Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Big Game 7 Statements From Warriors & Nuggets + What To Watch For In Second Round

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim MacMahon and Ramona Shelburne to talk the Warriors eliminating the Rockets in Game 7 off of a career game from Buddy Hield, if Golden State has a chance in the next round, Houston potential with Kevin Durant & other stars this summer, the Nuggets’ domination of the Clippers in Game 7, the Pacers’ surprising upset in Cleveland and some of the biggest storylines to watch in the second round including Knicks-Celtics & more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.espn.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Hello and welcome to Hoot Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing late on Sunday evening. Joining us from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where she's just in from covering game

seven in Denver between the clippers and nuggets to cover round two between the Nuggets and Thunder. It's Ramona Shelburne. What's up, Ramona? How you doing, Brian? I landed in OKC and the whole town is decked out. It's like flags and art everywhere. The whole town is ready for the series.

You know, who else just landed in OKC? He insists on flying from Dallas, 32-minute flight. It's Ban McMahon. Howdy, partners. Listen, man, it's an every other day series. What am I going to do? Drive up here and leave my car for like two weeks? I don't care about it.

I just like to tease you because it drives Bontem's crazy. Listen, Bontem's ain't going to pay for my family to go on vacation on those airline miles even. Yeah. You got that right. Bontem has his own family. me to worry about now, buddy. Yeah, happy, have mazzled off to baby Bonteps. Yep. I'm in New York City where the Bontem's family is, but I don't have time to go see him right now. I got a work to do. I know. What I'm going to say. Be no uncle status but bestowed to me.

I will be sending food. That's what you do when people have a kid. The first week, just send food. Nobody wants to see you. Well, McMahon's been reactivated after his hiatus with the Thunder getting ready to play again. It's been nice, Tammy. That's, uh, my boys team went two and oh during my, uh, eight days off. So it was good. A good home trip. Um, all right.

So the fund aren't working for a couple days yet, but we had some work over the weekend. And we start with the game seven that we just saw here on Sunday night, uh, Golden State going in and winning game seven in Houston. Um, it was very unpredictable how this game would play out. Certainly did not foresee Buddy Healed having the game of his life. Um, but if you're going to have your, yourself a game of your life, do it in a game seven on the road. That's what I always say. And that's what happened here. There was a lot that went into this game. McMahon, I thought the rockets

showed their worst side, which was their, you know, they don't score. You know, they have a fragile offense and it went away. And I think that, you know, the interesting thing is they shot 41% in the paint. And the Warriors played zone and Draymond was all over Shengoon. Shingun, Elperrin, Shingu was 9-223. But Buddy Heald made nine three-pointers in this game, which, by the way, I think was a game seven record. And the, the Warriors made 18 three-pointers. The Rockets took 18 three-pointers. So while there's a lot of stuff going on, the Rockets' inability to score is the reason they were seen as a bit of a soft two-seed. And even though I felt that they did a lot respectable in this series, it's what took them out. Yeah. And look, this was, what was predictable is that the

Rockets' muddy offense would be the reason that they're not getting to the second round. And look, nobody entered the season outside of Houston thinking the Rockets were going to be a two-seed, that they were going to win 50-some-odd-games. By no means is this season of failure. This season was a huge, huge jump forward for the Rockets. But you look at the games that they lose in this series, they score 85, they score 106, and let's see, they score 93, and tonight they score 89. They need a go-to guy.

They need an offensive engine. They've got a ton of young talent. Fred Van Fleet has been exactly what they hoped he'd be as a vet. Dylan Brooks, for the most part, has too, but they need a go-to guy. They hope he's homegrown. But I think they, I know they're going to have internal discussions about what they might want to do in the trade market this summer. Man, I would encourage some aggression. And I get it.

They don't want to give up young talent for short-term fix. They don't want to make a move that would give them a 3% chance to win a championship. You know, it's got to be a double-digit type of thing if you're giving up value. But Shungoon's a nice player. He's not the next Joker. He's the next sub bonus. I don't think he can be your best player on a championship team. Jalen Green is a sometime star.

He had a 38 point game in the series, and in the other six games, he averaged single digits. Let me tell you the last four games of the series of Jalen Green. Two of seven, five points, three of ten, seven points, oh of seven, two points, three of eight, eight points in game seven. And I get, hey, he's young. You got to be patient. Anthony Edwards is young. Like, he's, how many dominant playoff performances has that guy had? I just, there's a fine line between being patient and letting this group.

grow together and realizing, hey, if you're bold, you've got a chance to contend for a championship right now. And look, Amin Thompson's going to be in Houston for a long, long time. He was really good tonight. Don't ask about him. It seemed like he might have tweaked his calf or had a, he had maybe a cramp in his calf that affected him down the stretch of the game. But Amman Thompson was, I mean, he, you couldn't ask more than more from him. Yeah, he's a stud and he's untouchable. Other than that, I think, you know, they need

They will have internal conversations. I think they need to chitch out with some other teams. Timmy, a couple of years ago, we covered a team called Memphis Grizzlies, who were the two-seed out west. And they were seen as the next big thing. It looked like their future was wide open. You're going to contend for years to come. Young squad, great stars felt like they had forever. That team is gone.

The team is out and didn't, in the first round, you just watched them get swept, right? And I feel like the Houston Rockets are in that same spot. Like they have the world is their oyster, but they have to make the next right move. They also have to avoid any scandals and things like that happen to the Grizzlies. But they have to make the next right move. And I don't know what that is. You know, that Grizzlies comparison is really interesting for a variety of reasons. One, because when the Rockets look to that Memphis team, they have identified two role players

as a dude who really drove winning for those grizzlies who haven't won much since these guys left town, Dylan Brooks and Stephen Adams. You know, Stephen Adams in particular, you got to manage him. He missed a year and a half for a knee injury. We saw, we were reminded how impactful he could be. But the other thing is the Grizzies had the one thing, still have the one thing, the one major ingredient that the rockets are missing.

And that's a dude who you can give up the brusies. ball and say, hey, generate offense, get us a shot. The Rockets just don't have the Jomarant type of guy. The Yonassan Lankupo type of guy. The Kevin Durant type of guy. The Zion Williamson type of guy. I think you guys can probably figure out. Daven Booker kind of guy. Well, and I left Booker out because the sons ain't trading him. Those are the guys. Like, I'm not saying they'll all be traded. I'm not saying. Doesn't mean we won't talk about I'm saying, I think those are all in the realm of possibility. And the Rockets went into these playoffs, and I wrote about this.

And Patrick Fetita, Ima O'Doka, Raffel Stone are all on the record. Their hope is to have this be homegrown. Their hope is to keep this group together and let it grow. But they wanted the playoffs as an opportunity to evaluate to get more data points. And to me, watching this series, the data points you in the direction of being aggressive, of being reasonably aggressive this summer. All right. So I know that a lot of people

are going to jump to the conclusion, Kevin Durant. Durant has a relationship with E. Me Udoca. Durant, one of the greatest offensive players of all time. Durant comes in, provides him the offense. If they had Kevin Durant in this game,

maybe everything would be different. I'm not debating that he wouldn't be a good fit. But as McMahon said, the Rockets are on the record and off the record, making it clear that they do not want to acquire a player that does not match the age group of their team. And the other thing about this, Kevin Durant makes $55 million is on the last year of

his contract, probably wants a contract extension. I'm not sure that with where the rockets are and who they have to pay, that that's the way, that's the best expenditure of resources, both what it would take to get him and what it would take to pay him. I'm not sure. I'm not saying no. I'm just saying I'm not sure. When it comes to Devin Booker, Devon Booker is due a two, he's not due. He is in position to ask for a two-year $150 million contract extension. I can do the math there. That's not hard. If the sons are willing to offer it and Devin Booker is willing to sign it, which I'm

sure he would. I cannot believe he would not. That's $75 million a year. Am I doing that math right? That's right. You got it. He's not going anywhere. I don't care if he's got 75 first-round picks of the son.

They're not. He's 10 toes down in Phoenix. Like David Little was important. So, you know, by the way, I will say this. It's got buried in the Friday news dump. James Jones was demoted. James Jones, who built their championship finals reaching team. And the sons made Brian Gregory, their general manager.

I don't know Brian Gregory. Not many of the NBA do. He was a head coach. He was a college coach for over 30 years, including Matt Ishpia's. He was an assistant coach at Michigan State when Matt Ishbia was on the team. He coached at Dayton and Georgia Tech and one more mid-major that I'm forgetting. Sorry, I don't have his chapter and first. What I do know is that he joined their front office and had his first NBA job in June of 2024.

So 11 months ago, he has been in the NBA for 11 months and he is now in charge. And by the way, it was clear the way it was, it hasn't been a press conference yet, but it was clear the way the press conference or the press release was released that he, He is the head of basketball operations. They made it clear he reports to Matt Ishbia. Josh Bartolstein, the CEO, reports to Matt Ishpia, not the other way around. So I assume he's the head of basketball operations, although I would say probably Matt Isbizbia is the head of basketball operations.

But Isbhby is not studying film a college prospects and et cetera, et cetera. He's making the final decisions. Right. But if they had a ton of draft picks, getting a college guy would be, that would make some sense. What they need is an expert manager to be. make trades, especially... They got significantly less experienced at the head of basketball operations. Okay. So I don't know what's going to happen. We'll talk about that later. Let's talk about... Let's focus on the rockets here. The Kevin Durant timeline thing is absolutely a good point and something

that the rockets certainly have in mind. That does not mean that they are completely out on the possibility of KD. Now, it ain't going to be, you're not, they're not sending the Sons some bonanza package for KD. The Sons aren't getting all their draft capital back. You know, the KD, and you nailed it, is there's two discussions there. What would they have to give up in a trade? And then what kind of financial commitment beyond next season would there be? I don't necessarily, I wouldn't be certain that Katie is going to demand a full max extension if he were to land in a continuing. Well, I would just say, I've said this before.

I'm going to start calling it the KD triangle. For a KD trade to happen, you're going to need three layers of agreement, three corners of agreement. One, Katie is going to have to want to go to where they send them because he is on the record saying he wants to have control over the end of his career. And I think that's a check for Houston with the Mia Doke in that team. Two, it's got to be a deal the sons are willing to do. They've got to agree to the trade, right?

That's a big one right there. Seems obvious, but I'm going to point that out. there has to be an agreement on Katie's contractual situation going forward. So he's got to like the, like he could tell the world, I want to be a Houston rocket more than anything in the world. And if he wants too much money on an extension, that doesn't matter. You have to get alignment on all three of those.

And what the rockets are really reluctant to do is something that would scrunch their timeline. They feel like they've got a chance to have a, by modern NBA standards, a very long runway. And so like what young talent would be? he headed out in that deal, that that's a critical, critical part of any discussion. We can talk about that. We did this story in the middle of the year when Kevin Durant was first, when, well,

when his first name first came up in trade talks unbeknownst to him or unrequited by him. And Sons wanted a lot. Like that was, that was part of the reason the deal didn't get done. Ultimately, I think it didn't get done because the Warriors recognized Kevin didn't want to be there. like Kevin didn't want a reunion. But it was also because the sons asked for a lot for Kevin Durant. Some of that is because he's their only trade chip here. He's the only thing they're going to, if they're willing to trade, right?

I mean, outside of them changing course and trading Devin Booker, which I don't think is going to happen. He's the only thing they can get something back for, but also because of how much they gave up to get him. Right. So I would just say, Duran is also going to have to wait maybe to see what happens with Janus. I am not ruling out that Yanis comes out and says I want to be a buck forever

and ever, but I would suspect that he will consider other options. And the KD teams, if they've got ammunition for KD, they may have ammunition for Yannis and they're going to, my guess is they're going to want to wait. But here's what I think. The Sons could look you in the eye and say,

we expect there to be robust interest in KD. I agree. I think a number of teams, including the rockets, will call when the time comes. But remember the triangle. All right. Also, by the way, including the team that the Rockets would have played if they had won game seven. Correct. The Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, which we'll talk about later. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. I want to focus on the team that won. The Warriors. Oh, yeah. Those guys. We never give them any attention. Let's discuss.

I just want to say, the Warriors have done it. They have gotten themselves to the second round. By God, they've made it hard on themselves. They fumbled down the stretch of the season. season to fall into the play in. Okay, they won. They take a 3-1 lead. I'm not sure what they did in game five.

Steve Kerr pulls the plug early, like he doesn't care about the game. The reserves get back in the game where the starters, you know, the Hall of Fame guys could come back in and he just lets it go like it's a January game. And then when they lost game six, I'm thinking, holy leap. Like if they lose game seven, this is going to be like a dark mark on the Steve Kerr resume. like bad because maybe they lose game five anyway, but the attitudes towards game five, I felt was egregious.

And they let game six go, whof, he should be given Buddy Healed a special commendation tonight to bail him out. And even if maybe it wasn't his decision, maybe it was an organizational decision, ooh, did I not like that? But okay. Well, they also, they frankly just got their butts

whooped physically in game five. and six, and they mustered up enough to get it out of the series. But man, they are heading up. They're heading on a flight right now to Minnesota. You think they're leaving tonight? They might leave it tomorrow. I would. See if Kerr likes to stay over.

He likes to get a good night's sleep. Yeah, James Harden, recommend some good spots for some of the fellas. Oh, I just got done with one of those Denver last night. I'm sure they. I'm sorry. Why did you just get done with it? I just want to clear. No, I mean, Dave Harden just lost a game seven in Denver last night.

Oh, no, I was talking about some of his favorite spots. I think he knows the spots wherever. He might have recommended some. You were just talking about James Harden game seven. It sounded like you were talking about what you did post game seven last night. Oh, I walked home to the Spring Hill Suites, which is near the arena. It was really thrilling. Well, don't tell everybody where you stay, Ramona.

My gosh. That's okay. Also, let's look. I am not. their damn spring hills sweets on the way back to Denver by the way yeah well listen I will say this a couple of things happen in game seven that I think are that were unbelievable like I don't know what they do with Jonathan can make anymore I mean I think they've been saying that in their minds are internally for months now but but shouldn't they have traded them at the deadline if this

is what they're going to do in playoffs I mean he got out there for how many minutes did he play It wasn't a handful. He didn't, I think he was 0 of 4. Hold on, I'll get it for you. He played seven minutes, 0.04, one rebound, one steal. Yeah. And just like it was a lifeline. You know, this was a series.

People were thinking he would match up with, well, with the Rockets. He'd done well against him in the regular season. Maybe the, you know, this would be a redemptive series for him. Oh, my gosh. This is, I mean, it's a borderline disaster. I think there could be a. a role for him when Draymond inevitably gets himself suspended during his playoffs because he's well on his way.

I mean, they are going to play Rudy Gobert. I mean, these are both good points. I don't want to focus on this, but as a separate aside, Draymond was called for his fourth technical of the first round on Sunday. Seven. Seven. Seven. Seventh technical, you're allowed six.

Okay. Seventh technical you're suspended. Also, he has two flagrant foul. Two flagrant fouls. That's two points. You get one point each for a flagrant one, two points. points for a flagrant two and you're allowed you're allowed three on the fourth point you are suspended and keep in mind as all warriors fans will tell you flagrant fouls can be retroactively

applied or upgraded and here comes monseur go bear as remote just said here comes go bear so like keep that in mind keep that in mind also you know aunt's going to be oh it's ready to chit-chat You know, one of the things that came out post-game of this Warriors of this Warriors game seven that Draymond apparently called a team meeting after, it was the night before game seven and took accountability for the way he lost control of his emotions and the way he picked up, you know, those texts in game five and six. And, you know, okay, I've seen that movie before where he owns it, he moves on. I mean, I guess he owned it and still got a tech in Game Seven.

Well, then he smacks Fred Van Vleet in the face for really no good reason to get a tea. Well, the game. Yeah, I mean, I guess he didn't. What he apologized for was pouting. He said, I spent two days embarrassed at what I gave to the game, what I gave for the world. I've been dying since the last game ended to get on the floor and prove who I am. Well, I'll tell you this. He definitely reminded people why he's a four-time champion, why he's impacted winning so much.

He was all over Shengun. Dude, Jackson just gave us a. numbers. The Rocks were three of 17 when contested by Dramon in Game 7. That's two of eight by Alpi. When Shungoon got the ball in the block, they sure as hell, we're not sending a double. Like, you want to post up, Draymond? Good luck to you, buddy. And some of those were pretty ugly. He was a plus 18 and 40 minutes. I actually shot the ball pretty well tonight, which is not the, well, at least scored 16. I will say this, by the way, Steph Curry in this game. He didn't see, he had one basket in the first half.

People were wondering like, oh my gosh, what about the thumb? He ended up four of 10 on threes, which is like not great, but certainly good. I'll take 40% on high spot. He's like a career 43% shooters. But, and over the last three games,

he shot in 8 of 20, he's shooting 40% over the last three or four games. But here's whatever you want to say about the thumb. And, you know, I don't know. But he had 10 rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, two steals, two, two, turnovers. When he has as many steel, when he has, when he has twice as many stocks as he does

turnovers, you know he's focused. And he was focused on this game. And Jimmy Butler also had 20 points, eight rebounds, seven assists. Like he delivered a quality one, including in the fourth quarter when they were losing control and they were sort of going scoreless for a while. He made three straight baskets. You know, the Warriors, the Rockets did not play well, but the Warriors had a, I mean, Buddy Healed, you know, he had a classic game, but, you know, the Warriors did a lot right. The Warriors three future Hall of Famers all showed up in Game 7, and then Buddy Healed was a massive, massive bonus. I mean, 33 points on 15 shots. I will say this.

So the Warriors have done themselves no favors in exhausting themselves, both getting in the play-in, going to seven games here. And now the six-seated Timberwolves wake up with home court advantage. Oh, yeah. And we just saw the Timberwolves bully the Lakers with their size advantage. And they have, the Warriors have a major size disadvantage. They have more depth than the Lakers. You won't be seeing Steve Kerr playing five guys for a whole half. Well, I tell you what, though, they went, not five and a half, but all of their starters played 37 minutes or more.

And Buddy Heel played 37, the rest of them played in the 40s. What's the rule? By the way, what's the rule? What's the rule? Play eight, trust seven. That's right. And then it goes, and they basically played seven today. The way, the way this goes is not in game one or whatever.

When the chips are down, you play eight and trust seven. And frankly, sometimes you play seven and trust six. Not to say that a ninth man doesn't stick those little tippy toes on the court. And that's what happened. Quentin Post played three minutes. They got him the hell out of there. He played Moses Moody and Kavanaugh-Luny, 11 minutes each. That was his seven.

and he trusted six. He really trusted, the only guy he really trusted was Looney who had four rebounds. He always trust Looney. And they needed Looney. And they needed Looney the next year. They needed Looney's physicality after Stephen Adams, the old caveman,

just beat the crap out of them in games five and six. Stephen, they finally were able to counter Stephen Adams in this game. It was a minus nine in this game after he entered this plus 53 in the series. By the way, how many players did the Rockets play in this game? The Rocks played eight. How may they trust?

Seven. And interestingly, Jabari Smith Jr. As he heads into restricted free agency, was the eighth man, only played 12 minutes. Right. It's fascinating. Like, Jathan Green played 30 minutes. It's fascinating to me that there wasn't a tighter leash on him. I guess they're just so limited in terms of offensive creation.

But he didn't create a lot of offense. You know, the other thing they had to drive. shots and one assist. The other thing that the Rockets have to decide on is Fred Van Bleet. They owe him $44 million. But the decision, I'm just telling you, the decision there is what does keeping him for three or four years look like in terms of it like they might pick up the team option. And if they do, don't look at that as, oh my God, they think Fred Van Fleet still worth 44. and a half million. Think of it as, okay, that's year one of probably a three or four year deal, even if it's not like officially structured like that. It's, hey, Fred, we're giving you this balloon

payment now and we're going to work out something that'll be a much lower number for the next few years. By the way, Jackson has a stat for us. Ninety seven percent of the Warriors points came from their starters. Yeah. But again, Fred Van Vleet is critical to them. He's critical to the leadership, the toughness, the culture, he'll be on the Rockets next year unless something's shocking. McMan, one year from now, the Rockets are in a game seven, first round, second round, whatever. Is Reed Shepard in the rotation? That's where I was going. You know what?

The rotation or on another team. Well, what I will tell you is great question, and people, power brokers with the Rockets, have told me they think Reed Shepard might be the most gifted offensive player on the roster. They point out, look. Well, that's not saying much. Okay, but my point is, I'm making a joke. The fact he's DMPCD in playoff games and from, you know, a lot of the season does not mean that their hopes for him have been diminished at all. Again, they've mentioned the Steve Nash comparison to me.

And not even so much style of play, but just small guard needs time to adapt to the size and athleticism in the NBA. Might not play a lot early on, but they think he's. He's got a really, really bright future. Now, doesn't mean he wouldn't be included in a trade if something comes along either. One week from Monday, May 12th on ESPN. It might even be on ABC. I can't remember. Cooper flag lottery.

Ooh, we. The Houston Rockets have a 17% chance of ending up in the top four. Goodness. A 4% chance of winning the Cooper flag sweepstakes, courtesy of the Phoenix Suns via the Brooklyn Nets. Never would happen on Brian Grager's watch. And, well, Brian Gregory has never made a bad trade. This, I can say, Jackson just looked it up.

That pick, even if it just stays right where it's at, which is ninth. And Reed Shepard are a heck of a way to start a negotiation. The rockets do not lack ammunition. They've got that. They've also got 27 and 29 from the Suns. They've got the Mavs 29, which is a hell of a lot more valuable now than it was when they acquired it from Brooklyn over the summer, and they've got most of their own picks moving forward. And they still have a 27 swap from the nets. The rockets are loaded with draft capital.

Okay. There was another game seven over the weekend. Ramona, you were there in Denver. You covered that series. The Nuggets have won a lot of humongous games for the last three or four years. But last time they played a game seven at home, they lost. They won this one. Yep. Your thoughts on that series, having been there for all the games. Oh, man. It was a fun series. There were times when I thought both teams were cooked. After the Nuggets lost games two and three, it was a somber locker room. Michael Porter Jr.'s shoulders falling off. Aaron Gordon's calf can't jump. And he's,

you know, I mean, it just seemed like Denver was done. And then they turned it around. They just, they found something. And the same thing happened with the Clippers. You thought they were done. And they found something over and over, Kauai, James Harden. There was a visa Zubach with with a star turn in a couple of those games. But in game seven, Brian, Tim Bond, Tim McMahon, I almost called you Bond Tense. Oh, hey. Sorry, Russell Westbrook was the difference in game seven.

It was something to behold, because this man played for the Clippers last year after game one when he had that virtuoso, you know, fourth quarter, he's grabbing all the offensive rebounds and the putbacks and the threes and all that. he just came out with his hair on fire in the second quarter. I think he had 10 points in that second quarter. They outscored him 37 to 21.

It was a totally lopsided quarter and the game was never close after that. And I kept thinking, wow, the clippers look like they ran out of gas. They just, they don't have any energy. And you know, who would have helped? A little jolt of energy, Russ. Yeah, I mean, it was as good as Denver played, Aaron Gordon had 22. Christian Brown, I thought, had a really good game. That was his best game of the series.

That was sort of his personal game that he wanted to avenge game seven last year. I think that jolt of energy Russ gave him in the second quarter. And third quarter really was the difference in how that played out. Hey, Russ wanted to come on home to Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains and where Russ's jersey is going to hang in the raptors, baby. He's going to come back. He's going to look on up and say right next to Nick Collison. That's where you can put me.

They'll reenact. They'll have the old white men can't jump. Remember when they were the white men can't jump duo for Halloween? Yeah. Right up there in the rafter, side by side. And so, you know, they love Russ in Oklahoma. They always will. And we'll see if that can survive him as an opponent in a playoff series.

All the teams that know Russ well do the same thing. They dare him to shoot, right? I wrote a whole story about this last night. They gave him nine feet on average. average whenever he was shooting the ball. That is the second highest amount of distance that you get, and anyone has given people on three-pointers ever since they were keeping the stat. You know, the guy who actually had the most was Chris Dunn in the same series.

Yeah. It worked out a lot better with him. Yeah. But they gave Russ room. They literally just did not guard him on three-pointers. He took offense to it. He wouldn't say that out loud, but when I teed him up for game seven and I said, well, did you take offense to how they guarded you?

and he said, well, what did I shoot in this series? Russ loves taking offense to things. I'm sure he takes offense to everything. Oh, yeah. But what did he shoot in this series? 42%. He shot better in this series that Steph Curry shot. Yeah.

Now, it will be fascinating to see, does OKC defend them the same way? I would. By the way, it is playing the percentages. Now, OKC got blasted playing the percentages on PJ Washington last year in very similar fashion. And Derek Jones Jr., is, well to a certain extent in the second round series. But if, I mean, it is a, it's a reasonable

approach. It's a reasonable, reasonable game plan. Like you'd much rather pay more attention to Jamal Murray and obviously to Joker. But I think you have to have flexibility with those game plans if the guy's knocking down shots and if he's in a groove, he's got his confidence going. Now, the flip side of that is, okay, if Russ has confidence, you know, the percentages might catch up to him and he might just shoot him out of it. I think, so Yokic, by his standards, did not play well in games five, six, and seven. Some of that was Zubots. Some of it was other stuff. To me, the series was tipped, not just by Westbrook, but by just in general, the Nuggets role players.

Christian Brown was excellent. I don't know if you want to call Aaron Gordon a role player. He was awesome in the series. more than a role player. He's what I call a complimentary star player. Even Peyton Watson was good in game seven. Michael Porter Jr. I think had a good game seven.

Like, their role players, which is vital for the nuggets. That was big. The other thing is, if I'm the clippers, I'm sick to my stomach because, now they did not deserve to win game four.

That was the Aaron Gordon. Yeah. So the nuggets were up, what, 20 in the fourth quarter? Yeah, they blew the game. And so Gordon,

gets the incredible dunk. Otherwise, it goes to overtime. I don't know. The Clippers had the momentum. Maybe they win. The correct team won. Having said that, you lose at the buzzer. And in my view, they could have, they were in control, not in control, but they certainly could have won game one. So they get to game seven, knowing that they lose to 50, 50 games, game one and game four. Just you can't do that. You can't do that as the under the underdog, whatever, the lesser seed. So I'm sick to my stomach about that if I'm the clippers. It's also hard because why Leonard was healthy, Brian. I know, and he played well.

Let me ask you this. The first time he's got to the end of the season being healthy since he's been there. I mean, it was hard to watch. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. Ramona, let me ask you this. If you have a pie chart for how game seven went, were you assigning blame to James Harden? He was two of eight. I know.

And, you know, he had 10 assists, okay? 13 assists. 13 assists. So, you know, that game that he played in Boston a couple years ago, his last game is a 76er, you know, a lot went poorly in that game. They lost that series in game six, not game seven. But like people circled how he went like, he was like minus 29 or minus 30. Yeah, minus 29 in this one. Minus 29.

So not the worst. Not the worst plus minus, not the second worst plus minus. Oh, on the team. Yeah, Norman Powell is minus 31. Kauai was minus 33 and 33 minutes. Ooh, I catch that one. So that's what I'm saying, Ramona. How much blame is being?

I mean, he's getting. I don't think it was all James Harden's fault. I know he's getting crushed because he has the history. James Harder's good. The Nuggets role players played great. That wasn't on him. And Christian Brown was picking him up full court. You know, they started doing that.

And I think it was about game four when they started really defending. hard and differently. And it took Ty Lou a little too long to adjust to it, I thought. They were, you know, people were begging Tai Lu, please get Chris done off the court. They're not guarding him. James has no space, especially when Christian Brown is picking him up full court. They're just getting the ball out of his hands. And he is the system, right?

I mean, he self-proclaimed. And when you make it hard for him to do anything, when he doesn't have a space to operate, it was hard. And I thought James gave him a great game six. He played 47 of a possible 48 minutes. I caught him on the podium yawning a couple times, you know, that game. And you could tell you goes, yeah, I'm tired. But, you know, where I'm in good shape, I'm going to play.

And I was thinking to myself, listen, they're going to Denver in less than 48 hours. That I know by game seven altitude's not supposed to affect you, but I think it does. And the clippers just, they just seem tired and they needed some energy. they did have a guy that used to give him energy named Russell Westbrook, but they got, I can get my back to that. But I don't,

I don't want to put it all on James. I think this was on, I think in some ways it was really good coaching by David Adelman. I think you got to give him a shout out, rookie coach, interim head coach there. He actually has more playoff wins now than he has regular season wins

after winning this series. That's got to be a record, right? Yeah, it's got to be a record. It's got to be a record. It's got to be a record. But he made good adjustments throughout. They went to this zone, defense a lot in the last couple of games.

They gave the clippers a lot of different looks. And I don't, Ty took it on himself after James had a poor game in game five. He said, you know, that one's on me. I didn't do enough to get him good looks. That's when they finally took Chris Dunn out of the game. I mean, Chris Dunn started that they put in Nicholas Batum. In this game, Ty still seemed reluctant to start Batum. He started Derek Jones Jr. in the last game.

But there was, they just couldn't solve that for James. And in his glory days in Houston, I think it wouldn't have mattered. He could deal with it. But this is the story that always happens, right? Tim, he plays so much. He carries such a big load. He is the system that by the end it all kind of breaks down. It's tired.

But he's like he's not Houston James Harden. He's a different player since then. And he is a run the show orchestrator type of point guard more so than a score at this point in his career. And he ran the show. 13 assists and two turnovers. You know, when he had, when he had, like, he had some games this year. I just looked it up there, six and three when he had at least 13 assists. And some of those wins, he was four of 15 in one of those games.

He was three of nine in another one. He was actually three, nine, and two more of those. You know, seven of 18. And my point is, like the most important thing James Hardin did for their offense this year was orchestrate and facilitate. Yep. So, yeah, you know, you can add this to the list of poor shooting performances for Hardin and absolutely critical shots. Ooh, Jackson gives us an... This is devastating.

This is a dog. This is a dog. This is weird. Jackson. James Harden has shot under 30% in four consecutive game sevens tied with, man, these are, do we want to tie with Dan Marley, who's got a nice little restaurant downtown Phoenix? Can't visit in the playoffs anymore, but it's a nice spot. Yeah. Greg Kite.

That's the first time Greg Kite has been mentioned. Is that a wrong. Is that supposed to be Rod Huntley? Is that hot Rod Hunley? For the longest week in the NBA season history. Ron Huntley. Not Rod Hunley. Oh. It's Ron?

No, it's Hot Rod. It's hot rod. Yeah. He's saying it was a typo. Hey, we've been doing this podcast for 10 years, McMahon. This is the first time Greg Kite's name's ever been mentioned. Yeah. Celtic great.

There we go. I don't know, Brian. I'll ask you the same question. How much of this is on? is on Hardin. I just think we all, we all get into our narratives and we all fall back on it. Some, but look, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm in New York because before I go to Boston tomorrow, I'm going to do the morning shows, I'm going to do get up and first take. Oh, big deal. And you know that that is going to be a topic.

Oh, yeah. Because of these stats and they can show these graphics and they, you know, they want to, there's going to be a desire to pin it on Hardin. And he was part of the pie. Yes. But, you know, A big one. You know, Kauai Linnor gets a slice. Tailu gets a slice. After the Batum lineup worked so well, you went away from it.

You know, like, listen, it ain't all on Hardin. Did he watch had 10 points in that last game, didn't do much. You know, I, look, I, I, James Hardin kind of, I thought he had a redemptive year this year in Los Angeles. I thought he, you know, if you're looking at who, who netted out from that exchange with Philadelphia and the Clippers, LA made out pretty darn good. And if we could go back to the sliding doors moment

where they choose not to give them the big extension and instead give that money to Paul George, I don't know. Do we did that, was that the right choice? Like based off this year? Oh, I thought you're talking about the clippers.

Yeah, no, I'm talking about the Sixers. Like, I mean, you know, I mean, if we go back to these moments

and how the last few years have gone for James and the Sixers and the Clippers and all that. James was not going to be the Sixers savior either. Let's just make that. Exactly. No. With everything that went wrong. Arden has a $36 million player option.

I assume he's not picking that up. He'll want to do a new deal. He's 30, is he 35? Four, 35. He is 35. He'll be 36 in August. August. He's a Leo.

Yeah, we talked about that the other day. You and James talked about him being a Leo? Yeah. He was asking. We're not such a remote thing to do. How did you feel about that sort of Navajo motif that he had on after game six? Did you talk about that? as well? No, he didn't

get too deep into that, but we were talking about him being a Leo, and I do see Leo qualities in him. You're over my head now, dear. McMahon, what are you doing with this contract? You know what? If you're not keeping James, you've got to entertain shopping Kauai.

Ramona, what are we doing with this contract? If I'm James or if I'm the Clippers? Clippers. James wants to be there. He's going to be there. He wants to be there. I'm doing another one and one or two and one, whatever, whatever short-term deal looks about like what he's making. I give him another couple of years. Yeah, I would agree with you.

They don't have their pick for like forever. I mean, I'm, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they, there's, Billy has one, one of their, I mean, it's, there's not, there's, there's, there's no reason for them to tank. And I still, I don't think you have much value in Kauai. I, I, I, is, as good as he was right now, how are you trading for him expecting, you the modern NBA. You can't have a $50 million player on your books who is a part-time guy. As I have said, right now, I don't know the official number of quote-unquote max players in the league.

Whatever the number is, it's going to be reduced by, my guess, is 60% in the next three years. And by the way, Kauai is not a max player anymore. He took slightly less than the max. He's close. And Hardin was well under the max. If Hardin's in that range, Again, he had a very good year. Yes. The Hardin was worth his salary and then something's year. No, they're going to re-sign him. The question is how much and how long?

And I think Ramona's point on one-one is probably maybe where you'd want to land. Yeah, one-in-one, two-in-one, something like that. But, Ryan, what they've done, what they made an organizational decision to do is stay competitive, have a good team. You know, get enough fans who will get on a chart. plane that Steve Balmer paid for. You know what, Ramona, I saw you tweeting all about this, this group of 100 fans and they created like a quasi wall at the Pepsi Center or Ball Arena, sorry. I know you so badly wanted to write about that.

And the Clippers. I was so good. And the Clippers lost by 30. I know. And those four kids, you know, first of all, can I say two things? I will keep it short because I know this is not what we should be talking about right now. But all those guys, they had these amazing seats. How did they get these seats?

I know. Well, it helps when your owner's worth $120 billion or whatever. I know, but if I'm a season ticket holder for the nuggets, I'm mad at people who sold their seats. This happens in L.A. all the time. What if a guy worth $100 billion came and said, how much for your seats? How much do he pay on the secondary? Like, this is a game seven, and you just sold your seats to the opposing team fans. And they were all in the same block. And I saw a bunch of the normal season ticket holders sitting there. and they were pissed. Well, hell, it's probably blacked out. It's probably blacked out on local TV.

They probably didn't get to watch the damn thing. I know. I mean, but, okay, so the Rams do this all the time. This is another cronky team. And the 49ers come to town and there's a big fan base in L.A. And Rams season ticket holders always sell their seats to the 49er fans. You just want to, and it's become like an issue in L.A. Like, everyone gets mad if you sell your seats.

Like you're not a true fan. But that was game seven, Brian. How did they do So these guys have their hats on And they got on a charter plane And then they had to fly home right after the game With a 30 point loss Only 19

That right out to the Denver airport I don't even know what the final score was That right out to the Denver airport God Oh my God My God Might as well drive up as far as that is Which plane was quieter

The Clippers team plane or the swell, the walls, charter. Well, that depends. I know the bomber covered, airfare and the tickets. And did he cover the alcohol bill? I'm sure. If he did, then I bet the slown as loud as hell. Yeah, man.

If you're one of those Yahoo's who have signs and, you know, like wear funny hats and bombers paying for your booze. Come on now. Yeah, those hats were blocking the view of those Nuggets fans and the sexual. Oh, man. house. All right. We'll talk about your series

when it arrives that you guys are at. But first, Cavs Corner. There it is. Cavs Corner. The Pacers. Careful turning that corner. Got a sore toe.

Yeah. The Pacers were absolutely awesome in game one. They win by nine. I will just say to you, and I'm not saying this just now, I've been saying this for a while, that internally,

the calves were wary of the Pacers for weeks. When the Pacers made that late season, because remember there was a while, there was a while there was a while there where the Pistons, pacer, and Bucks were all sort of tied. And the Pacers made that late season push. They finished 14 and 4 to get the four seed. When that was a parent,

when that was becoming a parent, the calves were giving them the side eye because that's a quasi-bad matchup for the calves. I mean, they won 64 games. there isn't a team that they feel like they're a quote unquote bad matchup against but it's a more uncomfortable matchup they also lost both games to the Pacers at home this year now one of the games was meaningless it was the last game of the season but you know the Pacers had come in there and won or maybe it was the second to last game whatever it was uh so but the Pacers just played great

and you know part of what happened in this game was that the Pacers were just killing it from three point range and made 19 of 363s that's 53 percent the calves only had nine threes. That was a few of three-pointers they made in a game all season. So they get outscored by 30. That's hard to overcome. This is a team that, by the way, I think made 20 more threes in the last round than the heat and led the league in three-point.

Well, maybe they finished top three and three-point percentage. So they got outscored by 30 at the line. So there's just great shot making. But I'm going to say that part of it was the calves weren't guarding the three. Well, and yes, but how the hell did Andrew Nimhart shoot 29% from three this year? The guy, I mean, he is a playoff hiller, and he hit a couple of huge ones down a stretch, and one of them he was damn sure guarded on. I mean, this guy has made, you know, he had the one against the Knicks last year,

the game winner. That one. He had a couple of huge ones this game. He, that one, he against the Knicks last year, which kind of. changed the course of the whole series. It might not have mattered again because Jalen Brunson broke his hand or whatever in the game seven. And OGM Nobby was running around like he had a dump in his drawers because his hamstring was so effed. But, um, wow. This is both midnight windy, baby. Wow. The dumping his drawers is that, that was a, uh, a shout out to the

Bond Tim's family because they've got some dump dumping diapers right now. I, I, to this day, cannot believe that O.G. Anobie was allowed to play in game seven. He ran out from the locker room and I was like, this is either an elaborate joke or insane. Not a joke, an elaborate ruse, in other words, like, either he actually could move better or they'd never intended on playing him when he actually played and like was like shuffling. I was like, what are they doing? Willis Reed, it was not. That shot that he, hit, he babbled it. He caught the ball. He babbled it and it's like shot put it up there and made it. You want to hear a nut stat. I mentioned he shot 29% from three this year in Embardt.

51 of 175. And last year's playoffs and this year's playoffs, he's 45 of 88 from three point range. The man is shooting 51 plus percent from three career in playoffs. This dude is a big time playoff gamer who is knocking down shots, making plays, and quite often guarding the other team's best perimeter player. He's a stud. He's a very valuable player. The Pacers have two excellent bigs in Miles Turner and Pascal Seaccom and they have a multitude of excellent wings, but specifically the guys they starred, Aaron Neesmith and Nemhart. And look, the Pacers just had a shot-making game. Halliburton was a terrific playmaking at 13 assists and just one turnover. That's Halliburton at his absolute best.

He also was 9 of 15, but his efficiency shooting comes and goes. It's when he's got that super awesome assistive turnover ratio. You know he's doing, he's going great. And Donovan Mitchell needed a sidekick. Darius Garland missed this game due to a toe. And, you know, they asked Rick Carly, well, what was that change if Garland misses his game? they asked him pregame. And Carlisle based something like, let's not kid ourselves.

He's playing. Now he didn't. You know, there wasn't just a precaution. So I was surprised. So he practiced on Friday. It's a big toe, right? Yeah, left big toe. It's toe sprain.

You know, it's turf toe. That's tough. That's not good. So he had the injury late in the regular season. He missed three of the last four games, but it was hard to tell because they had everything clinched. He comes out and plays games one and two of the Miami series. and averages 20-something points on 50% shooting, doesn't show any ill effects of it,

and then finishes game two. That game comes all the way down to it. That was the closest game of the series. Finishes game too. Does the post-game interview, doesn't show any ill effects, and all of a sudden he pops up as questionable on their injury report the next day.

And now he's out three straight games in almost two weeks. And so he practiced on Friday, and then they listed him as questionable on Saturday, but you're thinking, but he practiced. Yeah. You know, so like if he practiced, like that indicates that they've cleared him.

And then pregame, he's ruled out. So like, I don't know. I mean, whether he's out or even if he's limited, that is huge. Because one of the great advantages that the cats have had all year is they've got two big time dynamic dribble creating guards. They've always got one of them out there. A lot of times they got them both out there. Donovan Mitchell today. 13 of 30 from the floor, 1 of 11 from 3.

One of the great things that happened for him this year was the burden on him was eased. And if there's Garvin's not out there, he's got to, he's really their one guy who can generate shots. And, you know, man, Jackson, you're on fire today. I mean, really, Stats Williams and you're his play drives. Yeah, yeah. But Donovan Mitchell teams are one in five in his career when he takes 30 plus shots in a playoff game. They're also two and seven when he takes at least 11 three-pointers. That dates back to his Utah days where when the going got tough in Utah, he just started hoisting threes.

Yeah. And there was one playoff year where he averaged, I think, 10 threes a game. That was bad. Yeah. He can absolutely be your go-to guy. He needs a big-time sidekick, though. I mean, there's a guy named Evan Mowley who wanted to fit. I mean, I just think the calves have such a, they need to slow this game down.

They need to rely on their other guys here. Just because, like, I know what you're saying, but Indiana wants to play fast. They want to get up and down. They want to have their guards. They want to running and shoot the ball. Cleveland just needs to play at their pace. They need to use their pace. Ultimately, this game was a story about what happened on defense.

They gave up 121 points in 193s. That's why they lost. Yeah. You can focus on Garland, not. being there and that's fine and you know you got tied jerome going eight of 20 and donovan going 13 to 30 you don't want 50 shots from those two guys that just that that's not good basketball especially when you're big guys who were uh so mowgli was nine of 13 in this game Jared allen was six of seven so they have 20 shots and jerome and and mitchell have 50 that's a bad ratio yeah

but again those guys need stuff created for them right but they didn't lose on offense they lost on defense. Here's something else. So the calves like to switch with their bigs because they've got such great athlete bigs. Donovan, Jared Allen's an excellent defender and Evan Moby's defensive player of the year. When Tyrese Halliburton was switched on to Jared Allen, he was six of eight. So he ate Allen. Including a beautiful dance into a step back three that was big time down the stretch. Yeah, you're going to kind of let him have that shot. So, I do think there was some just shot variance. The other thing is the Pacers don't,

the Pacers are experienced team. Like, these guys have. Conference finals last year. Yeah, these guys have come back in series before. Like, they've won big road games. I mean, they run a Road Game 7 last year in the garden. Like, you know, that's. So Garland's availability going forward is a big thing now.

But again, I don't think that was the whole story. Turf toe is usually, I don't, not used to it in basketball. I feel like that's a football injury that happens. I mean, it happens. Like Desmond Bain is, he missed a lot of time a few years back. And he's still wearing those LeBron 20s because it's the only shoe that can, you know, be modified in the way and kind of work for what he needs to have with his toe. Well, I would say that Steph's thumb will not get better.

It's not like he's going to be okay in three weeks. Like that need, that might even need surgery. And turf toe is not going to go away. You might be able to mitigate it. It might improve. But turf toe takes a long time to fully heal. Yeah. So, by the way, this is the playoffs.

People play through injuries and stuff. This is what happens. So the calves need to get better on defense. You know, they can't get up 120 points of 19 three-pointers. They went through stretches this year. One of their weak spots was not getting out three-point shooters. And so the Pacers totally took advantage of that. And so now we got ourselves a series.

So, I mean, like you said, those are, we got the game sevens. We got the game one. I think that we can, you know, we'll convene again after some of these other series get started. Yeah. You guys are there. We'll see. I don't know. The nuggets, I wouldn't be surprised that the nuggets just took the loss in game one and

moved on. Now that I've said it, they'll probably win. Well, I'll say this. The whole rest versus rust argument. Yeah. The last time the Thunder were coming off a nice long rest, and the other team had a quick turnaround. They smoked the Grizzies by 51.

So I think the Thunder know how to use a week off to get themselves ready to roll, and the nuggets are coming off a bloodbath of a series. Probably the most relevant thing for the Knicks Celtics series was the Celtics put out their injury report on Sunday afternoon, and it was blank. That's encouraging. That means Drew Holiday back from the hamstring. that's no Jalen Brown on that injury report, nothing with Poizengis. The Celtics are healthy.

They are a buh. And Drew Holliday is huge in that series for quite obvious reasons because the Knicks have a guard that they rely on to basically generate everything for them offensively as well. It's great. And we spent a lot of time talking about the Jalen 3 to bury the Pistons a couple days ago. Oh, my God. I was not encouraged by the way that series ended for the Knicks. Maybe I should be. I'm like, I'm seeing a lot of people.

People that I trust are like, oh, this could go six or seven. And I'm like, if the Knicks could get to six, they've done great. I don't disagree with you. When we have to do our picks, I wanted to say sell six and five. But I think I said, I think I put six just out of respect. Because you're nice. Yeah, just because, you know, sometimes. Brunson has a game like that. I feel like there's a Carl Towns game in here.

You would think, but there's a game. There's a game where cat goes off. Maybe they get one or two. I don't know. I don't know. I'm trying to think of how they get two. I don't know. We'll see. All right. The get-up conference calls in a few hours. Ooh, goodness. Sleep update. Got to love them. Got to love them. I prepare for that. All right. Thank you. That bed does not look like you have slept in it yet. Of course not. I just checked in like minutes before we started this. Do you have to redo your hair in the morning or can you like kind of protect that thing overnight. So one of our colleagues, I won't say who. One of our colleagues has provided me with some new product. Oh. Yeah.

Wait, I thought you had like a lifetime supply from the old place. No, I told you I got that wrong. Oh. I ordered the wrong. They asked me, what did you like? What would you want? And I ordered, I told them the wrong thing. No, this new product that one of our colleagues is, and I have brought the new product.

with me. So let's see how it does tonight and tomorrow. There's new problems. Listen, I'm in the market for some new clippers if one of these companies are some fancy. I cut my uncle. To be clear, our colleague gave me the name. He didn't buy. I shouldn't even say he. They didn't buy. I bought the material. But yeah. What would shut the, oh, it was probably, oh, Mom's got that fancy hair. I didn't say it was for hair. I didn't say it was for hair. Um. Um, All right. This is mysterious. What is this?

Is this like the underboob commercial where they're spraying stuff, like butt boob? Like, have you seen that commercial? Are you trying to get, are you going to get a good thing? What the hell are you talking about? It airs on all these games. There's this commercial for it's like deodorant, but they're spraying it like in their crotch and their butt cracks and their underboos. It is not, it is not a deodorant. All right.

Thank you to McMahon. Thank you to Ramona. Thank you to Jackson. Our producer. Thank you for watching. listening to the Hoot Collective. We'll talk to you in a couple days. Adios amigos.