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00:00I'm in River Island's guest line, Zena Kato, who will be handling both pre and post on NBC Sports Bay Area tonight for the Warriors versus the Blazers.
00:10Zena, welcome to the show. How are you?
00:12I'm wonderful. Thank you. I'm also taking one of your statements there, shaken but not stirred when it comes to confidence. I like that. I like that a lot.
00:20Is that how you're feeling? Did Wednesday shake your Warrior confidence a little bit?
00:25Ah, no. I feel the same about the Warriors. I think right now, the Warriors have always been a team that will absolutely tear up a series, but absolutely will F up a one-game situation.
00:41And that's why they must stay out of the play-in. You just never know what can happen on night in, night out sometimes with the Warriors.
00:48But once they make it to a series situation, which, you know, you hope they went out and get to the sixth seed so they can avoid that, you know, you got Steph Curry, put my money on that, and they will find a way to scheme and adjust out of the series for sure.
01:06Look, I think Dibs wants to ask you something, but I'd like to jump in and say that might be one of the strongest opening statements by anybody who's ever been on this show as a guest before.
01:17Just walked right in here and talked about the Warriors effing stuff up. That was incredible.
01:22Yep.
01:24Well, I mean, we've seen situations all season long where it's like Warriors have found themselves in trap games and teams coming out.
01:32Well, everyone always says the stars are bright in L.A. People show up for the Lakers. People show up for the Warriors, too.
01:38And people always want to show out against Steph Curry and the Dubs.
01:41And that's what puts them in these kind of precarious situations in which if you let someone hang with you for long enough, they might be able to close the game.
01:52And this is one of the reasons why I was asked on pregame, postgame with Bonte and Mully, you know, what are your thoughts after this amazing record?
02:00Warriors are 22-7 since Jimmy has arrived, I believe 22-6 now when he's playing.
02:08And I've reserved my judgment. It's great. Record's great. But, like, we have to, let's do our due diligence.
02:15Who have they really been playing that's been fully healthy, that's been, you know, above 500 team, that's been a true contender.
02:24And the first, I think the first game we really got to see an example of that was this in this past week.
02:32And, of course, Lakers game, you know, performed well. Memphis performed well. Denver performed well.
02:39Houston, when things got exposed a little bit, and then now against the Spurs, you saw, okay, there might be some offensive issues here that have got to be figured out before the playoffs.
02:50So, those one-night games, just the March Madness type of games, is when I'm like, oof, Warriors, what's up?
02:57But in a series, I feel like the Warriors always find a way to adjust and bounce back.
03:01You mentioned the offensive woes, and so you being a former baller, when you watch this team, what do you see offensively that makes it so they sometimes are challenged?
03:11Spacing. I mean, that's the name of the game in the NBA these days.
03:15That's why these big wings are so preferred as, you know, prospects and people that you want to get on your roster, because usually that means you have size, but you also have someone that can shoot the ball outside.
03:27And right now, you know, 13, I think it's been 13 games since J.K. has come back.
03:33And J.K. is not a predominant three-point shooter.
03:37He was clicking on it before he went out, but it's not his main game.
03:43His main game happens to mirror almost exactly the new addition that came while he was out, which is Jimmy Butler.
03:49And so, you've got two players that are on the wing that prefer to drive in, that prefer to work in the mid-post, that prefer to work in the post, take their defender to the basket.
04:00And usually that works if the other can space, right?
04:06Like, if you can play off of each other, and that's why you saw some success with Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kaminga, because even though their games matched in that way, too, Andrew Wiggins could step outside and shoot as well.
04:17And so, right now, you're seeing, and Steve Kerr talked about this today, you're seeing the spacing with a Draymond Green, who can shoot the three.
04:26It has done really well this season shooting the three, but it's not his number one option.
04:31You're seeing Jimmy Butler, who is capable of shooting the three.
04:34He hit two last game, but that's not his number one option.
04:37And you've got Jonathan Kaminga, who's capable of shooting the three, but that's not his number one option.
04:42All three of those players, for differing reasons, want the ball in their hands and need it for a moment to be able to make a decision on what they're going to do.
04:50And usually that first decision, for Draymond, it's usually pass.
04:53Find an open teammate and get an offense going.
04:56For Jimmy, it's face up, look at your defender, what's going on.
04:59Same thing with Jonathan Kaminga.
05:01And so, when you've got three players on the floor that need the ball in their hands for just a little bit to make a decision,
05:06and it's usually within the arc, that's really tough for offenses to be able to get going
05:14because defense will sag in, make everything tough in the paint,
05:18and it's hard to get flow and fluidity to your offense when that happens.
05:22Yeah, that's a really good breakdown.
05:23Tina Kada of NBC Sports Bay Area is with us here on Willard and Dibs.
05:27I don't want to jump past tonight, but I think the head of a Warrior fan is thinking about both of these games
05:33as like their own entity, and I'm looking at the Los Angeles Clippers right now.
05:38They had a three-game losing streak that ended on March 4th,
05:42and since then they've lost a total of three basketball games,
05:45and two of them were to Oklahoma City and Cleveland.
05:47What kind of a problem is that team for the Warriors on Sunday?
05:54They're the problem that the Warriors have faced all season and struggled against.
06:00If we're being candid, tall, athletic, long defenders, wing-oriented teams.
06:09That's what the Clippers are.
06:11You've got Derrick Jones Jr., Kawhi Leonard now back in the mix, scoring at ease
06:15and bolstering their defense.
06:18Got Chris Dunn, unbelievable defender.
06:21Can switch one through five.
06:23And James Harden, who, for everyone that remembers James Harden of the Houston lore,
06:29like very different, but also same James Harden in that he's scoring, but also playing defense
06:34and also leading his team in deflections.
06:37It's a really well-rounded team.
06:40And then, of course, the big issue, the size inside.
06:43Lietze Zubat's one of my favorite bigs in the league.
06:45Probably my favorite big in the league.
06:46He's just so efficient inside and so conditioned.
06:52I mean, that man can play significant minutes night in, night out and can tear up the inside
06:59and gives Draymond Green problems usually.
07:02So this team is a problem on defense and they're a problem on offense because of the scoring
07:10capabilities they have in Harden, Leonard, and I didn't even mention Norman Powell included
07:16in that list.
07:17So it's tough, but again, my thing is what the Warriors have is intelligence.
07:24And one of the things I've always loved that Draymond Green said recently about playing
07:29against a coach like Ty Lue, he's always said this, but he said this recently in an interview
07:33with Marcus Thompson at The Athletic, that he loves going up against Ty Lue because it's
07:38like a chess match and it's kind of like, how can I counter this?
07:42How can I blow things up?
07:43And that's the advantage that the Warriors are going to have going into this Clippers
07:48game is that they know their opponent.
07:50They know what, you know, how they want to score.
07:52They know they've seen James Harden a million times.
07:55They've seen Kawhi a million times.
07:56They know how these players want to get to the basket and find their buckets.
08:00And so I, this is going to be like a playoff preview, like a little appetizer to the
08:05playoffs.
08:06It's going to be a really good chess match.
08:07Big time appetizer, but hopefully it's not the main course because, you know, for the
08:11Warriors, it's really important for them to get the top six.
08:15When you look at their prospects, Zena, no matter who it is that they face in the first
08:20round, how important is it to you that they avoid the play-in and extra basketball leading
08:24up to the actual playoffs?
08:27It's really important.
08:28I mean, I mean, they, they need it, but I don't want to call them old, but the fellas are
08:35old, you know, they need the rest.
08:38They need some time for Steph to get some ice on those knees and just to be a little, just
08:42to have a little bit of rest before they go into what will be a grueling playoff series.
08:48I don't know if you guys watched the games last night between both the Eastern Conference
08:53and the Western Conference.
08:54Oh, yeah.
08:55My God.
08:56Like, it's about to be a battle in both conferences.
09:00It's been so much fun watching basketball this season across the league, but the competition
09:06is stepped up on a different level.
09:09Defenses are better.
09:10Everyone's scheming better.
09:11Everyone's just making really great adjustments.
09:14And so I think as much time as you can give yourself to prepare for that battle, like the
09:20better.
09:21And so I think it's very, very important that they get themselves out of the play-in.
09:25And I absolutely think they're capable of it.
09:27It will require them to show up tonight against a very good defensive Portland team that's
09:34been playing really well in the month of March and in April, have, again, tall, long, athletic
09:41wings.
09:42And this will be a nice little warm-up to the Clippers game.
09:45And then closing things out on home court against the Clippers, luckily for the Warriors,
09:51the Memphis Grizzlies lost last night.
09:53And that means they can control what's going to happen with their season if they win these
10:00two games out and at least get that six.
10:02It's hugely important.
10:03Zena, I'd argue, you know, you're talking about the competitiveness of what we're about
10:08to see in the playoffs.
10:09I don't know that I can remember, certainly not in recent memory, a Western conference that
10:15stacks up like this.
10:17You could convince me of almost anyone in the top eight beating anyone in round one.
10:25Like, maybe not if, like, let's say Memphis takes on OKC, but outside of that, everything
10:30feels like a coin flip.
10:32Yeah, you know, that would be a really good, I need to look up that stat on how all of these
10:37teams have fared against each other throughout the season.
10:40Like, if everyone's won at least once, or, you know, I want to think, because that's, oh,
10:47yeah, that's a good stat.
10:48I got to look that up before tonight's show, actually.
10:50I don't know how all these teams have fared up against each other, like, all around, but
10:54you're absolutely right on any given night.
10:56And that's why series are series.
10:58And that's why I love series, because it's one thing to be in the play-in and, you know,
11:03let's say the top of the Western conference was in the play-in.
11:07Like, you genuinely don't know what's going to happen on a given night.
11:09But in a series, that's when savviness comes out.
11:15That's when veteranship comes out.
11:17That's when who's been here before gets revealed.
11:20And that's where I feel like certain teams are going to have an advantage in that regard.
11:25OKC, absolutely.
11:26I'm sure they are tired of going to the Western conference and losing.
11:31Like, they've been building up to this moment.
11:33And I know that, you know, Dagnall and his crew are going to be making sure they can make
11:40the adjustments.
11:41Houston, a little new to this in terms of the players.
11:45Ime Adoka obviously has had his success with Boston and such, but this will be interesting
11:50to see how they adjust within a series.
11:52Of course, we know what the Warriors are capable of.
11:54We know what Ty Lue is capable of at the Clippers.
11:57This, haven't seen the Lakers in this form, but we know the players that are on the Lakers
12:02have absolutely been to the playoffs and know what that looks like.
12:05So that's what makes it even more competitive is that a lot of the players involved in the
12:10Western conference have all been there before in this position of pressure and need to perform
12:18across the course of the series.
12:20So, yeah, I can't remember either the last time it's been this exciting, but I ain't complaining.
12:27Yeah, us either.
12:27We're hoping that the Warriors can get in and, you know, make some sort of a run, maybe
12:32not a deep run or a deep run would be great.
12:34But when you look at how teams have done against other teams in terms of the Warriors, do you
12:40have to kind of draw back and look at what the Warriors have done since they got Jimmy Butler?
12:44How much of a different team is this to where these past performances don't really apply?
12:49Ooh, yeah.
12:54Going into the playoffs, you do want to factor in momentum.
12:58You do want to factor in, like, what have you done for me lately, Ms. Janet?
13:03But I just feel like it's also a matter of who have you played lately.
13:11And so I'm looking at the momentum.
13:13I'm looking at what this team has looked like since Jimmy Butler has arrived.
13:16And I'm also looking at the caliber of teams that they've faced and, like, where were these
13:22players, you know, were these players healthy?
13:25Were they just coming back off of injury?
13:27Like, what were the factors that were at play in this role that the Warriors have been on?
13:33And that makes me more hesitant to just look at this segment of the season and more reliant
13:38on what have they done for the course of the season.
13:41One thing I'll tell you is, that 12-3 at the beginning of the season, don't.
13:47Ignore that.
13:48That was, that is where you cannot, like, the numbers they were putting up, the threes they
13:53were putting up, like, that's not even realistic.
13:55I think you really do have to look at how they were performing in December, in January, and
14:00then balance that with what they've been doing lately.
14:04And what I would say is, the biggest thing you'd like to see going into the playoffs,
14:11especially when it comes to end-of-game situations, etc., they've found a way to get to the free
14:16throw line, and they've found a way to hit free throws.
14:18That's huge.
14:19That's huge in any big-time-of-game situation, playoff series, etc.
14:23That's huge.
14:24Two, they're consistent across, whether it's that period before Jimmy or now, defense has
14:29been consistent.
14:30That's huge as well.
14:32And then the other thing is, they've found new bodies to throw at folks.
14:38Now, Quentin Post has been out, and I'm not seeing, I've not checked the injury report,
14:44but I think, I don't know if he's going to be out tonight.
14:47I don't think they've announced anything yet.
14:50I think both of them remain questionable at this hour, Zena.
14:54Correct.
14:54Okay, yeah.
14:55So, but you think about the fact that the Warriors have found new bodies within their
14:59roster to throw at people.
15:01This is very, very reminiscent of what they did with Jonathan Kaminga last year, where
15:05you almost find a free agent within your bench.
15:08And so you're seeing Moody become a defender, a point-of-attack defender, a big-time defender
15:13for them off of their bench, rolling into the starting position.
15:16Quentin Post being a spacing big, that's huge.
15:19Gui Santos getting more minutes in general, being an energizer bunny all over the boards,
15:24et cetera.
15:24So those are the things that I would look at to balance before Jimmy and during Jimmy
15:30to not put too much emphasis on what's happened recently.
15:34But not to completely ignore it either, because 22-7 is nothing to scoff at.
15:38Not at all.
15:39Hey, Zena, thanks so much.
15:40Fun to have you on and have a great show tonight.
15:42Thank you guys so much.
15:44Appreciate you guys.
15:45Yes, everyone tune in.
15:46NBC Sports Bay Area, 6 p.m.
15:48I'll be with Bonte and Molly.
15:49Okay.
15:49Okay.