FULL ESPN reaction Warriors lose to Rockets 131-116 in G5, Curry & Butler Locked up, GSW leads 3-2

FULL ESPN reaction Warriors lose to Rockets 131-116 in G5, Curry & Butler Locked up, GSW leads 3-2

All right, to game five in the Western Conference. Fred Van Bleet scores 26 and Amen Thompson at 25 as the Rockets blew out the Warriors 131 116 to avoid elimination and forced game six Friday in San Francisco. So we bring in Young Massuk. He joins Sports Center from Houston to bring us a little bit more information. M. This was pretty ugly for the Warriors, but this game gave you deja vu. Why is that? Warriors fans have seen this movie play out before. Uh when they won their championship in 2022 in the second round, they were up 3-1 against a young upand cominging, hard charging Memphis Grizzlies team. They went into Memphis in game five and got absolutely smoked. They were down 55 at one point in the third quarter, but the Warriors were not phased. They were not rattled. They went back home to Chase Center, took care of business, and closed out the Grizzlies. And Steve Kur said, “Yes, this does feel reminiscent of that year. Another young, hard, upand cominging charging team like the Houston Rockets.” And he knows that this team has championship pedigree with himself, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green. Yeah. And there was a point in this game where uh Steve Kerr put in the bench and they were able to mount a little bit of a comeback, cutting it down to basically almost single digits. Did Kerr have any thoughts about bringing the starters back in? Because we saw Steph Curry ask for his ankle bracelets back. Yeah. So look, they were down 31 I believe in the second quarter and at halftime. Steve Ker asked Draymond Green, “What should we do? How long should we keep the starters in?” And he said, Draymond replied, “5 minutes. give the starters 5 minutes. Let’s see if we can put a dent into this lead and if not, we’ll pull the plug. And that’s exactly what they did. And Steph Curry was asked, hey, was there any temptation to put the starters back in in the fourth when they got within 13? And he said, absolutely not. That is not something you do. Although we did see Steph Curry call for his ankle braces and start to lace them back up, but he never put that thumb brace back on, I believe. So, basically, uh, the starters were not going to come back in. Well, we know he would definitely lace them up on Friday for game six. So, what are the Warriors saying about that game? Yeah, so they basically talked about leaning on the experience of coming back and that from that Memphis debacle and winning game six, but of course, Steph Curry said it’s good to talk about it and it’s good to know that we’ve done it before, but you still have to do it. Now, Draymond Green said, “We turned the page quickly. I saw him on the bench talking to Jimmy Butler, talking to assistant coaches. They were already trying to make defensive adjustments to what was happening to them in this game for the next game.” And Jimmy Butler said, “Look, he’s overcome a 30-0 lead. He he was up 3-0 at the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2023 against the Boston Celtics. They lost three straight after that, but then won game seven.” This is something that Steve Kerr mentioned of saying, “Look, Jimmy’s been there too before.” And when I asked Jimmy about that, Jimmy said, “Our confidence hasn’t wavered one bit.” So, he knows that they’re a veteran team. He said they’re not shaking at all, and they’re looking forward to game six and rebounding from tonight. Yeah, we cannot wait till that matchup. Um, it is hot out there. Find some air conditioning, cool off. We appreciate you staying up late with us. Line up. This is their first time in the postseason. And they thought game two, I mean game three and game four was different on the road. Wait till they experience a game six on the road where the crowd is going to be way more into it. It’s going to be loud. It’s going to be hostile. Right. the others, Gary Payeyton the second, Buddy Hill, those guys are going to feed off the energy. And again, Steve Curry game plan for Steph Curry. Help him get easier looks. One-on-one defense against this Rockies team is not going to work. Pick and roll for Steph Curry against this Rockets team is not going to work. Take him off the ball and you will have success and Steph Curry will be able to be the best version of himself, which is going to help Golden State. Yeah, we cannot wait to watch that game. Perk thing but tip your cap to the Rockets and the adjustments they were able to make to get this game five win. We welcome you back into our Atlanta studios into playoff central live. Ashley Shamdy here with Steve Smith and Channing Fry. And man, you really do have to give credit to the Houston Rockets because from the start, just their sense of urgency, the pressure that they put on the Warriors. You have Steph Curry and Jimmy midway through the second. The Rockets shooting nearly 70% in that first half. And guys, they really didn’t let their foot off the gas at all in this game tonight. Yeah, I just felt like uh they were emotionally invested in every single play, especially at the beginning. I thought the first play of the game, they messed up on that double team. Eay yelled at him and then they got locked in. I felt like their game plan was limit, you know, Steph and and obviously Jimmy’s touches early, uh get out through turnovers, get out, allow your defense uh to to create easy opportunities for you. And also they made a conscious effort for Jaylen Green to go find him to get him going. I think during the year it’s like they’re 33 and two when he scores 30 points. So they wanted him to get going so we can create extra double teams and not put it all on Sanguini. Spinny, what were the Rockets doing defensively? The Warriors had four early turnovers, 10 in the first half. I mean, I know it was a little bit of an off night for them as well, but you really got to credit that defensive effort. Well, they their defense have been good all year, but I thought they stepped it up. They were engaged. They were active and they were desperate. And then I thought the defense matched their offense in that first quarter. They had one of those where they put it together and obviously they just hit Golden State in the mouth. And unfortunately for Golden State Warriors fan, they couldn’t recover and then it snowballed. Then obviously Steve Kur said, “Hey, you know, at about the third quarter, um, we’re losing so bad we’re not going to go for go for it. So I’m going to pull all you guys in the third quarter.” But then uh-oh, we found something. We didn’t win this game, but we found this second unit come out there and attacked their second unit and they won this mental little battle where they had to go back to their starter. So, this is a game changer. You say you happy, but you still going to get chewed out. Oh, not just this the the the bench guys are going to get chewed out because of how they let Golden State get back into this game. Uh it was a couple plays that it could have really got scary for the Rockets and um he needed those Tigers to come back to really seal this game. I don’t know if they were in total jeopardy, but he made sure that he didn’t even get close up to the line where this might be where he puts Steph and Jimmy and Draymond back and they go for it. Lucky for the Rockets, they close this one out. The Rockets were up by 31 at their best, but they did cut it to about that 10-point game. I mean, what can we say maybe about the Rockets bench or moving forward having to put those starters back in when you have such a lead like that and and tip your cap to what the Warriors bench was able to do? One, as a guy who came off the bench and sometimes when it gets up 1520, you better get that bike going. You better get your mind right. And this is a this is a teaching lesson for the Houston Rockets because if something would have happened and they would have lost this game, Eay would have got fired. Those dudes would have had this reputation. It would have been awful. So for me, and I’m I’m not, you know, obviously that group of five, y’all. Y’all playing with the basketball gods, as Nate McMillan used to say, you have to go out there and go crazy hard. They’re pressing you, you press them, right? There’s really no excuse for Yeah. they go on a run, maybe a 6 run, 70 run, that’s going to happen. But the coolness of it needs to go out. And you saw, even though it was two minutes, you saw who uh Eay went back in with, Jeff Green, Cam Whitmore, and and two or three guys that he felt were going to that he may use next game. So I there I think there are some guys that may be in their feelings because they’re not getting minutes or, you know, whatever it is, some cautious stuff. But this next game, these next guys who got this opportunity need to come and take this seriously because their Houston Rockets are going to need them to win. And for the Warriors, they just set a standard of how they play. They don’t know how to play anything less. That’s championship basketball. That’s championship pedigree. You got, you know, obviously Steph, Draymond, Jimmy. Who do you think they practice against? So them practicing against other third string, second and half string players, they’re like, “Oh, we going to cook.” Right? And that’s exactly what they did. They were aggressive. They played with confidence. They moved the ball and they made it chippy. So, I thought it was interesting to otherwise semi- boring game. Congrats to Houston. But I like this because I want to see who’s going to get the minutes next game. And we saw Moses Moody. Hey, 2 seconds, 5 minutes, 24 minutes. That boy was out there cooking. 25 big ones. You do know that. 25 minutes. The Warriors, I mean, even with a loss like this, those veteran guys have, they know what this is all about. This isn’t going to stop them from playing a game six that maybe most people are expecting from the Warriors, especially going back to San Francisco. But for the Rockets, specifically for their starters, Amen Thompson, we got to highlight him a little bit because what he was able to do both defensively and offensively, he turned a lot of his points um from what he was able to do on the defensive end of things. He is I mean, watching u him and his brother, the twin over here at OT in Atlanta, they are guys that understand how to compete. They use their athleticism on both ends of the court. And I I just think, you know, for young guys, they set the tone. He set the tone for the Rockets today. My assignment as a rookie or secondyear guy uh to guard Steph Curry one-on-one and I got seals. But I thought for sure the attention to detail from the young guy like a Thompson was huge, Channing, in my opinion. Yeah. And I just again, you looking at all these clips right here, they are paying attention. They’re like anyone but Steph. you’re limiting his ability to get a read on the game, to put his mark on the game. Um, and then one thing that they did do well was they rebounded or they gave themsel they didn’t allow a lot of offensive rebounds. Now, for me, the starting unit, right, obviously the end of the game, they got a bunch of offensive rebounds. That’s why they have, you know, 25. But if you look, that first unit, seven, and then the rest of them really nothing. So, if you can get stops and get out and rebound, you’re going to give your offense a chance to get out and go and and look where they’re picking stuff up. This play right here was huge. This is one of the best ball handlers we have in ever. And hey, you don’t see that happen. You don’t see that. Not in open court. No. No. And and it’s exciting to see how uh Golden State Yeah. how Golden State’s going to react back home. This is going to be This is a I don’t want to say a getaway game cuz obviously it’s the playoffs. Mhm. Uh but this next game is a mustwin uh for Golden State. I I just think you don’t want to take this young. No. No. Don’t give it a chance. They’ll give it a chance. Do you think this was I mean what we just saw with that one play Almond Thompson pickpocketing Stepher. You just don’t see that very often. What was it about the Warriors tonight? I know it was an off night of shooting maybe and that led to, you know, other mistakes that they were making, but you just don’t really see guys like this make those mistakes even even when they do get down. Usually see them come back and it just wasn’t the case like tonight. No, it wasn’t. I mean, um, I’m sure they’re not worried either. They’re still in the driver seat, driver seat, excuse me, up 3-2 going home. And so, obviously the bench is going to be important and so we lost tonight, but we’re going to take the silver lining and go home and and have action. JT is looking at this action like, man, I want to get in there. I want to be in there. I want a piece of that action baby. And you know, we all know and you guys know better than anybody during the playoffs the bench rotation shortened. Um so but a performance like Moses Moody had all of a sudden if Steve Kerr does go that same starting lineup, I think he has increased confidence as you said by that he’s back in rhythm and I think he he’ll be quicker to put him insert him in the game. No doubt his three-point shooting will be important moving forward here. But we had some drama the game within the game. Fezy fell in the fourth quarter. Dubs down 13. They had an opportunity to cut to 11. Missed a couple layups. Freddy Kei had a couple opportunities. Braxy Key, excuse me, layup. Ah, he knows it too. Is Key went 0 for seven in this game. But then, of course, Dyler Brooks grabbing a rebound. A little talking. Pat Spencer. Shangon get to it. TJ DJ back it up. Pass Spencer. Well, the result was technical fouls on Trace Jackson Davis and Alberon Shangon. And Pat Spencer was ejected from his game. Little bit of a headbutt as Ken Asuki said. A little tiny headbutt. Wasn’t vicious, but he got into his face and the referee said, “You know what? We’re going to chill this. Pat, go to the locker room. We’ll call some text to slow this down here.” JTA, look, I’m not mad at it. I like to see it. Um, it’s not something that makes a huge difference in the game, but I think it changes the team morale going into the locker room after this game. And it’s somebody other than Draymond doing it. So, I like it. You see Zack Zar with the box out right there. Can Can we run that back? Did you see the box out? I don’t think I’ve seen that one before. Bully. Hey, Zach’s from the mean streets of Brooklyn. He knows what he’s doing out there. I just love seeing the fact that the bench had fight in him. I mean that literally quite literally right there. But Pat Spencer did an incredible job. He came into the game was inserted immediately and he was offensively he has 11 points in first the first time he was in. I I love to see the fight. I love to see TJD standing up for Pat Spencer. Now this is what you need to be able to close out a team like this cuz the Houston Rockets are not going to give this up easily. I don’t know about you guys, but my three boys all play lacrosse. And when a lacrosse guy walks up on you like this, and you have a helmet on, you just headbutt him. That’s what you do. I’m pointing Pat Spencer. Hey, Pat Spence along with Jim Brown, maybe the greatest lacrosse player of all time. Let me tell you something. He can play. Pat Spencer is a big time baller. And you know that, JTA. And he’s tough as nails. Has anybody ever been knocked out in the pregame post? A little worried there, but it got a little close there. Hey, I’ve done a few acting jobs, man. You need somebody to I don’t need Hey, I don’t need to stop, man. A little bit from the three-point line. Last two games. He’s now 12 of 18 and that basket looks wide open for him. Yeah, he came in at one point, Bonte, he was three of 20 from three and he’s been getting pretty good looks. So, we know, look, he was with Toronto, he came in, he has incredible, uh, final series, but, uh, now he’s caught fire. Uh, it’s someone you have to deal with now. Uh, so game six comes, got to lock up on him a little bit earlier. And I I I think also, you know, he’s guarding Draymond a lot. Trying to be a little more aggressive with him. I think strategically what Emeay Do is doing, you know, when you Draymond, a lot of teams opt to play off him. He’s very comfortable with that. He can pick his uh pick his spots where to to drive, pull up, put his jump shot. What EM do is doing, he’s having Fred Van Vleet pressure him 94 ft basically and not giving him those passing angles, make him put on the floor. And we asked Tom Mizo this, how do you unleash Draymond a little bit offensively? Um, I I think going at Van Fleet a little bit. I would like to see maybe, you know, we talk about that split action, putting the ball in Draymond’s hands below the free throw line. You know, if you notice a lot of Draymond threes have become coming below the free throw line. That’s when he becomes a help defender. But make him guard the ball below the free throw line. It’s one less guy you have to contain with. And that’s a then you have Steph screening, rescreening that split action. Uh, just to take him get DMA more involved in the offense. Van Fleet was a higher gun tonight. Uh he just came in one thing and last game and last game as well, but tonight he his whole thing on his mind was I am going to get buckets tonight. Two assists for him. Four for assist from the three-point line. He was eight for 13 from the field. He is the leader. He is the veteran on this team. He has championship experience and he’s able to bring that and channel that energy right now when it’s an elimination game. They’re not gonna go out down without a fight, right? But they especially are going to follow the lead of the veteran and he was that for the Houston Rockets. What’s the adjustment there on Fred FvV there JTA offensively to get him off that three-point line? Are you mixing it up or you playing more zone? How do the Warriors adjust? I think you run him off the line. Make him shoot midies, make him try to finish at the rim and contest at the rim. You know, he’s shooting he’s shooting the ball very very well. 40 43% from three tonight. That’s elite numbers. The elite guys in the NBA are shooting that number from three. So, uh, just try to get them off the line and make them make tough shots. I mean, that’s what this this league is. It’s a make and take league, you know. So, you live with those mitties. It it shows you what the Rockets are capable on a given night, but I do not think they’re going to shoot. They’ve had nights where they shot 55% from the free throw line. Tonight, they shoot 55 from the floor, 43 from three, and as we mentioned, 84% from the free throw line. The three games they lost, they were horrible from the free throw line. Tonight, they’re 32 for 38. Um, I mean, you can’t assume they don’t do that, but as JTA said, Bonte, you take away the easy stuff. And I think also, as Fesa said, def starting the game defense, don’t give him any easy looks cuz once once one goes in for him, he’s one of those guys, all of a sudden that basket gets really big, he starts backing up beyond the three-point line and then you think you’re guarding him, it’s it’s too late. It’s kind of a tale of two games. That’s actually because if you think of the last game the Warriors played against the Houston Rockets, those early turnovers were their demise. The same thing tonight, the Warriors early turnovers, it was unforced. Some of them was just guys trying to dribble between the legs. It was before you even got to half court. Those turnovers led to offensive uh offensive opportunity for the Houston Rockets. A team that’s been struggling offensively got going early and the whole night was now you have to stop them. You got to do a good job putting your foot down from the start of the game. And then you get Amed Thompson who has 17 and nine in game number four. And tonight Amed Thompson was special. He went eight of nine from the free throw line. This is a kid who struggles from the charity stripe as well. So, he just missed one free throw. Eight of 12 from the floor. Look at the steals. Five steals, three block shots, six rebounds. Show this clip right here cuz this is really important. Dylan Brooks grabbing Ahmed after that play right there. That set the tone. We don’t have time for the shenanigans right now. We are trying to win a basketball game. This is not about that. And I thought that that was a huge tone by another leader. But Ahmed was special. Almond came into this game and his his his activity level was just overwhelmed the Warriors. Look at that Juan picking up Steph Curry at full court. Picked his pocket at half court goes in for the easy slam. This young man’s going to be a superstar. Absolutely. I mean, look at his stocks as you mentioned. Um what was that? Three and five, eight stocks. That’s incredible. That’s elite. And he made it tough for the star player tonight. Golden State’s number one guy. He made it really tough for him. And when you can, this is crazy to say, when you can take Steph Curry out the game, then you have a great shot of beating Golden State Warriors. Yeah, I’m with you, Bonte. He’s a He’s a superstar in the making. And he’s so unique from most young players that come into our league. He’s actually a really good passer and he plays incredible defense. Usually it’s the other way around. Usually guys got the handles and and the scoring. He’s he’s the opposite. He’s got great defense both individually and team defense. And he’s a really good passer. Five steals tonight, man. Going to the eight of nine for the in the first half. the first half. No doubt about that. He’s a hell of a player there as the Rockets blow out and go to State Warriors. Let’s hear from the head coach of the Dubs, Steve Kirk, presented by BMW. Was there any temptation though when you guys got down to I think it was 12 or 13 to bring them in? No, you can’t do that. Um, you know, when when uh when you make a move like that um and then you know the starters are on the bench um uh you can’t go back to them. It’s just not not the right thing to do. What can you say about the the fight though that that your off bench gave? Loved our our bench group. They came in, they forced Houston to bring their starters back in. Uh they set a a tone that we’re going to need for game six. And I thought um even though we lost the game, I thought it was crucial that we fought the way we did in the fourth quarter. And for someone like Moses whose shots been a little gone, for him to get the 25 points, get his shot going, how how important is that? Yeah, it’s great. Got some rhythm. um very important for for him to you know to to go out there and compete and play the way he did. Um so yeah, I mean you know there were some positives in in in u in what was otherwise obviously a decisive loss. Houston was great and they uh they took it to us right away but like I said um it was an important finish. Steve, one of the things with a such an experienced team is there’s a comp for almost everything. And I’m wondering if this situation reminds you at all of the game five in in Memphis and which you of course missed, but um similar similar feeling. Similar vibe, you know, um down 30 in the first half. I think in Memphis we might have been down 40 or 50 even. I don’t I don’t remember exactly, but um similar vibe. Young team, you know, on their home floor trying to stay alive. They came out and threw haymakers at us. They made every shot in the first quarter. Um, so we got what we deserved. I also um the broadcast back home, there’s a lot of talk from Bob Fitzgerald that they’re targeting Steph’s uh thumb and deliberately trying to hurt him. And I’m just wondering if that’s if that’s your view of things and if you’ve talked to the ref about it. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, the the rule the NBA is once the shot has been released, um, you’re allowed to hit the guy’s arm. And so, what’s happened in the league this year is players always are they’re going to outsmart, you know, the rules. They know what they’re doing. So, players all over the league um are just taking shots at guys uh shooting hands um after release because they know it’s not going to be a foul. And I’m very confident that next year the league will fix it because it’s only a matter of time before somebody, you know, breaks a thumb or breaks a hand or whatever. Um, but this these these are the rules. Um, I do believe they’re allowed to call a flagrant if they want. The refs could call a flagrant if they if the guy winds up and takes a takes a shot, but um, no, it’s been happening um, across the league all year long. It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, but you know, we have to we have to take it through the league process um to get that changed and that’ll probably happen this summer, I would guess. All right, that’s Steve Curry there as Stephen Curry wanted that foul call in that first quarter and he got off to a rough start. 0 for two in the first quarter. Didn’t score anything there. Obviously at times Mully we kept watching them shaking that right thumb shaking players it’s more like a college thing but when you’re at home during the playoffs and you guys know especially here whether it be Oracle or Chase that energy that you feed off in the crowd can really take you to another level and it wasn’t there tonight because they didn’t go off to a good start. They’re on the road. But I really think as Fesa said, the next game come out with a lot of energy and focus, but you also have to maintain it, right? Because this Rockets team, we’ve seen time and time again, they’ll come back when they get punched. So, you got to come out with that intentional uh focus and desire, but maintain it. This is another series of three games where the Warriors have to win one to advance. You had that in the playin to be able to win one. So, they lost the first one, they won the second one. Right now, this is another opportunity to do that. That’s that playoff experience, right? You expect the Warriors to win the next one. Jimmy Butler, I thought I saw some signs of wear and tear from the last game. He played 40 minutes first night coming out of an injury. That’s tough. And so tonight was I’m happy he got 25 minutes tonight. Hopefully that’s a little bit of a break for him to come back after a day off tomorrow and then come back on on Friday and really be the Jimmy Butler that we’ve known. 40 minutes and played all 12 of those fourth quarter minutes in that Monday game at seamless, right? like we got new teammate coming in, you know, it’s just it just flows. So, I loved it. So, yes, # give us the Emmy. You had a documentary that we uh followed you around in Mexico, right? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, that won an Emmy nominated. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. Okay, he’s going up on get that nomination. Come on. You’re dying for it. What’s out there, but I need to be in on that graphic as well. So, let’s get that. You could promote it as well. Do you got more? You got more FZY on that? No, I just want to get the Emmy. So, so I don’t know who to talk to. Would that go next to your championship rig? Absolutely. Could be a problem because there’s not an Emmy for preost, but well, we can work on it though. Competing against ourselves. All right, we had trouble last night to Indianapolis, Indiana as the Pacers close out the Bucks and fascinating game. They call an 80 run to win the game as the Bucks had a seven-point lead. But after the game, John Hallebertton, the father of Tyrese Hallebertton, walked on the floor, started waving a towel with Hallebertton’s face right in front of Giannis, saying some choice words of course. And then Giannis came back over, told him, “Hey man, don’t be disrespectful right now. You see Benedict Matarin Giannis had talked to him. Just some wild stuff. But this is out of pocket. Now I’ll start with you bully fathers just people can’t just be storming on the court. I don’t care if you’re a parent, son, kid, or whatever. That’s out of pocket.” And then said Ted Kmpo being one of the classiest gentlemen in this league, an MVP, a DPOI. Love what he said after the game just we don’t need that in the game after a great finish by the Indiana Pacers. Yeah. Unacceptable behavior obviously. Um to me I think the league is going to address this. Why why you on the court anyway? I mean that’s not that’s enough for fans to be on the court with the players. And it looked like Giannis was shaking Hallebertton’s hand, wasn’t he? Right before that or no? Is that Hallebertton? No, that was uh John Hallebertton. That was Hallebertton. That was the second but I’m saying but it’s right there. So yeah I mean obviously I mean unacceptable. You can’t defend that behavior. Maybe there’s some other things going on with him. I don’t know. I don’t know them. Never met the person. But uh you can’t do that. And you said B I saw Giannis’s postgame comments. I would advise everyone to watch that. You want to talk about class, professionalism, grace, and humility. Listen to his postgame comments. I think it’s something everyone uh young and old should listen to. By Jiannis Tumpo. I was really hot. When I watched that, when I saw him step on the court in front of Giannis, this at the end of the game, if I hate losing, like I I hate losing more than anything. And the end of the season, you’re trying to process all your emotions. You went through the whole off season before the season, a whole year’s worth of work. And Giannis’s season, he put up MVP numbers this year, didn’t win MVP because his team was struggling. And part of it was due to injuries, things out of your control. Dame Lillard, who is his Robin, came back the game before and he tore his Achilles because he came back a little early. They’re playing against their rivals. Things got heated over the course of this battle. He lost his teammate and they’re trying to win a game, a game that was very winnable that last night. They lost that game. So, there’s so many emotions that I’m trying to play back for you guys to give you context of what Giannis is processing. And in the middle of that, you walk onto the court and challenge Giannis saying whatever it is you want to say. That could have been a PR nightmare for the NBA. Absolutely. If Giannis swings that arm one time, I don’t condone vi violence, but you just don’t know. This is a war zone. Like we’re in the middle of the court in the middle of a battle. Like people like a lot of guys are not out here just trying to play. We’re trying to win. It’s the playoffs. So for Giannis, he is a class act. The way he handled that was incredible. And that that was just a terrible decision by her parents. Absolutely. I think there has to be a line drawn, right? um whether it’s someone’s parent or just a casual fan like we don’t know as a player when we’re on the floor we don’t know who’s running on the floor we’re we’re lost in the game and so like he said like Fezi said excuse me that could have been a PR nightmare I mean anything could happen at that point once you cross the line and so and I also think that you know Tyresese Hallebertton’s dad needs to and I don’t want to tell him how know how to parent or anything but you have to remember who your son is you know he’s allstar a leader of this team max contract guy team USA he is Indiana’s poster boy at the moment. So, all eyes are on you. All eyes are on your son. And so, I think look, everyone gets excited. It was I’m sure it was an honest mistake, but you know, at half that he kind of had a conversation with you about how much to chase it in the second half, how much not to What was kind of your calculation there? And I mean, do you believe I mean, I don’t know how many minutes you finished at tonight, but do you believe that could maybe help a little bit going into Friday? I mean, it is what it is. Obviously, it’s not ideal to play amount of minutes because since we’re winning play more, but yeah, we had a quick conversation and he was just saying, “Yo, I don’t think we should chase it.” I said, “Cool. We’ll give it five, six minutes. We can’t turn it fast and pull the plug.” Draymond, they weren’t playing whoop that trick, but does this remind you at all of the Memphis game five um when kind of the same thing happened? And is one of the benefits of your guys having so much playoff experience that there’s like a comp for almost everything? Yeah, you kind of seeing everything. Um, they weren’t playing with that trick, but they may as well have been. But, um, yeah, I mean, at this point in our careers, we’ve seen it all. Uh, had all the experiences, so you got something to draw back on. Um, but yeah, they played a good game, but whether they win by one or 50, it’s a playoff series. It counts as one win. Draymond, uh, Steve mentioned he noticed that defenders when they’re closing out, they’re trying to like almost hit Steph’s thumb as he’s shooting. Have you noticed that or have you, how much have you seen that, especially in these playoffs? Uh, yeah, I noticed it. Um, I think it’s pretty obvious, but it is what it is. Yeah. Do you think the league should crack down on it at all? Um, I’m not I’m not one to come to cry to you about what the league should do. I see enough people cry about me and I lose respect for those people when they cry about me. So, I would not allow somebody to lose respect for me over that. It’s all good. What can you say about the bench’s fight for you guys tonight? That was huge. Uh just them coming in playing the way they played, forced their starters to have to get back in the game. Gave them gave ours as a run at it. Uh had it down 11 with multiple times to get it under 10. Just didn’t work out. But I thought our for us on both sides of the ball, we missed some shots, turned the ball over early and didn’t make them miss at all. Um that was the game for us uh at the beginning. How would you describe the way the bench played in the fourth end of the third and fourth quarter? Yeah, inspiring. Um you know to to get us back in the game, give us them a chance. That’s something special. you you know kudos to those guys for for staying ready, for fighting, for not giving up, and um you know, always staying ready cuz you never know when your number’s going to be called and it was tonight and they played their asses off. Jimmy, what was your level of movement tonight compared to last game? Uh it’s getting better. It’s getting there. Um you know, another day and some change of recovery and and and rest. Um, but that’s that’s no excuse for how I played, how we played as a whole. Uh, like I always say, if anybody takes that floor, you’re expected to go out there and produce. And, um, more than anything, you’re expected to go out there and win. Jimmy, this team, uh, has kind of been through a similar situation. They were down 55 in Memphis when they were up 3-1, lost, but then closed things out in game six in 2022. And Steve mentioned how you had that three-0 lead against Boston, then ended up winning in game seven. What does it take from your experience to kind of rebound from something like this where you don’t close a team out but then can do it later? We’re we’re fine. Our confidence isn’t going to waver any. We going to start out better. We’re going to play a better overall game. Um because we know how good of a team we are as a unit. We know how good our players are as individuals. So, we just got to as starters, we got to kick us off better, which we know that we will do. We’ll be fine. All right, Jimmy Butler with the words, “We’ll be fine Friday night.” And that is our Toyota drive ahead game number six. And hopefully they’re not playing on a Sunday. Game six, of course, Friday night. Time is to be determined. I guess it’s dependent on the Lakers and Minnesota game. If the Lakers do win, they’ll go back to Minnesota. And you have to think that’ll be the early game. And the Warriors will tip off around 700 p.m. But what Jimmy said there, JTA get off to a faster start. The Rockets, it was all them in that first quarter. 11 to 17 in that first quarter. They hit the Warriors first. Absolutely. I mean, the beginning of the game is going to set the tone. We know, you know, as a player, the first five minutes of the game are important. The first five minutes of the third quarter of the second half are important. And Houston came out swinging. Obviously, for obvious reasons, their season is over if they lose. So, um, it’s unfortunate, but Jimmy said it. I know Draymond is saying it. I know Steph is saying we’re fine. We’re going to move forward. Power of the mind, right? And that comes from experiences. We’ve been here before. We’ve dealt with these kind of things before. I’ve seen it when we lost to Memphis by, you know, what was it? 39. So, um I think they’re they’re okay. They’re going to come back home, handle business at home, and most importantly, they’re still in the driver’s seat at home. Okay. So, this is uh this was kind of a free swing game. Uh you had a chance to to beat them at their home. Houston Rockets are going to fight back at home. You don’t you don’t want to lose in front of your crowd. That’s the hardest game to play is a closeout game in the in the opposing an opposing team’s arena. That’s always tough. But the Warriors coming home next game, they got to they have to show those things I said in pregame. You have to execute better. You have to show poise. Definitely got to take care of the ball. I thought that was the biggest killer. You can’t even play in transition. You can’t have transition defense if you don’t take care of the ball. So, those are the things that set the tone for this game. I’m looking forward to seeing the Warriors that we know come out the next game, which is, you know, the aggression, being able to to to execute offensively. Those are the things I want to see next game. Yeah. JTA mentioned the start of the first quarter, the game before this, they won 16-4. Start of that second half, they won 18 to1. That was enough right there to win that ball game. Tonight, uh, one thing’s got to change for sure. You heard Draymond and Jimmy mention it. Defensively, they got to feel you. So, tonight, a team that struggles to score 55 What’s your goal? Foreign Fore! Foreign! Foreign! Hello. [Music] We go right now. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Good. Hell no.

FULL ESPN reaction Warriors lose to Rockets 131-116 in G5, Curry & Butler Locked up, GSW leads 3-2