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five as Houston blew out the Golden State Warriors. That was Houston's pathway to make this a series, and it was Fred van Vliet now brin Shangoon and then being able to go blow for blow as score with the Warrior Stars. And they did it again tonight, fifty points from those two as the Rockets win one fifteen to one oh seven, extend this series to seven. Heading back to Houston and what has been just a wild series with all sorts of twists and turns and different vibes
and different trash talk and different dynamics at play. We're gonna be breaking that game down from the perspective of both teams. After that, we're gonna take a couple questions from you guys in the chat. After that, we're gonna head over to playback. So for those of you guys who haven't been over there yet, we're gonna be going right after we finish here Live Tonight over to playback. That's where we can be more interactive with you guys. You guys can come on stage with us and ask questions.
We can talk about some of the specific details of the series. I also have the ability to put film on the screen and we could talk about some of the specific dynamics that are taking place in this particular game. So make sure you guys are ready after the show to head over to playback to hang out for a little bit when we get done here. You guys know the job before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops and I YouTube channels. You don't miss any more
of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LTCA. You guys don't misshow announcement. So forget about a podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating in a review. On that front, Jackson's also doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Make sure
you guys follow us there. And the last pan at least kep dropping mail back questions in the YouTube comments, and we keep getting to him throughout the remainder of the postseason. So Fred van Vliet, as I mentioned, over the course of this season, a jump shot for Fred
van Vliet was worth less than a point. It was worth zero point nine to nine points per possession, points per shot, and through the first three games of the series it was a lot of the same kind of thing I've seen from Fred a lot this season, which is he's kind of an important, you know, decision maker for the Rockets in the half court, just kind of getting the ball into the pocket to Shanggoon and just kind of keeping the ball moving from side to side.
He's kind of like the guy who greases the wheels for them on offense at the guard spot and as you know, kind of in concert with what Alburn Shangoon does in the middle of the floor. In the last three games, though, Fred van Vliet is eighteen for twenty seven from three, which is just unbelievable six for nine again tonight, that's literally the difference in the game he goes. He goes three for nine, which is like in line with the season averages. This is a game Golden State wins.
And you know, I talked after Game five that if there was one little like kind of playing with fire that Golden State did over the tail end of the series was that they lost control of Fred van Vliet, and specifically in Game four, he got a bunch of wide open looks, really really good looks. If you guys remember down the stretch of that game, that was when
we saw a heavy dose because of foul trouble. We saw a heavy dose of like trace Jackson Davis and Quinton Post trying to guard Alburn Shangoon and the Rockets were setting up Fred van Vliet one pass away and he was, you know, posting up and drawing that second defender and pitching it out to Fred. Fred was getting clean looks that way. Fred was getting clean looks on
offensive rebounds. Fred was getting clean looks on inverted ball screens with Alburn shangu And you know, the Warriors have kind of lost control of him, and they've lost control of Shangoon, and now it's in a situation where you know, ultimately what's gonna happen in Game seven is going to come down to the play of the stars. I you know, I try to be consistent as much as I can on this show, and you guys know that I'll be critical of stars first and foremost more than coaches, more
than role players. And one of the main reasons why is because the stars are the guys with the superpowers. The coaches can only do so much to set you up for success before it ultimately becomes about the best guys on one team creating advantages versus the best guys on the other team creating advantages. I talked about it in the Pistons Knicks series about how every series or every game came down the stretch to a gap in decision making and shot making between Jalen Brunson and Kid Cunningham.
I talked about how in the Lakers Timberwolve series, it's come down to whether or not Luka Doncic could beat his one on one defender effectively enough to get the defense in rotation so the Lakers could play advantage basketball. Because Lebron at age forty in Austin Reeves as a
lesser athlete needs advantages to succeed. Looking at the Nuggets Clippers series, I've talked about how James Harden and him consistently getting downhill and breaking the defense, of breaking the defense down is what's necessary for the Clippers to succeed. These are what did I talk about in Game six when the Clippers won. I talked about Nikola Jokic in
the third quarter not doing the job offensively. And this has been the case in this series with the Warriors, when Steph has gone unreal offensively as a shot maker, the Warriors have won thirty one points in Game one on nineteen shots, he gets the win, thirty six points in Game three, he gets the win. They managed to win a game in Game four with him not playing particularly well, getting a bunch of contributions down the roster. But in the games where Steph has struggled to generate
great offense, the team has struggled to win. He goes six for fifteen for twenty points. In Game two, they lose. He goes six for thirteen or excuse me, four for twelve in Game five for thirteen points, and they lose. Tonight, when he was hitting shots through the first three quarters, they were attached. What happened in the fourth quarter when Steph went ice cold, the Rockets pulled away. And again, there are lots of other factors at play. The Warriors
missed a lot of clean looks tonight. They struggled a ton on the offensive glass, They struggled with several basic pieces of action that they couldn't defend tonight. There are a lot of things that the Warrior struggled with. But ultimately, the one guy in these situations that has the ability to overcome the circumstances and carry his team to where he needs to go is the guy who is initiating
offense for you, the guy that is starting everything. And in this game, while Steph did still generate a bunch of advantages, he wasn't able to match it with the shot make in that fourth quarter when his team needed to make a run. It was right there. It's a two point game, it was right there for the taking, and they immediately lost control to start that fourth quarter and they were never able to get back in control
of it. And like, I don't think it's a coincidence that when Fred and Shangoon straight up out play their counterparts, that the Rockets look like the better team, and that's going to be I mean, if you ask me what's going to happen in Game seven, you can talk about Pods making shots, you can talk about Draymond being more impactful offensively, But I really think it's this simple. If you guys can do a better job guarding Fred and you can get Steph back to where he was offensively
earlier in the series, you're going to win. It is that simple. In my opinion, I've always kind of focused more on the stars than other elements that are just that come with variability. Coach can only do so much. Role Players are by design inconsistent. That's why they're role players. If they were consistently great all those things, they'd make thirty million dollars. I've heard a lot of talk about the roster, the roster the Warriors. The Warriors roster was
number one in defense after the All Star break. If those dudes were all also awesome offensive players, you'd have a four hundred million dollar payroll. Like, the construct of this team is, we have Draymond Green, we have all these ass kicking athletes that play super hard and play super smart. On defense, we get a ton of stops and Steph lifts us over the top on offense. That is the formula, and this series has absolutely swung on Steph's production starting to tail off in Fred van Vliet's
starting to rise to the surface. So like we can talk, I've talked about this a lot last night when we were talking Nuggets Clippers. When you get to this point in the series, there's there's nothing really fancy about it, you know, like the there's no schematic adjustment, there's no thing that Steve Kerr can do. It's your guys versus their guys. At this point, no one's surprising anybody. You know what the shangun Fred van Vliet two man game
is gonna look like. You know, you're gonna see some zone and guess what, Steph's gonna have to get those screens from the top man in the zone and he's gonna have to get downhill and make something happen. And we know he can do it because he's done it out of other points in this series. There's a lot of different elements tonight that went Houston's way. I thought Steven Adams was just absolutely unbelievable. He was plus fifteen
and thirty one minutes. Did pretty well at the free throw line, which I think was important with the way that Steve Kerr was deliberately sending him there. He was nine for sixteen at the foul line, made enough of them to kind of stiff arm the Warriors when they were trying to use the hack of Adams strategy. The offensive rebounding from him was huge. Shanggun just brought enough of that tough shot making in the short to mid range.
The defensive work that every Rockets player did on the perimeter, rushing the Warriors offensive players and forcing them into turnovers. You know, it's the Rockets are playing. They're playing Rockets basketball, and the only way you're going to flip this dynamic is if you can get them to start missing some
shots through the strength of your defense. And then on the other end of the floor, if you can get more out of Steph, get more out of Jimmy than what you've been getting at this point in the series. Stephan Jimmy seven for twenty two from three tonight. A lot of shots were going up, not as many were going in as we know that they're capable of. I want to open it up to the floor here I want to I'm gonna bring Jackson on. We're gonna take
some questions. We'll stay here for Jackson. We'll say here for about ten minutes before we head over to playback. But again, we're gonna take some questions here for a little bit, and then we'll move the show over to playback.
Let's do it. Let's do it. First, question about Steven Adams. He's obviously presented a ton of problems for the Warriors. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Rockets have won two games when he's playing a lot more minutes. Do you think the Warriors counter should be to stay with the smaller lineup? You know what generally is more effective for them as a as a team, or play bigger. Let a big try to box to Adams while Draymond gets to guard Shanghu.
It's a tough question. I actually think the answer to dealing with Steven Adams Moore has to do with the offensive end of the floor. By the way, as we look at the numbers, Quinton post in eighteen minutes tonight was minus nine, So having that second big on the floor wasn't exactly doing a ton of positive work in this specific case, I look at it like this. There was a stretch in the third quarter there where Steph was actually doing quite a bit of damage to Steven
Adams in space, and that really is the key. If you guys remember, dating back to earlier in the series, one of the ways that Steph was having a lot of success was he was attacking up the floor with pace and getting on too Steven Adams and screening action and then immediately attacking and drawing that initial dribble penetration. When they have Steven Adams and Albern Shangun on the floor, they've got to get those guys in the blender and they got to make them cover ground on the perimeter
more and more. I did think that there were several examples tonight, specifically Moses Moody and Brandon Pajemski, which is ironic because the two of them were kind of the more reliable younger players throughout this season. I thought both of them took a few too many shots tonight that were in that like eight nine seconds on the shot clock where we can at least work to try to get it back to Steph because at the end of the day, like those guys just aren't gonna hit enough
of them for it to be that impactful. And I do, I do think there's something to be said about like Steph, putting a shot up is your best chance to generate points and you need to get it like empty the clip. Steph needs to be taken like a lot more shots than even than he even has been taking in situations like this when they're not going down.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. There's We've gotten a lot of questions about the rotation. Is Jonathan kaminga the guy? There's a lot of potentially misplaced Maybe Pat Spencer should get some run talk in the chat right now, I'm not sure I would quite go that far. It's obviously comes down to the stars. Like you're saying, if you were going to make any sort of rotation adjustments for the Warriors, is it more Moses Moody, more, Buddy Healed, more, Gary Payton,
more quintin post trace Jackson Davis? What what would your sort of chess move be?
I was surprised at how quickly Steve Kerr bailed on
Buddy Heild. I know he was in some foul trouble, but like Buddy when he's been on the floor in this series as like a counterpart to Steph's spacing, has actually generated a lot of openings for Steph, mainly meaning like when Buddy's on the weak side, he's at least being accounted for, And like I just I thought he had just a little bit of too quick of a hook tonight, especially considering the fact that it wasn't like Brandon Pajemski was hitting everything he was taken and having
some sort of profound defensive impact. Again, like, I understand the desire to start looking down the roster and being like, wh what if we get more out of this guy? What if we get more out of that guy? But this is just my personal philosophy, and I know that there are a lot of Warriors fans that disagree with me. I was arguing with a couple of Warriors fans before the show, like, there are Warriors fans that are like,
Steph's doing his job, it's on everyone else. And I don't disagree that there are obviously some elements down the roster that need to perform better than they've been performing. But I am a firm believer that the superstar is the superpower and they're the ones that can overcome. And so yeah, you can lean a little bit more into
Buddy Heeld than I would. I would lean into Buddy Heeld specifically for that counter spacing, having less congestion when Steph is looking to attack into the middle of the floor. One of the things that was missing Intonight's game is it was a lot of threes from Steph. Sixteen of
his twenty three attempts from three. If you remember, in earlier games in the series, he was really aggressive in the short to mid range curling around action, taking stuff that was closer to the basket, and I think counter spacing was Steph playing Buddy alongside him more. I think would be helpful. While you're asking the next question, I'm actually going to go up to cleaning the glass and see what Buddies on off numbers are in this series, because I think they're pretty strong for sure.
And I think that's one thing that I mean, the zone has obviously, the Rocket Zone has obviously thrown the Warriors offense off in a lot of ways, and I think the biggest, I mean, the reason why they deploy one of the reasons why they deployed is working it's keeping Steven Adams close to the basket, and it really makes it never mind get the ball even inside the paint, which they struggle to do. But Steph Curry is not getting any remotely easy looks the inside the arc when
they're playing zone. It is very It has definitely been very, very effective at its goal, which is to muck it up and then keep the Warriors out of the paint.
Another question, really quickly, just so that you guys have the numbers, Buddy Healed, has the best plus minus of any role player in the series. The Warriors are ten point two points better per one hundred possessions with Buddy on versus off. Moving Gary Payton into the starting lineup Gary Payton in this series, and you and Jackson and I are both big Bro, but he is the Warriors at thirteen point two points worst per one hundred possessions
in the series. When he's on the floor, I just what I'm seeing with my eyes is the counterspacing like they're Steph and Buddy are consistently on opposite sides of the floor and pulling help defenders away from each other and making life easy for each other. I know he was in foul trouble tonight, but I did think that he was capable of providing more than he did.
Next question, this is not necessarily directed at you because you are critical of stuff today, But why does it feel like Steph gets less criticism than other stars?
I I think I think all of this really comes down to stand behavior. Like I like, I try to be consistent. I openly came on the show after the Lakers game. It was like Lebron was shitty on the defensive glass tonight and it was a huge part of why they lost the game. Like, I am a big Lebron fan, but like, I believe in trying to be
consistent with that kind of stuff. I also know that when I'm dealing with the general public, like every Steph fan is gonna say he's never done anything wrong, He's the goat, you know, you know, like, and then every Lebron fan is gonna be like, why are we never critical of Steph? And it's like most of the people that I watched that cover the league do a pretty good job of trying to be honest as and fair
as best as they can. And so I think, like I think, honestly, it's it's just about like the echo chambers online, Like, yeah, if you if you go online and you are scrolling through Twitter and you're watching a bunch of Warriors fans, they're probably not gonna be blaming Steph for what happened tonight. And for the record, I don't think Steph's at fault for what's happening tonight or what's happening in this series. It's I always, it's it's this simple to me. He's the one guy who can
save them. He's the one guy who can save them. Jackson. Who was the one guy who could have saved the Lakers in the first round.
I mean it probably would have been Luka Doncic.
It was Luca. Luca was the one guy who was capable of saving them by being so good on an island one on one that everything else trickled down from that. Like that that I'm a big believer in. Like looking at Moses Moody and being like, why can't you do more? Is like you're you're asking You're asking someone who's not capable of it.
It's like you're playing like meme basketball, like why can't this other guy do it? Yeah?
Exactly, and like and and that's the thing it's we're not. Yeah, when we're discussing Steph with respect to Damian Lillard, like, yeah, I'm gonna start saying stuff like Steph's a way better defender, he's way better off ball, he's way better at this this, this net. But when I'm comparing Steph to Shay Gilders, Alexander and Nikola Jokic and the guys at the top of the league, like they Steph to me was playing at a top five level coming into this series. That
was the level he was at. I thought he was better than Luka Dancic coming into this playoff run, and like he is again the one guy who can save them. And it really is that simple to me, really quickly before you ask the next question. Thirty four possessions of zone for Houston tonight zero point eight two four points per possession. I'm pulling. I thought it was particularly bad in the Yeah, it was all in the fourth quarter
where they fell apart. In the first three quarters, in sixteen possessions, the Warriors got one point three eight Jesus point points per possession against zone in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter against zone eighteen possessions, only six points so yeah, when we head over to playback here in a little bit, guys, we will all we will watch all eighteen of those possessions and we'll see if
there's something obvious that they can get away from. But yeah, the zone definitely picked them to part picked them to pieces. In that fourth quarter. I thought Steph was obviously fatigued too. Like I thought Steph got some good looks. I thought Steph got three or four very makeable Steph Curry shots in that fourth quarter that he just didn't make. And I think, like I think there's a wear and tear factor. I think there's, you know, some of the reality of
the variants that comes with really difficult shot making. But yeah, I mean that's some crazy numbers coming out of the zone defense there.
That is crazy. Let's see one more question and then we'll head over to playback. You talked a lot about the formula for the Warriors in game seven. Is one thing on each end? Can they defend the Fred van Vliet Shanhun two men action better, dramatically better on the defensive end, and Ken Steph Curry, you know, lift them up with shot making the other on the offensive end. If you were watching the Warriors, and you had to pick one of those two things that're going into game seven.
You were like, they're doing this, check it off, they are doing one of those two things when you pick what would give them the better chance to win being much much better defensively against that two man game or Steph Curry. I'm not gonna say Steph Curry going godmude, because that's the obvious. You know, if he gets fifty, they're gonna win. But if he is a better shot maker than he was tonight, I.
Think I think the controllable is defense. I think there's only so much you can cross your fingers in hope in terms of Steph's shot making, like and if he's if it's there, they're gonna win. But this is the thing, like they they won, and like there is a way to win on Sunday in Game seven without Steph Curry having to score thirty points, and it's you get Shangun and Fred van Vliet under control. I think there's a
certain amount of like those. There's certain guys that you don't want shooting, and there are certain guys that you're more comfortable with shooting, like Jabari Smith, Junior gott To chase him off the line, Dylan Brooks over three, A Men Thompson over one from three, Alprin Shangun over two from three, Jalen Green one for six from three, Like they they need to be pinching and making sure that specifically Fred is not getting looks, specifically Jabbari Smith is
not getting looks the other guys who cares, Like Tar Easton made two threes tonight. If Tar Easton gets a bunch of open looks in game seven, I don't think they're going to go in at a super high clay, but like they need to do a better job of shrinking the floor. I would switch. That was I would
switch without switching, without conceding switches. What that means is like like, try to do what you did on the final possession of game four, bust through the switch as best you can, but ultimately don't give Fred van Vliet clean looks that come out of him slipping out of
action because you put two on the ball. And I mean, there is something to be said about leaning into size, Like you know, I'm not even necessarily talking about Quentin Post necessarily, but just playing your bigger, better athletes as much as possible in the game for the purpose of trying to get more stops and get out in transition.
Because transition is another way that can get going. I would lean into it in different ways like I think they're I think with the starting group, I still really like having Buddy Healed out there next to step, but I think you need to have lineups set, especially when Steven Adams is on the floor, where you're built more around the athleticism piece and try to get out and transition more. All right, guys, So, as we mentioned, there's a link in the description, we're headed over to playback
right now. We're going to take some questions. Have some of you guys come on stage if you want, and we will watch some of the film from the Warrior Struggling against the Rocket Zone. We'll see you guys over there in just a few minutes. What's up, guys, There's always I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and
a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I really appreciate it the volume