Hoops Tonight - USA-France Reaction: Steph Curry & LeBron James lead Team USA to GOLD at Olympics

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the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody, Oh, all of you guys are having a great weekend so far. Well Tmusa comes away with the gold medal today, an incredible steph flurry down the stretches. They would stand a hectic French comeback and Timyo s gets the gold. We're gonna be breaking that game down from the perspective of a bunch of different angles, a bunch of different players. Talk a little bit about Victor Webbin Yam as well. You guys know the job before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops

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the summer. All right, guys, let's talk some basketball. So the story of this game was obviously Steph Curry. This was a very very close game late, kind of unexpectedly, and this was kind of the story for France in the entire tournament. Right. They were the three best defensive teams by the metrics in the tournament were USA, Germany and France. And France in particular really dependent on their defense to get out in transition because they don't really

have a great half court offense. They struggle to score when things really really slow down. But what they do is they just keep playing hard the entire game. They apply a ton of ball pressure, they play passing lanes. They try to get out in transition as much as possible because that's where it gets easier for them to score. And they did forced a bunch of turnovers. In that

mid fourth quarter stretch. There was this chaotic sequence where kd ends up getting a wild chase down block and the ball just kind of in that ensuing chaos just lands in Victor women Yama's hands right at the basket. He gets a little easy bucket there where he shoots a bang shot and then just follows it and just

stuffs it through the rim. It's kind of interesting watching FEBA rules because it's like guys are just literally like as the ball goes up to the rim, everyone's just jumping up to the rim to try to either force it down or force it back out. It's kind of

a funky thing with FIBA basketball. We even saw like a dunk attempt where Gray Shan Yabuseli tried to dunk on Steph and like as he went up, like the balls like in the rim, and Lebron's like not swiping at the ball is slapped the swiping at the top of the rim. It's kind of just an interesting angle to basketball with those FEBA rules. But anyway, Wemby gets

to put back. All of a sudden, France is within three with three minutes left, and then Team USA begins to just spam Lebron's Lebron's Steph two man game, and Steph hits I think what was it. It was either three or four consecutive threes, and they were able to withstand because France kept hitting shots. Nick Tuom hit a three in the right corner, Victor Wimbenyama hit a three along the left wing. They kept hitting shots, and Steph just kept stiff arming them. Every time Franz got it

to six, He'd hit another. Di'd get it to six, he hit another. And it was just an awesome Steph moment specifically in the context of how the tournament went.

And you know, I thought a lot of people were overblowing Steph's struggles early in the tournament, because again, Steph obviously has some shooting variants that is kind of baked into his game, right that's that's just how it works when you rely on jump shooting, right, And I mean this tournament has been the most hilarious, exaggerated example of that because it could make shit for the first half of the tournament, and then he makes obviously every single

big shot in the semi final and the final game. So we all know that variance plays a certain role in Steph's game. That said, that's it's not just about making shots with Steph, like he puts, he took an important role in this team it specifically as the guy who's running a lot of off ball action and just staying active moving around. And remember, when it comes to the offensive end of the floor, how you're guarded matters every bit as much as whether or not you're actually

making shots. And even though Steph was missing, he was still being guarded like he was Steph Curry, which opens up things for the US team, who, by the way, had a really really effective offense in the Olympics. I remember after the quarterfinals, throughout the stat they were at like one point one four points per half court possession, which is completely off the charts good. And so that

was with Steph missing shots. And obviously there are a lot of other talented players that are benefiting from that. But I did think some of Steph's struggles were overblown. That said, you bring Steph Curry on Tsai because you need him to hit shots, And he hit so many big shots in these last two games. From all those shots early in the semi final game, as Serbia would not miss, just to keep USA attached close enough so

that a comeback was feasible. To the big shot that was the lead changing shot in the fourth quarter after Serbia went back up by two. He hit that three curling around the screen, from Joe El Embiid to every shot he hit down the stretch today, when France tried

to make their comeback. I'm glad he was missing when he was missing, because basketball gets like that sometimes, Like i'ven't actually looked at the numbers, but I imagine if you zoom out, it looks kind of like typical Steph shooting in the larger sample, right, But in the small sample it was like couldn't make anything to making everything. And I am glad, thankfully as a basketball fan, as a team USA fan, that he was broke when he

was because we didn't need him in that game. We needed them in the Serbia game, we needed them in the France game. Steph got it done. And I will say being on this side of it was a hell of a lot more fun than being on the other side of it, because as a Lebron fan, I've rooted against Steph a ton in my life, not just in the Calves years, but even extending into these Lakers years with the play in tournament and then that series in

twenty twenty three, which was a crazy, hectic series. Like, I've had to root against Steph a lot, and like there was a different version of Steph in that Lakers series. It was very on the ball and like we couldn't do anything with him, and pick and roll is very different. But like being on this side of it and actually rooting for him for a change was very, very nice, and I understand why you Warriors fans love rooting for

him so much. Step It's interesting, like so many Lebron fans hate Steph and so many Steph fans hate Lebron for whatever reason, and that's somewhat to be expense to be expected when it comes to rivalries. But Lebron's my favorite player, Steph's literally my second favorite player. I absolutely love watching him play basketball, and it's been an absolute joy rooting for him with Team USA this year. I do want to take a look a little closer look

at the Lebron Steph two man game. You know, I've always been fascinated by basketball tactics, and this was a very specific action that was deadly against France at the tail end of this game, and I want to get

into the specific reasons why. So. Obviously, when this team was conceptualized and put together a lot of different things to be excited about as a basketball fan, right Like, Timosa has an awesome front court, Right Like, it was fun to watch Ad and Bam play together, Ad Bam, Lebron kd Jason Tatum, even Joel Embiid coming over and not playing for France, Like it just we had a really fun front court that was fun to look at, right Like, There's all these different exciting things to look at,

But Lebron and Steph playing together was obviously the thing that we were most excited for. These are the two greatest winners of this era. They have four titles each since twenty twelve, just do basic, Matt, there have been thirteen NBA champions that have been crowned since twenty twelve, eight of them involved Lebron James and Steph Curry. That is unbelievable dominance from those two guys. That is why they are the two greatest winners of this era. But

it extends further into the basketball fit. Obviously, there was an aura piece where it's like, it's gonna be fun watching Lebron and Steph play together and try to win basketball games. But there's also a basketball fit element, and this has been a little bit up for debate over the course of the last couple of years. I remember around the trade deadline when there was some buzz about the Warriors maybe trying to go after Lebron. How some people were hesitant to think that the Lebron and Steph

fit would work. I always thought it would work very well. And the main reason why, before we get into the specific basketball tactics, is they're two of the greatest winners, meaning they understand how to win basketball games, but they

do very different things. And when you get basketball players that do very different things and feel very different responsibilities, like that's just going to kind of accentuate each other in a way that gets more complicated when guys play similar roles, right like Lebron and Lebron this entire tournament

was like a Swiss army knife. He was a dominant defensive reboundary guarded Jokic in the fourth quarter of the semi final game, like, he just did all sorts of crazy shit because he's six ' nine and this freaky athlete, right like Steph Curry that over the top shot making is so important in FOBA because of the defense of three second rule. Obviously, he's a movement shooter who constantly stays active in off ball situations. They just do very

different thing. So I just had a feeling that they would impact each other or help elevate each other, and that the two of them would impact winning at an amount even greater than the sum of their parts would lead you to believe. But specifically the Lebron Steph two man game was something that I was very excited about because of the dynamic of trying to defend it. Now, what is two man game? Two man game is just any action that you run between two players, right. That

could be a bunch of different things. It could be a dribble hand off, It can be a ball screen it could be an off ball action. You can there's so many different ways that you can run two man game. And for Lebron Steph at the tail end of this game, it was some Lebron on the ball with Steph screening for Lebron, some Steph on the ball with Lebron screening for Steph. But it all effectively is the same thing,

which is two man game. Right now, What makes guarding the Lebron Steph two man games so difficult is that both guys have to be guarded by very different types of defenders. Lebron James has to be guarded by a big, strong forward. If you don't put a big, strong forward on him, Lebron's just gonna bully that dude everywhere on the floor. If not on the ball, then he'll do it off the ball on the offensive glass, right like that, that's a physical matchup that you have to account for.

Right for France at the end of this game, that was Gershan Yabuseli, right, big strong forward that can hope to hang a little bit with Lebron in some of those physical situations. Right for Steph, it's a moving shooter. He's chasing around like crazy, right so you need a guy who can navigate, navigate screens, you need a lock

in trail defender. That's typically going to be a smaller guard, right, And so in this particular case, Steph's being guarded by a small guard, Lebron's being guarded by a big Ford. That's what starts to cause these particular issues. And so for France, the smaller player that was guarding Steph down the stretch ended up being Nick patumbho by the way,

six foot eight, but skinny, slender, quick footed. This was a guy, if you guys remember in the Knick series that was guarding Tyrese Maxi for a large portion of that series. Nick Batum guards guards pretty well. That's why you put him there. Right. He's not quite as quick as some of the quicker guards, but he can get a hand up and get some good contests in. Right. So we saw quite a bit of Lebron on Steph two man game throughout the game, but they started spamming

it at the end. Now, there was a play in the third quarter where Lebron hit Steph for three and two man game, which was the first iteration of how you expect teams to guard it. So Lebron was being guarded on this play by Gershan Yabuselli, and Steph was being guarded by one of the French bench guards. I can't remember his name. He was number six, right, Steph goes to set the screen for Lebron on that play,

Steph's defender has no choice but to hedge. He absolutely has to hedge, because if he doesn't, Steph will just screen Yabuselli and Lebron just go downhill because Yabuseli cannot recover to get in front of Lebron James while he's getting screened. That's just not gonna happen. Right now, Lebron's barreling downhill. He's gonna draw to help defender make a pass, or he's gonna get it dunk, right, So you have to hedge. So number six throws out a hard hedge

to try to stop Lebron from driving past Yabuseli. Steph identifies this slips right out to the left wing. Yah Bucelli is kind of like stuck in no man's land because he sees the hedge. He's getting ready to recover to Lebron, but he identifies that the last second, Lebron's going to pass to Steph, so he throws his hands up. Lebron just jumps and throws a beautiful over the top pass. Steph is wide open because Steph's defender had to hedge

on Lebron. Lebron, so Steph can switch a slip out of it and he has an opening there on the left wing. By the way these plays, I put together a thread on Twitter at underscore json lt where every single one of these plays you can see the video, so you guys can get a visual example of what I'm talking about. But that was the third quarter example. On the third quarter example, they try to hedge in the hedge, Steph got wide open, wide open three, he

hit it. That's not gonna work. So Victor wimin Yama gets his put back of his own miss. That puts him back within three with three minutes left, and so Tosa decides to start running Lebron Steph two man game. So at this point, remember Nick toomb is guarding Steph. Yeah, Buceli's guarding Lebron. Steph sets the screen for Lebroun once again. Lebron's kind of at the top. Step sets it on his right side, slips out of it. On this play,

Batoum and Yabu Seli decide to switch. But on the switch yabu Selli because he's not used to guarding movement shooters. That's the reason why you don't switch. Right. If you switch yabu Selli onto Steph, he's too slow. You switch but tomb onto Lebron, he's too small. So it just presents all these issues. They switch yabu Selli onto Steph. They Lebron throws you over the top pass to Steph.

All Steph does is just throw pump fake. Why Because Yabu Selli hasn't guarded movement shooters, he doesn't face guys that pump fake a lot. He's not used to like kind of like chasing and recovering. In this type of situation, Boom pump fake easily gets yabu Seli out of position. Quick little side step boom knocks down the three. There's just nothing that France can do there. Okay, so we tried hedging, that didn't work. We tried switching, that didn't work.

What's the next thing that we can try? So this next possession down the floor, tm Usa switches to Steph being on the ball and Lebron being the screener. So it's a little bit of a different look than the previous two possessions, right, but the same like overarching problems exist. Right, You can't switch the action because you don't want Yaboucelli on Steph on an island. You can't hedge because Steph's gonna get open, or in this case, with Steph on

the ball, if you hedge, Lebron's gonna get open. He's just gonna barrel down the lane and make something happen. So what's the next logical progression. Well, they try to get Nick Patum just to chase over the top of the screen. So Lebron goes up and sets a screen. Nick Patum goes way out on the high side to

try to chase Steph. Yabuceli doesn't hedge. He just kind of like sits in like a little bit of like a defensive stance right on the other side of the screen in case Steph tries to curl, but he stays home on Lebron. So now you didn't switch, you asked Nick Patum to chase. Now Steph is coming off with Nick Patum in trail position. Steph has the ball live dribble. Batum is trailing him down the top of the key. Just it's a simple step back dribble into a pump fake.

But since Batum is completely out of position, he's sprinting back into the play. He has no choice but to sell out to stop that shot, so he jumps out of his shoes to try to block the step back. Steph just simple pump fake, leans over, knocks down the three. So now we've tried hedging. That didn't work. We tried switching, that didn't work. We tried asking Nick Patum just to chase over the top. That didn't work. And after that

that's when it turned into double team. So very next trip down the floor, they just try switching yabousellly onto Steph and they double team him. Swing past to Kevin Durant. Devin Booker's wide open in the left corner because you just threw a double team swing to Devin Booker. Victor wemen Yama closes out hard. Booker has an advantage, so he just rips to the baseline, beats women Yam off the dribble. All of France collapses, easy kickout pass to Steph.

Now STEP's open again because you're in rotation, and guess what Kevin Durant Devin Booker know how to play in rotation?

Boom pump fakes gets another clean look. And then the final possession was just silly, like Franz tried switching Abu Sally on to Kevin Durant and putting Evan Fournier onto Lebron, and so then they just brought Kevin Durant into the action, same sort of thing they switched and they doubled, and then guess what, Steph hit a step back three over a double team, because that's what can happen when Steph

enters into that transcendent zone. But I think it's I do think it's fascinating because like that was what was interesting about watching those two together in that final sequence. One, Like Lebron James doesn't care about how they win. He just wants to win. Steph had a heater, He's gonna

trust him. There were earlier moments in this tournament where Lebron had it going in clutch time and Steph just back the hell off and let Lebron do his thing, right, Like that's trust in each other, that's understanding what your advantages are that's sticking with something like if an action isn't broke, you stick with it. You run the exact same thing over and over again until they figure out how to get a stop. And France could not get

a stop on that Lebron Steph two men. I thought it was just a really fascinating kind of basketball chess piece. They tried everything. They tried the hedge and recover, got burned. They tried switching, got burned. They tried asking Nick Patum to chase, got burned. They tried switching and double teaming, got burned. Like there was literally nothing that they could do. Even the one possession they defended perfectly where they doubled and rotated. Well, Steph just hit a shot over a

double team. And that's what's so much fun about watching the all time great basketball players is there's not a coverage that works. There's not a trump card, there's not a fix that you can throw out there to stop these guys. And honestly, it's a little unfair to have all that talent on tmusa right, like, oh, you want to switch so that Lebron's not in the action, Well,

here comes Kevin Durant. It's gonna be the same sort of issue, right, or like the end of the Serbia game where Lebron and Steph were both clearly tired at the end and so they just tossed the ball to KD and then KD went and got a bucket. It

was a lot of fun watching this team. I will say this in general was one of my favorite memory as a basketball fan, the watching all of my favorite players that caused me to fall in love with the game as I was growing up, play in this high stakes environment when everything was on the line, and to watch how much it meant to them to watch their

competitiveness shine through the big one. I tweeted this out after the Serbia game like that it was the last legacy defining moment for Katie, Stephan Lebron And like, you guys know me, I don't do the first take thing. I'm not here to like to just sit here and debate legacies all day long. That's that's not really my favorite thing to do as a basketball fan. However, these guys do have a legacy, and their legacy to me

is they are winners. These guys have ten championships between the three of them, and the main thing that stands out to me when I watched this tournament was seeing the little things that led to them winning in the NBA come together in this environment to help this team win. And it's a reminder that it's not a coincidence, it's not fluky. These guys are These guys are as successful as they have been because they do the things on the basketball court that you watched them do with Team USA.

And when it all came together, that's what made this team unbeatable, even against a red hot Serbia team that made over fifty percent of their threes through three quarters and is led by Nikola Jokich, the most indomitable force in the game of basketball right now in my opinion. All of that was the set of circumstances in that game, and it still wasn't enough to beat them because Lebron, Steph and KD and everyone else on this roster has that winning character that they've leaned on in the NBA

and then they leaned on here with Team USA. It was just as a basketball fan, I just I can't believe it. I can't believe that we had this much fun in August in July watching basketball our video the Serbia instant reaction video was the most watched video in the history of the new channel, not counting the volume stuff, but since we've been on our own channel, it's the most watched video we've ever had. That tells me is

that it tells me you guys loved it. That tells me if we got more views for that than we did for Luca's game winner, or for that crazy Nuggets Lakers series or some of the other big moments that we encountered along the way, Like this seemed to be a real moment that resonated with basketball fans. It almost felt like it just felt like we were all kind of enjoying it together. There was no fan bases. We're all kind of together, just kind of having fun enjoying it. And I just had a ton of fun.

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type of defensive play that is memorable. And that's a little one that might get lost to the shuffle year, but that was an incredible defensive play I thought, just in general, KD just he brought the vitally important, like juiced up superstar version of Michael Porter junior to this team, meaning like excellent help side defense, excellent defense of rebounding, excellent weak side scoring, and again like that, all of this stuff had a vital importance to this particular team.

They needed an initiator, a guy who could just focus on feeding guys in their spots. Lebron fed into that spot perfectly. They needed a guy who could just run around and be a movement shooter and just be really active off the ball. That ended up being Step. They needed a guy who was just a green light jump shooter who would just make the defense pay every single time they helped off of him. That was Kevin Durant. Obviously, Devin Booker did a little bit of that as well.

A lot everybody filled in unique roles, but for those specific three guys, you saw them all kind of slot into their unique roles, and I thought KD was awesome in this particular game. Anthony Davis a monster game in this one. Got a huge series of stops on Evan Fournier on a switch in crunch time when they were trying to pull away late. He did a bunch of work on the gloves. He had four offensive rebounds, he had four blocks. He was just an absolute monster in

this game. I thought it was the right Reid two to go with him instead of him beat given the matchup, and just how most like Victor wemen Yama was going right at Joel Embiid early in this game. He was just kind of struggling with his foot speed, and I thought that was the right read. Really good game from Anthony Davis. And then Devin Booker just once again solid fifteen points, six rebounds, three assists, hit some big shots.

That huge drive drive of the Victor wemen Yama close out late that got the wide open shot for Steph. I thought that was a huge play. Everyone played awesome. I just had a blast. I can't even tell you, guys how much I enjoyed watching this team USA. All right, let's talk MVP and then we'll talk some Victor wemen Yama and then we'll be out of here for the day. So Lebron wins MVP of the tournament. I thought he deserved it. I thought he was the player on TMUSA

that impacted winning the most overall throughout the tournament. I thought, even though he didn't score as many points as Steph Curry did in the semi final, I thought he was equally important to the win in that particular game. It's so much work defensively and just battling Yokic on the glass and just doing a lot of the dirty, ugly work in the physical battle that was that game. I thought he was incredible. That said, I thought Steph had a real case. I thought him and how well he

played in those last two games. If you told me that you thought Steph deserved MVP, I don't think you're wrong necessarily. Like I think both guys deserved it. I think I think Steph had a really good case. I think Lebron had a slightly better case, and I thought he deserved to win it. But I didn't really have a problem with it either way. The most important thing is is they don't care. Lebron and Steph don't care, and that's why they've won like they've won in their career.

They care more about winning than they do whatever the accolades are that come from it. If Steph cared about MVPs, he wouldn't have brought Kevin Durant to the Golden State Warriors. If Lebron cared about MVPs, he wouldn't have asked Kyrie irving to take that big shot at the end of

twenty sixteen, he wouldn't have kind of seeded. Lebron controlled the offense this entire tournament, and then when it mattered against Steph, when Steph had it going, he was like, here you go, it's your moment, Steph, because he didn't give a damn. They just want to win. Steph wants to win. Lebron wants to win. Yeah, Lebron ended up getting the MVP, but like, it just doesn't matter. That's for the kids to argue about on Twitter and let them.

I know there's a big appetite for that sort of thing, and I'm sure the stand bases will be going at it over the course of the next forever. I'm sure they'll be arguing the twenty twenty four Olympic MVP for a while. But to me, they both had a real case and I just don't care. But I'm happy for Lebron. I thought he was a deserving winner in the same way that Steph would have been. Here's a crazy Lebron stat for you. Lebron was twenty seven for thirty at

the RIM in this tournament. Jannis led the tournament with thirty four makes and the restricted area, Yokich was second with twenty eight. Lebron was third with twenty seven, and he was the only guy like the Both Jannis and Jokic shot below eighty percent in the restrict at the rim. Lebron shot ninety percent at the rim. It was just

completely insane. Again, that's the I will miss watching this tm USA group, and I'm really curious to see where what the team looks like in twenty twenty eight, obviously, with so many of these guys aging out. Last note for today, Victor wibin Yama twenty six points, seven rebounds, just an absolute competitive monster. He broke a d off for a step back three at the tail end of the game up at the top of the key where he made a dbuckle and got great separation and great

lyft and it looked like a good release too. He just left a little short, and I just remember sitting there thinking like, this guy is gonna be so insanely good when all this stuff clicks for him in the long run. He is so physically competitive for a guy who's thin that I think is a huge piece. Like I've just I've told you guys many times on the show. Like, I think basketball is a is a very very physical game, and most big basketball games are bloodbaths physically, and so

he just seems cut out for that. He's really aggressive around the rim. There's a confidence piece there, there's a competitiveness piece there. We saw him crying after the loss. I I'm so excited to see what that kid can do in the long run in his career. I was impressed by him in this tournament, even beyond the stuff he did in the box score. He's just such an impactful defensive players, just a guy that's gonna be fun to root for over the course of the rest of

his career. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. I'm back for the evening. I'm actually after this going to record a mail bag episode for just to help have some more content while I'm out of town. I am turning around and flying out of flying out again tomorrow to Seattle. I've recorded three player rankings videos as well, so you guys will get the mail bag.

You'll get three player rankings videos. All that's going out while I'm in Seattle, and then I return a week from Sunday and that following Monday, we'll get right back into those player rankings from there. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I will see you soon. The volume