Game 4: Thunder vs Spurs Live Reaction | The Warm Up

The series heats up with a crucial Game 4 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. Join Jah and Ashton live on The Warm Up immediately following the game as we react to all the biggest storylines from the Western Conference Finals.

We'll break down the key performances, coaching decisions, turning points, and what the result means moving forward in the series. Plus, we'll take questions and reactions from fans live throughout the show.

Don't miss our full postgame analysis and discussion.

#NBA #Thunder #Spurs #WesternConferenceFinals #NBAPlayoffs #TheWarmUp

Transcript

0:13

We are live. Welcome back to the warm-up, everybody. We are joined by Ashton. Ashton, how you doing? Feeling good, man. Feeling good. It's our series. That's what I like to see. Absolutely dominated game for the Western Conference Finals tonight. Before we get into it, please leave a comment below. Let's have a conversation during the feed. Like the video, subscribe to the podcast, so you never miss episodes at the warm-up. And yeah, let's get into it. So I don't know if you guys remember last game, if you guys joined us, Ashton and I talked a lot about, you know, coverages and this and that. But like for me personally, like the main, the main uh focus was Wendy just has to be better. And I thought tonight, Off Rick, he was just absolutely intentional, like Ashton kept saying, and got his spot. Uh was I think he scored a career high 22 points in the half of the series. Um well not career high, but uh a series high, and absolutely kept the spurs at length. Um they came out with the heads on fire again, up 15 points. Uh OKC rallies back, cuts it to I think within three, Ashton. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah, it was definitely two or three for uh one or two possession game. One or two possession game, and yeah, so Wemby I thought dictated the whole game and then to send that three into halftime was absolutely amazing. So what's your thoughts on game uh four overall? Uh was this the Scott Foster game? I don't know. I don't know, but uh you know, but no, I mean um everything you just said, I totally agree with. They came out uh looking like they had everybody from RC Buford and Greg Popovich to the hot dog guy putting all their energy into this game. Um and Deion Fox, it's funny, he kind of alluded to it um in the post-game. He said at the end of game three, he's never seen that many people in one training room. They had the trainers, all you know, uh extended staff, of course, Greg Pop first game. He came in after directly after loss all series. And you know, you see a lot of the guys, uh, a lot of the alumni at other organizations like the Knicks, um, the Pistons, obviously the Spurs, but those guys aren't really connected with the players in a in a strategy sense like that. That's one unique thing I think the Spurs have, that they have the they've had that same leadership for the past 30 years, that they can go directly in the locker room and speak to it like that. But one thing I found, I'm always looking every game for big variants like this is threes and turnovers. And uh, I mean, obviously in a blowout, this one team is gonna have most win most of the stats, but you can just look right there. The shots that were going in last game were not going in. They only hit six threes today. The OKC Thunder, and the Spurs had more than them. And they're like, to me, their main three guys Harper off the bench plus Kelvin Johnson, and then their two Castle and Wemby. They're slightly they're all slash first guys, and they had less turnovers, and you could really just statistically look at the game there. Yeah, I mean, I think I think also too, we talked about after game three. It was a little bit of a weird, weird game overall, but this game, they did not double uh Shay. They were like, hey, we're not giving up 71 bench points, and I think that was probably the main factor, and besides like Wemby being Wemby, was that they're like, hey, Caruso, you're not getting six or seven wide open catch-and-shoot threes. Um in the second or in the third quarter, they gave up, I would say about six to seven catch-and-shoot threes, but but but by then they weren't in rhythm. Um, they hadn't seen one go through, so the game was basically over. So for me, um, I thought that schematically that was a smart move by Mitch Johnson. We were curious if he was gonna you know give up on that uh doubling Shay overall, and it seemed to hell because ironically, Shay has his worst game of the series, and he shoots um 40% from threes, a minus 18 in 31 minutes. That's your back-to-back MVP. I mean, anytime he goes minus 18, you know. I know, and they held him under 20. They held him under 20. For the first time since what, 2022, 2021, something like that? I know. I mean, he he broke Wilt's record, he broke Wilkes record for having yeah, what uh I don't know, 100 plus 120 point games. I think he ended up getting it like 200 by the end of the season to now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Actually, I think I think the Lakers didn't the Lakers hold him under 20. They might have. Like it by Mark Shea's worst game of the of the series, and then like the shit, like you uh you hit on it, the shooting. Like, hey, Crusoe, you don't shoot 65% from three like he has for the last three games. Goose, right? The last game, I think he hit six threes, five threes. Um huge Hartenstein game to start the to start the game. I thought that that was intentional by the Spurs to hey, anybody but the shooters around. Um so I mean, overall, we're we're in a series that's tied 2-2. Going back to OKC. I feel like a lot of people are gonna say, hey, no way OK shoot OKC shoots that bad for the next um three games or two games, how many it is. But at the same time, they were shooting so good that they were gonna hit regression at some point, they weren't gonna shoot 65% from the rest of the playoffs. So, what do you think going into game five, or going into game five, and then do you think that played a big part in today's win as well for the Spurs? But the uh the shooting, yeah, absolutely. I mean, also I think we talked what would be uh if I'm Mitch Johnson, what are my first adjustments? And the first thing I said, I'm looking at my my rotation, yeah. And um, I'm looking at it, all his starters, nobody played above 33 minutes, and that's a far cry from what they've been doing the first three games. Like, even like Wemby, we thought he was trying to pace himself. He looked a little like I don't know. He had he 39 minutes last game. This game, he only gets 31 minutes, and he scored 33 points. So his points per possession must be outstanding. I mean, and then we were like, okay, maybe they need a little more veteran presence. How do they get Harrison Barnes back into the mix? Maybe they can get Harper to 20 minutes. Harper got his 20 minutes. Harrison Barnes played 16, which is I think the most he's played in for sure this series. I don't even he took it away from uh Champagne, who's been ice cold. And Barnes wasn't a crazy shooter this game either, but I thought he was super aggressive getting to the basket. And you know, Thunder, like when when the game was like kind of still a reach, it'd be Barnes at the free throw line, it'd be Barnes getting offensive rebound, it'd be Barnes getting like a hockey assist, which I thought was super valuable in the quote again. Exactly. Yeah, he just I mean, and plus he increased their their positional size a little bit because they don't really they don't really have a lot of big guys, I'd say, outside of Wemby, obviously. Well, Carter Bryant, he's not ready yet, though. You know, he's not I mean they got good guard size, but forward size, I'd say they've been a little outmatched. Yeah, and um and yeah, I'd say uh you you could say Castle and Fox came well Fox for sure had a better game. Uh maybe he got a little bit rip more rhythm than after missing all that time. Yeah, take some rust off. He was a little more productive, and um, but it really just aside from everything we just say, you know, Mitch Johnson tweaking his uh doubling, making I mean they lost two ball handlers on OKC and J Dubb and AJ Mitchell. Let's just play him straight up, don't double shave, create. Once he passes out, we trust our defense, but it really just comes down to Wemby, man. Wemby looked like he did in game one. He looked like must-watch whatever you're doing. If you're a basketball fan, you gotta watch him. Yeah. And you know, we talked about it, you know, in our group chat after game one. Like, hey, as great as game one was for Wemby, like you you gotta do it three more times. You know what I mean? Like, it was such a crazy game that hey, you can't just you can't take nights off because the thunder's so deep, so good that you have to play like that for four straight times to not play. Yeah, so yeah, kudos to him for having the half he did. He really set the tone. I thought him being so aggressive early really let players like Castle um in the third quarter open up his game a little bit. He seemed a little bit more comfortable getting to the rim. Seemed a little bit fresher, maybe fresher, like not as mentally changed. Exactly. Like everybody was super engaged, and I mean, I kind of want to elaborate on Castle a little bit. Like, this dude is just a fucking ballard, like he's just always on the ground, 50-50 balls. He's hounding Shay, uh 94 feet. He is just absolutely giving Shay hell. And tonight I thought Will was big, he wasn't in foul trouble. I don't think he picked up his first foul for the second half, which is huge for somebody that plays with that much intentionality intentionality, like uh does. Yeah, what he ended up with five fouls. I don't know when the hell he got him, but yeah, he ended up with five, yeah. I thought he was overall just uh super amazing, and yeah. This first team, man, I think they showed where they could put the clamps on you guys for especially with the injuries to OKC. Let's talk about that a little bit. What's your thoughts on because I mean I feel like it was so weird last game Jada and AJ Mitchell still non-factors and OKC still wins. We look at this game, yeah. They're they're ruled out way before the uh like yesterday. Well, yeah, yeah, that's that's never good when you're ruled out a day ahead. Yeah. Um I'd say that I'd I'd say OKC could probably win without J Dub. Um but they probably need either him or Mitchell just for some sort of like you know, a three-headed beast of either McCain as like a as like a oh shit guy, SGA and J Dub. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, they need at least one of those guys, I'd say to probably break up and just get loose. Like Mitchell was Mitchell hasn't really been good to me since the Lakers series. And you think maybe today is the game he could pop off a little bit, you know, but uh injuries are part of the playoffs, and right now the Spurs are healthier. It could just be down to that, but we'll see. We'll see. Uh Mitch Johnson, shout out to him, man. I I mean, you I mean, if you have the last 30 years of Sports, uh Spurs brain chest in a locker room after game three, yeah. Looks like they made some of the adjustments we would were talking about. Now it's back in uh Mark Dagnoff's court. You know. Um if he doesn't have all his pieces, man. I can be rough. Yeah. Especially at the specifically their injuries are at the bird position where you have all these pit bulls defense for the Spurs was like that's a lot. That's I mean, even for Shea, it's awesome. I was gonna say they can really like like Shay's game, like last game, right? The Spurs didn't really, I'm not gonna say they didn't have it, but they they never had a run ever last game. It would be one of the guys they started the game off 15 and nothing, and then correct, you're right. Yeah, yeah, the water was cut off. And then, like, you know, Shay had unlimited timely buckets and he was getting to the line, but I mean he got to the line tonight, but if his free throw step back isn't working, I don't know. I don't know what he falls to. Like, I always say, I was saying the same thing with Wemby. Like, Wemby would only score. He wasn't playing defense and he wasn't rebounding last game. Shea tonight. You're scoring on bad efficiency in your playmaking, his defense. I don't know how you felt about his defense tonight, but um can you get him in the post off a smaller guy? Because Vissel is just up, he's up there with Castle to me, in terms of being a great matchup. Like they are with him whenever they're with him side to side, and he keeps having to throw the chicken wing that they're not calling. Um I don't know, maybe you got to find a different way to attack with him. Yeah, I mean, kind of like what we talked about with Wemby after game three. It was like you gotta find ways to get Wemby the ball, some easier situations and yeah, make him a hook. Yeah, yeah. I mean, as great as Shay is he's a back-to-back MVP, but he he has to bring up the ball, then he has to get he's on castle, then he has to get switched on the Passell, and then you have to worry about Wemby at the rim. Like that's just you know what I mean? That's just a lot of dribbling and a high usage rate for a guy who's great, and we know he can do it, but I mean, without two of I mean, I would argue AJ Mitchell was the second best player in the Lakers series, and then J Dub scored 40 points in the finals game last year. So, I mean, that that's a lot of ammo um there without Ring. Um, we got a comment real quick uh from our YouTube chat. Go mo. He says Farr did a great job when the Thunder started um coming back, stayed voice. I totally agree. So thank you, OG, for the comment. Shout out Gomo. Yeah, yeah, man. They uh they did uh yeah, they did a great job. Um what was that cut that that comeback was in the second quarter, right? And then we had uh what'd you put in the chat like a Wemby aneurysm or something? Yo, this guy's highlights are crazy. Did you see him reverse dunk? Yeah, oh bro, and he just picked though the reverse dunk on two people. Was that like chat and chase? That's crazy, and it's a lob too. Yeah, this guy the highlights were insane tonight. Yeah, man. Like they had the lesson from him. And you know why he can have those highlights too is because he runs the floor, like he's not one of those bigs that hit me up and steal, they on a three on two, I'm not gonna go. He's running the floor. He, I mean, cash out of thumbs flashy passes. He he he right down the right down the wendy. Wendy comes down, yams it crowds electric tonight. Hey, shout out to the San Antonio crowd. Yeah, they they carried the show. That was the show's six men on the fourth time fostered. Yeah, that was the best I heard their crowd, I think, all playoffs for sure. That might be the best crowd we've heard all playoffs, to be honest with you. I'd say, yeah, I'd say they're they're even better than the New York crowd, who have like are probably the bar. And you know what? Speaking of like having to impact the game in multiple ways, at least two minimum, if you're this 1A guy, Wendy, they took nothing away from him. All that gimmick stuff about uh in the first game, Caruso and Dort trying to slow him down by bumping him early before he gets into you know the low post or whatever. That didn't work. Game two and three, they kind of nullified him with um Isaiah Hartenstein just straight up bear hugging, because they're not calling it either series right now on the East Coast either. That didn't work. Like I thought they called it a little bit tighter today, though, with Hart Hartenstein. I'd say yeah, I'd say I'd say so too, but you're right. You you want to know one way that you can't foul me, throwing it up to where nobody can do it, or running on a fast break. Yeah, and they're killing it, man. I mean, they played their bench, they still lost the bench minutes by four points, but that's OKC superpower, man. It's their death. Like they had to play Ken Mitch Williams and Aaron Wiggins for 43 minutes tonight, and Isaiah Joe for 18. Wow, yeah, wow, yeah. Like, are you serious? These guys have played, they haven't played since the regular season, really. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, and they were heavily leaned on today. Like, even even the starters, like they the OKC had one guy over 30 minutes today. It's SDA, yeah. SDA Caruso, like I said, uh 14 minutes is interesting for him. Like, did he he only took one shot? I'm not sure what the hell was going on with Caruso today. I mean, he returned to struggles today. Like, I mean, a lot of it was the shot, the shots weren't falling, but guys that we saw in the first three games like Caruso, um Jadob last game, Jeremy Cain. Yeah, Jalen Williams. Yeah, Jalen Williams. Is it it is it repeatable? Is it hey, we're we're on a backpack, it's just a bad game, we forget about it. Because I mean, someone who I thought still needs to rise for the occasion. We talked about last game, it's Chet, and I I just don't know what Chet is right now. Um, it's super disappointing to watch him play not only against Wemby, but he'll have a smaller guy. Like, I think Harrison Barnes was matched up against him a couple times. And I love Harrison Barnes, but he's an older band. Like, why isn't Chet taking it to Harrison Barnes? Why is he gonna kill him? Even Devin Bissell's great as Devin Bissell as a defender, like Chet, that should be something you're good at is going at him, and I just feel like he's he's just been completely lost this entire series. Yeah, I don't know how how many games has he I mean been in double figures. I mean, we played four games, and you had and you were single digits. Well, no, he had he had 10 points tonight, but you were 10 points or less in like half of these games. That's inexcusable. Like you just made uh what did he what did he make today? 13 R8, and all season he was anointed as the second best player on the thunder with JF's and Dream Law C. So it's just yeah, yeah, and he hasn't had more than 15 points in any of these games. And you're like SJ wasn't gonna be immaculate every game, nobody is, unless you're 2018 LeBron. So, yeah, you got to rely on hopefully, like you're you're all your all-star guy here, man. But they got to get more production out of these guys. IHart, like you said, he was good, but then Lou Dort, man, I don't know. I think he's unplayable in the series. I no, I was about to say, I I think I think you got a James Harden him, like the cast, dude. I'm I'm bringing you off the bench, dude. I'm bringing you off the bench for like McCain, probably. McCain or Wallace. I just feel like McKinney Wallace has not gotten a lot of tape this year, and I've preferred a series of the case. He started today. He started today because but I've probably taken up Dort for Caruso or McCain, probably McCain, I guess. But yeah, like Caruso's bench presence is too impactful. It is, it is like he's instant, instant, you know, energy and stuff. He just wasn't there today. I get I guess it's one thing that you could say, like if I'm OKC, if I'm OKC, I'm probably thinking um Jalen Williams is one for seven, maybe he hits half of those. Jeremy Cain's oh for five, maybe hits two of those. And instead of us losing by getting down by what was the highest device, like 22, 25, yeah, in the third. Yeah, maybe it's a 10-point game, and you know, who knows from there, or maybe even a single-digit game. Right. But you also gotta think they've been those guys have been so hot. Now it's the other way, maybe even it's a middle ground. The Spurs play them, I'd say, so well in the clutch, yeah, because they have Wimby and uh their guards just. Aren't affected by them anyway. Like, it's crazy how their guards are mainly shoot or mainly slashers, and they cannot stop anybody sometimes from just carving out space. But um well, let's talk about that a little bit more. Like, I mean, we we used to discuss at the top of the uh of the show, like the Spurs went away from double Shea, leaving these shooters open. Coincidentally, these uh the shooters that were red hot have their worst shooting game in the series. I will say J Dub, I don't expect him to go one for seven again. I thought some of the threes he he he was pretty fucking open for like five of those threes. Yeah, chest of wins. Yeah, and he and he was he was god awful. But I mean, players like Caruso, like I mean, they're not they're not just letting him get shooting practice in these games no more, or at least in game four. Um, and if I'm the Spurs moving forward, I'm definitely not going back to how it was in games one through. 1000%. Every major, every major adjustment, like it's it's back in it's back in Dagnot's court. Last game was Mitch Johnson's court. That's that's the beauty of or that's the importance of probably you know winning game one, even though some people say it's a fill-out game. When you win the first game, adjustment to the other team, right? So if you just keep trading adjustments, and there's not that many you can do at this point, eventually the last adjustment will be in your favor. So I don't know, you're right. Like, again, that's why I'm that's why I'm thinking if they don't have their guys, and I don't think they're gonna have either one. I would be shocked if Jada plays again in the series. Um yeah, I couldn't I couldn't believe they said he was day-to-day. I'm like, that's bro. That's just that's just being that's just NBA playoff politics when that's just gamesmanship. He's not coming back. There's no way this is no there's no way yeah, for the season. If they make the finals, you're uh you're he's not playing. Yeah, I yeah, if they make the finals, I still don't even think he plays in the finals. Maybe if it goes to game seven, because that's like a month out, but even then it's like that's way that's so dangerous. Yeah. Um, yeah, uh, so now we're headed back. Uh hey, before we get into game five, looking ahead, uh go ahead, drop a comment. Uh let us know your thoughts about the Spurs and Thunder game tonight. See we got uh 55 people in this. Go ahead. Um so yeah, looking ahead uh to game five. I mean, first of all, thank god we have a series that's 2-2. This the Eastern Conference Finals is absolutely dreadful to watch, but they they tricked us with game one. They tricked us with game one. I thought it'd be a competitive. I had the Knicks in six. I was wrong. I mean, I was right about the outcome. I thought the Cavs would put up a little bit better of a fight. Kind of looks like they gave up last game, but um, anyways, looking ahead of game five, like back to back in OKC. Um, you're you know you're probably down J-W. I'm curious to see if AJ Mitchell plays. If he plays, he might be limited. Um and he hasn't been good. So what is his limited version of that? Yeah, so you expect you know your role players to shoot better at home, even though game three OKC had 71 bench points. Like, what do we look? What are we looking for from the thunder side of things going into game five? Well, what I'm looking for for them is just I'm looking just like Mitch Johnson to make a major adjustment to his defense. I am daring these guys to shoot. Nobody off their bench scares me as a shooter. Harrison Barnes, go ahead and take five threes. Kelvin Johnson, you were 0 for 4, and I don't think you hit the rim on half of them. Keep driving backboard on board. Like Dylan Harper, you are an unbelievable slasher. And if if you're open, even though I think you can hit the three, you're not a you're a hesitant guy. Yeah, I'm letting you shoot, I'm letting everybody on their team shoot. I'm playing, I'm playing. Um I'm I'm shrinking, I'm shrinking the floor. I'm shrinking the floor. I'm not letting Wimby get loose. I want two guys touching Wimby at all times. An elbow on one and a hand on the other. And if Vasel wants to continue playing, I mean he only had 13 points tonight, but if he wants to go off, be my guest. I'm not losing. I don't want to lose to Wimby's offense. I want to lose to Champagne, too, who's been stopped. Champagne hasn't hit a three in forever, I feel like. And then after that, who is it? Castle and Fox? Get out of here, bro. Uh the only person that scares me as a shooter is Wimby Russell, and if Champani's not, but like this guy just has he been playing. I think he's been playing a little above his head this whole season. I mean, he was almost out of the league the other year. Yeah, so if I'm Mitch John, if I'm Mark Dagner, I'm daring these guys to beat me now. Because I've lost to Wimby twice. I've lost to his excellence twice. And then then maybe I get my fast break going if I'm OKC. Yeah, it's kind of shocking how they're not forcing a lot of turnovers like over the last uh or today's game at least. Um, I mean that's OKC's bread and butter. They they average all the transition points and fast break points the whole season. They lead the league in it for the last three years. So the fact that they're not forcing turnovers and and and I'm also too like on the offensive or defensive end for the Thunder, I feel like they're they're paying a little too much attention from Wemby from three. Like I I'm with you that Wemby could get hot, but I'm kind of I'm okay with Wemby shooting a three. He hasn't hit the half court one, he hit the one in game one. I'm okay with a Wemby three right now because I'm that's how they lost last game. Yeah, that's how they lost last game. Everyone just popped popped the shot. Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. You're right. Yeah, so I'm I'm really afraid of nobody except the sell then maybe shooting threes. I'm striking the floor. Like Castle's not hitting nothing. Castle ain't no castle. Yeah, he's uh he he's gonna be future all-star for sure, probably a multi-time all-star, but yeah, at this point, all these guards, Fox, all-star guard, quote unquote, he shouldn't have made it, whatever. But um, yeah, I'm not I'm I'm daring them to shoot. I'm dare, I'm daring them to shoot. Yeah, and I and I like and I like my percentages with McCain and Williams and Caruso more than I like you shooting above your head. For sure. So that's what I'm saying. If I'm daggnaught. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, on the other end too, like the Spurs, um, they they didn't make they didn't let Shea be a playmaker on offense today. I mean, last couple of games, uh, he had eight plus assists. The last game he had 12 assists. Tonight he has Tonight he has he still has seven assists, so he's he actually still had a pretty good. Yeah, he had seven, but he had four turnovers. He had four turnovers with those. And super inefficient. Um kind of back to what we were saying about Webby going into game four. Shea needs to come out in game five and force the issue. Say, hey, I'm the back-to-back MVP. No one could guard me on the stepback three. Um, I'm curious to see where the whistle is at because I thought Shay um had a couple step back push-offs, whatever, where he shot it and they didn't call the foul. Where in the previous three games they were calling the shooting fouls on those. So I'm it it kind of just depends on the whistle, um, what they're gonna give. Uh yeah. Yeah, it seems like they made a big adjustment to Hardenstein too, who I thought was incredible with his screen setting. Yeah past couple games. And yeah, I mean, it was a blowout, which is probably why his minutes were lower tonight. But yeah, only only three assists. They made him more of a scorer. I mean, and goddamn, did he hit unlimited floaters? That guy's touch is crazy. Um, but yeah, his floater game was there. But I'd probably say they said, I heart, you're not uh we're making you score a little more than getting loose, Jeremy Cain, easy looks, Isaiah Joe, easy looks, whoever coming off that seven footer. So yeah, I don't know. And and Chet, I'm not I I have no idea what they can do with Chet. Like, I don't know. Can they post him up more or something when Wendy goes out a little bit more or something? Like, he needs to get involved somehow. Like, I think he needs like offense run through him when Shay's out, when Wendy's out, um, or just like when he has the smaller people on him. Like, I love Parker, but like post him up. Would you uh yeah, I was gonna say, would you try to would you try to let let him do like Isaiah Hardenstein high posts and run some Princeton action like big to big, throw it over top to chat for Alice? I would, but Wemby's probably the only player on the planet that could guard both. He could guard the pass and he could and he could guard the the role man. So and yes, like you know, yes, but I think Wemby could guard both. 1000%. But to your point, I'm like, could they do it when Wemby's out? Like when Wimby's in, I probably say I'll give I'll give Isaiah Hardenstein if I'm Mark, I'll give him the first three to four minutes. Um and I want J Dub in. I want five shooters on. Yeah, or five shooters on when Wimby's out, go at Luke Cornet. Let him let him go crazy on him. Exactly, exactly. But I'll go double big. I'll go double big when Wimby's out. And I mean they've been kind of trying to match SGA minutes with Wimby because maybe they didn't think, I mean, especially early too, maybe they didn't think they could score with with Wimby on the court and no SDA. Yeah, so if you still want to take out SGA, okay, I'm taking J Dub back out. Bring Isaiah Hart in. Let me get two seven-footers, and I'm abusing this small ass team. I'm abusing the small ass team, and less Chet dribbling, less Chet attacking from the corner, and more intentional, like, yeah, let's get some dig-to-big action. I'll even, I mean, I might even let Chet do like a little side ball screen action with Isaiah Hartenstein, like, and bring all that attention, kick it up. Yeah, that's probably what I would try to do, then whatever they've been doing with him, and they've been using him like an omega role player. Like, same thing I was saying with was it Mobley? I need you had eight shots tonight. I need you to get 15. Yeah, I need you to get 15. Yeah, I also think too, like with Mark Dagnall, I think he's gonna have to start shrinking this uh bench up. As great in how and as great as OKC's benches, how deep they are, he gotta shrink up the rotation, I think. I think there's just so many minutes you're trying to fit in. And why is Kendrick Williams playing so much? Why is Aaron, like I get Aaron Wiggins part because they're without AJ Mitchell and um without Jada, but these are a lot of minutes. The bench still went out to like eight or nine or ten players tonight. Like, hey, we're in the Western Conference Finals. This is the hardest test um this whole season. Like, hey, we're in that rotation eight, maybe nine, especially without no J Dub, and just let ride out with your best players. Because these minutes with I mean Eric Wiggins was awful tonight. Kendrick Williams had a couple threes, and and and big jadeb, who was, I would argue, the savior of last game, absolutely awful tonight. And so it's one of those things you're not gonna take Jade Ub, big J Dub out the um out the rotation, but you gotta find it where he can get in a rhythm a little bit. Yeah. 1000%. I'm like, dude, why why is Chet? I mean, again, when he played 40 minutes in game one and double OT, he didn't have a crazy stat line either, but 25 minutes, 10 and 9. Like, come on. Yeah, like why'd you put SJA back in with three minutes left, but not Chet? Like, what the hell was that about? Yeah, they're down 20 points with three minutes, though. Why is S trying to get trying to get Jada 20 points? Oh, trying to get Jada 20. Oh, yeah. Yeah, well, yeah, that's another story. But yeah, I'm like, let that be Chet. Let him get a little bit of confidence. Yeah, and you're right, just like we were saying what we wanted to see from the Spurs, you know, less minutes from Champagne and Carter, give them figure out a way to get Harper and Barnes some more minutes. Same thing. I want I need Chet at 30 minutes minimum. I need Chet at 30 minutes. I need I need to ride him and SGA for next game. But yeah, uh after a game like this, man, it is looking rough. I don't know where else this minutes uh allocation is gonna go. Yeah, Isaiah Hart maybe rotation and uh Dort might be just out completely. I just hate his minutes the entire time. Like, yeah, I don't like anything he's doing. Not bad. Um, I I have some news real quick. Um Box was uh Papa Greg Popovich stormed into the locker room um after the games yet, and he said we lost game three, but that was the first time he walked into the locker room and was like, nah, that's bullshit. That's not how we play basketball. And obviously he had some choice words for us. That was the first time all season that he came into the locker room right after a game and told us how he felt. So, I mean, you have one of the greatest coaches of all time. I mean, to your point earlier, like in your corner, he stormed down to the locker room like, nah, that's not how we play. And you could tell the to your also point from last uh live the intentionality every single player play with tonight. They play with a force. Every 50-50 ball, there's four spurs on the ground. Every block, everybody's trying to block it. Transition three on two, I'm still trying to stop it. They're not giving up on no plays. And I mean you can see it too. I mean, I know he had a rough game, but Mitch Johnson's uh coaching to Carter Bryant. I mean, Carter Bryant looked like he was about to cry out there after Miss Johnson's touch in. You know what I mean? But that's coaching, holding everybody accountable. Like, I mean, nothing's personal. We're all trying to get to the same place, and I think that that that was kind of an evolution step for me, I think, looking at Mitch Johnson, like, hey, he has pop in his corner. Listen to this guy, he's been under his wing for a while. What he says goes, and then I mean, he made the adjustments tonight, and everybody looked good, everybody looked real good on the Spurs tonight. Yeah, man. Yeah, I mean, yeah, uh that was that was the what I was referencing earlier when I said to that extended quote. They had even the tr like the trainers in there, like everybody. And again, man, that coaching tree. I mean, Pop has gotten a lot of guys' jobs all in NBA. It is such a cheat code, and I guarantee you David Robinson and Tim Duncan were in that locker room too. Uh along with Pop. So you got five championships walking, yeah. Like as as many as many select, I mean, as many players come back for the Knicks from the 2000s, the 2010s, like you have Miller, the 90s. No, nobody though, nobody, none of those guys are probably helping Mike Brown with his strategy. And none of those players are champions. Like these are real Hall of Fame. Yeah, I mean, not I mean not the those shade, but like these are real Hall of Fame top, I mean, Tim Duncan, top 10 player in history, like people that have credibility to what they do. Yeah, David Robinson, MVP. Yeah. Come on, dude. So hell of a game. Um, going to game five. Let's touch on the Spurs a little bit. Um, what do you think's repeatable? Like, I I don't like they haven't had a crazy shooting game. So, I mean, are they due for one? Can they is this defensive intensity as we saw in game one, it didn't carry over to game two. Like, is that what's gonna happen going into game five? Could they carry that? Um, what what's your thoughts going in the game game five for the spirit? It's um I I'm not exactly sure. I'm not sure if this is repeatable, but if they win the turnover battle, like that's probably the game right there. Because Fox had, I mean, not Fox, Castle had 20 turnovers through his first two games, two games, and it's he's been way more um because Fox is back. He's yeah, he's reined that in the past two games. He had, I think, three maybe last game, maybe four. Tonight he had one. Um came back and used it waste smaller. It's I mean, Castle needs Fox more than anybody on that trip. Yeah, and he's back to just ducking everything. Yeah, man. Some of those plays he made tonight, man, like instant classics right there, dude. I mean, I know you have to dunk on Hartenstein in game two, but yeah, that pass he had to Wendy on the fast break and then the alley from Harper. Just room brothers, dude. Yeah, man. Like you said in the chat, it's like uh you could call I call him Westbrook, you call him Westbrook. Yeah, I mean, yeah, he's gonna be the next him and Harper are the same as John Wall, Derek Rose, Westbrook, even a little bit of Derrick Williams off the two feet. Yeah, like that same athletic Duncan guard, yeah. Yeah, but thankfully their defense, like all the out of all those guys I just named, those two have probably the best defense, except maybe John Wall. Yeah, I won't say, who had like a nine still game is rookie year. But yeah, but yeah, I I it I'd say that energy 1,000 is repeatable. Um, and if they if they just keep turning down three, like Champagne's gotta hit a three at some point, like just like how Sam Marrow, he was 0 for 7 in game three. Like, goddamn, Sam. I mean, like regression to the mean. Like, look at Crusoe. He goes from 25 three-point shooter the whole regular season, he goes to 47, then 65 heading into the series. It's like, okay, can it go the other way? Because Champagne, this 41% three-point shooter, get back. Because I mean, he's shooting, he's probably like 16 right now. It's probably pretty bad. Yeah, like I I don't I really don't remember the last time he he made a three. Yeah, it it's kind of crazy. I mean, shout out to Mitch for like trusting him so much. You have to, and and and just like I think it was last game, maybe it was game two when they lost. Wemby was telling him, I want you to shoot every time. Yeah, and boy is it, he was oh for five today, he was two for eight, game three, and he is getting them up, dude. Yeah, game two. I mean, he's so important. If they get one player that has an outlier shooting game and opens up the one for seven in game two, it's uh it's over with. Yeah, like the Spurs aren't gonna lose a game if they get another person contributing that. Yeah, yeah. I like their defensive intensity is just as good as um I don't even want to say intense, I want to say their try-hard is just as good as uh as OKC, but their guards, I think, I think their guards are probably better at it, man. I'll be honest. Between Vassell, Harper, Castle, and then Johnson's just a wrecking ball, and Carter Bryan for whatever he does, they're a little bit taller, they're a little bit longer. That's probably why they've dominated this matchup all season. Yeah, really, since the regular season. Like, and I did like two. I like how Spark uh Wendy wasn't just sitting in the paint the whole time. Like, I think that's a great strategy, but yeah, um, I think he closed down a couple of those three-point shots where the last three games they were just open, but now you have this seven foot seven guy coming to contest. I thought that changed changed a lot of shots to that. Yeah, yeah, it yeah. By not doubling, it meant less ground to cover for him as opposed to like you know, got the ball in rotation, bing, bing, bing. It's a lot easier when you're not doubling, and maybe a guy can pump and go, and he can recover because their guards are so fast, and that would like their um their scramble mode is immaculate. Like when he's when he's when he's going out to contest. You're right. Oh yeah, overall, hell of a game uh for the Spurs. Uh I do think so how I had it, I had I had after game two, I had Spurs in game three, I had th uh no no, I had Thunder in game three, I had Spurs in game four, I have Spurs winning in game five, and I think in a desperate situation, SGA ties it up at 3 3 for game six, and then game seven is everybody's game. So I I think but I mean those the games five and six can be interchangeable, but knowing the NBA, I know they want this to go seven. Um, I know they want to go seven so so bad. Like um, and then if you're if you're the Knicks, you're like, hell yeah, go seven, beat each other up because you're boost guys, baby. You know what I mean? We're done tomorrow. Knicks are done tomorrow. Now do we no no no? If if I if I was a Knicks fan, you know, listen, yeah, listen. I I am a Laker fan, but I I want I want them actually, you know what? No, I'm skip Bayless. Like, I'm a I'm a Spurs fan on until the city can win, and then when if OKC I'm a Spurs fan against there, you go. Yeah, no, that's hilarious. But uh but no, I mean, yeah, man. Like if you're the Knicks, you gotta be faking this is perfect. Because 1000, I think you're right. I think I think I think Spurs win game five. I think Spurs win game five. I think there's the more I think more variables are in their favor, especially with no AJ Mitchell and Jay Dub. I think if they had AJ Mitchell, it even though he's hasn't been good, it's like I can get three guys capable of getting me 10 like 15 points out on one time. But if you go on this deep into your bench, take it out of Shay's hands. And plus, if you're gonna tighten the rotation, what does that mean now that you lost two guys? Yeah, I gotta I gotta go Spurs here in game. I'm I'm gonna go yeah, and in game six, I don't know, we'll see, man. But game six gets crazy if the Spurs win on um game five on OKC, yeah. And OKC, like the saxophones get loud, like the rhythm gets loud. Like, I don't know because that because that because I mean the Thunder have never been in that situation. They've never been down, they've never been down in the series 3-2. They tied 3-3. Not since they've had Caruso and IHERT, yeah, yeah. So and each game is so brutal. Like, who knows might who might be playing by game five, six, seven, one thousand percent. Yeah, I think the only way if they have the exact same team tonight, they win, and I think they will, is you gotta have two guys scoring 20 points. You gotta have two. Shea and chet, Shay and McCain. But it's probably gotta be Shay and Chet. Because Chet, you're the one getting paid for it. And I still I don't I don't know what that looks like for Chet. Like, I don't see him making four plus threes. I don't see him getting a bunch of layouts. I don't see him getting he's not even getting shot attempts up. I I don't know what it looks like for Shaq. Like, okay, the other player, I can see McCain hitting five threes. I can see Crusoe hitting three threes. I can see Jada hitting four threes. Like, I just don't know what it looks like. I don't know what Chet going off looks like, is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. Especially with Wemby. I think Wemby's in his head. I I think a lot of people called it corny going into the series, but I really think Wemby has some real estate in Chet's brain, and he's overthinking everything right now, uh, especially on offense. Because on defense he's still been pretty solid, but uh offensively he I mean looks off. Yeah, yeah, it looks like his season high this year was only like 30 points. Yeah. You're not getting 30 points against Wemby, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, you gotta be excellent in uh getting him going when Wemby's down the court. I I would for sure go double big. I'd for sure go double big as soon as Wemmy's out. But I don't know, man. It's it's tough. I think um, I mean, we kind of seen it with Wemby. It's been kind of like every other game this series. Um, what do you think game a game five Wemby looks like? But because I mean we talked about it last uh podcast. Hey, Wemby could has by far the highest ceiling out of him and Shay. Like, what if he just keeps it up? What if he's like, no, I know we're back in OKC, but what if he I mean he could easily shut this shit down. And same with Shay, like he can easily but hey Wemby, that was key last game in game one. You know what I mean? I feel like the stars here have so much, so much influence on how this game five plays. Yeah, they do, they do. I mean, yeah, it's uh he's probably going in he's going into game five with you know killer be uh as a must as a must-win. Because even if if they win that, they win that, can come back, close out of home with his rocking crowd, dude. I mean that crowd, if they if they go three, two coming back to Sam, that crowd will be absolutely unbelievable. You know what I mean? And and sometimes in a dreadful series like this, you need you need your crowd. I I think they played a role in tonight's game. I thought when OKC made that run in the first quarter, um, or in the second quarter after the Spurs being up again. I thought those dunks, I mean, them being behind and rallying them uh behind them was he. Yeah, I mean, dude, Vassell said it after Wemby hit that three, right? Because wasn't Vassell the guy that got interviewed? He that was like one of the first things he said was the crowd. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I mean, listen, dude, they they went into a hostile environment in one game one. They can absolutely because at this point to me they got more talent with all the injuries. Okay, see they have more talent and they have the better player, so they can absolutely if and their floor, their defensive floor is so high. I mean, they held the thunder. Well, when's the last time the thunder scored 80 points? Yeah, 80 points. Yeah, like it's probably been five, six years since then, like probably since when they're rebuilding. It's almost unheard of, and you're right. I mean, and the thunder did do they did a good job on that? They only scored 100 points, but Wemby scored over 30 percent. Yeah, he can 1000 do that again. Like, and maybe that's probably the only other trend I want to see. Like, yeah, I want to see points turnovers battle, I mean uh threes turnovers battle. I want to see Mark Dagnog dare everybody to shoot, shrink his rotation, and probably do the rest continue to call the game like they do. Yeah, that tight. And notes for the Spurs. I don't think I have any notes. I don't think I have any notes. Maybe do exactly what you did tonight. Like play, play their play your rotation like this. Um, yeah, I like Vassell under 30 minutes. I don't know why he was getting all these minutes before when he wasn't because he's not doing that much outside of hitting three shots shots, not even scoring like hitting shots. I like him. Uh yeah, I like him. I like the minutes distribution he had tonight. Do that, yeah, and we'll see. We'll see, man. I'm canceling all plans on Tuesday. I'll tell you that. Tuesday, we will we will be here. Um, all right, guys. Um, appreciate you guys all tuning in today. Had a lot of people come in. Um, leave a comment on the video below. Let us know your thoughts for game going into game five. Ashton, it's always a pleasure. Thank you again for doing this. Um like uh like and subscribe to the warm up, and we'll see you next time. Peace and job life. Peace.