Anthony Slater

Yeah, it's been trending this way for a while. Really back to the summer, which we reported in the summer, he turned down an extension, which signals something to a franchise when he said, hey, let's take two steps back. Let's not take this massive money offer you're giving me because I want to see where this is going long term. It was a wobbly start to the season.

Sure, they fired Mike Brown, but they did it in kind of a sloppy way that didn't necessarily please De'Aaron Fox, it doesn't seem. Yeah. You know, they've been they've had an 11 and three stretch. They've kind of turned their season around to at least be somewhat of a legitimate playoff threat.

But that doesn't seem to have solved the bigger, bigger picture issue of where this is all going and where Darren Fox seems to be directing it to go. And you mentioned it. All signs point to San Antonio as his preferred destination for one 7'4", 7'5", very obvious reason. He would seem to profile as a very nice complementary number two pick and roll partner into the future.

It's clear De'Ara Fox's intent on getting to a place where he believes he can build with a core into a regular contender. But there's a lot of boxes to check along the way, and he has one and a half years left on his contract. So there's a level of leverage that the Kings have. And today seemed like a little bit of a speed-up process, potentially, even from the Fox side. And we'll see.

If anything happens in the next week, because, again, I said it, despite De'Aaron Fox's clear desires at this point, the Kings do hold a level of leverage.

Well, I mean, there's a week to the deadline. I think there's financial aspects of this involved with as far as like, you know, renegotiate and extend potentially in San Antonio. And, you know, the Kings can get a better package if it happens in the next week. You know, I mean, they said this is I feel like this is commonly a baseball thing.

But, you know, one and a half seasons trading out with one and a half seasons compared to a full season compared to a half season. Like, you know, you want to strike while. basically, I mean, you can have, to me, it's about, it's about what, what does San Antonio want?

And maybe it's a little putting pressure on San Antonio and, you know, having the market know, you know, there's, there's now more rivals that would be willing to go get De'Aaron Fox with one and a half years left. And if they knew this was like a, Hey, it's a directed half season, he's going to free agency and he might sign there anyway. So I just think there's a lot of factors at play. Yeah.

And it's just it's deadline time. It's like usually there's like one or two of these a year that I think shock a lot of people. But it's like deadlines create these type of scenarios. Yeah.

I think that'd be great. I'm higher on Fox than maybe some other people are. He really impressed me in that Warriors playoff series a couple years ago and impressed a lot of people within the Warriors. His game leveled up to the playoffs. Isolation, score, he was getting by everybody off the dribble. I do think part of

His desire to potentially go to San Antonio is an understanding that maybe, you know, he's saying he wants to be on a and he said this publicly, right? He wants to be on a perennial contender. And I do think there's a level of understanding from him that He's not necessarily a 1A on a perennial contender, right? He kind of not only needs a number two, but not like a sidekick.

He kind of needs a guy above him. It's what he doesn't really have in Sacramento with DeMondis a bonus, right? And I think he sees... What he can do, which is like isolation, guard scoring, pick and roll playmaking as something that can accentuate what Wemby does. But when we also can sit on the back and control the defense, do a lot of the stuff he doesn't.

And I think Wemby, I think we all will see where his offense goes long term. I'm sure Wemby wouldn't admit this, but the one question I might have about him long term is like, is he ever going to be able to be defensive? you know, a go to 28 point per game score in those tight moments. We'll see.

I'm not saying no, he's definitely does a lot of interesting things on a nightly basis, but it doesn't feel like he's going to need like a, a sidekick score that on certain playoff nights and certain matchups can go get 30 and Fox is that type of score.

Well, the West I don't think is that good. It's like mild.

The East. So what everyone acts like is just such Goliath. And I think it's like a bunch of flawed teams. I mean, you mentioned coming through the West. I see this

Warriors team at 23 and 23 but it's like they're really not that far from like five or six and I'm not about to predict they're about to go climb there because I think they're so flawed that they're just going to sit around 500 but the fact is you know with one piece and suddenly a nice little winning streak you're right up there that makes us like think about this Mavs are you know in injury crumble mode the Suns have had you know just such a wobbly season to this point the Lakers like net rating is horrible and all the numbers people love to say that but it's like man they're probably the fourth fifth best team in the West right now

Yeah. So it's like, we continue to talk about all these teams that have all these issues, but it's like, Oh, they're all right. Right. In the mix. And I do understand like the thunder is looking like a regular season monster, but even the team that is running away with the conference, I think still has to prove it to us in the playoffs. So it's just, I don't know.

It's, I would say that's one thing. And then the other thing, and I remember this, you know, people like to talk about how like it's a boring regular season, right? The NBA is a boring regular season. I remember the, you know, this is right around the time Mike Brown got fired, but you mentioned it, like all these narratives and stuff going through the West.

And I remember being on that five game homestand where every Kings loss and meltdown late felt like such a tense moment. And then I would go the next night and cover a Warriors team that are, they're having this existential crisis where, you know, I have to write about like this big picture, like where, you know, what is happening? And it's like, it's drama, Anthony, it's drama.

And I'm like, no, the regular season is pretty interesting around here. You know, I don't know. Also the games are, Really good. Yeah. Yes, although I did watch quite a jazz rotation tonight, I gotta say. To be fair. Don't watch the Utah Jazz. But yeah, sorry, I'm a little bit jaded from the product I watched tonight. Generally, you're correct.

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Yeah, that's great for them.

pretty actively uninterested in jimmy butler early on in this process especially when the price tag seemed higher i think with the desperation of their of this moment and the thought looking across the country and seeing you know how how devolved that situation has turned into like how low will that price tag go you hear varying things when you talk across the league right now about the warriors kind of nudging themselves back in the mix wondering like you know again how low

What price are we talking here? But even if the price is, you know, we're talking no picks, none of their young players, you still got to give up a lot of, you know, your rotation guys. So it's not nothing, right? It's Wiggins plus, you know, name your expiring salaries. It's something they certainly would bounce around in-house and I expect them to over the next week to at least think about it.

But again, it's I don't. depending on who you talk to like you know inside wise they're kind of downplaying this idea that that they're you know you know beaten down miami store and are suddenly have become the front runner we'll see again this is smoke screen season uh but to your earlier question uh you know what You know what players potentially could they look at?

I mean, Vucevic is a name we've all been talking about for a couple of weeks. I mean, I've been hearing this really back since December because stretch five is such an obvious need. Now you've seen Quentin Post kind of semi step into that role in some ways. Might have people go, hey, look, you don't need to go get Vucevic. You kind of got a younger version.

But the reality is all he posted showing you is what a stretch five can do. for this offense can do for Steph Curry. Price tag will be the big thing there. Warriors don't really want to use a first on that. Chicago might want one. Where does that come up in the deadline? I think me and Marcus Thompson are likely going to have a story in the morning breaking some of this down.

And essentially, from what I've heard from the Warriors front is I do believe that their pick this year is somewhat on the table, 2025 protected version of that pick.

And as far as Vucevic goes, I do think he's going to be kind of down the pecking order, you know, where something that might get done closer to the deadline rather than currently, because I do think there's a lot of stuff league wide, these dominoes that are playing out that I think they want to check in on for maybe hitting full throttle on a move like that.

Yeah, and I don't know how many more years the Bucs can have disappointing losses like this in the playoffs. I mean, if you can't play in round one. Like they'll be against Indiana, most likely. Sure. Yeah. And like, that's a tough matchup. The Pacers are a good team. They're playing really good basketball right now. And you need Damian Lillard to win games. You just absolutely do.

So it's, it's a bummer, but it's, it's good that he's taking care of himself. Absolutely. Hopefully he can come back and just best wishes to Dame and his family.

So I will take, and this is not necessarily a moment from last night, but just a moment for Shea Gills Alexander, who scored 20 points or more in this game. In fact, against the Kings in a win that kind of got tight in the third quarter, but the Thunder pulled away. Shea had another big game. He had 32 points, seven rebounds, five assists.

He did have five turnovers, all of them in the first quarter, by the way. It was very strange.

i think he'd only had four other games or five other games where he had had five or more turnovers and he did it all in the first quarter but didn't turn the ball over after that so good for him but he now holds a thunder record that he passed kevin durant for he now has 65 straight 20 plus uh point games yeah which is wild only michael jordan who has 69 of those games. Oscar Robertson has 76.

And Wilt Chamberlain has 80, which he did twice.

It had to be Wilt. It had to be Wilt. Wilt is one of those. I mean, none of it seems real. You go look at some of the stats. I was actually showing one of my sons some of Wilt Chamberlain's stats earlier today. And I was like, it'll never happen again. None of this stuff will ever happen again.

It doesn't even make sense.

But Shea has now scored 20 points in 65 straight games. The Thunder have won 60 games, which has only happened one other time in franchise history. It's just...

run-of-the-mill win for the thunder on the road this is actually 11 consecutive road wins which is a thunder record as well for them um but there's a little bit of history sprinkled in there for for the thunder and for shea so a not a huge night as far as like they won by 16 in sacramento there's not a lot to take away from the game but there are some cool stats

I was hoping you wouldn't take this fear. For your first draft, but go ahead. But it's worthy of it, Andrew.

Without a doubt.

I think he was playing a different game. I think he was playing like restricted area ball or something where you're just trying to shoot it into the restricted area. The funniest part, and I'm sure you're about to mention this, is that he yells short. Right.

It's so good. You have to go watch it. It will make your day. Shout out to K.J. Martin. This sounds like we're dogging on him. I kind of like K.J.

OK, I'm going to go for my next one. I'm going to stay with this Thunder Kings game because Keegan Murray was absolutely on fire in this one. He was nine of 13 from three. He was five of six in the third quarter. And one, it's just really fun to see somebody just get hot like that. Yeah.

And then two, for it to be Keegan Murray makes it even better because of like the call that the announcer does to the crowd for Keegan Murray. The best. Yeah. And by like the fifth one in the third quarter, the crowd was just like... You could feel like... I almost went to go check my TV to see if it was vibrating because the crowd was just going berserk.

Because I think they cut it down to like eight or something like that. And... It really felt like the Kings were about to go on a run and Keegan Murray had sparked this like big time run in third quarter. And, you know, hearing the Keegan Murray is just it's just so fun.

Without a doubt. Every team should pick a guy to do this with. I agree.

Would it be? Well, Royce Young, who works for the Thunder, already put his submission for Aaron Wiggins.

You don't have to do it to the same tune. That's the thing. I think that he's a little bit stuck in a box. Yeah, I honestly would want it to be Lou Dort because it would just be Lou and then just Dort. Right. Just one like big Dort, you know.

Yeah. But I think you I think every team should pick one. Yes.

Next one. Khalil Ware had this moment, and there weren't a lot of crazy moments in the game. You had the Jimmy Butler coming up behind Kevin Love, rubbing his chest, rubbing his nipples before the game. That just felt kind of weird, awkward, like, what's happening here? Definitely not one of my favorite moments. But this Khalil Ware play, where he gets...

but he also recovers and then is able to kind of flip the ball back in. I, I, it was really, it was one of like the cooler plays, especially from a rookie this season. And to me, it's just kind of, I just want to highlight again, like I've talked about it on slam and jam before, um, But this Khalil Ware pick was really good for the Miami Heat. I mean, the guy's 7'1". He's a monster.

He's good on the boards. He can block shots. He's a good rim runner. And he's super skilled, and he takes threes. I mean, you're looking at this draft class, and you're looking up, and you're like, man... This draft class is not that good, blah, blah, blah. But like there are some guys that are playing really well and Kluwer is one of them.

And he's one of the guys that if we look back in three years and Kluwer, we're saying like, oh, he should have gone top five. Like, I will not be shocked because he's been really good.

Yeah, my guys at UNO Ball had him number one. There you go.

There's a handful. There is a handful.

The Memphis Grizzlies are in a bit of a free fall, obviously firing head coach Taylor Jenkins. But there's more on the horizon. So to break that down, we had to talk to our national NBA insider, Sam Amick. Sam, what's the latest with Ja and the Grizzlies? I mean, are we looking at a De'Aaron Fox 2.0 here in Memphis?

You were there for the Warriors, the Warriors Grizzlies game. But you caught the you know, the last quarter last the double overtime of this game when the game kind of got absurd. What do you think, man? I mean, this is to me the game of the year. And you maybe didn't see the whole thing I did. But how do you feel about the finish to this game?

Yeah. Before we before we go into the next phase of this, I do want to say, you know, there there was a lot made, especially recently, you know, in in other places in the media about how John Moran's role has changed. I mean, you started seeing people talking about it on ESPN. And it made me start thinking, Sam, that, okay, well, there's a little bit of a PR campaign happening here.

And now my assumption is always it comes from the player's side, right? Like, hey, the player's not happy with how this is working out. Did you get any indication outside of just, hey, Ja wants more touches, that he was just unhappy with how things were? I mean, was it all on the court and particularly about the way he's being used?

Right. I mean, I essentially felt like if they didn't win a first round series, he was probably going to be out this summer. I think that that was the prevailing thought. And you don't make changes to a coaching staff like they did last summer. without a coach probably being on the hot seat. I want to look ahead to this summer. Obviously, they're going to be hiring a coach.

Is this Tuomas' job to lose, or does he have to go and win it here in the final few games? I mean, it hasn't gone well since he's taken over, but that makes sense. He hasn't had any time to really make any changes. Does he have to win the job here the rest of the season?

And he's got an impeccable resume, and he has flown up the coaching ranks. He was a player for a long time, and this guy has got a lifetime of basketball experience. So I'm excited to see what he brings to the table for them, potentially as a head coach. It's nice to have new blood in the NBA, in my opinion. You get to see new things.

Sam Amick, thank you for keeping us informed and abreast of everything that's happening around the league, as always. That's going to do it for today's show, folks. For Sam and for Anthony Slater and S. Baraheni, I'm Dave DeFord, and this has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us.

you know i mean i hate to say it it it literally is the story um you know he gets that he makes makes a good defensive play makes the right pass to christian brown and blows the layup and and look those things happen but to double down and come back and and to foul nikhil alexander walker when he's firing up a hot potato i mean this was this was i don't think it was a foul

Yeah, 61 assists, 11 rebounds, a couple of steals. Yeah.

He's close to it, man. I don't think we need to really couch it at all. If we just consider his peak, this five-year run that he's on, if not the best ever, it's one of the three or four best ever. Period. Every single season, he has the best season of all time for five years running. At some point, we will start to recognize that he's up there. He just needs rings at this point.

He's got everything else. I don't want to let it get lost that the Wolves did win this game. It was a game that they really needed to win. It puts them in a tie. Memphis has the tiebreaker, but they are now tied with Memphis. for the six seed, seven seed, whatever you want to call it. But right there on the bubble, Memphis did lose to the Warriors, which we'll talk about.

But Anthony Edwards in this game, I mean, this was like playoff level performance. Anthony Edwards, 34 points, 10 rebounds, had eight assists. But down the stretch, Anthony, you mentioned the shot making. That's what kept the Nuggets at bay when they were trying to run away from the game. I mean, the Wolves just kept clawing back. Anthony Edwards kept hitting shots. And then when the time came,

That's the reason they won the game. Anthony Edwards hit big shot after big shot.

He's got two heaves in this game, and he leads the league in heaves by a good margin. Yeah, I mean, just always trying to do something.

Where do you rank this Steph Curry game, you know, of the Steph Curry games that you've seen? This season or his career? Let's say this season. You've covered him for a long time.

No, no. uh you know i don't know 24th maybe of all time did you have any kind of inkling that something like this was happening i like i've i had this idea in my head that i would ask you you know do you ever see him do something different but the truth is it's just like he was more aggressive in this game he had a really focused shoot around uh i got here uh

Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. Coming up, Nikola Jokic had a 61-point triple-double, and we're going to try to wrap our heads around it. And Steph Curry, he also went off. Anthony Slater's here to talk about the night. And we sat down with Sam Amick to catch up on the latest with the Grizzlies and Ja Morant and wonder whether he's going to be moving on this summer.

It was a little bit like the four thousand. Yeah. Three. You know, remember when he kind of went through that or is hunting for it? Yeah.

So this was your first chance to see the Grizzlies up close. Obviously, they, you know, a lot of changes. They're changing head coach, new offensive system this season. First chance to see them since they changed head coaches. You notice anything different about them at this point in the season? I mean, to me, when I watch them, they just seem like they don't have the legs.

I don't know if you saw that up close.

I mean, so rookie guarding Steph Curry is part of the problem, right?

Good morning, everybody. Good morning, guys. Thanks for staying up, Anthony, and hanging out with us. We originally thought we were going to be talking about Steph Curry right off the top, but Nikola Jokic kind of bumped him from the front page here. A 61 point triple double in a loss. Actually, a crazy game. Anthony, you were you're actually in Memphis.

Well, we're going to try to get you in here for as many of these as we can. Yeah, you're going to be back with us this weekend. Thursday, Thursday, Friday.

Yeah, why not?

All right, thanks for hanging out with us. Guys, stick around after the break. S and I sat down with Sam, and we talked about Ja and the Grizzlies.

Didn't even matter. For no reason. Yeah, for no reason. It wasn't even a conversation. It was like they were trying to stir up something. Nothing could even remotely be stirred up. I'm going to say it's the Cavs. The Cavs did have the better sweep just because of how absolutely dominant they were. You think about Ty Jerome, who basically put up 22-6-5 in this series through four games.

Wildly impressive. And that's from your sixth man. That's a guy who's coming off the bench for you, putting up, you know, all-star level-ish numbers through four games. I think it's the Cavs. But in terms of looking forward, I have a question for you. I'll throw a question back at you. Okay. All right. I like it.

From both of these teams, which I think there's a likely chance both of them make a pretty decent run here. We see them for at least one more round.

We're going to see them in the next round. They've made it. Yeah, true. Who is the most important player? Now, this is different than best player. Right. Who is their most important player?

So I'll play devil's advocate here. Cause I do agree with those picks. Those are fine picks. I think I would go with Darius Garland and Jalen Williams. So like I said, Shay didn't have the greatest first round series, but you know who did J Dub J Dub was awesome in round one. Uh, very, very assertive as a score was great. Settling into those mid range shots, creating his own shot.

I thought the chemistry between him and Hartenstein and those bench units looked really, really good. So he's important because he keeps them afloat offensively when Shay's off the floor. And I agree that to a certain extent, Chet does the same, that the offensive pairing with him and Hartenstein makes sense. But to me, I think J Dub, the, the ceiling as a score is higher, especially right now.

So he can get to a level that I don't think Chet can. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And like he can create off the bounce a little bit more. So I'd say J-Dub. And then for Garland, it's how much are teams going to hunt you out on the defensive end? Because if there is one week and weak link is a tough way to call it. But look, you're in the playoffs. You're going to get targeted.

You know, we saw Jalen Green in this Rockets Warriors game get targeted. So how are you able to stay on the floor defensively? when it's the Pacers or in the Celtics games or series moving forward, can those guys target you and get you off the floor? That's the big question I have with Darius Carlton. Yeah.

I think Bucks Pacers for sure is done. And again, Really, really unfortunate situation with Damian Lillard. Hopefully he's back. Spirits high and all that because it's just tough to see him go out like that, right? But I do think that series is over, and I think Indiana ends up winning this pretty comfortably in Indy.

The only team that I see extending their series tonight or on Tuesday would be the Knicks and the Pistons. I think the Pistons can steal a game here in MSG and send it back to game six, especially with the way that that game ended with the officiating and the physicality. I think the Pistons come out hungry. I think they can they can extend the series. But I think Boston finishes them off.

And I think Indiana finishes. Boston needs to finish them off.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, how many more times are you going to replicate the formula that you did in game four where you played all these guys massive minutes? And to your point, Michael Porter Jr. 's shoulder, Russell Westbrook, the ankle situation. I will say I think the wild card here for Denver is Jamal Murray hasn't really had one of those games, you know, and he usually has at least one.

of those types of games. So maybe that ends up swinging the series in favor of Denver. If he just goes ballistic for like a 35, 40 point night, which he's capable of doing. So I think that's, that's the one key. That's kind of like the swing factor here for Denver. But the other thing is pace, right? Every game, every,

Whatever team has won has dictated the pace, has won the turnover battle, has won the offensive rebounding battle. So whatever team ends up doing that through the next three games, because I do agree with you, it'll go seven, they'll end up winning the series. I think the Clippers have more legs. That's undoubtedly true, but... I mean, the Nuggets have the best player in the world, man.

And you can't discount that.

So the nuggets played so desperate in game four. And it's like, can you continue to do that through three more games in this series? I don't know. Yeah, exactly.

It felt like a lot of the decision-making from the Rocket side of things was a little uneven in the fourth quarter. You think about the challenge on that Jimmy Butler foul, some of the double-big lineups going back and forth between Shingun and Adams, which was working, I thought, against the Warriors, that size.

What do you think from seeing it live, were there any major mistakes from the Rockets that jumped out to you where it's like, that's the game, other than the free throws, obviously?

25-8 when Jimmy Butler is in the lineup. So that is a pretty good proof of concept for next season if they want to roll with it. Another guy who was massive in this game was Brandon Pajimski. Huge rebounds, massive shot making for him to come out with this type of game. I mean, he's been pretty good all series for them, I feel, stepping into that role. But what did you see from Pajimski?

Was it Jabba? No.

Mike Brown. Oh, my gosh.

Wow. Well, you could argue this a couple different ways. You could say, look, the Oklahoma City Thunder had a 29 point comeback. One of the best comebacks in playoff history. That in itself is impressive. The best halftime comeback ever. Right. Yeah. That is an impressive thing to do. Without Frank Reich.

All right. Um, and they did it obviously the caveat of John Morant and all that type of stuff. That is one impressive part to this. Also, I don't think they had the best SGA series. Like SGA was kind of, did he even really pop off for one? He had the final game was the most impressive game that he had in game four. He really cooked and it obviously sent the Grizzlies home.

But for the most part, not a great series from from SGA. And they still handled business. Right. So you can argue one side that way from the Cavs side. Darius Garland didn't play for two of these games, right? Yeah. They basically just walked out there in Miami and dominated. Wasn't even a chance. There was bickering and smack talking and trash talking between Tyler Hero and Darius Garland.

And now we've got Anthony Slater joining me to talk Warriors-Lakers senior NBA writer at The Athletic. You actually spent some time down in L.A. looking at the Lakers as of late. And it's interesting because both of these teams, the Warriors and the Lakers, given similar vibes, also both trying to fight their way up the conference rankings.

What are some of your thoughts going into this Christmas Day game matchup?

Very vintage. Yes.

It is interesting, the parallels between like as you laid that out, I was like, wow, there is this like saga in between these two teams. And it's going to be a matter of what front office decides to make their hero of the story, the protagonist, give them a little bit more support. Now, the Warriors have made a move, right? Of course, adding Dennis Schroeder into the mix, but.

The vibes are good, according to Steph. He says that even though they just had that 51-point loss against the Memphis Grizzlies, they're on the comeback, and this is when they can start stacking some wins. What would you say is the overall vibe of the team?

If you had a State of the Union in the way that LeBron gave it for him, if you had a State of the Union for the Warriors, where do they sit right now as the real start of the NBA season begins?

Sure, but you can hear that stuff. Like, yeah. Yeah.

Now, here's the difference between the Warriors and the Lakers. The Warriors seem like there could be some changes internally that could fix what's going on. Also, the trade market is available to them. The Lakers, it feels as if the trade market is where they should be able to find some answers rather than within their own team.

But Anthony Davis in good form within December, at least like what did you see from him as a supporting castmate to LeBron against the Kings?

So now Warriors coming into this game last 10 games, three of seven where the Lakers are five of five again. Warriors less than average performance. Mediocre. It's mediocre. Right. Mediocre. So that's what I'm wondering, like with these two teams matching up for the first time this season, it's always popcorn when they go up against each other.

Like in terms of just like the competition, every time these two teams match up, Steph goes off, LeBron goes off. It's just always something there. Yeah. Do we think that it's going to replicate? Like it's always going to still be that like saga-esque type of matchup between these two on Christmas Day?

Again, we're talking before the Warriors play the Pacers, but right now, sixth and seventh. That's how these two teams stack up. All right. Now, before I let you go, I got to ask you. It's the end of the year. It's going to be 2025. If you had a New Year's resolution for the Warriors, what would it be?

Exactly. Okay. I'm with you. I absolutely believe that. All right. Well, we appreciate you breaking down the Warriors Lakers preview for Christmas day. Go read Anthony Slater on the athletic. He covers the Warriors, but also lets us know about what's going on in California overall. So we appreciate you, Anthony. Thank you.

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Hauptsache schnell, ich kann mein Glück kaum erwarten. Die Lose von Lotto Bayern, zum Rubbeln oder Aufreißen. Glück to go, der schnelle Weg zum Glück. Lotto Bayern, nimm dein Glück in die Hand, nur in deiner Lotto-Anahme-Stelle.

Sorry, I was trying to see if I could flip the phone. You can almost restart if you want.

Yeah, they can't score. You know, the first three games of the series under 100 points tonight, they were over 100, mostly just because their mop up duty guys like, you know, went off. They basically were below 100 tonight. Jimmy Butler was sick. And took nine shots. So you couldn't get kind of the full Jimmy Butler experience.

And I know I'm probably, you know, video wise rollercoastering a little bit for you all again. But 27 attempted threes tonight, 23 attempted threes in the game prior. Like that's just not 2025 volume that's going to. Allow you to compete. They can't score. They can't get enough spacing around Jimmy Butler. They cannot get the Miami Heat version of Jimmy Butler for various reasons right now.

And they're just a little doomed offensively. And to be honest, I mean, it's pretty easy retelling of this story from the Warriors perspective. Steph Curry hurt his hamstring injury. They felt very good about the series prior to that. And they were up 30 to 20.

Like, I think they will tell themselves that they believe they would have won this series if Steph Curry was here, but their best player who, you know, and they're probably more reliant than most teams on their best player, but their best player got hurt in the second round series and they're going to lose because of it.

And I don't know if they would have won had it not happened, but they certainly aren't going to win after it happened.

Yeah, I think they're going to want to solidify the center position a little bit with a more established veteran innings either. You know, Quentin Post faded in these playoffs. Trace Jackson Davis has shown a little bit of a spark, but I think you would want a more veteran type of guy in there. You mentioned the shooting. I mean, you've seen it. Jimmy Butler needs space like most of your creators.

He has none. Yeah. And also the age, you know, we can talk about the window, but the reality is Steph Curry's 37. Draymond and Jimmy are 35. You know, by the time they would be in their next playoff run, we're talking 38 and double 36s there. So, you know, like second round... It's not a terrible outcome for them to be in the final eight, considering where they were a couple months ago.

I mean, they're not going to want to necessarily hear that right now. Absolutely, yeah. The big question will be Kaminga and talk about a roller coaster. It's like my video right now, basically, has been his... and his market value and his just four years with the Warriors. But, you know, he would be the path through via sign and trade to get, you know, rotational help this summer.

But, you know, he looks great the last couple of games, right? Yeah. Yeah. So like solving his future and figuring out if they think he can fit because he didn't hadn't really been fitting in the Steph Curry ecosystem. Yeah. And I think a lot of people forgot that what he had done prior and he's reminding people right now, like there's still a lot of talent in there.

This is not, in my opinion, at least this is not some like bust of a seventh overall pick. He's on the rise. Now, I don't know if he can be on the rise within what the Warriors want to do. And if he's not, then they better find a way to get valuable pieces for him this summer. To me, that is the crux question of their summer. Does Kaminga become something valuable or do you bring him back?

And it's going to be tough conversations. Restricted free agency is obviously more team friendly. I know Joe Lacob is a big fan. He's over there, you know, fist pumping after every big coming to play. You know, you watch this series and like Jimmy Butler, you know, is having a tough time separating a space. Draymond Green has not had the greatest series.

And you do wonder as you look at the 22 year old about to be 23 year old. wing, like, you know, as it's smart for a franchise to turn away from that and, you know, pivot towards, you know, the older group. But we also understand the older group has earned what they've earned so much.

So considering how the four years have gone, and I probably would have made a stronger statement a week ago, not believing Jonathan Kaminga will be back because of where the relationship generally with the franchise had gone. But I also know they don't want to let him walk for nothing. and restrictive free agency.

If you don't want somebody to walk for nothing, and if they get an offer, see, then you match it and you figure it out later. So that could happen. Right. But I do think there'll be sign and trade type scenarios also.

Yeah, prior to the night, to tonight, honestly, I hadn't been that impressed. Game one, they lost basically with Steph out. I know they were down 30-20 when he went out. But, you know, the Warriors were up 22 at one point, like the fourth quarter of that game. They didn't really, like, foot on the throat. Like, they could have lost game three.

And honestly, behind the scenes, you had Warriors people kicking themselves about the idea that if Steph was there, like, they really believed him. Again, I'm not saying this, but there is a strong internal belief that had Steph not got injured, they felt really good about the matchup. And even that Houston might have provided tougher issues to them.

But I will say, even going into tonight, it was like, if the Wolves are who they want to be, if they are a true threat to go past this series and beyond, and maybe even to the NBA Finals, a good team like that, you know, kills off a, an under man team without its best player. And tonight they did that, right?

Like they just came in and, and took the hearts and, and all the motivation out of the warriors in the third quarter. They went on the big 17 or run to me. Edwards was that type of superstar tonight. I don't know what he finished with point wise, but 30. Yeah. Pretty easy. 32. which is, you know, his kind of combination of just powerful rim drives and deep, tough threes, right?

He's hitting really tough threes. McDaniel's statistics don't pop off the page, but I think he's just been such a factor. And then Julius Randle's having a huge series. Had a great playoffs. Yeah, yeah. And he's giving Draymond some trouble. You know, we're like, more than Sangoon did, I would say. So, yeah, like...

They've been impressive, but also, and it's not like the Thunder have just been rolling through the nuggets, and we don't even know if it will be the Thunder in the next round. But I will say, the Timberwolves haven't done enough for me to believe. Like, I wouldn't pick them against the Thunder at this point.

No, I would say I don't think they necessarily have this, but all he asked for a finals prediction. I could have said Nuggets against Cavaliers. It's true. I could still say that. I think I covered the Thunder second round series last year where they went. It played out pretty much exactly the same where it was 2-1 on the road. They went and got game four in Dallas. Shea was awesome. That was big.

Yeah. Yeah. And then they went home for game five and they blew it. So that could happen again. Sure. We've already seen them lose at home in this series. So but if you're just asking for a prediction, I think the Thunder finished that series off, beat the Wolves, go to the finals, don't play the Boston Celtics anymore. So I'm sure you guys are going to talk about that news.

So they're probably the I mean, I think Vegas has labeled them pretty clear favorites at this point for the for the title.

Derek Jones had a great series. against the Thunder last year. P.J. Washington did too, but that was more as kind of a supplementary score. Derek Jones got that primary Shea assignment. It's the length and just like that bouncy athleticism. This was the risk a little bit of the way that the Mavs decided to pivot this summer with

You know, I think what happened in the Celtics series informed them that, hey, maybe they need some more shooting, right? Obviously, that's why they went and chased down Klay Thompson. But to face the Celtics and have that to be a concern, you still have to get through the Thunder. And you could argue maybe that this version of the Mavericks is a little bit less equipped to guard the Thunder.

We'll see. This is obviously not a full throttle Thunder team. There's no Chet Holmgren, but we also haven't seen Hardenstein in this matchup. He's been playing so well lately. Yeah. Yeah.

It's always a target. You know, Clay Thompson wouldn't love to hear me say this, but he's increasingly as he's gotten older, become a target now. Clay, with the quicker guards particularly, because his lateral side-to-side has decreased. But what is Dallas' closing lineup going to be? I think this is going to be a season-long, certainly a playoff question with Clay would be the question mark.

Because if you have Clay, Luka, and Kyrie on the floor at the same time, there's targets to be had out there.

Well, you mentioned the playoff aspect of this, and that really matters because one duo is much more proven in the playoffs, and that's the Dallas one. And who's playing better right now? Certainly you could argue Jalen Williams is maybe an all-star right now at this point. But Jalen Williams did not have that great of a playoff series.

After an incredible season, he took a bulk of really the Kyrie assignment at times, and he was all over the floor. And I do think he tired out a little bit. And even after the series, he talked about – maybe some of the knowledge he gained from that series.

But also, I think it's part of the reason, you know, the Thunder used a big chip trade to Josh Giddey this summer, which, by the way, look at Josh Giddey's plus minus in that Maverick series. That's very relevant to this matchup. They started him to open that series, and then it was like bench, and then it was like trying to squeeze 11 minutes out of him.

And, you know, now suddenly that's Alex Caruso, who, by the way, is back off injury, playing better. I think he's hit two threes in both of his first two games back from this hip injury. But I think part of the reason Caruso was a target was

It's because if you get Caruso in various lineups, you can go Caruso on a Kyrie, Dort on a Luka, and then maybe Jalen Williams has a little bit less of a defensive burden because he's got to be the number two scorer, especially with Chet out. But even with Chet there, I still think in a playoff series, he's probably your number two playmaker creator. So, yeah, I mean, spotlights on him.

It's only year three. Like you expect him to have learned. Yeah. But if you're actually asking me, like, which duo do you trust more at the highest level of most tense playoff basketball? One is definitely more proven and it's not the Thunders.

Yeah. Yeah, the other I remember from that series, the other statistical. The rebounding, right?

Yeah, the rebounding, but also the Thunder crushed the Gafford minutes and were crushed in the Lively minutes. Like Lively's plus minus was way better. And, you know, the Mavs love to go like 24, 24 minutes, split up, view them evenly. Well, at least in this matchup, Lively was much better than Gafford.

That's right. I am primarily around the Warriors. I try to leak off and get to the Thunder as much as possible because they're increasingly relevant. And then the Sacramento Kings are actually the closest of proximity to my house. So those three primarily.

Tari Eason is a candidate in here. Draymond's technical count is starting to rise a little bit. He went on record early in the year saying he wanted to keep it under 10. So he may try to throttle it back. I will say this. I think the Rockets are more likely to get more technicals because I think this game matters a whole lot more to the Rockets. They're trying to enter the stage, enter the fray.

Hey, this is a highlight game for them. Whereas the Warriors, I could make an easy argument that it might be better for their bodies and minds if they lose this game, step out of the spotlight, get a lot more days off. But that's neither here nor there. The other thing, and I know this, the Rockets really want to beat the Warriors just for morale purposes. It's been 15 straight.

The Warriors beat the Rockets 15 straight games. Second longest streak in the league. I think Knicks over the Pistons is the longest. And Tari Eason's made it clear. Going back to last year, remember when the Rockets were trying to chase them down? Yeah. And Tari Eason did the whole like Warriors come out to play. Warriors come out to play. Yeah.

which the Warriors themselves thought was odd by him because he wasn't actually available at the time. He was an injured player. And then they played that huge game in Houston where the Warriors basically, you know, put him out for good. And then they were like kind of chanting on the bench. Steph even had the water bottles on the bench, you know, in garbage time. And Tari Eason this year,

was really good in the first game in Houston, but the Rockets lost in overtime, and that postgame just basically was like, I hate the Warriors. I want to beat them so bad. So I do think Houston's coming into this game like, this is the stage to break this streak.

And, you know, the fact that the Warriors and Kings got eliminated so early last year, I was able to cover Thunder Mavericks series in the second round, which is relevant today. Yeah, that's right.

And I think he drew both games. The first game No Steph in Houston. The Warriors go up 31. They kill Sangoon. Eme Udoka goes small with Tari Eason and Matt Thompson. They start switching everything against the non-Steph Warriors. And the Warriors' offense falls apart. They can't do anything. But down the stretch, Pajemski has three ISO buckets to help them kind of hold on and take it to overtime.

Pajemski fouls out in overtime. Draymond fouls out. There's nobody out there except Kaminga. Kaminga has three ISO buckets. They win the overtime 8-2. It was one of his big moments of like, see, I can be a star scorer when given the opportunity. And then the other night... No Steph, no Draymond. They beat the Rockets. He scores 33.

He isos down the stretch, kind of splits Dylan Brooks and Van Vliet, lay up Draymond and Steph, rush him. There's a huge postgame thing. And then they declare, hey, he's the new starter.

Yeah, I mean, he'd argue, hey, you just gave me the opportunity, finally. I mean, he's had, and he would also say, he's had large chunks, subsections of seasons prior where he was huge. Wiggins left the team for the entire post-All-Star break two seasons ago. He was great down the stretch, helped him get to the sixth seed. Wiggins comes back, he's minimized. Last year, Draymond gets suspended.

He explodes. He had like several straight games of 20 plus points. Draymond comes back. They go small. He had like, Kaminga had a really good statistical season last year. Right now, he's always kind of been blocked by Draymond, especially if they want to play center. They're trying to alleviate that. That's why Draymond might even come off the bench.

But in this particular matchup, as we mentioned, I think he's even more charged up because Jalen Green's on the other side, picked ahead of him, former GD Ignite teammate. Alper and St. Goons on the other side, same draft class. Both those guys got extended. He did not. It was a little bit more juice. And that type of stuff matters to Kaminga.

Yeah, I mean, look, he's got the tools, right? They've always begged him and Wiggins to rebound more. It's why Pajemski matters so much last year because they were like, look, if we're playing Wiggins and Kaminga together a lot, those are two wings that don't rebound. And Pajemski was second on the team in rebounding.

And the other night, Pajemski had 12 rebounds, which I think alleviates some of the pressure from Kaminga. But against the Timberwolves, he had seven rebounds, including a huge one in traffic late. They were honestly glowing more about that play than any of the scoring. Three blocks, got Randall at the rim late.

again i do think he can he can pop with some of those highlight plays i think in individual settings he can really obviously move side to side and if he takes a match up personally he's tough to score against but look he they'll he still is gonna get three like he he overhelps at times or he falls asleep or if he comes in the game he'll be like kind of blowing on his hands like getting

Yes, but you're bringing up what I think is a key point to all this. How much do the Warriors care? How much does Steph Curry care?

Marcus last night, trying to bait Steph a little bit, or I think he wanted it as a joke question, but Steph almost tried to take it normally, but it was like, you know, how does this feel like, you know, going into Houston elimination West finals, you know, backs against the wall road playoff game and stuff's like, Hmm.

Nah, not really, you know, but then he tries to, you know, but the NBA cup, you know, it's big, but it's like, you know, Steph's dealing with double knee tendonitis. He's sitting one side of back to back right now. He's 36 nearing 37. Like if, if, The Warriors do care and really want this thing. You could stretch him to 38, stretch him to 41 minutes, go after it. Steph's high usage late.

He's going, you know, as hard as he can. But do the Warriors care? Do they want to go to Vegas? I kind of want to change my prediction.

Remember, losing –

That's right.

But it's hard to... They'll be considered a massive disappointment at this point if they don't at least win the West. And the other thing, I think it's fair to say if they don't at least make the finals, it'll be considered a disappointment. And it doesn't matter how much they try to suppress expectations. That's just...

One of the other stats I'm going to put in tonight, they're currently leading the West because I think the Rockets lost tonight. So I think they're up 14 and a half on number two in the West. That's going to be the second or third largest differential. They're just such dominance over the next closest. But the other thing is specifically talking to Chet, which is very interesting.

This isn't some outlier health season, right? This isn't some like season without, you know, your normal attrition. Yeah. Like 26 games. Yeah. Uh, Isaiah Hartenstein's missed 23 games. They played chunk of a season without a center. Yeah. Recently they rested, uh, you know, all their guys. And then Aaron Wiggins scores 30. And then Aaron Wiggins scores 26 in another game. He's at a 40-point game.

That's their seventh man. On playoffs, that's their seventh man. You know, yesterday I was at a game on Saturday. They were playing the Pacers, a really tough Pacers team, right? Well, Chet sits out to rest the hip. Hartenstein leaves in the first half with his own left hip issue. And so, as Mark Dagnall put it, they dust off the small lineup when they were playing with no centers.

And then they run the Pacers out of the gym. And then it's like tonight they have both of their centers playing because they're trying to get more reps with them before the playoffs because it's an important lineup for them. And then they run the Bulls out of the building. They've done it every way. They've done it with guys out. They've learned so much about themselves.

So, like, this is just – it's historic stuff regular season-wise, but I guess rounding it back to your original question, like, it doesn't matter how much they tell us, like – We're stacking brick by brick, zero and zero mentality. They are massive, massive Western Conference favorites, and if they don't win, the West at least.

I don't think game six against the Celtics and they go down in the finals, that'll be tough to be a huge disappointment. But I think anything prior to the finals, if they go down, that's a pretty big disappointment.

It seems like I'm going to have to choose because I actually got emailed today. I believe I'm going to be a voter. And I don't know. You know, Wimby seemed like the obvious choice.

I, you know, I have not wrapped my mind. I don't want to wrap my mind around, you know, who is it or who isn't. And honestly, covering Draymond Green, he's made the point of like, watch how we finish the season. If they rattle off and they finish as the four seed and their defense has been, you know, number two for such an extended stretch, like he's got a better argument.

If they fade and are in the play and he probably has a worse argument. I think right now you're guaranteed all first team defenders are Draymond, Lou Dort, Evan Mobley, Dyson Daniels, I would put up there. As far as who's defensive player of the year, somebody was asking me about that tonight and making the Dort case. You know what arena I was in tonight.

So you can imagine there's a little bit of like a Lou Dort.

he's unbelievable right we know that the on-ball pit bull you know probably the guy that a score in the league probably wants to see the least right now especially a physical score but the point i made as far as like the case against dort is yes he's on he's probably you would consider the most impactful defender this season on a historic defense as you mentioned s but he's

He has two of the top 10 rim protectors in the world, in my opinion, Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren behind him. And for large chunks of the season have been at least one of the two has been behind him. He has a superstar guard who is one of the very rare guards who does not get picked on. You don't pick on Shea Gilders Alexander defensively.

He has Jalen Williams is one of the more versatile wings in the league. He's got Alex Caruso coming off the bench defending like he's part of an absolute machine and he is a major part of it. They would argue this season the most important part of that machine. But that should matter. Like, you know, he these superstar players are not scoring like they normally do.

Because of his physical defense, but also because of who's awaiting at the rim, who's around them, who's not, you know, they can't screen him off and just get like, you know, a tiny guard, a Trey young or something on them. Like there's, there's a lot that goes into it. And like, I'm not trying to argue too stiffly against the Ludor case because, honestly, he's in the conversation.

I'm actually curious about y'all's opinion. But, like, he's part of a machine. Draymond, there's flaws within his case. Mobley, you mentioned it. There's kind of flaws within his case. Dyson Daniels is on the Hawks, and you're like, you know, he steals, deflections Hound. But they're not unbelievable defensively. I don't know.

how big is this for the warriors chances of potentially getting to that four seed like grandma mentioned yeah you know i mean it's it's to to me their their demarcation point is seven and six like they just be six or above i'm you could argue you'd rather be sixth than in the four or five especially we're talking about this goliath potentially sitting at one like get on the other side of their bracket sit in the six not the four or five

But this is a major – I think the Grizzlies – like the Clippers scare the Warriors. They already have the tiebreaker over them. They're playing great basketball right now. They play each other on the last game of the regular season. There's a chance that that could be for the sixth seed, let's say, if the Grizzlies had stayed above the Warriors.

But there's one team in this situation, and I'm including the Timberwolves under the Warriors and Clippers. There's one team free-falling right now. There's one team on a losing streak. There's one team that just fired their head coach. That's the Grizzlies. I think all three of the Clippers, Warriors, and Timberwolves are seeing vulnerabilities.

And this is a chance for the Warriors to really pounce on it because not only can they get a win tomorrow and suddenly go a half game up on Memphis, but if they do get that win tomorrow, that's a 3-1 regular season series, and that's a tiebreaker. And you would be one game ahead of them in the loss column, and I always look at the loss column, and you would have the tiebreaker.

So that's almost a two-game lead.

and that would like that's to me would create a scenario where suddenly the Warriors who have a tiebreaker over the Wolves but do not over the Clippers the Warriors would have a much better safety net where them and the Clippers could be the 5-6 and then you sit there and go sure Clippers go into 5 play the Lakers have a little LA fun they'll sit at 6 probably hoping that it's the Rockets at 3 but maybe getting the Nuggets but winner doesn't go face the Thunder

I think if I was just covering this team and I didn't know their history, and they hadn't proven me wrong in similar situations, I'd probably say not going to be able to score enough, a little too old, a little too thin in certain ways, flawed in certain ways. I just... I can't imagine them beating some of the teams above them, particularly the team at the top of their conference.

But I probably said the same thing in March of 2022. They were on a bad streak. Steph looked like he was really going through, and he missed the last month of that season when they won the title with a foot injury. Draymond had a back problem to the calf that year. They looked... Again, if we were having this same conversation in 22, I would have said, no, that team's not. They're not a threat.

And then they found their way to the title. Again, I think no team they played during that run is as good as the Thunder and the current Celtics. They obviously played the Celtics then, but that's a worse Celtics team. I mean, every Celtics player has talked about learning from that finals, including I saw Derek White tonight say he credited Draymond Green with –

this next step in his career because of how Draymond guarded him in those finals and him wanting to become more of a threat. So if they somehow got through the West, which I wouldn't predict, and the Celtics are waiting there, I don't think it would just be 2022 all over again. Yeah. But... Jimmy Butler is fierce.

He's been fierce against Celtics teams that have been ranked higher than him before. Steph Curry has slayed giants, slayed playoff giants. Draymond Green is a playoff force. Steve Kerr has shown to be a great playoff coach, strategic coach. They win games on the road. Remember they had that crazy run of like 24 straight series where they won a road game? There's a lot there.

So I'm not saying no, they can't make a run, but... But I'm a doubter and they will probably, you know, they've heard me and I'll tell them, like, I don't think you're winning the title. But there's an outside chance they're laughing at me. They would like to prove you wrong.

Start there. Pivot back quickly. I don't think it was that bad at homecoming for Josh Giddey. He had some points. He got some warm applause. I saw him in the postgame locker room greeting staffers. He's playing pretty well in Chicago. He had that night the other day. He's probably going to get paid. We'll get the money.

Well, everybody does. Rick Carlisle said it the other day. He's like, yeah, when you come in here, you're playing the best team in the world. To your original question, I'm not sure it's the 72-win Bulls, the 73-win Warriors, but I'm not sure it's that far off, just statistically. And, you know, you mentioned it, 28-1 against the East.

Their only loss was that Cleveland loss in Cleveland that the Cavaliers went zone. And Dagnall said it tonight. He's like, that helped us. The next time we played Cleveland, we knew how to play against the zone. And so, like, the only loss they've had against the East, I think, helped boost them to all their other wins, or some of them. They didn't know it was a stat.

They're very, like, tunnel vision. The only thing they've celebrated – And I'm writing a story about this, so it should be on The Athletic at this point, by the time people are listening. The only thing they've celebrated somewhat so far is 61 wins. Yeah. It was a franchise record. Yeah. I think that meant something to them. And by the way, OKC era franchise record, technically the Sonics won 64.

They're going to pass that, by the way, at some point, too. Yeah. You know, they kind of care about like, you know, their own condensed history here. And I think there was a level of respect like, man, we already zoomed past something that the Durant Westbrook Thunder did. But yeah, like we'll see how their last eight games go and there might be some rest in there.

There's a couple of Lakers games that could be tricky for them, especially because they have no motives at this point. So that could diminish some of the win totals and the point differential and all that. But right now, best point differential in NBA history. Tied for the best net rating with the 96 Bulls.

There's a chance if they just win their final seven games, including basically three tanking teams to end the season, they would be only one of three teams ever to get 70. 70 is still in reach. Yeah. 69, you know, if they get to 69 wins, which feels very capable at this point, we're talking about, you know, the 73-win Warriors, the 96 Bulls, another Bulls team, which, by the way, won 69.

They went back-to-back season 72-69, which is crazy. And then we're talking about, like, the Wilt Chamberlain-Jerry West Lakers won, like, 69. Yeah. And it's like they I think one of the craziest stats and shows their dominance. Forty nine double digit wins tonight was the forty ninth. That is second most ever.

They passed the Durant Warriors the first Durant season, which I think is interesting because that was a team that could have some low type games. When they hit you, they hit you and they showed you their dominance. They had 48 double-digit wins. The Thunder got their 49th tonight. 50 is the record. That was the Jerry West Lakers. They're going to get by that.

They play Utah and they play the Pelicans. Yeah, they'll do it.

And by the way, that comes higher than Mark Dagnall. That is a Sam Presti directive.

Yeah, I mean, I just spent three days out here and like kind of trying to ask about records. And like I said, the only one they would kind of acknowledge that like tickled them a little was like we did win 61, which is the most of franchise history. But they're actively batting away any ideas of it.

And I sat down with Chet postgame tonight for a different story, pre playoffs, kind of on their double big and his season, all that. But he made the point. I kind of wiggled in a question about this. And he's like, that comes from coach. That comes from up top. But it's tunnel vision.

Right now, me and Mike was talking about, I think we're soft as hell as a team, internally. You know what I mean? Not to the other team, but internally, we're soft. We can't talk to each other. Just a bunch of little kids. It's just like we're playing with a bunch of little kids, like the whole team. We just can't talk to each other.

And, and they added this summer with that in mind. particularly Melton and Kyle Anderson. Pajemski's a really good team defender. They're just playing better defenders.

And the other thing I will say, because they keep talking about it, Jerry Stackhouse, they hired him away from the college, and he's fired up on the sidelines, and he's delivering a level of accountability that they say they haven't had on the defensive end since Mike Brown. Well, new voices in the room, right?

Yeah. Yeah. He's different than the other Warriors coaches. He carries the level of like, oh, wow, that's Jerry Stackhouse over there. And also he's kind of yelling at people.

It's funny you say that because my lead of my story tonight is going to be a second quarter turnover when they were up four. Steph Curry just flung a terrible pass up court. There was a no chance. It gets picked off. Celtics bring it back. Hit a three. It's Steve Kerr.

He yells at Steph Curry, lights into him, calls timeout, is yelling at him in the huddle because they've spent all offseason saying, we are not who we used to be. We don't have Kevin Durant. We can't just turn it over 18 times but win by 18 because we're so much better than everyone. We need to win in the margins. And those are the plays that they're demanding that Steph and Draymond cut out.

So I say that because you said you can't yell at Steph Curry. He can yell at Steph Curry. He can yell at Steph Curry.

Well, I've had a few worries. People be like, hey, Houston's pretty good. Can you give us that Houston win? Like, does that not count? No way. No.

They fought off the comeback, right? I did. But that is the point I made to him. I was like, you did blow a 31 point lead in that game. And then they're like, no, Steph. Draymond fouls out. Pajemski fouls out. It was a good win. The Houston one was good. This one was better. This one was more impressive.

Boston, you know, without Jalen Brown, without Porzingis, this wasn't like full throttle Boston. There was a lot more rotation places you could pick at. But they held Boston to 40 points. in the first half. And then they went down seven in the fourth quarter.

And, you know, talking to Draymond green post game and Looney a little bit too, like the Houston game, when, when Houston came back and tied it and actually took a one point lead in that fourth. And then this game tonight, when, you know, they play a good game, we would all golf clap. If they had lost that game in the fourth quarter and say, Hey, you look pretty good.

And you know, where is our solid. But they lose that game last year, and they were agreeing. Like, we don't come back. We don't survive that onslaught in Houston or in Boston and come back and win the game. So what they did down the stretch was impressive. There are a lot of reasons for it.

The depth, the defense, which we talked about, and then just like Looney, for example, just looks slimmer and better this year. He has two huge putbacks. Gary Payton, how good was he in his first stretch today? Physically, he couldn't have done that last season. So there's just a lot of things going right for him.

It was really the first game of the season. He's looked great, which by the way, it's the first game of the season. He's played 30 minutes because they blow out Portland and Utah. He doesn't even have to play the fourth quarter. And then they're playing the 12 man rotation. And then he sprains his ankle twice in the third game, the Clippers game, misses three games, comes back at DC. And it's,

I don't think they were trying to necessarily disrespect the Wizards with this, but it was clear Steph almost was using that Wizards game as a tune-up for tonight, even after the game. It was like, yeah, I played 24 minutes tonight, but that was so I could play 30-plus against Boston. And, yeah, I mean, they went a little bit more normal star rotation, which I...

Steve Kerr's always been willing to do that, to go chase down a win, right? That's the Warriors fan base favorite Steve Kerr phrase. Are they chasing a win tonight or not? He chased it. And, you know, again, we can get into a bunch of things. I think Steve Kerr's coaching a really good opening.

No.

he was his pregame press conference was something here it was super sarcastic uh against the boston fans almost being like yeah you know maybe they should cheer me you know i only won a gold medal for the country and got three of their players gold medals right you know does derrick white matter just true holiday matter by the way there was four celtics fans i don't know if they it seemed a little barstool type

In like a seat down from Steve Kerr. I was like, that's excellent from the Mbasa fans.

I mean, you know what, Jonathan Kaminga, I think you can come off.

I think they have become better over the last few years of specifically going after guys that will fit in the system. It isn't that everyone can because Kelly, we've seen it not. Yeah. Kelly Oubre certainly did not. There's, you know, there's scars issue for, you know, James Wiseman, to be honest, like Kaminga does it really now coming. It does a lot of stuff. that they really need.

He won him the Houston game because people fouled out and they're like, they need a bucket room somewhere. Kaminga's individual skill kind of got them that win. But Buddy Heald was a guy they, for years, have thought would work perfectly as kind of the movement shooter. Right. Clay 2.0, whatever you want to call him.

Ema Udoka said that he basically is doing all the Clay Thompson stuff the other day after they played him. Look, he's just scorching hot right now also. I think he's like 50% from three on a high volume. That will continue. But he's having a good time. He's really...

it compared to the philadelphia days where i don't think they were just passing to him that often and they certainly weren't using him in movement ways that he prefers to play in he's like glowing about like how fun it is to play with steph curry how fun it is to play in the system and it does seem to fit him and yeah he's shooting the hell up

Personnel. They would tell you that, too. They're trying to tell you that in subtler ways that isn't. you know, taking shots at two hall of famers, because you were talking about last year, they had a lot of clay Thompson, Chris Paul, Steph Curry lineups, and she couldn't stay in front of the ball. I mean, that's been like, when you asked her, Hey, what's the biggest difference?

It's like, they, we just kept getting beat off the dribble last year. And then it's rotation, rotation, swing, swing three. Uh, You know, we haven't even barely seen much D'Anthony Melton, but he's going to be a big help to the Kyle Anderson. Gary Payton is healthy. As I mentioned, Looney looks healthy. Draymond's engaged.

They're starting Draymond next to a center, Trey Jackson Davis, which they decided very late last season. It's just a must. He wants it. Draymond prefers to play with the center next to protecting the rim so he can roam. And they're prioritizing defense over offense. I think they're going to have offensive issues at various points of the season, but they've just decided. And you saw it tonight.

Remember they go down 14, three. Yep. They just kind of drag their way back into it because Boston went scoreless for five minutes, five minutes. And it's like, it's not like they were just, Oh wow. They shot back into it. Cause Steph, you know, got nuclear. It's just like, they just kept getting stopped. So that is what they want their identity to be.

Right, yeah. Cam Spencer, as the broadcast said. They mistakenly called him Cam Spencer. Yeah.

I thought that was the middle of the second quarter.

Okay.

And you guys might be talking to Jared Weiss about this, so we don't need to get too deep into it. But that's probably among the biggest surprises right now. Yeah, we didn't go super big picture.

I do not want to sound like a grouch. And honestly, I shouldn't because this is the first time I've been home since before game seven of the Houston series. So, wow. Oh, wow. And by the way, I mean, like nobody cares about me, but this old Warriors team is doing the same thing I'm doing. Like that's what probably matters here. Yeah.

And it is a hot topic around the league. And, you know, as, as,

these eight teams that are still existing in the playoffs are like in the moment in the x's and o's you guys know i mean the lotteries next week the i'm talking to warriors uh front office people going to the combine minnesota to chicago like it is kind of getting to that part of the year where bigger picture stuff is like decisions are about to be made and there's a lot of conversation about what the celtics from a payroll standpoint are going to have to do and who that mean they

crazy because like you know you gotta decide what you think about this Celtics series I you know what I'll take the backside of the snake draft okay Andrew I'm gonna force y'all into a into a tough decision up top actually I feel like I know what you going up top I feel like he's staying local up top

Yeah, I really like them in the series still.

I do think I was really curious how they were going to come out in game two because that was the first bit of like adversity and even especially like even aim towards like decision making process and like all the things that the Thunder hold like pretty dear right now, which is just like, you know, the discipline nature of like we follow up, you know, we follow up three. We follow up three.

It's like, oh, well, you screwed up that game. Yeah. And Chet Holmgren had to, you know, we know Chet like he's really hard on himself. I was wondering how he'd come out. He was impressive. They were impressive. I think the West is breaking right for them because I like them in a Minnesota matchup as we'll probably get to as we decide what other title contenders here like this.

Steph Curry hamstring injury. just probably derailed the warrior season uh that's that's likely how we're gonna retell it like i think if steph curry was healthy one of us would pick the warriors pretty early here uh but i probably won't pick them at all because of it because i just don't think they can survive it so i think they got a path to the finals um

I still will see on like Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren being like a true number two, but I'm not sure you're going to need it. Defense is still great. It is. It would seem to be the obvious number one pick only because the Celtics are fading. Yeah. Yeah.

I was hoping they were going to fall to me in the three, four spot. It would have been, it was going to be great value in the three, four. And I thought you were going to be scared off. I thought you were going to be scared off. No. Um, you know, that was, I don't know what to do here. Really. Um, if I just process of elimination, I just said it. I think Steph Curry derails the warriors.

I think Denver is going to lose to the thunder. So I'm taking those two off the board. You know, like I might have to take Minnesota by default because it's like, they seem likely to advance, but like, do I think Minnesota is going to win the title? No. And then you look at the East, like, you know what? I mean, give me Cleveland. I wanted these two.

It sounds absurd, but they're at least getting the guys back. Like there's at least a path of like, Oh, well, yeah, they were missing a lot of their best players. Now they look good again. You could hedge and take Indy. Yeah, Indy. It would be, but then it's like, okay, Andrew Celtics ride into the next round and sweep. You know, I don't know. Maybe I should just take the next.

probably number one enough positives and number two just the reality of their ownership situation which is good in so many ways right he's like trying to pack ball arena in their elimination game remember with all those Clippers fans but he's just like he doesn't seem like he's gonna hit a rebuild button he wants you know a lively wall in year two of the Clippers run and like you know Kawhi I know it's

No, give me Minnesota. It's absurd, but it's like, you know, at this point, I think there of those of this group, maybe they have the easiest path to the conference finals. I don't like that pick, by the way.

this feels like the perfect forum to let y'all know that for, I must give him credit. Buddy healed since prior to the playoff starting has been adamant that the Pacers are going to win the East. And I've been like, no, they're not.

They're going to win the East.

He got some other things to figure out right now, but right now,

And so it feels weird leaving off Denver, but leaving off Jokic and Steph Curry, although obviously not actually Steph Curry, but it does feel weird.

Man, I forgot this is going Saturday, so I'm going to look brutal when my number one pick is down 3-0. I told you to hedge. I told you to take Indy. It's all right.

It has been an interesting playoff.

Maybe a little bit of fool's gold. It didn't even look like it faded within the first-round series, but he at least showed that there is a gear that he can get to very occasionally. James Harden. Have they announced All-NBA yet? I don't think they have. He was a third-team candidate. Zubach is a third-team candidate. Norm Powell, before Kawhi came back, was a fringe All-Star.

Ty Lue is the type of coach who's not going to want to hit full eject rebuilds. So honestly, if you lose your competitiveness, you're probably losing Ty Lue, right? So no, to answer your question. To me, it's like, do I think they're going to win a title next year? Probably not. But it's almost a better version. Like the King situation, it's like, man, what are y'all really going for?

But the owner's kind of obsessed about winning now. To me, the Clippers are like a brighter, more positive version of that. It was like, you guys... aren't probably going to push it to a title. But I get that, like, you just want to fill into a dome and have fun playoff games and have Steve Ballmer over there, like, probably delusionally believing that they can maybe make a run.

More committed than they are to Jalen Green. He was more impressive in that series, truthfully.

I do think the defense, like, it is an issue, but Emei Udoka is a really sharp defensive coach, and they've built an infrastructure around Sengun, and it was, like, honestly, the middle portion of that series, like, it was this, like, hide-and-seek on Alper and Sengun where the Warriors kept changing their starting lineup because Udoka started them on Moses Moody, so they yanked Moody out.

They put Buddy Heald in because they were, like, You know, he can't guard the movement shooter. Then they put him on Pajemski. And then at one point, Steve Kerr put Gary Payton in for Pajemski because he wanted to get Sangoon in screening action. So, like, he is still a target defensively, but he's tough. He tries. He's not, you know, it is not an Ennis Cantor type situation, right?

He's just not like a sieve defensively. But he also doesn't rim protect. But again, they build a roster that...

it like that was a hellacious defense in the playoffs and like there wasn't a point in that series i was like oh you need more less sangoon um they they survived with double bigs they did zone the warriors were scoring less than a point per possession on uh you know against that double big zone it feels like we're in a little bit of a transformational age defensively right now with the playoffs and the physicality being allowed and the double bigs that are surviving so i

Unless Sangoon is the swing piece to get a Giannis or to get Devin Book or whatever theoretical superstar we're talking about, I'd keep him. I'd build around him. I'd just build smartly around him, which I think they kind of have. And then on the offensive end, you mentioned it. Warriors came out of that very impressed. Draymond Green was impressed with Sangoon.

He's pretty honest, as you can see, with some of his thoughts on people. He had some thoughts on Dylan Brooks post-series. So if he...

thought sangoon was just some easy mark uh he would have said it and he was impressed by him and i i just think sangoon ran into what has been a top three defense in the nba for two months and like draymond green playing at his highest level like that's why he was inefficient i mean the games in that series were like 95 85 101 89 like this it was a it was a mud wrestling match and i think that's what led to his inefficiency

I mean, they tried a lot of ingredients. In NBA record, they were very proud postgame. In NBA record, 14 players touched the floor in the first half of a playoff game because Braxton Key came in for a defensive possession.

Jimmy Butler, probably. And I think...

jimmy butler who is still feeling the impact of that hard fall in houston but getting better from it but you know he's he's running off fumes a little bit too because of this condensed schedule they've had and just his age and all that i think he doesn't necessarily have you know five straight 45 minute you know playoff jimmy type bullets in his chamber and they told the team at shoot around that they were going to play 13 guys and just try to find answers but you know

Steve Kerr's way of not chasing the game as he likes to term it and they told Jimmy Butler they were going to play him like you know 34 minutes so to me that gets Jimmy Butler in a mindset of this isn't the one to go after and I think you saw that he took 13 shots in 34 minutes you know he's out there running pick and rolls with Trace Jackson Davis and then Guy Santos is in and then they're trying to feature Kaminga and they're telling Kaminga they're trying to wake Jonathan Kaminga up and we don't need to get too deep into that storyline but like I do think the fact that now that Steph's out

You can feature Jonathan Kamini and tell him, hey, go take the shots we've been telling you not to take. It did seem to kind of invigorate him a little bit. He made eight straight shots. But to your point, back to your original question, how do they extend this series? They need to win one more. It was huge for them that they actually got that win that Steph was hurt in game one. I'm kidding.

Because now they really just need to get one to get it to six. And I think six is the realistic target for Steph. I just think Jimmy Butler is going to have to go like 46 minutes, shoot a bunch. Draymond Green, ferocious defensive effort. Buddy Heald, you know, kind of goes prime clay again as he's done like what, three out of the last five games.

And the defense, you know, and they've said that in the aftermath. They're like, we can win with defense. They've been the top defense in the league for, you know, large stretches lately.

I believe it led first take today. I know. I saw it in sports again. Yeah. I mean, they just don't want to get suspended. And he's got five technicals and seven is the one game suspension. And, you know, look, if he gets suspended for... what if they get it to a game six with Steph, but in game five, he gets the seven suspension and then he's not there. Like there is, that is looming.

And also by the way, what if they get through this series? Like these, the, you don't reset the technical clock and he's only two flagrant points away. So to me, that's the concern for them. It's, it's been an odd playoffs. Cause I know he, obviously he went after the refs post call last night. Um, but generally he's been good with the officials. No,

very few of his points and technicals in these playoffs are like arguing with Tony brothers, arguing with Zach Sarba. It's almost all these like post whistle flails that he, you know, Steve Kerr called it a habit. And it is, it's a habit. I don't like, I don't think last night he's going out there. Like I'm going to get a cheap shot on Nas Reed. Can't wait to find a moment to do that.

He is just doing his flailing thing that he's trying to sell calls. He's in this stage of his career. He's absurdly undersized for what he does. I mean, you guys have stood next to him before, right? I mean, 6'5", stretching towards 6'6", 35 now, does not have the pop or the athleticism he used to, yet is being tasked with being a defensive interior stopper player.

you know, plugging holes, battling Sangoon, battling Gobert, battling Julius Randle, and he just gets himself so wound up for these clashes, and it just leads to a lot of the, you know, this stuff, the flailing, the this, the yelling at the referees. He is... you know, generally a delightful human off the court.

great so good great I didn't just get off an airplane so I think I'm doing a little bit better than you are right now yeah it's been it's been some travel that's what happens when you take your first round series to seven games and you're the road team and then you're the road team to start the next series And you play in a Western Conference that is geographically wild. Dude.

And I think sometimes like, you know, I understand that he made the storyline today with what he said in the postgame locker. And part of that was a Minnesota fan who said some stuff he shouldn't have and got ejected. Right. And I do, I can, I can sympathize a little with him that like who the world thinks he is, is not who he like is off the court.

But who he has made himself to be on the court, like obviously like it comes with his repercussions. Like I don't think the league is not rescinding these technical fouls. They're like, look, you got Nas Reed with an elbow. You got Fred Van Vliet with a forearm. And it's going to accumulate to a point where it might cost his team.

But also as they will continue to say, they cannot tell Draymond Green, tone it down. Because if Draymond Green tones it down, he's not good. Yeah. He doesn't help them and they lose. So it's a really tough situation. Yeah. Yeah.

By the way to, you know, to his defense, I'm not on, on the antics or the fouls or the technicals of this four titles. Obviously people can say cost them the 2016 title, whatever, and has aged way better than I ever predicted. I, I, he was third and defensive player of the year this year.

And again, like maybe people think he shouldn't have been, he was all defensive team member at, you know, in year 14 as a six foot five center. Yeah. Like he's still good. He's still really good. And this is how he's good. It's just comes with its side effects. It's it's they want him to get as close to the fence of the electrocution fence without getting electrocuted.

But he gets electrocuted a lot.

Yeah. Anthony Edwards acts like it's like a career changing moment when he they went down to Atlanta. You guys remember 2020 draft, obviously the COVID draft where it was like, you know, if you can probably think about the situation, it's in Atlanta gym where you have to be spaced out. You're only allowed to have very select members of the organization.

There was Joe Lacob, Bob Myers and Steve Curry in masks, I can imagine. Right.

watching anthony edwards and his trainer workout right you're not bringing your guys and you're not bringing your workouts your assistant coaches it's just anthony edwards and his trainer while like from afar steve kerr and and their you know brain trust watches uh and anthony edwards the way steve kerr tells it he's like oh okay this is a long warm-up like he's just you know kind of getting the blood flowing like when is this workout going to start and after 15 minutes it was like we're

rap that was the workout and Steve Kerr went to him and like kind of was like you need to go harder you need to be you know get better at this stuff they went to a dinner where apparently Anthony Edwards retells it that he was just explaining to him how hard you guys have seen Kevin Durant workout in person like that it's just game speed you know one dribble pull-up game speed one dribble pull-up but Steph Curry it's obviously very similar Clay Thompson if you ever seen him go through a shooting routine

With the fact that I'm basically in Chicago, Detroit area, but it's West playoffs. 830 Tips, too, as you guys know well, they're in Oklahoma City. Yeah.

Steve Kerr has that experience, obviously, and brings that to Anthony Edwards and doesn't really think anything of it. Right. He's just sharing a story with a draft prospect. But Anthony Edwards says that is like basically jolted his workouts to life and helped him become who he had to become for the Warriors.

I can imagine they won't tell it this directly, but kind of turn them off the Anthony Edwards, you know, trail a little bit because you guys remember pre-draft like that was the questions like the drive member. did he have some quote that got picked up about like how he wanted to play football? Like that was his real love. Yeah. Basketball wasn't even his best sport or something like that. Yeah.

Yeah. That was kind of like the concern about him editing the draft. There was like, I remember cause it was Minnesota maybe taking him one and did, there was like some Andrew Wiggins, like, you know, is it that type of situation? Yeah.

Um, so again, I'm not, the Warriors are not saying that workout is the reason we didn't, you know, try to get aggressive and get up and get Anthony Edwards, which I believe they could have done. Um, And they love James Wiseman. They thought it was the right fit at the right time. And I know that's been pinned on Joe Lacob. And do not get me wrong. Joe Lacob was very much about that draft pick.

And as you know, in the aftermath, called him a generational center prospect. But that was Steve Kerr like to pick. Bob Myers like to pick. The players like to pick. They like the James Wiseman selection. And obviously it did not work out.

I mean, probably like this 2-0 Knicks lead maybe feels the most out of left field. I mean, even watching the other night, what did the Celtics go up early? It was like, it felt like your classic game two just favorite stomps away. Yeah.

And the fact that the Celtics blew that, and it does feel a little bit like they're feeling maybe that the defending champion impact mentally, but also physically, right? Jalen Brown's been dealing with this knee thing. And what's that? It's a wrist thing with Tatum. Poor Zingas has this like mysterious illness. That's like completely limiting him. Drew Holiday had a hammy, like,

If they won this series and won the title, I would not be surprised. But also, five days from now, we could just be talking about a dead tired defending champion that lost, number one. And number two, we know the bigger long-term questions about them and the money and the new ownership group. That could lead to some real changes.

Yeah, final score 143-133. I do feel like this game overcorrected for all of the defense that you saw in Houston with the Warriors, what you saw at NBA Cup weekend even. But now I'm looking at this team, speaking of overcorrecting, and I'm looking at the way that Andrew Wiggins played. And I'm looking at the way that Jonathan Kaminga played, who both I think were really... Phenomenal tonight.

And now you've got this Dennis Schroeder trait that's come in. And now you're looking at what are the Warriors going to do in terms of incorporating Dennis Schroeder into this mix? From what you've been hearing, even just the fact that he was people expected him to be with the team already today, but I believe he's coming in on Monday.

What are you hearing about the way he's going to be incorporated into the Warriors mix and starting lineup?

Yeah. And he needs, I think, the 30 minutes to be able to show up in the way that he has in Brooklyn, putting up serious numbers and also being a good defender. The interesting part about this is that, yes, you add Dennis Schroeder into the mix, put him in that two-guard position, and that slots really nicely.

But it still doesn't necessarily answer the lineup, just turnstile, as Dave mentioned, but the turnstile of the lineups with the Warriors, particularly when it comes to wanting to play small ball or wanting to play big. even tonight with Kavon Looney at the center position or going up against the Mavs, Kavon Looney starts at center. Drayvon comes off the bench. Drayvon becomes a splash brother.

Like five of nine, I think it was from three. Like, I mean, it was absolutely crazy. The shots that he was putting up Now you still have to wonder, is he going to continue to come off the bench? Is this going to be a opponent dependent? Like even with a shooter in the two spot, great. But that center spot is still up for grabs.

And that's one thing about this front office that's been very apparent is that everything that they've done has been so tactical and calculated. Like they're not making, you know, impulse moves. They're making a move and then evaluating. They're making a move, then evaluating. Or they're not making a move and evaluating.

You saw Draymond Green say that over the summer, coming back from the offseason, saying how important it was in the free agency during the summer that the Warriors didn't just make a move that could impact them five years from now, 10 years from now.

And so I definitely, it's been interesting to watch Mike Dunleavy come into this role for the Warriors front office and just be incredibly measured in the moves that he's making.

I don't know, grindball-y might be the way to word it.

Das ist wirklich... Holmgren 24, Hartenstein... Ja, sie haben wirklich klein gespielt durch das Spiel. Sie hatten eine Linie, wo es im Grunde genommen kein Chat gab, kein Hartenstein. Und dann war es nur Caruso, J-Dub. Weißt du, wie...

They're the first team, I believe, ever to have a turnover ratio the way that they did and still win a game. Yeah.

Also, das war eines der absurdesten Spiele, die ich jemals live gesehen habe. Immer. Immer. Ich denke nur daran, wie wir... Für die Mehrheit dieses Spiels sagten wir, was für ein OKC-Masterclass. Das ist genau das, was sie dazu gebracht haben. Die Turnovers. Ich meine, sie haben Indiana in... Was war es? 25 Turnovers in diesem Spiel. 24 Turnovers in diesem Spiel. 24 Turnovers, ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja.

He shot 26% from three.

Wo ist das für dich? In Bezug auf die Gruppen, die du gesehen hast. Weil, ich meine, Peak Warriors waren unglaublich.

Das ist mehr wie ein Kings-Playoff-Rund.

Vielleicht. Ich würde sagen, es ist eine kleine Serie. Aber verändert sich deine Ergänzung, jetzt, dass Indy... Ich hätte gesagt, Thunder in fünf, früher als heute.

It's a great basketball game, by the way.

The Indiana Pacers are blessed by the basketball gods. That's the only thing I would say. All right. I'm leaving with that. That's a bonus for Halliburton trade.

Weil die Schottmachung von der Seite der Pacers in der zweiten Halbzeit war großartig. Es ist wie, okay, wir können nicht fahren, wir können nicht umdrehen um dieses Team. Wir werden nicht einen Art von Verlust gegen sie verursachen, aber wir werden die Lichter schießen.

Das ist eine Teil der OKC, die nicht kapitalisiert werden können, weil sie einfach nicht gut den Ball schießen. Aber das ist auch eine andere Sache, die ich Indiana für kreditiere. Weil ich denke, außerhalb der Schau-Making von drei, die OKC hat einen guten Job gemacht. Sie haben 37 Prozent von drei geschossen. Sie haben das, was sie können. Sie haben nicht gut drinnen geschossen.

Sie haben 40 Prozent in der Schau, 40 Prozent auf zwei. Und für ein Team, das von SGA geführt wird, einer der besten Mittellinien-Score in der Liga, für sie zu sein, so schlecht sie waren, auf zwei-Punkte-Schotten, Ja, genau. Game one versus Denver. Game one. Exactly how it played out, where we said, look, how is Indiana only down six? How is Indiana only down nine? How are they only down 12?

And they kept chipping away. And this is just a testament to the type of team the Pacers are and also the competition that the Pacers are for the Thunderdome.

Again, I think in that fourth quarter, they really shaded him on drives and forced everybody else to be the shot maker for them. And look, this is... We saw it in Minnesota, where Chet and J-Dub rose to the occasion, right? I thought those two could be much better. J-Dub was 6 of 19, Chet only 2 of 9. The way that... Chet wasn't really aggressive in this game whatsoever.

I thought he was pretty quiet for the most part. And J-Dub had a few looks, but didn't knock them down in the fourth. And like... du brauchst sie, um in diesen Momenten aufzuheben.

Ja, besonders in der vierten Quartal, hatte er zwei zeitgemäße Blocken oder Konzerte am Rimm, wo OKC ihre Führung zu 15 oder 16 erweitert hätte. Und es endete so, dass Turner einen Stopp bekommt, Indiana rauskommt und rennt. Und ich denke, das war auf der einen Seite, wo sie tatsächlich den Neesmith 3 bekommen haben. Und schau, Turner endete auch mit einigen großen Rebounds in diesem Spiel.

Und ich denke, das ist einer der Dinge, über die wir immer gesprochen haben mit Miles Turner. Es ist wie, hey, kann er der Kerl sein, der sie mit Rebounds auslösen wird? Er war groß. Ich meine, schau, Aaron Neesmith, zwölf Rebounds in diesem Spiel. Miles Turner, zehn. Halliburton endete mit zehn.

I do wonder, obviously, one of the major talking points before the game was, OKC went small. They started Casey Wallace out the gate. Ich frage mich, ob das etwas mit dem, was Indiana gerne macht, zu tun hat, nämlich klein zu spielen. Und klar, OKC kann klein spielen mit den Besten von ihnen. Sie sind so gut.

Wir haben über das Ad Nauseam gesprochen in den Previews von, okay, cool, du kannst Caruso auf der Vier, J-Dub auf der Fünf gehen. Und sie haben das in diesem Spiel getan.

Wir wollen in diese kleine Ball-Line-Up kommen. Ja.

That's also a huge point to talk about with Andrew Nembhard. Because in the fourth quarter, yes, they were getting Halley off the ball because Indiana was switching any type of action, or the OKC was switching any type of action that Halley was trying to do with pick-and-roll coverages or whatever on the ball. But off the ball, Halley was moving... Aber es ging darum, ihn aus dem Catch zu holen.

Und wir sahen das in der Game Winner, wo sie ihn aus dem Movement holten und ihm ein bisschen eine Öffnung gegeben haben, um den Mittellinie-Schuss zu schießen. Auch Nemhardt, was für ein Schussmacher. Wahnsinn. Der große Schuss, um es in drei Minuten zu schneiden, was war es, zwei Minuten in der Spielzeit,

Über Shea, er fühlt sich überdribbelnd an diesem Punkt und es ist so, das könnte das Spiel hier sein. Und es war einfach so ein entscheidender Bucket, weil das wirklich das Leben zu Indiana's Comeback gab.

Es war, du weißt, es fühlte sich an wie die Neesmith 3, wo in Game 1 gegen New York, wo du sagst, okay, das zweite ist interessant, das dritte ist cool, das vierte ist schön, aber das fünfte, wo er es schießt und du sagst, okay, das, das Ding passiert gerade. Das Nemhardt 3 fühlte sich genau so an. Indiana just doesn't die.

Yeah, they just, like, I have a stat from Kyrthika, who is like the classic. This is the unofficial NBA Daily stats and info. Absolutely. Okay, so Indiana has come back from down 15 five times. The most comebacks in a single postseason in the play-by-play era. That's just... Es ist unerhört.

Sie glauben, dass sie in jedem Spiel sind.

Ich glaube, das zeigt zu viel von deiner Hand, wenn du ein bisschen überrascht wirst, wenn du zurück in den Double Big kommst. Weil jetzt fühlt sich Indiana wahrscheinlich besser an. Sie wollen, dass du zurück in die kleine Ballleitung gehst.

Es ist ein bisschen seltsam, weil ich denke, dass die zweite Halbzeit mehr auf die Art und Weise, wie die Pacers spielen wollen, beobachtet wurde, weil sie nicht so viel über den Ball gewechselt haben. Sie fühlten sich in der ersten Halbzeit ein bisschen schockiert, in Bezug auf die Atmosphäre und den Publikum. Und übrigens, das war einer der besten Publikum, den ich je gesehen habe. Ja, viel Spaß.

Und die Art und Weise, wie Indiana das Publikum mit dem Halley-Shot gedrängt hat, hat wirklich das, was sie tun könnten, in Bezug auf das Offense, das OKC bekommen könnte. Ich denke, eine der Dinge, die ich mit OKC vorhersage, ist, dass sie in einem großen Weg gegen Denver zurückpunten. 1x40 plus. Sie hatten ein 40 plus Punkt Spiel in Minnesota. Ja. Can they come back and defiantly answer?

We've seen that they've been able to do that for the most part, but can they do it again? That's a good question.

Yeah, I would, you know, I'd credit Mike Dunleavy for seeing it was needed because honestly, like throughout the months long process, whatever you want to call the Jimmy Butler thing, there was a lot of skepticism, locker room, coaching staff wise of like, sure, you sure you want to do that? And I would say the Warriors. Again, coaches and players have been kind of protective of this core.

And I think sometimes the outside perception is it's the front office. They did do the two timeline plan. They deserve some criticism for executing that poorly, at least the lottery picks. But I think the last couple of years, they've been a little bit more itching to kind of try to shake this thing up. even at last deadline.

And I just think the way that the, that the warriors were playing the veterans at the time were like, ah, you know, don't do anything rash. And I think there was a little bit of that feeling early this season, you know, don't do anything too crazy. And I think it just got to the point as the deadline came closer, it was like, even if a Jimmy Butler acquisition blows up, what are you blowing up?

You're blowing up nothing that is going well. And so they, you know, especially for the price tag, And, you know, all they, they sacrifice Wiggins, which, you know, I mean, good player, but clearly if you're just trading out Butler for Wiggins, it's a huge upgrade that, you know, Mike Dunleavy knew that he played with Butler in Chicago.

And then the 2025 protective first, they just didn't really love this draft from, from like 11 on. So they're like, if we're giving up 11th or beyond in this draft, you know, how big of an asset is that really?

I think there's people within his front office that were, you know, kind of on his side on, on Butler. And again, we could talk like, you know, the numbers people, some of the, you know, I guess lower level, like assistant GMs. And, you know, I think Joe Lacob's grander vision was the swing bigger. And you mentioned the Durant, we can get into that, but like, Joe certainly wasn't a no on Butler.

It was like, you know, big game hunting. Now I think perception wise, Kevin Durant would have been the bigger splash. Like, Oh, you know, I think this like, Oh my gosh, they got them back. They're about to shake up the league. But you know, like they were made aware later in the process. Then I thought they liked that, that Kevin wasn't interested.

And then once, once Butler was there, I think he had a consensus front office wise. And then as we filter it down, I would say Steve was a little bit more separated from the process. I think purposely, I think especially the way he like cares for the guys in his locker room.

And, you know, you, he almost was crying at the podium talking about Andrew Wiggins and what Andrew Wiggins meant, you know, personally and, and, and to the 2022 title. So I think he was kind of separated to like, I don't think he gave the green light or didn't give the green

night I think he was just letting it happen and then I would almost say the same about Steph he was you know he was involved in the process of Dunleavy was keeping him up to date but I think Steph purposely just because of the teammate he wants to be doesn't want to be the one you know pulling the ultimate trigger and pulling the levers he doesn't want to be seen by that it's almost like you know if you're innocent to to what went down then then nobody can blame you for you know pulling the trigger

it feels i can't believe how good it's already been so go any way you want to because i i went in a million different directions on that yeah look he as far as steph struggles like he often has like a month dip at least and it was like at that normal time of the year right he kind of like you know uh you know spent a lot of his energy early in the season got to 12 and 3 he was like adamant coming into the preseason like hot start hot start right need the the vibes good and i think maybe he

you know, off a little bit and, and then they, they hit the dip and sometimes it's hard to regenerate that. Some, you know, late game, you know, I guess misfortune or, or just, you know, some of the droughts they had, the knee tendonitis that he was dealing with was a thing, you know, Draymond Green suddenly going through a calf thing. They're older in their career.

The, the, the marathon wears on them more, which, which is something they learned as far as, you know, what's changed. Look, Jimmy Butler, I think they're like first in the league and made free throws. And it's a six game sample, but like they've, find the last six game sample. They were anywhere near the top, like five in the league.

And Frito said there were bottom four in attempts, you know, from the line since he got here. So clearly he's doing that better. He's a low turnover guy, which like it's Steve Kerr's got like the heart eye emojis about like the way, like Jimmy Butler had a quote the other day about how he just wants shots on goal. And like Steve Kerr was talking about how great a quote that was.

And it's just, I mean, it's what they wanted Chris Paul to be. Right. I don't know if you remember when they brought him in, like that was, you know, Steve Kerr's idea that he could bring this, you know, he used to call Andre Iguodala a chaperone on the court. And it was just the guy. I don't know. Did you watch any of the Iguodala jersey retirement the other day? I did not.

Oh, he was just talking about the genius of Iguodala and the dynasty was the craziness to Steph and clay and the shot selection. And just like the ferocity of Draymond, they always just needed an adult to come in at frantic times of the game where Steph was in clay. We're getting too wild with the shots.

Maybe Draymond's yelling at the refs and just slow everything down and, and just control the game. And, and like, I believe they think Butler is that kind of a supercharged version of that with, with more of a scoring mentality. So he just does a lot of stuff that they didn't do. They've called them each other, Stefan and Jimmy opposites, opposites attract kind of thing.

And then the other thing you mentioned it, like, I don't know that especially early in the process, they wanted to give him any type of extension, but I think the front office, it would seem now smartly just bought that final year, gave him that final season really for now. Cause he has come in with such a motivated, you know, happy to be here mindset.

And if you didn't know anything about Jimmy Butler's past, you'd be like, man, this is why I like best teammates in the league and, and, and best leaders, you know, just as far as like, if you just been around him the last two weeks, who knows how long that's going to last. But I think they bought that with the extension.

I think that they're dangerous. I believe I've been saying it for about a week now. I think they're the favorites for the sixth seed if you look at what's going on around them. The Clippers now with Norman Fowles and Kawhi just missed some games. They're only one back of the Clippers. Their schedule, the Warriors' schedule is really easy. I'm looking at this road trip I'm about to cover coming up.

First of all, they end the homestand tonight against the Hornets. Then it's at Orlando, at Charlotte. They have a Brooklyn game. They have a Sixers game on this road trip. They come back home. I think there's some Portland games mixed in there. I there's just a lot of likely wins coming up and that has nothing to do with their ceiling.

But if you just really look at how the teams around them are playing and their schedule, to me, I think it's, it's as long as they stay healthy, I think they're very likely to get into the playoff mix without having to get into the plan, which I think is huge for them to get that week off to prep for a series, uh, because they're going to have to win these series where they're going to be on the road.

And, uh, not favored by just like scheming up sharply and, and figuring out how a way to small ball these teams to death. Because right now, Jimmy Butler's the tallest guy in the starting lineup, which he was laughing about the other day, six foot seven. They're going to have some trouble. I think scoring and particularly scoring at the rim against good defenses.

I don't like them to like go on some deep run into the late May or June. But I do think if you're if they get the six, you know, we can name the type of teams that might be sitting there at three. Like, sure, I'm giving them, you know, probably a 50 50 shot against most of those teams.

No. I wouldn't pick anyone against Oklahoma City. We can get to that, but no. We're going to get to it, right?

No, that would be probably the team I think they should want least at three if they get six. I would agree. What about Memphis? Yeah, maybe that's because I've just seen them like kind of, you know, toy with Memphis over the years. The 2022 playoffs come to mind. They went in, they stole game one.

It would be kind of a fierce series with a lot of like the Taylor Jenkins, Zach Eadie, Draymond stuff. And it would be fun. I think we'd all enjoy it. But I have seen Memphis's depth not play as well in a playoff series against the Warriors.

No, because I think if the Lakers are the three seed, that tells you the type of final month that they had, right? Oh, Luka's probably in rhythm and they're motivated and they're playing well. And they got up to the three and it's starting in LA. But man, I mean, how about that first round series? You know, cause that would also mean the Warriors had a pretty good final month being at six.

Like they would be, you know, it would just be star driven that the LHA center back to backs. And it would like... I would take the Lakers, though, just because of the two stars. But I will say this. I've had a few people say, hey, it feels like the Warriors are one player away. Jonathan Kaminga is about a week away from returning. I don't know how that integration is going to go.

It could be a little clunky, but that is their ceiling. Their ceiling is meshing Kaminga into this really well, and then they might be a little bit scarier to people.

Oh, man. Yeah, probably. Although they have not been frustrated with his final month, his first month of the year was a lot more frustrating than Kaminga's. I think I would say Kaminga gets more frustrated with them than the other way around. But Pajemski, as you know, and again, blame the Warriors, blame the Warriors organization.

And Joe Lake of going on summer league broadcast saying future all-star. And then, you know, basically like it wasn't at like, they didn't protect them in the Lori marketing talks quite as much as like, you know, the reporting and like the, the legend of these Lori marketing talks would say it wasn't like it was Pajemski or no deal. And they were at the one yard line and the Warriors pulled back.

It just never got close, but they are, He valued him to an extreme level this summer and still valued him to an extreme level to the point he came into camp. He was talking about taking eight to 10 threes a game. I'm going to replace Klay Thompson shooting. Chris Paul's gone. I'm going to do more playmaking. Like he thought it was like year two of like a Jalen Brunson type trajectory here.

And he got humbled early in the season. Uh, and there was like bad moments. I remember a game in, in Denver. He threw it a really bad alley. You put a two on one that got picked off. I was there for that. Okay.

Remember Steve was yelling at him on the sideline that game. And honestly, even worse. Do you remember the, you might not even seen it, but Steve comes to the press conference and he's like, we got guys out here trying to get sports center, top 10 plays. And he was like, he really went off on, but Jemski and then started naming him and saying, I hope he's listening to this.

And then Pajemski, who I will say, by the way, broke his nose in the last game of preseason, got sick early in the season. It was just a really weird first month for him. But he missed about 12 games with an ab injury. And he almost like got away. He was out of the public consciousness. Nobody was even talking about him for a while. I think it mentally reset him.

You look at his numbers since then. He's the rookie version of himself. Plus. And I mean,

he's now leads the league a team in plus minus again he's plus 109 the last six games and it's not just those type of numbers it's like he has 17 and 13 the other day he's shooting the three well and he's really fitting with Butler and yeah right now he's really been their third fourth best player over the last month at least

Yeah. So, I mean, you talked to, I remember talking to Steph after the Butler trade when he was just absorbing like, oh, wow, we actually did it. And, you know, I kind of asked him about like the Kevin aspect of it all. And he was like, he had, so the trade deadline is obviously on a Thursday.

If I have the timing right, he had talked to him basically like the Saturday-ish range before, somewhere around there. And he was like, yeah, Kevin doesn't want to go here. I know this. Yeah. But the front office, as it has been told to me, kind of underestimated that aspect. And within talks, we're kind of being signaled from Phoenix aside that like, no, it's fine.

And then by the end, it was like, okay, let's make sure here. And then they were... given a much like colder view of it from the Durant side of like, Oh no, he really doesn't want to be here. And I think they had a lot of 2019 flashbacks going through their mind of like, as good as that 2019 team was, remember how miserable that it was. And they just didn't want to replay that.

And, and it was clearly Kevin's wishes not to replay that. So they pulled out of it, but you mentioned it from, from what I understand, like deal was almost, I mean, it was basically agreed upon except for that last checkpoint, but,

But, you know, I think I think both front offices should have got that check point out of the way a lot earlier, because then I think if you're a Phoenix, you're looking back now like, you know, you may have ruined a relationship where you could have got that answer a lot earlier.

I would just say from, from my conversations with, with people on, I guess, lower in the West bracket, it is more players that seem to be like they're beatable, you know? And I think it's a complete offensive thing. I don't think any, nobody I've talked to is like, Oh, that defense is fake. You know? Oh, like, you know, they're, they're not going to be,

you know, they're going to be easy to score on. Nobody is saying that to me, it's always been, there's a belief that in the playoff setting, you can scheme up against SGA a little bit. I mean, you kind of laid it out with what Minnesota did last night, but you could just, you take two weeks, you're just scouting them. You're just highly focused.

All your veterans are highly focused and you can just, just focus, you know, you can put all your attention on what's the best defense to bottle up Shea and force Jalen Williams and the rest of the team to score enough. Now look, Oklahoma city could say, you know, that's fine. Maybe we scored 99 in this game, but maybe you score 91 just with the, with the way they're going to play.

And I think the way they can, they can turn you over. It's like, they can get a lot of, you know, fast break transition type stuff. So I don't, subscribe to the theory that they're, they're as beatable as, as others seem to be. But I do understand. I covered that thunder Mavericks second round series last year. Jalen Williams wasn't quite ready.

They've tried to, you know, give him more on ball responsibility, pull up. So, you know, playmaking responsibility this year to try to get him readier for, for, for those types of series. Chet Holmgren, I think, you know, we're going to see how much rust or not he's going to have from this was a bad injury to have, you know, a multi-month absence. So I want to see how ready he is.

But the reality of that second round series last year, they probably should have won it or at least it was close. I mean, it was a very much a toss up series. Josh Giddey's minutes go look at his minus. I mean, that was such a drag on them that whole series. They've clearly obviously wiped that out.

Yeah. Um, I, I want to see the Hartenstein, uh, Holmgren minutes the rest of the season, because I think they want, they believe that like that's their best five man group. And that's the one that they're probably going to win with, uh, the, you know, the two centers out there, you can say Chet's a power forward. Um, but they just haven't had much data or, or experience with it. Um, but you know,

I like what Aaron Wiggins has become. I obviously Caruso's look. I thought Caruso looked good last night. You know, they're deeper. I, again, I'm not among those that are doubting or believing, Hey, they're going to get upset in the second round or whatever. But I, I do understand that that theory is out there.

And again, I just think it's a lot of people that think they can defend that team when it comes down to it in a playoff setting.

Yes, yes, I would. Confidently, too. I don't know. Where are you at on it? I mean, I would have no issues saying I think they're pretty big favorites.

Yeah, I mean, I've had Shea above Jokic for, you know, basically a few months now and I would still have that. Yes, Jokic has definitely closed the gap. But, you know, I know like the Nuggets getting closer in the standings is relevant for sure.

probably going to end the season as the three maybe the two seed but it's like we can't we need to talk about how big a gap between one and two it's going to be how big a gap between one and three whatever i don't know you might have it up right now but it's at least eight nine games eight and a half yeah they're eight games better than nuggets we can't just look at the seating here when we talk about you know i guess you know team success i do think the team success matters uh people if shea does win it anybody that's arguing for yokich is going to make the voter fatigue case which is probably true you know i mean i guess from the human element like

you want to reward the Thunder and Shea for what they've done. But if you're just cold hard looking at the stats, Jokic might have a slightly better case just because of counting numbers. The on-offs I know are very similar. I don't know exactly what they're at. Maybe you have those up. But Shea, I think this really matters within this conversation. Jokic is a fine defender.

I'm not even disparaging him on that end. But Shea is a very rare high usage guard who's like...

a sturdy defensive piece of this best defense in the league and i don't think that should get lost within this like he's he's a really good defender that doesn't get picked on and is not a weakness out there which is very rare for you know his player type yeah um the last time i saw like the the net rating stuff they were like

For sure. I think sometimes people just talk seeding more than like if there's that big a gap.

I mean... Look, if you were to ask me, like, who's a better player, like I would probably say Jokic. So maybe I'm maybe like I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth, but I just like the season the Thunder having. I don't know. I'm like kind of a reward that type of voter maybe. And just like the seriousness with which they've taken the season and and.

And I mentioned it, maybe I'm waiting it too much, but like the cog he is within this defense that we're talking about, like, I just don't think that part of it can be ignored. You hear quotes coming out of Oklahoma City about how important it is to them that their best player defends the way he defends and is willing at times to switch on the guys and like, you know, dig in and bend his knees.

And like, obviously he's part of that turnover machine that they have there. Like, and I'm not trying to say Jokic is not, a better defender than maybe even his reputation suggests. But I just think what Shea does on both ends matters, not just his scoring numbers.

I think DiVincenzo is a swing player for them and getting him back and like, you know, him being like that high volume, you know, good percentage three point shooter. Like I think he adds a dimension that they're missing right now that can help them at every level of the playoffs. I just like his game and like how he fits there. We were really talking about Randall, right?

As far as like, you know, if everybody's healthy, you know, does this, is this the best, you know, It's about Randall. You're right.

Yeah, this is, I mean, it's probably one of the tougher coaching jobs the rest of the season. And Chris Finch deciding on lineups. Yeah, lineups down the stretch. And even the personalities at play here, right? You know, and like, you know, maybe telling Julius Randle, he's a, you know, 20-minute-per-night guy who's mostly second unit. And, you know, okay, benching Gobert.

Although, you know, look, Gobert took it on the French.

team right I mean which is might even mean more to him I would imagine so I think Rudy can probably understand it a little bit but yeah it's gonna in game three of a series that they feel like they need to win like Chris Finch is probably gonna make a choice it's gonna tick off a few people but I think we all know in sports like if you just win the game then it's tougher for guys to complain always good stuff man great catching up with you and we will talk to you probably sometime around the playoffs all right sounds good thanks for having me

I'm fantastic. I started this season, which, as you mentioned, feels about eight seasons ago in Hawaii, a training camp, and it has been a long, winding, strange journey to this point, but I'm good. You?

Yeah, for sure. I think you framed it well. They're more threatening than probably I think either of us would have predicted. But we knew they were going to be... Even the day they made the trade, it was... They didn't give up that many future bullets, but even like current bullets, right?

I mean, you were basically essentially just flipping Andrew Wiggins for Jimmy Butler, which, you know, beyond the theatrics of Miami, I think anybody who's watched both play know how much of an upgrade that is. I think that the way he put everybody else into their proper roles and to be honest, like Pajemski just started playing better at that point.

He was kind of already the momentum was already pushing him forward prior to.

Yeah, well, I mean, that's the thing. He was spiraling in the first two months of the season for various reasons. And I wouldn't blame Andrew Wiggins or Jimmy Butler not being there for that. It was just his own personal circumstance that he had already turned around by the time Jimmy Butler got there. You mentioned the Warriors believing that they are more of a threat.

I think we maybe underrated the just mental wear and tear on Draymond and Steph by the middle of the season when they just knew – I remember a Celtics game. It was the MLK Day game where they came out. Porzingis and Horford are hitting threes. The Celtics were just really hot. And when they checked out of the game, Steph probably checked out with nine minutes to go.

And he just wandered around the court for one minute in this... kind of, you know, almost like depressed spiral of like, why would I even believe there's enough talent? And I remember Steve Kerr said he had a conversation with Steph that day about like, look, you know, we have you who was awesome in the gold medal game on the court. They have, you know, three...

of of our gold medalists over there on that team like it's not necessarily a fair fight and i think at by that point in the season by the trade deadline it was just obvious to draymond and steph like they weren't going into these higher level battles with you know a fair fight and i just think they believe they have that now that's invigorated draymond defensively we've seen he's you know running his own personal defensive player of the year campaign right now and that steph has just gone nuclear since jimmy's arrival and i think a lot of that is just like

They just believe that they can maybe, as you said, take down a Rockets, a Lakers, a Nuggets in the first round. I'm not going to pick them to win the title, but I'm picking them maybe to win a series, which I wouldn't have done two months ago.

That was Sam. Sam was on the Houston side last night. But, yeah, I mean, it was a scene. I mean, it reminded me a little of, like, remember Imei going after Draymond during that Celtics-Warriors finals on the sideline? A little bit, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And I remember at the time that was Imei, you know, even, you know, letting the Celtics know, like, he's trying a tactic. He's trying a Draymond Green tactic right now, which clearly he thought Draymond was trying last night, and I would agree with him, right? I mean, Draymond mentioned it post-game. Like, he's given up, you know, I think he says six inches and 50 pounds of Sangoon.

That might be a little bit of exaggeration, but not really. I mean, like, we know you've stood next to Draymond plenty of times. Like, that is not... It's not even really an NBA power forward size. I mean, he would be considered a small power forward. So... He felt the Warriors, I think, physically getting beat around, and he just decided he wanted to charge up the arena.

We've seen him do that plenty of times. He always edges it close to, as you said, an ejection. They were really upset with the flagrant foul. I don't know what you thought of that last night.

It also hit Sengoon right in the nose. And they'd been in the – you know, it's like the Draymond tax. You were just kind of, you know, doing your dust-up over here with Sengoon. So the refs almost have to look at it with a closer eye. But, yeah, anyway. Yeah, but you mentioned it. I've never – I'm not sure I've ever seen an opposing coach, like, talk to Steph Curry, like, during a game –

beyond just like man you're tough to guard or something like that it was like basically stop complaining uh and you know the Warriors are have been on a crusade lately that Steph just I think they see the playoffs coming they see the physicality the overzealous defenses and and they're trying to almost get the word out like you know he needs to be like he needs some of these off-ball calls when he's getting grappled Butler last night kind of went pretty forceful about it

But that was Ime saying, no, stop whining. And on the way off the court, Steph kind of zinged back at him. So it felt playoff level. And I would say the crowds in Chase, I mentioned the team being kind of deflated by the situation. And the crowds in Chase were really bad in San Francisco the middle part of the season. They've been a lot charged. You can tell they're feeling a playoff run coming.

And that felt like a really good first round type environment last night.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. You know, Draymond will say he's been around title teams and this, you know, feels like that to him. We'll see. But it's also like they're getting the best version of Jimmy Butler.

And I think this is, you know, this needs to be a credit to Mike Dunleavy's calculation and relationships on both sides of this, where there was a lot of fear from the warrior side of people who do not know or, you know, prior to the trade did not know Jimmy Butler. And Mike Dunleavy just telling them like, no, look, we get him here. Give him the max extension.

He'll come here and an engaged, motivated, respected Jimmy Butler feeling like he's being respected financially and believed in. And, you know, we can get in all that or we probably don't need to get into all the dynamics that, you know.

deteriorated the Miami situation but I think Dunleavy knew that version of Jimmy Butler was going to lift everybody's spirit on court ability and and and like that's what saved the season I mean Steve Kerr's been pretty open about that like in a lot of ways Mike Dunleavy kind of saved their season the matchups are going to be very interesting but if I'm the Warriors and I could just get out of the play-in and definitely get out of eighth maybe get to fourth who knows

Yeah, and Wes is so interesting, though, because it's like... I think going into last night, you're like, man, if you get that kind of... You don't want the 7-8, but if you somehow got the Rockets and then you leave last night, you're like, I'm not sure you want that matchup.

I'll tell you the one, and it's, man, it's crazy to say, but they felt really good going into that Thursday night Lakers game. That was the 14th day of a 14-day road trip, a time you would expect them to kind of be woozy heading into that game.

And just talking to people even prior to the game was like they were looking at the chessboard, they were looking at their schemes and how they were going to attack the Lakers, and certainly they targeted Luka at times. And, you know, they're switching defense. And that's you mentioned it. That was a Kaminga game. I think they don't hate that matchup.

And obviously, you know, you make the Luka for 80 trade 100 times out of 100. But in the particular Warriors matchup with Anthony Davis no longer looming in the paint, bothering all the Warriors shots. They just felt a lot freer to attack offensively in that Lakers matchup. And, you know, with not a great group of targets to say, I want that matchup, I want that matchup.

I'm not sure they would, you know, I think they wouldn't mind the Lakers, you know, in a 3-6 type matchup.

You got a summer Olympics take. Are you court of gold? Court and gold take. Did you watch court and gold? Yeah, yeah. I did. Great time, right? Yeah, it was really good. It was informative. I thought some of the locker room scenes from Serbia and Canada and France, that stuff was interesting. Batum yelling at his team.

Yeah.

I'm very aware because Steve Kerr is adamant to this day, you're not allowed in my locker room, which is funny because he's one of the most press-friendly coaches in the league, as you know. But no, you should hit him up about it because he's proud that you don't have.

We should have at least gotten what you were mentioning, like a Steve Kerr kicking the cameras out, like he's so upset. Hey, you're not allowed in here. Like, we didn't even get that, right?

I would love to cover a 9-10 playing game in Sacramento.