← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
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- [00:00]
Jason Timpf
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- [00:33]
Greg Rosenthal
T Mobile's stats are as impressive as your favorite athlete's highlight reel because T Mobile helps keep you connected from the heart of Portland to right where you are on America's largest 5G network switch. Now keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off up to 800 per line via prepaid card. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com keepandswitch up to 4 lines of your virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device, credit service port in 90 plus days device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.
- [00:59]
Jason Timpf
Foreign.
- [01:03]
Daniel Jeremiah
What'S up everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101 free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:32]
Israel Gutierrez
I'm Israel Gutierrez and I'm hosting a new podcast, Dub Dynasty, the story of how the Golden State warriors have dominated the NBA for over a decade.
- [01:41]
Jason Timpf
The Golden State warriors once again are NBA champions today.
- [01:46]
Israel Gutierrez
The warriors dynasty remains alive in large part because of a scrawny 6 foot 2 hooper who everyone seems to love.
- [01:53]
Jason Timpf
For what Steph has done for the game, he's certainly on that Mount Rushmore.
- [01:56]
Israel Gutierrez
Come revisit this magical Warriors R. Listen to Dub Dynasty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [02:08]
Greg Rosenthal
The volume.
- [02:12]
Jason Timpf
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- [04:05]
Israel Gutierrez
All right.
- [04:05]
Jason Timpf
Welcome to Oops Tonight here at the Volume Heavy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. As expected, the Clippers warriors game yesterday was incredibly entertaining and incredibly informative. So all we're going to do in this little short episode this morning is we're going to talk about my five biggest takeaways from the first truly important, truly high stakes game in the NBA this season. And then after that, I'm going to give just my initial impressions on the two Western Conference playoff series, that being the Lakers versus The Minnesota Timberwolves in the Denver Nuggets versus The Los Angeles Clippers. The rest of this week we're going to have a lot of series preview content. I actually have a kind of a breakdown of that coming a little bit later in the show so that you guys can have an idea of what to expect this week. But this morning just Clippers warriors, some takeaways as well as my initial thoughts on the two other playoff series in the Western Conference, you guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at_jason lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's also doing incredible work on our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Make sure you guys follow us. There's and last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We can get to our mailbags throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So again, yesterday there was a brief moment early in the day where it looked like things could get a little bit more complicated because Ime Udoka decided to play his starters against the Nuggets. So now all of a sudden you're really looking at the 4 through 8 being literally anything but. The Nuggets came out with the requisite intensity. The Rockets did not. The Udoka kept their minutes down and so that game ended up not mattering. So it ended up all coming down to that Clippers warriors game. As I said at the top, we're going to do our five biggest takeaways. This is going to be the schedule for series previews this week. So again we have just initial thoughts today. Tomorrow, full series previews for Bucks, Pacers and Pistons Knicks the next day. Wednesday full series previews on Lakers, Wolves and on Clippers Nuggets. The two Sevens will be out on Thursday after we have the results from the play in. And then just like we do every year, the one Eights are always a little bit shorter and a little bit more brief just because they're the biggest favorite usually. And because of the way the schedule works, we don't even find out who those teams are until Friday night. And then Saturday morning the actual playoffs start. So I actually have to turn my attention to the real game. So our one Eights won't be as comprehensive as the other six series previews. But that's the schedule this week. Two on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, two on Thursday. Just keep an eye on the feeds. You guys will see it there. Also, for your Warrior fans, we will be going live on YouTube after the final buzzer of Grizzlies warriors tomorrow night and we'll do a little mailbag there as well. So our Five biggest takeaways from this Clippers warriors game. First of all, just incredible basketball. It's always amazing when you get to this time of year. There are important regular season games. There have been a lot of important regular season games in the last couple of weeks. But when you get to that final day of the regular season, it just feels different in terms of the stakes. And this, these were important stakes for both teams on a bunch of different levels. Right? The warriors losing dropped to the plan. If the Clippers had lost, they would have dropped to the plan. Now you can kind of draw a little bit of a silver lining for warriors fans in the sense that like if you win that game, you have to go through the Clippers and then likely, excuse me, the Lakers and then likely the Clippers right after that. Because I do think the Clippers would have beat Houston in a 2, 7 matchup. And so you would have to go through two of the top teams in the Western Conference. If I was ordering the teams in the Western Conference, there's going to be, you know, the Thunder, the Lakers, the Clippers, the Warriors, and then a gap for me before the rest of these teams. And so the. For you to have to play one of those teams in every single round potentially would be extremely difficult to get through. So now if you win on Tuesday against the Grizzlies, at least you get to play Houston in the first round, which I think is an easier opponent than both the Lakers or the Clippers. That said, I think warriors fans would have rather done the Lakers Clippers route and not have to take the risk of the playing. You go in there tomorrow and John Morant happens to have his three point shot going and he hits six or seven threes and Desmond Baines got it going and Jaren Jackson hit six or seven threes. You could be staring down the barrel of like a DeMar DeRozan, Zach Levine led team coming into your building with a chance to knock you out of the playoffs. It's unnecessary risk. So obviously you'd rather take the route of the guaranteed playoff path. But if you're looking for a silver lining, I do think it's an easier path to go Houston LA OKC than to go LA L A okc. So that's a little bit of a, of a silver lining there. But okay, looking back at the game, ends up going to ot. Clippers pull it out late. I wanted to go over some takeaways. Cause I did think there were some revealing things for both teams in terms of what we can expect in their playoff run this year from that game. First of all, playoff, Kawhi looks very much here, easily getting separation from top tier defenders, working Jimmy Butler to his spots on the floor to get easy fade aways over both shoulders. He was getting separate. Jaymon Green did log some good possessions against him. Specifically the, the one at the final buzzer in the fourth quarter where he just got a great contest and forced one of Kawhi's worst misses of the day. Kind of like an outside of the rim miss long into the right. But even against Draymond Green, like got a clean look at a step back three in crunch time, got a clean look at a step back along the left wing along two that he made. He was able to get separation from everybody and eventually dictate a bunch of double teams from Steve Kerr. I disagreed, I was actually talking with Jackson, we talked on the phone a little bit after the game yesterday and I, I, I disagreed with the strategy that they went with with the double team specifically attacking Kawhi so far from the basketball. One of the reasons why I don't like that is it creates a lot more space to deal with the four on three. Right. Like it's kind of the, the Steph Curry blitz concept, right? This is what Steph Curry's been doing to teams for a decade in terms of blitz coverage. You give a guy the ball right at the high post in a four on three with like the, the two defenders that were on the ball way out at near half court, there's just so much space for Chris Dunn to turn around and methodically look down the lane like, oh, you know, this guy didn't step up. So I'm going to shoot the little floater. Oh, this guy did step up. So I'm going to throw the little lob to Zubots. It's like a very easy kind of like order of operations there. Kawhi is not the greatest passer of all time. So like I would have rather had you double Kawhi like as he's going into more of a scoring position. So like if he's dribbling out by the three point line, just tell your man to pressure the ball, pressure him and funnel him to a specific side where you're planning the double coming from. And then as he like puts his head down and starts driving, that's when you bring the double team and you can kind of capitalize on some of Kawhi's playmaking weaknesses. But I disagreed with the strategy. But it is what it is. Kawhi ends up Drawing all these double teams and they're able to consistently generate great shots out of it. But it started from the basic concept that nobody on the Warriors. An elite defense in this league could make Kawhi uncomfortable, as he was just dropping whatever he wanted from anywhere on the floor. That bodes extremely well for the Clippers. Right? Like, so much of what we talk about with the Clippers comes down to, like, this theoretical concept of like, well, will Kawhi be able to give you four playoff rounds? Well, here's the thing. It's April 14th. We're here now. Like, Kawhi is healthy right now with no games between now and his playoff series with the Denver Nuggets that starts on Saturday. So, like, he's here now and he looks like Kawhi. So at this point, I feel like it's wishful thinking for him to get hurt. Maybe he will get hurt, who knows? But, like, it's very likely at this point that Kawhi is going to be healthy for this playoff run in a way that it wasn't when we were discussing this theoretical team back in October and November. I think that bodes extremely well for Clippers fans. Kawhi Leonard looked like the best player on the floor last night. Kawhi, when he's at his ceiling, is very capable of being a top tier superstar in this league, and it just fundamentally alters the talent level that is on this Clippers team. They looked like an absolute problem yesterday because of Kawhi and the ceiling that he's able to reach. 2. Evita Zubots is on the doorstep of becoming one of the star centers in this league. Big, huge, important game. 22 points, 17 rebounds, got a bucket out of the post. He was doing a lot of different types of floor spacing. We talked about the vertical spacing on the lob from Chris Dunn in crunch time. He had another example of spacing like that Isaiah Hartenstein style floater spacing on a James Harden drive past Gary Payton, where he went down the lane line and just shoveled it off to Zoo just outside the left block. And he was able to shoot that little floater over the top. He was destroying them on the offensive glass. He was just an absolute problem. I cannot wait to watch him battle Jokic for a full series. I think it's a very interesting matchup because of his size. He's one of the few guys in this league that's actually big and strong enough to cause some disruption for Nicole Jokic. His base, Zoo, is on a run and I cannot wait to watch him play some really high stakes basketball this week. Third big takeaway playoff. Jimmy Butler apparently is still a thing. I can't ever remember watching a player that has had more ability to scale up from his normal production in high stakes environments than Jimmy Butler. I wish he would have been more aggressive in crunch time and we're going to talk about that in a little bit here in our fourth piece. Like Steph was just running out of gas a little bit late in the game once we got into the final minute of the fourth quarter. But for the most part last night with the scoring and the playmaking was able to leverage it in a way that was deeply impactful. He looked springy, he was getting to the rim, he was dunking, he was getting lots of lift on his jump shot. Little concern with that knee to the quad that he caught late in the game from Kawhi especially just because they have to turn around and play in a day. That said, I do think the, the the warriors will dispatch of Memphis and he will have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. So I think he should be fine. Jimmy looking great I think is huge. I was talking with my friend Sam is fondiary who covers the warriors with the light years guys like about a week ago about Jimmy and just like some of his scoring scalability and like this was the big question mark. Was he going to be the Jimmy that we saw in the regular season that's just kind of like a cog in the system that kind of helps elevate everybody and the warriors look really, really good. Or is he going to be the 25 + per game point scorer that can like actually raise the ceiling of this team to where it needs to be to win the title. And even though it's just one game, I thought that was a very encouraging start to that run from Jimmy Butler.
- [15:09]
Greg Rosenthal
4.
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Jason Timpf
The warriors offense is still way too Steph reliant, kind of to the point where it doesn't actually make sense schematically like Brandon Pajemski is playing incredibly well, continues to play incredibly well, played incredibly well in a high leverage game again yesterday. Jimmy Butler was scoring whenever he wanted throughout the majority of that game. But there's this thing that happens when they get into crunch time where all of a sudden it becomes no.1 shoot but Steph. The only way you're allowed to shoot off of Steph if is it is if it's like specifically in the flow of those like four on threes. So like yeah, Jimmy will score on a cut off of a Jimmy off of a Steph Curry back screen. Or Brandon Pajemski will take a, you know, wide open three at the top of the key out of a rotation situation that Steph generates. But there's no willingness for Jimmy to like, come off of an action and look to score. There's no willingness for Brandon Pajemski to come off of an action and look to score. Down the stretch of these games, it's like Steph tries to create something and if it's not there, it's like, find Steph again, like wherever Steph is, just give it back to Steph. And it's like, well, I get that because I agree with Steve Kerr when, when he had his rant with Buddy Heel to be like, hey, look, it's Steph Curry. It's greatest shooter, shooter of all time. You should prob him the basketball. I don't disagree. But there's this thing that happens when you get into these super intense, physical games where Steph Curry, because he's not the greatest athlete in the world, can sometimes struggle to get his shot off. Like over the course of the final six minutes of the game. He was incredible for the first stretch of crunch time that, like just lighting the world on fire. Relocation threes off the dribble, threes. Getting to the basket in transition, Steph was cooking them. But over the last six minutes, he was running out of gas. He had three turnovers. He had a turnover in the final minute of the fourth quarter. He had two turnovers in the fourth quarter or in the overtime. Excuse me. He only got one three point shot off in that entire span. Like, Steph was struggling to get his shot off. And so that's what you got Jimmy Butler for. Like, what happens in those situations is when things get really physical and really tight and no one's open, it helps to have a forward who's big and strong, who can put his elbow into a dude and create a passing angle for you to just throw him the ball and he can turn and just shoot over the top of somebody because that's the advantage of being the great athlete, right? Like Steph has to run in circles until someone fucks up so that he can get open. Jimmy can just stand there at 6, 7 with lot with lots of strength and a good strong base and great lift on his jump shot to be able to create a shot for himself. And so I think it behooved the warriors to at least have a little bit more balance down crunch time of these games to where you're still trying to get the ball to Steph and everything is still flowing through Steph. But hey, if it's like, you know, nine, ten seconds left on the shot clock, it might be time to get Jimmy to the high post and ask him to try to draw a foul by like ripping through and pump faking or trying to get to a spot in the middle of the floor so he can elevate over the top for a little 10 foot jump shot over the top of somebody. There needs to be more variety down the stretch of these games. It's just so many of these games look just like that for the warriors where it's just Steph running around in circles until someone fucks up. And there just needs to be a little bit more variety and a little bit more confidence for Steph's co stars to be able to take some initiative late in games. And then lastly, the warriors have a little bit of a fifth starter problem. They had this issue yesterday where they're like, okay, who are we going to close with? Are we going to close with Moses Moody? Are we going to close with Gary Payton? Are we going to close going big? Like, what are we going to end up doing? Right? And so they end up going with Gary Payton. And the problem with that is Gary Payton wasn't particularly having too much success with James Harden. James Harden was still getting dribble penetration on him pretty much whenever he wanted. Shout out to James Harden, by the way, like two just absolutely massive threes in overtime. The transition three out of the right corner and that little step back three that he hit at the top of the key. Some great dribble penetration sequences that led to quality shots. I thought Harden was fantastic yesterday, but Gary Payton was struggling in that particular matchup to keep him away from the basket. And then on the offensive end of the floor, it gives you a third player that no one has to account for as a shooter. I, I saw my friend Rajalu I used to cover the Lakers with years ago. He tweeted out after the game like, it's Gary Payton, it's Draymond, it's Jimmy Butler. It's three guys that you don't necessarily have to like worry about being aggressive at the three point line in crunch time. Like, they will take them. Like we saw Draymond take one out of the right corner that he made. We saw Jimmy randomly after, like not shooting in crunch time at all. We saw Jimmy randomly just, just take a super heavily contested left corner three. But like they're not guys that are going to catch wide open on the three point line and typically look to be super, super aggressive. And that just gives a ton of opportunity for those other three guys, the defenders to leverage their attention a little bit more towards Steph and so. But then you go to the Moses Moody thing and it's like, okay, well, Moses Moody has been really struggling to shoot the ball as of late, right? And Moses Moody is not as good of a read and react player as Gary Payton is. That's a big part of why they go with Gary Payton. When Draymond missed the layup right in the final minute of ot, it's a read that Gary Payton made out of the short roll. Gary Payton has a ton of experience running screening action with Steph short rolling into the middle of the floor and playmaking out of it where Moses Moody does not. So like, that's the issue is like, okay, so you can go with the 3 and D guy, but then you don't have the playmaking talent and Moses Moody hasn't been a very reliable three point shooter. Or you can go with Gary Payton and you're going to get a better defender. But he's small and struggled with James Harden size and he doesn't shoot the three well, even though he can do the read and react stuff. And so that's where, like, you know, when I look at the big picture for the warriors as we go into next season, who knows what's going to happen this year. There's still plenty of time for this team to regain the momentum that they lost here in the last week and they could potentially go on a title run this year. I'm not writing them off by any means, but if they go into this summer, that's the position I think they need to look to address. And that's where it's like, man, if you could somehow flip, you know, Kaminga and, and something else for Cam Johnson and bring in like a, like a really high level fifth starter, that's where this team could potentially vault into that, that like top, top tier of teams in this league. AT&T has a new guarantee because most things in life are not guaranteed. Like actually getting the rental car you requested or your wedding turning out just like you dreamed it would, and someone making another pot of coffee in the break room after drinking the last drop of the last one. Yeah, don't get me started. Not guaranteed. In a world where Nothing is guaranteed, AT&T is bringing something new to the table. AT&T introducing a guarantee with connectivity you can depend on deals you want and service you deserve, or they make it right. So if you want to know more about the ATT guarantee, head to att.com guarantee@&t connecting changes everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.comguarantee for details.
- [22:15]
Greg Rosenthal
T Mobile stats are as impressive as your favorite athlete's highlight reel because T Mobile helps keep you connected from the heart of Portland to right where you are on America's largest 5G network. Switch now. Keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off up to $800 per line via prepaid card. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com keepandswitch up to 4 lines via virtual prepaid card will have 15 days qualified unlock device, credit service port in 90 plus days device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required card is no cash access and expires in.
- [22:41]
Jason Timpf
Six months.
- [22:45]
Daniel Jeremiah
What'S up everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101 free agents, we'll have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [23:14]
Israel Gutierrez
I'm Israel Gutierrez and I'm hosting a new podcast, Dub Dynasty, the story of how the Golden State warriors have dominated the NBA for over a decade.
- [23:24]
Jason Timpf
The Golden State warriors once again are.
- [23:27]
Israel Gutierrez
NBA champions from the building of the core that included Klay Thompson and Draymond Green to one of the boldest coaching decisions in the history of the sport.
- [23:37]
Jason Timpf
I just felt like the biggest thing was to earn the trust of the players and let the players know that we were here to try to help them take the next step, not tear anything down.
- [23:45]
Israel Gutierrez
Today, the warriors dynasty remains alive in large part because of a scrawny 6 foot 2 hooper who everyone seems to.
- [23:53]
Jason Timpf
Love for what Steph has done for the game. He's certainly on that, like Mount Rushmore for guys that have changed it, come.
- [23:59]
Israel Gutierrez
Revisit this magical warriors ride. This is Dub Dynasty.
- [24:03]
Jason Timpf
The Dubs dynasty is still very much alive.
- [24:07]
Israel Gutierrez
Listen to Dub Dynasty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
- [24:19]
Jason Timpf
So let's take a couple of looks at our Western Conference first round series. So Clippers Nuggets My initial thoughts I was surprised to see that Denver was favored even though they do have home court. The Clippers have been playing better basketball for a very long time, like much better basketball for a very long time than the Denver Nuggets. I struggle to see how Denver regard the Clippers. James Harden in ball screens is the classic conundrum that Denver has struggled with, which is a pull up shooter that you have to bring Jokic up to the level against, but also a top tier playmaker in this league that can make the passes out of those sequences to consistently get Denver in rotation. That's a problem as you saw in overtime. In crunch time, Norman Powell can attack closeouts. He attacked a closeout off of the left wing in crunch time, got to the basket for a scooping layup, attacked a closeout out of the left corner in overtime, drove along the baseline and had a really nice little slaloming move around the rim protector to get a reverse layup on the right side of the basket. That's the type of weak side scoring that has been devastating the Nuggets throughout this entire stretch where their defense has fallen apart. You bring Jokic up to the level where Zoo Zoo is now getting all the way towards the rim with inside position on everybody, he's going to crush everybody on the offensive glass. Are you going to guard Kawhi Leonard with Aaron Gordon? He's the only guy physically capable. Christian Brown is too small. Michael Porter Jr. Would get thrown around like a rag dollar. Peyton Watson's too skinny. Aaron Gordon's the one guy who can physically match up with him. Here's the problem. If you bring and I talked about this in other playoff series in the past, when you bring Aaron Gordon out to the perimeter to guard, he is no longer the low man support behind Jokic. Jokic is a weak rim protector that consistently has to go up to the level, that's consistently running back and forth to the perimeter. You need Aaron Gordon on the back line as the athlete that can clean things up at the rim and help side situations and clean up the defensive glass. If you put him on Kawhi, he's going to Kawhi is going to space him out and occupy him and it's just going to leave an athletic deficit on the backline. I think it's that that's my initial impression is I just don't see how Denver is going to really successfully guard the Clippers. Now. To be clear, Denver will also be able to score. Michael Porter Jr. Will almost certainly have size advantages shooting over the top. They'll put either James Harden or Norman Powell on him and he's going to be able to shoot over the top. And then because of help on Jokic, there's going to be opportunities for Christian Brown to slash off the wing or to cut along the baseline. Aaron Gordon's been shooting the ball extremely well for a long time. I think he's just a good shooter now, so like he's going to get clean looks as they're having to swarm around Jokic. But the Clips do have more traditional matchups for Denver stars than vice versa. For Denver they have to take their low man to occupy Kawhi. That's a problem. That's a non traditional thing that messes up the backside of their defensive scheme. They literally don't have the ability to contend with James Harden. That coverage is going to get annihilated. They don't have traditional matchups there you go over to the other side of the floor and it's like Chris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr are classic chase over the top bother, pull up shooter type of players. They are a clean, natural matchup for Jamal Murray and then in a league that doesn't really have many natural matchups for Nikola Jokic. Evita Zubots is as close as you can get to a natural matchup for Nikola Jokic. He is big and strong, one of the few players in the league that actually has the size to bother Jokic his base a little bit. Again, I expect Denver to score, but I always look at playoff series in a very basic concept, the context which team is more likely to make the other team uncomfortable. Do you think Denver's defense will make the Clippers offense more uncomfortable than the Clippers defense will make the Denver offense? And for me right now it looks to me like the Clippers would be able to make Denver's offense more uncomfortable than the other way around. That's just my initial impression. Again, I want to be very clear. I have not done my prep yet for these series. That's the goal for this week. I'm going to watch a ton of film. I'm going to dig into numbers. I might change my mind on this, but my initial impression right now is that the Clippers should be favored to beat the Nuggets and that I would pick them to win that series. Same thing for the Lakers Wolves. These are just my initial thoughts, reserve the right to change my mind. But I can tell you as a fan, I was experiencing a great deal of anxiety worrying about how to guard the Golden State Warriors. They, they were a team that caused me anxiety on both ends of the Floor because one, I don't think they have the foot speed to guard Steph. And then once you start throwing a lot of attention at Stephen, playmaking talent is how you capitalize on that. I'm more worried about super smart, high I high IQ teams incrementally breaking down the Laker defense than teams that can't playmate. The warriors have all that playmaking talent. They were a team that I thought was going to be able to score against the Laker defense. And then on the other end of the floor, it's a team that switches a ton. Super high IQ and excellent in rotation at like speeding guys up, which I thought could cause some problems for Laker role players and capitalize on some of the indecision for Luka and LeBron. I would have still picked the Lakers versus the Warriors. I think they're a better basketball team, but I thought it was a really tough matchup and it was something that I was worried about and I didn't want to see and I would rather see after they dealt with Dylan Brooks, you know, kicking them in the balls for two straight weeks. So that, that was what I was. That was the ideal outcome for me. Timberwolves as a fan again. And I might change my mind after digging into the numbers a little bit, but in digging into the film. But I, I think it's the perfect matchup for the Lakers as a first round series. The only team that I'd feel more confident in them beating out of the teams that were beneath them in the standings that they could potentially face in the first round. The only team I'd feel more confident in them beating is Memphis. And Memphis had no chance to get out of the eight because they've just been playing really bad basketball for a while. This was the team I wanted. Here's my basic reasoning surface level right now before I dig into the film and do the comprehensive breakdown. 1. The Dorian Finney Smith, Rui Hachimura lineup, the lineup with Austin, Lebron and Luca, the lineup that I've often said is the only other team other than Boston with their lineups with Horford or Porzingis. The only other lineup in the league that can truly present elite advantage creation. With Elite 5 outspacing, that's the. The only lineups in the league that can do that right now. Five guys where it's like, you can't leave this guy open. If you leave him open, he's just going to hit shots. If you leave Dorian Finney Smith open, he's going to hit shots. If you Leave Rui open, he's going to hit shots. If you leave Austin open, he's going to hit shots. If you leave LeBron open, he's going to hit shots. And Luke is probably going to have the ball most of the time. So, like, it's a lineup that can really, truly space the floor. That lineup will either play Rudy off the floor or at least neutralize his rim protection. Rudy, when he can sit under the basket, is a devastating defensive player. When he switches onto the perimeter and has help behind him, he's a devastating defensive player. When he has to guard in space, his defensive value is mitigated a bit because he's not protecting the rim. He's defending out on the perimeter, which he does well, but not exactly as well as elite perimeter defenders. And then is he bringing enough offensively on the other end of the floor to justify him being out on the court? That is the question. We will see. It's very possible that we see Chris Finch basically just be like, we're going to leave Rudy out there, and even if we lose some value in certain places, we're going to gain value elsewhere. We'll see. But that unit, at the very least, should be able to neutralize Rudy's rim protection. Once you neutralize Rudy's rim protection, now you're allowing LeBron and Luka to pick on matchups without having to worry about being deterred when they get to the rim. I think that that is a huge advantage for the Lakers. Two, the Wolves perimeter guys, all their perimeter defenders are way too small for Luka, as we saw in the Western Conference finals last year. Jaden McDaniels is just too skinny for a Luka. He can throw him around. He's one of the very best perimeter defenders in the league who can't guard Luka, and that is like, just a really difficult situation to manage right off the stop, right off the top. I want to. There's a potential here to, like, tinker with matchups. So you could imagine a situation where you take Jaden McDaniels and you put him on Austin Reeves instead, because he, at the very least, can stop Austin Reeves. But then it's like, now you're asking Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle to guard LeBron James and Luka Doncic, and that's a problem because one ant can't navigate screens. So if you put him on Luka, he's just going to run him through screens. We saw that at the tail end of the Western Conference finals last year. They tried it on Luca. It didn't work. Put Julius on Luca. That's going to be barbecue chicken. And yeah, you could put LeBron on, you could put Anthony Edwards on LeBron, but now you're leaving Julius on Luca and that's just a huge problem. If you don't put Jaden on Austin, who's guarding Austin, is it going to be Mike Conley? Like, Austin's going to cook Mike Conley? Like, there's so many different, like, matchup issues with the way that Minnesota can disperse their perimeter talent. My if I was coaching the Timberwolves, what I would do is I would lean a lot more into like Dante DiVincenzo and I would deploy their best defenders on LeBron and Austin and try to mitigate them as much as possible, understanding that you're probably not going to do much damage to Luka anyway. So maybe like put Jaden on LeBron, input Dante on Austin and essentially have those two be uncomfortable all series and just see if Luka can do enough damage to you and try to wear him down with physicality over the course of the series. But the bottom line is the Wolves perimeter guys are just not necessarily big and strong enough to bother a Luka, Doncic and lebron the way that like you see from Houston for instance, or when Golden State like deploys Draymond and Jimmy on the perimeter and stuff like that like that, that those options are just not available to Minnesota in this series. And then lastly, as an advantage for the Lakers, I think as I mentioned earlier, what worries me the most for the Laker defense is playmaking talent. The reason why is there's a lot of smoke and mirrors with JJ Redick's defense. They don't have rim protection, they don't have a ton of elite perimeter defenders that usually are hiding at least two targets on the floor at any given time. But the what they do is they just have a ton of like elite defensive game planning in terms of like funneling guys into where they specifically want their help side set up. They're good in rotation, they've got a couple of athletes on the floor all the time that are flying around and help help in recover situations. You need to break down the Laker defense with incremental playmaking, like creating that initial advantage and then the guy drives a closeout and then another guy makes a great read and a guy makes a smart cut. If you do that kind of stuff, you can pick the Lakers apart. And the warriors have done that in, in their most recent matchup against the Lakers. This Timberwolves team is not a good aggregate playmaking team. They are a team that I think would be susceptible to a lot of the gimmicky stuff that JJ Redick will do. I expect an assortment of double teams against Anthony Edwards. I expect a lot of pressure being put on Ant to be an elite playmaker in this series. I just think from a matchup standpoint, a lot of stuff just kind of lines up with the Lakers strengths and avoids some of the Lakers weaknesses. And so I think it both. I think it's just a really favorable matchup for them. Now again, where. Another opportunity for the Timberwolves in this series where the Lakers struggled in the past with Ant and Julius Anthony Edwards in particular in their last matchup, Even though the Lakers controlled that matchup from start to finish, they were funneling Anthony Edwards. They were doing the same defense they used against Shay, Gilchrist, Alexander. So they're funneling him towards the sideline, like opening up their stance, basically. They did this against Jalen Brunson too, if you remember. They used it against Shea. They use it against Jalen. They use it. It's basically their defense against elite star guards in this league. They funnel them towards the sideline with like basically a catch waiting. So a helper like that's already zoned up on the strong side outside the block, like waiting for that drive. And Ant did have some success in that game being like, oh, you're going to give me a Runway? Well, I'm way more athletic than you guys and he would just shoot that gap and he'd be right in the teeth of all the help. But he's such an elite athlete that he would either just finish over everybody or he would do that slow down step he does and wait for everybody to land back on the ground before he goes back up and score. Ant did have some success against that defensive game plan before he got ejected in that game. And then lastly, Julius Randle over the years has had some success against Rui Hachimura. It's something I've talked about on the show before, the idea of holding ground with your shoulder. Rui has a little bit of a tendency to give ground against physicality. And so if Rui Hachimura gets the Julius Randle matchup instead of LeBron James to start the game, that's something I could see Rui having some issues with. It's very possible that The Lakers deploy LeBron on Jaden McDaniels, thinking they can use him as a roamer. And I think they could end up in some situations where Julius gets comfortable if they do that. So I don't want to sit here and pretend like Minnesota doesn't have advantages. They obviously do. I just think the Lakers have more advantages in this matchup. This was the matchup that I was most comfortable with as a first round series for the Lakers other than Memphis. Again, we're going to do a deep dive as we get later into this week, but those are my initial impressions. That's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me me in supporting the show. I will see you guys tomorrow morning with series previews on the Bucks and the Pacers and the Pistons and the Knicks and then again tomorrow night for the warriors playing game. As always, I appreciate you guys and I will see you then. 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.
- [38:11]
Greg Rosenthal
The Volume.
- [38:15]
Daniel Jeremiah
What'S up everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101 free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [38:44]
Israel Gutierrez
I'm Israel Gutierrez and I'm hosting a new podcast, Dub Dynasty, the story of how the Golden State warriors have dominated the NBA for over a decade.
- [38:53]
Jason Timpf
The Golden State warriors once again are NBA champions today.
- [38:58]
Israel Gutierrez
The warriors dynasty remains alive in large part because of a small, brawny 6 foot 2 hooper who everyone seems to love for what Steph has done for the game.
- [39:06]
Jason Timpf
He's certainly on that Mount Rushmore.
- [39:08]
Israel Gutierrez
Come revisit this magical warriors ride. Listen to Dub Dynasty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [39:19]
Jason Timpf
What's up everyone? Julie Swerbinks here along with former NHL player Nate Thompson. We're doing a new podcast together. Here we go, the Name Energy Line with Nate and jsb. Each week we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right? Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us. Julie is pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe. Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Israel Gutierrez
My name is Brendan Patrick Hughes, host of Divine Intervention. This is a story about radical nuns in combat boots and wild haired pries trading blows with J. Edgar Hoover in a hell bent effort to sabotage a war.
- [40:05]
Jason Timpf
J. Edgar Hoover was furious. He was out of his mind and he wanted to bring the Catholic left to its knees.
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Israel Gutierrez
Listen to Divine intervention on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.