LIVE: Team USA vs. Puerto Rico Olympics Postgame Show | Garden Report
The Garden Report crew goes LIVE for an Olympics edition! Join John Zannis and Noa Dalzell for postgame analysis of Team USA's game against Puerto Rico.
0:00 - Postgame recap
7:43 - Tatum's shooting rhythm
10:02 - Tatum's role adjustment
12:01 - Tatum and Embiid minutes
14:02 - Tatum's shooting mechanics
18:02 - Mental aspect of shooting
21:10 - Tatum's evolving game
24:01 - Tatum's potential return
26:30 - Tatum's impact on team
30:01 - Key players for Kerr
34:01 - Booker's impressive role
36:00 - LeBron as closer
39:00 - Germany and Canada
43:00 - Kevin Durant appreciation
45:36 - USA Basketball improvement
48:01 - Team USA's expectations
50:37 - Women's USA Basketball update
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Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Terms apply. Go to https://gametime.co !
0:00 - Postgame recap
7:43 - Tatum's shooting rhythm
10:02 - Tatum's role adjustment
12:01 - Tatum and Embiid minutes
14:02 - Tatum's shooting mechanics
18:02 - Mental aspect of shooting
21:10 - Tatum's evolving game
24:01 - Tatum's potential return
26:30 - Tatum's impact on team
30:01 - Key players for Kerr
34:01 - Booker's impressive role
36:00 - LeBron as closer
39:00 - Germany and Canada
43:00 - Kevin Durant appreciation
45:36 - USA Basketball improvement
48:01 - Team USA's expectations
50:37 - Women's USA Basketball update
The Garden Report is Powered by:
Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Terms apply. Go to https://gametime.co !
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SportsTranscript
00:00Can you say hardhats folks? Hardhats, munch pails, steel tool, boots.
00:08Anything short of a championship this year is a fail.
00:10Look at this boomer right here.
00:12You've just got so much talent here.
00:15Somebody said we need to apologize for Jalen.
00:17Can I pull the John? What are we apologizing for? What did we say? What did we do?
00:21Alright, what's going on guys? John Zanis, Noah Dalzell here doing a brief, brief post-game recap of USA defeating Puerto Rico 1-0-4-83 in a fairly non-eventful ho-hum affair, which is what was expected.
00:43And that doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
00:45But it is what it is. USA is finishing as the number one overall seed, awaiting their opponent in the quarterfinals, the eighth seed.
00:53There's still a few teams that it could be there.
00:57I feel like one of the more likely scenarios, Serbia beating South Sudan by more than three points would make Greece that team there in the eighth spot.
01:07But there's still other possibilities of who it could be.
01:09So we'll have to wait to see who that opponent is.
01:12But again, I don't think it necessarily matters.
01:15Maybe not until a little bit later. We'll see how that whole bracket breaks down.
01:18And this was very much a tune-up today.
01:22A little bit of news going in. We'll get into that.
01:26Jason Tatum, we'll talk about his performance as well.
01:28Saw a few shots go down early.
01:31And, you know, had a lot of people feeling better about it.
01:34And a lot of Celtics Twitter saying, see, he's good.
01:38You know, and it's a good day. Good day to be a Tatum backer, Celtics fan today.
01:43You know, you got a little, you know, got a little back here.
01:46It had been a rough couple of weeks for Jason Tatum in terms of, you know, the type of online treatment he had been getting.
01:52This is a little bit of a boost for that Celtics injury to talk about.
01:57We'll tell you that as well.
01:59The show, as always, is brought to you by Game Time, a ticket app, ticket marketplace,
02:06where you can get the best seats to the best shows or games in town.
02:12Lots of Major League Baseball action you can get in on.
02:14Tons of concerts. I'm going to one tonight.
02:18Game Time app. Download it. Use the code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase.
02:23Terms do apply. Let's get into the game. Your initial thoughts.
02:26And again, we'll talk. Well, let's just talk about what happened, right?
02:29To start, Noam, Drew Holiday, who was announced after last game, was going to start, did not start.
02:35We saw him roll his ankle a little bit. He stayed in the game.
02:38But as you know, with ankles, oftentimes things swell up later that night.
02:43The next day, really no need to play anybody on a balky, you know, like, you know, ankle.
02:51Doesn't appear that it's going to be anything serious.
02:53That being said, every Celtics fan is always going to hold their breath
02:56when they see an injury to one of their players here.
02:58I think we're OK regarding this. But again, hopefully he's not badly hurt,
03:04both for Holiday and for his, you know, Celtics prospects going forward.
03:10But Jason Tatum starts in his place. Steve Kerr abandons that.
03:14The easiest thing to do would have been to start Derek White there.
03:16But Steve Kerr abandons that, you know, three-guard lineup.
03:20He goes with Tatum alongside Booker to play along with Embiid and LeBron to start.
03:25And he definitely got a couple of things going early here.
03:28A couple of easy buckets, lay-ins, transition, just to kind of get himself right
03:34where, you know, offensively he hasn't really been doing a ton so far in these games.
03:39Yeah, I thought today was a good win for Team USA.
03:42I mean, like you said, this was expected to be a blowout, and it was, despite a slow start.
03:48But overall, you saw everybody contribute. I thought that was kind of the most impressive part.
03:52It was the ball movement is really unrecognizable to how this team looked
03:56a couple of weeks ago at the beginning of exhibition play.
03:58Like, everybody seems to be way more connected.
04:02They were getting easy shots, easy looks, layups, open threes.
04:05So kind of exactly what you hope to see with that much talent on the roster.
04:09And then, as you said, I think Tatum did have his best game of the Olympics,
04:13regardless of, you know, how you want to measure it.
04:15He still didn't seem to get in, like, a shooting rhythm.
04:18I think the last shot that he took there was like a front-rim three-pointer.
04:22Never a good sign for a shooter. I think that's kind of like the worst feeling you can have.
04:26But overall, I thought he impacted the game well defensively.
04:29Obviously, rebounded really well, and that's a way that he can continue to impact this team
04:33because rebounding is always going to be a challenge in international basketball
04:35with the physicality and with so many great athletes that are used to banging
04:39and kind of getting bored.
04:40So I thought that was one way he kind of left his imprint on the game, got some points early on.
04:44But yeah, I thought he was one of many players that just played well today,
04:47and he didn't look, you know, he didn't hunt his own shot, and maybe he would have found a rhythm.
04:51If he did, maybe he wouldn't have.
04:53But lots of times he, you know, made a move where I think if he was on the Celtics,
04:56he would have taken it all the way or, you know, crossed up and taken a three,
05:00and instead he just passed it to somebody else.
05:02Yeah.
05:03Which I do think there's a healthy balance of that, and, you know,
05:05everybody's kind of doing that a little bit, and increasingly so as we kind of go along here.
05:08So yeah, it was a very even team effort outside of Anthony Edwards,
05:12who obviously had a phenomenal game and kind of led the way there.
05:15Yeah.
05:16And so there's going to be the push and pull in terms of, you know,
05:19trying to break down a Tatum performance like this one.
05:22Everything that he got was relatively, you know, easy.
05:27Not easy.
05:28I mean, look, I said, you know, he caused a steal.
05:30He got out in transition.
05:31He made a dunk.
05:32He had a mismatch, and he just bullied somebody, Alvarado, I think,
05:35in the paint there to get an easy bucket as well.
05:37But everything's right around the rim, a dunk or a layup or the made shots,
05:41which is, again, we love dunks and layups.
05:45There's nothing wrong with that.
05:46But you're waiting to kind of see him cook there.
05:48And so this is where it is.
05:49Is he just letting the game come to him and everything is natural?
05:52Is there a reluctance to kind of go full Tatum and do his little wiggle
05:57and his shimmy and his shake and try to break guys down and go to the basket?
06:01Because for better or for worse, other people are doing it,
06:05and he appears to be one of the few who are not.
06:08And I think Devin Booker is another one who doesn't appear to be forcing
06:12the issue offensively very much.
06:14But obviously, AD, Curry, even Embiid today, you know, certainly Edwards.
06:20When they see an opening, they're going for it every single time offensively.
06:24They're looking for their shot.
06:25They're trying to create much like they would on regular teams.
06:29But this isn't a regular team.
06:30This is a super team where a forced shot is never a good shot.
06:33A shot early in the clock is never a good shot.
06:36A block up three is never a good shot because you can find people here.
06:40There's so many mismatches all over the floor.
06:42So some people are doing that or some people are looking for their game,
06:46and Tatum is kind of really letting it come to him.
06:48How much of that do you think it's him just being differential in general,
06:52his overall personality and the way he views what he should be doing
06:56on this team, and how much of it is maybe in the back of his mind still be,
06:59I don't know that this jumper is where I want it to be right now.
07:02Because again, the reluctance to shoot even on the threes that he got,
07:06it looks like he doesn't really want to pull it right now at this moment.
07:11Not on this team and not at this moment.
07:13Yeah, I think there's a balance.
07:15One of the things that I've been thinking about over the last few weeks
07:17as we've been talking about Jason Tatum is how he usually starts games,
07:21like first quarters for him.
07:22He's so slow, generally speaking, and he kind of defers to Jalen Brown.
07:25He's talked about it that he likes to kind of watch it
07:28and let the game come to him and feel things out.
07:30And how many games did you see this year where he had two points
07:33or zero points or he was 0 for 4?
07:35I mean, that was a very typical start for him.
07:37And you just can't do that with USA basketball
07:39when you have that much talent around you.
07:41And so, I don't know.
07:43I mean, I know he was good in the last Olympics
07:45and he was a lot more effective scoring-wise.
07:47But everything we're seeing from him right now,
07:49especially how his career has been the last few years,
07:51it seems to kind of make sense.
07:52Like, he's not a guy that makes two for two from, you know,
07:55if he has two open shots, like Derek White's going to hit those too.
07:57Like, he's not a guy that needs a lot of rhythm to get going.
08:00But Tatum's a rhythm shooter,
08:02and I think he just hasn't had the opportunity to find a rhythm.
08:05And it kind of reminds me of, like,
08:06when Xavier Tillman was created at Boston.
08:08He was, like, 0 for 15 for his first threes.
08:11And it's like that's not a shooting struggle
08:13when you haven't been able to get in a rhythm, you know?
08:15It's like you need to have a bigger sample size to get going,
08:17but you're just not going to be able to find that here.
08:19And so, again, I mean, even Curry today was 2 for 8,
08:22and I thought he was going to break out of it and, you know, maybe hit some.
08:25So I don't think we just know enough.
08:27I'm just watching him here to know if there's cause for concern
08:30or if there's anything more to think about
08:31or if it's just the limited sample size
08:33and the fact that he's recognizing that, I mean,
08:35a lot of those shots that he didn't take today are not good shots.
08:37Like, we don't love seeing him take the 10 pull-up threes every game.
08:40You know, like, that's not necessarily a good shot on the Celtics.
08:43It's just even more so accentuated here,
08:46and I think he's making the right call a lot of times by passing it up,
08:48even though it looks kind of strange to just watch him
08:50kind of defer to others like that.
08:52Yeah, because in so many cases, it's like,
08:55he could do what he wants here, you would think, right?
08:58And, you know, you're dying for opportunities like that.
09:01It's like, oh, my God.
09:02Because, I mean, you're not doubling people on this U.S. team.
09:05You know, he's got a matchup every single time he catches the ball.
09:10If this were a regular game, this would be like, oh, my God.
09:13Eyes would be popping out of his head and go, go, go.
09:15So, yeah, it's definitely a different approach,
09:18but I think I do believe, you know,
09:20you've seen the way the ball has moved here with Team USA for the most part.
09:24There really is an emphasis on, you know, getting it, moving it quick,
09:28getting it to open people, work for that open shot,
09:31exploit mismatches, get into the paint wherever you can.
09:34Again, there's just so many different ways this team could beat you.
09:36It's almost like they could just choose every time down the court.
09:40I think if Team USA, again, I'm not sure what's going on with the shot,
09:45and I do think this is something, you know,
09:47there might be a little lab work done afterwards
09:50where there might be some tinkering and tweaking.
09:52And you're right, you're not going to work it out
09:54in international competition on the fly here if something's bothering him.
09:58But I do think if USA decided one trip, one quarter,
10:02we're going to make Tatum the focal point of this offense here
10:05and let him go to work, then he could go to work.
10:07I don't think he's forgotten how to do that.
10:10So I think, you know, any of the massive overreactions right now
10:14are exactly that, you know, overreactions.
10:16What's interesting to me is that when Holiday went out,
10:22that Tatum was the one who slid in there.
10:24Why do you think that is in terms of his ability?
10:27And I think a lot has to do with his overall versatility
10:30and ability to play a lot of different ways over someone like Durant.
10:33And I know they like that second unit offense there.
10:35But the fact that Kerr went to him, it's kind of,
10:38it changes the thinking of he sits game one and you're like,
10:42wow, in Kerr's mind,
10:44does he kind of sort of think Tatum's the one that doesn't fit here?
10:47And then he starts two consecutive,
10:49including one where he subs in for Holiday, which is not, you know,
10:54a straight up swap out type of lineup. And he goes with it anyway.
10:59So, you know,
11:00it might have people rethinking how Kerr actually feels or what Kerr
11:04feels about Tatum's role on the team.
11:06Yeah. I mean,
11:07I think he's being used as like a connective piece on this team and is
11:10more of a role player than a featured player. And so is Drew Holiday.
11:14And so he's kind of an easy fit to plug in offensively and then
11:17defensively, you know, he's very versatile, as you said. Right.
11:19And so, yeah, I mean,
11:21he has a history of kind of being in that position, but also, you know,
11:25I think they like what they're seeing from Kevin Durant and Anthony
11:28Edwards coming off the bench.
11:29There's been a consistent shooting scoring spark from those two guys.
11:34And so I don't think they want to mess up that flow,
11:36but also Tatum hasn't really found that much of a flow,
11:39so he can be used in a lot of different ways without risking kind of
11:42disrupting what he's already been doing.
11:43So I don't think there's much of a risk in any direction, but yeah,
11:46I thought he looked good with that starting lineup and they kind of got him
11:49going early on, gave him a few easy ones.
11:51But I wasn't,
11:52I wasn't shocked with the decision because obviously he made that decision
11:54willingly last game too.
11:55And I did think it was interesting that Tatum and Embiid played the most
11:58minutes of any players today by a few minutes too.
12:01I don't know if that was to like overcompensate for their DNPs or just,
12:04you know,
12:05kind of even out the total minutes here played during this Olympic run,
12:07but I realized that towards the end of the game.
12:09Tatum and Embiid top two minutes on the team, right?
12:12Yeah.
12:13Tied for 23 minutes.
12:14Nobody else played more than 19.
12:16Yeah.
12:17Yeah.
12:18And you do wonder, and look, it's not politics, you know,
12:21in the sense that like, you know,
12:22you don't have to worry about going back and talking to this guy's agent and
12:25having him leave the team because he feel he, you know,
12:27feels he got shunned by you, but you,
12:30there is a respect factor here where Kerr understands that like,
12:36I, it is, it is, I hate saying like Tatum was disrespected,
12:40but like it is disrespectful for really sitting any of these guys
12:45considering their stature in this game. I mean, it's not just Tatum,
12:48but like if you opted to just take anybody out and say,
12:53you're not playing today, it's like, why me? Like I'm, I'm me, you know,
12:58it's very, very weird.
12:59And as you see,
13:00it's the second game in a row and granted one where the score was in hand
13:04and they weren't super worried about it where he did opt to play 11 people
13:07and Halliburton who didn't get run in the first did get in in the second.
13:10So I think Kerr's rethinking that 10 player thing,
13:13things might change in tight games as you get into the elimination round.
13:16So I am curious what happens.
13:18We will talk a little bit about that, just how you see things going forward.
13:22And especially if holiday returns, you know, what's he going to do here,
13:26but he played everybody who was at his disposal today you know,
13:30some minutes and, and you know, it's I think a lot of that has to do with like,
13:35I can't just keep sitting this guy or I, you know,
13:38I definitely think the Tatum and Embiid minutes thing today was,
13:43was a, you know, we got you guys, you know, like you're, you're still,
13:47you're still in and they both started and they both played a lot of minutes
13:50there. I'm not a shot, Dr. Noah. So I'll ask you about it.
13:54Anytime you watch Tatum do his thing.
13:57I see a lot of people say this and I see it with my very amateur eye.
14:02What seems to be a really, really,
14:04really pronounced cock downwards on almost all of his shots in a way that I
14:10think is not like it always was.
14:13It's like he's really loading up and bringing it down and then bringing it up.
14:17You know, I remember somebody tweeted at me during the finals.
14:19It looks like an elephant unfurling its trunk sometimes, you know,
14:22where there's this big, like rocking sort of thing.
14:25It doesn't look different to you than past years or past whatever,
14:29where instead of just the catch and right up,
14:32there's a catch and a drop down and a pull up and there's just something long
14:36about it where it just doesn't feel like a quick natural catch it snap sort of
14:41shot. You know, and I'm sure, you know,
14:43people have already looked at this or done side by sides with it,
14:46but it's, it definitely feels like he's, there's something there.
14:50Yeah. I mean, it doesn't look the same that it used to,
14:52but it hasn't for a long time to like, right.
14:55And it went in this year at a decent clip. I mean, you know,
14:57he shot 37% from three.
15:00Right. But when his summer league clips came around, around summer league,
15:03like, you know, from whatever, seven years ago, I was like,
15:06that is a completely different shot. And he looked so much smoother shooting.
15:09Obviously he's a much better player now, but he just looked a lot smoother.
15:13The thing for me is though, it's like,
15:14it's so hard for us to be able to tell if something is wrong with someone's
15:18shot. Also because some people's shots were just look,
15:20they just look wrong. Like I look at Halliburton. Right. I mean,
15:23so that's why whenever I look at someone's shot,
15:25I never want to evaluate like, you know, this looks off to me.
15:29It does look off. It looks awkward.
15:30The thing that I do always notice and the thing that I, I,
15:33I usually feel like I can tell before Tatum even shoots,
15:36if it's going to go in or not, just based on how much he's hesitating.
15:39And he so often,
15:41this drives me crazy because basketball players do this all the time.
15:43But if you're going to stand there and not decide if you're going to shoot
15:46and think about it for even a split second, it's like,
15:50it barely goes in. Yeah. It's over. It never goes in. So it's funny.
15:53Perfect example. He catches that. He, God, stupid emojis.
15:58He catches that clean. No,
16:01it's just sometimes when you do these things with the face cameras,
16:04you fly the, you fly different thingies. I, I always do it by accident.
16:08My favorite one is like the rock and roll lasers here, but let's see if I can
16:12get them going. Yeah. That one, the laser.
16:17Yeah, it's an accident. I triggered it a couple of times.
16:19I'm like, what the hell is going on?
16:21That second one is exactly what you're talking about. He catches it.
16:25That's a catch and shoot right there. You go straight up.
16:28And instead he's got to reset and sidestep and take it over and shoot the
16:33same shot. But like, there was no reason not to in rhythm.
16:36That's a boom, boom and put it up and he didn't want to do it.
16:39So he's going through a process of resetting himself by taking that extra
16:44dribble and doing what he's doing.
16:45Exactly. Yeah. And it's not the only player that does it. I mean,
16:48NBA players do it. I mean, basketball players just do it all the time.
16:51And it's funny because you miss that opportunity the second you're out of
16:53rhythm, but he's up there. Like, I don't, you know,
16:56I don't have an analytics for this,
16:57but as far as players that need to be in rhythm to be a good shooter,
17:00he's like at the top of the list and you can see gay certain games,
17:03like that looks like the whole game is shots off. And so, yeah,
17:06it does kind of say something that you're, you got the shooting yips.
17:08It does kind of look like the yips, like the way that he,
17:10he's kind of trying to make the determination if he even wants to shoot it,
17:14if he's going to drive, he's going to pass.
17:15That's the thing that really stands out to me.
17:17And you see this a lot with like some summer league players, like some of the,
17:20some of the Geely guys, like I saw this a lot in Vegas,
17:22a lot of players trying to figure out,
17:24but you don't want to see it from a star.
17:25And that's the part of the discourse that I will acknowledge,
17:28I think is valid because I, you know, it's been a thing for a while.
17:32It was a thing during the playoffs in particular.
17:34And it's one of the things where he has to just get out of his own head
17:37because clearly he's capable of being a really good shooter.
17:39Like that is not a question, but the great shooters,
17:42the ones that are able to be out of their own heads, like 95% of the time.
17:46And he just hasn't been able to consistently be that.
17:48And I know people have said like, is it, is it the weightlifting?
17:51Is it his trainer? And I think that's just all speculation.
17:54We really, we really have no, no way to know unless someone,
17:57no, everyone thinks they know, but I mean, yeah, we don't know. Yeah.
18:00But, but I know that the, the mental thing you can really see,
18:03and this is not the environment to snap out of it.
18:06And nobody's going to snap out of a shooting slump on playing for team USA
18:09right now.
18:10Exactly. Exactly. You're just going to keep, you know,
18:13you're just going to keep firing like Curry's trying, you know,
18:16but Curry's Curry everyone's certain it's a bulking up thing.
18:19I'm not really sure, but, but yeah,
18:23that's exactly what it is with him right now. What you said, you know,
18:26hit it on the head and he's definitely not going to figure it out on the
18:30fly, but, you know,
18:31we might need to dial up Drew and say like, you know,
18:34what are we doing here? Is there any concern?
18:36Like this is the downside of this happens a lot. Yeah.
18:41You play deep into the NBA season. You go into the finals.
18:44Now you're adding Olympics on top of it. The chance for one,
18:48you got to rest a little and like, just, you know,
18:51you can't just play basketball all the way through. You will burn out to,
18:55how much time is there to kind of go back in and make these tweaks,
18:58you know, for, for, for him, if he does need to do something,
19:01you don't want to like reinvent your shot entirely coming into the new
19:05year, but you also don't want to enter it.
19:06Just kind of doing the same thing and hoping it starts to go in.
19:12Yeah. I mean,
19:13I'm sure he has like all the tools at his disposal to improve his shot,
19:17all the trainers he could ask for in the world. I know the Celtics shooting,
19:20you know,
19:21coaching staff has been really great at helping guys out of slumps and
19:24improving their shots and things. What he probably needs. And again,
19:27this is just speculation,
19:28but he probably needs to just take a break for a second because part of it
19:31is just like, he's been going, you know, you said,
19:33he's been going nonstop for so long now he had like a, what was it?
19:37A two week break before, before training camp. And so, yeah, it's not,
19:40it's not enough to really reset and it could be tired legs.
19:43There's a lot of different things that could be a play here.
19:46But I think he probably,
19:47what he really needs is to just get in a good rhythm and preseason will be
19:50good. If you know, right. Early, regular season games that are low stakes,
19:54where he can take 20 shots where he can, you know,
19:56kind of get in his bag a little bit. Like that's helped him out in the,
19:59you know, in the past as well.
20:00I don't think this is going to be like,
20:01he's not going to be a good shooter for the rest of his career.
20:04But he's also, he's not like an elite three-point shooter, right?
20:06Like that has been, this has been an on and off thing for a while now.
20:10And that hasn't, you know, even without that,
20:11the other things were able to win the championship.
20:13So to me, I kind of view it as like,
20:14he's a very good player when he's not shooting great.
20:16And when he's shooting great, he's like an MVP level player.
20:20And he just hasn't been that, you know, recently.
20:23I use this analogy all the time. But it's like, I, I do think, you know,
20:28people are envisioning, you know, the, you know, the, you know,
20:33the pre-bubble Tatum and the guy, you know,
20:36who was just seemed to be just lethal hitting those, those step backs.
20:40And that was like, that's, I think in people's mind,
20:44the true Tatum, right. But also at the same time,
20:47they're celebrating the new version of Tatum,
20:50which rebounds, plays better defense, makes better reads, you know,
20:55quicker decisions, gets downhill a little bit more.
20:59And it's possible that, you know, one thing,
21:02like if you get the other thing back, he's a top three NBA player.
21:07If you don't, he's this guy who you're still defending as a top five-ish type
21:12of guy. It just might be different.
21:14The question is, does it ever go back to that? You know, as you said,
21:17they're not always great shots, but one of the, one of the,
21:20one of the things about a lot of great players currently are throughout NBA,
21:25you know, history is the ability to make difficult shots.
21:27That's what separates people.
21:28That's what you get paid the $300 million for is that ability to be able to,
21:33when the shot clocks down or everybody else is cold or the,
21:36you can't get anything going and you can't rely on your teammates to create
21:39their own.
21:40You create the offense and you set yourself up to take these tough shots when
21:44they're not falling.
21:45He's a lesser version of Tatum or just a different version of Tatum.
21:48But in their mind, I think people still think it's there, you know,
21:51like that's, he can capture that again.
21:54Do you think he's morphed into a different style of player now or that there's a
21:59world in which, you know,
22:00he gets that back and he takes his game to a yet another level as you know,
22:05an elite shot creator and shot maker.
22:09Yeah. I mean,
22:10I don't see a reason why him getting better across other aspects of
22:13basketball has to come with the expense of his shooting, right?
22:16Like that's the thing, unless we, unless,
22:18and the only reason that could be the case is if the weightlifting actually is
22:21the reason for his shooting struggles and therefore like the things that he's
22:24gotten better at because he's gotten stronger came at the expense of the
22:27shooting, but I don't really think that's the case. I think he, he's just,
22:30he, you know,
22:31his game evolved over the last few years as he's been hitting the prime of his
22:34career. And simultaneously he's dealing with a shooting, you know,
22:37more inconsistent shooting. And again,
22:39I don't want to overplay it either because you know,
22:41he had a good shooting season by most accounts.
22:44If you look at the regular season numbers, like they weren't bad,
22:47you know, catch and shoot numbers and things.
22:49But I do think that some of the 60% true shooting guy, like, I mean, if you,
22:53again, this is a, this is still a, he was efficient and he's a, you know,
22:57a volume shooter at 37% from three or whatever it was,
23:01that final number is good.
23:03Right. Exactly.
23:04And so I think a lot of why his numbers sometimes aren't the best as far as
23:08the three point shooting is if you actually go back and look,
23:10if he's two for nine from three, three of those were bad shots.
23:13And so he really should have been two for six from three.
23:15Like that happens a lot where you go back because there were some games during
23:18the playoffs where I was like, how did he manage to shoot poorly?
23:21It felt like he shot was on today. And then you go back and you see,
23:24and it's like, some of them were like last, last second heaves or, you know,
23:27kind of forced shots at the end of the shot clock, things like that.
23:30So I do think his,
23:31his shooting percentage was actually better than it better than the numbers
23:35came out to be because he does take some of those kinds of late game shots
23:38that weren't,
23:39weren't necessarily the best or just like bad shots in general.
23:41He has a few of those every game, even if they weren't because of a shot
23:44clock. But I think it's going to come back around. I mean,
23:47guys did slumps in their career. This is clearly a longer one,
23:49but he has all the tools in the world.
23:51He clearly is going to have,
23:52he's going to continue to have a great spacing around and he's going to
23:55continue to get these looks.
23:56So I think he's going to snap out of it and we'll probably,
23:59we'll go back and realize, you know, this,
24:01this stretch of his career was a downswing as far as the shooting goes.
24:04I don't think he's going to become Sam Hauser,
24:06but I do think he'll be closer to kind of some of his earlier career
24:09numbers from across the, you know, beyond the arc and things like that.
24:12And it is really a Testament to his game,
24:14how effective he's been despite that.
24:17Yeah. Yeah. And again,
24:19his regular season numbers.
24:23Yeah. Maybe the years of shooting 42%, 44% from three,
24:27as he did or whatever, as a rookie, I forget what the number was.
24:29Maybe those are gone.
24:31But at volume shooting the way he's shooting this year,
24:34especially if he continues to get better at going downhill and finishing
24:37through contact you know, and if somewhere in that world, not just the,
24:43you know, we,
24:44we focus so much on the three because it left him completely in the
24:46playoffs.
24:47I think he shot 27 or 28% for three for the entire playoffs.
24:51You know, and, and, and it was obviously, you know,
24:54poor in the finals as well.
24:56If he gets any semblance of a mid range game back into his repertoire
25:01again, you know,
25:02a three level scorer who can do everything else he does is fine.
25:04It's just whether or not that kind of happens.
25:06I do think that the, the bulk thing is so stupid.
25:11Like this is how people's bodies naturally mature when they get older and
25:16they get a little bit more muscle mass.
25:17He's not ridiculously large.
25:20He's just big.
25:21He's not a huge person.
25:23He's not like, you know, this he's just bigger.
25:27This is you fill out when you get,
25:29when you go from 19 to 27 years old, 26,
25:32your body fills out, you get bigger, stronger, naturally,
25:37even with the weights.
25:38He's not too big.
25:40I think that that's silly.
25:41It's not like he showed up and he looks like LeBron right now.
25:44He's not that big.
25:46I think it's the appropriate amount of weight on his frame.
25:49If he's going to be able to play the physical type of basketball necessary,
25:54you know,
25:55given the position that he plays and if he wants to be effective and do more
25:58than just shoot jumpers.
25:59So I think that's silly, but we can put a bow on the Tatum stuff.
26:02It was definitely good to see him make a positive impact.
26:05It's good to see Steve Kerr has confidence in him to start for a second
26:09straight game.
26:10And it'll hopefully, you know, people are still going to, you know,
26:14freak what's going on with the shot and the snap,
26:16but it'll quiet and I think lower the temperature you know,
26:21on Twitter and on the, you know,
26:24the talk shows and the message boards for a couple of days at least,
26:27which is good because it's been a little silly conversation here.
26:32We'll talk about the rest of the game and a little bit more about potential
26:35opponents real quick.
26:36Again, just to remind you, if you download that game time app,
26:39we mentioned at the top of the show, seats to anywhere,
26:43basically any show you want to go to any game you want to go to MLB is in
26:47full swing.
26:48The socks are in full playoff contention here.
26:51They're getting healthier hopefully,
26:53and they could be making a playoff run tickets are going to be harder to
26:56get.
26:57So if you want to get in there, download that game time app,
27:00create an account,
27:01use the code CLNS $20 off your first purchase terms to apply a lot of
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27:10Great.
27:11Look at your seats, a panoramic view from your seats.
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27:16And on top of that,
27:17one of the cool things about the game time app is the,
27:20the prices get lower as you get closer to,
27:23to game time or to the start of your show.
27:25So you want to stay on that.
27:27See if you can get in on the action.
27:29As I said, go check out the red Sox here.
27:31They are hot and they are, you know,
27:33heading hopefully marching towards their first postseason appearance in a
27:37couple of years, download the app,
27:39use that code CLNS $20 off your first purchase terms to apply rest of the
27:44game here.
27:45Again, kind of whole Hamish, Derek white.
27:48Didn't do a ton coming in, you know,
27:51immediately making Derek white ish sort of impacts, you know,
27:54got a steal almost right away,
27:56which resulted in Kevin Durant's first missed three of the tournament,
28:00but they kept the ball alive, got it back and Durant nailed one there.
28:03So positive play in that regard.
28:06And he was just being his regular Derek white self,
28:08but not a ton to talk about here.
28:10I guess what we'll talk about is going forward.
28:13What do you think as they get into these rounds here,
28:15that these rotations are going to look like based off of what you're seeing
28:18and, and,
28:19and who is going to play because I do still wonder if things tighten up what
28:23you're going to do here and who's going to sit.
28:25If anything,
28:26if Kurt is going to go back to that 10, 10 player limit that he,
28:31you know,
28:32self-imposed limit that he said after game one,
28:35or he's just going to kind of wing it and play whatever he feels is right at
28:38the time.
28:40Yeah. I mean,
28:41I'm really curious to see how these rotations go because there's been so
28:45much discussion around minutes so far and now that these games haven't
28:49mattered because obviously, you know,
28:50obviously they did count and you needed to win them to advance.
28:53But a game like today was, you know,
28:55you could put Halliburton in there for 10 minutes. Yes or no.
28:58And it didn't really have it. And it was nothing really on the line here.
29:01And so I'm really curious to see how he goes.
29:03I do think Tatum is going to be in the rotation,
29:05but I don't know that we're going to see minutes this even as we've seen so
29:09far, like today, almost everybody played around 17 minutes or so.
29:13I think we're going to see them start leaning on some guys more than others.
29:16And I do think that some of the guys that have been playing better,
29:20like the Anthony Davis's of the world versus Joel Embiid,
29:23I think throughout the tournament, he's looked better than Joel Embiid.
29:25And early on, there was a lot of frustration.
29:27Why is Joel Embiid starting over him?
29:29I think it's going to start.
29:30They're going to,
29:31he's going to start leaning into some of the players that just have been
29:33playing better.
29:34Like Anthony Edwards probably plays more than 17 minutes if this isn't an
29:37elimination game.
29:38But there's also a good chance that the Celtics that sorry,
29:41the team USA continues to blow teams out.
29:44I mean, nothing has been really close so far.
29:46And so then it doesn't really matter anymore.
29:48What I'm curious about is if it's like a five point game with five minutes to
29:51go, who is on the court?
29:52And I honestly, I,
29:53I don't know because it could go so many different ways and we've seen so
29:56many different lineups that just purely intrigue for me at this point,
30:00kind of thinking about what that might look like.
30:02And there's certain guys assume we'll be out there like LeBron.
30:04I don't think there's any question, but there's definitely some,
30:07some X factors there.
30:08Yeah.
30:09And that's what the thing is, you know,
30:11it looks like guys who curve is leaning on for sure.
30:15LeBron and Durant with, you know,
30:19I think Edwards has certainly earned his stripes and Anthony Davis.
30:24I would say those are the four guys that I think car really is digging right
30:29now at this moment.
30:30And then I think you could go in any direction,
30:33not saying it would be those four in a lineup to close.
30:36I think a lot of it has to do with, are you ahead?
30:39Are you trying to keep other teams from scoring?
30:41What's the other lineup look like?
30:43Would it be stunning to have holiday and white in a closing lineup because
30:46you're trying to really, you know, button up the defense? Absolutely not.
30:49You know, absolutely not. You saw it in the,
30:52you saw it in that first South Sudan game, right? That's how,
30:55that's how they closed. And that's how they were able to pull that game off.
30:58I believe both of them closed it out there. So yeah, it's,
31:03that wouldn't be stunning to see that.
31:05And I don't know what Tatum's role is going to be.
31:07I'm really very curious. I'm really very curious to see how that goes.
31:10You know, I'm curious, like if you end up with,
31:14if you end up with Embiid and Greece in that first round,
31:20who's your Embiid stopper? You know,
31:23are you throwing a bunch of bodies at them and just letting everybody else
31:25beat them? Probably. Right. They haven't done that. Huh? Yeah. Yeah.
31:30No, you're right. I mean, all these teams are, you know,
31:33the other thing is like every one of these teams calls for different things
31:36and has, you know,
31:37I feel like it's even more uneven than the NBA where you might just have one
31:40guy where you're, that you're really concerned,
31:42but obviously Jokic or Giannis are going to dominate the game plan.
31:45If you're facing either Serbia or Greece. And so, yeah,
31:49certainly we'll see them go bigger, but they have, I mean,
31:51they have every tool at their disposal,
31:53as far as addressing those bigger players between Anthony Davis, you know,
31:57Bam and Joel Embiid. So there's no shortage of options.
32:00I think that there's certain guys that have stood out more than others.
32:03I actually thought Bam, maybe Bam didn't do a whole lot today,
32:05but I thought that throughout these, well, how many games has it been?
32:09Eight games through including exhibition games.
32:11Like he's been so impressive to me just how he's been able to impact
32:14everything defensively, but then also offensively is really fit in. So yeah,
32:17it's, it's kind of a luxury of riches right now that it seems her has where,
32:21you know, you could probably,
32:22you probably can't go wrong honestly with a lot of these combinations.
32:25It might just be, you might not even be able to predetermine it.
32:28It might be riding kind of who has been playing well, that specific game.
32:31If someone has the hot hand like Anthony Edwards did today,
32:34I don't think you can turn away from that when he's clearly feeling it like
32:37that.
32:38You have done an about face on a couple of guys who you weren't super high
32:42on entering the tournament that you revealed to us here on the
32:47shows, because when Tatum didn't play the first game, you know,
32:50you flat out said like, I'm not, I'm not a huge booker person.
32:54And I'm not, I'm not huge on Edwards either.
32:57Have either or both changed your opinion just based on what you're seeing
33:00here is too small a sample size.
33:02And you're going to go back to feeling the way you were feeling before.
33:04I mean, I just want to clarify, I, I, I'm not saying you hate them.
33:09No, no, no.
33:10But like, I think when I say I'm not huge on someone, it's like,
33:13Anthony Edwards and Jevin Booker are obviously both great players.
33:16They're all stars for a reason. You know,
33:17the things that they've done you can't deny.
33:19But I think looking at this roster,
33:21like is Devin Booker someone I really believe in to play the right role and
33:25kind of do everything you need to do in such a loaded roster.
33:28He was someone that I was like, I'm okay with him being the odd one,
33:31odd man out. And frankly,
33:34like Devin Booker is up there as far as guys that have really impressed me
33:37because he's totally just played that role player role.
33:40And I remember actually there was a tweet going around earlier in the year
33:44where someone was saying like team USA needs,
33:46I think it was after feedback for the guys lost last year.
33:48They didn't even metal.
33:49Someone was saying like they need to find stars that are willing to be role
33:52players because like this isn't working clearly.
33:54And then Devin Booker quote, we did that and said, I'll do it.
33:57And it was like a kind of a funny thing because it went pretty viral and
34:00clearly, but, but honestly, that's what he's been doing.
34:02He's been a role player who is obviously actually a star and a franchise
34:05player. So he's really impressed me. And then Anthony Edwards,
34:09like his scoring is undeniable. Like today, you know, you can't,
34:13I have to be fair and give him credit where credit's due for his game today.
34:17I just don't like the idea that team USA has to ride with him.
34:21Like if he has it, then they have it. And last year in FIBA,
34:24I think it burned them a little bit,
34:25that they were too reliant on him and that he was too focused on kind of
34:28getting his,
34:29because this team is so good that no one person's shooting struggles or off
34:33night should impact the end result. And so I just don't want to see a team.
34:37I don't want to see him become like a ball stopper where now he's not feeling
34:41it. He's like shooting himself back into rhythm and nobody else is doing that
34:44because everybody else has the,
34:46has the kind of the awareness to not do not to not force the issue.
34:49And so I think that's why he's like an asterisk with me,
34:51but he's obviously when he's, when he's hot, the way he was today,
34:54you can't deny his, his greatness and just how capable of a score he is.
34:57He's just his style of play to me, just the,
35:00that type of isolation player is just less appealing. But I mean,
35:03if he's effective, he's effective.
35:04You can't deny it's 73% from the field today, eight of nine from two point
35:07range. So yeah. And he feels like every single game,
35:10he has one time where he steals, you know, still,
35:13still the ball from someone just like at the half fourth Mark,
35:15and then just drives for a fast break.
35:17Like you can kind of count on one of those every game.
35:20Yeah. And so that is, you mentioned that, you know,
35:24over-reliance on Edwards, you know, on, you know, on past teams.
35:29I am curious because we haven't seen it here with the exception of the South
35:33Sudan game. You know,
35:35who's your closer in the sense of you need buckets,
35:38it ended up being LeBron in that game where they just kept the,
35:42and it wasn't so much that they said, go score,
35:44but they wanted the ball in his hands to initiate and to determine what was
35:48going on here. If you're just, you need that bucket.
35:51If it's a tie game with 12 seconds, you know,
35:5314 seconds to play and you're going to ISO somebody,
35:55who are you giving the ball to?
35:57It has to be LeBron. I mean, honestly, it's confused.
36:00Like just from a basketball fans perspective,
36:03it's confusing me why he doesn't just drive to the basket more often in
36:06games,
36:07because it does feel like over the last few years of his career,
36:10he's kind of automatic in late game situations when they need a basket,
36:14he can just go get one. I feel like we've seen it countless times.
36:18And so there's no shot that I feel more confident in at this point than
36:22just him, him driving to the basket. And cause you know,
36:25he'll make the right play. You know, if he doesn't have a lane,
36:27he'll make the right pass. He's like the guy I probably trust the most to do
36:30that. So there's plenty of players.
36:34His passing was ridiculous today. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I trust,
36:39I trust him. And I think, I think that that's a, you know, putting,
36:43putting the right pieces out there alongside him that can kind of hit those
36:46open shots of which they're again, you have so many options as far as that
36:50goes, but then you give him the ball, let him work from there.
36:54Yeah. And honestly, I'm going to come to it. Yeah. Maybe one,
36:57maybe they won't even be in that position. That's also a possibility.
36:59Although Canada is really good. So
37:02I was always of the opinion that LeBron at a certain point in his career,
37:07you know,
37:08it got almost too easy for him to just put his head down and get downhill to
37:11the point that it was bored.
37:12And it's almost like you're playing like with your younger nephew or
37:15something and you could score at will.
37:17So you're like,
37:18I'm just going to take some step backs now or try to pass or involve other
37:21people. It's like, I almost think he was just like, I could do this,
37:25but I don't want to necessarily, I still think he's got it in him.
37:28He's just such a force where he can just still get where he wants to go.
37:32I, you know, and, and, and you see him do it when he decides to will it.
37:36So, so yeah, I, I,
37:38but I think just his decision-making his ability to find people and that's the
37:41difference. Again, I, I hate making this a referendum about Tatum,
37:45but if you're talking about like the type of role that LeBron plays on this
37:49team is somewhat like a role that Jason Tatum plays on the Celtics,
37:52which is you're giving him the ball and letting him kind of figure it out.
37:56And while Tatum got a good bit better at it,
37:59you see the level at which LeBron does that,
38:02how quickly he makes decisions,
38:03the caliber of passes, not just the correct read,
38:06but seeing things that aren't always there. He's just, he's LeBron, man.
38:10I mean, you just tip your cap.
38:11It's not saying something negative about somebody to say they're not LeBron,
38:14but that's kind of what makes him LeBron, you know,
38:17his ability to do that. And he is, you just, you see it on a day like this,
38:21the degree of difficulty on some of the passes that he made without even
38:25blinking a left-handed entry from the top of the key with a little bit of
38:31English on it to get to the post was an almost impossible pass.
38:35And he made it without even thinking behind the back into the post,
38:39going in the other direction. It's silly,
38:41silly what he's what he's able to do in his vision and how much control.
38:46So yeah, I would, I would probably agree that that happens.
38:50Is there any team out there right now, Noah, that you mentioned Canada,
38:55is Canada the one, you know, I've seen some people say Germany, perhaps.
38:59Yeah, you have to respect Germany. Yeah.
39:02I mean, those are the two teams that definitely stand out.
39:04They both, they both have a significant cohort of NBA players,
39:08but above that they just have continuity and that their teams that have the
39:11same, you know, basically the same roster every year.
39:14And they were in FIBA play last year,
39:16whereas the U S had a completely different roster, right?
39:18So it's just, it's going to be an advantage.
39:20The Germany's rolling back the same team that won gold last year.
39:23And Dennis Schroeder looks like he should be an MVP candidate and then be
39:26the way he's been playing.
39:27And so both of those teams to me are probably going to be metal winners.
39:33And if USA is not on their game, like could, I mean, it's basketball, right?
39:37We saw Saturday and almost beat USA just a couple of weeks ago.
39:39So it can certainly happen.
39:41But those are the two that I think have stood out the most,
39:43especially watching France versus Germany yesterday.
39:46I think Germany just looked, France didn't look ready to go against Germany.
39:49So that's just, that's good out.
39:51And then Canada just, they have, you know, RJ Barrett's playing great.
39:54SGA is running the show there.
39:56Dylan Brooks is just a different player when it comes to international play.
39:59Canada's weird because Jamal Murray's like, not a, not a factor.
40:03I know we've talked about this before,
40:04but it's so bizarre to watch a player who I think is one of the most lethal
40:07playoff players and had two game winners as playoffs.
40:10And obviously he did what he did last year and he comes in and it's like,
40:13he's almost a liability.
40:14So that's been super bizarre, but yeah, Canada is yeah.
40:17Canada is super, super fun to watch.
40:19Germany is super fun to watch.
40:21And then obviously like,
40:22it's just a different playing field for a lot of these guys.
40:24If you know they're going to come back and then be,
40:25and they're not going to be what they are right now in Olympic basketball,
40:28but they just have the level of confidence when they're the guy that it just,
40:32it's pretty remarkable.
40:39Oh, you're muted, John.
40:42You mentioned the Murray thing. It's so fascinating to me. How, how,
40:45how ineffective he's been and you know, this will make, you know,
40:49aggrieved Tatum fans feel a little better.
40:52I still think Tatum's third or fourth in terms of like, you know,
40:56of hate being put out there on social media and,
41:01and these in these Olympic games so far,
41:04well behind Embiid and Jamal Murray right now,
41:08well behind those, those two guys.
41:10I think most,
41:12most of the Tatum conversation isn't about him having been bad.
41:15It's about him not having played him and Celtics fans getting sensitive and
41:20then people liking to tweak Celtics fans, which I understand,
41:23but Murray is catching a lot of flack and, you know,
41:26I don't think necessarily he's been playing bad,
41:30but I think he's much, much better than what he's shown. I, I, I, I,
41:34every time I look at the, the, the stat line, I'm like, geez, again,
41:38you know, it's, it's, it's just abysmal.
41:42Yeah. It's, it's, it is. I don't know how much you've watched them,
41:45but it's the stat lines looks bad.
41:46And then he just looks bad and real and Washington too.
41:49Like he just doesn't look like he knows, he knows his role out there.
41:51He looks awkward and his shots been off. But every,
41:55every interview that he's done,
41:56he's been really positive and he's actually one of the more hostile NBA players
42:00when it comes to the media. I haven't been in a pressure with him,
42:03but just seeing stuff online,
42:04but he's been really nice to the Canadian media and he basically just said,
42:08I don't care about my own role, my own success.
42:10Like I just want to win a medal here.
42:12And I think it's easier to be with Canada because they're not an auto
42:15automatic goal, the way that the U S team kind of feels.
42:17We're like, they, they actually won gold.
42:19That would be like an enormous thing for them.
42:20And they would go down in history as the, I don't know,
42:23the first team to do it. So yeah, it's, but it is,
42:25it's still interesting to watch.
42:26I find this stuff so fascinating,
42:27the translation between NBA players and how well they do.
42:30And then who,
42:31who just kind of moves up and just looks completely different in an
42:35international play.
42:36Cause RJ Baird looks like a significantly better player than Jamal Murray.
42:39It doesn't even look close.
42:41And I do think like strength is a big part of it too.
42:43Like the strong players and kind of bang really benefit from international
42:47play more than the finesse players. And so that, that,
42:50and you kind of look at it, but yeah,
42:52so you kind of look at it and that, that helps determine things too.
42:54Yeah. Speaking of like people who are sometimes combative with the media,
42:58when did Kevin Durant become my favorite player? I,
43:01I don't know when that happened. I, I, I, I can't get enough of Kevin Durant.
43:05His, I just, his attitude,
43:09I even liked the way he goes at people on Twitter now.
43:11I love his Twitter stuff.
43:13I freaking love it. He's not afraid to just call people out. I love it.
43:17I love how honest it is. I love how he's talking about, you know,
43:20the other day he was talking about just what true basketball is,
43:24get in transition and just let players figure it out.
43:27And that's what that's hooping.
43:28It's not about sets and all of these things that people obsess over.
43:31And he's just such a, an assassin out there.
43:35Like I talk about a person who you have supreme confidence in whatever's
43:41going to happen. Once they have the ball in their hand, Durant,
43:44that guy, for me, I just, it's almost stunning when he misses.
43:48Now he's just, he's so good at what he does. He's just automatic.
43:52He loves basketball and he's just, he's my,
43:56my appreciation for Durant grows and grows and grows.
43:59The guy who was a bit of a villain and a public enemy in Boston for a while,
44:03both in terms of his role of, you know,
44:05luring Kyrie away and also just, you know, his overall persona,
44:09I've done a complete one 80 on him. So, yeah, and exactly. He gave up.
44:13I like this one. He gave up the burners and just embrace the evil.
44:16He's like, I'm just going to come at you straight. I love it.
44:19And I love when players clap back on Twitter,
44:21because I also think people feel like they,
44:23nobody sees the messages that they're saying.
44:25They can just say stuff with no consequence. And the reality is,
44:28is that even famous people with a ton of mentions usually see the stuff that
44:31they're being tagged in. And that's just funny when they,
44:33when they see it and they react right away.
44:35Right away. There's a great,
44:38there's a great moment in Boston sports radio where, and I, I,
44:42I don't want to out the host because I, you know, I,
44:45I feel bad, but they were saying a lot of stuff. And it was,
44:49I think it was Curt Schilling who I'm not a fan of as a human by any means,
44:53but at the time the host was saying a bunch of things and, you know,
44:57I can say whatever I want. I'm on the radio.
44:59And Schilling just calls up and goes right at him. Oh, I'm sorry.
45:04I'm sorry. So yeah,
45:05I like that KD holds some people accountable because we probably do get away
45:09with more shit than we should, because we think that, ah,
45:12they're not going to hear it anyway. I can say whatever, but yeah.
45:14You would totally turtle.
45:15I'm sure that would happen to me as well.
45:17If a player or two decided to jump on the garden report and call me on my
45:20nonsense. And that's fair. I get it. It's fine. It's fine. It's all good.
45:25You know, that's it. I got nothing else. No,
45:28anything else you want to add to we didn't touch on this game again,
45:31not a ton to look at here.
45:33No, I'll just say,
45:35I think USA basketball looks a lot better than it did an exhibition play.
45:37Like you can see the guys are starting to gel and there's a reason why they,
45:40they sign up for the five exhibition games and they,
45:42they go out of their way to do that. And now they're here and they,
45:45I think they're, they look like a pretty well,
45:47well-balanced team and they had,
45:48they figured out a lot of the things that looked a little clunkier early on.
45:50Obviously, you know, Puerto Rico is not one of the teams.
45:52It's going to make you look bad compared to some other teams in the field,
45:55but I look forward to seeing some of the better competition, I guess. But,
45:58but yeah, it's been fun.
46:00It's been fun to watch and we'll see what,
46:02how things shake out in the next round.
46:04One of the things I did want to point out about how they're looking and kind
46:07of my final observation through all of this, I would argue, you know,
46:11it's again,
46:12because you have a lot of aggrieved fans upset about what Steve Kerr isn't
46:16doing vis-a-vis, you know, their players and the playing time and X, Y,
46:20and Z. And yeah,
46:21I think the expectation with USA is they're going to,
46:24they're going to every single rotation is going to be plus 10 over their
46:27opponents. And when it isn't, they're like, look at this combo.
46:31I think Steve Kerr has actually coached a masterclass through these first few
46:35games in terms of finding the right combinations and pushing the right
46:38buttons here. Again,
46:39the expectation is that they are going to win handily over most of these
46:43teams, but like, again, you know,
46:45some of these teams have more familiarity with one another.
46:48They play more together. There's more continuity.
46:50That always kind of comes into play here.
46:52It's a different style of basketball.
46:54The USA has to adapt to their always have to,
46:56they have to seed a little bit when it comes to that.
46:59So it's not as easy as, Oh,
47:01look at how good the players are finding it and making it fit, you know,
47:05takes a little bit of work. And I think he's done a good job.
47:08With it. You know, even if you're bummed out that he,
47:11that he disrespected Tatum in game one, I think he's done it.
47:15I think he's done a really good job so far.
47:17Honestly, I think with main coaches,
47:19I feel like it's so hard to know if they've done a good job because we see
47:22such a sliver of what's actually going on there. Like I'm always,
47:25I always think about like,
47:26what do the players say because that's the kind of the best angle that we
47:29have. And it seems like the players that have spoken in Kevin Durant,
47:32in particular, he's really praised him. He said,
47:34Steve Kerr has done a great job.
47:35I'll keep coming off the bench because we've both been working.
47:37And so that's, that's as good as we have, as far as I look,
47:40maybe one day they'll write a book about how everybody hated Steve Kerr
47:42during this playoff run.
47:43It has been this Limpic run and then we'll be told otherwise for now.
47:46I think, yeah, for now,
47:47I think right now we have every reason to believe that this team is bought
47:50in and it's been working right.
47:51And you can't complain when teams are winning by 25, right.
47:53That's as good as it can go. They're not going to go by 50.
47:56So we'll see how it looks though.
47:58It's going to be a lot more pressure and, you know,
48:00things totally change from the pool play round to the actual bracket play.
48:03So we'll see how things look. Well, I think that'll be very,
48:06it's kind of almost like a regular season and playoffs in a sense.
48:08Yeah. Whether, whether it's what the players are saying, or just,
48:12as I said, is seeing things kind of working a little bit. You know,
48:16I think there's good evidence and you're right.
48:18There could be a tell all book about why they hate them,
48:20but also that doesn't mean that they were right.
48:22It just means that they're superstars and they wanted, they wanted it all.
48:25They wanted it to be about them, but you're not seeing that right now.
48:28And it looks like the egos are fairly balanced.
48:30And I think it's as much the other players buy in as it is what the
48:35coach is doing there. If you're on a team,
48:38and this was very much like the Patriot way.
48:40If you've got Tom Brady and these guys like, dude, it doesn't matter.
48:43We're here to win a gold. We're putting ego aside.
48:45If you've got LeBron and you've got KD and you've got those guys out there
48:49leading the way and leading the charge on that,
48:51it's really hard not to follow suit with the rest of the players out there.
48:55Many of whom are like, Hey, I'm every bit as good as these guys is better.
48:58And then, you know, Tatum is in that boat, which is based on accolades.
49:03I kind of got it over all of these guys and you could easily say like, I don't,
49:07I don't get it. And he could be making a stink and he's not.
49:10And nobody is. So we'll see how it goes, but that's it.
49:13Once again,
49:14team USA closes out group play with a win over Puerto Rico,
49:20one Oh four 83 final game.
49:22They await their opponent in the knockout round.
49:27I'm not sure we know the schedule yet. We don't know.
49:30I think after this, this last pool play game, we'll have a full schedule.
49:34So we'll have the schedule. We'll keep doing these with, you know,
49:37varying with different casts of characters.
49:39You may get some international involvement from either Bobby Manning or Jimmy
49:42Toscano jumping on from overseas to do a post game report. That's possible.
49:47Both of those guys are in London right now, making their way to Paris shortly.
49:51Bobby might actually be there for part of the Olympic run there,
49:54which would be very cool and has access to practice.
49:58So he might be reporting on the Olympics in a couple of days on his vacation.
50:02We'll pay him for that day. That one's not going to count against him,
50:05but that's it. Thanks again to Noah,
50:07who's been great here in the coverage is following.
50:09You can obviously stay with Noah, follow her on Twitter,
50:13but also check out all of her written work over on SB nation.
50:16She's writing right now,
50:17currently about the women's USA basketball while the WNBA is on hiatus.
50:22Is that correct?
50:23That's correct. Yeah. Five on five and three on three, five on five,
50:26three on three. There's a, they play, they play tomorrow.
50:29Their final game. Correct. Of, of yeah. Yeah. The women played tomorrow.
50:34They're also undefeated. They'll probably win it all by a lot.
50:37So we'll see though. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, if you think,
50:42as we said, you know, Curry or Embiid or Murray catching a little bit of
50:47flack, check out Diana Tarassi here with her O for 15,
50:50whatever it was last game. And you know, Caitlin Clark,
50:53not being on the team there's a, you know, there's, there's obviously,
50:57is that what she shot? Was she O for 15 last game?
50:59No, she wasn't. I was just looking.
51:01Oh, I thought Tarassi had a brutal game last game.
51:07No, she hasn't been shooting a lot, but she hasn't been. Yeah.
51:09She's just, Oh, okay.
51:10I thought Tarassi had a bad,
51:11a bad, a bad game or a zero point game or something like that.
51:14Zero point game. But I don't think he's, he's been more like a cheerleader.
51:19Honestly. Yeah. But I will say my, my views,
51:22my page views would definitely be higher if Caitlin Clark was playing.
51:25I used her by accident at a headline for one article and it was my most
51:28read article since I started the job. So it definitely, there is a,
51:31there is interest.
51:33Yeah. So check out Noah's written work there and she'll be back covering the
51:36USA basketball here for CLNS media on our post game show as well.
51:39Thank you guys so much for watching. Once again,
51:42give a shout out to our sponsor game time, check out the game time app,
51:46create an account, use the code CLNS, $20 off your first purchase.
51:49If you want to get in and see any games or any shows or any events at all
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52:00We will see you guys after the next USA basketball game.
52:05This one counts for real. This is a lose and go home.
52:08So there'll be a little bit more pressure. There should be fun.
52:10Thank you guys for joining us on a lovely Saturday afternoon.
52:13You could have been doing a lot of things,
52:14but you chose to hang out with us and we do appreciate it.
52:17We will see you next time.
52:18Wait, Amit's got an outro for us, I think.
52:20No, he doesn't.
52:21He said he was going to work on an outro.
52:24He had a phenomenal game.
52:26Phenomenal.
52:29I'm poor for dough. I think it's an odd one.
52:34That did not sound like a chair.
52:36It was a freaking chair. It does sound like a chair.