The Bill Simmons Podcast - Clippers Postmortem, Wiz-Celts, and Round 2 Intrigue With Joe House (Ep. 207)

Episode Date: May 1, 2017

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons welcomes longtime friend of the show Joe House to discuss the CP3 era in L.A. (5:00), sign-and-trade options for Blake Griffin (18:00), reasons to reassemble the Clippers' core (21:00), Stockton-CP3 comparisons (29:00), Wizards-Celtics (32:00), Ian Mahinmi's struggles (38:00), Al Horford’s impact (44:00), the odds of a Warriors sweep (48:00), Gordon Hayward's free agency (52:00), Raptors-Cavs (58:00), Harden's sloppiness (1:04:00), Aldridge's future with the Spurs (1:08:00), and series predictions (1:12:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's special episode of Monday Rolling is brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor. Since the last Bullets-Celtics playoff series in 1984, find the best tickets for Caps-Pens, Celts-Wiz. You like both of those teams, House. Those are two of your teams. I root for them. Like is a strong word.

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You can even get tickets for the Celtics sweep of the Wizards. Game four. Or go right to SeatGeek.com. We're also brought to you by our new podcast, Against All Odds with Cousin Sal. Have you subscribed to this on iTunes yet, House? Of course I have. I've been singing the song to myself all day long. All right.

Well, it starts this week. It launches, but you can subscribe right now on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, everywhere you get podcasts, gambling every week with the cuz. And this is one of the best weeks ever to have that podcast because not only do we have basketball, hockey, baseball, NFL futures, we have Canelo versus Chavez, just a whole lot going on. Really great stuff. It's the only one that ever meant anything at all. So take a look at us now.

When are you going to be on Against All Odds with Cousin Sal? As soon as he invites me. Actually, I'm going to invite myself. You shouldn't just invite yourself. I am. The Ringer MLB Show is back on the Ringer Podcast Network after a very successful and emotional month-long turn on TuneIn.

Thanks again to TuneIn for having us, and the Ringer MLB show is back. And last but not least, don't forget to check out theringer.com, all of our stuff. You can read my Chris Paul column that I put up on Thursday that now feels kind of ominous as a reread now that the Clipper season is over. Last but not least, though, this podcast won two Webby Awards, actually. It won the Webby Award for Best Sports Podcast, and it won the Webby Award for People's Choice Podcast House. Pretty good, huh? Nice.

Yeah. Outstanding. Thanks to the Webby Award Committee. It was an honor to be nominated. It was an honor to be nominated. It was an honor to be nominated along with all the other nominees. I'm not even sure who else was nominated. But I was excited. I think I won a couple times when I was at ESPN.

So it's nice to be back. Anyway, we're going to talk with House about the NBA playoffs. But first, fresh off their triumphant appearance in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was on HBO this weekend, Pearl Jam. All right, house. Lots to cover. Rocket Spurs. That starts tonight.

Cavs Hawks starts tonight. The Wiz Celts has already started. I think we should start with the clips, though. Let's talk about this is now year six has come and gone of the chris paul era in the clip does it feel like it's been six years to you you know what it feels like it's been 60 years okay it feels like forever and the reason it feels like it forever is because in that in that six years they crammed in like a decade's worth more than a decade's worth of franchise drama. I mean, you wrote this in the column from Friday. You can't make this stuff up.

It's much stranger than fiction. No, and they really had their windows looking back. I realized that as I was writing this column. Their real windows for this team were 2014 and 2015. But I think when people look back at this little Clippers era, you know, 35, 40 years from now,

we, you know, when I was writing my book, I would look back at teams in the sixties and be like, why didn't that team do better? Why didn't this team do better? It is incredible. You know,

they had Blake Griffin, 2012, second team, all NBA, 2013, second team, all NBA, 2014, 2013 second team all-NBA, 2014 second team all-NBA, 2015 third team all-NBA. Chris Paul, 2012 first team, 13 first team, 14 first team, 15 second team, 16 second team.

And then DeAndre made 13 and 15 and then last year made first team I can't remember a team having three top 15 players at the same time who's had less success not that DeAndre is technically I mean technically he's probably not a top 15 player but you know he made first team omba and third team the year before. It's kind of staggering that they had this much individual success and just no team success. The year for them was when they lost to Houston in Game 6. That was the year for them. Yeah, and they had a chance.

Yeah, they could have beaten Golden State. Sure. I mean, it would have been a good series that was still at the moment when they they had aspirations of creating a rivalry with golden state the thing about golden state that year was they hadn't really gone through it yet and that also the clippers had beaten them the year uh 13 they'd already beaten them in a playoff series so i guess 2013ippers had beaten them the year 13. They'd already beaten them in a playoff series. So I guess 2013 they'd beaten them. But the Warriors hadn't been through that whole run of those really deep,

high-attention playoff reps. And if you remember in the finals, they weren't themselves for a couple games. LeBron was able to slow stuff down and do crazy LeBron stuff. And I don't think they really got going until game four. I think the Clips could have potentially surprised them. But the thing is, Doc Rivers had done such a bad job building the bench that, if you remember that Houston series, the Clips kind of wore out, which is a little what we saw in this Utah series.

Everybody's talking about how tired Chris Paul is and how Chris Paul's worn down. They've got to have other ball handlers. Why is Chris Paul worn down? It's round one. It's not like he's playing 49 minutes a game. One of the things that we'll remember about this era of Clippers basketball is that Doc never found a proper backup point guard. He went in the direction of his son. He chose his son over a proper backup point guard. He went in the direction of his son. He chose his son over a proper backup point guard,

and they paid the price for that year in and year out. Yeah, but his son played pretty well. See, I would flip that another way, especially this year. When you have Redick, you have Crawford, and you have Austin Rivers, can we all say those are all two guards right those are all two guards yeah so they had raymond felton raymond felton was probably the best backup point guard chris paul had and you know think about that say that again ray felton is the best backup point guard 2017 ray felton is the best backup point guard. 2017 Ray Felton is the best backup

point guard that Chris Paul had in his time as a Clipper. Yeah, that's pretty bad. I tweeted Jamal Crawford's playoff stats for the last three years for the Clippers. It is unbelievable. I mean, he was like 27

playoff games, 23% from three shooting, almost five threes a game. He's like 37%. You know, I always felt like Jamal Crawford was fool's gold. Because when he'd have that one, you know, he'd have that one hot game and it felt like he was the greatest player on the planet. Like Jalen was pushing for him for sixth man of the year this year, which I was stunned by. He won last year. I didn't even have him in my top three. You know, he's one of those guys. He can only do one thing and he doesn't

do it that well that often. But when he does it, it seems like he's doing well. But they would have they did in the Utah series. Tolan and I would sit together. The guy I share tickets with and there'd be 20 seconds left in a quarter. I'd be like, oh, clear out. Jamal's going to create. And it's like it would never go in. You know, he's, he's like certain guys. And we've played pickup with guys like this, these guys that carry themselves like they're awesome. And they kind of brainwash you into thinking it. And they're just not, it's such a weird, weird team.

And such a weird ending to, to lose three of four playoff games at home and to lose a game seven at home, to me, that says blow it up. It's a weird ending, except for it's the Clippers, so there's nothing weird about it. Blake heard his big toe, and the Clippers lost three or four games at home.

I mean, welcome to the Clippers world. Gobert wasn't really Gobert this whole series either. You know? And they got them without a couple Gobert games. And, you know, they lost game one at home with no Gobert, right? Gobert got hurt in 13 seconds. And they still blew that game. Blake was healthy that game.

That's kind of indefensible, isn't it? Yeah. It's super indefensible, isn't it? Yeah. It's super indefensible. I don't know what they do because I was talking with – after I wrote the column, a bunch of different people reached out to me with some theories and stuff. One of them was that it's going to be a lot easier to trade Blake Lerfin than I made it seem in that column. The way you trade him is you basically convince him

to opt into next year, which is like $22 million. But he gets to basically choose what team he's going to. The Chris Paul, that's the old money versus title situation that Carmelo was in this situation a couple years ago.

Chris Paul could sign for $201 million right now and lock it down. And I think he's on the other side of his prime at this point. You saw if he can't play seven games against Utah without wearing down a little bit, that tells me he's at the tail end of his prime. So he could stay with the Clips for $201 million. Or he could say, screw it, I'm going to go chase a title. And he'd kind of be the

perfect spur i mean that would be just incredible to have him and kawai and all these other guys my question is do we hold the chris paul playoff performance against him after i wrote that column uh jerks jonathan jerks who's doing an awesome job for us in the playoffs, mailed me this column that I'd missed from his old website in November 2014. And it was basically about Chris Paul is at one level during the regular season, especially when he's going against lesser competition. But when you have to raise your stakes, when you got to bring it every night, when you're're in postseason basketball the results weren't there like we thought they were and he went through you know 2012 mike conley this is all from jerks is calm so check this out it's online as his site his old site was pattern of basketball dot blogspot.com uh 2012 he ate totally outplayed Conley. 2013, outplayed him, but it was a little closer. 2014, Steph played really well in that series.

Remember that? Steph, that was kind of when we knew Steph had a chance to be something special. He did a really nice job in that series. Yeah, he did. And Chris was throwing everything at him and he was kind of holding up. The next series, Westbrook kind of destroyed Chris Paul.

Chris Paul got so Jarks has him as 22, 4, and 11 on 51% shooting, but Westbrook was 28, 6, and 9 on 49% shooting. How about that? I mean, you don't kill Chris Paul for that.

Listen, that's head-to-head in his prime for a playoff series. And if you remember Oklahoma City, that was the game five when the Clips are up six, Blake at the line with a minute nine left. He makes one, misses one, and then the Clips fall apart in one of the most inconceivable ways in the history of the playoffs. And Chris Paul makes – I wrote that it was the worst 20-second stretch any great player has ever had. He literally made three terrible, terrible, terrible plays,

and it flipped the series, and they lost. So then you go next year, they're playing, this is after Jarks were at this comp, they're playing Houston in the playoffs. No Patrick Beverly, remember? It was like Jason Terry. He was hurt, that's right. Yeah.

It was like the Rockets put out Vorp guys at point guard and the Clippers couldn't win. And now it goes through there and it's like, I don't know. You and I feel the same about the rings culture and it's unfairly maligned certain guys from the past that we love Barkley being one of them. But, uh, man, like you saw what John Wall did in Atlanta on Friday night. He just put everyone on his back. He's

like, fuck this. We're winning this series. And it just doesn't seem like Chris had a lot of those in the playoffs. And my question to you is maybe he's just not that type of player you know maybe he's he's the efficient i think he he intends to be that kind of player he wants to be that kind of player he's just not capable of exerting his will to and and making uh you know having his way at the most crucial moments. It's kind of the over time the conclusion I think we have to draw. He hasn't played it's unfair to say

Barkley's name alongside Chris Paul. Chris Paul hasn't played in a conference final in his career. Jarks had the theory that he's just too short, which is – it sounds simple, but he listed all the best guys in this column from three years ago and all the best guys in championship teams since 1979.

Everyone was 6'4 or taller except for Isaiah Thomas. Now since that column, Steph Curry had 15 and 16. I guess just 15 because they lost at 16, but Steph Curry is like 6'3". But his point was, it's really hard to exert your will when you're six feet tall. And I think the Celtics have seen that to some degree with Isaiah Thomas, where as the teams get better,

it becomes just easier to kind of come up with different tricks to kind of keep a short guy from dominating a basketball game. Yesterday he was making threes. Yeah, it's not just teams getting better, but it's when you're in a series where you're playing the same team repeatedly in a seven-game series, they can adjust. I mean, I'm counting on this out of my Washington almost bullets here against... Yeah, we're going to talk about that in a second.

Utah, I thought Quinn Snyder was one of the heroes of round one. He did a really great job, especially considering the Gobert situation and everything that was going on yesterday. I was having trouble keeping Gobert on the court. But one of the things they did yesterday defensively is they were just flooding Chris Paul, which is something that the Celtics have had to deal with with Isaiah with certain teams,

where you're just basically making it impossible for them to come off picks and do the screens and all that stuff. And the Clips didn't have an answer because most of the guys in their team just stand in spots and shoot or they're coming around picks and shooting. So I wouldn't blow it up if I were them.

What? I wouldn't. I would actually keep Blake because I think the chance of, if you just go through all the Blake injuries, the odds of him being able to get in, in good game shape next year and be healthy again, I,

to me, that's a safer bet than what I would get from him for, for him in a, in a sign and trade. Who's, who's, who's mortgaging the farm for Blake Griffin. He said,

he said like seven surgeries. Would you, would you be happy if the, if the wizards traded Bradley bill for Blake Griffin. He's had like seven surgeries. Would you be happy if the Wizards traded Bradley Beal for Blake Griffin? No. No. I would not do that trade. I would still do the trade of Boogie for Bradley Beal. I would still take Boogie

but I'm not taking Blake Griffin. But that's the thing. It's like you're not getting superstar for superstar for Blake but you're also not getting any of the expensive younger Bradley Beal, CJ McC superstar for superstar for Blake, but you're also not getting any of the expensive, younger Bradley Beal, C.J. McCollum types for Blake either. I don't think you're going to be able to get any of those guys. What you might be able to get is— We're at a crazy moment.

We're at a crazy moment because the Hawks are in the same predicament. What are they going to do with Paul Millsap? Well, I think he's just going to leave. Well, that means he's going to take a pay cut. But, you know, that's the challenge under the current collective bargaining agreement. You can't pay Blake Griffin like a superstar. You just said, you know, you're not going to do a superstar for superstar trade. Is Blake Griffin a superstar?

He was. He was. He was. Congratulations. That's right he was is not going to win you games since the 2017 2018 basketball season 2014 third in the mvp voting 2015 we were on my old podcast agreeing that he was um the third best player in the league during a point when the league was getting really good.

So then last year he breaks his hand. I forget what his injury was that knocked him out of the playoffs. And then this year he got a knee scoped but then broke his toe. And I got to be honest, the broken toe thing, I think if he wasn't a free agent, don't you think they would have just shot it up and he would have played? It's probably too risky. Could they shoot up a broken toe?

I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think you can play if your feet are messed up. Would you rather play him or would you rather have some of the dudes there thrown out? Would you rather have Blake on one foot or some of the dudes there thrown out there? At least he's like the threat of something. You can't have him on one foot or some of the dudes that were throwing out there? At least he's like the threat of something. You can't have him on one foot. I don't know.

People have played on stuff that was worse than that. A broken ankle. Isaiah Thomas played on a broken ankle. It was super sprained. Yeah, Isaiah played on that super, super duper sprained. I think they could have shot him up, but I don't think it made sense for either side to do that. Like if it was year two of a five-year contract and he's there and it's around three, but I think they were like, it's around one.

It's probably a stupid conversation. But yeah, I think to me it's a safer bet that Blake can come back and you can get a couple good years out of him. What's your goal? What are you doing if you bring back Blake and bring back

I mean, does that mean CP3's back as well? All right. You own the Clippers. You have it's a Lakers city anyway so you're screwed in that point. You have two football teams here now. You have two baseball teams.

You're going to have two soccer teams. You have a hockey team. You have UCLA and USC. You have to have stars or you're immediately irrelevant. That's a bad way to build a champion, I don't you can almost talk yourself into well we still have one of the best 12 players in the league so we can start there we can't lose him and then Blake was third best player in the league two years ago we can't lose him I could see talking myself into that if I'm in the clips you know because the alternative is you're just rebuilding

and it's like how do I sell a rebuild to this fan base that has just been kicked in the nuts for 40 years? And just watch the Lakers do it for the last four, and they don't even have a guaranteed all-star yet. But what's the hope? What hope are you selling bringing back this core group? You're selling that they had bad luck the last two years. Oh, my God. You didn't like that? That's a tough sell.

Do I need to get back with my marketing team and work on that somewhere? You need to work on that one a little bit. The old bad luck is not putting asses in seats, I don't think. So, again, what would you do with Blake Griffin? I so again what would you do with Blake Griffin you would not give him four year

150 million dollar extension or whatever he's eligible for five years 150 absolutely not absolutely not

under no circumstances no way would you trade him would you tell him opt in for one more year and we'll trade you to the Knicks for Carmelo

oh I I would have done that at the trade deadline I still think trade him, would you tell him, opt in for one more year and we'll trade you to the Knicks for Carmelo? Oh, I would have done that at the trade deadline. I still think they should have done that. Yeah, I think they should. I don't understand why that deal didn't happen before the trade deadline. They would have been so much better off with Melo. A motivated Melo in LA. He knew

at that point that him and Lala were going down. An excited Melo in in LA you kidding me? audible.com do you love books but you don't have time to read them? audible.com has the perfect solution get audio books and listen at the gym during commutes or even watching football on mute

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Go to audible.com slash BS today and start your free trial right now. That's audible.com slash BS. So you're saying put a fork in the clippers. I think I might agree with you, but I don't think they can do it that way. The other move is to fire Doc and blame everything on him. Would you do that? Absolutely. I would definitely do that? Absolutely. I would definitely do that.

22-0. I just would try and start fresh at every level. I would move JJ. He's gone. JJ's signing somewhere else. Oh, he's unrestricted? JJ's going to get a nice deal from Brooklyn or somebody. He'll get $60 million for three years, something crazy.

So all four players. I mean, you know, Blake, CP3, JJ, you're going to—Felton, Jamal Crawford, even though they extended him for whatever reason. Doc, get rid of all of them no you gotta start fresh no you can't just get rid of good players that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard what are you talking about

who are the good players you're the same guy who got mad at me when I said you should trade John Wall in November when you were 2-8 you're like I can't trade John Wall that was an absurd thing to say then and it's still absurd it's absurd to say get rid of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. Unless I'm getting something for them. Those guys are assets.

All right, Tate's the time breaker. No, no, no, no. Of course. No, I'm not saying, you know, just wave them. No, you definitely, you work some trades and get back whatever you're going to get. It's going to be 25 cents on the dollar. You make your peace with the fact that the best you're going to do is 25 or 30 or maybe, if you're lucky, 50 cents on the dollar.

Absolutely. I'm not suggesting that they don't get anything in return. It's got to be picks. It's got to be young players with some promise. But you have to start fresh, is my view. First of all, Chris is getting the $201 million, so you're not trading him until December. So just factor that part into your thing.

Blake is much more tradable. And I'll be curious. It would have to be a desperate team. It would have to be somebody who looked at all the surgeries and the injury history and said to themselves, it's risky, but we got to try it. So who's the desperate team? I mean, you always got to look at the Knicks.

I think the Lakers, because I think they share the same medical staffs, I think the Lakers would probably run the other direction from that. But I'm sure there's a couple other ones. I would think about it. That's close. You can come up with something with all the assets that... Orlando? Houston has.

Houston wouldn't go near him. Okay, I don't know. I mean, your team has a lot of assets. The Celtics still need some reliable scoring. It certainly didn't hurt us yesterday when we were putting 123 on your ass. Are we going there now? Tate, would you keep Chris Paul and Blake Griffin?

Chris Paul's getting a statue in front of Staples. Tate says Chris Paul's getting a statue in front of Staples. For nothing. I'm fine with that. He deserves it. He was there for the transformation

of the franchise. I don't have any issue with his contribution and all the achievements that he had. It's just time to move on. They should make the statue and only make 85% of it to mirror what every

Clippers playoff season was like. They just lost in the first round to the Jazz. Like, what am I supposed to do? Get up a standing ovation? They lost three home playoff games.

I don't even know what to say to that They lost a game seven And Chris Paul is supposed to be one of the top five point guards in the league So what do you want me to do? He's supposed to be the best player on the floor Was he? Is there some John Stockton similarities In that Incredibly efficient, great numbers

Awesome point guard, love him to death But there's another gear that they can't hit? John Stockton went to the finals. He played in the NBA finals. Remember how long it took him to get there, though? He didn't get there until year 14, and that was even after, you know, basically after his prime. And a lot of it had to do with the talent.

I wrote about this last week about the talent kind of dipped, which really helped those Utah teams. But the Utah fans were all mad that I thought Chris Paul. I got to rethink that, actually. You know, I got a lot of feedback because I put Chris Paul and Curry ahead of Stockton on the all-time list. And Curry belongs. I got to really, I got to almost do like a two-day deep dive

trying to figure out Chris Paul versus Stockton. It's a tough one. Chris Paul's regular season, the efficiency, all that stuff are incredible. But from a playoff standpoint, even less success than Stockton had those first 12 years. Stockton at least went to the conference finals three times. Yeah. I think when you don't go to any conference finals,

at some point, you can't just say, oh, rings culture, oh, it's not just about winning. It's a little bit kind of winning. You can only play five guys. You know, the best players end up in the... This is the problem I have with my Washington Capitals. I mean, hockey is even more of a team sport.

But at some point, it's the same guy for a decade. Yeah, it's true. And he can't get to the finals. He can't get to the conference finals. There was some... You know, George Garvin really jumped out at me like 40 years ago when I was working on my book

trying to figure out where to place him. And he had a couple moments that he really could have, you know, he had a couple chances to have defining moments. And the biggest one, 79 against your beloved Bullets. Yeah.

They're up 3-1 in that series, and the Bullets come back and win 4-3, and Bobby Dandridge does a job on them. And I was able to get the tapes for, I think, all three of those games. And Girvin just, there were moments when they really needed him, and he just wasn't there. I forget, I think his points were okay, but it was more of like when you're watching the game,

these little moments when the best guys get like, all right, guys, I got this. And he just never really did it. He was this volume scorer that that's really all he did. And, you know, if they make the finals that year, they probably could have beaten Seattle. They had a pretty good team so i don't know the playoffs are about those three four or five times over the course of your career when there's this little fork in the road and for the clippers man you go back to 14 and 15

and i still think that was that's a killer all right let's, let's talk about the Wiz Celts. Our teams have never played in the playoffs together. Since we've been friends. Since we've been friends. They played in 82 and 84. We became friends in 88. Bernard King joined the Bullets like a year or so after that. I remember we watched a couple of Bullets Celtics games.

We really enjoyed it. Bernard King and Bird on the court together. King joined the Bullets short, like a year or so after that. I remember we watched a couple of Bullets Celtics games. We really enjoyed it. Bernard King and Bird on the court together. Never really took it seriously. And then it was just a train wreck from that. Neither team was really good at the same time. And then finally, finally we have our series and you were very confident on, on the Wizards. You might've placed a little wager on your team.

Was that out of blind love, or did you really think it was a good matchup? I think it's a good enough matchup. I just wanted all the karma to be right for my team this year. I mean, my team is fatally flawed, and you saw all of that on display yesterday afternoon. Small, quick complaint. Why the Celtics and the Wiz are playing at 1 o'clock Sunday afternoon. I know the schedule was set ahead of time, but goodness gracious, they both played Friday night.

I know. They have to be back out there. I know they weren't factoring in, you know, Isaiah go flying across country for his sister's funeral. But, you know, would it have killed them to push the game back to, you know, 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock in the evening? Could have been after the Clips Utah game, even, but in any event. Why wasn't Spurs Houston at 1 o'clock on Sunday? Those teams haven't played for a couple days now. That's what I didn't get.

Or where was Cleveland? Cleveland-Toronto. Why is Cleveland-Toronto tonight? I don't know. Anyway. Go ahead. I feel good about my team in this series. I like the matchup.

I like, you know, this is a Celtics team. We've talked about this a million times. It's really in transition. This isn't the year that they imagined, you know, going all the way, I don't think, going to the finals. I mean, it took an extraordinary year out of Isaiah Thomas. They've been happy with Thomas, right? Coming into the 2016-2017 season, you loved the over for them.

They barely hit it, right? What was it, 53-and-a-half? Yeah, barely, by a half. Yeah, they barely hit the over. But it felt like a team that would go to the conference finals and lose to Cleveland, and that may yet happen in terms of the ceiling for the Celtics. The Celtics' big play remains all the assets that they have.

And I love the matchup that we had with you guys over the course of the season. We split the season series. There was some good, you know, trash talking. The Washington backcourt was healthy for the entirety of this season, a rarity here. And, you know, we match up well with you when we're healthy. And everything changed in the second quarter yesterday when Al Horford pulled out an old Bruce Bowen trick and walked right underneath of Keith's feet.

He did not. Stop it. And let him come down and land on his foot. Come on. That's not what happened. Al Horford's a classy individual. All I know is Keefe went straight up and came straight down

and he landed on Al Horford's foot. Al Horford's foot wasn't there when Keefe went up. Well, he should have moved his foot. He should have landed somewhere else. You missed a golden chance because Stevens played the wrong lineup in the first quarter.

And he went small when he shouldn't have gone small. He kept the Gerald Green lineup. The only reason that worked in the Bulls series was because it spread out the Bulls and we were just too quick in the perimeter and we had too many shooters. But against the Wizards, you can't do that because of Morris. And once they figured that out,

and once they figured out that two of smart Bradley Rozier always had to be in the game to deal with Wall, then you saw the game start to shift. What was interesting was Boyan got hot in the second half. In the first half, it looked like you couldn't play him. It looked like you might not even be able to play him in the series. He was being so badly exposed. And then that flipped in the second half, and Stevens dusted off Jalen Brown, who was just getting DNPs in the Chicago series. It's interesting to me.

Somebody texted me this who works in the league that when in doubt in these playoff series, teams just go young and athletic and try to figure it out, which is what the Celtics did in that series and I'm going to be really interested if Jalen Brown can keep playing because the Celts don't have a lot of guys in their roster to handle Bogdanovich if he's going to play and conversely they can't really torch him on the other side unless it's with uh Olenek so I think this one's going to have a bunch of different matchup game by game. It's going to switch depending on who gets hot and all that stuff.

I think this goes seven still. What do you think? I hope you're right. I mean, all of this really comes down to how hurt Keith's ankle is. He was one of the crucial X-Factors because of the advantage that he represents along with Gortat on the defensive boards after Robin Lopez's

performance against the Celts. I had high hopes that Keefe and Gortat together were going to help offset some of that three-point shooting by the Celts. And you expected the Celts to shoot well. If you're going to be a Washington fan and look at this game as a glass half full, the Celts tied their franchise record for threes yesterday. Crowder had his very best playoff game as a professional.

He shot six of eight from three after shooting 27% against the Bulls. The Wiz missed nine free throws. And they lost the third quarter by 20 points. And yet, speaking of Bogdanovich, Bogdanovich had a four-point play that had the effect

of making the game... It was a three-point play that had the effect of making the game, it was a three-point game with six and a half minutes left. So your point, you know, about missing out on a golden opportunity because of who Brad started, I mean, you know, the Wiz took great advantage of that, and then Brad adjusted. And the Wiz won the first quarter. They were dominant in the first quarter, but, you know, that's not... Congratulations. Put teams away. You know, you've got to play all 48 minutes, and the

wizard's bench stinks. It stinks, stinks. It was a historically bad bench. They managed to slightly correct that through a couple of additions, Bogdanovich and Jennings, around the trade deadline period. It would be wonderful if Yann Mahinmy could take off his ballet slippers and join the boys on the basketball court one of these days. It would be neat if a $16 million man at some point could come play some playoff minutes for the team that had this great confidence in him. That would be a neat development, especially in view of Keith's injury. But depth-wise,

the Celtics have the ability to exploit some Washington vulnerability, and it's going to require super human effort from Beal and Wall to maximize the advantage they have in the backcourt for the Wiz to hang in there. For this to go, it might only...

I think it should be, as you are observing, a very competitive, hotly contested series, but it might not be if Keefe is hurt more than it seems. I like that you're already making excuses. First of all, you got every call yesterday. You had 14 fouls, Celtics had 25, and the refs at the end were trying to give you extra fouls. So it wasn't like the most embarrassing disparity ever.

So don't forget that part. And your bench is bad, but it wasn't Thunder bad. You still have got – you have Oubre and Bogdanovich. I don't think Jason Smith is terrible. I don't think it's that bad of a bench. Smith is hurt also. Huh? I said Smith is a little bit dinged also. He has a calf problem. Sorry. I don't know what it is with Wizards. It's the fucking playoffs. Sorry. I have a calf. Smith is hurt also. Huh? I said Smith is a little bit dinged also.

He has a calf problem. Sorry. I don't know what it is with Wizards. It's the fucking playoffs. Sorry. And calf problems. Sorry. Everybody's a little banged up now.

Derek Favors was limping around yesterday in game seven. You need, you know, if you look at the box score, you got as good of a Gortat game as you're going to get, and you got as good of an Otto Porter game as you're going to get. Wall can probably, you know, Wall was 20 and 16, but it did feel like the Celts figured I had to at least slow him down. I think your advantage is Beal

in the series. I think his size and his scoring and his creativity is just an issue for the Celtics. He needs to go to the basket. He needs to go to the basket. And I'm not sure that we got the best Porter. If we got the best Porter, we're going to lose this series.

Because he was one of the culprits on those missed rotations. Well, you're right. Defensively. To have a whole bunch of open threes in the third quarter. Yeah, he's not a very good defensive player, is he? I think of him as a 3 and D guy. But I do feel like he's not nearly what I had for him in my head.

He made a lot of mistakes yesterday. One, the thing, Kevin O'Connor wrote this in his recap, eight questions to look at over the course of this series, these upcoming playoff series. The guy that Isaiah Thomas is going to end up on is Porter

because you have to find Isaiah on defense. That's the best way. And Porter is the most likely candidate. But Porter doesn't have any track record whatsoever playing with his back to the basket. And him taking advantage of the mismatch with Isaiah is going to require an adjustment by Scotty Brooks to really leverage that into an advantage. And the one play yesterday, he caught the ball way too high. It wasn't anywhere near the box. And he turned around and did kind of a fall away over Thomas, which is just the predictable myth in food. It's the old pickup basketball thing when you throw somebody out of what they want to do

by presenting them a seeming advantage that Jedi mind tricks them. It's like, hey, Washington, we got Isaiah Thomas on Otto Porter. You should post him up. It'd be great. Meanwhile, you don't want Otto Porter ever to post up. You wouldn't want him to post up against your six-year-old son. But if I'm a Celtics fan, that's great because if he's posting up, that means Bradley Beal and John Warrant shooting.

And that means Bogdanovich doesn't have the ball. On that note, I was thrilled by Crowder's performance. I mean, if he's going to have a six of eight, three-point shooting performance and be emboldened to take shots throughout the series, let it be in game one. Let him get that swag going now. My dad made the same point, because Jay Crowder's his most frustrating Celtic.

He's like, you know, he was great. We won the game. I hope that doesn't mean he's going to think he can shoot for the A3s again for the rest of the series because I'm going to have a heart attack. The Celts were 19 for 39 from three, and any time they shoot that well from three, they've won, and it doesn't matter who they play. That's going to be the case.

If they shoot that well from the field. They won't. Okay. They won't. If they do, they're going to win. How about that that it's a team that is designed to take between 35 and 40 shots a game and if they make over 40 percent of them it's really hard to beat them i will say though everybody was giving al horford shit

especially after the first two games um it's always a good barometer to know if people actually know what to look for when they watch basketball and know what to value. But, you know, great. He doesn't get 12 rebounds a game. He gets eight. Okay. He's probably the best passing center in the league, unless you count Draymond as a center.

He can shoot threes, which spreads the floor. He's the smartest guy on the team. He's the best teammate on the team. He's a very, very good low post defender. He's a good help defender. The guy does a million things. And the price for shitty centers last summer was $17 million a year for a bad center.

And he's actually good. I have one. We have one. Yeah, you have one. You know who else has one? The Lakers. You know who else has one? The Knakers. You know who else has one? The Knicks.

That was the price for centers last year. It was $16 million. So they paid Horford $25 million, and he's actually good. He's a good center. I'll tell you what. I like having him on my team in the playoffs. Well, he took out our X Factor, so congratulations. He's also, I guess, a cagey vet with the Bruce Bowen cheap shot.

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That's LegacyBox.com slash BS for 40% off. I'm afraid to send my stuff to Legacy Box because, yeah, I mean, to be honest, I really have some crazy stuff. I don't know if I want another human being to see some of the videos we took in college. I don't know if it's a good idea to really think about this. I love the idea of Legacy Box. I'm going to send them some family stuff and test it out, but I don't know. Does Legacy Box have an NDA? There's some jack-o.

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I think you're probably going to lose game two unless one of your guys goes off. You need one of the two. Wall or Beal. It should be Wall. Wall had eight turnovers. It's just such a tough matchup because of Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart. I mean, they just, you know.

Now, Wall did get to the basket, and he twice got under the rim or near the rim and then passed out for three-point shots. And I would prefer that he just go ahead and take the layup, and that might be something that might tilt things a little bit in his favor. But it's just a tough matchup. Were you surprised? I think you're right that it's going to be Beal. It's got to be Beal.

I think your best chance to win in Boston is Beal to have, and I'm not even exaggerating this number, I think he needs to have like a 45-point game. Oh, my God. If you had said to me, how much do you think Beal needs to score to win in Boston? My number was 45. There's something wrong with us.

No, you need, well, we've been talking about basketball for 30 years. He needs to just, he needs a game where he's like 27 shots. He's like 16 for 27. And he makes seven threes and gets the line eight times and makes seven of them. One of those type of things. Because I do think he's the biggest problem for the Celtics. Because he can shoot over smarter Bradley. And there's been moments during the season when he's just done whatever he wants

while the Celts are kind of equipped to at least keep him in check and prevent him from doing... You know, those two guys together, what, they have 73 points in Game 6 against Atlanta? Yeah. That's not happening against the Celtics. I don't think, but I think Beal is the one that could potentially go off.

Hey, cousin Sal texted us while we're doing this podcast. He said, where's sweep is plus one 20. Oh yeah. I need, I need to offload some of the loss I'm going to take on the big bet I made on the wizards in the series.

Yeah. Not a bad idea. I wouldn't give up on that Wizards bet. I haven't given up on anything, but I want to cover some of it. So where is plus 120 and 4 and plus 125 and 5? I love

that it's a plus number. I'm glad that it's above even odds. I'm going to play a little game called Here's What I Learned From Round 1. I think to stop Utah, all you have to do is take out Ingles and Rodney Hood. Because if both of them are out, if you remove both of those guys from the game and they do nothing, they can't win. That's what happened to them in Game 6. We might have had a wager on Utah in that game and we might have been disappointed.

We were disappointed. But Ingles and Hood suck together. And I don't know what the stats are. I just know from... I went to three Jazz Clippers games over the last month. Watched them pretty carefully.

They need at least one of those guys. When both of them play well, they're almost unbeatable, unless they're playing the Warriors. But when they both suck, it's really hard for them because Hayward can still get his 27 to 28. Other guys can get a little bit. But Inglis is shockingly valuable for them on both ends.

He really is a creator for them. I don't know what they do with the George Hill thing. Because I think they're going to get swept. I would not pay George Hill like $100 million personally. Nice player, but I just don't. I'm opposed to paying

guys who aren't in the top 12 at their position. Like they're top 12 guys. I think it's a mistake. Are you going to call that the Reggie Jackson rule? Yeah. The Kemba Walker rule. Any of that stuff.

Tate, are you happy you're paying Kemba Walker max money? No, stop shooting Kemba. Stop shooting Kemba, Tate says. It's tough. I think there's better ways to build a team personally but uh but you know that team had a really good series and I'm sure they're having ideas and if they can throw a couple haymakers at the Warriors during the course of this series and get it to six then you have to bring everyone back right right I think? I think so, right?

Yeah. I don't know what happens with Hayward. You know, we had a piece on The Ringer today by John Gonzalez about him, and he mentioned something in that piece that I think is an important little tidbit for people to remember. They wouldn't pay him four years ago.

He had to go out and get a max restricted contract offer from another team. And initially it was going to be Cleveland. And then it ended up being Charlotte. And Charlotte signed him to a max restricted free agent offer. And Utah matched it. It was insulting, the whole thing. Because Utah was basically like, we don't know if you're a max player. Go out and see if you can get the offer.

And then he went out and had interest and he got the offer. Be interesting to see if he files that one away, is my point. I know things are great now. It's a pretty good nucleus in Utah. It would be a tough thing to walk away from. Celtics would be interesting for him.

I know, that's the thing. It'd have to be a team like the Celtics that's interesting for him I know that's the thing it has to be a team like the Celtics that's right on the brink their own selves it made the Celtics chances worse that they got to round 2 I think if they had blown game 6 and game 7 and the season was over

I would have been more optimistic I was really impressed by him in person he's really smart. I love watching him. I love watching some of the little subtle stuff he does. He's kind of an old school, like 1970s, 80s type of, from that era type of player. I was impressed with him. That's a nice team. The problem for them is favors. They can't keep him even remotely physically healthy. Even you saw yesterday, he had such a big impact on that game, but he can't stay on the court and be an athlete.

He looks old. When you see him in person, it's like, that guy looks like he's 38. I just want to complete the thought really quickly on Hayward. Has there ever been an instance where a prime free agent was coming on the market and one of the most likely teams out there bidding for his services featured his former college coach? Well, that's the Celtics' biggest asset, Titus.

Titus was talking about that for a while. I want to have Titus on the podcast soon to talk about Gordon Hayward so he can put it in his own perspective. But, yeah, Stevens was recruiting Hayward when he wasn't even on the map. And then I think he had a growth spurt and he became like a belatedly sexy high school recruit. But he stuck with Stevens. So I don't know, man. I think we've ruled never to rule out Miami ever when they have cap space.

It's just a rule. And I don't think San Antonio could never to rule out Miami ever when they have cap space. It's just a rule. And I don't think San Antonio could ever be ruled out either. So he's going to have options. He's going to get courted. And when Utah plays the loyalty card, he is going to have in the back of his head, four years ago, you guys didn't think I was a max player. So I think that's a real thing. Quickly, let's talk about propercloth.com.

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no we got we have uh we have some beds we have helix slash house, I think. Oh, it's nice. You know you've arrived in life when you have a slash with your name in it or your initials. It's great. It's good. I'm very happy that I have a couple slash BSs. All right, back to the pod. So Houston-San Antonio is by far the most fascinating series in round two.

Cleveland-Toronto we can talk about really quickly. It's going to come down to what Toronto team shows up. I do think they have the pieces. It's not even worth talking about it with you because you're just in the LeBron. He'll just turn on the switch when he needs to and he's going to get by Toronto. Is it even worth talking about? I actually think that Toronto has a chance because of their depth and because of a Bach and PJ Tucker PJ Tucker on LeBron is going to be is one of the

best storylines of this this this round so I also think Toronto has a I'm glad we're able to talk about this because I also think I thought you were just going to be like, I also think Toronto has a chance. I think defensively, it is by far a much better team than they were last year. I think they have the lineup.

When Cleveland does that, we're behind by 15. Let's just put LeBron and a bunch of shooters out there. The Raps can actually answer that with a couple lineups of their own. And most important, they're going to ugly it up, and they're going to do a whole bunch of PJ Tucker type stuff and Ibaka stuff. I agree. I totally agree with that. And there's going to be elbows and pushes and guys staring at each other

and people trying to get in Kyrie's head and LeBron's head. That's why I think this could be a series. I think they're going to try to turn it into a street fight. It's basically what they did to Milwaukee from game four on. They were like, Oh God, let's, let's flip the series.

We're going to make this super ugly and we're going to start banging you guys around. How are you guys going to handle it? And Milwaukee can handle it. I think the same thing with this series street fight, knocking, but I, I kind of like Toronto's chances in the street fight. Me too. Let me tell you, if Toronto goes into this series and says,

LeBron's not getting a layup, you can go to the line. Go get your two points at the line. You're not getting a layup. We're not letting you get to the rim. We're using six fouls from Valanchunas. We're going to use our six fouls on Patterson. We're going to bring in that rookie from Utah. He has six fouls from Valanchunas. We're going to use our six fouls on Patterson. We're going to bring in that rookie from Utah. He has six fouls. Go on down the line and just batter LeBron and make it

so that when he goes to the rim, he's getting hit and he's going to have to earn the two points. I think that's going to work. And if you have, you know, Tucker to throw at him for 25, 30 minutes, LeBron's going to score on him, but it's not easy. You know? The thing that kills Toronto is that Damari Carroll just fell off a cliff. Yeah, they need that shooting from that position. It's exactly why they signed him for this series, right? And then they had to go out and get P.J. Tucker instead.

But Lowry and DeRozan? Lowry's a free agent after this year. I don't know. There's a case to be made. They're going to have great home crowds. I don't think Cleveland's very good defensively. Understatement.

Understatement of the year. You know who I think the key guy in this series is? Kyrie. Oh. He's going to do some Kyrie takeover things? Who's guarding Kyrie in this series? He's the guy that I would let have any layups. Because when he starts getting to the rim that way,

that's when he's most dangerous. He's the guy that I would try and put on his butt. I would do a little bad boys basketball. I would bring back a 1988 on Kyrie. I'll be really interested. We'll know in game one because it's not something you wait to do. You've got to do it from the first quarter in game one.

You have to make it clear, this is how we're playing in this series. Because you also have to establish it with the refs, too. You can't just go from finesse to let's start banging guys down. But if you start early and you just keep doing it, you start early and you just keep doing it,

you keep doing it, you keep doing it, you know, it's going to be a problem. I also think they could spread them out with all their different shooters. I'll be interested to see how much Carroll plays and whether they give up on him. I'll be interested to see how they handle when it's Kyrie and Darren Williams out there at the same time.

Did you think D. Will was going to play this well? I certainly did not. It's just that thing. You get into the right situation. You get exactly the right minutes. And you're surrounded by guys that let you be the best you can be at this stage of your career. We've seen it too many times to discount the possibility that D. Will could do this. So when they go,

when they pick one or the other with Thompson and Orlov, and they play LeBron at the four, and they play Kyrie and Darren Williams at the same time, and then they put another shooter out there, whether it's Smith or Korver, it's a pretty scary lineup.

Yeah. And when they do that, I'll be interested to see how Toronto does it. I'll also be interested to see out there, whether it's Smith or Korver, it's a pretty scary lineup. And when they do that, I'll be interested to see how Toronto does it. I'll also be interested to see like, you know, Valanchunas, if he's ever going to have a huge impact in a playoff series, this should be the series, right? They basically have Tristan Thompson as

their only center on the entire team. They have nobody else. He should be able to score. They have good matchups in entire team. They have nobody else. He should be able to score. Go in your money, Valanciunas. You've got time. It's time. They have good matchups in this series. DeRozan can make Cleveland work on defense.

I don't know. If I'm a Raps fan, I would be so disappointed if we laid an egg in this series. It's all sitting there. Cleveland's not a good defensive team. They have a lot of miles of them. They've never really totally figured out the Love Thompson lineup together on both ends, really this entire season. I don't know. All right.

San Antonio-Houston is the most fascinating series of all of these. Toronto, it's like we're kind of hoping. We hope this will happen, but we don't know. They might just lay an egg. San Antonio-Houston is just a great matchup. San Antonio doesn't like playing small ball. Houston loves playing small ball. San Antonio doesn't have the kind of guards to just throw out a bunch of guards at the same time.

Houston can throw out lineups with – they can put out Beverly, Lou Williams, Harden. They can kind of do whatever. Eric Gordon. Eric Gordon, yeah. They can play Ryan Anderson at center, which they did a couple of times. It is going to be, I don't know, a nice little litmus test for where we are with basketball in a lot of ways.

If Harden plays well and Houston can't beat them, then that says to us that the old school motto of having a basketball team still matters. If they just bomb the shit out of them with threes and small ball and space and make it impossible for San Antonio to play all their big guys together and all that stuff, and they're able to replicate what Conley did against them last round, multiplied by 10, then what do you do if you're the Spurs after that? You have this team that, you know,

it's a guard-driven league, and your guards aren't very good. You almost have to blow up the motto or try to go get Chris Possum like that. So who do you think wins this series? I hate to disrespect San Antonio, but I think Houston's going to win. It feels disrespectful. I don't even want to say it.

I hate going against Pop. I hate going against the San Antonio machine. But I just think Houston's ability to score from so many different ways, from so many dimensions, and I expect Houston to be be like 15 more poised than memphis and memphis gave it to the spurs they gave it i was so impressed by conley i can't remember which one of your writers wrote it might have been titus who wrote that very appropriate and timely piece on on conley holy cow conley was great he was Conley was great. He was unstoppable. He was great, but what's interesting is

they have a completely different team than Houston. One of the reasons they were able to do so well is because they had so much size that San Antonio, where normally their size is an advantage, the size really hurt them. There were certain guys that as the series went on, they just couldn't play. Like Dedman was somebody that was pretty good for them this season and was relegated to being a non-factor.

In this series, Houston's going to be attacking them from a completely different way. But I still think you're right. Like Conley is the one that's a good model for Houston because they played them four times. I like looking at the regular season matchups. I think you can learn some stuff from those. I don't think they're the full indicator,

but it's a pretty good sign. So all four times these teams played, the games were close. San Antonio won three of the four, but Lou Williams was only in one of the games. And I think Lou Williams is somebody that is going to be a real real real problem for uh for san antonio he was like one for ten and the only game they played he just had a shit game

but to be able to constantly put pressure on them with playmakers um whoever's out there whether it's basically houston has three they have gordon they have Harden, they have Lou Williams, guys who can handle the ball and do some stuff. And Kawhi can't guard everybody. That's exactly the point. You know, Beverly also didn't play in the first two games. They played the very beginning of the season, the

9th and the 12th of November, which is kind of weird. Yeah, you're right. Scheduling. Crazy things. The Rockets won one of them, and the Spurs won the next one. But this is one where I don't think the regular season experience is indicative of what we have in store for this playoff series. I would agree, because we haven't seen this Houston team as presently constituted running on all cylinders playing the Spurs yet.

Exactly. Totally agree. That's what I want to see. I think one of the best advantages San Antonio has, I don't think Houston's home crowd is very good. Oh, wow. I don't. Putting it on the people of Houston. I don't. I don't.

I don't mean to insult on the people of Houston. I don't. I don't. I don't mean to insult the good people of Houston. I don't think that crowd really affects games. And San Antonio is so good on the road, just from the pop infrastructure, that to me it's like I almost don't even think it matters where these games are going to be played. Because Houston can win everywhere. They don't care where they play. I agree. But I don't think that necessarily hurts Houston.

No, it doesn't. But San Antonio is home court, and I don't think that matters. But I also think if San Antonio is down 3-2 going into Houston in Game 6. It's not like they can't go in there and win. I agree with that. I think the rhythm of this series is going to be very, very weird. And a lot of it's going to—Harden in particular is—he's just so—he was so good those first three games. And then he was so bad those last two against OKC. And they were super sloppy down the stretch, which we've seen with them a lot.

And they're sloppy in general. Harden set the turnover record this year. We just need to know whether or not his ankle is all the way back. Did the rest do enough to let him fully recover? Here's my fear if I'm a Houston fan. And I think Houston's going to win this series. I'm picking them. Oh, so we're in alignment.

We both like Houston. Yeah. The only one we're not in alignment in is that the Celtics are going to beat the Wizards and you're going to feel like a complete dumbass for that one. Here's my fear. San Antonio pulling games out of their ass with the infrastructure and with Kawhi and with Pop and with coaching and good adjustments in the last, you know, going from first to second half. A really smart inbounds play. A play where Houston's up four with 42 seconds left and they turn the ball over and Kawhi hits a three and then gets a steal.

My fear is that Houston is going to feel like they should have won this series, and they didn't. Does that make sense? Of course. And it's absolutely the right caution to issue any time. This is why I was, you know, whatever emotion I was feeling picking Houston over the Spurs, guilty. I felt guilty picking Houston over the Spurs. And the reason is what you just articulated.

The Spurs always win those 50-50 plays. They always make those game-deciding, you know, they execute. They don't make mistakes. They don't make mistakes. They don't beat themselves. Right. That's why I was so shocking when Memphis won game four. It had all the makings of just a classic stupid Spurs.

And I know the Spurs have lost a lot of close games over the years. I'm not saying they're infallible. But, you know, I just think they execute really well. And Houston's sloppy. And I forget who was talking about – one of the old guys was talking about guards now. Maybe it was – I think it was Isaiah Thomas actually, the Detroit Isaiah Thomas, was saying how the biggest difference with now – I hope it was him. I'm pretty sure it was him. The biggest difference now is that

guys just don't take care of the ball and it's like yeah the numbers are way up the offense is spectacular but people don't take care of the ball and houston you know they should have they could have really swept okc i just thought they were much better they didn't even play well and they won in five but they somehow managed to almost blow a couple of those games, you know, because they were sloppy. We've talked about San Antonio on this pod before. They might not have a fifth gear. This just might be who they are.

I think Kawhi has a fifth gear. I don't know what the team is. They just don't have a reliable second scorer. Kawhi has a fifth gear? I don't know what the team is. They just don't have a reliable second scorer. Kawhi has a fifth gear. Kawhi has a fifth gear. He showed it. I don't think the team does. A couple times against Memphis.

The team doesn't. Team is what it is. It reminds me of the Pats teams between the 19-0 season that wasn't 07, but then there was 08 throwaway. But then 09 and 2010, before they started making Super Bowls again, were these teams that statistically were really good. They won in the regular season. But the Pats fans kind of knew they weren't that good.

They were good. They weren't that good. And we knew we didn't have enough talent across the board and that you were worried and um and it was like the infrastructure was winning those was getting the regular season record where it was and brady versus that the team was really good it does feel like this is a transition season for the spurs as crazy as that sounds and the second best record in the league but you know 61 wins, Parker was in the 2001 draft, you know. And Gasol was in the 2001 draft. And I –

It's why Pop deserves coach of the year. It's just unbelievable. That's why I voted for him. The key guy, we're not making news by saying this, but Aldridge has to be better for what they're paying him and what he's supposed to represent and mean to that team as kind of the Duncan replacement. He had to do better than 14-7.

He's expendable already. He really is. It's barely been two seasons and he's expendable. If they lose this series, is he on that team next year? N-O. No. No. Let me repeat that.

No. Yeah. I'm with you. I'm with you. So we think Cavs-Raps, how many games? Seven. I think so, too. I think the Raps are really going to get in that ass.

I really do. That's the point of Ibaka and Tucker. The point of Ibaka and Tucker was not to beat the upstart Milwaukee Bucks. The point of those guys coming to this team, delivering that veteran presence, guys who've been around the block a little bit, is to come get in that LeBron ass. They're going to get in Cleveland, and they're going to make them work. I think I agree with you.

And I've got to say, because Cleveland looks so good against Indiana, and Indiana is terrible. It's a 500-team, barely. But meanwhile, somehow almost won three of the games and had a chance. And then Giannis really threw off the Toronto round one. I mean, it was just an unexpected unicorn

black swan performance by Giannis for three games. Wonderful. Just wonderful, too. Welcome to the playoffs, Giannis. Welcome to the future MVP club, Giannis. Absolutely. Does future MVP club, Giannis. Absolutely. Does he win before Anthony Davis?

I think he does. I think he does, too. Davis is still ahead of him in terms of the fully-rounded skill set, but Davis has to play. You can't not play and win the MVP. Stay in the court. So Houston, San Antonio, I think Houston in six.

It makes sense to me. I just think this is where the Spurs run out of firepower. I don't know. They just can't keep up. Can Danny Green guard James Harden for long stretches of games? Because that's the only way I see it. I think he could at least kind of stay in front of them.

They can't have Kawhi guard James Harden for entire games and then carry them offensively. It's a suicide mission. They have to figure out how to have Danny Green guard Harden for big chunks. I would say Houston in six. Warriors sweep. I think they're going to destroy Utah. I agree with you.

And then Seltz-Wiz, still feel like it goes seven. It's going to be six or seven depending on Keith's ankle. Can you take back the stuff you said about Al Horford? He walked right under him. He walked right under him. He walked right under him. He could watch replay a dozen times. It's not possible for Keith to come straight down and land on Horford's foot. He didn't go out of his way.

This wasn't one of those NBA plays where he tried to draw contact. And all this accolades. Horford almost had a triple-double. Congratulations. The guy that was going to guard him through this entire series, he took out by walking up under him. I'm upset that Al Horford didn't get the triple-double because I don't know how to feel about the game

if he didn't reach a triple-double. Did he have a good game? I don't know. We only judge this stuff by triple-doubles now. He should have thrown the backwood bog. The Celtics, who were going for rebounds, should have just, you know, pulled their hands away

to let him get it. I better not. I better stay away from the internet. We, on June the 26th, when that awards show, I might have to send myself somewhere. I'm going to write bad things on Twitter. No, don't.

Stay off Twitter. It's not worth it. It'll stand in history. As its own ridiculous event. It's not worth it. It'll, it'll stand in history as a, as its own, as its own ridiculous of it. Awful. I heard it. I wish everybody,

all these hoops perverts out there. Joe house. Who's on check house. Uh, we have the commissioner. You should still listen to the, to the last week's, uh,

show. We had the commissioner on Jay Monahan, a New England guy, worked for the Red Sox at one point in his career. Awesome guy. Half-hour conversation with him. We'll stand up. You can listen to what we talked about, the recently completed, just completed today, Zurich Classic, which was the first time.

There's been a team event on the PGA Tour in like 50 years and it was a great conversation so give that a listen. US Open? How many weeks away are we? 7 weeks? It's June 14, 15, 16, 17 in that stretch so that means we're

exactly like 6 weeks out. Good. Maybe you guys should talk about Trump's golf game on one of these podcasts. He apparently has a pretty good golf game. He's tall. He's like 6'3 1⁄2". And he gets through the ball. For an old guy.

Forget he's in his 70s. He said he would have loved to have played with Andrew Jackson. I don't have anything to say about that. Andrew Jackson would have really enjoyed going 18 together. All right, House. Appreciate it, as always. Talk to you soon.

All right. Thanks so much to SeatGeek. Thanks to Audible.com. Don't forget Audible.com slash BS for a free trial. Thanks to Legacy Box. Don't forget LegacyBox.com slash BS. 40% discount on your order. Thanks to Proper Cloth. forget legacy box.com slash bs 40 discount on your order thanks

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Back this week. Teed up. If you want to hear Titus. Will you ask Titus to do his whole Gordon Hayward thing? Yes. All right. Titus is going to do that. Maybe I'll make him repeat it on here.

But this week, Titus is going to talk about his old AAU teammate, Gordon Hayward. So listen to Tee'd Up for that. And we'll be back Wednesday on the BS Report with Matt and Trey from South Park, which is an extravaganza, which we taped two weeks ago and is really good. So until then. On the wayside On the first side of the river I said I don't have

To ever forget