Was calling out Anthony Edwards disrespectful, how impressive were Warriors, Pacers? | NBA | SPEAK

Was calling out Anthony Edwards disrespectful, how impressive were Warriors, Pacers? | NBA | SPEAK

Fox Sports Costumes is left, man. Cougar now. Yeah. Rick, how impressive was that? Warriors win without Steph. Incredibly impressive considering that what did we decide? Buddy Heield was Robin. He said he’s not trying to be Robin. He’s Batman. Batman. Batman was wearing the wrong shorts at one point and had to change. So, there was even a there was even a wardrobe malfunction. Now, it was incredibly impressive. Not only that they I mean this is how bad the Minnesota Timberwolves were. Steph went and scored another bucket before he left the floor. That’s how bad they were. He scored with his hamstring strained and then Draymond Green took over. So they not only maintained the 10-point lead, they expanded it to 14 and they maintained it at 13 till halftime and then it was just a matter of holding on. But no, in incredibly impressive. I think we we talked about the margin of error for the Warriors not being that great and certainly losing someone like Steph Curry uh erases whatever margin that they had. So, uh, I I just across the board, I think the Minnesota Timberwolves had a lot to do with, uh, with the way this game went, but the fact that that Draymond steps up and hits two threes, I think that just emboldened the entire team to believe that they could get this still done even though that uh, even though Steph was in the locker room, I was thoroughly impressed like and like Rick said, like the Warriors is one like the four teams remaining in the in the Western Conference, only like one team can withstand an injury I believe and still kind of advance in the playoffs and that’s probably the OKC Thunder like when I look at Denver you know they can’t lose their star you know clearly the Warriors lost their star was able to win that’s what makes it impressive because I think they’re one of the few teams that I said hey if the Warriors are going to go far in the playoffs they have to be completely healthy because they don’t have any size they don’t have any depth so they need all hands on deck and like to lose Steph their main engine to the whip and still pull this one out on the road versus Timberwolves team who looked like they were the uh favorite to come out the West based on what we saw versus the Lakers. I was impressed uh thoroughly. So, I don’t know if they can maintain this without Steph clearly like when you lose your star cuz I remember us after we won a championship, we lost KG the next year. We couldn’t withstand that long term. We won a lot of games but just long term we wasn’t going to go too far in the playoffs. So hopefully Steph can come back. But definitely an impressive win to lose your leader, your leading scorer, your Hall of Famer, alltimer and still get the win on the road game one. It was very impressive. I felt I felt the entire time though when he was out. You could just sense after that first quarter cuz that was the only time they was down was the first quarter. They never surrendered the lead outside the first quarter. That was only like two. Not even close. Not even close. They kept it I think it got to eight was might have been the closest eight or nine. So the entire time you could just tell that whether it was Buddy or Jimmy or even to a degree the way that that Draymond was just playing basketball. I know he got had five fouls and got in a little bit of foul trouble which was a little bit of scariness for them but nobody else in the starting lineup was in foul trouble and you can sense that they smelled blood in the water against Minnesota and Minnesota sat down Rudy Gobear. they kind of you could tell that they didn’t feel good about that matchup. And then Antman obviously didn’t start cooking until late in the fourth quarter, but by then it was way too late. He wasn’t comfortable doing some of the things that we saw him do early on against the Lakers. Now, if you go back and you look at that last game against the Lakers, for instance, he didn’t play great basketball and he carried that over into this series, and this is why I’m sure the coach said what he said about him at the end of the game, but the it’s it’s it’s Golden States for the taken, I believe. really Joy I think when I look at it despite not even having a full healthy roster now that you look up and Curry’s gone because you still got Jimmy Buckets and that for whatever weird reason he comes into the playoffs and he just becomes a different guy. Yeah. I mean the talking about the series as a whole in this game I think we can zoom out and have a different conversation. This game specifically is impressive because you can easily get demoralized and Steph goes out. Like that’s yeah, it gets in your head. Okay, our guy is gone. It’s a hamstring injury. We know how those go. It’s only rest that can fix that. So, who knows how long that’s really going to be. Everything starts to spiral. Now, the Timberwolves did them a really kind favor of shooting horribly once again. So, that definitely played a factor, which is a different conversation. But to get this win, to make sure that you keep that strangle hold on the lead when you get it, that is championship basketball and that really g it speaks to the culture that they have there that someone like a Steph could go out and they stay focused mid game to get this done and to steal this game one in the midst of all that. Jimmy obviously to me is a huge factor in that as well as Draymond because we know that Jimmy has taken teams that I want to say are devoid of talent but certainly are not as talented as we would hope them to be all the way to the final. So when we zoom out to the series itself I think it’s a different conversation than just this game because you get a demoralizing injury like that midame to your superstar and your leader it’s it’s hard to bounce back from. Now on to the Timberwolves. I mean, yeah, Golden State had 18 offensive rebounds. We talked yesterday about some of the advantages that the Timberwolves had, and one of them was height. So, you don’t want to see that kind of effort when you have that sort of advantage. And the shooting was 0 of 15 for threes in the first half. They were one of 21 from three to start. Pretty brutal. But Paul, do you like Chris Finch calling out Anthony Edwards? I mean, I love it. I mean, this is your star player. Listen, we’re in the second round. and you’re playing with the intensity of it being like a regular season game. We’re in the second round of the playoffs. He’s absolutely right. Listen, the stakes went up. Once you get past the first round, the stakes went up. You have to bring a different type of intensity into the second round. You can’t go in there and and say, “Hey, I’m going to let the game come to me.” No, you’re the leader of the team. You got to go out here and set the tone. I knew when I played that every round presented his different challenges, but I knew that I had to set the tone for my team every game. And that’s what being a leader is all about. You are the guy we look to when things don’t go right. You’re the guy we look to for energy. You are the inspiration of this team. We every week during the playoffs and the regular season, it’s always a conversation. Is is this guy the next? Is he next? Well, if he’s going to be next, he got to show up every day and be consistent with that. And I think he understands that for the most part, but he can’t have lapses like this. Yeah, it’s going to be nights your shot not going to be falling. I get it. But there’s other things you can do to inspire your teammate. He didn’t play well in game versus the Lakers in the clos game, but he played hard. He got LeBron’s face. He set the tone. He He play He had an attitude on the court. And that’s what you want to see now cuz this is Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler. You got to come with it. So, I’m happy that his coach says some things. Obviously, he has a relationship that he can talk to the media about about him like that. So, let’s see how that carries in the game, too. Yeah, I’m I I love it, too. Uh because it not only was deserved and necessary, but it does reflect the fact that Chris Finch isn’t talking like that if he doesn’t know that Ant isn’t going to receive it the right way. And Aunt isn’t the only one that he was willing to call out. If you watch even during the game, Julius Randall or Rudy Goar or Nas Reed or any of these guys aren’t doing what needs to be done, Chris Fence has no problem going to them one-on-one and talking about it. And so, uh, Paul’s exactly right. Anthony Edwards did not score his first bucket until four minutes into the second half. and all of the bad habits that I thought were behind him that I praised him for in the Lakers series where going to the cup, not getting a call and still busting back to play defense, not complaining to the referees. We saw all that in this game. It was all back to that. And half the time it looked like, at least early on, he was driving to get the call as opposed to make the bucket. And when it first started, when the game first started, I I I couldn’t help but reflect on the fact that he’s talked a lot about spending the summer with Steph and learning to shoot the three better and all of that. And it was almost like he came out to kind of want to show he could go toe-to-toe with with with Steph on shooting threes. And I’m like, that’s not what they that’s not what that’s not what your advantage is here. And that’s not what the Timberwolves need from you. So, I just felt like his head, wherever it was, it wasn’t in the right place. And Chris Finch was right to call him out on it. Maybe he’s not a pure scorer. We’ll get to that. I mean, he’s he’s one of 16 from three in the last two games. Would you like to ask me that re I would like to read to you. Okay. Kean Joseph Keshan Johnson. Do you like Chris Finch calling out Anthony Edwards? If Anthony Edwards is okay with it, then I’m okay with it. That’s not what you said earlier. I’m going to get to what I said. I’m just saying if he’s okay with it, then I’m okay with it. Do I think he’s okay with it? No, I don’t think he’s okay with it. No. Because no professional player wants to be called out publicly by no coach, no general manager, no president for the world to see or bring attention to what they already see, which is I had a bad game. I don’t need Rick up here talking about, well, he’s this, he’s that, he should be doing this or that. If you’re gonna talk to me about my game, do it amongst the team. Well, he probably did. No, no, I understand that. And if he did do that, leave it there, though. You don’t need to address the media to address the public and the fan base and television bobbleheads that’s sitting around talking about exactly exactly the way he played. I think it’s me personally. I think it’s disrespectful. That’s just me though. Paul probably doesn’t feel that way. But I do because you’re not gonna you’re not what you gonna get, man. You’re not You’re not going to get anything. We know. We know where this attitude comes from. No, it’s not an attitude. You’re not serving a purpose by doing that. You’re not going to get me to play well by doing that. If you went into the locker room and you gave me a riot act in the locker room in front of my teammates, I’m going to respect that more than you standing up there at a podium, whether they asked you the question or not, you answered it in such a way that I’m not going to respect that. And and my guess is that if Chris Finch was co coaching Keshan Johnson, he would know that he couldn’t do that. Yeah, that may be cool. And therefore, he and he probably think And he probably think that he can do that right now, Rick, until he can’t do it. Okay. Because if as we see in the state of the NBA and current events in the NBA right now, coaches getting fired left and right. When they win championships, a year later, they gone. He ain’t won one yet. Yet alone have gotten there. So all I’m saying is you playing with a slippery slope with your star player on your team. You’re making this decision to out him in the public. That’s just that’s just me. But you can get the book. I thought you were going to get my bobblehead. Get the bobblehead. Me, too. I thought you going to get the bobblehead. But you can go get you go get the books bobbleheads. And it’s not it has nothing to do with being selfish or anything like that. It’s just I don’t like it. It’s just not cool. It’s not cool at all. But what is he what is he supposed to say in this situation cuz Aunt is the leader of the team. He’s the face of the team. It’s a lot of different like you always tell me elevate him into the face of the league. But like you always tell me Joy, there’s a different way you can approach certain things, answer questions a certain way. Well, this is my thing too key as a coach. Just like more times than not the coach is going up there praising you in front of the media. I don’t need you to praise me. But he does. And when you play well, well, Ed carried us on his back that terrific performance. Like he does that more times than not. So the one time he come in there when you don’t play well, you got to take it with a grain of salt. You know what I’m saying? All right. Like it’s it’s it’s like how many nights you going to see Chris Fish cuz he going to get interviewed after every game. And most of the time when they win, who gets the credit? Anthony Edwards. his name is going to get mentioned after every win. I understand. So like when he lose, you got to take it. You got to be able to say, “Hey, my man, my main guy didn’t play well. My man got to step up. My man got to be a leader.” And there’s nothing wrong with that. But PP, that’s not what he said. Yeah, he did. He didn’t say that. What did he say? He didn’t say that. Bad shot selection. We’re not on the same page. All of that sort of stuff. Come out and set the tone. If your shot’s not going, you still have to carry the energy. Yeah, if I have to talk to guys about having the right energy into an opening second round game, then we’re not on the same page. I mean, he didn’t say what he really wanted to say. He said that you said what he wanted to say. Like in practice, you playing like a bum. Like you should hear coaches in practice. Step it up. That language is And I’m okay. And I’m okay with him saying that in practice. I’m okay with him grilling me amongst my team and all that because if you went out there or you went out there, Rick or Joy, you went out there and said, “If the coach was doing this, we would have did that blah blah blah.” Guess what? Guess what though? We gonna get crucified by the bobbleheads and everybody else that I just call the bobbleheads that everybody else is gonna say. Who’s the bobbleheads? The reporters. Us. Did you We’re bobbleheads. We’re bobblehead. You had a coach call you a bobblehead. Right. That’s right. That’s what I want. I done had all type of stuff called to me in practice. I Some of the stuff I done had I can’t even repeat cuz it’s going it’ll get everybody in trouble. Right. This is the only bobblehead on set. But no, for real. For real though, I I I just don’t I understand he may have a certain type of relationship with him as of right now today as we speak, but you know, and I know people have family and they have friends that will want to finish it for me. Yeah. To his ear and say, “You can’t let him talk to you like that.” There you go. That’s all I’m saying. No, I get that. Protect yourself in these situations, but I’m not going out there and doing that. But here’s here’s the reality. He is the leader of their team. He was 0 for 10. He had one point. Yes. In the sec in the in the first half. We all didn’t score until there were four minutes in the third. We all watched the game. We saw it. Understood. Understood. And the Minnesota Timberwolves are not going to win this series unless Anthony Edwards is a different player. And it’s not even scoring. It’s just And he’s also had backto back games like bad scoring games. But to Paul’s point, at least in the last game where he wasn’t contributing on the scoring side, he still brought the energy. You had an opportunity in this game. Steph Curry goes out. That’s a big deal. That’s a break in your favor. We We are We are in agreement on everything that everybody is saying. I just have a problem with him outing his superstar. So, what should the public How how should he have handled this? The coach should never give public I would have to I would have to literally hear the question. Mhm. to be able to tell you how he should have handled it. But I can tell you this, he shouldn’t have. How should he have addressed Anthony Edwards performance? If I’m asking you, what did you think about Anthony Edwards performance? What you think about the fact that Anthony Edwards only had one point in the first half? I think we probably got to be a little more aggressive. We’re going with the Wii. What the hell you want me to say? You asked me a question, I’m giving you an answer. Now you going to attack me as if I’m him. I see I don’t I don’t know that I don’t know that saying that Anthony Edwards has to be more aggressive that he’s the leader of our team is quite the insult. I mean certainly people close to him can turn it into an insult. But to me that’s just the reality. He’s our he’s 23 years old. He’s young but he’s our best player and we need him to be aggressive if we’re going to have any hope of winning this series. That to me is just the truth. I mean this had nothing to do with like I’m looking at this had nothing to do with him not scoring. This is this was this was a effort thing. You know what I’m saying? Like I need that. That’s something you can control as a player. You can’t control misses and make and that’s what he said. And I have no like me as a player. I have no problem my coach doing that. You know what? That’s going to motivate me now. Now I’m I’m about to go out here in game two and do something where he ain’t going to never have to say nothing again. You know what I’m saying? So, but it is a new school and a new generation and guys are sensitive sometime to when open criticism. That’s all I’m saying. That’s all I’m saying. That’s what I said, Rick. He’s cool with it till he’s not cool with it. And you you you on a slippery slope when you messing around with one of the biggest stars in the NBA that’s on your team and you’re not delivering the chip as a head coach. So, at some point in time, they going to start looking at you. I will tell you this, the guys in that locker room that I know are behind Chris Finch and how he’s handled Anthony Evans. I understand like all the veterans know they have a great young talent who can be very up and down and they’re all trying to squeeze the most that they can out of Ant. So it’s not like Finch is out on an island talking this way. I guarantee you Mike Connley is talking to him the same way. Yes. Talking to him. Mhm. Not to you and me and her and him. There’s a big difference there. Coach, he answered the question. Is there not a big difference? I didn’t think it was us. Look, hold on. Look, before Joy throws it to something else. Is there not a difference what we do in our green room versus what we do here in our conversation. Sometimes and sometimes it comes out here. Sometimes it gets out here here as we do in the green room. No, you don’t want those. You wouldn’t be able to watch us anymore. Seems like uh calling somebody overrated. Overrated might just be the the kiss of motivation you need. What they call Josh Allen overrated. goes and wins an MVP. Albertton has certainly not looked overrated this postseason. Did we overlook the Pacers, Rick? I know I did, but they gave they gave me reason to. I mean, they played the Pacers twice at the end of the season. Pacers rest I mean uh the Cavs at the end of the season. Cavs rested all of their stars. They won in double overtime and they won one by a bucket. And uh for a good part of the season, they looked like the team that I saw last year. And I know they went to the conference finals, but they played a Bucks team in the first round that didn’t have Giannis and lost Damen Lillard halfway through. Then they played um who did they play in the next round? They played the Knicks team that they wore down. They had the they played fast and the Knicks had a ton of injuries, couple bad coaching decisions, and then they got swept by the Celtics in the in the conference final. So, I I didn’t believe that they were capable of this, but they’ve got a bunch of young guys who are for real that people may not know outside of Indiana, but Andrew Nemhart in his third or fourth year is coming along, Benedict Mathan, uh Aaron Nesmith, and then Ty Hallebertton was playing with a bad hamstring last year, and he looks to be 100% healthy. So I I I look at them and Rick Carlile is coaching this team this year unlike last year. So I see them I I was sleeping on them but having seen what they are uh they are for real. I think they’re for real in this particular series. I don’t think at in the end I don’t think they’re going to be really be a match for Boston. But that’s we’ll get there next week or the week after or whatever it is. Um they’re up 20. I think many people just looked at what Rick said based on how they played last year and the fact that many people around NBA circles don’t feel that how Burton is actually a guy. They just think he’s just a guy dribbling a basketball up and down the court and, you know, makes plays and and that’s pretty much it. And but you get sucked into believing that based on listening to NBA guys and professions that play with him every day and you think that, oh, okay, he just he not all that. But he showed up when in times of need when he needed to and the rest has been history for him. So he’s up to and if I was him, I’ll be celebrating being overrated. Wow. Well, I don’t think I didn’t I don’t I didn’t necessarily overlook them cuz I saw what they had a year ago and I told you and I’ll vouch for that. You’ve been behind them from I was saying this team is dangerous. They got depth. They got coaching. They played the Celtics tight last year. Even though the Celtics swept them, I was like this team is going to be dangerous. I thought this series would go seven. uh unfortunate that that Cleveland’s dealing with injuries. So, I know that this series is going to be over pretty soon because uh after a demoralizing game two loss at home in a game they should have won. I don’t see how they come back from that. But I I love the Pers. I love their depth. I love their coaching. I love Hallebertton in the playoffs. He’s shown me every year now that he steps up his game, elevates, and they’re going to be a problem for whoever they face in the next round, whether it be the Celtics or the Knicks. Well, well, it’ll be the Celtics. So, them versus the Wait, hold on. You said either. No, I said it will be the Celtics in the in the conference. Well, kind of. You said after you after you caught yourself. You had to catch yourself. So, in other words, you’re concerned. There’s a little I had to catch myself. You’re concerned. No, there’s no concern. With that being said, he stuttered. Let me say Celtics and I mean, I think we I think we all clearly overlook the Pacers. I mean, I I I will vouch for Paul as well. has been he’s been uh giving them credit, but we just assumed that the Cavs were going to be playing the Celtics in Eastern Conference Finals. And uh and you know, rightfully so. I think the Cavs have had a tremendous regular season and they’re obviously not healthy now, but when you’re looking at what happened yesterday, I mean, you got a 20point lead. I mean, you’re you’re overcoming everything that you were dealing with. Everyone just assumed Pat going to get this game. But I’ve seen this before. I I texted somebody with about eight minutes left. Subscribe here to get the latest from Speak and go watch a few segments from our other shows on FS1.

Paul Pierce, Joy Taylor, Ric Bucher and Keyshawn Johnson break down how far the Golden State Warriors can go without Steph Curry, then react to Minnesota Timberwolves HC Chris Finch publicly calling out Anthony Edwards for not stepping up. They then reflect on the Indiana Pacers’ 2-0 start and discuss how much (if any) they overlooked them vs. Cleveland Cavaliers.

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Was calling out Anthony Edwards disrespectful, how impressive were Warriors, Pacers? | NBA | SPEAK

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