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00:00Let's go out to the River Islands guest line and bring in our friend from NBC Sports Bay Area,
00:04Monty Poole, all over the Warrior Beat. Hey, Monty, what's going on tonight?
00:10Game two, baby. Let's get it on.
00:11Let's get it on. Is Brandon Pajemski going to play in it?
00:16My guess is yes, but it could be one of those situations where they hold him out.
00:22I mean, honestly, if he's good to go, fine. If he's not good to go, I think they're deep enough
00:28to be able to cover for him.
00:31That's an interesting statement. How do you think they would cover for him?
00:37Well, Moses has been taking the point of attack defense guy, so he's been defending Jalen Green,
00:43which is the biggest threat, I think, on Houston's perimeter.
00:48So you look at that, and I think what you get defensively from Gary and from Moses,
00:55that's a pretty good defensive duo. They can do things defensively that Brandon can't do.
01:02Now, on the other hand, you would like to see a little offense from whoever is out there with Steph.
01:07And that's the thing you've got to look for.
01:09And I know that they don't play the same position, but the inevitable question comes up about Jonathan Kaminga.
01:14Does this get a little bit of a run? I hate to do it, Monty, but the fans need to know,
01:19does this clear any sort of runway for J.K. to actually get some meaningful minutes?
01:27Well, okay. Let's start at the beginning.
01:30Steve Kerr is a huge fan of spacing, okay?
01:33We understand why, because it's worked for him for many, many years.
01:37And he's also a huge fan of Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green playing together pretty frequently.
01:43If those are on the court together, where do you put Kaminga?
01:49Where do you put him offensively?
01:51And that's the issue.
01:53The only way that that works for Jonathan is if he comes in and plays on the perimeter,
01:59and that's a little bit different.
02:01Can he be the point of objective ender?
02:03He's okay at that.
02:05He can do a pretty good job if you say, Jonathan, take this guy.
02:08But in terms of coordinating what has to happen on both ends of the floor for this team to be good,
02:15that's a little bit tougher task for him.
02:17So I'm not going to rule him out simply because he does have something to offer
02:22against a team that's athletic and all over the offensive glass, all over the defensive glass.
02:29If you tell J.K. to go out there and we need you to really rebound, he can do that.
02:33He's done it before.
02:33So I'm not going to rule him out even though I know that Steve Kerr is not going to –
02:38I can't see him playing J.K. with Draymond and Jimmy at the same time.
02:43You don't have any spacing there.
02:44Because Jimmy is on the block a lot.
02:46That's where he lives.
02:48And where's J.K. going to be?
02:50If he's going to be on the perimeter, they won't guard him.
02:54They won't guard him from three.
02:56So he has to be a threat, and right now he's got a threat from three.
02:59I think that is a fair and informative answer.
03:04I would also like to say, Monty, that the double laugh that you gave while Dibs was asking it,
03:09I felt that.
03:10I really felt that.
03:13Because it's a hot topic, and he's not playing, and his contract is up.
03:19He's going to be a free agent.
03:21And so it might as well – what's going to happen with Kaminga?
03:24I don't think you'll know what's going to happen with J.K. until Summerhead.
03:29Yep.
03:29But right now, obviously, he's out of the rotation.
03:33And if they keep winning, he's going to stay out of the rotation.
03:35If there comes a point in time where they think they need him and can use him,
03:39go back to the rotation.
03:40Steve Kerr has done this before.
03:42Go back to Steve's career as a head coach.
03:45There have been some series.
03:46If you go back, you'll see some postseasons where he used four or five different starting lineups.
03:52Rotations can change based on matchups.
03:55So I'm not going to say J.K. is glued to the bench.
03:58But I'm going to say he's out of the rotation.
04:02He won't get in it unless there's a place for him.
04:04And as long as Jimmy is playing 40 minutes and Draymond is doing what he does,
04:07there's not much room for him.
04:09Yeah, that's fair.
04:10Monty Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area, with us here on Willard & Dibs.
04:14Monty, what do you think Houston's big adjustment is?
04:18Like, what do the Warriors really need to be ready for tonight?
04:20You know, I think Houston will look at the video from last game and say,
04:27how did we miss so many shots?
04:30That's an open look they didn't make.
04:32They had so many rebounds on the offensive last, 22 offensive rebounds,
04:37and they didn't turn them into a lot of points.
04:39Usually if you get 22 offensive rebounds,
04:40you convert those into points on the second and third chances.
04:44And they didn't get much out of that.
04:45They had 22 points out of that.
04:46The Warriors, by contrast, had six offensive rebounds in terms of 12 points.
04:53So 1-1 is not a good ratio for offensive rebounding converts into buckets.
04:59I think that's the first thing they had to do is keep power in the glass and make some shots.
05:04And as far as defending Steph, I think they'll go back to more top locking.
05:09They didn't do as much in game one as they did in the previous game when they played them at Chase Center back on April 6th, I think it was.
05:16So I look back now and I go, they will probably be more aggressive, more muscular, more rugged, more physical.
05:25And those are the two things they can do because they are not built to be a really good, strong offense in the half court.
05:34They're just not.
05:35They haven't done it all season.
05:36That's not their game.
05:37And the Warriors know that.
05:38And so obviously the Warriors want to take care of the ball and make sure they can keep in the half court as often as possible.
05:43Yeah, and even in game one when they did try to take Steph away, he found his way into five straight layups or mid-range shots after he missed his opening three three-point shots.
05:54So they're going to have to find different ways to do it.
05:57What do you think about the Rockets and their two-big lineup?
05:59Because we saw them go to Adams and Shang-Goon together with some success.
06:04I know they didn't get a lot of second-chance points out of it, but would you think that maybe they go to Steven Adams even more to try to just dominate the glass like they did in game one?
06:13Yeah, probably.
06:16But, I mean, when you win the offensive, when you win the rebounding battle by, what was it, that's 17 or 18 or whatever, plus gigantic on rebounding.
06:24Yeah, 16.
06:26Yeah, I don't think you look back and say, we need to rebound better.
06:30I don't think that's the issue.
06:31I think the issue is, no, we need to score better.
06:34And Steve Adams is going to get you rebounds.
06:36We ain't going to score.
06:37Shang-Goon can score.
06:39And so, I look at what they can do, and I just don't see a lot of options aside from being more physical and being more intentional with their physicality.
06:51And by that, I'm saying it could get chippy.
06:53It could get chippy.
06:54I wouldn't doubt that because they're going to be desperate.
06:56They don't want to go down 0-2 at all because they know if they do, it's over.
06:59Monty, do you think there's a certain kind of officiating that favors or does not favor the Warriors?
07:16That's a tough question because I don't think, I think the Warriors don't mind if the game is physical.
07:24I know Jimmy doesn't mind it at all.
07:26Dreamon doesn't mind it at all.
07:28Moon doesn't mind it at all.
07:29Steph is used to it.
07:32They just want to see the calls go the same both ways.
07:35That's all they care about.
07:37And that's all anything any team really cares about.
07:40I don't think they fear the whistle.
07:41They look at the refs and go, oh, my God, we're in trouble because this guy's refereeing the game tonight.
07:45I don't think they're one of those kings.
07:47But in terms of the type of officiating, I think they want to go with let them play.
07:52Let them play.
07:52Now, if it gets out of control, if they start, like in the game, the last time they played the Rockets in the regular season,
08:00Eamon Thompson was literally hugging Steph.
08:05He had his arms around him.
08:07And I don't think they want to go unpunished.
08:12Go unpunished.
08:12So we'll see.
08:14I think it's going to be juicy to see how they defend Steph because, you know, and I think Dave's mentioned this sort of, he is so good.
08:22Between Steph's self-diagnosis and Steve's ability to devise ways to get Steph open, they're so good at coming back.
08:32Once you get Steph, once you have a Steph stopper, it's a one-game thing.
08:38That's his history.
08:39Nobody stops Steph year in, year out.
08:42It hasn't happened.
08:43And so I just don't, I mean, you saw it in game one.
08:46You know, the Eamon Thompson, Steph stopper.
08:48Game one, not so much.
08:50He finds ways.
08:51And between Steph and Steve, I think they'll find ways.
08:54And I guess, again, as long as the officials are calling with the hugs and the clutching and the grabbing and the holding, I think they're fine.
09:01Yeah, and if you look at the two wins from Houston this year, they are the two lowest foul-called games among the six that the Rockets and the Warriors played, including that 91-90 win in the NBA Cup where Steph Curry shot just one free throw in a game where he was again hugged and caressed and clutched.
09:21Monty, what did you make of the game one defensive approach from the Warriors?
09:25It felt almost like a college team where you're going zone, you're going man, and you're really just mixing it up a ton.
09:33I love it.
09:34I love it.
09:35They know that the Rockets are not accustomed to the postseason, first of all.
09:39And they got a lot of young guys that are depending on to be productive.
09:42Throw them different looks at them.
09:44Give them different looks.
09:46You know, don't let them get predictable.
09:48I think that's a great way to go about this because give them the same look.
09:53Even the young guys will figure it out.
09:55So throw some zone at them.
09:57You know, mix it up.
09:59Change your zones.
10:00You know, if you want to go 2-3 or 3-2 and, you know, 1-3-1, whatever.
10:04Throw different looks at them.
10:06And that's something that Steve does traditionally in man-to-man.
10:10You know, the biggest threat will not see one defender the whole game.
10:14You'll see a variety of defenders.
10:15That's been in history.
10:17Whether it's LeBron, James Harden, you know, Kyrie, whoever is out there that they see as a real threat, that person is going to see not one, maybe not two, probably three different defenders.
10:30Now, you can do that when you have, you know, Big Adala and Wiggins and, before Wiggins, Livingston.
10:38You can do that with those switchable guys.
10:40It's hard to do now, but I wouldn't put it past him to try that to get different looks because he's done it again this year.
10:46Monty, do you sort of buy into the traditional thought that a lot of us have, which is the Rockets absolutely have to have this one tonight, and if they don't, it's a short series?
11:00Yeah.
11:01Yeah, I think they know that, too.
11:04And I do expect to see moments when it's clear they are desperate because they know that, yeah, if you go down 0-2, you're not going to win four out of the next five against this team.
11:14And so, you know, they like to use the phrase must win.
11:19You know, it's not a must win until you're on the brink of elimination.
11:24But for the Rockets, they have to look at it that way, as a must win, because if they don't win this game, I don't see a way out for them to win this series.
11:32Monty, it's so great to have you on a game night.
11:34Thank you so much.
11:36All right, guys.
11:37Enjoy the game.