NBA LIVE REACTION: Steph Curry's Warriors vs. Luka's Lakers + SGA's Thunder vs. Durant's Rockets

And I'm recording from Denver in Colorado, as we moved this summer to get to some scheme. But that's a story for another day. I'm very, very excited to break this all down. That Houston Oklahoma City game was incredibly interesting. And then you know that meme where you have all the dragon and they're looking all mean and angry, and then you slide over and there's kind of a goofy,

like cartoonish looking dragon. That was the Los Angeles Lakers tonight, as we saw three what appeared to be elite basketball teams in one that stuck out like a sore thumb. We have so much to get into on all four of these teams. We're gonna break it all down, and then at the tail end of the show tonight, we're gonna be taking some questions from the audience with Jackson, So drop your questions in the chat. Make sure you're subscribe to the channel. At the tail end of the show.

Any thoughts that you guys have from tonight's game games, we can dig in a little bit further. You guys know the job before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore jconlt so you guys don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed where you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating in a

review on that front. Jackson's doing incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there throughout the season for additional content. In the last, but not least, we're gonna be doing weekly mail bags, starting with the mail bag this Friday. If you want to get questions into those mail bags, dropped him on our full episodes on YouTube in the comments. Just write mail bag with the coulon.

Write your question. We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. What a dominant debut from the Golden State Warriors. I thought they thoroughly outclassed the Lakers in basically every facet of the game other than the fact that the Lakers have Luka Doncic, and that Luka Doncic is amazing. We'll get to Luca later. I rooted for that guy last year and there wasn't

a single moment where he looked like that. And that's one singular piece of upside that may or may not amount to something optimistic for the Lakers to take away fro him tonight. But if you replace him with a regular star ball handler, like let's say you just had injured Anthony Davis and that was forty one year old, forty year old Lebron that was out there, the Warriors win that game by thirty. The Warriors played the Lakers

in every single facet of the game. I thought their intensity from the opening tip in terms of their ball pressure and physicality was better to start the game. I thought their backside rotations off of their double teams, and just in general, how scrappy they were in the middle of the floor, especially underneath the basket, was way better than what we were seeing from the Lakers on the

other end of the floor. They were forcing turnovers on deep post catches from Deandrayten, swarming Van do on his drives, forcing a ton of turnovers, getting out and transition off of them. I thought, in general, they were as a

team much sharper in transition. I thought they ran the floor harder off of missus and off of makes, constantly catching the Lakers jogging, but also on the other end of the floor getting back and preventing those same opportunities for the Lakers on the other end of the floor. I thought they shot the ball better than the Lakers. I thought they rebounded the ball better than the Lakers. I know it was just one game, and I know Lebron didn't play, but I just thought the Warriors looked

like a much better basketball team than the Lakers did. Tonight. We're going to dig into some of the specifics that having to do with that matchup as well. I think that plays a role, but I want to start with some of the specifics that we saw from Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kaminga, because those two guys, in a lot of ways in a debut demonstrated some of the specific things that the Warriors need to go their direction in order for them to compete for a championship this year.

So let's start with this idea of the debate that we've been having all summer long about what kind of player the Warriors should be going after to make some sort of all in trade this year, whether that involves Kminga or it does it In those conversations we discussed should it be like an athletic wing who's more of like kind of what Andrew Wiggins was for the team in the past, or should they look for a scoring guard or just in general, a scoring archetype kind of

like what Jordan Poole was for the Warriors when they

won the title. And a huge factor in determining which direction they should go on that front if they do look to make a trade this year at some point is how does Jimmy Butler look as a score Because there was a lot of basketball after the trade, even though the Warriors were winning, where Jimmy wasn't necessarily bringing a bunch of scoring pop. But then last three games of the season tons of scoring pop. Playing game, tons of scoring pop. First game against Houston before the tailbone injury,

tons of scoring pop. We had this like five game sample where were like, oh shit, playoff Jimmy. This is the guy that is gonna help push this team over the top end of championship contention, right, But it was a small sample coming back from the tailbone injury. He wasn't able to secure a win against Minnesota without Steph, and so there were some question marks surrounding that. And I thought that was an electric debut from Jimmy Butler

as just that secondary offense force off of Steph Kirk. Consistently, he was finding matchups that he liked off of some of the switching that the Lakers were doing. Really liked Gabe Vincent, really liked Jake Lareva. If Jake Lavia, you could tell that Jimmy in particular just had some comfortable uh just some comfortability isoating Gabe just simply just getting over his left shoulder for little bank shots and drawing

fouls with quick, aggressive moves. The big thing with Jimmy is he brings a dynamic to the Warriors that they haven't had in years past, and that is the ability to grift your way to the foul line. I've been talking about this forever. It's a skill. It's something that it comes with a kind of a polarizing discussion surrounding the role of free throws, kind of like interfering with basketball games. But the truth of the matter is these guys are all over the league. They're skilled at getting

to the foul line. I root for a couple of them on the Lakers. Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic are both great at it. You know, Jake Gilges Alexander's great at it, Jalen Brunson is great at it. And one of the guys that was great at it is Jimmy Butler. And you know, there's this idea that free throws are just like handed down by the NBA as like some sort of gift to your team. That's not how it works.

The way that it works is you either earn trips to the foul line and one end of the floor, and then on the other end of the floor, you either keep a team off the foul line or you send them to the foul line. And that's what determines your free throw disparoity. Nothing else. Basketball games. Basketball in the way it's being played on both ends of the floor is what leads to the free throw totals that

you see. And bringing Jimmy Butler in has given the Warriors a dynamic that they haven't had in the past, which is the ability to slow the game down by working his way to the foul line, which comes with all sorts of additional benefits in addition to just points a huge part of how you get a thirty ball out of Jimmy. It also allows you to set your defense.

It allows you to get more game plan notes. In possession to possession, you have a chance to talk and to think about how you're gonna guard on the next possession. They're all of these trickle down benefits. It can disrupt the rhythm of your opponent. They're not getting up and down the floor. They're now stopping and going down to the block to get ready to rebound. Jimmy Butler is

just really good at using pump fakes. We're driving angles. Obviously, the histrionics around the basket that all the foul drifters around the league use, and what do you have like sixteen free throw attempts tonight. That was a huge part of his ability to manufacture points for the Warriors tonight. So then we're gonna have our eye on with the Warriors all season long. Is Jimmy's ability to score the basketball, and he just did that to a great extent tonight.

Is super optimistic debut for Jimmy on that front. Jonathan kaminga the biggest debate surrounding the Warrior Warriors over the last couple of years, and one of the things that I've talked about is the reason why things haven't panned out for Jonathan in years past. It comes down to two things. One, he struggles sometimes and read and react basketball, which is a pivotal part of playing for the Golden

State Warriors. You have to make quick decisions with the basketball off of the advantages that Steph Curry creates, right. And then secondly, he has struggled to consistently knock down, catch and shoot jump shots. And we saw a little bit that of that up and down nature in the first half. He had a couple of shots where you know, you know, he's taking a jab step three out of the corner when there's time on the shot clock or forcing the action inside and getting blocked from behind because

he's not reading the floor. We're a little classic up and down Jonathan coming a type of game in the first half. But they come out in the second half and they start spamming three man action him, Stephan Draymond off the right side of the floor, and it presents all these like easy reads for Jonathan, Like, Okay, Steph's cutting off of this one, I'm gonna just relocate to the top of the key. Oh bam, the balls in my hands, I'm wide open, take a catch and shoot three,

knock it down. Okay, this time, I'm slipping out of the screen as Steph is going up towards the top, and I'm getting open along the baseline. Boom pass finished with the right hand at the rim over ruy Hachimura. The kickout on the left corner off of a actually was in the right corner with Luca contesting off of one of those drives from Steph Curry. He was just playing Warriors basketball. He's gonna have his opportunities to attack

one on one. He had an opportunity in the second half to go at Luca's chest and he got over his left shoulder for a little hook shot, especially in bench groups. He's gonna have opportunities to be more aggressive. But in order for him to be a functional player with the starters, especially, but in general, just as a large role player for the Warriors, he's got to hit his open catch and shoot threes, and he's got to

make the simple reads. I'm driving to the basket, I draw eighting or I can't remember if it was haz Er eighting at that point in time draw that. I think it was Hayes. Draw him in. Help, there's Al Horford right there. Drop it off, no need to force it. Just make the easy read that's right there in front of you. Right. I thought Kamingo was fantastic in that second half. Yes, he was getting cooked by Louke, but

I think that was more of a Luca thing. Luca has done that to the best, Like this version of Luca has done that to the best defensive players in the world. I watched him two years ago do it to Jayden McDaniels in the Conference finals. Is one of the certainly a better perimeter defender than John and the Kaminga Right, So like that is what it is all

You can do is be physical and make him work. Luca's, you know, one of the two or three best players in the world, right but when it comes to the job that he has on offense for this group, I thought he executed it extremely well in that second half,

leading the Warriors to pull away. Buddy healed. One of the things we're gonna consistently talk about tonight in this matchup is the difference in the foot speed between the two teams, and Buddy was getting a lot of opportunities to attack both, like with someone sprinting at him where he could show the ball and quick relocate, put the and get another shot up, or run up the key, relocating off out of the corner as someone's driving along

the baseline or cutting along the baseline. He was getting good looks. He had five of them tonight. But he talked about in media day that he shot the ball better this summer than he ever has, and he expected to shoot the ball well. The season comes right out talking shit to Luca. It's five threes, a bunch of big ones in the second half that paid off those classic kind of Golden State sequences, and the Warriors end up chewing up and spitting out the Lakers tonight. I've

been super fascinated by this concept. Was texting with Jackson about it during the game. You know, the change from Luca to Anthony Davis is so bizarre in the dynamic in this particular matchup between these two teams, and it's kind of a classic example of how basketball is more art than science. I don't think anybody would disagree that Luka Danciic is a better basketball player than Anthony Davis. He just is. I mean, what did he have like forty one, thirteen and seven or whatever it is he

had tonight. Like Luca is one of the greatest offensive players in the game today, he is a better basketball player Anthony Davis, but he fundamentally changes the athletic profile of this Lakers roster. One of the things that happened in the previous years in that stretch there twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five before the Anthony Davis trade is the Lakers kind of dominated the matchup with

the Warriors. The reason why is they had Anthony Davis on the back line, roaming off of whoever it was, Draymond Kevon Looney underneath the basket which gave the Lakers perimeter players a ton of leeway on the perimeter to overplay, whether that would be top locking to force guys into backcuts, or just in general denying off the ball, overplaying pull up shooters, overplaying Steph himself when he'd be on the three point line, and Anthony Davis was the type of

rangey player on the back line they could cover tons of ground and use his length to completely shut off the rim. And it just consistently ended in mediocre shooters, guys like Kaminga, guys like Gary Payton, guys like Draymond Green having to take frees, and it was a matchup that skewed heavily towards the Lakers. You swap Luca for Anthony Davis, and all of a sudden, those perimeter players don't have that same leeway if they get backcut, there's

nobody back there. Ayton all night long was heading the clouds. So's that had no idea like he was floating around the perimeter and was out of position to help on back cuts. Like a dozen times throughout this game, they do not have anywhere near the back line defense, especially with Lebron James out of the picture Lebron and Anthony Davis, the two of them roaming on the back line. Totally different matchup than DeAndre Ayton and Luka Doncic and Ruey

Hatcha Mura roaming around on that back line. And I thought it was super interesting because one of the advantages that the Warriors have had consistently, even in the matchups where the Lakers had just done some winning, the Warriors were a faster team. They were faster on the perimeter. This that concept of perimeter speed is something we talked a lot about throughout the season last year for the Warriors.

So when they get in their blender and it's ball and player movement and guys are sprinting off of screens and doing all the stuff that they do. When there's not an Anthony Davis to clear up all the mistakes on the back line, they are just chewing up and spitting this team out. And by the way, this is

not just an opening night. Take those of you guys who followed the show last year, you'll remember after that big showdown, that big game late regular season, the first one where it was like Luca, Lebron and Austin versus the healthy Warriors, the Warriors chewed them up and spit them out in that game too. And if you guys remember, I came on the show after that game and I was like, Oh, I don't like this matchup for the Lakers.

The Warriors just look substantially faster than them at every position. And this is we're talking about a Warriors team that's got four dudes that are over thirty seven. And it's part of it is Steph. Part of it is the fact that Draymond does play very fast for a big and part of it is this is a Warriors team that has a depth of role player talent off off of their stars that all know how to play in this system. And I was just super fascinated by that tonight.

Is they just chewed up and spit out the Lakers. And so the Lakers go on to late game run right, ors have a couple of turnovers, Steph miss is a tough step back thory over. Gabe Austin gets a couple of buckets on the other end of the floor. All of a sudden, I think they cut it to what six, right, But right after that, the Warriors immediately regained control. Lakers had a really good defensive possession where they played all the actions right and ball ended up in Draymond Green's

hands in the right corner. And you know, sometimes in order to shut down those actions, you got to concede something. They were conceding that corner three to Draymond, and to Draymond's credit, he stepped up and he knocked it down. Lakers go right down. They post up Luka Doncic on the right I think against I think it was against Buddy, I can't remember who it was, but he's posting up on the right side. He draws a double team swing.

Swing ball goes to Gabe in the left corner, and Steph Curry makes an unbelievable defensive rotation out to the corner and blocks Gape Vincent on that three. I thought Steph was great all night defensively, competing in and out of actions out He had again a couple buckets that Luca gave him, but that's just Luca being Luca. Steph obviously is the engine that's running everything they're doing offensively.

Makes a huge defensive play. Then they go down to the other end and Jimmy ISO's Luka Doncic beats him off the dribble, gets a little reverse layup, and the game is over and you can see the formula for the Warriors, right Like you need Steph to be Steph, you need Jimmy Butler to provide that legitimate secondary scoring via shot making, attacking in the post, and getting his

way to the foul line. And then you either need winning basketball from kaminga like we saw in that second half, or a player in a trade that does that sort like that provides that that form of winning impact. From there, it's the system and the culture. It's the depth of role player talent you got. You get will Richard coming in and contributing the way that he did defensively, you get the Brandon Pajemski just scrappiness all over the floor and hitting big shots every once in a while. You

get just the debt. This is a team that consistently every year has like somewhere between a dozen and fourteen guys that can step in and play. And like, we haven't even we haven't seen the Anthony Melton. We know what Moses Movie can do when he's healthy. It's this Warriors team. You know, I'm not quite as high on them as some of the projections I've seen like I've

seen win projections as high as fifty seven wins. I don't think they're gonna get to fifty seven wins, but it's easy to see how they can get to fifty two to fifty three wins in the stacked Western Conference because they have a formula and again the big swings that we got to keep an eye on, Jimmy secondary scoring, Jonathan Kaminga playing winning basketball, knocking down open shots, being able to play that read and react ball, and if he doesn't do that, what they're able to get into

trade for him from there quickly On the Lakers before we get move on to the next game, I thought they stuck out like a sore thumb tonight in tonight's competition. Today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bet. The NBA is back, which means it's time to shoot your shot on hard Rock Bet, your home for hoops action all season long. Need a little help with your first bet, check out the streaks heating

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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia. You saw a Houston Rockets team that is huge and physical and getting up in your jersey and beating you up on the glass and posting you up with Alburn shangun and driving right into your face with the men Thompson and just bringing this overwhelming physical element as they went into the champs house on Trophy Night and came this close to beating them.

And then you have the thunder who are down their second best player, shot six for twenty six on unguarded catching shoo jump shots. We'll talk more about that game in a minute, but they still win the game on the strength of an unbelievable second half from Shake gild As Alexander as an offensive player, a dominant defensive effort, scrapping, forcing twenty four turnovers, getting twenty six points off of those turnovers. And then you go to the Warriors. They're

up in the Lakers jersey from the opening tip. They're flying around in rotation, they're being physical, they're sharp in transition. Their stars are locked in and competing and they're being physical. And then you see the Lakers who asigned from Luka Doncic. I don't think they had a single player who won his matchup tonight. It just was incredibly disappointing. On the one hand, I'm not overly surprised those of you guys

who listened to yesterday's show. I talked about how coming out of camp the Lakers look to me like a mediocre basketball team. They look like a good offense, not a great offense. And they look like a bad defense, not an okay defense. They look like a bad defense all throughout camp. They first of all, they offer no defensive pressure at all. There's nobody that they play against that they make uncomfortable. They're not in your jersey. They're

not applying physicality. They're not bringing any of that intensity on that end of the floor at all. They're jogging back in transition and giving up lob dunks because no one's picking up the rim or no one's stopping the ball. They're getting back cut all over the floor because guys aren't paying attention to man and ball. It was so

incredibly sloppy. You see so many things we talked about swing factors, right, like swing factors like Jimmy Butler scoring the basketball, or Jonathan Kaminga making quality reads or knocking down catch and shoot jump shots. We're seeing can deandreton score on the role while he was catching in traffic and just getting stripped, Well, can Jared Vanderbilt Bilt Jared Vanderbilt provides some sort of offensive pop, Well, he still

can't knock down a catch and shoot jump shot. And in the second half, in particular, was literally just like driving into the teeth of the defense and turning the ball over like that. It looked he looked extremely limited. Marcus Smart, there's like it's kind of funny watching the antics contest between Marcus Smart and and Raymond Green throughout

the game. But like Marcus can't knock down an open catch and shoot shot, and he's not doing enough on the ball defensively to really disrupt high level ball handlers. That's something I've seen throughout all preseason. There's just it's depressing.

and then they have Oklahoma City on the road. But other than that, they're playing a bunch of middle tier and bottom tier teams, and so maybe they'll be able to pull this together and they'll be able to get some wins, and there's a huge upside, which is Luca. Like I want to be clear, like that what we saw from Luca tonight, we never even came remotely close to seeing that last year, not even not even a little bit. He never moved like that. He never had

that like consistent downhill pressure. The short range shot making, that's something I had my eye on in preseason. He was one for seven on floaters in mid range jump shots in preseason. He had to hit like eight or nine of them. Today he was cooking the Warriors from the short to mid range, throwing the crazy kickouts. Still has no roleman chemistry with Ayton and the Lobs. He's got to figure that piece out. It's so much more

natural with him with Jackson Hayes. That's something that him and eight and are going to have to figure out. But like Luca was amazing, and that's your big silver lining that you try to pull away from this is if you can right the ship with some of these other guys on the roster, you just you have the dude that I think is the second best basketball player in the world on your team. And so there's a whole lot of upside with Luca and what he brings

to the table. But beyond that, it was just an idly disappointing debut for the Lakers, above and beyond anything having to do with individual talent, and there's some talent limitations here. I don't expect Ruy to be able to post up Draymond or Jimmy Butler without turning the ball over or fumbling it away. The Warriors in general are a swarming team that are going to cost some issues

for some of the lesser offensive players. For the Lakers, I don't necessarily expect them to be a team that's going to be dominant defensively, but they just also don't look sharp. And we talked about this yesterday, But like, if you're already a step slow athletically, you can't also

be a step slow mentally. You have to be ahead of things with your reads on defense, you have to be ahead of things with your execution on defense, because you're already giving up an inch in the form of the athleticism advantage that the opponent's going to have most nights. That definitely not, definitely not an inspiring debut from the Lakers. But again, Luca looks amazing. I thought Luca was really

good on defense for the most part. He got cooked by Jimmy on that last possession, but I bet his rotations were sharp. He had some help side plays at the rim where he got blocks of deflections are good contests. He had like a post up stop against al Warford. He had a really nice iso stop against Steph along the left wing lad in the game when the Lakers were going on their run. A lot of really impressive stuff from Luca, and then just all bad down the list.

From there, Austin has kind of become a player that can struggle against physical, swarming, athletic defenses. I thought Austin struggled throughout the night. He just seemed like he was over penetrating and getting swarmed and not finding easy kickout reads. His shot making wasn't there the way it usually was. Shot making wasn't there in preseason either, especially from the three point line. But like again, once you get off Luca,

a lot of depressing on the Lakers front. Again, we'll have more thoughts on this as we get I'm gonna watch both of these games again tomorrow morning, so if I have any any add additional takeaway from there, I'll share them in tomorrow night's show. But that's all I have on the Lakers Warriors from now. Let's move on

to Rockets Thunder. What an incredibly bizarre basketball game. We had one hundred and twelve misshots, thirty six turnovers, twenty eight offensive rebounds, a half dozen missed clutch free throws, including some from both KD and Shay. Shay had several, but the game ends up coming down to one single

ISO and double overtime. Along the left wing with Shae on the ball, KD guarding him, and I thought it was the right move by KD in that spot in the sense that he was the only guy other than a Men Thompson who was hurt at that point who had had some success guarding Shay, so KD guards him on the inbounds, and I thought Shay made an incredibly

smart play. In general, Shay was fantastic in the second half, attacking some very complex and very aggressive and mixed up coverages from Houston, but he made his smartest play of the game there at the end of double overtime to win it. So for starting at the beginning of that possession when Kd's guarding Shaye, he's super aggressive, which was different than how he had guarded Shaye earlier in the

game on his one on one possessions. Earlier in the game, he had been giving Shaye space, offering contests with his length, and he had actually Forcedhae into some missues because he's got some long ass arms and Kd's hard to shootover. But on this possession, KD came out pressuring him like kind of gambling, reaching a little bit out of control. And so the smart move from Shaye was he didn't try to shoot. He knew KD was being overly aggressive, so he threw him a pump fake spun over his

left shoulder and pumped. KD followed that chain of aggression into an aggressive contest, and so because Shaye pump faked, all he had to do was just throw up a shot and he earned his way to the foul line that won the game. And then, to add insult to injury, KD filed out on the play, which removed him as

a final possession option. Actually thought Jabari Smith got a half decent look over the top of Jalen Williams over there on the left corner, but it was long and the thunder he got the win Chase solved the problem. Tonight finished that game with thirty five points, which is insane considering he had a relatively empty box score a few minutes into the third quarter and the Rockets threw

one hell of a defensive punch. They had a men Thompson on him one on one, and again a men provides like a combination of size and athleticism defensively that is different than just about anyone else in the league. Jackson and I were talking about it before the show, like, I think he might be the fastest like big wing that I've ever seen, like fastest player that's over sixty six and that has long arms. In ball screens, they were blitzing him every single time to get the ball

out of his hands. Then they also mixed in a ton of zone, especially when Steven Adams was on the floor. Basically everything was geared towards getting the ball out of Shay's hands and forcing his teammates to quick process and kicked the shooters. And another thing to Houston's credit here, I thought they did a great job rotating and like making those kickout threes off of the double teams contested or congested and feeling rushed Ogoma hit He also didn't

shoot well. I want to be clear, there were lots of great looks that didn't go down. There were six for twenty six from unguarded threes in this game, especially if you in the second half from lou Dort, that were like complete stands, still gotta knock them down types of shots. But I do want to give Houston credit here for their defense. I thought they played a great game, and early on there, about halfway through the game, it was about as discombobulated as I've ever seen Shay, at

least in a long time. But Shay just slowly but surely figured it out. Started by hunting every transition opportunity you could get, so every time that there was a miss or a turnover and Shae got an opportunity to attack before Houston had their defense set, he either quickly hit a gap or he catch a quick like step up screen and transition and hit that gap before Houston could really congest things at the rim. And he started finding those little seams to get all the way to

the rim. And then against the zone, he found several things that worked. He started just taking ball screens off the top and riding that into the middle of the floor. He was able to get some better kickouts from there. To his credit, he kept trusting his teammates all game long as they were sending the kitchen sink at him even though the shots weren't falling. And by the way,

say what you want about the shots not falling. Case On, Wallace and chet Holmgren each hit massive threes down the stretcher that case On hit two of them massive threes down the stretch because Shay kept trusting them even though the shots had not been following falling. He also started isoting the top guy. These are some little tricks he found to stop having to deal with the doubles. Like

Leiden regulation, I'm not calling for a screen. I know it's a men Thompson, but I want my one on one And he got to that little step back from eighteen feet there on the left side that tied the game and send it to ot against the zone. In the zone when they'd have an occupied corner, meaning a shooter in the strong side corner and a shooter on the opposite wing. If he was dribbling against that top guy, they weren't doubling. They weren't at first they weren't doubling

off the corner or off of that top. They would double him if he drove, Like if he beat the middle, beat the man to the middle and drove, they would pinch in from the top from the opposite wing. And yeah, if he drove down the left side, they'd pinch in. But if he just kind of went one on one for a pull up jump shot against the top man in the zone, he was able to go one on one.

And so he kind of just work over to Jabari Smith's side and push a little bit over to the sideline so that that other top man wouldn't come over so far. And then he would just dribble at his chest and go to that textbook step back or that little snatchback dribble that he goes to. And he just kept getting the shots that he could have hit over the top, and his shot making was unbel The shot that he hit to send it to ot over a

men Thompson was insane. Great contest from a man hit a pull up three over a man on the one on the right wing. The one that actually was the play where a men Thompson don't I'm hoping it was just cramps that he was dealing with, hopefully nothing more serious because he left the game at that point, but just unbelievable shot making. He somehow managed to find like a legit scoring rhythm against a defense that was designed to get the ball out of his hands. I was

incredibly impressed. Eventually Houston started doubling him in the zone. That was what happened in overtime. They were straight up doubling him in the zone, and that started creating those openings for those last two threes that Keseon Wallace and Cheed Holmgren hit. Credit to those guys. They just kept

shooting and they knocked him down. So like in other words, Shay was presented with a bizarre, massive lineup that was guarding him in a variety of really weird and aggressive ways, and he just kept going at them until he figured it out. I couldn't be more impressed. It was a night where a lot went wrong for Oklahoma City. Like Check gives you a burst of scoring to start the game, really impressive little burst. He hits like a three on

the wing. It's like a turnaround, tough, little right shoulder fade over over. Kevin Durant hits a little mid range jump shot in the middle of the zone. He's just I think he had like seventeen in his first ship for fifteen in his first ship. Check came out guns blazing, but other than that, they didn't get any sort of consistent shot creation from anybody that wasn't Shay the rest of the night. J dub is obviously out still dealing

with the wrist injury. They shot six for twenty six on unguarded catching two jump shots according to Synergy, and you somehow win because Shay pulls thirty five points literally out of nowhere against the defense. He had no business putting that sort of scoring output against Just tip of the cap to Shaye. Unbelievable preseason and followed it up with an unbelievable debut. A lot of other good for Oklahoma City. I thought their defense was super impressive all night.

They were physically outmatched basically at every position because of that huge Houston lineup, and they just battled. One of the underrated pieces of this game was like Houston did a ton of damage on the offensive glass, but then Oklahoma City ended up controlling the offensive glass late in the game, got a bunch of extra possessions and extra points out of that sort of thing they were scrapping. They forced twenty four turnovers and got twenty six points

off of them. That's classic Oklahoma City basketball right there. I know Lou Dort had a rough shooting night and he had a bad foul against Kevin Durant obviously late in the game, but I thought one of the most underrated storylines of this game was just Lou Dort denying Kevin Durant at the basketball. Like KD was sharp with his attacks when he had the ball, so there's a reason why he only had twenty three points. Houston couldn't

get the ball to him from the opening tip. Dort was in his jersey and consistently positioning himself between the ball like the passer and where KD was and just making that entry pass super difficult. He even managed to force a massive turnover late in the game that helped swing the game. And like again, I always believe these things are connected. Kevin Durant was zero for four from three, and I thought a big part of it was the way that Lou Door just wore down Kd's base with

all that physicality. Big time night from Lou Dort on the defensive end of the four, Cruso and Cason Wallace combined for six steals. I even thought Shay was great defensively in this game. He brought a lot of ball pressure to start. He ended up with two steals in two blocks. I just thought he was competing really hard on that end of the floor, understanding that that's how they needed to win that game. And like, that's the thing. This is going to be how Oklahoma City's gonna have

to win as long as Jadub is out. Without j Dub, they just their light on refined offensive skill. We're gonna see a ton of doubling and blitzing of Shay. We're gonna see a ton of zone against them. They're gonna have to win with defense to transition and with guys quickly processing with ball and player movement knocking down threes off of the attention that Shay draws. But tip of the cap to Okay. See, that was a hell of a way to start their title defense. Like you get

spoon fed, Like, yeah, here's your rings. And by the way, here's one of the most talented rosters in the NBA that's starting four to seven footers basically and They're gonna beat the shit out of you physically all night. Let's see you try to start your title defense and they just battled, and they just got it done. Tip of the cap to the Thunder. That was a super interesting debut for the Rockets, though that team is gonna be

a problem again. I know KD wasn't as much of a factor tonight because of the ball denial from Dort, but I thought you saw a lot of the upside right Like KD was nine for twelve on twos. That's what happened when he was actually able to catch the ball and attack. He just never misses a mid range jump shot. When he gets a good look. He can

rest possessions with shot making in late clock situations. There was a possession late where Dort was detached from him because KD brought the ball at the floor and Shanggun actually managed to hit him on a screen, which then forced Hartenstein to step up easy little pocket pass to

Shangoon get a bucket on the short roll. That's the kind of thing that when you're not playing Lou Dort and you're able to run more ball screen action and actually unlock Shangun as a roller that's going to be an entirely different dynamic to this Rockets offense that we didn't get to see too much of tonight. But like

it's a little bit more complicated. Like I did think, you know, for all to talk about KD not getting the basketball from the Dort denials, I watched a preseason game where Houston played New Orleans and in that game there were some extended stretches where Kad wasn't able to get the basketball, and a big part of it was it just wasn't finding its way to him as they

were playing through a men in Shangoon. And so I think Udoka is going to have to do a little bit more of an intentional job to make sure that the ball finds its way to Kevin Durant more often. Again, Dort is Dort. He's going to present some problems that I think they can do better getting the ball to KD. But I thought Shangun and the men Thompson were both absolutely amazing. Thirty nine, eleven and seven from Shangun consistently

punishing the Okacs Smalls with post ups. He did some damage to Chet two to one on one, did a bunch of damage to Caruso. And this is a guy who like did a ton of damage to Nicole Jokich in Game seven last year, if you guys remember, but Shangun was just backing him down and protecting the basketball, getting to his left shoulder hook following his shot when he would miss. Passing well. I thought he passed well

out of double teams all night. It was one of the most efficient forms of offense was just give the ball to Shangoon until someone sends a double. He showcase the three point shot he's been working on all summer. He hit several above the break threes off the wings. Again, when they're running their two big lineups, that's going to

be super important. When Steven Adams is operating underneath the basket as an offensive rebounder and cutter, that's going to force guys like Shangoon and a Men Thompson to knock down threes. And Shangun was hitting those threes. He's gonna have to be able to hit those to space the floor. He just looks poised for an All NBA campaign. He

looked like Houston's best player tonight. Unbelievable season debut for Albert and Shangun and then a Men Thompson again, like he was zero for seven from three and that's obviously going to be the barrier between where he is right now and where he wants to be as a player in the future. And it's going to be a spacing issue for Houston again, like a lot of the damage that A Men did last year was working along the baseline with Shang Goon around the elbows, kind of like

a high low kind of like vertical spacing angle. That's not going to be there with Steven Adams on the floor. It's going to for There was even a play where Reed Shepherd kicked the ball out of bounds in the left corner because Amen Thompson was cutting along the baseline and the play where there was no space for him to cut. So that's obviously something he'll have to work on. Like hitting shots is going to be an imperative for

them this season. But other than that, I was incredibly impressed by a Man as well, Like he made Sga work all night. His recovery athleticism is completely insane. He had a chase down block on Shae on a drive

that was ridiculous. He had this other play where he stopped Kason Wallace in transition, Kaison's pushing the ball at the floor and a man's like twenty feet behind him, and a man like just straight up sprinted and got back in front of Kaison and forced him to take a retreat dribble, and I was like, this is ridiculous. His speed at the wing is unlike anything I've ever seen. But he also showed some insane upside as a slot

ISO option. The ball screen stuff was mixed, hit some shots in the middle floor, also had some turnovers, some bad kickouts. There were some mistakes from men there. That's to be expected. He's being foisted into a ball handling role that's kind of above what he's capable of right now,

so it's gonna come with some mistakes. But down the stretch and regulation, especially with Dort denying KD they just went to a men Thompson one on one off the slot against Kason Wallace and he was getting buckets and like, it kind of reminds me of John Morant in the sense that he has this supreme first step and handle to beat the first dude off the dribble, and then he's kind of immune to spacing on the ball because he doesn't have to get all the way to the rim.

He can just pop up off the ground around five feet and he get all these little floaters in short jump shots there that make him extremely difficult to guard. Again, like down the stretch of this game, they were playing through a men in regulation and he was getting buckets. Again, it's gonna be up and down. There's gonna be mistakes. He's a young player, but like his upside is preposterous now again, like it's flawed for Houston in general. Like I said, they gotta find a way to keep Kevin

Durant involved. That was something that was an issue dating back to preseason. They have spacing issues like shang gun shot the ball well, but a men. Thompson and Tari Easton got a lot of open shots that didn't go in. I think between the two of them, they were like, oh for a dozen. We saw the issues in this

particular matchup. I talked before the season about how is severely concerned about their lack of ball handling, specifically in this matchup with Oklahoma City, specifically leading to turnovers and transition problems. They gave up twenty six points on twenty four turnovers, so there's a lot that they have to work out, but they also clearly present real problems for

everyone else. They're monstrous on the offensive glass. They have a ton of length that can cause problems for any offense, elite on ball defenders to throw out the best players in the world. They have three real matchup problems on offense, like Shan Gun's a matchup problem, A Men Thompson in his ability to just iso dudes in space, that's a problem. And Kevin Durant is Kevin freaking duran They're gonna find a way to manufacture points. They just have a ton

of talent. I don't know if they're gonna be able to win the whole thing, but they just strike me as one of those teams that is going to present some real problems for a lot of teams and is at the very least a upset threat against everyone. All right, Jackson, let's get into our questions for the night.

from the broadcast crew. We just got to like soak it all in, right, Like it just got to did they go radio silence and we just get to listen to the whole thing. I thought the broadcast crew was great. I thought the the Michael Jordan halftime thing was just like kind of funny. You can tell, like I'm not the first one of this joke, but you could just tell that they literally like sat down with Michael Jordan for an hour and they're just gonna cut it up

into little clips throughout the season. So it's super efficient on that rod, I guess. But like it just felt like it just felt nostalgic and it felt like NBA hoops and I just just ten out of ten. No, No, it's what were your thoughts, Jackson?

mcgrady's kind of hit her miss sometimes. I thought he was really good in the pregame. I of Jamal Crawford on the game. He was great on the game. It was even though Reggie Miller is kind of a polarizing guy and I think he's gotten better.

but like, yeah, there's something there. Speaking of nostalgia, there's something nostalgic about watching a big NBA game and having Reggie Miller in the background saying Reggie Miller things.

of manufactured some points. I thought that I was. I was more impressed with him defensively in preseason than I was in tonight's game. I thought he looked physically overwhelmed at the point of attack. A few times he gave up like five or six pretty bad straight line drives. You know, I have a hard time with uh with Reid because I texted Sam Messini the other day because I was like, hey, man, like I just don't see

it with Reid, Like what's going on? Like I see a guy that can guard a little bit, who like competes and flies around in rotation and can make plays. I see a guy who can shoot, but I don't see like this dynamic on ball player. And Sam was like, trust me, he's like he can really shoot, So like, wait till he figures that out, that'll be fine. And he can do better defensively than he's shown. And I trust Sam, like Sam scouted Read to a much greater extent than I did when he was a younger player.

But I will admit that, like I don't see the same like crazy upside that a lot of some of the NBA hipsters talk about with Shepherd. And I just be like, and I'm not just I like literally, out there in the entire world, there's a ton of Read Shepherd buzz. It's like kind of all you can see is everyone's like reach Epherd, this reach Epherd dad, And like I, he certainly has potential, but I just I haven't really seen that bear out at the NBA level yet. I don't look at him as a solution to their

ball handling problems. But I've been wrong before, so not gonna brag.

other direction. If you zone Oklahoma City too much, these guys are just gonna get good at it. It's gonna and then it's gonna become a problem. And for the record, they had some success against the zone in the postseason as the as the series went longer. But in general, I think we're gonna see a lot of double teaming and blitzing a Shay, a lot of packing the pain on his drives, a lot of zone, and a lot of just daring everybody else to beat them while J

Dub's out. And I mean, i'd argue that's how teams are gonna guard them even when J Dubb is there right now, like I do think, I thought in the first half, Houston actually did a really nice job pressuring them, and most of their looks were pretty rushed and contested.

In the second half, I thought they missed some really good looks and that's where you can't really fault the process, Like, it's kind of like those above the break threes off the wing, and Chatt and case On both missed some of those too in addition to making them, but like you kind of have to take them. Like if you're not taking them, then you're basically asking Shay to just rescue you with shot making the entire game. That's too

much to ask. At a certain point, the defensive coverage is designed to concede that shot, and you have to take it, and you've got the players who can make them, and to their credit, they hit the ones they needed.

just this job. Like I personally would like to see Golden State try to score against a faster defense, just to kind of get a better evaluation of like Jimmy and Jonathan kaminga like, guess what what happens when you play against a faster defense. Those reads get harder, those reads get more difficult to make, right, and the shots each get a little bit tougher to make as you're

rushed and you're a little bit out of rhythm. Right, So, like I do want to see what it looks like against tougher competition, But like, how could you not be enthused? I mean, like the Lakers. Yeah, the Lakers are behind schedule, where no one's debating that, and obviously not having Lebron as a problem, but there's still some talent on that team. And like I thought, I thought, like aside, like, do you agree with me that had Luca not gone nuclear,

they win that game by thirty? Like I thought, they thoroughly out class the Lakers easily.

But I think Denver will kind of. I think Denver is a matchup that favors Golden State athletically and isn't necessarily a true test of their offense. Let's just put it that way.

can play. And there a j Mitchell today, like they just they like these these really smart organizations, they can find dudes on the margins in a way that other teams can.

lineup with Jimmy, Dre and Stepp, which was sort of the big question.

with the starters. Show us what you got. And I think I think Steve's gonna give him a little runway here and like and if he if he continues to play like he did in the second half tonight, like it just ends all of the discussions surrounding some of these other issues, Like they deployed him on the ball tonight, and he struggled with Luca, but like Lucas Luca and like and Lucas specifically has some success against upright wings because he's just so much stronger than them, But like

they focus him in an on ball roll defensively, and then like he actually does provide some of the firepower they need, the ability to attack a mismatch here and there, the ability to knock down a catch and shoot shot, to fly up the floor, and transition. I thought the most encouraging part of the second half attack there was them kind of using him in three man action effectively, like basically saying like we could we don't need you

to be a satellite guy. We can use you as part of the weapon with which we unleath unleash the Steph Curry attack like it just as far as like going matchup to matchup, I think that's almost the worst thing you could do, because that could toy with his rhythm and toy with his confidence a little bit. I would just ride him out as the starter for a

little while here and just see what he's got. And like again, like if we're seven eight games into this and they're you know, five and three or or four and four, and Jonathan's been more bad than good, like then then it's like you tried counseling and it didn't work, and that means it's time to break up. Yeah, Like it's the last it's the last hurrah. Here, it's the last try. And like Steve Kerr is basically saying, like, dude,

we're putting the ball one hundred percent in your court. Here, show us what you can do.

was kind of not the easiest dump off past. I was like, oh wow, that's definitely an attempt at a poster last season and you're and if you're a Warriors fan, if you were thinking bets negatively like I might have been, you might have thought Jonathan Coming is trying to get his this year, He's gonna go for that post. And I was like, he played pretty soundly within the system all most of the night.

tomorrow night. But we got a jam pack slate tomorrow. I think we're closing with San Antonio versus Dallas. That's gonna be fun. One Wenby versus a d and that massive front line in Dallas, So lots of interesting basketball to get into tomorrow and then we're live again after Denver Golden State on Thursday night, three straight lives start the season again. As always a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us. We will see you tomorrow night.