On the NBA Beat Ep. 175: Andy Liu: “More Mature” Warriors “Come at You Without Shooting 3s”

On the NBA Beat

After two seasons of missing the playoffs, the Golden State Warriors are back on the main stage, making their sixth Western Conference finals appearance in the last eight years. Ahead of Sunday night's Game 3, they find themselves with a commanding 2-0 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks and are poised to make their return to the NBA Finals. Joining us for a record fifth episode is Andy Liu of the Light Years podcast, who never fails to bring both knowledge and passion to the show. 2:37-3:58: “In those comebacks, it was the defense that was great, but the Warriors rained 3s. It would just be left, right, Steph, Klay, repeatedly until they beat the other team into submission, and that’s not what it was last night. It was a lot of defense, of course…but it was just getting to the bucket. A lot of that is Steph, Klay and (Jordan) Poole figuring out, ‘Hey, we’re great shooters, but that’s not our first option anymore.’ That’s different from what we’ve seen with the Warriors. Everybody always wants to see Steph go dribble, dribble, dribble, step-back 3, but I think those are less sustainable in the postseason. It’s pretty cool to see a more experienced championship pedigree Warriors team kind of come back this way. It felt like more classic basketball versus the Warriors basketball that we’ve seen for a long time.” 6:13-6:38: “Luka Doncic is a traffic cone. Luka Doncic is amazing. He was damn near LeBron-like on offense Friday night with the way that he was making 3s and getting to the hole. But he doesn’t hold LeBron’s jock on defense. And he’s absolutely terrible. Andrew Wiggins was going at him, Steph was driving right by him, and this Dallas team is exhausted. They go seven guys, they have like two, three good defenders – none of them great – and the Warriors know that.” 20:48-22:30: “I’ve never seen (Poole) lose confidence yet. … You could say he’s already helped the Warriors win one game this series, and this was Game 2. He got to the hole, he made a few big 3s. That third-quarter run at the end and then the beginning of the fourth quarter, that was Jordan Poole. That was Poole, Wiggins, Otto (Porter), (Kevon) Loon(ey). Those guys brought the Warriors back and helped give that lead to Steph. … And that’s something also that the Warriors have never had. Even when KD was on this team, the minutes that Steph wouldn’t play were always terrible.” 28:22-30:23: [Steph Curry]'s been great at everything except the thing that he's the greatest ever at. Like his shooting has been down, he's shooting 80% from the free-throw line. Just weird. ... Outside of that, I would say physically he's as great as he's ever been. And he's also way smarter. ... I think right now if you're a Warriors fan, you can argue who's the best player in this series and people are gonna say, 'Luka this, Luka that.' Five minutes left, give me Steph Curry every single time." 37:36-38:08: "I don't want to say [Steve Kerr] stole the game with the defensive scheme, but he set the tone. He said, 'You know what, we're just going to run this scheme with 18 different coverages in Game 1,' and that's what set the tone on Luka, and they won that game because of that. They won that first game because of Steve Kerr." Sponsor: Use code TBPN during sign-up at DraftKings.com to claim your free shot at millions of dollars in total prizes. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/ /NJ/NY/ PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices