The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Draymond Green Show - Finals Game 3 Reaction

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Draymond Green breaks down Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat.  Produced by: Jackson Safon #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The volume. Just a reminder, you can catch me recording this podcast live on AMP. Amp is a new live radio app that lets you call in and chat with me in person while I'm recording. Get the app on Apple's App Store and make sure to follow me at at Draymond Green to get notified when I go live. What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green show. We are live on Amazon Amp and we are going to break down game three of the NBA finals. The Nuggets went into Miami and got a 109 to 94 win.

And quite frankly, kicking it with the homies now, right now. And every single one of them yesterday is like, I got Miami. I got Miami. And like every single one of them is maybe, what, five, six, six of them. They all bet against me. And the bet was three shots in under 10 minutes, which was. very nice, by the way, like 10 minutes. That's a long time. And I said, I asked him, I said, yo, like, when all y'all bet together and y'all bet against me, like at not one point,

did y'all think, like, well, if all of us are betting this way and he's saying nuggets are going to win, like, let one of us flip to his side. No, they didn't. And I watched all of them take three shots in under 10 minutes. And it was great. So I said all of that to say. I was heavy nuggets last night and going back to what I said to y'all before, which is they aren't playing with their breakfast. They had the slip-up in game too where it just didn't seem like they had the energy. You probably saw Coach Malone's press conference saying,

like a sense of urgency, blah, blah, blah, all of those things. And I said, they have not had that game. I said this to myself. They haven't had a game like that all playoffs. Anything that they've had to do, they've taken care of their business when they needed to take care of their business. So I personally think they're going to go out there

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Lowest price. Guaranteed. I also think they're going to win game four. And they did exactly that. You can see right from the beginning of the game, the focus, you can see the intensity level, locked in. That's the Denver Nuggets team that we've seen all playoffs long.

How did they get there was what I thought was very interesting. Joker had 32, 21, and 10 on 12 for 21 shooting. Great numbers, incredible numbers. The 10 assists, I thought, was very, very interesting. Because usually when Joker is like diamond guys, like you, like, it's like, wow, like, this guy getting everybody. To me, the 10 assists, he had seven assists in the first half. And to me, it didn't feel like he was diced in Miami up. it felt like he was cooking Miami

but it didn't feel like your typical him dicing Miami up and I thought that was interesting but who it did feel like was dice in Miami up when it came to playmaking was Jamar Murray now when I was watching that game I had no idea that Jamar Murray had a triple double until I looked after the game

and saw they had a triple double now that for me was very interesting because everyone's been talking about, you know, taking Joker out of his past and making him a score. And I thought one of Denver's adjustment was to just go heavy, heavy, heavy pick and roll with Jamal Murray and Joker. And Miami was taking the pocket away.

So if you notice, Miami was taking the pocket away. And Joker was kind of doing like a not quite a short roll. It was kind of like a little pop, not popping far out though. Like, he was almost like popping behind the pocket. And so Jamar Murray couldn't get the ball to him in the pocket, but he just kept stringing it out. And then it's almost like a little tossback.

And that's where Joker was getting those little touch shots in the middle of the paint, which is where he found his rhythm. Now, I thought, and I've been watching this, and I thought the way Miami is guarding Joker, like, yes, their mindset is to take the pocket away. I think we all know you want to take the pocket away, not let Joker catch the ball in the pocket with an advantage to either score and make plays because you're a man down who's in the picking roll coverage. And so I thought, and I still think, and this is a little more of an adjustment, when Joker's setting a screen, unlike Bam, he's not a fast roller. Like, if Bam get one step behind his or even even with his guy, if Bam sets a screen, Joker's in picking roll coverage or whoever else,

If Bam now starts to roll and he ends up even with the guy, like not even behind him because he ends up rolling and you get behind your man, it's all best are off. Covers is done. If Bam, Bam is such a good roller that if he gets even with a man, with his man, you throw the lob up, you can count it. They converting that at an 85, 90% clip. Bam's an incredible lob thread.

However, Joker is not. He's not a fast roller. He's not a lob thread at all. And so something that I thought was very, very interesting was that Miami, I think Miami needs to move Bam up to the level of the screen. Like all the way up to the level, almost in like a contained blitz.

Like, not that he's necessarily blitzing Jamar Murray, but it's almost like a contained blitz that then allows, A, if he's up at the level, it doesn't allow Jamar Murray to turn the corner. And if you don't allow Jamar Murray to turn the corner, A, that naturally takes the pocket away because you can't turn the corner to create the separation. B, it doesn't allow Joker to continue

to catch the ball in the middle of the paint and where he's automatic from and if you make one false movement off a guy, he's making a play. So I think Miami really needs to like move BAMP all the way up to the level of the screen in those Jamar Murray, Joker picking rows and stop Jamar Murray from turning the corner

because what's happening is you're a lot of, I would in Joker to get into a great rhythm with those little push shots right in the middle of the paint that if he gets the ball on the rim, he has such incredible touch. And it's going in. But even more importantly, what you're allowing is Jamar Murray to find a rhythm.

And Jamar Murray finding the rhythm has proven to be very problematic. Not only for this team, Miami Heat, the couple games, he's found a rhythm, but everyone in the playoffs. If you look, Jamar Murray had a pretty tough go in game two. They put Jimmy on and we discussed that and he had a tough go. I think he had 17 points on 18 shots or 18 points on 17 shots, something like that.

So what's proven to really be a big issue is Jamar Murray for the Miami Heat. And he got it going last night. As I said, he had 3410 and 10 on 12 for 22 shooting. They're going to have to do a better. Jamar Murray has said something earlier in the playoffs, and I thought it was very interesting. I want to say it was against Phoenix. I'm almost positive it was against Phoenix, and he had a great game, maybe like great game one. And in his interview after he was like, how much do I have to do to get respect or something like that or that nature that he said?

And like, y'all going to respect me yet or respect me now? And when I saw that, I was like, that is very interesting because Jamar Murray is a very good player. But quite frankly, when he said that, he didn't proceed to the next two games, I think, to play, like have pretty rough go at it. Next two, maybe three games, pretty rough go at it. And when I saw that, I was like, you can't come out and say that. Like, where's my respect and all of that? and then not follow up on the next game because the reason you're not getting to respect

is because people don't think that you're consistently doing it. Like you may have a game and then, you know, two, three games and you don't have a game. Well, I said all of that to say, Jamar Murray has completely changed that in these playoffs. Completely changed that. Ain't no one or two games. It's now like he have one game

and then two, three bad ones, or mediocre game. It's now great game, great game, great game, maybe one mediocre in there right back to it. And so I think the growth of Jamal Murray in these playoffs has actually been, A, incredible, but B, as much of a key as Denver being as dominant as they've been in the playoffs as Joker has been, as much of a key for the Denver Nuggets.

And so to me, it was very evident that, okay, y'all want to make Nicola score, not allow others to get involved. This is what we're doing. We're going heavy Jamar Murray. Allow Jamar Murray to get Nicola involved. Allow Jamar Murray to get everyone else involved and then start rolling from there. So that's actually why I think it didn't feel like some, like, like Joker just dicing you up. like you normally get to feel, you get the sense when they're playing. I thought that was very interesting.

I thought that was, to me, again, I'm not in their locker room. I don't know what's being said. I'm not in their shootarounds. I'm not in their shootarounds. I'm not in their team meetings. But to me, that looked like a point of emphasis and making adjustments. That looked like something that Coach Moe said, this is what we're doing. This is how we're going to combat them just trying to make Nicola score the ball.

over and over and over again and not get anyone else involved. In turn, like I said, you got two guys ending up with a triple double. Another adjustment that I saw that I thought was very interesting, and even from the first half to the second half, is remember Miami's own.

That's been the talk of the series, first couple games. They went zone, especially late in the fourth quarter, and they were really able to stifle Denver's offense. And in turn, game one, they almost came back. Game two, they did come back and take the game. Another key in them coming back and taking game two was Duncan Robinson's 10 points to start the fourth quarter.

After, if you remember me telling, or, you know, what I saw was Duncan Robinson couldn't get a shot off before the fourth quarter. And then he come out, he gets to go on to the fourth quarter. and, I mean, it proved to be too much for Denver. And Denver couldn't hit a shot. Miami took control of the game, took control of the series, headed back to Miami. I noticed Denver do something at the beginning of the game,

not the beginning of the game, when Duncan Robinson first came in the game. I noticed Denver do something that I've seen in the playoffs before, which is when I saw that, it was, you know, going back to the Cleveland, go to state warriors finals days. And what that was, if you remember Cleveland had Kyle Corver and you give LeBron James a guy like Kyle Corver,

he's going to find him, he's going to get him involved. And getting him involved, it just changes everything. It changes the team. And so what we ended up doing was we ended up calling the Corver. We ended up, anytime Kyle Corver came off of a, anytime Kyle Corver came off a pin down, anytime he came off a handoff, anytime Kyle Corver came into any action,

we just switched it. So if I'm on the big, I'm guarding Trish and Thompson, they handed off to Kyle Corver, I'm jumping out. And almost like a blitz without the second guy pursuing and just switch it.

But I'm like heavy jumping out to Kyle Corver, making Kyle Corver have a panic attack, and cough the ball up. You take the ball from Kyle Corver or Kyle Corva had to make a pass. And it took Kyle, in turn, it took Kyle Corver out of the series,

which made it very, I mean, I wouldn't say easy, it's never easy to win, but it made our defense a lot more a predictable. It made it a lot easier for us to contain the Cavalier's offense. If I'm not mistaken, I think that's the year that we swept him, which would be 2018.

Interestingly enough, Kyle Corver could not get a shot. He couldn't get a shot off. And then Kyle Corver got a three-pointer in the left corner in front of our bench, the fourth quarter, very meaningful for three,

and he threw that mud over the rim, airball. Because the rhythm just wasn't there. So you're jumping out every time he never gets into a rhythm. He gets that wide. open corner three and throw it over the rim, it doesn't feel so open because guys have been draped all over Kyle Corby whenever he's in the game. And so now you take Kyle Corby's shooting away

not to strong his defender that allowed us to really roll, really, really, really roll, taking that shooting away. That's what Denver did last night to Duncan Robinson, especially early in the game. Duncan Robinson came into an action. They just switched it. Duncan Robinson, not. not getting off, and it really, really, really neutralized Duncan Robinson. If you can continue to neutralize Duncan Robinson, Gabe Vincent, if you can neutralize Max Truff, if you can neutralize all of those guys and not, you know, even if it's one of them that get off, you can't have two and all three getting up, all of them getting off at the same time.

And so I thought that was a very interesting thing for them to kind of just take Duncan Robinson right back out of the series and not allow him to have the impact that he had in game two. Denver on the other side has someone that's playing similar to Duncan Robinson, Michael Porter Jr., shooting a lot of jump shots, threes, and he can't get it going. And Michael Porter Jr. is going to,

he's putting Coach Moore in a very tough spot now. You go out there and you win game three, so, you know, you never hit the panic button off a win. But Michael Porter Jr. is going to have to play better. We spoke about it earlier in the series or at the beginning of the series or leading up to,

or maybe a couple series ago, whatever, Michael Porter defensively. And not the strongest defender. I will say I've noticed him given more effort on the defensive end and you can appreciate that. You know, he had a, one interesting thing I saw Denver really doing is

when they were, they're sending the ball screens to the, middle. They're sitting, they're not icing it. They're sending all the ball screens to the middle. The guards chasing over the top of the ball screen, Miami's taking a lot of mid-range jump shots, the pursuit and contest that they're getting off those ball screens, it looks to me as if that's a point of emphasis because everybody was doing it. Even Michael Porter was doing it. But he's going to have to play better. And I think, you know, even like, okay, that's great, that's better, but this is the NBA finals. I think Michael Porter Jr. is going to have to give even more effort.

There was one Max Struce 3 in the first half where Max Struce slipped out. KCP ran to help. When he ran to help, Max Trues was open. He ran to the top of the key to help. Max Trues is open. They kicked to Max Trues. You have Michael Porter Jr. in the corner. You got to make that next rotation. Michael Porter Jr. doesn't make the next rotation. KCP comes running back from helping to get back to Max Trues when you should get the next rotation from Michael Porter Jr. He comes running back, Max Trues lines it up. Now, it doesn't cost you yesterday.

But all of a sudden, Max Truce see that one go in, which he did. But then he catch a rhythm off that, and those are the type of plays that can cost you. So I think they're going to need a little more from, Michael Porter Jr. Miami's making a very conscious effort to not leave him, to not give him open looks. And then once he does get the open looks,

a la Kyle Corver, it doesn't feel so open and he's not knocking him down. So for Denver to continue to dominate the series, or they've taken control of the series, they're going to need more from Michael Porter, Jr. And Bruce Brown. Bruce Brown To me,

I view Bruce Brown as one of the guys that has to play well that you're expecting to play well. Not quite your typical role player who's like, if they do play well,

that's a bonus for you. I view Bruce Brown as like, he has to play well. They need him to play well in order to win, which they would have last night, but the rookie came in. Christian Braun comes in,

15 points, all backdoor cuts, all hustle plays, still transition dump. Played his role extremely well. And so yesterday, Christian Braun covered for Bruce Brown in turn, you know, and helped them win the game. But are we going to expect the rookie to play like that again? Now, I'll give them kudos. I take my hat off to the rookie.

You go get 15 points in 19 minutes. is four rebounds, a couple steals, affecting the game on your first NBA finals road game, that was very impressive. That's a kid who got taken out of the starting lineup, I mean, out of the start line up, I mean, out of the rotation. Was taken out of the rotation last series. Stay's ready and is ready for his moment. Professional, rookie.

Going to have a long career in this league. That very thing right there is so valuable. And for him to do that on this stage in the NBA finals, as a rookie, I take my hat off to him because he won Denver that game last night. His hustle plays, his backdoor cuts, timely buckets, finishes. He won Denver that game last night. So I take my hat off to the rookie.

I thought that was a job well done. for him. And, you know, shout out to his vets for, I'm sure they're giving him that message. Stay ready. And he did that. And he helped him take control of the series again. And like I said, be interesting to see what happens in game four, but I got Denver in game four. Another couple of things that I witnessed. Listen, so Steph Curry is like, he made me aware this like over through the years is guys holding on to the ball at the end of a quarter like so they don't lessen their shooting percentage and i saw a couple guys do that yesterday like this is the NBA playoffs man it's the NBA finals who cares if your shooting percentage drop a little bit you see

that a lot in the regular season where guys don't want to like throw that he they hold it till after the shot after the buzzer go off and then shoot it because they don't want to drop their shooting percentage. That very things drive Steph Curry nuts. Now, quite frankly, if Steph shoots some heavies, Travis Walden, my trainer, my brother, he gets very mad at me for shooting the heavies, but I'm like, bro, I play with Steph Curry. Like, Steph are going to get very upset if you're just holding the ball and not shoot. Now, quite frankly, Steph is the best shooter we've ever seen, the greatest shooter we've ever seen. So his numbers are going to even out anyway, and he's going to get the attempts to even out when you don't

quite get the attempts is a tough thing. It's saying that. I'm watching guys do that in the playoffs. And it's so unacceptable to do that during the playoffs because Jordan Poole actually helped us win the NBA championship by hitting two shots last year before the buzzer. And one of them was he came across, he crossed, cross, cross, right in front of half-core line, he shoot it and he make it. Another one, if I'm not mistaken, he banked it.

And he was like going up to left side of the court. and the shots were so important because one of them that he made, it gave us the lead going into the fourth quarter. And Boston had made this crazy run. And so to go on this crazy run, I think it ended up putting us up one or two points going into the fourth quarter. And the run that they were on, it's like if they go in tied up or with the lead,

they're feeling good going into that fourth quarter. But when you go on a run like they went on in, third quarter to have to claw and fight your way back into the game and then you look up. And even if it's one point or two points, you look up and you down, it's just a gut punch. And so Jordan not being that way, due to Steph Curry's to the litch, actually helped us win in NBA finals. Like two very important shots, just like, and you may not think, like, oh, that was a good shot. Oh, that's exciting.

but what it did to the momentum of the game was huge. So I just want to say, guys, stop holding the ball at the end of the quarter. Like, shoot the ball. Like, it may go in, and it can win you in NBA finals. Like, who cares about your shooting percentage? Another thing that I saw from the Denver Nuggets, Coach Malone, like, Coach Malone adjustments were on point last night. Another thing that I saw is in the first half, first quarter-ish, maybe top of the second quarter, late first, top of the second.

Joker goes to the bench. When Joker went to the bench, they went that zone and Denver struggled again. They couldn't get into any offense, couldn't get any good looks, struggled. That was the lineup with Jeff Green at the fight. I think it was Jeff Green and Aaron Gordon at the same time. but I'm certain Jeff Green was in. And it really hurt Denver. If you see at the end of the third, top of the fourth,

Joker was in, and Miami wasn't able to go zone, which hurt them. There's another adjustment. Y'all zoning us every fourth quarter because Joker's starting on the bench, killing our rhythm, and now it's downhill. Mike Malone goes to Joker, at the top of the fourth

not to allow Denver, not allow Miami to get in that zone in Denver Road. The chess match. Gotta enjoy the chess match. Gotta pay attention to the chess match. So I thought Mike Malone's adjustments were great. I'm looking forward to seeing Miami's adjustments.

I already kind of hinted at one of them, which I think is a very important one, which is getting bam up to the level of, the screen, almost in a trap, not quite a trap because you're not just trapping and selling out and then giving Nicola pass and allow him to go make plays with numbers. But you're up at the level. Now you're up at the level. You got Jimmy on, you need to get Jimmy on.

Jamar Murray, bam's up at the level, doesn't allow Jamar Murray to turn the corner. If Joker start rolling, you're up. at the level, then you just start to drop with Joker as he dropped. Pocket never opens up. Jamar never quite turns the corner. You got your athletic defensive stopper, Jimmy Butler, pursuing, making it tough, getting the review contests if he needs to, but you're keeping the ball contained. So it won't be too much review contestant.

And saying that, Jimmy Butler's capable, more than capable. So I think that's something that the Miami Heat needs to do. I also think Miami has to find a way to get those shooters going again. Gabe Vincent getting in foul trouble, I thought really hurt them last night. threw off their rhythm. Gay Vince has been playing incredibly well. Miami has to find a way to get those guys involved, and if they're going to switch like they were doing on the shooters coming into action,

maybe you need to get some keeps. Bam, it's really good at the keeps. Bam actually gave me a couple of pointers on the keeps when we were playing in the Olympics. So may need to mix in some of that to loosen the defense up, but I got Denver taking game three. I'm game four. Denver got outscored from the three. I think Miami had maybe six or seven more threes than Denver. Denver also turned the ball over more than their.

usually turning the ball over. I think they had 10 more turnovers, and yet they won by 15 points. They did outscore Miami 60 to 34 in the paint, so that's good, but 10 more turnovers and six less threes and lose by 15 points, that is not very promising for Miami. But Miami is Miami.

They're never quitting and going away. Spostra, great. I'm sure you got some adjustments coming. Looking forward to checking those out. They're going to need them because you can go down 3-1 headed back to the Mile High City. So we shall see.

That's a wrap from this episode of the Draymond Green Show live on Amazon Amp. As you know, this will be everywhere. You can get your podcast, you check it out. Oh, and before we get out of here, Last thing. So for our subscribers, you probably have noticed that the logo or the show changed a few weeks ago.

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