Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - Historic Collapses For Cavs, Thunder & Celtics + Minnesota’s Offensive Disaster

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim MacMahon and Bobby Marks to talk the Cavs’ devastating collapse against the Pacers in Game 2 and what Cleveland’s outlook in the series looks like going forward. Then, the guys break down the Warriors’ surprising win in Minnesota without an injured Steph Curry, the Nuggets’ astonishing late comeback against the Thunder and Boston’s historic shooting struggles against the Knicks in Game 1. Finally, which teams should be panicking & the mystery behind MacMahon’s Met Gala absence? 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 Hoop Collective podcast. We talk about the NBA, which we are doing a little after midnight on Tuesday night, I guess Wednesday morning. That means joining us from Naples, Florida, our insider and one of the smartest guys at ESPN.

No, not McMahon. Bobby Marks. Hello, gentlemen. How are we doing? What a night. What a week in the NBA. Joining us from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where he witnessed one of the four home teams to lose to start the same. second round. Actually, at this point, home teams are 0 and 5 in the second round is Ban McMahon.

Howdy, partners? I'll only witness maybe the, I don't know, third worst collapse and crunch time of the weekend and it was a bad one. Yes. So we're going to start right now with the game that happened on Tuesday night in Cleveland, which will be one of the more remarkable games of the year, I think. I don't know. At this point, I'm going to, by the way, I'm going to say everybody who predicts games good luck. Good luck to all y'all.

You know, like, you know, there's certain things we have to do at ESPN, like, you know, for various sponsor elements. That's ridiculous. And if you guys are out there actually wagering on these games, I hope you have fun. This is like nothing I've ever seen before. The game that happened in Cleveland on Tuesday,

guys was the most crushing and most inspiring game two, I think that is possible to have. You can have things like this happen in a game six or seven where you've got so much on the line. I can't remember a game two that had this set of circumstances with Cleveland leading by seven points. I don't know if I would say it was an inspiring performance because, they were kind of holding their bleep together with like, you know, it was, it was like a guy walking out a hallway, you know, things falling off, you know, like with grocery bags and things were falling off. I don't know if I would say it was inspiring. They were barely holding it together, but, you know, missing three of their five best players in a vitally important game,

they had played really inspired basketball and gotten into a position to win. And for the second time in how many days, Bobby, like 10, 11 days, the Pacers overcome a seven point deficit. Now, I'm a little bit confused because when the Pacers did that to the bucks in the first round, we used this stat that said teams were 0 and 1,600 and something when they were up by 7 or more points than the playoffs, like dating back 20 years, 30 years, whatever. Now all of a sudden, that stat has turned to 3 in 1,6.5. Well, two of them were the Pacers. But it was 0 in 1640.

So how is it now three? But anyway, but anyway, two times they've pulled it out of incredible thin air, both times Tyrese Halliburton. By the way, shout to John Halliburton. Imagine, like, imagine there's a video of John Halliburton at, you know, at his house watching Tyrese tonight. But she's doing that same old dance.

I bet he is. Got out Sam Cassell. Yeah. Well, that's going to be... 20,000. Auto 25,000. Auto 25. Yep.

Well worth it. Yes, Tyreys Halliburton did the Sam Cassell, a large testicle dance after hitting the three. Before I go over the details of it, Bobby, you've seen a lot of basketball. Incredibly crushing loss for the calves. And the pacer's just doing maximum pacer. And I just want to get your thoughts on it before I go over some stuff here. I thought it was the worst collapse I've seen. And that's saying a lot.

And I've sat all. In the Milwaukee game, he didn't mean the worst collapse he's seen all week. Yeah. When the Milwaukee game, remember the ball bounces off Gary Trent, like he fumbles it. Yeah. This was based on the worst collapse based on circumstances. The circumstances that there's no Garland Mobley Hunter. I don't know if we'll see them for game three.

Mitchell had played, you know, he was basically exhausted. And to be up 119, 112 with 47 seconds left. And to lose that way, they got no, they didn't get a shot in the last 48 seconds. They couldn't get the ball in bounds. And when they could, it was like, Donovan Mitchell was lucky. He didn't get a flagrant foul for that elbow to. Well, you know, it's for the guy who, for the guy who was so exhausted. I don't even know why he was bringing the ball up.

Like, I'm thinking like, this guy's on... Because nobody else can dribble up. Now the Dary Scarlet's out. Well, the thing about it is, the Cavs actually were without four players. Yeah. Because Ty Jerome was... A no show. Yeah, he was horrible.

I was going to say, you said they were missing three of their five best players. That meant that you demoted Ty Jerome because you had him in the Hall of Fame a couple weeks ago. He was, he had an absolutely spectacular season. He is one of 14 in this game. shooting and he had several horrific defensive possessions in this fourth quarter. McMahon, I want to hear what you have to say first, and then I want to go over some things. I just want to just do a couple of broad strokes, but I want to give you a chance first. I mean, it's a crushing blow to Cavs Corner for all the reasons you laid out and also because

they got their butts whooped in game one. They're down 02. They've got three. They're top five or six guys out. I don't know. Are they going to play in game three? Are they not? It's not a good sign for any of them in all honesty. If, if, you know, this is obviously, I mean, it's not a, it's not an elimination game, but it's an absolute must-win game. And if you can't play on an ankle, if the ankle is sprained bad enough that you can't play on it now, it's a significant ankle sprain. Well, and if it's turf-toe, it's keeping Darius Garland out for three games. Like, dude, it's four games. It's four games. Obviously, the, obviously the Dariuscaron. Four games, my bad.

There are people in Cleveland who are, last year when the Cavs went out to the Celtics in the second round, Darius Garland and Jared Allen were out. Or actually, I'm sorry, Donovan Mitchell was out for a couple of games. And then Jared Allen was out. And he had a rib, Jared Allen had a rib injury. And he was in excruciating pain and didn't play. And there were people giving him the side eye throughout the playoff series. and then Marcus Morris, who was on the team, and actually I think started one of the games in the Boston series,

gave an interview where he questioned whether or not Jared could have done something to play. And Jared was very clear that it was an unbearable injury. And he then went ahead and played 82 games this year, a couple of times playing through injuries he shouldn't have, because I think he wanted to send a message that he was tough. So the point is that there is a segment of the Cavs fan base who is questioning whether or not Darius Garland could play. This injury is obviously severe.

He missed a couple of games at the end of the regular season. He has now missed four playoff games. They obviously terribly needed him tonight, and he couldn't play. Like, this is not a guy who's known for being soft. Like, guys get surgery in around months for turf toe. I had turptow. I had turpto in college playing football. It's one of the most painful things ever.

Imagine being a point guard. Like, if you don't have your big, So good luck to you. Also, I don't know. So on DeAndre Hunter, at first they called it a fract, not fractured, a dislocated thumb. And then it's changed on the injury report to sprained thumb. If he's got a torn ligament in there, like the word sprain is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is a partially torn ligament, okay. But if he's got a torn ligament in his thumb, you can't play with it.

You can't grip it. And, and look, calves in number one seed. They're down O2. They got to go back to Inde. You know, calves, you know, calves, squirt. owners in crisis. We got to make sure, though, like, let's give the pastors their props. Okay, hold on. One second. Let me, okay. I just want to take the teeth away from a couple of calves whining slash

complaints, because the fans are going to complain that these guys could be playing. I'm sorry, I just don't believe that. That's number one. Number two, the fans are going to be, are going to complain about a couple of officiating calls that have happened in this series. One was a Ben Matherin play on the, where actually Hunter got hurt in game one. I'm sorry, they lost that game going away. Even if that play was a, even if they had called Matherin for a foul on that play, Hunter's thumb is still hurt and they still, you know, give the Cavs two more points. I thought it should have been a foul and it did not decide that game.

Of course. Thank you. All right. There was a play laid in the game here when Donovan Mitchell was called for a foul when it looked like he went straight up. They're white, hot, mad about that. I'm now going to read you some statistics from the fourth quarter. And this fourth, quarter box score that I'm about to read is absolutely devastating for the calves and inspiring for the Pacers. In the fourth quarter, the Pacers scored 26 points in the paint. Oh, no. 26. 13 baskets in the paint in the fourth quarter. That obviously, for math majors, that would be a hundred and four, that'd be a pace of 104 points in the paint for a game.

And they had 13 free throws, okay? I've never seen a team have 26 points in the paint. The calves were allowing the pacers. A lot of it was in transition where the pacers would get the ball, and they just wouldn't stop it. And, and, you know, it was Halliburton a lot. It was Aaron Neesmith, just, I mean, the guy plays like a maniac. He just throws his body around.

The biggest one was Neesmith flying in and a flying putback dunk. I'll get to it. It should have been a foul. On Donovan Mitchell. Yeah. I'll get to it. All right.

26 points in the paint, okay? Fast break points. I'm sorry. Second chance points. 11 to 2. 11 second chance points in a vital game in the fourth quarter. Absolutely unrecoverable. Okay.

The Cavs started the fourth quarter with a 14 point lead. Yeah. okay absolutely unrecoverable to give up 11 second chance points on six offensive offensive rebounds for the Pacers basically every time they got an offensive rebound they scored and the the Pacers missed five free throws by the way it was Cavs who had 13 free throws in the fourth not not the Pacers they had 13 baskets not 13 free throws but the Pacers had nine free throws they missed five free throws you're trying to come back from 14 points down, and you miss five free throws, and you still win.

And you want to know why they won when they missed five free throws? Because twice, the Pacers got rebounds off free throws, where the rebound was secured by either a guy, either the guy at the foul line or a guy at the three-point line. Because Aaron Neath Smith comes flying in on a miss-pass Gossiakum free throw in the last minute. Donovan Mitchell falls asleep, knows he's beat. and like runs in Denise Smith from behind, but it's a putback. And then they get, they get, you know, you've heard of eight points in nine seconds. Okay, that's Reggie Miller in the, in the playoffs against the Knicks, like in 94 maybe.

Okay, this is not eight points in nine seconds, but it was four points in eight seconds. Because Halliburton gets fouled. It was a controversial foul on Donovan Mitchell, but whatever, Halliburton gets fouled, misses a free throw with 12 seconds left. And I think Miles Turner got his hand in there, but all that matters is that Halliburton, who missed a free throw, got the rebound. So the calves allow Aaron Neathsmith to come running in

from the three-point line to get a put-back dunk. And then after Halliburton hits a free throw to make a two-point game, he gets his own miss rebound and then hits the three-pointer. There's your four-point play. And the thing about it is, like, the calves have the ball up three points. with less than 24, or less than 30 seconds left.

They are about to in, I think there's 25 seconds left. They're about to inbound the ball and get fouled and go to the line with a chance to go up five. And they never see the ball again. Max Struz throws, it looked like my seven-year-old throwing a pass. Don't, don't disdain like that. He threw a, I don't know what's going on there. I guess Ty Jerome had Andrew Nemhart.

kind of sealed, but he was still trying to throw a lob to a six-foot four guy. I don't know. Anyway, with pale complexion, you just can't do that. The circumstances are devastating. One more stat before I hand it over to you, Bobby. The Pacers took 10 more shots than the calves in the fourth quarter. I mean, that is an unrecoverable set of circumstances. And again, it's just as much.

of a commentary, as you said, McMahon, on the Pacers. Halliburton playing like a banshee. Andrew Nemhart had six assists in the fourth quarter alone. Playoff gamer, man. And Neesmith is flying... Neesmith in the course of 12 seconds, I don't know, five seconds of game time, gets a put-back dunk and draws an offensive foul on Donovan Mitchell

that could have been a flagrant. Mitchell... Should have been. Could have gotten an and-one on... Neath Smith on the putback dunk and could have gotten a flagrant. So I'm telling you that like, whatever complaint that any Cavs fan wants to have about any officiating, Neesmith made two unbelievable plays and could have gotten more points, more free throws, uh, in my opinion.

And so Donovan Mitchell has 49 points and plays his behind off, but is exhausted at the end of the game, as you said, Bobby. Okay, I'm going to hand it over to you because I think I've had enough to say. Well, I mean, you, mentioned the points in the pain and that's the remarkable thing about the halberton three is that he could easily just gone for the two to tie but he'd like to do you know take a step back three to win this win this thing and he could have done what he basically could have done it against Milwaukee the other we're right down the lane there i think it's well he was being guarded by tie jerome i suspect

he would have gone right down the lane yeah i think um i had asked matt williams um before the game or great stats guy for because I figured I'm our listeners know stats Williams well Bobby so I figured it eventually I'm going to have to write these guys is this Cleveland Cavaliers team and it might be you know Friday night during your end of uh your end of my end of the season article hey it's two oh and you're all going on the road and I said what's where did Cleveland rank and miss games this year fifth few us wow yeah they had a very healthy season what was garland and mowbly together on a court 54 and 12 record and I and I if I open my if I if I had it right an intro it's basically the clock struck midnight in this series for these guys in the magical season yeah but but but

but and that's true and that's great insight and it's all fair and if you're a calves fan you're thinking your team is cursed you should have won the game yeah well they they should have won at one point yeah and listen man the calves blew it and the payves blew it and the pay Pacers took it, and Tyrese Halliburton is putting together a resume as one of, if not the best clutch player in the NBA. Well, hold your water. Oh, chill out. Jalen Brunson is still having an...

Okay. How many? Halliburton has these two game winners, which are, again, amazing. Jalen Brunson's body of work is pretty damn impressive. Okay. Check out Halliburton's body of work and clutch situations this year. also, Halliburton is the reigning Cahone's factor gold medalist, bro. So don't, you know, the man's got two game winners in these playoffs, three career

playoff game winners. Look, he was dancing and he's just thinking, man, which hand am I going to go with first on the Sam Cassell Big Ball's dance? Because he knew he was about to score. He knew he was about to win that game. The thing about it is, is that Halliburton, he injured his left wrist in the game. I mean, I'm not even sure how that was much it was affecting him. Obviously not that much.

But he only had eight points going into the fourth quarter. He was not having a dominant game. Now, he had 11 in the fourth quarter. And I'm pretty sure the other night against Milwaukee, I'm pretty sure the other night against Milwaukee, he wasn't having a dominant game either and then just turned on the jets going down the stretch. I mean, dude, there are, you know, he's a very different player than Reggie Miller, but he's got a lot of Reggie Miller-esque qualities about him. with the yapping and with the showing up with the game on the line.

And here's the other thing. Like in all, I know that the calves, uh, they went eight and eight down the stretch. They sat some guys. They had pretty much clinched, uh,

home court and for a whole East playoffs. But if you go, go and look at the last like 40 games of the season, the Pacers were only a couple games behind the calves in terms of record. I mean, I'm going to go look at it because the Pacers, the Pacers and the wolves who got beat tonight, who we'll talk about in a minute.

both, there's kind of a comparison there, which is that they were conference finalists last year and then had very underachieving starts to the season and people kind of forgot about them for various reasons. And, you know, sometimes with good reason, you know, in the case of the Pacers, people thought that they sort of lucked out last year in getting to the conference finals because all the injuries the Knicks had. And I'm sure some people are saying that now, but they flat out took it. But, you know, so the Pacers started this season. 16 and 18. Okay, that's where they were on New Year's Day, 16 and 18.

And they finished with 50 wins. So I'm going to do some math here. That's pretty good, though. So down the stretch, they were 34 and 14 for basically the last half of the season. That's a 60-ish win pace, I believe. So, you know, like the difference between them and the calves, it seems like, you know, it's 14 games in the standings. It's a 58 win pace.

Yeah. So this is really kind of a team. This is really kind of, you know, an elite team that was masquerading as a middling seat. And a team that had playoff success last year, a team that has won these games before, a team that's won in those clutch playoff moments as a group. And it's exactly what they did tonight. Well, Andrew Demhart and Neesmith alone in the first two games of this series, you know, could win X Factor of the series guys. And then you have Halliburton's heroics.

By the way, Tyre's Halliburton in this is behind or tied one possession game in the final minute of games this year, including the playoffs. He has 27 points on eight of nine shooting in about nine minutes. Bobby, he doesn't have a great, he doesn't have a classic. great jump shot. No. You know, you kind of want him, you kind of go ahead and try that shot, Tyrese. I mean, he has good size,

so he's going to be able to get it off. But geez, oh man. Look, I got to know the Pacers well last year covering their playoff run. I spent a week with them in Paris this year. You guys heard me talk, you guys, you guys heard me talk about how I feel like

they can wear teams out of the course of a playoff series, not in the first two games. Not in the first two games, but that's what happened in the fourth quarters of these two games. They handled their business. Well, you know, it's the funny thing, because I pulled up that box score also. That fourth quarter, they had three guys played the whole quarter, Turner, Nemhardt, and Halberton. And then they only went six guys.

Neesmith and Siakum went eight and nine minutes. They basically rode these guys. Well, you guys know that I've adopted this Pat Riley rule about, you know, when you, when you, get into the nitty gritty in the playoffs, you play eight and trust seven without those three guys that the Cavs had, you know, Mowgli, Garland, and Hunter, the number that you can trust got real, real shallow. And that was up in their face down the stretch of that game, which is why Donovan was doing, and Donovan got to the line 21 times.

But by the way, again, his teams are now one in six when he takes over 30 shots in the playoffs and you know he had a game last year with the calves where he took 36 shots in a playoff game and scored 50 points and they lost that was to Orlando he scores 49 in this one um he had over 30 shots i don't remember exactly how many he had 30 on the nose so one of seven from three point range 15 to 30 overall that that that's the other thing he's two of 19 or two of 18 on threes in this series and the calves who were the number one or number two three point percentage team the whole year i think at the end of the season they dipped down to number two but for the first 75 games they were number one they're shooting

29 percent so it's a compounded thing that's going on here you know it's one thing if you have one of their you know they've got three all stars two of them are injured it's one thing if you've got one all star injured you got one all star injured and you can't make a three and your six man of the year candidate has gone you know a wandering and then your second all star gets injured and your and your second six-man candidate gets injured, and you can't make a three. Like it's a, you know, when you have a- Hunter ended up winning seventh man of the year. Fair.

When there is a collapse and a catastrophe, it's never one thing that goes wrong. It's always a compounding set of circumstances. So it's not over, the season's not over. I'd be, you know, just when you think you might have the NBA figured out, that's when you're going to get embarrassed, but the calves are in a very rough position. More Hoop Collective podcast after this. All right. In a very unusual set of circumstances, by the way, we ran a stat on ESPN on Monday where I can't remember how many it was, but it was a pretty big sample size that looked back like over the last, like maybe Jackson, maybe you can, I think you posted it for us on here.

Maybe you can find it. Maybe you can remember how maybe the sample size was. But it was talking about teams that had lost or had one game seven and they had to go play in the next round with one day's rest. Like the last, like, I don't know, like 10 or 15 times that had happened, they had lost by an average of 20 points. It was basically a guaranteed blowout. It happened to the Memphis Grizzies as an example in the first round when they won the play in tournament, had to go play in Oklahoma City. I think you were there for that. But man, what was it, 51 points or something?

Yeah, only 51. Okay. By the way, teams that won games in the first round by over 50 are now winless in the second round so far. How's that for some ESPN research? Another one. Good job. Good job. So the nuggets go in.

By the way, challenging Halliburton for Cajunis Factor. You announce Cone's Factor is gone on hiatus. You may have to revisit that because Aaron Gordon would like to speak to you. He's had two game winners in the final two seconds already in this playoffs. And Halliburton with two game winners in the final two seconds. And then Jalen doing his stuff. Brunson missed at the regulation buzzer. I don't know, man.

I know, and nobody could believe it. Including him. Yeah. But anyway, so that's the nuggets. They go into Oklahoma City at the game you were at. We'll talk about later. They win. Then the Warriors go into Minnesota.

Minnesota, I really thought was in a great position to do well in this game. You know, their record down the stretch was almost as good as Indiana's. they had rest and everything. Steph pulls up in the first half with the hamstring injury. Now, Bobby, you looked up Steph's injury history. What did you find? He has missed 245 games since he came into the league. There are no hamstring injuries documented.

So this is the first. I am not any sort of medical, professional, or expert. I'm not pretending. I'm not saying that this has anything to do with it. I'm just going to state a fact on. Sunday, when the Warriors went into Houston in one game seven, Steph Curry ran 1.99 miles in that game. The most, since we've been tracking, I don't know, a decade,

it's the most he's ever run in a game. This guy is obviously incredibly conditioned. It was an amazing performance. He had 10 rebound, 7 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals. That was the farthest on record we've ever seen him run. So at age 36 or whatever he is, he has the most running he's ever done and 48 hours later comes up with the hamstring injury

these are these are two facts I'm just going to say I don't know if they're connected I'm not pretending that they are I'm not blaming anybody I think it might be relevant but that happens he's ruled out for the game and Bobby hamstring injuries hamstring injuries they're bad enough to knock you out of a game they don't get better in two days no and there's no I think Ome had tweeted out there's

one stretch where there was two days between everything else is every other day. Yeah, between, I think, I think it's between five and six, they get like a four-day break. But other than that, it's every other day other day. Even, yeah, five and six. Even that, I mean, five and six, it's a Wednesday, Sunday. Look, it's a hamstring strain. His status for the rest of the series is in jeopardy here. All right.

So I'm going to, again, I'm going to talk about wonky-ass box score stuff here. Steph Curry's in the locker room, all right? The Warriors shoot 39% as a team on the road. They turn the ball over 18 times. You know that this is their Achilles heel. They turn the ball over, and that's when they melt down. They give up 17 points off of turnovers. That's like the worst situation that you can imagine for them.

They only score 99 points, okay? They give up the smaller warriors that are undersized. They give up 52 points in the paint. the Warriors do. They only score 28 points in the paint. And you know they're not rescuing themselves with the three-pointer. Well, they won the three-pointer by good.

My point is like they're not exactly shooting great jump shots because they only shot 39%. You know what? Yeah, but the threes, they were 18 to 42. They couldn't score in the pain. Right. They shot 40% in the pain. So all that, you know,

if I had told you all that, by the way, Timberwolves win the second chance points game. Timberwolves win the first. fast break points game. I'm like, where is the victory coming from? And the victory is coming from Buddy healed, hitting five more threes, and freaking Draymond Green hits four three-pointers? No, that's not where the victory came from.

The victory came from the fact that Minnesota was absolutely abysmal offensively. I agree, but they had to overcome all that. in the first half. The wolves managed to win and handily game 5 in L.A. Despite being 7 to 47 from 3, they follow that up with 5 of 29. Sub-23-point shooting is going to be problematic in the playoffs. And they can't shoot straight right now. Ant had an absolutely awful first half.

He got to go on in the second half, but it was too little too late. This was like there are times when Minnesota, for a lot of the season, there would be times where their offense looked like it was a bunch of strangers mud wrestling and they got better

as the season went on do friends mud wrestling does that look more I mean it's a good line it's more coordinated more coordinated um teams okay by the way

Jackson has mud wrestling teams coming off a seven game series are four and 18 um in in series in the last 20 to 22 times it's happened 4 18 in a series and 5 and 17 in game one.

That's including this or before this, Jackson. That was going into this? The series has to be going in. Going into it. All right. But again, Minnesota lost this not because of the defense. They could not score. And again, Gobert grabbing every rebound

and Duncan at home in L.A. masked the fact they had an awful shooting night in that game. But, you know, this is two straight, absolute stinker offensive performances. by the wolves. Five for 29 from three. Also, let me just point something out to you. You can give Jimmy Butler

four third stringers, and he's going to like his chances against the Timberwolf starters. That is a proven fact. That's true. You know, it's funny, too, I'm watching a game, and I'm thinking,

I'm like, why are these fans booing Jimmy Butler? And I'm like, holy crap. It's been a while. Jimmy was 7 of 20. He did have 11 rebounds, he assists in two, steals. That helped. He played 41 minutes. He's going to have to get used to that. They're going to have to get production. Well, and look, the Warriors had a, have depth problems when Steph's healthy.

Steph's going, we don't know how much time, but Steph's going to miss games. I mean, you don't, you don't just, like you say, you don't just recover from a hamstring strain that, well, dude, he missed the second half. I mean, you don't just recover from a hamstring strain in 48 hours. And, you know, Jimmy played 41 minutes a night. Buddy Healed played 40. Dremont played 35. Probably would have been a lot more than that, but he got in foul trouble.

You know, Pat Spencer with that just 1979 copse movie mustache, you know, he gave him some quality minutes. He had the cream hook. Yeah, gave him some quality minutes off the bench. You're going to have to get, you know, old, uh, you know, old, uh, you know, You know, he looks like he's definitely from like a 70s buddy cop movie. Do you know, I didn't double check this. Jamont had a funny line. He's like, look, he doesn't look like a basketball player and the number 61 doesn't help.

He looks like a lacrosse player, which he was an amazing lacrosse player. I was told, I didn't fact check this. Maybe, I don't know, Stats Williams probably can't help me here. I was told he holds the NCAA record for assist by a lacrosse and the cross. Sure. He was an awesome lacrosse player who was just like, hey, you know what, I'm going to try to I'm going to try to play a little college hoops. Okay, well, damn good at Northwestern.

Next thing you know, he's in the NBA. And now they need him to play some minutes, some real minutes in the playoffs in the Western Conference semifinals. He was getting real minutes. Yeah, 231. Pat Spencer. There it is. Loyola.

How did you come up with that? I just Googled it. All right. Yeah, he won the T. Waraton? I can't pronounce that. I had the college lacrosse equivalent to the Heisman trophy, according to our little producer Jackson. Well, Jackson went to Syracuse where lacrosse is really big.

I got a buddy who lives out in the Bay Area who, okay, Jackson, brutal pronunciation. Turn your freaking microphone on and say it then. To Warden Award. That's what I said. I got a buddy who's in the Bay Area, who's actually the best lacrosse player of my high school, who is, you got to write about Pat Spencer.

Like, dude, no, I don't. Well, somebody might be right about Pat Spencer. The best player in the Bay Area is Pat Spencer. I think we just established that. Look, guys, I have no idea what's going to happen in this series. But I don't know. What do you want me to say? Like, I thought Minnesota was in great shape.

I thought. Well, I still think they are because I don't know when or if Steph's going to be able to play in this series. And I think it's going to be really hard for the Warriors to win three more without them. I agree, but I will just lean on the fact that Jimmy, when you count Jimmy Butler out is when you get embarrassed. Fair point. And I'll throw Dremont into that discussion as well. The game that you were at on Monday Night, McMahon, I didn't get to see all of it, but I sure as heck watched the last five minutes from the TD Garden.

You were at the Paycom Center where you watched the Nuggets and Yokic. Just manhandle the number one overall seed down the stretch. What did you see that? And there was also, listen, give the Nuggets credit for rallying. Aaron Gordon, as you said, hit another game winner. this one of three, not a put-back dunk. Joker was, I mean, 42, 22. I mean, the six assists.

You'd feel great about that. I think it ended up more turnovers than assist, but Joker just absolutely a monster. But man, there was a lot of self-inflicted wounds by the thunder, and especially in those last 15 minutes. And I understand and agree with the philosophy of fouling up three in the last 15 seconds or so 100% last I don't know 20 25 seconds whatever you want to say 80 feet from the hoop though Bobby like 0.9 seconds come on dude and and and and and and and and and and and and it was Alex Crusoe and he was doing what he was told on the bench you know crusoe the you know a vet the champion a guy who had an unbelievable game who's been tremendously impactful a smart player he had two fast in the last 13 seconds when they're taking fouls,

and on those two possessions, 1.9 seconds expired. That's nuts. And then, you know, I don't know if there's a friendly way to say it. Chet Holmgren choked to the free throw line and missed two free throws and suddenly the door's wide open. He held on to that ball for that second free throw for a while, bro.

I mean, you know I'm a big Chet supporter, but that one, he was thinking. You could see it in those eyes. And I wouldn't have thought that. You know, Chet's a doesn't give a care type of guy.

Now, with Chet, I was surprised, and Bob, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. I was surprised that when OCC had both Biggs on the floor, that Chet was the primary defender on Joker.

The first half, they played them really well. He wasn't efficient. He only had a couple of assists. He had more turnos and assists. but man both bigs end up getting in foul trouble

but I really thought like Chet's jumper looked bad and it was flat and I asked Mark Dagonal today like did you think Chet having to wrestle

with that big old monster affected his legs and affected his shot on the other end he kind of downplayed that and said hey it's length versus strength and you know

you want to throw different looks and both big's got in foul trouble blah blah blah I just I don't know that you want to ask Chet to be in those wrestling matches with Joker a whole lot. Well, you're right. I mean, it's a great point. You know, what's interesting from that game, Brian, you said this, either you said it on TV or a production call that nobody was talking about is like, like, who's the guy down to stretch? Like, when we get down to these, like, clutch time and Che, you know, maybe doesn't have it going.

Who's your second guy? Well, the Thunder made, She made a basket with four minutes left that put him up 11. Okay. By the way, our probability of win

thing that we do. We might have to retire that. That sucker is, forget about it. But God knows what it said when that happened. Then they went one of eight shooting after that.

And, you know, this is Bontem's thing. Bontem's thing. talking about this for months about the Thunder. Do you believe in your second score? And they just, they couldn't find a basket. I mean, and I'm just going to say right now, Shea, I believe it will win MVP.

He's had one MVP caliber performance so far in these playoffs. I think there will be more to come. But they also need, like, Shea had 33 last night, 33 on 12th, 26. One of the reasons he's going to be MVP is because he led the league in scoring and he did it in really efficient fashion. He has not been efficient in these playoffs. Jalen Williams got to be the second score. He was great against the Grizzlies.

He had a rough second round last year when they got booted by the Mavs, and he had a rough second round series opener. Five of 20. I asked Dagenaud about that today, too, and, you know, in that context, and I thought he gave a really good, interesting, supportive answer. and the money line was Dub is a much better player now than he was a month ago, much less a year ago.

He's not going to overreact to a game. But there's some pressure. There's some serious game two pressure on obviously the Thunder as a whole, but especially I think on their number two and three guys. And that's Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. Jackson coming with the stat here. The Thunder were four of 17. on shots coming off SGA passes.

So, you know, there's support and there's, you know, dereliction. And that was closer to dereliction supporting him in that game. I will say that if you're looking for a reason to believe in the Nuggets, their role players continue to play well. Like this is what we weren't sure. Also, they have Nicole Yokin's on their team, yes. Right. But, I mean, you know, the reason that they're in this, they advance was because of their role players, including Westbrook, including Christian Brown. You know, Michael Porter Jr. is up and down, but they're getting so much good play from Aaron Gordon that they're able to survive it.

I tell you, the, the Russ thing is, Russ is a fascinating character for a million different reasons. But coming off of, you know, that was a little bit of a revenge thing against the Clippers. The Clippers dumped them. Listen, man, that dunk that he had at the end of the game where he got the technical and he talked his talk, like, you know, he got his money's worth. he you know now Oklahoma City there's nothing but love for Russ have you have either of you guys ever seen an opposing

player get a standing ovation during a playoff series when Russ checked in the game it was funny she was at the line so there was MVP chance and I kind of thought in my head oh cute they remember Russ was MVP and then he checks in you know that's when he's at the scores table he checks in the entire

arena was on its feet a loud roar of a standing ovation for the guy. Yeah, you think they'll sign them next summer? I do not. I think, I think Russ will resign with Oklahoma City Thunder on a one-day deal at some point. More hoop collective podcast after this. Okay. I'm in Boston.

I was at the three-point chuckery on Monday night. Never seen anything like it. The Celtics got 45 uncontested threes and missed 32 of them. And more surprising was that they would run a good offense. They would run plays and they would get Jason Tatum on Jalen Brunson. He's got seven or eight inches on the guy and he would just not take advantage of it. And they would get him on Carl Towns, who would have,

who had some foul trouble from the opening moments because the Knicks decided to do a switching defense because their drop coverage had been getting obliterated by Tatum. He had towns in front of him, which is exactly what they were. wanted, he just let it get bailed out. And so that's what was crazy. And, you know, the Knicks, basically the Knicks goal, in my opinion for this series is get the game to the fourth quarter.

And when you get the game to the fourth quarter, get it to clutch time, which is, you know, get it within five points with five minutes and then just hand the ball to number 11 and let him cook. And, you know, maybe you're still going to go down, but that's what you're going to do. And that's what happened here. And the Knicks, they got it done. And the two wings that they acquired, OG Annobe and Miles, I keep saying Miles, McHale Bridges, were excellent in their roles down the stretch. But I'm just going to say, the fascinating thing to me is that after the game, you know, because I've been a handful of big Celtics games over the last few years where they've gone cold from three point range and they're kind of defiant. They're like, well, this is what our process. This is what we're going to do.

We don't care what you think. Like, say whatever you want. We're going to do our thing. they actually had a modicum of regret on their chuckery. Joe Missoula actually said there might have been eight to ten shots that were maybe ill-advised. I mean, that to me is him coming way to the middle because this is a guy who was unrepentant about the way he wants his team to play. And so I was like, wow, they actually, you know, Jason Tatum said that.

they settled too much. I was like, okay, well, they get it. Well, when Joe Muzula slept on it, he took it all back. And at practice on Tuesday, he was like, yeah, there might have been two bad shots, not eight to ten. And then he's like, somebody said, well, how did the Knicks make 50% of their threes in the second half? And he was like, oh, you mean they made open shots? How novel? Which is basically his way of, which is like his way of saying, like, we're going to make them. And, you know, don't praise the Knicks for make it open shots because we had just as many. So Joe Bazula was just fine. The only thing, one other thing that I'll add that is something to keep an eye on.

Because I don't, and I'll throw it to you, I just want to kind of get stream of consciousness and out here, Bobby. But Chris Apzpsoxingus left the game in the third quarter with an illness. And then on Thursday, on Tuesday, Missoula said that this illness he was dealing with is still lingering from that virus that he had in February and March where he missed three weeks and eight games. And he said he's been doing a really good job, you know, fighting through it, but that he could sit with these bouts of fatigue and upper respiratory issues.

And he was trying to fight through it and couldn't, and that's why he came out. and he's day to day and he's listed as probable for game two so I guess he's going to play but like that was

but that's concerning on a human level that he's still battling they by the way they don't know what it was he said he's they didn't know what it was I guarantee you

he saw a lot of doctors and they ran a lot of tests so this is now two months later this is still bothering him and I don't you know you're worried about him again on a personal human level but now you're worried about him

because he's such an important player for them, is this going to be a thing? By the way, he's two of 19 on threes in the playoffs. He's shooting like 32%. It's something who's clearly bothering him. So that's something to watch going forward. Okay, Bobby, I'm out of your way now. Well, and you got to watch the Al Horford minutes. He was exhausted at the end of the game. I mean, they went to overtime. They hadn't, they weren't prepared for Porzingis to be out, but he was exhausted by the end of the game. You said you're out of his way. He said one sentence. And then you've got it. Yeah, this is a bond temp.

I'm sorry. I'm going to mute myself. I would say the game reminded me a lot of when Boston played OKC this year in Boston. And there is a trend when this thing gets, as you said, just keep it, keep it within the arms distance in the fourth quarter. Things get a little skittish for that Boston offense where there are some ill-advised. I mean, there are two for 12 from three and a lot. last five minutes in overtime. And they will make their shots.

I mean, if they go through a game in a game two and they're 15 to 60 again, I mean, but I would, listen, I feel New York winning really didn't do much for me. I know. I feel bad. I was saying that on TV today and my Nick fan friends were texting me like, you say, it's a great win. Well, and, but seriously, but seriously, like, Indiana winning game one in Cleveland.

You're like, oh, no, no, man, these Pacers are pesky. Denver, a team that won a championship a couple years ago, winning game one with a crazy comeback in Oklahoma City with the three-time MVP. You're like, okay, this might be a series. The Knicks pulling off a crazy comeback, you're like, wow, that was an insane game. Can you believe the Celtics lost it? Right. You know, and I get what Mazola is saying.

He's like, dude, if we get up 63s, how often we can only hit 15 of them? 45 uncontested. You know, and he's like, if we hit 20, which is not a good shooting night, if they, then they win it comfortably. I've been saying on T, let me know what you guys think. I'm going to workshop something for TV here. Oh, this is what Wendy does. Where is training ground?

I talked about this a little bit today, but I've been, I kind of think game two is a must-win game for the Knicks if they want to win the series. and I know that that's the inverse of things that you would ever say that the road team being up 1-0, that you know, you got the split, that's what you need. The Celtics are one of the best road teams in NBA, recent NBA history. They've won a road game in 11 consecutive series, and in those series six times they've won more than one road game. they have absolutely dominated it at Madison Square Garden and they were the best road team in the NBA. They had five fewer road losses than home losses this year.

So they're going to win a game at the Garden. If the Celtics or if the Knicks are serious about it, I mean, of course you're serious about it, but if the Knicks are going to pull this off, they're going to have any sort of chance here, You get game two. Because, by the way, they didn't play great. They played well in the fourth quarter.

But the Knicks can play better. Brunson didn't have a great shooting night by his standards. Carl Towns, he ended up with a double-double and he had some big plays down the stretch. I'll just be honest with you. And if you watch the game, you're not going to dispute me on this. Carl Towns was not good for three-quarters of this game. So they can play better too.

But Boston is so confident away from home. So I'm not where I think it's going to be. a series yet, but game two. You guys, you think I'm crazy? No, not at all. Because basically, if you don't, if this goes back to New York would have split,

I mean, the likelihood is Boston steals one of those, you know, one of those games, if not both games. So, you know, I almost think that it would be like the Knicks steal a home, a game at home the way they're good on the road. I feel like I'm really putting myself out there. First off, I'm covering this series and I got to deal

with this, but it doesn't, you know, I feel like when you're when you're this convinced of something that this is when you get smashed down. But I don't know. What's the odds on this now? Jackson? I bet you're still high. Yeah, I saw how the odds, the odds reduced for all three of the 60 win teams after they lost game one at home.

Well, here's a question. Let's play the hypothetical here. If OKC, Boston, and now, Indiana, Cleveland, the three teams go 0 and 2 on the Ofer and are down O2. What team do you have the most confidence in? Boston, right? The defending champs. Boston is still minus 350. I think they were.

Still heavy favorites. Yeah, I think they were minus 900, though. Yeah. McMahon, I was disappointed. You weren't at the Met Gala. on Monday. I guess you had to work. Well, my knee's been bothering me a little bit, and a lot of people reached out to me about it, and I wasn't able to make it this year.

Did you put out a statement, though? No, but... I didn't see your statement. No, no, I haven't been tweeting a whole lot, and, you know, I just felt like I could let that one pass. You've been sub- tweeting, though. Yeah, without letting the world, though. All right, thank you to Bobby. Thank you to McMahon.

Thank you to Jackson, our producer. Thank you for watching, listening. The Hoot Collective. We'll talk to you later this week. Adios amigos.