The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Reacting to AWESOME End of NBA Regular Season

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Jason reacts to the epic NBA regular season finale between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers, how James Harden and Kawhi Leonard were able to overpower Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler, and what it means for these two teams heading into the playoffs. Then he gives his initial impressions on the series between the Clippers and Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets as well as the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves.   #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.

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

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I hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. As expected, the Clippers Warriors game yesterday was incredibly entertaining and incredibly informative. So all we're going to do in this little short episode this morning is we're going to talk about my five biggest takeaways from the first truly important, truly high stakes game in the NBA this season. And then after that, I'm going to give just my initial impressions on the two Western Conference playoffs series, that being the Lakers versus the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets versus the Los Angeles Clippers. The rest of this week, we're going to have a lot of series preview content. I actually have a kind of a breakdown of that coming a little bit later in the show so that you guys can have an idea of what to expect this week. But this morning, just Clippers

warriors, some takeaways, as well as my initial thoughts on the two other playoff series in the Western Conference. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast fee wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's also doing incredible work on our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Make sure you guys follow us there.

And last but at least, keep dropping mailbag questions and the YouTube comments and get to our mailbags throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So again, yesterday, there was. There's a brief moment early in the day where it looked like things could get a little bit more complicated because IMA Udoka decided to play his starters against the Nuggets. So now all of a sudden you're really looking at the 4th or 8 being literally anything. But the Nuggets came out with the requisite intensity. The Rockets did not.

Udoka kept their minutes down. And so that game ended up not mattering. So it ended up all coming down to that Clippers Warriors game. As I said at the top, we're going to do our five biggest takeaways. This is going to be the schedule for series previews this week. So again, we have just initial thoughts today. Tomorrow, full series previews for Bucks Pacers and Pissons Knicks. The next day, Wednesday, full series previews on Lakers Wolves and on Clippers Nuggets.

The two sevens will be out on Thursday after we have the results from the plan. And then just like we do every year, the one-eighths are always a little bit shorter and a little bit more brief, just because they're the biggest favorite usually, and because of the way the schedule works, we don't even find out who those teams are until Friday night, and then Saturday morning, the actual playoffs start. So I actually have to turn my attention to the real game. So our 1-8s won't be as comprehensive as the other six series previews,

but that's the schedule this week, two on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, two on Thursday, just keep an eye on the feeds. You guys will see it there. Also, for your warrior fans, we will be going live on YouTube after the final buzzer of Grizzlies Warriors tomorrow. night and we'll do a little mailbag there as well. So our five biggest takeaways from this Clippers Warriors game. First of all, just incredible basketball. It's always amazing when you get to

this time of year. There are important regular season games. There have been a lot of important regular season games in the last couple of weeks. But when you get to that final day of the regular season, it just feels different in terms of the stakes. And these were important stakes for both teams on a bunch of different levels, right? The Warriors losing dropped to the the plan. If the Clippers had lost, they would have dropped to the plan. Now, you can kind of draw a little bit of a silver lining for Warriors fans in the sense that like, if you win that game, you have to go through the Clippers and then likely, excuse me, the Lakers, and then likely the Clippers right after that, because I do think the Clippers would have beat Houston in a two seven matchup.

And so you would have to go through two of the top teams in the Western Conference. If I was ordering the teams in the Western Conference, there's going to be, you know, the, uh, the Lakers, the Clippers, the Warriors, and then a gap for me before the rest of these teams. And so for you to have to play one of those teams in every single round, potentially, would be extremely difficult to get through. So now if you win on Tuesday against the Grizzlies, at least you get to play Houston in the first round, which I think is an easier opponent than both the Lakers or the Clippers. That said, I think Warriors fans would have rather done the Lakers, Clippers route and not have to take the risk of the plan.

You go in there tomorrow and John Morant happens to have his three-point shot going, and he hits six or seven-threes, and Desmond Bain's got it going, and Jaron Jackson hit six or seven-threes. You could be staring down the barrel of like a Demarderosa-Rosen, Zach Levine-led team coming into your building with a chance to knock you out of the playoffs. It's unnecessary risk. So obviously you'd rather take the route of the guaranteed playoff path. But if you're looking for a silver lining, I do think it's an easier path to go Houston, L.A.

O KC than to go L.A.L.A. Okay. So that's a little bit of a silver lining there. But okay, looking back at the game, ends up going to O.T. Clippers pull it out late. I wanted to go over some takeaways because I did think there were some revealing things for both teams in terms of what we can expect in their playoff run this year from that game. First of all, playoff Kauai looks very much here. Easily getting separation from top tier defenders, working Jimmy Butler to his spots on the floor to get easy fadeaways over both shoulders. He was getting separate.

J-Mo, Draymond Green did log some good possessions against him, specifically the one at the final buzzer in the fourth quarter, where he just got a great contest and forced one of Kauai's worst misses of the day, kind of like an outside of the rim miss long into the right. but even against Jremont Green, like got a clean look at a step back three in crunch time, got a clean look at a step back along the left wing, along two that he made. He was able to get separation from everybody and eventually dictate a bunch of double teams from Steve Kerr. I disagreed. I was actually talking with Jackson. We talked on the phone a little bit after the game yesterday,

and I disagree with the strategy that they went with with the double team, specifically attacking Kauai so far from the basket. One of the reasons why I don't like that is it creates a lot more space to deal with the four. on three, right? Like, it's kind of the, the Steph Curry Blitz concept, right? This is what Steph Curry's been doing to teams for a decade in terms of blitz coverage. You give a guy the ball right at the high post in a four on three with like the two defenders that were on the ball way out at near half court. There's just so much space for Chris Dunn to turn around and methodically look down the lane like, oh, you know, this guy didn't step up. So I'm going to shoot the little floater. Oh, this guy did step up. So I'm going to throw the little lob to Zubots.

It's like a very easy kind of like order of operations there. Kauai is not the greatest passer of all time. So like I would have rather had you double Kauai like as he's going into more of a scoring position. So like if he's dribbling out by the three point line, just tell your man to pressure the ball, pressure him and funnel him to a specific side where you're planning the double coming from. And then as he like puts his head down and starts driving, that's when you bring the double team and you can kind of capitalize in some of Kauai's playmaking weaknesses. But I disagree with the strategy. it is what it is. Kauai ends up drawing all these double teams and they're able to consistently

generate great shots out of it. But it started from the basic concept that nobody on the Warriors, an elite defense in this league, could make Kauai uncomfortable as he was just dropping whatever he wanted from anywhere on the floor. That bodes extremely well for the Clippers, right? Like so much of what we talk about with the Clippers comes down to like this theoretical concept of like, well, will Kauai be able to give you four playoff rounds? Well, here's the thing. It's April 14th. or here now. Like, Kauai is healthy right now with no games between now and his playoff series with the Denver Nuggets that starts on Saturday. So, like, he's here now and he looks like Kauai.

So at this point, I feel like it's wishful thinking for him to get hurt. Maybe he will get hurt. Who knows? But, like, it's very likely at this point that Kauai is going to be healthy for this playoff run in a way that it wasn't when we were discussing this theoretical team back in October in November. I think that bodes extremely well for Clippers fans. Kauai Leonard looked like the best player on the floor last night.

Kauai, when he's at his ceiling, is very capable of being a top-tier superstar in this league, and it just fundamentally alters the talent level that is on this Clippers team. They looked like an absolute problem yesterday because of Kauai in the ceiling that he's able to reach. Two, Aviza Zubats is on the doorstep of becoming one of the star centers in this league. big huge important game 22 points 17 rebounds got a bucket out of the post he was doing a lot of

different types of floor spacing we talked about the vertical spacing on the lob from chris dunn in crunch time he had another example of spacing like that isaiah hartinstein style floater spacing on a james hardin drive past gary peyton where he went down the lane line and just shoveled it off to zoo just outside the left block and he was able to shoot that little floater over the top he was destroying them on the offensive glass. He was just an absolute problem. I cannot wait to watch him battle Yokic for a full series. I think it's a very interesting matchup because of his size.

He's one of the few guys in this league that's actually big and strong enough to cause some disruption for Nicole Yokic's base. Zoo is on a run and I cannot wait to watch him play some really high stakes basketball this week. Third, big takeaway, playoff Jimmy Butler, apparently is still a thing. I can't ever remember watching a player that has had more ability to scale up from his normal production in high stakes environments than Jimmy Butler. I wish he would have been more aggressive in crunch time. And we're going to talk about that in a little bit here in our fourth piece.

Like Steph was just running out of gas a little bit late in the game once we got into the final minute of the fourth quarter. But for the most part last night with the scoring and the playmaking, was able to leverage it in a way that was. deeply impactful. He looked springy. He was getting to the rim. He was dunking. He was getting lots of lift on his jump shot. A little concerned with that need of the quad that he caught late in the game from Kauai, especially just because they have to turn around and play in a day. That said, I do think the Warriors will dispatch of Memphis and he will have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off. So I think he should be fine. Jimmy looking great, I think is huge. I was talking with my friend Samus Fondiaria who covers the Warriors with the Light Years guys,

like about a week ago about Jimmy and just like some of his scoring scalability. And like this was the big question mark. Was he going to be the Jimmy that we saw on the regular season? That's just kind of like a cog in the system that kind of helps elevate everybody and the Warriors look really, really good? Or is he going to be the 25 plus per game point score that can like actually raise the ceiling of this team to where it needs to be to win the title? And even though it's just one game,

I thought that was a very encouraging start to that run from Jimmy Butler. Four, the Warriors' offense is still way too Steph-reliant. Kind of to the point where it doesn't actually make sense schematically. Like, Brandon Pajemski is playing incredibly well, continues to play incredibly well, played incredibly well in a high-leverage game again yesterday. Jimmy Butler was scoring whenever he wanted throughout the majority of that game. But there's this thing that happens when they get into crunch time where all of a sudden it becomes no-one shoot but Steph.

the only way you're allowed to shoot off of Steph of is if it's like specifically in the flow of those like four on three. So like, yeah, Jimmy will score on a cut off of a Jimmy, off of a Steph Curry back screen or Brandon Pajamsky will take a, you know, wide open three at the top of the key out of a rotation situation that Steph generates. But there's no willingness for Jimmy to like come off of an action and look to score. There's no willingness for Brandon Pajamsky to come off of an action and look to score down the stretch of these games. It's like Steph tries to create something. And if it's not there, it's like find Steph again. Like wherever Steph is, just give it back to Steph. And it's like, well, I get that because I agree with Steve Kerr when he had his rant

with Buddy Heald to be like, hey, look, it's Steph Curry's greatest shooter of all time. You should probably give him the basketball. I don't disagree. But there's this thing that happens when you get into these super intense physical games where Steph Curry, because he's not the greatest athlete in the world, can sometimes struggle to get his shot off. like over the course of the final six minutes of the game. He was incredible for the first stretch of crunch time.

That, like, just lighting the world on fire, relocation threes, off the dribble threes, getting to the basket and transition, Steph was cooking them. But over the last six minutes, he was running out of gas. He had three turnovers. He had a turnover in the final minute of the fourth quarter.

He had two turnovers in the fourth quarter, or in the overtime, excuse me. You only got one three-point shot off in that entire span. Like, Steph was struggling to get his shot off. And so that's what you got Jimmy Butler for. Like what happens in those situations is when things get really physical and really tight and no one's open, it helps to have a forward who's big and strong who can put his elbow into a dude and create a passing angle for you to just throw him the damn ball and he can turn and just shoot over the top of somebody.

Because that's the advantage of being the great athlete, right? Like Steph has to run in circles until someone fucks up so that he can get open. Jimmy can just stand there at 6-7 with lots of strength and a good strong base and great lift on his jump shot to be able to create a shot for himself. And so I think it would behoove the Warriors to at least have a little bit more balance down crunch time of these games to where you're still trying to get the ball to Steph and everything is still flowing through Steph. But hey, if it's like, you know, nine, ten seconds left on the shot clock, it might be time to get Jimmy to the high post and ask him to try to draw a foul by like ripping through and pump baking or trying to. to get to a spot in the middle of the floor so we can elevate over the top for a little 10-foot jump shot over the top of somebody. There needs to be more variety down the stretch of these games. It's just so many of these games look just like that for the Warriors, where it's just

Steph running around in circles until someone fucks up. And there just needs to be a little bit more variety and a little bit more confidence for Steph's co-stars to be able to take some initiative latent games. And then lastly, the Warriors have a little bit of a fifth starter problem. they had this issue yesterday where they're like, okay, who are we going to close with? Are we going to close with Moses Moody? Are we going to close with Gary Payton? Are we going to close going big? Like, what are we going to end up doing?

Right. And so they end up going with Gary Payton. And the problem with that is Gary Payton wasn't particularly having too much success with James Hardin. James Hardin was still getting dribble penetration on him pretty much whenever he wanted. Shout out to James Hardin, by the way, like two just absolutely massive threes in overtime, the transition three out of the right corner and that little step back three that he hit at the top of the key. Some great dribble penetration sequences that led to quality shots. I thought Hardin was fantastic yesterday.

But Gary Payton was struggling in that particular matchup to keep him away from the basket. And then on the offensive end of the floor, it gives you a third player that no one has to account for as a shooter. I saw my friend Raj Chapalua used to cover the Lakers with years ago. He tweeted out after the game, like it's Gary Payton, it's Draymond, it's Jimmy Bother. there's three guys that you don't necessarily have to, like, worry about being aggressive at the three-point line in crunch time. Like, they will take them. Like, we saw Dremont take one out of the right corner that he made. We saw Jimmy randomly after, like, not shooting in crunch time at all.

We saw Jimmy randomly just take a super heavily contested left corner three. But, like, they're not guys that are going to catch wide open on the three point line and typically look to be super, super aggressive. And that just gives a ton of opportunity for those other three guys, the defenders, to leverage their attention a little bit more towards Steph. And so, but then you go to the Moses Moody thing and it's like, okay, well, Moses Moody has been really struggling to shoot the ball as of late, right? And Moses Moody is not as good of a read and react player as Gary Payton is. That's a big part of why they go with Gary Payton.

When Draymond missed the layup right in the final minute of OT, it's a read that Gary Peyton made out of the short roll. Gary Payton has a ton of experience running screening action with Steph, short rolling into the middle of the floor and playmaking out of it. where Moses Moody does not. So, like, that's the issue is like, okay, so you can go with the 3-and-D guy, but then you don't have the playmaking talent, and Moses Moody hasn't been a very reliable three-point shooter,

or you can go with Gary Payton, and you're going to get a better defender, but he's small and struggle with James Hardin's size, and he doesn't shoot the three well, even though he can do the read-and-react stuff. And so that's where, like, you know, when I look at the big picture for the Warriors as we go into next season, who knows what's going to happen this year?

There's still plenty of time for this team to re-rege, gain the momentum that they lost here in the last week and they could potentially go on a title run this year. I'm not writing them off by any means. But if they go into this summer, that's the position I think they need to look to address. And that's where it's like, man, if you could somehow flip, you know, Minga and something else for Ham Johnson and bring in like a really high level fifth starter, that's where this team could potentially vault into that like top top tier of teams in this leap. 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. And, oh, we were thinking, I'm an original. 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get. your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and

nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff

nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 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. Jenchian 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, Lena 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. 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. So let's take a couple of looks at our Western Conference first round series. So Clippers Nuggets, my initial thoughts. I was surprised to see that Denver was favored, even though they do have home court. The Clippers have been playing better basketball for a very long. time, like much better basketball for a very long time than the Denver Nuggets.

I struggle to see how Denver will guard the clippers. James Hardin in ball screens is the classic conundrum that Denver has struggled with, which is a pull-up shooter that you have to bring Yokic up to the level against, but also a top-tier playmaker in this league that can make the passes out of those sequences to consistently get Denver in rotation. That's a problem. As you saw in overtime and in crunch time, Norman Powell can attack closeouts. He attacked a close out off of the left wing in crunch time, got to the basket for a scooping layup,

attacked a close out of the left corner in overtime, drove along the baseline and had a really nice little slaloming move around the rim protector to get a reverse layup on the right side of the basket. That's the type of weak side scoring that has been devastating the nuggets throughout this entire stretch where their defense has fallen apart. you bring yokich up to the level where's zoo zoo is now getting all the way towards the rim with inside position on everybody he's going to crush everybody on the offensive glass are you going to guard kawai leonard with erin gordon he's the only guy physically capable christian brown is too small michael porter junior would get thrown around like a rag doll pey watson's too skinny Aaron Gordon's the one guy who can physically match up with him. Here's the problem.

If you bring, and I talked about this in other playoff series in the past, when you bring Aaron Gordon out to the perimeter to guard, he is no longer the low man support behind Yokic. Yokic is a weak rim protector that consistently has to go up to the level that's consistently running back and forth to the perimeter. You need Aaron Gordon on the back line as the athlete that can clean things up at the rim in help side situations and clean up the defensive glass.

put him on Kauai. He's going to, Kawhi's going to space him out and occupy him, and it's just going to leave an athletic deficit on the backline. I think it's, that's my initial impression is I just don't see how Denver's going to really successfully guard the clippers. Now, to be clear, Denver will also be able to score. Michael Porter Jr. will almost certainly have size advantages shooting over the top. They'll put either James Hardin or Norman Powell on him and he's going to be able to shoot over the top. And then because of help on Yokich, there's going to be opportunities for Christian Brown to slash off the wing or to cut along the baseline.

Aaron Gordon's been shooting the ball extremely well for a long time. I think he's just a good shooter now. So like he's going to get clean looks as they're having to swarm around Yokic. But the clips do have more traditional matchups for Denver stars than vice versa. For Denver, they have to take their low man to occupy Kauai. That's a problem. That's a non-traditional thing that messes up the backside of their defensive scheme. They literally don't have the ability to contend with James Hardin.

that coverage is going to get annihilated. They don't have traditional matchups there. You go over to the other side of the floor, and it's like Chris Dunn and Derek Jones Jr. are a classic chase over the top, bother pull-up shooter type of players. They are a clean, natural matchup for Jamal Murray. In a league that doesn't really have many natural matchups for Nicola Yokic,

Avita Zubatz is as close as you can get to a natural matchup for Nicole Yokic. He's big and strong, one of the few players in the league that actually has the size to bother Yokic's base a little bit. Again, I expect Denver to score, but I always look at playoff series in a very basic concept, the context. Which team is more likely to make the other team uncomfortable?

Do you think Denver's defense will make the Clippers offense more uncomfortable than the Clippers defense will make the Denver offense? And for me right now, it looks to me like the Clippers would be able to make Denver's offense

more uncomfortable than the other way around. just my initial impression. Again, I want to be very clear. I have not done my prep yet for these series. That's the goal for this week. I'm going to watch a ton of film. I'm going to dig into numbers. I might change my mind on this, but my initial impression right now is that the clippers should be favored to beat the nuggets and that I would pick them to win that series. Same thing for the Lakers Wolves. These are just my initial thoughts. Reserve the right to change my mind. But I can tell you as a fan, I was experiencing a great deal of anxiety worrying about how to

guard the Golden State Warriors. They were a team that caused me anxiety on both ends of the floor because one, I don't think they have the foot speed to guard Steph. And then once you start throwing a lot of attention at Steph, playmaking talent is how you capitalize on that. I'm more worried about super smart high IQ teams incrementally breaking down the Laker defense than teams that can't playmate. The Warriors have all that playmaking talent. They were a team that I thought was going to be able to score against the Laker defense. And then on the other end of the floor, it's a team that switches a ton, super high IQ and excellent in rotation at like speeding guys up, which I thought could cause some problems for Laker role players and capitalizing some of the indecision for Luca

and LeBron. I would have still picked the Lakers versus the Warriors. I think they're a better basketball team, but I thought it was a really tough matchup. And it was something that I was worried about and I didn't want to see. And I would rather see after they dealt with Dylan Brooks, you know, kicking them in the balls for two straight weeks. So that, that was what I was, that was the ideal outcome for me. Timberwolves, as a fan, again, and I might change my mind after digging into the numbers a little bit, but, and digging into the film, but I, I think it's the perfect matchup for the Lakers as a first round series. The only team that I'd feel more confident in them beating out of the teams that were beneath them in the standings that they could potentially face in the first round.

The only team I'd feel more confident in them beating is Memphis, and Memphis had no chance to get out of the eight because they've just been playing really. bad basketball for a while. This was the team I wanted. Here's my basic reasoning surface level right now before I dig into the film and do the comprehensive breakdown. One, the Dorian Finney Smith, Rui Hachamura lineup, the lineup with Austin, LeBron, and Luca. The lineup that I've often said is the only other team other than Boston with their lineups with Horford or Przingis, the only other lineup in the league that can truly present elite advantage creation with elite five out spacing. That's the only lineups in the league that can do that right now. Five guys where it's like you can't leave this guy open. If you leave him open, he's just going to hit shots. If you leave

Dorian Finney Smith open, he's going to hit shots. If you leave Rui open, he's going to hit shots. If you leave Austin open, he's going to hit shots. If you leave LeBron open, he's going to hit shots. And Luke is probably going to have the ball most of the time. So like it's a lineup that can really truly space the floor. That lineup will either play Rudy off the floor or at least neutralize his rim protection. Rudy, when he can sit under the basket, is a devastating defensive player. When he switches onto the perimeter and has help behind him, he's a devastating defensive player. When he has to guard in space, his defensive value is mitigated a bit because he's not protecting the rim. He's defending out on the perimeter, which he does well, but not exactly

as well as elite perimeter defenders. And then is he bringing enough offensively on the other end of the floor to justify him being out on the court? That is the question. We will see. It's very possible that we see Chris Finch basically just be like, we're going to leave Rudy out

there. And even if we lose some value in certain places, we're going to gain value elsewhere, we'll see. But that unit, at the very least, should be able to neutralize Rudy's rim protection. Once you neutralize Rudy's rim protection, now you're allowing LeBron and Luca to pick on matchups without having to worry about being deterred when they get to

the rim. I think that that is a huge advantage for the Lakers. Two, the wolves perimeter guys, all their perimeter defenders are way too small for Luca. As we saw in the Western Conference finals last year, Jada McDaniels is just too skinny for Luca. He can throw him around. He's one of the very best perimeter defenders in the lead who can't guard Luca. And that is like just a really difficult situation to manage right off the top. I want to, there's a potential here to like tinker with matchups. So you could imagine a situation where you take Jada McDaniels and you put him on Austin Reeves instead because he at the very least can stop Austin Reeves. But then it's like now you're asking Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall to guard LeBron James and Luca Donchich. And that's a problem

because one, aunt can't navigate screens. So if you put him on Luca, he's just going to run him through screens. We saw that at the tail end of the Western Conference Finals last year. They tried on Luca, it didn't work. Put Julius on Luca, that's going to be barbecue chicken. And, yeah, you could put LeBron on, you could put Anthony Edwards on LeBron, but now you're leaving Julius on Luca. And that's just a huge problem. If you don't put Jaden on Austin, who's guarding Austin? Is it going to be Mike Conley? Like, Austin's going to cook Mike Conley. Like, there's so many different like matchup issues with the way that Minnesota can disperse their perimeter talent. My, if I was coaching the Timberwolves, what I would do,

is I would lean a lot more into like Dante Divencenzo and I would deploy their best defenders on LeBron and Austin and try to mitigate them as much as possible, understanding that you're probably not going to do much damage to Luca anyway. So maybe like put Jaden on LeBron and put Dante on Austin and essentially have those to be uncomfortable all series and just see if Luca can do enough damage to you and try to wear them down with physicality over the course of the series.

But the bottom line is the wolf's perimeter, guys are just not necessarily big and strong enough to bother Aluka Donchich and LeBron, the way that like you see from Houston, for instance, or when Golden State like deploys Draymond and Jimmy on the perimeter and stuff like that, like that, that, those options are just not available to Minnesota in this series. And then lastly, as an advantage for the Lakers, I think as I mentioned earlier, what worries me the most for the Laker defense is playmaking talent. The reason why is there's a lot of smoke and mirrors with JJ Redick's defense. They don't have rim protection. They don't have a ton of elite perimeter defenders that usually are hiding at least two targets on the floor at any given time.

But what they do is they just have a ton of elite defensive game planning in terms of like funneling guys into where they specifically want their help side set up. They're good in rotation. They've got a couple of athletes on the floor all the time that are flying around and help help in recover situations. you need to break down the Laker defense with incremental playmaking. Like creating that initial advantage and then the guy drives a close out and then another guy makes a great read and a guy makes a smart cut. If you do that kind of stuff, you can pick the Lakers apart. And the Warriors have done that in their most recent matchup against the Lakers. This Timberwolves team is not a good aggregate playmaking team.

They're a team that I think would be susceptible to a lot of the gimmicky stuff that J.J. Reddick will do. I expect an assortment of double teams against Anthony Edwards. I expect a lot of pressure being put on Ants to be an elite playmaker in this series. I just think from a matchup standpoint, a lot of stuff just kind of lines up with the Lakers' strengths and avoids some of the Lakers' weaknesses. And so I think it both, I think it's just a really favorable matchup for them. Now, again, where another opportunity for the Timberwolves in this series,

where the Lakers struggled in the past with Ant and Julius, Anthony Edwards in particular in their last matchup, even though the Lakers control, that matchup from start to finish. They were funneling Anthony Edwards. They were doing the same defense they used against She goes to Alexander. So they're funneling him towards the sideline, like opening up their stance basically.

They did this against Jalen Brunson too. If you remember, they used it against Shea, they use it against Jaylen, they used it. It's basically their defense against elite star guards in this league. They funnel them towards the sideline with like basically a catch waiting. So a helper like that's already zoned up on the strong side outside the block

like waiting for that drive. Aunt did have some success in that game being like, oh, you're going to give me a runway? Well, I'm way more athletic than you guys. And he would just shoot that gap and he'd be right in the teeth of all the help. But he's such an elite athlete that he would either just finish over everybody or he would do that slowdown step he does

and wait for everybody to land back on the ground before he goes back up and score. Ant did have some success against that defensive game plan before he got ejected in that game. And then lastly, Julius Randall over the years has had some success against Rui Hachamura. It's something I've talked about on the show before, the idea of like holding ground with your shoulder.

Rui has a little bit of a tendency to give ground against physicality. And so if Rui Hachamura gets the Julius Randall matchup instead of LeBron James to start the game, that's something I could see Rui having some issues with. It's very possible that the Lakers deploy LeBron on Jaden McDaniels, thinking they can use him as a roamer. And I think they could end up in some situations where Julius gets comfortable if they do that. So I don't want to sit here and pretend like Minnesota doesn't have advantages. They obviously do. I just think the Lakers have more advantages than this matchup.

this was the matchup that I was most comfortable with as a first round series for the Lakers other than Memphis. Again, we're going to do a deep dive as we get later into this week, but those are my initial impressions. That's all I have for today, as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. I will see you guys tomorrow morning with series previews on the bucks and the Pacers and the Pistons and the Knicks. And then again, tomorrow night for the Warriors playing game. As always, I appreciate you 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.

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