The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Warriors Go Up 3-1 On Rockets + Cavs Offensive Juggernaut

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

Jason reacts to the Golden State Warriors getting a clutch win to take a 3-1 lead on the Houston Rockets. He discusses Steph Curry’s performance, Draymond Green’s foul trouble, Jimmy Butler’s return, and Brandin Podziemski’s great game on the Dubs side + Fred Van Vleet and Alperen Sengun leading the way for the Rockets. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

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

Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the moment and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The volume.

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responsible gaming resources, see dkng.c.c.com slash audio. right here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great start to your week. Got a jam-pack show for you guys tonight. Tonight we're going to be hitting that absolutely wild game four between the Warriors and the Rockets. After that, I want to do a dive into the Cleveland Cavaliers offense, which hung a ridiculous 118 offensive rating in the half court versus the Miami

heap in the first round. I'm starting to have some big picture thoughts about them that we're going to get to. And then at the tail end of the show, like we always do, we're going to take some questions from the chat. So stick around for the end and we can bounce around to some of these other series around the league or any follow-up questions you got. I really like when you guys use the chat questions as an opportunity to bring up specific parts of series that I may not get to in the instant reaction. You guys know the drill 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 for you wherever get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that. front. We also have our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where we're making content throughout the year. Make sure you guys follow us there. And then last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions and YouTube comments so we can get to them throughout the remainder of the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So super weird game. Insanely physical,

very contentious early. I thought the first scuffle was super dumb. Like, I thought Dreymond said a perfectly legal playoff screen. Like, I've talked about how the Warriors said a shit ton of illegal screens. That wasn't one of them. I thought he was set. I thought. I thought he leaned into it a little bit, but that's pretty standard for a good hard playoff screen. And I meant Thompson just got caught off guard by. He got knocked over. Dylan Brooks fouls Steph. Steph falls over.

Steph just points up to him like, hey, buddy, you just gave me two free throws. And I thought Dylan kind of initiated that by reaching down to try to grab the basketball from him as Draymond was helping him up. And I thought the technical specifically on Draymond in that situation was really dumb. And that ended up putting the refs into a tough spot on the next sequence. on the Tar Easton play, you bet your ass, Dream on Green deserved a technical as he was like grabbing his leg and tried to suplex him on the middle of the floor.

And that put the refs in a really tough spot. But I actually thought the refs handled it pretty well by giving him a flagrant instead of giving him a tech because Draymond did not deserve to be ejected there because the first tech was bogus. But both Draymond and Steph were just a bit off their game tonight. I thought Steph showed his first signs of some wear and tear in this series. Like he was struggling to get open.

He had three jump shots that he left way. short, like way short off the front of the rim, that is a strong indicator of a shooter just not really having his legs underneath him. And so I think that under those circumstances, Draymond being in foul trouble, that really unlocked this Fred Van Vleet of Alper and Schengoon two man game, which we'll talk about in a second. But the, you had Fred Van Vleet playing really well in this game as a team. The rocket shot 48% from three. A lot of things went the wrong way for the Warriors tonight, which put a lot of pressure on the rest of the of the roster to be awesome, and they were. And it turned into a super tight game because as I mentioned,

as Draymond got into foul trouble, that really unlocked the Fred Van Fleet Alper and Shangoon two-man game. And it was a combination of different things. Like there was a stretch where Shangoon was just going straight ISO against Quentin Post and having some success. But when him and Fred were out there, what they were doing is they were just posting Alper and Shangun with Fred Van Van Blit one pass away. And the thing that makes that tough in particular is if you double from that top side. It's just the easiest kickout pass in the world. And so then it turned into this like, you're letting Shangun play one on one in the post where he's scoring, or you're helping off a Fred Van Fleet where he's hitting all of his wide open catch and shoot threes. And that just

dragged the game into a much more competitive situation than the Warriors are used to, specifically dealing with Rockets actually having some success on offense in the half court. And then late in the game, we got a steady diet of the Fred Van Fleet, Alper and Shangun two-man game in the form of an inverted ball screen. Basically having Shangoon handle and Fred Van Vleet set a ball screen and they put Gary Payton the second onto they put Gary Payton the second on Fred and they put

Draymond and Shangun. First time they ran it, Gary Payton helped on the screen. So Draymond and Gary Payton were both on the screen. Gary, or Fred Van Vleet slipped out of it to the top of the key. He was wide open again. That was how we got the three that tied the game. Then after that, they were like, okay, well, we don't want to give up the pick and pop

three in this inverted ball screen. So let's try switching it. So they switched it. Draymond goes with Fred Van Vleet. Alper and Schengun finally, uh, just immediately punishes Gary Payton by spinning over that left shoulder and making that scoop shot. So it gave the Rockets like kind of like I was talking about like what's in these playoffs series. What's your, what's your action? Like if you need to create a shot at the end of the game, what are you going to do? And for the Rockets, for the first time, all series, they found something that they could actually go to and have some real success with in the form of the Alpern-Shangoon Fred Van Bleet two-man game, which by the way, I would imagine we'll see quite a

bit more of when we get into game five. But on the final possession, you need one stop to win the game. And they run the exact same action. Shangun at the top, Fred Van Vleet, inverted ball screen. Step one was not allowing the switch. Both Gary Payton and Draymond Green did a great job with physicality preventing the switch from occurring. Then I actually thought there was plenty of time for them to try to set it again, but immediately they bailed on the screening action and Shangun went straight ISO against Raymond. Now, against Gary Payton, because of the size advantage, he was able to spin over that left

shoulder and get all the way to the rim. Draymond beats him to the spot, forces him into a deeper hook shot, a shot that Shangun can make. And look, here's the thing. When you're doing that job, guarding the other team's best offensive player in a one possession situation, you're not going to block them in all likelihood. You're not likely or going to necessarily take the ball away from them, although we've seen that. Jackson, uh, uh, tweeted out after the, after the game making reference to our mailbag the other

night when he said that Draymond is the clutchest defender in the league. And, and he's right about that. And we have an example in the past of him against Yokic actually stripping him clean in a situation like that. But for the most part, your job in that situation is just, to make him take the toughest shot that he can possibly take. That's the job. And for Shane Goon in that situation, it's a physical, bumped, like dislodged left shoulder hook from deeper than something closer to the basket, right? And that's what Dremont did. And he ended up getting the stop that was needed to close this game out. And that's the thing. With all those circumstances going the wrong way, you just need to make a play. As I always say, it doesn't

matter how bad you've played. If you can make a play at the end of the the game that can help your team win. Draymond, the defense on Shangoon, Steph Curry, that baseline out of bounds play, where he comes off and gets the switch against Shangoon and smartly uses the pump fake to get Shangun off of his feet. Biggs typically aren't as disciplined in those sorts of situations. That one shot was a monster shot from Steph Curry down the stretch.

So even though both of them were a little off their game tonight, they both made huge plays down the stretch. But the circumstances, Draymond's foul trouble. Steph's rough kind of like athletic night. The three-point shooting from the rockets. The Fred Van Vleet getting going. Like I always talk about, the rockets are just so much tougher to handle

when Fred Van Vleet or Jalen Green are going to the extent that they are going. And it just a lot went against them. And so you needed other guys to step up and a bunch of guys stepped up. Jimmy Butler was a godsend in this game. Just brought a ton of downhill aggression. I think the first and biggest takeaway is that he looks great physically.

So any concern surrounding the butt injury, I think you can feel a lot better about that after this game. He did a great job of attacking Biggs and switches. The Warriors did a great job off of Jimmy Butler of cutting off the ball, buddy healed early in the game. Like when those guys are driving to the basket, all eyes tend to be directed towards them. And if you can cut and move off the ball,

you can create a lot of opportunities there. And guys were moving off of Jimmy. It felt like every single time, needed a stabilizing bucket, Jimmy was able to make something happen. And then Brandon Pajemski, six made threes, some beautiful close-out attacks, had a huge stop late in the game

against Fred Van Vleet with a back, like a back pressure situation where he blocked Fred on a floater on a key possession late in the game. Pod said four offensive rebounds. I thought as a team, the Warriors did a great job in the second half on the offensive glass. Like, one of the biggest ways you can punish a team for putting two on the,

a ball or being really aggressive on a star the way that the Rockets have been with Stephall series is to crash the glass because if you're open for a three, you're not just open for a three. You're open for a cut. You're open for a crash to get something off of the offensive glass. And the Warriors did a bunch of damage in those situations. Pajamski was amazing tonight. Buddy healed put in 15 points. He had some really nice cuts off of Jimmy Butler drives as well. Quentin Poe scored 13 points. Had some trouble in his minutes because he had to play a lot of one-on-on-one defense against Shangun, but those buckets are important in a series like this where the buckets are hard to come by in the game. Just an absolutely

huge win for the Warriors to survive the type of night that they were having. And again, it's just a completely different series. If one single play goes the other way, if Steph doesn't hit that three in the left corner, if Draymond doesn't get that stop against Shangoon, if Brandon Pajamsky doesn't beat that close out late in the clock and make that. banking runner against Jalen Green. You know, like, there are just so many examples of guys just finding a way to make a play in a game that is determined by inches. If we've learned anything from the last few days, it's that these playoffs, the margins are just so thin between everything looking different if one thing goes in a different direction. Like the Piston series has swung on a few

late game sequences. The Wolves Lakers game has swung on a few late sequences. This rocket Warriors series has swung on a few late game sequences. It's just, it's the margins are so thin, which is why I talk so much during the regular season about attention to detail. One mistake can be the difference between you winning and losing, not just a game, but a series. You go on the road back to LA, 2-2. If you're the Wolves, totally different series.

You go on the road back to Houston, 2-2 for the Warriors. That's a totally different series. You lose that game last night if you're in the morning. If you're the Knicks, totally different series. going home to two, and it's like, it's just, it always comes down to those small details. Stick around for the mailbag at the tail end of the show. If you guys, I'll have other questions about that series. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers.

And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, next? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to us.

We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it

one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad,

Hey Jonas, 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. Does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Genschen went. 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, Lerna Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, Founding Partner, a I-Heart women's sports.

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. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Before we talk Cavs real quick, I just wanted to make an announcement for the show that is actually something very important that I'm very excited about. I am excited to announce that we are starting a partnership with playback. This is a platform that I really believe in. I actually personally reached out to the volume and asked them to explore it specifically because I believe in it. We have a lot of big picture big picture plans. I'm excited to use playback next year potentially as like a watch-along kind of.

the thing where we can find big league pass games and you guys can come hang out during the game and we can actually watch a game together talk about the game together. I can give like live play by play live analysis of the game as things are going on. I have a lot of big picture plans for it. But for this year's playoffs, we're starting with something that we're calling the hoops tonight after show. So starting on Wednesday, two days from today, after game five of the Warriors Rocket series and game five of the of the Lakers Wolves series. Immediately after we finish doing the live reaction show here on YouTube. So we're still doing the normal live reaction show.

But right when we're done, we're going to head over to playback for an after show. And playback, one of the big things that I love about it is amazing for interaction with listeners. So you can actually come on stage and ask questions to myself and to Jackson. We can talk hoops as a community together. We're going to watch film together. So like imagine we're watching game one of the second round series between the Warriors and the Timberwolves. and the Warriors win the game with like a huge 18 to 2 run, or like it's Thunder versus Clippers Nuggets,

and they win a game on a huge fourth quarter run. We'll watch it together, and you guys will be able to ask questions as we go. I just think it's going to be an incredible addition to what we do here at Hoops tonight, and I think there's a ton of big picture potential too. So we have a link in the description of this video for you guys to follow to get set up with a playback account,

and that link will take you directly to our channel so you guys can get set up. Head over there, get subscribed to our channel, and we will get started with what is going to be a really cool new venture for the show. Starting Wednesday, we have an incredible slate with Warriors, Rockets, Lakers, Wolves, Game Vives.

We'll be going right to playback immediately after our live show finishes that. So do me a favor tonight, guys, when we're done with the video, head over to playback, get signed up so you guys are ready for Wednesday. All right, let's talk some calves, and then after we're done talking calves,

we'll take some mailback questions from the chat. So, just an unbelievable offensive avalan. from the Cavs in the last two games, or as Cavs fans call it, a Cavalach. The stats that came out of this series are absolutely crazy. The Cavs were number one in half-court offense during the regular season with an offensive rating of 106. In the first round, they logged an offensive rating of 118. Their offensive rating in the half-court in this series is higher than the Celtics last year

logged against the heat overall in the first round series, counting transition, counting everything in the game. They had a one, the heat or the calves in this first round series, this first round sweep, logged a 136 overall offensive rating, counting transition possessions and everything else. 16 points better per 100 possessions than any other team in this playoff run. They demolished the heat and transition. They scored 43 transition points just in the last two games down in Miami. Their bigs run the floor extremely well.

Jared Allen did a ton of damage there. Evan Mobley has been kind of an interesting, and connective passer for them in transition as he catches the ball up the floor. They move the ball. Well, they'll throw three or four passes right away on these transition possessions. You're in the blender immediately. But as I mentioned, in the half court, they are lighting teams up. They got a, they got, this is crazy, on pick and roll, just on pick and rolls in the

half court, including passes, the calves logged 1.32 points per possession. That's astronomical. three of the very best in the league to do it. We all know what Donovan Mitchell and Dary's Garland can do. Tie Jerome in the first round, obviously in a smaller roll coming off the bench, 26 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists per 36 minutes. So that's the level at which he's producing in the minutes that he's on the floor

relative to what it would look like in a larger role. On 68% true shooting. He ran 45 ball screens in the first round that led to 63. points. 1.4 points per possession. A 140 offensive rating on Ty Jerome ball screens, including passes. He personally shot 14 for 23 from the field out of ball screens. The shot making is insane.

Obviously, the floaters, but he's been hitting like crazy contested off the dribble threes. He hit seven pull-up threes in that series. He shot nine for 16 on pull-up jump shots overall. His playmaking has been amazing, finding cutters. he's a great cutter himself when he's off the ball in those situations. I have to shout out the Cleveland Biggs. Jared Allen demolished Kellell Ware in this series,

just kept getting behind him on the role, kept getting above him on the role, kept beating him down the floor in transition. Evan Mobley, who had some struggles in the past as a short role player, has shown a lot of flashes in this series as a better, quicker processor on the short role and finisher in the short role. It's so equal opportunity.

Everyone is in rhythm. Mowgli's still running action. Struce is running action on the second side. DeAndre Hunter is getting his ISOs and he's getting a couple ball screens per game. It's so important to have everybody involved to play at the pace that the Cavs play at. Because if you have play finishers surrounding guys that start everything, it's hard to play in transition because guys hesitate. They don't feel empowered to be aggressive in those situations.

You need decisive and aggressive. You need decisive and aggressive offense around the entire floor in order to run this style of offense. You've got to have Max Struz feel like, I like this shot, I'm taking it. You have to have Max Trues thinking, I can curl off of this screen and make a play for myself and my teammates. You have to have Evan Mobley feeling like he's empowered to be aggressive off the bounce. Everybody on the floor has to be empowered in order for this style to work, and it's working. The catch and shoot plays insane. DeAndre Hunter and Max Trues, I was watching.

a bunch of offensive tape earlier this afternoon. And like, the kinds of like smothered catch and shoot looks that Struce and D'Anjee Hunter will knock down are insane. Guys are right there up on them. And they're just rising up over the top and knocking down shots. DeAndre Hunter shot seven for nine on guarded catch and shoot threes in this series. Max Struz was eight for 19. That's 42%.

Those guys made 15. catch and shoot threes in the series with the defender right up on them. I am dangerously close to picking the calves to beat the Celtics should they meet in the conference finals. I'm not going to decide until after the second round. But this is a team that is quite literally humming on all cylinders. Again, for comparison, last year the Celtics against the heat in the first round, obviously a little bit different team.

But against the heat last year logged a 118 offensive rating. the calves are at 136 in that first round. The calves are operating at a higher level offensively right now than any team in the league by a wide margin. They have home court advantage. They're a bit less banged up, although Dary's Garland did miss the last two games with a big toe sprain on his left foot.

I'm leaning much closer to that being a coin flip series with how both teams are looking at this point. And I'm, again, I'm going to wait till after the next round, how things look in the next round, obviously be something I keep an eye on. As I mentioned last night, the Pacers and Cavs are a really interesting matchup because I think the Pacers are a very similar type of team to the Cavs. They just are a little less talented at most of their position groups, but they play a very similar style. They did give the Cavs some issues at times this year. So I'm just really interested to see how the

Cavs look in that matchup. The Knicks, obviously, from this Pistons team have been forced to improve on both ends of the floor over the course of the series as they've diversified their offense and had to get stops in big moments late in games that they've been able to get. Cavs, or Cavs Pacers and Nick Celtics is going to be a really fun second round in the Eastern Conference. I'm going to wait until we get to the conference finals before I make any sort of pick there. But I, I am, I am dangerously close to picking Cleveland. They're just playing at such an insanely high level. And when you look at like, and again, I know guys were out of the lineup for Boston in the last win that the Cavs had.

But the way that the Celtics jumped them by like 20 in the first quarter, and the Cavs just chewed them up and spit them out over the rest of the game just by playing with pace and just driving and kicking them to death. The Cavs literally in this first round made one of the most tough and disciplined organizations in the NBA quit. They literally quit. The Cavs destroyed them. They led by 60 today. in a playoff game. They're playing some special basketball,

and I am very much taking notice, and I'm going to be paying very close attention as we had in that second round series. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, huge news?

We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas, we invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special.

So how do we, how do we actually... actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys. I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs.

And on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jen Chinch and win. I mean, she went down. to Rebacchina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay.

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. in 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, I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's into our mailbag for about 10, 15 minutes before we get out here tonight. Let's do it. Let's

do it. Mailbag time. Everyone, please ask your mailbag questions in the chat and we will get to the best ones. First one, is it sustainable for Steph Curry to play this many minutes? There's been a lot of talk surrounding this in the

entirety of the playoff field. Different guys getting pushed crazy minute totals and whether or not guys are conditioned or ready for it. And quite frankly, in this first round setup with all the extra days off. I don't really have much of a problem with it. I think he can get a little hairy once you start getting into a second, third round series where you start playing every other day. But like, I look at it like this. Steph is wearing down

a little bit. So is everybody. These playoffs are extremely physical. The most important thing you can do is end a series early. And so I actually think it's more important to play an extra three, four minutes here or there and end a series in five, then it is to cut minutes down, but then have to play an entire additional game, an entire different, especially when you get later in the series and the travel schedule gets crazier as you go back and forth,

like game four, game five, six, game six, game seven are all in different cities. So like it can get really tough at that point. I think it's a valuable, I think it's a worthwhile risk to try to end a series early. Yeah, I agree. And even though it does feel like stuff was wearing down physically a little bit in this game and from this series,

This is also why Steve Kerr doesn't play him 40 minutes a game in the regular season. This is literally why, right? Like, he feels more comfortable. And Steph, I'm sure that it's a two-way street. They both feel more comfortable being able to do this in the playoffs because he's not playing whatever it is, 32 minutes a game in the regular season as opposed to Jalen Brunson playing 39, right? That is part of the equation. And for the record, there's no proven harder-fast rule.

Like, people disagree about it. talk to Tom Thibodeau, see what he says. You know what I mean? And there's, so like, think of it like this. If you're, let's take Steve Kerr versus like J.J. Reddick and some of Steve Kerr's philosophy over the years. Like, do you remember when Steve Kerr took Steph out for a brief stretch in the middle of the fourth quarter in game three?

And you could tell Steph looked at him like, what are you taking me out? And you, I obviously am not a lip reader, but it looked like Steve Kerr kind of leaned into him and said like, hey, just get a quick breather here so that you can come in and close the deal. And so, again, there's two different ways to look at it. There's the JJ Reddick, Tom Thibito type of style where it's like, all we have to do is survive this game and we get this extra time off. These are my guys. I trust these guys.

Let's ride him through to the finish line. And then there's the Steve Kerr approach, which is like, if Steph is closer to 100% of his ability for five minutes, do we have a better chance of winning the game than Steph being at 83% of his ability for seven minutes in a fourth quarter? And I feel like he's constantly kind of weighing that balance. And a lot of times it's a lot of times it's a judgment call based on how the game's going. Like if the bench group is struggling, he might pull the trigger a little bit earlier. It's in that game three, I think Steve literally was thinking like, we're kind of in control here. We can afford to buy Steph a minute or two so that he has a chance to rest. But it's just, it's always complicated and there are conflicting ideologies and a lot of it is just playing the results.

Like if the Knicks lose a game and they look tired, everyone's going to call Tom Thibodeau an idiot. After game four, everyone calls JJ Redick an idiot. it. But if it works, all of a sudden, they're geniuses. And so a lot of it's just playing the results. Next question. What were your thoughts on Trace Jackson Davis getting some run today in general, but also specifically over Jonathan Kamenga? It was specifically to guard Shangun. And it's a really tough spot for Trace to get put in because he literally hasn't played. And you have to go guard the guy on the other team that's in like full rhythm who like, guys, like this is not a revelation for Shangun. Shangoon has been kicking people's asses all year.

I joke on the show that he's been like the winner of my like film session award for the guy that most frequently has me watching the film like holy shit he's kicking his ass like shangoon is an ass kicker like he he is a very good player if you can't match up with him physically and and post was getting cooked they needed to buy a few minutes it was worth a try it didn't work out but I mean it is what it is I don't blame trace though because he got put in a really tough spot yeah I mean I think the answer why over Jonathan comminga is Jonathan comminga was bad in game three like actually a detriment, I would say to their team in his minutes. And Draymond was in foul trouble. Tray doesn't playing if Draymond's not in foul trouble. Another question, why aren't, this is from the commenter, why aren't Jermon Green and Jimmy Butler looking to score more? It feels like they passed up a couple open layups for kickouts to threes. So a couple things.

The Draymond, I think needs to, I think Draymond's actually managed tonight offensively pretty well. took a handful of catch and shoot threes, didn't force the issue. I thought Jimmy's aggression was perfect in this game. His aggression on that left corner three, kind of a 50-50 call. We joked about it before the show.

Like, I personally disagreed with that call, but at the same time, as I always say, bad calls are a part of basketball games. They're just kind of like something that you just see. But like his aggression, they went to him on that late ISO on the right wing,

which I thought was interesting when he took the left shoulder fade that he ended up missing. I thought Jimmy's aggression was fine. As far as the rim decisions, like in a series this physical there's a lot of misses around the rim that are not leading to foul shots and so if you don't feel really good

about your chances of making the shot you don't want to put the outcome in the hand of the ref like that's the big issue with grifting that I have and why I'm not a huge fan of it in the big picture and by the way I'm not I have grifters on the team that I root for and the warriors have a grifter on their team

like the downside to grifting is you take control of the situation and you put it in the hands of the official whereas if you function more as a shotmaker, you put the control of the situation into your hands. And so honestly, like, I think it was good that Jimmy wasn't trying to just grift at the rim all game and that he was trying to like make the kickout reads that were there

because that keeps control of the situation in the hands of the players. Yeah, and Jarmond has talked about this before, which is that, I mean, specifically with Steph Curry, but even in general, Buddy Healed, whoever you want to say, of their actual shooters. But he talks about Steph Curry, where a contested Steph Curry three point attempt is worth more than a contested

Draymond Green layup attempt. It's a better shot, period, point blank, no matter what the context is surrounding those two elements, right? And so if Draymond Green is not going to pass up a layup, a wide open one off a fake handoff where the guy defense totally bites, right? But is it in the team's best interest to challenge Stephen Adams, for example, who was in for the long stretch of the game in the second half at the rim? Probably not.

And he was blocking everything. And he was blocking everything. He was a monster. And especially when everyone on all parts of the defense are allowed to be more physical than they've been, you know, for 82 games of regular season. A Steph Curry guarded catch and shoot jump shot is worth 1.1 points. So Draymond would have to shoot 55% at minimum on a contested layup for that to be a worthwhile shot for the offense. And Draymond Green in, let's see, Draymond Green in the series or in the season. and Draymond's shooting 55% on layups.

And so, like, it's like right there to where, like, for Draymond, if he doesn't feel like he's going to make it, it's the right decision to keep it moving. Also, there's everything is, I'm a big believer in tracking data as an opportunity to gain advantage whenever you have an opportunity. So, like, yeah, like you should track shot value and stuff like that. But the basketball is way more art than science, as I always say. And, like, if you turn down one layup that is worth roughly the same amount of points

as a Steph Curry contested three, but Steph gets another look that helps him build rhythm that could potentially lead to a Steph avalanche later on. Like, you're investing. Like, that's part of the point guard position. Like, you've got to invest in the rhythm of your teammates

over the course of games. And, like, all of this stuff is intricately connected. And, you know, there's a reason why there's a warrior's culture that's like, make the extra pass. Like, hey, buddy, this is your teammate. Let me introduce you. His name is Steph. Or, like, you know, Jimmy Butler saying,

don't ever dribble the ball, Buddy Healed. Like, they're all working together to maximize this offensive system through their communication. And, like, the best version of the Warriors is the version of the Warriors you saw in game three and in game one, which is when Steph Curry is cooking. When Steph Curry is cooking, the other team literally gets like emotionally demolished. And they, like, curl up within themselves. And every other warrior gets invigorated on defense. And they just become incredibly difficult to handle.

It's been like that for a decade. you got to invest in step as much as possible as a shotmaker 100%. Next question. In your experience, does trash talking trash to struggling players work? Trying to figure out why Dylan Brooks keeps talking trash and quote unquote poking bears before seemingly getting fried every time. So I was never a trash talker in terms of initiating stuff. I have been known to completely black out if someone starts talking trash to me and then I

turn into a huge asshole and then I end up having to apologize after the game's over because I feel I get like overcome with guilt when the game is over for being such an asshole. But like I can't speak for trash talking as an art because I've only ever done it reactively in anger as opposed to like I've never been like a manipulative trash talker. I'm much more of like I stay. I focused on what I can control with my teammates and I'm a big like teammate energy guy like trying to help everybody on my team stay confident and engaged on both ends of the floor throughout the game. But like, there's a better person to ask that question to. I just don't have much experience trying to manipulatively trash talk.

But that said, one thing I will say, I have seen examples of guys do that and it work, where a player succumbs to it in the form of trying to get out of the game and focus on just winning his individual matchup. So like start to force the issue. I've also seen guys like completely crumble in their confidence and fall apart. So like I suppose. it can work, but I've also seen trash talkers get themselves

out of whack by getting too invested into trash talk situations. And like, Draymond played a dangerous game, almost getting himself ejected today by getting into a bunch of altercations. There was a play where Jimmy Butler and Dylan Brooks were like talking shit to each other at the foul line. And on the boxout,

Jimmy Butler's hands ended up around Dylan Brooks's neck. And like, had Dylan Brooks like thrown a hand and like tried to hit him back or something, that could immediately gone into a full-on like scrum but Dylan just fell down and it ended up just being a play on but like I would imagine just like anything else there's a given a take with it. Yeah. And I think it's probably person to person. Like I think some people, the trash talking

hypes them up and gets them more into the game, Dremont being one of those people. And if that is what you need individually to get more into the game, cool. And I also think there's probably the smart trash talkers, I would guess, like the Dremonts of the world, the Gary Payton's of the world back Gary Payton, the older Gary Payton, who are being more selective, knowing there are guys that if you talk trash to them, you can get on their head a little bit easier versus guys that if you talk trash to them, you might be poking a bear who might wake up. You know, it's probably a little bit of nuance to it as well. For sure. And one last note, I do think there's something to be said about it being a little less of a, they're being

less of a downside if it's a defensive-minded player. Because any of you guys who have played the game, though, that like if you get really emotionally worked up, offense gets harder. Like, slowing down and shooting a jump shot is harder. Slowing down and processing a game is harder. You tend to, like, speed everything up when you're super emotionally, like, worked up on the basketball court. But for a defender who's not required to methodically run offense

or take a bunch of jump shots, they can afford to get super worked up and have it not have as much of a downside. So I don't think it's a coincidence that you see a lot of guys like Dylan Brooks, like Patrick Beverly, like Draymond Green, that end up embodying that type of personality. Yeah, that's a great call. A question about Stephen Adams. He got a lot more minutes tonight, was very effective in his minutes on both ends of the court, you know, as an offensive rebounder primarily on offense, but definitely as a defensive

player. And it did feel like the Rocket Zone, even with Adams on the, when Adams was on the floor, was effective, even when Steph was on the floor. What is your take on the Stephen Adams effect and if he's going to play a lot more in game five or going forward to the series like he did tonight. So he was plus 16 in 26 minutes. I'm trying to see if they've posted the zone defense numbers yet from this game. Let's see.

Because I bet you it had a lot to do with the success of the zone that they were having. And we had 31 possessions of zone defense in this game. So that was probably the big. But by the way, the Warriors fared well of one point per possession against the zone. That's actually really solid. But they ran a bunch of it steady throughout every court. By the way, they only ran four possessions of zone total in the first three games of the series. They ran 31 tonight.

So definitely something. We talked about that after game three, though, that we expected them to run a lot more zone later in the series. But honestly, I think, I think, you know, we talk so much about coaching within the context of like, oh, well, here's what this lineup data shows or, oh, here's what, you know, this player should theoretically do to be able to compliment what this other player does. And often, like, as a coach in the moment, you're trying to read how guys are playing. Like, oh, like, Jalen Green doesn't really have it tonight. Let's lean more into Jabari Smith Jr. Or like, oh, our zone looks are causing them some problems. Let's lean into Stephen Adams more.

Well, look at this. Like Stephen Adams' rim protection is having a real impact on the warriors at the rim. Like, this is something that we should be investing in. Like, that is always a call that you're making in the moment as a coach. and it's a lot harder than it looks in the moment when everything is going down and the game is moving way faster than you think it would in that sort of situation. And it's just it's a tough call. But I think, I think like whether or not you see a bunch of Stephen Adams in game, in game five is going to come down to how it looks. And by the way, we saw him a lot in the second half.

In those zone possessions, the Warriors were actually 1.3 points per possession in the first half. but in the second half in 22 possessions, the Warriors were 0.86 points per possession. So IMA Udoka was probably making a call in the moment saying like this is what we should do. And by the way, like these coaching staffs will have coaches tracking behind the bench. Like, hey, do me a favor tonight. Your one job is track points per possession on man and zone.

That way, if a late game timeout comes around is five minutes left and they're having a timeout and they're in the huddle, you guys remember that early fourth quarter timeout where Steve Kerr was like, hey, can you let me go so I can talk to my coaches? Like, that's what they're doing. They're powwowing as a group before they go to the bench to talk. Like, as soon as the timeout is called, the players all go sit down, they start drinking water and they take a break.

The coaches all huddle up and they decide what they're going to do. Then they head over to the bench and then they relay the message that they want to relay. And a lot of times it's getting information. Like, oh, hey, by the way, we're defending really well with Stephen Adams. We're plus, you know, whatever in his minutes. We're getting this point for possession on zone. And then email you dokema go like, okay. I'm going to ride Stephen Adams for longer.

It's all like an in the moment type of decision. Yeah, and I also thought part of it was due to the fact that Dremont was off the floor. He's such a good passer that it's, you know, he's really valuable against his own, even though he's not really a, you know, an intense shooting threat. For sure. An interesting example on the other side is Buddy Healed over Moses Moody starting tonight. Like, Buddy Heald's shooting has been vitally important over the course the last couple of games. I thought his ball pressure on Jalen Green early in the game was really valuable.

he kind of sped jailing arena up early and forced a couple of turnovers. Like there is, there's value in making in the moment live decisions that can maximize the ability of your basketball team. 100%. Next question. What are your thoughts on the huge chasm of physicality between the regular season and the playoffs? Are the ways to make the disparity smaller?

Do you like the disparity? Do you like the way it's being refereed, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I think it's really easy from our couches to be like. this is too physical. They should do something to rein it in. I think the reality is that we have a bunch of really relatively even series in the first round.

Pistons Knicks, very even. Clippers Nuggets, very even Celtics Magic has been like every game has been close with exception of game two. Warriors Rockets has been closed. Lakers, Wolves has been close. So when you get all of these teams, and by the way, every single team I listed

except for Detroit and Orlando have like legitimate change. championship aspirations. Like, they think they're going to win the title. So what that leads to is like an insane level of intensity and competitiveness. That manifests in physicality. And now the ref's job is to try to control it. But if they control it by calling a bunch of fouls,

it's just going to bog the game down into the mud. And as you saw, like, at any point tonight, did it feel like the physicality lightened up even though the refs were calling stuff? Like, no, like, it just, it's really hard to stop the players from competing the way that they're competing. That said, if I had to choose between this and the opposite, I would take this every single time. You know, I, I just think there's a handful of, like, the big thing that I've struggled with is the inconsistency. Like, there's been a lot of instances where, like, certain types of, like, a perfect example is that Jimmy Butler

foul in the corner. So Josh Hart's foul on Tim Hardaway Jr. was substantially more of a foul, but then this one ends up getting called. There's no consistency there. And like, that, that really is the only thing I'll ever get on officials about. Like, certain games take on different feel based on how the teams are playing, but inconsistency to me is you not doing your job. Yeah. And one of the things I was texting with Jason about before during the game tonight, and we talked about last night,

is the big challenge of, one of the big challenges of the increased physicality is these challenges and the proximate fouls that they can call. Because the one last night, for example, the LeBron won on Ant. They're not calling that. Obviously, they didn't call. And they're not going to call that in the flow of the game. And the one tonight as well, it's like, there was one on Steph in the first half where I think where he got,

it was an out of bounds. It was called out of bounds. They challenged it, get the foul call because Dylan Brooks is kind of going point A to point B type of jump, yada, yada. And that one was a little more, that one could have been potentially called a foul in real time. But this proximate foul slow motion review compared to the flow of the physicality

of the games is a real, real challenge. I think the league has to like sort of wonder on what to do with. This is a great point. And this is where, you know, I've always talked about, I got in a huge argument about this with, I'm trying to remember who it was. I got in the argument with there was a sports writer. And it's,

it's killing me that I can't remember his name right now because it was a long time ago. But he did an extensive report on officiating in the NBA and like how they do it. And they have like basically these two things, this thing called the rule book and this thing called the case book. And they basically is like the pathway with which that they try to like come up with a standard for officiating games.

and I, one of the things I was trying to talk to him about is like, I think that you need subjectivity in officiating. You can't be letter of the law because basketball games don't work that way. Basketball games are all unique. They're each their own kind of like individual tapestry. Like look at how much different tonight was than game three. Fundamentally different game. Different players were playing.

Different guys were playing well. Like it was just a totally different type of game. And so the point is, is like, you have to be willing to, in the moment be like, oh, yeah, LeBron fouled and a little bit there, but with the way we've been officiating this game, that would have probably not been called. It wasn't called live. Let's not call it now. Now, the one with Dylan Brooks on the sideline with Jimmy Bellers a little tougher because it got called a foul live. But same sort of thing. I would have gone in there and I've been like, okay. In my initial, I was talking to the guys before the show. Like on the baseline angle,

it looked like a foul because you're like, why the hell is Dylan Brooks like shoving Jimmy while he's shooting? That's stupid. And then you watch the side. sideline angle and it's like Dylan's hand is just kind of like on his hip. It's not really much of a shove at all and there's no foul up top. And you could see Jimmy kick his right leg out. And so it's like on the replay, that was a pretty standard non-call relative to the other calls in the game. And so it's one of those things where to your point, they need to be able to in the review, handle it the same way they do live. You can't suddenly operate by a totally different rulebook or like standard in a slowdown than you would live. That makes absolutely no sense.

Yeah, it's just a challenge. The refs have a tough job. The job is tough. The last thing I'll say, I've reft one game in my life. It was a students versus teachers game when I was at Arizona Christian. And they just asked one of the guys on the basketball team if they'd be willing to like volunteer. And I was like, sure, I'll do it. And like the campus pastor was cussing me out after the game, like cussing me out.

Because I was the only ref ref revving a five on five game. And I opted to just basically not call anything unless I was 100% sure. So there was like a ton of uncalled fouls because that was the way I chose to. I was like, I'm not going to guess what happens in this game. And it's like this casual students versus teachers. And the dude is like cussing me out. And I'm like, this is the campus pastor. This is crazy.

But the point being like there is, it is a very difficult job. But these are the best in the world at it. This is what they do every single day. And if there's one situation that you should be able to get it right, it's in the slowdown situations like that. For sure. Last question. Which one seed has? has looked more complete so far.

Oh, man. I think the calves have looked better offensively and the Thunder have looked better defensively. Shea did have a little bit of a rough shooting series at certain points in the series. The Thunder did show a lot of really high-level connective playmaking, which was something that I thought was a really positive friend for them.

I do think that the Thunder, man, that's a really, really tough question. I'm going to go with the Cavs, though. I'm going to go with the calves. I mean, the Thunder got punched in the mouth in game three. Yeah. Good point.

Mm-hmm. Do you have any take there? I think the calves have looked better. I think that they probably put a worse opponent in round one, but they've looked, just to your point, I think they've dominated every game for the most part. There was one little, you know, stretch there.

Was it a game two maybe that the heat were competitive, but for the most part, yeah, but for the most part, they've dominated. The calves were at no point down by 20. Yeah, and they're operating at just an insane level offensively. All right, guys, that's all I have for tonight. Remember, click the link in the description to head over to play back and get set up there so that you guys can be ready for our first after show on Wednesday.

And again, as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We will be back. We're not doing a film session tomorrow. We're going to be live tomorrow night after the final buzzer of Clippers Nuggets Game 5, which should be a really fun one. I'll see you guys then. What's up, guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting

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