Host 1 (13:24)

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Basketball Analyst (14:14)

I want to open it up to the floor here. I'm. I want to. I'm going to bring Jackson on. We're going to take some questions. We'll stay here for Jackson. We'll stay here for about 10 minutes before we head over to to playback. But again, we're going to take some questions here for a little bit and then we'll move the show over to playback.

Co-Host (14:28)

Let's do it. Let's do it. First question about Stephen Adams. He's obviously presented a ton of problems for the Warriors. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Rockets have won two games when he's playing a lot more minutes. Do you think the warriors counter should be to stay with their smaller lineup? You know what generally is more effective for them as a, as a team or play bigger? Let a big try to box out Adams while Draymond gets to guard Chengu?

Basketball Analyst (14:56)

It's a tough question. I actually think the answer to dealing with Steven Adams more has to do with the offensive end of the floor. By the way, as we look at the numbers, quinton post in 18 minutes tonight was minus nine. So having that second big on the floor wasn't exactly doing a ton of positive work in this position specific case. I look at it like this. There was a stretch in the third quarter there where Steph was actually doing quite a bit of damage to Stephen Adams in space, and that really is the key. If you guys remember dating back to earlier in the series, one of the ways that Steph was having a lot of success was he was attacking up the floor with pace and getting onto Stephen Adams in screening action and then immediately attacking and drawing that initial dribble penetration. When they have Stephen Adams and Alper and Shangoon on the floor, they. They've got to get those guys in the blender and they got to make them cover ground on the perimeter more and more. I did think that there were several examples tonight, specifically Moses Moody and Brandon Pajemski, which is ironic because the two of them were kind of the more reliable younger players throughout this season. I thought both of them took a few too many shots tonight that were in that like eight, nine seconds on the shot clock where we can at least work to try to get it back to Stephen. Because at the end of the day, like, those guys just aren't going to hit enough of them for it to be that impactful. And I do, I do think there's something to be said about like, Steph putting a shot up is your best chance to generate points and you need to get it like, empty the clip. Steph needs to be taking like a lot more shots than even. Than he even has been taking in situations like this when they're not going down.

Co-Host (16:31)

Yeah, yeah, I agree. There's. We've gotten a lot of questions about the rotation. Is Jonathan Kuminga the guy? There's a lot of potentially misplaced. Maybe Pat Spencer should get some run talk in the chat right now. I'm not sure I would quite go that far. It's obviously comes down to the stars like you're saying, but if you were going to make any sort of rotation adjustments for the warriors, is it more Moses Mooney, more Buddy Hield, more Gary Payton, more Quinton Post Trace Jackson Davis? What would your sort of chess move be?

Basketball Analyst (17:00)

I was surprised at how quickly Steve Kerr bailed on Buddy healed. I know he was in some foul trouble, but like Buddy, when he's been on the floor in this series as like a counterpart to Steph, spacing has actually generated a lot of openings for Steph, mainly meaning like, when Buddy's on the weak side, he's at least being accounted for. And like, I, I just, I thought he had a lit. Just a little bit of too quick of a hook tonight. Especially considering the fact that it wasn't like Brandon Pajemski was hitting everything he was taking and having, having some sort of profound defensive impact. Again, like, I understand the desire to start looking down the roster and being like, who. What if, what, what if we get more out of this guy? What if we get more out of that guy? But this is just my personal philosophy and I know that there are a lot of warriors fans who disagree with me. I was arguing with a couple warriors fans before the show. Like, there, there are warriors fans that are like, Steph's doing his job. It's on everyone else. And, and like, and I, I don't disagree that there are obviously some elements down the roster that need to perform better than they've been performing But I, I, I am a firm believer that the superstar is the superpower and they're the ones that can overcome. And so yeah, you can lean a little bit more into Buddy Heel than I would. I would lean into Buddy Heel specifically for that. Counter spacing having less congestion when Steph is looking to attack into the middle of the floor. One of the things that was missing in tonight's game is it was a lot of threes from Stephen. 16 of his 23 attempts from three. If you remember in earlier games in the series he was really aggressive in the short to mid range, curling around action, taking stuff that was closer to the basket and I think counter spacing with Steph playing Buddy alongside him more I think would be helpful. While you're asking the next question, I'm actually going to go up to cleaning the glass and see what Buddy's on off numbers are in this series because I think they're pretty strong for sure.

Co-Host (18:42)

And I think the, that's, that's one thing that, I mean the zone has obviously, the rocket zone has obviously thrown the warriors offense off in a lot of ways. And I think the biggest, I mean the reason why they deploy, one of the reasons why they deployed is it's working. It's keeping Steven Adams close to the basket and it really makes it nevermind, get, get the ball even inside the paint, which they struggle to do. But Steph Curry is not getting any remotely easy looks inside the inside the arc when they're playing zone. It is very, it has definitely been very, very effective at its goal which is to muck, muck it up and then keep the warriors out of the paint.

Basketball Analyst (19:16)

Another question really quickly just so that you guys have the number. Buddy Heald has the best plus minus of any role player in the series. The warriors are 10.2 points better per 100 possessions with Buddy on versus off moving Gary Payton into the starting lineup. Gary Payton in this series and you and Jackson and I are both big. Gary Payton troopers but he is. The warriors are 13.2 points worse per 100 possessions in the series. When he's on the floor. I just, what I'm seeing with my eyes is the counter spacing like they're. Steph and Buddy are consistently on opposite sides of the floor and pulling help defenders away from each other and making life easy for each other. I know he was in foul trouble tonight, but I did think that he was capable of providing more than he did.

Co-Host (20:00)

Next question. This is not necessarily directed at you because you are critical of stuff today, but why does it feel like Steph gets less criticism than other stars?

Basketball Analyst (20:08)

I think. I think all of this really comes down to Stan behavior. Like, I. Like, I. I try to be consistent. I openly came on the show after the Lakers game and was like, LeBron was shitty on the defensive glass tonight. It was a huge part of why they lost the game. Like, I am a big LeBron fan, but, like, I. I believe in trying to be consistent with that kind of stuff. I also know that when I'm dealing with the general public, like, every Step fan is going to say, he's never done anything wrong. He's the goat, you know? You know, like, like. And then every LeBron fan is going to be like, why are we never critical of Steph? And it's like, most of the people that I watch that cover the league do a pretty good job of trying to be honest as. And fair as best as they can. And so I think, like, I think, honestly, it's. It's just about, like, the echo chambers online. Like, yeah, if you. If you go online and you are scrolling through Twitter and you're watching a bunch of warriors fans, they're probably not going to be blaming Steph for what happened tonight. And for the record, I don't think Steph's at fault for what's happening tonight or what's happening in this series. It's. I always. It's. It's this simple to me. He's the one guy who can save them. He's the one guy who can save them. Jackson, who was the one guy who could have saved the Lakers in the.

Co-Host (21:12)

First round, I mean, it probably would have been Luka Doncic.

Basketball Analyst (21:15)

It was Luka. Luka was the one guy who was capable of saving them by being so good on an island, one on one, that everything else trickled down from that. Like, that. That. I. I'm a big believer in, like, looking at Moses Moody and being like, why can't you do more? Is like, you're. You're asking. You're asking someone who's not capable of it.

Co-Host (21:35)

It's like you're playing, like, meme basketball. Like, why can't this other guy do it?

Basketball Analyst (21:39)

Yeah, exactly. And like, And. And that's the thing. It's. We're not. What. Yeah. When we're discussing Steph with respect to Damian Lillard, like, yeah, I'm going to start saying stuff like, Steph's a way better defender. He's way better off ball. He's way better at this, this, this, and that. But when I'm comparing Steph to Shay Gilders and Alexander and Nicola Jokic and the guys at the top of the league like they, Steph to me was playing at a top five level coming into this series. That was the level he was at. I, I thought he was better than Luka Doncic coming into this playoff run and like he is again the one guy who can save them. And it really is that simple to me. Really quickly, before you ask the next question, 34 possessions of zone for Houston tonight. 0.824 points per possession. I'm pulling. I thought it was particularly bad in the. Yeah, it was all in the fourth quarter where they fell apart in the first three quarters. In 16 possessions the warriors got 1.438. Jesus points points per possession against zone in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter again, zone, 18 possessions, only six points. So yeah, if, when, when we head over to playback here in a little bit, guys, we will watch all eight. We will watch all 18 of those possessions and we'll see if there's something obvious that they can get away from. But yeah, the, the, the zone definitely picked them to part. Picked them to pieces in that fourth quarter. I thought Steph was obviously fatigued too. Like, I thought Steph got some good looks. I thought Steph got very makeable Steph Curry shots in that fourth quarter that he just didn't make. And I think, I think like, I think there's a wear and tear factor. I think there's, you know, some of the reality of the variance that comes with really difficult shot making. But yeah, I mean that, that, that's some crazy numbers coming out of the zone defense there.

Co-Host (23:21)

That is crazy. Let's see one more question and then we'll head over to playback. You talked a lot about the, the formula for the warriors in game seven is one thing on each end. Can they defend the Fred Van Vliet sengun two man action better, dramatically better on the defensive end and can Steph Curry, you know, lift them up with shot making the other on the offensive end, if you were watching the warriors and you had to pick one of those two things that going into game seven you were like, they're doing this, check it off. They are doing one of those two things. Would you pick what would give them the better chance to win? Being much, much better defensively against that two man game or Steph Curry? I'm not going to say Steph Curry going God mode because that's the obvious. You know, if he gets 50, they're going to win. But if he is a better shot maker than he was tonight, I think.

Basketball Analyst (24:04)

I think the controllable is defense. I think there's only so much you can cross your fingers and hope in terms of Steph's shot making. Like, and if he's, if it's there, they're going to win. But this is the thing. Like, they, they won in like, there is a way to win on Sunday in game seven without Steph Curry having to score 30 points. And it's. You get Sengun and Fred Van Vliet under control. I think there's a certain amount of, like, those, there's certain guys that you don't want shooting and there are certain guys that you're more comfortable with shooting, like Jabari Smith Jr got to chase him off the line. Dylan Brooks over three. Amen Thompson over one from three. Alpern Shangun over two from three. Jalen Green one for six from three. Like, they, they need to be pinching and making sure that specifically Fred is not getting looks. Specifically Jabari Smith is not getting looks. The other guys, who cares? Like, Tar Eason made two threes tonight. If, if, if Tar Eason gets a bunch of open looks in Game seven. I don't think they're going to go in at a super high clip. But like, the, they need to do a better job of shrinking the floor. I would switch. That was, I would switch without switching consent, without conceding switches. What that means is like, like, try to do what you did on the final possession of Game four, bust through the switch as best you can, but ultimately don't give Fred Van Vliet clean looks that come out of him slipping out of action because you put two on the ball. And I mean, there is something to be said about leaning into size. Like, you know, I'm not even necessarily talking about quitting post necessarily, but just playing your bigger, better athletes as much as possible in the game for the purpose of trying to get more stops and get out and transition. Because transition is another way that can get going. I would lean into it in different ways. Like, I think they're, I think with the starting group, I still really like having Buddy healed out there next to Steph. But I think you need to have lineups that, especially when Steven Adams is on the floor where you're built more around the athleticism piece and try to get out in transition. All right, guys, so as we mentioned, there's a link in the description. We're headed over to playback right now. We're going to take some questions, have some of you guys come on stage if you want and we will watch some of the film from the warriors struggling against the Rocket Zone. We'll see you guys over there in just a few minutes. What's up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.

Host 2 (26:20)

The volume.

Host 1 (26:24)

Okay, have you heard about this? Last year, Degree changed the formula for their Cool Rush deodorant. The fans rebel and wanted the old scent back and Degree listened and that doesn't happen often. They admitted they effed up and are bringing the original Cool Rush scent back. And it's exactly how you remember it. Cool, crisp and fresh. There's a reason why it's the number one men's antiperspirant. And it's back in Walmart, Target and other stores now for under $4. So try it and see what the fuss is about. Head to your local Walmart Target and try the OG Cool Rush for yourself.