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00:00Mark Spears, long time, very well-respected NBA reporter ESPN.
00:06So NBA on ESPN, they're talking about Jimmy Butler, the injury, and the unknown.
00:11We're still awaiting MRI results.
00:14I don't think the MRI is probably going to tell us anything other than, yeah, like, pain tolerance, let's see, wait and see, we'll figure it out Saturday.
00:21That's my expectation. I don't know that, but we'll see.
00:24But in the process of talking on NBA on ESPN, listen to what Mark Spears said earlier today.
00:33Let me tell you this real quick. There is some hope, though.
00:36Bernie Lee, Jimmy Butler's agent, texted me saying, pray for the bear.
00:41That tells me that's some optimism for Jimmy.
00:43Because only one person laughed because I don't think everybody understands fully, pray for the bear.
00:49Pray for the bear is an old statement.
00:52It's been used by Muhammad Ali. It's been used by Kobe Bryant.
00:56And basically the idea is, you ever see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear.
01:01So the idea is, Jimmy Butler's agent is saying, oh, you guys saying the Rockets now have the edge because Jimmy's hurt?
01:09Pray for the Rockets.
01:11Which Mark is taking as, Jimmy is going to still put his stamp on this series.
01:18And that's probable. I don't know about game three.
01:20I would be surprised if he missed any more than that.
01:23And I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't miss that.
01:26Yeah, I would be surprised if he played in game three just based on the severity of the fall
01:32and the fact that he went in the locker room and he did not return.
01:36And he ended up staying overnight to get an MRI in Houston.
01:40And so, isn't that the way that...
01:42I thought there was the report that they sent him back early.
01:45The Warriors were going to stay overnight, but that Jimmy...
01:47Oh, then I had it backwards.
01:48Jimmy hopped an immediate flight back here.
01:49That's what Palakami reported.
01:51Yeah, Jimmy hopped an immediate flight back here to take the MRI.
01:54But anyway...
01:55It's neither here nor there.
01:55They're all here now.
01:56They're all back home now.
01:57Right, and the fact that he had the fall and then was unable to return in a playoff game
02:02tells me that it was really bad to where he couldn't play through it.
02:06And so, you know, an injury like that, the next day it can't feel better.
02:10It probably feels worse.
02:12And so, the treatment of a pelvic contusion like that, there's only so much you could do.
02:18It comes down to pain tolerance and maybe he needs a couple extra days.
02:21I don't know.
02:22I would be surprised if he did play Saturday, two days from now in Game 3.
02:27But I'd also be shocked if he didn't then play Monday in Game 4.
02:31The extra day off really helps.
02:32The extra day off really helps.
02:34I did see one somewhat speculative report that if the game had been tonight...
02:44I'm sorry, not tonight.
02:45Obviously not tonight.
02:46If the game was tomorrow, Jimmy would be listed as iffy.
02:51But the fact that it's Saturday gives them, obviously, even more hope.
02:56So, I don't know if that makes him questionable, probable, doubtful, anywhere in between.
03:02I'm not a doctor and I'm not tapped in behind the scenes right now with the Warriors on this.
03:08But the whispers that we're hearing sound like Jimmy Butler has avoided something major.
03:16And so, yes, you're right.
03:18Game 3, who knows?
03:20But the Warriors could very well still win this series even if he misses Game 3.
03:26And I give them, especially in that particular game, I still give them a good puncher's chance even without him.
03:33I don't give them much of a puncher's chance in the series if he's to miss extended time.
03:37But the home crowd energy of a Game 3 situation, I think the Warriors would have a shot.
03:44They'd have a shot to win on Saturday night without him.
03:46Without a doubt.
03:46And you look at role players playing at home, and it's an old adage, but I do think that it's true that role players play better at home.
03:54And when you mentioned what you did earlier about it not being strength in numbers, and it's really, you know, three-star players and then a bunch of, quite frankly, role players.
04:04And all these role players are going to be coming home where they've played, you know, 42 games now, 41 plus a play-in, and so they're more comfortable here.
04:13You would expect pods to play better as long as the food poisoning or whatever he had is gone.
04:20Quentin Post already did play better, so maybe he'll be more comfortable as well.
04:25And so, no matter who's going to be on the floor for Golden State, I do think that their younger players are bound to play better at home.
04:31Yeah, Quentin felt like, again, he just needed that first three to go in, and I think he missed his first two, and then he hit one.
04:39And then he got going.
04:41Then it was like, then he was downhill.
04:42I think he was maybe four or five, four or six from that point forward.
04:46And what I dig about Quentin, look, I know the analytics are there.
04:51These teams know each other inside and out.
04:53But do you notice with Quentin Post, who is a good three-point shooter, when he gets the ball out there, the Rockets just let him.
05:00Go ahead, dude, shoot it.
05:03And he's like, okay, swish, swish, swish.
05:07So they're letting him have that shot.
05:09And if they do that at Chase Center on Saturday night, that man's going to hit a few, no doubt in my mind.
05:16All right, let's get back out to the phones.
05:18We want to do it all afternoon long.
05:20It's that kind of day.
05:21What is still in your head, based on last night, as we now get to about 3.30 the following day?
05:30I got a Steph Curry thing for you.
05:32We'll do it in a little bit.
05:33888-957-9570.
05:35Let's go to Jeff in Albany.
05:36Hi, Jeff.
05:37Thanks for calling.
05:38Hey, guys.
05:40I love your show.
05:41Love 95.7 the game.
05:43I just want to say this, man.
05:44I'm a Laker fan, die hard.
05:46But my thing is, listening to Warrior fans call in, when you guys, when the Warriors lose, they have a tendency to always try to find an escape goat.
05:58And the escape goat is always Jonathan Kaminga.
06:02That's just the way Steve Kerr coaches.
06:04But I'm going to say this, you put him with another team and let him roam free and do his thing, he will tear the Warriors anew.
06:12You know what, if he was to play against them.
06:16All I'm saying is, stop blaming that youngster.
06:19It's not his fault when the Warriors lose.
06:21Are you hearing people blame Jonathan today, Jeff?
06:25Man, I just heard somebody say something about Jonathan not too long ago.
06:32It's just every show, it just seems like it's always Jonathan's fault.
06:38That young man can play ball, man.
06:40He can ball.
06:41He can ball.
06:43Like, I actually think what you're saying, there are aspects of it, Jeff, thanks so much for the call, my opinion, where people in the Warriors organization might agree with you.
06:53Like, they, and I don't mean the whole, like, he's going to go to another team and rip you a new one and take over the league.
07:00No, that's not going to happen.
07:01But I bet you'd find people in the organization if you said, that guy will go to another team and he'll really play well.
07:08They'll be like, yeah, probably.
07:10Again, I don't think the Warriors have anything against Jonathan.
07:13They found something that works.
07:14It doesn't really fit Jonathan that well.
07:16End of story.
07:17Yeah, right now.
07:18Yeah, right now.
07:19So, like, I don't think they think he stinks.
07:21No one's got anything against him.
07:22And to your point, Jeff, if anybody's blaming Jonathan for yesterday, that's, come on.
07:29I mean, what are we doing?
07:30No.
07:31Jonathan had nothing to do with why the Warriors lost last night at all.
07:35I think that last night, for me, is more about credit than it is about blame anyway.
07:40And I give credit to Houston.
07:42And we can put aside the Ahmed Thompson foul on Jimmy Butler that caused him to miss the game, dirty or not.
07:48That doesn't matter.
07:49That happened.
07:50And they called a foul on Ahmed Thompson.
07:53Jimmy Butler shot free throws.
07:54And then he couldn't play anymore.
07:56And Pods was sick.
07:57And I'm not going to sit there and point the finger at excuses and say that's why they lost.
08:02I look at Houston and, bottom line, for me, Houston played better.
08:07They were more physical.
08:08Sure.
08:08They were more aggressive.
08:10Steph Curry had, what, five, six turnovers.
08:14Steph and Draymond had 11 turnovers combined.
08:16And if they're your two primary ball handlers and they're going to be that loosey-goosey with the ball.
08:22And, you know, Steph was 6 of 15.
08:25He had 20 points.
08:26That's below his norm.
08:28Houston was flat better.
08:29So, for me, if you want to do the credit or blame scale, for me, it's about 80% credit to Houston and then 20% blame to the Warriors.
08:39And if you want to play the blame game, I would look at Steph and Draymond and say that they're the ones that I would blame the most.
08:46Did we not say that the linchpin to every single one of these games individually is turnovers?
08:52Yeah.
08:52We said it all day yesterday.
08:53And in game one, the Rockets had, I think, 16 turnovers and the Warriors only had 11.
09:00It was almost exactly flipped last night.
09:02The Rockets only had 10.
09:04The Warriors had 15.
09:05I literally set that over under at about 13 and a half.
09:08That's where I set it yesterday.
09:10I think if the Warriors go under 13 and a half turnovers, I think they're going to win a lot of these games.
09:15If you go over, you're probably going to lose.
09:18They went over.
09:19They lost.
09:19Jalen Green was the best player on the floor.
09:21No two ways about that.
09:23There's no debating that off of last night.
09:26And if you're a Warrior team and you're going to have six fewer shots than Houston, well, then you better be making your threes at a very high rate.
09:34And they shot it pretty well, 39 and a half percent from three.
09:38But from two, Mark, they were 16 of 37 from two, which is really, really subpar.
09:45A team like the Warriors is normally about 55 percent from two.
09:49And last night they shot about 38, 40 percent from two.
09:53So when you didn't have the three-pointer available, you had a hard time getting buckets inside the arc.
09:58We have a $20 super chat on YouTube.
10:01Woo-hoo!
10:02Major bag alert.
10:04Major bag.
10:05All right.
10:05Left Coast Mana would like to say, have a drink on me, boys.
10:12In regards to Amen, it is a classic case of foul baiting.
10:18The key here is the Rockets are also seeking contact with a Dubs player.
10:26DB on GP in game one.
10:28That's Dylan Brooks on GP two in game one.
10:31And then Amen on JB in game two.
10:36Thank you very much for the chat, for listening, for following along.
10:39Do you think that the Rockets are seeking contact on the Warriors' offensive end?
10:45Absolutely.
10:46Yeah, so do I.
10:47I do think that Ime Udoka has signaled that by what he talked about after the last matchup in the regular season.
10:54And, you know, the more the Warriors complain, the better Houston is, if I can paraphrase.
11:00Like, the more the Warriors complain, then the Rockets feel like they've already, quote, won.
11:05So they're going to impose their will physically, and they're going to make the officials call whatever they can call.
11:10And, you know, last night they called 35 fouls, which is right about the average for the postseason.
11:16The average is 35.7.
11:19And so it wasn't under-officiated in terms of fouls called, but in terms of fouls committed, you made this point earlier.
11:26You're watching the game.
11:27It's like, that's a foul, and that's a foul, and that's a foul on both ends.
11:32Constantly.
11:33But you can't honestly call the game in that fashion because the refs want flow, and they understand it's an entertainment property.
11:42And so there's a certain level of physicality that you just have to allow based on the reality of the league.
11:48No doubt about it.
11:49And I'd love to talk more about that in a little bit.
11:51We'll get there.
11:52Let's go to Eddie in the marina.
11:54Hi, Eddie.
11:54Thanks for calling.
11:56Hey, guys.
11:57Thanks for having me on the show.
11:59Willard, been listening to you for years.
12:01Thanks, Rob.
12:02There was just some points that I wanted to make.
12:04One, I'm glad the Warriors didn't shed too, you know, get into too much light as far as, you know, all the physicality.
12:11They know what they're doing.
12:13They know what they're up against.
12:15The second thing was, you mentioned earlier in the show, about what does Jonathan Kaminga do better than others.
12:21What he does is, and what I feel the Warriors are kind of missing, is the downhill fast breaks.
12:28He gets out there.
12:29We go on momentum swings.
12:31We run up the score.
12:32Obviously, the other team is going to call timeouts if they have them.
12:36If they don't have them, they've got to try to just, you know, play it out.
12:40But that's something that we've been missing lately is, and I know it's playoff basketball, but we've been missing that, running up the score real quick on us, for us.
12:51And I think JK does that really well when he gets the opportunity to do it, meaning like catching the ball, getting out there, getting dunks, getting out in front of the defense.
13:00And then the other thing I was going to mention was TJD.
13:06I feel like he's really good on the high screen and roll to the basket, which we saw glimpses of in Phoenix a couple weeks ago.
13:14Obviously, the Houston's a little better than Phoenix, but I'd like to see more of that.
13:20Plus, he is physical.
13:22He's a big body.
13:23He's going to spread the floor when he's out there, setting the screens and rolling, and it creates more shots for the entire team.
13:30So I do want to see that hopefully implemented a little bit in Game 3, Game 4.
13:38Eddie, yeah, thank you so much.
13:40If Jimmy Butler plays, I do not think you're going to get your wish.
13:44So here's the thing.
13:45In listening to Eddie, he has some points.
13:48There's no doubt about it.
13:49And you get to like whichever players you want to like and all of that stuff.
13:54But here's what sometimes what I think is the breakdown, and I'm not going to make this about Jonathan.
13:59It can be about any player who you want to play more than he does.
14:04We fall into the trap, I think, of looking at the individual.
14:10But TJD does this, screen and roll.
14:13Jonathan gets out in the open floor, and he can run, and he can finish in transition.
14:19Right.
14:20They can.
14:21Those guys can do those things.
14:23But when the Warriors are looking at this as a group, they're not looking at it based on what an individual can do.
14:29They're looking at it based on what a group can do.
14:31What does a group of players go out there and do together?
14:34And the people that you keep wanting to jam into the rotation don't do well with a lot of the other groups out there, largely because most of the people you're talking about are not what?
14:49Shooters!
14:50Can't shoot.
14:51And when Draymond and Jimmy are both on the floor, they're not three-point shooters.
14:56Looney gets mixed in.
14:57All of that.
14:58You need shooters.
15:00And so, I get it.
15:01You can like those players.
15:02You can like certain aspects of their game.
15:04But they don't fit with what the Warriors are largely doing.
15:08And the idea of Kaminga being the centerpiece of, like, these runs that the Warriors go on, this series does not look like that kind of series to me.
15:15This is not a get-out-and-run-and-open-and-score-120-points kind of a game.
15:20That's as obvious as obvious can be.
15:22Right.
15:22This is going to be a slow-down, grind-it-out kind of a series.
15:26And when you've got a player like Jimmy Butler, who is an excellent ISO player, then you need to surround him, for the most part, with shooters.
15:34And if you want to look at your team, Quentin Post can shoot.
15:38Kavon, no.
15:40Buddy Heald, well, yeah, in theory.
15:42But beyond that, you get down to Gee, 33% from three.
15:47GP2 is at 32.6.
15:49Draymond's at 32.5.
15:52Kaminga's at 30.5.
15:54You've got more non-shooters than you have actual shooters on a team.
16:00So, if you're going to have five on the floor, and Jimmy Butler's one of them, a guy who does not shoot the three very well, 27.9, by the way, as a Warrior from three,
16:10well, you'd better have four shooters out there with him to give you the spacing that you need.