The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry & Warriors fall to Nuggets, Kyrie Irving shines, Tatum & Brown Top 10?

Episode Date: October 22, 2022

First (3:00), Jason Timpf reacts to Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors' 128-123 loss to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. Then, (18:00) Jason discusses Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant getting their first win of the year vs. Pascal Siakam and the Toronto Raptors.  Later (28:00), he reacts to Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown taking down Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat. #Volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandu here at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an incredible week in that you have big plans for the weekend. We're going to touch on six games this morning in varying capacities. Some games I watched the whole game, other games I was only able to catch crunch time. You guys know the drill when there's that many games going on in one night. We're going to open up with the Warriors losing at home to the Denver Nuggets. And what was a fun game, Denver played extremely well. Golden State not as well

as they're capable of. Still made it close at the end. Clay Thompson had a pretty decent look at the top of the key to send the game to OT. We're going to dive into that game. Brooklyn notched a very important win at home over the Toronto Raptors to kind of change the tenor of the start of their season. Phoenix in Portland had a really entertaining overtime battle. Damien Lillard had his first great the game since coming back from injury. The Boston Celtics had an impressive win on the road in Miami against the heat that we'll touch on. The Utah Jazz go into Minnesota to go up to 2 and oh in a game that had to have felt good for a lot of people that work and or play in the Utah Jazz organization. And then Bradley Beal and DeMarta Rosen had a battle that led to the Washington Wizards

going up to 2 and O. So we're going to touch on all six of those games in some capacity. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes. 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 any show announcements. And then last but not least, if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these videos, you can always find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. So this game was all about shot making, in my opinion. Um, you know, on any given night for any given team, there's a spectrum of performances, right? Um, in every facet of the game. Like your defense can range from whatever their best version is to their worst version, right,

and everything in between. Or from a shooting perspective, some nights you make your wide open threes, some nights you don't. Some nights you rescue a bunch of possessions making tough shots. Other nights you don't. It's a make or miss league. You guys have all heard that expression before. And I think it can be used as a cop-out sometimes because I do believe that you have some control over those things. Like if you make a team feel uncomfortable from the opening tip,

I just think it's statistically less likely that they'll beat you with shot making because they'll all be uncomfortable and they'll all have, you know, a lower end of their spectrum type of shooting nights because you did a better job defending. So I don't think if you're a Warriors fan or a Warriors player, excuse me, that you can just go back to the locker and be like, ah, they made all their shots. Like, it is what it is. But at the same time, like, this was an impressive shot making performance from Denver. So obviously on the wide open shots, Denver was 8 for 15 on wide open threes.

That means defender at least six feet away. Golden State was six for 19. So obviously a little bit of shot variance there. But man, I was watching the game and it just felt like time and time again, Denver Nuggets were making massive, important shots to stymie runs or to, you know, seed or to regain momentum in the game. And a lot of them appeared to be difficult shots. and so I went into the tracking data just to check. Denver was nine for 14 in this game on tightly and very tightly guarded shots according to NBA.com. That's some impressive

shot making. You know, I didn't think either team defended exceptionally well. Like Denver in general is going to struggle guarding Golden State just because of their foot speed and quickness. Golden State, I thought from the start didn't quite have the same level of defensive intensity and ball pressure that they usually have, which like I said, will typically lead to teams feeling more comfortable in making shots. Specifically at the end of the first quarter was where this one went off the rails. And specifically, Dante DiVincenzo needs to be better guarding in ball screens, getting over the top of screens, and applying back pressure.

Because, man, Bones Highland, he went on one hell of a run to end the first quarter. He scored or assisted on 16 points in that quarter, just spamming high pick and roll. making jump shots, pull up jump shots off the dribble, finishing at the rim, making reads to shooters. Jeff Green hit a couple of big shots. And then on the other end of the floor, Jordan Poole kind of had a little bit of a rough night. He did have seven assists, but he had only seven points and had four turnovers in the game. That was how they got their early lead. And then the rest of the game was just kind of a combination of Golden State clawing back and making it a game.

And then Denver making shots and getting the lead back up. And then Golden State making a run and making it a game. and then Denver making shots and getting the game back to a point where they were comfortable. And there were a lot of players for Denver who made key shots or key plays during those runs. Like Aaron Gordon couldn't make a three in this game. I think he was 0 for 5 or 0 for 6. But man, he made some really important twos. There was like a post-up on the left block where – and I looked up the numbers just to check because I never really thought of Aaron Gordon as a successful post-up player.

And he was right around 0.9 points per possession in post-ups, which honestly isn't bad, but it's nothing exceptional either. And he hit like one of the toughest shots in basketball, which is a turnaround fadeaway for a right-handed shooter over your left shoulder because on that shot, you have to square up in mid-air, especially when you're spinning. So like you're planting your foot with your right foot behind your left foot, but you have to finish with your right-foot in front of your left foot because most right-handed shooters like to square up with their shoulder, right shoulder a little bit further forward. And he just rose up and he knocked the shot down and I'm sitting there like, man, like this is just one of those nights, I guess. Like it was just

a big time shot from Aaron Gordon to sign me a run. Contavius call will Pope just time and time again making huge plays, transition threes, attacking closeouts. I covered him when he was with the Lakers and I always referred to him as one of the best closeout attackers in the league. And there's really like, there's four things you have to be able to do to be a good close. out attacker. You have to be able to knock down spot of threes, which Contavius call what Pope does really, really well. You have to be able to be quick to the basket, meaning like if you are, like if you need to gather really well to explode to the rim, guys are going to rotate and be able to get to you. Contavius Caldwell Pope is an amazing left leg jumper. And single leg jumping is the

best way to extend out in front of you rather than slowing your momentum down to jump off of two feet. And he's just really good at either knocking down that jumper, ripping through and going all the way to finish with his right hand. He's got a one dribble pull-up that he can knock down. That's the third thing. He had a really nice one-jurble pull-up in the fourth quarter where he was in the left corner, pump-fake, rip-through, rise up at 17 feet, and he knocked it down. And then you have to be able to make reads, meaning if you rip through and the one-dribal pull-up's not there and the stuff's not there at the basket, it's swinging to the next guy in the cycle to continue that drive-and-kick. CCP is one of the best at that in the league.

And in general is just a really dependable role player. It's so funny, like, LeBron has to be missing this guy. And, you know, I knew the Russell Westbrook trade was a bad idea when it happened, but I never in a million years would have suspected that he was the third best player in that trade. And both Kyle Cousa and Candavius Cawapulte Pope are just simply better than Russell Westbroke right now, which is absolutely wild. But a really, really impressive game from him. One of the biggest things with KCP that he does super well is transition threes.

And we talked a lot about movement shooting on this show and how it's so important to be able to get your feet set and to go straight up and down when you're on the move, because the vast majority of quality looks that you'll find, especially in an NBA environment, are going to be on the move. And KCP is just really good at sprinting to the corner, catching and rising and firing on balance and knocking shots down. That was why I thought it was one of the most underrated pickups of this summer and why he's such a natural fit with Nicoliochitz. Bruce Brown was incredible in this game. He made clutch shot after clutch shot after clutch shot. He had like a spinning, fading floater that he hit in the lane over Dremont Green at the end.

He had a really nice driving layup past Steph that was heavily contested, but he just went up with power and finished at the rim. And then he hit that huge three on the left wing and that like transition pressure. possession where Nicola Yokic found him. He, between KCP and Bruce Brown, just a couple of really smart moves from the Denver front office to bring in players that naturally fit with Yokic that help raise their defensive ceiling, just really smart moves from them. And both of those guys made huge plays.

Michael Porter Jr., obviously made a lot of big shots. You just got to kind of tip the cap if you're a Golden State. Like, yeah, you didn't play good enough defensively. Dante Divencenzhenzo needs to do a better job. In general, your defensive pressure from the start of the game needs to be better to make guys feel uncomfortable. But I think Denver is the best offense in the league, and they are going to have a lot of games where they get hot and they make a lot of shots and you kind of feel helpless. One last note on Denver, there was a play where in the Helter Skelter Wild sequence at the end of the game where they got it down from 10 to 1, where they trapped Bowens Highland in the corner and he threw that hook pass.

And I think it was Jordan Poole came in and stole it and made the left. up. Right as the ball came through the net, Yokic just ran out behind the baseline and flicked a baseball pass to Bruce Brown that hit him in stride for a dunk. Just an incredible play from Yokic from the standpoint of awareness. And if you think about what that is, in a situation like that, you get the ball in, you foul. The other team's on an 11 to 2 run or whatever it was in the last minute. The crowd's going to be insane. Those are high pressure free throws that change the dynamic of the game. Instead, you were able to basically skip those free throws by making that incredible play, getting the inbounds and flicking it down the court to Bruce Brown for the dunk.

Clay's shot at the end, I saw, you know, Steve Kerr had some comments about it, and some Warriors fans didn't particularly like it. Here's the thing. You got to acknowledge time and situation. So for starters, when you're up by three, there's always a chance that they're going to foul you, especially if they feel like it's a safe spot. You know, like if you happen to catch and you don't appear to be looking for a three-point shot at that specific moment in time, the hack you quick, they send you to the line.

Now you don't even get your opportunity to tie the game. So that's always in there. Like you might not even get a chance to shoot a three. So like when you happen to catch, even if you're 30 feet away from the basket and you turn and there's nobody around to foul you, that might actually just be your best chance. So I wanted to defend that. And then also like Clay Thompson is in all time. audacity shooter.

This guy takes and makes bad shots all the time, and the Warriors have won basketball games, important basketball games, on Clay Thompson's wild shot selection many times in the past. I'll never forget, you know, you guys probably all remember the game, the game six performance against the Golden State Thunder, against the Oklahoma City Thunder. There was a play late in that game where I think Russ had a turnover on Andre Guadala. And they were, I think the game was either tied or they were down by one. And Clay ran up the right wing, and they flung a transition pass to him. And he just caught and elevated from like 27 feet on the right wing and stuck it.

And that ended up being the shot that effectively determined the outcome of that game. And in this particular game, he had just made a three on the right wing. So he's already got a little bit of a rhythm. He already feels good. He just saw one go through the net. It's a decent look. You're worried about whether or not they're going to foul. and he's Clay Thompson, man.

You got to let him be wildly confident and to take those types of shots. But yeah, entertaining basketball games, say the least. I'm never going to be worried about this particular matchup for Golden State. As far as Yokic matchups go, you can't do much better than Kavanaugh and Draymond Green. Kevin Luni in particular had a rough night guarding Yokch tonight,

but I've seen him do a really good job on Yolkits in the past, so I like that matchup. And then, man, what a, what a throwback performance from Draymond Green in that second half, making all sorts of defensive plays. This was a, I told, I talked to you guys a lot, you know, right after the Draymond Green fight incident. I talked to you guys about how there's, there's, there's this tendency with Warriors fans to focus on the negatives on the offensive end of the floor for Draymond.

And, and what I told you guys was there are good offensive. games for Dremont and there are bad offensive games for Dremont. He has to look to score a certain amount, right? Like he's got to show at least some willingness to shoot the basketball just for teams to treat him honestly, right? He needs to make smart decisions with the pass, right? He needs to crash the offensive glass. He needs to make good decisions in the short role. When he does those things, he's a very good offensive player. But then he can have nights where he's too passive and he's making mistakes with the pass. And those nights, it can be especially glaring because then you're watching Steph ride around with.

with two guys chasing him all over the place and Draymond won't shoot the basketball. Like, yeah, it gets a little frustrating in those moments. But this was a vintage Draymond Green performance, controlled the game on the defensive end of the floor. He basically ran point guard for them all night. He had nine assists with only one turnover. Just the throwback performance, really, really impressive. The last reason why I wouldn't be worried about this particular matchup for Golden State is we all know what it's going to look like when they get to the playoffs.

Like this is going to be, you know, first of all, they're running, the starters looked great in this game and they were all positive. You were leaning on some bunky lineups and some players. Like, I'm not sure Jamichael Green is going to play much when they get into the postseason. I think it's going to be a shrunken down rotation. I think it's going to be Moses Moody a lot. I think it's going to be, you know, Dante DiVincenzo because they trust him more offensively. I don't think it's going to be a lot of Jamichael Green in particular. and some of the other guys that they played in that bench group.

I don't even know how much you'll see Wiseman when you get into the postseason. And then also they're just going to spread the Denver Nuggets out, and they're just going to spam high pick and roll, and Steph is going to try to drag Yokic away from the basket and then beat him off the dribble. We've just seen this movie before. But still, that said, a very impressive win for Denver and a really nice bounceback from that disappointing season opening game against Utah Jazz. So imagine an Olympic.

where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the book. biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told,

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thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. podcast. Brooklyn, Toronto, the next five games we're going to hit on pretty quickly. This was a really tough game for Brooklyn to win. I talked about how it kind of reminded me of

the Lakers situation where it's like you get these two incredibly difficult matchups to start the season and you're a team that doesn't really know who you are yet. Brooklyn has brought in all these new players and there's a lot of negative energy surrounding the team, obviously, with the Kevin Durant trade situation. And then I've got this Lakers shit show basically for lack of a better term. and you're going against two teams that know exactly who they are, they know exactly who their best players are, they know exactly who they want to play. It's really easy to fall down 2-0,

just ask the Los Angeles Lakers. But the Brooklyn Nets shrunk down the rotation. They played all their starters big minutes. They treated this as a must-win. They leaned heavily on the stars. Kyrie Irving played 41 minutes, and they still got punched in the mouth, several times by Toronto,

gave up lead several times, but each time they responded. Kyrie Irving in particular was magnificent. Obviously, a lot of your classic Kyrie Irving shot making ridiculous pull-up jump shots off the dribble. He got his three-point shot going. I talked to you guys about how in the opening night game, he had 10 looks that were classified as open or wide open, and he only made two of them. His shot quality was good. If he continues to get that kind of shot quality in their offense, he's going to make him.

Well, he ended up making them last night. But he also passed the basketball extremely well. I had seven assists in this game. And then KD had an okay game shooting the basketball, but he ended up making the biggest one that pull up three at the top of the key that ended up being effectively the dagger that ended that game. You know, I talked a lot about how for the Lakers, you know, I still believe in what they can do as long as LeBron and AD are great, right? Like, yes, I want them to make a Russell Westbrook trade to bring in more shooting and some more, you know, offensive skill from the role players, right? but the reality is, is even with this current roster, if LeBron James and Anthony Davis play like top 10 players,

then they're going to win a lot of basketball games still. Here's the problem. AD played like a top 10 player in the first half against Golden State, and then he was pretty bad in the second half against Golden State, and then he was pretty bad in the first half against the Clippers, and then he was pretty bad in the second half against the Clippers. I know he had 25 points and eight rebounds, but AD gets a lot of garbage buckets just as a product of their offense,

but in general he was doing a poor job screening and rolling to the basket. He got absolutely bullied by Zubots on the offensive glass. He settled for a lot of bad mid-range jump shots that he missed. Like in general, just wasn't a great game. And then LeBron was fantastic in the first game, but was great as a passer in the second game, but his pull-up jump shot failed him. He only had 20 points in the second game.

So at best I'm getting like, LeBron's playing like a fringe top 10 player right now, and Anthony Davis is playing like a top 20 player right now. That's not going to be enough when the tail end of the roster is as weak as it is. Brooklyn's in a similar predicament. They don't have, you know, some of their lineups lack shooting. You're playing Ben Simmons and Nick Claxton. It's a little bit of an imperfect set of role players, right?

And we talked a lot about how their toughness was in question after getting absolutely bullied by the New Orleans Pelicans. They have some similar issues. I think Brooklyn's a lot more talented than the Lakers. but some similar issues there. The difference is when last night, when KD and Kairi both played to the top of their ability, they were able to overcome that.

Kyrie played like Kyrie Irving, the real Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant played pretty damn good, not great by his standards, but pretty damn good, made timely shots, and they got a win. Like, at the end of the day, like, I don't know, I don't know that LeBron and AD can be too critical

of their supporting cast at this point, when they're just not playing good enough yet. They have to play better. At the end of the day, if you end up losing that game, if you're Brooklyn, at least you can look in the mirror and say, hey, like, our guys played well,

we just need to play better around them, right? Like, control what you can control. Kyrie and KD, regardless of what's going on with the roster, you're two of the best players in the world. You need to play like that to give yourself a chance to win, and LeBron and AD need to get that memo, particularly Anthony Davis. One note on Toronto,

Scotty Barnes was incredible in this game. He was jawing back and forth with K.D. I love his competitiveness. You saw this a lot over the summer when he was playing pickup, just going at everybody in the league. But he's got like a lot of attitude, and I really like that.

O.G. and Obie, Pascal Seaccombe, and Scotty Barnes combined for 64 points in this game. That's going to be something to keep. an eye on for Brooklyn, just their ability to defend the bigger, stronger wings that can shoot over the top, particularly Pascal Seacum in this game, which is time and time just going over the top of the defense to knock down shots. All right, Phoenix Portland. Portland was clinging. I watched just the end of this game, about halfway through the fourth quarter through the overtime. Portland was clinging on for dear life against the Aiton pick and roll down the stretch of that game.

They were giving up switches way too easily, and then you kept ending up with like Damien, Lillard or Anthony Simons guarding Aiton down low in the post and they'd immediately dump it down there and score. They tried a bunch of different things to try to get away from that. They put, they tried putting Jeremy Grant on Chris Paul so they could just switch it, but then Chris Paul just rejected the screen once and went right by Jeremy Grant all the way to the basket for a layup. Their best success trying to stop that Phoenix pick and roll was actually going to zone, which they were only able to do out of stoppages, but the two times I saw them do it, they got to stop. And then the second time, there was a foul call on McHale Bridges, the one where he went to the

line to get it to 102 to tie because he went one for two, which I didn't actually necessarily think was a foul. So that was an interesting kind of mix up from them defensively to try to stop that eight and pick and roll. Dame Lillard finally had a great game coming back from the abdominal injury, 41. But he got kind of, he kind of cooled off towards the end. the game and he needed someone else to make shots and there was Anthony Simons he made a huge three on the right wing and then that hook shot over mcale bridges like man like with with the angle that he had driving through the middle and the defense angle that mckell bridges took to get to that ball and mcale elevated off his off of his right foot and tried to meet him at the spot with

his left hand on a contest the only way he's getting that shot off is by going with that high hook which is a damn near impossible shot, and he stuck it. It's kind of like shaping up to be an interesting team because you've got Nurkich, and then they leaned on a lot of Josh Hart and Jeremy Grant at the end, basically doing the dirty work on both ends of the floor, although Jeremy Grant is capable offensively, and then you're leaning on a steady diet of Dame and Anthony Simons to make plays offensively. It's kind of an interesting team, a good start for them.

Devin Booker made three really solid plays at the end of this game that didn't go his way. So you've got to be feeling good if you're a Phoenix. He missed his last three possessions of the game for Phoenix. He missed a pull-up jump shot at the free throw line that was just barely short. That was a great look for him. Then he drove on the right wing to the baseline, got all the way into the paint, and barely missed a short floater. And then on the last play of the game, he made a really nice read to D'Andre Aiton, who got fouled.

and should have gone to the line to make both free throws and send that game to O.T and he just missed them. So this is a great late game execution team in Phoenix. They did execute very well at the end of the game. You got to live with the results, though, in a make or miss league. Devin Booker missed two shots that I think the pull-up jumpers, the kind of look that he got on that shot's about a 50% look for him. And then that floater that he missed, that's about a 70% look for him. And then obviously Aiton is a good free throw shooter who more often than not is going to make those gross. So good, just you got to understand an 82 game season, you're going to have some games that don't go your way. This one didn't go your way. Portland is eighth in defense so far.

That's impressive, so they're competing. And say what you want about Sacramento, they are a good offensive team. So they've played two good offensive teams and have done a good job defending so far. Damon's, Damon and Anthony Simons both look great. And then for Phoenix, you know, for all the drama for all the stuff I've said about how bad Aiton looked defensively in preseason, they look pretty solid through two games. Damien Lee in particular has been a great pickup for them. In both games that I've watched Phoenix play, he's been everywhere making plays as a supporting player, like contested rebounds, spot up shooting.

He made another huge left corner three at the end of this game. Just running the floor in transition, just getting his nose and his chin in the in the right spots and help defense. Just really good basketball from Damian Lee. I really like his fit there. CP3, that's the one thing that would concern me if I'm Phoenix right now is he's been completely ineffective as a score so far through two games. Really quick touch on Boston, Miami. I had this game on a second screen, and I was just kind of periodically checking on it. Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown combined for 57. So back-to-back, outstanding games to start the season for both guys. I've said frequently, if the two of them play, like top 10 players,

then they are the best team in this league. It's just they're typically not consistent enough, but they're, hey, they're two for two into the season. Boston has the number one offense here in the early going. Miami's offense on the other end, not going well. I believe they're 24th. They really messed up this summer by not getting more aggressive, trying to bring in a little bit more offensive talent.

I would have moved mountains to try to get Donovan Mitchell. I even read a report the other day. that Donovan was working out in Miami under the impression that he might be going there. So that seems kind of like a missed opportunity. Utah, Minnesota. So first of all, Minnesota's 15th in defense early on with Rudy Gobert against two teams that are, you know, talented but limited in talent relative to the rest of the league, right? The OKC Thunder in the Utah Jazz, maybe that's playing down to your competition,

but definitely not great so far. It really comes down to covering ground on the perimeter with Rudy Gobert and Carl Anthony Towns on the floor at the same time. Specifically, it was Kelly Olinick that was giving them issues tonight just in terms of the geometry of the floor because they kept tucking him away at the three-point line. And now Carl Towns is like his natural instinct

is to get sucked into the paint to help because he's been playing big his whole life. But then they kept making him pay. Kelly made five threes in this game. In the Utah Jazz, specifically because Lori Marketing can shoot so well, and because Kelly O'Nitt can shoot so well, and because, you know, I'm blinking on his name right now, the big Ford that plays for them. It'll come to me in a second. Anyway, but he's super active and athletic, so he's a little bit more different than your typical

lumbering big man that's hanging out in the dunker spot all game long. But they space you out, and when Jordan Clarkson is shooting the way he is, give you seven for 12 from three in this game. Mike Conley was shooting the way that he was. You've got these two huge big, big forwards in Olinick and Markinan that can shoot the shit out of the basketball. And then I've got these two guards that are knocking down all these pull-up jump shots. And then I've got, that's killing me that I can't think of his name, the big forward that's running around making all these plays. They're just, they're going to, they're going to beat you if you don't bring your A game. That's just the reality of the situation.

And Minnesota played the fire all night long, and they ended up getting burned. Lori Markinen in particular was so impressive in this game. He had a shot at the end of regulation where he did a move on Rudy Gobert on the right wing. And when he made the move, Rudy's left foot slipped out from underneath him, and he came this close to falling down. And he left the shot just barely short. And man, would that have been an embarrassing end to that particular. game for Rita Gobert to get crossed up by one of the trade pieces from the tanking jazz to nail a shot in his face to win the game. But hey, it came around at the end of overtime. He made a really

nice fadeaway jump shot on the left elbow that he left just barely short, but he ended up getting the bounce. Lori Markinen, he's huge. He can move and he can shoot. And that makes him a super interesting player. I wanted the Lakers to try to get him shortly after the Donovan Mitchell trade, but then it became quickly apparent that Danny Aange wanted to keep him, and I don't blame him. He's a really, really interesting young basketball player. Look, Utah is not going to be an easy win. It's going to be a tough matchup, especially early in the season before Danny Aange decides to sell these players off. It's going to be tough to beat them. You're going to have to bring your A game. you're going to have to treat them as though they are a playoff type of team,

because if you don't, they've got the right types of pieces to burn you. The Lakers have them on the schedule twice here in the next couple of weeks, and at this point in the year when they still are playing all their guys, again, it's not going to be easy. So Lakers might have some trouble on their hands there. The Bulls and the Wizards just saw the very end of this game. Bradley Beale and DeMarder Rosen had a really fun battle. Bradley Beale, at the end of the game, attacking the ring.

rim. A really nice finish getting into Vucevich's body at the rim. And then there was a driving floater that he hit right before, the one that ended up actually being the effective game winner. De Mard Rosen pulled up a late three up on the right wing and it went in and out. Could have gone either way. Two and O for the Wizards to start the year. If you remember, they were really good last year before everyone got hurt. I say really good. They were a solid, you know, like lower seed playoff type of team last year before everyone got hurt. It's a simple formula. You've got a really good player leading the way in Bradley Beal who's willing to pass the basketball. He had another really good playmaking game last night was very conservative with his shot selection. And then you just got

a bunch of good role players around him. You know, Kyle Kuzma played amazing last night. I'm a huge fan of Rui Hachamura. He's one of my favorite young players in the league, just a gigantic wing that can make plays. Fun Wizards team. Again, they're not going to make any real noise. But anytime you surround, one of the themes of this day, as we learned from the Denver Nuggets earlier, anytime you surround a star player with good role players, you're going to be competitive because role players are more important than ever in the modern NBA.

You need them to capitalize on attention thrown at your stars. Aggregate offensive skill set down lineups is immensely important. And the Wizards just have a lot of really good role players on the team. So they're going to be interesting throughout the season. So, all right, that's all I have for tonight, guys. You can all roast me in the comments for forgetting who that forward is that plays for the, it's killing me. I keep wanting to say Jaden McDaniels, but that's the other guy who played for the,

oh, it's killing me. It's the other guy who played for Minnesota last year. All right, so here's the plan for this weekend. The Warriors and Lakers both play on Sunday. we're going to be covering both of those games on Jared Vanderbilt. Yes. Finally got it. All right.

We're going to be covering all of Sunday nights games on Monday morning, kind of similar to what we did today. And then we're doing a live show on Tuesday night and a live show on Wednesday night. Sometime maybe on Monday I'll update you guys on the schedule for the rest of the week. All right. That's all I have. I sincerely appreciate your guys' support and I'll see you on Monday. The volume. podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite.

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