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And now the low post. Welcome to the low post podcast. It's Friday morning in Los Angeles. The playoffs are in full swing.
Everybody is getting hit in the groin and every series. All sorts of stuff is happening. The Warriors are back. Nick nurses out.
The Sixers are a win away. The Clippers don't have Kawhi Leonard. All of a sudden, which is just a devastating blow. The Suns are up to one.
There is a lot happening. Kurt Goldsberry. How are you? This time of year, Zach.
And I hope I can help your audience understand what's happening in these first few playoff games with a little detailed groin elitics. So I brought some stuff. I know we'll get to it later, but it's great to see you. This is the best time of year.
Let's not forget it. It's a lot. It's a lot. The first round is a lot because I watch every game.
Start the garbage time, every game I'm taking notes. I got a lot going on, but you know what? That's the fun of it. And you just never the thing about it is you just never know.
You never know the plot to us. They're going to come right as soon as you think here comes a simple basic six or sweep. Joellen Bead kicks Nick Laxon in the nether regions or the border of the nether regions, which may be an important distinction that it didn't quite get the regions. It got the surrounding regions.
And then James Harden with a little flick of a flick. Little flick of the flick and he's out of the game. And you know, you want to punt. You think like a bucks heat that's going to be a walk over.
You're honest, sir. You never know. Let's talk about the Warriors who without Draymond Green just there's nothing I like more in sports, Kirk, than an old lion refusing to go gently into that good night and the Warriors without their lion, their roaring lion, the guy who roars the most anyway, just came out in an absolute frenzy in game three at home, defended and rebounded with a ferocity that they had not been doing so far in the series with a relatively comfortable win over the Sacramento Kings to go within two one, keep it on track for home court. And all of a sudden, this is what happens in these playoffs.
The home team wins the first two games and people trick themselves into thinking, Oh my God, it's horrible. The series is over. And he's like, no, if the lower seat of team wins game three, all of a sudden, it's like, Oh, oh, oh, what did you see from Golden State last night that might carry over? Obviously game four will be different.
Dream on, we'll be back. Yeah. The same thing, by the way, I think you're going to love that Isaiah not shaking hands moment, which is probably the seminal NBA moment of an old guard team, not, not accepting to be I have said before on this podcast that against my better human judgment, I understand what rudeness and impolite is 11 year old me loved it when the Pistons walked off the floor. I was like, that is some bad ass like we don't even care.
We don't care how it looks. We are the bad boys, bad boys of course back in the news this week with one bad boy suspending green in part anyway. Okay, what did you see from the Warriors? Yeah.
What did I see? I saw defensive life and I saw sort of an extension of a theme. I would say, Zach, that this team is really hard to understand or it isn't. What I mean by that is like they suck on the road and they're good at home.
They lose on the road and they win at home. But the reason they won game three, I think was defensive life. They were swarming and playing classic Warriors, the defense forcing turnovers, scoring and the transition. But the thing I would say to my Kings friends is they missed a ton of open shots.
And one of the definitive stats for me came from our researcher, Matt Williams, who said they shot six for 27 on wide open three pointers, which is when that closest to fender is six plus feet away. That's 22%. That's their second worst three point percentage on wide open threes. Out of 44 times, they've had 20 of them.
The only game worse was game two. So one theme of the last two games is Sacramento has had more chances to score a lot of points. And that low number we saw last night, the nerves might chalk it up to a little bit of shooting luck. The hot take artists might chalk it up to not be in clutch on the road, not being ready for the moment.
Whatever it was, Sacramento had good looks and they just didn't make them. If they did, we're talking about a different story today, but that's the breaks. We need to shoot a lot of threes. Yeah.
The Warriors are treating Monk and herder with a different level of urgency than their treating the other shooters, even Harrison Barnes, their old friend who seems really amped up for the series. And he's got he's got clay on him a lot, even had Stefan on him on some cross matches because the Warriors are putting Wiggins on Fox, especially with GP2 outlets. I mean, even though GP2 was also out and he's like relishing Harrison Barnes's the chance to bully those guys a little bit, but they're okay with him shooting above the break threes. They're like shooting the gap on pin down actions for him.
They're kind of sloughed away from him at the nail. Terrence Davis, they didn't care about him shooting threes at all. Fox, they're mixing in some going under screens against him a little bit. So those guys are going to have to make more shots.
Keegan Murray has been a ghost in the series, which was very like he's a rookie. I said in reviewing the series with David Thorpe. I can see a scenario where his minutes start sliding to David on Mitchell or Malik Monkin. That's exactly what's happened, but he's going to have to show up and boy, they hunted him on defense too.
Last night, Steph was searching him out every possession. By the way, just, you just take it for granted. Like, oh yeah, of course, Steph showed up with just like a ho hum 35 point, whatever game when the when their backs are against the wall and dream on his off-playing. Don't take it for granted, man.
The dude showed up. Clay hasn't had a big game yet. I thought maybe Clay would have one of the clay games last night. That's coming.
That would scare me if I were a King's fan. The clay game is coming. But it was like a Joe Lakeb dream last night with the two timelines coming together. I think probably the most consequential Moses Moody game ever for the Warriors, just massive minutes from him.
Kaminga came in and after a shaky start played really, really well, had a couple of challenges at the rim. And even Chenzo, he's not part of the two timeline thing. I got tired just watching him fly around the floor throwing himself into rebounding scrums, getting steals, getting deflections. It was a really just all out urgent effort, which is frankly what you would expect for a champion with its backs as well.
Now they get dream on back. And I assume they're going to start the same starting lineup. They've used all season one healthy. We'll see what other tweaks they think they've discovered in this game going forward.
They'll be great after by the dubs. Yeah. And I think this series, like you said, I love that point right off the top. Every year in the first round, we sort of forget the cadence and these premature narratives sort of win over this first weekend.
But this could go seven games. The Warriors could win four in a row. I do think you hit it right off the top without training. Monghary Payton.
They had their best defensive performance. They held the Kings to 97 points. And I already said the Kings probably should have more points in this and three. But now those guys come back.
And if it's two to two, Zach, all of us, I don't remember who you picked in the series. I picked the Warriors in seven. But it's six Warriors and six for me. Yeah.
So both of those still play. But if it's two to two, I'll put my hand up. I thought my prediction looked like trash 36 hours ago. I was like, I can't believe I did this.
I was felt that now here we go. And if game four goes like this, I really think the Warriors will have the upper hand because that championship experience, the coaching, the tactics and the feel for those big moments, all points to the Warriors if they can win game four. I thought I thought Steve Kurtz coach and his staff coached a really good game last night. I thought, you know, when the Warriors get stressed out, they tend to lean more into Steph Curry picket rolls.
Just do spam that. And without Draymond, that was going to be harder. Draymond says go to screener. And in fact, they didn't do that.
Steph ran 28 pick and rolls last night, which is like an average above average, slightly above average amount for him in a game and probably average or below in a heavy minutes game. And they just kind of varied it up. They ran the clay pin down game. They isolated a little bit like I mentioned before.
They had even Chenzo kind of run into some pick and rolls or some would throw him the ball as he was curling around the screen. That worked out really well. They altered Steph's substitution pattern a little bit to get him with the second unit, which I liked. In a lineup, I'm keeping my eye on for game four.
I mentioned it before Draymond's suspension. Steph, defense Chenzo, clay Wiggins, Dremond, which barely played it all in a regular season. And given the Warriors search for balance and spacing and lineup second space, the floor and have only one non-shooter, but can also hold up defensively. That's a group I like and it's a group I'm keeping my eye on.
Game four is going to be awesome. I love a game for it. I love a good game for it. It sets the tenor for the entire series.
Like either it's going to be OK, the Warriors need a massive comeback. This might be over or you know, get the cowbells or the cowbell apps on your phone ready and Sacramento is going to be crazy. And the Kings all of a sudden have to do some pressure now, which is a great, which is a great theater. Yeah, and don't say, you know, led the team into this last night.
I think it was second in rebounds doing the dirty work. And so I think he deserves the 26 minutes he got. He's been one of the better bench options for Steve Kerr. Certainly was last night.
So I wouldn't be surprised. Moses Moody, you mentioned played one of the better games he's had. Game six clay. I like that prognostication too.
There will be Thompson. There will be Thompson and we don't know when and we don't know where, but that that three point makes column there will be one of those that has five, seven, nine some crooked number that just puts them over the top. And that hasn't happened. Like to your point, I love that as well.
That could be a game for thing. I like game five because you get that cliche stat at the beginning of game five. It's two to two. So many this percentage of teams who win this.
I love that. I hate that said that's the same for every game. Here's the stat. Whenever team wins, any game is more likely to win the whole series.
You know, here's one for you, Kurt. I look this up. I look this up. Teams that win game seven of a seven game series, 100% of the time go on to win the series.
It's really remarkable. It is that it's one of those dumb opening producers that's the goal again. If you're listening, I hate that said, I hope that came through. But yeah, that's that I don't know what it is, but we'll see it a bunch this post season.
I'm not sure if I'm going to win the series, but anyway, yeah, I think my bottom line with the Golden State Warriors, Zach Lowe is the same. It was coming into this playoff. This team has trouble with defense in depth that trouble sort of manifests most on the road. That's played out so far in the series.
The depth look better at home. The defense look better at home. Let's see if they can do it again. Game four and then things get real fun going back to sack for what would be incredible game.
But any Kings thoughts, adjustments, tweaks? Dude, like I said, I think I feel good. I feel like the coach of the year Mike Brown grads to my friend Mike Brown well deserves. But when I look at these numbers and I look at the tape of Kevin Herder's shots, Keegan Murray shots, Malik Long shots, Davion Mitchell shots last night.
And together, I'm going to do the quick math. They were like three of 20 for three or something. That's that's not good. That's like a shot luck loss, as the nerds would say a shot quality loss or whatever.
I don't feel they need to change much. They look like a better team in the series so far and I would not overreact to what we just saw with one of their worst shooting nights of the season. Yeah, I don't I don't I'm happy with where they are. If I'm them, despite what happened last night, Warriors are actually plus six overall for the series and scoring more.
It's been a very even series. They're just going to need a herder to make shots. I mean, herder is getting good looks from three and missing them. He's making a shots from two.
They're going to need a bigger game from sub-bonus at some point. And I realized that the Warriors have two incredible post defenders and rebounders in Dremon and Looney and my God. I smacked the table like wind horse. I got to work on my wind horse, and gestures.
Like one of these like these got them all. Yeah, we went 12 minutes or something without talking about Keban Looney. And I think he had nine points nine assists and 20 rebounds last night nine assists and 20 rebounds. And I wrote this about Looney a few weeks ago in 10 things, Colin.
First early in his career, he was the guy who never played. He had hip issues, leg issues, nerve issues. It looked like this guy just going to be a loss call as health wise. Sadly, then he comes back and he's an Iron Man.
He plays 82 games in a row. And he was kind of like a central casting unsung hero. He just does the dirty work. He knows his role, the stars, the stars do their thing.
And he sets the screens, gets the rebounds and hits people. He's the cliche, doesn't show up in the box score guy. You know what happened this year? Started to show up in the box score.
He's one of the best offensive rebatters in the NBA. He's routinely getting like five and six assists in games. Just they are not dead in the water, but treading water and struggling without Keban Looney this year. It's an awesome, awesome story for a career that looked like a might fall apart early.
And now he is like, not almost as much a part of the Warriors DNA as the foundational stars. Yeah, I remember always game planning against the Warriors and looking at their rotations. And Keban would always start the game and often play just five minutes and then sit the rest of the half and then repeat that in the third quarter. His minutes were never that high.
I was just looking at up Zach last night. I don't know if it's his career plan. I'm guessing not. I'm just looking at the time I had to be played like 30 minutes last night.
That's not what we normally would expect. But next man up, do your job, all that Belichick stuff. He did it and your right to call him out. They needed him to be better than just the sort of second big.
He was the primary big for that team last night and was great and that sort of promoted role. The Kings have largely defended really well in the series. They slipped a little bit last night, but not disastrously. So they were still pretty good.
A few more mistakes here and there, but I thought they've been fine defensively. I do wonder if they will just start Monk over Murray at some point in the series, given how things are going. But I don't see I might let Fox just go one on one a little bit and see if he can do damage that way with Wiggins or maybe go the other way. Sometimes if they can switch him onto a worst defender and then go one on one.
Kind of like the words we're doing in ski and Murray, but and the Kings have been doing that against Jordan pool who doesn't look quite healthy. But I think this is going to be a great series and game four is going to be a great game. Hey sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events.
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Sign up or activate now. Let's pivot East. You ready to pivot East to the growing fast? Growing up in the Olympics.
The Philadelphia 76ers up three over the Brooklyn Nets. So we can pretty much write this one off. No one has ever done this comeback before, obviously. And Tyree Smacksey carried him over the finish line last night with one massive shot after another and Joellen Bead who limped and hit the floor nine times in the game.
Sealed it with a fantastic sprinting block on Spencer Dinwitti. And Beads defense this entire series has been impenetrable. I mean, he has the Nets completely freaked out any time any of them get below the foul line. They don't know what to do.
He's there. He's controlling the whole painted area. However, the story of the game is the respective groanings. Joellen Bead with Nick Clackston stepping over him.
And look, people know the step over is a thing. When players do it, they know what they are doing. They know it's a taunt. They know it's considered by some players emasculating.
They know it is likely from a fiery personality to draw a response that may teeter towards violence. Well, three minutes into the game, that's exactly what happened. Nick Clackston who just appears to straight up hate Joellen Bead. Nick Clackston, by the way, no one's going to talk about this.
God has asked, throwing out of the game, you know, must win game for mean mugging and Bead for like nine straight seconds to the point that the referees had no choice but the team up and you already had one technical one of the dumbest all time injections, you know, must win playoff game that I could not that the must win. It's not like the Nets are doing anything, but they had to win the game if they had any hope. And then Bead kicked up and hit Nick Clackston in me might have missed by four inches into the file area, the thigh, the thigh ish area. I don't know what the medical term for the non junk as Charles Barkley said, groin is maybe just groin and was assessed a flaker and foul, but not ejected.
Let's start there. I've reached the point where I just don't know what merits and ejection and what doesn't merit and ejection anymore. The NBA is there. My name is Cushions, comment on NBA today shortly and he's going to talk about unnecessary and excessive.
And for what I understand, excessive can be linked to the result. So if that kick with the same level of power and speed hits the, you know what's it's excessive because it missed the, you know what's it's not excessive. And I guess that makes some logical sense. There are parallels to that in the criminal justice system, but I honestly thought Joellen Bead should have got ejected.
There have been ejections for groin hits before. I remember all the way back to when Ray Allen, upper-cutted Anderson Barrageow in the playoffs and got suspended for a game. Belieg will look at this. It's 10 o'clock Pacific time.
I don't think any news has come across yet. I don't think Joellen Bead is going to be suspended for game four. My guess is that it stays as is. We shall see.
Did you think he should have been ejected? I kind of thought that we're going to eject him and I would have been OK with you all being ejected for that. I have a sort of different spin on this and to put it in the parlance of our times of podcasting, use the promo code RISCIAF if you lose your cool and lash out like this, because now you're gambling, you're gambling with your eligibility in these games. There's no rubric here as you pointed out and there never will be a set of bylaws that sort of perfectly portends what you've been going back to Draymond, which I think changed the way they legislate this.
Draymond kicks Steven Adams in the groin two separate times in that series to not get ejected for either one. I don't think it did not get suspended for sure for either one. And now they take it more seriously because of that. But it's like, I don't know what the hell to do with all these precedents.
I don't know what I don't know if the playoffs should have a higher standard for ejection and suspension at least suspension than the regular season. I just I begin it last night when when a B did not get ejected and hardened did, which to me was astonishing. I couldn't believe they ejected. I began.
I said to myself, is this what NFL writers and analysts started to feel like when they no longer understood what the definition of the catch was? Like, I don't know. That was in my notes. I had that exact analogy because it's like, dude, these are so important.
It's so fundamental. But dude, I had that exact thing. My point here is I don't know. I don't know what the rule is.
My point is that if you mess around with this unsportsmanlike conduct in front of Tony Brothers or Scott Foster, God knows what's about to happen to you. And so I think the best policy, easier said than done in the heat of the moment, is to keep your together to keep your cool. I mean, put my Spurs hat on be like, Tim Duncan, don't lose it, man. And it's to me, like, and I'll put him beat in this camp and I'll put Ramon in this camp and Pat.
It's always the same, dude. There's an illustration in my book of Draymond kicking Stephen Adams in the groin because it was such an important moment. It's sort of encapsulated here. We are talking about five years later again.
I think the thing I would say is that when you visit these sort of border towns or sportsmanlike or unsportsmanlike behavior, now you're tempting the sheriffs to do something to you. And that's putting you and your team in a really bad position. I think the class example you brought up is a perfect one. You can't do that.
It's not worth that. The step over. I don't care. Like JJ Redick, if you want to take a hard stance on what shouldn't be, that's fine.
What did JJ say? JJ, I think argued that Draymond shouldn't have been ejected. And again, I don't know what the vibe of the game. Oh, Draymond, Draymond should have been.
There's a, I totally disagree. Draymond 100% should have been tossed from the game. I actually think the bonus should be, and I'm just like, what are the rubrics? It's only my name and I'm asking what the rubric is.
Well, asking what these unnecessary, much the other words? Exaggerated. Excessive. Excessive.
Yeah. Yeah. Figure that out for me and ask him where he gets his bow ties. So again, it's 10-24 AM Pacific.
Here's my guess, my educated guess. And we can grade my educated guess whether it's good or bad in a few hours. I think Embiid is not suspended for Game 4. Surely the nets will argue that he should be.
We'll see what happens. I don't think he will be. It could be wrong. I would like 80-20.
We'd put my confidence level on that. And I don't think, I actually also don't think Hardin's flagrant 2 will be rescinded. I've, or downgraded rather. They get downgraded to a flagrant 1, which has all sorts of like flagrant points.
The Draymond Green Memorial flagrant points rule implications for the Sixers as they move forward here, which they will. They're going to win the series. My guess is everything will just stay the same. Everybody will move on from it.
The NBA will send out a right alert. Please stop kicking and hitting and flicking in the growing area. Let's just not do it anymore and move on from there. I do have one point.
I would love to ask Zach Lothis for your listeners. If I stopped both of these plays and I said one of these is going to get this player rejected. The playing game. Yeah, that's my problem.
It's like, OK, everybody would say that. But you're telling me James at least has plausible deniability on that play. I'm not saying I don't know what his intent was. But dude, that's what the flagrant 1 is for.
It's like, hey man, never do that. Don't do that. Here's an extra punitive power. I'll tell you this.
I was in my hotel. I'm watching a game live last night. And my initial reaction was I sat back from the face and said, oh my god, he's going to get ejected and that's going to win this game. And all of a sudden the series is at least a little bit sideways.
And then he didn't get ejected. And the Sixers won the game and the series is over. So here's my Sixers question. 306ers.
This has been a goofy series with the Nets doubling and beat all over the floor every single game on the catch before the catch. Sometimes playing with no big man on the floor. They've largely mothballed sharp after the after game one. And in beat, through three games, has 60 points.
So 20 game, 15 turnovers, 5 game, and 12 assists. And only 24 free throws, which for him is low in three games. The Sixers who were the most prolific free throw generating team in the league in the regular season have a free throw rate in this series that would have ranked dead last in the regular season. So this scheme, by taking the ball out of and beat hands, has reduced the Sixers from the most prolific free throw team to the least prolific free throw team.
And yet their offensive rating for the series is 117 points per 100 possessions, which would have been number two or number three in the league. A lot of that was built up in the first game when they shot the big Jesus out of it from three. They've been a little scatter shot in the next two. So here's my question.
The Sixers confidence level, higher after three games than it was entering the playoffs or lower after three games than it was entering the playoffs? I'll answer higher, but let me riff on it. I think this first three games obviously can't complain in a series they need to get through. But this playoffs, Zach, from the Dime the Brackets, sort of started to take shape was always about around two for this team.
So it's cool after three games. I love what I've seen from Maxie. In general, what makes me excited about Philly going into round two assuming they get there? It's what's coming around the edges of the hard and then be industrial complex.
Obviously, Maxie was the best player in crunch time last night. Tobias Harris is one of the best fourth options in these playoffs. PJ Tucker looks mean and relevant again. And then I think...
Well, because PJ Tucker would... I had one good shooting game in the series. He's a really good runner. But he's an incredible rematter for a team that is a bad rebounding team and really needs that from him.
And last night he looked like he didn't even want to shoot. He stopped even looking at the basket. Yeah. And I'll come back to that.
I think the deep cut that the localists kind of take here is that the Melton and McDaniel's minutes, there's not a lot of teams that have that right now. I'm going to talk about some of them that don't. They're going to talk about the Warriors. Like these dudes, McDaniel's been a nice pickup.
Two second rounders, they look like gems. My main point with the six we want to see here in round one's act is the depth that looks pretty good. Now, here's the negative thing. Let me throw this out there.
I think like you said, the Nets game plans working. Imagine it in better hands. Imagine our friends, Joe and Ms. Zulan, and then we'll be launching this and be like, oh, oh, I see this.
But now the defensive personnel is a little bit better. Now the offensive personnel is a little bit better. I think they've taken Joe LMB, the scoring champ, and he shot 11 times in game two, 13 times in game three. I believe James Harden is three free throws for the series.
I think there's a blueprint here that if I'm again my opponent in round two that has a better cache of offensive and defensive weapons, I'd be really interested in knowing what the Celtics are thinking when they're watching this series play out. Well, the Celtics have to get by the Hawks first. Because you killed, you killed Trayon. But when you go calling coward, that's what I call it.
You do so well. It's great. I mean, you should do more. Show up tonight, Hawks.
Okay. Show up tonight. You got 90 minutes, the stage is yours. There's no games on for the first 90 minutes of your year.
You got a half a basketball to show the world. Charlie is an NBA TV. The Hawks are like the NBA TV, the Kings of the NBA TV playoff series. Sixers.
My own answer to my question is I'm probably like 8% less confident than I was going into the series. And there's only one reason why. James Harden is 7 of 21 on twos and has three free throws. And until just before the flicking last night, could not get by anybody one on one and even when he did, he was missing.
He missed like a wide open layup going right in the first half of the game. But before he went out, he had a couple of blowbys against Dorian Finney Smith and he finished and I was like, where is this guy? This is the guy I need to see. That's my only reason for concern.
I've seen a lot of the blueprint thing is really interesting because yes, the whole league is watching this and thinking is this how we can, is this a way we can beat the sixers. I actually, and I've seen a lot of commentary about how after they shot the hell out of it in game one, their half court offense has been sub par by the numbers, by the numbers it has been. Okay. But here, here are the numbers that I actually care about.
Even if you just isolate games two and three, so throw out game one where they shot like they made like 23 or something with them beat on the floor. And that's what we're talking about. That's the crux of the game plan with them beat on the floor. They are plus 12 per 100 possessions in those two games with an offensive rating of 113 points per 100 possessions, which is good enough.
That's about probably average in the regular season. It's not great, but I've watched the games and I've thought the sixers are doing what they should do against this scheme and beat is getting the ball out of his hands super early and they're finding open shooters and maxi in particular and melt into is driving the double team rotation. You don't have to shoot threes. The defense is scrambling.
If you're fast like those guys, catch it, go get in the lane and either get a layoff, a floater or kick to the next guy. I think the sixers have been good enough out of double teams. The non-embed minutes offensively in those two games have been a disaster. They're not making an offensive rating of 84 points per 100 possessions.
That's just life without MB. It's hard in not making any twos. I think you are betting on an MB frustration factor by taking the ball out of his hands like that. You're betting against the supporting cast making shots, which is fine.
I think this is a blueprint you can use. I don't think even the Celtics are good enough defensively to use it for entire games because to me, they've picked it apart fine. I actually liked it MB. When he's forced it is when it's actually worked the best because he forces it, he drives into traffic, he turns it over.
When he's just getting the ball out of his hands, they're getting good looks. I think you just have to keep doing that if you're doing that. If you're just frustrating as it is, if teams do that. One more note with MB is if you look, I know one thing that's frustrating the Nets is the second chance points of the Philadelphia 76ers.
I think it's 18-4 on average. They're killing them on the glass. When you play no big guys and you're one big guy, you're playing mean mugs his way out of the game. You're going to give up offensive boards.
To buy us deserves some credit and be ball Paul and he, Jay Tucker, we talked about it already. But I think your headline, I don't want to move on without talking about it. James Harden inside the Arkansas Stanges than ever, I think making him a driver is another part of this game plan. If he doesn't have that step back three, this code is a pretty limited score.
He can't finish in traffic anymore. That's not happening. And I think you were right to call that out. And again, I come back to round two.
Now it's more of a smart now. It's it's Malcolm Brog. Now it's Derek White out there. It's not going to get easier for James Harden.
Assuming we're going to get the second round matchup. I think you and I both want to see the Hawks are going to have some to say about it. Kirk, let's not be. No, you killed him in on me.
Gee, NBA TV stuff. Right. Young deep. So you mentioned put slander doesn't have to be false or something.
What's the legal definition of slander? That's like the Dominion voting system. Stop, stop, stop. Harden is a driver's really interesting because if you watch Celtic Sixers film, the Celtics, we haven't seen a whole lot of Harden and Bead pick and roll in the series.
Because it's been unnecessary to get a double team. In fact, I like if I'm a Sixers coach and I'm thinking about this, I like when they forego any sort of screening action, just throw the ball to him Bead with Claxon on him. And that way the double teamer is a smaller guy. If I get a switch before, it opens up the possibility that Claxon becomes a double teamer and he's bigger and gets in the passing lanes a little bit more.
But we haven't seen the Harden and Bead pick and roll. And if you watch Boston, Philly, they'll throw about 10 different looks at that, the Celtics will. And the defining goal of all of those looks, whether it's switching, scratching, switching, rotating, helping, you know, crashing the paint is we are not giving Joellen Bead open 12 foot jumpers. We're just not giving him that shot.
That's like rule number one. You're not getting that shot. Sometimes you will because you're amazing and Harden's amazing, but we're just not letting you feast on that. And part of that strategy is giving James Harden a little bit more room to drive than you ever would have given Prime James Harden, bringing the help rotation at the rim a little bit later, a second later than you would have five years ago to see if he kind of takes the bait and goes for it instead of having the pocket pass available for Embiid.
So if these guys will stay a little closer to home, let Harden drive and see if he can finish over help late. I think that's going to be an interesting cat in Mouse game. But yeah, Philly's been fine. I just, if this is what Harden is, I don't think they can be Boston and Milwaukee, assuming Milwaukee advances in back to back series.
Yeah, it's it's a tough road. And then you got to wonder about the long term division of the team. But I just want to stick with note about Joellen Bead and his live action free throws that if it helped him get to the scoring title, it's one of my favorite little quirks of his game is just that face up and how he is. It's but you're right.
I haven't charted that, but I showed it's like, how many of those is he normally getting a game? He shoots 20 times a game. I'm guessing six or seven of them come from that sort of free throw area, but with the doubles there, he's not even getting that low. Uh, real quick on the nets.
Nice recovery on the Durant trade. Yeah. Gil bridges has been fantastic. I think the number one option has kind of worn on him a little bit.
His efficiency is waivered up and down for great first game. Second game, pretty good. Nine of 26 and game three, I think. Cam Johnson's been awesome.
A lot of their best offense in this series has been running. Cam Johnson off screens because PJ Tucker's been on him and PJ can't really keep up that well with a quick, quick shooter like Cam Johnson. They have several of their picks are out the door via the hard and trade, 2.0, I guess, but they have picks coming in the door from Phoenix, Dallas and Philadelphia. And there's been a lot of like, what should the nets do?
They have these interesting pieces. They got a bunch of long wings. McKeill bridges trade value will never get higher. A bunch of teams of a couple of teams offered like mega packages for McKeill bridges with the nets tear it down further.
I don't know what they're going to do. My guess would actually be no. And the only way they would trade McKeill bridges or the most likely way they would ever trade McKeill bridges is in a package for a superstar. If that's what it took, I think the nets are more likely to try to be competitive and that will probably take the form of keeping McKeill bridges and sort of the attitude of, hey, look, we don't have to really tear down.
We don't want to. We did that already. It's unpleasant. We have an OK team.
Let's try to be a little better than OK. Next year, we have all these picks from other teams. We're kind of waging against their futures long term. I would I would anticipate the nets to just sort of stay the course ish unless a big opportunity presents itself.
I'll go one step further. I just told somebody around that team that I love their team building situation. They have all the contemporary types of role players that make the modern NBA what it is, collapsed in his emerge. Which is this prototype front court player and then all the three indeed wings you would want.
And if I'm a disgruntled superstar somewhere in the National Basketball Association, let's say I'm a good playmaker. Dude, yeah, imagine playing in New York City. I got three point shooters. I got rim protection.
I love where they are. And I'm glad you said that. And that's exactly sort of what I would say to them. It's like, you have enough assets, a pretty good war chest to get something back in return if somebody does ask out.
So I actually like their pieces. I think McKeill bridges could see you in wise be like a Chris Middleton player. Give me a second option on a championship team. I think he's going to be an author.
Yeah, I love him. And everybody loves him. It's not a hot take. But dude, I think you're exactly right.
Look where this team was at the trade deadline. It was a mess. And now I think they are set up to build something successful. Now they still need a guy guy.
I don't think McKeill bridges is going to be the guy on a great team. But he can be probably a number two guy on a very good team. And I agree with you. The Nets are sneakily well positioned to be a star hunting team.
We don't think of them like that, even though they sign these stars in free agency and it all went pretty fast. I think they're going to have their eyes and yours open. Let's pivot and go to Suns Clippers. The Suns with a sometimes a little bit dicey game three win.
The headline, of course, is that Kawhi Leonard, your old friend from San Antonio, was out of game three with a knee spring. He will be listed as day to day going forward according to Woj. Once again, I thought the Clippers were massive underdogs with Kawhi Leonard and without Paul George. Anything can happen in one game, but I thought the Clippers are probably drawing almost totally dead without both of them.
And to their credit, for the Clippers, the Clippers are minus 14 for the series in three games. So they might as 4.75, five game. With PG playing zero of the games and Kawhi playing two of them, I think their effort is to be applauded. I think they've been really good.
Their physicality is clearly bothering Durant, although it also resulted in 46 free throw attempts last night. And they've been in all these games and crap. I mean, they were like a Bones Island in and out three from having a shot to at least play the foul game reasonably last night by the way, Bones Island. Tip of the cap to Bones Island for just being like, yeah, I'm only playing really because of injuries.
Give me the ball. Where's Chris Paul? Where's the point God? Bring him to me.
I want the point God one on one. Do you know who I am? I am nation on Bones. Highland.
You're 37. Get over here and guard me and Chris Paul. God bless him. Studied his ass up two times in a row and let him hear about it.
What great theater Bones Island. Thank you for the entertainment. Could not be happier with how the Clippers have played despite the fact that they're down two to one. My question for you is we're now what 11 games into the Durant era in Phoenix.
This series has been just a mid-range jump shooting exhibition with some offensive rebound and thrown in in game three. How has this looked to you? They were my pick to make the finals out of the West before the playoffs just almost kind of by default. And Denver has looked really, really good through the first two games.
We're not going to talk about that today, not getting to the game because they played tonight. What is your temperature take on the Suns? I call them the Maricopa mid-rangers and I hope we can get that to stick. The mid-rangers of Maricopa County.
But I do think that's the signature thing. There's two signature things. I'll start with their shot selection because it is so old school and it's awesome because it's unique. They made 25 two-point jumpers in game two the most by any team regular season playoffs since 2015.
That's a lot and it's classic that they did that. It's also the most made two-point jumpers in a playoff game. But that was because of the Zubod drop stuff that's gotten a lot of airtime. I don't want to dwell on that too much.
The other big signature thing though when I'm looking at one of my two headlines about the Suns, obviously the shot selection thing, the bench is so thin dude and they are so fragile. What you call it, you had a better word on your podcast. Be vulnerable to injury. I worry about what's happening.
I think last time I was on your show we talked about who the fifth person on the Suns team was. That's the fourth grade. We've seen that. Okay Zach, so my question is six, seven, eight guys.
They haven't been great. Acoji, Shammoth, Biambo. They're losing those minutes in the series. And that's I guess the second big headline.
We knew this when they made the trade. Is this team deep enough to do this? So far if there's a red flag right now, it is that. It is the depth.
The shot selection I think that can survive it. You know why? Because Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and Chris Mulk are a great match. The conventional analytical dogmother.
You can't do it. Well, when you're Kevin Durant and you shoot 58% from the mid-range, that dogma goes out the window. And Devin Booker looks like the best player on the team right now and Kevin Durant's on it. These shots Devin Booker is making.
I mean, there's been some rainbow jumpers. There was the one falling out of bounds in the right corner. Last night with the Shot Clock winding down. His shot, I've said it before.
That dude is just a killer. An absolute killer. And you know what I loved about last night is his jumper wasn't going, he's not 11 times in the first quarter. And his jumper wasn't going in early.
And the dude to your point, you know what? I'm just going to go to the rack. I'm just going to go to the rack and I'll beat him there. And he got his rhythm going there.
And then next thing you know, he has another 40-something point night. But he looks like the best scorer in the series. And again, Kevin Durant's his teammate. Damian Lee was interesting last night because someone is going to earn the semi-permanent trust of Moni Williams and nobody has.
A cogi might be the closest of those guys other than Craig. Damian Lee can shoot. At least I know Damian Lee can shoot. And he tries on defense.
He's given up on Terrence Ross. He's given up on TJ Warren for now. They could really use campaign back. I mean, that's how dire this is.
Although Booker playing back up point guard is totally fine. I don't know what to make of Phoenix because on the one hand, they keep winning. They're 10-1 with the rant. Their offensive rating for the series is 120, which would have been number one in the league.
Their big four, which is the three stars in eight and is plus 23 and 78 minutes in the series and has been utterly dominated by the numbers whenever they're on the floor. And yet, forget that that's one thing. Like, I don't care if you want to be blind until these dudes are playing 45, 40, 40 minutes every single game, that is going to take a toll. This is to win the championship, you're at 100-something games.
Like 100 games. It's going to take a toll. Wow, if you play all the way to it, nobody does. At least it just.
Whatever. You're at a lot of games. And like the rants, 34 and Paul's 37, he gets injured in the playoffs every year. The minutes matter.
Moni Williams said after the game, I don't know if you saw the quote, kind of half-joking that KD is inexpensive decoy on their team. Did you see that? I did see it, but that's a great line. It honestly is starting to worry me a little bit how just station to station and slow the sun's offenses.
I think my whole thing with Durant is he's the most fiddable, malleable superstar in the history of the league. And being a decoy quote unquote is part of that. I underestimated the growing pains of chemistry that they would have. It just doesn't look good, but the results are gangbusters.
And so I don't quite know what to think. There were a couple of plays last night that I wish they would dial into a little bit more where on one of them, I think Durant came up from the right corner, ran around a pin down from Booker. The stars are already cooperating in a high speed play and then took a handoff from Aiden. So it's like bang bang, staggered screen, handoff, double team on Durant, Aiden slipped, floater boom.
Later in the game, same kind of concept. Booker from the left corner comes off a Chris Paul screen in due, I think a Bianbo handoff and Booker got a switch with Mason Plumlee, drove beat on floater. Like just give me a little more juice, a little bit more like KD screening for Paul over here, Booker over here. It just needs a little more juice.
And I think Durant will be less of a decoy. I don't think Kevin Durant wants to sit there being a decoy. He wants to be a little more involved probably than he has been. But the chemistry issues are just, it's been a little, there was a play, I think it was in the first quarter, like seven and a half minutes ago where Booker and Aiden ran a side pick and roll, right?
No one was on their side of the floor. So the empty side pick and roll. They came up pretty aggressively doubling Booker. Aiden was wide open on the roll.
One hundred times out of one hundred, Devin Booker's job is to hit the Andre Aiden for a dunk or the defense collapses, whatever. He looked at the Andre, I was like, I don't know, he swung it to Chris Paul on the weak side. Chris Paul caught it and like looked at Aiden and I can't go there. Durant sitting there in the right corner, like freaking PJ Tucker, but awesome.
And Chris Paul looks over to him, kind of half passes. Durant's not ready for it. Tori Craig is between them and Chris Paul passes the ball to Tori Craig instead. But problem, Tori Craig is cutting back door and the ball goes out of bounds.
It's like, there's just, it's not there yet. But the scary part is there are little signs here and there that it could get there and they just keep winning. So I don't know what to think, man. I don't know what to think.
I'd say just like the Philly series, I mean, especially since Kawai is missing time and I hope he's back because, you know, I love watching him and Kevin play against each other. Obviously everybody does. This is always going to be about the nugget series, assuming maybe get past this. Like, but we talked about this last time and we were talking about our doubts about the suns and I think I called it a science experiment.
I wish I would have come up with chemistry experiment, but it's not there. They're not fully formed. They've played barely any time together and now they're going to try to win a championship and not many teams have been able to ever do that initially. I think the biggest thing to watch is you have Chris Paul and Kevin Durant.
I'll give a pass to the Devin Booker and DeAndre because they're in their 20s playing 40 plus minutes and it's one thing in the first round when these games are spread out, although this series they haven't really been. But once we get to the Western Conference finals and they're playing every other night in these insanely intense games, I mean, if I told you, like, what are the odds that they both get through something like that? Unfortunately, it's not 100%. And I think that's another fair concern with this team.
It's the familiarity and it's the durability. Are they built for war quote unquote as these games get more intense and more dense on the calendar? Credit to Norm Powell who had 42 on incredible shooting. Credit to Russ who made shots made threes.
Also I thought he was going to take Zubaz's head off with the ball on some turnovers, but that's neither here nor there. Where's this defense been from Westbrook over the last five years? The word I keep using for him is fury. He is playing with such a fury.
I'm walking to the locker room with fury. This guy can use it on fans. He's kicking people out. He's yelling at guys.
He's getting three popcorn. I don't know if it's Durant being on the other team. I don't know if it's like everyone doubted me and this Clippers team took a chance on me and I'm going to just go all out. Like a fury is just leaping off the screen.
I mean, they are the refs are letting them play and they're beating the hell out of the suns and the suns are learning to live with it and getting to the line and countering it. But like the physicality Gordon Russ, they're pushing Durant's touches like far out on the floor and up and under him bumping him like it's it's rugged out there. I didn't see how many I'd last night, but one of the quintessential sort of views in my head of Westbrook in the series is fighting over a screen coming back to one of the mid ranch shooters and blocking their shot or disturbing their shot from behind, which is saving them because the drop coverage of their Zubaj is just out of position to contest one of these Illuminati mid-range dudes. But yeah, I can't.
I love watching my people think I hate Westbrook because of the numbers on that. But no, I love him. He's one of my favorite players to watch in person because the fury, he just jumps off the screen in a way that no other player does. In Norman Powell, we have to say like, geez, did they just waste the great Norman Powell performance?
I mean, this dude was on fire too. The Clippers, I would say it's just sad, Zach, because when you look at it, it is what it is, but it seems like it's just the same old suits just reheated. We discussed this team in March on that same playoff preview star just podcasted on the West and in the oceans of numbers available to both of us, we both zeroed on the same thing. Why should we believe in the Clippers?
Well, if you look at the numbers when Kawai Leonard and Paul George are on the court, they can beat anyone and the numbers back it up. Well, here we are again and neither of them are available. And you just hope that they can get one or both of them back because this series is not over. If Kawai's playing a game for.
No, absolutely not. I wouldn't be comfortable as a SunSmen. But Kawai is playing game four. The series is maybe not a toss up because the Sun's have home court advantage and Kevin Durant and Chris Paul and Dev Booker.