The Ringer NBA Show - Warriors-Rockets Game 2 Instant Reactions | The Ringer NBA Show

Episode Date: May 1, 2019

In Game 2 of the most anticipated playoff series thus far, the Golden State Warriors hold off a bloody-eyed James Harden and the Houston Rockets to defend home-court advantage with a 2-0 lead. Host: John Gonzalez Guest: Haley O’Shaughnessy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the special edition of the Ringar NBA show instant reactions from game two of the Rockets Warriors that just wrapped up. I'm your host, John Gonzalez. Isaac Lee is here producing. I am joined by staff writer extraordinaire, Haley O'Shaughnessy. We get right to it. Haley is in a great mood.

The Warriors in a great mood. The Rockets probably in a less good mood, Warriors go up to, oh, the Rockets, despite the fact that they got all five of their starters in double digits. James Harden tied with Kevin Durant for a game high, 29 points, even though he went out for a large stretch of the early proceedings with an eye injury that seemed to, or eye injuries that seemed to fell him for much of the game, where he was sort of squinting, still can't get past the Golden State Warriors.

And Haley, despite the fact that the score was relatively close and that they did get a contribution from all of their starters, it didn't feel like, unlike the first game when the Rockets were shooting terribly, it didn't feel like they were necessarily in this game for stretches. Like, I never felt like they were in danger of stealing this one, even though in game one I did feel that way. Oh, completely. Even when Hardin took it to four in the fourth quarter, I was just expecting Durant to come up and shoot from mid-range

and just move the needle back up again. He was amazing. If anything, it was more him than my lack of faith in the Rockets, though there is plenty of room to have lack of faith in them after this game. Yeah, Kevin Durant stays killing it all playoffs long, 29 points for him. He made it to the free throw line 10 times. It just seems like at any point,

whenever the Warriors really need a boost and need to pull away, he's there for them. And then again, the rest of their starters played well. Steph got in a little bit of foul trouble. Again, later late in the game, only hit three of 13 from deep. But Clay Thompson had a nice night where he got hot for stretches.

Andre Aguadala has found the fountain of youth at 35. He has the most dunks in the playoffs so far. And the Rockets that just felt like did not have an answer. I mean, you get a better game, Haley from, say, Clint Capella. And still,

there were multiple times during the game where on Slack, we're all talking about, you know, why is Clint Capella out there? Even though he had a double-double, people were still urging them to go small because it just didn't feel like he was influencing the game, maybe the way he did during the regular season. Yeah, completely. And, I mean, for a big, I don't think a double-double means all that much.

We should have known right away. He got blocked by Steph Curry. This was not going to be his night. He could not do things he's done all season. He couldn't connect on Lodds with Hardin. In some cases, it was really embarrassing. The Warriors' defenders were, beating him to the lobs,

Katie completely worked him when Katie was defending Capella. There was that one possession in the fourth quarter when Harden threw it in the paint of Capella and it was just Capella and Katie and Katie completely bodied him. And it's funny because Capella was the one who was outspoken

about wanting to play them. He had that quote that was like, that's what I want. I want to face them. And Chris Paul was laughing when he said that in the press conference and it's like that's probably why. careful what you wish for. I don't know, again, I've made this point,

I made it on heat check. I'm making it on our very special edition of the Ringer NBA show instant reactions here where I'm not sure exactly what Mike Dantone is supposed to do because then you go to the bench and you go, oh, God, it's a complete and utter shit show there. But for all the heat that I know Capella has gotten over these first two games,

and again, it was a better game than he had in game one. Game one was an absolute atrocity for him. Game two, he was better. But he's going to take a lot of heat, especially because all of a sudden in the playoffs, he can't hit a free throw. He's about 50% for the playoffs so far. But for all the heat that he's taken,

I think like, where's Chris Paul? When James Harden went out, I expected, okay, well, this will be a Chris Paul moment. We'll get a little point God, a little vintage Chris Paul. And we didn't really see it. There were multiple stretches during the game, Haley, especially again when Hardin was out,

where I was watching the proceedings and I was like, oh, Chris Paul's on the floor. I didn't even realize it. Yeah, I mean, he just has a lesser impact. I think that if anything, we're just going to notice. much more when Hardin is gone because of how desperately they need him. Honestly, so far in these playoffs, it seems like it's been Hardin and then Gordon, who have had

the most impact for the Rockets. Yeah, and Gordon was good again. He had 36 minutes, 15 points. He didn't do much else. I mean, defensively, I guess he was okay, but he had one rebound, and that was basically it. I mean, he made slightly less three of seven from distance. He was fine.

He wasn't nearly as good as he was. was in game one, but Fine isn't going to cut it for the Rockets, which I think is what we've learned here. I mean, they, again, they stayed fighting. So I think that they get, you know, a pat on the head and a participant Pason trophy for that. But you need more than that against the Golden State Warriors, as we know, especially when Steve Kerr for the second straight game went with the Hampton 5 lineup to start the game where it's basically like, look, I'm showing you all of my cards, I'm coming out you with my best guys. I'm going to run all of my starters out there for as long as humanly possible. Curry probably would have played longer if he hadn't gotten into foul trouble.

And then you as the Rockets have to react to that and bring your best. And they just did not do that. Part of that is James Hardin getting hurt. But a big chunk of that is an okay, maybe better than okay game from Gordon, a game where Chris Paul was alternately like kind of there and then invisible. And then you have Capella and Tucker. And then again, the bench, which we'll get into in a second, was a disaster for them. Yeah. Well, I think it also does. does not help at all that the non-stars of the Warriors starting five, we're having really incredible games. Jarmine Green looked amazing.

Igadala looked revived. So that really doesn't help in contrast to the fact that the rockets were basically like hardened and no one else. Yeah, I love 35-year-old Andre Aguadala, as you said, being revived, throwing down dunks, being super active defensively, making some really nice passes. It was almost sort of vintage Iguodala from when he first joined the Warriors where they convinced him to take that six-man roll and now he's back in the starting lineup

and out of necessity, because as I mentioned, the bench for the Rockets was less than spectacular. The Warriors bench was much worse. They got eight points out of their bench. They had Jonas Jerebko as one of the first guys off the bench. Kvonne Luni had 16 minutes off the bench. They don't have a lot that they can do here.

Yeah, but they've never had a lot. That's been the story of the Warriors all season and basically last season two. They're top heavy. And that's the main concern with the Warriors. I mean, not anymore. forward, it's if they're going to stay together. But for this iteration of the Warriors, it's always been that they don't have a bench. Right. And it's the reason why I bring it up is because

by contrast, the Rockets, when you want to talk about like they really don't have a bench and they haven't, the Rockets were all regular season long, the worst bench in terms of scoring in the NBA. And Austin Rivers single-handedly outscored the Warriors bench. He had 14 points as opposed to just aid for the Warriors bench. And there was a moment during the game when Reggie Miller, was calling it for TNT said, you know, imagine where they'd be without Austin Rivers. And I laughed out loud because in game one, they didn't have him because they had the flu game. Then it comes in, he scores 11 points off the bench, right away, is 14 total. And I'm thinking, okay, maybe Austin Rivers will give them something. And then there was a moment in the second half where he decided he was going

to take Steph Curry with his one hand to the hole and then just just fell over. Austin Rivers just fell over. Yeah, I mean, with Austin Rivers, it's like, it's a really nice addition if he can give you like a solid game, a solid night of contributing, but it's never something you should rely on. Never rely on Austin Rivers. That's a good lesson for everybody. It was kind of a weird game, too, Haley, because early in the game in the first quarter, we lose both Hardin and Steph Curry. Hardin goes out when he's, I guess, clawed in the face. And I thought at first that it looked like sort of a glancing blow. But as we learned, not so much of a glancing blow. It took him a while to come back. He missed about 11 minutes. And come back till the second quarter. And when

he did come back, he did come back. come back, his eyes were super bloodshot, he was alternately like icing them or dabbing at them, and then also shielding his eyes from the arena lights, which is not what you want to see from your best player. He looked like he was just on a bender. Like he had been in Vegas for two weeks straight and no one had heard from him. And he just got back. And also, he's allergic to something in the arena.

He looked terrible. It was like, it was terrifying. And also he just broke up with his girlfriend. It's been really traumatic. because I remember I saw the injury. I was like, okay, blah, blah, blah. He comes back. I was shocked.

That is disgusting. I can't believe he could see out of it. And then honestly, like, it barely looked better by the end of the game. And Steph's injury was disgusting, too. His finger was like poked out in a way. Your finger should not be poked out. And they just said that they popped it back in and he came back in. They popped it back in.

He dislocated the left middle finger swiping at the ball. The x-rays are negative. They popped it back in. They taped it to his ring finger. And he looked fine actually when he came back in because it seemed like aside from the tape that he was handling it pretty well. His handle looked good. He had a block with his bad hand. He was clapping.

And then also he was dapping people up with his bad hand. And I was like, well, I guess it's okay then. But yeah, you're right. The finger went initially, there were still images of it on the old Twitter.com machine where it looked like it had, it just didn't look right, as you said. But then he got back out there and it seemed like he was none the worst for wear and then he'll be able to play through it. aside from the foul trouble, Curry finishes with 20 points, only 3 of 13 from deep,

but still got to the line five times, made all five. You know, I think that we should talk about Curry's foul trouble because this is the fifth playoff game that he's been in foul trouble. They've only played eight playoff games.

Well, so this is interesting, too, because he got through the first half, you know, relatively unscathed. And there was even a moment in the game, you know, Kess of Death, classic announcers bringing it up where Reggie Miller and Kevin Harlan were talking about, hey, you know, Steph Curry's not in foul trouble.

Next thing you know, he picks up two quick ones. He goes to the bench with four. Right. Right. No, I know. And that's the thing is, like, you're going to need him at the end of games. I mean, with the way Durant's playing, maybe we don't necessarily believe that now, but this is like where he's built his legend, basically,

is these, like, insane shots at the end of games. And Clay's been having off nights. Durant's looked amazing. So I really like... Pretty much every... night. It's no hot take to say that he's been the best player of the playoffs for sure. But they need Steph Leighton games. They need Seth Leighton games, especially if for some reason the Rockets come back, get a game, get two games. Yeah, they definitely will need Steph Curry late in games at some point.

But so let's flip this on its head for a second. If you're the Houston Rockets, you shoot terribly in game one. And somehow you're still in it, but then you lose and it's one of those moral victories. In game two, you lose James Harden very early in the game. Chris Paul, again, is that. not the Chris Paul that you'd need to take over a game when James Harden goes out. Clint Capella while better is not nearly enough, and there's moments when you're wondering, hey, should they be going small here, even though they have issues with their bench? And yet, they're still in that game two somehow. You know, they shot obviously much better from deep in game two.

They shot 42% from three in game two. Is there anything that's like slightly encouraging about almost but not quite beating the Warriors twice on their floor to start the series? Or are you like totally sweating it going back to Houston? Well, I think it's wild that considering the way they played how close of a game it was. And I'm not really sure what to make of that, to be honest, because like you said earlier, it felt like they were down by 15 and 20 when they were just down by 10. You know, and they kept trying to budge.

And even like I said earlier, when you push it to 4, it just felt like very unrealistic that they would actually top it. So I guess in a way that could be encouraging because it really seemed like this should have been like a way worse loss. But also, you said that you thought that game one was a moral victory. Why do you feel that way? Because it came down to the final possession, basically? Because it's game one on the road against the forever champs

who were throwing their best possible lineup at you and you shot like shit and you still were somehow in that game. I think that to me, it was almost, well, not even almost, was more encouraging to me than game two where things just didn't feel like they were going right for the rock. from the beginning. And on top of it in game one, you know, you had the issues with the refs, which we'll get to in just a second here, where they felt like they were complaining about not getting their cause and they weren't really focused. And again, they still almost

stole that game out from under Golden State. Right. But I think the refs almost pissed them off so much that they don't have any, like, optimism coming out of that game. I think that that really, really pissed them off. Yeah, I'm sure that it did. And I think that that was a bigger net effect in game two than it was. In terms of like, if we're handing out, like, hey, kudos for an almost moral victory in one of these games. It would be for a game one. I think that there was probably a lingering effect, and we can talk about the referees right now,

where they spent these last couple of days bitching, complaining about the referees, and then all of a sudden, oh, no, here comes dastardly Scott Foster, when it was Ed Malloy who'd throw out the technicals and who know, maybe Draymond'll get that back. To Neney and Draymond. Yeah, the referees were not,

I thought the referees were fine in this game. I mean, the Rockets ended up going to the line 25 times. The Warriors went to the line 24 times. it's all good and away you go. But I thought, like, as much as the Rockets made about it before the game was a bigger issue for them going into two. Well, and I think that there was a wind horse report that said that they're probably aware that it'd be Foster in Game 2, at least earlier than it was released, that he would be it.

And it was predetermined that he would be part of the officiating crew for this before the report dropped. It wasn't like the league saying, shut the fuck up. Which, by the way, you wrote about in your worst enemy as a ref. You wrote about in a pre-game two piece saying how this whole thing unfolds. And yes, these referees are determined before the series begins. However, I suspect the conspiracy bill, our boss maybe likes to believe otherwise. And they're probably dark corners of NBA Twitter who probably believe otherwise.

I would like to believe otherwise. I know in my heart of hearts it's not true, but I love the idea of the NBA just flipping them the middle of finger and giving them Scott Foster. who, by the way, had a very quiet game. He did. He did. You know, the other thing is, like, it's not like they're not aware. You know, they find Harden the game after he complained about Foster in February. And then after that, Foster did not ref another Rockets game throughout the season. So it's like they know what's going on.

They know the kind of relationship that they have. Yeah, and not for nothing. I mean, despite the fact that I thought that the game was officiated just fine and it wasn't that big a deal. I didn't think it was a big deal. I'm very much of the Steve Kerr camp. I know that fans everywhere believe that the refs are out for their team. I generally think these things work out in the wash and it's going to be fine and just put your head down and do your gig.

However, this is the seventh straight playoff game that the Rockets have lost with Foster. So at the very least, he is a bad totem. Yeah, for sure. I think like you, I agree that the game was rough just fine. I think if anything, the worst call was giving Jermon a tech. Yeah, which by the way. That will probably get taken away. And hopefully it does because Nenae and Jermont,

both got techs there, but that's the fourth tech for Dremont, so three more, which could be two evenings worth of work for Dremont. And it ends up as a one game suspension for him. So something to keep an eye on. Yeah, he's been there before. He's got a bad history with that. Sensitive subject. He's quick to do these things.

All right, before we go, because this is supposed to be a quick instant reaction, micropod, series turns to Houston. What is your level of confidence that the rockets can get back into this? Before we even started the pod, you and Isaac were basically like, it's already over. I am of the very old school belief that, hey, you still got to win one on the road. And I think the Warriors, I had the Warriors winning the series. I still believe the Warriors will win the series. However, they still have to go to Houston and win on the road.

And not over yet. Man, I wish I could be optimistic. It just feels like all the things that we talked about all season with Golden State aren't there anymore. And it could be like a facade, you know, like we're waiting for Kyrie to kind of crumble and fall apart and say something about one of his teammates. and then, you know, Boston loses the rest of the games out. But all the things about Golden State that we were concerned about earlier aren't necessarily there anymore. Even, like, Clay is off shooting some issues with stuff.

Like, it didn't even matter tonight that he went three for 13. And honestly, like, it didn't matter that he had five fouls, Duran had five fouls. And also, I don't necessarily believe in the Rockets as the kind of team who can come back from this because it's the warriors that they're facing, but also because look at the Rockets. We've been talking about this all game.

It's hardened. It's essentially hardened. And his track record in the playoffs isn't great. First round, I was like ready to throw that whole thing out, that entire stigma. But, I mean, in this kind of situation, you're down 0 and 2 to the Warriors. I will say I don't think Hardens the guy, but I don't basically no one's the guy except for like, obviously 2016 LeBron. Yes. Shouts to 2016 LeBron.

I'm trying to look at it through glass half full glasses, and I was doing this with Dan Devine on heat check the other night after game one, where, again, it was almost like, the reason why I keep going back to game one as a more encouraging sign than game two was the rockets went out there

and did not shoot well, and yet they were in that game the entire time, and it felt like the most vulnerable we've seen the Warriors in quite some time. As we've mentioned, they're super thin on the bench. Curry has been getting in consistent foul trouble. Now he's got a hand, issue. Katie has been their only

constant so far, and I feel like, yeah, I'm with you. If you flip it on its head, then with the Rockets, you could say the same thing about Hardin is their only guy and what are they going to do. But you've got to beat the champs, and the champs look like in that first game that they were not themselves. They looked better, certainly in

game two. So maybe if you're the Rockets, you go back to Houston and somehow you get the not quite themselves warriors on the road in game three. You pick one up. Now all of a sudden, you've got a touch of momentum and you're back in the series. That's the best I think you can hope for. You know, honestly, I think that if Houston wants to have a chance, they need to return to

the game being, like, super fiery. Because I think that's the way to, like, throw the Warriors out of their element. And no offense, I don't think that their home arena is going to add nearly as much impact as Oracle had. But I think, like, the players specifically, like, that's the way to fluster the Warriors. That's the way to fluster Draymond Green has been proven over and over again. Fluster Draymond Green, send them into more text. trouble, send Curry into more foul trouble, hope that KD has an off night, hope that James Hardin can see out of his both, or at least one eyeball. I was kind of hoping for I patch Hardin. That would have been wonderful. Who knows what will happen in game three. If you're the Rockets,

you keep your fingers crossed. If you're the Warriors and you pick one more up, you've got your foot on their throats and that's that. This has been a very special edition of the Ringer NBA show. Make sure to check out Corner 3 that's going to hit your feed on Wednesday with an extended conversation about the Celtics and Bucks and the Warriors. For Charlie O'Shaughnessy and Isaac Lee. I'm John Gonzalez. Thanks for listening to get. Bye.