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Hello

0:30

and welcome to

0:33

group chat.

0:42

I am Justin Barrier and joining me, two

0:44

guys who love LA.

0:48

Rob Mahoney, Big Waz, what's up guys? We

0:51

love it. We

0:53

love it for you. Fun fact, Justin,

0:55

I had never in my life heard that song,

0:58

knew of its existence, any of that until

1:01

I moved out here five years

1:03

ago. Really? Not

1:05

at all? No, where would somebody play that in New York? That's not

1:07

a thing. It's not

1:10

like a real song.

1:12

Well, my understanding, and Rob, maybe you can back

1:14

me up here, is that that song was initially

1:16

kind of a diss on LA people and

1:18

somehow was co-opted to be

1:20

the anthem for not only Los Angeles,

1:23

but the Lakers.

1:25

You mean to tell me that the same country

1:27

that like plays born in the USA at every

1:29

like election rally would misunderstand the

1:31

meaning behind a song? That doesn't sound right. I

1:34

know it's crazy to think. Well

1:37

speaking of Angelenos, we

1:39

do have game three Lakers Warriors also have

1:41

heat

1:41

in Knicks game three. We'll

1:44

talk about some of the other series toward the end here

1:46

because Rob is logging on from Phoenix.

1:50

But we got to start with the nightcap Lakers 127 Warriors 97.

1:56

It seemed like this was going to be another Warriors

1:58

trouncing. It seemed like it was going to get in.

1:59

into a three point

2:01

contest early on there. But then everything

2:03

that could go wrong for the Warriors went wrong.

2:06

Draymond Green hit with a couple fouls.

2:09

There was the take foul that was also a flagrant

2:11

one. By the middle of

2:13

the third quarter, Draymond had his fifth fouls

2:16

and there really was no turning back. Rob,

2:19

does this seem like that to you there? It's just kind of

2:21

everything went askew for the Warriors

2:23

and it was really tough to rebound there.

2:26

That's definitely how it felt. I mean, the second quarter,

2:28

I think is where the margin explodes, right? You get this

2:30

huge run by the Lakers. The Warriors completely

2:32

collapse.

2:34

But the third, I think is where things get interesting

2:36

because you got like an all out shut the door

2:38

effort from LeBron and AD taking

2:41

it from an 11 point game to an 18 point game.

2:44

LeBron's flying all over the floor, hurtling

2:47

people in the first and second rows. AD

2:49

is blowing up everything and the Warriors

2:51

honestly just,

2:52

they look sloppy as hell.

2:54

And there were so many misconnections

2:56

in their offense beyond just the turnovers,

2:58

which were obviously a problem, but just near

3:01

turnovers that disrupted their action,

3:03

that kept them from getting into their stuff. And all

3:05

of those arrows to me point back to Anthony Davis.

3:07

They all point to him

3:09

blowing up every possession that even had a chance

3:11

to get into the paint. And when that's the case, yeah,

3:14

your attempts at a three point contest can go a little bit

3:16

of a little bit of a ride. You become way too reliant

3:18

on those shots and God, did they miss a lot

3:21

of them.

3:21

Yeah, I actually wrote down after

3:24

that 13-0 run, the Lakers

3:27

went down 40 to 29, they're down 11 and

3:30

then they come back 13 straight points to

3:32

go up two. And I was like, that

3:34

13-0 run might've saved the series

3:37

slash season, it felt that

3:39

pivotal. But honestly, just watching it in

3:42

the first quarter, Clay put up five threes.

3:44

Like if the Lakers are playing defense

3:47

the way they're supposed to, you cannot

3:49

let Clay Thompson get off

3:51

five three pointers. He

3:54

got off four for the rest of the game,

3:56

right? So they tighten that up. And

3:58

a lot of it had to do with AD.

3:59

doing his best Brooke Lopez impersonation.

4:03

And it's just like, A.D., you... It's

4:06

like good or bad. No,

4:08

you cannot just stay in the paint

4:11

when Looney and Draymond are leveling

4:13

the dudes that are guarding Steph and Clay.

4:15

Like, these dudes are just walking into

4:18

Dreeson. A.D. was like, oh yeah, I've got

4:20

like a seven foot nine wingspan

4:23

and I'm a really fleet of foot. I can just step

4:25

up on this and still play great defense.

4:27

And I think that's where everything changed.

4:30

Shooter, Vando, all of these guys are

4:32

crowding Steph and Clay's airspace. And

4:35

it's like, look,

4:36

you can either try to make

4:38

some type of mid-range, but you're

4:40

not gonna get a three off. We're gonna

4:42

be in your shirt. And good luck

4:44

going to the rack against A.D.

4:46

That's not going to happen for you. And I thought,

4:49

you know, the strategy panned out beautifully

4:51

for them. You know how you know this is

4:53

a Warriors podcast, a Warriors game podcast?

4:56

Is that the Lakers can win by 30. And

4:58

Waz is out here dinging A.D.

5:00

for the drop coverage in the first quarter.

5:03

But that's why they were losing,

5:05

Justin. It's why

5:07

they were losing and it's why they came back.

5:10

Like, A.D. started flying all over the place,

5:12

right? He's like, look, I can cover the ground,

5:14

right? Like, I can get in this guy's

5:17

face to give a good contest. And I

5:19

can still stay sort of glued to my

5:21

man on the roll. Like, it's the

5:24

hardest job defensively in

5:26

the sport. When you get put in that

5:28

pick and roll and you have to do that delicate dance

5:31

of getting up on the ball handler

5:33

and not losing contact with a dude

5:35

for a lob or whatever the case

5:37

may be. And A.D. at first was

5:39

half-assinate.

5:41

And then when he was like, hold on, man, I'm

5:43

the best defensive player in the sport, everything

5:46

flipped for them.

5:47

You could see a few different things turn up with

5:50

A.D. And a lot of it, as you're saying, the effort was

5:52

obviously there. The intensity was there in terms of just like making

5:54

a conscious adjustment to impact the game in that

5:56

way. Some of it is as simple as like putting

5:59

him in more.

5:59

positions where he's guarding Jamichael Green

6:02

instead of Draymond Green

6:03

and realizing like, look, we're just going to live

6:06

with a couple Jamichael Green shots and like

6:08

attempts to dive toward the rim and attempts to crash the

6:10

offensive glass. And it's going to be fine because he's

6:12

Jamichael Green. And very

6:14

quickly, we learned that a lot of the impact

6:17

that Jamichael had on game two

6:19

is kind of illusory, right? Like this is something that

6:21

is a figment of your imagination. If you choose

6:23

to honor him and respect him, you're

6:25

going to empower the Warriors to create

6:27

that space and create that kind of momentum. If you

6:29

ignore him, eventually he's going to have

6:31

games like this.

6:33

And then we see AD go from

6:35

the kind of non-factor he was in game two of the

6:37

series to again, completely dominating. And

6:39

I guess this is just the rhythm of what this is going to be, whether

6:42

it's every other game from AD or whatever it ends up

6:44

like turning into. But when he dominates, the Lakers

6:46

win. And when he doesn't, they lose. Like

6:49

it's not that much more complicated than that, unfortunately.

6:51

Or maybe fortunately, depending

6:54

on who you want to win the series and how much you respect

6:56

and believe that AD can turn that up whenever he wants to.

6:59

Yeah. And that's where the Draymond losing

7:01

him midway through the third quarter probably

7:03

just sealed their fate, even if the deficit

7:06

was already pretty much mounted there. Fifth

7:09

foul was 654 to go in

7:11

the third. I

7:12

thought that the Warriors had figured something

7:15

out, even though Jamichael Green probably wasn't adding

7:17

much value at all. Just

7:20

staggering Draymond and Lune at least

7:22

gave you somewhat of an answer to do

7:24

something against AD. But as soon as he went

7:26

out, clearly the flood gase opened. And

7:29

so I think the question was going forward

7:31

is if you're Kerr, do you try to roll

7:33

it back again with Jamichael in the starting

7:35

lineup? Do you bring Luney back to the

7:37

starters and then figure

7:39

it out from there?

7:40

Or do you just replace Jamichael

7:43

with maybe a wing, maybe a pool or someone

7:45

else and stick with Draymond as your go-to

7:47

five in the starters?

7:49

So me, I'm putting Draymond and Luney

7:51

back in the lineup to try

7:53

to goose my offensive boards because

7:56

I just don't think they're going to generate

7:58

great offense with how they're going to get the ball.

7:59

the Lakers have the ability

8:02

to play them, right? Trudor's

8:04

just doing a good job of staying in front.

8:07

Same with Vando. Even D-Lo,

8:09

D-Lo is somehow

8:12

fighting through screens and

8:14

basically, you know, making it so that

8:16

the big man doesn't have to stay with this guy, but

8:19

only for a beat, because he's fighting

8:21

his ass off around those screens. And

8:24

so if the guards are gonna guard these guys

8:26

at the point of attack at that level,

8:30

and AD's gonna, you know, give

8:33

his customary effort, I

8:37

think they're gonna struggle to score. And to me,

8:40

put your big dudes in and try to get

8:42

offensive rebounds, because I don't think

8:44

they're gonna generate fantastic

8:46

offense in the half court. The

8:49

next sort of move here is

8:51

to just skew this pick and roll stuff

8:53

and just be like, AD's eating our lunch

8:55

stuff, just go out and beat people.

8:57

That's it. That's the next way. And

9:00

I think that you can't come into the series with a team

9:02

that's this talented defensively

9:04

and say, Steph, from the minute

9:07

go, just carry us like you did in game

9:09

seven of the first round series. Like you

9:11

have to try to do this other stuff, but I think

9:13

Steph sort of playing in isolation

9:16

has to be coming at some point soon here.

9:19

Rob, what do you think? I love how every

9:21

series kind of turns into that on some level, right?

9:24

Like any long competitive series, you

9:26

start with running your stuff,

9:28

you shift into running high pick and roll, and

9:30

eventually it's like, how much do we have to just

9:32

like put the ball on our best player's hands and ISO

9:34

this thing to death?

9:36

Because that's what good defenses, especially

9:38

will wear out of you, right? Like they will take away

9:41

your preferred options. I think in particular,

9:43

like so much of the connective tissue for the Warriors

9:45

was disrupted in this game, that you can

9:47

see them having that need to

9:50

just put the ball in Steph's hands and have him create, to

9:52

just kind of clear some of the bodies out of the way.

9:54

Because even though Vando is doing a pretty good job in

9:56

particular of staying in front of him, you can

9:58

see moments where Steph gets some.

9:59

in the breathing room, right? Like where he crosses him up, gets

10:02

Vanderbilt on his back, and then all of a

10:04

sudden he's in that like 15 to

10:06

eight foot range

10:07

in front of him and AD, and it's like what can you make work

10:09

in this space? And we talk a lot about

10:11

obviously the maker-miss league stuff as it pertains

10:14

to open threes, as it pertains to role players.

10:17

It's interesting that in this series, a lot of it has come down

10:19

to like, does AD

10:21

make his like elbow jumpers? And

10:23

if he does, you win, and if he doesn't, you lose. In this game,

10:26

can Steph convert on those in-between

10:28

shots? If he does, maybe this is a game

10:31

like throughout the fourth quarter. Maybe this is like closely

10:33

contested versus it really got

10:35

away from them, because they just like could not get anything

10:38

even when Steph is getting some clearance out of that

10:40

high screen. So, you know, as much

10:43

as the Warriors are loath to do stuff like that, to simplify

10:45

on that level, I think at some point they're going to have to.

10:48

Well, Rob, what do you think about going maybe

10:50

more to small ball then? Because

10:52

on the one hand, clearly they're playing the two bigs to

10:54

start with, if you want to categorize. Michael Green

10:57

is a big, like to match

10:59

up with the size of the Lakers, right? They

11:01

don't want to concede too much. The Lakers are huge across

11:03

basically all positions in that starting

11:06

lineup. On the one hand, you are conceding

11:08

that. On the other hand, you're putting more offense

11:10

on the court. And as we're seeing, like, if we're going to boil this

11:12

down to AD has to be

11:15

on in order for the Lakers to win, the Lakers clearly

11:17

need to win the three point battle decisively.

11:20

And not only are you putting more shooters on the floor, you're

11:22

also running more, you're getting more quick stuff,

11:24

and you're running AD and LeBron into the ground

11:26

there. So I don't know if I love it, but

11:28

I wonder if that is the logical next

11:31

step. What do you think Rob?

11:34

I mean, small with whom? Right.

11:37

So you want to put Jordan Poole in there instead

11:42

of Michael Green? But

11:45

he would be the logical next guy, but like,

11:47

I don't know, would Peyton somehow like

11:50

blur the lines there where you're getting more

11:53

defense, but someone who could instantly

11:55

hit an open corner three.

11:58

See, to me, the Peyton part is probably. because

12:01

he's a small guy who's also not gonna

12:03

shoot it. And so I think

12:05

your problems are exacerbated

12:07

by doing that. That's why to me, like

12:10

you put your best five guys out there,

12:13

which is the Draymond and Looney

12:17

combination and basically

12:19

see where it goes from there. And of course, individually

12:22

guys can be better, right? I think Wiggins could

12:24

do more to attack LeBron. Obviously

12:27

we said Steph could be more aggressive in hunting

12:30

his shot, but I think there's, you know, Draymond

12:32

can make a layup as they so eloquently put

12:34

it in our pre-production.

12:38

I think their guys can be individually

12:40

better, but I don't know,

12:42

man, like whenever Golden State

12:44

has had trouble in the playoffs

12:47

in the past, it's because their

12:50

continuity stuff sort of devolved.

12:53

And you know, like they

12:55

don't want to play in the one-on-one. And

12:57

that's what I think is the most important thing about

13:00

getting Golden State out of this. It's like, you're

13:02

not forcing a team to do things they don't want

13:04

to do. And so when

13:06

they miss a shot in isolation,

13:08

it's like doubly sort of effective,

13:11

right? Cause it's like, man, this is not

13:13

how we want to play. And so they have less

13:15

confidence in those shots, right? Like when

13:18

the ball is flying around and

13:20

dudes just to get, catch it in rhythm and

13:22

it's this beautiful

13:23

offense thing that like, you can feel

13:25

it, it just feels different. So

13:27

I don't know that it's going to get much

13:30

better for them in that respect.

13:33

Yeah, I mean, part of the issue surrounding

13:36

all of that, like regardless of how much ISO

13:38

you want to run, whatever action you

13:40

want to run, and Justin, I think this is kind of the heart of your question

13:43

as far as like trying to get smaller, trying to get more spacing

13:45

on the floor. The idea is good.

13:48

The personal for Golden State is this,

13:50

Draymond Green, Kavon Looney, Jamichael Green,

13:53

Gary Payton, Dante DiVincenzo,

13:55

Moses Moody.

13:57

Those guys are not going to get guarded

13:58

and they're not getting guarded right now.

14:01

And so like you can replace one of them with Jordan Poole

14:03

to kind of get some some kind of spacing

14:06

But ultimately that means you have to live with what Jordan Poole

14:08

does when he gets the ball And I

14:10

don't feel super great about that at the moment Moody's

14:13

give them some good minutes, but I realize that's

14:15

it's a little bit of future casting there. You're just hoping

14:18

for the best It's

14:20

not that these guys aren't doing good things It's just

14:22

that they don't respect them like if they

14:24

again at the Lakers They're gonna give Moses Moody

14:26

a buffer and they're gonna see if he makes some

14:29

shots and they're gonna close out On some of them, but they're ultimately

14:31

gonna live with that stuff And that's what great defenses do

14:33

too is they know how to walk that particular

14:35

line and then the dangerous part

14:37

about having Poole out there is that

14:40

he is just a Freakin

14:42

huge target. That's just another guy

14:45

to be targeted in

14:47

the Lakers pick and roll scheme, right?

14:49

I think

14:50

you know LeBron they kept complaining

14:52

on the broadcast LeBron hasn't shot yet What

14:54

the hell LeBron hurry up and shoot the ball

14:56

like blah blah blah And I thought he was playing

14:59

pretty aggressively It's not like he wasn't

15:01

attacking the paint doing driving kick stuff.

15:03

But as the game wore on he

15:06

started

15:07

Initiating his attacks closer

15:09

and closer to the basket, right? Um

15:11

doing it at the elbow doing

15:14

it in the high post and if you're

15:16

gonna put Jordan Poole on there You

15:18

know and he's gonna end up on LeBron and these switches

15:21

that's when the Lakers offense started to sort

15:23

of Have a nice rhythm and flow

15:25

to it LeBron was drawn to he had

15:27

that beautiful sort of Moonshot

15:30

skip pass to Dennis Schruder for that three.

15:32

That was just beautiful vintage LeBron

15:34

stuff I think that like LeBron is

15:36

now starting

15:37

to find all right How I make

15:39

my impact offensively is to

15:41

get the book catch the ball close and

15:44

enforce to

15:46

Yeah, it seemed like LeBron has figured

15:48

out Chris Paul mode

15:49

Where he could just kind of sit and wait

15:52

in the wings and Distribute and still

15:54

impact the game but not really put his impact

15:57

on it until he necessarily has to and I

15:59

I liked the broadcast was like, what the

16:02

hell is going on? This was clearly the only

16:04

time he hadn't had a field goal attempt in the quarter

16:06

in his entire playoff life. It was weird.

16:09

I'll say that. But when you saw

16:11

him kick it in, he also seemed

16:13

to have a little bit of extra giddy up. And

16:15

it did make a difference. There were some, like, he was chasing

16:17

down for blocks. He was running all

16:20

the way up into the stanchion to go

16:22

after a ball. It just like it actually played

16:24

into the literature. I want to talk about that play, Justin. That's

16:27

why I'm blown away by what LeBron

16:29

is doing in year

16:30

20 against the defending

16:32

champs. The reason he had to run

16:34

up those damn stairs is because he couldn't stop

16:37

his momentum, y'all. That's

16:39

old guy shit.

16:40

Literally, he could not stop himself.

16:43

He also jumped over the first

16:45

row of fans. I'll say, I was thinking to

16:48

myself, if that was me, I would have face planted

16:50

right by the reporters. And this would have been the most embarrassing

16:52

moment of my life. Or

16:54

you just stop. So

16:57

you think you could do that?

16:59

I think if his

17:02

foot was right, he would just stop. He

17:04

wouldn't have to just keep going with

17:07

his momentum. That's how I read that. Like,

17:09

this is a guy, like, when he ramps up, he

17:11

doesn't have the agility to sort of just do the

17:13

stop and start stuff. And the fact

17:15

that he's able to. It is what it is.

17:18

Hey, listen, I'm just giving the guy. Disrespectful. I'm

17:20

giving the guy is just doing year 20 that

17:23

he's being relied upon to do all of this stuff.

17:26

And he's still finding ways to find separation,

17:28

get his shot off. He made

17:30

a couple of threes tonight, which is always nice

17:33

when he could get that rolling. LeBron,

17:35

you know, I can't say enough about what the guy's

17:37

doing, man.

17:40

Yeah, he had a massive impact on

17:42

that third quarter to the point where at the end

17:44

of it, he and AD get pulled like slightly

17:46

early. And we got a great shot of them on the bench, just

17:49

like huffing and puffing after going

17:51

nonstop for the entire frame. And

17:53

I mean, salute to those guys. Again, that's

17:55

when they sealed this game up and they,

17:58

the exact frame that the.

17:59

Warriors are like, customarily used

18:02

to dominating and turning games around

18:04

in that third quarter. The Lakers took it for

18:06

themselves. And they're gonna have to have those moments

18:08

in this series. And this thing is by no means over.

18:11

Again, we've already seen some pretty extreme swings

18:13

between these two teams. I'm sure

18:15

we'll get even more extreme strategic swings

18:17

as they continue to figure each other out. But those

18:20

are the kinds of efforts that put you over the top when

18:22

the game is in question.

18:24

Yeah, and they got to sit the last nine minutes,

18:26

which can't be overstated. Because somehow,

18:28

the Suns and the Nuggets went what, Rob?

18:31

Like three games in between games

18:33

two and three. But the Lakers and Warriors

18:35

are going every other day. I don't know how

18:37

that worked out.

18:39

Make it make sense. I don't know. I'm

18:42

not complaining about a little extra time in Phoenix,

18:44

but I don't quite understand the scheduling

18:47

on that.

18:47

Sure. What else from this

18:49

one? Should we talk about DeAngelo Russell?

18:52

Waz, I know he's your favorite player,

18:54

so.

18:55

I look, I will say this. He's

18:58

never played better, especially not

19:00

in a playoff setting. And again,

19:03

to do it against this Golden State Warriors

19:05

team in particular, and the

19:08

Lakers offense, as you guys

19:10

know, can get stuck in the mud. They need

19:12

him as a release valve. They

19:14

need him as a guy, as one of the only

19:17

reliable spot-up shooters. He's doing

19:19

it on the catching shoot. He's

19:21

doing it in pick and roll, creating his own shot,

19:24

creating space. Some

19:26

of his little pocket passes was getting on my

19:29

nerves a bit, hitting guys in the knees, but

19:31

every now and again, they're getting through, right? And

19:34

it's impressive. And look, man, I've

19:36

been the biggest DeAngelo

19:39

Russell skeptic probably on planet

19:41

earth, but he

19:43

is playing out of his mind right now.

19:45

Like the way he was scoring in that first quarter,

19:48

we scored the first 11 points, and he's

19:50

doing it from all three

19:52

quadrants of the court.

19:55

He's earning some paper right now. That's

19:57

for sure. That

20:00

first half in particular, he was so good and

20:02

you're right, was about the pocket passes. Like I'd never

20:04

seen a dude heat check on pocket passes

20:06

before, but he was just throwing up in

20:08

progressively tighter windows. I

20:10

mean, not even hitting knees, but just like straight

20:13

ankles on some of those plays.

20:15

Rough stuff, but he earned it. Like

20:17

he earned it with the way he played and came off like

20:20

came out initially. And it kind of is proof

20:22

of some of the error in the way we talk about

20:24

a LeBron James team, right? When we talk about a LeBron

20:27

team often,

20:28

we're like, okay, usually like a replacement level

20:31

caretaker, defense first point

20:33

guard. I think sometimes that can be true,

20:35

but you don't get a game like this from a replacement level

20:37

guard. You just don't, right? Like you need someone

20:40

who at least has the audacity to make some of those

20:42

plays who can like go off for scoring

20:44

binges like this. And there's going to be some wild

20:46

ebbs and flows that come with the DeAngelo Russell experience.

20:49

But if you're in a position to have

20:51

a team structure like the one the Lakers do, where

20:53

he doesn't have to be great necessarily every game

20:56

because you have, you know, LeBron and not only

20:58

that, but Dennis Schruder and Austin Reeves, these other

21:00

guys who are going to handle the ball some,

21:02

you can just swing with these great performances

21:04

like this one. And this was, I mean, genuinely one of the best of his

21:06

career, like a huge game, a huge moment.

21:09

And I thought Russell was really great.

21:11

Yeah, the problem is most of the time,

21:13

he does look like a replacement level guard, you

21:15

know, but then he has games like this where

21:18

he looks like one of the smoothest point

21:20

guards in the goddamn league. Like I consider

21:22

myself a reformed DeAngelo Russell

21:25

apologist because especially earlier

21:27

in his career, yeah, he would make some boneheaded mistakes

21:29

and seemed like he needed a lot of maturing to the

21:32

point where like he's given some interviews.

21:34

I don't know if you guys caught an interview with Mike Trudell.

21:36

I think it was during the War, the, the

21:38

Timberwolves game where he did a walk off and

21:40

he like, he cackled away

21:43

from that interview as if he was Harley Quinn. You

21:45

should go look it up. It's like, it was one of the most mind blowing

21:47

things I've ever seen, but like when he puts

21:49

it all together,

21:51

it's just like, there's no smoother

21:54

athlete out there. He can just do things that other guys

21:56

can't, why he can't do that stuff more

21:58

than once every five games.

21:59

I don't know, but when it works, it's

22:02

gorgeous.

22:03

Some of those threes that

22:05

D-Lo hit in the first quarter in particular were

22:08

just absolutely not even touching rim. Like,

22:10

these were just

22:12

perfect jump shots that he was making. And

22:15

that makes all the difference when

22:18

you're running a pick and roll around AD, because,

22:20

you know, there was a couple of times in the second half where

22:22

Schroeder was able to get him for a lob,

22:25

or, you know, he got a pin

22:27

down. Van Gundy remarked

22:29

upon it with, like, yeah, we love those set plays where

22:32

you scream for the big and get them

22:34

into that action. The Warriors

22:36

are definitely afraid of what AD can do around the

22:38

paint. So they're going

22:40

to divert a lot of resources to that.

22:43

But if this dude is making threes, that's

22:46

just gonna, you know, make the defense,

22:48

stretch them out even thinner, and give AD

22:50

more room to operate.

22:53

Someone else in Lakers I did want to talk about briefly,

22:55

Austin Reeves. Pretty rough start.

22:58

But I have to say, I think our guy,

23:00

and Watts, this falls into

23:02

your purview, not only as a white

23:04

American, but as potentially one of the best grifters

23:07

in the NBA. Like, I feel like this guy

23:09

is slowly working his way up into the pantheon.

23:12

Like, Marcus Smart, who else is

23:14

in there? But, like, Reeves is definitely

23:17

one of the best in the game. Manu Janovelli,

23:19

is he in the Janovelli category?

23:22

Look, I've

23:25

read somewhere online that people think that

23:27

he's like kind of gassed, that he's hit a wall.

23:30

Because obviously he's never played this

23:32

high level,

23:33

this many minutes for this

23:35

long. I thought he was hurt in the first quarter.

23:38

A lot of his shots are short in the first

23:40

quarter. But what I like is he's still

23:42

attacking Steph. That's the coolest

23:45

thing about that. He sees Steph and he's like, this is

23:47

lunch.

23:48

I'm gonna go at this dude, I'm gonna create contact. I'm

23:50

bigger than him. I'm stronger than him. And,

23:53

like, he was relentless. And I thought

23:55

that was huge. You know, when

23:58

the words get going on...

23:59

one of their crazy ass runs where

24:02

somebody gets to and one and then the next possession like 10

24:04

seconds later, somebody switches to three,

24:06

then you turn it over and it's like, oh boy, here

24:09

it comes. You need something like,

24:12

you know, awesome Reeves put his head down and get

24:14

to the line.

24:15

You know, everybody sort of settle down. We

24:17

can get back into our set defense and

24:20

everything will be just fine. I thought that

24:22

was pretty cool

24:23

on Reeves' part too. Just his

24:25

stick-to-ativeness, right? To

24:28

start off slow and still be mega

24:30

aggressive against Steph and Clay and

24:32

everybody. Poo, I mean Poo, every time

24:34

he sees Poo, his eyes light up. And so,

24:37

yeah, even when he's not playing his best,

24:39

I find myself being impressed

24:42

by what Austin Reeves is doing. Yes, I know

24:44

my white American bias is showing, Rob.

24:47

Well, he also is an important part of that

24:50

shell game there. You mentioned like he'll go at

24:52

Steph, he'll go at Jordan Poole. He

24:54

makes it difficult for the Warriors to decide

24:56

like where do we put Clay? Do we want

24:58

to put Clay on D'Angelo Russell? Do we want to put him

25:00

on Reeves? Because we know that Steph will

25:02

get baited into fouls that we don't want him to get.

25:05

And then you end up with this in this situation where

25:07

whoever Steph is guarding ends up going

25:10

on these little scoring runs in some of these games. I

25:12

think Steph is a good defender on balance, but

25:14

he has to pick his spots because he's so

25:16

important to the offense in ways that other guys don't. He

25:19

has to keep his hands out of the cookie jar. He

25:21

can't get those like rip through fouls that

25:23

D'Lo in particular likes to draw. I

25:25

mean, we saw Clay get pretty exasperated with

25:27

Reeves in this one in particular, just like could not,

25:31

was not too pleased with the way that

25:33

some of those bumps were being officiated, but that's what Austin

25:35

does so well is he baits you into not

25:37

only just jumping, but like, can he pull

25:40

you in to take one step forward

25:42

towards him so he can ram up into you? By

25:45

the way, and I'm not just saying this for

25:47

the obvious reasons, but Kevin

25:50

Herder was unable to hurt the Warriors

25:52

this way.

25:53

He was unable to punish

25:56

Steph, punish Jordan Poole.

25:59

for their lack of size, right? Like he couldn't

26:02

get into the lane. He couldn't draw fouls as

26:04

like the secondary, you know, third

26:07

ball handling guy on the Kings.

26:09

And you know, that's part of why they

26:11

had to go home. I mean, obviously, Sabonis

26:13

is mainly to blame, but you know, I'm just

26:16

saying, like because Kevin

26:18

Herder couldn't exploit the Steph

26:20

matchups in the way that D-Lo,

26:23

in the way that Austin Reeves is, it's

26:25

making all the difference for the Lakers.

26:28

Have you updated your white American

26:30

pantheon lately? Is it Reeves

26:33

one, Herder

26:35

two? Reeves

26:37

one, Herder two, Christian

26:40

Brown, solidly three

26:42

right now, solidly. Yeah.

26:46

Yeah, he's giving the dog get some good minutes.

26:49

Rob, anything else you want to go over here? Were

26:52

you as surprised as everyone else from the resurrection

26:55

of Lonnie Walker? The miracle

26:58

mid-level signing this off season

27:01

went away for a long time, but he's back and better than ever.

27:04

I guess he's better than ever. I mean, good game

27:06

from him, dusting him off the bench, throwing him back

27:08

in there, you know, get some cardio, get

27:10

some shots up. Like I don't mind it. I

27:13

can't say I'm like expecting Lonnie Walker to have a big

27:15

impact on this series. So we'll see what they end up doing

27:18

with some of those minutes going forward. But they need someone

27:20

in that mystery suitor

27:22

spot, right? Like some nights it's Rui Hachimura. Apparently

27:25

some nights it's going to be Lonnie Walker. Somebody

27:27

needs to step up and hit those open shots as they

27:29

come their way. And apparently the Lakers have enough

27:31

guys to fill that by committee right now. I

27:33

like Lonnie Walker

27:34

because he puts pressure on the rim.

27:36

And as good as Draymond is at protecting

27:40

the paint and Looney too, it's not like these guys

27:42

are trees down there, right? And

27:44

so you should in theory be able to get

27:47

off some decent looks in the paint.

27:49

And at least Lonnie Walker, when he gets the ball,

27:51

he's looking to get down there.

27:54

Yeah, the Lakers definitely have options.

27:57

One of them unfortunately is not going to be Malik Bizi.

27:59

as we saw it, but maybe

28:02

we'll hope and pray. What can you do?

28:05

You only had six minutes somehow in a game

28:07

that was in hand for over

28:09

a quarter. All right, let's

28:11

look to the other game, Heat 105, Nix 86. Waz,

28:16

I'm going to turn to you first here, because we want the

28:19

report from the borough sponsored by

28:21

Timberland here. What

28:23

do you think the temperature is locally on

28:27

one Julius Randall

28:29

these days? This

28:31

is the what? Second

28:33

time in a row in the playoffs that

28:36

he has stunk up the joint.

28:38

Freaking, I mean, I think most people expected

28:41

Mobley to have him in a choke hold,

28:43

straight jacket, whatever, in the clamps,

28:45

whatever you want to call it. And that

28:47

happened, right? I don't think

28:50

people thought that he was just not going to be able to do anything

28:53

against Miami in a pivotal game three.

28:55

But look, man, this is who this guy

28:58

is. This is who he's been

29:00

in the playoffs largely, mostly,

29:03

right? He has no track record

29:05

of being able to generate

29:08

even mildly efficient

29:11

offense in playoff settings. So

29:13

I don't see why anybody should be

29:15

surprised here. And if you watch this game, basically

29:17

from the tip, the Nix just got

29:19

dog walked. They got their asses kicked

29:22

up and down the court on both

29:24

ends. They couldn't get anything going on offense.

29:27

And the Heat just got whatever they wanted. And

29:30

how I knew it was going crazy, Kyle

29:32

Lowry was just walking into threes. He

29:35

just felt so confident in everything

29:37

the Heat were doing. And yeah,

29:41

panic mode needs to be setting in down

29:44

there on Madison. Not Madison, excuse me,

29:46

on 7th Ave, because these

29:48

guys are getting smoked right now.

29:51

I know there's going to be a lot of attention on Randall,

29:53

and rightly so. This was like

29:55

a holistically.

29:57

Shit effort from the Nix offense in

29:59

a way that I.

29:59

Like you're right to point out Lowry was

30:02

because Kyle Lowry outplayed, I think every

30:04

Nick in this game and that's like straight

30:06

line drives to the rim. It's hustling

30:08

for loose balls. He was able to create

30:11

even

30:11

just like out of ISO, which for Kyle,

30:13

our is not really something that happens very much these days

30:16

at a sustainable level that the Knicks really could match.

30:19

So like again, pile on Julius Randall

30:21

as you will. I think his performance certainly warrants

30:23

it, but this is a team that shot 34% from

30:25

the field in total because the heat

30:27

just completely turned the water off. So

30:30

there's lots of ways to point fingers here.

30:32

Yeah. Where do you want to go here? Jalen

30:35

Brunson, seven for 20, RJ

30:37

Barrett, five for 16 somehow a

30:39

minus 32 in this game.

30:41

Randall and Brunson

30:44

over 10 from three, like there's just so

30:46

many stats to pick from. So,

30:48

so, so was, yeah, like what's

30:51

going on here? Is this just another example of

30:53

Spo being able to really press on the

30:55

pain points and expose a team that has

30:58

flaws like this? Or was this just inevitable

31:01

with the Knicks, a team that can get pretty sludgy

31:03

offensively and doesn't have the three point

31:05

shooting most of the time to order to

31:07

even catch up to the heat and the heat. We're even

31:09

at good on offense. This game.

31:12

Look, I, I foolishly picked

31:14

the Knicks to get worked in the first round

31:16

because the stuff they need

31:19

in order to be effective,

31:21

most good playoff teams can stop

31:24

it. Like most good playoff teams can figure out

31:26

a way to box out and not have these guys

31:28

grab 40% of their

31:30

offensive rebounds. Right. Most

31:32

good playoff teams can shut off

31:35

your transition game and force you to play in

31:37

the half court and try to generate

31:39

offense that way. They got to

31:42

efficient offense in the regular season

31:44

by pressing those specific advantages.

31:47

And when they're taken away, they look

31:50

like a putrid half court offense. And I

31:52

think that's kind of to be expected

31:54

given the personnel, right? It's

31:57

like, it's going to be on this effort stuff.

31:59

that they

32:01

basically win on the margins. They

32:03

have to get out and run. They have

32:06

to be able to win the offensive

32:08

rebound battle because they just

32:10

don't have the personnel to create the

32:12

consistent advantages

32:17

where defenses start to become leaky

32:19

so that you can create good shots for you

32:21

guys. There's nobody you're really afraid of in the one-on-one

32:24

here. There's no post threat where you're like,

32:26

OK, if Julius Randall is backing this guy

32:29

down, we've got to send two to help. They

32:31

don't have anybody that creates that

32:33

advantage. So when

32:35

it's going terrible, it's going to look like

32:37

this. And

32:40

that's where playing against the Heat in particular is

32:42

tough because Miami is a team that even

32:44

when they get up early in games, they

32:46

will still do that stuff. They will

32:48

stick boxing you out. They will stay

32:51

going after loose balls. They will play

32:53

Mitchell Robinson off the floor in

32:55

a game like this by drawing fouls on him,

32:57

boxing him out, keeping him off the offensive glass,

32:59

taking away those margins you're talking about, so

33:02

it's very, very difficult to create that

33:04

kind of extra offense against Miami with

33:06

the way that they defend and their kind of collective

33:08

level of attention to detail

33:10

in a way that makes me pretty worried about the Knicks. If

33:12

this is what their offense is going to look like, as

33:14

sludgy as this, this

33:17

is just not going to be the series for them. They just don't

33:19

have that in them. The Knicks missed

33:21

their first 15 shots outside

33:24

the paint. Also didn't

33:26

hit a three until 6-10 into

33:28

the second quarter. I think one thing

33:31

that might have some trickle over effect

33:33

is they did do a better job on Jimmy Butler as

33:35

the game went along. Butler only had 28 points, 10

33:39

of which were in the first quarter. And it seemed like they sent

33:41

a bunch of doubles at him. Only had 28.

33:43

Well, and I should mention, 28 basically

33:46

did not play the fourth quarter because he didn't really have

33:48

to until a stretch there.

33:51

I guess if you want to take something

33:53

away from this was, it's that like maybe

33:55

you could send extra attention to Jimmy and

33:58

make everyone else beat you on the other hand.

33:59

you know, Strus had a good game like

34:02

they have the shooters, the beachy. So

34:04

I don't know, this one's tough. Yeah,

34:06

the thing is, right, like the reason

34:09

why the Heat struggled this year is that

34:11

guys like Strus and Gabe Vinson

34:13

and Caleb Martin did not play to the

34:15

level that they did last year.

34:18

And now that the playoffs have started,

34:20

they're back to playing at that level.

34:22

These are more than capable guys.

34:25

If you're diverting extra resources to

34:28

try to shut off what Jimmy Butler's doing,

34:30

these guys, they're shooting with the utmost

34:33

confidence. There's no hesitation

34:36

when they shoot it, right? Like the game

34:38

before that we were talking about, when

34:40

Gary, there was a possession where Gary Payton caught

34:43

the ball and he looked at the rim, he said, nah,

34:45

sort of one of those record scratch moments.

34:48

Nobody

34:48

on the Heat is doing that.

34:50

They are feeling it right

34:52

now and they're back to playing, to the

34:55

quality that they played last year, that

34:57

they could push Boston to seven

34:59

games in the conference finals. Like

35:01

this was a quality, high quality

35:04

team last year. One of the best teams, obviously

35:06

in their conference. And so, yeah, man,

35:08

those bench guys, those ancillary

35:10

guys, excuse me, are back to playing

35:13

with just incredible confidence.

35:15

And so, yeah, I think the Knicks are in trouble because clearly

35:18

like the

35:19

status, if Jimmy Butler is going to get

35:21

to the line 11 times, that means you

35:23

got to send help. You know, like your

35:25

guys just can't deal with him without fouling

35:27

him. And once you do that, Jimmy's going to find

35:30

these dudes.

35:31

Yeah. And the equivalent players for the Knicks,

35:34

right? We were, we've been raving about New York's bench

35:36

in the first round, talking about all these supporting

35:38

parts who have come up a huge in these games. This

35:41

was Emmanuel quickly's best game of the series and he made

35:43

a third of his shots. Four of 12. And that's

35:45

kind of where the bench is overall. Like Quinn

35:47

Grimes, the minutes just are not good enough. Obie

35:50

Toppin

35:50

like has had his moments in the series, but

35:53

this wasn't one of them. And he still ended up

35:55

like finishing the game in crucial stretches because

35:58

Tibbs didn't want to play Mitchell Robinson anymore.

35:59

and Isaiah Hardenstein wasn't much better and almost got

36:02

in a fight in the middle of this game. It's

36:04

like they need to find more help from somewhere and

36:07

they're gonna keep trying to turn over these rocks until they

36:09

get it, but I don't know, man. It's

36:11

just, it's really hard to trust some of those

36:13

further rungs down, kind of down the

36:15

rotation right now.

36:17

Yeah, it doesn't help when the heat

36:19

are up double digits and they're still the ones

36:21

diving

36:22

face first for loose balls. Like

36:25

it's tough when your identity as the Knicks

36:27

is to be the toughest nose team

36:29

that's really gonna go after it and control the rebounds.

36:32

And then the other team just like kind of punks

36:34

you.

36:35

Like they're just doing what the Knicks do better.

36:37

And so it's gonna be tough there. I

36:40

guess one thing that they could look

36:42

forward to is it seems like everyone is gonna sprain an ankle in

36:44

this game. So I do wonder if there is going

36:47

to be a trickle down effect from all

36:49

of the injuries happening. Bronson

36:52

had his foot stepped on, quickly sprained his ankle,

36:55

his looked particularly bad. So we'll see what happens there. Butler

36:58

did re-injure the ankle. And like, if they don't have Butler,

37:01

the one game that the Knicks won Rob was without

37:03

Butler. So I

37:04

don't know. It feels like that's

37:06

a stretch. We're already hoping for like

37:09

a player not to be there to have a chance, but I

37:11

guess that's where we are right now with the series.

37:14

Yeah, I'll believe Jimmy Butler won't

37:17

play when he just like does not show up for game

37:19

four. And I guess even if he doesn't, that's the

37:21

value in a win like this is you're buying your

37:23

best player time. You're buying your guys time to get healthy

37:25

if they really need to. But I don't

37:27

know. Jimmy is good enough in

37:29

games like this. On a bum ankle

37:31

is still

37:33

head and shoulders the best player

37:35

in the series. Indisputably.

37:38

Yeah. Well,

37:41

what's interesting about this one, just from a

37:43

big picture perspective was, I'm

37:45

curious what your thoughts here is like, it does feel

37:47

like the gap between regular season basketball

37:49

and playoff basketball is probably a chasm

37:52

at this point. And it's something that I think has been priced

37:55

into the playoffs for a couple of years now. We've

37:57

come to expect it, but like this definitely.

37:59

feels like the most extreme example

38:02

of it.

38:03

And I do wonder like what the trickle

38:05

down effects of this is and whether

38:07

or not, like do we see

38:10

in the regular season next year, more teams

38:12

like the Heat, just doing the bare

38:14

minimum to get by, just knowing

38:16

that they have playoff guys just like

38:19

ready to take off when basketball gets

38:21

to this.

38:22

Dude, they almost lost to the Bulls, i.e.

38:25

didn't make the playoffs, right? That

38:28

almost happened guys. Like I

38:30

don't know that that can be the strategy. What I

38:32

will say, and I know I'm beating

38:35

a dead horse here with this

38:37

long ass 82 game schedule.

38:40

So we watched the defense that AD

38:42

played in games one and three.

38:45

That's the level of effort you have

38:47

to give to be great at defense

38:49

in this league. The amount of ground

38:52

you have to cover against these

38:54

type of offenses is so

38:57

physically taxing. How can anybody

39:00

be expected to do that 82 times over?

39:03

It's unreasonable

39:05

to think that these guys are gonna do that. And

39:08

so

39:09

defense has never been harder, right?

39:12

And so like this idea

39:14

that I'm gonna expect dudes to

39:17

just give maximum effort or

39:19

rush back from injury as fast as they can

39:21

when the season is 82 freaking games. I

39:24

don't know how you can expect that. And

39:27

I know it's probably gonna happen because the owner's

39:29

just not visionary enough to understand

39:31

that this would be much healthier and better

39:33

for the game. They're not creative enough even

39:36

though they're supposed to be the masters of

39:38

industry, the titans of industry.

39:40

These are the smartest money people ever.

39:43

Couldn't figure out how to make less

39:45

games more interesting, more

39:48

competitive, more compelling. But yeah,

39:50

like this is the result, man. You

39:53

can't ask these dudes to play at Miami

39:55

Heat level intensity every

39:58

single game for 82 games.

39:59

games.

40:03

This is turning into such a funny case study for this

40:05

idea. Like if the Lakers end up making the finals

40:07

or the Heat make up ending the finals. Imagine

40:10

those. Well, but it's

40:12

not even like they were the Clippers,

40:15

right? Where they were like slow playing their stars

40:17

all year and like really trying to stretch out the

40:19

season, just get to the finish. Like the Heat were

40:21

just not very good for long stretches

40:23

of this season and they got better and

40:25

they could have like granted they

40:28

could have ramped up if Jimmy Butler was this Jimmy

40:30

Butler all year long. If he if he approached

40:32

every game with this sensibility versus

40:35

the kind of like, let's you know, democratize

40:37

this a little bit and move the ball around. I'm going to kind of

40:39

pick my spots more so than beat Jimmy Butler every

40:41

minute of the game.

40:43

That is worth a couple wins on its face,

40:45

but I don't know, man, like Miami was trying

40:47

in the regular season. They just guys weren't hitting

40:49

shots. They weren't as good as they

40:51

seem to be the previous season and everyone

40:53

was trying to figure out why even internally. So

40:56

it wasn't like they were just kind of waiting for this moment

40:58

to blossom. They really had to work for

41:00

that. Rob, with the Lakers, they're two

41:02

wins away from the conference finals to

41:06

up two to one on the world

41:08

champs.

41:09

We were putting Victor Wamben Yama

41:12

in New Orleans. Okay, that

41:14

happened.

41:16

We were photo shopping those jerseys

41:18

like that happened. We thought these guys were going to

41:20

end up with the number one lottery pick.

41:22

Now they're two wins away from the conference finals.

41:25

That's absurd.

41:27

That's crazy.

41:30

I mean, that's just another different

41:32

argument to shorten the season because you do

41:34

have teams like the Lakers basically

41:37

slow playing their way through the regular season,

41:39

basically saying we could wait until the trade deadline

41:41

and then punch it and then still make the play

41:43

in because the play in also provides teams

41:46

more opportunity to slow play it and

41:48

to really drag it and dog in the regular season.

41:51

It goes, I mean, once again, our

41:53

friend, Daryl Morey is having a negative

41:56

effect on the regular season basketball product

41:58

because he's basically, I mean. and say pioneer,

42:00

but he definitely popularized the idea that you don't have

42:02

to build your team in the off season. You could

42:05

figure things out on the fly, see what they happen and

42:07

then hit the trade deadline. It really

42:09

depends on the market, but that was something that he always

42:11

used to talk about. But I think, wise,

42:14

you really hit the point there. It's just like, how

42:16

are you gonna have such a long regular season

42:18

and then have teams like

42:21

the Heat and the Clippers built

42:23

for the playoffs? It's almost like you need

42:25

to build two separate ways. And

42:28

I think if you wanna have the resources like the Clippers,

42:30

you could, in theory, do it, although it didn't

42:32

work out, but the Heat are kind of the other example

42:35

where they just hoped and prayed

42:37

that they could make it far enough in

42:39

order to really be where they are now.

42:42

It's a really fascinating discussion.

42:44

Before we go, I did wanna kinda zip through

42:46

the other two series here, in particular, because Rob,

42:48

you were in Phoenix last night for

42:51

what I guess we'll call the

42:53

Devin Booker game, but in

42:55

my mind, it was the holy shit DeAndre

42:58

Ayton game. What

43:00

was it like being in that arena

43:02

as Ayton was, it seemed like the

43:04

crowd was ready to just

43:06

hoist him out of the arena just

43:08

to get him off the floor?

43:10

Yeah, it seemed like they maybe had seen this before, that

43:12

maybe they were used to DeAndre Ayton's whole deal,

43:15

and they were really sick of it. Let me tell

43:17

you, the contrast in the

43:19

way that that arena went nuts for Jacque

43:22

Landale doing the bare minimum play at

43:24

the center position versus DeAndre

43:26

Ayton willfully refusing to dunk and

43:28

then stiffing himself on layups at

43:30

the rim, honestly, frankly,

43:32

deserved. And he left without speaking

43:34

to the media last night, DeAndre Ayton did. There

43:37

were some shots of him being very frustrated on

43:39

the bench, huffing and taking

43:41

off his arm sleeves and throwing things on the ground.

43:44

Got just totally benched for the end of this must-win

43:47

game for the Suns

43:48

in a way that, if I'm being totally honest, you

43:51

don't wanna make more of these things than they are, but

43:53

the track record with Ayton is what it is.

43:55

He has really driven himself

43:58

to this point.

43:59

It's just getting harder.

43:59

and harder to see him as like a fixture

44:02

of this team's future. Right? Like if you can't

44:04

play in games like this,

44:05

what are you doing here? Like what are you

44:08

providing to this team structure when

44:10

they're already down Chris Paul, when they're desperate

44:12

for role players and they're just like, like

44:14

we trust TJ Warren who has barely played

44:16

in this series more than you in this moment.

44:19

Not exactly a shining endorsement

44:22

for their former number one overall pick. Yeah.

44:24

I mean, you're playing against the number one seed in the conference.

44:28

Your leader is out with

44:30

a muscle strain

44:32

and this guy is throwing

44:34

in his temper tantrums and

44:36

ruining the juju of a team

44:38

that's up against it, man. Like the

44:41

thing about it is like you're carrying on

44:43

a blood feud with Mani

44:45

Williams who might be the most

44:48

universally beloved and

44:50

well-liked person in the whole

44:53

entire fucking NBA. That's

44:55

crazy, bro.

44:56

Like that's just wild to me

44:59

where yesterday- I wouldn't

45:01

even do that, okay? Yesterday,

45:07

the sideline interview

45:09

where they're asking Mani Williams about

45:12

A and he's like, yo man, he's got to get that, he's

45:14

got to dunk that ball.

45:17

And he will. And he caught himself

45:19

having to say like, like

45:21

he realized he was ripping the guy

45:23

on live TV and he caught himself like, no, and he's

45:26

going to do it. This shit is bad,

45:28

bro. And they need him.

45:32

The Lawndale thing, it was cute yesterday,

45:34

but that's not going to happen.

45:37

That's not an answer. I

45:39

thought he played pretty well. He was flying

45:42

all over that court and maybe it was just a contrast

45:44

between A and doing nothing. Like

45:47

trying not at all versus this

45:49

guy who was only trying and probably didn't

45:51

have a ton of actual basketball

45:54

skill to provide there. But like, yeah, I

45:56

thought I think Lando should start next game. Rob,

45:58

I don't know if like what's going-

45:59

the scene is like down there, but like, is

46:02

it that bad? Is Lando gonna start?

46:06

I think the question is how much Bismack Beyond

46:08

Bow are you prepared for? Because if Lando starts

46:10

like, what are you getting from DeAndre Aiten

46:12

at that point? And that's the concern, right? Like everything

46:15

we're talking about again, the Suns won this

46:17

game and

46:18

Aiten is throwing a

46:20

fit. Again, there's also footage

46:22

of him like Chris Paul trying to like come up and talk

46:24

to Aiten during a stoppage and play. He's just

46:26

giving him the cold shoulder repeatedly storms

46:29

out of the building after the team won.

46:31

And

46:32

honestly, they probably would not have won if Denver

46:34

had managed to play like more than one quarter

46:37

of defense in this game. Like it really was the nuggets

46:39

just like could not guard in particular Devin

46:41

Booker, but really everybody and

46:43

that was why the Suns were able to pull this thing out. I

46:46

mean Lando was straight up better than DeAndre

46:48

Aiten. It would not surprise me if he will be straight up better

46:50

than him again in the next game and the next

46:53

game and for as long as the series goes on. I just

46:55

don't think you can afford to like all out

46:57

bench DeAndre Aiten at this point. Like if you want

46:59

to get any minutes from him at all, he has to

47:01

continue to start

47:02

when he got blocked

47:05

and sent away at the rim by Jamal Murray. I

47:07

almost threw the remote because I

47:10

was like, what is this guy doing?

47:12

Just like not having any investment in the

47:14

Suns or the Nuggets or anything just like as

47:16

a fan who wants to see competitive basketball.

47:19

I was like, this is a travesty, but

47:22

like a couple hours go

47:24

by I wake up the next morning. It's already flipped to the point

47:26

where it's like it's gotten kind of sad like

47:29

people are piling all the way on

47:31

Aiten and it's warranted and all that but like clearly

47:34

something is wrong there and

47:35

Rob to your point like

47:37

the Suns won that game. They had absolutely

47:40

blistering performances from Devin Booker

47:42

and Kevin Durant and yeah, it still seems like

47:45

they are like just absolutely

47:47

like in the mud right now that this is the series

47:49

is over like I guess like what's

47:52

the feeling locally right now? Does it feel

47:54

like that? I

47:55

don't know about that. I don't know if it feels like the series is

47:57

over necessarily, but you have to.

48:00

put more together than this, right? Like you have

48:02

to manage to turn the vibe a

48:04

little bit more and that's where obviously game four

48:06

becomes crucial. Like a two-two series

48:08

flips the thing entirely.

48:10

So long as Chris Paul is out, there's gonna be questions

48:13

about who can step up and play. But really

48:15

the triumph of this particular game for

48:17

Phoenix, Devin Booker's 47 sensational

48:19

performance, just like one of the

48:22

most efficient, unguardable kinds of showings

48:24

we've seen from a player in these playoffs, but in any recent

48:26

playoffs. But more than that, they

48:28

got good minutes from Landale. They got good minutes

48:30

from TJ Warren, who again came out of nowhere

48:33

and hit a bunch of really crucial shots down the stretch.

48:36

And they at least tried to roll out Terrence Ross

48:38

to see what he would give them in this series. Like Monty Williams

48:40

is starting

48:40

to like, can we at least see what these other

48:42

guys can do? And campaign also was

48:45

in the starting lineup because Chris Paul was out, ramped

48:48

up the pace in a way that I think was really

48:50

healthy for Phoenix. So not only are they getting tough shot

48:52

making from Booker at 47, Katie at 39, put

48:54

that together, that's

48:57

enough for the crux of a game. Now

48:59

can we get enough around the edges? And that

49:01

did not come from DeAndre Aiden, but it came from these other

49:03

guys and it came from just like, can we get out

49:05

and transition a little more? Something that honestly,

49:07

the Lakers did a really good job of against the Warriors

49:09

too. And a lot of these teams

49:10

who are down in these series or tied

49:12

in these series, who are trying to look for

49:15

offense, trying to look for some of these avenues, that's

49:17

where they're finding it. Like, can we just push aggressively

49:20

out of the gate? And you could see that even

49:22

on NAICS, like Kevin Durant giving the wind

49:24

up, trying to get the inbound in faster so they could get up

49:26

the court. That stuff is meaningful too.

49:29

Yeah. I mean, that's another thing against Aiden, not

49:31

to make another Aiden thing, but Mani seemed like he

49:34

really had to like force himself

49:36

to use the rest of his bench. He really didn't want to

49:38

go there, but he ultimately did. And it

49:40

paid off in that game. So we'll see. Before

49:42

we go wise though, I do want to do just a quick

49:45

check-in on the James Harden front.

49:48

I assume you saw game three. What

49:51

did you

49:54

think of our guys' performance?

49:55

James Harden, the gift that keeps

49:58

on giving. I told you guys, this new Nick... name

50:00

is The Redeemer. I

50:01

had my bad poor take.

50:04

I crushed the guy in the media, in the press,

50:07

and he redeemed me, y'all. It was

50:09

fantastic. Two straight games

50:11

of this guy stinking up the joint

50:14

in the exact ways that we expect

50:16

him to. Nothing going to the paint.

50:19

All of this step back crap.

50:22

Just can't get it done. He can't dribble past

50:24

anybody. When Boston decides,

50:27

no, we're going to actually play real defense,

50:29

try our hardest.

50:31

Nothing. He's dead in the water, dude.

50:34

This will be post-season

50:36

number, you count him, in

50:39

a row where James Harden was a disappointment

50:41

for his team. In fact, you know what?

50:43

I'll say this. He wasn't that bad against

50:45

the Lakers, honestly, in 2020,

50:49

in the bubble. I think that was a russ. The

50:51

Lakers decided that, okay, these guys have to play four

50:53

on five and just choke their

50:55

whole offense out

50:57

after doing so. That wasn't really

50:59

a hard thing. He didn't have the opportunity to

51:01

choke it away, but he stunk up the joint

51:04

every single other post-season.

51:07

I don't know why we should be surprised that

51:09

he's doing it again.

51:12

This was a failure in a new and exciting way,

51:14

I felt like. We've seen James

51:16

Harden struggle in some of these games in the past,

51:18

but

51:20

the complete unwillingness

51:22

to go to the rim in some cases, just did

51:25

not even want any part of trying to take

51:27

some of these shots after, I think in particular,

51:29

when he tried to drive and draw

51:31

fouls and was unsuccessful, it

51:34

got in his head. It really seemed like

51:36

he was just averse to even getting into those

51:38

deep paint situations after that. If

51:40

he's not that player, if he's not even willing to try that,

51:43

that's going to be a rough hang for the Sixers all

51:45

series long. I

51:47

know it's bad when Doris Burke gets

51:49

out the knives and starts cutting a little

51:51

too deep. She

51:53

was like, what is going on here? But Philly,

51:55

I am just.

51:59

kind of stupefied at this point because

52:02

we had faults and that was its

52:04

own thing. We had Simmons and

52:06

that was its own thing. And now somehow

52:09

Hardin

52:10

gets there and is falling into

52:12

that same like just

52:13

like black hole where he

52:15

just won't go up for a layup because

52:17

he's just shell shocked from going

52:19

into the lane. I don't know what

52:21

the hell is going on.