April 27, 2025 • 46 mins
Jason reacts to Steph Curry’s monster game leading the Golden State Warriors to a huge Game 3 win over Alperen Sengun, Jalen Green, and the Houston Rockets and then discusses the INSANE finish to the Denver Nuggets-Los Angeles Clippers Game 4 with Aaron Gordon’s buzzer beater dunk off Nikola Jokic’s last second shot attempt.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
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(01:57):
All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume
heavy Saturday.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Everybody.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Hope all you guys are having a great weekend. What
an incredible night of games that we just re created
to Jackson and I were just joking before the show started,
like this is our eighth consecutive night going, and I
think we've gone six of those mornings too, So it's
been like this crazy blurb. But at the same time,
like Jackson says, I'm riding a high from those two
(02:21):
incredible games, and I am too, Like it's just so
much fun at least in this time of year, despite
the unending train of just incredibly good basketball games. We're
gonna be breaking down tonight. We're focusing on the final
two games in the slate, so we're gonna be hitting
that absolutely bonkers Clippers Nuggets game, and then the Golden
State Warriors end up pulling out a game on the
(02:43):
strength of their defense against the Houston Rockets, some key
contributions down the roster with Jimmy Butler out, We're gonna
break those two games down from the perspective of both teams.
Then after that we're gonna do a mail bag from
the chat and one of the things that I like
about that mail bag is it allows you guys to
kind of direct into certain parts of these series that
you guys are interested in, that you guys want to
(03:04):
talk about more So, come into the later portion of
the show, drop your questions in that chat any other
questions you have about these series any other series around
the league. Make sure you guys hang out for the
mail back at the end. You guys are the Joe
before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and YouTube channel.
You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
on Twitter at Underscore json LTC. You guys don't misshow announcements.
Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your
podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if we
(03:26):
leave a rating in a review. On that front, we
also have social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
where Jackson's doing some great work. Make sure you guys
follow us there. In the last but not least, keep
dropping mail bag questions and YouTube comments, and we can keep
getting to him throughout the remainder of the postseason. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So I was confident coming into
(03:47):
this two game home set here for the Warriors that
even without Jimmy Butler, they should be able to get
the job done, mainly because of two things. The simple
fact that Steve Kerr, as he openly said in a
time out in Game one, these guys can't score on
us in the half court. If we can keep them
trapped there three times tonight the Warriors held the Rockets
(04:09):
to twenty two points in a single quarter. That is
going to keep things close enough. And then at home,
I just believe in the Warriors role players finding enough
ways to ride the energy of the crowd and find
ways to contribute offensively. That's kind of been the story
of the Steph Curry era is, especially when they're at home,
(04:29):
even when guys are out of the lineup, is if
STEP's out there and if Draymond's out there, they're going
to get enough stops and they're going to get enough
advantages to be able to win a game like this,
And they were just incredible. We're gonna be going down
the line here talking about all their individual contributions. I
do want to start with step though, because what was
actually interesting about this game is Houston controlled it early.
(04:50):
And one of the big reasons why was that idea
that I talked about with the Warriors role players being
able to ride some of that energy of the crowd
and their defense to be able to provide offensive punch
that wasn't there to start the game. No one could
make a shot to save their lives and to kind
of compound the issues. Steph for the first basically till
the middle of the second quarter was just like kind
(05:13):
of easing his way into the game, not bringing a
ton of aggression. I thought he was coming off of
his screening actions, telegraphing that he was looking to pass.
He had a couple of turnovers, he wasn't being aggressive enough,
and then right around that middle of that second quarter,
Steph turned it up. And there's a certain amount of like,
even with that level of defensive attention, there is still
(05:36):
a certain amount of panic that you can induce by
providing the necessary scoring pop and as we saw in
Game one, like Steph even in this scheme, even with
the face guarding, even with the double teaming, even with
the grabbing off ball, even with the blitzing of the
ball screens, even with all of the physicality, Steph can
cut these dudes to pieces. He's capable of doing it,
and he demonstrated that in Resounding over the course of
(06:00):
the last three and a half quarters of this game.
It all just started with turning up his aggression as
he started curling off of screens instead of curling off
of screens, and immediately looking to get rid of the ball.
He started trying to force the issue a little bit.
Jay Billis was talking during the game about how he
was like putting on his cape, so to speak, trying
(06:22):
to take on multiple defenders, curling those actions and taking
scoop shots in traffic, taking floaters in traffic. He started
to look to be aggressive for the first three point shot,
pushing it a little bit further out, taking some more
heavily contested shots.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
He found some.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
ISOs, some isolation situations that he liked working against, like
against Dylan Brooks there at the end of the game,
that quick crossover into the pull up three, and because
he brought the requisite scoring pop thirty six points tonight,
that is what started to induce the final sequence of
the game, which was Gary Payton the second starting to
get downhill out of keepers and like fake drible and
(07:00):
slips of ball screens even got free on a back
door cut off of a classic screening action where both
guys ended up running with Steph. That comes from the
scoring pop that Steph brings throughout the game thirty six points,
seven rebounds, nine assists, like he has been absolutely fantastic
in the two Warriors wins in this series. I can't
(07:22):
say enough about it. I want to skip ahead to
Gary Payton for a second, because, you know, one of
the things that was kind of standing out over the
course of the early portion of the game was nobody
really had anything going offensively. Brandon Pajemski had some good
looks from three, he wasn't knocking him down. Jonathan Kaminga,
you know, Steve Kerr places a bet on him to
(07:43):
start this game and takes Buddy held out of the
starting lineup, puts Quinton Post in there, tries to set
Jonathan Kaminga up with some more cleared side ISOs, and
just Jonathan Kimica couldn't get anything going. He was struggling
with the physicality of the situation. The game seemed to
be moving a little too fast for him. He wasn't
able to get anything moving, and so all of a sudden,
it's like, what do we have here? And you know,
(08:04):
there were a couple of guys who stepped up, specifically
Buddy heel To we'll talk about in a minute. But
one of the things that stood out to me in
that second half was Gary Payton specifically saying I am
going to the rim he was decisive. He wasn't coming
off of those fake dribble handoffs or slipping out of
those screens trying to look to pass. He was looking
(08:25):
to score the basketball. He went to the rim over
and over and over again in that stretch, and like
that was just that was such an important bit of
rim pressure in a game like this where without Jimmy
Butler it was difficult to come by rim pressure. I
thought Gary Payton was fantastic in this game. Finished with
sixteen points on seven of nine shooting, hit two massive
(08:48):
threes as well. Massive night for Gary Payton. The second
Buddy heeled though it was a little bit of a
weird shift in the early third quarter where he just
when he checked in where he looked like he was
just a little lacking that intensity. But aside from that
brief stretch to start the third quarter, I thought Buddy
was fantastic all night, just bringing that requisite level of aggression. Obviously,
(09:11):
Steve Kerr was gonna have to bump his minutes up
under the circumstances. He ended up playing twenty nine minutes tonight.
A lot of situations like that, a lot of Post,
a lot of Gary, a lot of Buddy healed trying
Jonathan Kaminga. They're doing that because they're trying to like
inject some offensive firepower into the situation. Counting on the
fact that Draymond and the rest of those guys, Moses Moody,
(09:32):
Gary Payton, all those guys would be able to get
another enough stops to be able to get to keep
this game within reach. And Buddy, every single one of
those five threes that he hit was super super important
in this game. He's plus fourteen twenty nine minutes at
three steals as well. Big time game from Buddy. Heel
couldn't post at a really difficult job tonight. You know,
(09:53):
sometimes you get handed a job that you're gonna lose,
but your job is to just try to to shrink
that gap as much as possible, to try to lose
by as little as possible. I remember I played in
this money tournament once up in Phoenix. There was a
three on three outdoor money tournament in downtown Phoenix and
we ended up winning it and winning the money thankfully.
(10:15):
And there was a semi final game where we played
and I had to guard this guy named Michael Craig,
and some of you hoopers might recognize the name. He
played at South Mountain Junior College in He played at
South Mountain Junior College up in Phoenix, and then he
ended up playing mid major D one somewhere out in
the South, if I remember correctly. But he was just
this behemoth of a man, like six foot four, like
(10:37):
two hundred and sixty pounds of just solid muscle, freaky athlete.
And my job in that game and that three on
three was you're gonna lose some battles to Michael Craig,
like he's gonna bully you. He's gonna get some layups,
You're gonna take a bunch of shots to the chest.
You're gonna be in pain after that game. But all
you have to do is just try to not lose
by that much. And that was literally the job that
(10:58):
Quinton Post was handed tonight. On the defensive glass against
Stephen Adams, he got thrown around sometimes, he gave up
some offensive rebounds. He was just just his legs were destroyed.
He couldn't make a three point shot to save his life.
He was leaving everything short in his shot making situations.
But he did the job. He won enough of the battles,
(11:21):
nine defensive rebounds, three offensive rebounds plus seven in twenty
seven minutes. Quinton Post took the assignment to just get
his ass kicked by the Houston front line tonight, and
he stood in there and he just held his own
and did his job battling for those possessions like some
nice tap out rebounds two in situations where you know
(11:43):
other guys were engaged in box outs. I thought Quinton
Post was fantastic. And then just the defensive effort all night.
I mean, Draymond Green had about as bad offensive game
as you'll ever see him play, making some misreads, some
sloppy turnovers, struggling to finish around the rim, blaming it
on the He wasn't getting fouled like Draymon had a
nightmare offensive game, but he did a ton of damage
(12:07):
defensively around the rim, especially to Alburns Shangun. How many
times did you see Shangun miss a shot within like
three feet of the rim tonight? Many of those were
because of the disruption that Draymond was providing on Shanggun's base.
He was battling down there and just winning. Like again,
this is the thing with basketball, doesn't matter how bad
of a game you're having, if it's close late, just
(12:29):
make a play, find a way to make a play,
do something that will help your team. And Draymond made
several defensive plays down the stretch of this game, and
then honestly, on the Houston front there's just too much
inconsistency in the form of their shot creation. You know,
shanggun kind of got figured out towards the end of
the game by the Warriors front line. You Know, Jackson
(12:50):
and I were talking last night in the mail bag
about just the inconsistency with Jalen Green. Jackson and I
talked last night. We were like, if is it more
likely for Jen to score less than fifteen points tonight
or is it more likely they'll score more than twenty
five points? And both Jackson and I said he'd score
less than fifteen. He had nine points and eleven shots
in this game. Fred van Vliet hit a couple shots early,
(13:12):
but went right back to the same inefficient shot maker
that he was in the first two games of the series.
They just don't have anything that they can rely on offensively,
and ultimately that's what's going to get them beaten the series,
is that if the Warriors give a concerted effort on
the defensive end of the floor, they're not going to
be able to score. And over and over and over again,
(13:33):
they got the stops they needed. The Warriors were able
to get the stops they needed to pull this game out.
All right, we're going to talk some Nuggets Clippers for
a few minutes, and then, like I said, Warriors fans,
Rockets fans, if you guys have any questions surrounding that series,
bring them to the mailbag portion here in about ten
to fifteen minutes. So, after two very close games in Denver,
(13:54):
it looked like we were going to get back to
back blowouts. In Los Angeles, the Nuggets completely took troll
a game. In that third quarter, they outscored the Clippers
thirty five to seventeen. I thought Jokic was absolutely amazing
orchestrating things in that stretch. He had sixteen points, eight rebounds,
and four assists. Just in the third quarter, he got
Michael Porter Junior going catching James Harden being lazy off
(14:18):
of him in off ball situations. Just oh, you're sitting
with your right foot by the lane line. I'm just
gonna rifle this pass to Michael and he's just gonna
go up and shoot it. He caught Harden in a
very sloppy switch where he tried to just like shove
I can't even remember who it was. I think it
was Derek Jones, but he tried to like shove one
of the Clippers other perimmeterive defenders out of Mike wasn't ready.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Jokics rifled the pass. He knocked it down.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
He had a variety of insane shots, just the shot
making from Yokich in that stretch. He had this like
crazy high arching running floater going through the lane off
of a screening action. A lot of Yokich attacking off
of off ball screening actions to try to get Zoo
caught up trying to chase somebody through screens, which is
something that you don't see Biggs do very often. He
had a tough movement three running to his right, same
(14:59):
sort of thing off ball screening action. Just ran up
to the right, got his feet set quickly knocked it down.
He had a break rhythm pump fake three out of
the left corner where he the same sort of thing
a baseline screening action that got Zuke caught up on it.
Caught on the corner, clean pump faked guy ran by.
He was able to just settle into the shot and
knock it down. He did damage on the offensive glass.
(15:20):
The passing was insane. He had the speed to uh
Peyton Watson underneath the basket where he got Ben Simmons
in a kind of a one on two situation. I
can't remember who it was in the corner. I think
it was. I think it was Peyton Watson. No, no, peyt
Watson was under the basket. And then I think it
was Michael Porter Junior or somebody else might have been
Aaron Gordon, somebody in the right corner. And Peyton Watson's
the real threat, right Like He's a good athlete who's
(15:42):
got a easy, like vertical spacing window that he can
just go up and dunk. And Jokic literally just looked
Ben Simmons off, just looked towards the corner, and Ben
Simmons lunged the wrong way. Jokics rifled it to Peyton
Watson and he got a dunk. You could literally feel
Yokic suck the life out of that arena. The Clippers
started to miss a lot of easy shots, like clean
(16:05):
looks for guys like Nick Batoon that just weren't going
down because you could just feel it in the arena.
You could feel the momentum slipping away from the Clippers.
The Nuggets also doubled Kawhi to great effect during that
third quarter stretch, in large part because Chris Dunn kind
of had his first really really rough offensive game in
the series. He made some tough reads on short rolls
where he just kind of botched advantage situations. He was
(16:27):
unable to knock down his open catch and shoot threes.
And that's the thing. You got to make Chris Dunn
beat you. And that doesn't mean beat you once, like
he's gonna beat you once. He had a game in
the series where he went three for three from three, Like,
Chris Dunn can beat you, but can he beat you
four times in two weeks? That's the question. And you
have to at least force him to do that. And
they were able to actually kind of play him out
(16:47):
of the rotation to where Tylu ended up closing with
bog Don mcdonovitch. But the Clippers really came apart and
it looked like the Nuggets were gonna get out there
with a comfortable win. But then the Clippers went on
a completely insane run of their own to start the
fourth quarter, really started pushing the pace. You could see
on the very first possession they just were running up
the floor to try to get something going. They got
their pick and roll game going finally with James Harden.
(17:10):
James Harden just started to bring more energy. A couple
of Nuggets like Michael Porter Junior and and Nicole Jokicz
both like really relaxed on defense during that run. And
you know, it's some one of those things you're up twenty,
you don't want to you don't want to just blow
through a ton of energy. But they almost lost control
of the game during that stretch because it just was
over and over and over again, James Harden getting into
the teeth of the defense for layups and kickouts to
(17:32):
guys for easy shots. Then on defense, the Clippers ran
a two three zone where they used the opposite guard
to deny the high post catch, which kind of baited
the Nuggets into some tough above the break threes. They
ran five possessions of zone in that fourth quarter and
got five stops. That was a big part, but really
it was the ball pressure. They just up their overall
(17:52):
level of intensity and ball pressure, they forced a bunch
of turnovers. They turned Denver over five times in the
fourth quarter, and it was like one of the craziest
momentum swings you'll ever see, because it just it was
like stop bucket, stop, bucket, stop bucket. Crowds going absolutely insane.
They were even able to weather some shots like Jamal
Murray hits like a tough elbow jumper. Aaron Gordon ends
(18:13):
up hitting a three above the break like and even
then it was just but then it'd be like stop bucket, stop, bucket,
stop bucket, and it just was out of control freight
train towards the Clippers until the final sequence when Nikola
Jokic was able to seize back the momentum. So the
Clippers go up by one towards the end of the game,
and on the final sequence we get this weird We
(18:35):
get this weird kind of set of plays where Nikola
Jokic gets called for an offensive foul and a play
where he gets gets called for hooking Nikol Jokic's arm. Now,
my biggest issue with this has just been the total
inconsistency in the way that this has been called. Like
I watched James Harden hook a guy like with that
inside arm on a drive and get three free throws
out of it early in the series. So like, what's
(18:57):
the deal, refs, Is it the arm hook is an
offensive foul? Or is it we give James Harden three
free throws? Like, let's get some consistency in the way
that we're calling that. So Jokic loses his mind, gets
pissed off. They go to the other end after that
play though, Nuggets up by Nuggets down by one. Jokic,
I thought this was a genius play on his part.
Just goes right back to the same damn move, just
(19:20):
quickly makes a right handed drive against Zoo. This time
he doesn't hook. He just keeps that arm in and
tries to blow up that shoulder, kind of snaps his
head back, gets the call. He's going to get that
call in that situation after what happened, You just get
call for an offensive foul. You can plain like crazy.
There's a psychological element to this sort of thing, And
(19:40):
I thought that was a genius play by Jokic to
quick get himself to the free throw line. Smokes the
first free throw, nearly smokes the second, but it goes
in ties the game. They go down to the other end,
the end of the floor, they get a stop. They
come back the other end. Jokic hits this insane left
shoulder turnaround jump shot right over Zoo that puts him
up too.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Obviously.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Zubots ties the game on the offensive rebound off of
the James Harden. James Harden was right at the front
of the rim and like smoke the layup, but Zoo
comes in and taps it in and then Aaron Gordon
wins the game dunking. Kind of a weird sequence from Jokic.
I didn't love the shot Jokic got there. He kind
of turned into the Somber shuffle, just sprinting out to
(20:20):
the right wing. It was a very weird final possession
from Jokic, but Aaron Gordon the man in the right place.
James Harden ends up missing a box out. Aaron Gordon
dunks it and that was as close of a buzzer
beater as I've ever seen in terms of it being
released in time like at the buzzer like this, like
the top third of the ball is above the rim
and the bottom two thirds of the ball is below
(20:42):
the rim. I thought it was the right call to
allow the bucket. But that was about as close as
it could possibly be. And and man, like what, it's
impossible to overstate how important that win is for Denver.
They don't play again until Tuesday. This is a team
that is beat up. Michael Porter Junior is in rough shape.
(21:04):
He's he's been dealing with some issue with his feet,
he's been dealing with an issue with his shoulder.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Told an NBA reporter that he can barely jump right now.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Like they're beat up. They need to go home.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And sleep in their own beds, and they need a
couple of nights to relax. They need to get their
legs back underneath them. And so for them to pull
that game out and to because they were losing by one,
that could have been an absolute catastrophe heading home down
three to one. Is this could have been like it
felt like the entire series was hanging in the balance
(21:38):
there and now now the Nuggets get to go home,
get a little bit of rest, home court advantage the
rest of the series. They just have to win two
out of three, much much stronger position for Denver to
be in after that incredibly insane finished, another clutch win
for Denver two shouldn't have been clutch, should have been
more of a comfortable win. But I still trust Joks
(21:59):
more than I trust and James Harden in a close
game late. I didn't like some of the shots that
Kawhi got late in the game. He took a he
had Jamal Murray on a right wing ISO late where
I thought he could have worked more towards the elbow
to try to get like a right shoulder or left
shoulder fade away that's more of like a fifty percent
shot for Kawhi. He ended up taking a pretty tough
(22:19):
off the dribble three that I didn't particularly like, like
the in crunch time. I do trust Jokic more obviously
game two, notwithstanding when they ended up making their mistakes.
But it's just a reminder that these series are decided
by the tiniest of margins. That game could have literally
gone either way, and now now the Denver's in a
(22:40):
much much more commanding position they lose that game, Clippers
are going to win the series. Denver wins that game,
now it feels much closer to that fifty to fifty
kind of spot that we were in after Game one,
and that's kind of where I feel at this point.
I'm still feeling like this series is very much a
coin flip. But LA had a chance to close it
there and it just couldn't close the deal. Some clip
(23:00):
notes James Harden's overall level of intensity and focus was
just off for the first three quarters. Didn't really bring
aggressiveness or decisiveness and pick and roll until the fourth quarter,
which I thought hurt the team. His off ball defense
has been bad all series, but it was especially bad Tonight.
Made several mistakes during Denver's third quarter run. I talked
about Kawhi needing to be able to operate a little
(23:21):
bit closer to the rim towards the end of games.
This is it almost feels to me watching that Kawhi
is a little afraid at double teams at the end,
and he knows that if he works into the mid
to short range, he knows he's going to get attacked
and he's going to have to use his passing ability,
And it almost I've seen this dating back even to
the Warriors game on Sunday right before the play in tournament. Like,
(23:43):
Kawhi is seems to be more comfortable at the end
of games, settling for further jump shots to try to
avoid double teams, and he just needs to embrace that.
He needs to embrace set it up ty Lou needs
to set up the spacing a certain way that makes
Kawhi's passing reads easy so that he doesn't have to
stress about it, but needs to operate closer to the
basket at the end of games and the hard and
pick and roll is still their best action. It just
(24:05):
depends on James Harden bring in the necessary pop and
as we know, James Harden is known for having that
type of game like, oh, massively important a game, opportunity
to take complete and total control of the series, and
James Harden just half asleep for three quarters of the game,
which we've seen over the years, like the like it
you know there, we go to that back to that
(24:26):
Spur series and there's the concussion that people point to,
but there are just so many different examples throughout his career.
We're like massive important game and just the energy and
competitiveness isn't there the way that it needs to be.
And that's one of the main reasons why, like, you know,
this Clippers team, they're very very good. I ended up
putting them fifth in my contender rankings before the postseason started,
(24:49):
but I had them below that top tier. And the
main reason why is just there there's the aggregate playmaking
talent piece that I've talked about a lot, but there's
just so many wild cards. It's like, are you going
to get a focused, intense, hardened are you gonna get
kind of like a sleepy Harden? Right, Like Kawhi has
even had an up and down nature to his game
(25:09):
over the course of the tail end of the season.
It just I don't feel like I can count on
the Clippers to be the best version of themselves night tonight,
and I don't think they have enough margin for error
to make up for that sort of thing, which just
kept me just a little bit lower on the Clippers
than many of my peers that cover the league. Are
all right, let's bring Jackson up here and let's take
some questions.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Let's do it.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Let's do it.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
We got a lot of questions about you know this
Warriors Rockets game. Naturally, first question, you said Steph's this
was written wrong.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Sorry.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
STEP's Game one performance was one of his better playoff
games because of what he was facing in the supporting cast.
How does today's game.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Compare the Steph didn't have as crazy of a shot
making game tonight. I didn't think in terms of like
that that Game one he hit four or five of
some of the you know, top tier tough shots that
he's hit in his career. Also, that Game one feel
too like you never know what you're gonna get in
terms of the defensive level of intensity, what the whistle
(26:06):
is going to be like. I don't think it quite
rises to Game one, but I did think that that
was a classic and fantastic Steph Curry performance.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Percent next question that we're getting a lot of from
this game is is this.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
The end of the Jonathan Kaminga experiment.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
If it's not the end, what are your not If
not the true true end, you know, what are your
thoughts on Kaminga sort of generally on.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
The team as well as specifically in the rest of
this series.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Well, Tonight was the latest example in a very very
long line of examples that Jonathan Kaminga has some potential
as a one on one player, but in dead serious
basketball games, he's not good enough at it to be
able to really give him a lot of leeway to
try to drive that part of his game, and you know,
(26:51):
in the big picture, it's tough because there are the
realities of Jonathan Kaminga being at a point in his
career where a franchise needs to invest than him, and
it's just tough to make that sort of decision when
the development at this point at his age hasn't really
come to fruition. And again, on this team, you can
crack into the rotation earlier and more solidly as a
(27:14):
reliable read and react player who also plays defense soundly
both on the ball and off the ball. Then you
can crack into this rotation as an on ball player.
If you're going to crack into this rotation as an
on ball player, you got to be really, really efficient
because you're not going to run a lot of on
ball sequences alongside Steph Curry. Alongside Steph Curry, the majority
(27:35):
of the work you do is going to be operating
in his ecosystem. And so Jimmy Butler has shown a
wonderful ability to kind of shape shift between connective attacker, playmaker,
rim pressure guy, but also be able to command a
unit for these very short stretches, like here's a three
minute stretch where we're going to give you the ball
a bunch of times. But right now, Jonathan Kaminge is
(27:55):
just not good enough at it to be able to
justify that kind of role on a dead series team.
And so here's the thing. He might be twenty six
before he's ready for that role. So if he's twenty
six before he's ready for that role, there are some
realities about him being effectively useless on this team relative
to what he could be somewhere else. And so I've
been saying this since the trade deadline, this is he
(28:18):
just needs to be it's in the best interest for
all parties involved to send him somewhere else this summer.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
I mean, I feel like there was a period of
a year or two there where it felt like maybe
Steph Curry didn't have the championship ceiling that we thought
he might have run out of that from a gas
at an age standpoint, and it was like, well, maybe.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
We need to keep him in around.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
But now that it feels pretty clear that at least
for another year or two years or three years, but
at least another year or two, Steph Curry is capable
of being the best player on the championship team. You
gotta what's the point on Jonathan Kiming on this roster.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
There was a bunch of buzz last year in the
middle of the season before the trade deadline, where some
Warriors fans would say things to me like like, well,
you know, the Clippers traded away Shake kildor Alexander and
look like I I Jackson and I were talking last night.
We find I find the Jalen green John, the Kaminga
(29:11):
type of athlete to be tantalizing in a lot of
ways because of just how physical these games get and
the ability to get to your spots is a real
asset in in super physical basketball. But at the same time,
like we can also admit even though Kaminga has potential,
like I think he has potential to enter into that
like somewhere between the twenty fifth to thirty fifth best
(29:32):
player in the league by the time he's in his
late twenties. I really do think he has that potential,
like a guy who could like make an All Star
team one day, maybe one you know what I mean.
Here's what he's not Shake Kills with Alexander. So like
let's just let's take that and set it aside. You're
not giving away the future here. So even to your point, Jackson,
I talked about this at the time, like like I'm sorry,
but like I like, I like a lot of these
(29:54):
young players Pajemski and Kaminga and Moody are not competing
in the Western conferen It's that that team's not good enough.
You're you are going to rebuild when this is all
said and done, except that reality and act accordingly.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Next question, If Jimmy is a fifty to fifty call
by Monday, which you know, the reporting tonight was that
he had a lot more swelling than maybe they expected.
He was struggling to move, which is why it wasn't
just a pain tolerance thing going against tonight. If he's
a fifty to fifty call on Monday, the tonight's result
impact Golden State's decision to play him next game? Well,
should they're this result impact it?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I think that if Jimmy's in a position where he
genuinely feels like another couple of days off could be
very good for his Actually, Jackson, can you do me
a favor while I'm saying this and just look up
how many days are off? I think they play Monday night, right,
so they.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Get one day play Monday after they play wednes so
they do go every other day for the rest of
the series, going every other Yeah, they're playing Wednesday back
in Houston.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Okay, so that is a pretty quick turnaround.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
But like, if you could somehow get away with sitting
him on Monday, you give him an additional all day Sunday,
all day Monday, all day Tuesday, most of the day
Wednesday to rest before he.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Has to play again.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And in theory, I feel like Jimmy and Stephen Draymond
with a mobile, Jimmy can go into Houston and win
a game five if needed, if it was two to two,
and then close the series out in six. So like,
if Jimmy's not feeling like he can be a real
asset on Monday, I would sit in.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Yeah, it's a tough call.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
I mean, it's so hard to say without knowing how
bad it actually is.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
But it's gonna be an interesting decision. Next question, this
is sort of a hard one to answer, sort of
the off the cuff.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
But is Draymond Green the most clutch.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Defensive player of all time? It does feel like he
gets a lot of big stops late. I can think
of a bunch off the top of my head.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
These Yeah, So to the to the question the when
we talked about this a little bit last night, like
it's really hard to do an all time list right
off the cup of the cup, so that that might
be more of like a long for mail bag for
the summertime. But uh I, Draymond in general is a
wonderful clutch defender because of the physicality. You know, the
(32:07):
playoffs are always physical, but they get exceptionally physical when
you get into the late game situations and like they
even you know they're they're they You'll even see that
in the uh in that last layup that Shangun missed,
Like Draymond fouled him on that play. But like that's
the thing, Like there's fouls all over the court, and
like in a game where fouls are allowed to a
certain point, Draymond is like one of the like and
(32:28):
even just in a vacuum take away clutch defense, take
away any of the details that we're specifically referencing, just
Draymond is the most gifted legal fouler I've ever seen.
Like this dude in regular season games in February will
come out and he's gonna find a way in the
early part portion of the first quarter to kind of
like probe the extent of what the refs will allow,
(32:50):
and he kind of like finds that barrier and then
he operates within that barrier, and like he's just he's
just so smart and he's so the physical strength element
to me is so like I got into this argument
with the guys from the U and I should say,
a discussion with the guys from Basketball Illuminati. So like
I'm in and Tom Haberstrow and we were discussing the
(33:11):
defensive Player of the Year debate, and like I was
trying to emphasize him. Like the big reason why I
think Draymond's a better defender than Evan Mobley is like
Evan Mobley can win a lot of battles in the
air as like a shot blocker and is like a
guy in rotation.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
But I have.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Always been more drawn to the shorter, stockier defenders because
I think winning battles on the ground is actually the
most important part of basketball. And Draymond just does a
wonderful job of disrupting your base and keeping you off
balance and bringing the appropriate physicality using gamesmanship to is
to his effect to like to positive effect manipulating the refs,
(33:46):
like like like Draymond knows that he can get away
with enough for a certain like that the play where
he ran up on the ref after he clearly didn't
get fouled, which was hilarious. He that's like it's part
of his gamesman ship, if it's part of how he
gets away with stuff, And like, I just think he's
I just think he's the best defender I've watched in
this era.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Yeah, and I think the clutch thing, I mean, I
think most of.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
The time, but on offense as well. The best clutch
players are usually just the best players, and the things
get everything just gets heightened and more challenging in the
biggest moments. So it requires the best players to be
able to succeed in those moments.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
But so because of that, Dre's unbelievable blend, like singularly
unique blend of physical strength on that stocky aspect that
you're describing, incredibly long wingspan and incredibly high IQ just
makes him so hard to score on.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
At the end of games.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
And it allows him to cover up for mistakes he's made,
cover up for mistakes other people have made. It's crazy,
like all the stops he's gotten off the top of
my head that I can think of. Got the big
regular season stop against Kevin Durant, he got that block
against Daniel Gafford in the playoffs against the Mavericks. He's
getting these all and they're all different types of stops.
He's able to do so many different types of things defensively.
(35:00):
That's it's really challenging. I would just it's hard to
imagine going at him.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
That point you made about how the best clutch players
are just the best players.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
I'm stealing that. That's fantastic stuff right there, exactly, like
they're just.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
The best players.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
Speaking of the best players, where does Steph Curry rank?
And the best players in the world are ranking right now?
Because according to this comment or nobody's playing better than
him right now. I think the important context of the
question we should attack here is not on an eighty
two game regular season basis.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
No one is going to argue he's better than the
Gianness on.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
Their eighty two game basis, right, But for four playoff
series that you have to win, where would he Where
would he sort of fall in that pecking order?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
I don't think he's playing better than everyone right now.
There are a lot of guys playing really good basketball
right now, But I do think Steph is operating at
that tier. Like I mean, Giannis is averaging thirty six
points a game right now, Like Jalen Brunson is averaging
thirty four points a game right now and has like
executed the pistons in the clutch over and over and
over again. Like there are a lot like Nikola Jokic
(36:02):
was playing at an insanely high level tonight, Chagos Alexander
just like eviscerated the Grizzlies today, Like there's a lot
of guys playing at a really high level right now.
I just think Steph is operating at that tier, which
is the key. Like you don't need Steph to be
the best player in the world, You just need him
to be able to go toe to toe with the
best players in the world. That is what it will
allow Golden State's number one ranks defense, post All Star break,
and the overall IQ advantage and the coaching advantage and
(36:27):
like Jimmy Butler's playoff upside, and that's what allows all
of that to operate. And like the it's been abundantly
clear to me pretty much since the all since the
Jimmy trade, that Steph has had that top tier superstar
ceiling still. And that's the key, Like, and there's a difference,
Like there are guys in the league, like Lebron, for instance,
is a guy that like on any one given night
(36:50):
in the in the in this playoff run, can reach
that level. He reached that level last night, but like
he wasn't at that level in Game one for example, right,
and you know, had a great defensive game too, but
wasn't able to really assert himself offensively in Game two.
And like the thing is is like Steph is night
in and night out right now providing the superstar offensive
(37:13):
upside that this team needs to reach their ceiling, which
is really all you can ask from him. But like,
as far as like actually officially ranking these guys, like
I just want everyone to know, like we that is
what we do in the summertime, and we take it
very seriously. We will do extensive detailed rankings of where
these guys rank in the league after what they've done
(37:33):
this season, What I would you know rank them going
into next season. Here's the thing, it's been what four
playoff games or three playoff games for Steph for for
a couple of these guys. It's hard to really like
parse them out ranking wise until we have a larger sample.
Speaker 4 (37:50):
Next question, as you sort of alluded to in the
interacter to the last one, does this win say more
about Golden State and their championship ceiling being able to
win without jim Me or is it more about the
Rockets just not being on their level?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Tonight was championship pedigree. Tonight was we need to get
this win against this team under these circumstances. I don't
think it's even like a style necessarily that the Warriors
will play in future games when they're healthy and put together. Like,
you're not going to see that much Quentin Post, You're
not going to see that much of Buddy Heel, You're
(38:28):
not going to see that much of Jonathan comminga That
was just like, that's just championship pedigree, just getting through
a tough circumstance in a series. I have been pretty
consistent about how I feel about Houston throughout the entire season.
I viewed them as a non threat to upset the
Warriors in this series. Like I like I I was,
(38:49):
like I told you, Jackson in a mailbag one of
these last few nights that I thought they'd go to
in two and zero in Golden State, even without Jimmy.
So like, to me, this entire series is more about
surviving the Rockets. In next round when they face either
Minnesota or LA, it's gonna be a better indicator for
us of where they're at in relation to their championship ceiling.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Yeah, I think winning games like this is sort of
like in the regular season, most championship teams beat up
on the bad teams. They don't just beat them by
a little bit, right, Like, it's an indicator of high,
high level basketball, but it's not necessarily an actionable thing
you can take and say this type of game means
(39:30):
they're going to win the bigger ones. It's a good
piece of evidence, but it's not necessarily predictive.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Totally totally agree, And that's the thing, like we need
to see where like both LA and Minnesota present very
different types of challenges to the Warriors, and so in
that round we are going to get a better look
at them. Again, Like, let me just put it this way.
When I ranked my championship contenders, I didn't even put
Rockets in the top ten like I didn't even have
(39:55):
them on that list. So like Minnesota and LA are
both legitimate second tier championship contenders, So like that is
going to be a much better indicator. Like if Golden
State smokes one of the teams coming out of that
that series, that would be to me, like the holy shit,
they've got a real chance to get this done type
of series for sure.
Speaker 5 (40:12):
Let's say a couple more questions.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
First, I wasn't really going to ask this question, but
since we are on the topic, you know, I'm not
trying to jinx anything. If the Warriors are making able
to make it past this series, we had quite a
few questions about who would be the better matchup, easier
matchup for them in the second round, the Lakers or
the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
This is a really good question. I think Minnesota's I
think excuse me, I think Golden State's defense.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
And you and I talked about this the earlier in
the series.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I think Golden State's defense because of Draymond, because they're
just a little bit faster, They're a faster team. I
think Golden State's defense would be able to do a
lot more damage to Minnesota's offense than this Laker defense
can do. Like, the Lakers defense is very much a smart, positional,
connected group. Since December eighth, which is a fifty nine
(41:01):
game sample, the Lakers are ninth in defensive rating. They're
a good defense, but they're not a great defense. They're
just a good defense, and they specifically are a defense
that depends on IQ and a forty year old anchoring
everything for them on the back line. So like, there
are obvious times where you can see them just completely
overwhelmed by Minnesota's athleticism, like Jada McDaniels last night, just
(41:25):
over and over again getting into the teeth of their defense.
At the end of the game, they're complete inability to
hang with Anthony Edwards. So like, there's no doubt that
Golden State, just athletically is more set up to grind
Minnesota's offense down into the mudd. And that's what's crazy, is, like, guys,
the Lakers, I just emphasized all these details about how
their defense is not as good as Golden State. The
(41:49):
Lakers are having more luck stopping the Wolves right now
then the Celtics are having stopping the Magic. So everything
I just said, still, Theakers are doing a better job,
Like still the Lakers are able to stop that Minnesota
Timberwolves offense, but that's in reference to half court offense,
by the way, per cleaning the glass. But the point
(42:10):
I'm trying to make is I think Golden State could
do some real damage to that Minnesota offense. Like I
think I think they could. I think they could win
that get that series with their defense in a similar
manner to what they do against Houston. But I think
the Laker offense can present some issues to them with
perimeter size. So it's man, it's really tough, Jackson. I
(42:36):
I think that Golden State would have a better chance
of beating Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
What do you think?
Speaker 5 (42:41):
I don't know. It's a very tough point, so different.
I my gut was they'd have a better.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Chance of being the Lakers thinking on the thought process
of being The Timberwolves present a lot of similar challenges
to the Rockets in terms of size, athleticism, but they
have an actual go to scorer on the offensive, an
actual offense. They have multiple scorers who are better than
you know the Rockets have. But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
I mean, I think it could go either way.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
That's tough, now that you put it that way, I
do think I'd would rather play LA but it's close.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
To have this size and athleticism thing. But they're also
not as good of a defense statistically, as you.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Say, yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 5 (43:26):
Man.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
That's it's really tough. Also, like the the the Shane
Goon problem, like the Rockets offenses looked its best when
they go through Shangoon, as you know, and the Minnesota
like the Shane Gun's.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
In my opinion, Shanguon is.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
A better offensive player than Julius Randalls, so like I
think he could cause more problems there. Here's the other
thing too, Like I I think the I think the
Lakers are gonna win tomorrow. I could be wrong about
that and everyone could take another victory lap on me.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
I think the Lakers are gonna win tomorrow, Like I mean,
they played like absolute shit in the two losses. Like
they played like absolute shit. And if if we've learned
anything from Clippers Nuggets, it doesn't matter if you're up
to one, it's check ball. You gotta beat us again.
And so like I I do think that this. I
think that series is still I have it like fifty
five forty five in favor of Minnesota. Like I think
(44:14):
Minnesota is a slight favorite for me in the Jason Sportsbook,
That's where I have it. But like I man, I think,
I think the point you made about Houston's physicality plus
a better offense would make them a slightly more dangerous
team to Golden.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
State than the Lakers speed.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
So I guess I'm saying Lakers fans or Warriors fan
should be rooting for the Lakers to come back and win.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Come over to the dark.
Speaker 5 (44:34):
You're tempting, You're tempting the YouTube chat with the I
think the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Are gonna win tomorrow. Let's take one more question.
Speaker 5 (44:40):
And then cause for the night. If Joker continues to
show this is.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
Just the commenter's words, not mine.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
If the joke.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
If Joker continues to show that he's the actual head
coach of the Nuggets, so obviously like in the game tonight,
parentheses Jokick was calling in subs for context. Does that
mean that is that a bad sign for David Adaman's
future as the head coach?
Speaker 2 (44:58):
There no guys like you, don't think Steve Kerr sits
down with Steph and Draymond sometimes and ask them their
opinion or that Draymond is never Steph has ever run
over to Steve and been like get him out of
the fucking game. Like like, guys, like, that's just if
you're a if it news flash. It just because your
coach doesn't mean you know everything. Players are also very
very smart, and every smart person that I know, every
(45:20):
like smart, humble, like you know, kind of like well
grounded person I know leans on other smart people to
try to to try to answer problems. It's not I'm
the coach, you shut up. I solve all the problems.
Like Yo, Kitch is a basketball genius. I would recommend
talking to him as much as possible. Let's call it there,
all right, That's all we have for tonight, guys. Is
always we sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and
supporting the show. I'm gonna do a quick film breakdown
(45:43):
that should be up in the morning that is going
to cover just like some details from the two games,
might hit, some shake kills Alexander stuff in there too,
So keep an eye on the feed tomorrow morning for
some film. And then we have four two one series tomorrow,
So tomorrow is gonna be an old fashioned show like
last weekend. We're we have to hit four games at
the same time, so be ready live on YouTube after
the final buzzer of Pacers Bucks tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
I'll see you guys then. What's up guys?
Speaker 2 (46:06):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
And leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
The volume
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
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(01:57):
All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume
heavy Saturday.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Everybody.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Hope all you guys are having a great weekend. What
an incredible night of games that we just re created
to Jackson and I were just joking before the show started,
like this is our eighth consecutive night going, and I
think we've gone six of those mornings too, So it's
been like this crazy blurb. But at the same time,
like Jackson says, I'm riding a high from those two
(02:21):
incredible games, and I am too, Like it's just so
much fun at least in this time of year, despite
the unending train of just incredibly good basketball games. We're
gonna be breaking down tonight. We're focusing on the final
two games in the slate, so we're gonna be hitting
that absolutely bonkers Clippers Nuggets game, and then the Golden
State Warriors end up pulling out a game on the
(02:43):
strength of their defense against the Houston Rockets, some key
contributions down the roster with Jimmy Butler out, We're gonna
break those two games down from the perspective of both teams.
Then after that we're gonna do a mail bag from
the chat and one of the things that I like
about that mail bag is it allows you guys to
kind of direct into certain parts of these series that
you guys are interested in, that you guys want to
(03:04):
talk about more So, come into the later portion of
the show, drop your questions in that chat any other
questions you have about these series any other series around
the league. Make sure you guys hang out for the
mail back at the end. You guys are the Joe
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(03:26):
leave a rating in a review. On that front, we
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follow us there. In the last but not least, keep
dropping mail bag questions and YouTube comments, and we can keep
getting to him throughout the remainder of the postseason. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So I was confident coming into
(03:47):
this two game home set here for the Warriors that
even without Jimmy Butler, they should be able to get
the job done, mainly because of two things. The simple
fact that Steve Kerr, as he openly said in a
time out in Game one, these guys can't score on
us in the half court. If we can keep them
trapped there three times tonight the Warriors held the Rockets
(04:09):
to twenty two points in a single quarter. That is
going to keep things close enough. And then at home,
I just believe in the Warriors role players finding enough
ways to ride the energy of the crowd and find
ways to contribute offensively. That's kind of been the story
of the Steph Curry era is, especially when they're at home,
(04:29):
even when guys are out of the lineup, is if
STEP's out there and if Draymond's out there, they're going
to get enough stops and they're going to get enough
advantages to be able to win a game like this,
And they were just incredible. We're gonna be going down
the line here talking about all their individual contributions. I
do want to start with step though, because what was
actually interesting about this game is Houston controlled it early.
(04:50):
And one of the big reasons why was that idea
that I talked about with the Warriors role players being
able to ride some of that energy of the crowd
and their defense to be able to provide offensive punch
that wasn't there to start the game. No one could
make a shot to save their lives and to kind
of compound the issues. Steph for the first basically till
the middle of the second quarter was just like kind
(05:13):
of easing his way into the game, not bringing a
ton of aggression. I thought he was coming off of
his screening actions, telegraphing that he was looking to pass.
He had a couple of turnovers, he wasn't being aggressive enough,
and then right around that middle of that second quarter,
Steph turned it up. And there's a certain amount of like,
even with that level of defensive attention, there is still
(05:36):
a certain amount of panic that you can induce by
providing the necessary scoring pop and as we saw in
Game one, like Steph even in this scheme, even with
the face guarding, even with the double teaming, even with
the grabbing off ball, even with the blitzing of the
ball screens, even with all of the physicality, Steph can
cut these dudes to pieces. He's capable of doing it,
and he demonstrated that in Resounding over the course of
(06:00):
the last three and a half quarters of this game.
It all just started with turning up his aggression as
he started curling off of screens instead of curling off
of screens, and immediately looking to get rid of the ball.
He started trying to force the issue a little bit.
Jay Billis was talking during the game about how he
was like putting on his cape, so to speak, trying
(06:22):
to take on multiple defenders, curling those actions and taking
scoop shots in traffic, taking floaters in traffic. He started
to look to be aggressive for the first three point shot,
pushing it a little bit further out, taking some more
heavily contested shots.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
He found some.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
ISOs, some isolation situations that he liked working against, like
against Dylan Brooks there at the end of the game,
that quick crossover into the pull up three, and because
he brought the requisite scoring pop thirty six points tonight,
that is what started to induce the final sequence of
the game, which was Gary Payton the second starting to
get downhill out of keepers and like fake drible and
(07:00):
slips of ball screens even got free on a back
door cut off of a classic screening action where both
guys ended up running with Steph. That comes from the
scoring pop that Steph brings throughout the game thirty six points,
seven rebounds, nine assists, like he has been absolutely fantastic
in the two Warriors wins in this series. I can't
(07:22):
say enough about it. I want to skip ahead to
Gary Payton for a second, because, you know, one of
the things that was kind of standing out over the
course of the early portion of the game was nobody
really had anything going offensively. Brandon Pajemski had some good
looks from three, he wasn't knocking him down. Jonathan Kaminga,
you know, Steve Kerr places a bet on him to
(07:43):
start this game and takes Buddy held out of the
starting lineup, puts Quinton Post in there, tries to set
Jonathan Kaminga up with some more cleared side ISOs, and
just Jonathan Kimica couldn't get anything going. He was struggling
with the physicality of the situation. The game seemed to
be moving a little too fast for him. He wasn't
able to get anything moving, and so all of a sudden,
it's like, what do we have here? And you know,
(08:04):
there were a couple of guys who stepped up, specifically
Buddy heel To we'll talk about in a minute. But
one of the things that stood out to me in
that second half was Gary Payton specifically saying I am
going to the rim he was decisive. He wasn't coming
off of those fake dribble handoffs or slipping out of
those screens trying to look to pass. He was looking
(08:25):
to score the basketball. He went to the rim over
and over and over again in that stretch, and like
that was just that was such an important bit of
rim pressure in a game like this where without Jimmy
Butler it was difficult to come by rim pressure. I
thought Gary Payton was fantastic in this game. Finished with
sixteen points on seven of nine shooting, hit two massive
(08:48):
threes as well. Massive night for Gary Payton. The second
Buddy heeled though it was a little bit of a
weird shift in the early third quarter where he just
when he checked in where he looked like he was
just a little lacking that intensity. But aside from that
brief stretch to start the third quarter, I thought Buddy
was fantastic all night, just bringing that requisite level of aggression. Obviously,
(09:11):
Steve Kerr was gonna have to bump his minutes up
under the circumstances. He ended up playing twenty nine minutes tonight.
A lot of situations like that, a lot of Post,
a lot of Gary, a lot of Buddy healed trying
Jonathan Kaminga. They're doing that because they're trying to like
inject some offensive firepower into the situation. Counting on the
fact that Draymond and the rest of those guys, Moses Moody,
(09:32):
Gary Payton, all those guys would be able to get
another enough stops to be able to get to keep
this game within reach. And Buddy, every single one of
those five threes that he hit was super super important
in this game. He's plus fourteen twenty nine minutes at
three steals as well. Big time game from Buddy. Heel
couldn't post at a really difficult job tonight. You know,
(09:53):
sometimes you get handed a job that you're gonna lose,
but your job is to just try to to shrink
that gap as much as possible, to try to lose
by as little as possible. I remember I played in
this money tournament once up in Phoenix. There was a
three on three outdoor money tournament in downtown Phoenix and
we ended up winning it and winning the money thankfully.
(10:15):
And there was a semi final game where we played
and I had to guard this guy named Michael Craig,
and some of you hoopers might recognize the name. He
played at South Mountain Junior College in He played at
South Mountain Junior College up in Phoenix, and then he
ended up playing mid major D one somewhere out in
the South, if I remember correctly. But he was just
this behemoth of a man, like six foot four, like
(10:37):
two hundred and sixty pounds of just solid muscle, freaky athlete.
And my job in that game and that three on
three was you're gonna lose some battles to Michael Craig,
like he's gonna bully you. He's gonna get some layups,
You're gonna take a bunch of shots to the chest.
You're gonna be in pain after that game. But all
you have to do is just try to not lose
by that much. And that was literally the job that
(10:58):
Quinton Post was handed tonight. On the defensive glass against
Stephen Adams, he got thrown around sometimes, he gave up
some offensive rebounds. He was just just his legs were destroyed.
He couldn't make a three point shot to save his life.
He was leaving everything short in his shot making situations.
But he did the job. He won enough of the battles,
(11:21):
nine defensive rebounds, three offensive rebounds plus seven in twenty
seven minutes. Quinton Post took the assignment to just get
his ass kicked by the Houston front line tonight, and
he stood in there and he just held his own
and did his job battling for those possessions like some
nice tap out rebounds two in situations where you know
(11:43):
other guys were engaged in box outs. I thought Quinton
Post was fantastic. And then just the defensive effort all night.
I mean, Draymond Green had about as bad offensive game
as you'll ever see him play, making some misreads, some
sloppy turnovers, struggling to finish around the rim, blaming it
on the He wasn't getting fouled like Draymon had a
nightmare offensive game, but he did a ton of damage
(12:07):
defensively around the rim, especially to Alburns Shangun. How many
times did you see Shangun miss a shot within like
three feet of the rim tonight? Many of those were
because of the disruption that Draymond was providing on Shanggun's base.
He was battling down there and just winning. Like again,
this is the thing with basketball, doesn't matter how bad
of a game you're having, if it's close late, just
(12:29):
make a play, find a way to make a play,
do something that will help your team. And Draymond made
several defensive plays down the stretch of this game, and
then honestly, on the Houston front there's just too much
inconsistency in the form of their shot creation. You know,
shanggun kind of got figured out towards the end of
the game by the Warriors front line. You Know, Jackson
(12:50):
and I were talking last night in the mail bag
about just the inconsistency with Jalen Green. Jackson and I
talked last night. We were like, if is it more
likely for Jen to score less than fifteen points tonight
or is it more likely they'll score more than twenty
five points? And both Jackson and I said he'd score
less than fifteen. He had nine points and eleven shots
in this game. Fred van Vliet hit a couple shots early,
(13:12):
but went right back to the same inefficient shot maker
that he was in the first two games of the series.
They just don't have anything that they can rely on offensively,
and ultimately that's what's going to get them beaten the series,
is that if the Warriors give a concerted effort on
the defensive end of the floor, they're not going to
be able to score. And over and over and over again,
(13:33):
they got the stops they needed. The Warriors were able
to get the stops they needed to pull this game out.
All right, we're going to talk some Nuggets Clippers for
a few minutes, and then, like I said, Warriors fans,
Rockets fans, if you guys have any questions surrounding that series,
bring them to the mailbag portion here in about ten
to fifteen minutes. So, after two very close games in Denver,
(13:54):
it looked like we were going to get back to
back blowouts. In Los Angeles, the Nuggets completely took troll
a game. In that third quarter, they outscored the Clippers
thirty five to seventeen. I thought Jokic was absolutely amazing
orchestrating things in that stretch. He had sixteen points, eight rebounds,
and four assists. Just in the third quarter, he got
Michael Porter Junior going catching James Harden being lazy off
(14:18):
of him in off ball situations. Just oh, you're sitting
with your right foot by the lane line. I'm just
gonna rifle this pass to Michael and he's just gonna
go up and shoot it. He caught Harden in a
very sloppy switch where he tried to just like shove
I can't even remember who it was. I think it
was Derek Jones, but he tried to like shove one
of the Clippers other perimmeterive defenders out of Mike wasn't ready.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Jokics rifled the pass. He knocked it down.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
He had a variety of insane shots, just the shot
making from Yokich in that stretch. He had this like
crazy high arching running floater going through the lane off
of a screening action. A lot of Yokich attacking off
of off ball screening actions to try to get Zoo
caught up trying to chase somebody through screens, which is
something that you don't see Biggs do very often. He
had a tough movement three running to his right, same
(14:59):
sort of thing off ball screening action. Just ran up
to the right, got his feet set quickly knocked it down.
He had a break rhythm pump fake three out of
the left corner where he the same sort of thing
a baseline screening action that got Zuke caught up on it.
Caught on the corner, clean pump faked guy ran by.
He was able to just settle into the shot and
knock it down. He did damage on the offensive glass.
(15:20):
The passing was insane. He had the speed to uh
Peyton Watson underneath the basket where he got Ben Simmons
in a kind of a one on two situation. I
can't remember who it was in the corner. I think
it was. I think it was Peyton Watson. No, no, peyt
Watson was under the basket. And then I think it
was Michael Porter Junior or somebody else might have been
Aaron Gordon, somebody in the right corner. And Peyton Watson's
the real threat, right Like He's a good athlete who's
(15:42):
got a easy, like vertical spacing window that he can
just go up and dunk. And Jokic literally just looked
Ben Simmons off, just looked towards the corner, and Ben
Simmons lunged the wrong way. Jokics rifled it to Peyton
Watson and he got a dunk. You could literally feel
Yokic suck the life out of that arena. The Clippers
started to miss a lot of easy shots, like clean
(16:05):
looks for guys like Nick Batoon that just weren't going
down because you could just feel it in the arena.
You could feel the momentum slipping away from the Clippers.
The Nuggets also doubled Kawhi to great effect during that
third quarter stretch, in large part because Chris Dunn kind
of had his first really really rough offensive game in
the series. He made some tough reads on short rolls
where he just kind of botched advantage situations. He was
(16:27):
unable to knock down his open catch and shoot threes.
And that's the thing. You got to make Chris Dunn
beat you. And that doesn't mean beat you once, like
he's gonna beat you once. He had a game in
the series where he went three for three from three, Like,
Chris Dunn can beat you, but can he beat you
four times in two weeks? That's the question. And you
have to at least force him to do that. And
they were able to actually kind of play him out
(16:47):
of the rotation to where Tylu ended up closing with
bog Don mcdonovitch. But the Clippers really came apart and
it looked like the Nuggets were gonna get out there
with a comfortable win. But then the Clippers went on
a completely insane run of their own to start the
fourth quarter, really started pushing the pace. You could see
on the very first possession they just were running up
the floor to try to get something going. They got
their pick and roll game going finally with James Harden.
(17:10):
James Harden just started to bring more energy. A couple
of Nuggets like Michael Porter Junior and and Nicole Jokicz
both like really relaxed on defense during that run. And
you know, it's some one of those things you're up twenty,
you don't want to you don't want to just blow
through a ton of energy. But they almost lost control
of the game during that stretch because it just was
over and over and over again, James Harden getting into
the teeth of the defense for layups and kickouts to
(17:32):
guys for easy shots. Then on defense, the Clippers ran
a two three zone where they used the opposite guard
to deny the high post catch, which kind of baited
the Nuggets into some tough above the break threes. They
ran five possessions of zone in that fourth quarter and
got five stops. That was a big part, but really
it was the ball pressure. They just up their overall
(17:52):
level of intensity and ball pressure, they forced a bunch
of turnovers. They turned Denver over five times in the
fourth quarter, and it was like one of the craziest
momentum swings you'll ever see, because it just it was
like stop bucket, stop, bucket, stop bucket. Crowds going absolutely insane.
They were even able to weather some shots like Jamal
Murray hits like a tough elbow jumper. Aaron Gordon ends
(18:13):
up hitting a three above the break like and even
then it was just but then it'd be like stop bucket, stop, bucket,
stop bucket, and it just was out of control freight
train towards the Clippers until the final sequence when Nikola
Jokic was able to seize back the momentum. So the
Clippers go up by one towards the end of the game,
and on the final sequence we get this weird We
(18:35):
get this weird kind of set of plays where Nikola
Jokic gets called for an offensive foul and a play
where he gets gets called for hooking Nikol Jokic's arm. Now,
my biggest issue with this has just been the total
inconsistency in the way that this has been called. Like
I watched James Harden hook a guy like with that
inside arm on a drive and get three free throws
out of it early in the series. So like, what's
(18:57):
the deal, refs, Is it the arm hook is an
offensive foul? Or is it we give James Harden three
free throws? Like, let's get some consistency in the way
that we're calling that. So Jokic loses his mind, gets
pissed off. They go to the other end after that
play though, Nuggets up by Nuggets down by one. Jokic,
I thought this was a genius play on his part.
Just goes right back to the same damn move, just
(19:20):
quickly makes a right handed drive against Zoo. This time
he doesn't hook. He just keeps that arm in and
tries to blow up that shoulder, kind of snaps his
head back, gets the call. He's going to get that
call in that situation after what happened, You just get
call for an offensive foul. You can plain like crazy.
There's a psychological element to this sort of thing, And
(19:40):
I thought that was a genius play by Jokic to
quick get himself to the free throw line. Smokes the
first free throw, nearly smokes the second, but it goes
in ties the game. They go down to the other end,
the end of the floor, they get a stop. They
come back the other end. Jokic hits this insane left
shoulder turnaround jump shot right over Zoo that puts him
up too.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Obviously.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Zubots ties the game on the offensive rebound off of
the James Harden. James Harden was right at the front
of the rim and like smoke the layup, but Zoo
comes in and taps it in and then Aaron Gordon
wins the game dunking. Kind of a weird sequence from Jokic.
I didn't love the shot Jokic got there. He kind
of turned into the Somber shuffle, just sprinting out to
(20:20):
the right wing. It was a very weird final possession
from Jokic, but Aaron Gordon the man in the right place.
James Harden ends up missing a box out. Aaron Gordon
dunks it and that was as close of a buzzer
beater as I've ever seen in terms of it being
released in time like at the buzzer like this, like
the top third of the ball is above the rim
and the bottom two thirds of the ball is below
(20:42):
the rim. I thought it was the right call to
allow the bucket. But that was about as close as
it could possibly be. And and man, like what, it's
impossible to overstate how important that win is for Denver.
They don't play again until Tuesday. This is a team
that is beat up. Michael Porter Junior is in rough shape.
(21:04):
He's he's been dealing with some issue with his feet,
he's been dealing with an issue with his shoulder.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Told an NBA reporter that he can barely jump right now.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Like they're beat up. They need to go home.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And sleep in their own beds, and they need a
couple of nights to relax. They need to get their
legs back underneath them. And so for them to pull
that game out and to because they were losing by one,
that could have been an absolute catastrophe heading home down
three to one. Is this could have been like it
felt like the entire series was hanging in the balance
(21:38):
there and now now the Nuggets get to go home,
get a little bit of rest, home court advantage the
rest of the series. They just have to win two
out of three, much much stronger position for Denver to
be in after that incredibly insane finished, another clutch win
for Denver two shouldn't have been clutch, should have been
more of a comfortable win. But I still trust Joks
(21:59):
more than I trust and James Harden in a close
game late. I didn't like some of the shots that
Kawhi got late in the game. He took a he
had Jamal Murray on a right wing ISO late where
I thought he could have worked more towards the elbow
to try to get like a right shoulder or left
shoulder fade away that's more of like a fifty percent
shot for Kawhi. He ended up taking a pretty tough
(22:19):
off the dribble three that I didn't particularly like, like
the in crunch time. I do trust Jokic more obviously
game two, notwithstanding when they ended up making their mistakes.
But it's just a reminder that these series are decided
by the tiniest of margins. That game could have literally
gone either way, and now now the Denver's in a
(22:40):
much much more commanding position they lose that game, Clippers
are going to win the series. Denver wins that game,
now it feels much closer to that fifty to fifty
kind of spot that we were in after Game one,
and that's kind of where I feel at this point.
I'm still feeling like this series is very much a
coin flip. But LA had a chance to close it
there and it just couldn't close the deal. Some clip
(23:00):
notes James Harden's overall level of intensity and focus was
just off for the first three quarters. Didn't really bring
aggressiveness or decisiveness and pick and roll until the fourth quarter,
which I thought hurt the team. His off ball defense
has been bad all series, but it was especially bad Tonight.
Made several mistakes during Denver's third quarter run. I talked
about Kawhi needing to be able to operate a little
(23:21):
bit closer to the rim towards the end of games.
This is it almost feels to me watching that Kawhi
is a little afraid at double teams at the end,
and he knows that if he works into the mid
to short range, he knows he's going to get attacked
and he's going to have to use his passing ability,
And it almost I've seen this dating back even to
the Warriors game on Sunday right before the play in tournament. Like,
(23:43):
Kawhi is seems to be more comfortable at the end
of games, settling for further jump shots to try to
avoid double teams, and he just needs to embrace that.
He needs to embrace set it up ty Lou needs
to set up the spacing a certain way that makes
Kawhi's passing reads easy so that he doesn't have to
stress about it, but needs to operate closer to the
basket at the end of games and the hard and
pick and roll is still their best action. It just
(24:05):
depends on James Harden bring in the necessary pop and
as we know, James Harden is known for having that
type of game like, oh, massively important a game, opportunity
to take complete and total control of the series, and
James Harden just half asleep for three quarters of the game,
which we've seen over the years, like the like it
you know there, we go to that back to that
(24:26):
Spur series and there's the concussion that people point to,
but there are just so many different examples throughout his career.
We're like massive important game and just the energy and
competitiveness isn't there the way that it needs to be.
And that's one of the main reasons why, like, you know,
this Clippers team, they're very very good. I ended up
putting them fifth in my contender rankings before the postseason started,
(24:49):
but I had them below that top tier. And the
main reason why is just there there's the aggregate playmaking
talent piece that I've talked about a lot, but there's
just so many wild cards. It's like, are you going
to get a focused, intense, hardened are you gonna get
kind of like a sleepy Harden? Right, Like Kawhi has
even had an up and down nature to his game
(25:09):
over the course of the tail end of the season.
It just I don't feel like I can count on
the Clippers to be the best version of themselves night tonight,
and I don't think they have enough margin for error
to make up for that sort of thing, which just
kept me just a little bit lower on the Clippers
than many of my peers that cover the league. Are
all right, let's bring Jackson up here and let's take
some questions.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Let's do it.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Let's do it.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
We got a lot of questions about you know this
Warriors Rockets game. Naturally, first question, you said Steph's this
was written wrong.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Sorry.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
STEP's Game one performance was one of his better playoff
games because of what he was facing in the supporting cast.
How does today's game.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Compare the Steph didn't have as crazy of a shot
making game tonight. I didn't think in terms of like
that that Game one he hit four or five of
some of the you know, top tier tough shots that
he's hit in his career. Also, that Game one feel
too like you never know what you're gonna get in
terms of the defensive level of intensity, what the whistle
(26:06):
is going to be like. I don't think it quite
rises to Game one, but I did think that that
was a classic and fantastic Steph Curry performance.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Percent next question that we're getting a lot of from
this game is is this.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
The end of the Jonathan Kaminga experiment.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
If it's not the end, what are your not If
not the true true end, you know, what are your
thoughts on Kaminga sort of generally on.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
The team as well as specifically in the rest of
this series.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Well, Tonight was the latest example in a very very
long line of examples that Jonathan Kaminga has some potential
as a one on one player, but in dead serious
basketball games, he's not good enough at it to be
able to really give him a lot of leeway to
try to drive that part of his game, and you know,
(26:51):
in the big picture, it's tough because there are the
realities of Jonathan Kaminga being at a point in his
career where a franchise needs to invest than him, and
it's just tough to make that sort of decision when
the development at this point at his age hasn't really
come to fruition. And again, on this team, you can
crack into the rotation earlier and more solidly as a
(27:14):
reliable read and react player who also plays defense soundly
both on the ball and off the ball. Then you
can crack into this rotation as an on ball player.
If you're going to crack into this rotation as an
on ball player, you got to be really, really efficient
because you're not going to run a lot of on
ball sequences alongside Steph Curry. Alongside Steph Curry, the majority
(27:35):
of the work you do is going to be operating
in his ecosystem. And so Jimmy Butler has shown a
wonderful ability to kind of shape shift between connective attacker, playmaker,
rim pressure guy, but also be able to command a
unit for these very short stretches, like here's a three
minute stretch where we're going to give you the ball
a bunch of times. But right now, Jonathan Kaminge is
(27:55):
just not good enough at it to be able to
justify that kind of role on a dead series team.
And so here's the thing. He might be twenty six
before he's ready for that role. So if he's twenty
six before he's ready for that role, there are some
realities about him being effectively useless on this team relative
to what he could be somewhere else. And so I've
been saying this since the trade deadline, this is he
(28:18):
just needs to be it's in the best interest for
all parties involved to send him somewhere else this summer.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
I mean, I feel like there was a period of
a year or two there where it felt like maybe
Steph Curry didn't have the championship ceiling that we thought
he might have run out of that from a gas
at an age standpoint, and it was like, well, maybe.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
We need to keep him in around.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
But now that it feels pretty clear that at least
for another year or two years or three years, but
at least another year or two, Steph Curry is capable
of being the best player on the championship team. You
gotta what's the point on Jonathan Kiming on this roster.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
There was a bunch of buzz last year in the
middle of the season before the trade deadline, where some
Warriors fans would say things to me like like, well,
you know, the Clippers traded away Shake kildor Alexander and
look like I I Jackson and I were talking last night.
We find I find the Jalen green John, the Kaminga
(29:11):
type of athlete to be tantalizing in a lot of
ways because of just how physical these games get and
the ability to get to your spots is a real
asset in in super physical basketball. But at the same time,
like we can also admit even though Kaminga has potential,
like I think he has potential to enter into that
like somewhere between the twenty fifth to thirty fifth best
(29:32):
player in the league by the time he's in his
late twenties. I really do think he has that potential,
like a guy who could like make an All Star
team one day, maybe one you know what I mean.
Here's what he's not Shake Kills with Alexander. So like
let's just let's take that and set it aside. You're
not giving away the future here. So even to your point, Jackson,
I talked about this at the time, like like I'm sorry,
but like I like, I like a lot of these
(29:54):
young players Pajemski and Kaminga and Moody are not competing
in the Western conferen It's that that team's not good enough.
You're you are going to rebuild when this is all
said and done, except that reality and act accordingly.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Next question, If Jimmy is a fifty to fifty call
by Monday, which you know, the reporting tonight was that
he had a lot more swelling than maybe they expected.
He was struggling to move, which is why it wasn't
just a pain tolerance thing going against tonight. If he's
a fifty to fifty call on Monday, the tonight's result
impact Golden State's decision to play him next game? Well,
should they're this result impact it?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I think that if Jimmy's in a position where he
genuinely feels like another couple of days off could be
very good for his Actually, Jackson, can you do me
a favor while I'm saying this and just look up
how many days are off? I think they play Monday night, right,
so they.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Get one day play Monday after they play wednes so
they do go every other day for the rest of
the series, going every other Yeah, they're playing Wednesday back
in Houston.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Okay, so that is a pretty quick turnaround.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
But like, if you could somehow get away with sitting
him on Monday, you give him an additional all day Sunday,
all day Monday, all day Tuesday, most of the day
Wednesday to rest before he.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Has to play again.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And in theory, I feel like Jimmy and Stephen Draymond
with a mobile, Jimmy can go into Houston and win
a game five if needed, if it was two to two,
and then close the series out in six. So like,
if Jimmy's not feeling like he can be a real
asset on Monday, I would sit in.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
Yeah, it's a tough call.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
I mean, it's so hard to say without knowing how
bad it actually is.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
But it's gonna be an interesting decision. Next question, this
is sort of a hard one to answer, sort of
the off the cuff.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
But is Draymond Green the most clutch.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
Defensive player of all time? It does feel like he
gets a lot of big stops late. I can think
of a bunch off the top of my head.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
These Yeah, So to the to the question the when
we talked about this a little bit last night, like
it's really hard to do an all time list right
off the cup of the cup, so that that might
be more of like a long for mail bag for
the summertime. But uh I, Draymond in general is a
wonderful clutch defender because of the physicality. You know, the
(32:07):
playoffs are always physical, but they get exceptionally physical when
you get into the late game situations and like they
even you know they're they're they You'll even see that
in the uh in that last layup that Shangun missed,
Like Draymond fouled him on that play. But like that's
the thing, Like there's fouls all over the court, and
like in a game where fouls are allowed to a
certain point, Draymond is like one of the like and
(32:28):
even just in a vacuum take away clutch defense, take
away any of the details that we're specifically referencing, just
Draymond is the most gifted legal fouler I've ever seen.
Like this dude in regular season games in February will
come out and he's gonna find a way in the
early part portion of the first quarter to kind of
like probe the extent of what the refs will allow,
(32:50):
and he kind of like finds that barrier and then
he operates within that barrier, and like he's just he's
just so smart and he's so the physical strength element
to me is so like I got into this argument
with the guys from the U and I should say,
a discussion with the guys from Basketball Illuminati. So like
I'm in and Tom Haberstrow and we were discussing the
(33:11):
defensive Player of the Year debate, and like I was
trying to emphasize him. Like the big reason why I
think Draymond's a better defender than Evan Mobley is like
Evan Mobley can win a lot of battles in the
air as like a shot blocker and is like a
guy in rotation.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
But I have.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Always been more drawn to the shorter, stockier defenders because
I think winning battles on the ground is actually the
most important part of basketball. And Draymond just does a
wonderful job of disrupting your base and keeping you off
balance and bringing the appropriate physicality using gamesmanship to is
to his effect to like to positive effect manipulating the refs,
(33:46):
like like like Draymond knows that he can get away
with enough for a certain like that the play where
he ran up on the ref after he clearly didn't
get fouled, which was hilarious. He that's like it's part
of his gamesman ship, if it's part of how he
gets away with stuff, And like, I just think he's
I just think he's the best defender I've watched in
this era.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Yeah, and I think the clutch thing, I mean, I
think most of.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
The time, but on offense as well. The best clutch
players are usually just the best players, and the things
get everything just gets heightened and more challenging in the
biggest moments. So it requires the best players to be
able to succeed in those moments.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
But so because of that, Dre's unbelievable blend, like singularly
unique blend of physical strength on that stocky aspect that
you're describing, incredibly long wingspan and incredibly high IQ just
makes him so hard to score on.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
At the end of games.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
And it allows him to cover up for mistakes he's made,
cover up for mistakes other people have made. It's crazy,
like all the stops he's gotten off the top of
my head that I can think of. Got the big
regular season stop against Kevin Durant, he got that block
against Daniel Gafford in the playoffs against the Mavericks. He's
getting these all and they're all different types of stops.
He's able to do so many different types of things defensively.
(35:00):
That's it's really challenging. I would just it's hard to
imagine going at him.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
That point you made about how the best clutch players
are just the best players.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
I'm stealing that. That's fantastic stuff right there, exactly, like
they're just.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
The best players.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
Speaking of the best players, where does Steph Curry rank?
And the best players in the world are ranking right now?
Because according to this comment or nobody's playing better than
him right now. I think the important context of the
question we should attack here is not on an eighty
two game regular season basis.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
No one is going to argue he's better than the
Gianness on.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
Their eighty two game basis, right, But for four playoff
series that you have to win, where would he Where
would he sort of fall in that pecking order?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
I don't think he's playing better than everyone right now.
There are a lot of guys playing really good basketball
right now, But I do think Steph is operating at
that tier. Like I mean, Giannis is averaging thirty six
points a game right now, Like Jalen Brunson is averaging
thirty four points a game right now and has like
executed the pistons in the clutch over and over and
over again. Like there are a lot like Nikola Jokic
(36:02):
was playing at an insanely high level tonight, Chagos Alexander
just like eviscerated the Grizzlies today, Like there's a lot
of guys playing at a really high level right now.
I just think Steph is operating at that tier, which
is the key. Like you don't need Steph to be
the best player in the world, You just need him
to be able to go toe to toe with the
best players in the world. That is what it will
allow Golden State's number one ranks defense, post All Star break,
and the overall IQ advantage and the coaching advantage and
(36:27):
like Jimmy Butler's playoff upside, and that's what allows all
of that to operate. And like the it's been abundantly
clear to me pretty much since the all since the
Jimmy trade, that Steph has had that top tier superstar
ceiling still. And that's the key, Like, and there's a difference,
Like there are guys in the league, like Lebron, for instance,
is a guy that like on any one given night
(36:50):
in the in the in this playoff run, can reach
that level. He reached that level last night, but like
he wasn't at that level in Game one for example, right,
and you know, had a great defensive game too, but
wasn't able to really assert himself offensively in Game two.
And like the thing is is like Steph is night
in and night out right now providing the superstar offensive
(37:13):
upside that this team needs to reach their ceiling, which
is really all you can ask from him. But like,
as far as like actually officially ranking these guys, like
I just want everyone to know, like we that is
what we do in the summertime, and we take it
very seriously. We will do extensive detailed rankings of where
these guys rank in the league after what they've done
(37:33):
this season, What I would you know rank them going
into next season. Here's the thing, it's been what four
playoff games or three playoff games for Steph for for
a couple of these guys. It's hard to really like
parse them out ranking wise until we have a larger sample.
Speaker 4 (37:50):
Next question, as you sort of alluded to in the
interacter to the last one, does this win say more
about Golden State and their championship ceiling being able to
win without jim Me or is it more about the
Rockets just not being on their level?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Tonight was championship pedigree. Tonight was we need to get
this win against this team under these circumstances. I don't
think it's even like a style necessarily that the Warriors
will play in future games when they're healthy and put together. Like,
you're not going to see that much Quentin Post, You're
not going to see that much of Buddy Heel, You're
(38:28):
not going to see that much of Jonathan comminga That
was just like, that's just championship pedigree, just getting through
a tough circumstance in a series. I have been pretty
consistent about how I feel about Houston throughout the entire season.
I viewed them as a non threat to upset the
Warriors in this series. Like I like I I was,
(38:49):
like I told you, Jackson in a mailbag one of
these last few nights that I thought they'd go to
in two and zero in Golden State, even without Jimmy.
So like, to me, this entire series is more about
surviving the Rockets. In next round when they face either
Minnesota or LA, it's gonna be a better indicator for
us of where they're at in relation to their championship ceiling.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Yeah, I think winning games like this is sort of
like in the regular season, most championship teams beat up
on the bad teams. They don't just beat them by
a little bit, right, Like, it's an indicator of high,
high level basketball, but it's not necessarily an actionable thing
you can take and say this type of game means
(39:30):
they're going to win the bigger ones. It's a good
piece of evidence, but it's not necessarily predictive.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Totally totally agree, And that's the thing, like we need
to see where like both LA and Minnesota present very
different types of challenges to the Warriors, and so in
that round we are going to get a better look
at them. Again, Like, let me just put it this way.
When I ranked my championship contenders, I didn't even put
Rockets in the top ten like I didn't even have
(39:55):
them on that list. So like Minnesota and LA are
both legitimate second tier championship contenders, So like that is
going to be a much better indicator. Like if Golden
State smokes one of the teams coming out of that
that series, that would be to me, like the holy shit,
they've got a real chance to get this done type
of series for sure.
Speaker 5 (40:12):
Let's say a couple more questions.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
First, I wasn't really going to ask this question, but
since we are on the topic, you know, I'm not
trying to jinx anything. If the Warriors are making able
to make it past this series, we had quite a
few questions about who would be the better matchup, easier
matchup for them in the second round, the Lakers or
the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
This is a really good question. I think Minnesota's I
think excuse me, I think Golden State's defense.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
And you and I talked about this the earlier in
the series.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I think Golden State's defense because of Draymond, because they're
just a little bit faster, They're a faster team. I
think Golden State's defense would be able to do a
lot more damage to Minnesota's offense than this Laker defense
can do. Like, the Lakers defense is very much a smart, positional,
connected group. Since December eighth, which is a fifty nine
(41:01):
game sample, the Lakers are ninth in defensive rating. They're
a good defense, but they're not a great defense. They're
just a good defense, and they specifically are a defense
that depends on IQ and a forty year old anchoring
everything for them on the back line. So like, there
are obvious times where you can see them just completely
overwhelmed by Minnesota's athleticism, like Jada McDaniels last night, just
(41:25):
over and over again getting into the teeth of their defense.
At the end of the game, they're complete inability to
hang with Anthony Edwards. So like, there's no doubt that
Golden State, just athletically is more set up to grind
Minnesota's offense down into the mudd. And that's what's crazy, is, like, guys,
the Lakers, I just emphasized all these details about how
their defense is not as good as Golden State. The
(41:49):
Lakers are having more luck stopping the Wolves right now
then the Celtics are having stopping the Magic. So everything
I just said, still, Theakers are doing a better job,
Like still the Lakers are able to stop that Minnesota
Timberwolves offense, but that's in reference to half court offense,
by the way, per cleaning the glass. But the point
(42:10):
I'm trying to make is I think Golden State could
do some real damage to that Minnesota offense. Like I
think I think they could. I think they could win
that get that series with their defense in a similar
manner to what they do against Houston. But I think
the Laker offense can present some issues to them with
perimeter size. So it's man, it's really tough, Jackson. I
(42:36):
I think that Golden State would have a better chance
of beating Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
What do you think?
Speaker 5 (42:41):
I don't know. It's a very tough point, so different.
I my gut was they'd have a better.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Chance of being the Lakers thinking on the thought process
of being The Timberwolves present a lot of similar challenges
to the Rockets in terms of size, athleticism, but they
have an actual go to scorer on the offensive, an
actual offense. They have multiple scorers who are better than
you know the Rockets have. But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
I mean, I think it could go either way.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
That's tough, now that you put it that way, I
do think I'd would rather play LA but it's close.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
To have this size and athleticism thing. But they're also
not as good of a defense statistically, as you.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Say, yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 5 (43:26):
Man.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
That's it's really tough. Also, like the the the Shane
Goon problem, like the Rockets offenses looked its best when
they go through Shangoon, as you know, and the Minnesota
like the Shane Gun's.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
In my opinion, Shanguon is.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
A better offensive player than Julius Randalls, so like I
think he could cause more problems there. Here's the other
thing too, Like I I think the I think the
Lakers are gonna win tomorrow. I could be wrong about
that and everyone could take another victory lap on me.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
I think the Lakers are gonna win tomorrow, Like I mean,
they played like absolute shit in the two losses. Like
they played like absolute shit. And if if we've learned
anything from Clippers Nuggets, it doesn't matter if you're up
to one, it's check ball. You gotta beat us again.
And so like I I do think that this. I
think that series is still I have it like fifty
five forty five in favor of Minnesota. Like I think
(44:14):
Minnesota is a slight favorite for me in the Jason Sportsbook,
That's where I have it. But like I man, I think,
I think the point you made about Houston's physicality plus
a better offense would make them a slightly more dangerous
team to Golden.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
State than the Lakers speed.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
So I guess I'm saying Lakers fans or Warriors fan
should be rooting for the Lakers to come back and win.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Come over to the dark.
Speaker 5 (44:34):
You're tempting, You're tempting the YouTube chat with the I
think the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Are gonna win tomorrow. Let's take one more question.
Speaker 5 (44:40):
And then cause for the night. If Joker continues to
show this is.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
Just the commenter's words, not mine.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
If the joke.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
If Joker continues to show that he's the actual head
coach of the Nuggets, so obviously like in the game tonight,
parentheses Jokick was calling in subs for context. Does that
mean that is that a bad sign for David Adaman's
future as the head coach?
Speaker 2 (44:58):
There no guys like you, don't think Steve Kerr sits
down with Steph and Draymond sometimes and ask them their
opinion or that Draymond is never Steph has ever run
over to Steve and been like get him out of
the fucking game. Like like, guys, like, that's just if
you're a if it news flash. It just because your
coach doesn't mean you know everything. Players are also very
very smart, and every smart person that I know, every
(45:20):
like smart, humble, like you know, kind of like well
grounded person I know leans on other smart people to
try to to try to answer problems. It's not I'm
the coach, you shut up. I solve all the problems.
Like Yo, Kitch is a basketball genius. I would recommend
talking to him as much as possible. Let's call it there,
all right, That's all we have for tonight, guys. Is
always we sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and
supporting the show. I'm gonna do a quick film breakdown
(45:43):
that should be up in the morning that is going
to cover just like some details from the two games,
might hit, some shake kills Alexander stuff in there too,
So keep an eye on the feed tomorrow morning for
some film. And then we have four two one series tomorrow,
So tomorrow is gonna be an old fashioned show like
last weekend. We're we have to hit four games at
the same time, so be ready live on YouTube after
the final buzzer of Pacers Bucks tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
I'll see you guys then. What's up guys?
Speaker 2 (46:06):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
And leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
The volume
Host
Jason Timpf
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