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The second round is underway. Heat, Nick's rivalry renewed the heat despite Jimmy Butler limping around for the last five minutes of the game. Actually not even limping around kind of standing around, take game one at the world's most famous arena and the nuggets with an emphatic statement, game one win over the suns in that series. We'll talk about those series later, but boy, oh boy, six or Celtic starts tonight.
We'll see about him. Beat and on Sunday season on the line, maybe dynasty on the line. Although I think that's a little premature, little premature, haven't haven't turned the page on Steph, Dray Monclay, Trio, Steve Kerr, Bob Byers haven't turned the page on any of it quite yet. But season on the line for sure.
After losing game six at home in one of the most impressive wins I can ever remember a young inexperienced team getting in the playoffs period, a blowout by the Kings at Chase Center with the air and Fox playing with an abulgent fracture in his left index finger. The Golden State Warriors who couldn't win a road game to save their damn lives all season long, one, two and Sacramento, including the hardest win to get in basketball, Game seven on the road, Wardell, Stephen Curry scored the most points that have ever been scored in a game seven in the history of the sport to carry the Warriors over the finish line. 50 points, five zero on 20 of 38 shooting, 13 of 20 on twos. Normally we talk about the threes.
The twos were outrageous and a stat that will get swept under the rug a little bit. One turnover, 50 points, all that dribbling, all that driving, one turn over, all the attention drawn, 42 pick and rolls, Steph Curry ran in that game. That was the second most in any game this season, according to second spectrum. They needed a monster step game.
They got a monster step game. And now after a little interregnum where they kind of circled each other from a far, one play in game that the Lakers won, you know, the Lakers were up and down. The Warriors were kind of in the tank for a year of high draft fix. The rivalry that defined a half decade of NBA history, a half decade of NBA finals, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Warriors, Lakers, Conference semifinals, Jeff Van Gundy, the best analyst in the business, former head coach, future Hall of Famer, was in the building at the Golden One Center.
And I just want your visceral Steph Curry reaction. Take off the analyst hat and just tell us how it felt to be sitting courtside watching that happen. It felt like he really was, I didn't look at like these, oh my goodness, look at that shot, that shot. It was just very workman-like and it was surgical.
And he, like you said, he's always been a much underrated finisher because everybody's mesmerized by the great shooting, but he lived at the rim yesterday. And he was great, obviously, with his finishes, a couple, like big-time threes as well. Oh, and they were really able to overcome Thompson and Wiggins shooting the ball so poorly. I mean, to think about how they blew them out with Thompson and Wiggins, I don't know what they were, like a nine for 35 or something like that.
That's exactly what they were. Yeah, it's just to me, it's remarkable. And it speaks directly to Curry's greatness and when he's worked on the board. So yeah, it was a great night for the Warriors and really disappointing for Sacramento.
So not even being positioned to win in the fourth quarter, just blown out in the second half. And another bad Jordan pool game in a series of bad Jordan pool games, and it just didn't matter because Steph had had 50. And within the first three and a half minutes of the game, you noted this right on the broadcast. They ran the same action three different times.
Steph, Looney, pick and roll, knowing Sublonus is going to come up almost trapping Curry, right? And they put Draymond Green on the right wing as an outlet for Steph. So he didn't have to make that direct kind of straight ahead, lob pass to Looney slipping the screen. Possession one was opening possession of the game.
It was pick and roll, trap, Steph to Draymond to Looney, tic-tac-toe, dunk. Two minutes later, same play, same defensive response, Looney rolls free to the rim. Steph to Draymond to Looney. This time Wiggins guy steps up, Looney drops it off to Wiggins, dunk.
Third one was the very next possession. And this time the Kings say, you know what, this is not working out for us. Let's play this a little bit more conservatively. Don't must maybe just like a step, a step back from the screen instead of the all-out trap.
So Curry runs the pick and roll. Oh, oh, Donos, Donos is out here. A board's the whole thing, gives it right back to Looney for a second pick and roll as Donos is kind of retreating thinking, withstood the first assault. Bam, Curry three.
And as you put it later in the game when he made one of his just outrageous iso step back threes, it's the thing that only he can do. And we've just you watch those three plays and they look so easy and so fundamental. The way the Warriors are passing the ball around. And it's not.
And it all stems from the fact that you've got to guard that guy 35 feet away from the rim or you're dead. And I know you remarked about those plays. They're beautiful, simple basketball and they came out and just bam, bam, bam. Yeah.
And I think everyone knows what a good pastor green is, right? So the attention that Curry attracts how well green passes the ball, but it's it's Looney who deserves to be in those conversations, his ability to play below the rim, but catch and make the right decisions makes it really hard to guard if they're going to trap Curry. So now you've got two bigs who are really experts at making the right play and keeping moving on to the next guy. And like you said, they play outstanding offensive basketball to start that game, set a really good tone and just, you know, really good.
And I think the Kings, you know, some, you know, I think the Kings were seven, two, and then they felt clay on a three on a baseline out of bounds. You know, those type of plays, they had a number of those, you know, four choices that I thought they because of how well so bonus played, they should have been up more than two and half and had a little bit of a cushion instead. They didn't and Golden State took, you know, and Curry just took over in the second half, but I just love watching the big, the big passing. It's just the way they do it.
Those two guys, Looney and Green spectacular. Well, I wrote about Looney about a month or six weeks ago in one of my 10 things, Collins. And I said, you know, the guy has been, first, as you noted on the broadcast, he was the story of his career was, is he ever going to play? Like he's the hip surgeries, the leg stuff.
Then he became like, oh, it's, he's an Iron Man. He sets screens. He doesn't, he's the classic central casting unsung hero. It doesn't show up in the box score.
And this year, what I wrote was it started to show up in the box score in the passing and the rebound, like it's not nothing that a 20 minute a game or whatever he is center is getting you three, four, five, six assists regularly. And then the rebounds, like I've watched those rebounds over and over again. And it's like, what is, what is he doing? How is he getting like Domas?
So bonus is a big, strong dude. And Kavan Looney, sometimes without inside position is just kind of like physically bearing down on him with all his weight and like almost pinning Domas to the ground. So he can't jump and then going up and getting the rebound. It is like just grueling physical labor that is 10 offensive rebounds in a game seven, 21 rebounds.
I mean, they obviously don't win the series without Kavan Looney. What, what a series. Yeah, he wedged. So bonus, like underneath the rim with good, you know, force, you know, just.
And so bonus was caught in between this face guard block out and a traditional block out, but he couldn't jump. He couldn't get up off of his feet. And that's what the body contact and the wedging does. It eliminates your jumping.
So looney can't jump anyway. And so bonus can't now defensive rebound. And to me, that's where Looney was great. And from a Sacramento perspective, you have to have come in and get these engaged rebound where two guys are locked up.
You have freedom as a perimeter defensive rebounder and they never could get the second and third guy in. They did such a poor job. Basically the perimeter guys did nothing to help the rebound game, which allowed Looney just to overpower some bonus. And those are back breaking type of sequences where you get, you know, you get the first stop, the one position, I think they had the first stop, the second stop and the third stop.
And then they end up getting the fourth offensive rebound and back breaking stuff. And looney, like you said, these people who try to underestimate his level of improvement or his rate of improvement and what he's doing just aren't watching. They just typecast him as this other guy and he's not another guy. He's central to their success.
Yeah, they're great with Draymond and Looney together. Obviously that's starting five has been a dominant starting five. I thought Steve Kermit, a smart move to go back to it to start game seven instead of messing around again with pool and the starting five. I would assume against a pretty big Lakers starting five.
They're going to keep that starting five going forward in this series. And it works because they're such good pastors together. But the big thing that's really become clear in the last two seasons and big time in the last last year's smiles against Boston is when they separate green and looney, looney can play the green role well enough that they don't, they're not as fast and zippy with it, but they don't lose as much creativity and passing and pace in their offenses. You would think going from the greatest playmaking power forward of all time, maybe to a guy who you just said can't really jump and is not going to win any 50 yard ashes or anything, but if they play four out and him is the only rim runner, like they get the same kind of stuff done.
That's been the revelation of the last couple of years with Looney. Yeah, he's in no way the weakness. He's an absolute strength in their team. Now for so many ways that the ability to win necessary switch and guard, you know, pick and rolls the ability to play some some drop coverage.
He can move his feet rebounds and passes and the smart tough plays, you know, he's he's unafraid of the contact plays, which is, you know, rebounding in traffic, screening, you know, putting his body on the line to protect the rim when he's not a shop locker. So those contact plays he's willing to make are essential to what they do. And as you mentioned, going forward with the Lakers, a much bigger team who guard the Warriors and particularly green and Looney, much differently. You know, you'll see, you saw how Sacramento, my Browns experience was, we need to pressure them.
And that has strings and its drawbacks and the Lakers will play just the opposite. They're going to plug just like Looney played sub-owness. You're going to see the Lakers play them that way, where they're going to drop back, plot the lane and then, you know, the Golden State Warriors response will be more pick and roll it because, you know, you just can't be in a drop coverage against curries too good. You can't and you're right that I think on all the off ball stuff, the Warriors run the Lakers are going to try and top lock it and send all those guys away from the pinned down screen to the rim where Anthony Davis is going to be waiting.
And my God, coach, I mean, I don't say this lightly because Anthony Davis has been in a legal long time now and he's been a defense player of the year candidate for almost a decade. I don't know that he's ever played defense better than he has in the last four or five games against Memphis. I mean, he is absolutely everywhere all the time. And the timing on these blocks is so exquisite.
He's never early. He's never off balance. He's never late. And you could see by the end of the series, the Grizzlies were like, I forget the 40 point blow and even before that game got out of hand, they just didn't know what to do anymore once they got below the foul line because this guy is just everywhere blocking every shot.
Um, I want to stick with the Warriors Kings for just a minute, just obviously an all time game from Curry forced all the lot of tough decisions for the Warriors in the off season, forced all the lot of talk that to me was going to be bogus about whether they kind of get lucky last year, like what's the difference between last year's team that won the championship and this year's team that, you know, was at risk of falling in the first round and now they live to fight another day. And I think the more momentum they get, the more stability they get in their rotation, the more dangerous they are going to get. And I think the league should be a little bit scared that they got by the Kings and the Kings kind of, you know, coughed up a really good chance to win the series. Um, but, you know, such as life, it happens.
I want, how do you come away from this, um, from the Kings perspective? What do you, what do you think? What did the king, cause you mentioned disappointing and they did end up fulfilling this whole idea that they were going to be a vulnerable top three seed that was going to be an underdog in the first round and they were and they lost. There's obviously going to be disappointment among their fans to go in and win that game six in chase to keep their season alive and then lose at home.
How do you come out feeling about them? I was very impressed. First of all, I'd never been to the arena. Great place.
Um, obviously they've always had good fans when they've had a respectable team. I thought they played with a lot of poise. Murray as a rookie really impressed me with his, not only shooting, it's obviously good, but his, his poise. I think they have to, uh, I think the rebounding and maybe some of their, uh, lack of physicality needs to be addressed in the off season.
But what they've done from a talent standpoint at that box obviously had a such a great year and I really admired how he played through the finger, which I thought really sort of hampered some of his ball handling and led to some, you know, turnovers that maybe we wouldn't have seen, but the way they added, you know, monk herder Murray in the off season really upgraded their talent. And I was impressed. I was impressed with how hard they played. Again, they got whipped last night in the second half.
It happens, but I don't think it detracts in the least from what they were able to accomplish this year. Continuing to move forward is the challenge and always the harder part. Everybody thinks it's a straight line. And oh, they were third seed.
Now they'll go, you know, they'll get some better players, you know, improve their roster. Then they're going to go to set it. It's hard. It's hard to keep going.
It's easy to go from bad to mediocre. Mediocre to good is not that hard, but where they were this year, 48 wins into a true championship caliber team. That's hard because hard decisions have to be made and then they have to be the right. I also came away really, really impressed.
And it could just be as simple as the Aaron Fox shot, five of 19 in game seven with five turnovers and he gave us nine of 25 in game six and they won. Maybe that was game five. I can't remember. If he doesn't have the finger injury, maybe we're doing an entirely different podcast about, oh my God, are the Warriors going to try and trade Jordan pool to get under the second apron or two, it decreased their tax bill.
What happens with dream on this player option? Instead of having this car, maybe it's that simple. I thought honestly, the thing I came away most impressed with was their defense. They held the Warriors to 111 points per 100 possessions in the series, which would have been like a bottom 10 offense in the regular season.
This is the Warriors. This is the playoff Warriors that are not messing around playing their back of the rotation guys. Their ferocity and precision on all the pretty Warriors split actions, off ball, this and that they switched when they should have switched when they when the Warriors would slip screens, the Kings would read that. Okay, we can't switch this one.
We got to stay home. They thought like hell to get over screens. So bonus moved his feet at the point of attack almost to the end better than I thought he could have managed. I can't, and that's that's the tough stuff, right?
That's the hard stuff to get into the playoffs after this feel good 48 wins season and have to do that seven times in a row against an offense that doesn't play like any other offense in the NBA and a superstar that doesn't play like any other superstar in the history of the NBA. And they largely did well enough defensively to win the series. They lost the series because their offense kind of fell in mud a little bit. So bonus didn't have great series.
Herder was pretty cold until game six and I was happy for him that he got off a little bit in game six. And overall though, I think you're right that development is never linear, right? They're not guaranteed to win 48 games like sure. The West is the West is a beast every year.
The West is a beast. But I do think the Fox to bonus and shooting thing on offense is legit. I'm not saying they're going to be the number one offense again in the NBA next year, but I think as a regular season wins machine, that offense is a monster and it's going to continue to be a monster. The piece that's interesting to me, it just feels like the Harrison Barnes thing has now run its course there.
Like he was a good stabilizing small ball for very valuable member of their team as they kind of made this ascent and he just couldn't impact this series the way they needed him to. He didn't make open threes. The Warriors were pretty okay, letting him take open non-corner threes. The free throw stuff that he's been much better at kind of disappeared.
And it, I don't know what you do. I mean, he's a free agent and I don't know, like if you let him walk, they have some cat flexibility, but not that much. Maybe there's a sign in trade. Maybe you sign in with the idea of trading him later.
But that feels like a place where you as a team at this stage have to be able to make a tough decision of even if we end up moving on from him in a way that is like a small step back in the present, but gets us some stuff, some draft picks, whatever it ends up being cat flexibility that turns into draft picks that we can use down the line in a move that kind of better fits the timetable of our team. That feels like the right decision to make at this point as much as it would hurt in his valuables of presence event in that locker room. That's the name. That's the name I would watch in the offseason.
But other than that, I think what they built is real. I think they're going to be a strong team for a long time and that Fox Obonus combo is a bear on offense. Yeah, and I think they're going to it's going to be interesting to watch next year if more teams try to emulate what the Warriors did to them. On the bonus catches above the free throw line, you know, just to drop in the lane and try to congest and they I thought they in the first half they got some really good looks again.
It's hard because the the playoffs are like a different season and I thought the Kings held up exceptionally well like you the game six when they were tremendous their level of aggression their force Fox didn't play particularly well early and then he got, you know, going about Monk was a great addition. He had a big time game and again, I think they're overall size. They're pretty small at times and but they have a lot of good pieces and I think they've done a really good job with the roster. But all these choices are hard and we've seen it like with Dallas, right?
If you make one one that doesn't go your way, it impacts your next decision, which may or may not, you know, help to correct what you just lost or, you know, continue to have a lessening impact on your on your roster. So tough decisions, but they should be very, very proud of what they accomplished this year. They did a really good job with the roster and their play and their defense is going to have to be better in the regular season next year if they're to make a jump. And it was it was very good in this series.
Poor Dallas Mavericks by the way, all they're hoping is like, can everyone just kind of let us be for a little while? Oh, God, jail and Brunson, Stephen, OK, but jail and Brunson seem lost in one. Maybe nobody will talk about the Mavs and jail and Brunson and poor, poor Mavs. Here we go.
Last thing on Curry, you know, I mentioned those three plays that they ran early in the game. And you on the broadcast said something that was sneaking in my head, which was they just got to stop guarding Draymond out there on those plays and have his guy in the paint to just clog up Looney. And then my brain said, OK, dumb brain, you've said this to yourself over and over again. And you know what happens if the defense does that.
Steph just gives the ball to Draymond and takes a dribble handoff and hits a three. And like, that's just the dilemma of playing this guy and playing the shooter and playing this playmaker. Is there just no, when you help in the paint, they beat you in other ways when you when you don't help in the paint, they beat you in this way. And by the way, the guy who didn't touch the ball literally didn't touch it on any of those trips is a top five shooter in the history of the NBA.
Clay Thompson is like he's not even touching the ball because he's so impactful not touching the ball just just in all time performance by Curry. And now we get what's what's really an incredible second round series before we move on to that. I'm obligated to ask you somebody who picked the Bucks myself to win the NBA championship and my preseason pick. People misinterpreted this last week when I said I picked the Bucks and the Clippers to make the finals.
I did not do that before the playoffs. I'm not that dumb to pick the Clippers without Paul George to make the finals. That's my August, September prediction. And I stuck with the Bucks the whole way.
What was your I haven't heard you talk about that. What was your reaction watching watching that happen? You're talking about my walking out. Yeah, Milwaukee losing to Miami in the way they lost the last two games of the series.
Yeah. Well, first of all, a condolences to the Bootenholzier family. I absolutely. What he was going through at that time.
I think Miami and Butler, like obviously were tremendous. I think even you saw last night, Lowry, like he can have a still a huge impact from a competitive nature love with the ability to put his body in front of people, make enough shots, resurrecting Duncan Robinson and Drew. So they had this great combination. They were playing off a great player in Jimmy Butler and then Lowry's competitiveness and then their three point shooting, that combination along with the Giannis injury.
It's interesting to me how at times people just say, oh, yeah, the best player on their team was certain this a couple of games. Well, last year was the same thing with Middleton. You know, they lose in seven games. To the Celtics and they don't have Middleton in this series.
They didn't have Giannis and I'm just want to take a step back. It's also one of the negatives of the play. Unintended consequences. You had Miami Heat lose to the Atlanta Hawks.
So they should have been in the seventh seed and play the Celtics in the opening round. But because they lose to the Hawks, they're called the H.C. But they're really the seventh seed and it goes to where to me, if you want to have the play in for the bottom teams, I'm so excited. I'm so excited for you to say this.
I'm so excited to keep going. Shouldn't be impacted negatively. So Boston should have their choice, like of who they wanted to play. Yes, Atlanta can be in and make it in the playoffs.
And then Miami Beach Chicago in a really close game at home. So they've lost with Lanan home. Beat Chicago, but Chicago was up late. I think Boston then should have the choice between.
You mean Milwaukee is the number one. Milwaukee should have the choice between I'm sorry, between Planet Atlanta or Boston. I don't know. How LaLuia, I don't understand why I just have never heard a compelling argument, particularly this was always a fun thing to think about pre play in.
But with the play in now, it seems like an obvious thing that you should do, the fair and obvious thing. And I've never heard a compelling argument for why it's a bad idea. I just haven't. And there's two things on that.
There's two things to me to play in. And now there's play the in season tournament to me have shown is that there's going to be it's not going to be a traditional NBA schedule anymore. So let's count the stats from the play in games as playoff stats. Like there's no reason that those stats just go up in the ether.
And they're they're not recognized anywhere. That's ridiculous. You can't find them. You can barely find them.
It's ridiculous. It doesn't even make sense. And they're just being stubborn. And secondly, if you're going to be open and to like this play in and you want everybody to get behind it, well, the people who have honored and respected the regular season and done well in the regular season should never be negatively impacted by a lesser teams losing in the play.
So Milwaukee, it makes no sense that it does not to say Atlanta isn't, you know, isn't a good team. I'm not saying that. By the way, Atlanta showed me something those last four games. That's Boston.
They really did it. Exactly. So, but it should be the bucks choice. So anyway, the bucks to me, you know, were hurt by injury and they were hurt because of Butler playing so, so well, which, you know, you know, set up everybody else.
And I know that this is what happens all the time. When you have this disappointing loss to what was the seventh seed, basically, the overreaction is swift and immediate. Okay. They've got to get rid of the coach.
The, and I love that, like get rid of the coach because John shot 10 for 23 from the free throw line. Really? They were 28 for 45 from the free throw line in that game five. You know, like it's just people never want to look at the, at really what has happened.
They always want to overreact. Like there's no way back. If I was to tell you that Pat Riley is a great pop of it. Two of the iconic coaches in the NBA lost eight times as a higher seed to a lower seed and Pat Riley lost two, I think he lost to a 60, maybe twice to a seven seed to an eight.
Someone someone I know is coaching some of those. Yeah, but not all. Not all. I'm just saying the idea that you can't rebound and come back and and regroup.
I think it's wrong. Like, Giannis said something like, you know, he got criticized for his take on was it a successful season or disappointing or a failure. And I think two things can be true simultaneously. It was absolutely a disappointing end.
And yet there's no reason that they can't come back, regroup, add some things, maybe take away some others. But like this is a dominant team where they just went through a tough injury, a bad opponent to have to play. Unfortunately, unintended consequence of the play and Butler playing so well, matching directly to how they don't want to, you know, but there loves to come off against a drop where you can get into the mid range. That's where they excel and terrible free throw shooting like ridiculous.
And that is a combination for an upset right there. And they had it and they had their chances. You know, I don't think anybody was calling for the breakup of the, the Bucks when they were up 16 going into the fourth of game five, but they had the same type of lead in game four. It's, you know, we wait to see the result.
And then we sometimes to me completely overreact. We'll see what the offseason holds for Milwaukee. Um, I'm still kind of stunned by the degree of collapse, but I just want to get your take on it because I know we both had them winning the whole thing. And now we have a heat next series instead.
Um, it's, um, it shows you though, just like you said, how it opens up. Think about it. Now Miami or New York's going to the Eastern Conference. The Boston will never have, never have.
And I don't want to say easy, but a more direct line to win in a championship in beat out. We'll see. Now he's doubtful, right? So we were, it's nine 30 in the morning.
We'll see. But yeah, and beat out or let's just make up his area where in beat misses the first two games plays the next whatever, but he's, he's 80%. That should be a win for Boston. And again, nothing's guaranteed.
We just saw it with Milwaukee and Miami. All right. But you're never going to have a better path for Boston. Milwaukee out in beat heard.
So their path to the final is straightforward, where they're clearly, clearly to me, the best team left with the in beat injury factored in. I, it's, they've got to take care of business and it just shows you how, you know, things open up and I would also say I, I'm fascinated by when a big upset takes place. Should the top next top seems to be able to decide who they play to. That's a little bit more problematic.
I would think. But I think it bears reasonable discussion. Discussion. Yeah, that, that's a little more problematic.
And I have to think more about it. It's, that's a more dramatic sea change to how, how the NBA works. Obviously other leagues have done that. And we're not going to talk about much about Boston Philly because it's, it's the early game tonight and we don't know that in beat quite yet.
But I, I did not like the way Boston closed that series against Atlanta. Even the last game that they pulled away and won with some great offensive play and some great shot making. I thought they were still sloppy and careless in ways that make me a little bit concerned in ways that kind of gave me flashbacks to how they would just sort of piss away possessions with kind of aimless play against the, the bucks and then the heat and then the Warriors obviously last year in the playoffs. But I agree with you.
They have, they have all the pieces they need and the road is there for them. The Blake Griffin minutes in, in game five against the Hawks were just never explained to me. I don't remember ever being so surprised by like suddenly Blake Griffin was in the game. And even the announcers on TV were like, well, Joe Missoula wants to see you.
Like if you can give him something against him beat in the next round. It's a close game. What are they doing? I just, it was never explained to me, but I do agree with you.
It's, it's there for him. Brown has been really good shot making wise. The handle's been hit or missed. I think this is going to be a bigger Rob Williams series than the first round was when his minutes kind of went up and down and up and down.
But it's just like we're not talking about that series today. All you got it, all you're hoping for is somehow the basketball and health gods come together to get Joe LMB'd right fast because, you know, it's obviously a whole different series with him. And you just want to see one year where he's intact for the entire playoffs, because even against the Nets, which feels like a month ago, when his scoring and shot attempts were down because of the way they were guarding him, he was still the single most important presence in the series by an exponential amount over everybody else and just was so utterly dominant on both ends of the floor, ending with the block on didn't we need to click the series? OK, no.
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It's all the ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Lakers warriors. I got to say our bosses have got to be just beside themselves that this is second round series that we're getting the Lakers dispatched the Grizzlies, the Warriors as we said, tip over the Kings.
Two teams that were two of the top 10 defensive teams after the trade deadline, two of the top five net rating teams after the trade deadline when obviously the Lakers remade their offense. We have the worst free throw team in the league, offense and defense combined in the Warriors, a team that doesn't get to the line and fouls everybody against the best free throw team in the league on both ends, that a team that damn near led the league in both the free throw rate on offense and defense. So that's step one for the Warriors is don't start every game down 10 zero because of free throws. I think this is an absolutely fascinating matchup.
Both teams start kind of like quote unquote big lineups, the Wiggins dream on Looney trio, the Vanderbilt LeBron Davis trio. Both teams have quote unquote slightly smaller lineups that they often close games with. That's obviously dream on the center in various permutations for the Warriors, for the Lakers, that's three guards of some kind, LeBron and Anthony Davis. I think both teams when you look at the matchups are going to be comfortable shape shifting.
I don't think either team is in matchup trouble against either big or small permutation of the other team. I think it's going to test some players, but I think both teams are prepared and have good match ups for those lineups. And I just, I can't wait to see what the match ups are. I can't wait to see if LeBron can kind of exert his will as a chess master a little bit more than he had to and was willing to in the first round, because I think he is going to have to.
And the Lakers go from facing a team with very little shooting and a bad half court offense to a team that is going to stretch them out and make them cover more ground than they had to cover against the Grizzlies. And the series, if I'm going to zoom in, if I'm going to start drilling down from any point, for me, it's Anthony Davis. If he's neck and neck with Curry as the best player in the series on both ends of the floor, particularly defense where he's going to have to, if he's on Draymond, if Draymond's at center and he's on Draymond, he's going to have to come up and get back, come up and get back. If he's on Looney, he's going to have a little more freedom to roll him around.
And I think he'll start games on Looney. I think if he's defensively dominant and does enough on offense, like when they switch, can he punish Wiggins if they switch to LeBron AD, pick and roll, can he punish Wiggins a little bit in the post? He is, to me, is the 10 pole of the series. What are your sort of initial treetops as they say thoughts on this matchup?
Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how and who matches up with who. I would say Vanderbilt most likely would try to guard Curry right off the bat. That's interesting. Yeah, I have it penciled in a different way.
So tell me on that because I worry. I'm not selling you because I don't know if I believe it. I was off the Terrence Davis. I didn't like that matchup from the start the other night on Curry.
You have to have like such great discipline and the ability to not be frustrated when he scores, even when you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. Like that's the telltale sign of a guy who can guard these great players is you don't try to make it up the next time because you got scored on the last two times doing it the right way. And so anyway, I see it as a shoot at life. Vanderbilt to start in their normal starting lineup.
Maybe Reeves, I don't really see that. Interesting. I have Reeves and I think it's going to be Reeves, but why don't what's your what's your I like the link on Curry and I like that. I'm not worried about early aggressive foul trouble by Vanderbilt.
Like I'm not worried about that. I think Reeves has become so important that on the offensive end that it would be harder for them to survive intermittent minutes by Reeves due to foul trouble. And then I love and I know shrewders up and down offensively. I love his tenacity, his speed and quickness and his ability to navigate screens.
To me, he'll be the guy who is charged with that type of, you know, because not to put Daniel Russell on him. Daniel Russell, you know, guard one or the other probably Wiggins. Oh, I have my assumption for the later. My assumption, and I don't know that I'm right.
I'm just guessing my assumption is Reeves on curry Russell on clay, which scares the hell out of me LeBron on Wiggins just because I don't want him chasing clay around. But maybe I do Vanderbilt on Jeraymond and Anthony Davis on Looney. The reason why I like your I thought about Vanderbilt on curry. I just that scares me a little bit in terms of chasing the off ball stuff.
Moran, when they put him on point guards, it's often guys who are so like I can go under screens on Moran and just sort of be big and behind the play. I don't know. I'm sure we'll see it in Vanderbilt, his guarded clay in some in some of the past match ups between the two teams. I just got a little nervous and penciled in Reeves, but you know, look, I don't care which five you assign to him, like you'd still be nervous.
So it's like with curry and but you know, you can't take away everything from a great player, but you do have to take away something. And I think that's what Sacramento didn't do. To me, the his living in the lane, like you can't give him layups and three. So that's just not, it's not a workable situation.
He's always been an underrated finisher. And the one play that stood out to me Davis fouled him on a little on a drive where green was. Karen's Davis. Yeah, Karen's Davis and you know, curry made it and Harrison Barnes, like didn't shut off the driving gap when he was guarding green at the top.
I mean, those are the mistakes you can't make. If you're going to help off someone and this is where I think the Lakers and this is why I want James on one of the two bigs is I know he may not be able to move like he wants to, but he's going to know who's most dangerous at any particular point in time. And I think that's absolutely critical to try to take away something from her. Like, and it's got to be the paint.
Like the step back sometimes there's little you can do it. Just doesn't go as you always say, Mark Jackson says, what are you going to do? And there's always a beat and you say lose. That's what you do on those like if a guy's going to, like there's only so much you can do.
And so, and that's why I do like Schroeder's competitiveness and his quickness. And they have many more answers than they did previous to the trade deadline. And the Russell who Russell guards. Like I'm not sure if it's if it's Clay or Wiggins, depending on how they want to go.
But I do think, you know, his offensive spurtability is important to them. And so he's got to find someone he feels comfortable with, where he can make sure he's, you know, he stays in the game because he is important offensively to him. To your point on LeBron, if you go back and watch tape of the last two seasons of these teams playing against each other, and there's not much of it that's relevant because so many guys have been out, including this year, they played three times in a three weeks span in February and March and Wiggins was out twice. Curry was out twice LeBron was out either two or three of them.
But LeBron guards Looney quite a bit. And I'm assuming when the Lakers go smaller and it's like Reeves, Schroeder, Russell, LeBron Davis, that's that's what we'll see. And Davis will go on to Draymond Green if Draymond is also on the floor, it's Draymond and Looney. And I agree with you, that's a good that's a good way to a make sure LeBron doesn't work very hard and be put him in good, help position because he is six eight and very smart and puts the fear of God into everybody still when they go to the rim against him and that will never change until he retires whenever that is.
And yeah, I think the matchups on the other end, I have just sort of tentatively, I assume Wiggins will start on LeBron and Draymond on Vanderbilt so he can kind of roam around and screw things up, which puts Looney on Davis. But we'll see a lot of Draymond on LeBron when the Warriors go smaller. I mean, the Warriors go smaller after Garden Anthony Davis, but we'll see him on LeBron some too. I'm interested also when the Warriors put Draymond at center.
Who Anthony Davis guards? Do you want him on Draymond or if there's a Gary Payton the second Moses Moody, if there's a because they don't play that pool party lineup much anymore where they have the five really good offensive players out there at the same time, if you can't pool. Can you put? I thought the Kings may be sure to put some bonus on those guys a little bit more than they did and take him away from the point of attack or force the Warriors to use those guys at the point of attack and GP to is a good screen or that works for them.
I do wonder if we'll see Anthony Davis on those guys a little bit, maybe he can roam around, but I there's I think this is going to be a really fun, interesting series and a test, a test on defense for some of the Lakers guys who are coming off this sort of physical, grimy, the Grizzlies have very little shooting, particularly with canard missing the last game. It's a big test for Dilo to me because I grew through shooter is a big, big part of the series for the Lakers because of the way he chases. He was great on my rant to and a guy like Hachamura, who's been really, really good in the playoffs for them, but now he's going to have to defend perimeter players a lot when it's him and Bron and AD as he takes that Vanderbilt spot and they're big and they have Hachamura LeBron and Davis, which is a trio that has been lights out for them. He's going to have to chase these guys around and that's a big, big test for him.
I'm curious to see how guys like that handled this series. I think this is a really even, I haven't seen the Vegas odds. I don't know who I would pick, but I think it's going to be a really good series. Yeah, all those interesting questions, Hachamura, really.
And you know, what they're so little, like you mentioned before from regular season, there's just so much, the sample size is so small that thinking that, you know, they're definite of answers, there aren't, you know, can't Hachamura do it? We'll see. It's the most valuable phrase in sports. We'll see because like that is the truth.
And if they want to win, he'll be able to use his size and strength to advantage against smaller warrior players and not have it be a detriment of the defense. And likewise, for the Warriors, you know, they've got to use their speed and quickness and not get overpowered by him. So it's the really differently constructed teams. I think Ron Polink and his staff deserve a lot of credit for what they were able to do in saving the Lakers season.
And I think for the Warriors, I'm going to be interested if Kaminka gets dusted off bingo, you know, because they're going to treat, Kaminka like they treat green and they're going to stay in the lane, like they'll treat Gary Payton, you know, they're just not going to extend on those guys. And I'm just interested to see about the choices. And as we've seen, like, you know, the grisly is one thing about the grisly is because of all of their nonsensical talk. Overshadows some things like, you know, Stephen Adams is a huge part of that series, huge with his screen setting.
And Davis has to be more concerned, instead of coming over there to block as many because Adams is the best offensive rebounder in the league. And then you have Clark as well. So their top two centers were out. But I think people overlook those injuries because of, like I said, the focus in the media was just on, you know, Dylan Brooks and all that and before that, the month before that, you know, the Moran situation.
So to me, I think the grislies season, just like we were talking previous about the box, it was derailed, not that they couldn't have beaten the Lakers in the first round, but to me, that would have been an upset. When they lost their top two centers, it really reduced any chance they had to advance. So this situation is different. I'll be interested to see if Davis, you know, like you said, does he play against green?
So he's not in the physical group battle against Looney. So he can roam a little bit more or they started on. I'm, that's why I think they played Vanderbilt on curry because it puts James against Looney allows Davis not to be locked in into a physical matchup and maybe uses shot blocking to better, you know, better their defensive efforts. And the series is going to feel, I'm not saying easier or harder, it's going to feel a lot different, I think for Golden State coming, this is going to feel like a slow series.
I know the Lakers want to run and played with a pace equivalent to Sacramento, but I don't think they're going to be as relentless running, running, running, running, and in that, and then they don't have what's really hurt the Warriors all year and why they fail so much is the straight line drive guys just blow by them. And the Lakers don't like D Lo's not that kind of player, Reeves isn't quite that kind of player is more pick and roll LeBron is not that quite LeBron is LeBron, but he's not just like a Malik monk below by people kind of guy. And I think LeBron's going to have to sort of get in the time machine and go back to the 2016, 17, 18, 15 finals and play his little hunting game with curry and say, you know, I'm going to try to generate a good matchup and get them in rotation and see what happens after that, which has always been, it's always been great theater. I think I would lean, I think I would lean Warriors in seven, just pick pick the home court team.
I think this is an interesting matchup for them. I think they have a lot of, I think both teams have a lot of answers for each other. It helps that the Lakers are a very low turnover forcing team on defense. So if the Warriors just don't do ludicrous things, they should get shots up, which is like step one for them is get shots up because they do so many ludicrous things.
I think I pick Warriors in seven. I don't know if you have a feel yet. Yeah, I always think about the Warriors, right when they are sometimes the most explosive team that you can hope to watch and then they're perplexing at the same time with their reckless passing foul decisions and shot. So those three areas, the shot selection, the passing decisions and the fouling decisions are always critical for them because if they can manage those like they did so well in game seven, they play with an advantage because of their great shooting.
But if they negate those advantages with reckless play, I think it gives, you know, James and the Lakers a better opportunity. And I think James has not been at the basket nearly as much. He hasn't been at the defensive line nearly as much. And I don't know if it's possible, but he has to at least be in the half court in this attacking driving mindset to collapse the defense and give opportunities for his teammates.
I don't think they can have the James version from the Memphis series and beat, you know, this outstanding Warriors team. I totally agree. And it's one of the reasons I would pick Warriors in seven. I just, you know, I does he bring that version of himself.
You're talking about every single game. Maybe he does. I mean, it's LeBron James. Heat next.
Let's do a few minutes on heat next. The heat, win game one, no Julius Randall, which is, which is a big deal. I think they're going to meet him sooner rather than later. It changes the whole series in lots of different ways.
You know, a lot of this series is the heat trying to hunt jail and Brunson a little bit on defense and jail and Brunson trying to find good match ups, a lot of cross matching into series coaches, not the sexiest thing to talk about, but jail and Brunson is guarding his truce to open games. And if he gets that matchup, he's just going right at him. If Dr. Robinson's on the floor, he's finding him and going right at him.
And Jimmy Butler, a lot of those leak outs that he got on the touchdown pass was from Kevin Love are because of cross matches. He's guarding Brunson and they don't want Brunson guarding him and he knew it's clearly part of the scouting report. He started leaking out like when shots were in the air or not even like about to be taken because he knows they're going to try to crisscross and find me and I'm going to get good match ups. And then, of course, he sprained his ankle.
So we're waiting. We're waiting on that other than flashbacks to the late 90s. What was your initial take on game one? Well, I thought the Knicks, they just didn't play well enough, particularly in the things that are correctable.
Three leak outs by Love. I mean, you can't get, you can't allow people behind you without floor violence necessary. I mean, that's just step one to any good defense is floorbound. So I think they need to correct that.
If you went back and started how many times they left their feet on shot face, ob top and is still jumping like now, like as you get to upper practice, kind of like great grace. Now, sir, you're you're still you're stepping across the streets of Milwaukee somewhere. Three, two, one and a half, one and two, one and a quarter. And I think top and played so much better.
I think he actually helps them offensively. Didn't reflect yesterday as much, but I think in many ways they can play better offensively with top and then with Randall. I don't think I don't think that's going to sound like a hot take and I actually don't think it is because of the spacing and the speed with which they play. Yeah, I mean, to me, I'm not trying to make a hot take on this.
I know you're not. It's just he gives him transition ability. He'll run harder and more frequently and he'll shoot the three and he doesn't hesitate. But that being said, the number of shot makes they went for yesterday that led to then open shots or fouls.
You can't be putting Jimmy Bubbling to the free throw line 11 times and you can't bite on Kevin loves shot fake. So they need those are the two basic ones. And then I think, you know, Brunson was just okay yesterday. I think they need to.
They can't shoot. Okay. So they're they're starting wings with heart and bearing. They, you know, that's not their strength.
They're not a three point shooting team. So they need their four man and their one man and then grinds to come in if he's to still come off the bench. And they need to shoot the three. Well, the discrepancy from a shooting standpoint is hard to overcome.
And so when Brunson goes over seven yesterday, coupled with, you know, bearing and hearts, that's not their strength. Then it becomes very, very difficult, particularly with as many good three point shooters as he play. And I don't know, just like I was saying about topping. The hero injury is interesting for Miami in that he's a talented offensive player and they may be better defensively when they're not playing him 35 minutes a game because of people can't just go at.
I've heard from a number of executives around the league saying, I don't think the heat and the style of hero is much as people though they're going to miss Tyler here. Oh, for that exact reason, I do think it's interesting that the longer they advance, the more he's just going to recede from memory is like what a big deal his injury apparently was and is just to put that in perspective. So they closed, I think both have last night yesterday afternoon with a lineup of Gabe Vincent and Kyle Lowry together. So both the point guards Jimmy Butler, Caleb Martin and Bam out of bio that lineup played nine minutes in game one.
Nine minutes seven minutes in the entire regular season. That's the degree to which the heat are scrambling to just find bodies at this point, a lineup that won them the game played more in that game than it did in the 90 combined games or whatever regular season play in playoffs before that. And it was just a guy who wouldn't I agree that Nick just weren't just weren't sharp enough. The fact that they didn't go at Butler at the end of the game when he couldn't move and they had possessions where he was like on jail and Brunson switched on to jail and Brunson and they just went away from it like RJ Barry dribbled one of them and just dribbled the ball off his foot.
I'm like, this guy can't move and jail and Brunson. He's got Jim Butler on him go. Go out of it. It's also a tribute to like how much respect teams have for Jimmy Butler.
I would say I'm not so sure Butler would have like maybe they should have. I didn't see the last three minutes, but maybe they should have. But the one thing I would say is I also have no doubt that Butler would not have allowed himself to be taken advantage of. Either.
And Kyle Lowry to your point. No, his strips like just the nuisance. The biggest play of the game for Miami and for New York, Mitchell Robinson gets a rebound with. I'm going to say six or seven brings it down.
Lowry pokes it away. It leads to a who then RJ Barrett goes down. When was it was a gave Vincent three where gave Vincent fell over and wanted a four point play that was like four and a half and it's like I know exactly what I mean. Just poke that right out of it.
It's like classic Kyle Lowry just being a pain in the ass. Right. And then Barrett goes down. I'm not sure if it was the exact next possession, but very close.
Drive into his left. Lowry strips it. And then the next had a third turnover in there. And so to me, Lowry is never going to go up above you to make a play, but you can't be exposing the ball to him.
Like he will he will stand in front. He will take a charge. He will strip the ball down low. And you have to be on high alert at all times and gave Vincent went through some huge shooting struggles at times this year.
And for him to be this good and playing these huge minutes as a testament to his work and their belief in him. And I just I've been so impressed with Vincent how he's been able to you know navigate a rocky regular season and play so very well. And and Lowry looks like you know he may be done and now he's back to you know he's not playing huge minutes, but he's impactful in the minute. He he has and it reminds me once again and she reminds everybody once again.
Some great great competitors are hard to find. They may be cranky and irascible and at times in the regular season difficult to deal with. But when you come to the playoffs, if you don't have great competitors, you've got no chance. Kyle Lowry is a great great competitor.
And when I watch him like there's so many things he doesn't still have, but he does have great instincts, great intelligence and great competitors. Fair and it's a pleasure to watch and compete. And to that point, a big stretch of that game to me was the second quarter when Butler went out for his rest. The heat more than shredded water in those minutes and the Knicks made some defensive mistakes.
They left Caleb Martin open for three. Ob top and helped and he shouldn't have they lost. Hey, would high Smith on a backdoor kind. I think that was Barrett and Lowry was orchestrating a lot of those news.
He was orchestrating a lot late in the game when Jimmy was hurt. And hopefully Jimmy's healthy. The Knicks cannot lose those minutes when Jimmy Butler rests. They need to win those minutes.
He should not be able to score as easily as they did at times in those minutes. And then by the way, Spaux and his staff are just so sharp. So you'll notice they did this against Milwaukee too. If their offense is like guard guard screens.
So Bam, who's usually the centerpiece of their screening game has to do something else if he's not the screener. What they've done more and more is, all right. So if it's like Jimmy streuced or whatever on one side of the floor in the middle, they'll put Bam all the way over on the opposite sideline. And the thought process appears to be a we get the big man out of the way for the Knicks.
But b, if that guard guard pick and roll puts them in rotation, we can then drive and kick to him as a second outlet. And his guy's going to be helping inside and he becomes Dremon Green in those spots where, okay, my guy's not on me. I have it. They have a handoff shooter ready to go.
It's just really smart little things that he just do to maximize like the limited personnel that they have wrapped in. And Randall just real quickly. He's important to me in this series despite what we all just said about his, you know, the Knicks offensive and pretty good without him because I think the heat might have to invert the match up. So Bam would have to guard him out of out of respect to his sort of bully ball driving game.
And what does that do for Mitchell Robinson, maybe on the glass? And it just also gives the Knicks like smart teams when they play the heat, they'll get Bam to switch on a pick and roll and just then park his guy out on the perimeter. So Bam's now just guarding whoever 30 feet from the basket totally out of the play because he switched one pick. Well, right now that's switching on to jail and Brunson and that's bad for the Knicks.
Like they don't want jail and Brunson out of the play. They want him in the play. Randall gives them an alternate source of offense where if you take Bam away from the rim, you have another place you can go to sort of get offense one on one. I think they're going to need him to win this series.
But man, the heat, I don't, I'm the heat are just, they're no fun. They're just no fun to play against just totally fearless maniacal like Spos said, just really, really gutsy team. Yeah, they are. And and quite frankly, they've got better shooting than the Knicks.
You know, the next three point shooting has been a very weak point the entire year. And so, you know, their four spot Randall shot the the amount the volume Randall shot now the volume that top and shoots is important. You know, Randall had a terrific regular season terrific. And for whatever reason, both times in the playoffs, two years ago against Atlanta in the first round against Cleveland, he is not, he is not produced or been, you know, he hasn't played well.
And so if it's Randall efficient, Randall, I would agree that he's important to the series. But if it's inefficient, distracted, Julius Randall, then I think they could still win without him. It would be harder, obviously, but they could. And I think they showed that in in the Cleveland series that they can play and win without.
Yeah. And to your point about the shooting, when you see that's what the heater doing, like they're, they're just not going to let jail and run to get comfortable one on one. Now, he can be comfortable 18 feet from the rim. It's, it's spots where a lot of people aren't comfortable just sort of pivoting around for midrangers, but they're just going to swarm him and say, okay, Josh, Art beat us.
We'll be topping take 11 threes, 11 threes, but if they're not corner threes, we just don't really care that much. Yeah, it was interesting. I don't know what they call it on the SPM, but they had coach, you know, they had Eric Mike, they went to some of his at a timeout, which is great TV sometimes. And I just, I would hate it if I was Eric, you know, he was saying we don't understand who they are, like they are at attacking painting.
Like, and I think that's what they did. Like, they, they know that the nicks have this inherent shooting weakness. And I think if you're, if you're New York, the question you're pondering is, do we go back to heart off the bench, start with grinds to try to give us more three point shooting initially in games so that Brunson has more room. And there's only Mitchell Robinson in the dunkers spot and Barrett, who they will be as likely to help off or, or those hearts defense negate the need to sort of flip and go back to their original starting lineup.
You know, it's these tough decisions that coaches always have to make and you hope you're right. Or do you use heart as a ball screen or more? Does that help mitigate the spacing? I don't know because then you got your two bigs elsewhere, particularly if they think Jimmy is limited and they're kind of less scared of him going bananas.
Maybe you do put grinds. That's, that's interesting. Is this, is, are you enjoying all the flashbacks, all the clips of you from the 90s in the series? You know, it's unfortunate.
Like for me, like I say it all every time I'm asked about it. It's temporary insanity. I don't remember a whole lot about going out there and I look like a fool and, you know, by the goodness of mourning, he didn't in my life there. So I'll always be appreciative of that.
But I think when, when I reflect back and I see it brings back great memories for me because being associated with such great competitors, you know, so much of the game has changed. Nothing has changed as far as what wins and what loses. You know, you've got to get, you know, more better shots than your opponents, right? So that's, that's, it's never changing.
And great defense and limiting your turnovers and winning the rebounding battle and the same things went. Now that type of shots that may be considered good or not good have definitely changed. But it makes me always reflect back when I see those, you know, those clips is that what someone couldn't have been more blessed to been a coach at that time because we had all time great competitors. I look back and I see, you know, Larry Johnson and Oakley and Ewing and Starks and Ward Harper and all those guys and I'm like, man, no one's ever been luckier than me when it comes to coaching.
And that's what I reflect back on. You know, I don't really reflect on the fight, although, you know, I did look like a fool, but I do reflect back on so often just, you know, how grateful I am to been part of that. That four year competition with the Heat playing to the last game, four straight years in playoffs was truly, it started out with great animosity. Those series.
And I think what it morphed into was by the end of that four years, incredible respect for the opponent because you know how much they were putting into it. You know how well they were coached. And so it was disdain turned into great respect. And for that, I'm eternally grateful.
Okay, so when it was disdain, who did you disdain the most? Who was the member of the Heat when you just like looked at their patient like, I don't want to beat that guy so bad? Well, the guy we feared the most at, it was hard to have, I didn't have like an individual disdain. I had a group disdain for like them, but Tim Hardaway was, I don't think people realized pre knee injury what Tim Hardaway was with Run CMC, but even how great was I think he was all NBA first team with Miami.
One year if I'm not mistaken. And he was literally just such a hard guy to guard. Pick and roll in transition. You know, people talk about the killer crossover, but it was his total like fearlessness to shoot the three out of the pick and roll.
He would have lived with a lesson contact in the more space he would have loved playing in this era. He was just absolutely a phenomenal player. So I don't know if disdain for him would have been the right word, but it certainly he was one that gave you extreme headaches trying to figure out how you wanted to guard him. First team all NBA 1997 second team all NBA 1998 second team all NBA 1999, which is of course the year of the Allen Houston shot, which I had forgotten coach was followed by a 40 foot buzzer beating heave by Terry Porter that you were so enraged about that you would that this is the legend of I haven't seen a clip of this you go out and yell at the ref because even though your team has won the game you're mad.
You thought you couldn't have done all that he did in point eight seconds. It's point eight seconds and there's no replay at that time. And the year before we had a shot disallowed in Miami to win a regular season game. And so I knew you know there was high James with the clock there you know like there's a lot of stuff you know that you know you could write a you could do a 30 for 30 on that four year period of the regular season games and the playoff game.
And so and so now think about this and they were gonna count this good Terry Porter caught it dribbled it and shot it with point eight on the clock. And I'm like that's ridiculous. So people said oh I was trying to in some nick book somebody tried to say I was trying to rep like get you know something for the next round like no I was just upset that this was idiotic and they were gonna count the basket because you can't catch dribble and shoot. Yeah that's probably would have been a better response but my anger took over.
Okay initial thoughts on sons nuggets nuggets win game one what did you see. That the nuggets because they had that bad stretch down the end of the regular season for some reason there as underestimated as any number one seed could possibly ever be. I think if you took the three other teams in the West that are still playing I would say a majority of people would say the winner of the West is gonna come from those three teams and not Denver and I think Denver like I think they have a well constructed roster. I think Michael alone has narrowed down who he wants to play.
I'm a little worried about you know what they're getting off the bench. And do they have enough defense when either Gordon or containers called the pope goes to the bench. But Aaron Gordon to me has narrowed his game so much more and has accepted that if I cut and if I move and if I run I'm gonna get rewarded I don't have to try to do crazy things with the ball. And I think that's the value of yolka I mean they are completely unselfish they know exactly who they are and what they do best and I think they're one of the most underestimated one seats.
Yeah the story of game one to me was Denver's defense because then this was the test. This was the test for yolka this was the test for their scheme. This was the test that everyone including me was worried about because you know you can't drop on the sun. They did against Chris Paul a little bit which I thought was smart because if I can get them to overuse Chris Paul at the expense of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker that's a win for me Chris Paul Michael crazy for a quarter but that's still a win for me.
And I think that happened in game one Durant only 14 pick and rolls and six is the screener that's not enough those are low numbers for him underutilized I thought a little bit. And the rotations behind him were like on point and even yolka was on point and the timing if you go back and watch those plays like he's up at the level and you freeze it and it's like two on the ball with Durant handling it or Booker handling it and a four on three behind it and if you freeze it. It looks bad for Denver like oh my god there's going to be pass pass pass and then you unfreeze it and they retreat in precise exact timing with Durant picking up his dribble and Aiden rolling to like the timing and so that no one is open for too long. No one is over committed I do think eight needs to set better picks is picks in game one we're not making enough contact and.
Can I just jump in there can I just yeah. It's the difference between like regular season screen where everybody is slipping out right and it sounds good. I couldn't agree with you more you gotta have a big like we're you'll get open but we're trying to get into rant we're trying to get. I got that was the same thing with the centers for the next like if I went back everybody slipping out no you gotta hit these dudes to get Brunson enough separation to have a chance to create what you want to instead of slipping out so I agree with you and I agree with the four on three and I think that's why because.
You you have to have that up to the level picking roll scheme in and Denver's done it you know. They've they've used it and you have to be able to use it in the playoffs just like we saw with Sacramento when you're going against the very elite. You have to have that you don't have to do it to everybody or every game or every possession but you have to have that in your arsenal and I agree with you I thought Denver handled themselves exceptionally well defensive and they got the benefit I think they're important was three for three from three so the open up reason they're going to give them. Yeah there's three point differential was so great and that game was hard to overcome particularly because Phoenix doesn't get to the free zone a whole lot either.
There was a play in the third quarter where it was a Durant eight and pick and roll on the left wing and the first one. Katie didn't like what he saw pulled it out they like the rotations were on point you didn't like it so let's run it again. You're at the even dribble once just slipped it to eight and so it catches the ball in a four on three but he's 22 feet from the rim and the nuggets are like we don't think you can beat us making plays in that level of space and they stepped up on him and he crag was in the dunkers spot they stepped up on it and Bruce Brown slid down from Chris Paul to account for Torrey Craig in the dunkers spot eight and swung it out to Chris Paul Bruce Brown like a freaking bullet closed on Chris Paul Chris Paul pump beat him off the dribble okay that's fine like we've got you we're in rotation but we've taken away the easiest stuff for you we're going to make you drive and kick and pass Chris Paul drops it off to eight and he's like a 16 foot floater and misses it and to me that's a win for Denver to force to get into a four on three and rotate with that kind of precision they rotated like when Torrey Craig or a kogi and I thought starting a kogi was it was an interesting move it's something I talked about in my preview well they started a cookie to guard Jamal Murray when they were in the strong side corner Denver dispensed with the usual rules of help defense and were like we're helping off the strong side corner we don't care and they were on point and the other guy we got to talk about is Murray what a playoffs for Jamal Murray and you could tell right from this game one of the series. The beauty of Yokech and Murray is if you have a favorable big man matchup you can post Yokech 20 times a game and run your offense out of that if you don't and there's really no bad matchup for Yokech but eight and guards him pretty well in the post okay let's recalibrate our offense we'll shift all of it to Murray Yokech pick and roll Yokech at seven post touches in game one that's very low for him set 27 ball screens that was a six eyes of the year and Murray he's he's he's not the forgotten man in that pick and roll partnership because everyone's a bubble Murray bubble Murray I think people don't give his level of craft and smarts and timing enough respect so if you just watch some of those plays like his hesitation dribble and then you'll boom accelerate like in this little weird 12 foot away from the rim spot and that little acceleration will get eight and a slide over an extra foot will get Yokech a catch eight feet from the basket instead of 14 feet from the basket and the floater is open he's like a really artistic player who that two man game just has like infinite variety to it it's beautiful to watch and he has been an absolute monster in this series and one game in the whole playoffs.
I think it starts even before that with Murray Yokech is on selfishness okay so you have a two time MVP who may win it this year may not and he's fine with two things not posting up a lot of guys at that level be like no I can I can I'm great against everybody so just give me the ball that level of unselfishness permeates the entire team and then after game one and Murray had this brilliant game he goes and he just slides it in there. Yeah he's our best player like can you imagine what that does for your team when your the best player in the league for two years in a row or the most valuable and maybe a third just slide you know just says you know and we're following our best player and he does this with his teammates all the time. He's an absolute giver he takes blame and he takes no credit you just don't see that you just don't see that and I think like the tone that sets and it gives Murray the freedom to know that he's not going to be second guest by this guy for doing too much or trying to you know as you said be artistic. Off into play and you know that he's not being constrained at all by oh I shot too many times as a ball needs to get back to yokech you know instead I'm gonna do the half steep Smith spin dark no vidstee one leg you know fade away I'm like what combo you just busted out by the way like like people shouldn't just gloss over that you're saying Jamal Murray can combine the smitty and the one leg and step back like think about the skill level for a 6 1 6 2 whatever he is pointing out to do that right and I mean he's like he is an offensive force who has unfortunately been hurt.
And now like he also has this guy who's encouraging him to do it go like don't worry about me I'll get mine like believe like you know it's just one of those guys I truly believe everybody says it because we've as we force him to say all I care about his wing and we know if 99% of the league was up to a lie detector test the dot dot dot would be if I get my way right I really believe yokech is the 1% who you could end the statement all I care about his winning and that's the truth. And my and my horses in some of our certain horses and but I think he wants to play doesn't mean he doesn't have pride in his game he obviously don't reach that level without tremendous pride and confidence but I think he just like I don't think it's I think it's one of the break factors in why Murray is able to play well come back from major need why Aaron Gordon has played exceptionally well like I think he helps everybody else and I think the guy has to help right now is the rookie Christian I know it's pronounced brown but it's brought to me because that's how it's spelled. You know he's got to find his way I like and he's tough he's active but I think he's going to face on not being guarded type of defense as well. He's also they threw him under and a few times in game one I was like oblade like and you wonder if they're just going to have to attach Gordon to Durant match the minutes almost exactly but they found something with this bench with Gordon and Jeff Green kind of at the center spot which is something I talked about that in a maras of the end of the season I thought that they should go to that and brown is both browns are a big part of that porter they sometimes do the super line up with yokech on the bench like I would need Murray and Porter come on we need everybody and Porter's getting the buckets they found something with that the sun's counted by going with the ran at the five which I thought was interesting and something that they should they should continue to explore there.
This game to is going to be a lot of fun because look even if Denver wins you shouldn't overreact till the road team wins a series right like Phoenix will be going home but it's hard to be a great team four times in five games the Warriors the Warriors just did it so it's but but this is a different a different level of teams this is going to be a really interesting game tonight and Jeff and Gandhi just just can't thank you enough the analysis is on the broadcast everywhere else is there's just nobody doing it like you so the combination of humor and just just catching stuff right like like there was one possession in that Kings Warriors game I can't remember which team it was but they switched up the match ups they had something like someone was guarding somebody else and you pointed it out just immediately and it's just it's the stuff it's the guts of the game and you're pointing it out in a way that's accessible for fans it's really it's really just tremendous work so I appreciate you coming on.