The Ringer NBA Show - The Warriors Take Game 2 in Blowout Win | Real Ones

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

Logan and Raja discuss the first two games of the NBA Finals series between the Warriors and Celtics, including the Warriors' collapse in Game 1 and their blowout win in Game 2. Hosts: Logan Murdock and Raja Bell Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Derek Thompson, the host of the podcast, Plain English. We tackle technology, politics, culture, history, everything that's happening in the world, and why it matters. New episodes of Plain English drop every Tuesday and Friday on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Here, Roger Bill there. The morning after, Warriors beat the breaks off of the Boston Celtics 107-88. First of all, Roger, what did you think of the game? How are you doing, buddy? What did you think of the game?

What did you think of the first two games in this series? And we'll go from there. How are you doing, bud? Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Thanks for asking. Can I, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm probably not in the, this isn't anything new for anyone.

But in the first game, I felt I went to sleep. I thought it was, I thought it was bag in hand. Like, there was just going to be. What did you go to bed? No, no, no. I missed all of the fireworks in the first game. I missed. I missed, they were up.

So I was up with my son. Like you know this. We talked about. We were up in Notre Dame. It had been a long day. And, you know, we went down to the lobby. They had a really good restaurant as far as lobby food goes. And we ate.

I had a couple glasses of wine. And then we went up to the room to watch. And we were chilling by watching the game. And they went up 13, I guess, the Warriors, you know, in the third quarter. It's late in the third. And I just kind of drifted because I was like this was. You trusted the process. You were like, this is the Warriors.

And this is what they do. They're going to problem. What happened last night, I foresaw happening in the first game. I was like, okay, they'll run away with this. And then I woke up to SportsCenter at like, I don't know, 4 a.m. because the TV was still on. And I was like, what in the hell? So I had kind of deviarded.

I watched it on my phone. And it's been, it's been entertaining. It's been what I would have hoped for for the first two games. Yeah, yeah. No, it's been, it's been great. I was at the first two games at Chase Center. Chase Center's rocking, bro. This is the first time I have seen Chase just blowing the roof off of itself.

It was just, it was, it was, it was fantastic environment there. Let me ask you a question because I've attended finals games in, in the old building. How do they, how do they, how do they, and Oracle was phenomenal. I mean, it was old and rickety, but like it was, it had a vibe. How do they compare? Oracle, I don't think there's any comparison to Oracle per se when it comes to like environment, just for how it's constructed and the way the noise goes off the concrete and things like that. And also, I will say this about Chase Center.

I've grown to really like Chase Center, but it's a bit more, it's a bit more cater to its wealthier clientele. You know, and it's more of a place where you, like it's more of a place where you bring, you know, your tech homies and things like that too. But to their credit, though, this was the first two games were the first couple of times

where I was like, oh, okay. this matters. They care. This is here where they're here. I don't even know if there's any comparison, Ron, but it was a great environment. They showed up for the finals Warriors fans.

There were some Celtics fans sprinkled up in there, too. Some Celtics fans made the trip, Roger. They were locked in, too. Yeah, that's one of those places. There are a few places where I wouldn't feel super comfortable as an opposition fan. And for whatever reason,

can't speak for Chase, but Oracle was one of them. Yeah. Like there was just, that was a grimy place. Like, I wasn't going to walk up in there. Yeah. I wasn't walking up in there with my son's gear on about, you know, not doing it. I mean, I'll say this, though, like, there's so many, there's so much son's influence in Golden State right now.

I saw, you know, a, uh, uh, a Leandro Robosa was there. Um, Amino Hassan was there. Um, you know, just spreading all the sun's propaganda. It was just, it was, it was, it was a lot going on there. Um, yeah, it was, there's a lot of son. So you would, I say I would say you would have been fine if there was, there was some son's people there if you came in your son's gear. You know, you got Steve Kerr, who is also a, you know, son's guy. Um, I thought that you'd have been fine. It was interesting you talked about game one because there was a moment and you were probably asleep by this. The Warriors

went up 15 is when you said, oh, well, we're good. It's fine. Um, I forgot the play they went up with 15 on, but the Celtics, which was a really big play, as soon as the, the, the, the Warriors went up 15, throws the ball down the court in transition to Marcus Smart to get a quick basket. Anytime a team goes up, and to cut it down to 13, anytime a team goes up 15 at home and you're the road team, you want to make sure you counter that instantly. If it's a three point, you want to match, you want to match, match it up with a three point or match it up with a point on the other end. That was so huge because it, because it got, while the Warriors were up, they weren't up too much. and 15 is kind of the threshold in this NBA. If they hit another three,

it's probably over for the Warriors. And then the Celtics came right back. And then that's when the run started. When Marcus Smart hit that quick layup, I think it was with two minutes left, that's when it started. Yo, man, this is going to be a long series. This is going to be a very long series.

I want to go into, we'll talk about game one as we trickle out through this. But game two was interesting because, the warriors held Al Horford to two points, right? They're going to third quarter run. It was funny because after game one, Draymond had said, yeah, Derek White and Al Horford aren't going to do that again,

basically under no uncertain terms. It was like, we're good, we feel fine. That was what it was. They won, they got us. We don't feel too bad about that.

And they played like it in game two, Roger. Yeah, well, this has been Boston kind of throughout the playoffs. like if we reflect back to the Milwaukee series, they became almost unbeatable when they would get performances from,

you know, like Al Horford to the tune of 20 plus points or, you know, Peyton Pritchard was chiming in with 14 or 15 or even Marcus Smart having a big offensive game. That makes them a different tier of team offensively. You know what you're going to get kind of to some degree out of Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum,

even though Jason Tatum didn't have a good game won. But when they get that third or fourth guy scoring, and they become really, really hard to beat. And so I like the fact that Draymond came out and said that they weren't going to allow those guys to do that. And that's kind of, you know, Steve Kerr and the Golden State team, having been through this process over and over again, understand that it's going back to the drawing board,

it's going back to the tape, it's tinkering with, you know, different lineups, maybe different matchups, different philosophies offensively to get what you ultimately want to get. And once you do that, it becomes the Celtics turn to try to match that. And if they don't,

you found a sweet spot. Like, you're good to go. And if they do, then it's just a constant battle of that, right? We're going back and forth in this game of chess. And so it's going to be interesting to see what IME Udoka and company decide to do.

But certainly Golden State came out. And it wasn't just the matchups, Logan. It wasn't just putting clay over there on Horford and, you know, switching Draymond's assignment. But it was their level of desperation, the Warriors that was, was coming through the TV at me. Like that ball was getting kicked, you know, into a swing, swing situation for Boston.

Shots that were wide open shots in game one. And somebody was flying at them in game two, running them off of the shot, making them make another basketball play. And they did that over and over and over again. And, you know, Boston turned it over. It's why you tell kids make them make an extra pass. Every extra pass is an extra opportunity for us to turn you over.

And, you know, Golden State just had that level about them last night. It was championship, you know, type of, you know, nut crunch time. And they stepped up to the plate. There have been times in the – I'm curious to get your take on this. There have been times in this series where I've seen from Boston where they just take hard shots, right? Where they – where at least their main guys just take really hard shots where I see Jalen Brown going. They'll make them, but it's just hard nonetheless, where Jason Tatum is doing the fadeaway here, where Jason, or Jalen Brown is doing another fade away, he's going to get to the cup,

just real, there are guys after him, or even Marcus Smart, who just takes contested shots. That's a bit of concern to me where, you know, at this level, you want to get the easiest shots you can, you can get. I know that's easier said than done in the finals, but is that going to be able to, have you seen that from this team? is that is that going to hurt them as the series goes along when they are there when they are getting when they are taking those tough shots in the corner and all the fadeaways and stuff the same thing going to make you laugh and make you cry yeah right and so it's everybody's laughing it's making you laugh while they're hitting these incredibly difficult contested shots you're like holy shit these

dudes are cooking this is some phenomenal offense but that's not a sustainable model to win games to answer your question logan you you can make those and that's icing on the cake but the cake itself has to be good offense producing good looks especially against really good defensive teams like Golden State and so

it was working even early in game two Jalen Brown was cooking it was one of those things in the first quarter where the crowd is like like egg like please do something warriors please do something they were really nervous to start

the game too. And they should have been because Jaylen Brown was cooking. That second foul really took kind of the steam out of his engine. When he came back on the floor, he just didn't have it anymore. But you want to produce offense with your action. As much as you can, let that get

you open looks. You know, we're past the day and an age where you're going to get a layup out of your set and we're going to run it. It's not really like that, but you're running your action to create open looks. You don't want to always shoot contested, um, step threes. You know, that's not a sustainable model. So Boston has to do better at that, but you have to give credit to Golden State. It's this constant battle of whether or not, you know, defensively, I can apply enough pressure and be physical enough to make it hard for you

to get in your sets, right? Like that's mental toughness and physical physical toughness. People often think that toughness, you know, as a term when coaches are talking about it, has to do with your physical. I won't let you push me around. I'm going to not, that's not what toughness is ultimately. Toughness is when Golden State steps up their level of pressure and is making it hard for us, can we continue to execute? Like will, can we have the mental fortitude to continue to run our offense, set good screens, make good scoring cuts and let and trust what we do offensively to continue to carry us through this, right? And that's why you apply that level of pressure defensively because Boston wasn't able to stick with it.

They kind of fried out and started doing the one-on-one dance. And that's, you're playing right into Golden State's hands at that time. And I would also add, in fairness to the Boston fan, boy, they were letting Golden State beat the shit out of Boston last night. They were the shit out of Boston. They were beating the hell out of Boston. It was, this is the other thing, and we're not going to get too far into this, but there was, I just had a feeling like there were,

just going to be a, it was going to be a physical game and Boston was going to be called for all the battles. Leave it at that. Leave it at that. Leave it at that. We were aligned. But it was a, it was a very interesting game. And going to the toughness fact, early ruin of the weak candidate,

Raja, GP2, getting paid the second. There was a, there was a part in the game where there was some talk before the game. You know, we went to a NBA media day in between the two, the two games. And, yo, this man, GP, was not taking a shot. He wasn't taking a shot in the open period.

Like, they were having, you know, warriors are a very loose bunch for having shooting competitions. They were just, they were chilling. Gary Payton was literally doing the thing with, where he tries to flip the ball into the basketball, into the basket, uh, was it the basketball holder? what is the thing? The ball rack?

I don't know. The ball rack. There we go. But that's literally what his right hand was just trying to flip the ball into the ball rack. It's all he was doing the whole time with his right hand. And while everyone is doing shooting drills. So it gave me pause, right? And Steve Kerr said that GP was, he wasn't, didn't feel comfortable playing GP in the game one.

And then game two, he misses his first two free throws. And I'm like, oh, his arm is, it's done. Then he goes and hits the corner three and I'm like, oh, okay. Big toughness from GP. I don't know why I just went to that, but I think he needed a shout out. Yeah, good shout out.

I think, you know, if you're just a fan of the NBA, you like to see stuff like that. I mean, you like to see guys who kind of got robbed of that opportunity for one reason or another be able to have another shot at it. So I was happy to see him back. I think those first two free throws, I was a little nervous too. But clearly it was just nerve. I think it was nerves on his part, right?

Like he is, it's a big stage. He hadn't played in a while. And he knocked the rust off. Sometimes for a team, even a guy like GP who, when you talk about the Warriors probably isn't the fourth or maybe even fifth name that you mentioned. Just getting a guy back that does the job that he often does is a big boost, big shot in the arm, you know, just seeing that guy back in the foxhole with you. And so, you know, that was cool all the way around.

You know, Boston, and I don't mean to like just bounce all over the place, but as I watched them last night, you know, I, I think they let that physicality by, by Golden State kind of not just take their legs out offensively, but it had an effect on them defensively. I saw them blow assignments that I hope they're blown assignments because I don't know why you would be in a coverage that you were in multiple times on Steph. You know what I mean? Like so I have to assume they were blown coverages if they weren't, forgive me. But it just looked like they let their inability to score or get calls. on the offensive end affect their ability to do their job on the defensive end at times.

I need you to put your whistle on and your, in your visor and your Oakley Shades real quick, hotraja. What did you feel in game one when you saw Marcus Smart run guarding step, but somehow run into the paint away from Steph and giving Steph a wide open three point shot? Yeah, that's, I mean, that's, I'm guessing that's what you're talking about. No, no, no, no, no, no. But, I mean, there were multiple times that Steph was left open or unaccounted for in transition or, you know, Golden State did a good job yesterday of kind of scrapping just a little bit of their action at times when they had certain lineups on the floor and just seeking and destroying is what I call it, kind of like, like Boston does. Like, we're going to get Al Horford on him, put Al Horford in his pick. We're like, we'll take our chances.

And I felt like Boston didn't, again, I'm hoping the coverage on Steph isn't drop coverage. Like to run effective drop coverage, your guard has to get up, really get into the guard with the ball and get over that screen. So if, because there's no protection on the other side, that big is dropped back around the free throw line. So if you can't climb up and get over the screen, he's going to be able to stop on a dime and pull. It's the best shooter ever. So, you know, I would never even. risk that. I would be up and just we're taking that shit away, make someone else beat us. But if you're in that, and maybe I should give Golden State a little credit for maybe changing the angle of the screen, making him climb over and just giving.

But I don't believe you should be in that. So either A, it was a bad call, you know, from the bench or B, in which I hope it was, is that you just blew those assignments. Like you weren't connected to your man in games where you can't blow that many assignments. I haven't been able to tell you this because I haven't potted but I told you this and before game one Steph is going for that final was a VP bro.

Did you see him again? Like the first two games, he's going for it. And he is playing like whoever said that any Marcus Smart or Pritchard or anyone can guard him is just cap.

He's just saying like he's playing like he feels disrespectful right now. He does. I thought of you in the first half of game one. Like I almost texted you. Did you see him in the first one?

I almost texted you. I almost texted you. I almost texted you that I told you so. I was like, do you see? I almost texted you the eyes. Like, what? Do you see what going on? So they've had a,

the boss of Southings had a few guys guard staff. I think Tatum's had time on him. Smart has gotten time on him. Richard has got time on him. Who would you put on him? Would you just give him a variety of different coverages? How do you guard staff if you're the Celtics? Because the Celtics have a lot of guys that are great defenders, a lot of great defenders.

Who would you do it by committee or would you just put one guy on him? I'd probably do it by committee. At least that would be my game plan unless the first person I started on him was having really good success, right? I would be cycling through people until I found something that gave him a problem that night. you know Marcus Smart's good he's physical doesn't have the same length as Jailing you know so I'd be fine I actually feel okay with a high switch um of Al Horford on him you know if it's timely you know I don't want him up there with like 12 seconds on a switch with Al so but what I would never do Logan is give him an opportunity to come off of a pick and roll into a pocket so if I switched him

I would switch him way up high, have him have to take a retreat dribble, and then try to, like, dance on whoever he got to switch on. But I'm never going to let him come off into a clean pocket. So there would never be a time where I would have someone not attached to their man who was screening for Steph. So whether we're switching it aggressively and taking something away or we're trapping it, which I would definitely employ on him to some degree, Steph is not going to be the one using that screen and popping me in the face over. over again. He's going to have to get off of that ball

and the others are going to have to beat me if I can take care of it. Now, as Steph is just that good that night and that brilliantly, like, effective offensively, then so be it. But I'm going to design my defense to try to

take away some of the easy ones. Yeah. Now, talking about the Warriors, one of the others that have not been playing, not even others, he's a really great player. But He's not been playing well over the last few games. And that's Clay Thompson. He's trying too hard, dog.

Yeah. He's trying too hard. You can see it. Like, he's pressing. He wants it so bad. And it's human nature, and I'm not throwing shade. Like, I'm telling him I feel that. Like, I've been in that situation, clearly not the player that he was.

But I know what that feels like. And everything he does looks rushed. I'm thinking about Kobe Bryant in game seven of the 210 finals. And I always think about this, like, just from a life perspective, you remember 2010 finals, Kobe going for his fifth ring. And if you go back and look at that game, I think he went six of 24. He's pressing the whole night, just pressing, shooting everything. He's shooting dumb shit.

It's just, it's not a great offensive display. And then he juxtaposed that with Ron Artec, who in that game was just free, just hitting three, he's not even caring. and just let it go, right? There aren't many times that you would say this, but in that moment, you'd rather be run our test than Kobe Bryant. We need Clay Thompson and just be run our test.

And just let it fly. Just let it go. It's fine, you know? Yeah. He's chasing that, he's chasing that game six Clay or that, it feels like he's chasing that,

uh, the games that he's known for. Yeah, yeah. No, clearly. And what we need him to do, if, if if if we're warrior fans is we need him to just clear his head and hoop and when I say it like it sounds like oh no shit but he he's not just hooping right now he's he's out there and you're correct

he's in pursuit of a level of play that that may not be there this year he's coming off some catastrophic injuries, right? And so just being out there, this is a beautiful thing. So let's just relax, you know, let's stop searching for the big home run balls or the 10-3s in a quarter. And let's just provide, you know, Golden State with solid, consistent minutes. And if that should happen because we've relaxed and now, you know, we've gotten into a great rhythm, great. But I believe in the basketball gods. When I was in a slump Logan, and this is, this was across my whole career, and it was crazy because it happened over and over and over again. And every time I got into another one, I couldn't remember this. And so it would take me the three games, right? And this,

what I'm saying is this would be, as long as you keep trying to hit the shot, oh shit, I got to make, come on. All right, I'm going dial in. Let me get my little form. That shit don't go in. You know what it goes in? When you forget about it and just hoop, I'm going to worry about my rebounding, playing great defense, let me make some good passes and get in the rhythm. And then lo and behold, you get a layup or a little easy bucket and now the lid's off and you've gotten out of it. But as long as you press for the big three to go down, it generally doesn't. So he's just got to relax and hoop. It'll come to him. I liked his second half because it looked like he was in game two. It looked like he decided he was going to try to get to the rim. He wasn't going to just

settle for the long Jay every time it touched his hands. And, I think that will be beneficial for him. But make no mistake, if he doesn't play better moving forward going to Boston, Golden State's up against it, bro. Yeah, yeah. He's going to have to play better for them to win this series. It's funny. You were talking about him just trying to force it and, like,

you looking at the form and stuff like that and you never make it. I remember my – when I played – back in my day when I played football, my pops used to take me to one of the Lake Mary – like the one of the parks around Lake Merritt had hell of trees. right you would just throw throw the football at the trees right and the goal was to like hit five trees in a row

and when I really really wanted to do it I would fuck up my form and just like throw it like you're aiming it's like trying to aim it exactly just aiming it and you would never make it and it was the most frustrating thing of all time but when you're just letting it

when I was just letting it fly just letting it go thong thong fong thong I think that's what like Clay, if he goes, looks back at his old film of when he was like when he, you know, if you go look at 2016 Western Conference Finals, if he goes looks at that, he was so free. He was just like, that's when he was waving off the screen.

Fuck it. Just now he's just like doing the thing where he shoots it and then he crouches his legs. Like, is it going to go in? And it's like, come on, Clay. Come on. Well, in Clay's mind, he had gotten to such a level offensively shooting the ball that, while he was playing super fast and he was like coming off these screens and seemingly within a fraction of a second raising up and knocking down that three like while he was playing like

that and it looked really fast his mental process was really slow right like so up top it was really slow for him things were moving in slow motion to our eye it looked like he was going a thousand miles an hour and just shooting the skin off of the ball but it's crazy how in your in your process as the player doing that, everything slows down for you. But what's happening to him now is his head is moving really fast and his body is moving really fast

and it looks like he's rushing it. It's like a rookie who's really good and full of potential right now. Yeah, and you're just, I want it so bad. I'm just going to, oh, yeah, this is it, this is it. And it's just you got to relax. You got to let that mental slow back down. You got to just get your vibe,

maybe take your dog out on the boat, whatever he does to relax, and just, you know, find it. FanDuel is giving new customers $200 in free bets, guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. The NBA Finals are here, and so is your chance to score big on FanDuel Sportsbook. Throughout the NBA finals,

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I'm going to take the Celtics money line. Probably take Jason Tatum to make the first basket because he's a bucket. And since Jordan Poole's been really quiet in this series, I got a feeling that he's going to make more than 20. Just sign up with promo code Ringer MBA. If you haven't tried Fandual, now is the perfect time to give it a shot.

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The first game, yeah, they had a really, really good game. The second game, I think they're really getting into what the finals are and figuring out a place that they've never been for. And that's interesting with young teams, right? It can go either way. I'm not saying that it says anything. But now it's they got the split. They got what they wanted.

What do you think they're going to be in? Are they going to be? I don't know how to look at this team. Where are they going to be in Boston? I don't know because, you know, they're just, this is a very unpredictable. basketball thing. They're going to be a mofo in Boston, brother. Trust that. I'm going to tell you again, those dudes were there last night to take two. They came out. They were. They were there to take two. What they need is one of those two, Jalen or Jason, to be cooking in the first quarter, right? Because

both of them can score to a degree where that carries them, you know, to a first quarter lead. Then what typically happens is the other one hops in, right? And, you know, defensively, they're really, really tough when they're locked in. weren't last night. What got to them last night was the refs. I'm telling you, I watched it. Like, Logan, I watched it. I'm not getting into a, I'm not getting into

any of that. But the tenor of the game, the physicality that was game two affected Boston. It affected them in a way that they weren't able to kind of recalibrate on the fly and get into it. I think that a team

who, at at least on paper, for me, I would pick to be the more physical of the two teams, that being Boston. Understanding that, hey, this is what we're doing now, okay, let's be ready for game three. I think they're going to be just fine. They got to be aware of Golden State's ability to muddy the game. And that's what they did. And that's what Golden State did in game two.

They didn't play well to start by any means. But they pro, and a lot of this, this does also have to do with three. reps, but they muddied that first quarter so much. You know, they were down, I think seven and just was like, oh, okay, we're just going to kick your ass for the next six minutes. And we're just going to, we can't shoot for shit, but we're going to just figure it out. And we're going to, we're going to do that's, they kind of just clawed back into the game.

And I think that's the only way the warriors are going to be successful in Boston. They're going to have to muddy up this game and make it a 90s to 95s. from a defense perspective and win in the final quarter. I think Golden State is going to have to be flexible enough and good enough to win in a multitude of ways in this series. Because I'm telling you now, if they let that become a gutter street fight, I'm taking Boston.

Taking Boston? I'm taking Boston. I mean, you line them up across the board and you tell me in a physical, I'm going to let you grab, hold, and kick-ass type of game, who would you take? and the roster suggests to me that I'm going to take Boston.

I think Golden State hit them with a punch that they didn't see coming. When they picked up their level, Golden State, they picked their level up. And they're a championship level team. Like, that's what they do. They just came out and said, hey, what we're doing isn't enough.

Let's take another step in terms of our defensive tenacity, our physicality, our challenging of loose balls, are running people off of jump shots, and to your point, we're going to muddy this shit up with our effort. I don't think Boston made the change on the fly to that very well. But I think Golden State, while they, yes,

they'll have to have the ability to do that. They're going to also have to have the ability to run good, clean offense and knock down a bunch of threes, right? They're not going to win unless just in a defensive battle. They're going to have to be able to produce. Clay's going to have to figure out how to chime in with a,

decent enough amount of points. Jordan Poole, who played well last night, is going to have to... He also played well a little late. He needs to get up. He needs to... Yeah. He played well in the third, but when he first started, he was timid. He wasn't playing well to start.

He got... He has to get good early, like right off, especially on the road. I'm with the commentators last night. I thought Van Gundy and Mark Jackson did a good job. And, and, uh, and shout out to my man. Uh, shout out to Mark. Mark Jones. Yeah.

Who? Mark Jones is from the crib, man. But anyway, I thought they did a good job in that. Jordan Poole approached it the way I think Clay should approach it, which was, and maybe you saw something I didn't, but I didn't see him as necessarily being timid as much as I saw him not pressing for the bucket. He was coming off and getting other people buckets,

driving it hard, coming off of that pick and roll, getting in, dropping it to Looney. Like, he was making simple plays that got him in a good rhythm. And then once you're in that rhythm, now we, boom, the offense comes back a little bit. So hopefully he carries that over into game three because they're going to need him. They're going to bought Golden State is going to need their scoring supplementation around staff to be in place and defend well to get these to get the win in Boston or multiple wins in Boston. Can we talk about Draymond for a second?

Let's do it. Mixed emotions, right? Love what he does. Love what he does. Like I thought. Acquainted to the show, by the way. Yeah, no doubt. I thought that he was dialed and locked into the role that he had to play,

the character that he had to be last night to set the tone for Golden State as a team. And as just a reminder to Boston, don't get this twisted. I thought all of that was perfectly done. And I also feel he should have been kicked out of that game. Are you talking about after the Jalen Brown play? No, I mean, like, I don't have any beef, right? Like, I'm not sitting here telling you like, but. It was one of those things where we, I was sitting next to Rob Mahoney group chat,

and we were, we thought he was going to get. He should have kicked out of the game. You explained to me why he went kicked out of the game. I thought he was going to get to kick out of it. That's a, like double technical on any other type of play. Any other type of play. Any other, any other game, that's a double tech and he's getting ejected. So, and I listened to Steve Javvy, right?

Steve Javvy said on air when they go to the old ref. Steve Javvy and I got history. I like Steve. But his explanation was a ref takes into account the situation, the player that it is, and all of that. And my argument is if this is purely for entertainment and we're trying to sell these NBA games and seats, I understand that, right?

But now you're categorizing this is something different. Because if this is purely sport and we're trying to crown a champion within the rules that are in place, you've just put us in a very subjective place where refs have the ability and the autonomy to do it to whoever the fuck they want to do it depending on the situation. And that's some shady shit. And I don't love that. I'm keeping it a buck. As much as I'm cheering for Draymond in the game and I love what I'm watching, like I think in Raja's world, keep that shit consistent. if it's if it's a tech in the first quarter of the 72nd game of the NBA season then fuck it

it's a tech and you fucked up because you shouldn't be in that situation with one tech already for the record he would have got ejected to the 70 second game in the regular team it would have it would have been over um but you got the feeling that it was because it was the NBA finals and it was Draymond Green ironically that he didn't get ejected you know because it said everything that there was an argument that you put his leg hole on the island's face like it was just a lot going on it was too much when you go back to watch that yeah i'm not a ref but i'm i got a lot of family members that are a refs like if it had just been the feet on him not a tech not of tech if if it had just been maybe not the feet on him but the smack away of the whatever not a tech right

i can look though there were three acts in there do you understand what i'm saying like and i just thought it was a double tech at least of course it's a double tech, Logan, and it just, it's a double tech 99.9% of the time. This is a no-brainer. They throw those out all the time. So all I'm saying is either don't throw them out all the time or you got to throw it on that one. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree with you. I agree with you. And I just want to go to a little bit of psych and sounds of the finals. Yeah. Because it was just the finals is a different spectacle. Who you got going into in the game three? It's hard. This is a, this is it going to be a tough series.

This is the long-in-all. I think it's going to go six or seven. I can make a real good case for Golden State being up too old right now and tell you that they'll have this under control, right? And so I think Boston wins game one, Golden State wins game. I mean, Boston wins game three, Golden State wins game four. But I like Golden State and where they're at, right? Because they've had control of both games.

Yeah. You know? But I could make the argument for the Celtics too. So I don't have a great feel as I him and haul my way through this. I think that Boston wins game three. Yeah. At home. We have the journal.

All jokes aside. Do you know what Boston as a franchise is doing to the league right now? We talk about this all the time. Do you know what type of calls are going into the league offices right now about what transpired physically? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Every team does it, by the way. Every single team does it.

And so you'll get a better whistle at home. them. Riffs are human, right? There'll be energy in the building. And I think... I was going to be popping at TD Garden. Popping. And Boston probably feels like they got bullied.

And I think they'll come out with that level. I think they win game three. Also, I just want to say, NMEUK is a great coach. I just want to say that. This, like, dog. I know he's pulling at your heartstrings

every time he is... Like, I was one time where Draymond went to go talk to M.A. And M.A. was just not having it. Like, I'm going to fuck that. Fuck that. Get out of here. Yeah, cool story. I mededoka, myself, Luke Walton. We all started our coaching career together. It was at the NBA Top 100 program. We were at University of Virginia.

Brendan Sore used to run a coaching clinic along with that camp for the kids where we would coach, you know, we would do classroom sessions and all of our shit. And then we go coach the kids. And that's where we all started. Like we were all NBA players at the time and we started there. Worked out better for those two. I coach a high school team. They're both NBA coaches. But pretty cool story. It's really because you don't like to travel, bro.

No, but you could tell, though. You could tell even in those, like classroom sessions and dealing with those kids and then coming back, you could tell. Because we do little exercises, like where you would have a bunch of us. Could be, like, Rajzell v. Like, he wasn't offered the Brooklyn men's job. Like, he wasn't. the guy he could be, like he could be an assistant coach tomorrow.

But I think it's cool because you could tell. Like you have Royal Ivy was in there in that group with us. Forgive me. I'm forgetting a lot of people. But they would do sessions in the classroom where your peers in the class would be the team. And they put a chair in front. And everyone would be sitting down. And they'd start the clock and be like,

hey, this is a timeout. Here's the situation. We need you to clearly address this group about what's going to happen. and they would just let you go, right? And they'd film it for you. And you could tell who had the presence and the ability to be calm in the moment, really articulate the strategy,

the play, how you were going to conduct yourselves coming out of the timeout. And it was really easy to see the dudes like Eme and Luke and Royal. Like they were going to be able to do that if they wanted to do that. Well,

the thing about Emma is he's like really old school. And it's probably a former player thing. But like he's one of those guys that, like he said, I think when Marcus Mark called the team out earlier this season, he was like, he called him in his office, like, you don't fucking do that to your teammate. You don't do that.

Right. You don't do that. And you got to apologize. Like, there's no, and I don't know, like, especially, not even this day and age, but I don't know if a lot of coaches, and I know it seems simple and all these things. I don't know if a lot of coaches could do that.

Well, it's twofold, right? Because you hit the nail on the head as a player, right? Having that experience and knowing that that's not going to, But also, I mean, he was raised under some of the best coaches, you know, in Greg Popovich and the people that were around that organization. So he and their throwbacks to your point, right? So, like, that's what he was raised in. I don't know if I talk myself into this all this morning game three, but it's going to be ebb and a flow, man. It's going to be interesting to watch.

I'm going to go with, just because you want, I'm going to go with, I'm going to go to Golden State just because you went with Boston. There's no rhyme or reason. And I think they come back to the Bay Area 2, too, too. I think for Game 5, I think that's what's going to happen. There was some, as you know, during the finals, it's just a different environment. Just a way different, like, so many different people that you wouldn't even expect. Chris Tucker was at the game last night, which was kind of cool. Game one, though, two things that happened in game one.

So I'm chilling with Vinnie Goodwill of Yahoo Sports and Amino has in front of the show. And we're chilling in the, and you haven't been to Chase Center, but there's this long tunnel across from the, well, just outside of the Celtics life room. It's a long tunnel like where like, where like if you're, you know, famous like Raja, your car can be, you know, get parked by the TV trucks. It's all those places. We're just like a whole bunch of different people like shacks coming through like all these people. So me and Vinny and Amin are chilling. And out of nowhere like Spike Lee comes.

Spike Lee comes like in dressed in all white. And I don't know Spike Lee. Amin doesn't know Spike Lee. I don't think Vinny knows Spike Lee, but Spike makes a beeline to us. It goes, shakes our hand and goes, brothers, brothers, brothers, brothers, brothers. Right? Which is right.

And then he goes and he stops. He has the security with him and goes and he stops. And he's like, I got to go talk to such and such. Hold on. And I don't know who such and such is, right? And he stops. And then he goes back and M.A. Udoka is walking towards the court. And Spike sees him.

And man, he goes up and says like some sort of like, I see you keep killing it or something. and M.A. who's locked in. You know how M.A. has always locked in at all times. Locked in, puts a handout. And I swear, bro, Spike Lee gave the hardest smack

to M.A.'s hand I've ever seen him. Like, get that shit there. I'm like, one of those, right? And even M.A. was like, what the fuck? I'm like, oh, shit. That happened, right? I'm like, oh, my goodness. Only Spike could do that.

Like, there's no other person in the world. He gives interviews like that, so that's not surprising to me. Like he seems to be on on a thousand in a good way. In a good way. And also, you'll understand it's put your Jansport backpack on, put your Tim's on for this one. Jay-Z was at game one. And so I'm walking out to the court as Jay-Z is walking back to the, back, I guess, to his car, which is going to go to the private jet to take him wherever he's going.

And so I'm like, okay, like I'm walking towards Jay-Z. I don't know what I'm going to say, but something's going to come out of my mouth. I have no idea. Like, am I going to say, like, volume one might change my life? Am I going to say that reasonable doubt is the best ever? But what am I going to say in this two minutes? The only thing that comes out is, what's up, G? Oh, my God.

Oh. And I put the fist out for a pal. And he looks, Jay. It's like, what the fuck? What in the, And then he returns the favor and gives like a pound. It goes, peace, God, peace. And then walk.

Oh, my God. I haven't gave one. Yeah. That's a good one. I have a Jay-Z story, too. It doesn't, I mean, I don't even know what I said, but I barely mustered something better than that, I promise you. But he had.

So what was this? What's your Jay-Z story? I was on a road trip with the Cavs acting in the general manager capacity. David Griffin didn't travel. so I was there in his stead. And we were in the bowels of the arena. And it was him and Beyonce. And so it wasn't just Jay.

I'd like to think that if it was just Jay, I would have been better. But it was Jay and Bay, and I was bad. What was going through your mind before as you're going toward them? A thousand things, like real fast. It was all going through my mind. As this was happening,

as the gap closed between us, the shit got faster and faster, right? Like, your brain was just, like, swimming. And then when that moment came, I don't, I think I just said my name or something and put my hand out. I don't know. Like, it was weird. I'm sure he knew who you were, though, bro.

I had the comfort of that, but it didn't, like, ease my anxiety about it. No, no. So I just kind of, like, said my name hoping, like, and put the hand out and he shook it. I don't think we went in for, like, little shoulder bump or anything. It was real awkward. It was one of those moments where like on the bus when we left an hour later I was replaying it like you're a fucking idiot

Like what was that? Yeah, yeah I was I was replan that on the ride home I'm like, What's up G? What's up? No, but it was like Hella inflexia because you know

You're kind of like you're kind of nervous So all you go What's up gee? Oh And like I'm also trying to balance Because the security was there And you know like Jay's security is not Don't get too aggressive

Don't get too aggressive So I had I didn't want to shake his hand. I just was like, I had another, I have a Jayze and Beyonce story too. You might as well. No,

you might as well. Why not? Might as well? Yeah. We're here, dog, we're vibes. So this was like,

I think it was like, it was 2018 when the first round words were playing the pelicans. And again, I'm walking out as they're walking in. And I'm like, damn, that's chasing and Beyonce. That's crazy.

And so, so I'm while they're walking over. they're walking towards me it is so fucking embarrassing and I'm like first of all I see Beyonce like while I'm walking and she's looking through my fucking soul

like I'm nothing like I'm nothing and I am nothing at that point I am nothing right and all these things it's Jay Z and Beyonce so only thing that's coming up it's like yo what am I going to say

like fuck what am I going to say like four is one. One of my favorite albums of all time. But also Jay-Z's right here and like Black Album is great. You know, so what do I say? Where do I go? So all the thing that comes out is like, yo, what up? Oh, shit.

You're 0 for two, bro. You're over two. And as I say, yo, what up? Beyonce's like, like, oh, oh, boom. Corn ball. Yeah, what up? What? What?

What? What? Yeah. Yuck. Oh, bro. And Jay goes, yo, it was good. So it was cool. Okay.

It was better. It was better. But I was still like, you fucking idiot. What is wrong with you? I guess misery loves company because in some weird way that made me feel better about my, my experience with him. Like, I, it makes me feel better. I'm sorry.

It does. I'm sorry. Oh, goodness. Eish. Yeah. Don't meet your, don't meet your heroes, guys. Don't know. Just don't overthink it.

You know? It's like, yo, you mean, thinking like you're going to have this full conversation with this person and it's not going to happen. Thoughts paralyzing, man. It is. Like, don't think about it. Just go.

Just go. That's what Clay needs to do. Let's bring it full circle. That's what Clay needs to do. You like that? Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think about it.

Let's get it. Let's do it. That's the monster for game three for both teams. Just go. Just go. Just go. Just fucking do it. And to some degree, Logan, we talk about this all the time.

Check back in game three. and we'll have a better feel. That's kind of how it works out. A lot of thinking in games one, boom, adjustments in game two. Everyone's trying to like, it's like a boxing match. There's not to be a series in game and game series. Now let's get into it. Then we're going to get to the vibes.

Let's get to the vibes. Let's get to the vibes. New schedule this week. Yeah, yeah, we're coming back on Thursday, all right? We're not playing around with y'all. We're not playing around. We're going to have a great game three recrap for your head tops. Mm-hmm.

And so, yeah, that's been another edition of Monday Real Ones. Make sure you check out everything on our ringer slate. I didn't forget this time. That is group chat. That is weekends a while. That is the answer.

Everything on the ringer's slate. Make sure you also check out the mismatch slate. That is the mismatch with KOC and Chris Vernon. That is the boy with KOC. You know, it's been two Bay Area games, Roger, so you know the propaganda is real. Make sure you go check out Black Girl's songbook with who, Roger, Ben.

town legend, Ms. Danielle Smith. Season 3 is here. Make sure you check out R2C2 with who. Roger Bell. It's another legend of the Vallejo variety. That's the Cresciqlown, C-C-Sabathia. We'll see you guys Thursday. Tap in.

Finals time. Top.