The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Lakers-Warriors Reaction: Steph Curry dominates, Golden State blows out LA

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

Jason Timpf reacts to Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and the Golden State Warriors' dominant 128-110 win over Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers, who were missing LeBron James. Jason breaks down the biggest highlights from the game and discuses what he expects from both teams moving forward as the chase to the NBA Playoffs begins. #volume #herd  See 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of Tontons and Wampas on the Ice Planet Hot,

or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of the world. of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The volume. Get in on the action with Draft King's Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. New customers who deposit $5 or more can get a no sweat bet up to $1,000 back in a bonus bet. I was looking at NBA futures this morning. The Golden State Warriors are plus 5,500 right now on Draft Kings to win the title. So if you believe in them, that's a big number.

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Basketball is back. We're going to be breaking down Lakers versus Warriors. Jan Pack's late tonight. We have several other games from tonight's show that we're going to be hitting in tomorrow morning's show. So make sure you guys come back to the feed tomorrow. I have some thoughts on some of tonight's games. I also have some thoughts about some of the other NBA drama that we had during the All-Star break. But that's for tomorrow's show.

Just going to go for about 10, 15 minutes tonight on Lakers Warriors. You guys know the joke before we get started, subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel. It mean a lot to me if you guys take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed, wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. It's also really helpful. Do you guys leave a rating and a review on that front? Don't forget about my Twitter feed at underscore Jason LT, where I leave film threads in the morning as well as show announcements. And the last of not least, keep dropping mailbag questions.

In the YouTube comments, we have a mailbag that we're going to be doing in a few shows here over the course of the next week or so. Let's talk some basketball. So this was an interesting game. This matchup is an interesting one between these two teams because there's been a game plan that the Lakers have used over the years, over Golden, against Golden State. That's worked pretty well, which is basically involved a lot of ball pressure and top locking and basically forcing the Warriors guards to, especially in their off ball actions, to not be able to use their screens and try to cut back door into Anthony Davis.

The gist of it is, is the Lakers know that they don't have excellent. perimeter defenders right now, they want to leave Anthony Davis in the paint as much as possible. And there's a push and a pull that takes place in basketball games surrounding that perimeter dynamic. So imagine in an ISO situation, if you've got a guy who can defend on an island and he's not having a lot of trouble, you can kind of stay home on shooters. And then if he's getting beat off the dribble or getting beat in a host up mismatch type of situation, you got to start loading up in the paint, start sending multiple bodies, right? And you saw that push and pull in the form of pick and roll at the beginning of this game.

One of the things that I talked about earlier this season as it pertain to the Lakers is because they don't have a guard that can really defend and also is a plus offensive player. Like they've got Cam Reddish who's a guy who can defend but is a bad offensive player. They have Max Christie who can defend, but he's super young and has a lot of ups and downs like all young players do. So obviously he's not a guy you can kind of rely on a ton in big spots. What ends up happening is Austin Reefs has to be your primary point of attack guy on guards.

And all of you guys who listen to this show who play basketball and have the ball in your hands, you know the feeling. When you walk on the court, there's a feeling you have when you step into a game, whether it's a pickup game, a mensly game, a high school game, a college game, whatever it is. When you walk on the floor, you look at the guy across from you, especially if it's against guys that you've played against a lot in the past, you look across and you either go, this guy's tough, he's going to make me word heart, work hard tonight. I'm going to have to bring my A game. Or you look across and you're like, this dude has no chance. And you just walk into the game feeling comfortable and confident knowing

that you are going to bust his ass because he has no hoping of guarding you. And I promise you when Steph Curry walks into a game and he knows, wait, Austin Reeves is guarding me for 48 minutes. Here's a thing. Love Austin Reeves. Great player. But you know what he's not in the league for by being one of the best guys in the league to guard guards? That's not what he does for a living. That's not what his paycheck comes from. He's ideally in a situation where he's guarding the second best guard on the other team where it's a little bit more of a manageable matchup for him. And like, you could tell at the beginning of this game, the Lakers were sitting

Anthony Davis in a little bit more of a deeper drop. And they were asking Steph to, or Austin to fight over the top of these screens. And it just was way too easy for Steph Curry to get separation from Austin, either through using the first screen and setting his man up for the screen or the, uh, Draymond's really good at re-screening. We're like, you set the first screen and Austin does a good job fighting over the top, and then you just quickly pivot around and set it again because it's such an aggressive defensive move to get over. It's hard to reset to then do it again going in the opposite direction. He was getting wherever he wanted to. You got to remember, Steph Curry is good at getting separation

and pick and roll against the best defenders in the world. We literally saw that in the NBA finals in 2020 when Derek White and Marcus Smart were on him and it just was no problem for him to get separation over the top of screens so that he could get to his pull-up jump shot. And so then you saw the push and pull because after Steph made a few threes, all of a sudden Anthony Davis had to come further out. He was doing more switching onto Steph. You saw that more as the game progressed. And then also just having to come higher out from his drop coverage up to the level

above the screen at the screen and then sometimes even above the level of the screen. And then that's when that starts to open up all of the other problems on the backline. As soon as you bring that second defender up to Steph, The Warriors offense is designed to capitalize on that, whether it's through hitting the roll man and going to the rim. Trace Jackson Davis just did an amazing job, especially there in the second quarter at rolling hard to the rim. This is one of the most important things for a big guy to do, especially an athlete.

And this is kind of what Jackson Hayes does for the Lakers, where it's like, as soon as you get that dribble handoff, off, or that ball screen or whatever it is, you need to release and roll hard because there's an opportunity there if you can get ahead of steam, especially against a team like the Lakers that without LeBron James and without some of their other forwards like Jared Baderbilt, they don't have a ton of backline size. And so then what ends up happening is if Anthony Davis is away from the rim, it opens up just a huge slew of problems, whether it's, you know, Trace Jackson Davis or Draymond Green rolling hard to the rim for layups or it's like, just shoot the damn ball and you're going to end up getting an offensive rebound in a lot of

case. Trace Jackson Davis had an offensive rebound put back in the second quarter off of a shot attempt when Anthony Davis had to come, or I think it was Jackson Hayes in this case, had to come further out away from the basket. Steph holds the big man away from the rim. Once the big man is away from the rim, it inverts the defense and puts a lot of undersized players around the rim trying to clean messes up, whether it's in help or on the defensive glass. And the Warriors did a great job of capitalizing on that issue for the Lakers all night long. And this is, you know, there are these like phrases that get used in basketball, coaching, and basketball analysis that kind of seem like they are a little bit on the, um,

like cliche side of things, but they're cliche for a reason. And one of the big ones is playing with force. It's something that Darwin Ham talks about a lot as it pertains to the Lakers. And like, it is a kind of like an abstract concept in the sense that it like, like it's so broad and it covers so many different things. But there's some reality to it in the sense that the team that plays with more physical force on both ends of the floor tends to have a lot more success. in every phase of the game. So for instance, like, whether it's closing out on a shooter, when you close out with real force,

you can force Lakers into missing threes the way they did tonight. They shot, what, 29% from three. They were four for 17 in the first half, right? You can chase them off the line and force them to drive into your help side defense, right? On the ball, like, there was a stretch there for about a quarter and a half where the Lakers' five-out offense was generating a lot of really good looks. And the big problem was that the Warriors were getting

into rotation too easily. They weren't doing a good enough job fighting over the top of screens. They weren't doing a good enough job on their closeouts. And so the Lakers were just driving and kicking them and getting good looks in their five outsets. But right around that middle of the second quarter stretch there, the Warriors just dialed it up a little bit in the level of force they were bringing into the situation. All of a sudden, you know, like Clay Thompson. Clay Thompson had a really nice shift guarding DeAngelo Russell in the middle of the second quarter where he was physical and was bumping him off his line and not letting him get downhill. as easily. And then you can kind of put two and two together from there. If Clay beats DeLo over the

top of the screen and stops him from getting to his spot, that stops the help from coming in. If that stops the help from coming in, that stops you from getting into rotation. And even when you are in rotation, there are shorter, easier rotations. And when you make those rotations sharper, you can force them off the line, force him into misses, force him into turnovers. And then the next phase of the force from there, once you've defended, once you have the defensive rebound, the next phase of that force is the transition pushes. And that's how they blew the game open. The Lakers were literally winning this game

with three and a half minutes left in the second quarter. And next thing you know, you look up at halftime and they're down 11. That's the wave of force that came from Golden State at that end of the second quarter stretch. It was excellent defense leading to transition pushes.

And then even in the half court, there was a lot more playing out of the post. A lot of Jonathan Camigna, like Jonathan Camiga had a, you know, one of the things I've been talking about with Jonathan Kaminga is like teams are starting to bring help after he puts the ball on the floor. Again, this is what happens with player development. First, you kick everyone's ass. Then everyone goes, oh, this dude's kicking everyone's ass. We got to find a way to stop him. Well, it looks like he can be a little bit inconsistent as a shooter. And it looks like he struggles

sometimes reading the defense when second defender comes over. So now you're seeing lots of teams. This stretches back to the Jazz and Clippers games last week. Now you're starting to see teams send that second defender when Jonathan Kaminga has the ball early in the game, as Austin Reeves on the block, tries to go through him and sees Anthony Davis there, tries to challenge Anthony Davis at the rim and gets blocked, right? Learns his lesson, posts up Austin Reeves on the left block later on in the second quarter, this time sees the double team coming and makes a great kickout pass, a Brandon Pizamsky on the right wing, and he knocks it down.

And like, they played out of the post a lot. Andrew Wiggins brought a ton of force in transition and attacking closeouts. And as a result, they actually won a lot of phases of the game that they typically lose. Like if you go back to the Warriors game that they lost to the Lakers a while back, it was what, 60 points in the paint for the Lakers and like 40-something free throws, the Warriors were an excellent team scoring in the paint in this game. They had 58 points in the paint.

They typically only average 47 and a half. And they had 58 in this game. That is a much more sustainable brand of basketball to the later rounds of the playoffs. You've got to find a way to balance what Steph can bring as a superstar perimeter talent and use your wave after wave of athleticism to get baskets, easy baskets around the paint. I didn't think it was a coincidence that the second, third, and fourth leading scores for the Warriors in this game were Andrew Wiggins, Trace Jackson Davis, and Jonathan Comingga, almost all in transition pushes, attacking the offensive glass in the post and driving closeouts.

the Lakers are fourth in points in the paint this year. The Warriors are 26th in points in the paint this year. To this point in the season that has not been a part of the warrior's identity, but I'd love to see it become like a larger part of the Warriors identity as we get further and further into the season. I was really, really impressed down the roster. I thought Trace Jackson Davis, again, that shift that he had there in the middle of the first half,

but I thought he just changed the tone of the game just by bringing those hard roles to the rim and just running the floor in transition. It's a good formula for the Warriors. Again, wave after wave of athleticism around Steph, that to me is the next step for them. Because again, like, you're going to see, I think this team's dialed in from the standpoint of effort and energy and focus and belief in what they can do.

I think we saw that before the deadline, right? Like, what they win, eight of their last 11, I think, going into the all-star break, right? So, like, they were already trending in that right direction. They're in a good position in the standings in the sense that they're going to get some shot at the playoffs, whether it's a play in birth or something a little bit higher. It's more important now to try to build out a formula

that can actually succeed when they get into the playoffs. And we know what Steph can do. We know what Steph can do. That's not what I'm getting at here. I'm getting at everything around that. You've got to find a formula on the offensive end of the floor that brings support to what Steph can do. And to me, when you actually look down the roster,

in the same way, like, when you look at the roster for the Lakers, it's like you see LeBron AD and it's like, offensive skill is their next kind of, you know, trait that kind of pops off the screen. It's like Austin Reeves, pretty damn skilled. Spencer Dinwiddie, pretty damn skilled. Rui Hachamura, pretty damn skilled, right? But it's like, that's, the athleticism is not really their thing. And then you look at the Warriors roster and it's like, man, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kaminga, you know, Dremont Green obviously is just like a super mobile big that can do a ton of stuff. And then what Gary Payton brings to the table when he's there, even guys like Moses Moody,

they can bring wave after wave of athleticism on the wing. That is a legitimate roster strength for them. And I just want to see them lean into that a lot more down the stretch of the season. On the Lakers front, again, I thought their offense was really good for one and a half quarters. And then they cooled off. And this is the thing. The Lakers guards, they don't have physical tools that they bring to the table. And so when teams like Golden State really ratchet up that deep,

defensive intensity, they can have some issues. 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 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 you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford 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 Podcast,

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 you 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. Yes. 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. And that's where not having LeBron out there, I thought, really hurt the Lakers, because he just brings an alternative method of like real rim pressure. Again, like a lot of people are off the scent of the Lakers as a paint attacking team because they don't drive the ball to the basket a ton, but they don't realize that that's not the only way you can get in around the basket. You can get in around the basket through hard rolls to the rim and pick and roll. You can get around the basket by cutting to the basket. You can get around the basket. By driving in transition, you can get around the basket by posting up a lot.

And there are a lot of different ways to get in there. I have Celtics fans that are like, why do you keep saying we don't score in the paint at all? We're one of the biggest post-up teams in the league. And it's like posting up is just one way to get in the paint. The Celtics in total don't score in the paint enough. Lakers are fourth in paint points per 100 possessions. That's a strength of theirs because they have so many different ways to get. the basketball into the paint. That's exactly what I'm advocating for the Warriors to do more of,

right? But LeBron James is such an important part of that for the Lakers, especially in their five-out offense. They've been using him so much more in like off-ball situations, whether he's like curling off of an off-ball screen and like just bringing like a freight train cut to the basket or out of the post like we talk about a lot. Actual screen and roll situations in transition. LeBron just kind of brings another wave to the Lakers pain attack. And I thought they really missed that tonight. And honestly, like, I mean, here's the thing. I asked a couple people behind the scenes. I'm like, what's going on with LeBron? His ankle is more or less fine. He's just being cautious with it. But I don't necessarily understand the idea behind not playing him against the Warriors and then turning

around and playing him against the Spurs tomorrow. But again, I don't think my guess is they were just trying to buy LeBron an extra day during his vacation there. But I definitely got him being out of there was a substantial kind of loss for the Lakers tonight. The reality is, though, when the offense fell apart for the Lakers, they're in the middle of the second quarter, they had no ability to get stops at that point. Again, like one of the, like, offensive lulls are a thing that happened in basketball games, and this is why defense is so important.

Defense is what allows you to weather those types of storms. You know, if you're a strong defensive team and you go cold for a few minutes on offense, you might go from being up to being down four, right? but if you're a team that goes cold on offense and you're not a good defensive team, you can go in three and a half minutes from being up one to being down 11. That's how quickly it can change for you if you don't have the ability to control that end of the floor. And like, again, the Lakers have good defensive personnel.

Their good defensive personnel is just not their offensive personnel. And so as a result, they kind of have like this issue where it's like they can throw lineups out there where they have some athletes and it's like, okay, here's Cam Reddish, here's, you know, Max Christie, here's Jared Vanderbilt when he's healthy and here's LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and it's like, okay, we can guard. But then they really struggle to score the basketball. We saw that when they went to that bizarre starting lineup there in the middle of the season, right? But then they can go to these offensively minded groups, and it's like, here's Austin Reeves,

and here's DeAngel Russell, and here's Rui Hachamura. And it's like, they could score, but now they can't guard. And so it's going to be on, you know, not just the stars of the team, but also Darwin Ham, to try to figure out over these last 25 games, how do we bridge the gap? How do we find lineup groupings that have a combination of perimeter, personnel that compete on the glass compete defensively but also have the ability to kind of maintain some of the flow in their five out offense and it's going to be a challenge because that was a specific issue that we knew the lakers had to deal with right after the nugget series

last year and rob polinket did not address it over the summer and he did not address it over the deadline and so the personnel is the personnel they're going to have to find a way to bridge that gap but right now I mean both of these teams have a long way to go to get to real bona fide championship contention um but you know know, there's a formula for both of them that are in front of them there. They just have to find that formula and continue to build it out here over the last fourth of the season. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As I said, tomorrow morning, we're going to break down.

There's, Mavs Sons is a big one that I want to hit. I thought PJ Washington did an awesome job on Kevin Durant tonight. Really excited to dive into that film further in the morning. I'll probably do a film thread on that game. So check out my Twitter feed in the morning. There's Celtics Bulls was a game I wanted to hit. Clippers Thunder, I think, is the other one we're going to hit. So we're going to hit some games in the morning, and then that whole shit show between JJ Redick and first take and arguments about like sports media and like what fans want to be educated on and that kind of stuff.

I have some opinions on that that that I've wanted to share. So I'll give that at the end of tomorrow morning show. So as always, I appreciate you guys and I will see you tomorrow. The Volume. 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, 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand, new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun-tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.