Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Brunson Magic, Big Game 7, Ant Has Arrived + Lakers’ Future

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim MacMahon and Kevin Pelton to talk the Knicks eliminating the Pistons on the back of some amazing clutch play from Jalen Brunson, if New York has any chance against Boston, the Clippers forcing a Game 7 against the Nuggets, the Wolves downing the Lakers, what Los Angeles can do this offseason to build around Luka and talk if the Warriors should be concerned about going the distance with the Rockets. Plus, it is time for the Cojones Factor Player of the Month. 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, welcome to the Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we're doing early on Friday morning here, although not where Kevin Pelton is.

He's in Seattle, The Machine. What's up, sir? The night is still young out here on the Pacific Times Zone. I know you get crazy late on Thursday night. Joining us from Dallas, Texas. He hasn't covered a game in weeks. It's Ban McMahon. Howdy, partners?

It's not been quite weeks, but I'm going to get a good solid week plus here at home. and I'm enjoying every bit, enjoying sitting on the couch and watch some damn good series. This happens every year. The teams that are most dominant get forgot about because there's these teams sort of middle of the pack that are absolutely throwing haymakers at each other.

It's like, oh, I forgot Oklahoma City. Like this happened last year. Boston, like, you know, sailed through the first two rounds. It was like they weren't even in the playoffs. Boston sailed through the first four rounds last year. That's true. They're 20 and four in the playoffs, the last two years. All right.

So we had a couple of games on Thursday night that went down to the final minute. And we're going to start with the misery for the Pistons in Detroit. There's similarities, but so many similarities between the game that the Pistons lost in Detroit and the game that the Bucks lost in Indianapolis two days ago. because in both situations, they had three possession leads. Now, the lead that the bucks blew was in overtime in the final minute.

But in this one, the Pistons are at home in a vital game, and they're up seven points with two and a half minutes left. This game was absolutely a wrestling match. It was brutal to watch. And I'm going to tell you, like, I'm watching this game,

and I'm like, I just don't know what the Knicks are doing. It's just Jalen Brunson dribbling around and trying to find a crack against the Tsar Thompson. And I'm like, this is no way to play basketball. I'm saying like, I don't know who's going to win this game, but this is no way to play basketball. And then Jalen Brunson comes up with some stuff

at the end of this game. McMahon, it's not, the play that he makes to win the game. I'm speechless because I don't even know what to say. He sticks his foot in the ground like he's Gail Sayers. You know, Walter Payton, you know, Herschel Walker. You know, you're from Texas. Who else should I be talking about?

He's an Eagles fan, so we'll say Sequin Barclay. All right, Saqin Barclay. And then, one more timely. Assar Thompson. Rem, you know that famous clip of you, Wendy, where you're like flying by on the TV screen. I think it's wrong with like Ramon and somebody else. That was like Assar Thompson just. flying out of the screen when Brunson planted with that left foot, crosses back over.

And, I mean, like, there's a replay that, you know, it's a fairly wide angle there. But Assar Thompson was completely out of the screen. That's how much space. And he'd been playing so well, defending so well. Here's an ESPN research number for you. Brunson in the fourth quarter when defending by Assar Thompson, was one of six. Oh my God.

And that one, unbelievable crossover, created the space. Thompson still got somewhat of a contest on it, but knocked down the, not just game winning. I don't even think crossover is, we got to come up with another description of that.

It was an epic move. Oh, my God. And I was with you, I was watching that. First of all, J.B. Bickerstaff sub, Thompson out for a little bit there with four-ish minutes left and I was like

ooh I don't know about that like Shruder can't stop Brunson but Brunson can do anything with Thompson then he brought him back in down the stretch but I'll like as they're coming out there I'm like dude you got cats fouled out do you got to find like do you got to run something

for somebody else can you just give Brunson the ball here Thompson's been swalling up all game and you know Brunson afterwards just was raving with respect for a Sarr Thompson, but for, look, Brunson, I mean, what a series for him. What a performance. Not the most efficient in the world, but to have a 40-pointer, where they walk off? Come on now.

I mean, he had 40 points on 33 shots. It was tough to watch. There are some possessions where you're just like, you know, you've got Carl Towns on the team. You've got O.G. and Inobie. Mikhail Bridges had really two good offensive games down the stretch. He missed a clutch shot at the end of. of game five that, you know, was painful. But Mikhail Bridges did come to play.

But there was just, it was just Brunson's straight isoing. And he made a couple of amazing maneuvers to get baskets. The Pistons quit scoring. And there was just some absolute hand-to-hand combat on some, some plays at the rim. And while Cade Cunningham had a great series, Cade, you know, in the one game in New York, or was it the, no, it was game four

where, you know, he had two good looks in the last minute, couldn't get it done. And in this game, he was great, I'm not taking anything away from him, but, you know, he wasn't able to get the piss in some baskets when they needed some sort of offense, some sort of points. He wasn't able to get. Actually, Jalen Duren was their leading score in the fourth quarter of this game, which I would not have expected. But let me just say as a quick,

aside, it's been an incredible few days for the Thompson twins. Yes. Assar Thompson playing in his first ever elimination game, scores 22 points, plays great defense in the garden. Then the next night, which is our last night here, Wednesday night, Amin Thompson in his first closeout game, 25 points, five steals and three blocks in the demolition. King Steph Curry at half court.

Come on. And then Asar was great defensively in this game. And that's 17 points. Right. Yeah. You know, he didn't score. He couldn't make a shot and didn't score, but games five and six. God, what talents these two guys are?

I mean, they're going to see each other on the court someday in a high leverage game. I'm going to tell you, I, maybe it's with Houston and Detroit. Maybe it's somewhere else. But these two dudes are going to go against each other. My God, maybe they end up on the same team. Holy Moses. Oh, oh, my God. All right.

So I just want to say, last possession, they ISO, last position for New York, they ISO, Jalen Brunson, which was not a surprise. McHale Bridges runs past like he's going to set a screen. He just runs past. Brunson comes left. And I assume, sorry, I haven't seen his comments after the game

because I immediately started watching the Clippers game. I assume he's just favoring that Jalen's going to go left. Jalen has the heavy left hand. He's going left. He doesn't want to get beat because if Brunson gets the corner turned, he gets you on his hip, there's all kinds of problems. And he's just favoring that left hand, and Brunson just sticks that left foot in the ground.

I don't know if he could have done it on his right foot, McMahon, because his right ankle, he sprained it like he keeps respraining it. But his left ankle was strong. Well, you're also not going to get somebody to sit that heavy on his right hand. Right. And the amount of space he creates is crazy, steps into a three, who holds up his signature, you know, three with the thumb and the two fingers. And then did you see him in the post game? He had like a sweatshirt, like a branded sweatshirt, and he made sure he put the hood up on it because right on the top of the hood was the three fingers.

I mean, I don't know who did the branding. I mean, I don't bought. It was actually on the hat. I was on the hat. I thought it was on a sweatshirt. Well, I don't, I don't know. I'm just going to say, whoever did that. Kudos.

I don't like branded stuff. I would never buy branded stuff, but I was like, wow, that's cool. If I was, if I was a Jalen Brunson fan, I would want that tomorrow, so bad, that three. I do not walk away from the stink and the Knicks are going to be pressing the Celtics. But give Jalen Brunson's moment, Pelton. Incredible finish to this series, incredible fourth quarters. great stuff. So McMahon mentioned 40 points in the walk-off shot and ESPN research with the list of this all time in NBA history. Two guys did it in 2019 alone. Damian Lillard in Portland against Oklahoma

City. I was in the building for that one. Slightly memorable. And then Kauai Leonard against Toronto in round or against Philadelphia, I should say, with Toronto in round. Slightly memorable. And then the third one before this was Michael. Jordan in 1998 in Salt Lake City in the annual finals. Brian, Assar kind of went sliding like Russell,

Byron Russell. Joe did not give him. But there was no contact. It won't be a Wi-Fi password in Little Sears Arena in 25 or 30 years like it is in the Delta Center. It might still be. Admittedly didn't make it to the Delta Center this year in Utah.

You know, you'll be back there at some point. But yeah, I mean, those are three of the most iconic shots. in NBA history, the Jordan game winner in his last game in Chicago uniform up there with the greatest shots, period, in NBA history. So for Brunson to join that group, pretty incredible. And it's a combination of a testament to how close this series was, which ESPN Research had a great note about this too.

It was the second series in NBA history to feature four straight games decided by three or fewer points. The only other time it had happened before the 1981 Eastern Conference final. Philadelphia and Boston. So a lot of clutch time and a lot of Jalen Brunson in clutch time for the Knicks. He scored 27 points

in the NBA advanced stats clutch definition during the first round. Carl Anthony Towns was second at 16. Nobody else had more than 15. So he nearly doubled. Nobody else had the ball.

Nobody else had the ball. No, but I feel like there's an inside track on the Conice Factor Player of the Month. I don't want to steal the commands. Anyway, wait. It's the first. of May, it's all I'm going to say. Oh my gosh.

What a, what an opening salvo in the May Cajonais factor. Are we doing Cajonais tonight? Are you ready? I've got a ready to roll. Yeah. We get to it in a little bit. Listen, like, awesome series by Brunson in particular. The Knicks survive.

We can't just skip over the pistons, though. Yeah. This team won 14 games last year. And I'm sure Pistons fans walked out of their pissed off, but they also had to be fired up because, listen, Cade, like there's some efficiency things, turnovers. He's a superstar, right? And he's got pieces around him. Saar Thompson's a guy you can be excited about. He's going to be a really good player for a long time, whether he ever gets a jump shot or not.

Dude, Jalen Dern is a player. He is a big time, big man. And he's not like he's cut out of freaking granite. He's a hell of an athlete, but he's got feel. Like this guy, he's not just your pick and roll lobbed Brett. Like you can throw it to him in the short roll. He's a great passer for that type of guy. He's tough.

He's athletic as hell. You know, obviously, J.N. Ivy didn't get to play in this series. You know, missed most of the season with that injury. Before he went down this year, he gave you a reason to think, okay, hey, you know what? that's a dude like the pissing yeah he had really he'd really regain momentum before he's injury the pistons have some really nice young pieces um you know some of the vets they brought in uh we'll see like malik bezley wants to be back you know tim hardaway also for asian i would think he would want to be back we'll see how that works out yeah they've got cap flexibility too we'll see what

they do with it it was a bummer of a way to end it for beasley well that's what i wanted to say that was another reason why it was comparable to the to the to the Milwaukee game because Gary Trent, the ball goes, you know, in that case, they were they didn't, they were protecting the league. Gary Trent just had to hold on to the ball. In this case,

Malik Beasley is going to have a shot. He was second in the league in three pointers this season. He was going to have a clean shot to send the game to overtime and then he just, he fumbles it away. He had six of them. He had six of them. I know. He had not... All the first half, the last one at the halftime buzzer. He had

not been having a good, you know, for a guy who was elite three shooting the three he had a good game one and then um he was two of he was six of thirteen tonight but he was two of seven in game five three of nine in game four two of ten one of eight he he he wasn't he didn't really leave his mark on the series but this was his moment and you know to be honest with you i i think he would have hit it i think if he gets it off he hits it that's the that's the guy you want shooting the ball through the pistons yeah yeah by and you know brunson even thompson on him that's the guy the nix want to have with the ball in his hands And I think we've got to give credit to Jamie Bickerstaff from whoever he drew up that play in the huddle.

Like you were going to get a wide open shot for the guy you wanted. And a bummer that they didn't get to see it come to fruition. Yeah. And Bickerstaff, he's getting, you know, like there's some scrutiny on the decision to sub a Saur out for whatever it was. It's like two minutes late in the fourth quarter there. I get it. I think it was a questionable move. But, dude, what is?

Well, Brunson went down in the inside. had that basket under the basket where I think where Thompson was out of the game then. Yeah, he got two or three buckets there against Dennis Schrooter. But again, J.B. Bickerstaff had a hell of the first year in Detroit, taking them from 14 wins to 43 in the regular season, a couple more. And like, you know, they gave the Knicks a hell of a fight in this series. I'm just looking at how many minutes Thompson played in the second half because, I mean, I assume he did that because he thought he was tired. Yeah, he'd come back relatively early in the fourth quarter and I think it was probably, you know, a matter of kind of the energy he expended because he was every aware on that court before he subbed out. It's sort of the, you know, the alternative path we can't see as would he have worn down trying to defend Jalen Brunson in the last two minutes had he, you know, gone that entire stretch, tough to say.

Yeah, he played 14 minutes in the second half. I would say this. I don't care if a Sarr Thompson needs to take freaking, needs to play with an oxygen mask. I'd rather have him guard Jalen Brunson than Dennis Schrooter, who Jackson makes a rare contribution here. Oh my gosh. I'm necessary. I'm praising him. Brunson scored 15 points on six of seven shooting with Dennis Schroeder as primary defender.

Schroeder was a very nice pickup for the Pistons, a nice mid-season pick up. up for the Pistons. It'll be interesting to see what happens with him this summer. And, you know, he is a guy who's hit a lot of big shots in his career, not just in the NBA, but, you know, obviously for the German national team. World Cup, reigning World Cup MVP. There you go. I would have. And, you know what? Asar Thompson was Gordon Brunson on the, on when the series came down to it and Brunson juked him out of the screens. Holy Moses. I'm not going to, I'm not going to question JV too much, I guess.

all right well there's a bunch of stuff they're not they're not the Celtics aren't playing the nicks until monday that's the series i'm going to be doing um so are you excited um sure yeah i mean new york Boston why not

why not you should have asked him as excited because bond temps we'll be covering in the series yeah i bet you bond him so weas was way in the garden at times there is he shows up at the garden, I'm going to kick his ass. By the way, since we brought him up, congratulations to the Bontemps family.

A bundle of joy, a baby boy, was born on Wednesday night. Literally, right, he said right as the Lakers were being eliminated. Best moment of his life, times two.

Bontem's Jr., right? Well, I shouldn't say Bontem's Jr. He's not, I'm not authorized to give the name, but it's not Tim. Anyway, Kelly K. Bonn is doing well. So yeah, he's probably going to be looking for a reason to come to the arena soon. But little Bon Temps, the only world he knows is the Lakers is losers and the Knicks is winners. And he watched his first game with his dad on Thursday night.

And he was watching MSG in New York City. And he got to hear Mike Breen with the bang, bang, the double bang. Oh, boom, bang, baby. It's all he knows is, you know, Jalen Brunson greatness. So anyway, yeah, I'll be doing that series. And we'll see. I think the Knicks, you know, who they didn't, they don't exactly leave me confident that they're going to reverse the trend of them,

of them against top teams this year. But Jalen Brunson is, you know, I think if you're the Knicks, you just get the game to the fourth quarter and try to let Jayland do something for you. Seriously. I mean, that's your goal. Of course, the Selt. have a few dudes they can throw at him. Yeah, so we'll see.

You know, obviously Drew Holiday would be one of them. And Holiday missed three games in the first round with the hamstring. So, you know, it was an option for them to start the series on Saturday. They could have started the series on Saturday. But for sequencing for later in the playoffs, they are starting at Monday. I thought they asked you about that. And you said you wanted to the weekend and all. Well, I wanted to play golf on Sunday morning.

morning. And so we're going to get, we're going to get 18 in before we head out to these coast. So I'll just, then I'll, then I'll seal the clubs for six weeks because that, that'll be that. But anyway, um, more hoop collective podcast after this. Okay, so let's go out to the West Coast. Um, Clippers were, oh, all right, we'll do that later. Okay. It's out to the West Coast. Clipper, this, this thing had seven games written all over it. Had to be. I will say that the game was kind of, you know, comparable to the Knicks game because at the end of the Knicks game,

you know, the Knicks had like a 15 point lead and they let Detroit overtake them. The Clippers were leading through most of the second half of this game. And then all of a sudden, midway through the fourth quarter, James Harden, who had played a very good game, just started dribbling the heck out of the ball and just handing it away.

I mean, he, you know, he had a bad game five. and didn't talk to the media and came back and had a great start and it was like, you know, playing, you know, was going to be the hero. And I don't, I don't know what was happening,

but he just sort of went to mush late in the game. And the nuggets kept getting the ball and getting free breakouts. And they kept missing open lips. He does. He was probably tired. He played 47 minutes. Well, that's true.

I'll give him that. Maybe, maybe that's what, that was it. But the, the, the clippers held them off. Tremendous performance by a Witsa Zubats down the stretch defensively. He got a couple of stops on Yokic. I don't think there's a head-to-head defender. I don't think there's, I think he's the best that you could have against Yokch in the league.

Well, it's interesting because, I mean, for Lord Stretched of this series, the Clippers have sort of opted to go with other players on Yokich, including James Harden at times in game five to, you know, keep Zubots in that help role that he was so good in the regular season. Yeah. Well, they had success in game five by switching and then doubling. But when it mattered in game six, when their season was on the line, they left Zubats out there to save him. And he was able to get some stops on Yoko.

Well, and when Joker has 25 points and eight assists, that's a bad game by his standards, you know, which is how good he is. Bud Zubots is the primary defender, quoting a Ramona tweet here. Five of 14, including one of eight in the second half, and a couple of huge stops after it got tight late there. Also, Nick, against everybody else. Also, Nick, yeah, that's a great point.

So, also Nick Batum, who, you know, at one point, like 18 months ago announced that last year was his last year. He was like, I'm finishing. I'm playing my last NBA season. I'm playing the Olympics and I'm riding off into the sunset. The Paris Olympics. I believe it was his wife that said that. I don't know that Nick ever said it, did he?

That's funny. I mean, maybe she said it first, but I'm pretty sure I read that he said that was it. I don't know. I just know that he got traded last year. And then the Clippers were like, listen, come on, come to L.A. And he was tremendous in this game.

Well, I'll say this. If it was a wife's decision, decision. Philly to L.A. is like, you know, okay. All right, maybe one more year. I could see that, but no. And one of the big, I'd say, Tiley's biggest adjustment in this game was he pulled Chris Dunn at half time. I don't know. Did Chris Dunn play at all in the second half? Oh, look. But he started Batum in the second half instead of Chris Dunn. And like, if you look at Batum's stats, it's like they don't jump off the page you know six points uh but he did have he had six assists he had five rebounds he had a couple of steals he's just that you definitely had a couple of blocks

yeah he had uh had first done did not play in the second he had three blocks including one big one there down the stretch and you know he just like when he's on a good team he just he's a connector. You know, he's kind of that, you know, I don't know how to say glue guy in French, but however you say that. You don't. You don't, you don't, you don't, you don't know how to say glue guy in French. How, how, how, how, how, how down dare you? Yeah, you know, I don't even know how to say beer in French now, I think about it. Um, but he just makes a ton of winning plays. And it's funny because the guy was a terrible contract for Charlotte a while ago. And he's been a really good, a really good player, you know, ever since then, just, you know, he's just like, I don't know,

I don't even know what his salary is this year. Is he a minimum guy? I think he was the biannual exception. Oh, the biannual. He's a hell of a bargain on that. But whether it's for France or like, you know, the clippers over the years, he just has a way of doing all the little things that help win games. And that was definitely the case tonight. Oh, Bierre.

I should have known that. Thanks, Jackson. Anyway, I think just you say beer in Paris, you'll get what you need. So the Clippers are the Nuggets role players once again played well. Westbrook had an effective game. He did have his Westbrook moments where he botched layups and stuff, but he had a double-double, you know, played, you know, increase the tempo. Christian Brown with another good game. Aaron Gordon had a good game.

Really, the only thing here is that, you know, Jamal Murray was not red hot and Yokic did not have a, you know, a Hall of Fame performance. He had a good but not great game. Yeah, and Murray wasn't bad. Murray had 21 and 8. Right, but he didn't have 40. Yeah, 21 on 9 and 19 you'll take. You know who did get red hot. Norman Powell?

Norman Powell got really hot. Friend of the pod. And he hit a, he had a huge third quarter. And then he made an absolutely vital three-pointer late in the fourth quarter. quarter as well. When they were on fumes, yeah. I mean, the guy for Denver who did not play well as the role player was Michael Porter Jr., who's obviously dealing with this shoulder injury, and, you know, there was an update during the skye about how difficult it is for, I think it was Lauren Jabara on the sidelines for TNT. I mentioned it's hard for him to even lift his shoulder

to 90 degrees, let alone, you know, to shoot a shot. Five points, two of five shooting in 24 minutes, and the Nuggets were out scored by 24 with him on the court. Now, that's partially because he is typically out there, you know, when Yokic is resting or when Murray is resting, not when both of those guys are on the court. Having said that, having said that, uh, Pelton, he was plus 34. Right. Yeah. In game five. So, um, that's obviously a swing. Again, with plus minus, it's never solely on the player, but it's not perfect, but he had a, you know, he had a rough go at it, uh, tonight. And, you know, the clippers got a lot of dudes contributed. And, and dude, you know, Kauai had another Hall of Fame caliber performance.

So Kauai came into this game in this series, averaging 25 points on 56% shooting. And all he did in this one was score 26, I think. 27 on 11 of 22. So the shooting 10 rebounds, yeah, 10 rebounds and five assists. Yeah, he's bringing it every night again, 40 minutes. He was plus 14.

He was the best player in the game, plus minus wise. So the nuggets, on one hand, the nuggets I feel like have definitely played better the last couple of games. Like I would feel pretty good if I was a Denver fan going into game seven. On the other hand, you also feel like the Clippers have given away or let two games in this series they could have one go. So Pelton, what were you saying about this is Denver's seventh game seven in the last six years or something like that? Sixth since 2019 per ESPN research. So the most of any team in that span, they played two of them in that 2019 run, one at home against San Antonio, lost at home against Portland, then played two of them, of course, in the bubble, both of those three one comebacks that they completed. And then last year against Minnesota.

They've lost twice at home in game sevens during the Yokachira, which is, you know, interesting given the home court advantage you, you know, did we always see in game seven? And then Denver on top. You don't always see it anymore. So I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I would just say anecdotally, Game 7 home court has, it's been way closer to even over the last decade than it was for the previous 60 years. I think the Nuggets, I think they just need to remind the opponents a little bit more often of the altitude there. I'm not, they're really kind of got to keep that a secret and see if we'll sneak up on. Yeah, please put down your standard Denver Nuggets court with the, with the, the axe and the pick or whatever it is.

Like, like, don't stop messing around with that altitude stuff. you know, if you're going to have a classic game, put your classic court down there. I'm going to be nice to the Nuggets, though. One, I got to cover, you know, whoever wins this one I'll be covering in the next round against OKC. So I'm going to be nice to both of them. Two, I'm still trying to get back on the good side of Rocky the mascot. Uh-oh. Outline.

There's only, he's only got three fingers, but he showed me the one in the middle. Uh-oh. A couple of years back, you know, so I'm still trying to get back in his good grace. because all I did was try to encourage him after he had a poor shooting session backwards from half court on that big old ladder in his pregame. And I said, hey, man, you got to do better than that. The guy flipped me off. And then lo and behold, I've motivated him, though,

because that night, first time out, whatever it was, whatever time out he came out at, man, he banked in the first look. So I hope we're going to get. Well, I think he ain't tall enough for a ref a game. I'll tell you that right now. I don't want to pull the curtain back too far. I think we have a new Rocky. Oh, good.

Okay. The original Rocky was legendary in NBA mascot circles, but I think there is a new, you know, a new expression of Rocky. So this, that Rocky, you know, being can't. It's still three fingers, you know, but that other Rocky was a legend. And maybe he was can'tankerous near the end of his career. Oh, I can. I can confirm the can tanker. Anyway, that'll be a good one.

Yeah, considering they lost game seven at home last year, I would assume that the Nuggets are trying to reverse that. And the team that was happiest. They're trying to win game seven as well. The team that is happiest tonight is the thunder. They just put their feet up a little higher. We'll see you next week. More Hoop Collective Podcast.

after this. All right. I think contractually we're supposed to talk about the Lakers, although it was the Timberwolves who won the series.

Oh, they did? As Ant made it very, very clear after the game. I got to say, it'll never be remembered like this, but Rudy Gobert,

talk your French talk, because how many times in the last 11 months has Rudy Gobert had to see Lucas? hit that three over him in game was a game five i think it was game five that three was game two game five there wasn't no need for a game winner because that's right up in the get-go that's right

and in lucca you can't guard me yeah talking all that slow vene and i asked for you know messaged rudy last night said hey did you tell him you can't f and guard me and effer he said no need to talk oh but you know what though the funny thing is there's always been so much talk about Rudy gets played out the floor on the playoffs. Rudy gets played out. And it's factually inaccurate. Now, there's been playoff series where it didn't go well for him, but, you know, people always want to point to like that Clippers playoff series. He didn't get played off the floor. The Jazz got beat four straight games. The defense fell apart because he couldn't plug all the holes. The defense was bad with him out there and just historically atrocious

without him. But the problem with Rudy when teams went small was he was his defensive dominance was mitigated, if you can pull him away from the rim, obviously, and he wasn't able to punish it on the offensive end. Last night, he punished the hell out of it by grabbing every rebound. He had eight offensive rebounds and eight dunks. First due to do that in a in a playoff game, I believe our folks said since Amory Stademeyer. Yeah, he had the most dunks in a game since Shaq in a playoff game since Shaq in 2002. Yeah. And, you know, it wasn't even punishing switches. It was just he was absolutely feasting on the glass, you know, 27 points, 24 rebounds and obviously a major factor defensively. And the funny thing is, Pelton, agree or disagree with this. I think up until that point, it had probably been his worst playoff series. Offensively, certainly. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think. defensively, I think he had done very well defensively.

They shot 29% against him as the primary defender. So that was, of course, the guy shooting against him were all 6 to 8 inches shorter than him. So that was a factor. But they always are. I mean, it's the same guy who made that shot we were just talking about. In this year's series, Minnesota was completely comfortable switching Gobert on him. And he's not going to win every single one of those matchups. But he never had to guard the center basically at all.

I mean, he was, you know. No, no. Don't have any. But, you know, they were completely comfortable switching him and leaving him in an island against Luca Donchich and LeBron James. And that, you know, helped the Timberwolves keep the Lakers role players in check throughout this series. But, yeah, offensively, it had not been his best series. And we had seen Nas Reid, you know, finish at times because of that. And you're absolutely right. I mean, you know, the way to attack a mismatch with Rudy Gober against a five-out team that's not playing anyone taller than 6-7 or 6-8 or, you know, whatever the, the, you know, the way to attack a mismatch with Rudy Gober against a five-out team that's not playing anyone taller than 6- I guess LeBron is 6-8. So 6-8, you know, is not to throw him the ball in the post and let him go one-on-one. It's the offensive glasses you're talking about. And then get the ball moving.

The other part of this game was the way that Anthony Edwards in the first half attacked the Lakers double teams and got the Lakers in rotation and set up wide open threes that they kept missing, but also some opportunities. Well, yeah, I mean, all in all, it was a C performance from the Timberwolves. One guy was A-plus. But you know what, though? The ball was moving. Julius Randall was a pretty high grade too.

Julius Randall was, yeah. Well, look, they missed 40. Had an A series. He was great. For sure. It was the best playoff showing of his career. And it couldn't, it came at a perfect time. And look, I mean, they missed 43 pointers. At one point, they missed 18 in a row.

But when you got Rudy getting, you know, 25, 20% of them. Yeah. You know, it makes your offense a little bit more feasible that Still, it was a game in the last minute. Yeah, and Mike Connolly hit a three when they really needed it, and Aunt set it up. Yeah, they, well, I'll say this about Ant. Like, he talks trash, and he plays with swagger, and he dunks on dudes, and he hunts that. But he plays the right way.

He plays at both ends of the court, and he plays the right way. He plays the right spirit. He has made major progress very recently in. playing the right way offensively. Right, but I understand, but the, his, he has a pure heart. Yes. About it, you know, that's, Eric Spolstowitz say that. We played with purity, you know, as he used to say that.

He hasn't said that recently about the heat, but he, at one time, he said that he played with pure something. It didn't say that at before. No. Spote tried to put a good, he tried to put a good face on that. I told you, boys, the paragraph in a paint next year in that heat culture is, can be an apology for that game for Abomination.

Man, we're not talking about the heat right now, but we are talking about purity because, as Jared Allen would say, Amt played ethical basketball in that game. I think he was 5 and 19, but he was very happy to get the win. Oval 11, my God.

Yeah. He had 17 free throws in game five, or game four. And, you know, he was attacking the room, that was big and he had 43 that night. But he let Rudy be the star. All right. Jackson is going to get a memo if we don't bring up the Lakers.

Oh, we got some stuff to talk about. Here's the thing. There was a way that the Lakers could have gone on a run in this postseason. There's a style of play that they showed they could be very successful at, which is when at least two of their three stars are hitting their show,

and defensively they play with high energy where they can run around and cover a lot of ground. And just neither of those things happened. Luca was sick for game three and he heard his back in game five. I don't know how much it affected him because at times he looked fine and on defense he was more of a statue than normal. The ball has healing powers. Yeah.

I would just say that obviously, and J.J. Reddick said it in the exit interview. It was like, we were the inferior team, or I guess that's not exactly we said. You got beaten five. Well, I know. I know. Like, listen, ESPN had a clean sweep until Bonham's got his pick in late.

Thank goodness the Lakers to win. But dude, like, they got smoked in five. There's no way to like pick through this and say, well, if this, that, no, you got beaten five. It was a gentleman's sweep. Yeah. So what I would say about the Lakers is

where they're at right now, McMahon, see if you agree with me. It's comparable, not the same, but it's comparable to where the Mavericks were two years ago. Mavericks trade for Kyrie. Yeah.

There's a bit of a roster debit because of what they traded for Kyrie. They tanked down the stretch, get fined. How much they get fined for that? I think it was $7.50, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I knew it was a big number. It was high six figures.

They get fine for tanking, but they end up with Derek lively. They move up in the draft to get lively. Or do they move back? They moved up or back? They moved back a couple spots, but that was the top 10 protected lottery pick. They kept it at 10, made a deal where OKC moved up two spots to get Case and Wallace, which they're still pretty damn happy with that. And they moved back to 12 and got Derek lively second.

Okay, so the key was they needed rim protection and a lob threat. and they drafted Derek lively, who was classic case of that and a young, springy, high athleticism. They signed Derek Jones Jr. How much they give him? Minimum. So he gets a minimum.

It's like an August something signing. Right. Athlete wing. Yeah. Then midway through, then as the season goes along, they get Daniel Gafford. I'm trying to trade for Kyle Cusba, but they end up with Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington.

So they get basically, you know, there was, you know, other things going on. But by the end of the day, you hit the main things. They surrounded Luke and Kyrie. There was a little bit of like my turn, your turn, don't want to step on toes. That really showed up in crunch time. But the scoring was not the problem. They stunk defensively.

And they surrounded those guys with long, big time athletes. Right. And none of those guys are stars. Okay. So the Lakers don't have their pick this year. It goes to the Atlanta Hawks, so they're not going to be able to get something in the draft. But they have the first round pick from 20, 31 or 32, which they traded for Mark Williams and then pulled back. They have four different swaps.

I would be surprised if they traded all of them, but they have four swaps they can trade, one of which, again, they had sent for Mark Williams and pulled it back. So they're holding four. I don't know what Dalton Connect's value is. He had value because they traded him for Mark Williams. but okay, Dalton Connect. They have a fair amount of expiring contracts, you know, from, you know, Ruehachamura,

who they probably don't want trade, but, you know, they have Maxi-Cleba. The right trade, you'd have to consider that. Who I would just say, playing Maxi-Kleba, I'm given the broadcast, the, you know, the benefit of the doubt that they're correct, but the broadcast, TNT broadcast said that Kleba

hadn't even practiced with the Lakers. Well, when do they practice? Well, it's a little bit Disjudgeant. It sounds, I mean, he obviously practiced. He just didn't have like, you know, they didn't, you know, they didn't have a full contact practice where he could practice. I heard you ripping JJ for that.

And I do think JJ had a, you know, he was a rookie head coach who got out coached in the series by a damn good coach and Chris Finch. I understood what he was trying to do with Maxie. It's a really tough situation to put the guy in. Okay. But Maxie has had big time playoff moments and he's had big time playoff moments and he's had big time playoff moments.

I feel like McMenneman's back here with this. McMahon. He didn't sub. He didn't sub in one game. And then the next game, he played a guy who had never played before. I just said I understood what he was trying to do with Maxie. The not subbing thing was ridiculous.

The way he handled. No, but he's playing Maxie with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Highly questionable. And again, I thought he had a rookie series. He's got to be better than that. But Austin Reeves stunk. Luke has got to be a lot better.

I always remember this story that Brad Stevens told. I probably told it on the podcast before, but Brad Stevens is like the classic case of the guy who came in from college, you know, first time NBA coach. He obviously had more experience than JJ, but. Yeah. And like people said right away, he was like great. You know, people loved what he did right away.

And he tells a story about how in his first year, as coach of the Celtics, end of a close game, he calls time out, draws up one of his brilliant plays in the huddle for a baseline out of bounds play, you know, some beautiful thing that he had developed for years and probably drilled and it was going to be great. And the ball goes out for the last shot and the inbound is on the side. And he botched where the inbounds was and they were completely ill-prepared. The play was botched and they lost.

The thing was, as he said, the Celtics were tanking. Well, they weren't tanking, but, you know, they were tanking, but, you know, he probably didn't say those words. But his first year, the Celtics were tanking. So when he made his mistakes. There wasn't a lot of pressure on him. Right. When he made his mistakes, he made his mistakes in a situation where there wasn't high leverage. Right.

This was not the case for JJ Reddick. J.J. Reddick is a first time coach, first time NBA coach. He had brilliant moments. He had tough moments. My thing about him in this particular game is he was seething. and he was seething before the game started. I don't care about the question. You can say the question was a gotcha question or whatever.

Whatever. I don't care what the question is. You could tell the demeanor that he had going into the game. Reggie Miller, with a pretty remarkable anecdote during the game, when he said that he had to try to calm JJ down before the game in their pregame meeting because he was still so focused on games three and four. And look, I don't know what he said to him in the locker room, but I know that the Lakers didn't come out looking like they were ready to play.

So whatever, JJ is going to have a long career. I do think that he didn't have the best series. But look, there's a lot of blame to pass around to the Lakers, and we've given the appropriate credit to the Wool's. Simple fact is, you know, this Lakers roster is not good enough. They kind of suckered some of us with two months of really good defense. That was smoke mirrors. Well, they could have played that way.

Like there was a window for them to play that way, but they didn't. I think part of it was the challenge of when they only had five guys they trusted, which clearly they did. JJ Reddick could not possibly have told us any more clearly that there were only five guys that they trusted in this matchup. Like asking them to play with the level of energy and freneticism that they used defensively during that run the last two months of the season just wasn't realistic. And yeah, I mean, I think to what McMahon was starting to say there, like,

Look, when they made this trade, it was not about the 2025 playoffs. It was about getting Luca Donchich there, you know, hopefully for the next 10 years. Exactly. And eventually retooling the roster around. And that's going to take some time. And I'm saying Dallas built around him and had a championship contender. I wonder how many possessions of zone is Maxis Keebo played in his career. That's what I want to know.

Oh, because, I mean, he played for Rick Carlisle. Carlislew would mix in a lot of zone. J. Kid and Sweeney mixing zone. All right, fine. That's okay. Maxi's been around the block. Now, he probably couldn't run around the block

without losing his wins since he had a broken foot in surgery. But you got to, you get, and they know this. They, what do they do immediately, they target a rim running,

rim protecting. You've got to get that guy. And look, Luca's going to get flame broiled because of the conditioning, which I've done, I've puffed and puffed and written about that

his entire career. It's completely appropriate criticism. It's completely legitimate. And if he doesn't have that kind of focus and discipline this summer, he never will. The way he got slapped in the face with the trade. But you've said this before. Okay. So that's one thing.

The defensive effort, you know, look, the illness, the back, the condition, there was a lot. If Luke is in shape and at his best, you still have to protect him defensively. You've got the number one thing you need for him to max. And you have to protect Austin? Reeves too. You have to protect him bud. To maximize his brilliance on offense is give him that guy to run, pick and roll and to be able to throw those lobs to and just have that threat. And then the guy to have his back defensively. And those guys don't grow on trees. And by the way, Mark Williams can smiley face all he wants. It ain't like he's helping Charlotte winning

the games or he's even available that often. You're making a reference to the fact that he put on, I think was IG, put a, it's just a smiley face after a Belakers loss. Maybe IG too. Peltin, put your Rob Polinka leather jacket on and push up those sleeves and look real cool for us. And if you are in his seat, who are you targeting this summer? Who are you trying to get? Yeah, I was just going through the cap sheet trying to do it. I mean, you know, you know, if you're looking lower cost, maybe Robert Williams from Portland, you know, they have an overloaded center. They like Robert Williams in the locker rooms. They haven't been in a hurry to move him. But that would be somebody would fit into their salary structure, I think pretty easily for one of those expiring contracts that we talked about. And, you know, maybe a minimum guy, that sort of thing. You know, that would be a potential option. At the other end, Nick Claxton, you know, is on a rebuilding team and fits a lot of what you want. I don't. I mean, you know, Ideally, in that sort of, you know, five men next to Luca, the problem is the number is the salary is still so big because he's got a descending contract.

He's at 25.3 million next year. That's much more difficult for them to fit in. That's they've got to trade three guys probably. What do you think of a Clint Capella? Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. I think a Clint Capella type might be more useful than Clint Capella at this stage of his career because the athleticism that made him so good in that role with James Hardin just isn't there anymore. still awesome on the offensive glass and a real presence there.

Could it be your backup. Yeah, I would say that he would have to get in championship shape as well. I would say this. As far as Mark Williams, yeah, I agree that he's not powering the horns to wins. That said, he played 21 games after he came back from the trade. He averaged 15 and 10 and shot 62%. Well, they were like... Better off in this series with him, that's for sure.

Right. Well, you know. Let me throw one at you. This is pure hypothetical. This is just me kind of being amateur GM, trying to figure out things that might make sense. The Mavericks kind of quietly sniffed around about the value of Daniel Gaffer before this last deadline.

It certainly would make sense for them to do that again this summer. Derek Clive is a year away from getting an extension. Daniel Gafford's entering the final year of his contract. Gafford reasonably and rightfully is going to want to get paid starting center money. You can't have AD out of MAPS. Max, lively on a big contract and pay Gafford starting center money. Luca's obviously got chemistry with Gafford. I don't know if Nico wants to go back to Ascension Coffee and have another chit

chat with Rob Polinka so soon or do something that would benefit. I think Ascension Coffee has to rebrand. I wonder if their business has suffered. No, because it's like a tourist destination. Do. Okay. It's a tourist destination where Luca got trained? If people want to go see where it's a tourist destination, if people want to go see where

JFK got shot, they definitely want to see where Luca got treated. Oh my God. I'm just saying. Oh, yeah. All right. Um, where were you? But, hey, you know, I, I could, I could put something together that would at least, I think, be intriguing for the Mavericks, you know, Rui and, uh, you know, all those picks that they, you know, the pick that they've got to, uh, to give up a, a swap or two. you know, I could put something together that might make sense for both sides. What are you doing over there? I'm just still laughing at you compare,

I mean, you know, putting the JFK assassination in the same as... No, this final unplanned chapter that didn't make the early copies of the Wonderboy, Luca Dantzsche, and the curse of greatness, still available everywhere. Now this final chapter is available in the e-book

and in the audiobooks. Anyways, the final scene is the protest when, you know, before AD's a home debut right after the Luca trade and all that for the first home game. And at one point, they're like passed around the bullhorn for everybody to get their piece in. And this kid, I don't know how old he was, but he was pre-fubescent. And he goes, I've been a Mavericks fan my whole life. This is worse than G.F. Ken.

What a scene. What a scene. It's a hell of a same minute. All right. So let me go over some of that. Can I also just say one quick thing. This thing of like, and maybe this is being way too online, but people, oh, you know, this proves Nico was right. The hell it does not.

Because even if you thought you couldn't win with Luca, you at least got to maximize value in return. The trade still made no sense for the Maddox long term. There's two different viewpoints of the Luca trade. the viewpoint in the world and specifically the Dallas fan base is you don't trade Luca Donchich. That's also the majority viewpoint in the NBA from people. I agree. However, there are people in the NBA who say, all right. I get it. I get maybe you think that you can't win with him and you don't want to pay him $300 million and you know more about itself than anybody else. Okay. Great players have been traded. But the trade is what. But drives them crazy.

What I was, the thing I've been told is I get wanting to get out of Luca business, but you have to maximize the return. And they absolutely did not. And as we go forward here, whether Luca wins three titles as a Laker and gets a statue or never wins ever. And Nico and Nico wins a championship with the Mavericks. And he takes the ultimate victory lap in the history of American sports. Either way, just understand that there are people in the NBA, a lot of executives in the NBA who are like, okay, I can. I can somewhat see how they got there, but it's the trade. I'm not sure it was a lot.

It's my minority. It's the fact that you can still argue there's a credible path for them to trade for Daniel Gafford that shows that Dallas did not get enough. With the leftovers from that deal. By the way, there is already a Lucas statue of crypto. Oh, no, that was just him playing defense last night. All right. Well, that's why.

All right. All right. So let me just go over some of the Lakers thing. So, all right. So I said, you know, they don't. need to acquire another star. They, they need a certain set of role players with set of skills like the Mavericks did. And those things are attainable. It, it's going to require good execution and, you know, good player evaluation, but it's attainable. So I said, they've got the draft

picks, the draft pick on the swaps. They have a number of expiring contracts. Maxi Klieba, Gabe Vincent, Hachamura. We'll see what happens with Dorian Finney Smith. He has a $15 million player option, which he can opt out of and get a new contract. I'm not sure in this market where nobody has money. And, you know, the Lakers are incentivized to not incentivized to help him in a sign and trade that he opts out. But we'll see. That's... Well, it could be a situation where he opts out, takes a little bit of a pay cut here to get a longer deal with the Lakers too. Right. But a couple of things here. One, remember that last year, And by the way, LeBron, Bobby Marks put this all together.

Since LeBron turned 40, he averaged 25, 8, and 8. Okay. So, yeah, he didn't look springy in game five, but he's probably not retiring. And the Lakers, you know. Of course he's not. Well, I just don't want to use against me later. All right.

He has a $52 million contract he can opt into or opt out of. And the key about that contract is that it's got a no trade clause in it, which I assume the Lakers would give him in a new contract, but, you know, maybe I shouldn't assume. But that's key. If he thought for a second that the Lakers wouldn't give it to him again, he would have to opt in because he doesn't want that nonsense. He made a, he made sort of a, a little bit too close to the bone joke when he was asked after the game about what the Lakers need a center, which of course they do. And he's like, I'm not saying that. like we was asked about playing center which was he playing center in this series i think he i mean he did some smith was playing a lot of center yeah yeah i mean dorian finny smith was started at center in game

five but anyway game four quite famously or famously but you know lebron's like oh the last guy you know he's like a d asked for a center they traded him a week later which is a funny line but obviously lebron has a no trade clause so he can say whatever he wants as i would like to remind you last year after they drafted brawny he offered to take a pay cut to help the Lakers get to the mid-level exception, $14 million, give or take, and sign a player. Of course, he wanted to know who they were signing. He wasn't just going to hand the money back and then they wouldn't sign anybody or they signed a guy he didn't like. So I wonder if that can be re-broached because with, you know, assuming Doreen, Finney Smith doesn't get a huge raise,

the Lakers are right at the luxury tax with LeBron Ops into the contract. And they would have their taxpayer mid-level about $5.5.5.5 million. If the Brown was willing to take an appreciable pay cut and I don't want to count his money for him I'm not you know but he did offer it last year so the concept is not foreign they could potentially get the full mid-level exception and then they would have that

plus these expiring contracts plus the draft picks what I'm saying is I think the Lakers have the ability to do what they need to do it's just a matter of executing it and they're the freaking Lakers and they're in Los Angeles and like we're talking about these

you know, got to get a rim running big. Those guys are going to be lining up to play with Luca for the Lakers. You know who actually used to like once was pretty excited about the potential of playing with Luca? It's pretty funny. Justin Wood? I'm not sure. Rudy Gobert, when it was pretty obvious that he wanted to spend his whole career in Utah, but when it was pretty obvious that that might not be the way that thing was going that last year.

Dallas was atop his kind of silent list of preferred destinations. And there was a time where Mark Cuban and Nico Harrison were both very interested in that idea. The Mavericks knocked the jazz out of the playoffs that year. Jason Kidd was not so excited about the idea of playing or of having Rudy Gobert. They couldn't have out been the Tim Wolves anyways. Then the Mavericks came around on this. Yeah, we'll get half the production. on 20% of the salary.

And they gave Javelle McGee 20% of the salary. They didn't get it, actually. Yeah, well, Rudy signed an extension before the season. That won't be happening. You just got a player option, though, Naz Reed. Well, that's true. Not that type of sinner, but that's interesting. All right.

Really not a sinner, I would argue, but that's neither here nor there. Well, he would help a lot of teams. I don't think $14 million is going to get it done, though. I would agree with that. So, and then I just want, before we move, move on. I just want to point out the Luca. This is all from Bobby Mark. So I want to give him credit. The Luca situation, starting August 2nd. Okay, so he's going to get to watch what the Lakers do in the offseason. He has options to extend his contract. He has one year left on his deal. Is that right,

McMahon? One plus a player option, yes. By the way, that's August 2nd, just to make my people, why is it that late? It's because it's the date that that contract was signed, and it was signed that late because the Mavericks respected his wishes to wait until after the Olympics with the Slovenian national team. Where he led a brilliant run and almost won a bronze medal, one of the great runs in the modern era. And then the next year he got ejected from the game that was qualifying them for the Olympics. Just saying something nice. My gosh.

All right. Okay. So here are his options. He has one year plus player option, but let's be honest, he's got one year. Sure. He can sign a four-year, $230 million max con. which added to the year that he's got would make him under contract for five years. What Bobby thinks he will do, and is more likely, assuming he extends, is a three-year

$165 million extension. And the reason that you would do that is because at the end of that three years, he then would have 10 years of service and can get a higher maximum, a 35% of the cap. Or I could do both and have the four-year with a player option on that last, on that last year. Right. But just to show you the difference in the numbers, he could have, if Dallas had kept him, he could have signed a $345 million extension this summer. Yep.

Now it's $230 million. Now. Five versus four years, but still a huge chunk. Yeah, it's like I said, it's not apples to apples because it is, and, you know, he can make up some of that later, but, you know, so we'll see. I mean, we'll talk about all that a lot, but, you know, that's definitely on the board for the Lakers. Okay, I do want to spend a moment here looking at this Warriors Rockets game that's coming up on Friday night. I'm just going to say that the first step towards blowing a 3-1 lead is laying down in game five. That doesn't mean that they're going to blow a 3-1 lead, but that is what they did.

I think that one lead if you win game five, that's for sure. Well, but laying down it especially. Now, I said this today in one of my production meetings of ESPN and one of the producers who's a Warriors fan, like pointed out a couple years ago when this happened when they went to Memphis and laid down and then came back and took care of Memphis. I'm not saying. Yeah, Draymond pointed out last night when he said they didn't play whoop that trick, but they might as well have. Okay. So fine. I just remember what I was thinking about watching that game was way back in 2015 when the Clippers blew their first three-one lead against the rock.

They come into Houston and do a similar thing where they just totally don't take the game seriously, get blown out. And next thing you know, Pat Bev and was doing dancing and doing crazy stuff. And I'm just going to say that, yeah, you can focus on the decisions that went down in game seven of that series and you can attack Doc Rivers, which many people did. But they began falling apart in game five. So I'm not saying that that's what's happening here. I'm just saying it's like I say. collapses always include a miss free throw. You blow a 3-1 lead,

starts out with not taking game 5 seriously. Having said that, the rockets were excellent. Amen Thompson was excellent. And to me, everyone's focused on Steph's thumb because he was photographed. It was a team photograph,

by the way. It wasn't like it was a paparazzi with a long lens. The team photographed, it's a sponsored element, I believe, where the players are getting onto the plane and they were going to go to game five.

And people zoomed in on his on his right thumb and they saw a huge swelling, you know, in the joint. And people were freaking out. I would just say that he's been playing with this for weeks. And he's still playing pretty well. I'm kind of more worried about the Jimmy Butler glute because they need Jimmy Butler. And they were worried about Jimmy, Jimmy Butler's panning the ass in Miami all season long. Oh, wait. Sorry.

Different, different. You're getting the full, the full treatment. Pelton. It's after midnight. Sort. So. And after dark. Yeah. And you know, if you're the Timberwolves, you're like, come on, come on Houston.

Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, we'll, you know, they're not going to have home court either way. So they're like, all right. Take him to seven. Minnesota will have home court if Golden State wins. Oh, that's right. They were the 60th. And I forgot. But yeah,

I think the longer series is a bigger deal. I mean, that was, you know, one of the concerns about the warriors coming into this series is that they had used a lot of gas in the fight to try to avoid the play and were unable to do so, had to play the first play in game. And, you know, I think that probably was a factor in Steve Kerr's thinking going into game five that he was ready to pull the plug and prep for game six if things got away for them. And, you know, the good news is like, Steph Curry is the only Golden State player who has

played more than 150 minutes in this series in five games. you only one averaging or yeah so only one averaging more than 30 minutes per game right now so like there's not the they have not carried the heavy load in this particular series

but if it goes to seven all of a sudden that's going to be a dramatically different situation projecting ahead if they do win yeah and their two stars are banged up and the Rockets know their two stars are banged up

and Dylan Brooks made that I mean you know actions over words but you know Dylan Brooks made it very clear he's aware Well, actions and words with Dylan Brooks. Right. Basically like... They usually match for him.

Yeah. Like, essentially he was accused of targeting Steph Curry's thumb. And he's like, yeah, if I've got a bad ankle, people are going to target that ankle. Right. Yeah. I'm going to hit that thumb when I can hit it. I'm sure they'll give, like he's giving Jimmy a little extra bump here and there, you know, when he can. So, you know, we'll...

We'll see. Steph has, like you said, Steph's been playing with that for quite some time. The Jimmy thing, you hope it gets better as the series goes and that the soreness and the stiffness kind of eases as a series goes. But, I mean, he was a shell of himself last night

or Wednesday night when people were listening to this. Also, there's the Jalen Green factory. He could have 40, you could have four. Well, I would say that he's been, he's had one big game. Wow. So I'm saying he's maybe due for 40. Well, that's true. He's had, yeah.

Van Vleet suddenly is caught fire. Well, that's, well, that's that, you mean, that's not, that's not surprising. But yeah, Van Vleet has been a difference maker. All right, we'll follow up with that one. Okay, it's late. But we have a new month. Oh, yeah. Don't you?

That means, change me. That means we had an old month. I see you're wearing your Amigo's shirt there. and I'm Amigos one and done ABA team baby became the Los Angeles stars than the Utah stars They stunked it up in Anahomano to be honest Phil I looked them up But no we're not to the aides amigos part because we do have Cajonis factor the month for April We'll be heavily weighted obviously to the first round of playoffs and this will be the last one of the year Because you know come second round it's all Cajonis at this point

But I do want to give one regular season shoutout, and that's going to go to Harrison Barnes because Spurs weren't going to make the playoffs, but boy, did it feel good for him to bump those warriors down to the play-in? Not that team that just he won a title with, won a 73 games with the next season, and they just booed them right out of town. By the way, speaking of the Spurs, did you see the photo they released? I think it was on Wednesday. Victor's grown to like seven-foot a gun now.

Are you kidding me? It's like a taller than David Robinson. This photo is amazing. So it's there four rookies of the year. I don't know if they have another one. But I think, you know. Yeah, it was Duncan, David Robinson, Victor, and obviously Stefan Castle.

Yeah. And to celebrate Castle winning, which he won in a landslide. My vote for Zachary Risha Shea was. Oh, you have Bond Timps, that freaking French hipster vote. all that damn time in Paris and you are wee-wee in your way to a freaking

runner-up. It is crazy. First time, it's just a great picture, number one. And number two, to see how much taller Victor is than Tim Duncan and Dave.

Now, I'm sure Tim Duncan and David Robinson maybe aren't at their top height of their lives, but they haven't shrunk six inches. He's covering over them. Don't tell me he's seven foot three. Well,

he was seven, five, league. I have no idea what he's at now, but he was 7-5 when he came with him. Now, what do they listen? Anyways, Harrison Barnes hitting that game-winning buzzer-beater, the three over the war. He's going to get a shout-out. So is the Lorenzo-Charles impersonation by Aaron Gordon, obviously, you know, to win that, what was it, was that game three? It's been such a long series. Game four. Game four. In L.A. But we're going to focus on the brass, the silver, and the gold, and the brass. Tonight didn't count towards this. But boy, oh boy, you can call it an exclamation point on just a Cajonis Factor month season.

He won the knockoff version that the NBA gives out for the regular season. Talking about Jalen Brunson, of course. Entering tonight in that series, Pelton, you mentioned he led the league in clutch points in this first round. And entering tonight, 21 points, no turnovers in 15 clutch minutes, just time after time, after time. he puts on that cape that Tibbs City went to the locker room to get that one time. So yeah, Jan Brunson's shout out. Tonight might have bumped him up a spot or two, but he's going to be the brass ball. It's kind of like a baseball manager who like he just wants to go to his closer.

Yeah. Like sometimes even if it's like late in the season, like in the closer's arm is kind of shot, he's like, this is who I trust. I trust him all year. There's two outs in the seventh. Oh, damn it. Exactly. You know, but ain't going to be no middle relief tonight.

Yeah, yeah. The closer is up in the seventh inning, and his arm is dragging as he comes out of the bullpen. Just come on, give me six outs. Yeah, you know, Brunson on that roommate show, he's got a Tommy John underwear deal. In this and out, you might need Tommy John surgery. Yeah, that's right. So, but so I guess, you know, after, you know, after seeing all that, it's actually a great analogy. Go ahead.

All right. The silver medalist. And not a guy who scored a lot in Clutch in Crunch Time in this series. But I'm going to give it to The Ant Man, the guy whose favorite movie is Matilda, an underrated by the way. Great Broadway production, Matilda. I'm not familiar with Broadway, but I have seen the movie. They don't have Broadway in Dallas? Not that I'm aware.

No, we've got a monopoly set here. Anyways. Anthony Edwards. 12 points, just three of five shooting in 11 clutch minutes in that series, plus 20. Here's the stuff, though. Here's the stuff. Five assists, no turnovers in crunch time of this series. Nut cutting time.

That's those last three minutes, one possession. Three assists, no turnovers, including the biggest assist of the series when he drove, drew the whole defense, kicks it out to Mike Conley for that bagger, three. Why is that so important? why am I hyping that up so much? 160 clutch minutes this season. Ant was a minus 51, and he had 13 assists and 15 turnovers. The wolves, maybe their biggest flaw all year, was that Ant would revert.

This is Wendy, where I was pushing back on you about he always plays the right way. Their biggest flaw was he would revert to hero ball time and time. Sometimes he would push him into the clutch because they would be, I'd have a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter and all of a sudden it's a clutch game. Right. And it would be Ant Hero Bowl. And a lot of times he'd be taken like terrible shots. Even though a game winner he hit in Houston, it's like it's just like fading away three over, you know, two bodies. He made the right decision time after time, after time again. It's a mature, distinguished version of Cajonis by Mr. Edwards here. By the way, his great line on that walkoff when he's walking in the streets.

of L.A. yesterday wasn't just that Matilda was favorite movie. It was that the good guy is going to die tonight. Well, that's how it came up because he said, the good guy dies in this movie. Chesda is going to die in this movie? He died in this movie. And the guy said, oh, Morris Chestnut. His boys in the hood your favorite movie? You know, we're in L.A.

He said, nah, man, Matilda. Which is hilarious. You know, Joe Missoula watches the town before he goes to bed every night. Can you see Aunt just settling in to Matilda to calm himself down. Yeah. I forgot that what's the strength coach lady's name in that movie?

Hell, and you probably know. Come on. Anyways, my wife always calls me her because remember when Cassidy was on here? She advises to get one of those hyper-ice, you know, like back rub, massage type of. Yeah, massage guy. Well, I'm where the hell out of that thing.

It's like an every morning thing. My wife tells me I look like that really mean lady who was like the P.E. teacher, Matilda. Yeah, I don't remember her name. but uh turnbull or some crap yeah yeah mrs turnbull or whatever trench ball that's right that's the one there you go anyways time for the gold medalist i think you guys can probably guess who this is going to be if you can't i've got to question you no guesses the man's hung so far down that his dad's banned from going to the quick day this was like

these go i feel i feel you know that's a Yeah, he had to be banned, but I feel bad. And also, I'll say it was the way they, the way it was characterized by the Pacers, John Halliburton being banned from games, quote, for the foreseeable future. Yeah. I don't know.

What does that mean? I don't know, but listen, ma'am. I feel like we could have just put him in a suite. That's just away from the court. Might be. Anyways, Tyreys Halliburton talked his talk all series long. He always does. You know, I appreciate a man.

who runs his mouth. And he backed it up. And he had the drive and the dunk to send that thing in OT. And then, you know, it wasn't series on the line for the Pacers, but the chance to close the series, there he is, against the man that he wrestled for the game ball with. Yon is an Akupo, just out there one-on-one, blew by him.

Little series in and layup, an unfortunate stare-down by Pops. but series ending blow by layup what was the t-shirt overrate this or something I know overrate that with a tweet might be an era ending blow by layup for Janice and the bucks so listen man Tyrese Halliburton

like I said the guy was yippin and yapping and chitting and chat in the whole series long and he definitely got the last word calling his factor player of the month for April the gold medal What a, what a season of Cajonis factor. Hey, he'll enjoy this gold medal a lot more than he did, that benchwarming gold medal that he got in the Olympics.

I want to tell you that is not true, but, uh, all right. The get up production meeting is in 15 minutes. Oh, Wendy's Sleep Update, baby, Wendy's Sleep Update. Oh, boy. All right. Thank you, Mr. Pelton. Thank you, Mr. McMahon. Thank you to Jackson, the producer.

Congratulations to Bontems. Mostly congratulations to Mrs. Bontemps, but, all right. right. We'll allow it. Thank you for listening at Washington of the HOOP Collective. We will talk to you in a couple of days. I definitely want to congratulate Bon Tams. I don't think he needs to join us again until that kid's at least done with kindergarten. Adios amigos.