Hey Colin, how are you, man?
I'm good, man. You got me pumped up with that intro. I'm like, yeah, I've never been happier to cover the NBA.
Hey, it's a busy, busy, busy day, a busy, busy time. Before we get into a lot of the action that's already going on, Greg Popovich steps down. What do you think things are going to look like for the Spurs going into the future? Of course, they still have Winbanyama. We can assume his health is going to turn out all right.
What should we expect from them in the future? Yeah, I think, you know, first of all, I mean, pop just absolute legend, not just in the NBA community, but in American sports in general. I mean, this guy just left his mark on sports for the past, you know, 30 years of how to operate, how to run the team, how to be a human being to your players and to your fellow coaches.
So I've never heard a bad thing said about him other than maybe some sideline reporters who ended up interviewing him. But other than that, in terms of the basketball, through the humanity, the guy has just been tremendous. And I think one of the testaments to his is the way that he's run that organization is the way that he's left it.
Right. They're in great in a great position. They had a few down years.
You know, I guess you could still say that they're in a little bit of a down year, but they have Victor Winbanyama and they have the framework. Another disciple of his, Mitch Johnson, taking over. He's obviously still going to be around Popovich as team president.
So he will have his fingerprints on on the way that this is going to be moving forward. But he set the tone, the organizational tone, how things are supposed to run, the discipline. He was famous for coaching his stars just as hard as he coached the 12th, 13th guy on the team, Tim Duncan. He would coach him hard. So, you know, I think that more than the titles and the accolades and the all time leader and coaching wins for the regular season is that he left a mark on how to run an organization.
And the Spurs culture was really you know, the epitome of that and what people aspired to around the league. Colin Ward Henninger is here with us on the JR Sport Reshow covers all things basketball for CBS Sports. That's for the San Antonio Spurs. We got to wait and see what they do on the court come October. We got a bunch of teams that are in action right now.
A matter of fact, it's going to be about 35, 40 minutes from now. We'll see if the Golden State Warriors can just get the Rockets on out of here. But we've seen Steph Curry running around with that that bum hand.
That thumb looks kind of grotesque right now. Is there a realistic chance that the Warriors blow this 3-1 lead because of Steph's injury? It's possible. I wouldn't say it would be because of Steph's injury. I would say it'd be more because of Ahmin Thompson and what he's been doing defensively. If he can continue to do what he did in game five, that's you know whether it's Dylan Brooks hitting Steph's thumb on purpose or the man Thompson chasing him around the perimeter.
Things are just going to be difficult for him and it's not you know nothing different for Steph. He's dealt with this his entire career. This is the playbook on him. How to stop him particularly in a playoff setting. Just be extremely physical. Foul him all the time. All his off-ball movement.
All that. Bump him. Hit him. Pull him. Drag him.
Whatever you need to do to get him out of rhythm. And he still can and he still continues to flourish. So there's a chance that that could happen.
I don't think that's going to happen. I think that the Warriors you know the way that they lost game five is exactly the same way they lost game five in 2022 against the Memphis Grizzlies where Draymond was waving the towel and screaming whoop that trick. They lost that game by a ton of points. Went back home. Closed out the series in game six.
I think the same thing's going to happen here. Steve Kerr has his team prepared. This veteran group obviously with Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green.
All players who have performed on the highest stage in the NBA playoffs. They are going to treat this like a game seven. I guarantee you they will come in with that mentality. That energy is going to be there from the players.
It's going to be there in the building and this is a young inexperience for the most part. Rockets team that hasn't seen something like this from a veteran team. So I think they're in for a tough road tonight. Yeah, Golden State Warriors trying to avoid this game seven. Well, Colin, tomorrow night we got the Nuggets and the Clippers. They are in a game seven. The winner of this series will go on to face the Thunder.
We'll get to them in a second. This is a seemingly an even matchup between two flawed teams. This is why they are the the four and the five seed.
What do you think we can expect tomorrow as they go back to the mile high? Yeah, this is going to be, I mean, this is obviously, I think for a lot of people, their favorite series of the opening round for those, you know, Jokic said it, those who love basketball will love this series because it's just such a high level being played. Even, you know, as you mentioned, they are flawed teams.
They're not perfect. But when you have Nicole Jokic on one side and what Jamal Murray's been doing recently, and then you have Kawhi Leonard and you say what you will about James Harden, but he came through in game six when they needed him. We'll see what happens in game seven.
The track record is not great. But in terms of what they're doing on the court, the execution, the effort, the hustle on both sides, it's been a tremendous series. So for game seven, I mean, you know, you hate to say toss up, but these teams are so evenly matched. I think with Denver being at home, even though they lost the game seven last year at home, which nobody expected them to lose, I think you probably have to give them a slight edge. But again, to me, this is going to come down to the guy I mentioned earlier, James Harden, if he can come through with not not not even just not even just like not even a great game, but just like an OK game, not a terrible game. If he has double digit points or shoots more than six times, then that'll be the difference. But again, if you're relying on James Harden in a game seven, things probably aren't looking your way, which is why I think Denver is probably going to pull this one out. Yeah, things haven't gone all that swimmingly for James Harden in games that actually matter in the postseason. We're being joined by Colin Ward Henninger, who covers all things basketball for CBS Sports.
I said the winner of this series goes on to take on or face the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder haven't been in action since, what, last Saturday? What the hell have they been doing? Just running practice?
What is this? Yeah, I mean, the Thunder, knowing them, they're all 20 years old, so they're probably just playing video games and they're doing TikTok. And I don't know what kids that age are doing these days. But yeah, it's going to be weird. It's a long wait. This team is, you know, as well coached and as disciplined as I've seen a team, at least throughout the regular season, the brief glimpse we got of them in the first round of the playoffs. So I think they'll be prepared. I think they'll be ready again, saying, you know, mentioning their age. I don't know if rest was even really that big of an issue for them. So they're going to be prepared.
See, just Alexander is just, you know, an absolute handful to deal with. And then they just have the depth and the size and the strength. I think that's really what I'm going to look for in the second round. If they're facing Denver, these physical defenders, they have, you know, Isaiah Hartenstein to bully, Nikoli Jokic. They have Chet Holmgren to protect the rim. Not a big physical guy, but a guy who's as good as going vert with his verticality around the rim as anyone in the league blocking shots. And then on the wings, you've got Jay Williams, you've got Lou Dort, you've got Alex Caruso.
It's just all the strength and bulk and power. So I think they could overwhelm the Denver Nuggets a little bit. You know, even if Jokic ends up getting 40 a game, they're going to concentrate on limiting those other guys. And then if they face the Clippers, I think the Clippers actually have a little bit better chances because Hawaii is a little more, you know, capable of handling that kind of physicality. And they also do have to me a little bit more depth than the Denver Nuggets, which you need against OKC because OKC is just running, you know, guy after guy after guy out there at you.
So I think they'll need that. And the Clippers, I would say they have a better chance against OKC. But again, I don't know if they're going to get past Denver. So either way, you have the Oklahoma State Thunder have to be favored based on everything we've seen from them in the regular season. And now into the playoffs, as long as they're healthy, there's no reason to doubt that they're going to be able to advance. Oh, I mean, we got the Timberwolves there, the other team that advanced in the in the West, knocking off the Lakers using their size and their strength. And we'll see who they face between the Rockets and the Warriors. Do you think the Thunder are just going to kind of go through everybody? You favor them to go to the finals? I just say that they're the favorite to go to the finals.
It may be difficult. It's so tough with the Thunder because we really haven't seen them. We saw them last year struggle against Dallas Mavericks. This year, we haven't seen them really tested in a way that that can tell us, you know, what does this team look like when the chips are down and they're down two games to one, two games to one, you know, something like that. And that's when the age, the experience, which is really the only knock that you can have on the Oklahoma City Thunder is that the guys haven't been there before. They haven't won a championship.
They're young. That's really all you can go with. So if they face a team like the Warriors, for instance, with all that championship pedigree, obviously the Warriors have to get past the Rockets and then get past the Timberwolves before they'd face them. But that's the type of team that I could see giving them problems, a team that has multiple superstars, a team that has a guy who's capable of being the best player on the floor in any given game and a team that has a little bit more experience and pedigree.
But, you know, that's that's a lot of ifs. I think the Thunder on paper, based on what we've seen, has to be the favorite to come out of the West. Colin Ward Henninger is here with us from CBS Sports over on the Eastern Conference side. There's no waiting like the Thunder and the Timberwolves have to do. We know the matchups that are set. We have the Cavaliers and the Pacers. Game one is on Sunday. We got the Knicks and the Celtics.
They play on Monday. What are your thoughts, I guess, first on what we saw last night with Brunson? And is he going to have to do that every single game against the Celtics?
I find it hard pressed for them to advance. Yeah, I mean, that's that's basically what the Knicks have become, right? It's the Dylan Brunson show. He has to do the heavy lifting on offense. But I mean, yeah, going back to that shot for what a star Thompson was doing to Brunson for, you know, throughout pretty much the entire series, especially later in the series, for him to come through with that just unbelievable crossover. Sorry, Thompson goes sliding across the court. Once that happened, once once Thompson stumbled and Brunson got even a sliver of daylight, I think, you know, most people who know anything about Brunson's game and have been following the Knicks at all were like, all right, this is going in. It was only a matter if he was going to dribble in for two. But he pulled up for the three, knocked it down, did his little Brunson three thing over his face.
And it was exactly what you want. That's the clutch player of the year. And there's a reason that he's the clutch player of the year. So moving forward, the Knicks, the way they won that series, I wouldn't be too encouraged. If I was a Knicks fan, this is supposed to be a team that, you know, we got Carl has the towns in the off season. We got McHale bridges. This is supposed to be this super, uh, you know, complex, versatile, defensively stout basketball team. Uh, and they just haven't really been that and towns is doing his town thing where he has, you know, one really good game.
And then he has a couple stinkers and then he fouls out and he makes a dumb play. Um, so really, as you mentioned, it's going to come down to Jalen Brunson. And the problem with that is that the Celtics have so many guys who they can throw on Jalen Brunson, whether it's true holiday, if he gets healthy, Derek white, just an absolute monster of a garden.
And you have the bigger guys in Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, uh, who could, they can throw on there too. So, uh, you know, if it's up to Jalen Brunson to do all the heavy lifting over the course of a six, seven game series, whatever it ends up being, that's going to take a serious toll on him. So for me, I think it's the Celtics, you know, in a maybe six games, I don't see it going the distance just based on what I've seen from the Knicks in the first round.
Yeah. Well, Colin, I mean, if you, you think about the, the Cavaliers and the Pacers, unless John Halliburton shows up and, uh, you know, physically gets involved, the Cavaliers are going to take on the Celtics in the East finals, right? We're going to see the Celtics go all the way.
What do you think about this? I don't know, man. I'd watch out for those Pacers. Like, like the cats have steamrolled like the same way, uh, almost as OKC, right? They had a tremendous regular season. And then the first round is that heat team, but they had no business being in the playoffs. They, I think they were probably all upset that they won their play and match up.
So they're like, why are we here? Uh, and they ended up having the largest point differential in the history of the NBA, the playoff series. Uh, so it's hard to say the calves weren't exactly tested. Uh, the reason I say watch out for the Indiana Pacers is because the calves have this tremendous offense, right? It has been all year long. Uh, and the Pacers are one of the few teams that have the firepower to keep up with them, right? They had, they're led by John Halliburton son Tyrese, uh, who was just absolutely orchestrating everything. And you saw his clutch ability winning that improbable game against the bucks to advance.
Uh, and then they have shooters everywhere. They have cast Pascal. Siakam has been super underrated for the last couple of seasons, especially since he joined Indiana, uh, miles Turner as a center who can knock down threes. So overall, I think they presented enough versatility and, and, and a challenge offensively or well, a challenge defensively for the calves to stop the Pacers offense. So I do think it'll be a little bit closer than maybe people think on paper. Uh, I, I do see the calves advancing, uh, and ultimately meeting the Celtics and the Easter conference finals.
But I do think these, this Pacers team might have something to say about it. All right. Let's see.
I know Halliburton says he doesn't care about being called underrated and then he wants to scream to everybody that he's not. So, uh, take that for what it is. Hey, Colin, thank you so much for the time. Tell everybody where they could find and follow you and your work with CBS sports.
Yeah, I'm all right. I write on cbssports.com. Always check that out. And I'm also on CBS sports HQ. I'll pop on and do a couple of video hits from time to time. And then depending on this, how far the warriors get, I might pop over to a Warriors game, do some video stuff from there. So, uh, yeah, cbssports.com.
