The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - NBA LIVE REACTION: Steph Curry's Warriors vs. Luka's Lakers + SGA's Thunder vs. Durant's Rockets

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Jason reacts live after the opening night of the 2025-26 NBA season and discusses Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors taking on Luka Doncic, JJ Redick, and the Los Angeles Lakers without LeBron James. He also breaks down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the defending champ Oklahoma City Thunder taking on the new-look Houston Rockets with Kevin Durant. All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.  #VolumeSee 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.

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 can win.

She's an outsider to win the French fame. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any service. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcasts 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, 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. Hi, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Welcome to a brand new NBA season. So much has changed. We have Kevin D'Rourn. Durant wearing Houston Rockets jersey.

We have the young up-and-coming Oklahoma City Thunder now wearing championship rings. We have LeBron James not playing on opening night, not just for the Lakers, but in general. This is a guy who's been playing on opening night for as long as I can remember. And I'm recording from Denver in Colorado as we moved this summer to get to some skiing. That's a story for another day. I'm very, very excited to break this all down. that Houston Oklahoma City game was incredibly interesting. And then you know that meme where you have all the dragons

and they're looking all mean and angry. And then you slide over and there's kind of a goofy, like cartoonish looking dragon. That was the Los Angeles Lakers tonight. As we saw three would appear to be elite basketball teams in one that stuck out like a sword thumb. We have so much to get into on all four of these teams. We're going to break it all down.

And then at the tail end of the show tonight, we're going to be taking some questions from the audience with Jackson. So drop your questions in the chat. Make sure you're subscribed to the channel. At the tail end of the show, any thoughts that you guys have from tonight's game, games. We can dig in a little bit further. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. So you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about 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. Jackson's doing incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there throughout the season for additional content. And the last but not least, we're going to be doing weekly mailbag starting with a mailbag this Friday. If you want to get questions into those mailbags, drop them on our full episodes on YouTube in the comments. It's right.

Mailbag with a colon, write your question. We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. What a dominant debut from the Golden State Warriors. I thought they thoroughly outclassed the Lakers. in basically every facet of the game, other than the fact that the Lakers have Luca Donchich. And that Luca Donchich is amazing. We'll get to Luca later. I rooted for that guy last year and there wasn't a single moment where he looked like that. And that's one singular piece of upside that may

or may not amount to something optimistic for the Lakers to take away from tonight. But if you replace him with a regular star ball handler, like let's say you just had injured Anthony Davis and that was 41-year-old, 40-year-old LeBron that was out there. The Warriors win that game by 30. The Warriors outplayed the Lakers in every single facet of the game. I thought their intensity from the opening tip in terms of their ball pressure and physicality was better to start the game. I thought their backside rotations off of their double teams and just in general,

how scrappy they were in the middle of the floor, especially underneath the basket, it was way better than what we were seeing from the Lakers on the other end of the floor. They were forcing turnovers on deep post catches from Dianne Drayton, swarming Vando on his drives, forcing a ton of turnovers, getting out and transition off of them. I thought in general they were as a team much sharper in transition. I thought they ran the floor harder off of misses and off of makes, constantly catching the Lakers jogging. But also on the other end of the floor,

getting back and preventing those same opportunities for the Lakers on. the other end of the floor. I thought they shot the ball better than the Lakers. I thought they rebounded the ball better than Lakers. I know it's just one game. And I know LeBron didn't play, but I just thought the Warriors looked like a much better basketball team than the Lakers did tonight. We're going to dig into some of the specifics having to do with that matchup as well. I think that plays a role. But I want to start with some of the specifics that we saw from Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Cominga because those two guys in a lot of ways in a debut demonstrated some of the specific things that the warriors need to go their direction

in order for them to compete for a championship this year. So let's start with this idea of the debate that we've been having all summer long about what kind of player the warriors should be going after to make some sort of all-in trade this year, whether that involves commingar or it doesn't. In those conversations, we discussed should it be like an athletic wing who's more of like kind of what Andrew Wiggins was for the team in the past? Or should they look for a scoring guard or just in general, a scoring archetype, kind of like what Jordan Poole was for the Warriors when they won the title?

And a huge factor in determining which direction they should go on that front, if they do look to make a trade this year at some point, is how does Jimmy Butler look as a score? because there was a lot of basketball after the trade, even though the Warriors were winning, where Jimmy wasn't necessarily bringing a bunch of scoring pop. But then last three games of the season, tons of scoring pop. Playing in game, tons of scoring pop. First game against Houston before the tailbone injury, tons of scoring pop.

We had this like five game sample where we were like, oh shit, playoff Jimmy. This is the guy that is going to help push this team over the top into championship contention, right. But it was a small sample. Coming back from the tailbone injury, he wasn't able to secure a win against Minnesota without Steph. And so there was some question marks surrounding that. And I thought that was an electric debut from Jimmy Butler as just that secondary offensive force off of Steph Kirk. Consistently he was finding matchups that he liked off of some of the switching that the Lakers were doing, really liked Gabe Vincent, really like Jake Lerava, Jake La Ravia, you could tell that Jimmy in particular just had some comfortable, just some

comfortability, Isoing Gabe, just simply just getting over his left shoulder for little bank shots and drawing fouls with quick aggressive moves. The big thing with Jimmy is he brings a dynamic to the warriors that they haven't had in years past. And that is the ability to grift your way to the foul line. I've been talking about this forever. It's a skill. It's something that it comes with kind of a polarizing discussion surrounding the role of free throws kind of like interfering with basketball games. But the truth of the matter is, is these guys

are all over the league. They're skilled at getting to the foul line. I root for a couple of them on the Lakers. Austin Reeves and Luca Donchitz are both great at it. You know, Shegelis Alexander's great at it. Jalen Brunson is great at it. One of the guys that was great at it is Jimmy Butler. And, you know,

there's this idea that free throws are just like handed down by the NBA as like some sort of gift to your team. That's not how it works. The way that it works is you either earn trips to the foul line and one end of the floor. And then on the other end of the floor, you either keep a team off the foul line or you send them to the foul line. And that's what determines your free throw disparity. Nothing else. Basketball and the way it's being played on both ends of the floor is what leads to the free throw totals that you see. And bringing Jimmy Butler in has given the warriors a dynamic that they haven't had in the past, which is the ability to slow the game down.

down by working his way to the foul line, which comes with all sorts of additional benefits. In addition to just points, a huge part of how you get a 30 ball out of Jimmy, it also allows you to set your defense. It allows you to get more game plan notes in possession to possession. You have a chance to talk and to think about how you're going to guard on the next possession. There are all of these trickle down benefits. It can disrupt the rhythm of your opponent. They're not getting up and down the floor. They're now stopping and going down to the block. to get ready to rebound. Jimmy Butler is just really good at using pump fakes.

We are driving angles. Obviously the histrionics around the basket that all the foul grifters around the league use. And what do you have? Like 16 free throw attempts tonight? That was a huge part of his ability to manufacture points for the Warriors tonight. So then we're going to have our eye on

with the Warriors all season long is Jimmy's ability to score the basketball. And he just did that to a great extent tonight. a super optimistic debut for Jimmy on that front. Jonathan Cominga, the biggest debate surrounding the warriors over the last couple of years. And one of the things that I've talked about is the reason why things haven't panned out for Jonathan in years past, it comes down to two things. One, he struggles sometimes in read and react basketball, which is a pivotal part of playing

for the Golden State Warriors. You have to make quick decisions with the basketball off of the advantages that Steph Curry creates, right? And then secondly, he has struggled to consistently knock down catch and shoot jump shots. And we saw a little bit of that up and down nature in the first half. He had a couple shots where, you know, he's taking a jab step three out of the corner when there's time on the shot clock or forcing the action inside and getting blocked from behind because he's not reading the floor. A little classic up and down Jonathan Kaminga type of game in the first half. But they come out in the second half and they start spamming three man action, him step and

Draymond off the right side of the floor. And it presents all these like easy reads for Jonathan. Like, okay, Steph's cutting off of this one. I'm going to just relocate to the top of the key. Oh, bam, the ball's in my hands. I'm wide open. Take a catch and shoot three, knock it down. Okay, this time I'm slipping out of the screen as Steph is going up towards the top.

And I'm getting a lot open along the baseline. Boom, pass, finish with the right hand at the rim over Ruihachamura. The kickout on the left corner off of a, actually was in the right corner with Luca contesting off of one of those drives from Steph Curry. He was just playing Warriors basketball. He's going to have his opportunities to attack one on one. He had an opportunity in the second half to go at Lucas chest and he got over his left shoulder for a little hook shot, especially in bench groups. He's going to have opportunities to be more aggressive. But in order for him to be a functional player with the starters,

especially, but in general, just as a large role player for the Warriors, he's got to hit his open catch and shoot threes and he's got to make the simple reeds. I'm driving to the basket. I draw Aiton or Jack, I can't remember if it was Hayes or Aiton at that point in time. Draw that. I think it was Hayes. Draw him in hell. There's Al Horford right there. Drop it off. No need to force it. Just make the easy read that's right there in front of you, right? I thought Camingo was fantastic in that second half. Yes, he was getting cooked by Luca, but I think that was more of a Luca thing. Luca has done that to the best, like this version of Luca has done that to the best defensive players in the world.

I watched him two years ago do it to Jaden McDaniels in the conference finals is one of the, certainly a better perimeter defender than John in the comminga, right? So like that is what it is. All you can do is be physical and make him work. Lucas, you know, one of the two or three best players in the world, right? But when it comes to the job that he has on offense for this group, I thought he executed it extremely well in that second half, leading the warriors to pull away. But he healed.

one of the things we're going to consistently talk about tonight in this matchup is the difference in the foot speed between the two teams. And Buddy was getting a lot of opportunities to attack both like with someone sprinting at him where he could show the ball and quick relocate and get another shot up or run up the key relocating off out of the corner as someone's driving along the baseline or cutting along the baseline. He was getting good looks. And he had five of them tonight. Buddy talked about in media day that he shot the ball better than the ball better this summer than he ever has. And he expected to shoot the ball

well the season comes right out talking shit to Luca. It's five threes. A bunch of big ones in the second half that paid off those classic kind of Golden State sequences and the Warriors end up chewing up and spitting out the Lakers tonight. I've been super fascinated by this concept.

I was texting with Jackson about it during the game. You know, the change from Luca to Anthony Davis is so bizarre in the dynamic in this particular matchup between these two teams. And it's kind of a classic example of how basketball is more art than science. I don't think anybody would disagree that Luka Donchich is a better basketball player than Anthony Davis. He just is. I mean, what did he have like 41, 13 and 7 or whatever it is he had tonight? Like Luca is one of the greatest offensive players in the game today. He is a better

basketball player than Anthony Davis. But he fundamentally changes the athletic profile of this Lakers roster. One of the things that happened in the previous years in that stretch there, 2023, 2024, 2025 before the Anthony Davis trade is the Lakers kind of dominated the matchup with the Warriors. The reason why is they had Anthony Davis on the backline roaming off of whoever it was, Draymond, Kvon, Kvon, Lune, underneath the basket. which gave the Lakers perimeter players a ton of leeway on the perimeter to overplay,

whether that would be top locking to force guys into back cuts or just in general denying off the ball, overplaying pull-up shooters, overplaying Steph himself when he'd be on the three-point line. And Anthony Davis was the type of rangey player on the back line that could cover tons of ground and use his length to completely shut off the rim. And it just consistently ended in mediocre shooters, guys like Kaminga, guys like Gary Payton, like Draymond Green having to take threes. And it was a matchup that skewed heavily towards the Lakers. You swap Luca for Anthony Davis.

And all of a sudden, those perimeter players don't have that same leeway. If they get back cut, there's nobody back there. Aiton all night long was heading in the clouds. He had no idea, like he was floating around the perimeter and was out of position to help on back cuts like a dozen times throughout this game. they do not have anywhere near the backline defense, especially with LeBron James out of the picture. LeBron and Anthony Davis, the two of them roaming on the backline, totally different matchup than DeAndre Aiton and Luca Donchich and Ruiachamura roaming around on that backline.

And I thought it was super interesting because one of the advantages that the Warriors have had consistently, even in the matchups where the Lakers had done some winning, the Warriors were a faster team. They were faster on the perimeter. This concept of perimeter speed is something we talked a lot about. throughout the season last year for the Warriors. So when they get in their blender and it's ball and player movement and guys are spritting off the screens

and doing all the stuff that they do, when there's not an Anthony Davis to clear up all the mistakes on the back line, they are just chewing up and spitting this team out. And by the way, this is not just an opening night take. Those of you guys who followed the show last year, you'll remember after that big showdown, that big game, late regular season,

the first one where it was like Luca Laplace, Braun and Austin versus the healthy warriors, the warriors, chewed them up and spit them out in that game too. And if you guys remember, I came on the show after that game and I was like, I don't like this matchup for the Lakers. The warriors just look substantially faster than them at every position. And we're talking about a Warriors team that's got four dudes that are over 37. And it's part of it is Steph. Part of it is the fact that Draymond does play very fast for a big. And part of it is this is a Warriors team that has a depth of role player talent off of their stars that all know how to play in this system. And I was just, I was just super fascinated by that tonight as they just chewed up and spit out the Lakers.

And so the Lakers go on a late game run, right? Warriors have a couple of turnovers. Steph misses a tough step back to re over Gabe. Austin gets a couple of buckets on the other end of the floor. All of a sudden, I think they cut it to what, six, right? But right after that, the Warriors immediately regained control. Lakers had a really good defensive possession where they played all the actions right. And the ball ended up in Draymond's hands in the right corner.

And, you know, sometimes in order to shut down those actions, you've got to concede something. They were conceding that corner three to Draymond into Draymond's credit. He stepped up and he knocked it down. Lakers go right down. They post up Luca Donchich on the right. I think it was against, I think it was against Buddy. I can't remember who it was, but he's posting up on the right side. he draws a double team swing swing ball goes to Gabe in the left corner and step

currie makes an unbelievable defensive rotation out to the corner in blocks Gabe Vincent on that three I thought stuff was great all night defensively competing in and out of actions I had again a couple buckets that Luca gave him but that's just Luca being Luca Steph obviously is the engine that's running everything they're doing offensively makes a huge defensive play then they go down to the other end and Jimmy ISO's Luca Donchitz beats him off the dribble, gets a little reverse layup and the game is over. And you can see the formula for the Warriors, right? Like you need Steph to be Steph. You need Jimmy Butler to provide that legitimate secondary scoring via shot making, attacking in the post and getting his way to the

foul line. And then you either need winning basketball from Kaminga like we saw in that second half or a player in a trade that does that sort like that provides that that form of winning impact from there it's the system in the culture it's the depth of role player talent you got you get will richard coming in and in contributing the way that he did defensively you get the brandon pajemski just scrappiness all over the floor and hitting big shots every once in a while you get just the depth this is a team that consistently every year as like somewhere between a dozen and 14 guys that can step in and play. And like we haven't even, we haven't seen the Anthony Melton.

We know what Moses Moody can do when he's healthy. It's, it's this Warriors team, you know, I'm not quite as high on them as some of the projections I've seen. Like I've seen win projections as high as 57 wins. I don't think they're going to get to 57 wins. But it's easy to see how they can get to 52, 53 wins in the Stack Western Conference because they have a formula. And again, the big.

swings that we got to keep an eye on. Jimmy's secondary scoring, Jonathan Caminga playing winning basketball, knocking down open shots, being able to play that read and react ball. And if he doesn't do that, what they're able to get in a trade for him from there. Quickly on the Lakers,

before we get out, move on to the next game. I thought they stuck out like a sore thumb tonight in tonight's competition. Today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet. The NBA is back, which means it's time to shoot your shot on Hard Rock Bet. Your home for hoops action all season long. Need a little help with your

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in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida, call 1-833-play-wise. In Indiana, if you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-9 with it. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news.

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

We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, 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, 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 Smygel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source,

the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody 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 Slices Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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. Genschen went. I mean, she went down at 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. You saw a Houston Rockets team that is huge and physical and getting up in your jersey and beating you up on the glass and posting you up with. with Alper and Shangoon and driving right into your face with the men Thompson and just bringing this overwhelming physical element as they went into the champ's house on trophy night and came this close to beating them. And then you have the thunder who are down their second best player,

shot six for 26 on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots. We'll talk more about that game in a minute. But they still win the game on the strength of an unbelievable second half from Chey Gildes Alexander as an offensive player, a dominant defensive effort, scrapping, forcing 24 turnovers, getting 26 points off of those turnovers. And then you go to the Warriors. They're up in the Lakers jersey from the opening tip. They're flying around in rotation. They're being physical. They're sharp in transition. Their stars are locked in and competing and they're being physical. And then you see the Lakers who aside from Luca Donchich, I don't think they had a single player who won his matchup tonight. It just was incredibly disappointed. On the one hand,

I'm not overly surprised. Those of you guys who listened to yesterday's show, I talked about how coming out of camp, the Lakers looked to me like a mediocre basketball team. They look like a good offense, not a great offense, and they look like a bad defense. Not an okay defense. They look like a bad defense all throughout camp. First of all, they, first of all, they, they often, they offer no defensive pressure at all. There's nobody that they play against that they make uncomfortable. They're not in your jersey. They're not applying physicality. They're not bringing any of that intensity on that end of the floor at all. They're jogging back in transition and giving up lob dunks because no one's picking up the rim or no one's stopping the ball.

they're getting back cut all over the floor because guys aren't paying attention to man and ball. It was so incredibly sloppy. You see so many things. We talked about swing factors, right? Swing factors like Jimmy Butler scoring the basketball or Jonathan Camingo making quality reads or knocking down catch and shoot jump shots.

We're seeing can Dianne's score on the roll? Well, he was catching in traffic and just getting stripped. well can Jared Vanderbilt Jared Vanderbilt provides some sort of offensive pop well he still can't knock down a catch and shoot jump shot and in the second half in particular was literally just like driving into the teeth of the defense and turning the ball over like it looked he looked extremely limited

Marcus Smart there's like it was kind of funny watching the antics contest between Marcus Smart and and Draymond Green throughout the game but like Marcus can't knock down an open catch and shoot shot. And he's not doing enough on the ball defensively to really disrupt high-level ball handlers. That's something I've seen throughout all preseason.

There's just, it's depressing, man. I saw my friend Demand Rangula talking about how LeBron looked disengaged on the sideline. I don't know. Like this has the potential to get ugly here. Now, the schedule gets lighter. They have Minnesota on Friday. but then after that, you know, the next 13 games are pretty light on what we would consider to be top tier championship contenders. I think Oklahoma City, they play Minnesota again and then they have Oklahoma City on the road.

But other than that, they're playing a bunch of middle tier and bottom tier teams. And so maybe they'll be able to pull this together and they'll be able to get some wins. And there's a huge upside, which is Luca. Like, I want to be clear, like that what we saw from Luca tonight, we never even came remotely close to seeing that last year. Not not even not even a little bit. He never moved like that. He never had that like consistent downhill pressure. The short range shot making, that's something I had my eye on in preseason. He was one for seven on floaters and midrange jump shots in preseason. He had to hit like eight or nine of them today. He was cooking the warriors from

the short to midrange. Throw in the crazy kickouts. Still has no role man chemistry with Aiton and the lobs. He's got to figure that piece out. It's so much more natural with him. with Jackson Hayes. That's something that him and Aiton are going to have to figure out. But like, Luca was amazing. And that's your big silver lining that you try to pull away from this is if you can write the ship with some of these other guys on the roster, you just, you have the dude that I think is the second best basketball player in the world on your team. And so there's a whole lot of upside with with Luca and what he brings to the table. But beyond that, it was just an incredibly disappointing debut for the Lakers.

above and beyond anything having to do with individual talent. There's some talent limitations here. I don't expect Rui to be able to post up Draymond or Jimmy Butler without turning the ball over or fumbling it away. The Warriors in general are a swarming team that are going to cause some issues for some of the lesser offensive players for the Lakers. I don't necessarily expect them to be a team that's going to be dominant defensively.

But they just also don't look sharp. And we talked about this yesterday, but like if you're already a step slow athletically, you can't also be a step slow mentally. You have to be ahead of things with your reeds on defense. You have to be ahead of things with your execution on defense because you're already giving up an inch in the form of the athleticism advantage

that the opponent's going to have most nights. That definitely not an inspiring debut from the Lakers. But again, Luca looks amazing. I thought Luca was really good on defense for the most part. He got cooked by Jimmy on that last possession. But I thought his rotations were sharp. He had some help side plays at the rim where he got blocks or deflections are good contests. He had like a post up stop against Al Warford. He had a really nice ISO stop against Steph along the left wing late in the game when the Lakers were going on their run. A lot of really impressive stuff from Luca and then just all bad down the list from there.

Austin has kind of become a player that can struggle against physical, swarming athletic defenses. I thought Austin struggled throughout the night. He just seemed like he was overpenetrating and getting swarmed and not finding easy kickout reads. The shot making wasn't there the way it usually was. Shot making wasn't there in preseason either, especially from the three point line. But like, again, once you get off, Luca, a lot of depressing on the Lakers front. Again, we'll have more thoughts on this as we get.

I'm going to watch both of these games again tomorrow morning. So if I have any additional takeaways from there, I'll share them in tomorrow night's show. But that's all I have on the Lakers Warriors from now. Let's move on to Rockets Thunder. What an incredibly bizarre basketball game. We had 112 missed shots, 36 turnovers, 28 offensive rebounds,

a half dozen missed clutch free throws, including some from both KD and Shea. She had several. But the game isn't coming down to one single ISO and double, overtime along the left wing with Shea on the ball, KD guarding him. And I thought it was the right move by KD in that spot in the sense that he was the only guy other than Amen Thompson who was heard at that point, who had had some success guarding Shea. So Katie guards him on the inbounds and I thought Shea made an incredibly smart play. In general, Shea was fantastic in the second half

attacking some very complex and very aggressive and mixed up coverages from Houston. But he made his smartest play of the game there at the end of double overtime to win it. So for starters, at the beginning of that possession, when Katie's guarding Shea, he's super aggressive, which was different than how he had guarded Shea earlier in the game on his one-on-one possessions. Earlier in the game, he had been giving Shea space, offering contests with his length. And he had actually forced Shea into some misses because he's got some long-ass arms and Katie's hard to shoot over. But on this possession, Katie came out. pressuring him, like kind of gambling, reaching a little bit out of control. And so the smart move

from Shea was he didn't try to shoot. He knew KD was being overly aggressive. So he threw him a pump fake, spun over his left shoulder and pumped. KD followed that chain of aggression into an aggressive contest. And so because Shay pumped faked, all he had to do was just throw up a shot and he earned his way to the foul line that won the game. And then to add insult to injury, KD fouled out on the play, which removed him as a final possession option. I actually thought Jabari Smith got a half decent look over the top of Jalen Williams over there on the left corner. But it was long and the Thunder got the win. She solved the problem tonight.

Finish that game with 35 points, which is insane considering he had a relatively empty box score a few minutes into the third quarter. And the Rockets threw one hell of a defensive punch. they had a men Thompson on him one-on-one. And again, a man provides like a combination of size and athleticism defensively. That is different than just about anyone else in the league. Jackson and I were talking about it before the show.

Like I think he might be the fastest like big wing that I've ever seen. Like fastest player that's over 6'6 and that has long arms. In ball screens, they were blitzing him every single time to get the ball out of his hands. Then they also mixed in a ton of zone, especially when Stephen Adams was on the floor. Basically, everything was geared towards getting the ball out of Shea's hands enforcing his teammates to quickly process and kick the shooters. And another thing, to Houston's credit here,

I thought they did a great job rotating and like making those kickout threes off of the double teams contested or congested and feeling rushed. Oklahoma City also didn't shoot well. I want to be clear, there were lots of great looks that didn't go down. There were six for 26 from unguarded on unguarded. three's in this game, especially if you in the second half from Lou Dort that were like complete staying still got to knock them down types of shots. But I do want to give Houston credit here for their defense. I thought they played a great game. And early on there, about halfway through the game,

it was about as discombobulated as I've ever seen Shea, at least in a long time. But Shea just slowly but surely figured it out. Started by hunting every transition opportunity you could get. So every time that there was a miss or a turnover and Shea got an opportunity. to attack before Houston had their defense set, he either quickly hit a gap or he catch a quick like step up screen and transition and hit that gap before Houston could really congest things at the rim. And he started finding those little seams to get all the way to the rim. And then against the zone, he found several things that worked.

He started just taking ball screens off the top and riding that into the middle of the floor. He was able to get some better kickouts from there. To his credit, he kept trusting his teammates all game long. as they were sending the kitchen sink at him, even though the shots weren't falling. And by the way, say what you want about the shots not falling. Kaysan Wallace and Chet Holmgren each hit massive threes down the stretch of that. Kaysan hit two of them.

Massive threes down the stretch because Shay kept trusting them, even though the shots had not been falling, falling. He also started ISOing the top guy. These are some little tricks he found to stop having to deal with the doubles. Like laid in regulation. I'm not calling for a screen. I know it's a men Thompson, but I want my one-on-one.

And he got to that little step back from 18 feet there on the left side that tied the game and sent it to OT against the zone. In the zone, when they'd have an occupied corner, meaning a shooter in the strong side corner and a shooter on the opposite wing, if he was dribbling against that top guy, they weren't doubling.

They weren't at first. They weren't doubling off the corner or off of that top. They would double him if he drove, like if he beat the middle, beat the man to the middle and drove, they would pinch in from the top, from the opposite wing. And yeah, if he drove down the left side, they'd pinch in. But if he just kind of went one on one for a pull-up jump shot against the top man in the zone, he was able to go one on one.

And so he'd kind of just work over to Jabari Smith's side and push a little bit over to the sideline so that that other top man wouldn't come over so far. And then he would just dribble at his chest. and go to that textbook step back or that little snatchback dribble that he goes to. And he just kept getting the shots that he could hit over the top. And his shot making was unbelievable. The shot that he hit to send it to OT over a men Thompson was insane. Great contests from a man.

He had a pull up three over a man on the one on the right wing, the one that actually was the play where a man Thompson. I'm hoping it was just cramps that he was dealing with, hopefully nothing more serious because he left the game at that point. But just unbelievable shot making. he somehow managed to find like a legit scoring rhythm against a defense that was designed to get the ball out of his hands. I was incredibly impressed. Eventually Houston started doubling him in the zone.

That was what happened in overtime. They were straight up doubling him in the zone. And that started creating those openings for those last two threes that Casano Wallace and Chad Holmgren hit. Credits of those guys. They just kept shooting and they knocked him down. So like, in other words, Shay was presented with a bizarre. bizarre, massive lineup that was guarding him in a variety of really weird and aggressive ways. And he just kept going at them until he figured it out. I couldn't be more impressed.

It was a night where a lot went wrong for Oklahoma City. Like, Chet gives you a burst of scoring to start the game. Really impressive little burst. He hits like a three on the wing. It's like a turnaround tough little right shoulder fade over, uh, over Kevin Durant. It's a little mid-range jump shot in the middle of the zone. He's just, I think he had like 17 in his first shift or 15 in his first shift. Chet came out guns blazing. But other than that, they didn't get any sort of consistent shot creation from anybody that wasn't Shea the rest of the night.

J. Dub is obviously out still dealing with the wrist injury. They shot six for 26 on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots according to Synergy. And you somehow win because Shea pulls 35 points out of mid, literally out of nowhere. against the defense, he had no business putting that sort of scoring output against. Just tip of the cap to Shea, unbelievable preseason and just followed it up with an unbelievable debut. A lot of other good for Oklahoma City. I thought their defense was super impressive all night. They were physically outmatched basically at every position because of that huge Houston lineup.

And they just battled. One of the underrated pieces of this game was like Houston did a ton of day. damage on the offensive glass, but then Oklahoma City ended up controlling the offensive glass late in the game. Got a bunch of extra possessions and extra points out of that sort of thing. They were scrapping. They forced 24 turnovers and got 26 points off of them. That's classic Oklahoma City basketball right there. I know Lou Doort had a rough shooting night and he had a bad foul against Kevin Durant, obviously late in the game. But I thought one of the most underrated storylines of this game was just Lou Dort denying Kevin Durant the basketball.

like KD was sharp with his attacks when he had the ball. So there's a reason why he only had 23 points. Houston couldn't get the ball to him. From the opening tip, Dort was in his jersey in consistently positioning himself between the ball, like the passer and where KD was, and just making that entry pass super difficult.

He even managed to force a massive turnover late in the game that helps swing the game. And like, again, I always believe these things are connected. Kevin Durant was 0 for four from three, and I thought a big part of it was the way that Lou Dord just wore down Katie's base with all that physicality. Big time night from Lou Dord on the defensive end of the four.

Caruso and Casano Wallace combined for six steals. I even thought Shea was great defensively in this game. He brought a lot of ball pressure to start. He ended up with two steals and two blocks. I just thought he was competing really hard on that end of the floor, understanding that that's how they needed to win that game. And like, that's the thing. going to be how Oklahoma City is going to have to win as long as J. Dub is out. Without J. Dub,

they just, they're light on refined offensive skill. We're going to see a ton of doubling and blitzing of Shea. We're going to see a ton of zone against them. They're going to have to win with defense to transition and with guys quickly processing with ball and player movement, knocking down threes off of the attention that Shea draws. But tip of the cap to OKC, that was a hell of a way to start their title defense. Like, you get spoon fed. Like, yeah, here's your rings. And by the way, here's one of the most talented rosters in the NBA that's starting four seven footers, basically, and they're going to beat the shit out of you physically all night. Let's see you try to start your title defense. And they just battled and they just got it done. Tip of the cap of the thunder.

That was a super interesting debut for the Rockets, though. That team is going to be a problem. Again, I know KD wasn't as much of a factor tonight because of the ball, denial from Dort. But I thought you saw a lot of the upside, right? Like KD was nine for 12 on twos. That's what happened when he was actually able to catch the ball and attack. He just never misses a mid-range jump shot when he gets a good look. He can rescue possessions with shot making and late-cloc situations. There was a possession late where Dort was detached from him because KD brought the ball at the floor and Shangun actually managed to hit him on a screen, which then forced Hartnstein to step up. Easy little pocket pass to Shangun, get a

bucket on the short roll. That's the kind of thing that when you're not playing Lou Dort and you're able to run more ball screen action and actually unlock Shane Goon as a roller, that's going to be an entirely different dynamic to this Rockets offense that we didn't get to see too much of tonight. But like it's a little bit more complicated. Like I did think, you know, for all the talk about KD not getting the basketball from the Dort denials, I watched a preseason game where Houston played New Orleans. And it, In that game, there were some extended stretches where KD wasn't able to get the basketball. And a big part of it was it just wasn't finding its way to him as they were playing through

a men in Shangun. And so I think Udoca is going to have to do a little bit more of an intentional job to make sure that the ball finds its way to Kevin Durant more often. Again, Dord is Dort. He's going to present some problems that I think they can do better getting the ball to KD. But I thought Shangun and the men Thompson were both absolutely amazing. 39, 11, and 7 from Shangoon, consistently punishing the OKC Smalls with postups. He did some damage to Chet two one-on-one, did a bunch of damage to Caruso.

And this is a guy who, like, did a ton of damage to Nicole Yokic in game seven last year, if you guys remember. But Shangoon was just backing him down and protecting the basketball, getting to his left shoulder hook, following his shot when he would miss, passing well, I thought he passed well at a double teams all night. It was one of their most efficient forms of offense,

which just give the ball to Shangoon until someone, sends a double. He showcased a three-point shot he's been working on all summer. He had several above the break threes off the wings. Again, when they're running their two big lineups, that's going to be super important. When Stephen Adams is operating underneath the basket as an offensive rebounder and cutter, that's going to force guys like Shangun and Amend Thompson to knock down threes. And Shangun was hitting those threes. He's going to have to be able to hit those to space the four. He just looks poised for an all-MBA campaign. He looked like Houston's best player tonight. Unbelievable

season debut for Alper and Shangoon. And then Amin Thompson again, like he was 0 for 7 from three and that's obviously going to be the barrier between where he is right now and where he wants to be as a player in the future. And it's going to be a spacing issue for Houston. Again, like a lot of the damage that amended

last year was working along the baseline with Shangoon around the elbows, kind of like a high, low kind of like vertical spacing angle. That's not going to be there with Stephen Adams on the floor. It's going to for, there was even a play where Reed Shepard kicked the ball out of bounds in the left corner because Amen Thompson was cutting along the baseline on the play where there was no space for him to cut.

So that's obviously something he'll have to work on. Like hitting shots is going to be an imperative for them this season. But other than that, I was incredibly impressed by Amman as well. Like he made SGA work all night. His recovery athleticism is completely insane. He had a chase down block on Shay on a drive that was ridiculous. He had this other play where he stopped Case. Wallace in transition.

Kaysan's pushing the ball at the floor. And a men's like 20 feet behind him. And a man like just straight up sprinted and got back in front of Kaysan and forced him to take a retreat dribble. And I was like, this is ridiculous. His speed at the wing is unlike anything I've ever seen. But he also showed some insane upside as a slot ISO option. The ball screen stuff was mixed, hit some shots in the middle floor, also had some

turnovers, some bad kickouts. There were some mistakes from a men there. That's to be expected. He's being foisted into a ball handling role that's kind of above what he's capable of right now. So it's going to come with some mistakes. But down the stretch and regulation, especially with Dort denying KD, they just went to amend Thompson one-on-one off the slot against Kassan Wallace.

And he was getting buckets. And like, it kind of reminds me of John Morant in the sense that he has this supreme first step and handle. to beat the first dude off the dribble. And then he's kind of immune to spacing on the ball because he doesn't have to get all the way to the rim. He can just pop up off the ground around five feet and he hit all these little floaters and short jump shots there

that make him extremely difficult to guard. Again, like down the stretch of this game, they were playing through a man in regulation and he was getting buckets. Again, it's going to be up and down. There's going to be mistakes. He's a young player, but like his upside is preposterous. Now again, like it's flawed for Houston in general.

Like I said, they got to find a way to keep Kevin Durant involved. That was something that was an issue dating back to preseason. They have spacing issues like Shangoon shot the ball well, but Amend Thompson and Tar Easton got a lot of open shots that didn't go in. I think between the two of them, they were like, oh for a dozen. We saw the issues in this particular matchup. I talked before the season about how I was severely concerned about their lack of ball handling, specifically in this matchup with Oklahoma City, specifically leading to turnovers and transition problems. they gave up 26 points on 24 turnovers.

So there's a lot that they have to work out. But they also clearly present real problems for everyone else. They're monstrous on the offensive glass. They have a ton of length that can cause problems for any offense. Elite on ball defenders to throw out the best players in the world. They have three real matchup problems on offense. Like, Shangun's a matchup problem. A men Thompson in his ability to just ISO dudes in space, that's a problem.

And Kevin Duran is Kevin Freak and, to ramp. They're going to find a way to manufacture points. They just have a ton of talent. I don't know if they're going to be able to win the whole thing, but they just strike me as one of those teams that is going to present some real problems for a lot of teams and is at the very least

a upset threat against everyone. All right, Jackson, let's get into our questions for the night. 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... 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. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different... memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, Hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential

title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly. what happened. That's where SportsSlice 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. 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. Jenchen won. 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. by Capital One, founding partner of I Heart Women's Sports. Let's do it. What is going on? First one is going to be, what did you think of the entire NBC broadcast experience tonight?

I thought it was awesome. They kind of like kept it true to the spirit of basketball. Like light on fluff, heavy on like the pomp and circumstance of the actual game, right? Like here we're going to show the national anthem. We're going to show the player introductions. Like we're getting ready to do opening tip instead of like doing some sort of quick interview or sideline report or or like some sort of just random diatribe from the from the broadcast crew. We just got to like soak it all in. Right.

Like it just got to do they go radio silence and we just get to listen to the whole thing. I thought the broadcast crew was great. I thought the Michael Jordan halftime thing was just like kind of funny. You could tell like I'm not the first one of this joke, but you could just tell that they literally like sat down with Michael Jordan for an hour and they're just going to cut it up into little clips

throughout the season. So it's super efficient on that run, I guess. But like it just felt like it just felt nostalgic and it felt like NBA hoops. And I just 10 out of 10, no, no. It's what were your thoughts, Jackson? Yeah, I thought the pregame did a really good job of sort of and a lot of people made this point online,

much more celebratory of the game than some of the other broadcast partners like ESPN and T&T that had been pointed out previously. I like those broadcasts too, to be honest. But I thought that it was really celebratory tonight. I think Maria Taylor is just consistently great pretty much everything she does. She was awesome tonight.

I have thought Tracy McGregie's kind of hit or miss sometimes. I thought he was really good in the pregame. I love Jamal Crawford on the game. He was great on the game. it was even though Reggie Miller is kind of a polarizing guy, I think he's gotten better than he used to be. It did feel, I like that he was on this specifically the first game of the night because it felt it was a little bit of familiarity.

Everything was new. Every other part of the broadcast was new, but he was something that we're used to hearing. And I thought that was actually valuable. That's a great point. Yeah, like there's something about hearing Reggie Miller, even if it does come with the occasion. Like there was a stretch where Oklahoma and the city

was doubling Shangoon postups. And he's like, Shangoon's letting him off the hook. He needs to put him in the blender. And I'm like, he's literally getting double team. And he's making great passes out. So he's making the right read every single time.

I don't know what you want to do. But yeah, there's something, speaking of nostalgia, there's something nostalgic about watching a big NBA game and having Reggie Miller in the background saying Reggie Miller things. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And it's, and it was a really good pairing with Jamal Crawford, who is consistently just getting smart inside the entire time. It's like a fun little two, players, but very different styles, contrasts. I thought that broadcast team specifically was really good. The second one was, you know, was okay. I think Granite Hill is okay.

Yeah. Noah Eagles sounds exactly like his dad, though. It's great. Yeah, he does. It's kind of creepy, but he's great at it. He just, he understands the assignment. Absolutely. All right.

We'll do a couple of rockets questions or a couple questions from that game, a couple questions from the late game. And then we'll get out of here. First question is about Reed Shepard. What did you think of his performance tonight? And do you think he can be, maybe not the whole answer, but at least part of the answer for their rockets and their ball handling situation. So I feel like Reid did some good tonight. I thought he made some good decisions

coming off of action. There was a certain amount of like with KD being denied the basketball, they kind of needed someone to confidently step into some shots and like, yeah, he didn't shoot the ball efficiently, but he got to the foul line a couple times and he was, he hit that one little tough kind of jumper along the right baseline, like in the second half. Like he kind of manufactured some points. I thought that I was, I was more impressed with him defensively in preseason than I was in tonight's game. I thought he looked physically overwhelmed at the point of attack a few times.

He gave up like five or six pretty bad straight line drives. You know, I, I have a hard time with, uh, with Reed because I texted Sam Bacini the other day. Because I was like, hey man, like, I just don't see it with Reed. Like what's going on? Like, I see a guy that can guard a little bit. who like competes and flies around in rotation and can make plays. I see a guy who can shoot, but I don't see like this dynamic on ball player.

And Sam was like, trust me, he's like he can really shoot. So like wait until he figures that out. That'll be fine. And he can do better defensively than he's shown. And I trust Sam, like Sam scouted Reed to a much greater extent than I did when he was a younger player.

But I will admit that like I don't see the same like, crazy upside that a lot of some of the NBA hipsters talk about with Reed Shepherd. And I just, like, and I'm not just, I like literally out there in the entire world, there's a ton of Reed Shepherd buzz. It's like kind of all you can see is everyone's like, read Shepherd this, read Shepherd that. And like I, he certainly has potential, but I just, I haven't really seen that bear out at the NBA level yet.

I don't look at him as a solution to their ball handling problems. But I've been wrong before. So not going to brag. I thought the ball handling him. the defense were pretty underwhelming. It does seem like he can be a pretty lights out shooter, and I thought he was good coming off action. He was not able to solve the thunderball pressure.

I'll say that. And they're the best four-fetched team in the league. So it's not like he should write him off because of that. But he did not have the chops for it tonight. It's a hell of a first test for Houston's office. For sure. Like it's, you know, he gets on to like the worst situation possible. And they almost won.

And they almost won. Next question. Do you feel like OKC struggling today was sort of a championship hanging? over a ring night situation or do you feel like the lack of j-dap is going to be sort of an issue for them until he comes back i think that the book is out on how to guard oklahoma city in general uh from the postseason which is throw a bunch of zone at them and like here's the thing with the zone like because like there's this idea that like oh well they got great looks they're just going to go in one of the things that happens with zone is it changes the rhythm of the game and it just feels

like very different basketball than what you're accustomed to playing now this is could go the other direction. If you zone Oklahoma City too much, these guys are just going to get good at it. And it's going to become a problem. And for the record, they had some success against the zone in the postseason as the as the series went longer. But in general, I think we're going to see a lot of double teaming and blitzing a Shea, a lot of packing the pain on his drives, a lot of zone and a lot of just daring everybody else to beat them while J. Dubbs out. And I mean, I'd argue that's how teams are going to guard them even when J-dub is there. Now, like, I do think, I thought in the first half, Houston actually did a really nice job pressuring them and most of their looks were pretty

rushed and contested. In the second half, I thought they missed some really good looks. And that's where you can't really fault the process. Like, it's kind of like those above the break threes off the wing. And Chet and Cason both missed some of those too in addition to making them. But like, you kind of have to take them. Like, if you're not taking them, then you're basically asking She to just rescue you with shot making the entire game. That's too much to ask. At a certain point, the defensive coverage is designed to concede that shot.

And you have to take it. And you've got the players who can make them. And to their credit, they hit the ones they needed late. Last question on this game. Thoughts on the missed timeout call. Katie got away with one. I mean, it was pretty clear.

I mean, he, I, it was one of those things were like, as a basketball fan, you have to be happy they didn't call it. Because what a lame-ass way to end that game. If they end that with KD getting a technical for the timeout.

So like I wasn't complaining as a fan. But watching the game, I was like, yeah, Katie, you got away with one right there. And it's, and you know, the basketball gods shine down and gave out KC at one point when. Yes, they did. On a foul. On a foul. There you go. Exactly.

Exactly. All right. We'll take a couple of questions from the late game. early on and you know with an opponent like the like the lakers but do you think this type of warriors performance can can carry over against higher quality competition you know specifically with denver on thursday so denver is actually kind of a similar matchup to the lakers in the sense that they have a big that golden state can attack in space and they're generally faster i think the warriors are faster than denver i texted you this and it's like it's not a skepticism necessarily

necessarily about the Warriors is just like the reality of this, just this job. Like, I personally would like to see Golden State try to score against a faster defense just to kind of get a better evaluation of like Jimmy and Jonathan Kaminga. Like, guess what? What happens when you play against a faster defense? Those reeds get harder. Those reads get more difficult to make, right? And the shots each get a little bit tougher to make as you're rushed and you're a little bit out of rhythm. Right. So like, I do want to see what it looks like against tougher. competition, but like, how could you not be enthused? I mean, like, the Lakers, yeah, the Lakers are behind schedule. No one's debating that. And obviously not having LeBron as a problem, but there's

still some talent on that team. And like, I thought the, I thought like, aside, like, do you agree with me that at Luka not gone nuclear? They've win that game by 30. Like, I thought they thoroughly outclass the Lakers. Easily. Yeah. Yeah, like, Luca like straight up turned a double digit deficit into a tie game before the half with that crazy haymaker he threw at the end of the second quarter. And like, I just thought, here's the thing. All you hope to see from a team on opening night is for them to come out and play well. And they came out and beat the shit out of the Lakers. So like I couldn't see that as anything other than a positive. But I think Denver will kind of, I think Denver is a matchup that favors Golden State athletically and isn't necessarily a true

test of their offense. Let's just put it that way. Yeah. And I think, you know, I don't expect Jimmy Butler to have this kind of scoring performance every single night. But Seth Curry is also going to shoot the ball a lot better. Yeah, absolutely. He had a pretty below his standards. He had the dagger. They had a pretty below his standard shooting performance. I think it's all going to kind of normalize.

And I expect him to be pretty darn good in the regular season if they can stay healthy, which has been the big question. That said, they are very deep. I could not stop talking texting during the game. And I forgot about Moses Moody somehow, who is, you know, who will be back, imminently it seems like. Yeah, they just have, they just have every year.

They just have like 13, 14 dudes. Like in this Will Richards, the next guy in this line, but it's like every year, they just, they find dudes who know how to play basketball in their system. And it's just, it is a testament to their culture.

And I've been really fascinated by this with teams like Golden State and like Indiana and Boston and Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City's like this too. They keep finding dudes that just can play in their system, AJ Mitchell today. Like they just, they've like these, These really smart organizations, they can find dudes on the margins in a way that other teams can.

Yeah, I think this being able to self-analyze and know who you are is just so valuable. These teams know exactly who they are, what they want to do on both sides of the ball. And they know exactly. And so it makes it a lot easier to find players who fit in that as opposed to team when you're kind of just like, who are we? What are we trying to do? Do we know what we want to do X, Y, and Z? Last question for the night. Jonathan Cominga obviously had a very good game, at least in the second half.

do you think he should be an automatic starter going forward, or at least, you know, in the short term, or do you think it should be a sort of a matchup to match up night to night decision? So actually, I want you, before I give my take here, I want you to give your take on the, like, the politically, like, smart way to go back. I thought you made a good point when you were texting me about it. Yeah, yeah. When they, when the, you know, the report today was that he was going to start,

my immediate reaction was that I think politically for the Warriors and for Steve Kerr, it's the right move to start him right away and like for at least a couple weeks because either you know hopefully it goes hopefully for them it goes like it went tonight and he looks not like a superstar maybe but like he can certainly be productive and good in a lineup with jimmy dray and step which was sort of the big question and you're hoping that can continue and so if it does great you either you feel like you maybe have something you can keep him or his trade value is boosted and you can go get something more than you've been offered to this point and then if it goes poorly, you can say, hey, we, we held up our end of the bargain.

We started the guy for two weeks. We gave him 20 games or whatever as a starter. What do you want us to do? He doesn't look good. And I think there's two sides of that point, but I think politically, and just from like a game theory perspective for the Warriors, it makes sense to give him a decent leash to start the season just to sort of, because you're clearly good enough. Like even what, even if he had a bad game, they're still going to win tonight. you're clearly good enough to like stay afloat even if he's not awesome and so i would just keep starting him at least for the first couple weeks i 100% agree with you it's like it's like couples counseling for them in the sense it's like they're one last hurrah like it's like this is the

last thing we're going to try like here's the deal dead serious team right championship caliber roster we're putting you in with the starters show us what you got and i think i think steve's going give him a little runway here. And if he, if he continues to play like he did in the second half tonight, like it just ends all of the discussion surrounding some of these other issues. Like they deployed him on the ball tonight. And he struggled with Luca, but like Lucas is Luca. And like, and Lucas specifically has some success against upright wings because he's just so much stronger than them. But like, they focus him in an on ball role defensively. And then like, he actually does provide some of the firepower they need. The ability.

to attack a mismatch here and there, the ability to knock down a catch and shoot shot to fly up the floor in transition. I thought the most encouraging part of the second half attack there was them kind of using him in three-man action effectively, like basically saying like, we can, we don't need you to be a satellite guy. We can use you as part of the weapon with which we unleash the Steph Curry attack. Like it just, as far as like going matchup to matchup, I think that's almost the worst thing you could do because that could toy with his rhythm and toy with his confidence. but it's a little bit. I would just ride him out as the starter for a little while here and just see what he's got. And like, again, like, if we're seven, eight games into this and they're,

you know, five and three or, or four and four and Jonathan's been more bad than good. Like, then then it's like you tried counseling and it didn't work. And that means it's time to break up. Like, it's the last, it's the last hurrah here. It's the last try. And like, Steve Kerr's basically saying like, dude, we're putting the ball 100% in your court here and show us what you can do. Yeah, and I thought he definitely had some moments that looked like the last couple seasons. And he definitely had some moments where I was like, oh, he would not have done that before. He had multiple attacks where normally he's, once he gets in the paint, that ball's, he's going. And he's a pretty good finisher. He's pretty athletic. So I get one. But he,

he threw a fast break all-yube to Jimmy Butler in the first half. In the second half, he had a downhill drive that the big, I forget which big it was, came over and helped late. And he actually dumped it off to Al Horford in a pretty kind of funky manner. It was kind of not the easiest dump off as. I was like oh wow, that's definitely an attempt at a poster last season. And if you're a Warriors fan,

if you were thinking about this negatively, like I might have been, you might have thought Jonathan Combinga's trying to get his this year. He's going to go for that poster. And I was like, he played pretty soundly within the system all, most of the night. Yeah, and he overcame some of his mistakes. Like,

he did try to like, cock back a tip dunk for no reason. And smoking off. I have a crucial moment as the Lakers are making a run. Yeah. Yeah. Like he had he had a couple of those moments, but like he just overcame them. And like he was, I thought he was instrumental in that early third quarter run when they put the game away. All right, guys, it's all we have for night one. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We are going to be back tomorrow night, live on YouTube. I'm going to rewatch these games tomorrow morning. I'll maybe bring some thoughts to the game or to the show tomorrow night.

But we got a jam-pack slate tomorrow. I think we're closing with San Antonio versus Dallas. That's going to be a fun one, Wemby versus AD, and that massive front line in Dallas. So lots of interesting basketball to get into tomorrow. Then we're live again after Denver Golden State on Thursday night. Three straight lives to start the season. Again, as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us.

We will see you tomorrow night. 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

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