The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Lakers-Timberwolves Reaction + Steph Curry Goes for 56

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Jason Timpf reacts LIVE after the Los Angeles Lakers got an important win against the Minnesota Timberwolves in a game where Luka Doncic struggled to shoot, LeBron James played great, and Anthony Edwards got ejected. Then he discusses Steph Curry’s 56 point night for the Golden State Warriors and Russell Westbrook’s resurgence with the Denver Nuggets. Visit microsoft.com/challengers to learn more. Timeline 4:00 - Intro 5:15 - Lakers/Timberwolves 25:45 - Warriors/Magic 45:00 - Russell Westbrook’s Resurgence #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Heart 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, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

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against the Orlando Magic, get some return back to normalcy from Orlando. Orlando's jump shooting in the first explosive scoring game of Steph Curry's season. A lot of really encouraging stuff on the Warriors front. And then at the tail end of the show, a brief shout out that I have for Russell Westbrook. You guys know the drill before we get started to 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 a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, for releasing content throughout the year. We're doing some more film stuff on those platforms as well. So make sure you guys follow us there. And last minute at least, keep dropping mailbag questions and the YouTube comments.

We can get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So I talked a little bit about after the game right before the All-Star break with the Timberwolves about how they're one of those teams. I'm always looking at teams in the regular season and trying to find out what I think translates to the postseason. and there's always like a certain amount of like sometimes the young athletic teams there's a little bit of a ceiling that they run into when they get into the postseason when all the vets kind of up their level of intensity and the game planning gets a little bit more intense and young players tend to have more weaknesses and they can run into some issues right there are some young teams near the top of the state and his classic example this year's teams like the Houston Rockets right that like I don't think they're as good as their record is in terms of the type of threat that they represent. represent in the postseason. But then there is a layer to that, especially on teams that do have

more talent, more actual veteran experienced talent, teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, where their size and physicality can manifest in the postseason in a way that it doesn't manifest in the regular season because they're allowed to get away with more, because of their size and physicality wearing on a team over the course of a seven game series. The Timberwolves last year, what they did to the Phoenix Suns, what they did to the Denver Nuggets was a perfect example of that. And if you guys remember, I talked about it in that stretch right during the All-Star break. Like with Minnesota, I take them more seriously than their record because they just have a bunch of big, strong athletes with veteran presences with enough shot creation talent to where they can just drag you down into the mud.

And when you're down in the mud with them, they can make a lot of your players, play beneath their capability. You can start to experience some injuries as you get banged up in that environment and it can go south for you pretty quickly. And even without Anthony Edwards in that second half, I thought the wolves presented an excellent challenge for the Lakers in terms of that physical imposition that they presented. Terrence Shannon in particular was just ripping through the Lakers transition defense. Lakers have been really good on defense, including in transition for a while. That was not their best transition defense effort. Terrence Shannon made them pay consistently by just ripping through them.

One of the things that I want to talk about is like the Lakers have a flaw that's been consistent throughout this season, which is that teams are going to ball pressure the hell out of LeBron and ball pressure the hell out of Austin and they ball pressure to hell out of D-Lo when he was there. And as games progressed, those guys would wear down and get fatigued and they'd start to get sloppy with their passes. they'd start to miss a lot of jump shots. Look at how many badly missed jump shots you saw from the Lakers in that second half.

And one of the big things that I was really excited about in the Luca Donchitz trade is he's like literally the antidote to that problem. He is a guy that can eat up an enormous amount of that usage in terms of bringing the ball up the floor with standing ball pressure making that easier. The difference is is that Luca, when he's at his best, brings a lot of. level of shot making that he can use to defeat that type of pressure. He can get guys on his side and work his way downhill, get into that 10, 15 foot zone and make a bunch of shots. You actually saw a taste to that in that first quarter stretch, which was the stretch where Luca looked his best offensively. And so on the one hand, I thought the wolves exposed the reality of the Lakers' weaknesses in terms of wearing down under ball pressure. But the reality is, is that when Luca gets

into form, he should be able to handle that better. Luca is still having a hell of a time making jump shots at this point. He came into tonight, 11 for 51 on jump shots in a Lakers jersey. He ended up making the most ridiculous shot he took tonight. The interesting kind of a late clock sequence where LeBron was kind of caught the ball in the post against Nas Reid. And then he was like, you know what? Like, I don't see the point of me posting up Nasreid.

So he pulled him out to the perimeter. But his jumper was kind of out of rhythm. missed a few early in the fourth, so he tries to drive on him. And Nause does a really nice job, shutting off the driving lane, kind of traps him along the baseline. LeBron throws basically just an escape pass to Luca on the left wing. Nikiel Alexander Walker is smothering it the whole way. And Luca just bumps him a little bit with that shoulder and leans back and shoots a one leg fade away from like 27 feet, nothing but the bottom of the net. It's funny, I had a Mavs fan tweet at me after that that basically said, all Mavs fans knew that shot was going in. And it's just an example

of the Luca magic that Mavs fans grew accustomed to during the beginning stretch of his career that Laker fans are going to see a lot of. But like, to me, Luke is not close to where he needs to be as a shot maker. To me, it's obvious because so many of his misses are outside the rim. An easy way to think of it is the basketball rim can actually fit two basketballs on the inside, right? So like, there's kind of like a dialing in process when you're out of rhythm. You're getting a little bit closer on your misses. You're making. more shots, right? And like, right now, I don't think Luca, like, I don't think Lucas, Luca might have a good game here or there as a jump shooter, but I think he's a ways away from

actually, like, regularly just notching really good shot making games because his jumper's way off right now. He's missing most of them well outside the rim. He's missing a lot of his short range shot making, like short in front of the rim. Like, he's not even like getting it over the front of the rim. So it's going to be a while, I think. I think we're probably still at least a few weeks out. from Luca really looking like Luca as a shot maker, but he should help solve that problem for the Lakers in terms of wearing down under that type of ball pressure. Because even with Luca, as he can wear down,

as we saw in the Celtic series, for instance, LeBron James should be able to help anchor him on that end by giving him a release valve Austin Reeves as well. I think Luca is going to be an antidote for that problem in the big picture, but you did see that get exposed quite a bit in this game as a weakness for the Lakers. On the defensive end dealing with Anthony Edwards, there's another completely different type of offensive matchup

that the Lakers personnel had to deal with, that JJ and his coaching staff had to come up with the game plan for, the game plan that they had for Ant was pretty simple. They just had whoever was guarding him on the ball, basically force him towards the sideline. So play entirely on his inside shoulder and force him to drive towards the sideline. And then they used what's called a strong side zone,

basically taking a thing of it like this. Normally, if a defender were to sit in the paint and he's not guarding anybody, he would get a defensive three second violation, right? We saw a couple of those tonight, one on each team. But in that event, one of the counters for that is like guys will sometimes be all the way on the opposite side of the paint and they'll step in and they'll step out and they'll step out. And they'll step in and they'll step out. But a way to avoid that entirely is what if you just have that guy go all the way to the opposite side of the paint. And literally just that's what they call it a strong side zone because that defender is not actually going. a man anymore. He's actually effectively a one man zone who's in help right outside the block on the strong side of the floor where the ball handler is. So essentially it's like a soft double team of ant. You're playing his strong side shoulder or his middle side shoulder so that he can't just like easily take pull up threes. And you're trying to force him to drive right into the teeth of the defense. I actually thought ain't handled it really well. I mean the game playing more or less worked the way it was supposed to. The Lakers did get a lot of stops in this game,

but I thought it handled it pretty well. He got it to paint quite a bit. He was using his slowdown step to deal with help defenders. He was using screening actions to try to get his defender caught on the screen by like screening and then rescreening to get the dude caught on the underside so he could get a decent look at a pull-up three. He got guys off of him with pump fakes. You know, Ant's just freakishly talented. That's what he's going to do.

He made some really nice skip passes to beat the strong side zone. But then it got worked up. And there was a sequence that was kind of like a bang, bang play where he drove at Gabe Vincent and like clearly shoved him off with his right arm. And like, yeah, when Gabe was falling, his left foot came up a little bit and kicked, uh, ant in the back of the leg. But like the ref didn't call it. You want to know why the ref didn't call it? Because you saw aunt push him off. And, and it was just kind of like a bang, bang play where he didn't think it was worthy of a whistle.

Ant fell down and loses his mind, gets into it with the ref, gets himself ejected. Now he's suspended for tomorrow as well. So like that's really unfortunate. And like one of those things were like, I could see watching that game how you could be frustrated as a Wolves fan or as a Wolves player. The Lakers were getting some tickey tack calls in that game. It was one of those ones were like, like Austin was getting hit on the forearm. It's like really light.

But at the same time, like you guys know if you've ever played basketball, if you shoot a jump shot, the guy taps you on the forearm when you're shooting, it can cause the shot to go off by feet because it just affects your follow through. That's all the power that you're transferring into the basketball, right? But like, I can understand that it's a frustrating, officiating game for the wolves. My thing is like, you're on the road in the arena with a group of players, specifically Austin and Luca, who are like famous foul grifters. You know you're going to be on the wrong end of some calls.

You got to show some mental toughness to get through that so that you can stay available for your team. And it got himself ejected. From there, the wolves were just like, hey, we got one chance here. Let's muck this up. Let's get super physical. let's make a mess of this game. Let's get out in transition. And they did.

They made it a game. But the Lakers, just like they did in the Dallas game, they were able to lock in down the stretch, get enough stops, get enough good looks, and they ended up pulling away and winning relatively comfortably. I thought LeBron was absolutely magnificent all around in this game, but especially on defense. It was ironic after JJ Reddick touted his all defense level of play

over the course of the last six weeks after the Dallas game, I thought this was his best defensive game of this entire stretch. His rotations all over the floor were amazing. His closeouts to the three point line going flying into a row of chairs, his backline rotations around the rim. There were like a half dozen deep catches for the wolves in the paint in this game where LeBron just like appeared out of nowhere to disrupt the player on the catch and force a miss, clean up the defensive glass after that miss.

He was incredible on the defensive glass all night. I think he had what, like 16 and 17 rebounds. So many contested rebounds that he came away with. There was even that one. I think it was with Terrence Shannon where both guys had a grip on the ball. They ended up in a wrestling match over it. And LeBron somehow got away with that one as well. He was in groups of three bodies and tapping it out to other Lakers for rebounds.

He was just amazing all over the floor on the defensive end of the ball, getting stops and finishing possessions with the defensive rebound. And then again, on a night where Luca couldn't buy a shot, LeBron brought the scoring all night long. He was downhill to the rim all night long. He was dominating in the paint. It was just another game where LeBron was playing at an MVP level in a nearly two-month stretch where he's consistently been playing at that level.

The one last note I have on the Lakers front here, there are some realities to this team with their depth. This is something I talked about in the, if you guys remember, in the immediate aftermath of the trade. There are some realities just in the number of like reliable rotation players they have. There's like eight if you include Jackson Hayes, right? It's LeBron Austin, Luca.

It's Ruey and Jackson. And then it's Dorian Finney Smith. It's Jared Vanderbilt. It's Gabe Vincent. After that, it gets shaky. Right? Like you get into that Dalton Connect phase. like I've been kind of lower on Dalton Connected most Laker fans all year.

He just, I think he's going to be a good player in the big picture. But right now he's a shooter that can't make shots and is a really bad defensive player. Like I don't think he's even really capable of being a consistent rotation player for a good NBA team right now. Right. Like Jordan Goodwin, absolute scrapper. He's such a good piece to have for a regular season. But he's not a guy that you're going to be able to like rely on for significant minutes in a postseason. season setting. So you got eight guys. And here's the thing. Like eight guys is enough. That's what

you wanted to playoff rotation. You want seven and a half, eight guys that you trust to do their job on both ends of the floor. But there's no margin for error there. As soon as what like just tomorrow night, for example, you take Rui out of the picture. Rui, Rui went down with a knee sprain in this game. Dorian Finney Smith slots into the starting lineup in all likelihood if everyone else plays. But it's very possible the Lakers sit a bunch of guys tomorrow. We'll see. But like, let's just say Rui's out long term. Like, let's say Rui's out three, four weeks. Dorian Finney Smith is starting. You got one forward coming off the bench. Jared Vanderbilt. Like, now it's going to be, are we going big? Is it going to, is it going to be a lot of Alex

Len? You know, that's a huge drop off from a player of Rui Hachemura's caliber. And so again, like, I want to be clear about this Laker team. I think they absolutely have a championship ceiling. They are proving once again another night where they held a team that that Wolves' offense was top 10 in offense, in offensive rating over the previous 15 games. The Lakers held them down, just like they held Dallas down, just like they held Denver down, just like they've been holding everybody down since the middle of January. The defense is real.

Luca, getting back to being Luca will anchor this offense at a higher floor. I still think they're shooting well below their shot quality right now. A big part of that is just every game has been super physical. And I think also Luca getting back to form will start to generate better shot quality. But like I think they're going to be fine on the offensive end. They have absolutely a championship level unit on both ends of the floor. They're rebounding really well with this group. Everything's great there.

However, the margin for air as it pertains to their injury luck is extremely, love. It's extremely small. Rui sprains his knee in this game. Jackson Hayes hurt his hip in this game. Luca grabbed at his knee after going knee to knee with somebody. LeBron looked like he was a little banged up at the end of the game. There's definitely a very small window here in terms of they need to get through a really brutal stretch of basketball here with their roster intact. And so again, like I think it's important every time you see a team struggle like I talk about. It's always important to at least acknowledge what's making them a struggle. It's like, oh,

ball pressure and physicality, well, yeah, Lucas should help with that. But like, oh, also, down the stretch, you ended up having to play, you couldn't go to your closing group with Rui, because Rui's hurt. Okay, so the reality is this team has eight men that they can trust,

but after that it gets a little sketchy. And it's just something that's a reality of something that they're going to have to deal with as this season progresses. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas.

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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, where people 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 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 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 the 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, calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness.

So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me?

Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A warrior's magic. This was an interesting matchup that I had my eye on for the New Look Warriors, because the magic are just a much bigger team. It was going to test. the Warriors in the paint and on the glass. And I actually thought they held up pretty well on that front. They only gave up 11 second chance points

while getting eight of their own. It was actually the magic down the stretch who weren't able to secure a defensive rebound. That Jimmy Butler beat everyone to the ball once, Dreamon Green beat everyone to the ball once. So I actually thought it was a relatively successful night on that front. And again, when you have a disadvantage like that, like, oh, they're bigger than us.

It's not like you're going to go and just play bigger than them. it's about just minimizing that advantage. You can minimize their size advantage and maximize your speed advantage. You can win that fight. Again, it's like there's that expression, styles make fights. The way I look at it is like,

which style wins the fight. A really fast guy and a really big guy get into a fist fight. Like, it really just depends on who weaponizes their advantage better, right? And like, it just felt like in this game, the Warriors held up pretty well, into Orlando's size.

The flip side of the magic being this massive team is that they can't shoot. And I mean, they really can't shoot. They are far and away the worst jump shooting team in the NBA. They're so bad that the gap between them and the 29th ranked jump shooting team, the Washington Wizards, is seven points, over seven points per 100 jump shots. As a matter of fact, the gap between the magic and the 29th ranked jump shooting team, Washington Wizards is the same as the gap between the 29th ranked team in the 14th ranked jump shooting team in the NBA. That's how bad the Orlando Magic Art making jump shots,

but not in that first half. Orlando shot the seams off the ball to start this game. They got 1.53 points per jump shot in the first half. That's close to double their season average. But the Warriors didn't overreact. They stuck to their game plan. And Orlando cooled off in the second half. They got just 0.82 points per jump shot in the second half. Now again, like I always talk about with shot result, there's two different ways to look at it. Yeah, there's absolutely some variance in jump shooting. But there are also a lot of controllables.

If a team is shooting well, if you start sharpening up your closeouts, making them a little bit more uncomfortable, it's more likely that they'll get out of rhythm and that they'll start missing. They like, did you guys notice a dynamic where the warriors were like in the second app, blocking shots in the right corner, like threes,

or forcing really bad misses out of the right corner on threes? They kept putting two on the ball as the magic kept attacking out of that left wing. And a simple dynamic was being generated where, because they were occupying the dunker spot, there was usually nobody on the right wing. There was someone in the right corner. And there was a defender. Sometimes it was Moses Moody, sometimes it was Jimmy Bellar, sometimes Draymond Green.

That defender would have to tag the roller as the, putting two on the ball, but then also be accountable for that shooter in the corner. Their rotations in the second half were fantastic sprinting out there. Draymont and Jimmy had several great closeouts forcing bad misses. Moses Moody had a play where he tagged a roller at the foul line and somehow got all the way back that his man made the pass and he got all the way back to the right corner and blocked a three point shot over there. he's just been fantastic on defense consistently since his role has become more clarified for him.

The Warriors defense was great all around in the second half. I thought it was a great matchup for Quentin Post because he was able to kind of hang back by the rim. And he had several great contests, blocks there. Like he was just really impactful as a rim protector in this game. We talked about the defensive rotations from guys like Jimmy Butler, Draymond, Moses Moody. I thought Brandon Pajamski was awesome on defense in that second half with his ball pressure. just delaying Orlando getting into their offense.

He also had some great rearview contests. Again, that's when you're in ball screens and the screener screens you. You have to chase over the top, but you have a drop coverage defender or somebody that's helping on the other side of the screen. Your job is to bother from behind, swipe at the basketball. He had some great rearview contest.

He had a block in a situation like that. He's been fantastic on defense all around since the Jimmy trade. Like him and Moody, they've had their roles crystallized and they're just hooping on both ends of the floor with what the team is asking him to do. Gary Payton the second had one of the biggest plays in the game.

The magic cut it into a close game late. He off of an offensive rebound, Cole Anthony drove the baseline out of the right corner and it looked like he was going to have a chance there to cut the lead to a one possession game there. Gary just stayed attached from behind and just swatted it out of there and it actually led to a fast break going the other way. It was a huge defensive play from Gary.

Payton. They've been second in defensive rating in the entire NBA in this eight game stretch since Jimmy Butler did join the team. They're fast. Everyone is doing their job. I was talking our new producer Jackson. He's really smart basketball mine. We were talking before the show about how like how the game has changed so much over the course of the last few years in terms of teams are existing in rotation a lot. All these great pull-up shooters, you got to put two on the ball. All these great superstars that are great at attacking mismatches, you got to put two on the ball. You're in rotation a lot. And one of the things that Jackson was talking about before we started recording, and I think he's spot on with this, is like having intelligent defenders that make

the right types of decisions in these situations really matters. If you're in rotation and there's two shooters on the opposite end of the floor, a guy on the wing and a guy in the corner, and one of the guys is a guy that like, if you close out at him short, he won't shoot it, but the other guy is just a burner, then you need to close out to the better shooter. Passing lane close outs. That's another thing that really advanced defenses will do where like the pass goes to the wing or the pass goes to the corner instead of closing out to the shooter, you close out in between them because it like makes the shooter think that you're closing out at him.

So we'll hesitate for a second. But then when he looks to make the extra pass, guess who's in his way? you because you're in the passing lane. Different like bait and switch type of things where you might stunt at a guy to make him hesitate and then get back. The Moses Moody Block, a great example. He stunted, I believe,

I think it was Gogh Patazza who caught on the role on that play. He like stunted at Goga and it made him hesitate, which bought him a second for him to make that extra rotation to the corner. And like Andrew Wiggins,

as we've talked about, he is obviously a better just like pick up the ball full court type of defender, right? And that was a huge part how they won the title. But Jimmy Butler has a level of defensive playmaking to him that is a ceiling razor that Andrew Wiggins isn't capable of.

We talked about earlier that intelligence piece. A lot of that is reading plays. There was a play the other day. I can't even remember which game it was where he's like tracking a different player on a baseline cut Jimmy Butler is coming through to the right side of the floor, but a different player got back cut on the Warriors, and Jimmy identified it and peeled off and jumped the passing lane,

got it and went the other way. Steph Curry, in my opinion, has always been a very smart defender. Game plan discipline is a huge part of success in the modern NBA. Your coaches will spend hours pouring over film. Usually there's someone on the staff who's scouting a game, three, four games down the line. Hey, you're in charge for scouting this game. This guy's in charge of scouting that game. They're pouring over film. This is a guy we close out short on. This is a guy that doesn't ever shoot a jump shot when he drives to the right, but he always will

shoot a jump shot when he drives to the left. This is a guy that we do this for. This is a guy that we're doing that for. There's so much information there in the scouting report. And a lot of times we see defensive breakdowns and we blame the coaching staff. A lot of times it's a player who's just not obeying the game playing or not sticking or being disciplined to the game plan. The Warriors have a lot of really, really smart defensive players out there. And it's a big part of how they've put together consistently at top 10 defense this season, but now they're showing an elite defense over the course of this recent stretch of games. But there was another end of the floor in that second half.

and then to the floor where Steph Curry went for 35 points just in the second half. Started with a half court heave right before the buzzer at halftime. They cut the lead to 14. He cut some favorable coverages to start the third quarter. They were bringing Paolo and Wendell Carter Jr. Into the screening action. And those guys were just sitting back and letting Contavius Caldwell Pope just chase Steph over screens. And so he got a couple of really easy looks to start the third quarter,

one that he made and one that he missed, but it actually got step into a groove. And so then when Orlando started to up the pressure, he was already on one of those classic step hot streaks, because he's hit a three, just hit a bomb in the first half. He's already in a groove there. I think he had, what, 21 in the first half. There was nothing they can do at that point. He's already in the groove. These things are usually connected. Like a lot of times, if you play sloppy defense in an early portion of a game, a guy will get confident in a rhythm. It doesn't matter how tight you get on him in the second half or the rest of the game, these are some of the best shot makers in the history of the sport, right? Steph is the best shooter in the history of the sport. He was getting downhill and he was

stepping back in the midrange. He was getting guys with pump fakes to get separation. He had guys running out his base drawing fouls. He drew five fouls in this game. He fooled Palo several times in the second half, got him on a pump fake and got him on a foul where he ran out his base. KCP was just getting fried all night as Steph's primary defensive assignment. I thought KCP looked a little slow in this game, but that's another story. This is all super encouraging for the Warriors, because Steph had looked pretty rough before the Jimmy trade. Before Jimmy suited up, he was averaging 23 points per game on 43% from the field and 39% from 3. In the last eight games with Jimmy Butler, he's averaging 31 points per game, 51% from the field, and 43% from

3. In other words, the Steph Curry that we've grown accustomed to for well over. a decade now. But the one thing that was missing, even with everything having to do with the averages, was the explosive scoring nights, the crazy Stephs on another heater guys, everyone get to your TV type of moments. Steph didn't have a single 40-point game yet this season. Last year, he had six. Last time he had a similar roster before the Jimmy trade in 2021, he had 10 40-point games,

obviously a younger player. that this is this explosive scoring night getting 56 getting like an otherworldly type of performance out of step against a good defense is a really really strong indicator of what this team is capable of moving forward it's a big part of why i believe in this team like the defense was there all year jimmy just brings it up a level then you get step a legitimate offensive co-star in jimmy then you get night to night greatness from step back now you're getting a real Steph explosion. There's an awesome quote

from Jamal Mosley in the postgame presser. He was asked, coach, aside from Steph, because he's capable of doing this from time to time, what was the difference? He said, the man had 56 points. There is no aside from Steph. And like that, that's the exciting part. Like, if you're looking at this team as a playoff threat,

it really is simple. They're an elite defense with a bunch of really smart players and a great head coach. And on the other than the floor, It's Steph Curry. Except for now, you can't throw the entire kitchen sink at him because Jimmy Butler's out there too. And oh, by the way, Jonathan Caminga's not too far behind.

We can't write this team off when they're this good on defense. And they're led by one of the greatest offensive players in the history of the sport. And he finally has someone that he can share that load with. Last note on the Warriors, I would be remiss if I did not mention Quentin Post's scoring in this game. I mentioned his rim protection earlier. but he poured in 18 points too. He had a couple of threes. By the way, Quinn Post is hitting 51% of his unguarded catch and shoot attempts so far this year.

1.53 points per attempt. That's amazing. Like one of the big things that happens with shooting bigs is there's like the shooting big, the guy that's going to hit 35, 36% of like, to quote Dorian Finney Smith, but naked wide open threes that teams are just concerned. ceding to them. And then there's, this guy's got a burner. We have to account for him.

I was watching a little bit of Nuggets Bucks tonight. And like, Yokic is so good on the pick and pop. Teams are rotating from the weak side. They're guarding the pick and pop with three players because they can't afford to leave him open. There are a lot of big guys like Miles Turner, guys like Nikola Vucevich. There are a lot of guys that are like, yeah, we'll live with him shooting out there. Quinn Post seems to have a burner.

He looks like the kind of guy you can't leave out there. But I also thought he showed some impressive footwork in this game. He had a couple of buckets in the pain. He had a pick and roll switch where he buried a small under the basket, created a passing angle, quick finish over his left shoulder. He had another playoff of a cut. I think it was from Dremont. It might have been from Jimmy, actually,

where he just really patiently handled a kind of a swarm of players around him and showed some good footwork with a pump-bake, stepped through a little layup on the right side of the rim. He's just a really solid player. There's a lot to be excited about in the Bay right now. Hey, it's us, the 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. We're the 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, where people 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, podcast 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 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. 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 athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody's.

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. Sportslice 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Jacob Kingston grew up in a an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth.

He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollars, fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody

coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, quickly before we get out of here tonight, welcome to course correction. Brought to you by My Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, quickly before we get out of here tonight, welcome to course correction brought to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get things done right. They must rise to the occasion turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions,

simplified cloud and data management, and trustworthy, responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles to face. In this segment, we explore the challenges faced by teams or star players and how they can turn things around. Whatever your challenge is facing, whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say, bring it on. This week we're discussing Russell Westbrook

and his resurgence with the Denver Nuggets. I thought Russ was great in the Bucks game today. He was doing a lot of damage, just getting steals and starting transition sequences for the Nuggets. He was attacking off of those. His man was the guy that was rotating to Yokic on a lot of those pop situations.

The transition for Russ from MVP of the league, to role player has been far from smooth. He was traded to the Lakers in a deal that sent out so much role player talent that there wasn't much role player talent left on the roster when Russ got there. I've often said after that deal and after that whole era that it's not Westbrook's fault that that era went poorly, but it is the Westbrook trades fault because it gutted the roster. It put Russ in a position where the Lakers like desperately needed him to be a Swiss Army night.

Yeah, they needed him to be a shot creator and lead units when LeBron was off the floor, but they also needed him to play off the ball with LeBron and AD. They needed him to be active as a cutter and his screener. They needed him to work on his catch and shoot games so that he could be more impactful in spot up situations. On defense, they needed him to be like an apex perimeter defender. They needed him to box out to track shooters to be consistently attentive to the game plan. and he really struggled with those things. Somewhat to be expected,

when you're an alpha dog MVP level shot creator like he was for most of his career, it's unreasonable to expect him to just be great at those things that role players get paychecks for. That's why they're in the league. I think we're seeing a similar struggle from Bradley Beal right now with the Sons. He's transitioned from being one of those guys with Washington

to now in Phoenix, like they need him to be a really good rebounder, and they need him to be a really good point of attack defender, and it's just not something he spent most of his career doing. It didn't go well in L.A. for Russ. It even led to a lot of animosity with fans. And I'm not trying, like, I'm not alleviating myself of guilt here. I was super critical of Russ during that phase as well. The point is, is it got pretty dark.

There's a lot of adversity for Russ there. But Russ has completely reinvented himself with the Denver Nuggets as an extremely useful role player. He's already had an excellent demonstration of a two-man game with Yokic, one of the things that makes it work with Russ is he brings real downhill force. One of the most valuable things

that Yokic brings as a score is it's not just post-up stuff. In ball screens, when he rolls into the middle of the floor, he's got one of the deadliest little floaters that you'll see in the league. Makes over 60% of them. But in order for Yokic to get that catch in the pocket, the ball handler has to engage

the screen defender, the guy who's guarding Yokic. And the only way that's going to happen is if that player is a threat. And the Nuggets haven't had anybody other than Jamal Murray over the years who can be a consistent enough threat and a good enough passer to generate those opportunities for Yokic on the role. Now, Jamal did it more with like shot making, a little bit of floater stuff, a lot of like mid-range pull-up jump shot making, that kind of thing.

Russ is doing it with downhill force. He's bringing that force, engaging Yokchch's. his defender setting him up with those pocket passes. But by far the biggest change that I've noticed is how much more willing he is to cut to the basket off the ball. He already has more buckets on cuts this year than he did his entire full season with the Lakers in 2022. As you saw in the first bucket against Milwaukee,

his first bucket, the cut that he had. Yokic popped. Russ's man had to rotate. What did Russ do? Instead of just standing there at the three point line, he immediately saw his man leave him and he cut down the lane in that gap, got to catch there, got an easy lay.

Like that is a huge element of just being a threat off the ball that he wasn't really utilizing before this air. He's put in way more work behind the scenes to improve as a jump shooter. He's shooting the third highest percentage on threes for a season in his career.

A Russ catch and shoot jump shot has been worth 1.04 points this year. That's perfectly. fine for a half court possession. He was at 31% his last year with the Lakers or just 0.93 points per shot. It was kind of untenable. He's put in the work.

He's devoting way more energy to the defensive end where he's been a big defensive playmaker for the Nuggets, getting them going in transition, forcing turnovers. He's averaging the most steals per minute that he has in his career since 2019. Six years ago, guys. he's become a very nice, complimentary piece for a dead serious championship contender, which seemed impossible a few years ago.

And it's just a testament to his competitiveness and to his resolve. I've genuinely enjoyed watching in the season as a basketball fan. That's it for this week's course correction. And remember, Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to make bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive your business forward. With Microsoft, as your trusted partner, you can navigate your journey with confidence. finding innovative solutions and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft.com slash challengers to learn more.

All right, guys, that's all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We will have another episode out on Saturday morning covering a slate of games from Friday night. I will see you guys then. 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 and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.

Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. Nice.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to us. We get to ask other people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

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 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 Acapella 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, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines.

And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man. Is everyone lying to me about who they are? I felt such desperation. I felt it. was what I had to do. Listen to deep cover the family man on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.