Club Shay Shay - Nightcap - Hour 1: Warriors take Game 1 over Timberwolves + Haliburton Game-Winner deflates Cavaliers

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Shannon Sharpe, Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson, and Ryan Hollins react to Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs featuring, Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors beating Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1,  Tyrese Haliburton's Game-Winner as the Indiana Pacers taking a 2-0 lead over Donavan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers, Nikola Jokic and the the Denver Nuggets taking a 1-0 lead over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahome City Thunder, and much more!01:47 - Introduction04:00 - Warriors v T-Wolves24:10 - Pacers v Cavs50:00 - Thunder v Nuggets(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)#Volume #ClubSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart podcast. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us for another episode of Nightcouts for the first time in NBA history. All the road teams won, game won. We've had two of four, we've had three of four, we've never had all four win and that's what happened and a couple of them won in dramatic fashion. We're going to get to that in just a moment. Thank you guys for joining us again.

I am your favorite uncle, Shannon Sharp, my partner and co-host the Liberty City legend the bingo ring of fame Honor read the Pro Bowl of the all-pro that's Chad Ocho cinco Johnson and our special guest tonight to talk about Basketball is a 10-year NBA vet Pasadena native UCLA alum a seven foot plus high jumper Yes, here he is. Mr. Ryan Hollins Ryan a native UCLA alum, a seven foot plus high jumper. Yes, there he is, Mr. Ryan Hollins. Ryan, thank you. And he calls games for the Houston Rockets. Ryan, thank you for joining us tonight.

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The Warriors beat the Wolves. A large part without Steph, Steph left the game early in the second quarter with a hamstring injury, did not return. The Timberwolves tonight, Naz Reid, Naz Reid was three of seven from three. Everybody else was two of 22. And, uh, they did not get off to the, uh, the best start shooting the basketball. And as Chris Fitch said, our transition decisions making was diabolical.

He said the poor shooting affected their confidence and overall play. It starts with Anthony Edwards. You can see the light go out and for a little while, now he did get it going in the second half. He had 23 points, 14 rebounds. It just took him 22 shots to get those 23 points. And that's not nearly good enough

because outside of Ant-Man, Julius Randall was four of 11, Jane Daniel was six of 12, Julius Randall was four of 11. Jayden Daniel was six of 12. Rudy Gobert was four of seven. Mike Conley got some great cardio in tonight, but, uh, deep in chiseled three of 11, Nikhil Walker Alexander, uh, had four, uh, was, had 14 minutes, he got some great cardio in and, uh, even Shannon Jr. He got cardio and only got two minutes on the bike on Joe, but he got a little cardio here, so he only. Only got two minutes on the bike, Ocho, but he got a little cardio in, so he only have to do

18 minutes on the bike after the game because he did get two minutes of cardio. Ryan, I'm gonna start with you on this. You watched this game and you was like, okay, the Warriors might be in trouble. Steph going out and looked like he had it going, looked like he was headed toward the monster night. He had 13 points in about 13 minutes.

So it looked like it was going to be one of those nights. Draymond got off, hit four of his five first threes. But you know what? I let Draymond have that. I just don't want Steph, but he'll get going. What did you like about what you saw from the Warriors tonight? Man, the first thing they could have did, he could have pulled that hamstring on Sunday.

Last Sunday he could have pulled that hamstring. We'd be having a whole different conversation now. OK, let's get that out there right now. First and foremost, but man, I don't think people understand and give the Golden State the credit defensively. They are sound. They're smart. Steve Kerr will get out there and switch defenses. I saw stuff I've never seen in a series against Houston, against our guys.

He ran three to zone. He ran one, three, one in the NBA. That's something you never see to take away the elbows. And he doesn't mind switching stuff. He'll go play big, he'll go small. And right now, one thing he's doing, he's Derek Rudy Gobert. And he said, I'm going to put Jimmy Butler, I'm going to put Greymon. We're not putting a guy above six, eight on you. And he's really challenging Gobert to score the ball inside of paint.

Now against Shindou and Steven Adams, he went big. You saw a lot of Quentin Post. You didn't see Quentin Post tonight. You saw Kavanh Looney and Draymond. You saw both those guys in the lineup. I'm going to make this very clear. They're not going to win this series without Steph Curry. He's going to have to get back depending how bad that hamstring is. And I've never seen Steph go down. And it's funny, man. We were talking about this the other day with Steph. If you watch him play, I don't know, he must run three to four to five miles. Every possession he's running. So finally that hamstring, every possession he's running. So finally that hamstring, you know, went out. But at the end of the day, Chad,

whole sphere of reality where Anthony Edwards struggles that bad offensively, they've got to find ways to get him going. And ultimately in game one, it was a lot of Russ. The positive, when you play seven game series, you're fresh, you're ready, the juices are gone. But I saw Russ from Minnesota. Oh Joe, what'd you think about what you saw?

Because like he said, I don't think Ant-Man hit a junk shot all night long. Everything that he got was going to the basket or it was from the free throw line. He was terrible from the three point line. What was he from the three point line? Oh, he did make one. He was one of five from the three.

He was four of five from the free throw line. Nine of 22 from the floor overall. He did have 14 rebounds. But the thing that they didn't allow him to do, they made him incredibly inefficient and they didn't let you look at his assist total, two. Remember when he played the Lakers, 11 assists, eight, nine assists.

So not only is he getting his points, he's allowing everybody else to get involved. Tonight, Golden State did a great job of limiting him, making it hard for him to get anything. He couldn't get anything from the jump shot, the three-point line. He got some driving baskets in the second half, but it wasn't nearly, nearly enough. What did you, what, so you tell me, boys, you like Ant-Man. What is it that you didn't see that you want to see in order for them to win this series moving forward?

I mean, actually going forward, the wolves, the wolves are going to have to have, Ant-Man has to be on. He has to be on fire. He has to be the leader and go out there and not only facilitate, but take a game over. You know, it is only game one. And honestly, from what I saw, I knew Steph was getting hot when he was playing, but when he went out and he tweaked that hamstring a little bit, I'm like, okay, this is the perfect opportunity for the Wolves

to get back in the game. Or at least make it a close game. And that's what I thought it would be towards then. I thought that we'd have an opportunity to come back. But obviously Jimmy Butler and Jermon Green kind of led the way. Buddy Hill helped as well in making sure that didn't happen.

But- Buddy got going in that second half. Yeah But he got going in that second half. Yeah, he got going in the second half. It's only game one. It's only game one. So I'm expecting Anthony Edwards and the rest of that crew collectively to have a better game, especially Ant.

Ant-Man got a, I think everybody's gonna feed off his energy and how he plays, so everything starts with him. I mean, you think about it. Minnesota scored 11 points in the second quarter. Warriors almost outscored them in the second quarter. The Warriors scored 26 points in the second quarter. They had 31 points at the half. Minnesota did.

I don't know if I've ever seen a team be this, this poor in an entire quarter, 12 minute quarter. Right. I don't know when the last time you see somebody score just 11 points in a quarter in today's game. Now, maybe when the game was physical hell, I mean, I remember games being 73, 68, 70 to 65, but in today's game, when it's up and down, I don't know if I've seen this anemic of a quarter from a team.

Well, this is the thing that you got to understand. You must have missed our series, man. They defend and in Golden State more than anybody, they don't funnel you into a big because the biggest dream. They just square you off and they keep you in front of this old school basketball. And they force a contest. And then you bring Jimmy Butler in. Jimmy can play both ways. So they got size and they force a contest and then you bring Jimmy Butler in, Jimmy can play both

away. So they got size and they're switchable and then, you know, we're coming with guys off the bench, but very leaked because it's a different style than you're used to seeing. And even when Curry's out there, Curry's put on so much muscle, he's stronger, they're deep into their scatter ports. If there's a weakness that you have, you can argue they may be the smartest team in the NBA defensively. So it's not a surprise. And on the other end, this is my challenge to Anthony Edwards. Now he's going to shoot the ball better just by his God given ability.

When he learns how to truly play the game of manipulate defenses, he is going to be unstoppable. And what do I mean by that? Luca Donchins can't jump over a phone book, but he can manipulate defense, you know what I'm saying? Look at Dodgers is going to find a bad matchup. He's going to pull you into a pick and roll, use the angle and get it. Atlantic playing on our heart right now.

It's all hearts. Well, when he learns how to run the pick and roll, find the poor matchup, see how to play in him. You can't guard him, you know, so he's made strides and the game is going to come so much more easier to him. But again, that was Russ and it's in, like Chad said, Chad is almost impossible. We don't expect him to go into the next game and play that bad. And you're going to have to see, you know, here's the problem, Chad. I don't know how y'all both y'all feel about this

Now you're gonna have to ask Jimmy Butler to do a lot more than he's been doing Jimmy Butler's been playing heavy minutes, but he's been saving himself. Mm-hmm He had 11 rebounds tonight he had eight assists tonight as you mentioned because he First of all, Draymond is a point whatever you call him He's a point center point forward whatever, whatever you want to call him. Because he initiates a lot of their offense. That's not what Curry does. Curry spends his time being in perpetual motion,

running from side to side, coming off picks, coming off spin downs, and things of that nature. He's not really initiating their offense. That role goes to Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green. So now with Curry being out, you're probably going to ask Jimmy to do a little bit more of the scoring. He can't be as much as a facilitator because he had Curry taking a lot of that scoring role. Now if Curry's going to be out, you're going to ask him to do more.

He's more than capable of doing that because we saw him for a number of years in Miami. Do some of everything. Go get you 50. If you need 15, 16 rebounds, go get you that. You need double-digit assists, he can get you that. And so I agree with you, Ryan. I think he's gonna have to be... He's gonna have to be more of everything. He's gonna have to be that guy, what we saw LeBron be for a lot of those years. Maybe lead the team in points, rebounds, assists. Hell, maybe steal, block shots, because he has that ability. Um...

It's gonna be very interesting to see how the Wolves respond to this because they had it fairly easy. For the most part, look, the Lakers would always choke it off and they would get some confidence going and the next day, you know, Ant-Man get hot, everybody catch five shooting in three.

It was five and 29 tonight. Now they're not, they made the fifth most threes, but they're not, they weren't a great three-point shooting team against the Lakers. They just got hearted spells and that was good enough to carry them over. Ant-Man did what he did, but you got Jane Daniels averaging 22, 23 points a game and you see him not he had 12. You had Julius Randall giving you 22 and 6 and 5. He had 18 tonight. So everybody played below their average against the Lakers. And I don't know if that this effort tonight, they're gonna have to find

something because I like what you said, Ryan. The Warriors are a team. They don't beat themselves. They make you beat them. So if you think they're gonna make silly mistakes on Joe by turning the ball over, being caught out of position, you don't see them pointing to like, bro, I thought you had that. I thought you was going to hedge. I thought we was going to switch this. You don't see them doing a lot of that. They know exactly what they're going to do according to what you're going to do. And if you beat them, you beat them. But they're not going to make those silly ticky-tack mistakes that you're like, damn, well, you know, we made a lot of mistakes out there.

That's not what they do. Yeah, well, one thing also I want to touch on is you say when you beat the Warriors, you gotta beat them. They're not gonna beat themselves. And we talk about Anthony Edwards and that cast collectively having a better shooting game and shooting above what their percentage is to even have a chance to win.

But are we even worried a little bit about the Warriors, you know, with Curry's hamstring being out, going into game two? Or do you think Jimmy Butler, Buddy Hill, and Dre Mock can carry the load? I'll tell you, A-Shad, I'm gonna tell you one thing. Yeah. As fatigued as he is, at his age,

he might be back game three or four. Now the gold right now, if you're Golden State and Steve Herb, and you know this, you stole that game. Yes. So now you can rest. I can steal, I can steal a rest game. Yes. Okay. When Jimmy Butler went out against Houston, they were able to rest because they

won, they won a game and they were able to get him back. So if you're Golden State, you're saying, if we can get him back by game three or four and not rush it because we stole a game, which means even we just need to get one at home and now we still got a series. That's the biggest thing. I want to touch on something you said.

Anthony Edwards wasn't pressured against the Lakers. They literally, it was man and man. Literally one on one. Yeah. He played one on one. Yeah. He played one on one, but he pretty much zoned the weak side because they don't have the ability to pressure the basketball. Golden State got up and pressured Anthony Edwards.

Okay, Gary Payton the second is a dog. Okay, he can argue, Dre can argue. So they showed bodies and they're saying, stick it to somebody else. You know, Nas Reed was wide open. McDaniels was wide open for three because I can help him recover to those guys. They don't have a not bad shooter

if it's not Mike Conley in that situation. Yeah, cause you look at Julius Randall, over three. Jay McDaniels, over three. Mike Conley, over two. Anthony Edwards, one for five. Dante DiVincenzo, one for seven. Alexander Walker, over two. Anthony Edwards, one for five. Dante DiVincenzo, one for seven. Alexander Walker, 0 for 2. So at that point in time, Golden State says, you know what? Hey guys, let's not chase them off the line. Let's leave them at the line because they ain't going to be able to throw the

notion anyway. So we run it out there, get it out of position. And this is what's surprising a lot of people might not realize. To be a small, small team, Golden State is a great rebounding team. They out rebounded. They out rebounded Minnesota by 10 with Rudy Gobert, with Julius Randall, with Nas Reed, with Ant-Man, with Jaden McDaniels. Let that sink in. Because if you look at them side by side, you're like, damn, Rudy Gobert looked like the liar. Julius Randall, six'9". So, I mean, the tallest player today, and then started line up, is probably Draymond and Jimmy Butler at 6'7". You got Steph Curry, 6'2", 6'3", maybe.

Buddy Hill. But they get you out of position, because you're scrambling trying to run guys off the three-point line. They miss, and they know where the ball, about the caramels and they get the ball. But they're scrapping. They're tenacious. Go ahead. Go ahead.

No Chad, the reason they don't give those rebounds. And we talked about it earlier. They stay on the body. It's hard to beat them off the bounce. And even when you beat them, they stay in the play. So now your body's on bodies. When I can get bodies on bodies and box you out, it's old school basketball. Steve Hur, coach of old school basketball. So that's why they're

so dominant on the glass. And then on the other end, here's my fear, Chad. And I don't know how you feel about this. When Quarry's running around, you got to give attention. You got to give two to the ball. That opens up Buddy Hill. That opens up the other guys. It opens up Jimmy. But even though Jimmy Butler doesn't want to shoot, he got it. He got free space. That free space is going to go away. And my team, this is my team going forward. The Timberwolves are excellent when they can turn you over.

They're young, they're athletic, they play off energy and Golden State is doing what? Chad, they hold the bat. Chad, you watch them, they hold the basketball. You're gonna see them shoot by design. And normally in basketball, Chad, you wouldn't wanna see this. It's almost like a football. Y'all don't wanna play that team that's gonna defend and just hold the ball.

They're hiking the ball up the left. That's Golden State, they shooting the ball at five seconds. Eight to five seconds, every possession. So they push the game out in time. Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, they're the total opposite of Indiana. If you look at Indiana, they're looking to push tempo, make a miss, take it out to them, or eight. Or we get it off the rim. But you look at it, in four dribbles, they got somebody, if you're not careful, they got somebody laying the ball up in the basket. You look at Steve Curry,

he says, Steph Curry is day to day and we'll get an MRI tomorrow. Obviously he's crushed. Buddy Hill game one, 24 points, five made threes. He's hit 14-three in his previous two games. And he won them game seven because he caught fire and they didn't have an answer for it. And tonight, the second half, when you saw Minnesota started to make a run, it was him boom, boom, boom in the third quarter.

And when they cut it, Ryan, and Ocho, you remember, in the fourth quarter, I think they had got it down to eight. He made a two-pointer, and then he came right back down and made a three, and pushed it right back to 13. And they really never challenged after that. But Buddy is playing. I mean, look, he could always shoot the ball. If you look at him where he is now,

as far as three-porters, he's ahead of what Curry was at the same point in time in their careers. Now, I'm not saying he's going to catch Curry. I'm not saying he's a better shooter. But I'm saying, Steph came in and started this revolution or this evolution, whatever term you want to use. And so now guys are coming in and they're getting up more threes.

And so now, I mean, you might have, when it's all said and done, Ryan, you might have three guys that made, 10 guys that made 3,000 threes in a career. Yeah. I'm gonna give you this about Buddy Hilda. And here's the challenge, Chad. I don't know if you, I don't know if you a type,

this type of guy, Chad, in your career, but Buddy Hilda is not great at being the second or third option. He's a guy that has to get his touches. Right. And Steve Kerr made a genius plan because what he did in that game, seven against Houston, he said, we need a third option. Right. Yeah.

And, and, and it wasn't going to be Kaminka. It wasn't Pajipski. And Pajipski is a dog. I like him there. He got an old school style of place. But he said, Buddy Hill, play what fits you best, and it paid off. Chad, were you one of those guys?

Could you be second? I know you and TeeJay were up. Like, could you play second? Matter of fact, we think about it. No, but Ocho, he might could play second, but you had to get it. Ocho is like most number one receivers. Get in the ball early You can't have him late

You can't dilly-dally around with him and wait till the second quarter or the third quarter to try to beat in the ball Give him a smoke give him a quick out give him a slant. Let him touch the ball If you let him touch the ball early, you can have him late But you're probably gonna lose it if you don't give it a ball to the late the second quarter right before the half of the third If you don't give him the ball until late the second quarter, right before the half of the third. Yeah. So man, I'm not calling you but you're not going to play. Matter of fact.

He needs his touches and you can fix it at a guy who wants to early. Like a small example, I can think about what I stood on the table when Tio had the opportunity to come to Cincinnati. I told Marvin, I told Mike Brown, I said, listen, we got to get him in here. I have no problem taking the back seat. I have no problem being number two, understanding the greatness that's getting ready to come into the receiver room. Now, at that point, common goddamn sense,

this is one of the best of all time. I don't care how good I am right now in Cincinnati, I'm gonna take a back seat. Yo, I'm taking a back seat. And I had no problem with it. So at some point, obviously, just like you said, at Borkowski and Carson, they knew to give me my touches early. And the offense ran really well here.

But just that year, we went 4-12, so we still were sorry. But Chad, I'm still mad at y'all over that. You know, both y'all my brother, I'm still mad at y'all over that. OK, I'm still mad at y'all over that. I don't know. I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened that year. Pacers, still game two in Cleveland. Only three teams have come back down seven in the last minute of a playoff game since 1997.

The Thunder did it on May 13, 2014. The Pacers did it April 29, 2025, which was seven days ago. The Pacers also did it May 6, 2025, which was up tonight. Ochoa, bro, we talked about it. Yeah. Another six guys in double figures. You got Siaka, 12. Neesmith, 23. Turner, 23. Nemhard, 13. Halliburton, 19. Matheran, 19.

You see? You don't know. You just know it's a committee. Now, you don't know who's going to be the lead, who's going to be the president, who's going to adjourn the meeting. But you know these guys are going to, and they get an unbelievable job. I believe in a situation like this, Ryan, correct me if I'm wrong. Look, yeah, the other team has to make, has to make a lot of mistakes.

But in order for you to steal a game with 50 seconds left and you're down by seven, you got to make everything right. You got to miss, you got to miss a free throw and get a rebound and get an A and one you, I mean, you see, you see, Matthew, they missed a free throw. get a rebound and get an A and one. You, I mean, you see, you see Matheran, they missed a free throw. He dunk it home. Okay. Now Halliburton make one. He missed the next one.

He get it. Out for a three. Everything that could have gone wrong for the Cavs. The Cavs throw them all night getting the ball in. There were a couple of times they could have got some violations, but, and then I don't know what happened. He just threw the ball right to Nemo Hart. Nemo Hart said, I mean, like, thank you very much.

But they're in trouble. I don't, I think this series is over and it's gonna be the most epic collab because a team that won this many games to possibly get swept. I can see them getting swept, Ryan. I don't know if you see that. You got some glasses on?

Put them glasses on so you can see if you can see what I see. Can I damn sure see them getting swept? I don't know if you see that but you got some glasses on put them glasses on so you can see if you can see what I see Yeah Chad yeah, I called this before I seen it and and this is what's crazy the end of Pacers The most underrated team in the NBA right now. Yeah, they were team Chad last year they went to the Eastern Conference Finals. Yeah. And everybody said it was for injuries. Listen, man, Rick Harlow, Niv Hard, McConnell, they got some dogs over there.

It's not the sexiest. Okay. They don't got the 40 inch burp. Mastering is athletic, Siakam's athletic, but other than that, they just are tough, hard-nosed players. And the way that the NBA is played now that it's shifting to it was a game of athletes, a bunch of three-time shootings, now it's a game of toughness and skill. Indiana has toughness and skill.

They moved the basketball on, like you talked about, in Halliburton. Hey man, hold on man. They need to put some respect on Halliburton's name. They call him the most overrated player in the NBA? Let me tell you something, from schematically, there's only a handful of guys that can manipulate the game. Chris Paul, I played with Chris. Chris was one of those guys that can do it.

In the NBA now, it's LeBron, it's Luka Dantjic, and James Harden when he's on his A game. Cyrus Halliburton could manipulate the game. What do I mean by that? He's the guy that can beat you with the pass and he can beat you with the shot. And when you take one away, he's gonna make the correct play.

So we looking at the stat sheet, he got 19 points for assist in the game winners. And he's got the clutch gene, he finds a way. It's not the prettiest guy. It's not the prettiest. He's the guy. It's the Kevin Martin. He got a little Kevin Martin in him. Right.

But he's a dog and he finds a way. But Chad, am I crazy to where I've, I called this before it happened. I got him a record. I called it. Am I crazy to say that Phil is going to outweigh the athletes and the size. And obviously give credit to the Cavaliers. They choked the game up, but they had injuries. They had guys missing.

Donovan Mitchell dropped 48 points in the game. And at the end of the day, if I'm Donovan Mitchell, I say, I dropped 48, that's all I can do to will my team to win, and we couldn't win. We're sick, it's a wrap. Yeah. Yeah. For me, Ocho, I thought the game

could have been even closer. I mean, think about it I thought the game could have been even closer. I mean, think about it. See, I could have had eight shots. He's one of your, he's your all-star. Yeah. Halliburton had 11 shots. Think about how many of those shots came in the fourth quarter. Yeah.

I'm like, bro, what are y'all doing? I mean, nobody took more. Miles Turner had the most shots. He had 17. They only had 85. They shot almost 52% from the floor. If they take better care of the basketball, I mean, Nimhar had eight. They only had 85, they shot almost 52% from the floor. If they take better care of the basketball, I mean, Nimhart had eight turnovers, so he

had almost half of the turnovers. If they do a better job taking care of the basketball, I'm not so sure Cleveland get out to that lead. But Cleveland, as the game got closer, I mean, they were up big at every time. Here come Indiana, here come Indiana. They go up by 18, 19, here here come Indiana will it down to nine? Yeah, they go back up by 13. They cut it back down to seven. I was like, okay now y'all miss right? Yeah, hey you play it with fire because y'all let them guys they like hey man. We right here

We make a couple of plays we get a couple stops You know, you're getting a huddle today. Hey, we make a stop right here You know, I'll show get a ball back to our office Yeah, hey who knows what could happen and that's what happened They messed around and let them get close. Hey, and you hit that three-point shot is like, oh, it's a one-point game. Yeah Oh and Halliburton got the rebound. Hey, he dribbled out. He got the matchup that he wanted guy would work Hey, I ain't giving out. He got the matchup that he wanted. Guy would work. Hey, I ain't give you the three. If you go to the basket and lay it up or tie it up.

Yeah. I'm not give you that. I'm not. I'm not. But look, like I said, Neal Smith had 23. He played really well. Four rebounds, three blocks. Miles Turner, 23 points, eight rebounds, five blocks.

Tyrese Halliburton, 19 points, nine rebounds. The game winner. The series shift to India on Friday. You're talking about a team that what, what? 64 games and could possibly get swept. Have we ever had a team win so many games to get swept? Maybe that 94 Super Sonics team, they didn't get swept, but they got beat by the eight seeder the Denver Nuggets But to get swept. Yeah at 64 wins

Mm-hmm. Wait, honestly, listen when you talk about them having 64 wins, you got to remember you got to remember tonight They were they didn't have key contributors. There's there's there's Garland's out every mold leads Deandre Hunter's out So those 64 when they have when they had that 20-point lead or they just went out once they got the lead Just say they can't make a ninja Guys on the bench, right? Yeah, that's what that's why but that's why Donovan half 48 because he had to do more Yeah, I give him that but we see we are we surprised at Donovan We don't don't have 57 in the playoff game him and Jamar Murray both had 50 in a playoff game We don't think about how many times he scored 30 in the playoff game. Him and Jamar Murray both had 50 in the playoff game. We don't think about how many times he scored 30 in a playoff game. I think

five of his seven games with the Cavs he's had at least 30. We know he's a scoring machine but as long as he got how many hold up he had he was 15 for 30 15 for 30. Yeah I can live with the A that's that's sufficient that's 50. He didn't shoot the three ball well and he had nine assists Yeah, so he did all he could do but you can't turn the ball over in situations like that You can't leave guys. Oh, you just can't make the mistakes right in a switch You got listen, you got to win that game You can't I don't believe they can play any better Ryan with the guys that they have missing

They can't play any better than what they played tonight, and they don't have anything to show for that 100% and this was in the Eddard's mindset. Let me speak to something that you two can't speak to. Okay. Y'all was first option So let me speak to the role players You can give Energy you can bring life. They, they played like their backs were against the wall, but as things get tighter, you need your stars. Now Donovan did his job, but Darius Garland is the other closer on that team.

He's the guy you put the ball in his hands and he's the playmaker. Things get happen on, happen on the bat side. So the role players, the heart was there, but as things got tighter, where were they going to go with the basketball? And Donovan didn't do too much. So for Indiana, they were patient. They just said, where's your offense going to keep coming from? So, you know, the energy, the excitement, you know, and when you have a guy go out and you saw this with Bowden State, you galvanized behind it. I think when Steph Curry went out, you know, Draymond Green,

but is known as a now shooter future Hall of Famer, by the way, I think Draymond hit three straight three-pointers in a row. So you saw the energy from the role players. But as a role player, when the game is getting tight, I'm looking at Chris Paul. Okay. I'm looking at Paul Pierce. I'm looking to those guys and they're not on the floor. We're going products. We can only run so much offense. And it's funny. There's a saying it's not about the X's and O's. It's about the Jimmy's and Joe's.

You have to have players in those situations. So no disrespect to the guys on the floor for Cleveland. But Donovan Mitchell alone wasn't enough. And the thing is, you got a well-oiled machine over there with the Pacers, and they just let it get tighter, let it get tighter, and then they took their moment. And because they're at home, and the fans... Look, when a game, when you have a lead,

and all of a sudden it starts to dissipate, the fans can feel that too, because everything is, ooh, ah, ah, I can't, no. And all of a sudden it seemed like the basket had a lid on it. Max Scrooge played unbelievable tonight. Five and 12 from the three, he ended up taking off from outside the lane

and flushing it home, he was hyped. I thought Ty Jerome played well, Murrow hit a couple big threes. Allen had 22-12 with what, three blocks. But at the end of the day, as that game, you look, you up 20 and all of a sudden you look up and there's like 15 seconds and you only got a three point lead, you don't feel as good as you once did. You don't feel as good as you once did.

You're like, damn, we about to let this ish slip away. Check this out, Chad. When I, uh,, so Derv, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, a team would have a lead on us and we would go on the road and we would live through these moments almost. Insert myself as a role player into these situations. Now we're going to do this. But the one thing you would say is, oh, they getting tight. I'm not gonna say the words we were saying. We were saying, they getting tired,

trying to watch and get tight. Those arms, the T-Rex arms come out, the pressure mouse, and you just looking for one quack. Heck, look, man, I'm gonna call it for what it is. The reason I'm so passionate about giving LeBron the respect I give him is because we had them down three-one. LeBron was not LeBron at that point. He wasn't King James.

He was calling him King James, but he wasn't King James yet. And what he did coming into Boston with our team and our guys, and we kept waiting for that moment for LeBron to shrink. We had ways figured out with all the respect for Dwayne Wade. We had great Avery was doing the excellent job. We had him figured out. Then due respect to Dwayne Wade. We had great, Avery was doing an excellent job.

We had him figured out. And LeBron took over in that game and he willed his team to victory on the championships and the rest is history from there. But Chad, have you been in a situation where you know you're saying, give us the ball back. It's game. Give us the ball back. It's game. You know what, if anything, especially a situation like that,

where it's a pressure situation and it gets tight, Unc would be better suited to say that because he's been in bigger games. He's been in bigger games. You know, playoff. You know, Elway did the flip, Elway kicked over the delt. We had one of the best pressure pack quarterbacks in NFL history.

Absolutely. And that's what he was known for. So we knew if the defense could get a stop. It didn't matter. If we're down 14 with five minutes to go and they had the ball, we got to stop, we're going to go down and score quickly, defense gives us one more stop. Get us off the field. We get that ball back, oh, we're going to get a touchdown to beat you.

We're going to find a way to beat you because I've been in that moment too many times. And they know, see here's the thing is, is that when you have somebody and they know it, they know what you know. God. And they got, did you hear what that letter, even when the letter had that 23 point lead,

I think it was Sanu was on the sideline. He like, hey man, that's Brady over there. They know what's over there And you still worried about the man, yeah because you know Let me ask both of y'all this What's it gonna take? For Tyrese Halliburton to get that respect because he just did it to be honest He didn't come out there. He's but he got like like, what's it going to take for Halliburton? And this was league wide fan, they chant and overrated the game.

He addressed it in the press and said, overrate that. What's it going to take for him in your mind, Chad, to get that respect? And is there anybody that you knew that was getting that overrated tag and what they do to get over it. You know, that's crazy. I think it might be, it might actually be where he's playing. I really think it might be where he's playing, you know? And outside of that, that's it.

And obviously he's an All-Star and then the group of players that he's combined with when it comes to All-Star, his game isn't pretty. It isn't pretty like everyone else's. It's, it's, it's... He ain't Steph. He ain't Luka. He don't play above the rim like Ja.

No. So, you know what I'm saying? So, he's not going to be what... All the guys that I mentioned, James Harden, like you said, James can go get you 50. Steph can give you 50. Luka, you know, you see L Luca give you 60, 20, triple double. Yeah.

Ja can play elevator ball of the rim. So you look at the guy that plays the position, I don't know how many guys you've taken. I mean, you might take him over Ja, but are you taking him over Steph? No, you're not taking him over Luca? Are you taking him over Shay? I got to hear that. You said you're taking him over Ja. Halliburton and Ja, you said you taking them over Luca. Oh, are you taking them over Shay? I gotta hear that, huh? You said you're taking them over Jod.

Halliburton and Jod, you said you take a Halliburton. No, but that's what I'm saying. I'm saying of the guys that I mentioned, you're not taking them over Shay. You're not taking them over Luca. You're not taking them over Steph. So the only reason I would say you probably take them over Jod

is because of Jod's injury history. Because I can't be sure on Jod jobs because the jobs injury history Because I can't be if you if you take injury history out Similar teams though, right? Did you say that he got asked out Siakam? You know Memphis. He got a jay jay jay They're pretty similar. Yeah So I know you can't take out injury history, right? But he taking away the flashy play chat. John has a flashy plays.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm not trying to shoot this. We make no way. But are you taking the Halliburton? Not taking Halliburton with John. Absolutely not. That's not, I like, I like, I like, I like Halliburton.

I think one of the reasons why he got that underrated label is simply for one, with the team he plays on, and two, even though he's efficient and he gets the job done at a high level, and just something about his game, it's not pretty. It's not as pretty, it's not as aesthetically pleasing as everybody else's when you watch his job. is as aesthetically pleasing as everybody else is when you watch a job, when you watch a James Harden or a Steph Curry or Luca. You know, everybody- All the guys, point guards, Ocho, what you're saying

is all the guys that we mentioned can go get you 50. Yeah, I mean, you don't think Halliburton can get you 50? Luca can get you 50, huh? You don't think Halliburton can get you 50, 40? No, what's the most points Halliburton's scored in the game? Hey, he'll get you 40. He'll get you, listen. He'll get you, I say he'll get you 40.

He'll get you 40, y'all. He'll get you a quiet 40 and it's gonna be ugly too. It's gonna be ugly. But think about Shea. Look out, look out Shea. How many times has Shea had the most 20, 30, 40, 50 point games. We've seen Luca, we've seen Luca drop 70 plus so we know he could go get 50. We've seen Steph do it.

We've seen Steph do it in the game seven. We've seen Steph do it at 36, 37 years of age. Yeah. The most points he's had, how many times have you scored 40 in the game? He got three 40 point games games she had what ten of those This year okay Here's here's the thing to check and I don't know if you know a quarterback like this or wide receiver He plays the right way

After we had has the reality when he has the ball This is not a sexy play for a star point guard. Pick the ball ahead of the floor. Pick the ball ahead of the floor. Jason Kidd was similar to that. He's a different bill, but you just say, you might not get the assist, but it's the right play. Paul LaBerdy's going to make the right play. And he just showed you tonight, he's clutch.

So, and I feel like, oh, it's certain LeBron, and let's be honest, LeBron don't get a lot of the praise from the people. Obviously he may not be a puppeteer. He's not what we grew up seeing as the adult, but LeBron will make the correct play. Tyler Burton is a guy who will always make the correct play. Obviously he sat the bench for Team USA. Obviously during the regular season, they look pedestrian. They couldn't guard the seat we sit in. They had a patient look abysmal in moment, okay?

But they're in the Eastern Conference. But he's gonna make the right play. Chad, are we faulting him for making the right play? Is there anybody that you can think of, even on the NFL side, that makes the correct play? And they don't get the respect because they make the right play. We like ball hogs. You know we like somebody ball hogging the ball.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the thing is with Halliburton, he doesn't turn the ball over. How many times have we seen him have 15 assists and no turnovers? How many times have we seen him have double digits assists and one or two or fewer turnovers? So he, I mean, as much as he handles the ball, he's very efficient at not turning it over. My point is, I would like to see him be more aggressive. Sometimes I'm like, bro, you had 11 shots. And for the longest time you had six. And I'm like, bro, come on now, come on, you gotta do, you, you got to give them more. And then you see that fourth quarter, he gave them more. He gave them an opportunity.

Guys may play Matt Burnett, and Nees Smith, made some big threes. That put back dunk that Matt Burnett had, Matt Burnett had on that missed free throw. But I look, I ain't got no problem with Halliburton, but I understand. We like Flash. We like Magic Johnson.

Ain't nobody can can think about it. How many people they got right now? John Stockton, he got more since his record is never gonna be broken. Ain't nobody probably gonna got John Stockton in the top five of point guards. Because everybody like, okay, I got Magic. I got Steph Curry.

I got Isel Thomas. They got so many guys in front of him because he wasn't Flashin'. All he did was pick and roll your ass to death. Yep. Hey, he was fundamentally sound. And that's another thing, right? But I like Halle's game.

And you know, OK, you say, well, he sought the bench. OK. I mean, who is he going to play in front of? He got a gold medal, though. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, you know, also, you say about Halliburton really not being aggressive, only having 11 shots, you got to think, everybody else in double figures too.

So he really got to do much because everybody else collectively is also being efficient and scoring and contributing. Honestly, I don't even know how the hell they won that game. If you told me the score was, I think at one point I can't. Ain't no way what I can't It was 119 to 112 Alright, no, I mean, what's the biggest biggest deficit they were down? Oh, they were down I think it was down by like 20 son like 20 20 20

I'm gonna be honest with you. I thought the game was over. I Thought the game was over at that point. That's it. There's no way they're cut There's no way they're coming back, you know, even with the injuries even with no hunter and Garland being out They just did that to Milwaukee Chad. They had a crazy game like that again when they ended Crazy Chad they got it. They're the same now 20 points you right don't chat, but this similar with Milwaukee Yeah, you right. You're right. Listen. I understand the game of basketball It's a game of runs most of the time Especially when you make substitutes and things change once you know

You're second level your second tier guys come in the game, but 20 points you feel I'm thinking You're supposed to find a way to keep that lead You already oh you're the game of one game. They already stole one game from you. You got to find a way to get to the end. Then they come back and you allow the one person. The one person that you don't want to shoot the ball. The ball bounce.

Sorry. But you know what, Ryan, and you could have tested this. It used to be like that when you got these big leads For the most part the game was over But with that three-point shot and there's so many guys that can shoot it now You're really never out of a ballgame mocho We see teams be down 25 26 points in the first half and lose a team That's down 26 20 points in the third quarter and lose a ballgame because that three-point shot is an equalizer

You know if I hit a couple of those and you go, you have a couple of bad possessions, a 20-point lead, I make three threes and two layups, guess what? That's nine plus four, that's 13. I've cut the lead in three minutes down to seven. Hey, listen, we just saw a team, we didn't get to it yet. We just saw a team that lives by the three, died by it too, by not being able to hit it. Yep. I'm gonna give you guys the gold real quick for one, and I don't know how you feel about this. This generation, this decade's San Antonio Spurs is the Golden State Warriors. Steve Pearl will adapt to who he plays with. He wins with who's on the floor. And y'all just talking about not choking away a lead. They got the lead on the road. Steph Curry's in the back icing up. They held the ball. That is what Golden State, can y'all say, how did

they hold them to 16 points? They hold the ball and they shoot with eight to five seconds on the clock. Now I'm going to give you some credit, Chavis, something you gave earlier. I'm going to give you some credit when you're out. I'm going to give you some credit. You said he needs to score. Halliburton needs to score. I think you said it too. He needs to score to get that type of credit.

I'm going to give you a guy who scored the ball and turned his, I don't want to say turned his career around, but became a different player. Mike Malone challenged Nikola Jokic to score. He was a right play type of guy. And when he was challenged to go get Rudy Gobert, a 50 ball, a 40 ball, or whatever it may be, that changed Nicola Jokic. But Jokic was similar to Halliburton in the sense that he was just going to make the right play, make the right play,

make the right play, make the right place. So he could be a guy and I hear you. Y'all right is saying that for you to get that attention, for you to speak of you with the job and the staff and the, you know, the Tatums and everybody, you're going to have to go give us that consistent 40 ball, that 50 ball when that game is on the line. So you're right. Because Jokic, Jokic, I'm telling you, man, when he got aggressive and that was always my thing with him. And feel like he could score enough because when we game plan for Jokic, you come out and say, you can't get them both. Either you make him a passer, we blitz him, get the ball in his hands. Or you make him a score. Yeah. Or you make him a score.

You can't let him, you can't let him, You can't let him be 30, 20, and 15. Mm-hmm. Because not so he got 30 points and he dissed out 15 assists, you know about five or seven of those gonna be three pointers. Right up your side. So now you're at his mercy.

["Ride of the Valkyries"] Aaron Goran hit a game winning three against the Thunder. There's been a lot of discussion about this today. Ryan, do you think the Thunder's strategy of filing up three with Jokic on the bench? That's what I didn't get. Nikola Jokic, game one, 42 points. He had 26 in the second half, 22 rebounds, six assists, two blocks. He became only the fourth player in NBA history to have. Now you feel well, the four player cause we'll get it twice, 40, 20 and five. We'll get it twice.

Shaq did it. Yonis did it. Now Nicole Yoker just done it. Do you like the strategy? I get the, I get the premise, But why would you file in the back court? Why would you file the back court? Right. It was silly because you allow your kids to get back in. It's another play that happened that I don't think we talked enough about.

Shea Gills is out of the ground and fuck to the bastard. He's wide open. He ducks the ball. Yeah, you can get those two dribbles. They're cool. Take some more time off. They're not talking about that enough with Shea. He ducks the ball. Yeah, you can get those two dribble the Eyeball they're not talking about that enough with Shay Chet Holmgren. This is to free those. Okay Here's the reality We just saw this with Golden State the teams that that press the team that played game sevens that Chad they came in sharp When you get battled says that you came in sharp. Okay you get battle tested, you came in sharp. OKC, they had a

cakewalk. They walked. Memphis shut it down, especially when John went down. They weren't challenged. So you're going to expect Oklahoma City is going to play better. Dagnall definitely made some mistakes. And it's tough because I don't want to talk about it. Maracas didn't have the experience. And you're looking at OKC and it was an experience loss. And you can check. I don't want to talk about it, but Rockets didn't have the experience. And you're looking at OKC and it was an experience loss and you can chat. I don't want to say anything bad because Mark has been unbelievable. This see this season series about them, uh, the season. Um, but you do have the challenge of a say, man, yeah, you, you could have played that different and they, and we're going to see everything we need to know

about them boys in game two. Yeah. You look at, I mean, the the thing is and they had two big guys and Yolk went to work on them both of them had at least five files and look you can't stop him you just hope you hope you could make him beneficent. Who the second big guy? Isaiah Hardenstein and Chet. Chet's a dog bro. We're not gonna call Chet a bitch. We gonna call him a dog. Listen, I love Chet. I'm a skinny boy too, okay?

I'm a skinny boy. That's a dog bro. He tall but he a guard. He not big. He too small. He ain't trying to bang your guard. He too small to be down there in the block or in the paint anyway. No, he need to go to some fast food restaurant and get him a couple of burgers and some fries

and a shake. You look at Jokic, he's second in points, first in rebounds, first in assists, first in steals. What's that? He's, look, I mean, what do you say? What do you, and I said this before, I believe Shea should win the MVP. But if you say you get one player in the NBA,

I'm taking Nikola Jokic. I'm taking him over Yannis, I'm taking him over Janis. I'm taking him over Luka. I'm taking him over Shea. I'm taking him over anybody because there's nothing that he can't do. If you need a scorer, he can go get you. He averages 30. You need somebody to rebound? He was 30 rebounding.

You need somebody to facilitate an assist? He's second and third of assist. What can he do that all these other guys can do? Nothing. And he's efficient. Go look at his shooting percentage. of a sense, what can he do that all these other guys can do? Nothing. And he's efficient. Don't look at his shooting, don't look at his shooting percentage. He could shoot the three.

He got the mid range. I don't know if I've ever seen a big guy with, I've not seen a guy, forget big, medium, small with that kind of touch around the basket. I mean, the way, with either hand, I mean, I mean, what do we, what do we watch? What are we saying here? I mean, people try to discredit him. Well, he don't play no defense. I don't care.

Can I guarantee you, the guy that he playing, I guarantee he ain't putting up those numbers. So unless he put up those numbers, they can't cancel it out, don't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't talk to me about no defense. Right. Damn.

Chad, I'm gonna give you both sides to this. I'm gonna give you both sides. Let's play devil's advocate for a moment, okay? If he gets another championship, which is very realistic, if he gets another championship as thick as the NBA is, we're gonna, he's gonna be knocking on that dope conversation. And we just wanna say, Chad. Wait, go to what position?

At center? The greatest of all time. Already? You can argue with his numbers and his impact on the game. He may be the greatest center that we've ever seen play the game. Chad, because he doesn't like,

you don't like the way, you talk about Halliburton, you don't like the way he does, you're not used to a guy who can't jump over a phone book. You're not used to that guy. But if you look at his impact, you look at his numbers, you can argue he's the greatest senator we've ever seen right now. Now his story is yet to be told. And in this generation, the way he manipulates the game, forgive me. I talked about Lufa and LeBron and he impacts the game like they do. He's the point guard. He's in every way the point guard, the influence on his game. Now I talked back when they say he had to play with an All-Star because he earned Gamal Murray into an All-Star at the end of the day. And I want to challenge because if he gets a championship,

he knock it on the door. And if he gets another person who gets bold enough to say, I want to go to Denver and play with him, it's a different conversation. Now here's the devil's advocate side of it. He's doing that in this era. If he did that in my era and before, we played with two bigs.

We had four power forwards on the floor on the roster. We have three to four centers on roster. You didn't have the same type of spacing. We would have been physical with him. He would have been back putting in the help. They wouldn't have had the three point shooting or the pace, which helps him out. Guys can lean on him. I don't think he would have been that effective. We don't think it was a game of power and not necessarily finesse. Now he's the closest thing we have to our B to sub bonus, but I can argue and understand both ways. But from a numbers standpoint, or when we argue for Michael Jordan, right, you argue that Michael dominated his era. The closest thing is Joel Embiid.

He think Rudy Gobert was a three, four time defensive one. He drops 50 balls on Gobert. That's 40. That's 30. He told Rudy, Rudy say I got it. They put in the pig and Rudy say I got it. He say, brother, I got 47. What you got?

You talking about you got me and I don't, oh, Joe, that's like the DBZ. I got it and I don't know if I got it. Bro, I got 10 for a buck, 75 and two tons. What you talking about? You got me. You better get some help over here. Here's the thing. And this is very, very likely.

It's not out of the realm of possibility, Ocho. He gets two more regular season MVPs. So now he get two more, that makes it five. As Ryan says, he gets another finals MVP. Five regular season, two finals. With the numbers that he's putting up. Now he just became the first center to average a triple double.

Let that sink in now. We're gonna have to aid. Hold on, hold on y'all. Slow down a little bit. Now let's think about this a little bit now, Ryan, and what you're saying. Talk to me, Shax. Let's say he does get another ring.

Let's say he does win another two MVPs. Are we sure we're talking about him being the best big man and sinner of all time? Even with the sinners that we've had, even the greatest now, the Kareem, the Wilt, the Shacks, the Keen. It's so hard to compare eras. It's so hard to compare eras, but you have to say, okay, Kareem dominated the 70s.

Moses Malone dominated the 80s. I don't know who was the big, I mean, Shaq, or Lelajuan, or Robinson, the 90s. Right. I don't know who the big I mean Shaq for the Lajuan or Robinson the 90s. But we'll we'll dominate it. We'll dominate the 60s here. Russell's if so it's hard. But it's hard for us to put the goat say up a center is the goat for the civil fact is he needs a guard to get him the ball. So that's why we kind of we don't give Kareem the credit. Kareem is the only guy that don't get credit

for what he's done. He got six. 100%. 100%. He got six. 100%. Regular season MVPs. He had the most unstoppable shot.

You can talk about Kobe's fade away. You can have Derrick one leg step back, he and KD. You can talk about Kobe, Kobe, Mitty. But the most unstoppable shot in basketball history was one Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the sky hook. Now he won six MVPs. Now think about what was amazing. Back then the players voted on the MVP.

The players determined who the MVP. Yeah, you didn't know that did you right? The players voted for the MVP Yeah, you didn't know that did you right? The players voted for the MVP Did you really got it when you had a respect to your peers? You really got it? Yeah, you was that boy You know, I should have wanted think about it magic Magic's rookie year Kareem with MVP So how's that possible the MVP and you you win the finals, you win the championship, Magic's rookie year, Magic is finals MVP, Kareem is regular season MVP. But here's the thing,

had Kareem not got hurt, Kareem would have been the finals MVP. Kareem was averaging 33 and 12. Go look it up. He was giving work to Carlwell Jones and Darrell Dawkins and they had no answer for Kareem. But Kareem ended up, go look it up. See. He was giving work to Caldwell Jones and Darryl Dawkins and they had no answer for Kareem. But Kareem ended up, go look it up. See, I'm old enough to remember that, Ocho. People try to run game when you try to put the wool over your eyes. But you can't pull them up. Because I'm old enough to remember it.

Okay. I had to watch the game the next day because back then the game was tape delayed, Ocho. You couldn't watch it live. Right. So the game come on one day. You're watching it. You're watching it now? Yeah. Joe. You couldn't watch it live, right? So the game come on one day You already know who won the game I'm watching anyway, baby something happened I didn't they didn't tell me about and forgive everyone as we had this conversation Shout-out to the let because we know them this us we're doing this for this simple fact that sports debate

Okay, so let's fancy me. I think Kareem was athletic enough to guard him, but he had to put Kareem in pick and roll. He sure as hell can guard Kareem. There's no question. But he'd have moved, he'd have got assists, he'd have, you know, and Kareem was, Kareem was an athlete. You know, when we look at Yadis, if you said Kareem, bring the ball up the floor and go to the leg, he could have done that.

He was that still. If we're looking at Bill Russell, I think the errors are so far away. I only wanna disrespect the game and try to compare it. But in terms of Shaq, we can give this a little bit. Oh, yeah, Shaq, Dominick. And Shaq did this, but here's the thing. Shaq would have been physical, right?

But Shaq wouldn't have guarded him. Robert Horry would have guarded Jokic, and Jokic would have worn, I love Big Shaq, but I hold on to H-style legend. Rob would have had to hold it around, but Rob would have had to chase him, and he'd have got his numbers, and Shaq maybe would have had to slide over late. And here's the reality.

Arvita Subbonis with the Portland Trouble, did he, listen, he wore the leg. Arvita Subbonis with the Portland Troubles, did he? Listen, he was Yogi before Yokich. Oh, he wore the Lakers out. You remember that? He wore the Lakers out. Yeah. So if that's the indicator of him playing, and don't disrespect to the big fella, none at all. I love Shaq. Shaq was on my wall, you know, there ain't no question there. He would have wore that team out. Now he couldn't bar Shaq, but you look at the numbers, you look at the impact, and you look at what he did. Now Shaq is the most dominant. We don't take that away, but as far as the impact, what he would have had, he's a younger Arvides. Now Arvides was more athletic. He was a couple inches taller.

Arvides was 7'3". People don't realize how tall he was. He was seven three. But by the time he got to the Lakers, he had spent much of his time with the unified team. And so by the time he got to the Lakers, his knees were bad. He wasn't that Arvita. Could he pass the ball? Yeah.

Prior to Yocut, he was the best passing big man that we had ever seen. 100%. But by the time he got here, he had spent damn near over a decade just playing with the unified team. So his knee, his body had started to break down on him, Ocho. But he was a tremendous passer.

Now, he couldn't score the ball like Yoke. He could not score the ball like Yoke, but he could pass the ball like Yoke. He'd have the ball out here and the next thing you know the guy coming and he would dump it down to him. He was a phenomenal player. But the thing that separatehiroth rates Yoke is that from any other big center is that he could do it from three levels.

Most of the guys, Elijah Wan had the mid-range. He had played back to the basket. He could play around the rim. Shaq was around the rim. Okay, Kareem could throw the sky hook. But we've never seen a guy that could shoot the three. He had the mid-range and he could put the ball on the floor and finish at the rim. Not above the rim at the rim.

We haven't seen a guy we've never seen a big digger that could do that. And I don't know if we'll ever see one that can do that. Can that is skilled as he is right now. Chad, I want to give you this. And when you see Yoke, it's, you know, you see him in person. He's about six, six to lab, seven feet, but he's wide. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. His shoulders.

He's seven, what? About six to 11, seven, he's huge. Yeah. And his shoulders are wide, so when he spins off you, when he makes a move, his shoulder, he's huge. Yeah. He's huge, bro, and his arms are long, so he can't jump high, but when he's

putting the ball above his head, when he's making the move, he's effective. And if you watch him, he's a lot stronger. He plays a finesse game, but he's so much stronger than he gets credit for. That's a strong boy right there. So when he's hitting the guards, he's not overpowering them. He's unbelievable coordination, he's just backing you under the ramps and he's looking out and he's watching you. You know, the wildest thing he'll do, he'll watch to help. You get a great player who can pass, he'll sit there and he'll watch to help. And as soon as you call, he's throwing that back door lob to Aaron Gordon.

He's making those type of plays. So I think even from a physical standpoint, he's just uniquely built with his coordination and size. And then you think how long, how much he plays. And no, he's not a great defender. He's a wall of defenders. He's played more at the level in pick and rolls this year under Mike Malone that I've seen him play. And he will do it as first, but it's not something you want to rely upon. Wait, I didn't know he was that goddamn tall

because if you look at his footwork, you look at his footwork when he's in the, hell, even when he's out in goddamn space and he put the ball on the floor, I'm like, what the hell, I don't think he about six, five, six, seven. Mm-mm. No, he's tall, he's six, 11. He easy, he at least six, 11.

But you see his package though? To be that big? You see his footwork? The be that big? Moving like that? Yeah. What? Soccer.

He loves soccer. You look at guys, you look at Luca. Loves soccer. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Look at Elijah Wong. It makes sense. Elijah Wong grew up playing soccer. That's why he had the footwork that he had.

That's why he doing all this, the up and under drop step. He's phenomenal. Hold on. Shut. Go ahead. I on. Shad, Shad. Wait. I got one for you, Ryan. Now I know Joker is that boy.

I have a question. Now y'all chat, don't jump on me. I'm asking a question. If Boogie Cousins hadn't got hurt, how close would Boogie Cousins have been to like like Joker It's funny you say that I played with boogie I played with boogie and they have they have a very similar skill set because they have no the why the why the wide shoulders Yes now boogie wasn't the passer like him right but as far as boogie will feel yeah double-team Yeah, spin off baseline being your own step it boogie play the play three

Yeah, they could run the rain if he wanted to, bro. Okay, everything. Absolutely. 100% chat. People don't realize how Boogie, right? Other than the passing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Boogie was good, right?

Like, he was. He was. Boogie, I think Boogie is more athletic. Boogie can run. Yes. I mean, but it was not uncommon for Boogie to have 50, 20 games. Had he not got injured, had he not Achilles and his ACL and all those injuries,

he was special. Boogie was on his way. I'll give you this. I think the tough thing with DeMarcus and I played with Boogie, that's one of my favorite teammates ever. You know, it's Chad, Boogie's a guy that you see some of the things he does on the court with his energy that he's in the brain. Some of the stuff he said, honestly, he'd tell you himself he'd have liked to reel some of that stuff. But like, off the court, the softest-spoken, coolest dude ever.

You know what I'm saying? Did he ask the moments in the brackets when we heated or getting into it? Absolutely, but he's a good dude. I love that dude. And I will say, you know, the thing with Demarcus, the difference between him and the European game, what they teach here, you know, when Wilkie played his best, he had to be angry. He had to be mad.

And his emotion got him to that place. And Jokic early in his career was quiet, calm. He wasn't that... I'm not going to ever say he wasn't that good, but he wasn't, he didn't have rah rah like Mike Malone put that dog in him. And for Boogie, before he was able to slow the game down mentally for himself, he ended up injured as Funk said. And was funny that when you see guys get to the, into the thirties, get to the age, you know, Halliburton has an old soul.

He got an old game. His daddy was very well about playing the game or whoever coached him, coached him very well. But I remember when I played with KG, Chad, I don't know if you remember KG would take Chad, KG, KG would hit his head off the back. On the eye, on the eye, at the beginning of the game. And I thought he was crazy. Everybody thought he was crazy. And then we said, and I remember going up to Ticket and I said, Ticket, I remember

asking him and he instantly put years on my career. I said, are you pumped up every game? How are you so pumped up every game? Cause you know, as a young guy, we play on emotion. Boogie played on emotion, definitely at a much higher level than I did. And KG said, young, what you mean? I said, I see you do this. You need the full sweat, the yelling and all that. He said, I'm as calm as can be.

He said, watch me before the game. I'm taking breaths. I'm breathing. I'm calm. He said, look at me during the timeouts. He said, are you watching me, Young? I said, no, you, you talked out, right? He said, I'm sitting there breathing. I'm thinking about the game plan. I'm thinking about the things that we need to go through to get to. So if Boogie had a got to that point, if he had got that veteran maturity, we will be bringing his name into these conversations. He just didn't get to that point.

But when you're young, us American born players, we, we, we, we, we play from a place of pain and hurt and passion. And then you get older and you learn how to refine it. Some of the guys never get to that point in their careers where they can refine it and play off their mental stability. But a guy like Jokic, he was turned up, he has it, he knows the game, man. So it's fun to watch.

Aaron Gordon has been phenomenal these playoffs. He's averaged 19 points a game, seven rebounds a game, shooting 51% from the floor And he has two game winners. He had 22 points last night and Yoke obviously had that monster game 15 or 29 He was at 42 point at 42 points 22 rebounds six assists a steal two blocks He did have the five he did have the seven turnovers But Murray got it going late in the ballgame had 21

Kristen Brown had 11 Russ the Russ experience. You know what you're gonna get you gonna get all our effort You don't get some turnovers, but you don't get some steals. You'll get a block. You'll get some great finish You're gonna get some air balls. You'll get some big made threes They needed all of that to offset what they didn't get from Michael Porter, Jr He gave him two points on one of eight shooting and I understand the shoulder but bro you got you can't give him two can't give him two because they are the Thunder had 20 they had six guys in double figures. Shade was 33 Caruso had 20 off the bench you have Lou Dortz 4 of 9 from 3 he had 14.iah Hardenstein had 12. Jalen Williams had 16.

He was five of 20. He hadn't shot the ball particularly well. Chet Hongren had 12, but it was those two missed free throws. And you could tell, you know, it normally happens like that, Ryan. You know, a guy, he, you know, I smoke a layup on one end, and they go back down on the other end and get a three.

You like damn that's a five point swing. Yeah. I love Chet so I don't want to do this. But the key, I don't want to do this, but I'm gonna do it. The key to beating Oklahoma City is attacking Chet. He the winged link? the city is attacking check. He, he, the weak link? So he got, no, I'm not going to say he's the weak link, but he hasn't put on the strength. He doesn't have the experience in the playoffs yet.

He gives a play. There's a playbook for those Ms. Fritos and Gordon and Gordon running the wing. They hit him ahead. He goes face to face with Chet, and he monkeyed and oh sure, you know when you get leveled, it's all that, now Chet you crazy, so you got knocked out by Ray Lewis, you got up and he hit me, you're gonna keep playing, you're to keep playing. Yeah. But when you get done and that was messed up, so for him, you can be skinny. I was skinny, but I wouldn't, I don't want to call him soft.

I think that's disrespectful to a professional athlete. You got to know how to hold your ground. Right. You got in that, if Gordon's going up for a dunk, you take that joke out the air. You take that joke. You know, he might he might get an anoint, but he ain't dunking it. OK, so he is going to have to make those plays. But when you beat Oklahoma City and why the Houston Rockets

has success against them, they were physical and they attacked check. If he was guard big Steve O underneath, Steve O hit the boards, walk them underneath, got a rebound. If he got a shingle, shingle was right through his chest. He didn't even make boots off. He was right through his chest. So what you're seeing with Oklahoma City and Denver, whether it's Gordon, whether it's Jokic,

they're making it so you paint high-chet. Chet is an unbelievable weak side shot blocker. You don't put your hands on him, he can play his space. In football, it's like a team. Remember the Colts. The Colts had a small secondary. They had small linemen up front. If you were down and they were rushing you, you couldn't stop them. Mathis, Freeney, and them boys, you couldn't stop them.

They were the champ. But if you could run the ball and manage the game and attack Mathis and Freeney and those guys, you had a shot because they were small. Oklahoma City is small, so that's something similar that you're seeing right there. So as I look for it, Denver found something. They're crisp off of playing a game seven and they had the experience. And I said this before, I said, whoever wins that Clippers Nugget Series might be coming out the West. Wow.