Let's start out West to discuss how both LA teams took Ls in game one. We're gonna start with the Clippers. Did the Clippers miss an opportunity to steal a game on the road? Or did the Nuggets and Russell West will take care of home court?
We do know that the Clippers tied that game up last night. So they made a minute for it. But a series, I'm sorry, winning by three points. So overall thoughts on how you guys think that first game did and just any new thoughts on the series so far?
It's a beautiful series so far. It is. Really a heavyweight belt. More defense more than anything, which is interesting because you have guys like, Kawhi Leonard, Dang's Harden, Yolkich, which you would imagine like we would be seeing 120, 111 as like end of scorers.
Like by the end of the fourth quarter damn near how much firepower is on these teams. But I think what we're seeing is more defense and just wanna give some observations. I think that for this season, I think Chris Dunn has been, if not the best, he's a top three defender of guards in the league. I think James Harden has won a lot more respect from a lot of people, even though he hasn't had two stellar games in a row.
I think just him being able to orchestrate the offense at the way he's doing, you gotta give props and a longevity if in him reinventing his game. I think that Kawhi Leonard is never a problem of can he play? It's never an issue of what is he gonna do when he's healthy? It's always, can he just make it through a series?
Can he just make it through and give us the performances that we know the dude is an absolute machine. He's insane. The mid range he gets to a spot on the floor. It's so efficient.
It's a beautiful line drive shot to watch. It just blows out every time. And the true shooting percentage masterful, Yolkich has been uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball in some key spots. I think that's some lack of continuity from Mike Malone not being there, but that's a whole separate issue.
I think that there's not many others that are coming along with Yolkich in terms of MPJ. He had a pretty good game last night, 15 and 15. I appreciate that effort. And Jamal Murray is still trying to find himself a little bit, but Russell is gonna live and die by him.
So you kinda just gotta take the corner three, three of six from three and you also gotta take almost turn the ball over with what 40 seconds left. So this is gonna be about Will's and it's gonna be about who makes the most mistakes. So the game one, Clippers gave it up, made too many mistakes, nuggets, capitalized, game two, the nuggets made a lot of mistakes, Clippers capitalized. Who's going when the turn over battle and game three that will most likely decide it.
And I think this is going seven. I was gonna agree with you with the Denver Clipper series. It's probably the most evenly matched out of all of the series that we see. And this is gonna be a chess match from beginning in.
You're seeing Kawhi play some of his best basketball that he's played in a long time. Like you said too, he's playing basketball finally without pay, because he talked about that, being able to walk on those knees and do the things that he needed to do. But he's made, and I talked about it earlier in the chat, watching him play is been beautiful because he's making contested shots. These aren't layups and breakaway dunks.
These are contested shots. And he's hitting them with consistency. Shot what 79% last night. So he's been doing everything that he needs to do to win these games and he's looking like MVP out there.
He's the best player on the court. And you're gonna have to see some things. I look at a person like my reporter, Junior, in the series. He's gonna be a key, he's gonna step up and play the full game.
It's hard as he can, as best as he can. And he did a decent job the other night. I mean, last night, he had like 12 rebounds. So he was actually on the boards and doing some things that they needed for him to do, but you need him and Gordon to step up and contribute.
And you do need, Joe could gotta be more consistent. He can't have those turnovers. He can't be like a day's with the basketball. He's gotta make plays and be consistent.
They need him to be the best show, but he can be, and that's the only way they're going win the series. But I love this series. The Lakers series is improving for Ant. Ant got to step up.
Oh, we're going to the Lakers. Oh, I'm sorry. Q, I will say this in regards to the others. They are having moments.
I do agree that we haven't seen the Jamal Murray of old where he's matching the play of Joker in these playoffs. We can't say that. He's been in and out. And he just has a had consistency.
I agree with you, the coaching thing is a whole another conversation. But I feel that Denver is good enough as long as they get key moments from their key guys. Michael Porter Jr., right? Like we didn't watch the game.
We didn't know if he was gonna finish the game or they were gonna stick with Russell Westbrook, right? Cause Russ made a big three in game one. I made a big three last night as well. But as long as the guys that are on the court, not main Joker, as long as they contribute in a timely ways, I think they'll be fine against the Clippers, mainly because, like I said last night in the chat, playoff harden is in effect.
That guy, look, if Kawhi doesn't play like Kawhi did last night, they're not going to win the series. Like Kawhi has to play the rest of the series at that level. And that's going to be damn near impossible. James Harden needs to show up, but I don't believe in it because all these years, we've seen this man choke and choke and choke on the playoffs.
It just is what it is. So I'm going based off of history. I'm just going based off of history. Now the others for the Clippers, they need to step up, you know, Norman Powell, you know, typically the others play better at home, you know what I'm saying?
So we'll see how the others play, but Kawhi needs to keep this level of play up for them to even have a chance. And that's going to be difficult to do to play at that level the rest of the series. You know, also, I want to say this is who watch is playing his way into a lot of what do you want to say, top eight big conversations, top top, top, and I think that that's just a testament to his development, too, his ability to stick with yogic and actually make tough decisions and play rough and tough defense with them. He's making it hard for Yogis to just get to his spots and he does the mobility to actually stick with him too.
So Zubaj, they have some guys that I think are going to get a little bit like Norman Powell, you can't get worse than this. So I think that there has to be a break in the average of somewhere where you get back to what you were. You know what I'm saying? Well, Norman Powell's going to go for 40 like he's done sometimes in the regular season, but we got to get at least 17.
We need a 17 point game. We need a 12 point five rebound game. We got to get some shit going here, do off the bench. Chris Downey's doing his job.
Zubaj's doing his job. Why did his job? I think Hardin is controlling the ball well enough. It's just the shot is not going.
But I agree that he is doing a great, he's always been more of a point guard than a shooting guard, but he scores like one of the greatest players of all time. But he got to get buckets. Like this team is built on him getting buckets. He ain't got to get a 40 point chip of double or even a 30 point chip of double, but he has to score into 20s efficiently for this team to really be a contender.
Yeah. Spike. I agree on that. People both of them.
All right. I agree with people. And Spike was asleep. Sorry.
I was mesmerized by the Eagles background. He was still getting ready to do that. Oh, right. In the circle.
Can I always say that we need to really seriously ask about this 1-800 flower sponsorship. Because what a lot of people said about the Clippers, I was saying early. This is a whole Tyloo show was I'm not giving Tyloo his flowers earlier than we did. You bring up Zubaj.
I was trying to tell you about Zubaj game. When I listened to me, who I played his ass. I was like, yeah, yeah. So far this is.
He starts from every game to any guards, Joker, probably the best that you've grown up guards. You're not going to slow. I mean, don't get a triple double. So you can't stop him.
But he made it uncomfortable for me. Which is what you're saying. But what I want to say is what you brought up as a player that I forgot was in the league. But again, when you go through Tyloo's training program, you end up blossoming.
Chris Dunn has turned into a legit playoff rotation guy. And I like that. He's now their new, I guess, Terrence Mann, who's now with like, is it Anna? Way better than one.
I'll just say he's their new, like he's their new career. That's that role. Yeah. I'm very curious to see how, again, people is like we got to knock on wood for like Kawhi Leonard and his injuries.
But right now he's that's game. I see Kawhi like that. Like if we had like two, three years of Kawhi like that, like we're talking about a different league as far as all that stuff too. Cause like that man to go 79% on jump shots.
Nice. Turn around. I mean, it's a lot of start. It really is a lot of start to like the mid range.
I think Kobe smiling watching that. Cause it's just like dude, one dribble pull up inside of the other three point two dribbles spinning off. You know what I mean? Like, come on.
So we're seven footers too. Like that was. He was in foul on a lot of those shoes too. Exactly.
And he's this the road team. You're not going to always get those calls. But I really love what the Clippers is doing. What I'm more shocked is like a joker in the final minutes of these fourth quarter, especially these first two games.
Miss and free throws. He in game one, he missed two clutch free throws. I should have sealed the deal and which kept the Clippers in. Then his last game, it wasn't just him, but like Aaron Gordon missing the the most wide open dunk since the dunk contest that I've ever seen that would have helped him extend the lead.
And then joker missed. I think he went one for two for three those in the last two minutes. And then he made that desperation three after Brown missed his open three. It's just like they're granted they have a new head coach who just showed he got six games on you now.
As far as I'm going to be coaching as professionally. So you kind of give that room for effort. But I can honestly make an argument that the Clippers should be up to like they as we all kind of acknowledge they kind of let game one get away from him, but they had to get this one. So they did their job as far as the road team.
You just need to get one on the still home quarter of Enage. And now we're going back to LA for two. So we'll see how they do that. But I wouldn't be surprised to see his go to seven, but for me the Clippers have to win this in six.
All right, well, we'll move on to the Lakers. But I will say you guys are over hyperzoopa. There's not that many great centers in the league. And Zuba is really, really well.
So I'm going to give him five like he's always late. He was terrible. The Lakers could use them. Just be going to the Lakers.
I don't care. I watch like he's I'm seeing what he's doing. It's not impressive. Yes.
So he's solid is right. It's not about this motherfucker like you. I got him. I think I said he was like I said I said you can't.
You can't just know a bunch of white boys out there and tell them a little guard, Yokey's you can know that he says on Yokey's is great. But I'm not impressed. Like these are good numbers. He should do that, especially the way that offense runs.
Little kid can this is the reason why I'm going to say he's super solid. If you see that the reason why he's scoring what he's scoring is because of James Harden. That's a back. That's a backhand.
It really is. It was from solid to super solid. All I said is over hyper. And he's hard and got a lot of people paid.
He's like the. He's like the. That's about it. He's going to go.
We're not doing that. We are doing that because CP got a Tyson Chandler paid the first go round and David West paid. You know, look at the end of the day point guards with a big man. This is why we say a little guy needs a big guy to be effective.
And obviously James Harden is not like a six for four to do six five six six. You know what I'm saying? That he's not he's not he. The way he plays the game is that he's always going to hit the big on a rimroom.
You know what I'm saying? He's going to get him an easy six to ten points a game. Now if you could go find you another four to six points. Now you a super solid big in the lead.
That's what and that's what's about his. That's not what I expected to see the way people were talking about him. I thought I was going to see Carl Anthony town. That's the way I was talking about that.
Hey, but I'm in all honestly, I'll play Carl at any time. I was in the. With the. Which is like Russell Westbrook with Stephen Adams.
Stephen Adams is not going to like wow you with these. The key one is one or David Robinson level defense, but he's not going to get 50 drop on him and he's not going to you know I'm saying drop 50, but he won't get you about 17 and nine. 17 and 12 like on a good night and it's like that's what you want. And you and you're paying premium prices these days for that.
Yeah, double double from a double. I'm going to show you. You are not a hornet game a business. I'm a I was mad.
You. I haven't heard that name. I haven't heard that name. Back in.
You even. Well, another big a lot of money to from you. This is me. I'm a bit.
It was a little bit. I have been on this. Bit of a bunch of you. You're doing was doing was suddenly gambling.
There's a lot of. As I came to the beat with somebody. Here's the top of you. He's going to be nice.
So, um let's talk about the Lakers, man, or the Lakers in more trouble than people thought with this matter because Minnesota or what this more of a fill our game from LeBron and company interest a stat when you just get through all this. Daly quick the Lakers have been held to 100 points, only not in the season. Three of them were by the Timmerwolves. The wolves have four players over six eight that six feet eight while the Lakers only have two and one of them is LeBron James the wolves are seven Oh, we have man has eight or more assists in a game and lastly since March 21st only one other team besides the Lakers have allowed more Made three pointers Can I say this When I watch that game it felt like LeBron didn't know like he was playing double-dutch.
You couldn't get a rhythm You know to say remember how we talked about before the playoffs started that when it comes to the fourth quarter Well, Luca runs out of steam. This is LeBron's time this and the third again. It just looked like LeBron LeBron needs to dominate But he doesn't want to step on Lucas toes and that's what it looked and felt like and that first game It's kind of like okay. I'm deferring I'm playing the guy But it's like now you LeBron and we need you to be a premier scorer for us to be you know a championship contender So I think LeBron's gonna come out tonight be aggressive because that's that's typically what he does when he has a game Like he did in game one and we've seen it for 20 plus years in the NBA.
He's gonna come out and be aggressive So that's what I expect You know the the the Timble rules are are really a good matchup and that's why I love the playoffs You know what I'm saying? I still got the Lakers, but the temple is gonna be a tough out for them You know what it is is like the Lakers are like the Lakers is like the main cast of centers and the Timboules is like the vampires like they all outside and that's why they about to get vanquished because You can't run from the light and LeBron James at the end of the day. We do this like every year Oh my god, LeBron lost game one is this the end of it LeBron lost game one This is the year LeBron likes to defer to his teammates every game one to see who's gonna come with me I need to see something who's gonna hit the corner three's on you who's gonna hit the top of key three down you who's gonna play defense and key spots Who's gonna quit who's gonna play real deep? This is a problem.
It's really not a ready thing It's not a look at thing. It's not a LeBron thing It's just attrition and trying to figure out how we're gonna attack this young team because the world's gonna play with they're not no disrespect I got the Lakers in six. I think that they should win tonight and I expected to be a hard fought series just because of how much the wolves can run and they do play really tough against these Lakers for some reason I think is and worse pride he really leads that team in a different way But I'm not worried about Luca. I'm not worried about LeBron It's just you got to get Reeves going and I think you've got to be able to set something up with not necessarily Jackson Hey, he's lobs, but you gotta have the threat of the lob So I mean somebody's gonna have to penetrate and be a threat from a floater position or kickouts as well So just need a little bit more action off off all screens probably JJ will install that but they look a little bit stagnant on offense I think if they were correct that because I said that they had their best Practice and months.
That's what JJ said That's the worst you was Hey, bro, can we have the best practice? Well, how many months into the season? I mean, I don't think that that's what it means like they have bad practices, but it's just like yo We've had our best practice in a couple months. Oh, yo Who is practicing now?
You're right at the NBA. Why are you practicing now? But they but they um they They're gonna have to step up the others is what my concerns like you said you. I'm not really worried about the bra I'm not worried about Luca as much as I am the others.
I want to see what we're gonna do We they gotta get reeds going and you're gonna have to get some defense out of some of these other guys We talk about them all the time gave this it give seven up here couple shots You need the other guys to make plays when you need them to make plays they they started out at first quarter With a lead and they had opportunity to bury the temple wolves But they got some hot shooting we talked about this before how crazy Minnesota shot in that first game Of course that won't continue you gotta step up play the better defense that you did the first game if you're the Lakers You gotta take pride in your defense first of all and the second thing is you might put the ball in the basket And that's something that you're gonna need like I said the others to do in order to be competitive in the series And you can win it if you can go out and take Minnesota's heart You are the big brother as far as this big brother little brother thing with this team And I think that does look up the LeBron which he does like the challenge of beating the brining thing He's one of the greatest players So that's why he steps up so much for LeBron But LeBron can use that his advantage in winner's game and that's what they're gonna have to do They got it with this is a must-win game tonight To me this get I hear what you were saying and I guess there may be some evidence of that but To me I look that game one more from a defensive perspective Not really offensively because I don't see Minnesota being that hot They broke the franchise record for playoff series, you know, you're not gonna do that every game But defensively obviously they like look at whatever he wanted to do But they shut everybody else down. I mean again I asked how to held it Austin Reeves get a nickname but him and Ruoy only combined they combined 24 points in game one Jada McGame was by himself at 25, you know I'm saying so I And then and then the the the post game J. J. was like we had a scheme To guard them defensively we just didn't execute on it.
I'm like well There was two halves in that fucking game which would you want to choose as far as where you gonna make your adjustments based off the team? So that's why I called him out, but yeah, I just don't know Who else is going to score now? LeBron has a 30-point game and look at 34 game. They can you know take back?
They can take this game to it and get back into the series, but like I mentioned with LA They did that they just already did his job. They play with house money right now They were in this game, but they're going back to say look we can we can we just need to one win one of the next two And then win one more of the next three and we good so this is definitely a must win game for the Lakers I'll be shocked if they do not win this game I actually can't to be honest just because I said I said the Minnesota in six But I was based off the ground get to so if they losing five Again again, I know you laughing cuz it's only game one, but I'm just saying when I saw a game one Brother that's brother Minnesota put the clamps on them You think I'll lose them I You think Minnesota can beat them if I if they went to not yes That's all right even even if though even and I don't have them winning tonight even if they do one tonight The link is when like the next two like I just like I just don't believe that he was have enough I didn't even have a great game like offensively for himself like he did like creating for his teammates Which I thought a lot of people talked about his maturity as far as being a play basketball, but He like everybody was getting theirs on Luca. That's the thing about this thing is like you as much as there's five people on the court For the Lakers, there's only four playing defense. You know I'm saying so it's like as much as you giving up You sworn 37, but you probably given up 40 plus on the other end based off You know who you're trying to guard quote unquote.
So that's my thing It's like you cancel out his is his production based off what he's doing in other and so to me It has a 30 plus game and you still playing defense like this. What can the Lakers do? I just I don't know the way that basketball works to me in playoffs is if your star is gonna go off normally You have to be championship pedigree to have other role players coming along with you like the okay She can go off at 30 and I expect your mom very to get 30 and I respect my I expect my core junior to get you 17 I expect that with the wolves they haven't done it yet So I don't see a world where you get these contributions that you got game one from Nas Reed and Jay McDaniel's getting 25 And all these other things and then Anthony Edwards on top of that That's just another worldly type of game And if you're the Lakers, there's really not much you can do if that's gonna happen But what happens if LeBron and Lucas just get it going and now the floor is opened up for just two other Lakers guys It makes it a much more even series you guys spend a lot more energy on the defensive side for the wolves And I think that look in the brand can kind of think this out a little bit more And they don't really have the championship experience that LeBron and look at do although Lucas only gone to one going that deep as Play-off seed against the wolves last year She gave you some different looks you should go back and look at some different tape that you were seeing and put that into practice tonight So I'm expecting one one and I don't think that we should panic it for your Lakers faithful Well, they better win tonight and they better win a series. Yes, it's a must-game.
It's a must-win game. He saw who took the first shot Yeah, and you're playing the reason why I don't think they can make it with it But um, you know, look I think The hot shooting wasn't anomaly, you know, we know all these game ones can go so And the Lakers had a week off too. I also want to say that like that helps when the wolves are fresh They're very fresh. They were there younger than the Lakers Lakers that we call LeBron You know me like so let's just see that hopefully that amazing practice is gonna come into play tonight Yeah, we'll see one of the issues that I saw was look a little bit up look a little like 16 in the first quarter The Ron put up ten in the second quarter and then re-suit up 14 in the third quarter like the three best players took turns scoring Offensively throughout the game, but they didn't play well together as a unit throughout the game and you just can't do that So when you look at the box was like, oh, yeah, such as I did this such as I did that such as I did this But you know you guys each took turns doing that And that just won't get it done when they're all cooking and playing well at the same time Then they're much better and then that's when everybody else get involved and gave it So we got there and really be able to play better and set up a set of or so But we'll see how I go tonight And we'll see what we have a lot to talk about when we are there