Colin’s joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight” to break down all the NBA playoff action.
They start with the Warriors stealing game one on the road from the Rockets, and why their playoff experience was able to negate the Rockets athletic advantage (4:00). They break down why this was one of Steph Curry’s most impressive playoff performances (8:30), why Steve Kerr is incredible at finding the right “winning” players to surround their stars (11:30) and why Jimmy Butler is the perfect “get a bucket” guy they needed (13:30).
They pivot to the Lakers laying an egg in game 1 against the Timberwolves and Colin criticizes LeBron, Luka and co for their lack of intensity and energy (25:30). They give kudos to the Wolves for throwing a great opening round punch, and contrast Ant Edwards improvement to Ja Morant’s regression (31:00).
They move on to the Nuggets and why Denver’s reliance on Jokic to run the entire offense hamstrings his ability to be effective on defense, and Jason emphasizes why the Nuggets don’t have a choice to do it any other way (34:15). They point out the issues with the Clippers disjointed playmaking (36:15) and give credit to Russell Westbrook for the energy he brings to the floor(38:45)
Colin highlights all the seasoned veterans on both squads and why it’s going to make for an incredible, physical series (48:00)!
Finally, they predict a couple series sweeps (56:00), Colin offers some optimism about the Orlando Magic, and looks at a Houston/Kevin Durant pairing as a potential match made in heaven (1:00:30).
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. Get ready for more must watch TV from
Vice Sports. They have the show called The Grudge. It's
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a sports most intense personal and team rivalries, exploring ego's history,
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(00:21):
delivering something for everybody. Each controversy laced episode of The
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(00:44):
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(01:06):
cable channel. All right here we go. Jason Timpf, podcaster
the volume Hoops Tonight. Okay, so I picked the You know,
it's really funny. I mean, the series is pretty predictable.
One team can shoot, that's the Warriors.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
The other is.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Big, long, athletic and struggles sometimes when you take away
the transition baskets for the Rockets and you take their
athleticism and you mute it to some degree in the
playoffs because you're not going to get freebies. You know,
you get them on a Tuesday night in Orlando, you're
not getting them against the veteran NBA playoff team. The
Warriors played really good defense and Houston couldn't shoot. So
(01:47):
I know what the series is youth inexperienced athletic ability
length against this old veteran team that's incredibly well coached
with Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler. But I've got to
be honest. Show to a stat at the end of
the year where Jalen Green wasn't scoring. And Jalen Green's fascinating.
He's almost a case study for me. So I think
(02:08):
everybody should go to college at least for a year,
probably two. But he goes to the G League. I
watch his game. He can't play up your point, can't
really shoot super athletic and long, but sometimes you kind
of leans on that athletic ability around the basket and
puts a wild shots. Was invisible in this game. I mean,
he was just invisible. And they have more than enough
(02:30):
size and athletic ability, and I'm looking at this guy's career.
He's obviously an absolutely dynamic player. But I feel like
when I watched him tonight, it's like, Okay, in playoff basketball,
you have to sort of define your offense. You just
can't come down and wing it right. You can't just
have You see this in college basketball adjacent all the time,
where you just have lost possessions. In college you'll have
(02:53):
eight or nine in a row. And I felt a
lot of times I didn't know what Houston was doing
in the half court set when you took away the
transition baskets.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, that's half the battle.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
You gotta have a pet action or preferably multiple pet
actions that you trust to at least either get you
a good shot or get a close out for somebody,
so you can start the tic tac toe of trying
to break a defense down and Honestly, I'm glad you
love Jalen Green, because I thought that was the difference
in tonight's game. This has been a recurring theme for
the Rockets throughout the season. It kind of stems around
(03:27):
Fred and Jalen. When the two of them are both great,
they're basically impossible to beat. When one of them is great,
they almost always win. As a matter of fact, one
of the craziest stats I encountered as I was prepping
for the series is that when Jalen Green scores at
least thirty points, the Rockets worth thirteen and one this season,
Like they just win when they get scoring.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
So first of all, we should take that little.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Note and just file it away in case the Rockets
get Kevin Durant this summer, because that's where it could
get really scary, is if they have that reliable type
of scoring. But Jalen, as you put, is just so
in consistent. He's just as likely to go for seven
points in a game and be mostly ineffective as he
is to be effective. As a matter of fact, it
kind of comes down to he's very athletic getting to
(04:10):
the basket, and he's a very capable pull up shooter. Yeah,
but if those two things aren't going, it's gonna be
a lot of him forcing the action. Yeah, looking really ugly. Honestly,
Udoka has bailed on him often this year. Yeah, and
I wouldn't be surprised if he bails on him over
the course of this series. If you can't show.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
More, if you and I talked, if you and I,
you know it's the closure eyes test. Jordan, Kobe, bird Yokich,
Lebron take great offensive players.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I'll go back to.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
My day of George Gervin Alex English. When you think
of really profound scores, you can close your eyes and
you can picture their best move. There's certain stock foundational
moves Michael went to. He had about four, and you know,
just like he could get to he six in his sleep.
Kobe was more creative with fewer stock moves. He was
(05:05):
more creative than Michael with better range. But there were
certain things Kobe liked to do. Jalen Green's athletic, like
I feel like he has to develop two or three
foundational moves that he just uses and it's not a
knock steph Chris Paul. I mean, like Chris Paul has
just that behind the back through the leg, you know,
(05:26):
right angle of the free throw line, and close my
eyes and see it in my sleep. He scored eight
thousand points on one move. And I just feel like
with Jalen Green, I'm like, bro, it's not you got
to get past athletic ability, like you have to create
some absolute guarantees. The other thing here, listen, offensive rebounding,
Houston's going to dominate. They're so damn big. I thought
(05:48):
down the stretch the Warriors offensive rebounding, they were just
getting second looks.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
A lot of it was effort.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Down the stretch. I thought Houston looked like a beaten
team with about four to five minutes left. Golden State
the old guys outworked him.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, it was super interesting to see the flow of
the game as Steph, We've talked about Jalen and Fred
weren't producing anything on offense, so that that was really
the difference. Like you get seventeen combined points on thirty
four shots from Fred and Jalen, so literally half of
a point a shot. Right on the other side, you
get thirty one from Steph on nineteen shots, and just
(06:25):
I thought Steph was absolutely amazing tonight. I thought I'd
have to really think and start ranking. But when you
factor in the degree of difficulty, that was one of
his more impressive playoff games that I've watched. He was
really special. He was smothered all over the place and
he kept making it work. But like, honestly, to bring
it back to Jalen Green, Like, what I thought was
fascinating was Steph found Jalen to be his favorite target.
(06:48):
On the other end, that's really the issue with Jalen
is that when he doesn't have anything going offensively, he's
a weak defensive player when he should be better for
being a great athlete, and then on offense he doesn't
have the read and react game to make up for it.
But it was funny seeing the flow the game. Steph
is carrying the offense there, but you see Houston just
slowly chip away and there's nothing else going for Golden State.
But ironically, it was everybody else in the starting lineup
(07:10):
that kind of stepped up down the stretch.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I thought Pods was fantastic. Yeah, I thought mood I
thought Moody was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Moody hit two massive jump shots that step back shit
at the end of the shot clock. That little mid ranger.
That was a big shot, the huge shot he hit
in the left corner right after Fred van Vliet hit
his shot. They just had a response for everything. Jimmy
Butler did some beautiful matchup attacking down the stretch. They
were brilliant defensively. You saw a really cohesive Warrior starting
(07:37):
unit down the stretch. And honestly, if there's one thing
to take away from the Jimmy Butler trade, it really
just lined up their best five perfectly. They know who
their five is and it just crystallized all of that
and it ended up working out. I actually thought it
was interesting that they didn't try Kaminga tonight. Nope, especially
considering how poorly they were rebounding for stretches. But at
(07:57):
the same time, like you got steady, mistake free basketball
down the roster, which I think is what Steve Kerr
was shooting forward to avoid Houston getting out in transition.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I mean, you could argue if you combine these two rosters,
the most athletic guys are Jalen Green, i'm On Thompson,
and Jonathan Kaminga. None of them did anything tonight because
I mean, seriously, Jason, because that's playoff basketball. You don't
get the easy transition transition baskets. You're gonna play the
same team over and over. You get the best coaches,
(08:27):
so you don't get cheap points. Which, listen, we always
we've always known this. They were talking about this on
the broadcast tonight, is that you're they're not gonna blow
the whistle. It gets very physical. I mean you could
see the Warriors late in the game, pushy Chippy and
the three most athletic guys and these two you could
argue the three most athletic guys didn't do anything tonight.
(08:50):
I did think Pods. You know, again, he's not a kid,
played a couple of years in college now this I
think this is his second year in the NBA. So
he's a class example where you know, he's not this
five star recruit who they rushed through a g league
of rushes And what does that mean? He really has
(09:11):
a place. Pods really has a place in this offense
from what I can see.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, I was talking with my buddy Samus Fondiari about
this over the course of the last week because we've
been amazed to just see over the years how often
Steve Kerr has been right about who is a winning
basketball player, Like, for instance, like Ty Jerome, who was
incredible today for the Calves. Like that was the guy
that Steve Kerr had a lot of trust in Brandon Pajemski.
There were some downs colin over the last couple of
(09:37):
years where Warriors fans really wanted to bail on Brandon Pajemski,
and Steve Kurg just never gave up on him because
he believed in him as a winning player. The reverse
happened with Kaminga. There were stretches where there's a stretch
last year it was like a half dozen games in
a row, Kminga went for twenty plus and it was like,
oh man, we might have a future All Star in
our hands. But Steve Kerr saw through it and was
like this, there's not a lot of replicable winning basketball
(10:00):
that I'm getting out of this. There's just so much
there's so much emphasis in that organization. I'm bringing in
like the right types of dudes and like pods. The
way he impacted winning down the stretch was actually really
fascinating because it wasn't through any sort of, you know,
super talent based type of play. It was just smart basketball.
He beats a close out against Jabari Smith on the
(10:20):
left wing, traps him on his backside, baits Steven Adams
into stepping up, and throws a perfect bounce pass to
Gary Payton, who gets the easy layup under the basket.
The player Jimmy Butler got the put back, or I
think it was Draymond actually got to put back. Pods
didn't even get the put back. He just came flying
in and hit the basketball, but he kept it alive
long enough for it to pop right into Draymond's hands
(10:40):
and to go into the basket. He just does the
right thing every single time, which creates an environment of
factors that Steve Kirk can depend on to elevate the
situation for his stars to carry him over the top.
I think they just they just always seem to find
these guys calling it's crazy. It's an organizational thing for them.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Well, And you know, I was thinking about Jimmy Butler,
who finished forty two minutes, twenty five points, forty two
minutes frickin' and he plays both ends. And I was
thinking about this watching Jimmy Butler, is that he's a
very intentional basketball player, Like you remember his points and
I always said this about Andrew Wiggins, like he'd score
twenty six. I didn't remember a bucket, and like Jimmy
(11:19):
Butler can score sixteen, I remember all of them. You know,
it's like he's just an intentional player. And there were
a couple of times tonight where you know they were
in the control.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Of the game.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I mean this this well you could that's after that
that second quarter of basketball, it's like, oh, Houston's in trouble,
like they're they're they're completely out of rhythm, which the
Lakers were. We'll get to in a few minutes. But
the difference is the Lakers you kept thinking, well, I've
seen them in rhythm, they'll be good in the half court.
They never were, whereas with Houston you're like, oh, this
is this is a problem, Like they're just not they're young,
(11:50):
they're long, Jalen Green is lost and now he's a
little panicky. But Butler, you know, this is where I
love analytics, but sometimes I us need a bucket. And
there were about three to four times to night with
Jimmy Butler and it's like, no, he's not going to
shoot a three, He's just gonna work a guy and
(12:10):
give you that right angle, free throw, a line. He's
just in playoff games. So much of it is the
games are sold out, the crowds are lubricated and completely
into it. This is not people arriving from work late
on a Wednesday or Thursday. These are Saturday Sunday games.
Everybody is there. It's almost like tailgate and the lounge.
(12:30):
You go to your seat that are allowed, and those
ten point lead go down to four really fast, and
Butler just ends, he just gets you. He's got that
Kawhi thing. It's not about three. Sometimes you just need
a basket to quiet the crowd. And when I watch him,
(12:50):
I'm like, that's just playoff basketball. He's just you know,
he really senses oh shit, the crowd's back into it.
This is a this is a really big possession. And
I think Draymond does that and Steph feels that, and
I saw the Warriors do that half a dozen times
in the second half to night. You could just sense, hey, guys,
(13:13):
this is a huge possession. Even though we leave by
eight to your point.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Every single time Houston got it to four, got it
to three, the Warriors would go like stop bucket, stop bucket,
and it would be back up to eight, like they
just they always were able to regain control of the situation.
You were talking about go to moves earlier with Jalen Green.
That is, like Jimmy's patented go to move is the
hard in and out dribble with the right hand to
step back towards his right hand side. He added that
(13:40):
back in Minnesota, and I remember that was the reason
Philly traded for him. They were like, we need a
guy to get us a bucket. And then like it
was like the first or second game after he got
traded there, he hit a game winner on that exact
same move off the right wing. That's Jimmy's go to
move is he can just do a hard in and
out with that right hand to get some separation. And again,
to your pointctice that shot so much. And then when
(14:01):
you end up in these situations where it's like you've
got to create something out of nothing, it's great to
have a staple, something that you can depend on that's
going to give you a decent shot at knocking something down.
And you talked about the three versus mid range thing.
You know, when you get into a large sample, that
extra point matters because you're you know, over the course
of one hundred shots. If you get an extra point,
(14:22):
then you know that can make a huge difference, right,
But at the end of a game, no one cares
what your per one hundred efficiency is. It's about that possession.
You got to get a bucket on that possession. And
if Jimmy can hit that step back at fifty percent,
that's actually a better shot in that situation then even
(14:43):
like even a step three that's thirty nine percent, right,
because there's a sixty one percent chance that it's going
to miss. And so it's really nice to have a
big forward for them that they can go to in
those situations that can create a shot that has a
little bit less variance closer to the basket.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So I picked I picked the Rockets in seven in
this one, and I don't want to overreact, but there
were just were things I saw tonight, like Imoduko will obviously,
I mean, this is the playoffs the Lakers. Obviously you're
going to get a much more physical, intense Laker team
in Game two. But there are some things I'm not
(15:18):
sure they're correctable. I think I think the Rocket staff
has lost confidence in Jalen Green, and that's a problem.
Nobody in LA has lost confidence in Austin Reeves cause
he didn't play particularly well. So I mean, I don't know.
I just watched that game tonight and I'm like, man,
Jalen Green is a non factor and is a little
(15:39):
bit wild now, and like he had a couple open
looks in the second half, You're like, oh, no, he
didn't want to shoot, Like he didn't trust this at all.
It's hard to snap out of that in a series.
So I'm I'm going to watch one more game. But
I think I was on the wrong side of this.
Do you still like the Warriors?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I you know, if I still like the Warriors? To
say this, though, Colin, I think if you're a Rockets fan,
you could be sitting here and saying the Guard Battle
could not have gone worse in our favor, Like Fred
and Jalen laid absolute stinkers, and Steph played, like we
talked about earlier, one of the better playoff games of
his career, and it was a three point game with
(16:18):
a few minutes left, And so there is a lot
of potential for Steph to have a little bit more
variance and have a poor shooting night. For Jalen Green
to have those great nights. I talked about him going
thirteen and one. He did that against a lot of
good teams too. There were Knights in the regular season
where Houston played a good team and Jalen was good
and they won. So like, there's a lot of variance.
(16:39):
So that's why I still think. I still think there's
a good chance this series goes longer, like it goes
a solid six games. But yeah, it's just it's really
difficult for me to imagine a scenario where the Rockets
out execute the Warriors in the half court or in
the offense part of the part of their attack for
four times and two weeks, like it just seems too
unlikely to me.
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Speaker 1 (18:37):
All Right, the Lakers, let's talk about that laid in egg.
This was a pretty easy game to watch. I kept
waiting for them to snap out of it. Timberwolves were
much more physical, and then they're a physical team, and
you knew they were going to ugly it up. That
was I mean, it was just like, guys, we're not
(18:59):
winning our two to matchups with this team. We're not
going to be pretty. And they have players who can
play ugly. Nazrid, Julius Randall, Golbert, they can play that game.
And I'll get to ant in the second because I
think he's really getting to be a really refined, really
smart player. But I was really shocked by the lack
(19:23):
of energy, little criticism to jj Reddick. I kept thinking
they played with a little bit more energy in the
second half. I thought for spurts, but I mean this
was in football terminology. This was kind of a butt
kicking like physicality intensity. I mean, Minnesota took it to
(19:44):
the Lakers. They just were a much more energized team.
And little surprised the Lakers didn't shift into another gear.
I really never felt they were the more physical team.
Didn't even fake it. Were you surprised by that?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I was super surprised.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
This Lakers team has always had a little bit of
a tendency to have, you know, inconsistent intensity from game
to game. But I've always felt like championship teams know
when it's time to go. And I would be lying
to you if I'm not if I said I wasn't
super discouraged that, Like you look at a team like Oka,
see that is just like we're going to come out
(20:25):
and we're going to embarrass Memphis today because this is
step one of this two month long journey where we're
trying to.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Get the trophy.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And there were three teams I watched yesterday or I
should say over the weekend that looked like really unprepared
for playoff intensity, and it was the Bucks the Grizzlies
and the Lakers. They looked just really unprepared for the intensity,
stretching even down to Lebron in Austin. And so I
want to start here. I want to give credit to Minnesota.
I thought they threw an incredible punch yesterday. I thought
(20:54):
Aunt was super measured and didn't play into the game
plan making stupid forced decisions around the rim. He took
the kickout opportunities that were there. Everyone defended. Julius Randall
did a wonderful job defending both Luca and Lebron. The
bigs did really good on switches against everybody but Luca.
I thought they they're spot up shooters, shot really confidently
(21:15):
from all over the floor. As things got tighter late,
Julius Randall and Ant both showed really high level tough
shot making. Minnesota threw a great punch. But when I
went to watch the film this morning, and for anybody listening,
there's a film session on our YouTube channel that you
guys can check out. In that film session, I came
away feeling a little better in the sense that there
were just so many obvious things that the Lakers could
(21:38):
do better. That said, I also think there's a version
of this colin where the Lakers bring a more intense
effort and it's not enough. And so that's what I'm
really curious about with Game two. I feel relatively certain
that they're going to come out on Tuesday ready to fight,
and they're going to be ready, and I'll have my
eyes on that first quarter because if the Lakers come
(21:58):
out and they control things and it's like, here we go,
this is our team, this is what we look like
when we're engaged, and we're better than these guys and
we can show it, I'll feel better about kind of
chalking up what happens Saturday night is a lack of intensity,
a lack of being ready. But if it's halftime calling
and Minnesota is up by like three and Lebron and
Austin are still struggling, That's where I'm going to be
(22:19):
sitting there, like the Lakers are in a world of
trouble because this is as we saw in the Denver
series last year. The Minnesota physicality never lets up. It
just keeps coming until the end of Game seven, and
you have to find a way to survive it.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, I mean, listen, Denver didn't have a good first
half Boston didn't have a good first half. The Knicks
did not have a good first half, like it happens
where the favorite comes in or a team that's you know,
got a ring and Denver comes in, and you know,
the Clippers outplayed them, and the Pistons outplayed the Knicks
early in Orlando. You know, Ben.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Carrol's a great player.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Oh, just a great player. Now. He by the way,
has a couple of stock moves like you. There are
things he does consistently every time I watch him play
and half court. He's a really good player. Also went
to Duke, had great coaching, you know, briefly, but great coaching.
But I just kept waiting for the Lakers. And let's
(23:12):
throw this out there, JJ Reddick's first playoff coaching game.
And Chris Finch is a veteran, and Chris Finch is
a really smart guy. And I said this yesterday on
my postgame that Minnesota is a highly functional and well
coached Memphis where you've got a defensive presence at the
rim zach Edie and Gobert, you have a hyper athletic
(23:35):
star in John Morant and an aunt Ant now is separated.
I think of the two players much more sure. Then
you have kind of a physicality with length, you have
kind of a tough guy and Julius Randall, you know,
Memphis has a couple of tough guys Bane, you know,
so a physical presence. And the difference is Minnesota's more
(23:57):
mature and they're better coached. And I think Ant really
become a refined player. Like you know, it was funny
they led by eleven and half he had eight, and
it was just like I thought, the word you used,
he let the game come to him. He's a very
measured player now. And it's like, and I think that's
really hard. I think that's hard when you're in that
(24:19):
you know, you're in those prime, early show off years
where you can do a lot of things. Your energy
is through the roof compared to half the guys, the
veterans you play. And I think that comes down to
a kid. Every time I watch AUNT every year, Jason,
I see a better player, and I don't with Ja
Morant like a Ja Moran, I'm like, Okay, I know
(24:40):
you're athletic, bro, but your shooting's getting worse. I think
Ant's really becoming I guess this is the way I
would put it. I can see the work Ant puts
into his game, and I can see what the staff
the work they put into Ant in the offense. I
can see it.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
To your point, these two guys faced off in a
playoff series in twenty twenty two where Jaw looked like
the better player, and what has happened since then. Aunt
has demonstrably massively improved year over year, and Joe, i'd argue,
is worse than the player he was in twenty twenty two.
He's not able to inflict himself on the game the
(25:17):
way he used to it. Again, the Grizzlies are a
whole other thing. I have so many thoughts there calling
we could have a fun conversation about them at some
point in the future. But like with Aunt, I want
to credit him for pushing through some of the reps
that he had to work through. Like I don't know
if you know this, Colin, but Ant was the most
blitzed player in the NBA this year, and what that
means is every time he went into pick and roll,
(25:37):
the guy who was screening him, his defender would double
team Ant as he was coming off of the screen.
So one of the reasons why they're not blitzing him
for the reason you blit Steph Curry. You blit Steph
Curry because you don't want Steph to get a three
coming off the screen. They're blitzing Ant because they don't
think he can pass Colin. They're double teaming Aunt at
the end of games because they don't think he can pass.
(25:58):
It was the narrative all season coming into this series.
It was all everybody would talk about. And so I
want to I want to give Chris Finch some credit
here too, because I think him and his staff literally
went up to Aunt and they were like, you cannot
shoot your way through this series. You have to pass
your way through the series. And I thought he did
a wonderful job letting the game come to him. He like,
wouldn't take a three early in the game. He was
(26:19):
like letting the game come to him. But then all
of a sudden, in that second quarter run, he starts.
In the third quarter run, he starts letting it fly.
In transition, as the momentum is going, he gets started
to get aggressive when the game called for it. But
he just took what was coming to him there in
the first half, and I just thought, he's you know,
we've talked a lot about where aunt rakes in the league,
and at the beginning of the season I put him
(26:39):
at number five, and that might have been too high
at the time, but really, Colin, is he not the
fifth best player in the league now? I mean, you know,
Tatum and Giannis and Luca or Tatum and Yiannis.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
And Sga and Yokis are the top four.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Luca hasn't really been able to regain his footing since
he got hurt earlier this year. I don't know of
a player who's playing better basketball other than a maybe
Steph Like like that, there's ants crawled right back up
that list after getting kind of like, you know, criticized
all year for not managing those double teams very well.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, it was. It was such a strange game because
you know, it just lacked. You know, you watch and
let's talk about the Nuggets and Clippers. That game was great,
and I mean the intensity of that game from the
first minute was just insane. And I really thought the Clippers.
I picked the Clippers, I think in six or seven
(27:32):
games in this series. Better coach, better defense, I thought
they'd and by the way, I think I still like
the Clippers, but I thought the last. You know, it's
funny about Jokic. He's not a very good defender. But
I was thinking about this. I went on a long
walk today and I was thinking about that series in
the game. Is that historically it's not just that he scores,
(27:54):
he rebounds. He's got the ball in his hands. You
cannot ask a seven foot guy that's two sixty five
to honestly carry the offense, including the ball handling in
the passing. You know, Kareem could score thirty, wasn't handling
the ball right, And so it's like Joki isn't. He
(28:16):
doesn't put a lot of effort. I mean, Harden blew
past him about six times in the first half. But
I will say this, in the last five minutes he
does lock in. He's not a great defender, but the
last five minutes the game, everybody on the Nuggets was
playing real defense. They were locking in. He was putting
bodies on people.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
But as I watched.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Jokis, I'm like, listen, man, look at the size of him.
Nobody asked Kareem or Shack or a Keem to bring
the ball up, set the screens, direct traffic. I almost
give him a pass. Defensively, because I do think late
in games he's much more engaged on that end.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
I thought he was pretty great on defense for the
entire second half of that game and most of the
second part of the second quarter. There was a timeout
right when the Clippers went up I think fifty one
to thirty six, and Jokic came out right out of
the timeout and just started pressuring the heck out of
Zoo and was just flying around making extra efforts. And
he was brilliant in his pick and roll defense in
(29:20):
the second half, getting deflections, forcing turnovers. And while I
agree with you Colin that it's ridiculous task Nicole Jokic
to be the most high usage player that we've seen,
really in recent NBA history, while also having to be
such an important part of their defense. It is a
lot to ask, and I totally agree with you, but
(29:40):
the Nuggets need him to be if they're going to win,
and to his credit, that's what he was. It's what
he became in the second half of that game. And
I also thought he did a really nice job of
just taking what the defense was giving him at late
in the game, like he was trusting Russell Westbrook repeatedly
over and over again on these kickouts and on these
cuts to be the guy that can make the defense
(30:01):
pay for ignoring him. And I just thought, I just
thought was amazing. And honestly, Colin, like, I will never
change my pick after one game. I'm with you, you
need to get two games worth of evidence. But I
was really disappointed in the Clippers and their overall just
kind of like connective playmaking. You know, Kawhi Leonard, as
(30:21):
amazing as he is, it can be a robotically efficient scorer,
but he's never been good at managing double teams.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
He's never been a very good passer.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
No.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I remember for the first decade of his career or
not quite, it was like the first like seven or
eight years of his career, he never logged a single
game with seven assists.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Like he just struggled to degenerate shots.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
First team averaged one or two for several years.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Yeah, Like, he's never been a great playmaker. The connective
playmakers like Chris Dunn, an elite defensive player, a guy
that can knock down those shots in the corner, but
you start making him make decisions that could get tough.
There was plays where Nick Patum was fumbling the ball
around even Zoo a little bit. The read and react
stuff can slow down. And so, honestly, like Denver, I
think has a more realistic pathway to win this series
(31:05):
than people think, because I don't think they have to
be that great defensively to slow down this Clippers team.
They just have to be good enough to pray on
that indecision that they have to prey on those mistakes,
like you can double Kawhi Colin, you can double Kawhi
and he's gonna make some mistakes. And so I do
think they have some advantages here. And I came away
from that game feeling like Denver had a better chance
(31:26):
to win the series than I thought beforehand.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
You know, it's really interesting. So I've never been a
huge fan of Westbrook, and I say this, I'm not
a huge fan of basketball players that are hyper athletic
six four and under and can't shoot because without the
hand check, they will get to the basket and eventually
get hurt. Derek Rose, John Wall, John Morant like, it's
(31:49):
just a cliche. You can't get You can't stand in
front of these guys. They get to the basket and
just get clobbed. And that's why guys like Steve Nash
or Curry can last longer because they can up and
they don't have to oways finish at the rim. And
Westbrook when they put him in late in the game
with the announcer said, you know it's you get it.
(32:10):
It's the full experience with Russell Westbrook. And he did
not shoot well. He hit a big three. But I
got to tell you something. His the one thing I
will defend him forever. When he's on the floor. You
know he's on the floor, he jumps. His energy is profound.
I mean he he is a tremendous rebounder for his size,
(32:33):
like a tram. He plays way bigger than his size.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
And I was judge.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I came out of that and I'm like, listen, man,
he didn't shoot well. He had one big three. He
was a big deal down the stretch. It's he just
he's just going so fast. You know, he didn't have
a ton of self awareness. I mean he's kind of
like blinders on going to the basket and you're like, Russ, no, no, no, no. No. Situationally,
some times he can drive me crazy. I thought he
(33:02):
was so important down the stretch for them.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
The biggest weakness that Russ has had in his career
is he only has one speed and that's like just
balls to the walls, like at like one hundred percent intensity.
He doesn't know how to play any other way, and
so that just manifests and a lot of mistake making.
But it also can manifest in a lot of playmaking. Yes, Like,
like I thought, like you know, there's always this scale
with Russ where it's like, well, the damaging plays out
weigh the good plays acts and last, that game yesterday
(33:29):
was such a perfect example of what happens when the
good badly or greatly outweighs the bad. Like he was
fantastic down the stretch of that game. He like straight
up bullied Kawhi Leonard one on one and got an
offensive rebound put back. He had the big steal at
the end when the Clippers cut it to three and
they had a chance to tie the game. At the end,
hits the big three in the left corner, repeatedly found
(33:50):
himself available as a cutter under the basket with Jokic.
He you mentioned the rebounding like, I think Russ is
one of the better defensive plays in the NBA. He
is not a disciplined defender. He will make a lot
of mistakes and he'll gamble a lot, but if he
gambles and gets right a couple times in a row,
(34:11):
they can be massive momentum swings and dating all the
way back. I mean colin that first year that he
went from the Lakers to the Clippers before Kawhi got hurt.
If you remember, in that first couple of games, the
Clippers looked really good against the Suns. Kawhi was like
kicking Kadi's butt head to head, and Russ was amazing.
He was a wrecking ball in the early part of
(34:31):
that series. Did an amazing job defending Devin Booker because
he's just this big athlete that just never has an
off button, and he can be a devastating playmaker. The
key is keeping him in a very small role. And
that's the beauty of what the Nuggets can do with him,
is they can keep him in a very small role.
They could even be like, hey, Russ's head is not
in it, tonight sit him, bring in Michael Porter Junior.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Like they can.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
They have the ability to play Russ when he's hot
and to pull him when he's not. And that's the
flexibilit What do you need to benefit from that? Playmaking
all right?
Speaker 1 (35:04):
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(36:13):
the things that was great about that game, there were
so many years in the NBA, I mean Harden and Kawhi,
I mean, I mean that center for the Clippers ten years,
I think, isn't it for Zoo Bouts?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I think, yeah, it's ten years for a while.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Yeah, Lakers, Clippers. You know, Jamal Murray, Jokic, Michael Porter's
been around. I mean, Christian Brown's a young guy obviously,
but Toomb's been around forever. And it was it was
really cool. It was a it was a veteran NBA
tuggle war. Both rosters knew they're gonna let us play.
(36:50):
They're gonna let us play, you know, like some of
these young teams, like they're like, whoa, there's no there's
no whistles like these. I mean, it's just a whole
different ballgame. And I mean you and I have discussed this,
like they're just gonna let guys play and the further
you go. But it was like the Clippers and the
Nuggets was like, that was grown up men's basketball. First,
(37:12):
everybody knew they could push a little more and they
could lean on you a little bit more, and the
physicality just I was just sitting there. I didn't miss
a second. I thought, this is great basketball. And I
said this, I don't you have to understand and football
or hockey you can't take. You can't take a playoff,
(37:33):
you can get hurt. In baseball, it's pitcher against batter.
Nobody wants to be embarrassed. There's an intensity that's guaranteed
between the pitcher and the batter. But in basketball, there's
a lot of games and these are big bodies. And
if you've ever seen a retired six foot ten NBA player,
you know they look like they got tackled. I mean
they're just walking.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
They have bad.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Backs, and it's like, you cannot expect these guys to
play thirty eight to forty four minutes eighty two games
in the regular season and play this kind of intensity.
They're traveling constantly, But you get into the playoffs and
Denver and the Clippers was like, oh, snap, first possession,
and it's like, I think it has the makings of
(38:13):
a an incredible series. Just all these veteran players. I
don't know. I just sat there and I was like, damn,
this is great basketball.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
We know how everybody plays, like we know Kawhi's games
so well. Now we know James Harden's game so well.
Now we know what the Murray Jo Kitch two man
game looks like. Aaron Gordon, what he can do, like
I think the most fascinating chess match so to speak
of this series, or or like kind of subplot of
this series. I do think the Clippers are more talented.
(38:45):
I think they're top four when you factor in all
that stuff. I think that the Nuggets looked like the
smarter team in that game. Now, this is an interesting
example of how can come down to the players. Because
David Adelman obviously a rookie a coach his first opportunity.
We have ty lu who's a championship winning coach, is
well respected as a top five coach in this league.
(39:06):
But you get into the game and it's like Aaron
Gordon has James Harden on him and he just knows
all these little ways to punish James Harden for not
having the size, and the Nuggets know when Aaron Gordon
has that type of matchup, how they can capitalize on
it with his offensive rebounding or in two man game
with Yokich, they know, Like even Jamal Murray, it's like, oh,
his mid range jump shot was just terrible in that game.
(39:28):
He could not buy a mid ranger right in clutch time,
he just switches to taking threes and hits two massive
threes down the stretch. The two man game with Yokich
and Murray was so effective down the stretch that the
Clippers started triple teaming it. They brought a third defender
over every single time. They knew how to get the
ball to Christian Brown, they knew how to get the
ball to Russell Westbrook. The Nuggets are just so sure
(39:49):
of how they want to play every single possession. Yeah,
Like they are just more reliably going to get to
their ceiling than the Clippers, who I think can suffer
from a little bit of inconsistent basketball like you on
the right, and they can have more variants in their performance,
and there will be games where the Clippers just look
like they outgun him, because it's like Zoo has twenty
five hard in his twenty seven. Kawhi is thirty in
(40:09):
Norman Powell Portson eighteen or you know, six for six
from three. They'll have games like that, but I think
that they'll have more variants throughout the series because the Nuggets,
I think are a little bit smarter.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Well. I also think there's an advantage Jason, Like when
you have an elite score Yokich sga Jason Tatum this year,
like Luca. The advantage is if a play gets loose,
if it's possession, the ball gets kicked around, you know
who get the ball, you know who to get the
ball to. Like the Warriors had a couple of bad possessions,
(40:39):
you know, and here comes Houston back. It's like okay,
every guy running up the court, like, let's get it
to Steph Let's get it to Jimmy, And like Houston
is just athletic, and it's like, well, Fred van Viet
it's not playing well. And Jalen Green's lost. Now obviously
they're big. He from Turkey is just a fantastic player.
(41:03):
Sengoon is a fascinating player to me because first of all,
very highly skilled. He's got a beautiful touch. I mean,
it's just crazy how easy he makes the game look
from like eight feet in it just both hands. It's like, God,
(41:23):
damn that guy. And he was like the sixteenth pick
or something. He was like middle of the first round.
But I guess going back to the point is that
I think the reason Denver when you have Jokic or
Oklahoma City with SGA, it's like anytime you're kind of sputtering,
it's just okay. Everybody walking the ball up the floor
(41:44):
knows where you're going. And I thought Houston was kind
of paralyzed by they didn't trust their backcourt, like who's
taking shots and you just watch it's almost a panic.
When I watch Houston late in this game, it's like
they're not sure who to go to. And I thought
Denver down the stretch really knew who to run the
offense through.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
Yeah, that's been steady for them forever. And you know
to your point that that's the organizational you know, uh
thing that Houston is missing. It's just that overall decision
making IQ. You cut the lead down to four and
then Jalen Green tries to shoot a lay up through
five guys, which goes exactly how you would have expected
it would go. A men Thompson shot a layup into
(42:25):
the bottom of the rim, like literally threw it up
into the bottom of the rim. Like the like there's
there's a there's this ruthless execution you get with the
good teams where it's like, if you're gonna beat the Warriors,
you're gonna have to hope that Jimmy and Steph miss
basically like they're they're gonna make sure that they get
the ball to their best players and that they get
(42:47):
stuff that they like, Like they're not gonna they're not
gonna bail a possession where a men Thompson's looking around,
it's like, no one wants the ball.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Wait, so you guys want me to do it? Yeah,
all right, okay, then I'll go do it, you know.
Speaker 3 (42:58):
And it's like there was a bunch of those he
took a shot over Steph that he made a little
post up shot like there's no like rhyme or reason
to the offensive process for you see. And by the way,
Cotton Newdy does play a role there. Denver's been playing
with roughly the same group of guys forever. They just
know how they want to play. Now, there's no there's
no indecision in that organization.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yeah, no, I think that's perfectly put. You just forget
how many possessions in the fourth quarter with four minutes
to go Denver has had over the last eight years
with Stephen Draymond on the floor, and now Moody's got
a lot of games involved in it. Like you've got
your new guys. You've got Jimmy and Post and there's
some new guys, but it's you're just watching them, and
(43:37):
it's like you watched I mean, the Knicks, you know,
and you've got veteran players Jalen Brunson and kat They
had a really good last eight minutes the Celtics in
the second half. There's a lot of guests, like guys,
they've had a lot of practices and a lot of reps.
They know where the ball's going. By the way, Jason
Tatum kind of fell on his wrist when he came
(43:58):
back and played. They're gonna win this series. They're probably
gonna sweep the series. Okay, see, looks like they'll definitely
probably sweep the series. I watched the Orlando and I
thought to myself, there, they're the kind of team that
(44:19):
athletically like they've got a couple of players where they
come down, they get really good looks they got. They
get in that game a couple of times. I'm like, like,
they may not be as long or as athletic as Houston,
but I felt Orlando came down and got really good
looks against a very good Boston team. Is it coaching?
(44:42):
Maybe it's just Ben Carrol w Ogner, But I don't know.
I look at Orlando and I'm like, it feels like
they're just missing a piece. You think they win a
game in this series, you.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Know, I came away.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
I picked a sweep in that one because it's like
exactly like the Rockets or your series where Orlando. Orlando
has been so far and away the worst jump shooting
team in the league that out of one hundred Orlando
Magic jump shots, they are five points worse than the
twenty ninth ranked team, Like they are five percent worse
jump shooting than the worst team in the league above them.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Like they cannot shoot.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
So I thought for sure they would have just a
really hard time scoring in this series. But what Orlando
presents to Boston that makes things really difficult for them
is they can switch their screening actions and they're really
big and physical, So Tatum and Brown can't just bully
their way to the basket against them like they can
against some other teams, and so they can keep the
(45:39):
ball in front and bait Tatum and Brown into really
tough shot making, which they more or less did. It
was Derek White that kind of blew the lay off
of the arena, and Peyton Pritchard and all those Derek
White threes were so difficult too. It's like, I don't
they got to feel like a shotgun blast to the
chest when you're an Orlando Magic fan with Derek White
just hits a contested twenty seven footer at the end
of the shot clock. But you know, honestly con like
(46:01):
they have a bright future because Franz and Pallo are
getting better and better every year. Jalen Suggs is out
of the lineup right now with an injury. Jalen Suggs
when healthy is the best guard defender in the league
and a guy that is a very effective two man
game partner with Palo and Caro, setting inverted ball screens
and slipping out of it. Imagine him as like a
(46:23):
combination of KCP and Christian Brown, like a really really
good movement shooter, but also like a big, strong athlete
at the position, and he's the guy that ties it
all together for them because when you put him and
Jonathan Isaac and Franz and Paalo with Wendell Carter out there,
they can switch one through five. They're massive, They've got
(46:44):
plenty of offensive talent. That's the group where like I
could see in a year or two being a major
upset threat for some of these top teams in the
Eastern corriger Yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
How I felt. I just watched them and I thought,
this is a real team. These guys have. They're big,
they're strong. Ben Caro's a tremendous player. He is. He's
just gonna get you buckets.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
Yeah, really quick calling you. We talked about this on Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
If you remember, the big dudes who have some skill
are really crushing in the modern NBA. Shane Goon's a
great example. Pallo's a great example.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Yeah, Shangon is God. It's just watching him. And he
was an All Star this year.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Wasn't he? I believe so?
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Yes, yeah, yeah, he was an All Star. And it's
like when you watch him, you're like, his game can
be pretty I mean he can bounce. He and Draymond
are bouncing back and forth, and he wouldn't play into
Draymond's green. Draymond was huking him and just trying to
irritate him, and he was just like, what are you doing?
But man, there is something you know, these international bigs man,
they're pretty. He's got a beautiful touch around the basket,
(47:49):
and he's not jumping over people. He's nut. He's just
I watch his game and I'm like, it's just he's
a He's the classic guy that you luck up and
you're like, oh, he had he had twenty three points.
It's just pretty. And again with guard play being awful,
like he was really the offense for most of the
game for Houston, like he was it so.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Well.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
I thought it was a really fun first weekend. I'm
going to watch one more Rockets Warriors game, but yeah,
that was an eye opener. Holy crap, was that an
eye opener. Sometimes you see things and you're like, like
the Lakers, You're like, they'll make adjustments, they'll be more physical.
They kind of were lost. And it was JJ Reddick's
(48:34):
first playoff game against a really good coach and Chris
Finch and Chris you know, they had a more obvious
game plan. I'm not sure what the gear is because
I don't think in a half court offense. I don't
know what I get from Houston, but I'll tell you athletes,
Like again, they could get Kadi easily. I mean, they
(48:56):
could move off guys and with draft picks easily and
not lose a lot of their athleticism. Seriously, I mean,
they've got so many, so much length and athleticism. If
you know, if the Knicks make a move, what do
the Knicks have that Phoenix wants? What they have is
what the Knicks don't want to surrender. But god, I
mean Houston is just I mean, like one through nine,
(49:17):
they're just dudes, athletes everywhere. That Katie to Houston feels
like a real thing when you and when you watch
them in this game, you're like, dude, they got to
have a bucket. They need a second bucket on this offense,
and uh and when and so you can't rely on
Jalen Green. So as I'm watching this game, I'm thinking, yeah, KD,
(49:38):
Miami could use him and Houston could use him. That's
what it feels like to me.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
I hope that KD has learned from what happened in
Brooklyn and what happened in Phoenix, which is that he
does not need to surround himself with guys like him.
He needs to surround himself with guys that do the
stuff that helps you win games and allows his greatness
to lift them over the top. And so honestly, that's
why I'm hoping that KD looks at the situation in
(50:07):
Houston and goes, this is the place where I can
have a renaissance in my career because frankly, they have
the setup to do it. They've got the assets. Jalen
Green is a perfect little salary filler piece to try
to make that sort of deal happen. And he would
be a force multiplier for their defense because as you
saw Jabari Smith Jr. He's the guy that has the
(50:27):
length for them on the wing. KD is a guy
that could be a guy next to Shangoon that makes
him better defensively. He's a guy that is an underrated playmaker.
Over the years, dating back to his Brooklyn days, KDI
was really good at just generating offense by coming off
of ball screens and making passes out of it. I
think KD is like the obvious ceiling raising move for Houston,
(50:49):
and I think the numbers pretty clearly state that they
can like call it like there's a lot of basketball
left in this series. Houston's athleticism does travel. They're not
a team that's going to go on the road and
come out flat because they're older veterans, Like they're gonna
come out in Game three, even if they're down two
oh and be like we're beating the Warriors tonight, like
that that's gonna be their attitude. This is gonna be
a long chore of a series. And can you just
(51:11):
imagine that leveraged to another level with the player as
polished offensively as Kevin Durant and talk about like having
no ifens or butts about where the ball is gonna go.
You give it to him every damn time you get
the hell out of the way. So, like, I think
it's the kind of thing that I think would be
really exciting for that team.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
Jason Timpf hoops tonight. He's gonna be all over these playoffs.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
All right.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
That's a good first Sunday under playoff action. I had
a lot of fun watching it. I'll still take the
Clippers over the Nuggets, but I need to watch Game
two Warriors and the Rockets. Good talking to you, Bud.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
Good to see you Colin. Until next time, the volume
The volume. Get ready for more must watch TV from
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(01:06):
cable channel. All right here we go. Jason Timpf, podcaster
the volume Hoops Tonight. Okay, so I picked the You know,
it's really funny. I mean, the series is pretty predictable.
One team can shoot, that's the Warriors.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
The other is.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Big, long, athletic and struggles sometimes when you take away
the transition baskets for the Rockets and you take their
athleticism and you mute it to some degree in the
playoffs because you're not going to get freebies. You know,
you get them on a Tuesday night in Orlando, you're
not getting them against the veteran NBA playoff team. The
Warriors played really good defense and Houston couldn't shoot. So
(01:47):
I know what the series is youth inexperienced athletic ability
length against this old veteran team that's incredibly well coached
with Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler. But I've got to
be honest. Show to a stat at the end of
the year where Jalen Green wasn't scoring. And Jalen Green's fascinating.
He's almost a case study for me. So I think
(02:08):
everybody should go to college at least for a year,
probably two. But he goes to the G League. I
watch his game. He can't play up your point, can't
really shoot super athletic and long, but sometimes you kind
of leans on that athletic ability around the basket and
puts a wild shots. Was invisible in this game. I mean,
he was just invisible. And they have more than enough
(02:30):
size and athletic ability, and I'm looking at this guy's career.
He's obviously an absolutely dynamic player. But I feel like
when I watched him tonight, it's like, Okay, in playoff basketball,
you have to sort of define your offense. You just
can't come down and wing it right. You can't just
have You see this in college basketball adjacent all the time,
where you just have lost possessions. In college you'll have
(02:53):
eight or nine in a row. And I felt a
lot of times I didn't know what Houston was doing
in the half court set when you took away the
transition baskets.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, that's half the battle.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
You gotta have a pet action or preferably multiple pet
actions that you trust to at least either get you
a good shot or get a close out for somebody,
so you can start the tic tac toe of trying
to break a defense down and Honestly, I'm glad you
love Jalen Green, because I thought that was the difference
in tonight's game. This has been a recurring theme for
the Rockets throughout the season. It kind of stems around
(03:27):
Fred and Jalen. When the two of them are both great,
they're basically impossible to beat. When one of them is great,
they almost always win. As a matter of fact, one
of the craziest stats I encountered as I was prepping
for the series is that when Jalen Green scores at
least thirty points, the Rockets worth thirteen and one this season,
Like they just win when they get scoring.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
So first of all, we should take that little.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Note and just file it away in case the Rockets
get Kevin Durant this summer, because that's where it could
get really scary, is if they have that reliable type
of scoring. But Jalen, as you put, is just so
in consistent. He's just as likely to go for seven
points in a game and be mostly ineffective as he
is to be effective. As a matter of fact, it
kind of comes down to he's very athletic getting to
(04:10):
the basket, and he's a very capable pull up shooter. Yeah,
but if those two things aren't going, it's gonna be
a lot of him forcing the action. Yeah, looking really ugly. Honestly,
Udoka has bailed on him often this year. Yeah, and
I wouldn't be surprised if he bails on him over
the course of this series. If you can't show.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
More, if you and I talked, if you and I,
you know it's the closure eyes test. Jordan, Kobe, bird Yokich,
Lebron take great offensive players.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I'll go back to.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
My day of George Gervin Alex English. When you think
of really profound scores, you can close your eyes and
you can picture their best move. There's certain stock foundational
moves Michael went to. He had about four, and you know,
just like he could get to he six in his sleep.
Kobe was more creative with fewer stock moves. He was
(05:05):
more creative than Michael with better range. But there were
certain things Kobe liked to do. Jalen Green's athletic, like
I feel like he has to develop two or three
foundational moves that he just uses and it's not a
knock steph Chris Paul. I mean, like Chris Paul has
just that behind the back through the leg, you know,
(05:26):
right angle of the free throw line, and close my
eyes and see it in my sleep. He scored eight
thousand points on one move. And I just feel like
with Jalen Green, I'm like, bro, it's not you got
to get past athletic ability, like you have to create
some absolute guarantees. The other thing here, listen, offensive rebounding,
Houston's going to dominate. They're so damn big. I thought
(05:48):
down the stretch the Warriors offensive rebounding, they were just
getting second looks.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
A lot of it was effort.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Down the stretch. I thought Houston looked like a beaten
team with about four to five minutes left. Golden State
the old guys outworked him.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, it was super interesting to see the flow of
the game as Steph, We've talked about Jalen and Fred
weren't producing anything on offense, so that that was really
the difference. Like you get seventeen combined points on thirty
four shots from Fred and Jalen, so literally half of
a point a shot. Right on the other side, you
get thirty one from Steph on nineteen shots, and just
(06:25):
I thought Steph was absolutely amazing tonight. I thought I'd
have to really think and start ranking. But when you
factor in the degree of difficulty, that was one of
his more impressive playoff games that I've watched. He was
really special. He was smothered all over the place and
he kept making it work. But like, honestly, to bring
it back to Jalen Green, Like, what I thought was
fascinating was Steph found Jalen to be his favorite target.
(06:48):
On the other end, that's really the issue with Jalen
is that when he doesn't have anything going offensively, he's
a weak defensive player when he should be better for
being a great athlete, and then on offense he doesn't
have the read and react game to make up for it.
But it was funny seeing the flow the game. Steph
is carrying the offense there, but you see Houston just
slowly chip away and there's nothing else going for Golden State.
But ironically, it was everybody else in the starting lineup
(07:10):
that kind of stepped up down the stretch.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I thought Pods was fantastic. Yeah, I thought mood I
thought Moody was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Moody hit two massive jump shots that step back shit
at the end of the shot clock. That little mid ranger.
That was a big shot, the huge shot he hit
in the left corner right after Fred van Vliet hit
his shot. They just had a response for everything. Jimmy
Butler did some beautiful matchup attacking down the stretch. They
were brilliant defensively. You saw a really cohesive Warrior starting
(07:37):
unit down the stretch. And honestly, if there's one thing
to take away from the Jimmy Butler trade, it really
just lined up their best five perfectly. They know who
their five is and it just crystallized all of that
and it ended up working out. I actually thought it
was interesting that they didn't try Kaminga tonight. Nope, especially
considering how poorly they were rebounding for stretches. But at
(07:57):
the same time, like you got steady, mistake free basketball
down the roster, which I think is what Steve Kerr
was shooting forward to avoid Houston getting out in transition.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I mean, you could argue if you combine these two rosters,
the most athletic guys are Jalen Green, i'm On Thompson,
and Jonathan Kaminga. None of them did anything tonight because
I mean, seriously, Jason, because that's playoff basketball. You don't
get the easy transition transition baskets. You're gonna play the
same team over and over. You get the best coaches,
(08:27):
so you don't get cheap points. Which, listen, we always
we've always known this. They were talking about this on
the broadcast tonight, is that you're they're not gonna blow
the whistle. It gets very physical. I mean you could
see the Warriors late in the game, pushy Chippy and
the three most athletic guys and these two you could
argue the three most athletic guys didn't do anything tonight.
(08:50):
I did think Pods. You know, again, he's not a kid,
played a couple of years in college now this I
think this is his second year in the NBA. So
he's a class example where you know, he's not this
five star recruit who they rushed through a g league
of rushes And what does that mean? He really has
(09:11):
a place. Pods really has a place in this offense
from what I can see.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, I was talking with my buddy Samus Fondiari about
this over the course of the last week because we've
been amazed to just see over the years how often
Steve Kerr has been right about who is a winning
basketball player, Like, for instance, like Ty Jerome, who was
incredible today for the Calves. Like that was the guy
that Steve Kerr had a lot of trust in Brandon Pajemski.
There were some downs colin over the last couple of
(09:37):
years where Warriors fans really wanted to bail on Brandon Pajemski,
and Steve Kurg just never gave up on him because
he believed in him as a winning player. The reverse
happened with Kaminga. There were stretches where there's a stretch
last year it was like a half dozen games in
a row, Kminga went for twenty plus and it was like,
oh man, we might have a future All Star in
our hands. But Steve Kerr saw through it and was
like this, there's not a lot of replicable winning basketball
(10:00):
that I'm getting out of this. There's just so much
there's so much emphasis in that organization. I'm bringing in
like the right types of dudes and like pods. The
way he impacted winning down the stretch was actually really
fascinating because it wasn't through any sort of, you know,
super talent based type of play. It was just smart basketball.
He beats a close out against Jabari Smith on the
(10:20):
left wing, traps him on his backside, baits Steven Adams
into stepping up, and throws a perfect bounce pass to
Gary Payton, who gets the easy layup under the basket.
The player Jimmy Butler got the put back, or I
think it was Draymond actually got to put back. Pods
didn't even get the put back. He just came flying
in and hit the basketball, but he kept it alive
long enough for it to pop right into Draymond's hands
(10:40):
and to go into the basket. He just does the
right thing every single time, which creates an environment of
factors that Steve Kirk can depend on to elevate the
situation for his stars to carry him over the top.
I think they just they just always seem to find
these guys calling it's crazy. It's an organizational thing for them.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Well, And you know, I was thinking about Jimmy Butler,
who finished forty two minutes, twenty five points, forty two
minutes frickin' and he plays both ends. And I was
thinking about this watching Jimmy Butler, is that he's a
very intentional basketball player, Like you remember his points and
I always said this about Andrew Wiggins, like he'd score
twenty six. I didn't remember a bucket, and like Jimmy
(11:19):
Butler can score sixteen, I remember all of them. You know,
it's like he's just an intentional player. And there were
a couple of times tonight where you know they were
in the control.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Of the game.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I mean this this well you could that's after that
that second quarter of basketball, it's like, oh, Houston's in trouble,
like they're they're they're completely out of rhythm, which the
Lakers were. We'll get to in a few minutes. But
the difference is the Lakers you kept thinking, well, I've
seen them in rhythm, they'll be good in the half court.
They never were, whereas with Houston you're like, oh, this
is this is a problem, Like they're just not they're young,
(11:50):
they're long, Jalen Green is lost and now he's a
little panicky. But Butler, you know, this is where I
love analytics, but sometimes I us need a bucket. And
there were about three to four times to night with
Jimmy Butler and it's like, no, he's not going to
shoot a three, He's just gonna work a guy and
(12:10):
give you that right angle, free throw, a line. He's
just in playoff games. So much of it is the
games are sold out, the crowds are lubricated and completely
into it. This is not people arriving from work late
on a Wednesday or Thursday. These are Saturday Sunday games.
Everybody is there. It's almost like tailgate and the lounge.
(12:30):
You go to your seat that are allowed, and those
ten point lead go down to four really fast, and
Butler just ends, he just gets you. He's got that
Kawhi thing. It's not about three. Sometimes you just need
a basket to quiet the crowd. And when I watch him,
(12:50):
I'm like, that's just playoff basketball. He's just you know,
he really senses oh shit, the crowd's back into it.
This is a this is a really big possession. And
I think Draymond does that and Steph feels that, and
I saw the Warriors do that half a dozen times
in the second half to night. You could just sense, hey, guys,
(13:13):
this is a huge possession. Even though we leave by
eight to your point.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Every single time Houston got it to four, got it
to three, the Warriors would go like stop bucket, stop bucket,
and it would be back up to eight, like they
just they always were able to regain control of the situation.
You were talking about go to moves earlier with Jalen Green.
That is, like Jimmy's patented go to move is the
hard in and out dribble with the right hand to
step back towards his right hand side. He added that
(13:40):
back in Minnesota, and I remember that was the reason
Philly traded for him. They were like, we need a
guy to get us a bucket. And then like it
was like the first or second game after he got
traded there, he hit a game winner on that exact
same move off the right wing. That's Jimmy's go to
move is he can just do a hard in and
out with that right hand to get some separation. And again,
to your pointctice that shot so much. And then when
(14:01):
you end up in these situations where it's like you've
got to create something out of nothing, it's great to
have a staple, something that you can depend on that's
going to give you a decent shot at knocking something down.
And you talked about the three versus mid range thing.
You know, when you get into a large sample, that
extra point matters because you're you know, over the course
of one hundred shots. If you get an extra point,
(14:22):
then you know that can make a huge difference, right,
But at the end of a game, no one cares
what your per one hundred efficiency is. It's about that possession.
You got to get a bucket on that possession. And
if Jimmy can hit that step back at fifty percent,
that's actually a better shot in that situation then even
(14:43):
like even a step three that's thirty nine percent, right,
because there's a sixty one percent chance that it's going
to miss. And so it's really nice to have a
big forward for them that they can go to in
those situations that can create a shot that has a
little bit less variance closer to the basket.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
So I picked I picked the Rockets in seven in
this one, and I don't want to overreact, but there
were just were things I saw tonight, like Imoduko will obviously,
I mean, this is the playoffs the Lakers. Obviously you're
going to get a much more physical, intense Laker team
in Game two. But there are some things I'm not
(15:18):
sure they're correctable. I think I think the Rocket staff
has lost confidence in Jalen Green, and that's a problem.
Nobody in LA has lost confidence in Austin Reeves cause
he didn't play particularly well. So I mean, I don't know.
I just watched that game tonight and I'm like, man,
Jalen Green is a non factor and is a little
(15:39):
bit wild now, and like he had a couple open
looks in the second half, You're like, oh, no, he
didn't want to shoot, Like he didn't trust this at all.
It's hard to snap out of that in a series.
So I'm I'm going to watch one more game. But
I think I was on the wrong side of this.
Do you still like the Warriors?
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I you know, if I still like the Warriors? To
say this, though, Colin, I think if you're a Rockets fan,
you could be sitting here and saying the Guard Battle
could not have gone worse in our favor, Like Fred
and Jalen laid absolute stinkers, and Steph played, like we
talked about earlier, one of the better playoff games of
his career, and it was a three point game with
(16:18):
a few minutes left, And so there is a lot
of potential for Steph to have a little bit more
variance and have a poor shooting night. For Jalen Green
to have those great nights. I talked about him going
thirteen and one. He did that against a lot of
good teams too. There were Knights in the regular season
where Houston played a good team and Jalen was good
and they won. So like, there's a lot of variance.
(16:39):
So that's why I still think. I still think there's
a good chance this series goes longer, like it goes
a solid six games. But yeah, it's just it's really
difficult for me to imagine a scenario where the Rockets
out execute the Warriors in the half court or in
the offense part of the part of their attack for
four times and two weeks, like it just seems too
unlikely to me.
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Speaker 1 (18:37):
All Right, the Lakers, let's talk about that laid in egg.
This was a pretty easy game to watch. I kept
waiting for them to snap out of it. Timberwolves were
much more physical, and then they're a physical team, and
you knew they were going to ugly it up. That
was I mean, it was just like, guys, we're not
(18:59):
winning our two to matchups with this team. We're not
going to be pretty. And they have players who can
play ugly. Nazrid, Julius Randall, Golbert, they can play that game.
And I'll get to ant in the second because I
think he's really getting to be a really refined, really
smart player. But I was really shocked by the lack
(19:23):
of energy, little criticism to jj Reddick. I kept thinking
they played with a little bit more energy in the
second half. I thought for spurts, but I mean this
was in football terminology. This was kind of a butt
kicking like physicality intensity. I mean, Minnesota took it to
(19:44):
the Lakers. They just were a much more energized team.
And little surprised the Lakers didn't shift into another gear.
I really never felt they were the more physical team.
Didn't even fake it. Were you surprised by that?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I was super surprised.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
This Lakers team has always had a little bit of
a tendency to have, you know, inconsistent intensity from game
to game. But I've always felt like championship teams know
when it's time to go. And I would be lying
to you if I'm not if I said I wasn't
super discouraged that, Like you look at a team like Oka,
see that is just like we're going to come out
(20:25):
and we're going to embarrass Memphis today because this is
step one of this two month long journey where we're
trying to.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Get the trophy.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And there were three teams I watched yesterday or I
should say over the weekend that looked like really unprepared
for playoff intensity, and it was the Bucks the Grizzlies
and the Lakers. They looked just really unprepared for the intensity,
stretching even down to Lebron in Austin. And so I
want to start here. I want to give credit to Minnesota.
I thought they threw an incredible punch yesterday. I thought
(20:54):
Aunt was super measured and didn't play into the game
plan making stupid forced decisions around the rim. He took
the kickout opportunities that were there. Everyone defended. Julius Randall
did a wonderful job defending both Luca and Lebron. The
bigs did really good on switches against everybody but Luca.
I thought they they're spot up shooters, shot really confidently
(21:15):
from all over the floor. As things got tighter late,
Julius Randall and Ant both showed really high level tough
shot making. Minnesota threw a great punch. But when I
went to watch the film this morning, and for anybody listening,
there's a film session on our YouTube channel that you
guys can check out. In that film session, I came
away feeling a little better in the sense that there
were just so many obvious things that the Lakers could
(21:38):
do better. That said, I also think there's a version
of this colin where the Lakers bring a more intense
effort and it's not enough. And so that's what I'm
really curious about with Game two. I feel relatively certain
that they're going to come out on Tuesday ready to fight,
and they're going to be ready, and I'll have my
eyes on that first quarter because if the Lakers come
(21:58):
out and they control things and it's like, here we go,
this is our team, this is what we look like
when we're engaged, and we're better than these guys and
we can show it, I'll feel better about kind of
chalking up what happens Saturday night is a lack of intensity,
a lack of being ready. But if it's halftime calling
and Minnesota is up by like three and Lebron and
Austin are still struggling, That's where I'm going to be
(22:19):
sitting there, like the Lakers are in a world of
trouble because this is as we saw in the Denver
series last year. The Minnesota physicality never lets up. It
just keeps coming until the end of Game seven, and
you have to find a way to survive it.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, I mean, listen, Denver didn't have a good first
half Boston didn't have a good first half. The Knicks
did not have a good first half, like it happens
where the favorite comes in or a team that's you know,
got a ring and Denver comes in, and you know,
the Clippers outplayed them, and the Pistons outplayed the Knicks
early in Orlando. You know, Ben.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Carrol's a great player.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Oh, just a great player. Now. He by the way,
has a couple of stock moves like you. There are
things he does consistently every time I watch him play
and half court. He's a really good player. Also went
to Duke, had great coaching, you know, briefly, but great coaching.
But I just kept waiting for the Lakers. And let's
(23:12):
throw this out there, JJ Reddick's first playoff coaching game.
And Chris Finch is a veteran, and Chris Finch is
a really smart guy. And I said this yesterday on
my postgame that Minnesota is a highly functional and well
coached Memphis where you've got a defensive presence at the
rim zach Edie and Gobert, you have a hyper athletic
(23:35):
star in John Morant and an aunt Ant now is separated.
I think of the two players much more sure. Then
you have kind of a physicality with length, you have
kind of a tough guy and Julius Randall, you know,
Memphis has a couple of tough guys Bane, you know,
so a physical presence. And the difference is Minnesota's more
(23:57):
mature and they're better coached. And I think Ant really
become a refined player. Like you know, it was funny
they led by eleven and half he had eight, and
it was just like I thought, the word you used,
he let the game come to him. He's a very
measured player now. And it's like, and I think that's
really hard. I think that's hard when you're in that
(24:19):
you know, you're in those prime, early show off years
where you can do a lot of things. Your energy
is through the roof compared to half the guys, the
veterans you play. And I think that comes down to
a kid. Every time I watch AUNT every year, Jason,
I see a better player, and I don't with Ja
Morant like a Ja Moran, I'm like, Okay, I know
(24:40):
you're athletic, bro, but your shooting's getting worse. I think
Ant's really becoming I guess this is the way I
would put it. I can see the work Ant puts
into his game, and I can see what the staff
the work they put into Ant in the offense. I
can see it.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
To your point, these two guys faced off in a
playoff series in twenty twenty two where Jaw looked like
the better player, and what has happened since then. Aunt
has demonstrably massively improved year over year, and Joe, i'd argue,
is worse than the player he was in twenty twenty two.
He's not able to inflict himself on the game the
(25:17):
way he used to it. Again, the Grizzlies are a
whole other thing. I have so many thoughts there calling
we could have a fun conversation about them at some
point in the future. But like with Aunt, I want
to credit him for pushing through some of the reps
that he had to work through. Like I don't know
if you know this, Colin, but Ant was the most
blitzed player in the NBA this year, and what that
means is every time he went into pick and roll,
(25:37):
the guy who was screening him, his defender would double
team Ant as he was coming off of the screen.
So one of the reasons why they're not blitzing him
for the reason you blit Steph Curry. You blit Steph
Curry because you don't want Steph to get a three
coming off the screen. They're blitzing Ant because they don't
think he can pass Colin. They're double teaming Aunt at
the end of games because they don't think he can pass.
(25:58):
It was the narrative all season coming into this series.
It was all everybody would talk about. And so I
want to I want to give Chris Finch some credit
here too, because I think him and his staff literally
went up to Aunt and they were like, you cannot
shoot your way through this series. You have to pass
your way through the series. And I thought he did
a wonderful job letting the game come to him. He like,
wouldn't take a three early in the game. He was
(26:19):
like letting the game come to him. But then all
of a sudden, in that second quarter run, he starts.
In the third quarter run, he starts letting it fly.
In transition, as the momentum is going, he gets started
to get aggressive when the game called for it. But
he just took what was coming to him there in
the first half, and I just thought, he's you know,
we've talked a lot about where aunt rakes in the league,
and at the beginning of the season I put him
(26:39):
at number five, and that might have been too high
at the time, but really, Colin, is he not the
fifth best player in the league now? I mean, you know,
Tatum and Giannis and Luca or Tatum and Yiannis.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
And Sga and Yokis are the top four.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Luca hasn't really been able to regain his footing since
he got hurt earlier this year. I don't know of
a player who's playing better basketball other than a maybe
Steph Like like that, there's ants crawled right back up
that list after getting kind of like, you know, criticized
all year for not managing those double teams very well.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, it was. It was such a strange game because
you know, it just lacked. You know, you watch and
let's talk about the Nuggets and Clippers. That game was great,
and I mean the intensity of that game from the
first minute was just insane. And I really thought the Clippers.
I picked the Clippers, I think in six or seven
(27:32):
games in this series. Better coach, better defense, I thought
they'd and by the way, I think I still like
the Clippers, but I thought the last. You know, it's
funny about Jokic. He's not a very good defender. But
I was thinking about this. I went on a long
walk today and I was thinking about that series in
the game. Is that historically it's not just that he scores,
(27:54):
he rebounds. He's got the ball in his hands. You
cannot ask a seven foot guy that's two sixty five
to honestly carry the offense, including the ball handling in
the passing. You know, Kareem could score thirty, wasn't handling
the ball right, And so it's like Joki isn't. He
(28:16):
doesn't put a lot of effort. I mean, Harden blew
past him about six times in the first half. But
I will say this, in the last five minutes he
does lock in. He's not a great defender, but the
last five minutes the game, everybody on the Nuggets was
playing real defense. They were locking in. He was putting
bodies on people.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
But as I watched.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Jokis, I'm like, listen, man, look at the size of him.
Nobody asked Kareem or Shack or a Keem to bring
the ball up, set the screens, direct traffic. I almost
give him a pass. Defensively, because I do think late
in games he's much more engaged on that end.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
I thought he was pretty great on defense for the
entire second half of that game and most of the
second part of the second quarter. There was a timeout
right when the Clippers went up I think fifty one
to thirty six, and Jokic came out right out of
the timeout and just started pressuring the heck out of
Zoo and was just flying around making extra efforts. And
he was brilliant in his pick and roll defense in
(29:20):
the second half, getting deflections, forcing turnovers. And while I
agree with you Colin that it's ridiculous task Nicole Jokic
to be the most high usage player that we've seen,
really in recent NBA history, while also having to be
such an important part of their defense. It is a
lot to ask, and I totally agree with you, but
(29:40):
the Nuggets need him to be if they're going to win,
and to his credit, that's what he was. It's what
he became in the second half of that game. And
I also thought he did a really nice job of
just taking what the defense was giving him at late
in the game, like he was trusting Russell Westbrook repeatedly
over and over again on these kickouts and on these
cuts to be the guy that can make the defense
(30:01):
pay for ignoring him. And I just thought, I just
thought was amazing. And honestly, Colin, like, I will never
change my pick after one game. I'm with you, you
need to get two games worth of evidence. But I
was really disappointed in the Clippers and their overall just
kind of like connective playmaking. You know, Kawhi Leonard, as
(30:21):
amazing as he is, it can be a robotically efficient scorer,
but he's never been good at managing double teams.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
He's never been a very good passer.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
No.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I remember for the first decade of his career or
not quite, it was like the first like seven or
eight years of his career, he never logged a single
game with seven assists.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Like he just struggled to degenerate shots.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
First team averaged one or two for several years.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Yeah, Like, he's never been a great playmaker. The connective
playmakers like Chris Dunn, an elite defensive player, a guy
that can knock down those shots in the corner, but
you start making him make decisions that could get tough.
There was plays where Nick Patum was fumbling the ball
around even Zoo a little bit. The read and react
stuff can slow down. And so, honestly, like Denver, I
think has a more realistic pathway to win this series
(31:05):
than people think, because I don't think they have to
be that great defensively to slow down this Clippers team.
They just have to be good enough to pray on
that indecision that they have to prey on those mistakes,
like you can double Kawhi Colin, you can double Kawhi
and he's gonna make some mistakes. And so I do
think they have some advantages here. And I came away
from that game feeling like Denver had a better chance
(31:26):
to win the series than I thought beforehand.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
You know, it's really interesting. So I've never been a
huge fan of Westbrook, and I say this, I'm not
a huge fan of basketball players that are hyper athletic
six four and under and can't shoot because without the
hand check, they will get to the basket and eventually
get hurt. Derek Rose, John Wall, John Morant like, it's
(31:49):
just a cliche. You can't get You can't stand in
front of these guys. They get to the basket and
just get clobbed. And that's why guys like Steve Nash
or Curry can last longer because they can up and
they don't have to oways finish at the rim. And
Westbrook when they put him in late in the game
with the announcer said, you know it's you get it.
(32:10):
It's the full experience with Russell Westbrook. And he did
not shoot well. He hit a big three. But I
got to tell you something. His the one thing I
will defend him forever. When he's on the floor. You
know he's on the floor, he jumps. His energy is profound.
I mean he he is a tremendous rebounder for his size,
(32:33):
like a tram. He plays way bigger than his size.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
And I was judge.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
I came out of that and I'm like, listen, man,
he didn't shoot well. He had one big three. He
was a big deal down the stretch. It's he just
he's just going so fast. You know, he didn't have
a ton of self awareness. I mean he's kind of
like blinders on going to the basket and you're like, Russ, no, no, no, no. No. Situationally,
some times he can drive me crazy. I thought he
(33:02):
was so important down the stretch for them.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
The biggest weakness that Russ has had in his career
is he only has one speed and that's like just
balls to the walls, like at like one hundred percent intensity.
He doesn't know how to play any other way, and
so that just manifests and a lot of mistake making.
But it also can manifest in a lot of playmaking. Yes, Like,
like I thought, like you know, there's always this scale
with Russ where it's like, well, the damaging plays out
weigh the good plays acts and last, that game yesterday
(33:29):
was such a perfect example of what happens when the
good badly or greatly outweighs the bad. Like he was
fantastic down the stretch of that game. He like straight
up bullied Kawhi Leonard one on one and got an
offensive rebound put back. He had the big steal at
the end when the Clippers cut it to three and
they had a chance to tie the game. At the end,
hits the big three in the left corner, repeatedly found
(33:50):
himself available as a cutter under the basket with Jokic.
He you mentioned the rebounding like, I think Russ is
one of the better defensive plays in the NBA. He
is not a disciplined defender. He will make a lot
of mistakes and he'll gamble a lot, but if he
gambles and gets right a couple times in a row,
(34:11):
they can be massive momentum swings and dating all the
way back. I mean colin that first year that he
went from the Lakers to the Clippers before Kawhi got hurt.
If you remember, in that first couple of games, the
Clippers looked really good against the Suns. Kawhi was like
kicking Kadi's butt head to head, and Russ was amazing.
He was a wrecking ball in the early part of
(34:31):
that series. Did an amazing job defending Devin Booker because
he's just this big athlete that just never has an
off button, and he can be a devastating playmaker. The
key is keeping him in a very small role. And
that's the beauty of what the Nuggets can do with him,
is they can keep him in a very small role.
They could even be like, hey, Russ's head is not
in it, tonight sit him, bring in Michael Porter Junior.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Like they can.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
They have the ability to play Russ when he's hot
and to pull him when he's not. And that's the
flexibilit What do you need to benefit from that? Playmaking
all right?
Speaker 1 (35:04):
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(36:13):
the things that was great about that game, there were
so many years in the NBA, I mean Harden and Kawhi,
I mean, I mean that center for the Clippers ten years,
I think, isn't it for Zoo Bouts?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I think, yeah, it's ten years for a while.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Yeah, Lakers, Clippers. You know, Jamal Murray, Jokic, Michael Porter's
been around. I mean, Christian Brown's a young guy obviously,
but Toomb's been around forever. And it was it was
really cool. It was a it was a veteran NBA
tuggle war. Both rosters knew they're gonna let us play.
(36:50):
They're gonna let us play, you know, like some of
these young teams, like they're like, whoa, there's no there's
no whistles like these. I mean, it's just a whole
different ballgame. And I mean you and I have discussed this,
like they're just gonna let guys play and the further
you go. But it was like the Clippers and the
Nuggets was like, that was grown up men's basketball. First,
(37:12):
everybody knew they could push a little more and they
could lean on you a little bit more, and the
physicality just I was just sitting there. I didn't miss
a second. I thought, this is great basketball. And I
said this, I don't you have to understand and football
or hockey you can't take. You can't take a playoff,
(37:33):
you can get hurt. In baseball, it's pitcher against batter.
Nobody wants to be embarrassed. There's an intensity that's guaranteed
between the pitcher and the batter. But in basketball, there's
a lot of games and these are big bodies. And
if you've ever seen a retired six foot ten NBA player,
you know they look like they got tackled. I mean
they're just walking.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
They have bad.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Backs, and it's like, you cannot expect these guys to
play thirty eight to forty four minutes eighty two games
in the regular season and play this kind of intensity.
They're traveling constantly, But you get into the playoffs and
Denver and the Clippers was like, oh, snap, first possession,
and it's like, I think it has the makings of
(38:13):
a an incredible series. Just all these veteran players. I
don't know. I just sat there and I was like, damn,
this is great basketball.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
We know how everybody plays, like we know Kawhi's games
so well. Now we know James Harden's game so well.
Now we know what the Murray Jo Kitch two man
game looks like. Aaron Gordon, what he can do, like
I think the most fascinating chess match so to speak
of this series, or or like kind of subplot of
this series. I do think the Clippers are more talented.
(38:45):
I think they're top four when you factor in all
that stuff. I think that the Nuggets looked like the
smarter team in that game. Now, this is an interesting
example of how can come down to the players. Because
David Adelman obviously a rookie a coach his first opportunity.
We have ty lu who's a championship winning coach, is
well respected as a top five coach in this league.
(39:06):
But you get into the game and it's like Aaron
Gordon has James Harden on him and he just knows
all these little ways to punish James Harden for not
having the size, and the Nuggets know when Aaron Gordon
has that type of matchup, how they can capitalize on
it with his offensive rebounding or in two man game
with Yokich, they know, Like even Jamal Murray, it's like, oh,
his mid range jump shot was just terrible in that game.
(39:28):
He could not buy a mid ranger right in clutch time,
he just switches to taking threes and hits two massive
threes down the stretch. The two man game with Yokich
and Murray was so effective down the stretch that the
Clippers started triple teaming it. They brought a third defender
over every single time. They knew how to get the
ball to Christian Brown, they knew how to get the
ball to Russell Westbrook. The Nuggets are just so sure
(39:49):
of how they want to play every single possession. Yeah,
Like they are just more reliably going to get to
their ceiling than the Clippers, who I think can suffer
from a little bit of inconsistent basketball like you on
the right, and they can have more variants in their performance,
and there will be games where the Clippers just look
like they outgun him, because it's like Zoo has twenty
five hard in his twenty seven. Kawhi is thirty in
(40:09):
Norman Powell Portson eighteen or you know, six for six
from three. They'll have games like that, but I think
that they'll have more variants throughout the series because the Nuggets,
I think are a little bit smarter.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Well. I also think there's an advantage Jason, Like when
you have an elite score Yokich sga Jason Tatum this year,
like Luca. The advantage is if a play gets loose,
if it's possession, the ball gets kicked around, you know
who get the ball, you know who to get the
ball to. Like the Warriors had a couple of bad possessions,
(40:39):
you know, and here comes Houston back. It's like okay,
every guy running up the court, like, let's get it
to Steph Let's get it to Jimmy, And like Houston
is just athletic, and it's like, well, Fred van Viet
it's not playing well. And Jalen Green's lost. Now obviously
they're big. He from Turkey is just a fantastic player.
(41:03):
Sengoon is a fascinating player to me because first of all,
very highly skilled. He's got a beautiful touch. I mean,
it's just crazy how easy he makes the game look
from like eight feet in it just both hands. It's like, God,
(41:23):
damn that guy. And he was like the sixteenth pick
or something. He was like middle of the first round.
But I guess going back to the point is that
I think the reason Denver when you have Jokic or
Oklahoma City with SGA, it's like anytime you're kind of sputtering,
it's just okay. Everybody walking the ball up the floor
(41:44):
knows where you're going. And I thought Houston was kind
of paralyzed by they didn't trust their backcourt, like who's
taking shots and you just watch it's almost a panic.
When I watch Houston late in this game, it's like
they're not sure who to go to. And I thought
Denver down the stretch really knew who to run the
offense through.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
Yeah, that's been steady for them forever. And you know
to your point that that's the organizational you know, uh
thing that Houston is missing. It's just that overall decision
making IQ. You cut the lead down to four and
then Jalen Green tries to shoot a lay up through
five guys, which goes exactly how you would have expected
it would go. A men Thompson shot a layup into
(42:25):
the bottom of the rim, like literally threw it up
into the bottom of the rim. Like the like there's
there's a there's this ruthless execution you get with the
good teams where it's like, if you're gonna beat the Warriors,
you're gonna have to hope that Jimmy and Steph miss
basically like they're they're gonna make sure that they get
the ball to their best players and that they get
(42:47):
stuff that they like, Like they're not gonna they're not
gonna bail a possession where a men Thompson's looking around,
it's like, no one wants the ball.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Wait, so you guys want me to do it? Yeah,
all right, okay, then I'll go do it, you know.
Speaker 3 (42:58):
And it's like there was a bunch of those he
took a shot over Steph that he made a little
post up shot like there's no like rhyme or reason
to the offensive process for you see. And by the way,
Cotton Newdy does play a role there. Denver's been playing
with roughly the same group of guys forever. They just
know how they want to play. Now, there's no there's
no indecision in that organization.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Yeah, no, I think that's perfectly put. You just forget
how many possessions in the fourth quarter with four minutes
to go Denver has had over the last eight years
with Stephen Draymond on the floor, and now Moody's got
a lot of games involved in it. Like you've got
your new guys. You've got Jimmy and Post and there's
some new guys, but it's you're just watching them, and
(43:37):
it's like you watched I mean, the Knicks, you know,
and you've got veteran players Jalen Brunson and kat They
had a really good last eight minutes the Celtics in
the second half. There's a lot of guests, like guys,
they've had a lot of practices and a lot of reps.
They know where the ball's going. By the way, Jason
Tatum kind of fell on his wrist when he came
(43:58):
back and played. They're gonna win this series. They're probably
gonna sweep the series. Okay, see, looks like they'll definitely
probably sweep the series. I watched the Orlando and I
thought to myself, there, they're the kind of team that
(44:19):
athletically like they've got a couple of players where they
come down, they get really good looks they got. They
get in that game a couple of times. I'm like, like,
they may not be as long or as athletic as Houston,
but I felt Orlando came down and got really good
looks against a very good Boston team. Is it coaching?
(44:42):
Maybe it's just Ben Carrol w Ogner, But I don't know.
I look at Orlando and I'm like, it feels like
they're just missing a piece. You think they win a
game in this series, you.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Know, I came away.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
I picked a sweep in that one because it's like
exactly like the Rockets or your series where Orlando. Orlando
has been so far and away the worst jump shooting
team in the league that out of one hundred Orlando
Magic jump shots, they are five points worse than the
twenty ninth ranked team, Like they are five percent worse
jump shooting than the worst team in the league above them.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
Like they cannot shoot.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
So I thought for sure they would have just a
really hard time scoring in this series. But what Orlando
presents to Boston that makes things really difficult for them
is they can switch their screening actions and they're really
big and physical, So Tatum and Brown can't just bully
their way to the basket against them like they can
against some other teams, and so they can keep the
(45:39):
ball in front and bait Tatum and Brown into really
tough shot making, which they more or less did. It
was Derek White that kind of blew the lay off
of the arena, and Peyton Pritchard and all those Derek
White threes were so difficult too. It's like, I don't
they got to feel like a shotgun blast to the
chest when you're an Orlando Magic fan with Derek White
just hits a contested twenty seven footer at the end
of the shot clock. But you know, honestly con like
(46:01):
they have a bright future because Franz and Pallo are
getting better and better every year. Jalen Suggs is out
of the lineup right now with an injury. Jalen Suggs
when healthy is the best guard defender in the league
and a guy that is a very effective two man
game partner with Palo and Caro, setting inverted ball screens
and slipping out of it. Imagine him as like a
(46:23):
combination of KCP and Christian Brown, like a really really
good movement shooter, but also like a big, strong athlete
at the position, and he's the guy that ties it
all together for them because when you put him and
Jonathan Isaac and Franz and Paalo with Wendell Carter out there,
they can switch one through five. They're massive, They've got
(46:44):
plenty of offensive talent. That's the group where like I
could see in a year or two being a major
upset threat for some of these top teams in the
Eastern corriger Yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
How I felt. I just watched them and I thought,
this is a real team. These guys have. They're big,
they're strong. Ben Caro's a tremendous player. He is. He's
just gonna get you buckets.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
Yeah, really quick calling you. We talked about this on Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
If you remember, the big dudes who have some skill
are really crushing in the modern NBA. Shane Goon's a
great example. Pallo's a great example.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Yeah, Shangon is God. It's just watching him. And he
was an All Star this year.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Wasn't he? I believe so?
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Yes, yeah, yeah, he was an All Star. And it's
like when you watch him, you're like, his game can
be pretty I mean he can bounce. He and Draymond
are bouncing back and forth, and he wouldn't play into
Draymond's green. Draymond was huking him and just trying to
irritate him, and he was just like, what are you doing?
But man, there is something you know, these international bigs man,
they're pretty. He's got a beautiful touch around the basket,
(47:49):
and he's not jumping over people. He's nut. He's just
I watch his game and I'm like, it's just he's
a He's the classic guy that you luck up and
you're like, oh, he had he had twenty three points.
It's just pretty. And again with guard play being awful,
like he was really the offense for most of the
game for Houston, like he was it so.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
Well.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
I thought it was a really fun first weekend. I'm
going to watch one more Rockets Warriors game, but yeah,
that was an eye opener. Holy crap, was that an
eye opener. Sometimes you see things and you're like, like
the Lakers, You're like, they'll make adjustments, they'll be more physical.
They kind of were lost. And it was JJ Reddick's
(48:34):
first playoff game against a really good coach and Chris
Finch and Chris you know, they had a more obvious
game plan. I'm not sure what the gear is because
I don't think in a half court offense. I don't
know what I get from Houston, but I'll tell you athletes,
Like again, they could get Kadi easily. I mean, they
(48:56):
could move off guys and with draft picks easily and
not lose a lot of their athleticism. Seriously, I mean,
they've got so many, so much length and athleticism. If
you know, if the Knicks make a move, what do
the Knicks have that Phoenix wants? What they have is
what the Knicks don't want to surrender. But god, I
mean Houston is just I mean, like one through nine,
(49:17):
they're just dudes, athletes everywhere. That Katie to Houston feels
like a real thing when you and when you watch
them in this game, you're like, dude, they got to
have a bucket. They need a second bucket on this offense,
and uh and when and so you can't rely on
Jalen Green. So as I'm watching this game, I'm thinking, yeah, KD,
(49:38):
Miami could use him and Houston could use him. That's
what it feels like to me.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
I hope that KD has learned from what happened in
Brooklyn and what happened in Phoenix, which is that he
does not need to surround himself with guys like him.
He needs to surround himself with guys that do the
stuff that helps you win games and allows his greatness
to lift them over the top. And so honestly, that's
why I'm hoping that KD looks at the situation in
(50:07):
Houston and goes, this is the place where I can
have a renaissance in my career because frankly, they have
the setup to do it. They've got the assets. Jalen
Green is a perfect little salary filler piece to try
to make that sort of deal happen. And he would
be a force multiplier for their defense because as you
saw Jabari Smith Jr. He's the guy that has the
(50:27):
length for them on the wing. KD is a guy
that could be a guy next to Shangoon that makes
him better defensively. He's a guy that is an underrated playmaker.
Over the years, dating back to his Brooklyn days, KDI
was really good at just generating offense by coming off
of ball screens and making passes out of it. I
think KD is like the obvious ceiling raising move for Houston,
(50:49):
and I think the numbers pretty clearly state that they
can like call it like there's a lot of basketball
left in this series. Houston's athleticism does travel. They're not
a team that's going to go on the road and
come out flat because they're older veterans, Like they're gonna
come out in Game three, even if they're down two
oh and be like we're beating the Warriors tonight, like
that that's gonna be their attitude. This is gonna be
a long chore of a series. And can you just
(51:11):
imagine that leveraged to another level with the player as
polished offensively as Kevin Durant and talk about like having
no ifens or butts about where the ball is gonna go.
You give it to him every damn time you get
the hell out of the way. So, like, I think
it's the kind of thing that I think would be
really exciting for that team.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
Jason Timpf hoops tonight. He's gonna be all over these playoffs.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
All right.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
That's a good first Sunday under playoff action. I had
a lot of fun watching it. I'll still take the
Clippers over the Nuggets, but I need to watch Game
two Warriors and the Rockets. Good talking to you, Bud.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
Good to see you Colin. Until next time, the volume
Host
Colin Cowherd
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