The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Mon, 05 May 2025
What up, Beck? Howard joins Zach to break down the Warriors’ Game 7 win last night (1:10). Then, they discuss offseason plans for the Rockets (20:08) and Clippers (34:20), before previewing Round 2 matchups: Warriors vs. Timberwolves (52:26), Nuggets vs. Thunder (1:03:15), and Knicks vs. Celtics (146). They also give a quick reaction to yesterday’s upset by the Pacers (111). Afterward, a double dose of Zach! Zach Cherry joins the show to discuss his NBA fandom, while Zach Lowe professes his love for 'Severance' (1:39:19).The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: How did the Warriors secure their Game 7 victory?
What up, Zach? We've never done this live before. It's, I don't know. I'm a little nervous. There are people watching. We can't edit. We can't just stop and say, no, get rid of that. I sounded like a moron. If I sound like a moron in real time, I'm just going to sound like a moron for all time, apparently.
Hey, listen. You talk into a microphone long enough and often enough, you're going to sound like a moron. It's going to happen. It's sadly the case. Two game sevens over the weekend. Warriors Rockets. Your boy picked Warriors in seven and said the Warriors have done rude things on that floor in elimination games before. And they did it again, just like in 2018, all the missed threes.
2019, Steph has a million points in the second half after having no points in the first half. And six years later, with Buddy Heald in the role of Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and the role of Draymond Green with a technical foul and limbs flailing everywhere and always connecting with sensitive body parts and Steph Curry playing the part of Steph Curry.
And I saw some people online, Howard Beck saying, Ooh, the media really talking up Steph. Oh, big deal. 22 points, 22 points, 10 rebounds, 10 rebounds, big deal. Seven assists, eight of 16, four of 10 rebounds. Every dagger that they needed, he got them. And the Warriors' entire defense was anybody but Steph. We're trapping you on the pick and roll.
We're giving you absolutely no breathing room off the ball. We're switching everything. We're dialed in. How are you going to score? And for a while in the third quarter, the answer was, oh, we may not be able to score. And they would trap him. And the other guys who are not great vertical finishers, who are sometimes not great shooters, were kind of like, oh. I don't want to shoot it.
I don't want to shoot it. Draymond, can you take another end of shot clock three? Cause those are going great. And then Steph decided, you know what? I might have to take matters into my own hands. And he got Jabari Smith jr. On him, bringing the ball up early in the fourth quarter and waved everyone away and said, I got it. Blue biome layup next possession. I'm in Thompson pulls up with the calf.
Steph crosses them over into an ISO three. And the game was kind of never really the same after that. Yeah, I thought he had a sensational game. And the Rockets' offense, all their worst nightmares came true throughout the entire series, minus a couple of Van Vliet hot shooting games and 1-1. one Jalen Green hot shooting game out of seven.
And they are going home and the Warriors are moving on to face the Wolves. Fun game, tense game. Felt like the Rockets were the classic young team that was walking down the old guys and the old guys were getting tired. And then Steph got hot and they made enough plays late in the game.
It's funny. I think I had Warriors in seven as well. Like, much, much respect to the Rockets, who are physical and athletic and feisty and obviously a lot younger than the Warriors and gave them everything they had. And, like, listen, when was the last time you and I saw Steph even just have to work this hard throughout the course of a series just to score?
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Chapter 2: What are the offseason plans for the Rockets?
There's a case. Okay. Less interesting is the future of the Clippers, who, as we turn to the other game, seven got embarrassed on the road in Denver by a thousand. I don't know what the final score ended up being. It was a million points. Lots. Watch the game with my daughter because I was solo with her. We got to watch it live together. She had a lot of questions about a lot of different things.
It was great. Yeah.
And she worried about James Harden's postseason.
She likes James Harden because of the beard. And I had to explain to her, um, the history of James Harden and games like this, uh, which has continued a pace. Um,
You wrote about it very well a couple of years back, and I've cited it many times in the last couple of days. In fact, I had to text it to somebody to note that the large overview of playoff Harden to regular season Harden does not do justice to just how bad he's been at critical times in the postseason, which you documented well.
You can caveat it all the way around. Like, well, you know, he's had some great game ones and game threes that we just don't remember because they end up losing the series. That's true. Game three in 2019 against the Warriors stands out. A 41-point game in a series they end up losing in six. He's had some other, like, great playoff hits.
He had two big shots in game one of this series, which ends up being one of two incredibly regrettable losses for the Clippers. I almost said the Rockets, the Clippers. Like... He was great against Dallas in game four, clutch shot after clutch shot, and then melted down in games five and six.
I'm sorry that going for 40 when you're down 3-0 to the Warriors is cool and potentially clutch if you come back, but you don't. And I'm sorry that game six and game seven are more important than games one and game two. I'm sorry that the fourth quarter is more important than the first quarter. You can tell me every basket, every possession is equally important. They're all very important.
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Chapter 3: How can the Rockets trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo?
Games can be decided in the first quarter and the second quarter. But when they're close and time is finite, every possession does carry a heavier weight. And the statistics are what they are. And since I wrote that article, Howard Beck, that was 2020. 2021, one of Harden's great playoff moments.
Guts it out for the Nets against the Bucs on one leg and plays like the entirety of game six and game seven and plays as well as possible. Awesome moment. 2022, Philly, Miami. The ball never found me. Okay. 2023, Philly, Boston. Three of 11 in game seven, four of 16 in game six. The entire team no-shows game seven. Last season, I went through two of 12 game five, five. I'm sorry that it's true.
And he was, yeah, he had 13 assists. Awesome. Like they were forcing him to pass. Well, he's a great passer. The whole team played with such a malaise in that game that I will say this, like the, the, their future is like, not interesting. They're, they're going to have to decide on hard. And you know, is there, he's got a player option. Do they bring them back?
They do not have a lot of maneuverability with this team, but, We always thought this team was sort of a placeholder, like competitive, fun, Inuit dome until they get their picks back, which they don't control until 2031. Or they get cap space and can lure a free agent the way they did Kawhi. And it turned out for a while to be better than that.
It was an elite team for half the season once Kawhi came back. And a 50-win team that, you know, people are going to shit on them, deservedly so, for the way they played in Game 7. They ended up playing an awesome team in the first round of the playoffs with the best player in the world and lost in Game 7. Not a shameful outcome. And Ty Lue said after the game,
you know, look, I mean, I'd love to have Harden and Kawhi for a full season. Harden did a great job carrying the load without Kawhi, then we got Kawhi back. All these signings on the fringes, they nailed. And I'm like, cool, I'd love you to get to have Harden and Kawhi together for a full season. Like, there's really not much evidence to suggest that that's ever going to happen.
This could end up being the best case scenario for this, what I've called the placeholder Clippers team. Really good season. really fun season should be lauded. However, I think it's actually okay to quote overreact to one game and say this taints the whole thing. This taints my view of Harden.
Again, this taints my view of Kawhi, who was like great early in the series and just okay the rest of the series. I think it's okay when a game is this important and you get outplayed that badly to say, you know what? That colors my view of your entire season and colors my view of
Is this just going to be like what we thought it was, which is a fun competitive placeholder as they likely bring back Harden and wait for Kai flexibility down the line. That was an awful, awful loss. And it does color my perception of the Clippers season. Sorry to be the guy overreacting to one game. It's game seven and you sucked from top to bottom. You suck. Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What is the future of the Clippers after their Game 7 loss?
Randall going at Curry is interesting to me, like Randall, whoever Curry is guarding pick and rolls, because that's a guy who can hurt you on switches. Like to your point about Randall early, he can hurt you on switch.
I just think that matchups, this is going to be a game one where I sort of sit back and soak up the matchups because I think everything is going to flow kind of from how teams attack are going to flow from there.
and to just pull back for a second, that game one that we are so eager to see is tomorrow night. It's like, you know, 30 something hours from now as you and I record this and the Warriors, I imagine either spent the night in Houston, we'll have a brief team meeting and then hop the plane to Minneapolis or might've, maybe they went straight there. I don't know, but yeah,
They just had to play a grueling, physical, emotionally, physically, spiritually taxing seven-game series, and they're an older team. This is the worst-case scenario for the Warriors as a team advancing.
Obviously, worst-case scenario is losing, but if you're going to advance, the last thing you needed, especially when you were up 3-1 and could have closed out and gotten some rest, you're an older team. There's, I'm sure, plenty of data out there about this, but like... The Timberwolves are young and spry and just sitting in wait and have had more time to to rest since the first round.
It's going to be a factor. And these are every other game, every other day schedules. Now, games one through four are all every other day through five. And then if they if they're still going, there's a like three, four day gap between five and six. So there's not a lot of time to recover. Jimmy Butler had that bad hip back, whatever it was, from the hard landing in the Rocket Series.
Steph's still dealing with the hand, the finger, whatever. I just, I do wonder how they will hold up overall, whether this series, all of the other matchups and strategy and everything else aside, how much this just comes down to whether the Warriors, the older core, have enough left against the Young Wolves team.
Rapid fire, a few other things to watch. Minnesota can be turnover prone, and the Warriors have forced a lot of turnovers since acquiring Butler. Got to take care of the ball. Warriors take the second most threes in the NBA. Minnesota's defense allows the seventh fewest. That's a battleground there. How many threes can the Warriors get up?
Jada McDaniels is going to guard Steph quite a bit and has done fairly well against him. That's a really interesting matchup. Nas Reed with smaller defenders on him. Something I'm watching. And just flag it. Just flag this. Because of matchups and injuries and other things, Trace Jackson Davis has a lot of experience playing against the Timberwolves.
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Chapter 5: Why is Greg Popovich considered one of the greatest coaches?
When Murray and Porter have been healthy, they do not lose in short series. So I'm just, I have too much respect for Jokic. I wanted to go five and I'm like, you know what? Six, I'll go six again.
I'm going seven. Thunder and seven. It is maybe too much. And maybe I'm being prisoner of the moment with the way the Nuggets closed out the clips. It's an abundance of respect for Jokic and for the Nuggets and who they are, what they've done. And maybe I have just like a little bit. I don't want to say I have doubts about the Thunder. I picked them to make the finals.
I picked them to win the championship, in fact, all the way back in October. But they still are a team that's had like a couple of playoff series under their belt. And none of them against this team and this superstar. I get it. This all-timer. So Thunder should win the series, yes. I'm saying seven out of respect for Denver and Jokic.
Nick Celtics begins earlier tonight, so it'll be a little bit quicker. Celtics getting healthier, it sounds like, on the Drew Holiday front. The Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum fronts, wrist and knee, respectively. The other way around, actually.
And the Knicks just gutted out a tough one against the Pistons, highlighted by a crazy Jalen Brunson crossover into a three to put them ahead and cap a big, big rally. Just incredible Jalen Brunson stuff. This has obviously been a nightmare matchup for the Knicks. The Celtics won all four games. They scored... 130 points for 100 possessions against the Knicks defense.
Completely gashed the Knicks. And they set the blueprint right away. I mean, they didn't set it. Other people have done it for defending the Knicks, which is they're going to put a wing on Carl Anthony Towns. It'll usually be one of the Jays. And they're going to put... Kristaps Porzingis on Josh Hart and have him be a roamer.
And as we saw with the Pistons, the Knicks have sort of, sometimes they hit it, sometimes they don't, sometimes they find counters, sometimes they don't. It just sort of takes them out of the rhythm and flow that they just want to be in. Um, Drew Holiday has generally guarded Jalen Brunson. That's no fun when Drew Holiday is guarding you.
They obviously have a plethora, to use your word, of guys who can switch on to anybody on the Knicks. And one sort of indication of how committed the Celtics are to putting a wing on Towns and taking away his pick and pop game.
When they go too big against the Knicks, when they put like, let's say, Horford, Cornette, Horford, Przingis, and the Knicks just have Towns, they will sometimes put neither big on Towns, even in that situation. They'll put one on Hart and one on Bridges or Ananobi and just say, hey, deal with this. How about these mind games? We're still not putting a wing on you. And one of the counters...
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Chapter 6: How will the Warriors match up against the Timberwolves in Round 2?
But like, you know, this was an ensemble built around four stars or potential stars. And a really, really important one is missing right now. I don't know if you may have more intel than I do. I don't know what the odds of seeing him back for game two and then what the rest of the series looks like. But it seems like a lot hinges on that now.
Speaking of that, you said jazz, just said the word jazz. We should mention Will Hardy got a contract extension this morning. And you know what? Good on the jazz. This is how you treat a young coach, a rising young coach who pretty much everyone in the league agrees is at least a good coach, potentially a great one.
And you put him through the ringer, no pun intended, of crap teams and bogus injuries to the point that the league finally finds you and rebuild and half tank and then full tank and half tank. Oh, we're going to pull the rug out from under your team halfway through, halfway through again. And this year, we're just not even going to have a rug. The rug is gone.
You're going to be crap from the beginning. We're going to handcuff you in every possible way. This is what you do. You give them years, you give them security, and you give them money. Will Hardy, you earned that money. You're a good coach. Congratulations. Cavs Pacers. I don't know what the hell I was going to say. First of all, I ain't worried.
I'm worried about my Cavs in five prediction, but I ain't worried about the Cavs yet. The one thing I'm going to watch is this, and we saw this with the Bucs too against the Pacers. The Cavs switched a lot yesterday on defense. Now, they've really, to Kenny Atkinson's credit, been a pretty diverse defensive team this year. They've done more switching than you would expect, given their personnel.
They've experimented with zones. They've done a lot of stuff. It's not like they're doing something that's completely out of pocket for them, and so thus you're going to struggle. It's something you have no practice in. They switched on 36 ball screens. That's tied for the third most in any game this year.
Indiana scored 1.3 points per possession and about 1.2 points per possession directly out of those plays. That's a lot. It's too much. The reason they are switching and the reason the Bucks switched, despite the Bucks not having personnel that could switch and stay in front of Tyrese Halliburton,
is that these teams, these defenses have so much respect for Halliburton and such fear of Indiana's offense, putting them in a blender where it's just catch and shoot three, catch and shoot three, catch and shoot three, that they are willing to switch and live with bad matchups, live with Pascal Siakam posting up Sam Merrill or Donovan Mitchell, live with Jared Allen, who started the game on Pascal Siakam and defended him for the most part, which I thought was interesting, live with Jared Allen on Tyrese Halliburton.
And you want to blow by him and get a floater? Fine. Pascal Siakam, you take fadeaway jumpers in the post. Miles Turner, you take fadeaway jumpers in the post. Guess what? Those are twos. They're not threes. And some of those twos are going to be easy. They're going to be wide open layups. They're going to be dunks, whatever. They're not threes.
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Chapter 7: What are the key factors in the Thunder vs. Nuggets matchup?
I don't know exactly what he's doing, but he was sort of like, oh, no, I'm severed. I'm severed. And I think he was kind of doing his impression of the elevator transition, like his eyes, you know, going from innie to outie. So that was pretty cool. And Garrett Temple said hi at that point, too. So, yeah, that that has been wild. It's been very, very, very cool.
So I heard that Kat is a big fan, but I haven't got to meet him yet.
Oh, well that's going to happen. Stiller is like, he's, he's intense during these games.
He is so locked in. Like I actually remember during season one, we were still shooting during the playoffs and we were getting towards the end of the season. So it was like some intense scenes and he would have his phone right next to his director's monitor and he would have the camera feed up on, on the monitor and he would have the Knicks game up on his phone and
and kind of be going back and forth because he's like, he's so, uh, plugged into what's happening with the Knicks. You saw it.
He and, and Chalamet were both in Detroit for at least one. I was like, God damn. They're like, they're really all in on this.
Yeah. It's he, he is, he's, he's like a Superman. And that has made me more of a Knicks fan. Cause it's like, partially I'm just like, I just want them to win. So he has a good day. Um, uh,
It's like my daughter and her swim coach. Anyway, you've mentioned also that you like to when you're in a new city and there's an NBA game, you like to you like to sort of experiment, like, let's check out this arena. Has there been any arena that you're like, man, I like the feel of this place or any game that ended up just randomly like this? This Hornets game was super fun.
Yeah, I was in Toronto for work for for like a month at one point and went to a couple of Raptors games. And that was I loved the vibe there. This year, some friends and I, we went to we went to Vegas to watch the tournament semis, which was which was fun. It was like exciting to be there. I will say, though, it was missing what I love about being in
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