The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - GAME 1 REACTIONS: Steph's Warriors beat Rockets + Cavaliers-Heat, Celtics-Magic, Thunder-Grizzlies

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

 Jason reacts to the second day of the first round of the NBA playoffs including Steph Curry leading the Golden State Warriors to a win over Alperen Sengun and the Houston Rockets, Donovan Mitchell's Cleveland Cavaliers dispatching Tyler Herro's Miami Heat, Jayson Tatum leading the Boston Celtics to a win over Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic, and the Oklahoma City Thunder embarrassing the Memphis Grizzlies.   #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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see dkng.c.c.O. slash audio. Tonight here at the volume, heavy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great start to your week. We have a film session coming out later today where I'll go into more detail on the Warriors Rockets game in particular and a couple other things that I noticed from the film on Sunday. But today I wanted to just give you guys my initial impressions

on the four game ones from Sunday. We have the Warriors getting a 1-0 lead on the road in Houston against the Rockets. The Cleveland Cavalier is struggling a little bit with Miami, but closing the deal. the Celtics struggling a little bit with Orlando, but closing the deal. And then an absolute annihilation of the Memphis Grizzlies by the Oklahoma City Thunder. I'll just give my initial impressions on the games from the perspective of both teams. Like I said, more film coming later today.

So keep an eye on the feeds. You guys know the Joe before we started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. So you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast fee wherever you get your podcast on our hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave your rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing great work on our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook making content throughout the season.

Make sure you guys follow us there. And last but not least, keep dropping mailback questions and the YouTube comments. We can keep getting to them throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So with Warriors Rockets, I can't start anywhere other than Steph Curry. I talked a lot about the different dynamics between the two defenses trying to slow each other down. but I thought that was one of the better playoff games I've seen Steph Curry play. When you factor in just how great this Houston defense is, the specific ways they defend him, the fact that in a game like this where there wasn't consistent offense from really anybody else, aside from a few key plays made from a few key warriors late,

it just was a steady diet of really difficult shot making from Steph Curry in this game. and over and over and over again he came through to hit a big shot when his team needed him to. There was a couple easy things he was able to find in terms of like sustainability throughout the series. You know, we talked before the series about how the Rockets put Alper and Shangun on Moses Moody and how that kind of disrupts the normal screen game for the Warriors because they want to use Draymond as a screener for Steph Curry, but they're going to try to switch those actions as much as possible, right?

So where would Curry go to be able to find the separation that he needs to be. needs to get more comfortable. Well, Jalen Green ended up being the target. Through early screens and the possessions to get Jalen switched on to Steph, Jalen was having a hard time staying attached to Steph. He was having a hard time fighting over screens. He was more likely to botch switches. There were so many different things that once Steph got Jalen on him, he had an easier time getting free. And then he had a couple other things, right? He was able to back cut him in Thompson a couple times. He was able to get free in transition a few times. There was a play where on a maid basket.

He pushed the ball at the floor so fast that he engaged Stephen Adams in a transition cross-match and was able to beat Stephen Adams off the dribble for a layup. There was another one where Fred Van Vleek gambled on him out at half court. He's able to avoid that and get a quick easy transition three. He found a few easy ones in there and those will be ones that are more sustainable throughout the series. But it was like unbelievable difficult shot making over and over and over again. the rainbow over Jalen Green at the shot clock buzzer as he's falling out of bounds.

He had a ridiculously tough step back to over Dylan Brooks, a ridiculously tough step back to his right over a men Thompson. The movement 30 footer that he hit, just like running to his right, way above the break off the right side extended. That was a ridiculous shot. He had this like leaner on Fred Van Vlitt where he pump-baked and then stepped through and hit this crazy leaner. He had like reversed.

layups through traffic. Steph just put on a unbelievable display of difficult shot making. It was almost like you got to see in the last two Houston Rockets games like the two furthest edges of the Steph Curry experience. The like can't make shots, but I'm still creating shots for my team. And then like, oh my God, it doesn't matter what you do or where I'm at on the floor, get ready to take that shit out of the net because it's going in. It was just an unbelievable Steph Curry game.

I told you guys before the Jimmy Butler trade that what I was most excited for and one of the main reasons why I wanted the deal, I obviously saw upside. I believed in the Warriors roster. I thought they just needed secondary shot creation. But I also, as a basketball fan, just wanted more opportunities to see Steph Curry

playing high-leverage basketball games. And we got to see that tonight, and he put on just another incredible show. And I just really, really enjoyed watching it. Warriors' defense. Steve Kerr in a timeout in the first half, said, quote unquote, they cannot score against us unless we turn it over. That really is the theory for this entire series for the Warriors.

I talked about it beforehand. Like, there's a lot of ways that Houston can make Golden State uncomfortable. And I have no doubt that throughout the series, they will make Golden State uncomfortable. They made Golden State uncomfortable for extended stretches tonight. But none of that can compare to the damage that Golden State can do to Houston's offense on the other end of the floor. They struggled a little bit with Shang.

but credit to Shangoon. Shane Goon's a really good player. I've said this many times on the show. He was the player this season that in my daily film sessions, I most often would find myself saying, wow, he's really kicking that dude's ass. Like, wow, they're really struggling with Shangun.

Like, wow, they really can't guard Shangun. That happened all the time when I was watching them. He's just a really damn good player. We need to give Shangun some credit. But they completely neutralized Jalen Green, played it up on him with physicality. I thought Moses Moody did an amazing job. on him all night, rushed him into bad drives. Fred Van Vleet was the one Houston perimeter guy

that I thought got some decent looks and some drop covered shots and some catch and shoot threes, but he just couldn't hit anything. And by the way, Fred's not a great jump shooter. A Fred Van Van Vleet jump shot all season long has been worth less than a point. That's a, that's a thing that could happen multiple times in this series, Fred just not being able to hit shots. And that really is the thing. If you can cut Jalen Green and Fred Van Vleet out, there's not enough firepower on this rocket's Offense. Consistently, I've talked about this year, the Rockets, when they get scoring pop, particularly from Jalen Green, they can beat anybody. They were 13 and 1 this year when Jalen Green had over 30 points. And a lot of really good teams were victims of those types of performances. But if you can, if you can cut the head off the snake, if you can take out Fred Van Fleet and Jalen Green, they do not have the firepower to keep up with really anybody.

And they completely neutralized those guys. There's zone defense that talks before the series. about how any comments about the zone defense and it bothering the Warriors was insignificant compared to the Rockets being able to score against the zone. And the major run early in the game when the Warriors really started to take their first commanding lead came against, came with the Rocket struggling to score against the Warrior's zone look. It's just they just don't have the offensive firepower to score consistently in the half court against a good defense.

And again, I've said this a couple times, the Warriors were quite literally. the number one defense in the NBA after the All-Star break. They've been playing at that level consistently since they've identified that they have a real opportunity to win the title here. We did see a late Houston Rockets run fueled by their competitiveness and their rebounding, some transition pushes, Shangoon's shot making. The Warriors will have to be careful throughout this series with their discipline. They can lose control of these games fast if they don't stay disciplined in their game plan, discipline, take care of the basketball, smart shot selection, avoiding those transition opportunities as much as possible. I thought the closing group played fantastic

after Houston made it close, just defending Houston into their worst tendencies, but on the other end of the floor getting really consistent contributions from the entire group. Moses Moody, who's been really struggling to hit jump shots as of late, hit two massive jump shots, a rescue shot at the end of the shot clock, a little movement catch-and-shoot jump shot out by like 17 feet from the basket that he knocked down. And then he hit a huge corner three off of that textbook Steph Curry Pocket Pass sequence. That was a massive shot to counter three that Houston had hit. I talked about his individual defense on Jalen Green.

Brandon Pajemski in this game. Really smart read and react sequences. He had a great one late in the game where he caught Jabari Smith on his backside driving a closeout and just baited Stephen Adams into stepping up a little bit and threw a perfect bounce past to Gary Payton on the baseline who got to finish. Gary Payton had another transition run out for a bucket. So Gary Payton was scoring. Draymond Green had an offensive rebound put back on another player where Brandon,

Brandon Pajemski came flying in and tapped at the rebound. This in addition to Jimmy Butler being able to go to his step back jump shot to the right and knock it down to rescue some of those possessions. I was on with Colin Cowherd last night or technically tonight because that's what I'm recording it. But when I was on with Colin, I talked about how Jimmy Butler has this go-to move that he really started to build out towards the end in Minnesota and showed it quite a bit in Philly and then a lot here in the last few years in Miami and obviously here in Golden State. He can like hit that hard pound dribble in and out with his right hand and cover some ground going to the

right and just elevate and square up in midair. And that's a good look for Jimmy. He's going to hit that look at a decent percentage and he was able to knock that down lots of support for Steph Curry down the stretch after he had carried them throughout the game. Really, really impressive stuff. We did get a DMP from Jonathan Cominga. I think there was probably a game plan there that had things gone worse. Like had Houston taken a 10-point lead in the second quarter, I think we probably see Jonathan Cominga.

But I thought Steve Kerr played the right cards tonight, sticking with guys that were going to make fewer mistakes so they can stay out of transition. And for the most part, I understood him sticking with that for now. But to be clear, if it's game two and Houston's up, you know, 37 to 24 in the early second quarter, I think Steve Kerr's got to pull that card out of the deck and at least try it. He's got to at least give Johnny the Caminoa a little bit of a runway just to see if he can, I don't know, rebound, do something to help the team if they start struggling in that matchup a little bit.

with the Houston again it just even as they were knocking on the door they just couldn't they just couldn't finish it with proper execution they cut the lead down to four and then like jalen green tries to drive and shoot a layup through like five dudes and he misses it they go down to the other end that was when pods hit gary peyton on the baseline then amend thompson on the next possession drives into traffic and throws a layup literally into the bottom of the rim leads to a run out there where gary peyton gets a dunk like they just couldn't string together the execution and the half court necessary to score. And that really is the issue. Now, if you're looking for upside if you're Houston, something to be like, this is a reason why we feel like we have a chance to still win this series. I thought Steph was literally amazing, like one of the better playoff games I've seen him play. Golden State really struggled to score without him making shots. Jalen Green and Fred Van Vleek could not have been worse than they were. And Houston's athleticism will travel. It'll travel on the road. They're going to play hard and be a pain in the ass defensively glass every single night. Golden State's not going to just get this team to quit eventually because

they don't believe they can win. It's going to be a pain throughout. And so again, there's a way for them to drag this series out and try to wear on Golden State physically. The series is certainly not over. It's always bad to lose game one at home. Trust me, I know as a Lakers fan. But there is an opportunity for them there if they play good defense to try to play Steph into a lower variance game and then to get more out of Jalen and Fred to try to win on the other end of the floor. I just can't predict or expect any example of a situation where the Houston Rockets would out-execute the Warriors four times in two weeks.

It just doesn't seem likely to me. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. First people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name,

Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.

We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast. we could call in and say, hey Jonas, and then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, NL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear.

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them listen to Sports Slice on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast and for more follow timbo slice of life 12 in the tick tock podcast network on tick tock the french open is one of the toughest tests in tennis and i know firsthand because i competed there myself i'm rene stubs and on the rene stubbs tennis podcast i'm breaking down everything happening at roland garris every match

every upset and what it really takes to win on clay jen she win i mean she went down to three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open.

Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Heat Cavs. Ty Jerome, I talked a lot this year about how he was the best backup guard that I saw in the NBA. He brought this combination of like truly highly efficient scoring. He was 64% true shooting this year. Scored at high volume to about 23 points per 36 minutes.

And also brought the playmaking piece, the ability to make the reads that he made down the stretch tonight, like that pick and roll kick out to Sam Merrill or the pocket pass feed, Jared Allen for a layup. He just can be surgical in a way that no other backup guard in the NBA can be. And he went on a wild run down the stretch of this game. Came in a bunch of different ways too. Like he started the run in the fourth quarter by hitting a three to beat his own look. Like he was the impounder, made a pass, stepped in, beat his own look, knocking down a three.

He then just started attacking Tyler Harrow in a late clock switch. Like seven seconds on the shot clock instead of panicking and attacking a good defender. he waves over Max Truce to get Tyler Harrow into the action, gets Tyler Harrow, drives on him and draws a foul on him. Then he started putting Tyler Harrow in ball screens. And that was when he really started to victimize him because Tyler Harrow was not playing physical on the ball. He was not pressuring.

He was just kind of running behind Ty Jerome as he was coming off the screens. And so Ty was able to just make simple decisions. Came off the screen. Brought in the low man, Davion Mitchell stepped over too far. rifle past the same marrow in the right corner he knocks it down he hit a floater against drop he brought bam up and then threw a perfect packet pass to jared allen who knocked down a layup he hit a left shoulder fade over him in an iso he just was cooking him over and over again eventually tyler tried to go underneath a ball screen to try to keep tie jerome in front and tie just stepped into like a 30-footer off

the dribble and he knocked it down then finally the miami he just said screw it and they started double teaming and it was just over from there. They were never able to recover. Even Dary Scarlane came in and ended up hitting a shot against Tyler Harrow and his switch. For the record, Tyler Harrow's problems on defense started

right from the opening tip. This was not an issue. That was just a crunch time issue. He immediately gave up a easy driving dunk out of the right corner to Donovan Mitchell early in the game, gave up an easy closeout to Max Struce for a drop off for a dunk for Jared Allen. He got back cut by Darius Garland for a floater.

He got blown by Darius Carlin multiple times. Gary's Carlin made a layup and missed a layup on easy blowbys of Tyler Harrow. They were even giving up drop coverage buckets with Tyler Harrow to tie Jerome in the first half before we even got to the stuff that we saw in the fourth quarter. So like, you know, the heat defense caused some issues for the calves and short bursts with their abilities to switch with their bigs. And how that Davian Mitchell did a really nice job on Donovan Mitchell, just pressuring him and making him work really hard.

and the heat are never going to be a team that goes down easy. They are a super smart team and they've got some high-level defensive players. And Tyler Harrow is a guy that, as you saw, at stretches can knock down shots and drop coverage. And if you leave them open behind the three-point line, he can knock down shots. They have pathways, but they just simply don't have the firepower to keep up with Cleveland.

It's a lot of Davion Mitchell running ball screens and like literally initiating offense. It's a lot of like bam at a bobbed. bio taking tough jump shots. It was just really tough. And, you know, the Cavs just found solutions. We talked about Harrow. Donovan Mitchell finally stopped trying to go at Davian. It almost was like Donovan was taking it personally with Davion and like, you're wearing my number and my last name. I'm going to try to beat you. It was kind of weird. And then as soon as you stopped going at Davion and started going at others, he started to have more success. Evan Mobley did a really nice job of beating switches by inside seal attacks. He had a dunk on one of those in the first half. You scored out of the post.

against a switch, like they just have a lot of answers because they've got a lot of guys that can play at a really, really high level, super, super impressive game one victory for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Celtics Magic. This game went basically exactly as I expected it to. The magic are the second best events in basketball behind the Thunder. And they have a lot of guys who can switch and guard multiple positions. And so they can switch, contain, stay home, take away some of the catch and shoot looks play Tatum and Brown into really high difficulty, ISO basketball. They don't have the offense to be able to hang in this series, and we'll talk about that a little bit, but they have the defense too. If they can improve over the next couple of years and

if Jalen Suggs can get healthy and get back on the floor, that's a team that could present problems for Boston in the big picture if they can polish up things on offense, but they're just not close to that yet. They held Tatum and Brown to 33 points on 36 shots. That's great. but outside of a second quarter stretch where Palo got really hot from three, a couple other guys hit some threes. The Magic failed to score 20 points in three of the four quarters. And that was really the difference. I thought Drew Holliday was the defensive hero of the game.

Coming out of the half, so Orlando goes on their big run right before the half. Then there's a couple mistakes. Palo has a turnover that leads to a foul. They cut it to one. But Orlando goes into the half up one. They've got the momentum. Their bench is all excited.

Drew Holiday came out to start the second. in half and just started ball pressuring the hell out of Franz Wagner and Palo Boncaro and and just was messing those dudes up forcing turnovers forcing missed shots running out the other way and hitting transition threes you talk about it feeling like a shotgun blast to the chest imagine being on the other side of that you're attacking a small and a mismatch next thing you know that dude taking the ball away and going the other way and hitting a three it just unbelievable momentous plays from Drew Holiday and again Drew in terms of just in terms of just fundamental skill is one of the best, like, rhythm or base attackers that I've ever seen

from a perimeter defender. This is what makes him so good at guarding bigger players. I've talked about this all the time. Bigger players, especially shot makers, they don't see the, they don't see the hand in the face. They've practiced hitting shots with hands in their face their entire lives. What you can do, though, is you can bother their rhythm. There's a energy transfer. If you can't, if you calculate it, it's like if you try to chain it all together, I should say, the hand connects to the footwork, and then when you get into the shot, that connects upwards and your energy transfer from the ground as you're jumping up through the release. And you chain all of that together through reps. You go in the gym and you just do all these reps, ball handling and shooting

out of all these different bits of footwork, these post players. They're looking at, oh, you're attacking a small, I'm trying to bump you and get to my left shoulder hook or my right shoulder fade or whatever it is that they're trying to get through or a step through move, something along those lines and they practice those moves and they practice those moves and they practice those moves. And if you let them get to their footwork, they're going to make it. But if you can disrupt them, if you can stab at the basketball and disrupt the ball handling a little bit, you can bump their base and disrupt the footwork a little bit as they're jumping. If you lean on them a little bit so that they're losing a little bit of that balance as they go up into the shot, on their

gather, if you swipe down and you deflect the ball a tiny bit, if you disrupt something along that chain, it will have a far greater effect on the end result than you just standing there and putting your hand up at the end after not disrupting anything else. And Drew's just really, really good at that, stabbing at the ball, disrupting the base, being physical, jumping one side, then jumping all the way to the other side to try to catch a guy off guard. He did that a few times Apollo and France today. Like, he just is an unbelievable size mismatch defender. And that was a huge weapon for Boston in the second half of this game. Derek White brought the volume scoring for the Celtics today, and it came in the form

of shot making. He had seven threes, but most of them were high degree of difficulty threes, like an extra step behind the line or against a great contest. And again, when you're playing against great defenses like the Orlando Magic in a high leverage situation like this, on many of your possessions, the best shot you can get is a mildly contested slightly deeper three. And like Derek White provided that scoring pop today in a game where again, when you're playing in games like that, games like the Rockets Warrior series, threes are like touchdowns. They're literally like touchdowns because no one can score. And Derek White just brought that today. I think this series is actually a great tune up series for the Celtics.

They're not in any real danger. I mean, I saw enough today to feel like Orlando can steal a game. Like I wouldn't be surprised if Orlando won a game, you know, 93 to 87 down in Orlando in game three or game four. but they don't have the firepower to win the series, but the magic present real problems for the Celtics offense, and that will help them prepare for an OKC matchup should they meet in the finals. It's just great preparation for them. They just need to hope that Tatum's wrist is okay, but I think he's fine,

but after the hard foul from KCP, it was just something to keep an eye on, and it was a shooting wrist, which can always be a little tricky when you need Tatum to be a shot maker for you. All right, before we get out of here, again, I'll be back later today with some more film, but let's talk some Grizzly's Sunder.

I didn't have a chance to do, series previews for my 2-1-8 matchups. I would have picked the Thunder to beat the Grizzlies in a sweep, and I would have picked the Cavs to beat the heat in five games either way, but it doesn't really matter. This Grizzlies team has been bad for a while. They were just 13 and 18 over the last 21 games to end the season. They were 16th in offense in that span and 19th in defense.

They're not good at anything. None of their stars is playing particularly well. They were the one team in that cluster of teams, the eight teams that made the Western Conference playoffs. They were the one team that stuck out like a sore thumb, and boy, did they look like it today. I want to shout out the O'KC Thunder first for the level of intensity that they brought right out of the gates today.

I was talking in my film session this morning about the intensity of the playoffs. I lamented that last night, teams like the Bucks and Lakers were just not ready for playoff intensity. Before I even watched the Thunder game today, I was recording the film session. and when we were done, we were just waiting for a filed upload, and Jackson and I were just talking and hanging out.

And Jackson goes like, hey, man, like, how are you feeling about the Lakers after watching that game? You know, I said, like, there's obviously some things that are, that they can improve in terms of execution, in terms of just meeting the playoff intensity and all that kind of stuff. But what I said to Jackson was, is like, I'd be lying to you if I wasn't super concerned that they didn't come out with that intensity.

Like I, like I said in the show last night, like, they're not going to give you the layer of, O'Brien Trophy without putting in the work. You're not going to coast to the Larry O'Brien Trophy. You're not going to finesse your way to the Larry O'Brien Trophy. It is won through super intense, hyper-competitive basketball from day one of the NBA playoffs. And so I said in that moment to Jackson, like, I am discouraged that a team that I believe in, that I believe has a real chance to win the title, came out for their first playoff game.

and just looked completely unprepared for the intensity. That was before I watched the Thunder game. I walked out of that conversation with Jackson, sat down on my outdoor couch. It was a beautiful day here in Tucson, and I'm sitting down, and I just watched OKC come out, and they said, we are treating this like, like, OKC has talent to coast against Memphis.

They could ease their way into the second round. Fuck that. They're like, we're going to embarrass the Memphis Grizzlies today. They brought that level of intensity. They seem abundantly clear on what is expected of them to be able to win four playoff rounds. I just thought that was a valuable checkmark in this process. They did not ease their way in. They didn't even show some of the just level of general discomfort that they showed against the Pelicans in game one last year. They just, they look like a team that knows exactly what they're trying to accomplish and how great they will have to be to get there.

I even thought the Celtics came out with a little bit of like a, let's beat the magic, but not overextend ourselves doing it type of energy. The Thunder did not. They met the moment, and they embarrassed the Grizzlies. The run really took off with the bench group led by Kaysan Wallace and Jalen Williams. They repeatedly made plays on defense that led to runouts. Kaysan was amazing. He had Scotty Pippin Jr. in hell.

He had a ridiculous transition dunk. I've always known Kaysan's a good athlete that can dunk the basketball, but he had one in traffic and transition. That was ridiculous. He's hanging on the rim after. Defense to transition was the primary storyline of this game. The Thunder Force 24 turnovers. They generated 24 points off of those turnovers.

They won the transition points advantage. They won the transition points battle per synergy 31 to 8. Out of OKC's 120 possessions they logged in the game, 48 of them were on transition pushes. As I've talked about generally, it's like around, you know, 20% of your offense that's going to end up being in transition in the NBA. okayc just played 40% of their game in transition. But the Thunder were also surgical in their half court playmaking.

Memphis has always been an overhelp team. This is something I've been complaining about with them for years. They consistently are aggressive in their nail help, meaning like the guy's driving off the left wing, the defender guarding the guy in the right wing will be sitting like damn near at the elbow, like on the strong side elbow or like at the foul line, like just sitting there in like a soft double team. They'll hard low man help.

So like the guy guarding the guy in the weak side corner will be all the way over. If you move the ball against the Grizzlies, you will get open threes. The Grizzlies allowed 16.4 unguarded catch and shoot jump shots per game this year, which was the third most in the entire NBA. And the Thunder just made them pay for it. They consistently made simple reads in traffic, generated a ton of great looks. They generated 16 unguarded catch and shoot jump shots. compared to just five for Memphis.

They shot them at a super high clip. They got 1.69 points per jump shot on those unguarded catch and shoots. They had 37 assists on 50 made field goals. The Thunder were bottom five in assist percentage this year. It's a big part of why, like I've actually talked about, I've been worried about the thunder against teams that pack the paint, especially teams that can protect the rim, just playing right into the teeth of the defense and not making those reads.

I thought today was a very, very important. There will be harder tests than what OKC face today. That's not exactly rocket science. Memphis has been a mediocre to bad basketball team for a while. But today was a test for their decision making, and they aced that test. And they did it with Shay going four for 13 from the field. I just thought it was a statement about how ready this Thunder team is for this

playoff run on the Memphis front. I've been talking for a while about how their shot creators just aren't good enough. Jaw hasn't made a single tangible improvement to his game in three years. Bain really struggles to create quality shots against elite defense and Jaron Jackson, a complete no-show today. Jhaugh was able in his first shift to create some advantages, but he still just has that one athletic superpower and OKC was eventually able to contain him because he can't shoot. He's one for six from three. And then as soon as John went to the bench, it was a steady diet of that Scotty Pippin Jr. and Desmond Bain unit, they couldn't even score and they got

blitzed. If Memphis gets swept, which I think they will, they will have finished the season 14 and 23 in their last 37 games. You have to think they'll be contemplating some massive changes to the roster if that happens, which I believe it will. All right, guys, it's all I have for tonight slash this morning for you guys. I am waking up first thing in the morning and I'm recording a film session that should be uploaded around like 10, 30, 11 Pacific time. So keep an eye on that as well. Our coverage continues tomorrow night. Game two of the Pistons Nick's series as well as the Clippers Nugget series will be live on YouTube after the final buzzer of that as well. Two days down, I'm a little tired, but this is a, it gets a little bit easier with each passing

day. I was talking with Colin and the guys tonight. Like the first two days, that first Saturday Sunday is by far the hardest stretch of this season or of this playoff run because it's eight games, every one of them matters. Every series is zero zero. It's your first impressions. You get to second weekend. The one-eight's are not any good anymore, right? Usually, like I expect Cleveland to be up three-o.

I expect the thunder to be up three-o. It gets a little easier. You go to the following weekend. You're getting into the second round. Now it's like there's only two games a night. You get in the conference finals. It gets a little bit easier as we go along. But man, that first weekend is always tough.

But we've made it through. And we are ready to continue. our process as we go through the week. I'm very, very excited to continue to get into this with you guys. I appreciate you guys for rocking with us. We're about to pass 100,000 subs. That's pretty fucking cool. I'm super excited about that. I have you guys to thank for that. And I can't tell you how much I guys, I appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Weekend one in the books. I'll see you tomorrow morning for some film. What's up, guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second

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