- 5/2/2025
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00:00This one to me, easy peasy to say it.
00:03This is easily the biggest game in the Jimmy Butler era.
00:07And based on everything that we've always watched Jimmy Butler do,
00:13this is what he's built for.
00:14This is what he's built for.
00:16I like a comment that I saw our friend Tim Kawakami make
00:20after the loss on, what night was it?
00:25Wednesday night.
00:25Yep.
00:26And he basically said, look, if you are a great team, you win this game.
00:33You set this up the exact same way.
00:37Not that they set it up, but this has gone the exact same way
00:40that the Memphis series went three years ago.
00:45That proved to be a great team.
00:47You got blown out by 30.
00:49You came right back two nights later.
00:51You won a home game.
00:52It ended up with a championship.
00:54To me, it's an eerily similar experience that the Warriors are having here.
01:01And now you have a team coming in, a bunch of 22-year-old kids.
01:05I understand that they were able to stand up and kind of do what some people
01:10questioned whether or not they could do two nights ago.
01:13This is an even different assignment.
01:15This one is obviously a totally different assignment.
01:17To do this on the road, knowing that the Warriors will have all of the energy in the building
01:23and they will play it similar to a Game 7 situation.
01:27If the Warriors are built the way many of us think they are built, you win this basketball game.
01:33You absolutely should.
01:34And you think about the way that this has gone in the past, where the 7 seed has beaten the 2 seed.
01:40And the last time was just two years ago.
01:43And it was the Memphis Grizzlies who lost to LeBron and Anthony Davis as the 7 seed.
01:49And, of course, they would go on to beat the Warriors in that next round.
01:53The Warriors, I believe, were the 6 and thus got home court in the second round.
01:57But the Lakers were the 7 that beat the 2.
02:00And, as I mentioned before, they got the split and then they went on to Memphis
02:05and they won two games and they were able to close them out in 6 in similar fashion.
02:09And I think about that because of who that Memphis team was.
02:13And it was a lot of the same guys we saw this year with Memphis, but they were two years younger.
02:17Ja Morant, Jaron Jackson Jr., two years ago, these were just kids.
02:22And I don't have the exact ages in front of me,
02:24but I would bet that Ja and Triple J's were in their 22, 23.
02:29I don't think that Ja Morant was yet.
02:31This was three years ago, right?
02:32This was two years ago.
02:34Two years ago when the, it was 2023, Lakers over the Grizzlies.
02:38Oh, you're talking about that.
02:39Got it.
02:40Okay.
02:40Yeah, I'm talking about the year that the Warriors beat Sacramento.
02:42Yeah.
02:43And then lost to the Lakers in the second round.
02:45Ja is 25.
02:46So.
02:47He was 23.
02:47Yeah.
02:48Similar age to what we're looking at with most of the Rockets' top players.
02:51And Jaron Jackson Jr. was probably also about maybe a year older.
02:56But the greater point is that this Memphis team, this Houston team.
03:01Jaron's 25 also.
03:02Right.
03:02So he was 23.
03:04And Salty Adama played 29 minutes in that game, and he was probably about 23.
03:09And I'm not trying to get you to Google all these guys' ages.
03:11I'm just drawing.
03:11I can.
03:12I have a computer.
03:13I know you do.
03:14Yeah.
03:14The call-up for me is that Memphis team was a young team, higher seeded than L.A., and
03:21they got into a six-game matchup.
03:24And the Lakers, by the way, in that game six, they won by 40 in L.A.
03:29So that's where the veterans said, come here.
03:32That's enough of that.
03:32Come here, Ja.
03:33Yeah.
03:33We're going to swaddle you.
03:34Jaron Jackson Jr., we're going to put you in the cribby, and we're going to spank that.
03:39I don't see that tonight.
03:42I don't know that it would shock me, though.
03:44Like, the idea of a Warriors, and I don't want to say, you know, by 30 or 40, any of that stuff.
03:50But would a runaway, comfortable win surprise you tonight?
03:54It would.
03:55Yep.
03:55It would.
03:55It would.
03:56Absolutely.
03:56Why?
03:57Because I think that Houston, at their core, the way they play with the grit and with the
04:03grime, and you and I spent a lot of the show yesterday debating that essence.
04:08I don't want to get into that again because we're getting ready for a game six.
04:11But I would be surprised.
04:13And I look at that Memphis team from two years ago.
04:15Dylan Brooks on that team, by the way.
04:17Yep.
04:17Desmond Bain as well.
04:19Memphis was good.
04:20They won 51 games in the regular year.
04:22They were the two seed, but they were young pups.
04:25And this Houston team, I do think, has a little bit more going for them in terms of coaching.
04:31I think that Ime Udoka is a better coach than Taylor Jenkins, certainly.
04:35I agree with that.
04:36I also think that matchup-wise.
04:38He has a job, so, you know.
04:39There you go.
04:40The only one of the two that can say that.
04:41I think that Houston, matchup-wise, is more suited to compete with the Warriors tonight
04:48than that Memphis team was against L.A.
04:50I'd love to also dive into this.
04:53And, Grandy, if you have the Bob Myers comment that was made to Steini and Goo today, I loved
04:59this.
04:59And it really caught my attention at length.
05:03Because, as I said, doing the walk through the city today and just kind of zoning out,
05:08looking at the water, had the AirPods in.
05:11The guys are talking.
05:11Beautiful day.
05:12Beautiful day.
05:13And the guys are talking to Bob Myers.
05:15They did an unbelievable job with Bob.
05:17There's such rapport there.
05:19And so, Bob really gives them great stuff.
05:22And I thought this was one hell of an answer.
05:25Because they kind of dove into, and whether they meant to, I don't know.
05:30But they dove into, like, what do we not really know about this situation from the outside
05:36looking in, as fans and media?
05:38And Bob was like, you know, in the position I was in, like, one of the things that would
05:45shock you, and then let's hear it.
05:49Listen to what he says about players and the game they're coming off of.
05:54Go ahead.
05:55I know it's human nature to look at the last game, or even the game before that.
06:00We overreact strongly to all these things.
06:04And I actually asked Curry one time, I don't know what year it was, because he, you know,
06:08he had some games in the playoffs, even when it was those dynastic teams, where he would
06:13not have his best game.
06:14And the media would come down on him, and he'd hear it, because it gets louder as you
06:19go further in the playoffs.
06:20And I asked him, I said, how do you, seriously, how do you not hear it?
06:25He looked at me and said, you just, you know, you can't.
06:28It doesn't serve you.
06:29It doesn't.
06:30And he said, but at the same time, I can't hear it when they love me too.
06:35So that's the, that's the, that's the science.
06:38That's, that's the emotional maturity of maybe a veteran team.
06:41You talk about the advantage of going through it.
06:43You better believe Jimmy Butler's been called great, awful in a three-day span.
06:49So has Curry.
06:50So has Draymond Green.
06:53So what he's basically saying is, and we've said it a few times this week alone, you think
06:58that, that, that game on Wednesday night, you remember what happened?
07:01They don't.
07:02Could not be more irrelevant than it is.
07:07And so I hear people do this and, and I'm prone to it as well.
07:12You feel differently now in this moment than you did two days ago.
07:16But two days ago, the Warriors were up 3-1 and everyone's like, so Minnesota or the Lakers
07:22or what do you think?
07:23The confidence could not be higher.
07:25Well, now tonight there is an inherent fear and nervousness that's going to be in the
07:32building.
07:32There's going to be an angst.
07:34And I get it.
07:34I'm not saying it shouldn't be there.
07:36What I'm saying is I just do not think what we watched happen on Wednesday night, I don't
07:42think it means a damn thing.
07:44So it does not mean that the Warriors are in the process of blowing anything.
07:48It doesn't mean that the Rockets are suddenly worthy of some analysis that you didn't have
07:53before.
07:54We already knew they were good.
07:56I just don't think they're ready, but they're good.
07:58They've always been a good basketball team.
08:00I never thought this would be a sweep or even a five-game series.
08:04This series is exactly where it should be.
08:09And the Warriors are a heavy favorite in this game tonight for a reason.
08:13Yeah, it's because they were favored to start the series.
08:17And I was looking at the series prices for where we are in this one, and the Warriors
08:21are minus 550.
08:23You've got to bet 550 to win 100 on the Warriors, which means that the Vegas odds are confident
08:30that they'll win tonight.
08:31Or even if they don't, they'll go out and they'll win game seven.
08:34And I know that the odds would shift if the Warriors lost tonight, but this to me is just
08:39a classic case of the younger team, the inexperienced team, they went balls to the wall.
08:45Can I say that?
08:46You just said.
08:47Okay.
08:47I'm looking at Tim Jordan, chief engineer, and he would let me know if it was out of bounds.
08:52But they did that.
08:53They went there.
08:54And the Warriors went into shutdown mode because they realized, all right, this is not going
08:59our way.
09:00We're going to rest up and get ready for game six.
09:03And this is where the veteran team comes out and they exert their will.
09:07Are they a lot better than Houston?
09:09No, but they're better.
09:11And unless Houston does what they did in game five, which is shoot 69% in the first half,
09:17if Houston plays to form and the Warriors play to form, the Warriors win this game by seven
09:22to ten.
09:23I just, I think the Warriors will come out with the defensive effort in this game that
09:28Steve said he did not see in game five.
09:30That does not mean the Rockets won't play well.
09:32If the Rockets are here to play and if they execute well and if they shoot the ball well,
09:36I do think it's a close game in the fourth quarter.
09:38I don't know that they're going to do that.
09:40I do have faith, though, that the Warrior defense is going to be energetic in ways that it was
09:45not a couple of nights ago.
09:47And that game is just completely irrelevant to what we're going to see out there tonight.
09:52In other words, coming off of Wednesday, I think there was a question, and maybe it still
09:59is for certain fans out there, as to whether or not, like, is there a growing problem?
10:05Is there an issue?
10:06Did Houston figure out some sort of an adjustment?
10:09Did they, you know, did they find a way to defend Steph Curry?
10:15Every single game totally has its own energy, and I think that this one will have a completely
10:22different energy than what we saw two nights ago.
10:24And I do think that they figured it out, and I'll put game five aside because that game
10:30just really got away from the Warriors, and whatever Memphis did was largely not even that
10:36much of a factor because the Warriors just got blasted.
10:39They got blown out, and then they shut it down.
10:41But game four, what they did to limit Steph Curry, they played a lot of zone.
10:46They switched into box and won.
10:48They made life hard on Steph Curry, and the Warriors still won.
10:50So it's up to Steve Kerr and the coaching staff, and I have faith in the coaching staff.
10:56For sure.
10:57You know, Terry Stotts, he's been a head coach in the Association for a long time, and Jerry
11:00Stackhouse, and, you know, Bruce Frazier and the rest of the team, the second row coaches.
11:06I believe that they're going to have a counter to Houston's counter.
11:10So I don't think that the Warriors come out tonight and Houston plays defense the way they
11:15have, and the Warriors just throw their hands up because they don't know what to do to
11:18try to counteract it.
11:19I want to go to Boxer and Gerson Work Injury Attorneys text line and just acknowledge Bill
11:27Zerkley, who texts in Willard and Dibbs in the Matrix.
11:33Now, if you're watching on YouTube, you will see that we are something that photographers
11:40know all about.
11:41We are what's called backlit.
11:44And what that means is, A, it's a beautiful day outside.
11:47Oh, yeah.
11:48I just want to make sure everybody knows that we're not dead.
11:51We're not in heaven.
11:52It looks like we're in heaven.
11:53Yeah, yeah.
11:54It is kind of heaven.
11:55It's not Iowa.
11:57Is it heaven?
11:58I don't know.
11:59It might be in a few hours.
12:00It's Chase Center.
12:02Yeah.
12:02And we're here, and there's a very large basketball game tonight.
12:05But we're still alive.
12:06I just want to let everybody know.
12:08My agent actually just texted me, and he told me that they're doing a remake of the movie
12:12Powder, and they want me to be the lead character.
12:15That one flew way over my head.
12:18I'm sorry.
12:18It was a guy who had alopecia and was unbelievably white in his complexion.
12:23How old is the movie Powder?
12:25Powder, I'm going to put it at 1999 for Powder is my guess.
12:30Okay, movie.
12:31The movie Powder was in 1995.
12:33Not bad.
12:35Randy, if you would, please.
12:37It's your comfort zone.
12:38Give him a mysterious albino teenager, Jeremy Powder Reed.
12:43Yeah, yeah.
12:44Yeah.
12:441995, I was in college, and so you don't catch.
12:49So was I.
12:49Yeah, you don't catch things when you're in college.
12:53Like, that's its own plan.
12:54I was in college from 86 to 99.
12:57No, you weren't.
12:59Do you want me to bring in my transcript?
13:02You did not go to college for 13 years.
13:05I went to college for 13 years, and you know.
13:08You did?
13:08Just a quick aside.
13:09Normally, when you get grades, you get A, B, C, D, and F.
13:13A, B, C, D, F.
13:14Yeah, that's five options.
13:15On my transcript, there are 11 different letters.
13:18There's consonants and vowels that you don't even have any idea.
13:22I got I's and U's and W's.
13:24I give you an A.
13:24I got a F you from a teacher.
13:25I give you an A for your memory because you just came up with a 30-year-old reference
13:30that me and 87% numbers or more did not get.
13:37Yeah.
13:37But anyway.
13:38Anyway, powder.
13:39Rotten Tomatoes, 50%.
13:40If you're going to make a 30-year-old reference, make it a good movie, not a crappy one.
13:45I gave it a 52, and if you didn't see it, then you don't get to say.
13:48Anyway, get to YouTube, and you can catch me in powder, too.
13:52Yes, and still alive, hashtag Pearl Jam.
13:55All right.
13:568 at 8, 957.
13:599570 is the number.
14:00Hi, everybody.
14:01How are you doing?
14:02Give us a phone call.
14:04Interviewing for a job or a tour group?
14:06What do you think?
14:07I'll get to tour.
14:08Look at me.
14:08Is it a three-hour tour?
14:10Now, there's your 80-year-old reference.
14:13We are so fired.
14:14Anyway, this is not going well, but it'll turn around.
14:18It's early.
14:19It's not even the first quarter.
14:208 at 8, 957.
14:219570 is the number.
14:23Taking your phone calls on this game tonight that I very much believe is probably the linchpin.
14:29It's probably the linchpin.
14:31I know today everyone feels really good about everything that the Warriors have done,
14:36and I wouldn't suggest otherwise.
14:37I just think that things can quickly take a turn in the other direction,
14:42and the view from 10,000 feet would not be great if the final answer of the story
14:50is the Warriors didn't even get out of round one.
14:54And, oh, by the way, became one of the few teams in NBA history to blow a 3-1 lead.
15:00Or if you were to get into round two and be exhausted
15:04and get either a sweep or a gentleman's sweep out of that series,
15:07I don't think this organization is built to feel good about that outcome.
15:14But if you win tonight, you do get a little ahead of steam going into round two.
15:18I think they'll be competitive.
15:19Who knows?
15:20Maybe even win it.
15:21But to me, that sort of surpasses the bar as to whether or not Jimmy Butler's trade
15:26goes from a double to a home run.
15:28I agree with that.
15:29And you said that earlier this morning, and I thought, man, that's a little bit too positive.
15:34But then I stepped back and thought about exactly what we've gone through
15:38since the trade deadline, which is his team is stuck in the mud.
15:41They got Jimmy.
15:42Oh, boy.
15:43He's going to be a locker room problem and all the rest of it.
15:47And will he fit and this and that and let J.K. cook.
15:50And you go out and you win 75% of your games.
15:53And you brace up the standings.
15:55And you settle at seven.
15:56And then you realize, I realized anyway, that even if this ends in the first round,
16:01which would be terrible, and we'll spend all next week talking about how they became
16:06the 14th team to blow a 3-1 lead.
16:08I don't want to go there.
16:09It's a possibility.
16:10But if you took a step back from that, you'd realize that, for me anyway, the takeaway on
16:17the Jimmy Butler acquisition is it works.
16:20And this will work next year and it'll work the year after.
16:23Now, I know they're getting older and I know that that's part of it.
16:26But as far as a basketball fit, Jimmy Butler gives them a dimension that they did not have.
16:33And it's what Jimmy Butler will continue to bring.
16:36I don't disagree with you.
16:37There's one angle where I want to push back on that, though.
16:40And it's another reason why I think tonight is so important.
16:43Okay.
16:44But let's run that through our minds.
16:47Not that I care at all about next year or the year after right now.
16:51Tonight, I do not.
16:52I do not care.
16:52But in a world where Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green are the centerpieces of
16:58your financial structure for your basketball team, yes, you can make other little moves
17:02around them and get other players in here to help them.
17:05That's all true.
17:06But in a world where that's your core, the idea that next year at age 38 and 36 and 36
17:13or the year after that at age 39 and 37 and 37, that they would have a better opportunity
17:20than they have right now tonight, to me feels, it does not feel likely.
17:27I understand the difference being in that next year you get to, in theory, start the year
17:33with this roster.
17:35And maybe that ends up at a very much better seed.
17:38That's possible.
17:39But the way I look at it is, this is as obviously, this is as young as they're going to be together
17:46over the next three years.
17:48You are up 3-1.
17:50You are home with your opportunity to advance.
17:54You are no longer the seven seed.
17:56You are now just a team, and they're a team, and you're the team with the edge.
18:00And the home court advantage and all of those things.
18:03So the idea that this trade is going to get better a year from now or two years from now
18:10than it is right now, I have a hard time believing that.
18:13Well, your team...
18:14Tonight's the night.
18:14Your team would hopefully get better is, for me, the big part of it.
18:18And you already said that, you know, they're getting Cam Johnson next year.
18:22You've been definitive about that, believe.
18:23No, I don't.
18:24No, I know, but...
18:25I don't believe it.
18:26I hope for it.
18:27But let's just play with that as an idea.
18:28And I don't want to get too much into the future because we're here on game six.
18:31But my bigger point is that they have the ability to get better in the offseason.
18:37And I do think that they will look to do that.
18:39And they're going to be different next year anyway.
18:41So even though the guys, the core three, get older, doesn't necessarily mean to me that
18:46the team gets worse.
18:47But I want to go back to what you said at the start of this.
18:50And this is the best chance for them to make some noise.
18:57If you beat the two seed, I know Minnesota is good, but they're the sixth seed.
19:02And even at that, if you look at this year, and I'll take you back to 2010, 2010, the Spurs
19:08were the seven and Dallas was the two.
19:10The Spurs were the seven with 50 wins.
19:12And Dallas was the two with 55.
19:15It was the only time that all eight playoff teams had 50 or more wins.
19:19Wow.
19:19Which reminds me of this year where the difference between the two and the seven was four games.
19:26Everybody had 48 or more.
19:27Everybody had, even Memphis, 48 or more.
19:30So you're right.
19:31Forget the seed.
19:32The Warriors were favored.
19:33But even beyond that, and we'll put Oklahoma City in the on-deck circle for now because
19:38they were historically good.
19:40And I think that no matter who comes out of the next round is going to have a very hard
19:44time to beat that team.
19:46But we'll worry about that in mid to late May, hopefully.
19:49But for the rest of it, Minnesota's a six.
19:51That would be your opponent.
19:53Houston's a two.
19:54But you beat them in the regular season, and they were only four games better.
19:57So to your point about the best situation, the best scenario, this is it, Mark.
20:03Well, not only because of all the things you're saying, but this is the best chance for them
20:10to do it because it's the only one that's reality.
20:12Like, it's here.
20:13Right.
20:13I mean, oh, well, next year, well, next year, what if someone gets suspended for a month
20:19and a half?
20:20That doesn't happen to this team.
20:20What if somebody gets hurt?
20:22What if they all get hurt?
20:24Oh, God.
20:24What if Jimmy does turn into a pumpkin and start getting mad at everybody?
20:28Like, there are a billion.
20:30What if we get hit by a meteorite?
20:31What if Kyle Shanahan tells us we don't even make it to next season?
20:35I don't know what the hell the future holds.
20:37Yeah, you're right.
20:38But I know there's a game tonight.
20:41I know they're playing a game tonight.
20:43And they have an opportunity.
20:45They are favored to win it and advance in the playoffs.
20:49So it's not even just that my mind doesn't want to go to the future.
20:53I got a real hard time believing that this, in some way, is going to get better, at least
20:59by likelihood.
21:01It is likely.
21:03It's all the only word that I've been using all day.
21:05Likely or probable.
21:07It is probable that this is the night that decides whether or not the Jimmy Butler trade
21:14was a home run.
21:15And it is likely that this is as good of a chance as they are going to get to maneuver
21:21through the Western Conference playoffs, maybe for the remainder of Steph Curry's career.
21:26It could be.
21:27And you look at the West, and again, I don't want to get too into next year, but just at
21:31a 30,000-foot view, Minnesota's superstar is not even in his prime.
21:38Houston's core is all maybe in their teenage years.
21:41I'm not even sure.
21:42Oklahoma City don't get me started.
21:44They're all pups.
21:45Like, Shea is probably 28.
21:46He's prime.
21:48But a lot of the rest of their team is pre-prime.
21:51The Lakers, you could forget about them for now because they're out.
21:55And yeah, they're old and broken.
21:57But I just named three quick teams.
21:59And Denver, the Joker's still in his prime.
22:02Still in their prime.
22:03Still in their prime.
22:03Sure.
22:04They're still formidable, and they're a factor.
22:06The Clippers are a little bit of a different one because, you know, their two best players
22:09are in their mid-30s.
22:11So they're kind of in the Warriors' bucket, right?
22:13Yeah.
22:13And then you've got to keep your eye in the rearview mirror to see if anybody else can
22:17join the party.
22:18Portland, San Antonio, there are ways where those teams start to come of age, too.
22:23San Antonio getting Cooper flagged.
22:24For sure.
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