Perk says Steph Curry is 1 Championship & Finals MVP AWAY from the GOAT CONVERSATION 🗣️ | First Take

Perk says Steph Curry is 1 Championship & Finals MVP AWAY from the GOAT CONVERSATION 🗣️ | First Take

103 to 89. Buddy Heel went berserk. Went off for 33 points and Steph Curry, the greatest shooter God has ever created, saved his best for the fourth quarter to seal the win. They now move on to face the T- Wolves in the second round. Here’s Draymond on Steph’s impact in that fourth quarter. Beautiful game to see him close it out. He knew once like, “All right, now it’s time for me to take over and take this thing home.” It was beautiful, man. You’ve won five series now in Houston. What you think your reputation is in the city? I’m a winner. You’re damn right he is. By the way, those shades with the sweater is fly. I got to copy that. I got to admit that. I got to copy that. Perk, I’m going to go to you first. What the Golden State prove with their game seven win in Houston last night. That defense win championships. And when you’re trying to go and win the championship, I know everybody want to talk about what happens on the offensive side of things, but it showed defensively what the Warriors could do. They went and got it in the trenches last night. And we know Draymond Green, he set the tone early, I thought on both ends of the floor, but defensively his his defensive presence set the tone. And we know what Jimmy Butler brought to the table. But this game defensively was all about Steph Curry. Damn it. He showed up and showed out on the defensive side of things. Finally out playing Fred Van Fleet who outplayed him in three straight games. So when I think about Steph Curry as an overall basketball player and what I looked at last night in this game seven, I said to myself, Steph Curry really is one championship and one finals MVP from entering the GOAT conversation. That game was all about Steph to me. One of the best allaround games I’ve ever seen him play. Well, I’ll say this before I go to Swagoo. I’ll say to in my eyes he’s already in he’s already a part of the conversation considering his resume, but we could get into that a little bit later. Swagoo, what are your thoughts about what you saw last night? Perk, I love where you went with defense. I’m going to go offense. It was vintage Golden State behind the three-point line. Not for Steph until the fourth quarter. But when you think about this team, they’ve been built on ball movement and being able to create shots and Buddy Hill became that guy and he caught fire obviously. But if you look at a lot of those shots, he was catching them in his pocket. He was ready to shoot and it was created out mo off movement on offense. The drive and kicks. He was huge in this game obviously, but when you look at this team and we think about vintage Golden State before Klay Thompson was traded away, shooting was the ultimate equalizer for these guys. And I love what you said, Perk, about Steph defense cuz they used to hunt him out and try to figure out how could we get him matched up against our superstar and take advantage of him. Man, he did do a phenomenal job. But perk, you know that this conversation, as Stephen A just said it, that he is already in that conversation. It starts with that catch and release boss. And when that thing dropping, it is it is night night for most people in the NBA. Buddy Hill stepped into that role that we saw Klay Thompson in for so many years and Steph obviously late game heroic showed up once again and the Golden State Warriors look vintage to me. Before I go to Wendy, I want to say this very astute point on your part, Swag Goo, because when I watched Buddy Hill yesterday, I was like, that’s what Klay Thompson used to do. That’s exactly what Buddy Hill did yesterday in that game. Seven. Major props to him. And props to both of you. Big Perk and Swagoo. Very quick and concise with your comments. Very, very good. Keep it up. Keep it up. Wendy, go ahead. The floor is yours. Come here for all that. We watch your mouth. We watch your mouth. If the host has spoken, Wendy, go ahead. The floor is yours. I can’t believe what I’m about to say, and that is that Steph Curry had a LeBron James series. What I mean by that is he led the Warriors in points, rebounds, and assists. Crazy. That’s Luca Dona’s stuff. That’s LeBron stuff. That’s what he the Warriors only had one double double from any player in this series and it was Steph last night because he knew he had to be a little bit of the glue guy. He had to rebound. He had 10 rebounds last night. He obviously is a great assist guy. Had seven assists, guys. Two blocks and two steals last night. Game seven on the road. It’s a possession game. You need every single one. Also, Steve Kerr begged him, “Please stop turning the ball over. were not in position in this series to survive these big turnover nights. He has two turnovers. That’s an incred before I even get into his shooting with scoring. That’s an incredible all-around performance. That’s what he gave in this series. Led them in rebounds in this series, guys. This is a team in Golden State that doesn’t have size. They need rebounding from the guards. He gave it to them. This is not something we’ve seen. This was not something he was capable of doing 10 years ago. Yes, he was winning MVPs 10 years ago. He was not this type of player. He’s bigger. He’s stronger. His conditioning is better. By the way, he ran 1.99 miles last night. Two miles. The most he’s ever run in a game where there’s been tracking. So, he did all that exhausting himself. And then in the fourth quarter, when it mattered, when when Houston was making a run, that’s when he made the big baskets. Talk about the definition of a superstar all-around game. That’s what Steph Curry gave. That’s how you win a game seven on the road. Obviously, I agree. I don’t disagree with anything that y’all said. I want to give some love to Draymond Green. And here’s the reason why. Guys, could you remind our audience of Draymond Green during Allstar Weekend? Could you play the footage of what that man said at that particular moment in time, please, in San Francisco, right outside the Chase Center. Play that for us, please. I think we’re going to win the championship. Say that one more time so that everybody here can say that. I didn’t hear you. My my earpiece because they added Jimmy Butler the third. So, what did you say? I’m sorry. I said I think we’re going to win a championship, but I lied. We are going to win the championship. Wow. I’m telling you because I don’t believe any of these teams are that great. Boston, yes, you got to go through Boston. You got to get through the champs. But we got to get through the West first. But none of these teams scare me. Why do I bring him up? Because he set the tone with those two big threes early in the game. He set the tone with that. When you see Draymond Green coming out and hitting a three-pointer, he hit a couple to start the damn game. So, I looked at that and I said, “Okay, all right. This is game seven and he’s showing you, he’s showing up.” He remembered what he said. He remembered the guarantee that he put out there. He showed up, finished the game with 16 points. I thought he played an outstanding game, particularly defensively. We saw Steve Kerr, you know, discombobulating Houston with the zone or whatever. But then, of course, you think about Buddy Heield and what he’s done. He was absolutely sensational. Very Clay Klay Thompsonike. and Steph Curry came on in the fourth quarter and did what he did. On the flip side, guys, uh Jaylen Green, I I I think it’s safe to say he needs to get ready to pack his bags. If you’re the Houston Rockets, you have to be looking to move him. 38 points in game two. That was the game that Jimmy Butler got hurt. Every other game, seven points, nine points, eight points, 11 points, 12 points, and another eight points. I mean, you’ve got to be kidding me. That can’t happen. Houston’s offense was awful, but primarily because he couldn’t do anything, fellas. And that’s where I’m coming with it. That’s how I feel about him. I think if you’re the Houston Rockets, you’ve got to go out and pursue Kevin Durant. A team like Detroit and others might look at him, but if you’re the Houston Rockets, you got two of Phoenix’s first round picks. You know what? Excuse me. You got to be willing to give that up along with Jaylen Green to go out there and get yourself a guy like Kevin Durant, a number one scoring option. One of the greatest scorers in the history of basketball who wouldn’t mind being in Houston. Yes, he’d have to deal with going through the West. We understand that’s been kryptonite for him. No doubt outside of him being a Golden State Warrior, but in the end, that’s the situation that I’m looking at with Kevin Durant in Houston. That’s all I have to say about that before I move on to the next subject. Does anybody have an issue with what I just said? Go ahead. I want to say this about Houston’s future. First off, one week from today, I know we’re totally immersed in the playoffs and we should be. These are great second round matchups. Had a couple of game sevens. One week from today is the Cooper flag lottery. Okay. Yeah, this is a big moment in the NBA. You know, this fair. I want to point out Houston, as you mentioned, has the Phoenix Suns pick. They have a 17% chance of getting into the top four. They got the ninth pick and they’ve got a about a 4% chance of winning the Cooper flag lottery. Everything for Houston’s future will happen after they know what happens that night. Got it. Do they have the ninth pick? Do they have the fourth pick? Do they have the first pick? That’s big. The second thing is Rafel Stone, their general manager, is on the record saying if they do anything, it’s going to be for a player that matches the age of their core. That is not Kevin Durant. Now, we’ll see. He didn’t know how their season was going to end, but keep in mind that he has said that on the record. He has said that. He has said that. I’m here to tell you it’s not going to matter after what we saw from them offensively in this series. That’s number one. And number two, when I asked that question, Wendy, I’m going to forgive you because your points were so valid, so on point that the audience deserved to hear it. But when I asked it, it was really a rhetorical question. I wasn’t expecting you to dispute anything that I said. So, I just wanted to make sure I point that out. Okay. Anyway, he doesn’t who came up small when it counted most getting blown out by the Denver Nuggets in game seven. 120 to 101. It wasn’t nearly that close, y’all. LA trailed by as many as 35 points. And James Harden was a no-show yet again, scoring a measly seven points on eight shots in game seven. Of all people, here’s Kawhi Lennon went wrong for this team. I think we could have gave a better effort for sure. Uh at the time, I don’t think this team was 30 points better than this. Um I mean, we seen it throughout the first six games of the series. Uh but you got to give them credit. They came out and fought um ran hard in transition, got easy points, and uh they made shots. I I’m still blown away by seeing the man talk. I mean, I I think he deserves I think he deserves to be uh uh you know, paid tribute just for giving quotes. I can’t believe I’m seeing Kawhi talk. It just throws me off, Big Perk. It just throws me off. But but your thoughts, how should we, albe it a rhetorical question, no doubt, how should we view James Harden right now after this game seven perk? you you know we always looking at at guys and and when you talk about James Harden and what he’s done in his career we look at his resume and we say damn when he was with the Rockets he was a you know uh MVP uh uh league league league leading scoreer led the league in assists and all this what does he rank among the greats uh especially at the shooting guard position right and so even a few years back I did something on social media you know I ranked the shooting guards and I had Jordan number one, Kobe number two, and I had uh James Harden at number three, and I was tripping. I was tripping. I would never and no one should ever ever ever ever ever ever put James Harden before Dwayne Wade because of what he does, but what how he fails in the postseason, especially in game sevens. He’s allergic to game sevens. He breaks out in rashes. Like, it’s crazy to me how a guy could go from what he’s done in the in game six of this series to all of a sudden just dropping down as if he don’t give a damn. I don’t want to say he don’t care about the game about it’s like he’s afraid of the moment. And when you think about alltime greats, we think about what they do in the postseason, the championships, what they how they shine on the big stage. And when you look at his history of game sevens, he just fold like clean sheets. Swagu, well, take what we just talked about with Steph Curry and how he showed up in that game. And we we have history of him doing that multiple times. Think about LeBron James in game seven. I’m talking about all of the guys in James Harden’s generation where he’s been playing at a very high level of point scoring, doing all of those things. And that’s what we have that to compare to. And this is where he falls off a cliff. Like James Harden is like the dude that got a girl and he sets up nice scenes and he never proposes. They never going to get married. Okay? He’s going to date you. Y’all going to stay together. People going to say y’all a greatl looking couple, but he’s never going to marry you. That’s what I compare these games 72. And the disappointing part about it is you you match up some of the performances that we’ve seen him have in his career and they are some of the best we’ve seen in the NBA in NBA history and you just want to see one of those in a in a closeout situation or when your team needs you to come through in a major way. That’s what we want to see. So ultimately, we can always have this conversation about James Harden’s place in the NBA when it comes to what he’s done as far as winning MVPs, the points that he scored, the the step back ability, all of these great things we talk about with his game. I’m to the point now where I’m convinced that these game sevens overshadow that. And may be a bit unfair for NBA guys and dudes that play the game because we all have a healthy respect for how hard it is. Per, you’re the only one on this panel that did it, but I believe that this will overshadow a lot of really good things James Harden has done in his career. And we’ll get to but game sevens. Wendy, it’s a missed opportunity because um he has such positive vibes and played so well. Yes, he did. Look, I can sit here and make a case that this was what happened with him was only part of what went on with the Clippers. There was a bunch of things that went down. You know, Ty Louu, he didn’t start the same lineup that he started in the second half of game six with Nick Patum in the lineup, which was a transformational lineup. He didn’t go with it. Um, we saw Norm Pal have a bad game. You know, Kaw didn’t have his best game. You know, he put up good numbers, but he didn’t have his best game. He actually had the worst plus minus uh in the game on the Clippers. um Zubats, who’d been great throughout the whole series. He didn’t have his best game, but it’s hard to get past a James Harden number. I mean, I can even tell you that, you know, he had 13 assists and there was actually a number of Clipper games this year where Harden had high assist totals and bad shooting nights and they still won the game. I could even put forth some sort of case that there was a pathway for them to win with Harden playing like this, but I wouldn’t do it fullthroated because as much as I respect him and think that in some ways he’s actually underrated. This was just hard. And I know it was a big ask, it’s a road game seven, this is not where guys thrive in their careers. But you talk now he’s lost game sevens with four different teams, four different teams. And you know the numbers don’t lie. So this is not on James Harden alone. It he is not the reason they lost, but he wasn’t the reason they won. And that’s what he really needed. Pow, who I love, didn’t look good at all. We get that part. Questions about what Tyl was doing strategically in terms of like you pointed out, not starting not not starting the same starting unit that he put out uh to start the second half of game six where I was courtside. But here’s the reality when you talk about James Harden. And this is the problem, fellas, when we’re think when we’re thinking about these guys, because right now we’re hating. You understand? We we’re hating. That’s what we’re going to be accused of when we’re talking about barebone facts. Okay? So, let me give it to you. This is hardening in game seven. It’s not the fact that you know what, he only scored seven points. How about only taking eight attempts? If it he would have been better off shooting one for 25. At least you’re going out there and you’re trying. once. It’s not about his poor performances. This is at least the third time his effort is being questioned in a game seven. It was questioned in a game six rather against a San Antonio. It was questioned against in Philadelphia against Boston. It’s being questioned now if not a flatout indictment. It’s gotten to the point where game seven transpires and what you’re going to say is is somebody gonna perform or they gonna have James Harden fever. They’re naming a fever after this guy after game seven because he attempted eight shots. Eight shots with him on the court. The Clippers were outscored by 29. Oh, by the way, he’s lost four of his last five playoff series. Oh, by the way, in four last in his last four game sevens combined, his record is 1 and three. He’s averaged 13.8 points. He shot 27% from the field. He has shot 17% from three-point range. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s a choke job. It’s a choke job. There’s no way around it. Not because of the number percentage-wise in terms of his inefficiency. It’s because of the absence of attempts. In four game sevens combined, you’ve only attempted 51 shots. This is James Harden we’re talking about. who could put up damn near 30 40 shots in one game. 51 shots in four games. 51 30 three-pointers in four game sevens. The you’re it’s almost like you’re not trying. And I’m not saying that he’s not. What I’m saying is panic has set in somehow. As Perk said, when a game seven arrives, you cat you got cats palms get sweaty, backsides get tight, they shivering. And for some reason with him, that is what people are looking at right now. So that’s the problem that James Harden has. And I don’t believe outside of getting to a game seven and just exploding. I don’t believe his reputation overcomes this. It’s not going to stop him from being in the Hall of Fame. It’s not going to stop him being recognized one of the greatest scorers in NBA history. But considering his talent and his resume, yet how small he comes up in a game seven, I don’t know how you get over that, fellas. Per, go ahead. But you know, you know, you you know what makes this game seven worse and makes makes me mad is because who was the Clippers last point guard before James Harden? It was Russell Westbrook. It was Russ Russell Westbrook. And one could sit up here and say that Russell Westbrook might have been the best player on the floor in this game seven. We don’t question Russell Westbrook in his effort. I understand it’s a thin line between love and hate when it comes down to the Brody. One minute you hate him, but he is the prime example of turning booze into cheers. And he took it personal. He took it personal because we saw it all series long. Every single time he made a big three-point shot, a big play, he was looking and talking noise to the Clippers bench because the Clippers made a business decision and said, “We’re going to roll with James Harden over Russell Westbrook.” And Russell Westbrook sent them sent them home uh packing. This is what I’m saying. James Harden, you know this. You played with Russ. You know Russ, y’all LA homies, like you know the type of intensity he’s going to bring. and you walk into this arena and you also have called yourself the system, right? The system. You’re the head of the snake. You’re the reason that this team is relevant cuz Kawhi Leonard has been out majority of the season and all of a sudden in the game seven like you highlighted Stephen A, you don’t go out guns blazing, bro. Like at least put up 20 of those things. Put up 20 points. I mean 20 field goal attempts. Excuse me. actually 25 to 30. By the way, that answer was a touch long, but I’ll forgive you because your points were very salient. I’ll let you know that right.

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Kendrick Perkins, Brian Windhorst and Marcus “Swagu” Spears react to the Golden State Warriors Game 7 win over the Houston Rockets, Clippers’ collapse in Game 7 vs. Nuggets and James Harden’s performance.

0:00 What did Warriors prove with GM 7 win?
5:45 Draymond’s comments
7:40 Stephen A. says Rockets should pursue KD
9:42 Reaction to Clippers-Nuggets
10:50 How should we view James Harden?

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