The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Lakers beat Warriors in Steph Curry's return, Suns outlast Mavericks, 76ers' big win | Hoops Tonight

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers' 113-105 win over Stephen Curry and the Los Angeles Lakers. Jason breaks down Steph's first game back from injury and whether these two teams could be on a collision course in the NBA Playoffs once LeBron James returns. Later, Jason discusses Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns' 130-126 win over Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks as well as Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers' big win over Giannis Antetokounmpo's Milwaukee Bucks. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL'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. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. The volume. It's Hoops Tonight, presented by Fanduel. The NBA season is kicking into gear, and there's no better place to get in on the action than with Fanduel.

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Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great weekend. I'm not going to go too long today because I'm away from the story. But I'm going to hit on the three big nationally televised games from the last two days. We're going to hit Warriors Lakers, which just went down. Then we're going to hit Suns Mavs in that crazy clutch showdown with KD hitting the game winner. And then we're going to finish up with the Sixers getting a signature win on the road in Milwaukee last night. You guys know the drill before we get started.

Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss any show announcements. Last but not least if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these. videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Lakers get a huge win at home over the Golden State Warriors. I thought the story of this game was the ball handling differential between the Lakers

guards kind of just piecing together what a primary ball handler looks like versus kind of an uneven day from Jordan Poole in particular. But I do want to start with AD because he was an absolute monster on both. ends of the floor in this game and he deserves the most credit. Thirty-nine points on 25 shots, countless important baskets down the stretch in the short roll and in isolation. He took much better care of the basketball than he did against Minnesota, which is a huge plot line in this game for the Lakers guards in particular. And he completely and utterly locked down the paint, held the Warriors to just 26 points in the paint in this game. Went with a similar scheme.

to what they've used against the Warriors in the last couple of matchups, ignoring the non-shooters, trying to deny and top lock the off-ball shooters. The Warriors did a much better job in this game of getting separation from those top locks. They got a lot of open shots curling around. Steph got hot in the fourth quarter and they had to start chasing him off the line and started to open up some things at the rim. But for the most part, Anthony Davis did an amazing job locking down the paint. And on the biggest possession of the game, a straight face-up ISO against Draymond Green on that left block.

You know, when I've been critical of him over the years of settling for jumpers a lot in those situations, he just ripped through to the baseline. And again, Draymond is probably, if not the best, one of the very best defenders at his position in the league. Didn't settle, ripped through the baseline, went through that little push shot that he always goes to, where he just kind of reaches up over the top of the deep. defense and kind of shoots like a floater. And I've said a lot in recent weeks, like that's when you can tell when Anthony Davis is really locked in is when he's making that little push shot, that floater. He had another big one in the short roll where he hit a floater over Looney down

the stretch. That's that same type of shot just in a short roll situation instead of in an ISO situation. That's when you can tell that Anthony Davis is really locked in. And he made all the big plays down the stretch of this game to get the win. So tip of the cap. to him. You know, I've said with AD a bunch, but this is such a great opportunity for him to prove his MVP value. Because this Lakers team, if they can get healthy, if they can get DeAngelo Russell out there, if they can get LeBron James out there, they are good, not just good, but a legitimate threat in the Western Conference, but it doesn't matter if they don't make it out of this play in tournament scramble situation. And the only way they're going to do that with

DeAngelo Russell taking his sweet time getting back from an ankle injury and Anthony Davis, or excuse me, LeBron James being out with his foot injury, they need Anthony Davis to produce at an all-world level. And for the most part, he's been doing that. It's been a little uneven from time to time, but he's done what he's needed to do to notch a couple of wins here. And, you know, specifically like that Minnesota Timberwolves win, that's a tough one. That's one that, especially with all of the other things that broke right for them and the standings you need, but winning this one against Golden State, which I didn't think they'd be able to win without DeAngelo Russell. So major shout out to them. It kind of undoes some of the damage

from that loss to Minnesota. But again, I said the story of this game was the collective ball handling of the Lakers. Austin Reeves, Lonnie Walker, Dennis Schroeder, and Malik Beasley. They took way better care of the basketball than they did against Minnesota. Nine total turnovers. Those four guys combined for 46 points and 17 assists. That's cobbling together primary ball handling. Austin Reeves in particular was amazing. 16 points, eight assists in just 28 minutes, only two turnovers, made a huge three on the left wing in the fourth quarter, just in general. You know, again, I like him slotted better as kind of like a second side guy as that bit starter, especially in clutch situations and running bench groups. But all of these guys, all four of these guys,

have been put in a tough spot because with DeAngelo Russell being out and with LeBron James being out, every single one of them is kind of underqualified, so to speak, for what they're being asked to do, filling those roles. And particularly in the Thunder win when Anthony Davis sat out, and in this game against the Warriors, all of those guys stepped up and made big plays to help them win a game. They shouldn't have been able to win.

One last Laker I wanted to shout out was Troy Brown Jr. He hit a bunch of super important threes, including one on the right wing. They're down the stretch that wasn't even open, just rose up and knocked it down. a confident, you know, like audacity type of shot that you love to see from a guy. And I think it's a great example of the benefit of having the pedigree that Troy Brown has. He's a former lottery pick who's now operating in a smaller role on a veteran minimum contract.

But that is a player who earlier in his basketball career had the ball in his hands a lot and has a lot of confidence and he leaned on it in that moment. On the Warriors front, I thought Steph was better than I expected him to be. he usually struggles with rhythm in these types of games. Didn't struggle as nearly as much as I expected to. Usually when he comes back from injury, there's that three, four game, kind of like get back up to speed,

get the timing right on everything before he really starts clicking. And he was pretty good right away. The Warriors made several runs in this game. I'm sure as a Warriors fan, it was frustrating for you guys watching because it was like they just kept getting right back to within one. And then the Lakers would go on a run. run and then they'd get back to with one and then the Lakers would go on a run that happened like seven or

eight times in this game the one guy in particular i thought really struggled today was Jordan pool and specifically on the last big Lakers run when they were uh in the middle of the fourth quarter i thought Jordan pool took a couple of really bad shots um early in possessions without really having his feet set that i thought sprung those laker uh that final laker run to get them back into the lead Now, some of it's to be expected. You know, this is a guy who's been starting a lot of this season as a result of the Steph Curry injuries, and it's a complete role shift.

Not only is he coming off the bench, he's running with different groups, plays when he's on the floor with Steph, suddenly plays that were run for him or being run for Steph. So I want to cut him some slack from the standpoint of just having that wrench thrown into everything. But I thought that him in particular, that gap between like Austin Reeves' production today

and Jordan Poole was a huge swing factor in a game that the Warriors should. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream,

this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's move on to Suns Mavs. So I only caught the fourth quarter of this one, but I'm going to watch the rest tomorrow morning. And if I see anything specifically interesting, we'll cover it in tomorrow's show. We have Nick's Celtics tonight, too. That game we're going to be covering tomorrow. as well. So a ton of good stuff to get into in tomorrow's show. But the Sons win

130 to 126. KD hits the game winner with 11 seconds left. You know, it was an interesting counter from KD on that possession because the Mavs doubled him on almost all of his touches, especially on like high post, low post, like catch and triple threat type of situations. They were double teaming him. And on this particular possession, he's kind of dribbling out front against Tim Hardaway Jr. at the logo. And Kyrie Irving just hard doubles from the right wing. And what he did, which I thought was really smart, is he made the swing pass to Ishwayne right, and then that caused Kyrie to recover. And then when he got the ball back, he did a rip-through away from the double team. So he took the double team out as an option by going quickly in the opposite

direction. The Dallas defense was set up to double from Kyrie's side, and by Katie ripping through and going the other way, Kyrie kind of meandered in that direction, like kind of soft, like chasing him like he was going to double, but he would have had to sprint to get there in time. and that allowed KD to operate one-on-one, and he just hit that classic dribble pull-up jump shot that he's made so many times in his career and that he's been hitting at an insane rate this season. Kevin Durant is shooting a 60% effective fuel goal percentage

on pull-up jump shots this year. How freaking insane is that? That's pull-up off the dribble jump shots, one of the toughest shots in the league, counting when you add the weight of three-point shots in their value, a 60% effective field goal percentage, which was just insane. then Luca goes down and he smokes an easy layup.

But Devin Booker comes in and has a little moment at his expense. And I tweeted about this, but like, again, I like Devin Booker for the record. So this is not me coming after him in the sense that you would think. But to be honest, like, I thought it was kind of lame that, you know, Luca literally went into your house in a playoff series and embarrassed you. and in a regular season game where Kevin Durant hits the game winner, you're going to start talking shit to Luca at that point. Like that just, I mean, again, some of it,

that's just Devin Booker's personality. He's a shit talker. He does that all the time. But it did come off kind of lame when it's like, okay, you brought in maybe the best player in the world to win a battle for you, and then you're going to talk shit when literally Luca just embarrassed you on the bigger stage, not a regular season stage, but literally a playoff stage when you were the one seat in the conference.

It was definitely a little bit weird. But the Sunslaid game offense was super interesting. Like I said, they were doubling KD on the catch, and they got a lot of really wide open shots out of that. Ish Wainwright and CP3 in particular actually missed a couple of wide open shots down the stretch of this game. So their offense, they were generating extremely high-quality shots. There was a quote, I think it was from the last game, the Bulls game. I can't remember who the reporter was, so I apologize for not getting this right.

but somebody questioned him on just how he's been handling the doubles. And KD said something in the presser that's been something that I've talked about a lot, which is, like, your job as a primary initiator is not necessarily to shoot every time or to get the assist. It's to draw that second defender to create that initial advantage that the other basketball players on your team can further the advantage and get that truly great shot, right? And KD straight up said that after the, uh, uh, uh, um,

when he was questioned about it and basically said, like, I understand that my role is to draw that second defender. And from there, he said in the quote, he's like, from there, we can play. That's when basketball starts is the way he framed it. And that's the thing is like when you have that four on three, now it's that driving kick basketball and guys making reads, but you need to get the basketball to start. And the only way the basketball is going to start is if your best player or whoever your primary initiator is can draw that second defender in to start. that four on three action. But even when the Mavs got misses, they couldn't close out the defensive possession. The Mavs got two stops in the final minute of that game. They forced CP3 into a miss at the

foul line. Devin Booker missed like a driving, floating bank shot. And on both of them, DeAndre Aiton kept the possession alive. On the first one, he drew a foul. And then on the second one, when Booker shot that driving bank shot, he drew Powell into help. And as a result, that left Kyrie and Luca to contend with DeAndre Aiton under the basket, which is, a battle they're going to lose almost every single time. He ended up getting the offensive rebound put back. And again, like, this is, this is, if you have real size and athleticism at the forward position, then you can crack down from the wing and you have a chance of winning that rebounding battle, but this is a team that just doesn't have that athleticism. Like if Maxi Klieba or Dwight Powell

are drawn in to a ball handler driving to the basket, everyone around them is going to be a guard or Luca who's not a great athlete. So you're not going to win a lot of those contest. So you're not going to win a lot of those contested rebound battles. That's just the reality of Dallas's predicament. Kyrie and Luca were both magnificent down the stretch of this game. They went blow for blow with the Suns, but the Sun's got two additional opportunities because of a physical disadvantage in the front court in the form of DeAndre Aiton. It's impossible to win games. I shouldn't say impossible, but it's going to make it so much harder to win games when you're asking your players to be nearly perfect because the other team has more margin for

error because of their physical advantages. This game swung on Phoenix getting two additional shots because of two boxed out situations where the Mavericks couldn't contend physically. And the reality is, is that problem will only get exacerbated when they get into the postseason. I'm going to dive into the film of this one tomorrow. And if I see anything else interesting, we'll dive into it in tomorrow's show. So the Sixers get a signature win on the road in Milwaukee, 133 to 130. I've said a half dozen times on the show in the last few months that I've been super impressed with the fight, just that like competitive energy and that like we're in the trenches together and we're going to find a way to win this game type of energy that I've seen from James Hardin

and Joel Embed not just on a night in a night out basis, but especially in these major nationally televised games. Even in that game they lost against Boston, like they battled down the stretch of that game and made a lot of big plays, and you know what? You lost to a really good team on a really tough shot, which is going to happen sometimes from Jason Tatum. But I've been impressed with their battle a lot this season. And, you know, last night went on the road to what I think is the best team in the league

in the Milwaukee Bucks, and both James Hardin and Joel Embed outplayed Janus to not yet another signature win for them. I wanted to start with the shift to start the fourth quarter. So the bucks were up double digits. Hardin's running the bench group, and he got them back into the game on both ends of the floor. On one end of the floor, he's guarding Janus, and on the other end of the floor, just making Milwaukee pay for their base shell principal defensive scheme. Like I've talked a lot when we talked about Michael Porter Jr., about having a tall player on the weak side

who is an aggressive and dead-eye shooter. When you have that, it makes even shell drill principles, you know, useless. Because the idea of shell drill is like if the ball's on the ball's on the side, opposite side of the floor and I'm guarding the shooter. I am going to position myself several steps away from the shooter to be ready to help if I need to, right? But when you have these super aggressive tall shooters, a rifle pass into the shooting pocket, I can't rotate in time. Not enough, not in time to bother that shot. And James Harden time and time again to start the fourth quarter of this game was making that swing pass across the court, just like Yokic does the Michael Porter

Jr. But to Georges Nihang and he was knocking him down. And that was the offensive side of the run. On the other end of the floor, James Harden held his own, more than held his own against Yannis. There was a play where Yonis got to the foul line. But for the most part, he held his own. Now, that's not something that you're going to go to in large doses in a playoff series. Janus would figure that out and he would barbecue him. But in small doses like that, Hardin has some physical advantages.

He's built like a truck. He's got a low center of gravity. He's really hard to move off his spot. he's always been a good post defender. Some of you guys might remember in that first Elam ending game in the All-Star game when James Hardin was having some success guarding Janice Antenacumpo on the post, right? At the end of the day, just sliding your feet, taking that contact in the chest, having the strength to hold your ground,

that will at least force Janus to make shots over the top. They're going to be easier shots because he has such a height advantage, but it's going to make him make shots over the top. and Janice has struggled making shots over the top this year, and James Hardin got a bunch of stops there. But the bench unit basically erased a double-digit lead. Milwaukee punched back. Brooke Lopez was incredible down the stretch of this game.

It hit a huge three. He had like a really nifty kind of under the rim layup on Joel Embed. Made him nice play in the short role to Drew Holiday in the weak side corner. He was magnificent. But James Hardin and Joel Embed just went blow for blow with the bucks every possession down the stretch of this game. Hardin was beating Chris Middleton off. the dribble to draw fouls and to get all the way to the rim. Joel and B, when he was catching on

his short roll, was being super physically aggressive to the rim to force the refs to blow the whistle. It wasn't grifty stuff. It was just physical aggression. He wasn't trying to draw fouls. He was just going hard to the rim, and it was resulting in fouls. That to me is a way more honorable way to get to the foul line. But then they won the game on two critical threes and two critical stops. The first three was James Harden. I think it was Drew Holiday went underneath the screen. Now, from way out, it was like a 28-footer. But James Hardin rose up and knocked down that three over the top of that ball screen. And then the second one, Joel Embed, with that pump bake, and kind of reoriented himself and had a wide open three from the top of the key, and he knocked it down.

They made the two shots. And then on the other end, they got two critical stops. The first one, the Bucks ran a ton of Drew Yannis pick and roll down the stretch of this game. And, you know, Janice actually drew a couple fouls in the fourth quarter on lob passes because it was kind of a tough predicament because, you know, Drew Holiday hit a short pull-up jump shot in the fourth quarter. So, like, Joel is having to come out from his drop to contain the ball handler, right, which puts you in a tough spot on the backline. But on the first stop, after the James Harden three, if I'm getting my possessions correctly, he, Joel and B did a really impressive job of showing out to stop Drew from taking the three, but then sprinted back in time. to force Janice into a post-up rather than just a catch and finish, and he forced Janice into a miss under the rim. It was an incredible defensive effort.

And then after he hit the three to give him the lead, he just straight up switched the pick and roll onto Drew Holiday, which completely threw the bucks off. They didn't even know what to do next because they were operating in that like pick and roll short roll situation the entire fourth quarter. And he slid his feet. Drew Holiday didn't kind of know what to do. And he ended up taking a tough contested three off the dribble.

Joel got a good contest and he forced the miss. And that was the game. So, you know, down the stretch of this game, James Hardin and Joel and Bede were the two best players on the floor. They made all the big plays on both ends of the floor. And that's why I haven't been able to write off Philly. Again, like, I'm not going to pick Philly to win the East. I'm going to pick probably Milwaukee or Boston, right? If Milwaukee or Boston end up in a playoff series against Philly in the second round, I will be picking Milwaukee or Boston. Okay. But all season long, what I've told you guys, is Philly has a real chance.

If James Harden and Joel Embed play this well, they can beat anybody. I'm skeptical too. Embed's perimeter jump shot has fallen apart a few times. He's been exposed in some specific matchups with his foot speed. James Harden obviously has a long resume of struggling in the NBA postseason. I'm skeptical too. But if they play to this level in the postseason, they are talented enough to beat anybody.

And we can't write them off. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. We're going to be back tomorrow covering Nick Celtics, a little bit more from that Suns-Mavs game and whatever. I'll have to look at the slate to see if there's any other interesting games tonight. That show should be releasing in the early evening tomorrow. So keep an eye on the feeds.

As always, I appreciate your guys' support, and I will see you next time. The Volume. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast, Superhuman, documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilts of conversations with athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.