Transcription
WOO! That was some Game Four in San Francisco between the Warriors and the Houston Rockets. As we welcome you inside the NBA, presented by KIA. Live from Studio J here in Atlanta, Ernie Johnson with Shaq and Kenny and Chuck. How good was that?
Second great game. Great game. Energy. Effort. Poise. Experience versus youth. It was everything we thought it would be. But what's what's really amazing? You asked the question yesterday about when a team is better than the other team. How can they they they lose doing stupid stuff? And you just said your answer like they just have just played basketball in the second half. They were down I think seven at the half, but for doing stupid stuff. And but you think the Warriors are a better team than them or it was I well I think listen they got more experience. But when they don't screw around because the Warriors they don't have really a go-to guy. Jalen Green was MIA again tonight. Rockets. Rockets. The Rockets. Excuse me. Shaq, I talked about Buddy Hield and those guys hitting shots. So Buddy.
I was going to say you called that at halftime on Heels.
Yeah Buddy. And how do you say his?
Name Pisemksy.
Yeah Pisemksy play well. Played well.
He had 15 Podziemnski 26 Jimmy Butler 27. In this game on a night when Steph Curry had some others maybe. And here's what's going on on Tuesday.
I can't wait for these two games.
We got the Pistons and the Knicks. We got the Clippers and the Nuggets in a series that stands two-two, while NBA TV has a couple of potential clinchers for the Pacers at home against the Bucks and the Celtics at home against the Orlando Magic. It's just disrespectful to say.
I'm respectfully, they're taking their home tomorrow night.
There you go.
All right. This dude got a bunny on him.
He's got something on his belt. Yeah, and.
It's a bunny.
Ernie Jimmy Butler. And so.
Oh.
The nonsense stuff was getting going early. As you see the pushing and the shoving and the yapping.
And the technical fouls.
Yeah.
This is this is just stupid, man.
Because Steph appears to say, hey, that's two fouls on you. For some reason.
That that insight I didn't see the deuce side to say nothing. Nope. Yeah. That will excite somebody. It that excite somebody. Tell him he got two fouls. Yeah. Yeah. You know it's taunting.
And then you've got this.
That shouldn't have been a flagrant. That was accidental. That was.
Not an accident Corey Eason.
No kicking in his head. Yeah. Yeah. That was not an accident. That was not an accident. Draymond was going for the ball initially. Yeah okay. Yeah. He dived on that guy. Kicked him in the head. That was that was not accidental.
So Draymond's got a technical in the game and then a flagrant in the game.
That's because it.
Was a flagrant. You got Jimmy Butler and Dillon Brooks. Yeah it looks like he's got a big laugh. And then they were getting serious. And then.
Yeah that to me is the oof I'm was surprised they didn't call that a flagrant because of the hand in the back. Possibly not so soft. That's why you got the refs let this game get out of hand in the first half. That's why y'all only got two rings over there. Butter. Oh, Schenge. The Turkish Terminator.
Dominant seven-point lead at the half for Houston. And then Golden State comes out 18 to 1 on him to start the third quarter.
He just played basketball.
Big shots. And it's amazing the quality of the of this game.
Well also Ernie you know the quality of the game. You're still trying to establish some dominance. And that's why early on you've seen the fiery because everyone knew what the consequences of this game was if Golden State wins.
Absolutely saw Fred VanVleet. You see Alperen Şengün who had 31 and ten.
He had his way today in the post. And I'm perplexed about this Jalen Green situation man.
Let's get into that after the highlight because there's Podziemnski knocking down a three.
He's not he's not going to let.
Him go again.
Not going to let.
Draymond was sitting down with five fouls. And he was just getting anything he wanted. So did Ahmed Thompson right there.
In the air one two three seconds in the air.
Ayton game '3.
Three-point game.
Good pass Buddy.
One-point game as Butler scores. And then with the score 98 to 97 look at Steven Adams getting up.
I'll tell you what man.
What do you have a handful of blocks in this one.
But you know what. Give Steve Kerr some credit. He took him out of the game because they couldn't keep him off the boards. When he started doing that fouling thing.
Butler again.
You see, Steven Adams would have been down there if he didn't take him out. Steve Kerr did a hell of a job.
104 101 VanVleet ties the game at 104. Now we got a minute left.
I hate this call right.
Here Jimmy Butler fouled by Dillon Brooks.
That's less foul. There's less contact on this play than it was in that damn Knick game yesterday. I don't want to hear that bro. You can't no I don't want to hear that. You got knocked the hell out of Hardaway yesterday. He going to call him touching him on the stomach.
And Butler converted all three.
Marginal contact.
The lead then cut to one by Shengeun. They got Steph Curry no. 107 106 Shengeun against Draymond Green. Can't get it to go. Rebound. Golden State. And then VanVleet last gasp for the Rockets though. Online well short 109 106 is your final as the Warriors take a 3-1 lead. With Game Five coming up Wednesday in Houston. Curry a quiet night with 17. Butler had 27. 14 of those came in the fourth quarter. Here is Udoka.
You went.
With the double big lineup for a large portion tonight. How do you think that that fared? And especially compared to the starting lineup, which seemed to have a rough start to both halves.
Yeah, they were great. They kept us in the game. Obviously the start of the third quarter, 18 to 1 run and just gave everything back that we did before the halftime and to be up seven and go down ten that quickly with some of the missed shots or whatever, nobody tries to miss shots, but the non-help off of certain guys, you know, leaving shooters and then just not rebounding. They can't again they beat us in the offensive glass. Second chance points. So not a great start there. Double big was the reason we stayed in the game coach.
Said how can.
It help that.
Yeah like I said get some separation with the screens. But you got to have you have to come off and be aggressive. And tonight was a little more free than last game. And you just have to make the right plays and not this best night offensively obviously. And but you can't let that affect your all-around game. Still make the right play make the right read and let guys be recipient. But you still have to guard at a high level and not get discouraged by off night. Offensively.
Alperen had.
Jimmy Butler play off Jimmy. In fact, he had half the Golden State points, just more than half in the fourth quarter. Finished the night with 27 and 23 of those coming in the second half, and Brandon Podziemnski a 26-point night. Just an explosion for the guy who's getting his first taste of the NBA playoffs. 24 points the first three games for Podziemnski 26.
Yeah, but it was some great coaching out there tonight on two fronts. Give Steve Kerr credit for getting Adams starting at the hack thing. Got him.
A Kiwi.
Yeah he got he took him out of the game. And that was a really big deal. Because that opened up the lane because he blocked like 4 or 5 shots.
Four blocks.
Yeah. But also give Ime credit because the reason Buddy Hield and Prosiniski was going off, he took the ball out of Steve Kerr's hands and they got all those shots Steph Curry's out of Steph Curry's hands. He only got 12 attempts. So. So it was some really good coaching going on out there tonight I mean you know I'm always big on the others. And you know I was kind of hard on Buddy Hield. I showed four missed shots. And he hit some nice important timely shots. But yeah Podemski played well. Butler played well. And you know when you got the others stepping in and hitting timely shots, you know Chuck and Cain talks about this all the time. When you're the guy, you don't have to play well all the time because the others play well. Now 26, same time he was the man. He was one of the men. Now they need to close him out in Houston because Houston is a young, feisty team and I'm sure they're in the locker room saying, hey, we could have won this one and they're going to be confident they're going to be home. They're others are going to play well. So the question is can Golden State close them out.
Rockets 48-28 in the paint in this game. Second chance points the Warriors 21 to 14 as they lead that department. Jalen Green situation. You said you wanted to talk about that. And here's a guy last five minutes of the game. Your leading scorer is not playing.
But but I said before the game before he can become a great player. And Amy talked about it. You got to do other stuff to help the team. Like he gets in a fog when he's not scoring and he just he's just out. He's had. Think about that. This guy who we were bragging about all season said it's going to be close on him making the All-Star team. He's had single digits three out of four. He had first of all he had 38 one game and he's had single digits of the three games.
That cannot happen.
That cannot happen. Yeah. But for a young player no he's not that young. He had 38 a game ago. You can't go from 38 to 8. You're right. You you can go from 38 to 20 24. You can't go single digits. You're absolutely right. But for a young player is growing pains. He has to somehow figure that out. Well, I don't know if you guys did this, but you guys, I'm just I'm not. Not this. I'm saying what I'm about to say because you guys had a dominance that may be different. But for a guy like myself, like, or a guy like Jalen who's trying to get to that level, I always said you have to come to the arena knowing that you're going to do three things regardless of what's going to happen. So my three things was, okay, I'm going to pressure the ball. I'm going to push the ball from free throw line to free throw line as fast as I can. And when I don't have the ball and it goes inside, I'm sprinting to the open shot the three. So every night I just knew those three things could be consistent. And I think that when I look at Jalen, I'm not sure he has much more offensive things in his tool belt than myself or guys that I'm talking about. But he should come to the arena and say these three things I'm going to do regardless of what happens. So I'm looking at the stats now. I'll make sure it's the whole game for that kid. They only have eight shots. That is ridiculous. Like Reggie Miller used to say. Larry Bird would say to him, you're not having a good game. He said, yeah, I know. I'm like three for ten. He says, yeah, that's not what I mean. You need to be three for 17. You don't ever. You can't be the man and only shoot eight times. You don't even know if you you don't even know if you're hot or cold or whatever. Because first of all, he's actually three for eight, which is not a great percentage, but it ain't brutal. No, if he makes the next two, he's 50%. But I don't understand how a guy that talented, he just doesn't come to the arena. Yeah. Like obviously I don't know if I had knowing I could do this every night, but he should come to the gym every day. Would you say this? I'm going to get 15 to 20 shots every game. How if I'm if I'm making my threes because he was making the game, he had 38. But if I'm not making threes I'm getting to the basket. But my point is he should have. He got a green light. Yeah. He doesn't sprint out enough to me on the break. He should never have to talent. Well how about this. He's just too talented to have eight shots. That's it. That's it.
He's just let's hear what Steve Kerr has to say about the Warriors win.
Of course.
Then of course knocking down the free throws to clinch it. Yeah Jimmy was just amazing.
What was going through your.
Head when.
You saw that.
The final defensive stop unfold.
With Shanahan versus Draymond. And then the Jimmy rebound.
Well my what was going through my head was call a timeout. You know either way made or missed. We wanted to get the timeout so we could get Steph back in.
And you.
Know I just thought you know Dre he played phenomenal defense with five fouls. You know most of the fourth quarter he's out there. And so he did a brilliant job. And we were able to get forced out a little bit further than he'd been for most of the fourth. So it made it a tougher shot. And then as I said, Jimmy made an amazing rebound.
And I know.
You don't like to use.
The word solved.
But to take a 3-1 lead with everything.
They've thrown at.
You guys, do you feel like you.
Have, you know, all.
The answers at this point?
No, no, we don't have any answers. Every game is different. You know they tonight they they just hammered us with Adams you know 26 minutes I bet that's a season high for him I don't know. But Raymond would know if he actually did his job as PR director. But yes. Correct. Okay. Thank you. You're stepping into playoff mode. Playoff Raymond. The first game of the season. But no, I just think every game is different you know. And they made they made big adjustments tonight. You know playing that that double big lineup more playing Green less. But next game could be entirely different as well. So all these things unfold differently each game. And you have to adapt and adjust while it's going on.
Not to kind.
Of.
Over another factor in this game, 19 out of 31 from the foul line for the Houston Rockets. Man you missed 12 free throws in a game like this.
You know what's really crazy between being 3-1 and 2-2. Yeah. Like they've actually played well enough to win all four games. And now they're back is literally against the wall. But I think if you ask them and Kenny you agree with me, they've actually played well enough to win all four of these games. Nope. But so is Golden State. I know that, but I'm talking about the Rockets. I'm talking about. Yeah I mean I mean the Golden State can say I mean the Rockets could say that. But the Rock I mean the Golden State Warriors would never say that we played poor enough to lose. No, but I'm saying so sometimes, you know what I mean. Like, you play a game, you go, we stole this one. We didn't play well. We I don't think Golden State has played out. I'm just talking about from a Rockets perspective. Yeah they play great though. Just they play great in all four games which is crazy.
And they are down three games to one after the 109-106 win for Golden State again. Game Five in Houston on Wednesday night. When we come.
Back, oh, you're not serious.
Game Four in Miami.
Oh my god. Come on honey, y'all trying some stuff out Kenny.
Would the Cavs be able to complete the sweep?
I'm not going to Cancun. They're not even going t