The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Warriors take down Lakers in Game 5, Anthony Davis exits game with injury

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and the Golden State Warriors 121-106 Game 5 win over LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Jason breaks down the biggest highlights from the game, and discusses the impact of Anthony Davis' injury and what it could mean for the series going forward. He also discusses the New York Knicks winning game 5 over the Miami Heat. #volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Round two coverage of the NBA playoffs here at Hoops Tonight is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? Well, after the Knicks and the Warriors extend their series at home tonight, that is now 29 of the last 38 times that the home favorite, down 3-1, one game 5 at home. So the historical trends continuing tonight. We're going to break down both games. You guys know the joke before we get started, subscribe to the volumes of YouTube channel, so you don't miss any more of our videos.

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Again, enter your email and code hoops. That's H-O-O-P-S for $20 off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. All right. So the Warriors win, what's that, 121 to 106 to extend this series to a game 6 back in L.A. I'm not going to talk too much about the Anthony Davis injury. He caught an inadvertent elbow from Kavanaugh-Luny.

I saw a lot of Laker fans saying things like, like, man, how did AD get so hurt by that? It looks like he barely got hit. Hey, man, Kavon Luni is a mountain of a human being. I think he's like 260 pounds. That elbow carries a lot of weight. I promise if it hit you, you'd probably be. feeling pretty similar. And then also when it comes to these concussion things, I have one concussion that I got in my life, and it was when I was playing basketball years ago. But I didn't necessarily

get hit that hard, but it just caught me at a weird angle, and I wasn't really expecting it. And I've taken harder hits that I saw coming that didn't end up being an issue. I think that was part of the deal. I think Anthony Davis just did not see it coming, caught him at the right angle, hit him on the right spot. Let's hope he's good to go in game six. I saw Chris Haynes report that Darvin Ham said that Anthony Davis is already doing pretty well compared to how he shook up he looked when he was leaving the court. And then I heard that he took a wheelchair back to the locker room. So let's just hope he plays in game six. This has been an outstanding series. I would hate to see it get derailed by having the Lakers' best and most important player missed their best

chance to close out the series at home in game six. So fingers crossed, let's hope Anthony Davis is okay. That's the last I'm going to talk about it for tonight. So I thought the big key to the start of this game, specifically for the Warriors, was something that has been kind of one of their keys to the series all series long, but they just did an extremely well, did an extremely good job in this particular game. And that was defending like crazy and getting out in transition. They got out in transition eight possessions just in the first quarter. They scored 28 points overall in the game getting out in transition.

I thought Draymond Green in particular did such a great job on makes and misses, just getting the ball and barreling down the floor. There was a play where Anthony Davis, like, made a hook shot on Draymond Green in a post-up. Drummond's like, get the ball, we're going. Like, it's just a deliberate effort to get out in transition as much as possible. Remember, as good as this Laker team is defensively in the half court, they are one of the very worst transition defenses in the league because Anthony Davis tends to jog up the floor.

LeBron James tends to jog up the floor. And you know how it goes when your stars don't necessarily give great effort in those areas. It tends to trickle down the roster. And you need to get back and you need to get matched up to get stopped. So great job by the Warriors by pushing in transition off of their defensive effort. There was a 28 to 15 advantage in transition points per synergy. That's the difference in the game right there. Literally the difference in the game.

The second big thing that I noticed that I thought really helped the Warriors on offense in this game. And we're going to talk about the Lakers later. That was not a good Laker defensive effort. It's just a fact. If you've watched this Laker team, any of you guys who have watched, you know there's a difference. Even you Warriors fans, I'm sure, noticed a difference. difference in the level of intensity that the Lakers brought defensively from the end of

game four and all of game three versus game five. But I'm not going to focus on that until the end because there were some tactical things that the Lakers are going to have to deal with as they head into game six. So first of all, Steph getting AD on switches. Now, in game four, Steph opted to ISO. A lot of that had to do with time and score. So I'm not criticizing his decision making. It was late game. You're down one possession. You need to attack. But one of the things that I thought Steph did a really nice job in this game is when he got Anthony Davis on a switch, he did not try to set up, or did not try to ISO AD. But rather than that, he tried to get one of his other teammates, particularly his athletes, in opportunities around the basket and post up situations and cuts and

things along those lines. Dreybond scores 20 points. Andrew Wiggins gets 25. Gary Payton gets 13. So that's 58 points from your athletes, in large part, because they didn't have to worry about Anthony Davis at the rim as much because of Steph getting him on switches and all of the times you pushed in transition and attacked before Anthony Davis got back. I thought Steph Curry in particular on offense did a great job attacking in transition. So many of Steph's layups in this game came on plays when Anthony Davis was jogging in transition. So really good offensive process from Steph Curry in this game. He's been the best offensive player in the series by a mile. the winner of the series is going to get to say who the best player was because Anthony Davis has been every bit as good defensively throughout. But man, he has been miles ahead of any player, Laker or Warrior, in this series on the offensive end of the forward. It was another master class from him tonight. For the Lakers in Game 6, I wouldn't do as much switching unless I absolutely had to. So for instance, like, if Steph drags AD off to the side and Vanderbilt's caught on the screen or Reeves is caught on the screen, and there comes a point where a switch done,

doesn't make any sense, or excuse me, where your traditional coverage doesn't make any sense and you have to switch. They call that a peel off switch. So it's like a read. So it means like, we're in this drop coverage. I'm trying to chase over the screen, but I got caught on the screen too hard and my big is already up there containing the ball. So I better just roll with the roll man here and try to box them out of the lane. That's like a peel off switch. That's the kind of thing that you might have to do on a possession by possession basis. But in terms of schematically switching, so like deliberately switching, I would wait to do that until the four. quarter, just simply because at that point, it's a little bit easier for Anthony Davis to

contain out a few possessions. And then you're also for your backline guys, they don't have to do that all game long battling with athletes that can maybe just do it for a possession or two here and there. One last note on the Warriors offensively, before we get to some of the defensive players that I wanted to shout out. They didn't run as much pick and roll in this game. I think they only ran 24 pick and rolls. Steph by himself ran 28 pick and rolls in the last game. not counting switches too, so I think it was actually more like 32, 33 pick and rolls or something like that. So I talked a little bit about this in the last video, but I don't think it's a coincidence that you get 58 points out of the other guys or that pool and clay are both in double figures after they've struggled a lot. You've got a ton of supporting scoring in this game.

And I don't think it's a coincidence when you didn't run as much pick and roll, because pick and roll is in a weird way, something that stagnates the Warriors. The only guys who really finish in those situations are corner three-point shooters and roll, and they're typically the lesser two offensive players on the floor. And usually the guys like, you know, Clay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins that just get hung out to drive because they're getting guarded off the ball, right? And Warriors fans have always been clamoring, like, more step high pick and roll, more step high pick and roll. And it kind of reminds me of when you hear LeBron fans over the years be like, why doesn't he drive to the basketball?

Why doesn't he drive to the basketball? There's a couple of different things. First of all, it stagnates. Like if you just do the same thing every single time, it becomes predictable, it disrupts the rhythm and flow of everybody on the floor except for Steph, the role man, and the play finisher, right? So that's one of the problems there. And then it's a fatigue element. It's just a lot to ask Steph Curry to run a million pick and rolls in a game and to have to determine the outcome of every single possession.

It's a lot to ask LeBron James to drop his shoulder and barrel his way to the basket. Those of you guys who listen to this show that actually play basketball competitively or used to or play a lot, pick up. You guys probably know from your own experience that when you do have an athletic drive to the basket, it can be exhausting. Sometimes one hard transition sprint can be enough to make you tired. So, like, it's not easy to do. And so I think that this game is a little bit more in line that the way Steve Kerr likes to play.

And I know that Warriors fans don't love that idea, but the gist of it is the more motion that you have, the more realistic it is for all your players to get in rhythm. That said, when push comes to shove, there's no doubt that Steph High Pick and Roll is their best offense, and especially down the end of games, especially if game six is close down the stretch, you want to see a lot of Steph high pick and roll. But I do understand the purpose of mixing in different actions during the rest of the game.

Dremont Green was unbelievable in this game. I want to shout out a couple of defensive players. His effort screamed off of the screen right from the jump, being super physical at the post up and the point of attack with Anthony Davis, being physical in help, sliding his feet, taking charges. he was amazing. That Andrew Wiggins applied amazing ball pressure on LeBron James to fatigue him, and you saw his jump shot start to miss as the game progressed.

Dante DiVincenzo had a stretch there at the beginning of the fourth quarter when the Lakers were kind of threatening, where he played incredible pressure defense to disrupt the Lakers from getting into their pick and rolls. And Moses Moody Moore at the beginning of the game, I thought, brought a really good defensive effort. One last thing I wanted to say about Dremont before we move on. I saw a bunch of criticism after game four about him recording a podcast. podcast or him being friendly with LeBron.

There's, and this has been, you know, Warriors fans, and I'm not trying to lump you all together because every fan base has crazies. That goes without saying. Trust me, as someone who's, like, very close to Lakers' Twitter and Lakers fans, like there are a lot of crazy Laker fans, too. Every fan base, I think, has crazy fans and kind of more respectful fans. And then I think, like, just say, like the Warriors fan base and the Lakers fan base are just so big that it can be so loud sometimes.

But I wanted to defend Draymond, for just a second because I think it's completely ridiculous that he would ever face criticism for his pursuits off the floor with what he is accomplished on the floor for this team. Have you ever pursued a hobby outside of work? Many of you probably are pursuing a hobby right now, currently outside of work, if not have done so in your life before. Have you ever been friendly with somebody that you're also competitive with? Like there are a lot of basketball players that I've run into that I've played against on different

teams, that then were on my teams from transfers or that I, run into when I come home and work out in the summertime. There are a lot of college athletes and pro athletes that come home in the summer from their overseas contracts or the college that they go off and play to and we work out and compete and play over the summer. We're buddies. We're friends. You can be friends with people that you're also competitive with as long as between the lines

you are competing. Have you ever, ever felt like Draymond Green did not compete on the basketball court? The dude has left blood, sweat, and tears on the floor. for a decade leading to four championships. Do you understand how disrespectful, how illogical and how outrageous it is to get mad at him for his off-court pursuits with everything that he's done for this franchise on the court? But to me, like, if you want to say like, oh, I wish Draymond would shoot the ball more every once in a while, like, I get it.

Like, there are some real basketball criticisms you can throw at him. Yeah, like, it's not great that he punched Jordan Poole. He's not a perfect human being. None of us are perfect human beings. but criticizing him because he has an off-court hobby, that it's not even a hobby he gets paid for it. It's an off-court hustle. And then he also has a buddy in LeBron James

that he just literally went out and destroyed his team tonight. Like, I don't care for LeBron's his friend. He went out and destroyed his team tonight. Like, it's just, it's completely outrageous, and I really hope that that specific segment of the Warriors fan base cuts that shit out because I just think it's, like I said, illogical and disrespectful.

What the Warriors must do to win game six? maintain that defensive effort and push in transition off of turnovers and misses. And then secondly, be very deliberate about keeping Anthony Davis away from the rim on defense as much as possible, preferably through Steph Curry switches, then you can execute your actions on the back end. It's pretty much the same formula for tonight brought into the next game. For the Lakers. All right, I waited this long to get here. Look, every one of us saw this coming. I said before the game that I expected the Lakers to lose by 10 to 15 points.

They ended up losing by 15 points or 17 points, something along those lines. Here's the thing. It looked close early, right? Like I think at one point the Lakers were up 45, 42 in the second quarter, but it was complete fools gold because it was really early in the second quarter and they weren't playing any damn defense. The Lakers gave up 70 points in both halves, particularly LeBron James and Anthony Davis were giving,

like Anthony Davis is so freaking talented that even when he gives 60% effort on defense, he can still be pretty impactful. But LeBron James at this point in his career, when he's literally just standing with his knees, you know, barely bent off the ball. Like there was a sequence in the second half when they were in a good, or first half where they were in a good spot. And on back-to-back possessions, LeBron James just conceded a three to Jordan Poole and then conceded a three to Andrew Wiggins,

right? Like they weren't sprinting back in transition. They weren't rotating. Anthony Davis wasn't the force around the paint that we know he can be. They mailed it in. It's really that simple to me. They did the exact same thing in game five last series against Memphis. They did the exact same thing in game five against the Miami Heat in the 2020 finals.

And then they came out in game six and whooped the heat's ass and locked them up. Then they came out in game six and whoop the grizzlies ass and locked them up. The problem is, and I do believe the Lakers will win game six if Anthony Davis is healthy. I believe that they will bring a hellacious defensive effort. and I believe they will win game six. But this is not the Grizzlies. And this is not that Miami Heat team that had an injured Gorenz Rajic

and an injured Bametabio. This is the defending champion with the best player in the world on the team. And I do not like playing with fire. I actually do genuinely believe the Lakers are a slightly better team than the Warriors. I believe they've demonstrated that to this point in the series.

By punting a game effectively, you've limited your margin for error. You drop game six, Golden State wins the series, most likely. Game seven at home, the home team almost always wins. Almost always wins. I gave you guys that 29 out of 37 stat for game 5s for the home favorite down 3-1. That stat, and I'll pull the numbers if we get to that point, but it is like

insane how frequently home teams win game 7. It's just it's impossible to match the effort in all of the energy in an arena in that sort of setting. The warriors and what they did to the Kings, that's unusual. That's the exception. And again, they were the better team in that series by a decent margin. So I don't like it. I hate that about this team, but they've been doing it forever, and they've responded in the past. And so I believe the Lakers will come out with the requisite defensive effort in game six. I think they need to, like I said, run a little bit more of that high drop and try not to switch Anthony Davis as much through the first three quarters of the game. I'm going to rewatch this game at some point in the next two days and we'll do another film

breakdown on what's that Friday morning, kind of like I've been doing, just a preview game six of this series. But yeah, so kind of what I expected. But obviously, the other thing with playing with fire is Anthony Davis, at the time of me recording this, Darvin Ham says he's fine. But what if he wakes up tomorrow and he's not feeling great from a concussion? And what if he can't play in game six? Like, that's why you can't punt games. He got injured on a random rebound in the fourth quarter of this game. So it's just, it's, it's really unfortunate. But I do believe the Lakers will win game six at this point. All right, really quickly, before we get out of here, I just have a few thoughts on Heat Nix. So all of the dynamics that I said needed to happen for the Nix to win this series

took place tonight, and they won comfortably. I said Julius Randall and Jalen Brunson needed to play like superstars. They combined for 64 points tonight. Jalen Brunson just unbelievable shot making. Still hasn't really gotten his three-point shot going, but unbelievable shot making everywhere else on the floor, played 48 minutes, just a heart of the champion type of effort from Jalen Brunson. They need to knock down their spot-up threes. because they're actually a very good spot-up team and have been all season,

or at least an average spot-up team all season. Well, they shot 38% from three in this game. Big difference, right? They need to dominate the glass because the heat are small, and the Knicks have been one of the best rebounding teams in the league this year. Well, they out-rebounded the heat 50 to 34. They had 14 offensive rebounds. I said that the Nick guards had to outplay the heat guards,

because you've got, you know, Jalen Brunson and you've got Josh Hart and R.J. Barrett, and obviously Emmanuel Quickly's hurt. But, like, going against guys like Kyle Lowry and Gabe Vincent and guys that are old and undrafted free agents, like, you have to win that matchup. And tonight, the Nick guards outplayed the heat guards. And then, again, that's your formula to win game six to travel. You've got to bring that sane effort and competitiveness on the road. you need Julius Randall and Jalen Brunson.

And Julius Randall, another efficient scoring night tonight after being kind of inefficient throughout the series. You've got to have the play of your stars travel. You've got to compete on the glass. You've got to knock down those spot-up opportunities to buy Randall and Brunson room to work. I think they have a chance. Again, the big reason, like,

the reason why I gave the Warriors the 30% chance to come back from down 3-1 against the Lakers was because of the championship pedigree of that team, the home court advantage piece and Steph Curry. But like I, I, the problem with this particular matchup for the Knicks and the heat is like in theory they have a talent advantage, but it just hasn't bear, it hasn't really shown over the course of this series. And that's concerning.

And it's just hard for me to imagine that Jimmy Butler is going to allow this to get back to New York for game seven. So I'm going to pick the heat now to win in six. But of course the Knicks have a chance. They have the pieces. They have everything they need in that locker room to win that game. They just have to go do it. All right, guys.

That is all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. We will be back tomorrow with a couple of shows after a couple of game sixes for the Suns Nuggets and Sixers Celtics. I will see you guys then. The volume. 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? 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. 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 suits. Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardweight with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that's really not safe to have anywhere. but you're having him with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor. It signals to the world that you not to be played with.

And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to, listen to learn the hard way on the IHard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.