Rockets force Game 7, Knicks’ depth concerns + James Harden ‘needs to SHOW UP!’ 🗣️| SportsCenter

Rockets force Game 7, Knicks’ depth concerns + James Harden ‘needs to SHOW UP!’ 🗣️| SportsCenter

We’re going seven. Why? Because Steph Curry and the Warriors couldn’t close it out last night. Rockets head coach Indiana now 5-1 when facing elimination. Second quarter, Warriors down eight. And here comes a Curry flurry. Look at this bucket and one. Warriors were trailing by five after Steph made the free throw. Two minutes to play. Warriors trailing by three. Curry for three. We’re tied up. He went on his own 110 run. finished with 29 points. He was nine of 23 though from the field. Rockets up five. Aman Thompson knocks down that jumper. Draymond back the other way. Finds Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler. Come on. Foul. Yes. Come on. How about this? That’s how you end the first half. Warriors were down five going into the half. That’s playoff Jimmy right there. Okay, let’s get to the fourth quarter now. Rockets up two and the Warriors cannot stop this guy, Fred Van Vleet. Oh my. The three and the foul. He had six threes in this game. Scoop. He’s made 18 threes over the last three games. Rockets were up six. And then Alra Shangon. He’s He’s a strong big man. Big boy ball. He had 21 and 14. Thompson gets the layin. Hey, the Rockets just dominated the fourth quarter. They were up eight at this point now. Under seven minutes to play. Shangon misses. Butler grabs it, turns it over. Then Shangon to who else? Freddy Van. Of course. Of course. Count them threes. Yo, they were rolling. Now up 15. Green to Butler. You know the Warriors missed 13 straight shots at one point in the fourth quarter and the Rockets made them pay. It’s not good. How about this? Stephen Adam ball game. He showed up. He showed up big time. Rockets win this 115 107. They force a game seven. Hey Steph Curry, talk to us about the loss. There were momentum plays that you want to have back like 50/50 balls that we didn’t get, offensive rebounds that we let them have, you know, just breakdowns where they’re getting open looks. There were times we make a run, we couldn’t just couldn’t get over the hump. And like you understand there was there was pressure to to win on your home floor. They’re playing great. Like you got to give them credit. It’s not like we’re just laying an egg and rolling over. We’re we’re fighting. We’re trying to compete. There’s just in the margins some things that we can do better and uh control what we can control. And I think we we can do that in game seven. Now the Warriors have been solid in game seven especially with Steve Kerr as their head coach. Steve Kerr three- one in game sevens with the lone loss of course coming in that 2016 NBA finals. Thank you LeBron James. And with the win he would tie the second best win percentage among coaches with at least five game seven appearances. Oo gentlemen we have the two best words in sports. We got a game seven and these four gentlemen behind us. They have plenty of game seven experience. So what is going to be the differencemaker in this one? To me it’s going to be James Hardy. He shows up and balls out the way he did Thursday night in game six, the Clippers are going to the next round. He doesn’t, they’re going home. This is a legacy game for James Harden. We’ve talked too many times about how prolific he is, how great he has been. He’s former league MVP, scoring champion multiple times. The brother is special, but as special as he is, there have been too many times in moments like this in the postseason versus San Antonio, versus Golden State, versus Boston when he was in Philadelphia where he got accused of not showing up and nobody disagreed with one another about that. He can’t let that happen Saturday against the Denver Nuggets. This is his game to take. It’s in his hands. He has to embrace it like that. remind everybody who the hell he is and handle his business and close this deal. Otherwise, the Clippers are going home. Malikica, no surprise we’re looking at a game seven. Uh the tightest series, maybe the most compelling series of the first round, Aaron Gordon’s alioop dunk, the milliseconds. It could come down to that. It could come down to that moment to decide the outcome of this game. Stephen A makes a great point. As great as James Harden is as a player and will be a Hall of Famer, why doesn’t he show up in these games? because he’s too good a player to not because we know what Joic is going to do. I think we know what Murray’s going to do and Murray’s a champion. Don’t forget there’s some champions on Denver’s side. Kawhi Leonard’s a champion. I think I know what he’s going to do. But I think what Stephen ID said is the thing to watch. That’s the big thing. The smaller thing is is Nicholas Batum going into that starting lineup because he was very very good in the game game six. Oh, it wasn’t a small thing. It was a huge thing. And that that goes to Tyloo and how great of a coach he is. Something we was asking JJ Riddick to do is make an adjustment, right? Why you have to throw? Because I wanted to. It’s it’s a it’s a learning. It’s a teaching moment for him. And when I think about this series, I had it going seven and I got the Clippers winning. One, because I trust Kawhai Leonard Jordan, right, to be the closer. Two, I haven’t seen a team and an individual like the Clippers and Zubach defend Joic the way they defended him this series. Especially the one-on-one defense I saw Zubach display in game six. It’s going to be a brawl for it all, but I got the Clippers closing it out. Denver lover loses be second straight year they lost on their home court in game seven. The other thing to watch is going to be on the sidelines, right? Ty Lou heading into his fifth game seven here. He’s won the previous four, including against Bob’s Golden State Warriors. This will be the first for rookie coach here, David Adelman. Gooby and Brian with you on Sports Center. The series between the Nuggets and Clippers have been a movie just like the Thunderbolts. You know what I’m saying? From buzzer beaters to historic performances. It’s only right, the basketball gods blessed us with a game seven after LA beat Denver 111 105 in game six where James Harden led them in scoring with 28 points. a lot of questions heading into game seven. So, it’s only right we bring in Quinton Richardson and David Dennis Jr. to answer those questions and we’ll be running a little pick and roll with both the homies pulling up. So, Q, I’m going to start with you. Teams make adjustments from game to game in the playoffs. And as we know, finding the right matchup consistently can make a huge difference. So, what’s the individual matchup you’re going to be locked in on tonight? Man, I I I I’ve been saying it this whole series. Big Zoo and Joker. I mean, right now, we’ve all been talking about how Joker, they go as Joker go. So, with Big Zoo being the best defensive player on him in the last 10 years, I don’t look for Big Zoo to go in there and like shut Joker down. That’s impossible. Nobody can do that. But what he needs to do is make things difficult, make it a test for him, make it challenging, make it uncomfortable, and go back on the other end on the other offensive end. And Zoo is a force down there shooting very high field goal percentage in the paint, huge rebounder in the double double and Faze getting double double and um in rebounds and points. So he has to have his impact on the game and make everything difficult and hard for Joker. Yeah, that may be uh the most pivotal uh matchup, but the most unpredictable matchup is James Harden versus game seven. Like that is the thing that we have to look at where we like he had a great game six and elimination game but the last time we saw him in a game seven was against the Heat. He had nine points. James Harden since leaving OKC has averaged 17% from three. 17% from three. And this is coming off of now he played 46 minutes in game six. Uh he has to show up and be a difference. He has to get rid of those bugaboos and be the James Harden that we know he can be in pivotal games, not necessarily in game sevens. He that game seven stuff has to be in the background for him and that Clippers team to succeed. That is so true. And to your point, Dennis, in Harden’s last game seven back with Philly, he put up nine points in 41 minutes in a loss to Boston. More with you both in a moment, so stick around, Brian. Well, that’s cuz we got to go to the East, the Eastern Conference semi-final matchups. You got the Pacers taking on the top seed Cavaliers. Indie took three of four from Cleveland in the regular season. However, two of those games came once the Cavs had already clinched the number one seed. Then you got the Knicks. They’re going to face off against the defending champion Celtics. First time these two historic franchises will meet in the playoffs, believe it or not, since 2013. Boston just dominated the regular season series, winning by an average of over 16 points per game. So, back with Q. Rich double D Q, I’ll start with you. Jaylen Brunson, Josh Hurt both hobbled with those nagging injuries. How concerned are you with the Knicks and their depth in this series? I’m very concerned. Uh right now, you know, obviously they’ve been able to lean on Jaylen Brunson as the leader, big big body has been everything, Mr. Clutch in the fourth, and then Cat Anthony Towns has been the other uh outf in that on that team. So, they’re going to need, particularly against this Celtics team, to go very deep with a with a with a deep roster and bring guys in and have big contributors off the bench. The Knicks are definitely going to need their bench and their their complimentary players to step up and be be supportive for for Cat and Jaylen Brunson because the Boston Celtics have been have been doing what they’ve been doing with players in and out of the lineup. So that shows the type of depth they have and cat Anthony Towns and Jaylen Brunson are going to need all the support from everybody. Josh Hart, Anna Nobi, everybody’s going to need big series to come in and help them even have a chance against the Celtics. Yeah, I’m worried about their depth, their width, they height. I’m worried about every single dimension I possibly can for this Knicks team playing against the Celtics. This matchup is brought to you by the letter M for miracle because it’s going to take a miracle for this Knicks team to beat the Celtics. Also, the other M is mismatches. This Boston Celtics team knows how to single out those mismatches defensively. They are going to be aiming for C Carl Anthony Towns off of those screens. They’re going to be targeting Jaylen Brunson. That’s what the Celtics do. When they find somebody they want to go at, they do it relentlessly. And unlike Detroit, they can put five scores on the floor. You cannot leave anybody open. And also unlike Detroit, that Boston Celtics team will not fold in that fourth quarter. The bright lights of MSG will not get to them. The Knicks will have to keep this close for those first three quarters and hope and hope that Jaylen Brunson can be clutch Jaylen Brunson and pull out a few of these games. But this looks like it may be a short series and the Knicks may be in big big trouble against the Celtics team. I I I know Nick fans are listening to you, David, right now saying, “So you’re saying there’s a chance?” Uh, cute. Look, they they already gave me a hard time. They They already gave me a hard time for saying Kade was going to be the best uh player in the series. I was dead wrong. The Knicks have been on my tail for the last week. Oh, man. I know they letting you hear that. I know they letting you hear that. Oh, man. Q, let’s talk about the other. I had to mute my social media for a little bit. I love it. Q, let’s talk about the other Eastern matchup. You got Cleveland and Indiana. It starts tomorrow. Look, Cavs obviously the heavy favorites to win this series, but if the Pacers are going to keep this one interesting, what do you think they have to do? Tyresese Hie Burton has to be a superstar. They have to keep the pace up as they as they’re a high tempo team. And um they need they need their supporting cast. They need they need Miles Turner. All of the all of some supplemental guys need to step up and play very big because this Cleveland team right now is hitting on all cylinders looking like they they they going to be hard to put out. Yeah, I’m I’m with you exactly about pushing that tempo because when you get in that half court, that Pacers half court defense uh has been a middling halfcourt defense for most of this season. And that Cavs half court offense is one of the best half court offenses we’ve ever seen from an efficiency standpoint. So once you get a slow game where you get in those half court sets, they’re going to carve up that Pacers defense. The Pacers have to keep the Cavs off balance. They have to figure out a way to push that pace. Q. I’m with you 100% on that. By the way, ESPN bet has the Cavaliers at minus 500 to win this series. Double D Q. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

SportsCenter runs highlights and top moments from Game 6 between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets before Stephen A. Smith on NBA Countdown, Quentin Richardson and David Dennis Jr. analyze key individual matchups ahead of Game 7 between the LA Clippers and the Denver Nuggets.

0:00 Rockets-Warriors Highlights
3:04 Stephen A.: “Legacy game” for James Harden
5:50 Key Factors in Clippers vs. Nuggets
8:20 Eastern Conference matchups
8:52 Concern for Knicks’ depth vs. Celtics?
11:23 How Pacers can contend with Cavaliers

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