The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Steph Gets 4,000 Threes + Lakers Lose To Bucks Despite Luka’s Big game

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

Jason breaks down the Golden State Warriors getting another win against the Sacramento Kings in a game where Steph Curry became the first NBA player to reach 4,000 made 3-pointers and Jonathan Kuminga... returned to pair alongside Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green. Then he discusses the Los Angeles Lakers losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in a game LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, and Jaxson Hayes all missed. He breaks down Luka Doncic having a big game and how Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and Brook Lopez were too much for LA to handle. Timeline 4:00 - Start 5:00 - Warriors/Kings reaction 24:15 - Lakers/Bucks reaction (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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.
Starting point is 00:00:12 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.
Starting point is 00:00:30 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.
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Starting point is 00:03:25 Voided in Ontario. bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.c.c-o-slash-B-Ball. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope all of you guys have had a great end to your week. Got a quick show for you guys today.
Starting point is 00:03:53 We're just hitting the TNT slate from last night. The Golden State Warriors blow out the Kings at home. Jonathan Cominga makes his debut back with the team. I thought he was fantastic. We're going to talk a little bit about that. Then at the tail end of the show, the Los Angeles Lakers go on the road without their starting three, four, or five against the Milwaukee bucks. And it goes about as you would expect as the bucks blow them out. I have some thoughts about the coverages and the way that Milwaukee beat them.
Starting point is 00:04:17 And then a couple of big picture thoughts about the Lakers. You guys know the Joe before we 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 your rating and a review on that front. and don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're releasing content throughout the year.
Starting point is 00:04:38 And then last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so that we can get to them throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So one of the most important things that I talk about in these shows is the idea of, like, game planning and how you can defeat a specific game plan. I talk to these kinds of shots as like coverage beaters, right? And the Kings went with a defensive game plan against Steph that is, somewhat common around the league.
Starting point is 00:05:04 It's a coverage the Lakers used on the Warriors in the 2020s playoffs. It's a coverage the Warriors have seen from other teams around the league, and it's almost certainly going to be a coverage. The Warriors will have to beat if they make a deep playoff run at some point this year. And that is top locking Steph. What that means is essentially constantly positioning your body as the on-ball defender with Steph with your back towards the ball.
Starting point is 00:05:28 So they can't ever cut towards the ball. This is going to force him to cut through to the opposite side. And then in those situations, they were just constantly ignoring whichever non-shooter they saw as an opportunity to help off the floor, whether that's Draymond Green early in the game with Jonas Valichunis, or it's Kavanaugh-Ludy helping off, or it's Gary Payton the second helping off of him. They were just packing the paint and top-locking stuff, forcing him to back cut into all of that traffic. And so as a result, like, as we talk about all the time, every game plan, especially game plans that target superstar talent, are going to require you to give something up to take something away. And so if you're going to deny Steph catches and not
Starting point is 00:06:12 let him run up to the ball by forcing him to back cut into traffic, you're going to have to help off of guys like Draymond and Gary Payton. They're going to be wide open. And they just made Sacramento pay again, again and again in this game. Gary Payton and Draymond Green goes seven for 11 from three. The Warriors as a team generated 13 unguarded catch and shoot jump shots in this game. Six of those were concession threes to Gary Payton and Draymond. Five of them were against the guys on the Warriors that are a different kind of game plan where it's like we're willing to help off this guy. We're not deliberately leaving him open, but we'll help and try to recover with a late contest.
Starting point is 00:06:51 These five threes were for Quentin Post, Moses, Moody, and Guy Santos. Those guys went three for five on those shots as well. So they just consistently knocked down shots to make Sacramento pay for the coverage that they used against Steph Curry. So the result was the Kings held Steph to just nine shot attempts in only 11 points. But the Warriors hung 130 points on them and basically controlled the game throughout. And so you did your job of slowing down Steph, I guess, but the Warriors lit you on fire and you lost. So the game plan backfired on the Sacramento Kings. On defense, I thought Moses Moody really set the tone with his ball pressure on Malik Monk.
Starting point is 00:07:32 He was in his jersey the second he crossed half court, bumping him with his chest, reaching and doing everything he could to disrupt his rhythm and make him feel uncomfortable and make him feel rushed. He only got credit for two steals in the game, but he forced several turnovers and bad decisions just by rushing Monk into traffic. I talk about this concept a lot, but when you ball pressure out far from the basket, the only way to really beat it is to drive, to basically, basically use that aggression as the defender gets out of position to go downhill. It actually turns into a way as a defense for you to control dribble penetration, to essentially have dribble penetration happen on your terms, right,
Starting point is 00:08:09 so that you can have a better plan for it. Okay, like, we're going to have Moses pressure the ball, try to send him towards the sideline, we have a plan for that there. And then what ends up happening is when a guy has to fly downhill against ball pressure and he ends up getting into traffic, he's rushed, he's out of control, that's when you start making mistakes. And, you know, one of the second pieces that you'll see outside of one-on-one situations is ball screen coverages, right?
Starting point is 00:08:37 And one of the things I always talk about in ball screen coverages is a bracket, the idea of the on-ball defender chasing over the top and applying back pressure, while the screen defender or the big man is applying pressure on the ball handler in his drop coverage, whether it's a high drop or a deeper drop, but meeting the ball handler on the other side of the screen. When that bracket is loose, meaning the on-ball defender is getting screened and getting separated from the on-ball offensive player
Starting point is 00:09:05 and the screen defender is too far back, the bracket is loose. There's space to operate there. Ball handlers can get comfortable and they can start making plays. But when you stay attached and you apply that back pressure and you have them bracketed on the other side, even though you're technically putting two on the ball, you're putting two on the ball against a driest,
Starting point is 00:09:25 driver that now has to get the ball out against a bunch of active hands. And I thought they were excellent in their bracket coverages all night long. Moses Moody, more of the same, both with Malik Monke. He also spent a good amount of time on Zach Levine in this game, doing some great work there. Gary Payton, the second spent time on both guys did really great work. The screen defenders, Looney, even Quentin Post, who's, you know, had some uneven results on defense this year. I thought he was really good on defense in this game. Dremont Green, one of the best in the business at it. they were bracketing those guys, making them get rid of the ball and forcing a lot of turnovers in those situations. Malik Monk goes three for 13 from the field with four
Starting point is 00:10:04 turnovers. They held Zach Levine to just six shot attempts in five turnovers. Now, Jimmy started on Levine, but like I said, Moody spent a bunch of time there as well. It was kind of a weird Levine game because he was uninvolved a lot where like he's just standing in the quarter while Malik Monk and DeMartar Rosen go to work. By the way, that's kind of the diminishing returns effect that you get when you build your team around three kind of redundant ball handlers is it's the Bradley Beal problem right you start having that guy just stand around and suddenly some of his top end offensive talent is being wasted and you're not getting the other stuff that's why I think this sort of team build is so flawed but Zach Levine was pretty uninvolved for a good
Starting point is 00:10:43 portion of this game when he did get the basketball that same sort of bracket the he had a turnover against the bracket coverage when quentin post got a deflection on it him, couldn't post force him into another miss at the rim where the warrior successfully funneled him into their size. They just strangled all of the king's shot creators except for DeMar de Rosen, who was fantastic in this game. And DeMars just, you know, one of the legendary tight space scores in NBA history, right? And so, like, he's going to have his success. But they completely neutralized Malik Monk and Zach Levine and ended up being more than enough to slow down the kings. they ended up holding the Kings down to 104 points in this game.
Starting point is 00:11:24 They won the non-steff minutes by 11. They're really starting to learn how to like configure their off ball spacing around Jimmy's. He gets a lot of these like face-up ISOs that are between like the elbow and the short corner on one side of the floor. And one of the things they'll do is like a lot of teams will end up strong side zoning or having a help defender come over to be right behind the defender guarding Jimmy. And so there's cutting opportunities. And one of the things they do, they ended up getting a lot of. layup for Draymond Green out of this in the second half. They'll have a guy flash to the front of the rim, right, like kind of like right outside the charge circle calling for the ball. And then
Starting point is 00:12:01 they'll have another guy position himself in the dunker spot. And so essentially, there's two cutters that are right there around the basket. And so that help defender ends up having to pick one or the other. And then there's an easy little pass for Jimmy Butler to make. He just hit Jonathan Caminga flashing into the front of the rim, drop off pass to Draymond Green as the zoned up defender ends up sliding over to Kaminga. Easy layup for Draymond Green. They ended up looking really good again in the non-steff minutes. And we had our return of Jonathan Kaminga.
Starting point is 00:12:28 He goes for 18 points, almost entirely in the flow of the offense. His first three buckets were ISO stuff, but they were against good matchups for him. All of them against smaller Kings guards. He gets Malik Monk in a transition cross match. Just immediately just goes right through him to the front of the room and gets a layup. He runs an inverted ball screen with stead. where Steph sets a screen for him. This is a very common action.
Starting point is 00:12:51 You'll see not just with Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kaminga, but even in the past with Andrew Wiggins, right? They want to do that because Steph's man doesn't want to help. Well, they ended up switching this one. It put Keon Ellis against Jonathan Kaminga in some space in the middle of the floor. What did he do? He went right through him and got to the rim. And then in the third quarter, his third bucket,
Starting point is 00:13:10 he ends up beating Zach Levine one-on-one. Zach Levine's giving up a lot of size and weight in that particular matchup. But the rest of his buckets were just classic. Jonathan Cominga, like, I see a runway and I'm going to the front of the rim type of buckets. When you give a good athlete a runway, a long stretch for him to get his momentum going and take off, he can destroy teams above the rim. And here's the thing, like, Jonathan Camingga is not the best read and react player I've ever seen, and that's been some of his issues in Golden State's offense from time to time, but he is very good at reading and reacting to those runways.
Starting point is 00:13:45 when he sees his man step up into help and he sees a bunch of real estate between him and the rim without any players in front, he has a very quick reaction to that and he will just shoot to the front of the rim and get a lot of easy stuff there. That is an area in his read and react game where he's actually very strong. His fourth bucket, a near turnover out by half court, chaos, leads to a five on three. What does comminga do? He just turns and runs to the front of the rim. He ends up catching a and getting an easy layup. His fifth bucket was the textbook Steph Curry Blitz sequence. Steph Curry ball screen out by the right wing.
Starting point is 00:14:24 There's a blitz. The ball gets popped over the top. Malik Munk is the low man guarding Jonathan Kaminga. The very second that Malik Munk steps over, Kaminga just shoots along the baseline. He ends up getting that crazy windmill dunk under the rim. His sixth bucket, same sort of thing, throws an inbound pass to Moses Moody in the corner.
Starting point is 00:14:47 His man, Jake Laravia, steps over, like kind of lunges over to try to deny the catch to Moses Moody. It triggers something in Cominga. He immediately just cuts to the front of the rim because he sees his man leave and there's a runway. Easy drop-off pass over the top, another dunk. And then his seventh bucket was a designed play. This is a play that is known around the league as Finland. It's basically just a back screen from a shooter backscreening for an athlete, then coming off of a dribble handoff at the top of the key.
Starting point is 00:15:16 Dremont has the ball up on the left wing. Steph backscreens for Kaminga. Now the way that play would normally work is Steph would then come flying off of Dremont for the dribble handoff. The way it usually works is Steph's man has to drop back to help on the back screen. As he helps on the back screen, that creates separation between Steph and his defender or forces a switch. If there's separation, he can sprint off. and now he has separation coming off the dribble handoff.
Starting point is 00:15:45 If there's a switch, the other defender is standing still, and now Steph can sprint past him and hopefully get some extra separation as he comes off of the dribble handoff. But they didn't even get that far in the sequence, because Kegan Murray had no interest in helping off of Steph. So when Steph set the back screen, another runway appeared for Jonathan Kamingo right to the front of the rim, Draymond throws him a perfect pass, and he gets a lob dunk.
Starting point is 00:16:09 easy dunks, easy layups, easy matchup opportunities, a lot of stuff in there that's pretty exciting. Three things stood out to me from the Jonathan Caminga debut with the news squad that I think are really exciting for Warriors fans. One, he's going to get a lot of those runways playing alongside Jimmy, Steph, and Dremont. They are excellent read and react players. They are going to trigger those help sequences that open up those runways that Comingo is good at quickly identifying and taking advantage of,
Starting point is 00:16:41 and he's just such a useful play finisher in those situations. Two, he's going to get a lot of favorable matchups playing alongside Jimmy Butler. I've talked about this with the Lakers before, with like LeBron and Rui in the past or LeBron Anthony Davis and Rui, and even now with Luca, when you have multiple big forwards who can punish smalls, the defense kind of runs out of guys who can guard them. opponents are going to put their best forward defender on Jimmy Butler. Caminga used to get that matchup when he was on the floor in the past.
Starting point is 00:17:12 Now it's Jimmy. He's going to get a lot more of the second best forward defender on the floor, which is usually going to be completely physically overmatched against Jonathan Camingga. And then three, we talked a lot in the mailbag yesterday about the idea that Jonathan Caminga is a player who's going to be capable of doing more than the Warriors actually need from him. in this role on this team with real championship aspirations. And there was some question marks surrounding Will Cominga embrace that? I thought last night was a resounding statement from him that he's willing to do that type of role
Starting point is 00:17:47 for this team. It's not easy for a player of his talent level coming into a team that is so well established without him to just kind of seamlessly fit in in the flow. I didn't think he took a single bad shot. He took one three that was kind of like a hand grenade that Jimmy tossed him with two seconds. on the shot clock. Every single other one of his nine shot attempts were either a substantial size advantage or made sense for him to attack in space or with a runway to the rim where he's going to finish it 100% of the time. I just thought he played smart basketball, which allowed
Starting point is 00:18:20 him to function as what he can be for this team, which is a ceiling razor. Warriors keep rolling. They have three tougher games coming up against the Knicks, the Bucks, and the Nuggets, but they're all at home. They're a big physical team. So this will help us learn specifically about Golden State's ability to handle some of these bigger, more physical matchups. I'll be excited to see how those games turn out. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news.
Starting point is 00:18:47 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.
Starting point is 00:19:00 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 we were thinking I'm originally calling it One of the early names of our band Before Jonas Brothers
Starting point is 00:19:18 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 For 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
Starting point is 00:19:34 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 s nl late night comedy guy not quite on humor me with robert smigel and friends me and hilarious guests from bob odenkirk to david letterman help make you funnier this week my guess s nl's mikey day and head writer streeter sidel help an acapella band with their between songs banter where does your group perform we do some retirement homes those people 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.
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Starting point is 00:20:41 Listen, Lena Rubakina 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.
Starting point is 00:21:04 Imagine an Olympics 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.
Starting point is 00:21:24 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. All right, let's move on to Lakers' Bucks. We talked earlier in the show about the concept of coverage beaters. This game is another excellent example of that concept. J.J. Reddick went with a very aggressive game plan against Janus and Dame to try to get this game in the win column for the Lakers.
Starting point is 00:22:01 He went with a Yokic-esque strategy against Janus, trying to front him, deny him catches wherever he wanted them, strong side zoning him if he did catch. Like if he did catch, they just peel off, funnel him towards the sideline and bring that help on that baseline side right outside the block. that obviously left a lot of skip passes open. In the Dame ball screens with Brooke Lopez, he just had Alex Len drop back in and focus on Dame
Starting point is 00:22:28 and basically concede the pick and pop three to Brooke Lopez. And so as a result, there were a lot of open threes available to Milwaukee if they just made simple reads. Kickbacks to Brooke Lopez in the pick and pop. Basically anything skipped to the weak side from the Janus actions. And then I thought the Lakers kind of exacerbated the problem. by not being very sharp off the ball.
Starting point is 00:22:49 Luca and Austin in particular, Gabe had some bad reps and Dalton had some bad reps too, but on the weak side of guys just like being glued to the floor, kind of in no man's land where they're not really helping on the ball, but they're also not guarding a shooter, a step slow to get out of that help side position into a close-out to the weak side, not being ready for the skip pass, turning what should have been like moderately contested catch-and-shoot threes into kind of like easy, comfortable catch-and-shoot threes.
Starting point is 00:23:16 and by the way, JJ's clearly bothered by these details. He's talking about execution a lot. He's understanding of the injuries, but he knows this team isn't going anywhere unless they defend. And even with the personnel weaknesses, there has been some slippage in their defensive rotations. And I thought it showed up yesterday. I like that JJ is using this circumstance
Starting point is 00:23:35 as an opportunity to hammer those points home. But again, anyway, the result was just a bunch of really great three-point looks for Milwaukee, and they just knocked him down. Brooke Lopez went three for four from three. Gary Trent hit four threes. Kevin Porter Jr. First time since returning to the NBA, he hit more than three threes in a game.
Starting point is 00:23:53 He hit five of them in this game. As a team, they end up hitting 43% on 40 attempts. They were better from three, but they were also better at the rim. They made as many shots in the restricted area as the Lakers attempted, and they ended up winning comfortably. Now, Luca had an insane shot-making game.
Starting point is 00:24:10 This is something I've talked a lot about as Luca has struggled with shot-making, and it's inevitable that he, will eventually break through and he did. And I thought this was a good matchup. Like Milwaukee really has no hope of guarding a player like Luca. They don't have anybody that can even make him uncomfortable on the ball. I actually looked at this game as the one game in this back-to-back that LA could win.
Starting point is 00:24:31 Just because Luca was always going to be successful against this defense, because they run traditional coverages instead of switching and because Torian and Kyle Kuzma can't make Luca uncomfortable. So I thought if Luca was awesome and if Milwaukee shot poorly that the Lakers would have a chance to steal this one, but Milwaukee ended up shooting very well and it was all for not, right? But yeah, Luca went on some scoring runs and he kept things close a couple of times, but the outcome was never truly in doubt. And after going up seven to five in the opening minutes, the Bucks never trailed the rest of the game.
Starting point is 00:25:06 I wanted to shout out Brooke Lopez. I thought this was one of Brooks' best games this season on both ends of the floor. We talked about his shooting in pick and pop as a coverage beater. He was also beating a couple of switches in the post against the Lakers switching looks. I thought he was phenomenal on defense in this game, super active in a rotation. He blocked a three-point shot in this game. He had 23 points, four blocks and a steel. I thought he was excellent.
Starting point is 00:25:29 And the hospital Lakers ended up being a nice way for the Bucks to bounce back from their three-game losing streak. On the Lakers front, I don't see much point at all at overreacting to any of this. it's the same thing I've been saying during the losing streak. It's just, there's just a lot of injuries. And dealing with injuries is one thing, but when they're all in one specific position group, it's just hard to overcome. Like, all their guards are healthy, but the entire starting 3, 4, 5 is out. So, like, that would be difficult to manage under any circumstances, but it's impossible
Starting point is 00:25:58 to manage against Janus and Tenacupo and Brooke Lopez. It's just a really bad matchup. I did think there was some sloppy execution stuff like I talked about on the defensive end of the floor. I love that JJ Reddick is using it as an. opportunity to hammer on some points with his team. But you could literally tell like Austin and Luca in particular, we're just kind of conserving energy and going through the motions and their defensive rotations. They know they were overmatched. You could read it in their body language.
Starting point is 00:26:25 They just didn't see the point in doing it tonight. And again, it's not a big deal, but I am glad that JJ's harping on it because they can be much better and they're going to need to be much better in those rotations for them to have a chance to get to where they want to go. I would punt the Denver game tomorrow. You're not going to be able to win it. And with Luca's back soreness that he's been dealing with or back spasms or whatever and with Austin's calf, like, here's the thing, if Austin's feeling good, if he's like, coach, I'm good, I'm ready to go. I want to get another game in just as I continue to build my rhythm. That's fine. I'm cool with that. But if he's hurting at all, I'd sit him. I'd sit Luca to give him a day off. The next back to back
Starting point is 00:27:05 is much more winnable. You're at home for Phoenix and San Antonio. San Antonio. San Antonio. Antonio just shut down Deeran Fox for the season. So you should be able to win that game. And if at least one of Jackson or Rui come back, I think they'll have the horses to beat the sons at home. So like you could bounce back and win those two and make up some of the ground that you just lost. And who knows, maybe you can get LeBron back for the Denver Milwaukee back to back that they have at the tail end of this. And maybe you can start to make up some ground. LeBron, if he came back for the third back-to-back in the sequence, that would give him 11 full days off between the Celtics game and that game on the 20th. So it's like one of those things we're like, if LeBron comes back, I think it's on the table that they could get out of this six game and eight game stretch or six game and eight night stretch at four and two, which would be like a huge win for them.
Starting point is 00:27:57 If they sit LeBron for the whole thing, I think three and three is probably the best they can hope for and two and four might. might be on the table there. So it's going to be tough. But again, I'm not worried about it in the big picture. It's far more important for LeBron to be healthy. And this back-to-back was just going to be a really tough one, no matter what, on the road. Last thing I have to say,
Starting point is 00:28:19 the Lakers have had a 120 defensive rating in the two games since LeBron left the lineup. And that was against the 27th ranked offense in Brooklyn and the 14th ranked offense in Milwaukee. It's just amazing how important LeBron has. suddenly become for this team defensively. Ever since AD went out, LeBron is made up for it by basically becoming the Draymond Green of this team.
Starting point is 00:28:43 Communicating coverages, identifying the actions the other team is running, flying around in rotation, cleaning up the defensive glass. He's been doing so much to help unlock the defensive ceiling of this team, which, by the way, like just a shout out to him in terms of his versatility. This is a card he has not pulled. basically since 2021, 2020, in that couple of seasons. This is a role that he's seen as kind of an inefficient use of his energy resources
Starting point is 00:29:13 playing alongside Anthony Davis. He's been focusing more on the offensive end. In this build, what a luxury to have a player that can be like, oh, you need Draymond? Sure, I'll be your Draymond. And literally has anchored one of the best defenses in the league without Anthony Davis. And I think watching the Laker defense kind of fall apart without him. And again, it's not just him being without Rui and being without Jackson makes it hard too. But they still have Dorian Finney Smith.
Starting point is 00:29:37 They still have Gabe Vincent. They still have Jared Vanderbilt. And they've really struggled to get stops. And I think it's just a testament to the work that LeBron has done over the course of the last few weeks, last few months, I should say, on the defensive backline. And most importantly, he's going to have to do that job for them to get to where they want to go in the playoffs. So it's probably good that he's getting a little break for his body to be ready. for the home stretch. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely
Starting point is 00:30:03 appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. Taking the weekend off, we'll be back on Monday with our usual kind of sequence as we work through the week next week. I'll see you guys then. 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 out. We get to ask, other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.
Starting point is 00:30:42 Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?
Starting point is 00:31:09 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. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season.
Starting point is 00:31:29 And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hiring. You just understand. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to her, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.
Starting point is 00:31:43 This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, and on my new podcast, How Hard Can It Be? I call on my Gen X squad from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. Unfiltered conversations from night sweats to futas to scheduling sacks. Wait. What sex? Is it just me or does every woman my age want to look at Pinterest instead of having sex sometimes?
Starting point is 00:32:12 They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.

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