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00:00Thanks for the call.
00:01Appreciate it.
00:02Yeah, Buddy, I'm not going to compare Buddy to the way Steph moves around the court.
00:05Nobody in the history of ever does that, and Buddy doesn't either.
00:08His role is to find an open space and be there to knock down an open shot.
00:15Again, you can see it how you see it.
00:17I want to see it as giving the Houston Rockets a little bit of credit on defense
00:21that they realized that Buddy had the hot hand, and so they guarded him very closely.
00:26Does anybody notice the way the Warriors guarded Fred VanVleet last night?
00:30Very, very different than the way they were guarding Fred VanVleet earlier in the series
00:35because they acknowledged finally, dude, is on a heater, and we've got to stop him.
00:41So they were very, very much in his face, and VanVleet, who's been brilliant,
00:46brilliant from three-point range, was only able to get up six attempts.
00:50In fact, as a squad, and this might be one of the craziest things I've seen in an NBA game recently,
00:57the Rockets were only able to attempt 18 threes, and that's not by choice.
01:03In fact, they lamented it after the game, but the Warriors were absolutely in their shorts
01:08on the three-point line.
01:09They defended it brilliantly last night.
01:11It's because they didn't turn it over, and so as you mentioned earlier,
01:14when the Rockets get into the half court, they're not that effective.
01:17And so when the Rockets do get into their half court offense, what's their best possible outcome?
01:22And it is Shen Goon against whoever, and you back him down, you back him down,
01:27you get that little half hook, and if not that, then maybe it's Ahmed Thompson attacking.
01:32But if Fred VanVleet can't get open for an even, an easy, rather open three-point shot,
01:39you don't have a good three-point shooting team.
01:40You're one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the association.
01:43And so if the Warriors don't turn it over and they make you a half court offense,
01:48you're not going to be that effective, especially from three.
01:51Yeah, I look at it, and yes, Moody was off.
01:54Pods was too.
01:56Pods still had nine points.
01:58He did some things out there, right?
02:00He was able to get a couple of assists.
02:02He had some rebounds.
02:03He had a couple of floaters that were able to go in, but he was off.
02:06He was off last night.
02:07Moody was tremendously off.
02:09In fact, I saw one of the texts just came through, I think it was 5-1-0 on the Boxer
02:14and Gerson work injury attorney's text line with an observation that I didn't even realize.
02:19He said, I think Kavon Looney had 100% of the Warriors' bench points last night.
02:25He did.
02:26And that's a true fact.
02:27That's a true fact.
02:27Yeah.
02:28Three points off the bench, 100 points from the starters last night,
02:33and all but Pods well into double digits, and Pods had nine.
02:37But that means 12 points from Pods and Looney, 91 points from Steph, Jimmy, Buddy, and Draymond.
02:48Wow.
02:48Right.
02:49That's a Game 7 performance.
02:50It is, and they played about 91% of the minute.
02:53So, I mean, it's not that alarming.
02:55But if you want to look at Buddy, and the caller said, you know, he should have had 43.
02:59If you look at the game, and you see how Houston defended in the first half,
03:03they played a lot of zone, and Buddy was open.
03:05And in the second half, they played a lot more man-to-man.
03:08And when you play man-to-man, Buddy's not going to be able to,
03:11unless you set screens for him off the ball, he's not going to get free to be able to get open threes.
03:16And if you're in the half court, you're going to run those same actions for Steph Curry,
03:21for him to get open threes.
03:22And he did, and that's when Steph kind of came to life.
03:24You're listening to 95.7 The Game, KGMZ FM and HC1 San Francisco,
03:28and Odyssey Sports Station, always live on the free Odyssey app.
03:32And now coming to you live from the Laughing Monk Studios.
03:35It's Willard and Dibbs, and we are in a true celebration sensation
03:39off of the Game 7 victory on the road.
03:42Third time that Steph Curry's Warriors have done that in his career.
03:46888-957-9570.
03:48What is your Game 7 story?
03:50And when you look back on the series, what kind of jumps out?
03:53And it wasn't until today that my sort of like look back on the series takeaway
03:58sort of came into focus.
04:00I think there's a thousand things.
04:02When you get that many games and that much going on,
04:04there's all kinds of things you can focus on.
04:07A handful of days ago, the physicality of the series.
04:10And there's all kinds of talk about Dylan Brooks and Draymond Green
04:14and all of their action on the court.
04:15And people slapping at Steph Curry's thumb.
04:18And the Warriors' brains versus the youth of the Rockets.
04:20And then the Rockets with their rebounding edge and their athleticism.
04:24All of these things were kind of in the hopper.
04:27And then we pop out the other side of the series.
04:30And for me, it felt like going through a tunnel
04:33and coming out the other side of the tunnel and then going,
04:37okay, like what are you actually looking at here?
04:40And it dawned on me.
04:41And this is really nothing more than a huge compliment
04:44to the emotional fortitude of the Golden State Warriors.
04:50I look at this series and I go, wow, all of the adversity was on one side.
04:57All of it.
04:59All of the adversity was on one side.
05:01And I'm sure Houston would be like, hold on a second.
05:04We had to deal with this, that, or the other.
05:06Sure, there's the stuff that's baked into a series.
05:10You're frustrated by the refs one night.
05:12Somebody else gets hot.
05:13Buddy healed for 33.
05:14Are you kidding me?
05:15Same thing we felt about Fred Van Vliet back in game number four.
05:19It's like, what the hell kind of a heater is this guy on?
05:21But the actual out-of-your-control adversity of Jimmy Butler missing two games
05:27and Steph having a golf ball in his thumb
05:30and Pods missing a game sick and GP2 missing a game sick
05:36and the fact that the Rockets started with home court advantage,
05:40the fact that the Rockets finished with home court advantage.
05:44And if you want to throw this in, the fact that Steph Curry, after games one through three,
05:51really kind of went through what, for him, is a bit of a dead zone.
05:55All of that happens.
05:57And then I go to look at the Rockets.
05:58I go, okay, what did the Rockets deal with?
06:02An empty injury report the entire series?
06:05I'm going up against two players who are four-time champs.
06:08Well, sure.
06:08But that's like baked in, though, right?
06:11I mean, that's just the match-up.
06:12I suppose it's still adversity.
06:13And you have a team that's never been in the playoffs before, for the most part.
06:17I know that Van Vliet had and Stephen Adams had as your seventh man.
06:21And Brooks had, sure.
06:22Right.
06:22But other than that, most of your other guys have never been through it before.
06:26So it's not adversity that comes from injury, but it's adversity nonetheless.
06:31And you have to figure out how you go through it.
06:33And the adversity is that you go down 3-1 and you win two straight games and, you know,
06:38you get the thing back to Houston on your home court.
06:41Yeah, they battled back.
06:42I give their sort of emotional fortitude, I give them high marks on that as well, just
06:47for battling back.
06:48But as far as things that aren't baked in, that just sort of showed up in the middle of
06:54the series that you have to deal with, that team was 100% healthy the entire time.
07:01They were 100% healthy.
07:03Nobody got sick.
07:05Nobody this, nobody that.
07:06I'm sure there are things like with any story that we don't know about that were going on
07:10behind the scenes.
07:11But as far as this idea, if I had thrown this scenario at you before the series started,
07:18if I had said Houston would start with home court advantage, they would finish with home
07:22court advantage, I would tell you that Steph's thumb would swell into where, look at, maybe
07:27Well, you came into the series with a bad thumb.
07:29Right.
07:29But I don't think it looked that bad.
07:33As it did in the middle of the series when that picture was taken, like he's got a growth
07:36in his thumb.
07:37Little, if I literally just said Jimmy Butler's going to miss two games, you already would
07:41have been like, oh bleep.
07:42That's trouble.
07:43Right.
07:43And then pods is sick and GP2 is sick.
07:45And you throw all that into a bucket.
07:47If I had said that to you before the series, I think most people would say, Warriors are
07:51going to have a hard time winning that series.
07:53But if I also said that, you know, the older team is going to have injuries and the younger
07:58team won't, you probably wouldn't have been that surprised by that because you watched
08:02Ahmed Thompson last night.
08:04He took a fall that Jimmy took and that Steph took and that they've all taken.
08:08You saw him, his knee buckled and he went down and he fell hard and he's 22.
08:13He got up and he was fine because he's 22.
08:16I don't know if he was fine.
08:17Like, I hear you, but he also had to leave the game.
08:19And in fact, on back to back possessions, Steph went right by him on one possession.
08:24And then the next possession, Thompson flat gave up because he couldn't move.
08:28He didn't miss two games.
08:29I mean, he was able to come back and still play basketball is my point.
08:32That five point run at the start of the fourth quarter effectively ended Houston's run at
08:37the end of the third.
08:38Yeah, I think the end of the third is what, you know, and the start of the fourth maybe
08:42as well, but they were in trouble already.
08:44Yeah, exactly.
08:44No doubt.
08:45I don't disagree with you on that.
08:46I just think that if you look at an older team and you look at the fact that they sustained
08:50injuries, injuries that were, you know, like Steph didn't miss any time.
08:55No, he was able to play through it.
08:57And Draymond's been, quote unquote, injured for what, five years now?
09:01Apparently.
09:02I mean, that's the other thing.
09:03The injuries they sustained, I don't really consider to be old man injuries.
09:08Like Jimmy Butler's injury, that's not because of age.
09:10That's a horrible fall that would hurt anyone of any age.
09:15And Steph's thumb, like I look more at like the muscular type of stuff is the stuff that
09:20I would be worried about when 37 year olds are playing 22 year olds.
09:24But these injuries were different than that.
09:26And whether it's, whether it's makes sense or not, they still had to deal with it.
09:31And all of those things happened.
09:32The adversity was on the Warriors side for sure.
09:35And they still won the series.
09:37That's what stands out to me.
09:39Dustin in San Mateo is next up on Withered and Dibs.
09:42Hi, Dustin.
09:42What you doing?
09:44Hey.
09:45Hey, guys.
09:46Thanks for taking my call.
09:47I just wanted to give a quick shout out.
09:49I know we're talking about sons and our experience.
09:51So me and my son celebrated his 18th birthday yesterday, May the 4th, in an awesome way.
09:56We had dinner at Momo's across from Oracle.
10:00Nice.
10:00Sarah High School represents.
10:02And then we rolled down to the Chase Center for the second half for the after part of the
10:06watch party.
10:07And it was unreal energy.
10:08It was like classic Game 7 vibes.
10:10It was an incredible father-son moment.
10:12Win or lose.
10:13That's what being a fan is all about.
10:15No doubt.
10:16Dustin, I love it.
10:17You know, those road playoff games, and I know the Warriors throughout history, thanks
10:22Dustin, of Chase Center, at times have done that even inside the building.
10:26Maybe not for the early rounds, but I remember doing that for Game 4 against the Boston Celtics,
10:32actually inside the building.
10:34They've now developed this situation where they're doing it outside the building.
10:37I do want to let everybody know that there is no official Warriors watch party tomorrow
10:43night for Game 1 at Minnesota because the Valkyries have their first ever preseason game tomorrow
10:51night at Chase Center.
10:52So, no watch party tomorrow, but there will be more coming.
10:56There will definitely be one Thursday.
10:58And if you have not experienced this for Warrior Road Games, you should.
11:03You should.
11:04It's really something else.
11:05And he's not wrong.
11:06The energy down there at Thrive City for these road games is something to see.
11:11It's pretty special.
11:12Yeah.
11:12A lot of people getting together.
11:13And, you know, when it's inside the arena, it's crazy because you get 10,000 people and
11:17you're all watching on the big screen up above.
11:20But something about being out there on Thrive City and the Plaza is even better because
11:24you're outside in that amphitheater and everybody crowding around and you get a chance to,
11:29again, watch it on the big screen outside the arena.
11:31Yeah, it's awesome.
11:32It's awesome.
11:33And Splash also, I watched, what game was that that you went to?
11:37Was that three or four?
11:38Four.
11:38That was four, right?
11:39Yeah.
11:40Christy and I watched that at Splash.
11:41Energy in there was absolutely out of control.
11:44It was wonderful in there.
11:46So, just something to think about as suddenly, I know most of us spent most of the weekend
11:52thinking, well, probably it.
11:54Yeah.
11:55No, we got a bucket four full of games now.
11:57Tomorrow night, Thursday night, Saturday night, at Chase, Monday night, at Chase, at a minimum.
12:05And then very probably, at least, then game five would be Wednesday back in Minnesota.
12:10And if the series continues on beyond that, then the following Sunday, we'll be back here
12:17at Chase Center for game number six.
12:20And then if this thing goes seven again, that would be two weeks from tomorrow.
12:25Tuesday in Minnesota.
12:26But the fact that if you get to a game six, you have Thursday, Friday, Saturday off.
12:32Three days off.
12:33I mean, that's huge.
12:34Huge.
12:35If you happen to be down 3-2.
12:36And, you know, if the home team holds serve, right, you'd be down 3-2.
12:41And you get three days off to come back here for game six, the week after Mother's Day,
12:45that'd be awesome.
12:46Let me ask you this, because you and I threw this out a lot on Friday.
12:49And I'm not going to take back the take yet.
12:53But at the same time, like always, it's one of those things where you arrive at your new
12:59destination.
13:00Maybe you have a little bit of a different perspective.
13:01But you and I were both on the same page going into Friday night.
13:04I'm like, they have to win this one.
13:06Yep.
13:06Not that they couldn't win Sunday, but even if they did win Sunday, I don't like the situation
13:12that leaves an older team in to then hop a flight to Minnesota and be ready to go 48
13:18hours later to buckle up and do this all again.
13:23And so that's what happened.
13:25And so now as we sit here today, do we sort of feel like the Warriors are not adequately
13:33set up for this series that starts tomorrow night?
13:37They are.
13:37Or do you feel differently?
13:39Well, I feel that they're adequately set up as long as they get a split.
13:42And I do think that when you look at game two or I'm sorry, game one tomorrow in Minnesota,
13:47we can get more into this idea tomorrow.
13:50But I think that if I'm Steve Kerr and I approach tomorrow's game after what we just went through,
13:56I'm thinking about playing 10, 11, 12, even 13 guys.
14:02I'm not playing.
14:03I'm not going into game one, playing Jimmy Butler, 45, and Steph, 40.
14:08I'm playing these guys, you know, 30 to 32.
14:12I'm going to make sure that I give everybody a chance to get in there.
14:16I'm going to use as many fresh legs as I can tomorrow.
14:18Yeah, we can talk about this more tomorrow.
14:20I agree with you on the minute total for the starters.
14:24I don't know if I agree with you with how far down the bench I'm going.
14:27I'm keeping my rotation, my eight to nine man rotation.
14:30I'm going to try to win the basketball game.
14:32I'm going to try to win the game as well, but I'm going to expand a little bit deeper.
14:35And, you know, think about the Rocket Series where Jonathan Kaminga started a game and he
14:40played in three games and he was all but buried and he probably still is buried.
14:45And Quinton Post, he played a bunch in a game and then he didn't play at all last night.
14:50So, I do think that you look at it and all players are on the table in terms of you might
14:57get a chance to get in there.
14:58Pat Spencer might get eight minutes.
15:02You're bringing up names that suggest to me the Warriors are down by 25.
15:05That's all.
15:06I just wouldn't.
15:07Not necessarily.
15:08I mean, yes, they're on the table.
15:09I would leave them there.
15:10He played last night and they were not down by 25.
15:13I mean, he logged a total of zero minutes.
15:16I know he went in with eight seconds.
15:17With eight seconds left to go.
15:19They were not down 25.
15:20Quinton Post did actually play.
15:22He played three minutes last night.
15:22And you know what I noticed?
15:23What?
15:24Is when they went to that last second GT lineup, garbage time.
15:27Yeah.
15:28Kaminga.
15:30They put him in there for that.
15:31It was TJD.
15:32Yep.
15:33Gee.
15:33Yep.
15:34Pat.
15:34Yep.
15:35Kaminga.
15:36And who?
15:36Who was the last one in?
15:38Was it Moody?
15:39And Noxie?
15:40Post?
15:41No.
15:41No, Nox.
15:42I don't have him in front of me.
15:43Nox and Braxton Key did not go in.