Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Denver Forces Game 7, What’s Next For Warriors? Wolves To WCF

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk the Nuggets forcing a Game 7 with the Thunder including what to expect in that game before talking expectations for a massive Game 6 at MSG between the Celtics & Knicks. Then, the guys talk the Wolves advancing to the Western Conference Finals and after being eliminated we discuss where the Warriors go from here. 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 Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing late in the evening on Thursday, joining me from up the road here in New York City, the boulevard, up the avenue.

What is it? Tim Bontems. Hello, Brian. We'll be joined by Tim McMahon earlier, but we joined by Tim McMahon later, although it was earlier. Anyway, he's working right now, allegedly, in Denver, where the Nuggets just forced to Game 7 with a huge second half. was actually like a huge second half in last, what, four minutes of the second quarter, which the Thunder could be regretting for a while.

Yeah, I mean, listen, we could talk about Julian Strother. This is the Julian Strother game. We could talk about a lot of other things. This game was lost by the Thunder and won by the Nuggets in the final moments of the second quarter. Shaking its Alexander gets his fourth foul. They give up a 12-0 run. The Thunder were up 12, closing minutes of the half.

They had a chance, as McMan said in our group chat, to keep their foot. on the throat of Nicole Yokic and the Nuggets. Instead, they let them off the mat. And you cannot give a team like this and a player like that, even though he didn't have a typically dominant Yokic-like performance. You can't give a championship team like this, that kind of, I mean, I say that and he ended up with 29, 14 and 8 Yokic. But, you know, you can't let a team like this get back in the game

when you have a chance to put them away on the race. in a game like this. And Lou Dord hit a shot right at the end of the half. They were going up three, think, oh, maybe that'll give them some momentum. But the Thunder just felt like they were climbing uphill from then on. And like you said, if they lose Game 7 at home, those final couple of minutes the second quarter are going to be bouncing around the heads of the Thunder and the rest of their org and their fans for a long time.

Yeah. So there were a couple of big themes in this game beyond what you just talked about there at the second quarter. but the the nuggets are like crawling through the desert looking for an oasis of help from a bench player.

The last two games, I think they've been outscored by 37 points on the bench. And so Julian Strother hits four baskets in the second half and it felt like seven baskets or 12 baskets because they just haven't gotten

any help at all. You know, Peyton Watson still didn't play very well in this game. Westbrook was, you know, not horrible, but he had like more turnovers than baskets. I mean, there wasn't good. Yeah.

It wasn't good. But just getting that relief, couple of relief possessions from Strother, he was very aggressive, you know, looking for his shot and everything. He scored 15 points, I think, all in the second half. It makes such a huge difference. It makes such a huge difference for the nuggets. And you can't, you absolutely cannot count on it. But it just shows you how much it would make a difference if they had literally just one more reliable bench player.

But that's what they needed in this game. They needed someone like that to help them. And then the other thing, and this has been something you've been talking about for a year, Jalen Williams, he's an all-star. He's an all-MBA candidate. He can do a lot of great things. He plays at both ends, et cetera, et cetera. But they rely on him a lot to provide secondary scoring.

Well, look, here's the brass tax event for the series. You're shooting 33.7%. It's not acceptable. Last three games of the series, even though they won the last two. Two for 13, five for 14, three for 16. It combined two for 14 from three, including O for four in this game. He was also 0 for one from one foot in the fourth quarter. He missed it absolutely uncontested later.

up. I mean, it's an uncontested dunky. He missed a wide open three. They could have got him to six with about a minute and a minute 45 to play. That was a big shot. They were making the, they were trying to evaluate the nuggets turn the ball over like three times in a row. If he hits that shot, maybe they have a chance. But I mean, Jaylon Williams is 10 for 43 in his last three games and he's two for 14 from three. This is a guy like you said that was a deserving All-Star. He's going to be a deserving all-emba selection, almost certainly. But the question around the thunder, the entire season was, could Jalen Williams be good enough in these moments to be the secondary score of these guys need? He was phenomenal in game three. He had the 32 points in the game they blew. And he has been terrible ever since. And look, he's a young player. He's still growing. He's going to have a great career. He's already had a great career so far. There's a massive moment for him in particular on Sunday in this game seven. Can he step up at home and have a big game? Because if the Thunder are going to win that game, yes, he hit the big shot late in game five. He obviously is an excellent defensive player.

He can help in a lot of other ways. The Thunder are probably going to need Jalen Williams to be better than 27% from the field and 14% from three if they want to get this series over with and get to the Western Conference finals. Yeah, because they did get a good offensive game from Chet Holmgren tonight. He had 19 points and 11 rebounds and he was fighting Yokich in there. I mean, Yokich, Yokich has 29, 14, and 8. and that was, it was not a great performance by the Thunder, but they could have survived it under other circumstances.

Yeah, I mean, like I said before, Yolkich had sort of an average Yokic game. I mean, an average Yolkich game is insane for anybody, but it wasn't like he did the 44 and 20 game today. Like, Jamal Murray was incredible. Christian Brown was incredible, but. Yes, so later slash earlier on this pod, you will hear when McMahon found out

that Jamal Murray was placed on the injure report with illness, with questionable, and he apparently was feeling ill since last night. He'll give his press, he'll give his interviews here in a little bit. He did do the walk-off interview with Katie George, where he said there was no way he wasn't playing in this game. And he was he was awesome. He was wrapping himself in the hot pads during the game. You can tell in his face he wasn't quite right. I saw some people comparing it to the Jordan flu game, and I'd like to pump the brakes on that. So not a little bit. But listen, we've seen, again, look, Jamal Murray has never made an all-star team. We talked about it a lot, right? He's one of the

weirder players to sort of quantify who he is in the league. But Jamal Murray is the reason that, and Bob Myers' thoughts had it perfectly on countdown, he was going to be the reason they won or lost this game. Because when Jamal Murray is playing great, the nuggets are as good as anybody in the league. And when he's not good, and it's just a Kolochich, they're a good team, but they're not an elite team. And that's why going back to the start of the season, and the end of last year when Jamal was not right, we were wondering, can he get back to the guy he's been in the past like he was in 20, 23, when he carried this team with Yokic to a title.

If he can play like he did tonight on Sunday, the Nuggets are going to feel really good about their chances. And in that game Sunday, very well could come down to Jamal Murray and Jalen Williams. And if you're a Denver fan sitting here right now saying who's going to play better between Jamal Murray and Jalen Williams and at game seven, I mean, Jamal Murray has done it a lot. So if you're Denver, I think you're going to be pretty confident about that. So a key moment in this game, an interesting facet about the box score.

Jamal Murray played 42, I call it 43 minutes. Yokic played 41 minutes. Okay. Yokich was plus 11. Jamal Murray was plus 28, okay? Which is an indication that when Yokic was sitting that the nuggets were able to withstand, which is always a huge measure. Well, and that was those Julian Strother buckets at the start of the fourth quarter.

Right. You know, they'd taken a lead with strong clothes to end the third quarter. Strong closes to end the second and third were the difference in the game. And then Strother hit those shots at the start of the fourth. He kept that momentum going. And they ended up giving Yokic four minutes off. And I think they were plus three or four in that stretch. Yeah.

And in game five, they tried to have Yokic stay out there within the exact same situation. Team ran out of gas late. David Adelma gets him a break. He comes in. He immediately hits a three. Nuggets pushed the lead out. Got a little dicey for a minute. But you never really thought that the Nuggets were losing this game.

And, you know, I just keep going back to that, that end of the second quarter, that couldn't have been worse on every front. And you just can't do that with a guy like Yokic and a guy like Murray, guys who have won titles in one huge game. games. You can't let them up. And like I said, the Thunder Oatwin game seven, those final three, four minutes of the second quarter are going to be replayed in their heads all summer long. Yeah, I think, look, we are not stunned that this is going back to Oklahoma City, but the Thunder had their fingers on this one, and they just didn't, they didn't handle their business. Total blown opportunity. I also want to point something else out. This was the ninth game in 17 days played by the Nuggets.

I thought there was fatigue that showed on them earlier. They didn't show as much fatigue tonight, but nine games and 17 days. I realize obviously the Thunder have played the same number of games in the last six games, but the Thunder are deeper, and I think at times there's been fatigue. Now, after having to play seven games with the Clippers and then every other day, now the Nuggets get two days off. They get Friday and Saturday off before they have to play Sunday. I don't know, is it in the afternoon?

Sunday, Sunday 3.30 on ABC. Okay. That's why it's two days off. Make sure we got a Sunday afternoon game. That could be really important, especially with Jamal Murray fighting some illness. That is, you know, it's still advantage thunder. They're going to be at home.

But that extra day is, that could be end up, you could end up seeing a difference in that. The other thing I'm going to say is this is Jamal Murray and Nicola Yokich's seventh game seven. His, I look up Murray stats in game seven. Yokic is kind of up and down. He's had some good ones and had some average ones. They are four and two to this point in game sevens.

And obviously just had one last round. So, you know, that's their advantage in terms of, in terms of, you know, experience. And it's interesting that ESP and Stateninfa looked it up. The last time a team had two game sevens in the first two rounds, the Nuggets in 2020, the time before that, the Nuggets in 2019. So they have done this before. Yeah. And I'm not sure, you know, I do think Jim Williams needs to be good,

but I also think that Shea, She was fine in this game. He got into foul trouble early. His fourth foul was a not smart play. I do think there were too many whistles in the first half, but it's either here nor there. It was not a smart play. Well, I mean, the fourth foul,

the fourth, for a guy who's a smart play, player as Shea is. It was as dumb a foul as you can have, especially when you have three. And again, it just goes to that entire sequence, right? The Thunder just lost focus for three or four minutes. And you can't do that against a team like Denver in a moment when you have a chance to take out Nicole Yokic. Because look, like, I mean, you've been around plenty of guys like this, Brian, whether it's LeBron or Steph or KD. I mean, we've seen a lot of these games, right? If you have a great player like that on the ropes. You can't let them up. You can't let them get a chance to get back in the game. And it, you know, again, I'm probably repeating it too much, but it's, it's going to be

fascinating to see how this young Thunder team responds in this game because they're going to have all the pressure on them. They're the heavy favorites. They won 67, 68 games. They're the home team in game seven. They're expected to make the conference finals. They're the favorites to win the title. It's all sitting there for them. And they had a chance to do it today. And they let it go. And we've talked a lot about them being young and learning experiences and all that. But everything's sitting there for him right now. And can they rise to the moment? I think we both agree that Che is going to be great. He's proven to be able to handle these moments already in his career. Jerry Okich is going to be great,

but I really think it's going to come down to those second guys, Jamal Murray and Jalen Williams. And again, if I'm a Thunder fan, if I'm looking at that matchup to decide the game, and if I'm a Nuggets fan looking at that matchup to decide the game, I'm not feeling so great about that if I'm the Thunder. And by the way, Jackson says in here, Thunder are seven and a half point favorites in game seven.

Wow, that's. That is a laughable line. Ooh, that is laughable. This series has been played way too tight for that. I know that the-coy-y-ocha and a seven-and- a half point dog in a game seven. Well, the thing was, in this series, the, the thunder totally blew the nuggets out in game two, and so it sort of warped some of the stats.

This whole series has been played skin tight other than that. Yes. Yes. Okay, so stats and info, as sort of a borderline farce, stats and stats and infill has provided the comparison stats between Michael Jordan and Jamal Murray. The flu game for Jordan was the game five of the 97 finals. Of course, if you watched the last dance, it was posited that it was food poisoning on a pizza that he ate at midnight the night before.

But whatever. In that game, Jordan had 38 points on 13 of 27 shots, seven rebounds and five assists against the jazz in Salt Lake. Tonight, Jamal Murray, 25 points, 9 of 19, shooting eight rebounds. bound seven assists. Tomorrow, a great game. Let's just not compare them to Jordan.

That's all. I don't need to do that. I more said it because just to remind everybody of what Jordan's flu game was. Michael Jordan is Michael Jordan for a reason. But look, Jamal, look, Jamal is one of the best clutch players in the league. I mean, he's been doing this for years.

And again, it's why I've harped on this second scorer thing from Oklahoma City all season because- You have. You've been, I'll give you that. Well, if you look at the nuggets, right? When you get to the fight, the reason the nuggets are so good.

in the clutch, right? Is you get to the final five minutes of a close game for Denver. What are they going to do? Everybody on the court knows what they're going to do. It's going to be Jamal and Nicole Yokich, moving the ball back and forth, finding the best shot for one of them to take. And Denver knows exactly how they play, exactly how they want to play. And there's no ambiguity or confusion. They get to their spots. They run their stuff. They're generally really good at it. And the teams that struggle in those spots are the teams that are unsure of how they want to approach it or unsure of what they want to do. And, you know, Look, like I said, Jalen Williams really struggled in this series last year against Dallas.

He got better. He had a phenomenal regular season. He has really struggled in this series against Denver. So huge moment for him in particular, I think, on Sunday to step up and show he's the player he's been all season. And frankly, he was in game three. He was phenomenal in game three. It's not like he can't do it, but they're going to need him to play far better if they want to close this thing out. By the way, so the Western Conference Finals and Eastern Conference Finals dates have been now set by this.

So the West Finals will begin on Tuesday, which means tight turnaround for whomever wins on Sunday. They have to start, they have to host the, the winner will host the wolves. The wolves are the six seed. So they are not, they will not be seen. They were given a beautiful gift of a home court in the second round because of the warriors victory over Houston. They've seen their last home court advantage. That's right. Anyway, that will start Tuesday.

and then the Eastern Conference Finals will begin Wednesday in either New York or Boston. But in both cases, well, if the Knicks win, they're looking at, what, four days off? Five days off. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, to four days off. Right. Be a fifth day later, yeah. Yeah. And then the wolves are now guaranteed five days off, I think, something like that. Well, it's guaranteed almost a week off.

They played yesterday and they don't play until Tuesday. Correct, six days. You're right. So that little note. All right. Through the magic of editing, we're about to be joined by Ban McMahon. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. Okay, we're now joined, but actually not.

We're actually joined earlier. And as I speak, as Bonn-Tepson and I speak right now, we don't know what we just said. So we're dumber than we were a second ago. That's really dumb. For yourself. That right there from Ball Arena before game six on Thursday is Ban McMahon. Howdy, partners. Nice early tips night out here.

Still can't wait for me. I mean, sure, let you two goofballs, flap your gums from 2,000 miles away. I'm on the scene. I get it. The waiting part is the problem. Howdy part. Don't be the slowest worker of all the time.

Howdy part in the pot. I hope you have diarrhea from babies. You know, I'd be happy to wait. I'm not the one doing sleep updates. Oh, yeah. Yeah, well, you get to sleep in until that baby wakes up crying. Yes, that's exactly right. My sleep complaints go nowhere with Bontems right now.

There's just nowhere to go. There's just nowhere to go. All right. So I'm in New York. I just flew down here. Big anticipation for the game six for a Friday night. Friday night at the garden, Bontems. It's a big one.

The latest biggest game since 1999. I know. I heard somebody said today. This is the biggest game in 25 years. except for the couple of days ago when that was the biggest game. After game seven, that'll be the biggest one.

I actually think that in a strange way, the Celtics had a bit of an advantage in game five because they were going to be playing a style that the Knicks were not ready for or prepared for. They had eight games of data and a certain comfort level about how the Celtics play with Jason Tatum. More than that,

if you go back to the last few years, but certainly this year they'd played them eight times. And, you know, you know how Tatum's going to play. You know there's going to be isolations. You know how certain matchups are going to go and switches. And the Celtics played very differently than they normally do. Jalen Brown played point forward, essentially, more so than he ever has before. He had 12 assists in the game.

Now, one of the reasons he had 12 assists was because the Celtics were hot shooting the three, which they have been generally for the last three games. ice cold, the first two. They've been much better the last three. They were 22 of 49 in this game. They make over 23s. Their record is very hard to beat. But that was part of it.

But the Celtics isolation game was way down. Their ball movement and body movement was up. And they generated a lot of open looks. And, you know, it was a minor advantage. Of course, if they had gone 12 of 49 instead of 22 of 49, then the Knicks would be in the conference. conference finals. But as poorly as the Knicks played, I'm not sure that's true.

Well, at the half, it was tied. And the Celtics were shooting 52% at the half. And I was like, this is not a good sign for the Celtics. Because the Knicks were not playing that well and they were tied. They had been ahead by a big chunk in the first half. And then Joe Missoula made a decision to start Luke Cornett over Chris Saps, Porzingis. Porzingis just flat out looked terrible in the first half. He had, there was some level of belief that he might be better because he played like 24 minutes in game four.

And he said after the game that he was feeling better than he had. So Missoula put him in the starting lineup alongside Al Horford as their, as the replacement for Tatum. He looked terrible. He is, I don't remember what his plus minus was, but it was minus double digits. And Mitchell Robinson was just moving faster than him. He was just running circles around him when he was out there. So they put Cornette in the game. And Missoula said that Joe Missoula said, you know, it was because Porzinkas couldn't breathe.

And so when he left the podium, I said to Joe, I said, hey, just so I have it straight, this was a medical or a decision, not minus 12 for Porzingas, says Jackson. I said to Missoula, I said, just to clarify while I talk about it on ESPN platforms, this was a medical decision, not a coach's decision. In other words, you were not benching him. He was removed from the game. And he's like, yes, it was a decision made between Chris and I, Chris Absenai. He basically was protecting his player, I think. And, you know, even though I think it was a coach's decision. But.

Well, it's a combination of the two. I mean, Porzingis, I mean, I just feel really bad for Porzingis. I mean, this has been like three months now of dealing with this bizarre illness thing. And he was training in a pretty good direction. And he's talked a lot about it that he got to the start of the series since this had another one of these crashes and can't get his energy back. And even in games three and four at the garden where he in New York, where he was better, he still wasn't great.

He was making some defensive plays, but he wasn't really given him much on offense. And I mean, he just clearly didn't have it in game four. And look, here's the deal. We're also talking about the Celtics bringing either Al Horford or Chris Sasporzingis into the starting lineup off the bench when they lose Jason Tatum. Like they have an incredible team. So if they went into this series and Jason Tatum wasn't playing, we probably would have said it's a toss-up. Like Celtics might have been slight favorites to win.

Knicks might have been slight favorites to win. I think Boston probably would be slight favorites if both teams were rested at the start of the series. So them winning game five is not a surprise. There's a reason we said going into game five, the series wasn't over, right? So we will see what happens on Friday night in game six. But I think there was a lot of celebrating here after game four, not celebrating Jason Tatum's injury, obviously, but thinking, hey, the Knicks have won, they're up 3-1,

they're on the verge of making the conference finals for the first time in 25 years that got this in the bag. And there's a reason why Knicks fans got very offended when you said on TV and we said on the pod that the series is not over yet. And I think we saw in game five, why we said it wasn't over yet. And they better take care of business at home in game. game six, because if they go back to Boston for game seven, haven't blown this game, I'm not going to feel very good about their chances of escaping from the series.

By the way, did Luke Cornett make himself some money last night? He was awful good. I would say so, except for the fact that Luke Cornett would have made more money last summer and chose to resign with the Celtics. And I suspect will be continuing to resign with the Celtics for some time for the contract he was on because he is. If he was a free agent this year, is he still restricted? Well, he wasn't restricted last year.

He just resigned for the minimum. Like other teams had interest, he just chose to come back for that number. And I suspect he will be back in Boston again. Why do you suspect that? Because Luke Cornett loves playing for the Celtics and likes being in Boston. And I think I haven't asked him this directly, but I think he has figured out that he's got a really good situation in Boston. I suspect he will be playing there for as long as he can play there. And I suspect he will have a lucrative post playing career in Boston for a long time because he's a great quote.

And I think will be in the media scene in Boston, not too dissimilarly from a certain former Celtic, who we all know and love, who is on TV all the time now in Boston. And I mean, look, maybe he goes and play somewhere else. What if he's offered significantly more money and a significant. bigger role because I mean it's a solid he's he's he's a hell of a third center I think he should be a solid second center for somebody I maybe even he's I mean he's he's definitely not a third center I mean he's a back he's one of the better backup centers in Lee I just my I'm just telling you my hunch is he will be in Boston playing for the Celtics and look he because he had opportunities I believe to go have a bigger role elsewhere last summer and chose to stay so

All right, enough Luke for that talk. This is a great stat from Jackson. Fourth Celtic player of seven plus blocks in a playoff game since blocks became official. Robert Williams, the third. It's not a surprise. Had nine against the Nets. Robert Parrish, not a surprise.

Seven against the Sixers in 82. Andrew Perkins had seven blocks against the Bulls in 2009 playoff game. They showed the highlights. I didn't know he had seven blocks in his career. I think I think Perth requested this be researched because they showed the highlights. on the on NBA today today and he he was very happy to uh narrate wait hold on were these like the because dirt got a lot of blocks where they were like it's the swipe down as the as the guys

getting the ball up to shoot it or were these like hurt going to get up above the room there was a time where kendrick perkins was regarded as a plus big man defender he was a because he was a because he was a beast to post up he was paid tens of millions of dollars for his defense so but i agree he wasn't known for blocking shots. He was he was known for being hard to move and he got rebounds that way. But yes, he was a, he talked about how it was a great series against the Bulls when he, when he did do that. I would say that, uh, Cornett is 29. I would say, Luke, get paid my friend. Whatever it takes. And guess what? They're not going to not let you back in Boston if you go somewhere else

from where money. I'm just telling you what happened. Why, you're not, I'm not, no, it's fine. I'm just, I don't yell at anybody. That's Wendy. I'm not focused on his contract. He was great. I will be interested to see who Missoula starts on Friday. One thing he could do is he could start Sam Houser, one of the things that did happen in this game.

You know, the Celtics, you know, in addition to losing Tatum, they essentially have lost Porzingas because he's five of 21 in the series. So they're down, you know, in my view, like two starters. But one thing... Two are the top four, I would say. Yeah.

And Porzingis is such an X factor. But one positive that they had health-wise was that Sam Houser, came back after missing three games with a sprained ankle and hit a couple of threes. I suppose it's possible that Hauser could start. He could. I thought he might have yesterday. He looked like he tweaked his ankle again in the third quarter.

He was okay postgame. He was okay. Half the Celtics are icing their ankles post game. I won't, I mean, I don't mean like just doing their feet like treating ankle injuries. By the way, Jalen Brunson has twisted both ankles. Oh, my God. Seriously. he in game four he had what do you call it when you when you turn your ankle most ankle sprains are rolled out he had one of those where it rolled in a nanny

his nays and outies we're going to let that go brunson has turned his ankles a bunch of times and just just kept right on churning this guy I mean what what a what a player but anyway so we'll see if what he does with cornet but one of the things that happened here in this series was that Mitchell robinson you know porzincas was coming off the bench and Mitchell Robinson has been coming off the bench. And Mitchell Robinson has been dominating inversion sprain as opposed to lateral sprang. Oh, thank you, Dr. Ajillo. He's very good.

A break. That's what it was. That's a cut and paste if I've ever seen it from Jackson. Well, it was, but, you know, he's somebody looked it up. But he's had plenty of lateral roles as well. Anyway, I felt, you know, Mitchell Robinson was just dominating Porzengis. Just getting to loose balls of Porzengis wasn't able to get to. and Cornett shut that off in addition to shutting off the paint.

And what Jalen, so what happened was they got the team together on Tuesday and they broke the news to the team that indeed Tatams, Bontems, you were in the locker room after the game Monday night. Everybody in the locker knew. I mean, everybody knew on. It wasn't a mystery. And they just, they, he went and got a surgery. That's when they had. So anyway, they told him he's had surgery. And then Jalen, Jalen Brown and Al Horford both spoke to the team.

But the big thing that they talked about was, look, we lost this guy who's our leading score. We have got to defend. We've just got to defend. And I think they've had some good defensive stretches in this series. It just happens to be not in fourth quarters, mostly. They've led by at least 14 in every single game of the series. Exactly. And they still have a great team.

They still have an incredibly deep and talented team. And that's with Porzingis being out of the mix and with Tatum being out. That's not any knock on either of those guys, but they've got Derek White and Drew Holiday and Jalen Brown and Al Horford and Peyton Pritchard, the sixth man of the year. Hous is a really good shooter. Cornett's a really solid backup big. They still have a bunch of players. And if you just go man for man with the Knicks and them, like I said, it's still probably a toss-up between the two teams. I do feel that the Knicks were a little bit at a disadvantage because they were not 100% with sure what the game plan would be.

I don't think, I don't really think the Knicks are a disadvantage at all. They were up in the first half and they played horribly in the second half of the game and blew it. Also, the officiating in the third quarter was a little squishy. And Jalen got five fouls in the third quarter alone. And that certainly helped, although it was really the fact that they couldn't score in the interior. Cornette shut the interior off. The Celtics did not make a single basket on the paint. I mean, the Knicks did not make a single basket in the paint in the third quarter.

They had their fewest points in the paint of the same. season. Wow. The Knicks came out in the third quarter like a team that felt like the series was trending their way and they were going to close it down. And the Celtics came out in the third quarter like a team that season was on the line and was totally desperate. And Cornette was great and they were, you know, they were just a more desperate team. And that translated how the game went. I just suspect Tibido will have a bit of a different idea of how the Celtics are going to attack them offensively. But the Celtics were very good defensively. 35% for the Knicks in this game.

So it was a combination of a bad Knicks offensive night, a good Celtics offensive night. So, yeah, I think this game will come down to the fourth quarter again, is my guess. And that's what the Knicks want. That's Jaylen Brunson's theme music. That's right. And Jalen Brunson didn't even,

couldn't get to Crutch time because by the time five minutes in the fourth quarter came, forget about the score. He was disqualified. He was waving on the Jumbo Trong. I'm like, all right, you got me. See you later. See you game six. Yeah.

The Knicks have not blown out one team yet in the playoff. I do not think they'll be blown the Celtics out in game six. It's going to be an insane environment and we will see if they can pull it out. I will say this. When the Knicks had a chance to close out the pistons in the first round in that game five at the garden, they did not put their best foot forward. And then they, and then they. It was a very similar performance.

Yes. And it was like, wow, you know, you had a great chance to do this and you didn't get it done. And then they came back in game six. Now that one was in Detroit. And they played excellently. And Brunson had the halacious. crossover of a Tsar Thompson and then they then they won it so yeah I'm sure the crowd will be heavily with them there was there was quite a few nix fans in boston last night there has not been

any boston fans in new york i've seen very very that's interesting uh well you were there bontemps did you see many seltics fans i i certainly haven't no no um there were not there certainly were not so all right it's also by the way been a very very long time since the nix have closed out a series at home. I believe the last time they did so was in 1999, I believe. I am double checking quickly. It definitely was not in this.

Well, thanks. It's definitely not in this century. Three minutes ago. I mean, geez. Well, I didn't see it. There you go. Jackson, the producer, way on top of things, way more than me.

I will say that they... Not an ECF. There's been a huge renovation of the whole area around Madison Square Garden. They built a new train station across the street for Amtrak, and then sort of the part of the block that Madison Square Garden is on. They renovated this whole area, made these very nice outdoor spaces. It was under construction for like four years, Bontemps, like it was under scaffolding.

But now that they've taken it all off, it's very nice. I mean, Clay Thompson was on the Warriors when they did that interview with them about the scaffolding. He was very, very aware of it and very careful about it. They actually, not that this is an architectural podcast, but they took. I'm looking at it right now because I'm across the street from it. They took a building that was preexisting. And I was like, you know, it was tall. It was probably, you know, it's probably 40 or 50 stories.

And they literally ripped down the entire exterior and put a new exterior up and then built another partial building around it. And it looks like a completely new building. And it's a completely beautiful area. And the reason I'm saying all this is that that's where the Knicks fans are congregating. Oh. And this is where they're having the watch parties. and then when the Knicks have won games,

the fans in that area have just poured out on the 7th Avenue and shut the traffic down. So they were doing that on Monday night. They shut down traffic on 7th Avenue. If on Friday night, they clinched to go to the conference finals for the first time of 25 years, first time to clinch in New York in 26 years.

And it's a Friday night. I haven't shut the weather. The weather has not been great in New York. It's not going to matter what the weather is tomorrow night. I can tell you what will happen if they somehow win it. it's going to be crazy. I mean, if finals in New York

could be something else. If that happens, I'll have to get together with some of my old Hyde boarding school teammates, you know, that I played in two state championships with, twice as many as Cooper Flagg did, just to get that on the record.

Makes me twice the main prep player that he went. Well, he won one. I went over two, but anyway, exactly. I also got to tag along with you guys if we're New York, because I ain't a lie. All that subway train,

all that crap, I still get confused as hell. Boy, the Texan comes out in him right there, Bon Temps. I just, I mean, I'm like, I'm nervous. I don't know how to do this here subway. Boy, there's a lot of color. You know, who ain't taken us, and a lot of covers. There's a lot of numbers and letters and colors.

What, how do we do it? Our guy, window, ain't taken the subway. I can promise you that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. That's true, but also I will say that that's Pacers erasure. Like, hello.

Oh, I can figure my way out around Indianapolis. I don't need you there. Oh, wow. Oh, Jamal Murray, crap, I've probably got to pause and do a little news story here. Jamal Murray's just announced as questionable. More Hoop Collective Podcast after this. Okay, we're back, and a devastating thing just happened, which is that Jackson turned off the recording,

because if I could sum it up, Bont Hemp's was complaining, it just won't do it justice, but Bontz was complaining to McMahon that he's so slow. and McMahon said, I'm tired of you, I'm just going to mute you. And he muted it and realized he muted himself talking. He can still hear by him. Because it's his damn, it's the microphone.

That's like, trust me, I know how to. This great. I can mute. I got to just do it. Oh, you pissed me off. He was all angry. That's some avalanche water you've got there?

Colorado avalanche water. It's versatile, baby. Oh, versatile. We got much. Multi, multi, uh, multi labels, big time. Somewhere near Golden, Colorado that was bottled. That's a distant reference. Okay.

Oh. Uh, the warrior season ended on, um, Wednesday night when the Timberwolves had a just kickass second half. She's got great shooting. I think they shot like 64% in the second half or something. Aunt and Julius Randall both had double doubles with points and assists. And the warrior season. Let's be honest. That, that series ended in the,

first half of game one. Yeah. Well, they had an opportunity to win game three, and when that slipped through their fingers. It ended in the first half of game one when Steph got hurt. Yeah. I mean, honestly, it's surprising they won that game. By the way, the Rudy Goberra Vinge tour continued.

Got Luke in the first round, got Draymond in the second round. I don't think anybody from the Thunder Nuggets has been really, really mean to them. I'll bet they have. We just don't know. Well, at least not like not publicly. Okay, yeah. For some reason, he's just not a guy.

Anyway, We all like them, though. We do. So I will say this. Before we talk about the Warriors, the wolves will reach the conference finals, unlike last year,

much more rested than they were last year. And I think Anne's a better player now. I mean, Ann, obviously, had a great playoffs. McMinneman wrote a great story, though, on kind of the evolution of Ant.

While you placing McMedeman is like someone praising Gobert. I suggested the story McMiniman, and execute it. There we go. Seriously. We drew it out of them.

But we've talked so much about the, you know, the, the, the wolf's weakness of being bad and clutch situations and just going to hero ball. And man, aunt late in the season, continuing the playoffs is showing a real good feel for being aggressive, but also making the right play. And when he does that, ooh, boy, because the man can poop. Well, and I think they're just a better game and game and close out game. I think they're a better team. I mean, you know, I would say Julius Randall and Carl Towns are similar level players,

even though they're different. And they added Dante DiVincenzo. And DeKale Alexander Walker took yet another step forward this year. And it's gotten a little better, like you said, Jim McDaniels has been better. Like, they've got a better team. So it's going to be a fascinating series, whoever they play. And we'll see if we may already know who they're playing. We'll see what happens in the game we're all going to watch on it a little bit.

By the way, so much for the theory that Jimmy and whoever. Can always beat the wolves. There was one thing in practice against Andrew Wiggins. It's another thing in a game against Anthony Edwards. That is true. Okay. So the Warriors had so much promise, but they really started messing around late in the regular season.

I think they went three and three down the stretch, backed into the play-in. Then they were in command position in the first round of the series, first round against Houston, lost games five and six. and played their way into game seven, which they won, which is a road game seven victory, and that's all well and good.

But this team needed to be efficient. They needed to be efficient because of the age of their, of their stars, and they needed to be efficient because of the demands on their stars. And look, I have no idea.

I just will go back to saying, Steph literally never ran more in any game that we have tracking data for in game seven, and then 48 hours later, he pulled his hamstring. I mean, it's exactly what happened two years ago. They had a,

a, you know, a slugfest series of Sacramento on the first round. They escape with a game seven win on the road to go into the second round. That year, they're playing the Lakers. They should have playing the wolves. They're completely out of gas and they lose. Like, yeah, staff got hurt, which didn't happen then. But that's why you can't, you just can't, like you said, you can't give away games in the playoffs. Or at the end of the regular season.

Well, but they, I mean, look, they gave away game five. They just punted that game and said, we're going to go home and win game six. And then they did. Let me ask for this. Here's what I would want to know. Jimmy was sick. Steph was not back. Had they won game five, had they won game four?

We're not doing. We're not doing this. Minnesota is also just better than them anyway. Let me ask you this. What are they doing with Cominga and will they go star hunting this offseason? They got Jimmy Butler. They signed them to a contract extension. Are they going to be content or are they going to continue to go star hunting?

We know that the Warriors will go star hunting, whether they get a star or not is one thing. But the Warriors for the last going back to when they traded for Andre Agadala, right, 2013. I mean, they've always been a team that has pursued star players and the entire Jolay Cabara. They're going to do that again. Are they going to get a star player? I don't know. Like, we'll see what they can actually get done. And, you know, the Jonathan Kaminga thing is going to be really interesting.

He is an eye of the beholder player. But a talent, but a talent that Steve Kerr clearly does not trust. Well, that's why I said he's an eye of the beholder player. Like, he's a guy who was deservedly not in the rotation up until the moment Steph got hurt. And then he plays the last four games. He averages over 20 points in the four games. He shot pretty well from the field in the games. He also had a combined.

Why do you say deservedly not in the rotation? I think if you look at how Jonathan Cominga played in the last few games, it's indicative of the role he needs to play on a team to be somewhat effective, which are effective, which is to be a guy who has the ball in his hands. They have Jimmy Butler and they have Stefan Curry. So if you have those two guys, they're going to have the ball in their hands. He's not a good outside shooter. He's not a guy that does a lot of the other things.

He doesn't pass the ball. He played in these five games and had a total of five assists. And he had a million shot attempts. Like he's a guy who's going to have the ball and shoot it a lot, which he's a young player. He's a guy that I think is going to be a fascinating, restricted free agent if there's a team who believes in him that wants to go after him. But if he's trying to be a eighth player on a team with Stefan Curry and Jimmy Butler, that's a harder role for him to fit in. And the Warriors have a lot of guys who can be a efficient role player next to stars. That's not the role that Jonathan Kamiga has shown an ability to perform.

So why was he on the roster after the trade deadline? That is a very different question. Because he had value then, and you put yourself in a situation where maybe there's signing trade scenarios that make sense. Bringing him back seems to be unlikely and unappealing, frankly, because he doesn't want to be an eighth man. Rightfully, the guy was going to want to be a starter and a guy like a guy who's averaging 20-some out of game.

And, you know, you've put yourself in a situation where lose. losing him for nothing is, you know, on the table, if not likely. Well, I think that's a very big stretch of a statement. He's not on the table? There's no cap space. There's no cap space. Okay. So there's one team with cap space.

We will see if they want to pay him. He's also a restricted free agent. So the warriors have the ability to bring him back, depending on what the price is. Why would they match a significant salary for a guy who Steve Kerr doesn't want to play? For the same reason that they haven't traded him in the past, that they clearly believe he has value. you. So we will, I think just declaring he's going to leave for nothing is a big scratch. I said it was on the table, you bonehead. He's in a bad mood. You got a big night of work left in front of you. You got to

sweet. Well, I'm still recovering from getting yelled at rudely the other day. I thought we had kind of reached the point of friendship. You guys came to the book launch party and now I get, I get screamed at for the world to see my field. What a wonderful party it was. It was good. Such a lovely day. It was good. It does have been on a plane. We still got a bunch of beer and booze left. You guys want to come on back down.

Maybe after the, hey, come on down for draft night. Cooper flag coming to Dallas, you know. There you go. It'll be a big, be a big night. One time main state champion. They're going to, look,

the Warriors obviously talked about trading Jonathan Gominga for Kevin Durant in some forms back in February. They didn't end up doing that trade. They end up getting Jimmy and keeping Cominga in the deal. I do think. there are teams that are fans of Jonathan Cominga, which I'm sure there are some. The way he played in the last four games is going to have him have some level of value this summer. We will see what level of value it is.

If the Warriors do go hunting for a star player, he'll certainly be involved in the trade. As Brian said, there is very little free agent money this summer. I am not convinced he's going to get some massive offer as a restricted free agent. I certainly think there's a real possibility that he's back on the team or that he's involved in a trade that brings back to Warrior some players. I would be very surprised if after all of this he leaves and they don't get anything back for him. I think at minimum they'll match whatever offer he gets. Now, if he gets offered a whatever four-year, $200 million max deal. Well, no, but I'm just saying, barring up some completely out of the,

out of the world offer from another team. I think they're either going to get value form or he's going to be back on the team. And the question I think rightly is, can you either find a way to have Jonathan Cominga fit with these guys or can you turn him into the kind of pieces they need to have a better chance of making a deep playoff run? Because the bottom line is regardless of whether they should have got the Rocket series done sooner or not,

they're not close. They're not good enough right now to win with the group they have. what can they do to get closer to that between now and the start of next season? That's the question that Mike Dunleavy will be thinking about. And tick, tick, tick, tick, like time is ticking on them. You know, like Draymond is 34, Steph's older than that, Jimmy's old. Well, he got asked about, Steph did get asked. He had an end of year press conference, and he was asked about whether he sees what they've

got left as a two-year window. That's what they extended Jimmy Butler. that's what they extended Draymond Green. That's what they extends For context, all those guys, all three of those guys

have two years left on their contract. And so does Steve Kerr. And he said, yes, you know, you never know the future. You know,

I'm focused on just next year. But yes, everybody sees this as, everybody understands that. So, and the warriors have to operate that way. Like they already traded

one first round pick away for Jimmy Bellar. They have access to other future picks, and they have a bunch of contracts on their roster that they can add into a trade. So they can definitely, you know, because, you know, people are asking, you know, we're dancing around the concept of Janus. Yeah. I have the same answer when I'm getting asked these questions about Janice, Tena Kumpo and the Knicks, Yonis Tentacompo and the, by the way, the Knicks might get to the finals this year. So everybody wanted them in New York, just enjoy what you got.

Everybody was asking me about Janus and the Lakers and Janus and the Warriors. My answer is the same for all three. And if you disagree, Bontem, speak up. Could any of those teams trade for Janus? Yes, there is a package that would... No. Hold on. Just let me finish.

Let me finish his podcast. Could they trade for Janus? Yes. But the only way I see it is if Janus says, I am only going there. And even then, the Bucks could play hardball. They don't have to do it because he's got two years left on his contract. And now what we don't know is, what were the private discussions between Janus and Bucks,

you know, the Bucks front office and even ownership before we signed this extension. Was there kind of a, hey, let's give it a run. If it doesn't work out, you know, you're going to have some say, we don't know if there were those kind of discussions. But the Lakers, the Lakers have no ability. This is what I was saying no to. There is no world where the Lakers can trade for Yannis. Let's just say that.

If Yonis comes and says, that's not, they don't have, no, no, they don't have it. They do not have anywhere near enough. You could at least make an argument.

I think it's a harder, I think it's a hard argument to make given what other teams have. But the Warriors have several first round picks. They have Jonathan Kaminga. They have Brandon Pajamski. You can at least concoct a trade of a bunch of assets. You know,

who knows, they could put Jimmy in a trade again, right? Like they have things they could do. I don't know that Mulaggy's signing up. for Jimmy. I'm just saying you could trade Jimmy somewhere else for other stuff. There's a world where they could create enough assets where I could talk myself into believing there's a world where Janus could get to the Warriors.

But if we're putting together Janus packages, we're starting with the spurs and the rockets. But I'm just saying, I understand. To go to Brian's specific question. They can't win a bitty war. The Warriors says, I only want to be a warrior. The Warriors have enough. I only want to be a Laker. The Trades can't happen.

There's no, the Lakers have one draft pick and they have Austin Reeves. That's, that's not enough to get Yonis under any circumstances. I'm done, I'm done saying how the Lakers can't trade for somebody. So I'm just going to say that. We learned that the hard way. But that's fine. I'm saying the Lakers aren't getting Yonis. And I think we're,

you want to contract trades for the other two guys, teams. And I think we're on the same page. My message to Laker fans would be, you're not getting him, but for he says I only want to be a Laker. I don't even think but for works there, but that's fine. Is but for, but that first of all, it sounds weird, but is that even English, but for? I know wherefore, wherefore art thou. It ain't but for art thou.

But for him saying, I only want to be a later. Therefore, there's a whole bunch of those things. And by the way, I do not have any indication he is thinking that. I don't have any indication of what he is thinking other than he is considering his options, which we all are at all times. Oh, whoa. Hey, hey, hey, Wendy making a statement, baby. I would just say that the Warriors have options, whether they can execute.

They had options last summer, and they were trying for Paul George, and they had some conversations on other stuff, and then they spent the whole year. Yeah, I don't know if that Lowry Marketing thing was ever seriously. It never got, it never was like. The Warriors have enough stuff that they are going to be able to get themselves in conversations for stuff this summer. We will see if anything gets done, but they have enough stuff to do that. They were not trying to include pods and stuff last summer. They also weren't trying to get Yonah's last summer.

Yeah. I mean, that's the thing. They've got some young players. They've got a bunch of draft picks. You know, they have, they have some ability to get ammunition together to go after big name players. And all we have known for the Warriors for over a decade, whether Mike Dunleavy or Bob Myers is running the team, is that they're going to explore every avenue on everything they can do. And Mike has been on the record saying we're trying to maximize every bit of what Steph Scott left, which is the honorable thing. for them to do. And so I'm sure they're going to try to do that. And we will see what they're able to

come up with. But again, whatever you want to say about how they let the first round series get a little too long, they were a playing team. And to me, they're not as talented as the wolves, let alone the thunder, let alone these other teams at the top. So if they want to get there, they got more work to do. Steph has to be, had to be an MVP to give them a chance of doing any kind of real damage. And these playoffs, and look, Draymond stunk in this series. Now, he managed to not get himself suspended. You know, neither of those trains that were going down the tracks got to the final destination. But when they lost the last four games, Draymond averaged 8.8 points, 4.0 rebounds.

I'm sorry, 4.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists, shot 36% from the floor, 21% from 3 point range. and they gave up a whole bunch of points with the best defense played in the whole wide history of the world on the floor. And even beyond that, the thing you saw, especially when Steph was out,

is this team just needs more offense. Like, you can't, they can't be that reliant on a 37-year-old Steph Curry if you're going to get all the way to the end. There's got to be more. Well, if you're a Warriors fan,

you might be screaming to say, well, that's why you should play Kaminga. But Kaminga playing with Steph where he's got to, to have the ball doesn't always seem to work. It's a tough fit. And Jimmy reminded us that he's a hell of a robin. He's no longer a Batman. That was proven without a shadow of a doubt in this series. Yeah. I mean, he's still a really good player. But again, like, and he had a great game three. But you're again, talking about a guy in his mid-30s, asking to put up 35 a game. It's probably not

realistic, especially if Steph has any kind of issues. So they need more firepower if they want to be a legitimate threat next year. They're going to be a solid team. It's a matter of whether they're going to be better than a solid. This is one of these questions that gets asked at ESPN debate shows. They talk about, well, is Steph won his last championship was the window closing. Probably. Let me just point this out.

In the last three years, the Warriors finished sixth and lost the Lakers. Then they finished 10th and didn't make the playoffs. This year, they finished seventh and made it to the second round, which was great. And you can give us what was the record with Jimmy and that? Those are the last three years. Sixth, 10th, seventh. Okay? That is not a wide open window.

So they just lost to a younger and deeper team that's probably only going to get better. And they and that team could be playing. We'll see what happens in the game we're about to watch. But the conference finals could be a matchup between a young improving wolves team and a Thunder team that's only got a younger roster. There's more ammo and stuff going forward. Plus, you've got Yokic still sitting there. Plus, you've got the Clippers, the Lakers, all these other teams. Don't forget about the fighting Nicos.

Because once that beast is... Listen, all the Texas teams, like, hey, this wasn't the plan for Niko. He doesn't get credit for falling ass backwards into a lottery, 1.8% lottery thing. They ended up with the number one pick. But it is good fortune. And the Mavericks will be, you know, they've got to figure out the team. temporary point. They'll be tough. The Spurs got a chance when always going to be a fun summer to follow the Spurs and the Rockets. The Rockets push them to the brink and have a chance to take a major

leap forward. We'll see maybe it's plan A patience. Maybe they push some chips in. You know, the Spurs, maybe it's patience. Maybe they push some chips in. But the West is going to be a beast for a while. I think you've got a bunch of teams that are going to be better next year. Which is why if I were Janus and I want to leave Milwaukee, which is not. assured, you know, it's on the table, but it's not assured. I would want the private jet to go east, not west or south, east. But what do I know? I don't have any insight. Okay. Man, you got to go get ready to cover the game. Oh, great. Thanks for leaving me out tonight's pod, fellas. Really means a lot to you're welcome. You're welcome. Glad you're going to be able to rest up.

Yeah, I'm going to go take a nap right now, honestly, because otherwise it won't make it through the game. Wendy's Sleep Update. You're welcome. Thank you to Bon Tems, who's crushing fatherhood. I mean, he's just, I've never seen a father crush fatherhood the way Bonn Tems is crushing fatherhood. I don't know, I don't know what that's supposed to meet, but. You're crushing it.

Here's the thing, McMahon, I really want him to come back for the conference finals because are you coming back to the conference finals, it'll ease my burden. Well, we'll see. I mean, if the next. Well, listen, the plan has been to do that. And K. Bonn has been. very excited about the possibility of no travel for good chunks of the conference finals and maybe the finals. And we will see if the Knicks don't win this series, I'm not sure what's going to happen in the Bon Tempts household because there's going to be devastation at the Knicks losing when the chance of being home was right there and it was attainable and then it gets snatched away.

There's some pressure on Jaylon Brunson to deliver Bing, baby Bond temps. I saw that, I saw a stat today that the Celtics over the last three years, I think maybe the last four years, they're nine and two when facing elimination. Correct. Let me tell you, sir, I have felt all nine of those. Yes. Hey. I never even thought for a second I was going home today. I knew, I knew, I did laundry yesterday morning because I was like, I'm going to, I better prepare to stay till Monday because that's right.

That's how those, that's how those dudes are. This is who they are. Listen, I know. we'll see what happens. But if OKC closes tonight, I'll get two nights at home after game two of the West finals. So we'll see how that goes. But there will be a big time West finals rivalry.

Mack 10 staying on the wolves. And I'm staying on whoever wins this series. We're going to have some nastiness. Do you have any other great ideas to give McPolice? Hey, listen. I got some elbows for them because we'll be playing some pickup basketball. Oh, Lordy. I'll be packing.

I'll be packing some hoop shoes. You know, we should do, Bontas. We should have, we should just cut him out all together and just record with McMinneman tonight. Have that. Bring him on. Well, here's the problem. It's a good idea. Here's the problem. He's even slower than Big Pan.

Oh, my God. He's not here. I'm flying solo tonight. All right. All right. Thank you, Jackson. Thank you to everybody for watching. Let's see the Hoop Collective.

We'll talk to you at some point soon. I feel like it'll be before Monday. but technically Monday. Adios amigos.