The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, here at the Volume, Happy Monday, everybody. Round two coverage of the NBA Playoffs. Here at Hoops Tonight is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? All right? This series that we all were hoping for, the one that's going to end the basketball world as we know it and cause the Internet to go up in flames all at once, Lakers versus Warriors, We're gonna do a series preview that hits it from a bunch of different angles.
Do you guys know the drill? Before we get started, Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter and underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss any sho announcements. And if, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight, all right, let's talk
some basketball. So before we get into our our traditional kind of series preview structure where I go over like kind of overarching notes and then we hit some key matchups. And then I give a pick I want to. I have a little bit of a rant that I want to do surrounding the some of the narratives that are going to be involved in this series. So one of the most discouraging things to me as a basketball fan with the way that the media has covered the game.
And it's not just media. A lot of it has to do with just social media and the way people behave on Twitter and other social media apps. There's a stand culture that is taking over. It's an obsession with players to the point of reverence that goes to the point where it actually, I think does a disservice to the game of basketball. So, for instance, we are going to get the two largest fan bases in the NBA pitted against each other in this particular series. And now
I'm not talking about Lakers versus Warriors. I'm talking about stepf fans versus Lebron fans, and that's going to be the narrative direction that this series goes in. And I don't really like that because I'll give you an example. So Lebron James is my favorite player. He's the reason why I got into the game of basketball. I was raised on baseball and football happened across Lebron James on the television, and my entire life changed as a result
because I fell in love with the game. It ended up being what paid for my schooling and ended up being what I do for a living. And so Lebron is my favorite player. For a lot of Lebron fans, they despise Steph Curry and everything he stands for because he represents some kind of threat to Lebron and his legacy and things along those lines. I think that is so juvenile and stupid. Like Steph is my second favorite player.
He's an incredible basketball player. If you love the game of basketball, you should watch Steph and enjoy it, and you should watch Lebron and enjoy it if you dislike watching some of the best basketball players in the world. And I get it when it's certain things that have nothing to do with their performance, Like I get irritated sometimes by you know, foul grifting and things along the lines. But I can get on that to a certain extent
against a lot of players. Even Lebron and Steph, even though they're way better than most, both of them tend to flop from time to time to try to draw fouls. I can get annoyed by stuff like that, but when it comes to the skill sets and the way that they impact winning, all of these guys at the top of the league are incredible and you should appreciate certain things about their game if you love the game of basketball. And so to me, like, it's not about Lebron versus Steph.
It's about the Lakers versus the Warriors. And there are a bunch of different basketball dynamics that are taking place, and I hope we don't miss all of that beautiful basketball for the sake of a stupid narrative debate that doesn't make any sense because one of the dudes is thirty eight and the other is thirty five. And by the way, it's over, Steph is the best player in the league. Now, he's just better than Lebron. Now has nothing to do with Lebron. Lebron's just old. He's thirty eight.
And I have so many Lebron fans and they'll be like, Oh, he's not old, he's just injured. His foot is hurt. Huh. That's interesting. I wonder if they're related. Is it possible that the fact that he's played more minutes than any basketball player to ever touch an NBA court not named Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that when he did a regular jump stop in the third quarter after three full days rest, his
foot popped like he's old. It's not about Lebron versus Steph. It's the Lakers versus the Warriors. And I promise you, for the Steph fans who would take victory laps if Lebron lost, you wouldn't be in the same position if Steph was thirty eight and Lebron was thirty five, Because Lebron won a Finals MVP when he was thirty five, he was at a completely different level than where he's at right now. And for you Lebron fans, if Lebron were to lose, you'd be just as upset if they
were taking victory laps. So let's try to set the narratives aside. Let's try to be grown ups, and let's try to appreciate what should be an extremely interesting series of basketball with lots of players that have great resumes and legacies that go beyond Lebron, James and Steph. And even as we focus on the Lebron James and Steph element of this series. They're the two greatest players of this era. They are two of the five greatest players of all time. I Colin Coward did a really interesting
rant about Steph Curry and Magic Johnson. I would agree. I think Steph has surpassed Magic and Larry at this point. I would put Lebron, MJ somewhere one. Two. I still have MJ one, Lebron two. I put Kobe three, and then I'd put Steph four. And you guys know, I don't really keep centers on the same list as my perimeter players. So I think Steph is the fourth best perimeter player of all time and Lebron is no lower
than the second best perimeter player of all time. These two guys, in my opinion, their legacies are completely stamped, and so the outcome of this series can only serve to improve one of those two guys legacies and do nothing in terms of damage to either. And to be clear, it's possible that Steph could be the best player in the series and still lose. You know how, That's how basketball games work. They're five on five with benches and
coaches and home court advantage. And shot variants and all these different things that can go a bunch of different directions. So I'd like to keep it, at least for the sake of this show focused on the basketball as much as possible. All Right, I am off my soapbucks. Let's get into the series notes. So we had a very successful first round. We picked seven of the eight first round series correctly, not exactly by games, but we picked
the outcomes of the series correctly. And of course the one we miss is that stupid Miami Heat upset of the Bucks where Giannis missed three of the games. But what does that mean. It just means I got lucky, and chances are will be wrong a lot at some point later on in this postseason. That said, I am very pleased with how we kind of set up the first round. We had some good reads on some specific
series and picked a couple of good upsets. As of right now, the Warriors are minus one fifty eight favorites in on FanDuel. That makes sense to me. Both teams had impressive upset wins in the first round. Both teams are pretty evenly matched, but the Warriors are the defending champions and they have home court advantage, and they have the best player in the series, so I think it makes sense to make the Warriors of a discernible but slight favorite. At minus one fifty eight. The Lakers won
the season series three to one. They lost on opening night when it was that whole other team with Russell Westbrook and a bunch of guards. They went three to zero against Golden State post deadline, but important players missed every game. On February eleventh, we had no Lebron or Steph, on February twenty third, we had no Steph or Andrew Wiggins, and on March fifth, we had no Lebron or Andrew Wiggins. But we did learn enough to at least have a general idea of the game plans that both teams are
going to employ. So for our major matchups. This is gonna be three points brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. I'm gonna target three major matchups in this series, so number one. Can Golden State handle the Los Angeles Lakers? Size advantage matchups are pretty straightforward. I expect Kevon Looney to guard Anthony Davis and to be extremely physical. I actually like this matchup for Anthony Davis on the offensive
end of the floor when AD's looking to score. I think he's got enough physical advantages over Loonie, and I've seen this manifest on film to where he's in good shape. Where I think the Looney matchup can be really tough on AD is on the other end of the floor, when AD's busy doing all this rim protection stuff and Kevon Looney is crashing the offensive glass. You guys saw Kevon Looney be a massive swing factor in the Sacramento King series with the work that he did on the
offensive glass. So Looney AD like that matchup for AD on the offensive end, I'm a little concerned about it. On the defensive end. I do think Andrew Wiggins will guard Lebron goes without saying and try to ball pressure him as much as possible. They usually have Andrew pick him up, you know, three quarter court and just try to make Lebron wear out his legs as he's working the ball up the floor. I think a huge aspect in this particular series will Lebron's ability to weaponize his
size against Andrew Wiggins. I think if he goes with the Luka Doncic approach and tries to navigate everything with a live dribble from thirty feet. I think Andrew Wiggins, in his physical ball pressure is gonna wear Lebron out, and the quickness issue is gonna be a problem, and I think it's gonna go poorly for Lebron. So I think it's important for Lebron to give the basketball up, let Austin and d Lo navigate the ball pressure to save his legs. And I think Lebron needs to work
on Wiggins in the post as much as possible. Dylan Brooks has a lower center of gravity than Andrew Wiggins, so he's a different type of defender as a big part of why he's given tons of people struggles all series long. Dylan Brooks has given Steph struggles, He's given Lebron struggles. He's given every single star player that he's run into this year, except for maybe Kyrie Irving, legitimate struggles during the regular season. Dylan Brooks is like that.
Andrew Wiggins is another one of those guys. He's on that tier with Jason Tatum and Jade mc daniels and all those big wings that can guard multiple positions. Andrew Wiggins is a top tier defender on that list. But He's a little bit more upright, a better He's a million times better athlete than Dylan Brooks. He's taller, longer arms, but his center of gravity is just a little bit taller.
So Lebron's advantage against Stillan brook or excuse me, against Andrew Wiggins, in my opinion, is going to be in the post. And so a significant factor in this series will be how much Lebron seeds ball handling responsibilities to the other Laker guards and works down to the block so he can use his physicality on Andrew Wiggins. Another huge matchup in this series Klay Thompson versus Austin Reeves.
I think they're both going to guard each other. This is a matchup that Austin dominated in the three games post deadline. So in three games post trade deadline, Austin Reeves fourteen points per game on seven field goal attempts, sixty five percent from the field and sixty three percent from three with four assists per game. That was kind of before he really stepped up his ball handling too. It wasn't until the late portion of the season that
Austin started being more aggressive. He's more of like an eighteen point per Game nine a guy now and he is every bit is capable of going for twenty in any given game as d'An angelo, Rustler, Lebron or Anthony Davis. He's a guy that has become a volume initiator for the Lakers, and even in the time since since these
earlier Warriors matchups. In February, Klay Thompson in the same matchup three games post deadline twenty points per game on nineteen field goal attempts, so only six more points on twelve additional field goal attempts, thirty six percent from the field and thirty two percent from three with just two assists per game. Austin did a really nice job locking him, trailing him over screens, doing a nice job hanging tight on that tough step back jump shot that Clay goes to.
Austin flat out won that matchup to end the season. In their three matchups, Clay is a better player, So Clay has to find a way to win that matchup. He should, He's the better player. He just has to do so. They're like, I'm sorry, but like with with what Steph has to contend with trying to match the production of Lebron, James and Anthony Davis as Superstars, Klay Thompson needs to soundly outplay Austin Reeves. So that's a matchup that I'd keep an eye on over the course
of the series. Clay's the better player, he just needs to hold it up in his play on the court. I expect Steph to guard d'angela Russell is another kind of sneaky important matchup because the Lakers in the first round, they did a lot of stuff through their guards when they realized that Lebron and Ad didn't have the same
types of matchups. It allowed them to work more off ball and save their legs, be more impactful defensively, and it just didn't make sense for Lebron and Ad to try to bully these players that just had better physical matchups with them than what the guards were dealing with. Steph is a great defensive player who is more than capable of giving d'angela Russell tons of problems. It's more
about wearing out his legs. D Lo running a ton of action towards Steph can try to affect him physically in a way that could manifest down the on the other end of the floor in his shooting, but For whatever that's worth, it didn't seem to matter much in the King series. Indiangelo Russell's not in the same stratosphere. But it's just a little tiny thing that the Lakers can do to try to make things a little bit harder on Steph. But this is where everything could come
crashing down for the Lakers. Draymond Green is gonna guard Jared Vanderbilt. He's going to completely ignore him and aggressively help everywhere else on the floor. This is something Golden State has always liked to do, but they're almost exaggerative with the way they handle it with non shooters. You saw Draymond Green sitting back in the paint when Russell Westbrook was navigating with a live dribble on the perimeter. Draymond just doesn't care. He's going to ignore those non
shooters and fly around. There's a given a take there. Vanderbilt is one of the Lakers' best defensive players. I think he's gonna actually end up guarding Steph Curry for a good chunk of this series. But at the end of the day, like if having him out there and Draymond Green roaming around destroys your offense. If the Warriors
can play Jared Vanderbilt off the court. Suddenly the level of defensive personnel that the Lakers have becomes a problem, because I think there's two guys on this entire roster that can actually make Steph work. Similarly to the King series, like Darren Fox had good stretches on Steph. Davion Mitchell had good stretches on Steph. But those were the only
two guys. And if it was like Terrence Davis Barbecue Chicken, if it was Malik Munk barbecue Chicken, you know what I mean, Like Steph was killing everybody else on that roster. That's kind of the way this Laker roster is. Like Jared Vanderbilt is gonna be able to do an okay job, Dennis Schroeder is gonna be able to do an okay job, but everyone else. If Austin Reeves ends on Steph, that's a problem. If D'Angelo Russell's on Steph, that's a problem.
Even Anthony Davis on switches. Just Steph is so good at beating bigs off switches, off the dribbles. So like a lot of it's gonna come down to at some point, at any point in the series. Darvin Ham's gonna have to when Steph is on the floor, have one of Vanderbilt or Dennis Schroeder on the floor. And if the Warriors can play Jared Vanderbilt off the floor as a non offensive threat, then it becomes a Dennis Schroeder series.
If it's a Dennis Schroder series, now you have less offensive skill on the floor because D'angela Russell probably can't play it, and it just becomes an issue. So I'd keep an eye on that Draymond Vanderbilt matchup. How much damage Draymond can do, how well Lebron James and Anthony Davis and the Guards can make the Warriors pay for ignoring Jared Vanderbilt. That's gonna be an interesting matchup to watch.
The Lakers have a lot of ways to attack. They can attack with Lebron, Ad pick and roll, guard, Ad pick and roll Guard, Lebron pick and roll, Anthony Davis and Lebron in the post. They run a lot of like off ball action for Anthony Davis to get him
on the move. But none of that's gonna work if Draymond Green, who is one of the best defensive players in the history of the NBA and still still to this day in the league is allowed to just mess everything up off the ball, so that that's where that's where I think the Lakers could go through some extended
slumps offensively. Is just having Draymond Green roam around and don't be surprised if even if ruy Hotchi Mura comes in, if you see Draymond Green help a lot even off of ruy hot Chia Mura and basically or him to shoot and see if he's up to the scale of what this series is gonna be in terms of pressure. Another thing to keep an eye on is Lebron James and Anthony Davis's jump shooters. One of the ways you can counter a team that is aggressively packing the paint
is by hitting shots over the top. Lebron James and Anthony Davis were extremely inconsistent as jump shooters in that first round series. That could be a big problem. They don't. I'll just put it this way. I'm I'm kind of proceeding in this series as though Lebron James and Anthony Davis are still gonna be inconsistent as jump shooters. But if both of them come in and knock down a bunch of jump shots that can help them a lot.
I think Lebron in the post against Wiggins is another is gonna have to be a bread and butter thing because I think Lebron's better at beating double teams. So Lebron you actually saw a little bit of this against Memphis, but he's really good at posting and getting someone to commit and then hitting Jared Vanderbilt as a cutter, so I think you'll see I think Lebron in the post is another great way to counter Draymond and help because Lebron could try to bait him into certain situations and
try to get Vanderbilt open. But at the end of the day, it's probably gonna have to be quite a bit of guard ad pick and roll like they did at the end of the Memphis series, just because they have better matchups and getting those guys downhill to get the Warriors in rotation will help Lebron and Anthony Davis find advantage situations. All right. Number two, our second matchup, can the Laker guards defend the Golden State Guards. Here's how I expect the Lakers to match up again. I
expect Vanderbilt to start on Steph Curry. He's good at navigating screens. He's got quick feet. I really like him against Stefan off ball situations. So as Golden State's running like their motion offense, I think Vanderbilt is gonna do a good job of chasing and applying back pressure and all of those different things. Where I get a little worried is in straight up ISO or in high pick and roll, so Vanderbilt still has a high center of gravity, kind of a similar thing we were talking about with
Wiggins on Lebron. Steph is going to be able to get him to hop one way or the other and then attack the gap that he creates in that opening. And so I'm a little worried about Steph just dribbling the ball off the floor and just beating Vanderbilt off the dribble and having that be the way that Golden State starts their offense. But in screening actions, Vanderbilt's is very good at navigating screens. Austin Reeves on Klay Thompson, we talked about that earlier. I won't get into it again.
D'Angel Russell. I think they're gonna tuck him away on Andrew Wiggins and That's gonna be another key matchup for the Warriors because Wiggins is great at attacking mismatches there.
D Lo's a little bigger than he looks, but he's not as big as Andrew Wiggins, so that's gonna be That's gonna be one of those key matchups where if Wiggins can get to eighteen to twenty points a game, just attacking D'Angelo Russell on random possessions, especially at the end of the shot clock, I think that can help a lot. I expect Lebron James on Draymond Green kind of in a similar role, just roaming, and Anthony Davis
on Kevon Looney. Now, before we get to the scheme element, this is where I want to touch on the Looney offensive rebounding piece. What happens is is if you can just stay on Looney and box him out, you're gonna be fine, right, But what ends up happening is guys get downhill because they're chasing the guards, are chasing the Golden State Guards over the top of screens, and as someone's coming downhill, Anthony Davis has to step up to contest.
Looney is so good as soon as Anthony Davis or whoever that big is takes one step out of position to contain a ball handler, Looney will just bury his ass underneath the basket and get offensive rebounding position. And so that's gonna be a huge part in this series, is gang rebounding from the Lakers as a team, especially around Looney, because Anthony Davis is gonna get pulled all over creation trying to clean up messes in this Golden
State motion offense attack. Now, so we know what the Warriors are gonna do, right, They're gonna they're gonna run drop coverage. They're gonna chase over the top of screens. They're gonna funnel to Looney, and Draymond's gonna help, right, Draymon's gonna completely ignore Vanderbilt. He's gonna help. That's gonna be their scheme. The Lakers scheme is gonna be a little bit different. They're gonna have Lebron James and to Anthony Davis constantly back at the basket as much as possible,
ignoring Draymond and Kavon Looney. What they're gonna do with the guards is do what it's called top locking. So if I'm guarding Steph Curry, and Steph's in the corner, and you know it's a horn set. So Draymond Green's at the elbow and he goes over to set a pin down on Steph Curry. Rather than locking and trailing, which would mean positioning myself behind Steph and chasing him over the top of the screen, what the Lakers are
gonna do is top lock. So they'll tell Jared Vanderbilt to position himself between Steph Curry and the screen and give up a backcut at the expense of preventing him from coming off of the screen, with the expectation being that as he cuts back door, he's cutting into Lebron James and Anthony Davis at the rim. This is how the Lakers beat the Warriors three straight times at the end of the season, top blocking and funneling Anthony Davis at the rim, cleaning up everything because he's the best
defensive player in the world when he's locked in. So this is where I think it becomes a high pick and r series. I think the Lakers are gonna be able to handle the Golden State motion offense pretty well with that top lock in funnel scheme, sending everybody back to Anthony Davis and Lebron James at the basket. However, when you just space the team out, let's let's let's take a look at a high pick and roll for
Steph Curry and Draymond Green. Right, so I'm gonna have Kevon Looney kind of in the dunker spot, right, I'm gonna have shooters spacing the floor. The Anthony Davis is gonna be at the rim, and then they're gonna have Lebron, They're gonna have Draymond Green come up and set the screen, or they're gonna have probably called They'll probably call Kevon Looney to set the screen because they want Anthony Davis
to come up. Right. This is where this is where it becomes an issue, because Anthony Davis has to come up. What did we see in the Celtics series with better guard defenders, by the way, that was Marcus Smart, Derek White, better guard defenders than these Laker guards. If you send your guards over the top of screens on Steph Curry and he gets to play against drop coverage, he will light your ass on fire, just as the Boston Celtics
and what happened in Game four. You need your big guys to be way up at the level of the screen. Now in the blender, when they can just lock and trail, lock and trail or deny and force back cuts, Anthony Davis can stay at the basket more right, But if it's straight up high pick and roll and Steph can dance around with the basketball until he gets Jared Vanderbilt to commit to one direction, then Loony quick reverses the
angle of the screen or whatever. Steph is going to get separation from those guys, It's guaranteed, and so at that point, Anthony Davis will have to show high. As soon as he shows high, that's when the basket will open up. If the Warriors allow Anthony Davis and Lebron James to hawk the basket all series long, there's a decent chance that they'll lose. But if they can pull Anthony Davis away from the rim, that's when they're gonna get in that Golden State blender and start causing a
lot of problems. So I think this is a series where they're gonna have to go heavy on Steph high pick and roll so that Steph can beat Jared Vanderbilt and Dennis Schroeder by pinning them on the opposite sides of screens, forcing Anthony Davis to come up. If he's too far back, it's pull up jump shot city. If Anthony Davis comes up, he can split that pick and roll, beat him off the dribble, or hit the pocket pass, and now you're playing four on three in the back end.
I think this is gonna be a huge Steph Curry high pick and roll series against this locked in Laker half court defense. A couple other things, Dennis Schroeder. How much are the Lakers gonna have to play Dennis Schroeder?
Because if they have to play Dennis Schroeder, you either have to downsize to keep your offensive skill or the overall offensive skill of the lineup goes down because Dennis Schroeder is not the same type of shooter as someone like D'Angelo Russell can ruey Hotcha Murra guard Andrew Wiggins. That's gonna be another key one, because I think their best lineup in terms of offense defense balance is to take Vanderbilt out to put Ruby Hatcha Mura in because
he's a much better offensive player. But then you need someone to guard Steph, so you have to take D'Angelo Russell out and plug in Dewnroeder. So I think the best Laker lineup will be Dennis with Austin and Rui, Lebron James and Anthony Davis. But that only works if a wee hot to Mura can successfully guard Andrew Wiggins. Rui's another guy, high center of gravity, big and strong, doesn't slide his feet super well. Andrew's quicker than him,
so that could be a problem. Another thing to keep an eye on his golden state going small doing things like Draymond with Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole with Klay Thompson and Steph Curry. That's where it's gonna be critical for Lebron James to play defense because Anthony Davis is gonna be on Draymond, but Lebron's gonna have to follow Andrew Wiggins around, and Lebron typically likes to rest and
roam on defense, so that can be a problem. But I think both teams are uniquely equipped to cause both teams problems. Between the Draymond roaming thing, between Loony being a physical matchup for ad Wiggins being one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, They're gonna stick the get the Lakers stuck in the mud sometimes. But with the Lakers, with their insane amount of rim protection and with their ability to top lock and force into back cuts,
it's not Sacramento Like. Look at the end of the Sacramento series. What happened in Game seven, Steph just beating Terrence Davis off the dribble, just going to the rim, but there's no rim protection like. This is going to be an entirely different type of series. The Lakers will also cause the Warriors to have extended draughts as Steph and Klay struggle to get free on the perimeter and have to get downhill into a bunch of trees around
the basket. So I expect both teams to have extended defensive runs because of the damage they can do to the opposing offenses. All right, last matchup in our chase three points, who will win the Battle of the Stars. This is where the series will be won and lost. In my opinion, I think the Lakers are the better defensive team. I think they're bigger and more athletic. I think Anthony Davis is playing better defense than anybody in the world right now. I think the Lakers are a
little bit deeper. But here's the thing. Steph Curry is the best player in this series, and it matters because again, we talked about this all the time, but why do stars matter when everything bogs down and it's a rock fight and nothing is working. Your stars are the only guys that can create shots. Game four, Lakers Grizzlies, it's
stuck in the mud, no one is playing well. Lebron James just overcomes it all and makes four big plays down the stretch, steals a loss from the jaw, steals a win from the jaws of defeat, and closes the game in overtime. Like that's what a superstar can do. Anthony Davis in Game six, as a superstar, just utterly destroys the Memphis Grizzlies defensively in a game. That's what a superstar can do. Steph Curry Game seven on the road in Sacramento, drops a fifty piece because nobody on
the floor can guard him. That's how superstars can determine the outcomes of series. They can transcend the scheme and impact the game in a way that is truly inevitable. But it's tricky because there's a difference. I just laid out three superstar performances. Here's the difference. I know for a fact that's Steph is going to play to that level. He's going to be incredible, He's going to average thirty plus efficiently, and he's generally gonna wreck havoc on the
Laker defense. That's a sure thing. But what are we gonna get from Ad? Two games before AD's Game six masterclass, he laid a dud in Game four at home. Luckily they were able to win. Lebron James, after being a hero in Game four, laid a dud in Game five. For the series, both of them were incredibly inconsistent offensively. With Lebron James and Anthony Davis, there is a ton of variants at their peaks. All three of them are legitimate,
bona fide top tier superstars. Any one of them has a case to be the best player in the league when they're at their peak. But I know Steph will be at his peak, and I don't know with Lebron James and Anthony Davis. So I actually think Lebron and AD will end up determining the outcome of this series. If Lebron and AD both consistently play likes top tier superstars. The Lakers are going to win the series because they will have more star talent, they will have a better defense,
more depth. They're just gonna win. But if Steph is at a superstar level every game and Lebron and Ad are hot and cold, the Warriors are gonna win the series. So I'll be keeping an eye on that star matchup very closely. So I've been on the fence about this all week. I think it's either gonna be Lakers and six or Warriors and seven. I texted my producer this morning, I'm like, I'm still one. On the fifty yard line,
my head says Warriors and my heart says Lakers. But I'm gonna be a stupid fan and I'm gonna follow my heart and I'm gonna pick the Lakers in six. Don't feel good about it, But on the fifty yard line, since I'm a fan of the Lakers, I'm gonna go with the Lakers. I'm picking the Lakers in six. The case for the Lakers to win better defense, they're bigger,
they're deeper, they have more super star depth. But the case for the Warriors, Steph Curry is the best player in the world and if he clearly demonstrates that, if he clearly demonstrates that he's a level above Lebron James and Anthony Davis, then the Warriors will win this series. A lot of times we focus on role players and we focus on scheme, but stars are who set them
up for success. Lebron and Ad playing like superstars generates higher quality opportunities for the role players that they are more likely to succeed in. If they don't play like superstars, the opportunities for the role players become more difficult. They struggle to succeed in them. It trickles down to everything. Schematics just simply do not matter when it comes down
to brute force. At the end of playoff games, when you're just spacing teams out, they matter to a very small extent compared to compared to early in the series or in the regular season. I think it just comes down to step first, Lebron and AD. If Lebron and Ad soundly win that matchup, they win. If Steph Sanley wins that matchup, he wins. So again, I'm gonna pick Lakers in six, but I don't feel good about it.
So quick quick recap for our second round. I've got Nuggets in seven, Lakers and six, Celtics in five, and Heat in six over excuse me, the Knicks in six over the Miami Heat. My three points were brought to you by Chase. Freedom Unlimited earned five percent on travel purchased through Chase, three percent on dining including takeout, three percent at drug stores, and one point five percent on everything else. How do you cash back? All right, guys, that is all I have for today. Man, I'm so
excited for this series. We are gonna be back later tonight after a couple of game tues and then we'll be covering this series on Tuesday Night as well, so we'll be working Monday and Tuesday night this week as always. I appreciate you guys. Now, I'll see you later. To the volume