All right, welcome to Good Take.

West Goldberg here, joined by Mike Shear, the author of Basketball Poetry, and we've got

some takes cooking up, including one about the Orlando Magic, and who has the easiest path

to the conference finals?

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Before we get to our takes though, Mike, recording this on Thursday morning after another great night of playing basketball. The play in tournament has been awesome this

season. All of these games have been good. And we got a fat glass of our favorite vintage of

Steph Curry and Jemond Green last night. That was a lot of fun. Yeah, it really felt like a,

you know, real throwback playoff game. Like the intensity was there. Like guys were screaming, like Steve Kerr, like he was having a heart attack on the sideline. Steph was, you know, fist pumping. All we missed was like a little night night. And I think we would have felt like a finals game. Honestly, the intensity was fantastic. And even though all the games have been good, like you said, this was the one

that felt like it had stakes, even though like it's still the plan. You know, it's still the first game of the plan. But you couldn't, you wouldn't have known that by the way everyone was playing. No, and it got off to a slow start for the Warriors in particular. Kauai got to his Kauai stuff early in the first half. He ends up fizzling in the fourth quarter. Dremont Green's defense in the fourth quarter was tremendous.

But to me, it really started when Steph, he hits a three

in the third quarter. It was the first of his, however many, he had 16 points in the third

quarter or something like that. It was the first three that he made in the quarter, comes off

of that Draymond Green screen, gets hit, falls over, and then makes a three. We've seen that a billion times from Steph Curry, but we had not seen it to that point in that game. And then as soon as that happens, it was like a quarterback getting sacked for the first time, shakes it off, and he's like, all right, now I'm in the game. Steph just takes off, takes over the game after that.

We get all the Steph Curry-Dramon-Green stuff. But to me, what was really interesting about that game, too, is, yes, we got that vintage Steph-Dremon two-man game, crazy Dreyman Green defense against Kauai, held him scoreless in the fourth quarter until 17 seconds left. Kauai got slipped for the basket for his only points of the quarter.

But we also got... scoreless in the fourth quarter until 17 seconds left. Kawhi got slipped for the basket for his only

points of the quarter. But we also got a little dash of Christopps Porzingis here, a little

sprinkle of Al Horford there. These are guys not associated with the Warriors Dynasty.

Yeah, more than sprinkled. A big fat heaping of Al Horford. These are not guys associated with the Warriors dynasty, but to me, Mike, the way they fit right into everything that Steph and Draymond were doing and then being additive in terms of being a floor spacers at that five spot, that was really interesting.

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