Reaction to Steph's 50 pts in Warriors-Kings Gm 7 + matchup vs. Lakers | Colin Cowherd + Jason Timpf

With Giannis being reduced to bully ball, being liability at the end of that series, didn't want to shoot, almost seemed scared to get the ball, missed 13 free throws. We have kind of believed for the last two years he's the best player in the league. But if Steph, with a 50-pointer in Game 7, gets to the finals again, where he's really in the world of basketball as we know it now, he's a limitless player. Mid-range, floaters, at the glass, three-point unlimited range. Do we have to go back and say, listen, we got to have a real discussion here? Is that as good as Giannis is, he can be defended. You can barricade, you can do what Miami did, build a wall, go ahead. I think the combination of Giannis' rough series and what Steph Curry did against Sacramento, I think that's a legitimate discussion. I think literally Steph Curry, Jason, you know somebody's great when among other great players, they feel small. De'Aaron Fox felt insignificant. He looked like a rotational player in the second half of this game. That's how great Steph was. Andrew Wiggins looked like a rotational player. That was one of the best Game 7s I've ever seen. It may have been the best Game 7 I've ever seen. So your thoughts on the Giannis argument? Is Steph, in the world we know, this three-point game, is he now the best player in the world? Well, there's a bunch of guys that are all at a pretty similar level, and I don't think anybody's wrong for picking one over the other. I have a certain system that I use. I'm going to prioritize playoff success. I couldn't care less about raising the regular season floor if you can't succeed in the playoff stage, you know what I mean? We're seeing this again with Joel Embiid, where it's like he just had another great season, but his body just can't hold up under the physicality of the NBA playoffs. With Giannis, what's really disappointing is he's regressed. Don't get me wrong, he was hurt. The back injury was real. There's a lot of intel about some of his struggles behind the scenes, but even if you are dealing with some issues with your body, missing 13 free throws on 23 attempts, especially two years after your crowning achievement was being locked in at the free throw line against the Phoenix Suns, that's discouraging to me. But even deeper than that, he couldn't shoot over the top of anyone. He doesn't even have a reliable hook shot in the lane, and that's problematic. I'm not as big on the jump shot as everyone else. I think it's more important for him to be able to pass himself open than it is for him to be able to soften the defense with jumpers, but he needs to have something over the top. Look, Steph Curry will never be able to impact the game athletically the way someone like Giannis does. He's an outlier in that regard. When we're talking about the top 10-15 players in the league, they're all centers and big perimeter players. Steph is the outlier. He's the one guy that's different there. But what puts him on that list is no matter what, at any point in any matchup, he is going to be able to successfully generate quality shots somehow on offense. He's the best in the league yet. I think he's still even better than Jokic still, in my opinion, at generating quality shots in the playoffs. And the last thing I'll say about it, and I'm sure you may have noticed this too, Collin, early on in Steph's career, inconsistency was an issue for him in the postseason. Actually, through his first several playoff runs, he was good for a clunker about one out of every three times. As a matter of fact, I can't remember exactly the window of years. It was his first three years or four years in the postseason. But literally a third of his games, he shot 40% or worse from the field in the postseason. That's gone. He hasn't had a single game in this postseason where he shot 40% or worse from the field. So he's completely figured out how to maintain a level of consistency offensively in the playoffs that no one else in the league can touch. And that's what makes him the best player in the world, in my opinion. We learn a lot about the NBA in the regular season. There are things we do know. And then there's a bit of fool's gold because young teams tend to flourish more in the regular season because it's such a marathon. They've got the legs, they play back to backs. And that's not an old man's game, right? But dynasties are different. And the fear of Golden State on the road was solved about a game in. They went from the Houston Rockets to the same old Warriors. And I think there is a reservoir for championship teams. And I'd liken it to a baseball team that goes on a long stretch and you ask all your top pitchers to throw another 30 intense innings. They come into spring training and they're not ready to pitch. And I think Golden State tried to bridge the old guy, there's the Draymond punch. It's a long postseason for an old team. And I think they just kind of thought like, listen, man, we're going to win our home games. We're going to get into this thing. Those road trips, man, we've done a lot of this. But I thought the last two road second halves, I mean, Jason, it was a master's class. There was one point Mike Breen said, the oxygen is out of the building. There was about six minutes left and you're like, it's over. It's over. Not only the game was over, the fight was over. And I think a lot of it was on the defensive end so that we have to, is it fair to say, we kind of have to judge dynasties differently. They do flip switches. They've got that reservoir of experience and guile and toughness. And also when they have issues, there's sort of this get over it, right? Like guys, get over it. Draymond, Steph, Poole. Poole was the first guy in the arena today. He wasn't great, but he was more focused. So I kind of feel like we all, I'm as guilty as anybody. This is going to be a good road team. We don't have to worry about that. That's fair, right? Again, it was the same players. It was the same players that were the dominant road team that they were last year. Again, the whole year, the one thing that I kept coming back to was there was no personnel reason for a decline. It was all, it was clear to me that it was effort. Even in this series, they came out super lackadaisical in game six in the first half. They would score at the rim of Deere and Fox, which is dribble around all of them and score transition layup after a made basket. They just weren't really focused in that game six. And they've had some issues with effort and focus during the regular season. Some of which that have manifested in this post-season run. I thought you saw a little bit of that at the end of game four, where they were sloppy. You saw a little bit of that in game six, but at the end of the day, it's the same personnel. And like, you know, here's the thing, the regular season still matters. I think specifically when it comes to building your basketball character. So for instance, I don't think it's a coincidence that the Lakers played really good basketball after the deadline. And that continued into the post-season, like you build habits and you build things that go along. However, seeding matters less than ever because all the teams are good. So if you get the seven seed, you're going to play a two seed that's not that much better than you. Whereas back in the day, it was different, right? But like, once again, we look on Friday night and we saw the defensive player of the year. And then suddenly there was a guy in a Lakers jersey that looked way better than him at defense because in the post-season, it's just another different level that he can get to. Tonight, we saw the clutch player of the year and Deere and Fox in a game seven at home get thoroughly out-executed because the dude wearing number 30 for the Warriors is just way better at closing basketball games than him. So the reality is, is there is a difference between regular season and playoff basketball. It's about surviving and it's about building continuity and building habits that will carry you in the post-season. And there was such a clear delineation between what the Warriors were at home and what they were on the road that it was obvious that it was effort and focus related. Like you said, they just had a long run. They were worn down. They were injured a lot this year. Steph was out for extended stretches. Andrew Wiggins were out for extended stretches. I think we tend to overthink these things. But again, Colin, that's why you and I were on the Lakers and Warriors in this first round. We've learned this lesson too many times. Yeah, by the way, Cleveland, Memphis, Sacramento, talented young teams all shrink at different times. The Lakers' best players are older. Warriors are older. Celtics now are getting longer in the tooth, although Milwaukee folded. So let's talk Lakers-Warriors series. Here's what would worry me. Now, Anthony Davis is going to have a very good series. We know that. But the Warriors, and this is what I think makes them a dynasty, is that they've got, and Michael Jordan's Bulls had this too, where Rodman was a great rebounder. Jordan was a great scorer. Pippen was a great defender. Kerr was a great shooter. Phil Jackson was a great coach. They had a lot of great. Peyton's a great defender. Draymond's a great defender. Steph's a great scorer. Klay is a great spot-up shooter. Kerr's a great coach. Looney's a great rebounder. There's a lot of great. There are limitations to many of their greatest players, Draymond offensively, Looney offensively. But because they're so selfless, everybody understands their role. This is a classic. Ron Harper was a scorer for the Bulls. He knew he didn't have to be. The great dynasties, there's a hierarchy within it. Everybody knew Michael ran the show. Steph runs the show. The Lakers don't have a lot of great. Now, AD is a great defender. He's a great player. And LeBron, in spurts now, is a great Swiss Army knife. But their players, D'Angelo Russell's game-to-game, Jared Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley, I think it's really hard to beat the Warriors because you kind of know Jason. Draymond's a good defender every game. And Looney's a great rebounder every game. The Lakers will steal some wins here. But what the Warriors do, those individual players bring that same thing every night. I mean, even Klay, horrible first half, great second. They never bring four quarters. Draymond's never bad defensively for four quarters. And I just think the difference is you're going to get more consistent great play from more players. And it feels like a six-gamer to me. And eventually, you'll look up and go, okay, this is what the Warriors do. More guys doing what they do at a premium level. I don't know what I get from Rui and D'Angelo. They have great moments, but they're not consistently great at stuff. That's my take. I think this series is going to be a slog. I think both defenses are uniquely equipped to give each other problems. So the Lakers, and we've already seen this in every one of their matchups with the Warriors this year, but they're going to put Anthony Davis on Kevon Looney and they're going to put LeBron James on Draymond Green. And they're just going to have both of those guys play center field underneath the basket. And a lot of the damage that Steph did in this series in particular was at the rim. I'm sure you noticed that in the fourth quarter tonight. He's just beating dudes off the dribble and getting to the basket. There's no rim protection in Sacramento. So Anthony Davis is going to be around the basket for most of the series. The Lakers did a lot of top-locking and forcing the Warriors guards away from the screens and trying to get them to backdoor cut into all the traffic where Anthony Davis and LeBron was. I expect the Lakers to put Jared Vanderbilt on Steph Curry, Austin Reeves on Klay Thompson, and try to hide D'Angelo Russell and Andrew Wiggins. And I expect him to cause the Warriors offense some problems. Here's the problem. The Warriors are also going to cause all sorts of problems for the Lakers. Draymond Green is going to be on Jared Vanderbilt and pay zero attention to him and just be a wrecking ball everywhere on the floor. Kevon Looney is the type of physical rebounding center that has always given Anthony Davis problems. And Andrew Wiggins, I think one of the biggest swing factors in this series, is going to be LeBron James. Because offensively, the guy he was in the first round, if that translates into this series, the Lakers are going to be gone in five or six games. They have to have LeBron James dominate the Andrew Wiggins matchup. I think he's going to do it in the post. Andrew Wiggins on the perimeter is devastating. You saw that against Luka Doncic last year in the conference finals. LeBron struggled with Dylan Brooks because he has a very low center of gravity, so he had a hard time bumping him off of his spots. Wiggins has a higher center of gravity, so I expect LeBron to try to maul him more, take him down to the block. I think this entire series comes down to LeBron James. If LeBron James plays Steph Curry to a draw, I think the Lakers win in six. If LeBron James averages 22 points a game relatively inefficiently like he did against Memphis, I think Golden State wins the series. So, all eyes on LeBron for me. Let's give some credit to the Miami Heat. They're the opposite of the Dolphins. It's all culture. It's all toughness. It's all resiliency. There's no hype. They shoot 42 percent. Butler's limping at the end. They get out-rebounded. They're on the road. They've lost Tyler Hero. He won't play in the series, right? They come off really a stunning upset. You'd feel a letdown. They're on the road, and they win kind of comfortably. Now, Julius Randle didn't play, but when I watched that series, I thought, maybe it's because Miami and we just think of the aqua water and the beach. This is such a great basketball culture and their ability to come off a young, immature team. I mean, they got four undrafted guys. Three are playing. They're on the road. The Knicks are tough as hell. And as I watched that series, I thought, yeah, Julius Randle will matter, but God, Miami is the opposite of what every great Miami. The Merino Dolphins, the Miami Hurricanes, they're like LA teams. They feel like they're on the beach. They're flashy and they're fun. This organization is so well-run and so smartly coached. I'm watching their roster against the Knicks, and I'm like, no, Knicks had five-star high school guys, great college guys. Cody Zeller looks like my accountant. I'm like, what is happening? As I watch Miami, I have such appreciation to get pro athletes to all buy in. Now, I did think Tibbs made a mistake. They didn't attack Butler late when he was limping around the floor. It's like, dude, attack. I was a huge mistake. Tibbs is a defensive coach, but your thoughts on the series as a whole and this sort of grind out, rust belt, no flash Miami culture. Well, I think you and I have been on this for a couple years now. We basically refer to the Heat as Warriors East, but with less talent. The most impressive part about it to me is despite the talent, they've become the safest bet in the Eastern Conference to be there. Cullen, this is the third time in the last four years they've played it at least the second round. That's crazy to me. This is the fourth time in nine years since LeBron left that the Heat have made it to the second round. That's very impressive given the level of personnel that they've had. Eric Spolstra is, in my opinion, the very best coach in the league. I love their modern approach to the game of basketball. They just bring the most out of these undrafted types of players and even the veterans. Kyle Lowry got a lot of crap from Heat fans for kind of underwhelming in his time here so far. He's been incredible through the first six playoff games, especially on the defensive end of the pick-and-roll, just getting over the top of screens and knocking down little shots. That was probably the story of the game in my opinion. Schematically, the Heat do a ton of switching and that's very different from other teams. They do that because Bayonetta Bayo is gifted at being able to guard on the perimeter. Most of their players are trunky and strong and can hold up against bigger players. When you switch everything, it stagnates teams because all their actions don't work anymore. Instead of coming off that screen open, he's coming off and just another defender switched onto him. It turns into an isolation contest. At the end of that game, I'm not sure if you noticed, but the Knicks just went hard on the RJ Barrett thing. That was just not working. Jalen Brunson was very uninvolved late in the game. This is where the Julius Randle thing I think does matter because he is the master switch attacker going at smaller players in the post and just trying to bully them to the basket. They're going to need him to win this series, unfortunately, just because of the personnel gap. That said, I thought the story of this particular game was the Knicks guards are better than the Heat's guards on paper. That's a better core, but the Heat guards outplayed the Knicks guards tonight and they're never going to win. Even at home in that raucous Madison Square Garden crowd that got soundly outplayed because the guards for the Heat outplayed them. If you're going to let Gabe Vincent and Kyle Lowry be better than your guards, you're going to be in some problems in this series. Let's move back to the West. It's not that I don't respect Denver. I don't watch them a ton because I pay so much attention to the Celtics and the Sixers and the Bucs and the Warriors and the Lakers. Denver's not a huge basketball brand. If I'm on my treadmill or they're playing one of those teams, I'll watch them. My takeaway has always been they're deep. They're highly efficient. You kind of know what you get every time from Jokic. Jamal Murray's a little more hot and cold, but he has stretches. We saw it in the bubble where he can be a dominant player. The one thing I took away, and I watched about half of it because I was out with a friend the game with Phoenix, is boy, they score easily. They score comfortably. You watch a Sacramento in this series more than once, and you're like, where did their wing scoring go? They get dry fast. If De'Aaron Fox isn't hitting, it's like, where's the offense? It's just easy. It's like watching an NFL offense that gets easy completions. And I'm like, it doesn't even feel like it's much of an effort. They're deeper than Phoenix. Phoenix has some holes defensively, and I'm like, I don't know. Phoenix will win a game or two because KD and Booker will have great offensive nights, but I don't know if Phoenix can slow them down. What's your thought on that? So Phoenix has a very specific way that they need to win, and Denver beat the Suns at their own game in game one. I was so interested when I was watching the film this morning. So for instance, Phoenix is the best pick-and-roll team in the league. They ran 29 pick-and-rolls and only scored 24 points. Denver scored 50 points in pick-and-roll in that game. So they were twice as effective as Phoenix at their bread and butter. Phoenix is a huge pull-up jump shooting team. I've been talking to you about this for months now. They rely heavily on knocking down contested pull-up jump shots off the dribble. Phoenix had an effective field goal percentage in game one of 31% on pull-up jump shots. Denver had an effective field goal percentage of 64% on pull-up jump shots in game one. Jamal Murray scored 21 points on pull-up jumpers alone in that game. Chris Paul, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant combined to score 18 points on pull-up jump shots in that game. They just completely outplayed the Suns at their own game. I will say on film, I actually thought Phoenix held up better defensively than you would have expected. They contested shots pretty well. Jamal Murray hit a lot of tough shots in that game. Devin Booker was two for nine on pull-up jumpers. So there was some shot variance stuff there. For instance, Denver scored 26 points on 16 spot-up possessions. The Suns scored 17 on 17 possessions. So they just did better. For instance, Aaron Gordon is the one guy that you want to ignore and help on everything. So they put KB there so that he can be super tall around the basket bothering shots. Aaron Gordon was making all of his jump shots. So I do think shot variation played a huge role. The one schematic thing I noticed, Denver was very aggressive on Phoenix's pick and rolls bringing Jokic out. So there was a lot of roll possessions where Aiton is catching the ball in the middle of the floor and he needs to either score or make a decision. Both Aiton and Biamba were terrible in this game in the role of making decisions. So this is going to be a big DeAndre Aiton series. He's going to have to be a monster. All right, so I still think the Knicks will make the Miami series. I think it's going to go seven. I'll take the Warriors in six. I'm more interested now to zone in on the Suns-Denver. Overall, these playoffs, the Warriors-Lakers is going to get a massive number, just a huge effing number. When I look at the NBA playoffs, the one thing I really appreciated about the Warriors-Kings series is they kind of let guys play. I mean, I was joking. Sabonis was called for 30 fouls. He fouled about 60 times to 80 times, but the referee sort of acknowledged that's who he is. He sort of leads with his shoulder. He's a physical player. I really thought the Warriors-Kings series, I thought they let guys play, and I really appreciate it. I mean, there's obviously Draymond Green gets ejected, but it was physical at times. It was never chippy. I almost wonder that the teams were so highly skilled. I hope it wasn't the best series. I'm watching the Knicks and Miami, and there were some ugly stretches. You're like, God, it's like 1989. I think overall, we complain a lot about officiating in this sport. I mean, maybe I'm wrong here. I thought the Warriors-Kings, there's so much skill, and the refs kind of got out of the way of it, and they kind of let guys play. Now, maybe the box score doesn't show that, but I thought it was a really elegant, artful series. It really was, and the fact that road teams won three games, that's hard to do in this league. So what happened is the team that played harder won. There was no question Golden State today played harder. I mean, the rebounding disparity was, I mean, Mike Brown's saying it in the huddles. It's like, guys, they just want it more. I thought the officials did a good job in the series. Did you? I 100% agree. I think they've done mostly good in this postseason. There's been a handful of games that I haven't liked, but here's the thing. It's more physical. It can be ugly at times with the skill players struggling a little bit under that physicality, but the reality is, Colin, it's so much better as a television product when the game has flow. It's that simple. There are two problems with the NBA regular season, in my opinion. It's too long, so the urgency, like you can't play 82 games and have 20 of the 30 teams get into the postseason. How can you ever expect anybody to on a nightly basis? That said, there's another problem, and it's the game during the regular season can be very stilted by officiating. The tic-tac calls all the time, that stops the game, and then you're waiting 30 seconds for someone to walk up to the free throw line because, once again, Damian Lillard just dropped his shoulder, ran into a guy, threw up some crazy 18-footer, and I'm not trying to pick on Dame because so many guys do it, but in the postseason, that stuff doesn't happen anymore, and yeah, it can get physical, and yeah, it can get ugly sometimes, but the game has real flow. It's easier to stay invested in the game. It's just a better television product. I wish they would officiate games like this during the entire season. Jason Tempf, host of Hoops Tonight. He's fantastic. Good stuff. A little breakdown of the Warriors-Lakers, Golden State's win in Game 7, Steph Curry's 50-point game as always, buddy. Great seeing you. Thanks, Collin. See you next time.