Reporter, young man.
It's not often that you directly violate a by law of the radio show.
Do I need to remind you often?
No, it's not often that you violate one of the tenants of the show. Need I remind you our rule when you decide to go with the greatest live act and history of music, Dave Matthews Ben, Yeah, no hits. I know, yeah, we subscribe to the Andy Bernard rule about Dave. What's going on with you?
I know, I know?
No hits, as you said, only it was very last minute. It was very last second. I had like three seconds to throw a song up. I had to throw a Northeast jam band up for you and Tom fair enough.
I don't know, man, all good?
Is this a hit?
It's the only song they've ever won a Grammy for, so it's like the hit. But you know what, it's all right? Monday Afternoon style NBA playoff style. Tom Haberstrow batting lead off on the show, Tommy, happy money man?
How are we doing?
So? You prefer him to do like number forty one or something?
There we go, Tom talk.
You know.
I love when you talked dirty about Dave.
Tom, I appreciate that yes, indeed that would and live preferably obviously not the studio recording.
Yeah, yeah, I prefer I think number forty one might be my favorite lab Jimmy sing or a two step I can get with any of those.
There we go, There we go.
All right, Tom, I'm gonna ask you the question we started the show off with NBA Playoff basketball over the weekend. The one major takeaway for you is, what if you had to kind of hone.
In on one thing.
Physicality is back spence, Physicality is back. I did this study over at the Finder the last couple of days. I've been kind of looking at this because I think it was during the Lakers game Jay Billis pointed out that they hadn't been called for a foul and like four minutes into the second quarter, and he was noting it, and then I tracked it for all the games. It was the fewest field goal attempts for an opening weekend
the NBA Playoffs. Ever, an average of seventeen three throws per teen per game is the lowest we've ever seen in the playoffs, and it isn't particularly close. Last year it was an average about twenty one, and this year it's seventeen eighteen right in there. So last year was the lowest and now we're about fifteen percent lower than
the previous low. And so what we're seeing is, you know, the physicality that the Warriors are able to play with on Jalen Green and with Fred van Vliet and Shane Goon. That's the difference. They allowed eighty five points in that game, and Imo Udoka said after the game, he's like, we held the Warriors to ninety five points. That's a win.
Like normally that is a win.
But we couldn't get our offense going. And a lot of it is because the Warriors were more physical. And what JJ Reddick and Lebron James said after they lost to Minnesota to rules is we need to be more physical. And the Pistons they got run out of that gym at Madison Square Garden because they were not playoff tested. They weren't ready to play bully ball. And Kate Cunningham
shriveled up. And so if you go to tomdfinder dot com, you can see historically free throw attempts in the playoffs go down, but especially so this postseason, where teams are not really getting to the line at a high rate, and I think it has huge implications for this postseason.
All right, So let's tackle some of these one by one, and we'll start out this way with the Western Conference stuff before we.
Move back east. As we continue the conversation.
So Denver, Clips, I mean, the West continues to be ridiculously deep.
There are gonna be some really good teams are going home.
The Clippers entered the postseason on fire, and as I talked to you last week about whenever Kawhi is healthy for an extended stretch, we all do the thing where we're like, oh, yeah, that's who that dude is. And I've always kind of been like, you can have Russell Westbrook guy. And I don't think there's anything sustainable about what we saw from him Game one, but he does have the ability to bring energy that really puts him in a category that is very, very small, and that's
what I've always respected about him. His defense down the stretch was great. That was a hell of a basketball game. Give me your take, Clips, Nugs Game one and how do you see that playing out?
Man?
I am not a huge Russell Westbrook fan, like I have never been. I just think that his stat sheet is really impressive and his energy is really impressive. But in terms of winning plays, like I'd rather have a lot more players in today's era than Russell Westbrook, I think a lot of it is empty calories. And man, that performance on Saturday was awesome. Down the stretch, he was great. He had a lot of he smoked some layups, you know, but he got to every rebound, the rebound
after offensive rebound, deflections, big plays, passes like. He made so many winning plays down the stretch. And if we can get that guy every game, I think the Denver Nuggets can win this series. But if we can't get that guy, then there's just not enough weapons on Jokic's side. I think the Clippers win this series. Still. I thought that they were gonna win this one handily, and then the Nuggets stormed back and they could not generate good offense.
The Clippers and the winning the energy, the winning plays, they were all done by Russell Westbrook and the Denver Nuggets, and you know that tilts the scales. I mean, I just I never thought we would see Russell Westbrook at this age be the high energy guy making the right play at the right time. But he did, and for that Game one, I was really impressed with him down the stretch. Now you're there's good stuff and then there's bad.
Russ Right, there's the five to seven team shooting where he's taking jumpers where they're begging him to shoot, and he has them clutch shots. But I don't think that you're gonna be able to rely on that going forward. Like you said, it's unexpected to get that kind of high performance from Russell Westbrook, and you're gonna need the complimentary players Peyton Watson, Porter Junior Christian Brown. You need those guys to show up in Game two or else.
I think the Clippers are the better team. I think Jokich is the best player in this series, but I think with James Harden, with Zubots, who I think handles Jokic as well as anybody. I'm not saying he's a stopper, but I think Zoo is as good of a defender on Nikola Jokic, and the analytics back that up. I think they have a good shot at winning this series, a better shot than the Nuggets. But Russell Westbrook man, he had lightning in a bottle for those last couple
of minutes and he was awesome. I can understand why there's so many Russell Westbrook stands out there, because all you remember the good ones, and in victory, you remember the good ones and you forget all the mistakes and all the dumb passes and all the smoked smoke putbacks and all that. But when there's more than there are downsides, man, Russell Westbrook is awesome to root for. And that's what he was in Game one.
Not excuse me, I'm not an emotional man, Tommy, but I will say somebody who was courtsied for Marcus Camby giving Jeff van Gundy a black eye and Jeff Van Gundy holding on for dear life of Alonzo Morning's leg. Watching Jeff Wressell with Nikola Jokic for the basketball it made me somewhat emotion.
What brought it here to my eye?
I gotta say, well, you know what's weird about that is he had a similar thing with Matt Ishbia. Do you remember this, Yeah, yep, ball goes out a bounds and into the stands and it's Matt Ishbia, the owner of the Phoenix Suns. And Ishbia, who played as a walk on at Michigan State, was like, nah, I'm not giving you the ball back and Jokic there was like
an altercation. And then if you remember, Mark Dagnall, the coach of OKC, tried to like have this hack where they had one of his players I think it was I think it was Dylan Jones. He had one of his players stand at the scorers table to check in and then not check in because they could not stand how quickly the referees would give Jokic the ball on
out of bounds, like on made baskets. Yokich would get the ball so quickly, and the thunder thought, that is not right, like they got to like give the balls. He has to pass to the referee and get the ball back, and they're not ruling that correctly. So dag Nault would send a guy, a bench guy that he had no intention of going to the game, but would send him to the scorers table because he wanted Jokic to not get the ball so quickly out of bounds. And there so this is like the third time that
this has happened. And of course you got Powell, who's a Jason Powell, who's the trainer, the head athletic trainer for the Clippers, forever and Jeff Van Gunny now getting with Yokich. This has become a thing. This has become a thing, and it just delights me to know end that like the only way to stop or slow down Yo Kich is to just hold onto the ball for a next beat and then you'll finally get your way.
You think Jeff gets another head coaching job. Maybe he doesn't want one.
I don't know.
He's done such a great job and I'm biased, I would admit it. But do you think that will be There are opens openings and there will be more.
Do you think Jeff gets a look?
I think he does. I mean, you look at you know, just getting back into the game is half the battle. And I think you know he did some Team USA for the select team for a couple of years. I think this getting actually within the end NBA circle, I think is gonna dramatically improve.
His chances of getting a job rather than.
Trying to hold out for a head coaching gig. You know this is this is a weird league. Man like JJ Reddick went from hosting a podcast to becoming the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. There is no straight line path to becoming a head coach in the NBA, and it's just, you know, these owners, I don't think they know what they want. And I think there's gonna be an owner who wants someone with that name recognition, who's a brilliant basketball strategist, who's a guy that has
been around for decades in the league. And I think you're gonna see his name in some circles. Whether they hire him or not. I'm not sure what the exact right fit is, but you're telling me Sacramento or Memphis with the interim coach there, You're telling me that with Denver having I think Michael Malone is kind of in that Dan Gundy tree. So I'm not totally sure they would hire Jeff Van Gundy, but I do think that he'll probably get another opportunity at some point in the next couple of years.
You reference JJ Reddick, and look, I don't know how much the narrative of, hey, this is his first playoff series as a head coach, so Game one was kind of a bad look for him. They did try to go small, almost exclusively, and of course out here in Salt Lake City, watching Rudy Gobert have to go to the bench when the Lakers were going small. You know, we all have memories of that, and nas Reed stepped
in and had a really, really good game. I was a little bit surprised that Lebron didn't seem to engage physically, because Minnesota, when they're healthy, they've got a ton of just big, physical wing defenders. And I'm not a huge Julius Randall guy because of course, plenty of years in New York where the ball just stalls with him and he had seven turnovers, and offensively, you know there are always going.
To be issues. But when he's engaged, he's a big, strong dude.
So it is Jaden McDaniels, so his aunts, and they kind of let Lucas score and they were fine with that, but they took away his ability to facilitate he I'd one assist. So look, Lebron and Luca are both generational, They're both brilliant.
So I'm not saying this is over.
But takeaways from te Wolves Lakes game one, how do you think it plays out?
They need to be better shooting. I mean, when you have the Timberwolves get hot, like Julie Randall's not going to shoot for a sec. From downtown, right, that's not going to continue. Jada McDaniels isn't going to shoot three or three from downtown. You get basically at twenty one points on threes from those two players. That's not replicable. But what also is it replicable is you can't have basically Luca the only one hitting threes in that game.
And that's something that the Lakers have to figure out. If you're going to go small, you better hit shots from downtown because you certainly aren't going to play bully ball and just get the guy in the post and just score at will inside the paint. They need to figure out a way to get the others. I'm talking
ruy Atamura, I'm talking Gabe Vincent, these other scorers. I mean, Dorian Finny Smith has to be a three points threat if he's gonna be out there, because if you're not defending, you've got to be able to do something on the other end, and they weren't defending. The Timberwolves scoring one hundred and seventeen points on the surface doesn't seem like an egregious defensive game. That game was Neanderthal. That was an eighty six possession game. One hundred and seventeen points
allowed on a eighty six possessions. That's one hundred and thirty three defensive rating by the Lakers. If you're gonna play DFS, if you're gonna play small and you're gonna go with Ruy and DFS and Lukia Lebron and Austin Reeves, you better be defending at a high level. But they
couldn't stop the Timberwolves. And yes, a little bit of that with some unsustainably good three point shooting, but that is one of the worst defensive outputs that the Lebron led team has ever had, one hundred and thirty three point defensive rating. They got to be better defensively, more locked in, more physical, and that's what you heard from JJ Reddick. They got to bring more physicality. And he's not going to call out Lebron by name and Luca
by name, but they've got to be better defensively. And that is just absolutely putrid defense. One hundred and thirty three points every one hundred possessions of a loving game one.
So I went to the Jazz OKC game mostly because it was the final home game of the season for the Jazz.
And just an excuse to go down there.
And you know, I sat with Richard Smith forty years with the Jazz and Scottie Laden, who of course was the GM here GM in New York, and they were just marveling at how every single player on Oklahoma City's roster to be able to play at a really high level. I mean guys that you've never really even heard of, Guys that maybe even you know, big time NBA fans don't really know all that. Well, look, Shay went four to thirteen, had fifteen points, and they beat Memphis by
fifty one. Like it's pretty it's pretty terrifying, Tom. And look, I know you know this, and so do I because we watched the league and we cover the league. They've been historically great all year with their net and we know what they.
Can do on defense.
And look, Memphis is not a world beater, and obviously they're in only because they want to play in So I don't want to overreact, but that was pretty overwhelming. Watch OKC just toy with Memphis Game one. What were your takeaways.
I've been saying this all season, man, you know it, I U OKAC is gonna run away with this thing. And Game one Memphis proved at least for one game against the eight seed when they had thirty six hours before tip off. I'm talking Memphis after they won the play in spot. Ye that proclamation by me earlier this season and say that this OKC team is something else, that they are one of the great ones and they were going to win this thing easily. That looked smart
for a night. Now I will say this to your point, it's not sexy or it's not kind of gonna draw any sort of eyeballs to just say they have a lot of high IQ players. But what's so interesting about this team is they had one finalist for the awards. One finalist it was Shay Gilgers Alexander for MVP. He probably will win it. But you're talking defense, six Man of the Year, Most Improved Coach of the Year. None
of them have Okac's name on it. And this was the team that had the largest point differential in NBA history. They blew out teams by more than any other team in NBA history this year sixty eight wins, fourteen losses. But the way they just destroyed teams was on a
level we haven't seen. And they are not a team that had more than one appearance on the major NBA Awards this year, and it just goes to show that, like this is a team that's the head of the snake is Shay Godris Alexander, but they have so many high IQ, high performing players like you said, and I'll point out that Jalen Williams leads the team in triple
doubles this year. And it's not that Jalen Williams, right, the other Jalen Williams, the one who comes off the bench, the backup center who I will remind you wasn't even a first round pick. Jalen Williams from Arkansas. This dude has three triple doubles this year and he's the team leader in triple doubles, not Shay or Jalen. That guy against the Blazers earlier this year is covering the game. I was working the game, and I was like, I think he's gonna get a triple double. And this guy
is like their tenth best player. So like this this team is so deep. Aaron Wiggins. He's kind of this guy that if he was on the nets this year, he would have averaged twenty five a game. That's how good he is. He's already got a forty piece this season, and in ways that a lot of good scorers this year haven't had a forty burger. The Thunder are great. They play as well, disciplined, as smart. They're gonna be
this team that because of the referees. If this sticks, if the referees reward physicality, the Thunder might stand to gain more than anybody. And I know people are gonna say, hey, shay goch is Alexander a foul martant. He leads all guards in free throws per game. I get it, but you don't realize if this Thunder defense, that's already by far the best defense in the NBA, if the referees are gonna officiate and let things play, dude, it's gonna be.
It's gonna be a bloodbath every single night against the Thunder. Lou Dort, you could call a foul on the do it every single time down the floor, case and walls, every time that Isaiah Hartenstein, every shake, Gosris Alexander, the way he swipes and and gets into every passing lane. They could call a foul on every player on this team every time down the floor. They are that physical,
there's that menacing they're that brutal to go against. And if the referees are gonna swallow their wristle their whistle in the postseason, like, I don't.
Know how you're gonna score against this team.
And I feel bad for John Moran and the Memphis Grizzlies because I don't think they had a shot. But this is a warning. This is a warning. This is a This is a warning shot for the rest of the league that they took it easy on Memphis and they still couldn't score it more than eighty points if they tried for the whole game, if they played all their guys the whole game, I don't know if Memphis would have scored sixty. And so this is a team the thunder that is, if this whistle continues, Uh, this
is gonna go back to nineties basketball. We're we're gonna see a lot of wins thirty plus and the other team is not going to score more than.
Eighty, which should be good news for a team like the Houston Rockets. So let's move over to Golden State Houston for a moment here, because I heard a lot of people, a lot of people, and yes, Charles Barkley, but you know, over the years, I've always reminded people that that is an entertainment product, and Chuck is the one that guarantees everything and oftentimes is wrong, and I love him. Charles is great. I will die on that hill,
but he's not alone. A lot of people thought Houston, with their size, their length, their physicality, they would beat Golden State round one. Maybe they still will, but you know, for all the Aman Thompson is going to have Steph Curry and jail conversation you had, Steph had his moments where he struggled. I don't know if we can be as reductive as saying superstars win games in the playoffs on the road, because that's what they do and that's
who Steph and Jimmy are. When Houston's offense breaks down to the half court, Tom, I don't know who they are.
I really don't.
I mean, Shangun is awesome, but I don't need another isolation. Fred van Vliet blow through you my leg seven times and then Chuck up at contested three. Jalen Green didn't look ready, Tarry Easton didn't look ready, and again a young team with physicality and length, they did find something when they went Steven Adams and Shanngun together and maybe they just have to muck it up with their bigs. But takeaways, Game one, Golden State Houston, how do you think it plays out.
Yeah, they don't have shooting. They don't have I mean, Fred Van Vliet or Jalen Green don't have it going. They are gonna have to be in this kind of slugfest. And unfortunately, Draymond Green loves playing in the mud. You know, this is a guy that loves when it gets grimy, when it gets physical. That's where Draymond Green wants to play. And that's exactly playing into.
The Warriors' hands.
Jimmy Butler, same thing, like when it comes to just muck it up, defensive minded bullyball, I just don't think.
You're gonna win that game against the Warriors.
If you're gonna beat the Warriors, it's by getting stopped and getting out in transition and scoring in the open court. But as soon as it gets into the half court, the Houston Rockets are in a very big disadvantage. And Jalen Green I think might be one of the most overrated players in the league because I don't think his stuff will work in the playoffs. I think in our eighty two game regular season he can get you twenty
twenty five points. But in the postseason, I'd just say he's too small, too weak in order to really thrive in the postseason. And I think his trajectory he isn't at a point right now where he can be a winning player in the playoffs. It's only one game, but he has a lot of bad habits as a score inefficient scorer. And I worry that. You know, the Houston Rockets are going to be the number two seed and
might get swept here. I don't think it's going to be a sweet I think the Warriors are a really good team, and I've put them on my top tier of title contenders. This week. I just put out an article because if the physicality is gonna be where it is, they got to muck up the game. Dylan Brooks has to figure out a way to not only muck it up, but also be able to hit a bunch of threes, because if they're not gonna get good half court offense from those guys, they just don't have a shot. They
really don't. And you said it like Shane Goon's a good player, But in order for this team to be a top tier winning you know, number two seed in the Western Conference and being a team that's gonna win at the highest levels, they need better offense.
Than what they had yesterday.
And what I will say is this, the Golden State Warriors are great. They are a great team. And still the defense is amazing in the half court. The look the Rockets half court efficiency sixty five, offensive rating in the half court sixty five. That's atrocious. That's in the fourth percentile according to Cleaning Theglass dot com. You can't beat the Warriors in the half court. You have to get turnovers, and you have to play up and down in the half court, I mean in the open court.
There's no way that this is sustainable for the Houston Rockets. And I suspect, given emy Udoka how he always likes to push the envelope, I suspect they're going to come out with some extremely hard fouls in Game two and try to set the tone because they can't win without that edge. And I suspect you're going to see a very physical emay A Dooka squad come in Game two.
Last thing, tom bit of a non sequitur, but we'll leend on this because I genuinely am just curious. You remember the Great Dumbin Dummer Comedy nineteen ninety four. You and I were in high school when when Jim Carrey playing Lloyd Christmas just gently put his finger on the mouth of Mary to tell her to stop speaking.
Do you remember that scene?
Yes?
Every time, every time Nico Harrison talks, I just want to gently walk up and just put my finger over his mouth and like, buddy.
Just please stop? What? What? What?
After everything that happened, and after you know, a couple of post uh, you know, seasoned media availability uh sessions with Nico Harrison, where are you at with that entire dynamic and a fan base that appears out for blood wanting this dude fired?
Where are you at with Dallas?
Now?
I kind of feel like we're like watching Zeep.
Yeah, you know, like how.
Can you screwed up this badly? Like? How can you be surrounding yourself with people there? Tim McMahon just had this report today form ESPN. Tim McMahon had this report. I didn't realize this, but they fired Casey Smith, their longtime head athletic trainer who says close to Dirt Novitsky and Luka Dancic as anybody like he is. He is kind of one of the untouchables in the organization, the head athletic trainer. He's also like leading the trainers association,
like he's He's beloved in the NBA community. Nico Harrison fired him and then hired someone in his place who is not certified, Like, how do you do that? How do you fire the most beloved guy in your organization
and replace him with an amateur? And the response that that Tim mcmahnon his reporting found was well he he Casey Smith was too negative, and someone told Tim McMahon a team source said Nico Harrison and I'm paraphrasing here wanted a cheerleader, and that's what he got in this replacement, a yes man. Basically, it's like this, this sounds like the office, it sounds like a place comedy the way
that this is gone. And I'm with you. I think that the only way that this can bring peace to the Dallas Mavericks is either the owners sell or the owner's clean house top to bottom. I just don't see it any other way. It gets worse as the day goes on. So yeah, I'm with you when Jim Carrey is sh that is what I'm looking. I just saw
a cliff. I don't know if this is if this is really what happened, but Yahoo sports twitter account just shared a video of Nico Harrison walking off the podium and getting locked out of the facility like he could not open the door from the press conference. He got locked out, and I'm just like, this is a this is a lampoon. This has gotten to be a lampoon
of a front office. And that's when you know you've got into a place where you're You're sitting here wondering is this are we are we watching like a comedy at this point, because it is a comedy of errors at this point, and I just I just don't see a way out other than to clean house.
Yeah, it's every time he talks, man, it's awkward and it's not getting better. Tom appreciate the time, buddy. Where can people go find your work?
Tom Thefinder dot com? Also check out the Big Number on Yahoo Sports. Every Thursday, I riff with Dan Devine about a stat that you have to know and we discuss it at length every Thursday on Yahoo Sports. Hey appreciate it Spence and next time maybe we'll get some number forty one.
There we go, love it great. Tom Haberstrow joins us on a weekly basis. Always appreciate Tom's time. The link to all of his work is up on his Twitter page. It's just his name at Tom Haberstrow Are. We're gonna switch gears. We're gonna talk some Utah spring football, and Auburn commit is on his way to play cornerback for the Utes.
We'll do some basketball, some Red Rocks as well.
Courtland Roofing, Utah's reroofing and repair experts with over twenty years of experience, and my friends Tally and core join me live in studio once again.
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