Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Biggest Statements Of Opening Playoff Weekend – Lakers & Rockets In Trouble?

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk a wild opening weekend to the NBA playoffs including a big road win for the Warriors and if the Rockets have enough offense to advance. Plus, we break down if a wild Game 1 in Clippers-Nuggets will set up a long series, how the Knicks' massive 4th quarter showed their playoff pedigree over Detroit, why the Wolves' statement against the Lakers should be taken seriously and the dangerous Pacers looking more than ready for the Bucks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Hello and welcome to the Hoot Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which you're doing slightly after midnight on Monday morning,

joining me from New York City, where he attended the No. Bockers victory over the Detroit Pistons in game one on Saturday. Not the best fourth quarter for the Pistons, but we're always happy to see him. Tim Bontems. Hello, everybody. Join us from Oklahoma City,

where the Thunder game against the Grizzlies today was a competition for about 15 seconds, is Ban McMahon. Howdy? partners. Listen, man, had some travel issues. I know you did too, Wendy, but couldn't get in last night. Had to take that. And you know, I don't like them. Single digit A.m. flights had to take one of those this morning. Bags got here. I got here in time. Still waiting on the grisies to arrive in Oklahoma City. It's really hard to get from Dallas to Oklahoma City, Brian. You know, it's just an extraordinarily

difficult place to get to you. Not a lot of ways to get there. Bontim, as you served your travel ban, I would shut your clapping gum. I'm at Rocket Arena in Cleveland. I had to think about it for a second. It's had four names since I've started coming here. I feel like it's had four names this season. I considered, I'm sitting in the heats press area right now. This is where Eric Spolstra gave a Dower post-game press conference.

I considered going down the hall a couple of spots to the Nico Harrison, the site of the Nico Harrison Press conference Marison Memorial Press room But I decided that would be in poor taste

and maybe not the best carmic Well, listen fellas, as this pod comes out, people will be preparing for Nico's first real press conference

since then. He is doing ex-interviews, Monday afternoon in Dallas. I will not be there. I'm coming to playoffs.

I'm sure he'll be very upset. I expected to meet the math here in OKC. They didn't make it. I finally did. You know, The little closed door, you know, no cameras, had to negotiate the audio recording thing. That's a media availability.

Wasn't a press conference. I got a lot of mileage out of that. Speaking of which, by the time this comes out, by the time this comes out, I have, hold on, let me find. We go. Just promotional. Let's just sit back and have a five-minute promotional vehicle here. Let me find my own hornitude. Jeez.

What are we doing here? First weekend of the playoffs is just a fan promotional time. I got a whopper on ESPN.com right now, fellas. Also, the Wonderboy available at all book retailers. Oh, God. You good? Will you get out of the playoff game style? I thought I wrote a solid news or two.

John Moran said, we'll never play this bad again. Yeah. I hope not. In a grand gesture of showing respect to the Thunder when they won by 50, McMahon wrote about the Grizzlies. Dude, I'm sorry. By the way. I mixed in a little thunder.

But the story was that team got handed at 51 point loss. It would be, we'd be remiss on our podcast to not talk about this for a brief moment. So the Grizzlies, as we know, back in 2021, set the NBA regular season record when they smashed the Thunder, won by 73. Today, the Thunder flirted with the postseason record, which is 58 points in terms of margin of victory, ended up winning by 51, becoming one of six teams in NBA history to win. a playoff game by 50 or more points. And I know that McMahon saw this because he immediately retweeted it because he was covering the game. But the record holders for the biggest margin of victory in a playoff game are the Denver Nuggets, led by Carmelo Anthony in 2009, beating Chris Paul in the New Orleans Hornets.

And the Minneapolis Lakers in 1956 beating the St. Louis Hawks and Bob pett. Bob. Oh, hold on though. We got a Bob Petit reference. Prince, as always on the pot. I knew you're going to do this. And me, the biggest Bob Pettitbacker in, you know, modern day media, I'm going to stick up from my guy, Bullet Bob.

Let me just tell you this. St. Louis Hawks won that best of three series with an overall point differential of minus 56. They won the other two games by a point? Brother, they won the other two games. The score of the other two games. games was 116, 115 on both occasions. Blended in with a 58 point loss in the middle.

Sandwich by that. We got to get Bob. Hold on. We got to get Bob. We got to discuss it. That is one of the craziest things I've ever heard. That is an amazing. We have to discuss this.

Bullet Bob. They didn't keep rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and all those things. But in game three, the deciding game three, right off a fresh off a stinker in that 58 point loss. Bull of Bob bounced back with a 41 point performance. The beat George Micahin and those hated Minneapolis. MacBett was an also great player who McMahon has denigrated in the past, hence our commentaries. I'm just going to tell you this in all seriousness.

By the opening second of the second quarter, the Thunder had played 11 players a day. Bob Pettett would have gotten on the floor for him. All right. We don't need to be. What? He's going to be savaging Hall of Fame or Bob Pettit for no reason. Let's start talking about the playoffs now. All right.

Nicolioch passed Bob Pettit in all-time playoff scoring. He did. That's true. We love you, Bob. You should have him on the pod. We should. You've been saying that. I know.

I have his number, actually. Call him. I know. I should. I should. Probably not right now, though. No, no. It's late.

Yeah. Anyway, I think we should start with the warriors going into Houston. winning. Boy. That was a lowest scoring game for the Rockets this season, which I guess is not that surprising

considering the way. But this series is going to be hand fighting. I didn't see this entire game because I was working the Cavs Heat Post game. The Cavs were victorious by 20 over the heat in game one

here in Cleveland tonight. But the end of this game, I did watch most of the fourth quarter. The Rockets were in position to win this game, but they can't, they don't score great on an average day, but they had some possessions at the end of this game. In position to win the game, feel slightly strong.

Well, it was a three-point game with six minutes to go. Is that not in position? Let's just, let's just, look, I picked the Warriors to win the series, and there are two reasons there. Number one, they've got the two best players in the series, and that damn sure was the case tonight. Remember when Steph Curry got held to three points by the Rockets late in the regular season?

Well, he had 31 on 12 of 19 shooting. And some of those, what was the phrase bond temps? Kevin Harland's line that on the one when he was falling into the seats on the side of the court and threw it in that, quote, geometrically, that should not have happened was an all-time great call from the great Kevin Harlan. And remember I told you, Steph Curry's been haunting the rockets in the playoffs for, it's a generation now. It's a general. And he denied James Harden in that group a chance to go to the finals. And he's haunting them still. Jimmy Butler also great tonight.

25, 7, 6, and 5 steals, 10 and 19 from the floor. They've got the two best players in the series. And the Rockets aren't a good offensive team. They managed to be mediocre in terms of offensive rating just because they bully people on the glass so much. But today, you know, Fred Van Fleet, proven champion. critical to the Rockets, great leader. He was four of 19 and two of 13 from three. Jalen Green, their leading score, up and down, up and down.

Can he be a star? That's a big TBD. Stunk it up tonight. Three of 15. Only had seven points. Amin Thompson. And some truly horrific possessions in the fourth quarter when they got back in the game. That's right.

They had several chances and they had awful. awful possessions, including I remember one where Jalen Green just went into the lane. I don't know what he was trying to do. I was surprised that he made him back to him. He just threw the ball at the basket. It was very rough. Those two guys, I mean, it's been just laid out. Those two guys were combined seven for 34 from the field and two for 17 from three.

And for a team that really needs to get out and run in transition, probably the most important stat of the game. They did have a bunch of points off turnovers. but fast break points 16 to 4. Oh, by the way, that reminds me of a great stat. The Grizzlies did not have a fast break point until Marvin Bagley was the third hit a half-court heave at the end of the third quarter of the counted as fast break.

That was a great stat. Fast break points are a flawed stat. Okay, whatever. If the Grizzles can't run, they're going to be on a fast break. They are real few. They are a flawed stat. But coming into this series, everybody, we talked about it too, right?

Houston was going to have to try to manufacture enough offense to win this series against the Golden State team that since they traded for Jimmy Butler, has been the best defensive team in the league. And for the vast majority of this game, Houston looked completely lost on offense, couldn't get clean looks, couldn't get anything going. The only reason the game was competitive in the first half was Steph missed a bunch of open three is early. The Warriors miss a bunch of open shots early. They then start to build up a bit of a cushion. And the other thing we talked about coming in the series was could Houston play the big

lineups with Stephen Adams and Alperin Shangoon and even Jibari Smith? They ran out all three of them together at times. Absolutely mash on the offensive glass, which they did. Rockets had a 42% offensive rebound rate in this game, which is crazy high. Those two big lineups worked that helped get them back in the game. But if that's the only way they're going to be able to generate offense, we're still going two for three against Steph Curry. That's not going to work over the course of seven games. The Rockets are an offensive engine away from being a real deal contender.

I say that. Their ownership says that. Their GM says that. Their head coach says that. Hold on. I'm going to have a story coming out later on in the series about Good grief. Yeah, yeah.

Some of us actually work, some of us actually work, Bon Tim. Some of us sit at home and pick up those. Some of us work. Okay. Okay. But like their hope is it's homegrown.

Their hope is it can be a men Thompson, Jalen Green, Shingoon, even a Reed Shepherd. Right, even a Reed Shepherd. Right. Even a Reed Shepherd who, you know, D&P tonight. But they're going to have to consider the options in the trade market this summer,

especially if the playoffs are an evaluation period. period for them. If this is a sign of things to come, there's going to be some serious pressure to make a swing in the trademark. And by the way, we'll get to who those possibilities are down the road. There's a chance there's some big names in the trade market this summer. Well, and we should say, because we've talked a lot of negative stuff about Houston, understand that our offensive game, the only reason the game was even remotely close was because Shangoon was awesome. He kept them in the game for the first three quarters. It was the only guy getting them any sort of production offensively for most of the game. He was really,

really good throughout the game and just got basically no help for most of it. So he's got to keep playing like that. And, you know, the Warriors got enough shots from their others. Pajamsky hit three-threes. Moses Moody had a huge three late. Like, they got enough from the other guys to win. But, you know, Shangoon's certainly going to need some help because Shangoon at offensive rebounding is not going to be enough to beat Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry now four out of six times if the Rockets want to advance. Well, two things about this. First off, the Warriors had lost, according to Jackson here, they had lost six straight

playoff games where they scored under 100 points. And the last time they won one was 2018. And, you know, you talk about Curry having 31. This is an old school 31. 31 on 95. That's like, that's how LeBron and Allen Iverson used to roll. Like it's, you know, he scored a third of their points. And some of the shots, you know, you mentioned that geometrically not supposed to happen

one, but like that was one of like three or four just like, are you kidding me type of shot? I mean, he's freaking Steph Curry. You know, this was a, a Steph, like vintage Steph type performance. Oh, and he and Jimmy basically score all their points. Those two guys had 56 points. The rest of the team had 39. The rest of the team was 14 for 38 from the field. You know, the rest of the team was six for 20, six for what?

Six for 21 from three. Like, and Pajavsky went three for eight. The rest of the team outside of that was three for 13. Like, you know, they didn't get a lot else. But they traded for Jimmy Butler like we talked about after the playing game to show up in games like this. And those two guys got it done. How many did Cominga have? Camiga had zero along with his minutes plate.

Oh, that's an interesting development. In the fourth, I don't think it's a development. It's been a trend at this point. Okay. It's an interesting recent trend. Sure. Yeah. In the fourth quarter of this game, which was obviously a rock fight,

the Warriors still managed to go 11 to 22. And Jimmy Butler, 3 of 5, Steph. two of five, but they were both threes. And that was pretty much the difference in the game. And there were both threes that made you laugh out loud. Jalen. They sure. They sure were. And Pajemski, by the way, was the only other guy

in double figures and had multiple really big plays late too. He was the one other consistent guy for Gold State time. You mentioned how Green and Van Blaine struggled shooting, but just to underline it in the fourth quarter, two a ten. So

it's tough. It's a tough one. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. All right, let's take a look at the games that are going to be played on Monday night. The day this pod comes out tonight, I should say. Clippers Nuggets was, in my view, the most enjoyable game of the weekend. I didn't get to see everything because I was traveling and had travel problems, both Friday and Saturday. I don't want to get into it. Can we get a WTO when you travel update?

No, I'm not going to do that, but I'll just know that the last two nights I slept in hotels and my my suitcase wasn't with me. Wait. We did get a sleep update though. I don't think we want to win the underwear update. I will just say the toiletries that I bought to get me through one night came in handy the night later. Were you going back to back to back with some bridges?

No, no. I stopped at home. I was at home for six hours. Anyway, my point is I didn't see chapter and verse of every game. However, I did watch a lot of the Nuggets. Clippers game, which was as tight as I expected to be, went to overtime, and was the full Russell Westbrook experience. There was a lot of us in all senses of the phrase.

You can't trust Russ, but you can always trust Russ to be Russ. That's my saying with Westbrook. I want to give credit to a tweet from over the weekend from Kofi who said, this is going to be for listeners who are a little bit older, because I don't know how many people are playing Mario Kart and our... Bob Petit? Bob Petit, probably not a Mario Card player. But this tweet was the most perfect encapsulation of Russell Westbrook, which is, Russell Westbrook

truly is the item box for Mario Kart, which, for anybody who played Mario Kart, you hit the item box, and it went around and it gave you something. and every time it was something different. And from possession to possession, Russell Westbrook is a Mario Kart item box, let alone game to game. You just have absolutely no idea what he's going to do. I think over the long run,

that's going to end up being a huge problem for the, for the nuggets, just like it's been for every team he's played for, frankly. But in game one, he did just enough to get him over the line. Yeah. So I think my takeaways from this game are that the Clippers really did not get much from Kauai Leonard offensively down the stretch of the game. They got nothing.

You know, Evita Zubats, yes? A bitzza, yeah, it was pretty good, I think, yeah. For all the accolades that he was all over the ballot for, he was named a finalist for Most Improved Today. He'll probably be on, a good chance to be on the all-defensive teams. He was not a factor in the game, this game going down the stretch. They just weirdly went away from him. I thought that was a crazy thing.

He had a game. Yeah. In the fourth quarter, then it was, yeah. There was. In the fourth quarter, then overtime, it was just, they kept running all these pick and rolls for other guys and he just was standing in the corner. That's fine. That's fine. But the nuggets got all the loose balls.

There was a bunch of, he got one rebound in the part. They got those in part because he was out on the perimeter. And Russell Westbrook and Aaron Gordon were flying in there against smaller guys and getting the ball. I think an adjustment they have to think about. in game two, the Clippers, is to have the Visa Zubach on Aaron Gordon in those spots and have Derek Jones or Nick Batum or somebody on Yokic on the perimeter and then have Zubach down there to get some of these rebounds

because that was the biggest problem. They had all these small guys and they were just getting bullied. Aaron Gordon was bullying James Harden on the board. For the nuggets to win this game when Porter hit a shot one. Well, he didn't play him. He played Russell Westbrook over. Okay. He played 26 minutes and hit a shot.

Well, right, I know. And for the nuggis to win when Porter is a complete non-factor like that. That was a tough loss for the road team to play that well in that game and have it, you know, come down to it and not get a win. Like, and it's especially in a series that's this tight. Clippers obviously still have a great chance to win the series. They're a really good team. But that one really hurts to be on the road to be that close and not get it done. But down the stretch, like Russ is making stuff.

happening. He's grabbing offensive rebounds. He's getting loose balls. You know, like the guy was 5 of 17. It wasn't the most efficient performance in the world. He also tried to replicate the Minnesota game all over again with another completely insane shot. He said he did. Less than 10 seconds to go. And somehow Aaron Gordon just had it ricochet to him. It's like, huh, what are you doing, man? You know who I was chatting with a little bit today in OKC at the arena? Barry Trammell. He's at the Tulsa World. Oh, at the Oklahoma. More of a legendary Oklahomaan columnist. Yeah, a friend of the pod.

Oklahoma columnist. And the guy who Russ would next question every single time and said, hey, man, you might see your boy Russ next round. No, he's ready. He's ready. He's an old pro. He ain't scared. He sure is not.

James Hardin had some really big plays offensively down the stretch of this game, but he was the only clipper who was really making the clutch plays. They had several really rough turnings. turnovers. Kauai had several of them as well. I mean, Hardin had seven in the game. I'm telling you. You never see Kauai have seven turnovers.

But a couple of them were just really inexcusable. Yeah. Well, and they wasted a big time Hardin performance. Hardin had 32 and 11 with only two turnovers. Like, dude, if Hardin put up those numbers, you've got to pull out that win. Well, the interesting thing about this series, right? I think we talk about a little bit before it started. But the nuggets don't really have anybody to guard.

James Harden. Like, if they were running that pick and roll with Zubots, part of the reason why I was surprised they stopped running it was because they were getting whatever they wanted in it. Like, Jamal Murray can't really handle him. Christian Brown can't really handle him. They can maybe try Aaron Gordon on him. But like they don't have, they don't have a good option to put on James.

Like obviously we've seen James go up and down a lot recently in the playoffs, have two or three good games and three or four awful ones. But I think this is a series where he's got a chance to eat. be pretty consistently good. I think I hear Michael Malone bitching about letting KCP go. Oh, wait, they're all gone. Yeah, well, Christian Brown had some moments

in this game, too. He had a... Christopher Brown's really good. I just don't know if he's a great option to slow down James Harden. They just don't have the kind of guy with the size to really give him problems. That's got seven games written all over,

doesn't it? I mean, that series has got seven games. We'll see. I mean, we'll see what happened. We'll see what happens Monday night. Like, I would have said that if the Clippers got that game one, but. I think this can be a hell of a series. It should be a hell of a series, for sure.

I think OKC is going to sweep Memphis. I think I'm going to spend about a week at home, rest and relaxing, refresh. I think you might need to rotate over to assist Ramona on this guy. This guy. Nope, nope, nope. I think I'm going to just be resting, relaxing. Yeah. Sipping Cervasas and snuggling up the old IT department.

It's going to be a good week. this guy goes from saying he's working around the clock to already planning out vacations. I'm trying to get a little siesta here. I gave her, I gave it. I gave a PEP talk for the Thunder pregame day. Look what they did. 51 point win. You gave the Thunder a pep talk?

Really? Yeah, I said, hey, man, give me a damn week off. Okay. Listen, obviously the Grizzlies were fatigued. And I think the heat were a little bit too. They, on the stretch of the game I was at here tonight. which was the Ty Jerome Showcase. Oh, baby.

By the way. Sure was. Ty Jerome free agent this summer. Yes, everybody in Cleveland's well aware of it. Ty had 28 points in his first ever playoff game. And the Cavs, and this is not a novel strategy, but they really attacked Tyler Hero aggressively, really went after him pretty much any time. Well, not anytime, but a lot of times he got ISO'd, whether it was Darius Garland or Donovan

Mitchell. but Jerome went at him several times, and then after he scored on him, he flexed at least twice. Somebody told me he flexed three times. I saw him flex twice on when he scored on Tyler, and they really aimed to slow Tyler down. Tyler had 38 in the first playing game in Chicago

and 30 Friday night in Atlanta, and then he put up 17 in the first half of this game. Then the Cavs just face guarded him and stuck him on the weak side. It was a rough night for Tyler. with Ty Jerome. And that's what the cast players were saying. They were like,

this guy comes in the summer. Like, he's barely hanging on to the NBA. He's just, I mean, Darius Carlins, like he was flapping his gums, talking his bleep.

And I was like, hold on, buddy, slow down. You know, but he's done it all year. And he got named a finalist for Sixth Man of the Year award. By the way,

Evan Mobley, who was on the pod last week, Bam, had a by, I was really trying to go at him today. But Evan saw him after the game. And he said he enjoyed his, time on the pod and the early some of the people who are doing polling, uh, not like to the

Bon Tem standard, but there's some polling being done that shows that Evans in decent shape based on some people. Well, I tell you what, there's some anger here in the, in the planes. Lou Dort not a finalist. I've heard from good sources, six foot nine, 260 pound sources who own bars in the area. That, uh, Bond Timps is to blame. Oh yeah. Is that right?

That's what I hear. I heard bond temps in the finals. His scholarship has been revoked. We'll see about that. Well, Lou Dorr was on my ballot. That's all I got to say. Well,

you can drink and, you know, just throw them down, Wendy. By the way, I will say, in defense of the poor little grizzlies, a late Friday tip

to a noon Sunday tip to travel in between. Totally not fair. Also, you know, listen, they can't compete with the thunder. They got swept in the regular season series by an average of damn near 19 points.

But like the NBA did them no favors for the schedule in here. So my favorite moment of the weekend, though, I think was Jeff Van Gundy trying to prevent Nikolai Yokic from fast inbounding. And you know what I was like to do it? No, no, no. Bull. Bull. Because Van Gundy held his ground.

Kept his position. No flopping. Good old toughness. So what happened there? I can't remember if it was in the fourth quarter overtime. But high value possession late in the game. game. The ball gets knocked out of bounds. The referee calls it for Denver. The Clippers

bench was protesting, and they were mulling whether they wanted to challenge it. And Yolkich, who can move as fast as he wants or as slow as he wants to get something done. Especially on inbounds. He's either full speed or slowing down. Did you tell us,

was it you, McMainer? It was the permanent sub in Oklahoma City, yes. Right. They put Dylan Jones's scores table, yes. But who told me, I don't know who to give the credit that at one point this this year like yokech was able to milk 20 seconds out of no no that was last year and he was 25 to be precise he quotes that he's very proud of and then it was like a point of emphasis this year these are like the fourth quarter you got the lead

the other team scores milk the clock thing and it was a point of emphasis for the league this year so they have like the ref meetings all the teams it was an abu-dabbi i think it was moni mccutcheon but is in Abu Dhabi with the Nuckets, and they said, they said, Joe propels to him like four or five questions. Okay, what about this scenario? That scenario.

Yeah. All right. Anyway, so Van Gundy gets the ball, and Yokic wants to get it to inbound it real quick before the clippers can consider a review. And Van Gundy is like, no, you're not, you can't have it.

He held on like it was Alonza Morning's ankle. Which I saw Zoe today, and Zoe who's recovering from prostate cancer, looks fantastic. Looks like he could, I'm going to tell you something. I spent this week with Eudanus Aslam, who still sometimes practices with the heat and spent some time with Alonzo morning before this game here in Cleveland. Those gentlemen are doing well. They are very physically conditioned.

Those heat lifers, those heat lifers stay. Alonzo morning looks like he's still playing. So UD is still playing, kind of. Yeah, I mean, sure. Adonis has got like, he's got like an extra 15 years, I'm. you Donnas. Anyway, Van Gundy held onto the ball, didn't let

Yolkich have it. Well, there was another assistant who had at least a hand in there, too. Okay, I didn't see that. But, um, but, uh, it was two on one? Was it, Jamal Murray? Who said after the game that Yoke, or was it

Christian Brown? I think it was Christian Brown said, said, Joker's in the weight room. He was embarrassed. That was a good line. All right. That wasn't the best line, though. Tibbs had a good line today.

Well, I was going to go to the Lakers. Or yesterday. Go on. All right. We'll come back to tips. All right. Lakers, Wolves.

As I pointed out on television this week, I don't pick the series. And if I did, I would have seriously considered picking the Lakers. However, I thought it was worth. It's God. What are we doing here? McMahon, what did you pick in the series since you actually pick series? I picked Lakers, I think, in six, maybe seven. I picked the Wolves and six.

Okay. I'm just going to, what I said on TV is, what I'm not, what I'm, what I'm, what I'm, what I'm, what I'm not trying to be accused of is, you know, quote unquote, discovering the wolves. What I said on TV is that the wolves went 17 and 4 down the stretch of the season. And one of the losses was an absolute shoot yourself from the foot, bonehead 25 point fourth quarter blown lead loss in Milwaukee. Which is why you stayed tuned in in the fourth quarter. I agree. Wolves had a big lead last year, by the way, because they do that.

I agree. And actually, one of the things that should be pointed out from that game is that they didn't, you know, The lead got down to like 12, and they pushed back and took care of business. It shouldn't be disregarded. The point is, and in Bontemps, I think you pointed out incorrectly, that some of those victories in that stretch were against a favorable schedule. I mean, when they had 10 games. Oh, it's a lollipop schedule for the most part.

You know, we kept saying when there was, you know, 10 games, eight games, six games left, you know, that the wolf schedule is so favorable, they're going to be in position. Anyway, they did. They got to six. They avoided the playing. They avoided the thunder. in the first round. And, but I'm just saying, like, they came in 17 and 4.

Like, that's not nothing. They also had the fourth best net rating in the league this season. Yeah. And, you know, my thing on this game is that they won by 20, two, I think it was. And Aunt Edwards, you know, he had some assists because his team was hot shooting the ball. But Aunt Edwards did not have a good, quote unquote, good game. You know, if you're going to lose at home to the wolves, you'd like it to be. when Ant puts up like 37 when he does something that's not necessarily

repeat. And not when Luca puts up 37. You know what Aunt had, Anne had an extraordinarily disciplined game, which was the most important thing about it. He had one turnover. Yeah, he shot eight for 22, but he didn't force anything.

He got in the lane repeatedly and moved the ball. Obviously, we talked since the trade that the Lakers do not have hardly anybody that can really stop anybody point of attack-wise, defensively. That's why J.J. Reddick deserves a lot of credit for having this team punch above its weight for a while defensively. But you watch this game and Ant was able to get into the paint. And I think we even talked about it when we talked about the pod the other day. If Ant's able to get to the rim consistently, that's going to be a huge thing for Minnesota if he's not just going to sit at the three point line and not be an attack mode. And being an attack

mode like that and moving the ball, only having one turnover. Yes, the wolves were hot from three. they also were getting wide open shot after wide open shot after wide open shot from three. So, yeah, they hit, I think they hit an extra six threes than their field goal by expected. They shot 50%. They should have shot 36%. Well, Jane McDaniels won 11 or 13. That's not something that's going to be repeated. Sure, sure.

But, you know, and Nasreed obviously hit six threes. But those guys are getting wide open corner threes almost every trip. I don't necessarily. Hold on. The Jay McDaniel's thing is interesting because when you game plan to give a guy a wide open looks, and they knock them down, that can have a carryover effect. We saw it with Rui Hachamura against the Grizzas. You remember when Hachmara came out on fire in game one,

Desmond Bain basically said that was the game plan. Let's see him do it again. He did it the rest of the series. Saw it last year with your series too. Yeah, the game plan for the Thunder was, hey, let PJ Washington get looks. We're going to take the ball out of Luke and Kyrie's hands as much as possible. Yeah.

So I'm just saying, don't say Jane McDaniels can't say the numbers indicate that is the proper game plan. And then we'll see if it makes them change it. They were this season, the fifth highest volume three-point shooting team, Minnesota, and fourth highest in percentage. So for a team in the Lakers that has tried to get by by packing the paint and allowing teams to shoot threes, it's not a great matchup from that standpoint. Well, I will say, I'm not saying that this is always an indicator of your level of defense.

the Lakers played 20 minutes in this game before they were called for a foul. 20 minutes. That is not an indication of a team that is using playoff intensity typically. So it was a great shooting game. And the thing that happens with the Lakers is like, you know,

you ask yourself a couple of questions, like in terms of their performance. And one of the questions you ask is did Doreen Phine Smith and Gabe Vincent and Ruehachamara hit their threes? Because that's a huge variance for them. And in this game, They didn't, but...

Well, here are the numbers for the Lakers. So, Luca, obviously, was great. 37 points, 12 for 22 from the field, 5 for 10 from 3. Non-Luca Lakers, all of them were 21 from 61 from the field. Oh, 10 for 31 from 3, and I think much more importantly, 11 for 30 from 2. So they were, Brutie Gobert didn't have, only took two shots, but when he was out there, he was able to wall off the rim. LeBron James did not look great in this game.

You know, Stats Williams, I was talking to him during the game last night, and he pointed something out I hadn't really considered, which was I saw LeBron got upgraded to or was listed as probable for this game on Saturday. Now, you say, well, probable, no big deal, right? Well, he's dealing with this hip flexor thing, and they basically hadn't had anything going on for 10 days. it's notable that he's even on the injury report at all, even if it's just his probable.

He's on the injury report every game, pretty much. I understand that, but I'm just saying. After a 10 game, I didn't thought about it until stats said it, but I was like, huh, that is an interesting point. And then you watch them come out and look pretty lethargic, and you've got to wonder where he's going to be at going forward. He did tweak that. It did look like that last Friday night that they played.

I can't remember who they played to clinch the three seed. It did look. like, so that's been 10 days. It did look like he might have tweaked that groin at that time. Now, I don't know. And, you know, they're not given updates because they're not playing. He didn't go to Portland for the last game. But, you know, it's worth pointing out. Look, he might come out on Monday and, or I guess on Tuesday they're playing. And he might have a 30 point triple double. I'm just saying, like, you know, it's worth monitoring. Well, no one other sat I thought was interesting looking up stuff from this game, too, was

Luca only had one assist. It was the second time he's ever had one assist in a playoff game. You know the other one, McMahon, that's the Luca guy. It was last year. Was it against the Clippers? It was not against the Clippers. It was last year. It was game one of the NBA Finals.

Oh, that's right. Game one of the NBA Finals. Yep. So, and his, no, go ahead. I was going to say on the flip side of that, and had nine assists and only one turnover. Yes. And Ann had at least seven assists this year, the Wolves were 12 and three.

Make it 13. Three now. To go back to how did. disciplined he was, right? And now there have been eight games in Lucas' career when he's had less than five assists in the playoffs. His team's one and seven. Do you know what the assist opportunities were? Like how many potential assists he had? I didn't look that up. And obviously, they did miss some shots, but the wolves also were sort of happy to have him sit in ISO. And look, he hit the step back. He was hitting shots. But they were not, the Lakers were not moving the

ball a ton. They, you know, the wolves. And look, the other guy, too, we've talked a ton about how Austin Reed's been. Austin Reeves is five for 13 in this game. And Minnesota is one of the few teams that's got enough capable defenders to have a good defender on Luca and LeBron and Austin Reeves all the time. And that showed up in this game. And making Luca one dimensional has been a game plan for a lot of teams over the years.

And there's a couple of factors there. one, like, will he have gas left in the tank if he's, you know, having to try to create every single possession? Two, will any of his teammates have any sort of rhythm if their offense is just, okay, Luca Cook? And the ball is not moving. All right. It's a huge game Tuesday. Also, it's a lot saying for the Lakers. Also, defense wins championships.

Lakers got to step it up. I heard that. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. All right, Monday night, you're going to be back at the garden, I assume, Bontemps. Yep. So Nix Pistons was sort of living up to the Nix fans' fears. And then down the stretch of that game while I was in the air, I missed this fourth quarter. The Nix.

Here's all I got to know about the entire Pistons Nix game. Okay. Start of the fourth quarter, Dennis Schrooter, veteran player, inbounding the ball, gets a five-second call. to open the fourth quarter of the game. I texted a couple coaches. I was like, have you ever seen this, ever? I can't find anybody who's ever seen a team have a five second call to open any quarter. He thought it was incredible.

And it summed up the way everything went after that because for three quarters, Detroit looked like a very sound team. They were settled into the game. Tobias Harris had 22 points in the first half. Last time he'd played at the MSG before that, He didn't have a point. Malik Beasley and Tobite and Tim Hardaway Jr. We're hitting shots.

Those three guys were 12 for 19 from three. And then in the fourth quarter, it was like Detroit looked around and said, holy crap, we're in the playoffs. And everything fell apart. Eight turnovers. Knicks are flying out and running. Jalen Brunson's scoring all over the place. Garden's going crazy.

Game immediately falls apart. Well, getting back to the tips quote, giving them the tips money line. Come on. When Tips has a good one, we've got to give it to them. Go for it. So when did Brunson go back to the back? It was either late, it was in the second half. It was either late in the third quarter early in the fourth.

I think it was late in the third. And why did you go back there according to Tibbs? Read the line. I don't have the actual line from me, but it was something like to put on his cape. Yeah, he said, I think he went and got his cape, which was a good line. I think he went and got his cape. And that's kind of the way things rolled down the stretch. Jalen Brunson, a finalist for the.

Knockoff, Cahones Factor Player of the Year, the one that the NBA gives out, not the official one. He got my vote. Yeah, he had one of those type of nights, which, you know, listen, ma'am, the guy does this in the playoffs. We've seen it. He's proven. When Rick Carlott doesn't bench him for a game seven against the Clippers for Trey Burke, J.M. Brunson delivers in the playoffs. Well, here's the thing for the Pistons. Detroit played well in this game.

If the Pistons aren't winning a game at MSG when they shoot 15 for 32 from 3, and Tobias Harris has 22 and a half, they're not winning the series. And I think there's a chance. It's not that competitive. Like I understand if people come away from this game feel like, oh, maybe Detroit's got a chance. Maybe they'll make this interesting. I had the other take on it. Jalen did not look good early in the game.

The Knicks couldn't hit a shot. Detroit was throwing stuff in from everywhere. They led a lot of the game. And then they gave it away at the end. I could be wrong. I don't expect this game to be that close on Monday night. Maybe the next year. By the way, Jalen Brunson's second half, 23 points, five assists, 12 and 3 in the fourth quarter.

Pretty good. Let me ask you one quick thing, Bontems. Yeah. I didn't watch the fourth quarter. So I don't know if they were rolling, but McHale Bridge has only played 29 minutes this game. Ooh. Well, McKill Britson, here's, so I can just tell you exactly what happened. So campaign, who.

has the ability at times to just go off in games. He's not obviously a super high level player, but he can get really hot. He had 14 points. He went 5 for 7 for the field, 3 for 5 from 3, was plus 23 in the game, and Tibbs rode him for most of the fourth quarter because he was knocked down two or three huge shots. And they had him out there as part of the big run. McHill Bridges didn't come back until there was like 145 or two minutes to go. Listen, good coach by McCall Bridges. He told Tim. Tibbs, play those reserves a little bit more. He did.

Yeah, so I don't know. I mean, he averaged 37 minutes this year as most of his career. So, but, you know, he didn't always play great down the stretch. He's also not great on Kate Cunningham. And the moments he was on Cade in this game were some of the few moments Cade got going. O.G. and nobody did a really good job on Cade. I suspect that'll be the primary matchup. You think Cade is too strong for him?

Yeah, for sure. Honestly, that's why I've been strong for him. struggles with Luca because like Luca just takes him where he wants to go. God. Yeah. O.G. is one of the few guys that if you look at him, like he, you know, Cade against just about well, he's a big guy, but Cade against just about anybody guarding him is either

going to have a size or strength or length advantage or some form or fashion or all the above. And O.G. is one of the few guys that he doesn't. And so, you know, that, that showed up whenever they match up this season. and Mikhail did not do well against Cade really at any point. But yeah, that was the main reason why he wasn't playing, especially in the fourth quarter when campaign was making shots

and the garden crowd was very happy. Well, yeah, and like, yeah, that's why maybe he came off the floor, but then campaign hit shots and you weren't going to take him out when he keeps hitting big shots, one of those little, he's got the weirdest, like, his toes are pointed way over here. The basket's there, but it's, Sometimes I think goes in and gets hot. Yeah, so I would think that Detroit, well, I'm not going to say that.

Oh, say it. We got a windy prediction coming. Well, I just think that a young team, it's hard to believe they could come back from two down. So I would think that they, you know, they would need to split at the garden. But, you know, I stopped. I wanted to stop myself a little bit from that. But all right, anything else, you guys? I don't know if there wasn't much to.

focus on in that OKC situation today. No, like I said, that was the combination of a major mismatch and a scheduling situation and it blew up. I mean, the other game worth touching on, I think, briefly, is Buck's Pacers. So the honest set of Kupo is 14 for 23 in this game. The rest of the bucks were 21 for 61. They were 9 for 35 from 3. The non-Yannis starters were 5 for 20 overall, 1 for 9 from 3, 14 total points.

Kyle Kuzma came the sixth player in the history of the league to have at least a 20 trillion in a playoff game, which means playing at least 20 minutes and having no points, rebounds, assists, steals, or blocks. You do have two files? You want the list of the players, by the way? It's actually a pretty good list of players. Okay, let's hear it. So the last guy to do it before this year was almost 10 years ago to the day, now general manager of the Warriors, Mike Dunleavy Jr. No, no. In a game again, you brought that up.

I'm sure he's thrilled. In a bucks, in a bucks, in a bucks, in a bucks, in a bucks, in a box, in a box, in a game when he was playing for the, was that when they lost by 58? No. No. That was a, that was a different because the bucks, the bucks, uh, the bucks lost by 58 in that game. But, uh, Dundleave, he actually had a great plow.

So you shot almost 50% from three, but he did not make any shots in that game. The other four guys. In that game, Bruce Bowen in 2008, Brent Barry in 2005, Michael Cage. in 1993 and Maurice Lucas in 1986. So pretty good, pretty good company. I was going to say, it's pretty good company for Kyle Kuzma. By the way, when Nico did his little closed doors, no cameras, okay, fine, you can record on your own, just don't release it to the public media

availability. Well, he did take a victory lap on his great trade record. People didn't like those trades. And look how great they worked at. Didn't mention Grant Williams, sign and trade, deliver the Spurs of 2030. unprotected swap rights. He also didn't mention while he was taking the victory lap on the Daniel Gaffer, PJ Washington deals,

that they had the, they had two picks headed to the Wizards for Kyle Kuzma. Before Kuzma invoked his mythical no trade clause. Just saying. The Pascal Seacum was awesome this year in the games against Milwaukee. I'm not sure exactly why. I'd have to ask somebody who would analyze it, but they have trouble with him.

He shot like 55% and average like 25 and 9. I mean, they've just got no, they have no athleticism. I mean, you could just see it in this, you could see it in this game. Like, yes, they have Janus. Obviously, Janus is very athletic. But like, you look at the rest of this Buc's team, they can't guard the Pacers. They just can't guard them. Well, he had another great game.

He had 25 and 7 and he was 10 and 15, shot, made three out of five threes. You know, Seacom is a problem for Milwaukee. So obviously, if you're a Bucs fan, you're saying, a problem for Milwaukee. Well, the Pacers are a problem in general. I mean, again, I am not, I'm just saying. Cats Corner is very nervous for the Pacers in a round too big. That has been, that has been stated for weeks now.

That is not a new prediction. I'm just saying it is not a, oh, oh, no. Wendy's, oh, you froze up when he got all scared and you, you tightened up, you froze up. You okay? Maybe the, maybe the, maybe the calves shut down my feet here. They didn't want to say. Caves are really nervous. Hey, where's B.J. Evans right now.

Make your, he's at home. Make your, make your point on. The Pacers again, because when you started, you went away. I'm just saying the Pacers, it's not, it's not, it's about respect for them after watching the play in the playoffs last year and how they can wear a team out in a series. That's, that's what it's about. Well, I mean, it's, the Bucks are, I pick the Pacers in the series in large part because if you look at it, the Bucks can't guard the Pacers and therefore they have to outscore them.

And I didn't know if Dame was going to play at all. And even if Dane was out there, Dane's not helping the defense part. So I do think it's an extraordinarily tough matchup for them. Now, we'll see when Dame is going to be able to come into the series. It seems like there's some chance it could be as soon as game two. We'll see. He was obviously at game one. Thought it was interesting.

He decided to start John and Tyrese Halliburton while they were down by a pretty healthy amount late in the game. Hey. Those two are not fans of each other. No. Halberton, I mean, he's, Halberton, I believe, wears his number because of Dane. and I believe he's been a fan of him. But they have had their moments over the past couple years for sure. Let me walk that back.

It'll tap, tap on that wrist. I don't think, yeah, I don't think not fans is too strong of a word. No, they've just, they've had their issues. They have a healthy rivalry. Yes, they do. Okay. So it's going to, I mean, look, the bucks, I laid out those numbers for the non-yanist starters and the bucks in general.

obviously if Damian Lillard can give them real minutes and real production, that would be a huge benefit. I also think we have to be pretty realistic that if Dame is able to come back as soon as game two or really at any point in this series, it's hard to imagine he's going to walk in and immediately be plaguing 35 minutes and being Dame. Like you have to, I don't know, maybe you guys disagree. I would have to think you'd be limited in some form. So I mean, I think it's a very difficult situation to just jump into the playoffs when you've been out for that long.

Especially against this team. Yeah. Well, but I've also seen Dame do some remarkable. James great. Dame's great. But they, I mean, they need something because you watch that, watching that game, it was not, the answers were not really evident for what they were going to do.

I mean, it was interesting. They got back in the game a little bit by going to this all shooter lineup, which they've had success with. You have a D.J. Green out there. Gary Trent hit a bunch of threes. I mean, maybe they try to pivot more that way, maybe have Kuzma come off the bench and try to have them have the ball when Yannis is out there and maybe try to get him going.

I don't know. But even still, those lineups aren't going to be able to stop Pacers either. So I don't know. I did not come away from that game super encouraged from a buck standpoint, even beyond the obvious score line. All right. Well, the playoffs was started. And we're off.

And we're already. Hold on. What, oh, yeah, okay. There's been at least one road. that won because the playoffs don't start until road team wins. Well, the Warriors won and the Wolves won. Okay, good, too. So we got the playoffs started and

yeah, we got, we're all right, that's an accurate statement. And we're already doing pods well into the night. So we're... There we go. Multiple sleep updates. Randy. One pod. The playoffs have truly started. I'm okay right now because it's NFL draft week and there's not a lot

of demand for morning TV, so it'll be fine. Hold on. I'm trying to think of there's anything else I need to promote. I'm sure you'll come up with something. I'll tell you something. We could put a sizzle reel together of McMahon the 24 hours after he covered that press conference. Contract here, I'd encourage you to do just that. I mean, he was firing off some missiles.

He sure was. Man. Sure was. Listen, fellas. Some of us thrive in chaos. Well, speak. You thrive with attention, I think. Here's the Jimmy Butler quote.

The only person who knows what's coming out of the organized chaos is the one creating it. Jimmy Butler on band. Oh, wait, that's on Steph Curry, my bad. I like Jimmy in the walk-off interview tonight. They were talking about youth versus experience. He's like, you know, we're pretty young. I mean, I'm only 37 and, you know, Steph's like 36. And actually, he maybe said Steph is 37.

I don't think Jimmy Butler's 37. Oh, maybe it is. Anyway, he was making a joke. So he likes to troll. I don't know if you heard that. Steph is 37. Anyway, I botched that, but it's after one in the morning. All right.

Thank you to Bontems. Thank you to McMan. Thank you to the Cavs. We're in the corner here. They're hosting me. Things are happy in Cleveland. Thank you to the Cavas for letting me use this room very late. Thank you to Jackson, our producer.

Thank you for watching. And listening to the Hoop Collective. We'll talk to you later this week. Adios amigos.