The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - LIVE: Game 3 Reactions: Clippers/Nuggets, Knicks/Pistons, Thunder/Grizzlies

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Jason reacts to the Los Angeles Clippers destroying the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 as James Harden and Kawhi Leonard outplayed Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Then he discusses Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns leading the New York Knicks to a clutch road victory over Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons as well as the interesting Game 3 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies.  #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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. We're the 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. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

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 ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHart 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 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 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. The volume. The NBA 82 game grind is done. And now the real fun begins. The NBA playoffs are here. And it's time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments, and jaw-dropping plays. I can't wait.

If you're looking to make the playoffs even more exciting, Draft King's Sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting partner of the NBA. From the playing games all the way through to the finals, now's the time to back your favorite players and teams as they chase glory. All season long, Draft Kings has been the go-to spot for NBA player props. And that does not stop now. Want to make your playoff experience even more intense?

Try placing a bet on your favorite player's performance. Will they drop 30 points? 40 or more. It's your call. Ready to place your first bet. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Lock in your bets. Let's make this playoff run unforgettable.

Here's something special for first-timers. New Draft King's customers bet $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Make it a playoff run to remember with Draft Kings. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app and use code hoops. That's H-O-O-P-S. That's code hoops for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks. Only on Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem, call Wayne and a hundred gambler.

In New York, call 8778 Hope N-N-Y or text Hope N-N-Y to 4-6-7-7-3-6-9. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-78-9-777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas. 21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Voided Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources,

see dkng.c.c.com slash audio. tonight here at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week. We are going to briefly touch on all three games from tonight as the Clippers blow out the Denver Nuggets riding a early run in the game, a 29 to six run spanning the first and second quarters that they never were able to recover from. The New York Knicks finally got their offense going against the Detroit Pistons. I really want to dive into that concept a little bit as they looked much more fluid offensively in a big road win to steal home court advantage back against the Pistons. And at the tail end of the show, thanks to the blowout by clippers against the nuggets, I was able to catch the fourth quarter of Thunder Grizzlies.

And so on the one hand, I missed the early portion of the game when the Thunder struggled. I'll be watching that on, I'm going to watch that in the morning just to try to see if there's anything worth taking away from that or if it was just a textbook Game 3 Buzzsaw. I always call Game 3 the Buzzsaw game because that's the game. You go on the road. You're a huge favorite, but the underdog obviously is more motivated. It's just such a tough game in general. But I did see in the fourth quarter an opportunity for us to look at the thunder plutch offense for the first time in this postseason.

So I want to dive into that concept a little bit. And then at the tail end of the show, like we do every single night, we're going to be bringing Jackson on to take good 20, 25 minutes questions from the chat so we can get into a bunch of other stuff around the playoffs. All right, let's, oh, I got to get into our announcements before we get started. Don't forget to subscribe to our 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 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 social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and

Facebook we're releasing content throughout the rest of the season. And then don't forget to keep dropping those mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. So I actually thought the clippers came out a little sloppy, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. The Nuggets made something crazy like nine of their first 10 shots or eight of their first nine shots. They kept losing, specifically James Hard and a Norman Powell, losing cutters along the baseline. Christian Brown just sneaking around down there, Aaron Gordon sneaking around down there. They were just letting Denver get too comfortable on the offensive end of the floor. And it actually looked like it was going to be a little bit more of

like a, oh, Denver's going to take an early commanding lead here kind of thing. They were up 26 to 19. But in a seven-minute stretch spanning from about three minutes to go in the first quarter to about eight minutes to go in the second quarter, the Nuggets got outscored 29 to 6. And that really was the game. They lost control and they were fighting uphill the rest of the way and they never recover. We've seen these two teams when they're both really on top of their game in this series. They kind of go bucket for bucket with each other. It's going to be really difficult for any team to make up a large deficit in this series.

But kind of came down to a couple of things. James Hardin just got crazy hot in that. first quarter stretch. Setting his ball screens a little bit further out so he could get a little bit more of a, kind of like a clean, some clean footwork into his pull-up threes coming off of those ball screens. He did a good job of dragging the at-the-level coverage far away to create extra space for the clippers to attack on the back end. James Hardin was amazing all night.

He was the primary driver of the explosive scoring that the clipper showed in the first half. He had 20 points and four assists with zero turnovers. just in the first half. He was the guy who kind of initially broke things open. I think they ended up going into the quarter, end of the quarter, I think 35 to 28. And then it was just a quick run right at the start, a Kauai Zubot's led group in the early second quarter. Kauai had several really nice feeds at a post-up double teams in that second quarter. And that was it. It was 48 to 32. And then they just kind of went back to their Nuggets Clippers. We're going to go back and forth the rest of the game type of night. And they just were never able to regain control.

of the situation. I thought Nick Batum was awesome in that first half. His ability to knock down catch and shoot threes without needing to dip as his major asset. That is a, any of you guys who've ever played basketball at any level, you understand that like when you catch on the perimeter, there's usually like a load up, right? Like you're going to squat down so that you can get lift up into your shot so that you have an easy, breezy release at the top. And in the process, a lot of people need to gather the ball somewhere down around their waist, right as they bring the ball up and try to transfer that energy from their legs up through the top of the shot. Some of the best shooters in the world, and Nick Batum is one of the very best at this specific thing,

can catch right from wherever the ball comes. And if the passes over here, over here, over here, over here, it doesn't matter. They can flow right up into the top of the shot. They don't need to gather the ball down into the pocket in order to rise up and shoot. They can go from wherever they catch the ball straight into the shooting pocket and rise up and release. The reason why that's important, is in the playoffs like we talk about, the closeouts are harder. The openings are fewer and further between. It's a lot harder to get those, you know, clean catch and shoot looks that you get in the regular season. And Nick Batum's ability to just easy, quickly, easy, breezy release these catch and shoot threes against closeouts has been super valuable over the course of the early portion of this series.

And then honestly, after the clipper started to build separation in that second quarter, you kind of feel the nuggets let go with the defensive rope a little bit. Norman Powell started to get some really clean looks. He got going in this game. Some closeouts where Norman Powell was able to drive and the Nuggets weren't really shrinking the floor the way they were at earlier points in the series. It just kind of went off the rails for there. On the Nuggets front, they were basically fine outside of that stretch.

Like they came out hot, they were defending well early. It's just this is a series for them with how bad their defense can be when things get out of control. They can't afford to let go of the rope. If there is an upside, the Nuggets did defend. Kauai Leonard a little better. I just thought they were more physical with him. That was really the main thing that I noticed is they just basically were like, hey, there's all these uncalled fouls that are happening all over the playoff field. What if we just bring that physicality to Kauai,

maybe disrupt his rhythm a little bit? I thought that had some impact. Westbrook had a rough night after he's been pretty good at the start of this series. He was minus 16 and nine minutes. There was a report I saw that he's dealing with some inflammation in his foot. So let's hope that Russell Westbrook is doing okay. But one of the big things that I noticed there is he was just a little too aggressive, which is with his catch and a catch and shoot threes. He made one along the left wing that was like an above the break three. And it was a great look. It was like completely wide open. It was out of a post double. I think of Yokich, if I remember correctly, there was no close out. It was clean and easy. But towards the end of that run out of those five threes, there were two of them that he took that

were pretty heavily contested. And like that's the thing. Like Russ, when he's playing within himself in the sense that he's taking these wide open catch and shoot three is preferably out of the corner. That's the other thing too. Like I would situate him in the corner more because I think you get more off ball utility anyway in the sense that if you're at the top of the key, there's only so much cutting you can do without compromising your transition defense. And when the shot goes up and you're at the top of the key, your responsibilities get back in transition defense not to crash the offensive class. I almost like Russell Westbrook in a situation where he's crashing more, cutting along the baseline.

I think he's better served in the middle of the floor and out of the corners when he's off the ball alongside Yokic. And so that was just kind of a rough Westbrook shift. Again, like the one upside them being able to defend Kauai a little bit better. But the clippers just brought a great punch tonight and the Nuggets just, that was their worst game of the series. In terms of their execution, they really let go of the rope for a little bit. Now they're down to one and they're going to have to get one of these games.

And game four is going to be an opportunity for them to try. try to just hang on to the rope throughout the rest of the game. Because again, for them, as we know, if they can get to five minutes left within around, you know, five, eight points, I like the Nuggets' chances in this series, but if they allow the clippers to build margin, it's going to be really difficult for them to hang around. All right, let's go to Nix Pistons.

How did the Knicks get their offense going? That was the interesting story of tonight. I think they finished with 118 points, one by a little bit more of a healthy margin than what would the scoreboard would lead you believe, thanks to some late game, just foul shooting and the Pissons knocking down a couple of threes late in the game. But the Knicks in general looked way better on offense in this game. Started with early transition pushes. This is an easy way to trigger some of their more

natural driving kick sequences. So when you're in the half court, you can run ISO, you can run pick and roll. But when you're in transition, transition is not ISO basketball. Transition is driving kick basketball. When you're pushing the ball up the floor and a guy catches wide open the corner and a guy sprints off of him and he attacks that closeout and everyone's in this chaotic situation and there's all these easy driving kick raids that are available. The ball doesn't stick. The ball moves around. And so early in the game, McHale Bridges gets a clean catch and shoot look up along the left wing in transition that he knocks down. O.G. and Obey gets a clean look right out of the right corner. Carl Anthony Towns got like three or four great

advantage catches right at the top of the key, drove one and got a foul. hit a couple of threes. That was in transition was where they were able to get everybody in rhythm early. And then a little bit of an effort from Tibbs to just keep guys involved with their half court sets. They ran an early screening action for OG and an Obie coming out of the right corner where he slipped a screen and got a dunk. So like again, just making a more deliberate effort to get him involved. Early postups for Carl Anthony Towns in the game. There was way less Brunson pick and roll in this game. Brunson attempted a shot and pick and roll just seven times tonight. He did so 25 times in the first two games.

So they basically like cut Brunson pick and roll reps in half in this game. Way more opportunities for everyone else. McHale Bridges only took one shot out of a ball screen in game two. They got five points out of McHale Bridges shooting out of ball screens tonight. O.G. and Anobi only got one chance to create a shot on an island in game two, a postup of Kate Cunningham where he'd kind of spun baseline and ended up turning the ball over. He shot out of an ice or a post up four times tonight. So there's just a lot more of an effort to keep.

everyone involved to keep everyone in rhythm. And as a result, the offense looked way better. All four of their stars scored over 20 points. The team scored 118 points. Yet, when they got into crunch time, they were still able to be like, all right, we're going to go to a steady dose of Brunson. They mixed in some other things. They ran a random hat, Iso late in the game, which we'll talk about in a minute. But they were able to still go to Brunson down the stretch, but he's fresher. like he was able to straight up, he was frying Tobias Harris and Dennis Schroeder down the stretch, but Dennis Schroeder in particular,

he powered through him twice, like went through his chest and made it look like he wasn't there and got right to the front of the rim for easy layups. And a big part of that stems from, you don't need him to run as much action during the game. So he has more gas in the tank late in the game. J.B. Bickershaft had to literally switch Kay Cunningham onto him

because of how much success he was having, literally bullying. Dennis Schroeder. That was a matchup where Dennis had had some success against him early in the series. It looks like Brunson has that completely figured out now. They were able to go to Kat on a big possession late. I thought this was important. And this is part of that. This was a face-up ISO against Tobias Harris. Now remember, like we talked about in the show the other day, in game one, Kat runs seven ISOs. He runs zero in game two. And so it was just something that they went away from. They were able to get into that action more

frequently tonight. They go to it in crunch time. He rips to the right. Tobias beats him to the spot. Really nice defense. Cat pivots into like he's going to spin, turn his back to the basket to turn over his right shoulder. And he throws a hard shoulder fake. There's a really hard shoulder fake on that fake spin. Tobias bites on it and just gets completely shed off of him. That way, Kat's able to pivot back over his left shoulder and got great separation. Actually, a really nice look for Kat there along the right baseline. And he knocked that shot down. That was a massive shot in that game. McHale Bridges hit a big catch and shoot three out of the left corner, one that put them up 11.

That was the same shot he was missing in game two. Now, I am of the opinion that that stuff really matters in terms of like connecting throughout the game, the rhythm of the whole team so that when you're in late game situations, guys feel good about the shots that they're taking so that guys feel like they're confident and in rhythm. You know, that's the thing is like Jalen Brunson can still, I was actually talking about this is my buddy combo. He's a big Knicks fan. And I tweeted out the link to the show today, so you guys can see it there if you want to hear a little bit more Knicks talk. But like,

one of the things I said to him was like, just because you need to get everybody involved, and this was this morning before the game, I was like, just because you need to get everyone involved, doesn't mean you don't go to Brunson down the stretch. Brunson's the best clutch player in the league right now. Brunson had, Brunson has 14 clutch points in this postseason. That's the most in the entire NBA so far. He's personally outscoring Kate Cunningham 14 to 4. in the clutch in the series. You want to ride Jalen Brunson in those situations. You just want to put him in a situation where he's not super exhausted when he gets there.

And then if for whatever reason he does want to take a possession off, you have another action that's in rhythm that you can go to, and that all of your catch-and-shoot guys, your close-out drivers, things along those lines are all feeling good and in rhythm. All four of their stars scored over 20 points. You got Kat back up over 30. That's the formula for the Knicks. Use your defense to get out in transition so that your whole team is moving

the ball around in attacking with an advantage. And then in the half court, invest early in the game in action for your co-stars so that they're in a better rhythm, then ride Jaylen Brunson late. That's your advantage in this series. With the Pistons, they have late game execution problems. They have lower, like lesser talented players that they're leaning on in big moments late in the game. You have more aggregate skill if you lean on it.

That's your advantage. once again for the Pistons though late game execution like Cade had a big turnover late where he shed OG and an OVie with frankly just a disgusting spin movie like drove at him to the right and spun and OG like went into camera row and he just didn't read the floor after that and then he just went right up against the rim protector it looked like he ran into a brick wall and he just immediately lost control of the basketball just wasn't seeing the floor on that possession Tobias Harris lost the ball on like a basic dribble move in the fourth quarter where he just tried to make an aggressive dribble move to his left and just lost control of it.

Dylan Duren had two really bizarre sequences, the jump ball where he has a clear size advantage and he just like slaps the ball out of bounds instead of just like lightly tapping it to his teammates that were there waiting. I was really confused as to why J.B. Bickerstaff had Jalen Duren inbound on that final sequence. That sequence was ridiculous by the way. And honestly like I, I was having a hard time understanding like I get why they ended up just inbounding with five tenths of a second left. but like considering the clock operator was in Detroit and he's the guy that like pressed play on the clock right after the ball hit the rim. It felt kind of weird that the pistons were just rewarded with a sideline out of bounds when

in theory, the reason why Jalen Brunson is missing that shot is so that the catch is coming off of a rebound instead of off of a deliberate inbound pass. But regardless, they're gifted the sideline out of bounds sequence. I would have actually gone with paid. I know it sounds crazy, but like, when you're in those situations, the odds of you even getting a clean look are incredibly low because it's five-tenths of a second, right? So you basically have to catch and shoot immediately.

So like, that pass has to be perfect. So you're almost better off just having paid inbound. Even though Kate is one of your shooters, you have Kate inbound. You park Jalen Duren right underneath the basket because you're only down two. And so if they don't account for Jalen Duren, he's standing. and right under the basket, you could just literally throw it up to him. You probably just run basically like that classic Finland action where you just have a shooter like Malik Beasley back screen for Jalen Duren so that Jalen Duren goes to the rim.

If they don't help at all, or if Jalen Duren's man is just sitting back there, you have a, you have an opportunity to just, if Jailen Dern's man is sitting up there, you have Jailen Duren in a screen there with Malik Beasley coming off of that action. And so then essentially, as during cuts, they're helping at the rim. You get Beasley coming off in action. Just hope that Hade can just laser a pass somewhere where Malik can quick catch and turn around and shoot. But like in that situation, putting a guy that like clearly doesn't have any touch. Like, I mean, that was the issue on the jump ball was the touch, right?

And you put him in a situation where you needed him to make like probably the most difficult pass he'll ever make in his life. And predictably, he just ended up launching it out of bounds. but you know that's really the story of the series for me like on the one end of the floor the knicks just know exactly what they want to do jalen brunson feels great going right at schroeder he feels great going at tobias harris whichever one of those two you want to have in the game if you have both of them in the game he's going to just take his pick and he's going to hunt and then they can go to cat against tobias harris in iso they have like this clear kind of order of operations and then like clutch points thing we talked about like kate only has four clutch points

in this series, and this has been a clutch series. This has been a series where it's been about scoring in the final few minutes of the game, and Cade has just struggled to keep up with Jalen Brunson in that regard. And so it's just, no, no shout out to, you know, no shot at Hade, because the reality is, is this is his first time, like we talked about last night, Jaylon Brunson's been in, what's this is ninth playoff series in the last four years. So, like, there's obviously an experience gap there. But like, Cade just has to be better.

going to be really hard for the Pistons to overcome that experience advantage that the Nix had. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? 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 throughout there. 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, Apple 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. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Genshin win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted.

She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lernerabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. 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 Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

So, Thunder Grizzlies, for obvious reasons, I was focused on the other games tonight. But when I saw the report that Jha was out, I actually thought to myself, I'm like, the Thunder probably can get this game. I think what people don't realize is like that jaw factor, the pace that he plays with, his ability to just draw attention in the middle of the floor, that is what creates advantages for everyone else to play an easier brand of basketball. And as soon as Jaws out there, it's like, okay, you have Jaron Jackson and like he, he hit a tough hook in the fourth quarter over a triple team.

And like, there were a couple sequences where he made passes out of double teams that led to decent looks. But like, Darren Jackson's not exactly a half-court surgeon. Desmond Bain, this is just a nightmare matchup for him because he's not particularly tall. And the Thunder just have all sorts of bodies to throw at him. And Scottie Pippin Jr., like it's really amazing what he's done with his career, turning himself from a two-way player to like a legitimate backup point guard in the NBA. And he had a brilliant night shot to basketball really well. But like,

it's just a lot to ask him to create offense against the Oklahoma City Thunder defense. when they're really engaged. And so I thought they had a probability, a legitimate probability to win that game. And I was able to switch over in the fourth quarter right after the Clippers put the Nuggets away. And we got to see some crunch time thunder basketball. Now, predictably, they strangled Memphis's offense. Like I talked about earlier, not hard to do with John Morant out. As a team, they just upped their pressure and intensity and things just got super difficult for Memphis. But what I'm interested in is what they did on the other side of the floor. This was our first opportunity to look at some crunch time offense from the Oklahoma City Thunder this year. First of all, Alex Caruso

ended up being the fifth closer, which I thought was interesting. They'd rather close small so that they can switch. I personally think that's the right decision. I think Crusoe is just so good defensively and he can scale up defensively like we saw on that possession where he defended Jaron Jackson one-on-one and like stripped him clean as he went to go to his left shoulder hook or his right-shoulder hook. Like, Crusoe plays big enough and does enough defensively at every single position that I think it's worthwhile to have him out there as that fifth closer in that situation. We saw a steady diet of two-man game in the middle of the floor, whether it was Shea and

J-Dubb if you wanted to attack Scotty Pippin Jr. Or Shea and Alex Caruso, if you wanted to attack Santi Aldama. And what I was impressed by is in the early fourth quarter stretch, when the bench group was still out there and they were starting their comeback, Shea was really looking to score. And he was taking a lot of quick jump shots early in the shot clock, pushing the ball and transition, that sort of thing. down the stretch though he did not force the issue he made multiple reeds out of doubles a really nice drop off to lewdort outside the left block and leudort made like an insane shot over zach edie in that situation where he just kind of like flailed up into his body and banked it in um there was a pass to alex crusoe that led to a driving kick sequence drew the double team kicked it to crusoe cruso drove chet relocated up out of the right corner up to the right wing knocked down his fifth three of the game i believe and all those threes were massive It ended up drawing the hard close out that led to that big dunk that he had driving out of the right slot in the fourth quarter.

It was just actually like really nice playing together, sharing the ball, taking the easy reads that were available. The big thing like not getting rushed, like getting into the middle of the floor and instead of looking to shoot in traffic, looking for the reads that are there in traffic. Like they, I've been really impressed by the Thunder's offense through the first three. games just in the difference in their half-court approach compared to last year. 81 points for the Thunder Big three tonight. They're trusting each other. There will obviously be much tougher series for them on the horizon, but the Thunder have the right approach here early in this postseason.

They're moving the ball better than they did last year. All right. Let's get Jackson up here and let's get some mailbag questions. Let's do it. All right. We got a lot of questions in the chat tonight. Thank you guys for asking your questions. and please subscribe to the show.

Let's start here. If OKC makes the conference finals, what do you think their chances would be in a series against the Lakers or the Warriors? So the specific thing that the Lakers can do to the Thunder that has me more intrigued by them is a legitimate upset threat. And let's contextualize this entire conversation, guys.

Okay, like I would pick the Thunder to win the West right now. Okay. They are my second championship favorite behind the Celtics. I don't even know how I would feel if the Lakers and the Thunder showed up in a Western Conference final series. So much of that depends on like, how do the, how does the Thunder offense look against a potential Clippers match up in the second round? LeBron and Austin haven't been jump shooting very well this postseason. Like, do they get to the point where they shoot their jump shots better. Like there's so many different factors that could go one way or another before the series even starts. But in theory, the dynamic that Houston has that causes the Lakers

problems, the dynamic that Minnesota has that causes the Lakers problems, it's a lot of like 6-6-6-8 dudes that are pretty big and strong as opposed to guys that are more like 6-3 to 6-5, and there's some strength advantages that they can go at there. And so as a result, like, Like, LeBron and Luca just look a lot more comfortable against Oklahoma City's defense than they did against other defenses that were maybe not as good reputational as the Thunder, but that are tougher matchups because they present some more physical size to be able to throw at LeBron and Luca. So it's that and then it's, you know, the Thunder do, like you saw, you saw a big one late. How did Scotty Pippen get that three in the right corner in crunch time? Like it comes from the way the Thunder defend. but they're forward aggressive. It's a lot of low man help. It's a lot of packing the

paint. It's a lot of relying on closeouts. And so when you play elite playmaking talent against them, they move the ball well and they can get to those openings that the thunder leave in their defense when they're trying to force turnovers by being forward aggressive. And so in theory, it's the two giant shot creators that are also great passers that make it work. And then on the other end of the floor, it's that classic JJ Reddick. We can actually like help off of some of these guys and force them to take and make jump shots against closeouts. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think that the Lou Dort thing, he's, you know, he's been an annoyance to Luca

in the past, but you only have one of him. It's so different having, it's why the Clippers, we talked so long about them as championship contenders when they had Paul George and Coislander, not that that worked out, but in theory, having two, and that's why the Celtics are really tough to beat, having two six, six, six, seven, or even bigger in the Lakers case, creators is is just not many teams have that and not many teams have defenders that can throw two bodies at those two types of guys so really quickly i wanted to talk about this too because we didn't have a chance the uh we had a lot of people who have opinions on the lewd dort foul so let's let's

discuss this for a minute so uh jackson and i talked a little bit before the stream um i both fouls are obviously not on purpose i don't think leu dort turned around and was like, I'm taking job around out tonight. Like, I don't think that's what happened. The dort foul to me was more of like a reckless play. The, like, you mentioned last night when we were in our mailbag, you're like, Amend Thompson is crashing the offensive class every single time. That's not exactly a super rare basketball concept.

Like, PJ Tucker has made a career out of that. You know, like there are a lot of players in the league that their job is to crash the offensive glass every single time because that's one of their biggest pieces of utility on offense. So Russell Westbrook does for the Nuggets, for instance, right? We were just talking about that earlier in the show. So like to me, that was quite literally just a complete fluke that a men Thompson was crashing the glass and he got tripped up and it happened. The Dort one, on the one hand, it's like he's just trying to make a play. But on the other hand, it's like, like every basketball player knows what it, what it means when you're, when you're trailing a player and you're trying to

like meet him at the basket and he throws that drop off pass to the guy right behind him, you know what's coming. It's like, it's almost 98% of the time going to be a high flying athlete coming right down the lane trying to dunk. And so it's like I, it's, it's, dirty's the wrong word, but I did, I did think the Dort play was just a little bit reckless. Did you think so, Jackson? I did, yeah. I mean, sorry. It's allergy season. It's allergy season. I got a, I got a cough. Yeah, I think that it's, I do think he, his front foot, I forget if his left or is right, slipped a little bit as he's turning around. And that's sort of what made it especially awkward, because if he doesn't slip, he's jumping. And it's probably a very physical collision with him and

jaw at the rim, but he's not undercutting his legs, right? So I do think that's sort of the, the fluky element of it. But at the same time, to your point, it's rare in that situation. When was, you see, it's so rare that that results in an actually successful block, right? And most times you're better off getting out of the way and not giving a guy an end one. It's just, it's a little dumb or reckless or just unnecessary at minimum to try to make a play like that at that point in the game. It's not like it's the end of the, in the fourth quarter or anything. let what do you what are you what are you what are you trying to accomplish there and then additionally I do think he he slipped a little bit which made it which made the impact up it to your point

like that that sort of there are unwritten rules in basketball that involve the exposed athlete where it's like even if it's game point you don't tackle a guy out of the air on a fast break like even if it's game point like if you wrap him up you wrap him up while he's on the ground like that that's the thing like if you it's a different type of play on a drop off on a two on one but like just imagine like a two on one fast break situation where it's more like both guys are in front and lose like aware that both of them are there like if you're guarding the ball and the dude throws a bounce pass at the last second like yeah in theory the competitive nature would tell you make him earn it at the line so yeah you want to turn and you want to foul him

but like if the guy's in the air you just don't you just don't because it's not it's just an unwritten rule in basketball you don't do that to people that are in the air and so my thing was like yeah in theory he doesn't see what's happening but like when scotty threw that drop off pass like if you're running behind scotty and you see that drop off pass you know nine times out of ten it's probably because he has an athlete trailing and so it was just a little bit reckless but again, neither of them would be what I consider dirty. Neither of them were, I'm certain that neither of them were on purpose, but it just was a little reckless and it was just unfortunate.

Agreed. Another question from that game, hey Jason, why don't NBA teams attack players more often when they're in foul trouble? Both SGA and Isaiah Hartnstein had five fouls in the fourth quarter, and Memphis didn't attack either of them. Thanks, love the show. It's easier said than done in the sense that like you can scraming people out of mismatches, you can double team

people out of mismatches. There were a lot of Jared Jackson postups that ended in double teams. But honestly, like, you know, we talked about it earlier. Jaron Jackson and Scotty Pippin Jr. are not half-court surgeons. They're not going to go up the floor

and be really deliberate with the way they attack. And honestly, I thought Memphis just kind of decomposed entirely on, uh, on offense. But your only matchup attacker was Jackson. And, like, because Desmond Bain is not a stare you down in ISO guy.

like Scotty Pippin Jr's not that kind of guy either like Jared Jackson is the only guy that's like okay we're on an island playing ones like I can score here but they weren't letting him go on one on one unless it was Caruso so like it's it's easier send than done I don't think Memphis was really set up to do that it feels so easy to say and I say the same thing not even about specific players but when a team gets in the bonus with eight minutes to go in a quarter or something's like just go downhill just draw a foul and it feels like it should be be easy because there is so much foul gifting in the NBA, but it's not quite as simple, I don't think, as it feels like it should be. There's a psychological element, too. Like, when a team picks up four fouls in the first three minutes of a quarter, it probably means they've been bitching and moaning at the refs nonstop for that first three minutes. And so there's a psychological element to where that fifth foul, it's going to have to be a pretty substantial foul for the rep to blow the whistle, especially in the postseason. It's always, it's always easier said and done. I know it's early,

in a hypothetical Clippers versus O'KC's second round series, who do you think would have the best player in the series between a healthy Kauai and SGA? That would literally be one of the biggest swing factors in the series. Like, if the Thunder were able to successfully load up on Shay, keep Dun and Derek Jones on him all series,

and play him into an inefficient series, like if She averaged 33 on 27 shots a game, like, Shea has a lot of games. I mean, tonight he took like 26 shots. She has a lot of games where like he accumulates volume scoring, excuse me, but he takes so many twos that it's not necessarily the most efficient thing in the world some of the times when he gets into these games where he goes like 10 for

26. If there's a universe where Shea averages 33 points a game in the series, but he takes 26 attempts to get there every night. And Kauai averages, you know, 32 points a game, but he gets there in 17 shots every single night. And he's just like surgical all series. By the way, we talked about the size mismatches. is he's going to have a boatload of size mismatches in that series.

The biggest fear that I would have is as you start to kind of like dig down through the ways that the clippers attack, they are going to be able to use zoo on the offensive glass. They're going to be able to use zoo out of the post. But OKC is going to double the shit out of Kauai and Zhu on all of their postups. They're not going to let those guys sit one-on-one. Kauai had a much better passing game tonight than he did in the first two games of the series. but like Kauai Leonard can struggle to handle double teams from time to time.

Zoo as well. So and then with James Hardin, you're just going up an entire stratosphere of quality of perimeter defense talent on James Hardin. Like this is a series for James Hardin that really lines up well for him for him from a matchup perspective. Like a high drop team with a big that sometimes gets lazy and doesn't get up to the level. Like that is suicide against James Hardin because it's got all the baked in reads that he's all naturally great at, right? And to James's credit, he just has his three-point shot going in this postseason, which has been huge. But like, OKC just has so many different options they could go to.

They could switch all the James Hardin pick and rolls, double zoo out of the post, double Kauai out all his post-ups. And basically, I don't know if you've seen this Jackson, but like there have been times when the Thunder and the Nuggets are in, or excuse me, the Clippers in the Nuggets are in more of like a dog fight where you can really see. the clippers lack of playmaking talent where like you'll see you'll just see a guy a split second late on a read or like zoo will make the wrong read they'll force a pass to a cutter that's not there when someone's open in the corner something along those lines there's definitely a little bit of a playmaking deficit sometimes with the clippers that i think the thunder would take advantage of

so like the clippers are really good and they have advantages but i think the thunder are kind built defensively to attack their lack of playmaking. Yeah, and we have talked on this show, especially this past week, last night, about the concept of secondary playmaking and the roles that Jimmy Butler and Brandon Pajinsky play for the Warriors. And the Clippers have none of those guys. All of their guys after James Tarden are good at a lot of things offensively, but none of them are good at making that.

I mean, Zoo is okay at it in that short role. He's gotten a lot better, but they don't have any high-level secondary play. playmakers. Norman Powell, Kauai Leonard, Zoo, Derek Jones, Chris Dunn, like, these guys are all probably better off trying to score than trying to playmake for other people, even in an... I, this is an... Let's take it in this direction. My gut tells me that the nuggets have a better chance to beat the thunder than the clippers do. Do you agree? I don't know. It's a tough one. I think so. I think so just because I feel like Zoo is such a superior

Yokich defender than either of the bigs the Thunder have, despite those guys being very skilled defensively, he is just such a matchup problem in a different type of stratosphere as a defender for Yokich that those guys are. So because of that, I would, I tend to agree. And there's a swarming that they could do with Yokich that you can't do with Zoo.

Like if you swarm Zoo, like that's just not a good use of defensive resources in that matchup so he could do more damage on the offensive glass. Like there are definitely advantages that the clippers have in that series. My main thing is I just think that I think that the Nuggets can consistently score against the Thunder. That's the main thing. They had a game they won this year where they scored 124 points against them,

they had a game this year where they scored 140 points against them and they won. And so, yeah. So like, like there is a, that's a team that has a great amount of connective play. making and that is on a string with all of their cuts and their relocations and and they get guys into positions where they can be a threat and like obviously the thunder would have a bunch of advantages in that series too but yeah i'm i i would be i would be hard pressed to take the clippers instead of the nuggets in a series against the thunder i think the nuggets present more problems for them yeah i think that's fair hey it's us the jonas brothers and guess what we have some big news

what's the news news news we created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. 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 are... 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, 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.

The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand, because I, competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenschen win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck.

Consider this your court-side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. 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 Sports Slice 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. Let's move slightly away from that, the OKC Thunder for a second. If Jimmy Butler misses significant time, there was reporting today that he avoided any structural damage. He has a deep bruise, essentially, and he has been officially listed as questionable for their next game. But if, I would imagine he plays, I think considering it's Jimmy Butler. but if he misses a game or two or three, just, you know, it's hard to say at this point

how many games he might miss. How does that change your calculus of the series? The fact that Golden State is going home, I think, is a huge advantage here. I think that, I think when Golden State really defends, the Rockets can't score on them. That's not exactly a big shock.

All you have to do is ask steeper that. That's literally the ideology within the locker room. We have seen what this Warriors team can do at home. they can ride the wave of their crowd to an insane defensive effort. And they don't need Jimmy to guard the rockets. And they can do enough stuff defense to transition. Role players shoot better at home. The old cliche.

All of that stuff I think would put them in a situation where if Jimmy had to miss both games, I feel like there's a strong chance the warrior still split at least and maybe win them both anyway. so like not having any sort of bone bone issue bruise break and heading home I think under the circumstances for what was an incredibly fluky incredibly scary play this is like literally the best case scenario

for how it could have gone yeah I agree I think I don't know about getting two games without Jimmy but I think a split would definitely be on the table if that happens and frankly I would bet he plays it's I would bet he plays considering the the mental of that guy

I would bet that he plays. I was thinking the same thing earlier today because I do think the Warriors have an appropriate fear of Houston. What I mean by that is like, I think they know Houston like can still win this series. And you know how it is with these physical teams? Like the Nuggets won three straight games

against Minnesota last year. Yokic puts on the performance of his life in game five. and just fries go bear for the world to see. And then they lose two in a row because Minnesota just physically overwhelms them. Even when it was like, like you, they were up 20 in game seven and let go of the rope for a few minutes

and all of a sudden they were in a dogfight and they lost the series. So like, I think, I think the urgency of Golden State thinking that them going up 3-1 is almost a must, like that's a must for them will probably, push Jimmy towards playing. Another question from this series. Hey Jason, can you explain how Steph fights off defenders so well? The rockets have been obviously very physical with him,

and even though it's slightly bothered him and it hasn't stopped him, quote unquote. Yeah, so this is, this is interesting. This has been one of the, this was the difference I was trying to draw last night when we were talking about officiating. Like, I do believe that Steph gets a shitty whistle when he's shooting. Like, the, you can't be like fouling jump shooters. Like, that's, the, the jump shot is such a low margin for error thing where like if someone just barely tapped you on the forearm

with their index finger on your release it could cause you to miss by two feet. So like you like fouling jump, fouling on jump shots like Steph there's way too many of those where he's getting clipped and he's getting pulled and he's getting grabbed and he's getting ran over

and they're not getting called. But watch any player in the NBA who functions off ball, fight for position. just because Steph is a guard doesn't mean that he doesn't have to deal with physicality off the ball. Have you seen like Palabon Carroll fight for post position? Have you seen Jason Tatum fight for post position? Have you seen Yokic fight for post position?

Have you seen Quaylinder fight for post position? Have you seen LeBron fight for post position? It's a fucking battle down there. Everyone's grabbing and holding its swim moves. It's like it's all physical leverage. And so Steph by playing off the ball has put himself into a situation where he is susceptible to a lot of that offball contact. But like we talked about last night,

it's that is actually an arrangement that works in their favor. And what I mean by that is like, Steph has gotten really, really good at using simple fakes to shed guys in back door cuts. He'll just shove a guy to get separation to run off of a screen, which by the way, like, to me, that's legal.

You want to know why it's legal? Because it's legal for them to put their hands on Steph when he's trying to move without the ball. It's a given to take, right? Like, that's the same reason why I've, never had a problem with the whistle that LeBron got. LeBron's trying to drop that shoulder. And if you watch every LeBron left-handed drive ever, he's using that right arm like a battering ram,

just like swinging guys out of the way. Like, so guess what? If LeBron's going to do that, there's got to be contact allowed on the other side of it. But it's all about weaponizing that to your effect. And the warriors just do it through an incredible amount of attention to detail in their screen game. The screens that flow into the screens with their bigs, the seals that they use on their screens, the, um, all the office.

off ball deception that Steph can use the given goes. Like, Steph just uses all of that to his advantage in a way that allows him to generate offense without having to face ball pressure. And that's the other thing too. Like a lot of people go like, hey guys, why isn't Steph just running high pick and roll? And it's like, Steph will run high pick and roll from time to time. It's not that he doesn't do it, but high pick and roll puts you susceptible to ball pressure. And ball pressure is exhausting in a different way.

when you're off ball dealing with pressure, you can use your hands. So you can swim move off guys. You can use both hands to push. You can do all this kind of stuff to fight for a position, jockey for position. When you're dribbling, totally different ball game. You need those hands available to dribble the basketball. And so ball pressure can be difficult in a different way.

And I think Steve Kerr and the group just wants to try to avoid, you know, literally amend Thompson turning step seven times before he gets up to the, up to the spot where he can run a ball screen. And frankly, I think size and physicality. is it even amplifies that to a degree. Like it's a lot easier to separate from a 6-7 athletic wing when you were able to run around and put two hands on him. But when you're on the ball, it's not the same.

Like I think it's going up against a defender like Gary Payton, for example, as opposed to a defender like Amman Thompson. It's going to both amazing defenders. Off the ball versus on the ball is going to feel completely differently because you are able to grapple with one but not, in one situation, but not the other. Yeah, it's fundamentally different. Like just this is not even a playoff thing. Just in the regular season next year,

every team in the NBA runs horn sets. Watch the dudes at the elbows fighting for position. That's the same thing that's happening to Steph when he's off ball. It's the same thing. That is off ball jockeying for position. That's literally what basketball is. All right. We'll take a couple more.

Do you still believe Milwaukee has a chance and what can they do differently to flip the series? They absolutely have a chance because it's very easy. to gain momentum over the course of a series as you figure out things that work and you identify things that don't work and you cut them out. They could get a big win at home, riding that energy,

get a couple guys in rhythm that weren't in rhythm earlier, build dames conditioning, build dame's rhythm, all of that. My main concern is, we said before the series, would Doc Rivers be able to manage this whole situation? And like if Brooke Lopez plays 30 minutes in game three or 25 minutes in game three, that's 25 minutes where the Pacers just get great

shots every single time down the floor. Is he going to identify stuff like the dumb low man sequences that were giving up wide open threes and crunch time in game two? Like there's just a lot of like basic game plan and rotation stuff like AJ Green all year long. It reminds me of like back in the past with like Darwin Ham with like Rui Hachamura versus Tori and Prince or like even Frank Vogel with like an Austin Reeves instead of a Avery Bradley Bradley. where like there's just clear data that shows that the bucks are better when AJ Green's on the floor. Like he's good. He can knock down threes and the big thing is it's his off ball defense. He's like always in the right spots. Like he'll get attacked. Like it'll be like, I could just see it in Doc Rivers face. It's like, oh, Pascal Seacom went at AJ Green and hit another bank shot. I got to get him out of the game.

And it's like is Gary Trent locking these dudes up? Like, is Bobby Portis and Tori like Tori and Prince like they cut his minutes and game too but like Tori and Prince is another one of those guys where it's like if if he's not hitting his threes like you got to lean into AJ Green I would leave I would be running out there a lot of groups that are like Janus with Coosman Portis where they're switching everything and it's like Gary Trent Dame or AJ Green just two of those three and I've run a lot off of Janus in the post he's getting double teamed he's passing out of it well and just surround him with shooting and just try to lean on the fact that you're not going to give up

as many of the easy openings from attacking Lopez from transition pushes and stuff because you have some more disciplined defenders on the floor. Like, I just, I just am concerned about whether or not Doc's going to do the right things when they get back home. Last one, where does Yokic rank

among the best passers you've seen? That's a good question. I've always said that there is a level of playmaking talent that is just you're born with. It's not something that you can develop through repetition. Like you see guys like Tatum or like AD or Brandon Ingram, guys over the years that like developed into decent passers,

but they're not like surgical half-court playmakers. And it's just a rare breed. And I think that Luca and Yokic both are two of the very best that I've ever seen. They remind me of LeBron. LeBron, though, like, as good as LeBron was as a passer, and he was amazing. There was just that next, there was a lot of LeBron's passing ability that was predicated on, like, his transition athleticism and just his rim pressure. And he was particularly great at spraying out to shooters. And I feel like there's a little bit more dynamic, like, tight window playmaking that you see from guys like Yokic and in Luca involving like lob passing.

like I never thought LeBron, I want to cut him some slack for the Anthony Davis relationship because he would just end up getting that screen switched a lot of the times, which would shut down a lot of the lobs that were available. But I never thought LeBron was as good as like a lob passer as Yokic or Luca. They're both very different, but I would say, I don't know that I've seen a player that passed the ball better than Yokich personally. There's a bunch of guys on that tier. That's maybe a question for this summer in terms of like actually putting, like kind of nailing down a ranking. Yeah, I think there's the Yokic playmaking thing,

because there's a couple elements to this question, I feel like the physical ability to make the widest variety of types of passes possible. And I think LeBron is at the top of that list. I mean, Yokic has more size, so maybe you give him an advantage there. But LeBron can make pretty much any pass he wants to make. And then you combine with the floor understanding and vision and all those things,

which is where I think Yokic and Lucas. just have a slight edge over LeBron, in my opinion. Yeah, they're just, we are splitting hairs between the greatest passers in the history of the game. And like, my favorite LeBron moment as a passer was the Indiana Pacers comeback in 2017 in Game 3 after they were already up 2-0.

And Tailu benched Kyrie and Kevin Love. And LeBron let this comeback with like Channing Fry and Richard Jefferson. And there was a play where, Imam Shumpert stripped Paul George on a right shoulder fade around the left elbow and it led to a fast break

and LeBron was just going right down the middle of the floor and I literally watched George Hill who was in between LeBron and the rim. I watched George Hill vacate the lane to run to the corner to cover a three-point shooter because he was terrified of LeBron making the pass and LeBron just went down to dunked it like jackhammer smash. Like LeBron, his, the, I feel,

feel like people have almost forgotten how good of a passer he is just simply because at this phase in his career, he doesn't create as much advantage as he used to. Is that all we got for tonight? All right. That's all we have for tonight, guys. We are not going to do a film session tomorrow. I'm not sure if you can tell just by watching this show, but I am like completely exhausted and I'm in desperate need of some sleep. So I'm going to be sleeping in tomorrow and getting a little bit caught up on that front. We have a jam-packed weekend ahead of us with the Friday night slate. We had what, Lakers Wolves last, tomorrow night, game three. Then we have four games on Saturday, four games on Sunday.

So no film session tomorrow. I'll see you guys live on YouTube after the final buzzer of the Lakers game. And just last note, if you guys are into Star Wars or if you are watching Andor, head over to my other podcast, Tucson's podcast. We recorded a, you know, 35 minute or so episode where we just kind of broke down the first three episodes with my buddy Luke. So make sure you guys head over there. Again, I appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.

And we will see you tomorrow night. 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. 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. Nice. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We're the 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 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, 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 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. And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on. A Mormon Polo. And an Armenian businessman. Multimillion dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis,

private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.