1: of a must win game that early in the shot
Speaker 1: clock to rise up and knock down a shot. I
Speaker 1: thought that was a great indicator of Austin's overall confidence,
Speaker 1: and I think that bodes well for him potentially thriving
Speaker 1: under the playoff stage. In the playoff lights, he had
Speaker 1: twenty eight points on thirteen shots in this game and
Speaker 1: was a plus ten. And then at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, despite what I thought was a tricky decision
Speaker 1: from Darvin Ham subbing Jared Vanderbilt, in cold off the
Speaker 1: bench to guard Taylor Horton Tucker again. Dennis Schroder had
Speaker 1: Taylor Horton Tucker locked up, and to me, it was
Speaker 1: an example of overcoaching, like he's thinking, oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take Austin out and I'm gonna put Jared Vanderbilt in,
Speaker 1: so it's a better defensive lineup. But then he also
Speaker 1: put Jared Vanderbilt on the ball on Taylor, even though
Speaker 1: he was obviously going to be the guy to go
Speaker 1: to work. Then here's the thing. When you're sitting on
Speaker 1: the bench for what probably was about fifteen minutes of
Speaker 1: real time, you're gonna get cold. And he stepped out
Speaker 1: on the floor and he wasn't moving as well as
Speaker 1: he was earlier in the game, and he immediately got
Speaker 1: dusted to the basket and they ended up having to foul.
Speaker 1: Taylor goes one for two from the line, and then
Speaker 1: Lebron James, after getting a great look at the end
Speaker 1: of regulation and smoking a left handed layup, goes right
Speaker 1: back at O'Shea Baji with a nasty spin move and
Speaker 1: then jumps into Damian Jones's chest and gets that right
Speaker 1: arm out there and makes the layup. This time it
Speaker 1: was a big play in a couple of different levels.
Speaker 1: Not only did he give the Lakers the lead, but
Speaker 1: he gave the Lakers the lead with like twenty eight
Speaker 1: seconds on the shot clocks, So the Utah Jazz, even
Speaker 1: if they score or there was a guarantee that the
Speaker 1: Lakers would have a chance to win the game. At
Speaker 1: the end, there's a big time, quick, smart move from
Speaker 1: Lebron James and then Dennis Schroeder matched up back with
Speaker 1: Taylor Horton Tucker where he belonged on the previous possession,
Speaker 1: forced him into an extremely difficult one legged fade away
Speaker 1: off the left elbow that he missed, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: ended up winning. So all of that chaos, all of
Speaker 1: that nastiness and ends up in the Lakers getting the
Speaker 1: win that we expected at the beginning of the night.
Speaker 1: You know, the glass half empty way to look at
Speaker 1: it is, man, you had to waste all that energy
Speaker 1: getting the win. Like there's no doubt that the Lakers
Speaker 1: were playing down to their competition. Anybody who watches that
Speaker 1: game would feel that way. But it's unfortunate when you
Speaker 1: have to spend thirty eight minutes from Lebron in forty
Speaker 1: two minutes from Anthony Davis on the front end of
Speaker 1: a back to back. So that's like the glass half
Speaker 1: empty way of looking at it. But I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: optimistic and I'm gonna say, hey, you got a big
Speaker 1: Lebron moment. I think he finished with like thirty seven
Speaker 1: points in this game, if I remember correctly, hit what
Speaker 1: effectively amounted to the game winner. He hit massive shots
Speaker 1: in ot including that three that took away the Kelly
Speaker 1: olinok and one to start to start the overtime period.
Speaker 1: The way I look at it, like, you need Lebron
Speaker 1: James at a superstar level to have any chance of
Speaker 1: winning the championship this year. You might be able to
Speaker 1: upset one of these flawed Western Conference teams or two
Speaker 1: of them, but whatever the best Western Conference team at
Speaker 1: the end of the day in the Western Conference finals,
Speaker 1: or whoever comes out of the Eastern Conference, you need
Speaker 1: Lebron James and Anthony Davis at a superstar level to win.
Speaker 1: And so I looked at it as a big confidence
Speaker 1: boosting moment for Lebron James at the end of that
Speaker 1: game to make all the plays that brought them home again,
Speaker 1: even just knocking down two clutch free throws in the
Speaker 1: final minute that put the Lakers up one All in all,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look at it positively despite the disappointment of
Speaker 1: yet another late game collapse. You think the Lakers would
Speaker 1: have learned their lesson by now. But here's the deal.
Speaker 1: We're heading into a back to back against the Clippers
Speaker 1: for the Lakers, and it's arguably the most important regular
Speaker 1: season game of the season because depending on who wins,
Speaker 1: so many different things get jockey to round. And there's
Speaker 1: this other big problem where everyone's paranoid about potentially playing
Speaker 1: the Phoenix Suns in the first round. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, it's a three way tie right now, and
Speaker 1: so like, there's just so many different ways it could
Speaker 1: go that even if you wanted to jockey yourself into
Speaker 1: a certain position, there's no guarantee that you'll end up
Speaker 1: there with so many other elements that are outside of
Speaker 1: your control. And like, look, ideally, yeah, ideally, for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: you'd prefer to not play the Phoenix in the first round.
Speaker 1: First of all, I like the way Phoenix. I like
Speaker 1: the way the Lakers match up with Phoenix. The Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns are a bad point of attack. Defense team in
Speaker 1: my opinion, and the Lakers are a great pick and
Speaker 1: roll team. I like the idea of Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis battling with Kevin Durant and DeAndre Ayton on
Speaker 1: the front line all series long. Darvinham loves to ignore
Speaker 1: non shooters, and I think for most of that series
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to go with guys like they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to go with some sort of point of attack
Speaker 1: defensive player in that at fifth starter position, and it's
Speaker 1: gonna be somebody that they don't have to guard. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be someone like a Tory Craig that they're gonna
Speaker 1: be helping off of the entire game. Right, So I
Speaker 1: like that matchup for the Lakers, But with all of
Speaker 1: the shot making with Kevin Durant, with all the shot
Speaker 1: making with Devin Booker, with what Chris Paul is going
Speaker 1: to do with the defensive matchup that he has, I'd
Speaker 1: prefer it for the Laker's sake if Lebron James was
Speaker 1: in a better groove. So ideally you face him in
Speaker 1: the second third round, where you have an extra three
Speaker 1: weeks from now for Lebron James to build his conditioning
Speaker 1: to get in that gym and work on his ball
Speaker 1: handling and his shooting. He was three for ten from
Speaker 1: three again tonight. Ideally you want him in a peak
Speaker 1: offensive position for that series. I get that, but there's
Speaker 1: also only one other seat available, and that's the sixth seat,
Speaker 1: because the play in tournament is not worth the risk
Speaker 1: to avoid the suns. There's too much variation, Like the
Speaker 1: Lakers are a bad three point shooting team that can
Speaker 1: go ice colds sometimes times. I mean, they've gotten a
Speaker 1: lot better since the deadline, but they can go really
Speaker 1: cold from three sometimes. So that's a variance piece that
Speaker 1: can get you beat. In a playing game, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: is the type of guy that can go hot and cold,
Speaker 1: you know, and have a game where he takes twenty
Speaker 1: five shots, and then have a game where he takes
Speaker 1: eight shots, And that can directly affect a single game
Speaker 1: sample like a playing game. And what if you lose
Speaker 1: the first one and then suddenly you're in a must
Speaker 1: win game and it's a team like the Oklahoma City's
Speaker 1: thunder and Gildas Alexander goes off for forty five points
Speaker 1: and you lose and you go home. If you don't
Speaker 1: believe that's a risk. Just ask the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 1: from twenty twenty one. They were clicking going into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: They had won fifteen of their last twenty games. Everything
Speaker 1: was working for them, and then they got into the
Speaker 1: play in tournament, lost to the Lakers on a game
Speaker 1: winning three from Lebron James, and caught a bad matchup
Speaker 1: against an Memphis Grizzlies team and loss. So the play
Speaker 1: in tournament is not worth the risk. The five seed
Speaker 1: gives you the Sun, and there's no way to guarantee
Speaker 1: you'll get the sixth seed. There's just too many moving parts,
Speaker 1: too many complications in the tiebreaker. So the clear answer
Speaker 1: here is go beat the Clippers tomorrow. You control your
Speaker 1: own destiny. Try to win every game. If you lose
Speaker 1: one of those games and you end up with the
Speaker 1: sixth seed, then great. But if you win out and
Speaker 1: you face the Suns, so be it. Any of that
Speaker 1: is better than having to deal with the play in
Speaker 1: tournament and all the variants that comes into play in
Speaker 1: that situation. So if you're up to me, I would
Speaker 1: play everyone tomorrow. And then the other big part of
Speaker 1: it you gotta think of it is like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's back to back, Lebron and ad just combined to
Speaker 1: play eighty minutes. But if you don't go to the
Speaker 1: play in tournament, you finish the game on Sunday against
Speaker 1: the Jazz, which, by the way, if things break right,
Speaker 1: you might be locked into a seed and not have
Speaker 1: to play that game. Beat the Clippers, beat the Suns,
Speaker 1: you might not have to play against the Jazz, in
Speaker 1: which case you can take Sturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Speaker 1: and maybe even Saturday off. That's eight consecutive days for
Speaker 1: you to rest your guys and put in new sets
Speaker 1: and things in practice and to work out those details.
Speaker 1: Or if you have to play against the Jazz, you're
Speaker 1: guaranteed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday off. So to me,
Speaker 1: it's a no brainer, like, yeah, ideally you don't want
Speaker 1: to play the Suns, but don't play with the basketball gods.
Speaker 1: Like trying to dodge somebody is effectively signing up for
Speaker 1: bad karma in my opinion, And most importantly, there's no
Speaker 1: version of this scenario where you get to just easily
Speaker 1: jerry rig yourself to a matchup that you like too
Speaker 1: much is up in the air. Go in the games.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to Thunder. Warriors really rough
Speaker 1: start defensively in this game. They give seventy nine points
Speaker 1: in the first half. Point of attack. Defense was a
Speaker 1: massive problem for the Warriors in the first half, which
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to in a minute, because I thought
Speaker 1: it led to a very important adjustment from Steve Kerr
Speaker 1: in the second half of this game. Defense is vitally
Speaker 1: important to the Warriors, Like it's just it's a non
Speaker 1: starter for them to try to win any other way.
Speaker 1: They've never won without defending an extremely high level. The
Speaker 1: same can be said for every champion in NBA history.
Speaker 1: That's part of their identity. That is a core principle
Speaker 1: of Golden State Warriors basketball. They have to defend at
Speaker 1: an extremely high level. Then, in addition to that, it
Speaker 1: helps them get out in transition. You know, in half
Speaker 1: court sets, now, teams are all guarding the Warriors the
Speaker 1: same way. They're blatantly ignoring Draymon, they're blatantly ignoring Cavan Loni,
Speaker 1: they're blatantly ignoring guys like Jonathan Cominga and Gary Payton
Speaker 1: the second and they're sagging back into the paint, and
Speaker 1: then they're trying to chase around the guards like hell
Speaker 1: and try to force them into backcuts so that they
Speaker 1: cut back into all of that congestion around the rim.
Speaker 1: It is hard to score in the half court in
Speaker 1: the NBA for any team, but when it comes to
Speaker 1: stopping the Warriors, that's by far the best way to
Speaker 1: stop them. So getting out in transition before a defense
Speaker 1: gets a chance to get set, that's a really good
Speaker 1: way for to get Jordan Pool shook free for a three,
Speaker 1: to get Steph Curry shook free for three. So defense
Speaker 1: for them is just it's a non starter for them
Speaker 1: if they're not defending. And they weren't defending in the
Speaker 1: first half, and guess what, they were down ten, but
Speaker 1: they locked in. They gave up just forty six points
Speaker 1: in the second half, including nineteen in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: I thought one of the key adjustments, and you saw
Speaker 1: this big time in the fourth quarter of this game
Speaker 1: was Gary Payton the second and switching him onto the
Speaker 1: point of attack against Shaye Guild just Alexander. He got
Speaker 1: a couple of buckets in the quarter, like getting switches,
Speaker 1: Like you've got to switch on a Steph Curry once
Speaker 1: and just bullied into the basket. He also drew a
Speaker 1: foul on Gary Payton that was kind of an if
Speaker 1: he call. I thought shape pushes off a lot, So
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in like the give and take defensively,
Speaker 1: Like if a player is gonna push off, you gotta
Speaker 1: let the defensive player kind of be physical back with them.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, Gary Payton kind of took
Speaker 1: Shay out of his element in that fourth quarter, and
Speaker 1: it was a huge part of them slowing down the
Speaker 1: Thunders offense. And again, I can't even begin to describe
Speaker 1: how valuable it is in the NBA, in this high
Speaker 1: pick and roll league, in this spreads you out isolation,
Speaker 1: beat a guy off the dribble driving kick league. To
Speaker 1: have a guy like Gary Payton that you can just
Speaker 1: stick on the other team's best guard and just know like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're good there, that's a huge asset. It's a big
Speaker 1: part of why I talked about him so much during
Speaker 1: the season, both before the trade talking about how much
Speaker 1: they missed him, and then after the trade obviously when
Speaker 1: he was dealing with the injury. I mean, don't forget,
Speaker 1: but go look at the on off numbers for Gary
Speaker 1: Payton in the playoffs last year. They were beating the
Speaker 1: shit out of everybody when he was on the floor,
Speaker 1: and it was a much more competitive competitive environment when
Speaker 1: he was off the floor. It's just a fact he's
Speaker 1: so important to their defense. And again, like specifically in
Speaker 1: that Shake Gildas Alexander matchup, Shay is a very physical
Speaker 1: old school guard who likes to push off, and like
Speaker 1: I was saying, like Gary Payton, he's so damned strong,
Speaker 1: and he's got such a low center of gravity, and
Speaker 1: he's a he's got such strong legs, it's so difficult
Speaker 1: to push him off of his spot. So that bullyball
Speaker 1: style from Shay just doesn't work on guys like Gary
Speaker 1: Payton I thought. I thought his defense on Shay was
Speaker 1: just a massive swing factor in the fourth quarter of
Speaker 1: this game. He also made really good reads on offense.
Speaker 1: He had three offensive rebounds. He's plus nine in seventeen minutes.
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, I mean, how many times this year have
Speaker 1: I talked about Draymond Green having a defensive masterclass in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter once again in this game, flying around
Speaker 1: protecting the rim. There were two plays in this game
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter where thunder players thunder guards tried
Speaker 1: to beat Draymond off the dribble and he just stuck
Speaker 1: his arm out and poked the ball free. Both of
Speaker 1: them led to runouts. Again, Draymond, he's viewed as an
Speaker 1: undersized forward, and he is. But he's got a seven
Speaker 1: one wingspan. That's that's ridiculous for a guy his size.
Speaker 1: Seven one wingspan is great for any for a center
Speaker 1: in this league. So you know, having those long arms
Speaker 1: to reach and poke the ball free, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's that's also a dangerous weapon to have. But he
Speaker 1: was incredible in the fourth quarter. And then Jordan Poole.
Speaker 1: I thought his three point shooting was a huge part
Speaker 1: of their fourth quarter run late third, early fourth, just
Speaker 1: him being super aggressive. He drew a foul. It might
Speaker 1: have been a little bit of an if he call
Speaker 1: kicked his foot out a little bit, but again that's
Speaker 1: drifting points, which is who cares as long as it
Speaker 1: goes to the scoreboard. And then I thought, honestly, those
Speaker 1: free throws he missed the first one that he made
Speaker 1: a couple those free throws, I thought helped build his
Speaker 1: rhythm to knock down the important threes late in the
Speaker 1: game and then Steph Curry. I mean a lot of
Speaker 1: times when I'm doing this show, we gloss over the
Speaker 1: best players because we like to focus on the nitty
Speaker 1: greedy details. And honestly, it's just like, how many times
Speaker 1: are you gonna say, like, Steph is incredible, he's amazing.
Speaker 1: How many times are gonna say Lebron is incredible, he's amazing.
Speaker 1: How many times you're gonna say Joel Embiid is incredible,
Speaker 1: He's amazing. It's like a lot of times we focus
Speaker 1: on more of the variance pieces in a game, like, oh,
Speaker 1: so and so played well today, so and so really
Speaker 1: struggled today, right and so. Honestly, sometimes in the show
Speaker 1: I can gloss over guys like Steph had I think
Speaker 1: thirty four in this game. He was freaking incredible, and
Speaker 1: we're not going to talk that much about him, but
Speaker 1: I thought he hit the I thought he hit the
Speaker 1: biggest shot of the game when it was one fifteen
Speaker 1: one fifteen, he had a step back three over lu
Speaker 1: Doran on the right wing, and I thought it completely
Speaker 1: changed the psychological complexion of the game. Immediately after that,
Speaker 1: the thunder fell apart. They lost their composure, They gave
Speaker 1: up a layup to Draymond on the very next possession.
Speaker 1: It's this weird play where like they're trying to sub
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams into the game. Mark Degenell's freaking out. Uh.
Speaker 1: They trap uh Dante DiVincenzo on the left wing. He
Speaker 1: throws that little split pocket pass to Gary Payton who
Speaker 1: drops it off to Draymond Green completely uncontested under the rim. Again,
Speaker 1: it was a massive defensive breakdown. Then they end up
Speaker 1: getting a technical foul. Next thing you know, they're up
Speaker 1: like fifteen again. The Steph has a tendency to try
Speaker 1: to snatch your heart, and he'll he knows when to
Speaker 1: try to like put his fingerprints on a game to
Speaker 1: where you could tell when he first stubbed into the game,
Speaker 1: he was still giving the ball to Jordan Pool because
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool was hot. He had a going that was
Speaker 1: the guy to bring it home at that point. But
Speaker 1: then it was like one fifteen, one fifteen. It's like
Speaker 1: a shark smelling blood in the water. It was like
Speaker 1: he just saw that he saw the game and the
Speaker 1: time and score, he saw the flow of the game.
Speaker 1: He saw that lou Dort was just a little bit
Speaker 1: too far back, and he just went to that patented
Speaker 1: step back jumper to his right stuck it. I thought
Speaker 1: that was the biggest shot in the game. And then
Speaker 1: the wheels came off from there and and the Warriors
Speaker 1: won by double digits. They're forty two and thirty eight. Now,
Speaker 1: they've won six of their last eight remaining schedule. They've
Speaker 1: got a really tough one in Sacramento on Friday, and
Speaker 1: then they go to Portland on Sunday for the last
Speaker 1: night of the season. That's a that's a game they
Speaker 1: should win. There's two things the Warriors need to hope
Speaker 1: for now. They need to hope for the Lakers to
Speaker 1: rest their guys against the Clippers tomorrow, which I think
Speaker 1: is very much on the table. And then then they
Speaker 1: need to hope for Sacramento to rest their guys on Friday,
Speaker 1: because here's the thing. If the Kings treat that game
Speaker 1: like a playoff dress rehearsal and play all of their guys,
Speaker 1: it's just gonna be a really tough game to win. Again,
Speaker 1: like without Andrew Wiggins, I just always view those games
Speaker 1: against the great teams in the league for the Warriors
Speaker 1: is like coin flips, especially on the road as we've
Speaker 1: seen throughout the entire season. So if Sacramento arrests all
Speaker 1: their guys in the game, that gives the Warriors a
Speaker 1: much better chance to win out. But here's the reality. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: as a result of them blowing that game to Minnesota
Speaker 1: and then falling apart at the end of the game
Speaker 1: against Denver, they don't control their own destiny. The Lakers
Speaker 1: have the tiebreaker, so they need to somehow lose one
Speaker 1: fewer game than the Lakers do to the rest of
Speaker 1: this week. So that's what I'm saying. If the Lakers
Speaker 1: punt the game against the Clippers and then the Kings
Speaker 1: end up punting the game on Friday, then the Warriors
Speaker 1: will find themselves in a position where they most likely
Speaker 1: will be out of the plane. But they're gonna need
Speaker 1: some help Andrew Wiggins. So in our last show, I
Speaker 1: talked about how we had seen some reporting that Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins may or may not have returned to the city
Speaker 1: of San Francisco after being away for a little while. Well,
Speaker 1: we got reporting, i think yesterday, that he's returning to
Speaker 1: the team. They did a full press conference today, so
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins is effectively back. He's not gonna play until
Speaker 1: I think maybe this weekend. But really it comes down
Speaker 1: to this, can he be ready in time for what's
Speaker 1: gonna be a blood bath of a first round series.
Speaker 1: You get the five seed, you get Phoenix, that's gonna
Speaker 1: be a blood bath. You get the sixth seed, you
Speaker 1: get Sacramento, still gonna be a blood bath. You get
Speaker 1: the seven seed, Memphis definitely gonna be a blood bath,
Speaker 1: eight seed Denver gonna be a bloodbath. You're gonna need
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins playing well to win those get any of
Speaker 1: those series because of what he does at the point
Speaker 1: of attack and what he does off the ball. Again,
Speaker 1: like we talk so much about Andrew Wiggins point of
Speaker 1: attack defense on the show, but it goes beyond that
Speaker 1: to the fact that he was like an eighteen point
Speaker 1: per game guy in the playoffs last year. He is
Speaker 1: scoring pop, legitimate scoring Pop, gets good matchups, and he
Speaker 1: gets high percentage shot It's either aggressive spot up shooting
Speaker 1: or ripped throughs to the middle of the floor for
Speaker 1: those little pop shots and floaters and fifteen foot pull ups. Right.
Speaker 1: So again, he's a little bit of a rhythm player.
Speaker 1: He's got a very he doesn't have much arc on
Speaker 1: his jump shot, and guys that have line drive jump
Speaker 1: shots are a little bit more, you know, rhythm oriented.
Speaker 1: So the real question is, is it's great that Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins's back. Obviously they needed him to have any sort
Speaker 1: of championships ceiling, but can he be ready in time?
Speaker 1: Understanding there? Right now, it's Tuesday, and they're gonna need
Speaker 1: him in about what's that ten or eleven days? Twelve days?
Speaker 1: They're gonna need him in less than two weeks to
Speaker 1: be ready to play in an absolute blood bath of
Speaker 1: a playoff series. And it's just a lot to ask.
Speaker 1: And so it'll be really important to see how how
Speaker 1: he progresses throughout this week in their workouts, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna find out pretty quickly how well he stayed in
Speaker 1: shape all he was away. All right, guys, that is
Speaker 1: all I have for tonight. We will be back tomorrow
Speaker 1: night after the final buzzer of Clippers Lakers to break
Speaker 1: down what would be the most pivotal night in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference playoff picture this season. As always, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys, and I will see you next time. The
Speaker 1: volume