Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Hey guys, welcome on into Stacking Dubs. This is Chris Chin and man, we are on a high note Sunday morning. Wasn't even intending to get a podcast in, but I am just so darn excited about what happened last night against the Suns. Had to hop on here trying to squeeze in a few things this morning before the Super bowl, but just had to just get my joy just on audio. Just let you guys know how happy I am. We'll see what happens after the Niners game. I hope to be even happier, but this is the best win of the season for the Warriors. Warriors, led by Steph Curry's heroics, win 113 to 112 against the Suns, against Kevin Durant, against a Devin Booker that caught fire towards the end. And this game really just shows how far the warriors have come. It shows that the warriors can win close games in the clutch. It shows that Steph Curry can bail us out, hit a game winner, and we can get a stop with whatever time is left on the clock. Because for whatever reason Steph is, he's not good enough where he can just wait until it goes all the way down to zeros. He always leaves like 0.7 seconds or a second left, so he has a lot to work on with that. I'm kidding. But in reality, Steph Curry wins the game for the warriors. Hits a three from what? 38 39ft. You've seen the play. Brandy Pojinski obviously throws an angled pass, a phenomenal pass, to avoid a Bradley Beal who's trying to shoot the gap and would have and stole the ball, or at least deflected it had it not been a pass that led Steph away towards the mid court line.
[00:02:02] Steph, even though he ended up having an extra .7 seconds, takes an extra moment to let the ball kind of come into him as he reverse pivots before grabbing the ball, spins, puts it up from 38ft already. He knew midway through in the air you can see his reaction. He is not at all shocked that the ball went straight through the hoop. He is literally no reaction. He just knew from the time I left his hand that that was good. This is what he does. And man, that was a fun game. I was out and about on my Saturday evening on a date, eating dinner, went to my friend's birthday party, sitting outside the bar, but had to watch the final moments of the game. Just on my phone, in the car, in the parking lot. Wife had to go in early and go to the bathroom and let everyone know that I'm still in the parking lot watching the game as we're waiting for the replay on the subsequent Wiggins inbounds foul. But I'm sitting there going crazy in the parking lot screaming now this is the best win of the season. The warriors are back. The warriors are back. This team can contend. This team can play with a team as good as the Suns, who have been on fire lately. They have, I believe, won eight of their last ten. They've had the best net rating in the west over that span, and they've been on fire since their big three has started playing together. And the warriors, by their own measure, have also now been on fire against six wins in their last seven games, and this was really eight. We're going to call it a heavyweight matchup, primetime game. ABC all the rivalry fuels with Durant coming back to the bay. Big time game and the warriors get it done after just a back and forth game with 22 lead changes. I believe it was ten alone in the third quarter. The game was a tight game. It was a very high intensity game. The warriors defense was the secondary. Story to the game. And just like the Pacers game, Steph Curry is going to get the heroics. But I'm most encouraged by the defensive effort. You can just see it. The sun's got nothing easy, especially Kevin Durant, who actually played well, didn't shoot well. But there was a reason the warriors made life difficult on him. And until the very end of the game, in clutch time, they made it difficult on Devin Booker. Bradley Beal never really got it going, and the warriors made life tough by just being connected once again. Draymond Green anchoring the defense. And this game was not a fluke. You could tell the entire time. The warriors were getting much better looks throughout the game than the Suns were. Every look was aside from a few off balance clay shots. And I'm not going to talk too much about Clay Thompson's. He had an off game, only played 24 minutes because Pajamski played phenomenal.
[00:05:04] We're going to talk about that at a later time. There's a time and a place, and it's not today. But given all that, the warriors took great shots. Could have shot better, to be honest, as could the Suns. But the Suns, everything was difficult. There's nothing at the rim. Everything was just in isolation and everything was contested.
[00:05:25] The best shots they were getting was KD in the mid range against either Wiggins. GP two. Welcome back, GP two. We'll get to him in a second. Kaminga, Draymond. Even Clay played really good defense, especially in the beginning of this game. The defenders are there.
[00:05:42] It seems like the warriors can handle their own on defense. And this was the first true test against a couple, maybe even three all star caliber scoring players. And they passed the test with flying colors. Not only did the defense hold up, the rebounding held up, we out rebounded the Suns. Everything in this game had the feel of a playoff game. And I loved every single bit of what the warriors brought, the intensity, the fire that Draymond Green provides. Let's get into a little bit of green. He, despite the technical foul, which I'll agree that he shouldn't have stomped at the ref, you have to give him a t. But I'm going to disagree that.
[00:06:28] I'm going to say that foul should have been called. He got hacked. That was an anne one. Absolutely. Anyone in the league's complaining there. No, he shouldn't have stomped. But I'm not going to chalk this one up against Draymond Green. That's fine. I'm okay with that t, especially because Booker missed the free throw. This was Draymond Green's most clear signs of growth. In a weird way, Draymond Green. I thought, despite getting a t, this is a game where he was tested. Nurkic was pushing his buttons the entire time they were going at it. If you remember, that was the initial scuffle where Draymond hit Nurkic back in December, caused the suspension.
[00:07:04] At one point, Nurkic backs down. Draymond Green scores and slaps the floor twice, telling Draymond he's too small. Next possession down or two, Draymond basically buries Nurkic into the hoop, scores, slaps the ground, lets him know he's too small. I absolutely loved it, Draymond, that is how you'd use that energy channel, whatever hostility, whatever energy that's being created, and use it in a positive way on the court. It's not getting in an argument. It's not being physical. It's finding a way to score a bucket and then letting him know as you celebrate after the game. I hated this quote from Nurkic. He said about Draymond, it's sad he didn't learn anything. It's just a matter of time. He's going to hit somebody else again. He don't deserve a chance.
[00:07:57] You know what, Nurkic? You got beat. You can eat your words. Draymond showed growth. He dominated you on the floor. Why don't you just go home, go watch the Super Bowl. I bet you're rooting for the Chiefs as well. And I hope you have a horrible Sunday.
[00:08:12] Let's get back to Steph Curry. Steph Curry, 30 points, nine rebounds, nine rebounds, six assists, nine three pointers, 23 pointers in the last two games. There are no words in his career. This was the twelveth. Go ahead. Potential game winning shot that he made in the last 5 seconds of the game. Not all of those ended up in wins because for whatever reason, the other team had another chance, like we've talked about and ended up sending the game to overtime or winning or whatnot. But they call them potential game winners. Twelve of them in his 15 year career. That's the most in the NBA in that time by a couple of games. I believe there's a decent amount of space. And in those situations, his effective field goal percentage. So not just his field goal percentage, but it's weighted for three pointers. It's 90% or 150% weighted for three pointers, 43%, which if you look across, I think the top 25 players that have hit game winning potential shots, he is near the top, like five or six of those. And the ones ahead of him are just big guys that are just taking shots of the hoop. So for guards and for guys that are taking tough shots, he's been absolutely clutch and doing it at a high clip. This year, he's running away with a clutch player of the year award. He's got 157 clutch points. Second closest is Demar de Rosen with 113. You can even get rid of the free throws Steph Curry has shot in clutch time, which is not mini, just like always. That's another topic. You can get rid of the free throws he shot in clutch time and he'd still have a marginal lead on every single person in clutch time. So that's what you get.
[00:10:04] Let's go back to that shot. That three is. It's in the air.
[00:10:08] You don't really know what's going in. Steph Curry is the only one that truly knew it was going in before everyone else. And my favorite thing is Kevin Durant's reaction. It pans to Kevin Durant. He just smiles. Katie gets it. They're friends. He's seen Steph's greatness. This is just another level to the greatness. I was happy to see that KD could smile and just appreciate it for what it is. After the game, Durant said, steph's the greatest ever at his position and top five ever. I love it. KD, although I know you love Steph out of your top five and your best point guard ever back a couple months ago. But we'll keep you at your quote tonight. But my point is, this is what you chose to leave Kevin Durant.
[00:10:55] You could still be part of this show. You could have another championship ring. You could have two championship rings. We might have three championship rings. If you had stayed, who knows how many we would have gotten. It has to sting a little bit, even as a Warriors fan, it stings that you left because we know that we could have even more rings and hardware.
[00:11:16] But you chose to leave. You left for Kyrie Irving and James Harden. You left for Booker, who? I love Booker, but you left Steph Curry. And these are the nights. This is the magnificence, this is the magic and the greatness that you chose to leave. And, well, like I said, this is just something you're going to have to live with. Enjoy rooting for the Chiefs today. I hope you lose and have a rough weekend, because you know what? It's time to focus on some football. Guys.
[00:11:45] The Niners coming up in a couple hours. Can't wait. Going to a friend's house. Got my Niners gear on, wore it all yesterday. Everywhere I was going, everyone's wishing me luck like I'm playing in the know. Good luck tomorrow. Hope you do know. I feel like I'm ready to go to battle. So that's what we're going to do, going to battle, just like the warriors did last night. Last bit I'll say is the warriors are at the high point in their season.
[00:12:12] They've got a couple tough games coming up against the Jazz, the Clippers jazz again. So we're going to really find out where we stand, but I think if we've seen in the last month or so, I think we know a little bit more where we stand. It's been a consistent effort.
[00:12:30] Kaminga has been consistent. We just got Gary Payton the second back and he looked phenomenal. Eleven points, great defense, explosive. Made a huge impact in his first game back. Like he never missed time. Chris Paul comes back soon, he'll probably eat in a little the Kenyas minutes. Who was good in this one? And you can say for whatever you want if Chris Paul's a fit or not or whatnot, but he is a positive asset coming back if we use him the right way. So the warriors continue to improve and they've shown, at least to me, that they can contend. You can get the warriors right now to win the NBA championship 60 to one. Not a bad time to sprinkle a little there because they've shown in games like this against great teams that they can get it done. Despite a very off game from Quay Thompson, that will get better. Despite, honestly, Steph Curry didn't shoot great from the floor tonight. He has had hotter games despite making nine threes, which is the craziest thing ever. The warriors have room to improve. They continue to improve. This lineup of five. Curry, pajamski, sometimes Clay, but Pajemski, Wiggins, Kaminga, Draymond, add to their net rating. They've been the best lineup in basketball the last seven or eight games. They have just been absolutely on a tear. And if you have the best five man unit in the league, and this continues to be a thing in the playoffs, you close to that lineup and you win games. You have the best lineup, you have the best five, and you can see you have the best six when Clay's on the floor, too. And substituting for Pojemski, a little bit of versatility there. Now you have Gary Payton. That could potentially be an impact there in the right situations, in defensive situations as well. Warriors looking up. Let's keep on moving it, guys. Let's keep on doing it for now. Let's shift to the Niners for the next 24 hours, and hopefully that becomes a nice three month celebration as champions.
[00:14:33] All right, guys, well, that's all I got for you. Just wanted to get on here, give you just a quick run off the top of my head. We'll see you later this week. I hope you guys are all champions next time I talk to you. Until next time, peace, love and stacking dove. This has been Chris Chin. Have a good life.
