The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - LIVE: Game 3 Reactions: Celtics Cruise vs. Knicks + Timberwolves Escape With Win vs. Warriors

Episode Date: May 11, 2025

Jason reacts live after the Minnesota Timberwolves fight for a big win over the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 without Steph Curry. He discusses Anthony Edwards big second half to overcome Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green’s effort. Then he discusses Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics bouncing back with a big win over Jalen Brunson’s New York Knicks to tighten that series.    Follow the show on Playback for future “Aftershow” content: https://www.playback.tv/hoopstonight  #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We're hitting Wolves Warriors off the top. Kind of a typical type of what you would expect from the best defense in the league. Since the end of January versus Minnesota in a game like this, Minnesota has struggled against Golden State's defense. Carlene's into Jonathan Kaminga. Jimmy Butler, we finally get the Jimmy Butler,

hyper-aggressive, offensive game, and we get a hyper-competitive, very entertaining basketball game until late in the second half, over the last quarter and a half, Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall completely find a groove and build some margin. The Warriors' offense cools off late and the Timberwolves take a two-one lead in that series. We're breaking down that game from the perspective, both teams. After that, the Boston Celtics looked like the Boston Celtics for the first time in their series

against the Knicks. I want to go into some of the specific dynamics at play, and I want to talk about what the rest of the series is going to look like, because the Celtics have to win four out of five games in order to come back and win this series. And I want to talk about the idea of how every basketball game kind of takes on a different feel and how in each specific type of basketball game, it calls for different types of approaches from both teams. And so we're going to talk about what Boston needs to do in order to get the additional three wins they need in the series. And then the Knicks as well, we're going to dig into some of the issues they were having with their pick and roll coverage,

versus they're switching and containing in one-on-one situation. So lots of interesting stuff to get into in both of these games. At the tail end of the show, we'll take about 10, 15 minutes of questions from the chat. And then when we are done here tonight, we're going to head over to playback.tv slash hoops tonight for our usual after show. There we get to have callers on stage. We look at film.

We get into more of an informal, interactive kind of vibe over there on playback. So you guys can join us again. the links in the description, but playback.tv slash hoops tonight is where we will be for the after show tonight. You guys know the joke before we can start it. Subscribe to the Hoops tonight 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 show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast fee wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about the new social media feeds. We have on

Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where Jackson's doing great work. Follow us there. And last but at least, keep dropping those mailback questions in the chat so we can get to them at the tail end of the show. So this game pretty quickly took on a simple dynamic. You have two elite defenses, right? And especially with Golden State playing at home, you're going to get an exceptionally good effort. And in a desperation type of situation, too, right? We've talked before, after the Steph Curry hamstring injury, the Warriors basically have to get one of these two games at home. because if they do, that puts a game six guaranteed on the calendar. And a game six is still more than a full week from now.

That is on May 18th. And so there's a real opportunity there for Steph to potentially get back and have a chance to play at the tail end of this series. Now, as we know, that's a tricky hamstring injury. It might not even matter. But for any hope that the Warriors have to advance in this postseason run, it was going to depend on them getting one of these two games. at home. So you're expecting a certain type of super intense effort. And so it pretty much settled

down into a shot creation contest between Julius Randall and Anthony Edwards and the new iteration of the Warriors without Steph. We talked last night about how Steve Kerr got into the idea of how you have to basically play a completely different brand of basketball in order to make the situation work when you lose your star. One of the things that's interesting about the Warriors roster construction is it's built on a lot of defensive-minded athletes that are good, read-and-react players that operate well in the inverted spacing that Steph provides, meaning as Steph is coming off of action

and he's bringing multiple players out, often bringing a big man out and a ball screen coverage, there are these four-on-threes or three-on-twos, quick-advantage situations that break down on the backline. And on the backline, it becomes very much a, make decisions, athletes, you know, it's a very different game than spacing the, floor for a rim pressuring forward, right? Like if you're playing with Luca or Janice or LeBron,

it's like you need shooting. But the Warriors, they emphasize more versatile athletes that can work with the advantages that Steph creates on the perimeter to have success on the interior. And so Steve Kerr essentially had to rebuild a basketball team on the fly. And so he used game two as a launching ground. And what did we get? We got a high dose of Jonathan Kaminga. We talked after game two about how Jimmy Butler would likely be much more aggressive at home. We got a much more aggressive version of Jimmy Butler tonight. You went for 26 shot attempts in this game. And then the same steady diet of Buddy Healed running off of screening action.

So essentially it turned into this new dynamic of the Warriors versus the same old Minnesota Timberwolves with Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall. And for the first two and a half quarters, the Warriors were really controlling things. Ant was in a pretty big funk. Golden State's defense, as I mentioned earlier in their last 34 games this season. So a sample size of almost a half of the season, they're the number one defense of rating in basketball. They are, I was thinking about this earlier. I think this is the best defense that Ant has played in his time in the NBA.

They are not as good at the rim in terms of rim protection as Dallas was, but I think they're much faster on the perimeter, much smarter, more well-coached. I think they're just a more dynamic defense overall, and it's not exactly a slump in Draymond green that you have at the basket or a slouch or whatever you want to call it. Draymond's, you know, one of the better rim protecting smaller bigs that we have in the league, right? And one of the things the Warriors have done with Ant that's caused some problems for him

is ball pressure. They're picking him up and making him uncomfortable in his like kind of dance with the basketball situations. And it's forcing him to drive earlier in the schedule than he wants to. And then in those situations that keep throwing him. bodies at him. He's over penetrating and trying to find kickout opportunities while he's kind of indecisive in the lane. He's slaloming through two or three guys at the basket, trying to find a finishing angle to finish and he's smoking layups. He just was struggling for

really the first two and a half games of this series, but into the second quarter tonight. And Julius Randall was struggling a little bit too tonight. I was confused a little bit with his strategy because he kept just trying to attack Raymond Green one on one. And like, I get it. And I get it. And I get it. if it's late in the shot clock and like the you got tossed a grenade with five seconds left and you have to create something. But with the way that you should look to approach on offense, for the first 15 seconds of the shot clock, you need to be hunting easier opportunities, a better matchup, an advantage you can create an action, some sort of easier opportunity before you rely on ISOing their best defender. Like you, you, if you repeatedly attack their best

defender, you're just making life harder on you than it needs to be. And so Julius was struggling a little bit. And then with the Warriors, they were getting great production. Jimmy was fantastic tonight scoring the basketball. We got that aggression from him. Jonathan Camiga goes for 30 points. The Warriors actually won his minutes tonight. Buddy healed early in the second half, gets going, starts hitting some threes. And so the Warriors built a little bit of margin. I think they ended up going up by as much as seven. I'll pull up the largest lead. I think they want, yeah, the largest lead was seven for the Warriors in that early third quarter stretch. but right around that time, a couple things started to go Minnesota's way.

Aunt got a couple of decent catch and shoot looks in off ball situations. We talked a little bit about this in the Lakers series, the idea of Ant being really good attacking closeouts off of Julius Randall post-ups. It got a little bit more rhythm with his jump shot. Julius Randall started to have a little bit of success against Ramon in large part because Draymond got into some foul trouble and then Draymond had to be a little bit more conservative with his approach. if he was like more gambling on on julius further out from the basket trying to like disrupt him before he even got into his attack because he knows once he gets into his attack there's not

much contact that he can get away with there and so all of a sudden these cracks started to open up and it starts hitting even some tough pull-up threes i was talking with jackson before the uh the show like uh you know jackson obviously jackson's a Celtics fan but he also roots for the warriors and he was like we were talking to just about what it was like for me as a lakers fan watching Ant repeatedly in these early fourth quarter stretches just hit these crazy difficult pull-up threes. And it's like you're in a groove, you're playing hard, your defense is locked in, and it just doesn't matter because when Aunt goes into that stepback move, there's really nothing you can do but just hope he misses. And it's just such a remarkable piece of athleticism to be

able to separate from a defender, a great defender late in the clock, and then set your base and elevate up over the top of a great contest, sometimes a double team and rise up and knock down a shot like that. And all of a sudden, it just was cooking. And it gets a huge driving dunk on Kavana Looney, another amazing dunk to add to Anthony Edwards' highlight reel of playoff dunks in his career, started in general to find some more seams right at the front of the rim where he was getting cleaner finishing angles. And all of a sudden, what looked like a puzzle that Ant was struggling to solve, he finishes with 36 points in this game. And that was kind of my takeaway when we were in that mid-second quarter, mid-third quarter stretch. I'm thinking, okay, this is the best defense

that Ant has ever played in his career. They're kind of kicking his butt a little bit. We talked about this after game one. Let's see if it can figure it out. Like, is this going to be like the Dallas series where it didn't really seem like he ever made any headway or is he going to make some headway? And like, here's the thing. There's no doubt that not having Steph Curry out there changes the dynamic of the game. And I'm not trying to sit there and pretend like this is the most challenging win of Anthony Edwards' career. It's not.

But this is a very good defense. And he did start to find some ways that he could get going off ball and catch and shoot situations, driving closeouts, got a little bit more comfortable and in a rhythm as a pull-up shooter and starting to find those driving angles closer to the basket. I think there's even more room for improvement with him. You gets a little bit rushed going downhill to where there's not a lot of change of pace. We talked about this on playback a couple nights ago, but Anthony Edwards is taking about half as many mid-range jump shots as he did in last year's postseason run. He just was a little bit more willing to work in the middle of the floor at that point. And I think there's a little, there's still growth that Ann can, that Grant can benefit from in the form of just being more comfortable operating at a slower pace or with change of pace in the middle of the floor and making better use of that mid-range. jump shot. I think there's a lot of opportunity for him to improve, but the indomitable scoring

talent was on display in that second half. It just didn't matter that he's a little one dimensional at this point in time or that he still isn't reading the floor as great as he could potentially 36 points against the best defense in the NBA, in my opinion. And then Julius Randall, he's been sneaky fantastic this entire postseason run. I didn't like his game one of this series, but for the most part in the Laker series and the most part in this series, he's consistently been very comfortable operating out of the mid post and out of the low post.

He's been playmaking at an extremely high level. Goes for a triple double tonight, 24, 10, and 12. His passing out of the mid to high post has been a consistent, kind of like, underrated part of his game. He's actually one of the better, like, kind of entry points for Minnesota to use just because at this point he's more willing to hunt those advantages

than Ant is. And again, Ant will figure that stuff out in time, but at the end of the game, you know, it was funny because Jackson and I were talking, like the Warriors did everything tonight that they could have done. You get two 30-point performances out of, like, if you were to told me before this game that you're going to get 33 out of Jimmy and 30 out of Jonathan Cominga, you're thinking a Warriors win, right? But it just was that much better for Manton Julius.

They were able to get the job done in that second half. And here's the thing, like, I think the Warriors have exposed some obvious flaws. in this Minnesota attack on both ends of the floor in terms of their attentiveness to ball and player movement in terms of their vulnerability to the offensive glass when they're in rotation in terms of just their ability to handle ball pressure and physicality in a better defensive construct than what they've attacked in some of these playoff series but you just need to get through this series and then maybe if you're lucky Denver beats Oklahoma City and that's a team that you've had their number for the last two years now. So like the finals are there.

They're there. There's a pathway there for Minnesota to get through this and to get all the way to the finals. And I think they match up pretty well with the teams coming out of the Eastern conference. And you know, I was actually thinking about this the other day. I think you could talk me into all eight teams in this postseason run being a legitimate championship contender. Indiana, you know, obviously at a rough game three. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they beat Cleveland, beat whoever came out of the Nick Celtics series, and then beat whoever came out of the West. That's certainly a possibility. I could see Denver winning the West. I could see OKC still coming back and win the series. I could see Boston repeating. I could see Cleveland getting,

you know, just wiping the floor with Indiana for the next three games and then running into a Celtics team that's still a little bit of a funk and getting it done. Like it feels wide open at this point. And there is a legitimate pathway for Minnesota to work through here. You get a really good opportunity to finish this series off against a Warriors team that's missing their best player. You have a potentially great matchup waiting for you with the team leading to one in the next round in Denver, a team that you've had their number consistently. And then I can't think of a type of team that I'd like to see more against a Boston. I think, you know, I think after today we could all agree that Boston is still probably the favorite to win the East. And Minnesota would

just be such a fun matchup in that series with their ability to switch and contain. Basically, Minnesota is a much, much better version of Orlando. And we saw what Orlando was able to do at times against the Celtics. So super, super interesting series. On the Warriors front, a couple of specific things.

This was the game that I had kind of marked as the best chance they had to steal one. But it was very unlikely you were going to get both. You really just need to get one. So it's just all eyes turn to Monday night now. And you've got to figure out a way to get that. particular game. And again, as you've proven, you can make this offense uncomfortable. You can slow them down. Minnesota, to their credit, kind of got going in that second half. They had 62 points.

That goes to show you how important it is for your best player to produce when you get into these settings. But this is going to be a fun series, and it's going to come down to game four. Whoever wins game four is going to be in a really good position moving forward. If the Warriors win, then they got Steph coming back and a good chance to win the series. And if Minnesota wins, they're going home 3-1 and probably closing this thing out in five. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news.

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All right, let's move on to Celtics Knicks. Over the course of the last two games, we've been talking a lot about this concept of offensive versatility. And essentially what that means is like, you know, we were talking about this with the Thunder Denver series last night, right? Like the, for Denver, they just have so many different ways that they can attack. Like, okay, this is a series where we're just spamming Yokic post-ups. No, this is going to be a series where we're running a ton of Yokich-Murray two-man game

right in the middle of the floor. Oh, we got this matchup. Aaron Gordon is a legitimate post-matchup hunter. Like, we can go to him there. There's like a five-out flow with ball and player movement with Yokich kind of flowing side-to-side and everyone involved in sweeping side-to-side action that they could go to. They have a devastating transition attack. They have just such a versatile offense that they can, like, identify the situation and be like, this is the way we're going to go. Kind of like, for instance, late in game one, Denver spams post-ups for Yokch right in the middle of the floor because Yokch is having the greatest game of his life.

game three yokech is having probably the worst game i've seen him play and all of a sudden you know yokech is still involved late and he still is looking to score but it's a lot more diverting to uh uh to jemal murray and letting him be aggressive in those situations trusting erin gordon to take a big three in the left corner when he gets left open in the transition sequence there's just uh they have the ability to adapt to the surrounding circumstances the reason why that matters is every basketball game is different your stars are in different rhythm from game to game like We talk. Jamal Murray, great rhythm in game three, Yokich not. Yokich great rhythm in game one. Murray not, right? You go into tonight's game with the Celtics. It's like game one and game two, Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown consistently kind of like in a funk out of rhythm. Tonight, Tatum and Brown in great rhythm, fundamentally different basketball game. Different role players. Oh, like tonight, this guy's really engaged, locked in, he's doing his job, he's not making mistakes, he's hitting shots. well this next game he's just a little bit more off in those areas that's why they're role players role players are inherently inconsistent if they were amazing at knocking down catch and shoot

threes and amazing at defending every single night they'd be a 30 million dollar player on the wing that's that's what that type of position a bona fide great two-way three and d wing is a 30 million dollar player in today's league and so the point is is there is a lot of inherent inconsistency in the way basketball games go. So for instance, the Celtics have like a core basketball philosophy. Their willingness to create advantages, hunting mismatches, and to drive and kick for quality catch-and-shoot threes. That's like their foundational approach on the offensive end of the four.

Game one, they just played the dumbest half of basketball I've ever seen. There's not a whole lot to get into other than they just played really dumb basketball in the second half. Game two was very different. Their core philosophy failed them. They played Celtics basketball just fine in the second half and missed shots. Now, they didn't have another method that they could go to. We'll talk more about that concept in a little bit.

But the point is, is that their core offensive philosophy failed. Tonight was a classic example of the Celtics core formula working. and working extremely well. We've all seen the Celtics win exactly that type of game 100 times over the last couple of years. They came right out and hit six of their first seven threes and they were the same types of shots

they were missing in the first two games. Tatum hits a pull-up three and against drop coverage. Jalen Brown, same shot he bricks at the tail end of game too, that drop coverage three right at the top of the key, hits it to start this game. Derek White hits like a contested back three in a late clock situation. Kat sinks in a little too far off Al Horford's swing

pass. There's a contest, but Horford knocks down that mildly contested three that he was missing in the first two games of the series. You could feel the confidence dynamic completely swing after that happened. Boston only had one 30 point quarter in the entire series before today. Then they had two back-to-back 35 point quarters to start today's game. Peyton Pritchard exploded for 23 points. The Celtics offense hummed at the level we knew they were capable of humming at, because we've seen it 100 times. They got that engine

going. New York just folded from there. And by the way, Boston's defense was incredible. We're about to talk about that in a minute. But New York also just kind of lost their confidence and played some really poor offensive basketball Brunson all the way down. Kat was the guy hitting a couple shots early in the game, but he was the primary

defensive culprit. No one was really playing well. McHale and O.G. We're both out of rhythm. Josh Hart's. First couple catch and shoot threes were like very clearly very short right out of his hand like you could just tell everybody was like shook by the way that boston was playing and they were just never able to recover now again there will be different types of games in this series let's shelf that concept for just a second i want to just shout out boston's defense i thought down the line everyone was great tatam and brown switching in and out of action with pressure and physicality efforts at the

rim from Derek White, Drew Holiday, did another great job on Jalen Brunson tonight. But I want to specifically highlight the Biggs because I thought Horford, Porzingis, and Cornett were all amazing in this game. Cornett continues to impress. He's become like a legitimate playoff rotation piece for this team, especially in the universe where Hauser is injured. But like all three of the Bigs just pick New York's butt on both ends as athletes. they combined for six blocks with their efforts around the rim.

Horford and Cornett had five offensive rebounds. Those dudes were throwing people around like ragdolls to try to find offensive rebounding opportunities. I just thought all three of those guys played with more force than the New York front court and really controlled this game. I mean, like, this was the first game of the series where the Mitchell Robinson minutes did not go New York's way. They just got physically dominated while also throwing a great offensive.

offensive punch and the result is 30 point lead completely insurmountable. Yeah, there's a couple of third quarter pushes from the Knicks, but when you're pushing down from 31, it's different than when you're pushing down from 20. The 80 run doesn't cut the lead to 12 and let light the crowd on fire. The 80 run cuts the lead to 23 and it's a bigger lead than it was even in those peak moments in game one and game two. Now, looking forward in this series, a couple of things. For the Knicks, I still think they're conceding too many openings. What I mean by that is like in their natural ball screen coverages when they're hedging and recovering with Brunson, but mainly the drop with Kat, they're getting fried in those situations.

They were giving up quality looks in those situations in the first two games. They just weren't going in. They have consistently been better in this series when they've just switched and contained the ball. Simple stat to demonstrate this tonight. the the Celtic shredded the nix and pick and roll they got an offensive rating over 120 including passes on ball screens where they were using some sort of traditional ball screen coverage postups and ISOs Boston ran 27 postups and ISOs in this game and got just 16 points out of them it's very clear in the numbers that when they switch and contain like there was a like there

are examples where, you know, Tatum's got cat on the wing and they just kind of gap off of him pretty well and he's kind of sitting up there stunting and they just throw a swing pass and get out of it. Like they're not doing a good job hunting these things one on one. They're just taking advantage of the natural openings like, oh, you're going to concede a pick and pop three to Horford that's going in. Oh, you're going to sit back cat like in a deep drop coverage against Jaylon Brown and Jason Tatum. Like, yeah, they've been missing their pull up threes in this series, but they're certainly capable of making them. And so I still think their pathway moving forward is switch, contain, bait them into those poor isolation decisions.

And then for the Celtics, as I mentioned, there will be very different types of games in this series. Just purely jump shooting result. Boston got 1.28 points per jump shot tonight. The Knicks got 0.85. Another simple way to explain that is over the course of 100 jump shots, the Celtics produced at a rate of 43 points more per 100 jump shots than the Knicks. They outshot the shit out of them tonight. That will probably happen again in this series.

Like I think we all could probably agree the series is going at least six. And there's going to be another game in this series where Boston just does what they did tonight. And you basically just shake their hand and say congrats on the win. But there will be different types of games. There will be a game, for instance, where the Knicks. just shoot better. And if they do, it's a closer game. And if they do, there's more pressure on some of these tougher shots that Boston's taking. And it's very possible that they find themselves in a situation where they go cold and the Knicks get a bunch of momentum in its early fourth

quarter. And all of a sudden that 13 point third quarter lead for Boston is down to five. The crowd is raucous. There's a timeout called Boston goes in their next couple of possessions, misses a couple of threes. And it's like, what do you do now? Because, if you allow that situation to play out and you stay cold like you did in the first two games, it doesn't matter what kind of large volume production you're getting from your three point shot if you can't score on those key possessions late while Jalen Brunson has been the best closer in the league this season and he's killing you on the other end of the four. And so that's where I want to see what Boston does. There will be, if Boston's going to win the series, they got to win four out of five

games. I find it highly unlikely that they just shoot the piss out of the basketball four straight times and win the series. Maybe they do, but I think if Boston's going to win this series, they're going to have to win another one of those ugly rock fights. And I'll just be really curious to see what Boston's attack looks like

when they end up in that situation. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to us. people to do podcasts.

Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how did 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. Oh, 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 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 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.

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 gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it

and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch life becomes about wins and losses Steve Burns, Dustin Ross because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid because that's two different intentions bro

absolutely and that's two different levels of trust I want you to just really be a good person Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. All right, Jackson, let's do a solid 10 minutes of questions here. Let's do it. First question, well, all of our questions are basically about the Warriors Wolves. First question, Pods was awful tonight, shot one of 10 and only had two assists.

should the Warriors shorten his minutes? So I, this is complicated because I saw a lot of people saying stuff about, about how, about how Pizemski was playing throughout the game. And I think it's more nuanced than I'm seeing on Twitter. Like I'm seeing people that are just saying he sucks. And then I'm seeing, you know, I'm seeing Tim Legler talk about how he's being, you know, amazing in all these other ways. And I'm seeing

Pajemski being really effective in every single way except for offense. And on that offensive end of the floor, I still think there's some poor shot selection going on. Like, on the one hand, you have to empower him a little bit to where

because without Steph, you need offensive production, there's got to be a certain amount of leash that he has. But there were like three or four shots. took tonight where I was like, that's not the one you need to pay. Like, and so you need to acknowledge that he's defending like crazy and he's rebounding extremely well and he's making good connective passing reads, but I would love to see him trim like two or three of those bad shots out. Another

way to sit another way to look at it guys is like this game was winnable. Three or four possessions go a different way. You win. If instead of a seven point lead, you get it up to 13, you probably win. And so I just think that there's a, there's still a little bit of refinement. Jackson, you mentioned to me before we went live, like the, just a couple of mistakes comminga made late, like just hesitating on that last little catch in the middle of the lane that allowed him to get stripped before he went up, just like little tiny things that could make a big difference over the course of the series. Yeah, it's tough. It's easy to nitpick pause. But to your point, when Steph is out, you kind of got to just say play free to everybody, right? You can't be like,

You can't be encouraging people to pass up open shots, really. You're struggling to create offense. It doesn't mean to take bad shots, but you can't be trying to limit your players, especially ones like pods who are usually operating off someone off in a sort of secondary sort of situation. There were a couple very, very open threes that he missed that would have been big run extenders for the, for the Warriors. And I can definitely understand getting upset that feeling like he needs to make those. But the, the critique about the assist number, he's not.

He's not playing Trey Young. No, no. He's important to their offensive flow, even though he needs to make more shots. And he led the team in rebound. So like it or not, this is sort of, with Moses Moody playing this bad,

especially, like, you don't have a lot of options. What are you supposed to do? Who are you supposed to give more minutes to if you're taking away of Pons? If you're dropping his minutes, you know what I mean? And he was minus two and 39 minutes. Like, again, he's one for 10 from the field. There's,

he takes two or three better shots or, like, passes up on two or three bad ones. To your point, hit a couple of those run extending type of threes. All of a sudden, he's playing a fantastic game. And we're talking about, like, out of like a, like a special game in his career. The, the big thing that I'm seeing on film, he's shooting a little bit of a flat ball right now. So he's getting some unfortunate bounces. And this dude is getting clean opportunities in the midrange for floaters.

He has got to get that floater polished up. That needs to be a shot that he can hit consistently because that's there for him. But it once, once again, with the floater, he's shooting it flat. And so he's not getting very good roles on it. And I think we got to also remember that he is still a very, despite him playing kind of not a not young style of game. He plays a very veteran game for the most part, I think. He is still a very, very young.

He's 22. He's younger than aunt. And he had, and because of that, he's going to have some really, like he had some, a couple, two games,

I want to say in the Houston series where he was cashing all of his mid-range pull-ups. He's hitting those awkward stepthroughs. He's getting people up in the air. And then he had a couple of games where he shot really poorly. And that's for a guy who's no one is expecting to become a high, high, high level score. Like, I just don't think that's really in his range of outcomes, even though I think he's a very good player. That's what's going to happen to a guy who's in his, what is he, third year?

Like, it just sort of is what it is like. He's got such good lift and he's got a nice compact release to where like, I do think he could be a very good catch and shoot player eventually. Me too. It's there. It's there. It just, it's, and that's the thing. like this is with pods. I'm glad you brought up his age because I think,

I think there's a, he does just play like a vet and he's been one of the guys that's consistently been in Steve's like kind of inner circle of guys that he trusts. And he's, he gets so much more leeway for poor shooting result than Moody does because he's just such an impactful athlete in all these different areas. But like ultimately like this is a development process. And in the same way like I feel like Austin Reeves.

has to make substantial improvements in terms of his strength, dealing with like bigger physical players and holding up better defensively. With Pods, it's becoming a more consistent offensive player. We saw it. I mean,

we watched that chunk of games there towards the end of the season. There was like a multi-month stretch where Pods shot like 42% from three and was getting buckets and having some really big games. And so it's in there. But as we always talk about,

it's like the hot stretches for younger players tend to be shorter. and the slumps tend to be longer. And part of being a vet is like extending your success and limiting your failure and it just takes time. It just takes time to figure that stuff out. For sure. Next question about Anthony Edwards.

Do you think with Ant was having a difficult time figuring out the defense in the first half or did he have low focus or intensity? I believe Ant has a focus issue sometimes when there's no pressure. What do you feel like was going wrong for Ant in the first half compared to the second half? In general, I felt like it was a combination of two things.

The ball pressure just kind of rushing him. into like kind of like attacks without a plan so to speak and then the jump shot like the ants jump shot he's a very good jump shooter but he can go through kind of like extended stretches where it's like a little flat and he's leaving it short and it just is like a little bit off and I think like some of that is natural like you shoot yourself out of a slump and then suddenly the shots start to go down and that's very much what happened in that second half but I my biggest thing with him moving forward is just like having a little bit more of like a controlled approach to his drives. It almost reminds me of like watching the young LeBron and Young Wade type athletes where like they kind of just only know one speed going downhill.

But then all of them when they got older, they became these guys that would put guys in jail and do some more methodical work in the middle of the floor. And that's just that's really the big thing for me with aunt and his growth is I think he just has to become a guy. He's never going to be able to process moving at that speed. He's too fast. He's too fast for his own good. Like, he's got to find a way to like, oh, I see his seam. I'm going for it. But if I don't see a seem, don't just go and then improvise, because that's where he ends up trying to knife through three bodies and he smokes a layup. It's like, if you see an opening and you see congestion behind it, beat your man off the dribble, get him stuck on your side or behind you, and let

the play develop. And there are going to be easier opportunities that come from that. I think it's all just part of his his growth process. I think that young LeBron and Wade comparison is so true. And I was thinking about it just in comparison to someone like Luca who has never been a superstar athlete. So he's forced if he's going to be a high level player, which he is, obviously, to play that stop and start, have the change of pace, master all of the sort of nuances of playing offense where when you're Anthony Edwards, you haven't had to until right now.

You've been able to just be a super athlete and a great shooter. and that gets you pretty freaking far. Yes, it does. And he's also very young. And so now he's reaching a point where he, if he wants to take the next step, he's going to have to do those things. And I don't doubt he's going to.

That's the fun thing with Anthony errors. We were literally talking about this last night. Like, he's so far from where he's going to be. Like, this kid's going to get so much better. It's like, he's what, 23? He played a pretty, yeah. He played like very much like a ram his head into the brick wall type of game tonight and still had 36.

So, like, there's a, there's just a version of this kid's, career that could go to like i i i do not know how good aunt can be but i do know that he can be the best player in the league will he get there i don't know but like i he legitimately has that potential he's that type of special athlete that dunk on looney there's like a uh the dunk he missed the one he missed on trace jackson davis the two hand like cockback like like dude that was coming from the side oh my god um that like he we were talking about this last night with respect to like donovan mitchell there's like athletic and then there's

transcendently athletic and it's just one of those guys and that just means that any skill development is going to leap him up another level. It's like how did he produce at this playoff level in his playoff career? He's just been a steady 40% three point shooter

in his playoff career like that because he gets such great lift and separation. Once he adds the methodical processing and all that stuff and all the in between game it's just the sky's the limit for him. for sure. Let's see one more question and then we'll go over to playback. If the wolves win game four, do you think step will push himself to come back maybe a little earlier than he should with their season on the line? Obviously, you can't come to his brain. No. If Steph, if the wolves lose game four, I shut stuff down for the season.

And the reasoning is pretty simple. Like, the Warriors made it pretty clear to Steph by all indications after they made the Jimmy Butler trade that this was a two year window. That they were going to try this year and that they would try again next. year. They have the assets at their disposal to make a substantial move this summer to anchor them with even more talent. They can go get a, you know, potentially a guy like a Cam Johnson or they could go get like a, or like a Patrick Williams from Chicago, something like that. Like, they can go get a good player that can be useful for this team and, and, and, and, and, and, and potentially have more firepower for this setting next year. I think we'll even look, I think we'll even see them look for. I think Cam Johnson is just such an obvious fit because it kind of

checks two boxes. It's like the, it's the clear three that they desperately need in terms of just like that rangy athlete that can guard the ball, but also that provides like legitimate scoring pop instead of inconsistent role player like maybe Pod's is making a shot today kind of stuff. It's like Cam, Cam's going to average 20 points a game for you. Cam's just a better version of Buddy. Yeah. Absolutely. That's a great. That's a great point. Look at how useful buddy's been in this offense. So he's been so good for them. And like that, that would be the, that would be Buddy Heald's trajectory from his early career to what he's done for Golden State. We're like last year, in addition to him just being a guy that was a frustrating player for his entire career,

was it two years ago that he played for Philly or was it last year? I think it was last year. Yeah, the series where he steps in for Philly and everyone's like, man, Buddy Heald's like useless in the playoffs. Like what does he do? And he's been like legitimately reliably good night tonight for them for the last couple of weeks in a way that's been really important. And so if they can take Buddy Heald, which to your point, is just literally a lesser player than Cam Johnson in every single way and turn him into like a core part of their five best players in these lineups, then you can only imagine what a guy like him could do. But the point is, if you go down 3-1, you're not winning Game 5 at Minnesota without Steph. Even if you did, like he's got to turn around and play again and again and again and go right into the next round. Like your best case scenario is coming back from down 3-1 and winning in a game 7 before you roll up.

either into the Denver Nuggets who will beat you up on the inside or the Oklahoma City Thunder will beat you up on the outside. There's just like no version of that that like, Steph is going to be near the peak of his ability where he needs to be to be good enough to win that, that type of stretch of games. And so at that point, you, you cut your losses. You let Steph get a good summer rehab. No chance of re-injuring that hamstring. We've seen a lot of examples in NBA history of like dudes hurting their hamstring and then not being the same like Devin Booker, like James Harden, like, but a lot of that is like them trying to come back and play and re-injuring it and re-injuring it and re-injuring it. And so like there's a version of this or Steph could get

a hundred percent recovery and then you're just a better basketball team next year. I do think, and let me ask you this, Jackson, before we move over to playback, do you think the warriors have done enough to this point? Let's say they lose game four and they lose game five. Do you think the warriors have done enough at this, to this point to justify making a really, aggressive trade this summer and going for it next year. I do. I think so too. I do.

This defense is real. It's so real. Their defense is real. Steph has proven that he can still reach that level in this postseason. Jimmy Butler has as well every time that they've needed him to do so. There's, you know, there's just there's still like we talked about the young players, Moody and Pajamsky and Trace Jackson Davis and all those guys getting another year, quitting post getting another year.

You know, you make another nice move on the margins. you make a bigger trade. This is absolutely a team that has some legitimate chance next year. And so everything has to be a calculated risk. I wouldn't bring Steph back under any circumstances unless it's game six. And like it's unless the series gets pushed to game six, that's the only scenario where I would consider it. All right, guys, that's all we have for tonight.

As far as YouTube goes, we're going to be heading over to playback again. That's Playback.com. That's Playback.com. TV slash Hoops tonight. You can also find it in the description. We'll hang out for another 45 minutes or so. We'll take callers. We'll just kind of hang out and talk hoops for a little bit longer. 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. I appreciate you guys. I'm a minute to do that. I'd really appreciate it. The volume. 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. We invented a podcast.

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. First 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. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, 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. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs' tennis podcast

for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lennar Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is. getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place. I'm Akela Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 is about both of those things. As I was watching these statues come down, I was thinking about what it meant that I grew up in a majority black city

in which there were more homages to enslavers than there were to enslave people. Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human