So if you're a listening live and you're wondering why there's music, I hope you hear the music. It's a transition. It's a transition from one topic to another, and it makes me happy. It's a profess it's something professionals to. It's like it's something I I, as a professional, do love such a clown, all right. As hard as this is for me to say, there might be a ray of hope out in Lakerland. They've been down and out
and I know they're having it. I know I even have a hard time believing that there's a ray of hope, but it's true they do. New head coach Darvin Ham, who ten years ago was an LA assistant working with Kobe Bryant, is now making the rounds talking about his coaching full he's former Milwaukee Bucks head coach as well.
He's an NBA champion. Thanks were going pretty well, pretty just like standard questions, until all of a sudden, Darvin Ham dropped an insane quote that might be the best quote I've ever heard about the fact that we all work in an industry that's like not really that serious. It's really not like that big. We're not talking about covering the Avaldi shooting here right, we're not talking about covering the war in Ukraine. Darvin Ham said this. I
grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. This is where it gets weird. I was shot in the face by accident. You go through something like that, you do one of two things. It's going to make you fearful or fearless. And it made me fearless. I don't feel no pressure. Is just basketball. WHOA. I need some more clarity on how that went on, and like when and are you okay? And like wow, yes,
Darvin Ham not a man to be messed with. And if you think that this was just a one off and that Darvin Ham's gonna be the only hard rock on the LA Lakers and it's just him and a bunch of guys from the front. Vogel Era, the Frank Frank Vogel little like minions. You're wrong. News just dropped today, courtesy of Shams. It's a different sound than the WOJS bomb. It's a poo poo. This is the bomb. This is
the sound of the Shams bomb. Four time NBA Allstar Rashid Wallace has agreed on a deal to be an assistant head coach for the Lakers under new head coach Darvin Ham. Hell yeah, hell yeah. Both were teammates in Detroit and part of that two thousand and four title team. You guys remember two thousand and four Pistons. They were the last team to win it All without an All Star. How did they do this? They punched everyone in the mouth. They were tougher, they were meaner, they were stronger, they
were dirtier. Literally, they were the toughest NBA team of probably the twenty first century. Penny Yardaway, who coached the University of Memphis, where Rashid coached as an assistant last year, said it was a question of loyalty Rashid. I think Rashid might be going to LA with Darvin Ham. That was the deal from the beginning. If Darvin had gotten a job last year, Rashid had already promised him that
he was going to go with them. So I'm thinking this year, with him getting the Lakers job, Rashid might still be going along with that process. What does that mean for LA, you might ask, Well, it means that they have gone from Frank Vogel and a man named Mike Penberthy Uh, that's his name. I didn't make that up. Google that and you'll see two soft dudes to Darvin
Ham and Rashid Wallace. And if you thought im Udoka was hard on his team this year, calling them out publicly saying that they didn't have mental intensity, they weren't tough, they weren't sharing the rock, they were you know, all these things that he said. If you think that was bad, take that toughness and then add it to someone who was shot in the face. You know what I mean, Like you think it's gonna go like Emi Udoka from Portland, Oregon,
Darvindam Saginaw, Michigan shot in the face. That don't mean to make light of it, but it's a different tribulation here. I know what was going on. And just like, wait what Darvin Ham says when Anthony Davis falls on the floor like six times, it has to leave the game and he's sitting in the street closed the next night. Listen here, I got shot in the face, You tweaked your ankle, You go out there, you go out there.
It's like a dad that literally or a mom where they went through something very traumatic, like or even just like I went to college and I had a b and my mom is like I had all a's and I was raising your little ass and it's like, well, but I'm not you, and it's like, yeah, but but I was shot in the face. Only thing that remains to me is for Darvin Ham to hire somebody like Gary Payton to come in and teach these guys some defense.
Rob Plinka said, I don't care really what he says, but I I like this team lacked an identity of toughness last season that Ham will bring this season. I mean, yes, that's true, but the question is, truthfully, how do you expect toughness when you're a player who's only off seat, Like if you're a front office's only off season signings were guys on vet minimums that literally are just trying
to get a ring. They're on their last miles. They're literally the nineteen sixty five pinto that's just like not even passing emissions tests, like you think, look like Carmelo wants to get into the paint with Evan Mobley, like he wants to go up against Joel m Beid. No shot, you think White Howard's gonna throw elbows at Jared Allen Listen, you can teach a new dog new tricks, but you can't make them run wind sprints when they don't close out on a corner three at some random game, like
your name was dan Man Gundy. So I don't think so we all do know one truth, right and also really quickly, I'm not saying that this is like gonna mean anything for the Lakers, like that they're not gonna if you're thinking, I'm saying that they're gonna win any more games, like they're not. They're not going to the playoffs next year, but they will be fun and they will be tougher. I'm not saying they're gonna win get a title. They're still a train wreck, but at least
now they're a train wreck with a backbone. So that's that's kind of where we're at though. But we all do know just one truth. Can't really judge this team until Kendrick Nunn is back on the court fully healthy. This is see the song is a transition about a team that took an l and then they bounced back. So what do you think that the next segment it's about the Warriors? Obviously, ain't't nobody. I don't think Okay, so let's talk about this game, shall we? Oh boogoo?
Oh folks, everybody said Golden State's dead. I didn't. I put it up on the tweets Golden State plus one fifty to win it all dot dot. That means one and a half times your money if you're not a better This team was minus two hundred to win it all the game before. What a swing? Come on, oh baby, you know if you watch the game, you know what it is. You should know what it is. Golden State isn't losing. This team doesn't lose in the finals. They've done a deal with the devil. Steph c has become
somebody who doesn't miss one game one gaming. You write them off. Golden State's done. Don't do that, don't do that, No, what sir, Let's be honest. Come on, Golden State did in the first two quarters of Game one? What they do? They play with their food. Then the blitz comes in after halftime, right Genghis Khan ripping through villages just like just honestly just destroying, mauling you, coming in with an intensity that you were not sure was going to come
because they're just up and down. First quarter, they let you in, they let you out, and then the fourth quarter. Like I usually say that, this team is organized chaos. The Golden State Warriors one of the most creative teams in NBA history. They don't do things with structure and order and discipline. It's fucking creation and what do you do.
Some times things get messy, some things get bad. Turnovers are plenty, and that's exactly what happens when you think you're up twelve points going to the fourth quarter, Steph Curry sitting on the bench, and then the deluge of points from Jalen Brown happens. Right, they let the lead slip away. Don't act like somehow Golden State's just the worst team. Let's not act like what Boston did was so repeatable. Right, you're talking about look at these role players.
Look at these role players. My man Al Horford twenty six games, twenty six points in game one, six threes. You think my man Al Horford is gonna do that in game two? Come on, Like Draymond knew that too, because he was talking about it, Like, you had two points in game two, he's over under ten and a half. Yeah, yeah, there's a big, big swing, big swing. Derek White he hit four threes in game one, did not hit four threes in game two. Marcus Smart, he played really well
game one, what did he do two points? In Game two? Marcus Smart was an awful I mean historically bad one for six five turnovers, never created for his teammates, never generated offense. He was a liability to the point Udoka played him twenty five minutes with a minus twelve twelve rating and Pritchard had to play the point over Marcus Smart eugh. So let's be honest. These role players, they showed out in game one. They got open, they hit
their shots early. That created confidence, and when Golden State left their foot off the gas, that's when the opportunity came for Boston. Boston's a good team. As for the Warriors, they lost the fourth quarter in Game one mostly because andre Iguidala ugh ugh n minus nine and twelve minutes.
And I like andre iguidala I think he's a great player, but he hasn't played much all year and we're not even sure what he has left in the tank right now, and it didn't look like he integrated did particularly well, particularly fast game two. Game two. What happened he was out with nex soreness. Yep, I feel that. I feel that, Steve Kerr. Just tell him, go sit down a little while, Go sit down, You'll get a ring. Don't worry about it. You're just not gonna win finals MVP again. Listen, listen.
Haven't you been tired of watching the ball go everywhere that you've turned it over to like you have? It's sore now, I can't feel myself Steph Curry. What we also know about him is that if you look at Boston and who they played, neutralize KD, They neutralized Kyrie, they neutralized Giannis, they neutralized somewhat Jimmy Butler. Steph Curry has not been neutralized. This man is averaging twenty seven twenty seven points, twenty nine and thirty. Shit, he's already
an MVP. He's already gonna get the finals MVP. It's happening. And you might say, like, trust, you've said so many mean things about the Golden State Warriors. Are you trolling? I don't know, I don't think so. Like I'm actually I'm serious, I'm dead serious. How do I know that Golden State's gonna win it all? Because that would make me so sad, It would make me so sad if they won it all. I am desperately searching for reasons that they could lose, and I am struggling to find them.
Really like, they had to historically collapse in a fourth quarter for Boston to win Game one. Historic it was so gross. So Boston, of course they can bounce back after game one. They're great after losses. But you're still going up against championship medal of Golden State. And that's the difference. Celtics' top seven Celtics players by minutes played all had negative plus minus, with every single player who played more than twenty minutes in double digit negative numbers. Yuck.
As an aside, really quickly, Damn Clay looks slow. He looks so slow on offense when he's dribbling the ball trying to quote unquote penetrate. It doesn't even look like that. It's not that's not Clay. He's shooting under thirty percent for the series. He needs to get back healthy healthy. Will his quickness ever return? I'm not sure? I hope. So those two injuries are tough, and what does Boston need to do in order to win and compete get some games under their belt again? One They need to
up the physicality. They need to out physical Golden State. They're bigger, they're stronger, and they're meaner, and they have more depth, so they can body them up a little bit. If Boston can find a way to get under the skin of Jordan Poole, who you know very clearly has had up and down periods during Game one and Game two. Mostly down in Game one, a little up in Game
two in the second half. They need to figure out a way to get basically Draymond Green out of the game, whether that's technical fouls, so that's foul trouble, you know. They need to make it really, really uncomfortable. They need to make it intense. Of course, it's easy. Role players need to hit their threes, baby, like they're gonna leave you open. Babis, you need to hit them. Grant Williams, Peyton Pritchard, you need Al Horford, you need Marcus Smart.
All those guys need to hit threes, right, You need that. Star players, of course need to show up. Jason Tatum not only needs to be a scorer, he also needs to facilitate in the same way that he did and play make in the same way that he did in game one. Tatum in Game two had twenty eight points, but he was a negative thirty six for the game. Jason Tatum had twelve points thirteen assists in game two,
he was a plus for the game. He doesn't need to look to score every time, and when he doesn't look to score every time, he just gets into the paint and like, let's the offense come. The team plays better, they get open shots, open looks. I think Jason Tatum needs nine ten assists in Game three in order for them to win. Jalen Brown needs to play a lot cleaner. Yeah, I mean, he just has hard time putting the ball on the ground, doesn't he He just does Boston moving forward.
Protecting the ball is key too. They had a surreal nineteen turnovers in Game two, and fifteen of them were live ball turnovers that led to thirty three Warriors points. Boston had ninety eight possessions to Golden State's ninety seven, and some somehow managed to score nineteen fewer points all because of turnovers. So they need to figure out a way to force Golden State into turning the ball more often.
Press them, make them hurry, make them feel like they need to make decisions quickly and then personally, you guys need to protect the rock better on your side of the floor as well. Credit to Draymond Green played awful game one, said he was going to play better. Steph even said five minutes after the game, I knew Dre was going to come out in game two with intensity
through the roof. Set the tone defensively from the get go, from the jump ball, from the first possession where he got into it with the I want to say it was he Marcus Smart or Jalen Brown. He got into it later in the game with Jalen where Jalen I think he had his feet on Jalen's face or something. They started getting into it, like he had so much intensity that he probably should have been ejected during the game.
Like And the whole idea that refs as an aside of the aside is that refs should be looking at how many technical fouls you already have before assessing a second technical is absolutely banana land. No. Like no, that's like being like, hey, I'm gonna pull you over. Looks like you got drugs in the back seat, But let me see if if you have any priors, you know what I mean, Like before before I asked to search your trunk, let me see if you've been arrested recently.
It was like, honestly, they were like, oh, well, the standard needs to be higher for Draymond Green to get a second technical because we know what the impact of that technical second technical is. That's garbage. Is it worth a technical foul on its own or is it not? It was and I liked Dreimon Green, and I was happy that he didn't get technicaled out because then Golden State might have lost. And then they we said, oh,
it's because Draymond's ejection and blah blah blah. But drey felt he could push the envelope further, not less, because it was like, Oh, what you're gonna do, You're gonna eject me. I've already been ejected multiple times to this playoffs. I get a bad rap. He's not immune from consequences, and nobody wanted to send him back to the showers for the second tech. Just bonkers. Game three Wednesday night,
TD Garden Folks. Boston has been strangely not so great at home right now this year in the playoffs, five and four at home this playoffs. They are eight and three on the road usually a huge advantage at home, and TD Garden's known, you know, Boston Garden's known for having a huge advantage. We talked about that in our winning time recaps, where there was like literally rats running through the locker room. They shut the lights off on you, They poop in your bed out in the hotel room.
This was like Amber heard before Amber heard that was just like random Boston fans. That's probably where she got it from. They literally did it too, Bill Russell. They pooped in Bill Russell's bed for what reasons. Still don't know what do they think they what do you think they did the opponent's bed. I don't even know what is worse than that, but probably vomit, vomit blow. I don't know. I'm not gonna even go in there anyway. Two games in a row, though Golden State has had
massive third quarter runs. You gotta fix that. You can't allow Steve Kerr to out coach you coming out of halftime. Can't can't allow Golden State to do what they've done all year long. The problem is Boston has had bad third quarters all year. They don't even know why, They don't know what's happening. They have no answers. They need to figure that shit out. If Boston can win. If Boston wins any third quarter, I think they win that game. They're in good shape. They were up in both Game
one and Game two at halftime by two points. Third quarter bugaboo all year. So Tatum, I think off Rip from halftime needs to be more aggressive. I don't mean just chucking, I mean more aggressive setting the tone. They need to set the tone more on defense, clamp down on Steph, blitz him, and I think Brown does need to do a better job coming out of the locker room too. Prediction. I think Boston does find a way
to win Game three. Boston has not lost back to back games at all this playoffs, and frankly, neither have the Warriors, So I think this is going to be a back and forth situation. I think that's a trend that I'm willing to believe in. I expect the intensity at TV Garden will be high. I think the role players will show up at home. I think Peyton Pritchard could have a big night. I think Al Horford could find a way to get in ten points more than two, yeah,
more than two. Nothing so far, though, has caused me to change my opinion from the beginning of the series. Warriors are winning it all. Steph is getting Finals MVP. It's a lock. Put your four to oh one k on it. That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check. We'll be back Wednesday, folks with a new episode preview in Game three of the NBA Finals. If you listen to this live, thank you. I don't even know how many people could be on this. It's
the very first time. We will see you on Wednesday as well. Follow us on the Heat Check on TikTok, on Twitter, on Instagram, on my personal Do not forget to download to the podcast wherever you get your podcast, whether that's Apple, whether that's the Odyssey app, whether that's Spotify. Please also tell your friends that these things are happening live.
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