The Bill Simmons Podcast - Ep. 91: Haralabos Voulgaris and Katie Baker

Episode Date: April 15, 2016

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons preps for the NBA playoffs with Haralabob, who calls in from an undisclosed location to discuss GSW's historic regular season, the Cavs’ upset potential (8:00), the Thunder's incompetence (15:00), OKC's crunch-time lineup (26:00), Kobe's 60-point finale (32:00), stopping GSW (37:00), a gentler Popovich (45:00), and sixth man Blake Griffin (50:00). Then, The Ringer's Katie Baker joins (57:45) to break down the NHL playoff picture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This special bonus playoff edition of the BS Podcast is brought to you by SeatGeek, our presenting sponsor and our favorite app for buying and selling tickets for sports and music. Go to SeatGeek.com slash BS to start using SeatGeek. And don't forget to download the free SeatGeek app and our promo code BS. SeatGeek sends you $20 upon your first purchase. Playoffs right now. Use SeatGeek. We're also brought to you by HBO Now, home of After the Thrones,

the ringer's postgame show for Game of Thrones starring Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan. Game of Thrones launches on Sunday, April 24th. After the Thrones launches shortly after on HBO Now. Please sign up for The Ringer's awesome, incredible, fantastic newsletter at theringer.com. And we have coming up, Heralababob Valgueras to talk about basketball and then Katie Bakes to talk about the NHL playoffs. Here we go. On the line from parts unknown, Haralabob Valgueras.

How are you? This is your time. This is your time. This is your time to shine. You got two off days to plan the whole playoffs. What are you looking at? What is the most interesting thing about the first round for you? What do I look at going in or what am I looking at specifically? What do I think is interesting for this specific playoff series?

The latter. Okay. Well, I mean, I think the East 3-6 is probably the most interesting and probably has the best opportunities, I think, for both good playoff series and good back-and-forth action and also maybe some decent gambling opportunities, I suppose, as well. Let's talk about some of those decent gambling opportunities. Do you think there's any inefficiencies that you've already exploited?

Yeah, for sure. Especially if you watch close enough and you can see subtle things the team does that might be an adjustment or if you can kind of predict the adjustment ahead of time, whether it be game to game or in game or switching. I mean, if you remember last year, Cleveland defended Golden State pretty well. And then Golden State brought David Lee off the bench and then had like a completely different way.

They were attacking the pick and roll out of the pick and roll. And when you saw that, you were like, okay, this is cleveland has no answer to this adjustment they've made one adjustment they've done this they've taken that away and then golden state has gone to this move and cleveland has no counter and so when they were up two games to one cleveland was up two games to one i didn't think there was any chance golden state was not going to win that series and i thought it was very likely that cleveland would win another game and so that was one example of an inefficiency for sure I would say Celtics Hawks I think is going to be the best and most competitive first round series and I'm a little scared as a Celtic fan because they threw their A game at the Hawks

last weekend and then the Hawks threw their A-plus game back at the Celtics and blew them out in the second half. The two-point guard thing has been a problem for the Celts all year. Millsap is just a horrible matchup for them. And I was hoping that they'd end up playing Miami or Charlotte. They come back, they beat Miami on Wednesday. I'm like, this is great. We don't have to play Atlanta, and somehow we're playing Atlanta.

When you look at this, is there any chance for Boston to upset the apple cart here or no? Yeah, of course there is a chance. I mean, I don't think that this series is by any stretch a huge favorite. I mean, the Hawks are only like, they're not even a two-to-one favorite. They're a very small favorite in the series, so I do think there's a chance.

I haven't actually done a ton of work on that specific series yet, just because I'm kind of looking at some of the bigger upset series just to kind of see if there's some opportunities. Not that they'll win games, but just that they'll cover spreads and this and that.

But I liked Boston in a matchup versus Miami. I thought that was probably the matchup that suited them best. I didn't think that they matched up that well with Charlotte, to be honest. I think they probably would have been a failure versus Charlotte, and I think that Charlotte would have had a very good chance of beating them. But versus Atlanta, I don't know. It's interesting. It'll be interesting to see what kind of rotations these coaches go with because both teams are very deep, and they don't need to be that.

They don't need to play that many players, but they may. So it'll be kind of – I really have no idea how many players Bud is going to play. I plan on spending some time and looking at that and trying to figure out exactly how deep he's going to go in the series. Because I do think that affects the series a lot for sure. It's a problem for Boston. Cause they don't have anywhere to hide Isaiah Thomas and dad, the same problem against Dallas that when Dallas did the two, the washed up Ray Felton and the washed up Darren Williams,

who might not even be washed up, and they're out there at the same time Isaiah's got to guard somebody, there's really nowhere to hide them. And in that Atlanta game on Saturday, they had to put them on Bazemore, which opens a lot of possibilities for Atlanta. And also, I just think Atlanta's playing well. They're peaking at the right time, and their best players are playing well you know like they're peaking at the right time and their best players are playing well I'm starting to think like I you know I think Cleveland has the most talent I also think they're ready to self-combust against the right matchup and even though Atlanta doesn't

have as much talent I do feel like if if Cleveland's ready to fall apart in some way whether it's mentally or just whatever's going on with them atlanta's ready to pounce what chance do you give them to beat the cleveland cavaliers at some point in this playoffs yeah i think they could be i think a couple teams in east could beat cleveland i mean i don't think that there is um i don't think that they're a foregone conclusion at all to come out of the East. They are the best team, but they haven't been playing particularly well. They have a lot of inner turmoil. I don't think they're a very tight team in terms of the players don't seem to really feel like they're really – I mean, they're just not a very tight team.

They're not coming into the playoffs. They're whimpering into the playoffs. I think that Atlanta has a chance to beat them. I think there's a lot of teams that have a chance to beat Cleveland in a series. I don't think Detroit's one of them, but I do think Detroit will make it a competitive series, and at times maybe – I don't think they're going to get sweeped. So I think that Atlanta definitely has a chance.

I think Miami, if they matched up with them, would have a chance. I think the Raptors would have a chance. I mean, there's a bunch of teams that could beat Cleveland in the East, I think. Miami, I like just from a personality, getting in the heads of Cleveland's standpoint, especially Wade. They have some veterans. I think if Cleveland's ready to cave mentally as a unit, Miami could take advantage of that. They're just smart.

They're a veteran team. At the same time, I haven't loved what Spolster has done this year. I even thought, like you saw it in that Boston game on Wednesday, when things start slipping for them, there's not a lot of experimentation on his side. I thought he waited way too long to play the younger guys. At the same time, you didn't like that team at all, and you've come around a little bit on them, right?

I come around a lot, actually. I think that they've done the most experimentation over the course of the year than any team. If you look at the way they played at the start of the year than any team if you look at the way they played at the start of the season yeah to the way they play now in terms of just their in-game strategies and their types of the types of changes they made they've actually made a lot and a lot of it had to do with adding players at the deadline and by that i mean they added joe johnson but they also added josh richardson and like a very very good winslow

who were on the team but didn't actually play as many minutes as they played towards the end of the year or as many big minutes. I'm like, I think Winslow is probably one of the best rookies I've seen come in and play. A ready rookie that can be. He doesn't play like a rookie.

He's one of the best defensive players I've seen that's come out of college directly from as a rookie and just started coming in and he plays the he defends the three defensive fours he switches on to bigs he's um he's a really good player and i think they made some really nice adjustments also in terms of just that they did speed up how fast they were playing one of the things i hated about him was they would walk the ball up the court and then decide they were going to run that spurs old spurs offense where you just make a lot of passes i pass up a good shot for a better shot kind of like what atlanta does as well

yeah that actually gets the ball up to half court very very quickly and miami just wouldn't so it would be like they would be fighting the shot clock every time and they've definitely gone away from that for sure i wish i wish they had played. You saw it in that Boston game when the crowd really got into it. And Winslow and Richardson just, you know, not that Winslow's a great outside shooter anyway, but, you know, you feel it. It's a different atmosphere. And when you're relying on young guys like that, I wish they had gotten them more reps because I like the way they match up

with Cleveland. I think Winslow versus LeBron, if that ends up being a playoff series, Winslow will be a really interesting matchup for LeBron. He basically has, you know, he's about maybe two inches shorter than you'd want, but from an athletic, physical specimen,

how he moves his feet, how smart he is, I really think he could give LeBron trouble. Yeah, for sure. I think he could too. And they also have other, you know – they also have – not other, but they have – well, Danny can still defend. He's not as good a defender as he used to be, but he's a smart defender. He's not going to make mistakes. So they have some guys that could defend LeBron.

Atlanta has guys that can defend LeBron too. Atlanta can throw – you know, Tabo's healthy now, which is good. They'll probably put Bazemore on him just to kind of harass him a little bit. And then they could put Millsap on him. But LeBron does struggle against those bigger those bigger guys i remember brandon bass was the first guy to kind of really give lebron that look and look in a playoff series when he played for boston lebron didn't really know how to handle it at first um dia was another guy who's guarded him that you wouldn't think would be able to but he's actually guarded him

pretty effectively and lebron definitely doesn't have the uh the speed that he used to have he still has great speed but it's not otherworldly like it used to be and with Atlanta one of the reasons I like them in a Cleveland matchup is if they play those two point guards at the same time which I think they could um Cleveland then has to either answer with Kyrie and Deleva Dova or you know then it's like J.R. Smith's like, I got a smaller guy on him and starts doing J.R. Smith things. But it's a nice luxury to have two good creative point guards at the same time to throw at that Cleveland team, because Kyrie's not playing defense.

You know, that's a real advantage potentially for them. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how much Cleveland, when they're tested in the playoffs, rolls with Delvadova versus Kyrie, especially in series where the other team's point guard needs to be defended. Because I think it's, to me, it's clear that they're a better team

when Delvadova's on the floor and Kyrie's off the floor. It's amazing. I agree. And that doesn't mean Delvino is a better player. It might mean that. It probably doesn't. But what it means to me is that he's just a better... When LeBron has the ball for that much of the possession, you really don't need Kyrie out there, and then Kyrie gets the ball. There just isn't really any need for what Kyrie can bring a team

when you have LeBron handling the ball and being the one who's the primary decision maker. Cleveland has some real red flags for any playoff series. One is the chemistry thing, which we talked about. I'm not sold on Ty Lue as a coach at all. And defensively, I just don't think they're very good unless it's certain lineups. They have some real holes defensively, and they're slow. You know, when they play the two big guys, obviously the best lineup for them is when they play LeBron at the four,

but, you know, they have to involve all these dudes. I think they're going to bury Mozgov in the playoffs, so I'm just assuming he's out of the rotation. But defensively, I just don't think they're there. And the history of the playoffs is, like, if you're weak defensively, somebody can upset you. So could it beroit in round one is there any possibility okay no i don't think so i mean that's anything is possible it's they're not like it's not like the the spurs memphis or golden state houston it's not like that but it's it would be or even i mean it's not even that it would be it would be a huge upset that

probably has no i mean no i don't i don't see how it could happen well they're 10 to 1 under 10 to 1 underdogs so i think vegas agrees with you uh i asked reddit for some some questions to throw you one of them was what are the realistic upsets in the first round. Are there any? If you had to pick one upset, what would you pick? If I had to pick one upset. What would be an upset? Would Portland upsetting the Clippers be? That would be an upset, right? Yes.

I would say Portland or the Pacers. Both of them are basically 3-1 underdogs. Yeah. I mean, any of those could happen. I don't see how. I mean, the of those could happen. I don't see how I mean, the Clippers are a way better team than Portland, but Portland could definitely get hot. Any team that has the ability

to get hot, ride like, make a good coaching adjustment here and there in the middle of the game. Any of those things could happen. And the best team doesn't always win these playoff series. I think that's something that people think is that, oh, in a seven game series the best team always wins. But it doesn't always happen.

That's not necessarily true. How many teams do you think realistically could win the NBA title this year? Like, the title race is wide open if Golden State gets injured. If Curry suffers an injury, then any team could predict. Not any team, but there's five sports teams that could win. If the Warriors stay healthy, there's probably only one team that can win, and that's them, I would say. All right, but let's expand the circle a tiny bit.

Warriors, Spurs, Thunder? all right so but the but if let's expand the circle a tiny bit warriors spurs thunder it's people haven't talked about how great Russell Westbrook and Durant have been this year and how great they are just in general but that is just the most unfair team I think in a very very long time I don't personally care that it's unfair because I'm an organizational standpoint the coaching the the players, the front offices put the team on the floor. Everyone has let those two players down. Those two players are so far and above everyone else in that organization that it's unfair. They don't have a coach who's good enough to have an upset. I'll say that. And they don't have

anyone other than those two players in Ibaka that are really capable on that team. Steven Adams isn't bad. Cantor does some things offensively that are pretty good, but the rest of the team is a joke. And it's a shame because those two players are so good that if they had a capable head coach and a confident general manager, they would be one of the best two teams in the league. So you, Donovan, over over the course of six months you don't think he's improved at all he's terrible i mean he has no clue what he's doing at all like he's no i'm just being serious i i think he's okay he figured out this staggering thing right like this really complex how do we benefit from having both durant and russell westbrook on our team well maybe we won't play them,

but maybe we'll play one of them at all times. That might work. I mean, it took him three months to figure that one out, right? Just to give you an idea of how sharp this guy is. Yeah. Then they have an actual decent point guard who can play and create and do things for them and Cameron Payne.

And he's just been completely shelved for a long stretch of the time. He's decided to really get his second unit, have Deion Waiters be his primary ball handler in certain games when Westbrook has been out, which is insane. I mean, that's one thing he can't do. He's got an inbounding and critical situations. He has him trying to make passes and getting KD the ball. I mean, he's just not a good coach at all.

It's really a shame because last. I mean, he's just not a good coach at all. It's really a shame because like I said, those two guys are so far and away. I mean, is there... Draymond and Curry are the best two-man combo, you would say. But are they that much better than Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant? And if they are, it's only because Curry

has really separated himself from the rest of the people. I mean, Russell Westbrook, what he's averaging this year is ridiculous. And same with Durant, and they're doing it with almost no help whatsoever. It's actually the – they've become the late 80s, 1990s Utah Jazz. We just have two of the best seven players in the league or two of the best nine, depending on whatever season it is. This year, they're two of the best seven.

And the supporting cast has just repeatedly letting them down I you made a crucial point though and this is what I don't understand about the regular season and and it's so amazing to me that only a few coaches have really figured out how to use the regular season to set themselves up for the playoffs I think Popovich the way he, Steve Kerr, the way he saves the minutes. There's a couple others. But if I'm OKC around January, I realize that my one big chance in the playoffs is to play Payne with Westbrook and to give Payne as many reps as I possibly can so that he can peak in the playoffs as somebody I can really rely on. And instead, he had games where he was getting DMPs against good teams where it's like that's exactly the type of matchup where I want to see what he can do on a Saturday night on

ABC. Let's throw him in the fire and see what we have. I don't get it. They traded for Randy Foy, who's never been a point guard, and decided to make him a point guard, just to give you an idea how sharp this team is. They thought that they could have Randy Foy play the minutes that Russell Westbrook is out, and then they added, they had Durant on there as well.

But then they would have, like, Andre Roberson, who in his last game or his second to last game he airballed a corner three and then banked in a corner three just to give you an idea of how sharp a shooter this guy is you know how hard those are back to back three point shots he took too so he made the adjustment after

the airball and the next one banked in it's really hard to bank in a corner three but he managed to do it and he's just I mean it's not a knock on And the next one banked in. It's really hard to bank in a corner three, but he managed to do it. And he's just, I mean, it's not a knockout. I mean, he's just not a great player. And it's such a shame because the 3 and D thing would have been something that if they had a guy who was competent. There's so many players. Like if they had someone like Matt Barnes, you know, how much better that team would be with Matt Barnes versus Roberson.

There's just so many players that aren't really that well thought of in the league that could fit that role. And that's the one thing they haven't been able to do. Then they have Kyle Singler coming off the bench as, like, one of their first players off the bench. The idea that Sam Presti was this genius general manager because he drafted Harden, Westbrook, Durant, Ibaka. He's obviously made some really, really good draft picks. But in terms of what they've done and adding players to the team via trade or free agency or anything, or even just getting something tangible back for getting rid of Harden, I think he's been terrible.

I mean, they haven't done anything in three years to add. I really, really do want those two players to both leave that team because I think it would just be hilarious if they did leave. So, in my opinion, he gets no credit whatsoever for Durant. If he didn't take Durant, that was a fireball defense. Yeah, and would he have taken Durant if they had the number one pick, right? So that's the other question that you'd have to ask. Who knows?

I think Danny Ainge was the only one who was actually going to take Durant first out of all those things. The next year, when he took Westbrook, that was a ballsy pick, you know? And saying they were going to make him a point guard, which is pretty strong because nobody thought that was his.

But he was going to go in the top six, and next two picks were kevin love and gallinari which they already had the rant like that maybe you take kevin love i don't know uh right so basically they took westbrook over eric gordon which i think was totally defensible yeah and then in 09 uh we should mention he did take James Harden over, I guess, Rubio and Curry. I mean, he did pass Curry. That was an argument at the time. Harden was a great pick, but I mean, he also could have taken Steph Curry and had Steph Curry and Kevin Durant on the same team. Yeah, wow. So anyway, it's crazy to me that the thunder and the clippers have just

never figured out how to find that fifth guy for years this is now year five of just not finding out that fifth guy well just the fourth guy for the for the thunder i mean like really look at that team they have they have kyle singler andre roberson anthony morrow uh what's the other guy's name that's deon waders they have like a roster of a bunch of terrible players doing a lot of things and it's it's it's embarrassing because they have two of the best players in the league and they made it all the way to the finals that one year. Upset the Spurs. That Spurs team, which, by the way, I thought was the best team I'd seen in a long time.

That Spurs team, I think, won. They were amazing. Yeah, they won like 25 of their last games. They swept through the playoffs up until they won the first two games of that series and then lost four straight. And it was just a real shame because then they followed that up with, you know, they had some injuries later on, but they just never added anyone.

And there's been a lot of, like, remember that, even that year that additions they made, like, were Derek Fisher. Like, some of the additions they made during that, like, time frame to really add to that team was like, oh, what are we going to do? I don't know, let's get Derek Fisher. And let's have him take 10 to 15 shots a game. And they played him at crunch time. Big time, yeah.

They just did a bunch of really, really dumb things thinking that oh, we've got these two great players. We don't really have to do anything else. These guys are going to carry us. And I just think it's a shame because those two guys are amazing players and they bring it every single night. When's the last time you watched a game

and you thought, oh wow, Durant doesn't have it tonight or he's not giving effort? Or Westbrook. I mean, Westbrook may have games where he takes too many shots and doesn't pass the ball. He definitely hasn't had that happen in a long time. He definitely had that happen when he was younger. But those guys bring it every game and they work hard and they work hard in the offseason to improve their game. They come into the season in shape and they just never have anything added to their team. Their management's just completely let them down. Management and ownership.

The biggest mistake I feel like that team has made is I think they have the ball in Westbrook's hands too much, and I watch how Golden State uses Curry. You know, a lot of times Curry doesn't even have the ball crossing half court. He's basically, they're playing him as a shooting guard. And some of that offense will run through Draymond or Iguodala, but they've done a nice job. I think that's part of the reason why the ball spreads around so much with them

because nobody's dominating it. And with OKC, it's just Westbrook, Westbrook, Westbrook, Westbrook. And that's one of the reasons I was so excited for the Payne part because I was like, man, if they turn this team a little over bit over to pain and let westbrook play off the ball more it solves two things it actually will make it easier for him to get good shots but then also he's not dominating the ball especially in the last five minutes which is the biggest i think they're very easy to stop in the last five minutes compared to how much talent they have. It should be impossible to stop them with those two guys in the last five minutes.

And instead, they're very predictable. And it's been that way for five years. Yeah. I mean, we've talked a lot about this team specifically. And it is a shame. I mean, that team has the talent in terms of the talent that you need to actually compete. If they hadn't made the right choices here and there, they could definitely have been the second or first best team in the league.

They could be up there with Golden State and a couple of other teams. They're just so athletic. They're tough to... They do some things well. They rebound really, really well even with their current lineup. i think they do that better than any team in the league but aside from that they're um yeah it's just a bit of a disappointment for sure would that being said they have a decent first round matchup i don't see the mavericks and warlock carlisle is as amazing as he's been i don't see the mavericks really providing much resistance for them.

I just want to remind you that in 2009, Memphis took Hashim Thabit over James Harden and Stephen Curry. Just wanted to throw that out there. I was just looking at that and I just forgot. I blacked that out of my mind. Chris Wallace, right? Chris Wallace, still employed. He took Hashim Thabit over James Harden and Stephen Curry.

I think the owner wanted, if I remember correctly, I think the owner, Heisley, wanted Hashim Thabit over James Harden and Steph Curry. I think the owner wanted – I think if I remember correctly, I think the owner highly wanted Hashim Thabit. I think he got – yeah, I'm not sure what, but I think I remember reading that somewhere. By the way, it was completely indefensible in the moment. It's not like this is like, oh, retroactively. This was – in the moment, everyone was like, what are you guys doing? So, wait, one last OKC question.

And, you know, all the OKC fans, because God forbid anyone ever criticizes their team. If they played Payne, Westbrook, Durant, Ibaka, and Adams, and that's just their crunch time lineup every game for the last seven minutes of every playoff game, would you reconsider your feeling that, that, that they don't have a chance in the, uh, round two or round three?

Uh, if that was their, yeah, that's a decent crunch time. I think that would, uh, that would work, but in,

I mean, they could, they beat, could they beat the Spurs with that lineup? Yeah. If Durant was just the day, I mean, the key? Yeah. If Durant was just the, they, I mean,

the key for them is if Durant's just the best player on the floor in a series. My thing, I think they have to, I think they have to be the ones who decide we are going to in a playoff series versus the Spurs. And especially the way the Spurs are playing, they need to be like,

you guys are playing 46, 47 minutes. I mean, you'll get the break. We'll take you out with a minute left or two minutes left in the third quarter so you have a little break before the fourth quarter, but you're playing almost the entire third quarter, the almost entire fourth quarter. I mean, I want to see a team do that in the playoffs. I want to see a team really completely decide,

especially someone like Westbrook. I mean, Westbrook can play 46 minutes yeah 45 minutes you have them just do like every little thing a coach does like take them out in the last last second of a of a defensive possession take them out and put just in the last minute do things just slow down the game when you have your backups and like really manage the game effectively so that your players because you only have four of them that are actually really good, can play as many minutes as possible. Then, yeah, I think it's possible.

Then they could upset the Spurs for sure. Now will Billy Donovan figure that one out? I don't know. Maybe. Most of the stuff he's figured out is because the press. Some people have been talking about it on the internet, and then the press will ask him these questions over and over and over again, and then ESPN will do like an animated cartoon of like staggering or whatever and then you'll be like oh that's the thing about the

nowadays is like someone smart will write an article and then someone on the team will bring it to it like like an assistant culture this or that will bring it to someone and then a lot this or that will bring it to someone. And then a lot of times it gets implemented. So a lot of these coaches who aren't very creative will benefit from the collective, I think, in a lot of ways. It's not that hard. My son's eight. I think he has a 50-50 chance of figuring this out, that if you have Duran and Westbrook on your team, one of them should be on the court for all 48 minutes.

It's not that hard. It's not hard. Since 2000, he walks out of the room when he sees that. When he sees one of them isn't on the court, he just can't take it anymore. He's so disappointed with it. And meanwhile, Scotty Brooks is about to get hired again. He was there for like five years, couldn't figure that out.

I think I'm looking forward to Scotty Brooks being a head coach again. From a financial standpoint? Just from everything. I want to know if he still thinks frustrated is a word. I want to hear him say frustrated five or six times during a presser. See if anyone ever called him. It's not a word. That's interesting to me. You know what you said about the minutes.

I just want to follow up on that quickly. You have real advantages in the first round with the amount of layoff time between games. And I thought Steve Kerr made a good point about that. He was saying like, yeah, I don't care if we're going for the record. Yeah, I could rest these guys. But, you know, there's a lot of rest in that round one. Sometimes there's three, four games between games. And if rest in that round one sometimes there's three four games

between games and if you sweep in round one you get basically you're playing four games in three weeks so yeah the playoffs aren't grind no if anything they're they're i mean the games themselves are a grind because it's so especially when you get to the later rounds it's so high intensity and i i mentally i think you wear out a little but from a physical standpoint you never have to play back to back and if okc can sweep dallas in round one they'd only play four times over the course of like i don't know 17 18 19 days before that round two series and yeah they should be playing westbrook 46 minutes a game i've never seen the guy get tired in my life have you ever seen him look tired if you look at that team and you look at ibaka who's like basically chiseled from stone right yeah westbrook

same and then durant isn't but i mean those three if there's any two guys who can probably carry a heavy minute load the one thing i will say is the way westbrook plays makes it difficult because he plays like a lunatic he's not taking taking possessions off. He's crashing everything. He's rebounding. He's going for loose balls. He's trying to get steals. That makes it a little bit difficult. You have to tell him to temper things a little bit,

and he has to learn how to conserve his energy a little bit more if he wants to play that many minutes effectively. But I would, yeah. Another thing is they don't have any travel. They have to go to Oklahoma. They have to go to Dallas, which is like, what, a bus ride? Yeah, three hours. And then they have to go to San Antonio in the next round.

So there isn't a lot of travel for that team. Not that travel is a big concern in the playoffs, but it makes a difference. I mean, it makes a difference if you're going back and forth between some of the further, if you're going from Portland to Los Angeles, which is a little bit more of a trek, or if Minnesota was in the playoffs, you'd have to fly all the way there and that sort of thing. There is some advantage to that, I would say.

You tweeted some graphic about how much travel the Warriors had done this year. I couldn't believe that. Compared to what Cleveland had to like what cleveland had to travel golden state had to travel twice as much this season they still only lost nine games that's me this is the most amazing accomplishment i've seen in forever since i've been following basketball the way i've been following it i didn't think it was possible i thought it was possible but i didn't think it would be done i didn't think any team would think this is possible and let's try to accomplish it and if it was going to happen I didn't think it would happen in the western conference I thought it would be an eastern conference thing I mean

the time zone travel you know having to traverse the time zones the actual travel is so difficult it's so draining um and then actually wanting to accomplish seeing that it's possible and saying, we want to make this a goal. You have to have such a special, special team. And it's, it's, it's the most, it's a shame that on the last day of the season,

this like, cause I, even I was watching the Kobe show on the last day of the season, because what they accomplished is getting completely kind of swept under the rug, which is amazing because it's all anyone talked about for the longest time. And what they really should have been talking about was Julius Randle's illegal picks in the fourth quarter of that game,

which was unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. It was like wrestling. I hope when Colt literally threw Hayward to the ground, he hit the ball on the inbound so he could shoot the free throws. Like they're inbounding the ball and he's trying to get away from Hayward and he's got no legs left or anything. And he just literally threw him to the ground and then got the ball and then took the free throws.

It was the most, that was the most farcical show. I mean, that was such a joke, but it was so entertaining and it was moving at the same time. And I was like, I was excited for him, but it was just like, yeah, yeah if you're gonna take 50 what how many shots did he take it was like 50 something he took 50 shots it was the most shots anyone had taken since the 1960s in a game yeah and his team was committing illegal screen fouls on every play and for the last two free throws i don't know if you notice this but they inbounded the ball to him and he got open by shoving hayward backwards by about 11 feet no that's flying backwards i don't know if i caught up but i said yeah that's when he when he inbound

the ball oh yeah he threw hayward right to the ground yeah i thought you were i thought you were talking about when randall threw hayward to the ground hey we're not hey we got the shit kicked out of him in that game. Like he's probably in the hospital right now. It was, I don't know what Quinn Snyder was doing either. I mean, it was so bizarre. Like, okay, the guy has taken 50 shots. Like after 35, you might be like, I guess they just didn't want to ever double team him. They were the Washington Generals for that game.

It was everything I've ever hated and loved about the Kobe Bryant era in one game. It was really incredible. For him to just go into that last game and be like, I'm scoring 50, and I don't care how many shots it takes, but I'm scoring 50 in my last game, even if I have to shoot 50 times. But then the last four minutes was legitimately a great sports moment. Like the guy made some great shots and the crowd's going ape shit. And it was great.

He was like, there was a, during one of the stoppages, he couldn't breathe. I mean, his chest was coming up to like through his mouth. He was, he was, he was so out of breath. And then there was like this one play where he like split the he split the pick like he went through the pick and like like he didn't even dribble the ball so much as he like threw the ball like two feet forward and then like sprinted to get it again it wasn't even a dribble yeah but like that's that moment where he got it and then made the shot i was just like wow this guy's he's a machine it was awesome i mean he's not human yeah it was amazing it He's not human. Yeah, it was amazing.

It was awesome. And it was also, it was one of the most loathsome things I've ever seen. Wow, it was also awesome. And the best part was, I think the game almost killed Hubie Brown. For Hubie Brown, it was like everything he never wanted in basketball.

He was a witness to, trying to pretend he was excited about it. And I think deep down, he's like, this is the worst moment of my life. I just to kill myself oh no no no no you can't do it hey wait a minute now wait a minute you don't have no pass the ball okay he was dying it was like they're trying to torture him by having him announce that last game it might be the last game he ever appreciates or announ might just be done after that. It would have been funny with two minutes left if he just

said to Mike Tirico, fuck this, I'm out of here, and just whipped his headset down and walked out. That was it. He'd be browned every night. Kobe is so old and his body is so beaten up that just the fact that around shot 42

he got in a groove, i thought that was the most amazing thing i mean it was like i needed 43 shots to warm up here it was an incredible spectacle can you imagine how different that would have been if if houston or you excuse me let's say houston loses sacramento or the clippers didn't beat utah and now utah needs to win that game to make the playoffs and now colby still goes in with the mindset of, I'm going to take 50 shots, and he's doing it against one of the best defensive teams in the league and maybe go-bear plays,

and maybe they decide to double and triple team him and he's still taking those shots. I mean, everything had to kind of roll, shake up perfectly for him. So you don't think if Golden State can stay healthy you think this is over it's a wrap it's done i think there's a certain adjustment that a team or two could make that would make it um possible to beat them but i don't know that any team will make that adjustment and i don't know that it'll be if that adjustment will even matter enough. I mean, this team is so good that when they're healthy, did you see the thing I tweeted about

them, the image I tweeted about them, what they're shooting points per shot when they're unguarded? No. How many points per shot? I tweeted, it's an image that shows every team in the league, what they're shooting on unguarded shots, and they're at like 1.27 points per shot unguarded the second best team in the league is at like 1.16 my god like the entire there's like a batch of five teams are at like 1.15 ish and then they're like way up in the corner at 1.27 and

1.28 points per shot wait what's the what's the adjustment are you just going to be cryptic do you think that adjustment exists or do you think it definitely exists and i would never i don't i mean i don't ever i don't ever want to say stuff like that because i just feel like there are i mean i i do think that stuff gets out smarter people write about it because they think about it too or maybe i don't know like i have like owners following me on Twitter and general managers are following me. I just don't see the point of saying it. I'm not in the business of telling people what I think. I know, I'm just very cryptic. And I don't even care.

I'll never be like, oh, they did it and I was right. I'll never say anything about it ever again. I just think there is something you could try against this team that I would definitely be doing and i think that especially the spurs could do it for sure and i don't know that they will uh we'll see they probably will pops a smart car can you i'm gonna say what i think it is and you don't have to confirm or deny it just because for me it's like how do you beat the warriors, why don't you look at the teams that have had success against the Warriors for whatever reason? And the team that played them the best this year was the Boston Celtics.

And I think Portland had that one great game too, and it's basically for the same reason. The teams that have multiple guards that can create offense and kind of force the Warriors to have to go a tiny bit smaller in the backcourt and can and make Curry work and throw multiple guys at him and really bother him and push him around and do all that kind of stuff I'm not saying that that it's an you know a major advantage but it is something that the Warriors struggle with I think the Celtics really played well against the Warriors it wasn't like

that they had this outer body experience and it wasn't replicable like they did the same thing in both games and and I think as weird as this sounds the way to beat the Warriors is by matching them with the small ball with more guards and even making it even more chaotic with the perimeter stuff and making curry really work on both ends so he can't hide anywhere and that's how that would be my suggestion that's that's for boston there they just have the personnel because they have marcus martin avery bradley were two of the best guard defenders in the league bradley's probably the best right maybe you could say delvin was up there but I don't think he is as good as Bradley.

So that's like an adjustment that a team could make, but Spurs could not do that because they have Tony Parker and Patty Mills, so that's not going to happen. Right. But yeah, if you can go small and defend and have pesky defenders who make it tough then yeah i think that's that's and that's the switching thing that the spurs did that's like an adjustment that was kind of interesting i don't know why the spurs pulled that out in the regular season because if you saw when the spurs switched everything in that game that was like in the 80s yeah the spurs won yeah every team after that did that even even sam mitchell who's like not the most astute basketball tactician instituted the switching policy in that game and and they decided they were going to do that and

then they actually did it against Portland and a few other times for the rest so so it was it was it was interesting that that happened and that was interesting that happened during the regular season because I do think it gave Golden State a little more practice and I was just thinking maybe Pop didn't know if it would work, so he wanted to try it and see if it would work. But then once it worked so well, I was like, man, wouldn't you want to save that for a game five? Let's say the series is tied

2-2 and now you're going into Golden State. Maybe you use a few possessions here and there. But I think Golden State started to figure that out as the season went on because they were having so much trouble well they have immediately after the Spurs game with teams that were switching on them I don't want to say they have a weakness because it's the best regular season team I've ever seen

in my life but I do think there are certain types of guards that that they just can't match up with and they can you know they can try to limit what they're doing, but ultimately if Damian Lillard is hot against the Golden State Warriors, he's going to score points. And if Isaiah is feeling it and in one of his grooves where he's just creating off the dribble and barreling down the lane, they don't have the type of player that can really get in that person's way. And I don't know. I think that's a good thing for Chris Paul.

Like Barkley thinks the Clippers are going to beat the Warriors, which I think is absurd. I mean, I don't. Okay. Yeah. But Chris Paul could, you know, Chris Paul's A-plus game, which we've seen it. I think it's hard for him to sustain it for four quarters because he's in

year 11 at this point. But he is a really bad matchup for them you know he can kind of do whatever he wants offensively and he's always been able to do whatever he wants against the Warriors now there's other reasons why that's not a good matchup for the Clippers but it is the type of guard that they have trouble with you know yeah I think like if you're gonna beat the Warriors and this isn't what I was talking about but if you're gonna beat the Warriors this is not even really earth shattering or anything like most of the things i say are really earth shattering but if you're going to beat them

you have to make it so that step curry doesn't take any possessions off on defense that doesn't mean he has to guard someone like chris paul in fact i think he's i think you're better off if you have someone like if you're forcing switches and you're having quite just you have to bang him all the time he you have to make this as physical you have to decide how badly you want to win the series and what you're willing to do and are you willing to make this like a really rough tough physical pound it every rebound every loose ball are you like you just have to hit him he has to feel you all the time and i don't want this to happen because i just think he's such a great player i don't want to see him get hurt i'm not saying you have to hurt him i'm just saying like you have to be posting him up you have to be

running him into picks you have to be doing all kinds you have to make this a very good only because his his strength is the three-point shot which takes a lot of energy i mean you need your legs you need your you need to be fresh for that and I think if you combine that with a little how much a little rest they've had all year and you make it a physical series kind of like what the Spurs did in the game in San Antonio and then you have also the ability to a few things defensive that they might not be ready for I think you have a chance but you have to play so perfect you have to value the ball on. You can't turn the ball over against this team ever. That's not happening.

You just can't, which is why it's hilarious that they're going to play a team that's going to go the exact opposite direction and probably turn the ball over more than any other team in the playoffs. Right. That's a sweep. Houston went with Capella and Howard, those two guys.

I think they could win a game versus Golden State. They haven't gone to that lineup since Pickerstaff became the head coach or shortly thereafter. But that lineup was 10 points per possession better than any other, than their opponent in every game they played together. That was a dominating frontcourt, and they stopped doing it because Harden was turning the ball over too much, and he didn't have space.

But it was a winning lineup, and I do think if they went to that lineup in this series they could steal a game or two I think if they were ever going to use that lineup it would have happened already and Golden State has so many people to throw at Harden uh that I unless he just went completely apeshit and made like 10 threes in a game I just don't see it and everyone's saying like oh play off playoff Dwight. Watch out for playoff Dwight. He turned it on last year. Well, we also saw his last Lakers season, playoff Dwight went the other way

and he basically quit on the team and got thrown out in the last game. Wait, there's a playoff Dwight? Who's been talking about playoff Dwight? Playoff Dwight was good last year. I thought he had some good moments before his body finally broke down. Yeah, he had to before they made it to the Western Conference Finals. Yeah. Wait, but back to Curry for one second.

I thought that one game when San Antonio beat them, they really beat the shit out of them in that game, which is what Chris Paul does to them every time they play. And I think that's – I agree with you. I think the Warriors are just about unbeatable. But if you're going to try to beat them, I think you got to make Curry, you got to play two creator guards at the same time,

and you got to beat the shit out of Curry. And it's like, if Houston really wants to make this a series, we're going to know in game one by how Beverly, how much in Curry's face he is, how handsy he is. And Beverly will do that for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a lunatic. But, yeah, that'll happen.

But here's the catch, though, is if Houston just wants to go home, because how many times have we seen that in the playoffs where the team's like, you know what, fuck this. Like, let's go. I have reservations to go to the Bahamas. I think if they would have wanted to go home, they would have found a loss somewhere in the last few games. They didn't just win their last few games.

They won by like 20 points. True. I don't know that that would happen. I don't think that will happen. I think the real question for me is like will 2003, 2004, 2005 Circa pop return? The guy who had Bruce Bowen crowding every jump shooter and putting his feet Underneath them when they landed the guy who had Robert Orring hip checks into Steve Nash

The guy who stuck Who put up Nazi Mohammed out there to Smash Nash and pick and Pick and roll yeah Will that guy return because now you have the pop Who cried after losing game seven Or winning game seven or winning the series After losing game seven one year and winning the next year You had the guy who cried after losing game seven or winning game seven or winning the series after

losing game seven one year and winning the next year you had the guy who cried right and he's like kind of a softer gentler pop you don't like softer gentler pop i think it's fine i think it's it's it's i think either is i think the other one was kind of a little bit ridiculous and the one now is is actually a lot more endearing but i just wonder how how much he's you know he's experienced so much success that i don't think he feels the need to do everything that he needed to do back then to win do you agree that aldridge do you agree that aldridge is a bad matchup for this warriors team aldridge is a bad matchup for anybody he um he's single-handedly brought the mid-range game kept the mid-range game relevant.

That Spurs team takes the most mid-range shots of any team in the league, by the way, which is interesting because everyone talks about how terrible the mid-range shot is. And they do it well. And that's an area in the court right now that's inefficient. There's an inefficiency in that it's not being guarded because teams are just selling it on the three-point line of the paint. So I think Aldridge presents a really tough matchup for them, for sure, because he could shoot over any one of the players. I think I'd like to see a lot more Bogut on him.

I don't know if they'll do that because I think Bogut can actually defend him well. Bogut's actually a player that I underrated a lot, where I didn't think he was doing much for Golden State, and I was definitely wrong because I went back and watched that after the hurls of invectives I got from Australians across the world. Don't mess with that.

So I went back and watched it and I was like, you know what, they're right. There's a lot for this team. You know, the other thing I would do in a playoff series against Golden State, Draymond, who I had on my pod yesterday, he was really good. I do think you can get him a little over riled up. Yeah.

Which I'm amazed that more teams haven't tried to do that. A lot of woofing, a lot of talking and just kind of get him so that he's concentrating on whatever weird verbal game he has going with the other team over all the stuff he has to actually do for the Warriors. I think you can use that against them and I haven't seen anybody do that yet I bet if they play the Clippers in round two that's going to be a big part of what the Clippers try to do is just well who on the Clippers now is going to do that it's a very good question uh they used to have Matt Barnes. Yeah, who is their Matt Barnes?

You're right. They don't have that. Austin Rivers, maybe, from the bench? I don't know. You know who it probably is? Don't laugh. I think it's probably Doc Rivers. He's not averse to doing that.

Possibly, but I don't know. He likes to talk to other teams' players and get shit going. I think Chris Paul would do a little bit. I think Blake and Draymond have just never liked each other. And if Blake is – I don't know if Blake's physically there or not. It's been mixed results. He doesn't look like he's physically there. Yeah, it doesn't look like it. But I also don't know if he's playing himself into shape.

You know, the Clippers are somewhere between 25 and 30-1 to 40-1 to win the title depending on where you look. It seems a little high, right? I think you'd be better off just setting your money on fire. Okay, maybe not too high. Maybe. 40 to 1? I mean, 40 to 1, I mean, you're basically gambling on an injury to Curry.

And, yeah, then maybe it could happen. I mean, it depends on... They're not beating... The people are like, oh, they played them so well. The Clippers played Golden State so well. If you watch the first game, they played them so well. Curry picked up three fouls or two fouls in the first quarter.

And then Walton basically fouled Curry out the rest of the game. Hardly ever played him because he was so scared of him getting in foul trouble. I think Curry ended the game. Curry sat the entire first quarter. The Clippers put up that huge lead. So, I don't see it happening. I think if the Clippers try playing Blake at the 5 some,

versus, I thought that's what they were going to do when he was healthy uh was just just experiment with that yeah just to kind of see if they could get it going but instead they kind of doubled down on on playing him at the four with with DeAndre uh like because that's what you could do right you could have like remember when Chris Paul got injured got injured versus Houston and Blake was handling the ball the entire time? And they won some of those games and kept a lot of them close? That's what you could do. You could have him be the guy.

I would personally play Blake four to five minutes in the first quarter, take him out and bring him back with the backups. That's what I would do. Because he is someone who is not getting the maximum out of him when Chris Paul's out there handling the ball, and the spacing sucks because he doesn't space the three-point line. He spaces just to within it, and he takes those long twos that never lead to rebounds for your team and hardly ever go in. And when they do go in, you only get two points

versus the three points you get when Pierce makes his. So it makes it very difficult to really max him out and max his value out. So that's what I would do. I would actually probably – it would never happen, but I would basically make him a sixth man. Oh, I was waiting for you to finish so I could say that. Nobody has made that point, and it is the most obvious point. As far as Clippers, bring Blake off the bench.

Why not? Yeah, that's why. But you could have said because he was hurt and he's been out for a while, we're going to bring him off the bench. This makes it seem like that's the way you could coach it in a way that would make it seem that way. But that's why you just play him three, four minutes in the first quarter and take him out and play him out. It's the same

thing almost. Just keep what you had because you were playing well and just sell it to Blake. Look, we want to limit your minutes while we're bringing you back. We're going to bring you in with like you know four minutes left in the first quarter and we're going to run the offense around you for big stretches and if i'm the other team i'm like fuck they figured that out this sucks now now blake's going against my second team he's gonna he's gonna go he going to go in beast mode on those teams. I thought they should have tried.

I actually thought Doc might have had the balls to try that, but he didn't do it. All right, quickly, because the Reddit people asked some questions. I just want to go through a couple of these really quick. Are the Zombie Grizzlies the worst team to ever make the playoffs? Yeah. Yes? Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

This team is, I mean, yeah, they're really bad. Okay. They have like players who can play. Like I like Martin. I like Jermichael Green. I like Mumford. But those guys are okay. I mean, this is a very, very bad team with a great coach, basically, right now.

You're going to love this one. Most realistic coach to out-coach himself and cost his team a playoff series. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, I figured you'd like that one. I like Bud for that, for sure. Coach Bud, yeah, you've always been lukewarm on him. I mean, his offensive system is cool. I haven't really been impressed with anything else he's done,

aside from that. I mean, he's got a great offense. It's not cool. It's a great offensive system. But, yeah, I think he's the guy who might decide that he is going to overdo something. He's in a tough spot though too because he uh that team doesn't get the whistles that they should get yeah ever since he bumped

ever since he bumped that official they've kind of there's a few refs who just won't give them the benefit of the doubt and some of those refs are senior refs and i do worry that come playoff time that will come to haunt them so that's a benefit for you and yourself yeah i was gonna say you just got me super excited uh have you have you finally accepted that evan turner is a productive nba player it's interesting yeah i mean the that's why a coach like stevens is such a value to his franchise because he can take someone off the scrap heap and and and focus on the positive things the player does. And I, I still think that I wouldn't want him on my team unless I had no other options, but yeah, he's pretty, he produces for Boston for sure. There's no question. That's, that's true.

Did you bet on Kobe's last game? I, did I bet on Kobe's last game? No, I didn't bet on Kobe's last game. I didn't. I wanted to bet on the Lakers after Sacramento beat Houston. Or Houston beat Sacramento, excuse me. Just because I felt like there was an inefficiency there. And so Utah, the game basically went from being a playoff game to meaningless for Utah in the span of two hours. Yeah. And the line didn't really adjust.

But how could you bet that game? I mean, you'd have to be insane to bet that game. I didn't bet that game. I couldn't bring myself to do it. His home court advantage, is it still as good as it was? Is it faded? Where do you stand on home court advantage these days? Well, like everything in the Adam Silver era,

it is open for, it's up for debate at this point. I will say that since Adam Silver took over as commissioner, including since he took over at the All-Star break two years ago, home court advantage has definitely been reduced. And a lot of that is with the way the game has been officiated.

So this commissioner micromanages officiating, or his crew that he has in charge of officiating, micromanages officiating more than any other, more than the heavy hand of David Stern. So I will say that it's not as big a factor as it used to be. That has not been the last two playoffs. That's factual. I think it's two points, but it used to be almost four points.

So that's a I think it's two points but it used to be almost four points so that's a pretty big swing alright Haral Bob thanks for coming out we're going to check in with him during the course of the playoffs we had a little bit of a connection issue there unfortunately so we had to end that one a tiny bit abruptly before we get to Katie Bakes I want to mention HBO Now the home

of After the Thrones. That's our post-game show for Game of Thrones that stars The Ringers, Andy Greenwald, and Chris Ryan. Game of Thrones launching Sunday, April 24th. After the Thrones launching shortly after on HBO Now. And if you go to my Instagram, we've been posting photos of the studio. So that's been awesome. And also, let's give a shout out to framebridge.com because I bought a bunch of HBO posters on eBay that we're going to frame for the podcast studio. And I'm going to send them the Framebridge and they're

going to frame them for me because they do an awesome job with that. So framebridge.com, check them out. Here we go. Katie Bakes. Well, Haral Bob had some phone issues. We had like about three more minutes I wanted to do with him there, but we had to sign him off. He'll be back. He's going to be in studio in a couple weeks. But from the ringer right now, Katie Bakes, How are you? I'm good. How are you? She's in town. We had some ringer meetings. And hockey's happening. Playoff hockey. I love playoff hockey.

I want the Kings to keep winning so I can go to important playoff hockey games. And they gave up four goals to the Sharks yesterday. I'm worried about the Sharks. The Sharks have good players. So, I mean, the Sharks are that team that, you know, the Kings are obviously so good this year, but the Sharks finally don't have, like, the buzz going into the playoffs that they usually do, and they usually kind of blow. So maybe this is their year to finally unseat the,

finally, you know, kill their hated Kings. That's, I mean, I hope it's like a seven-game series where everyone crushes each other. I think it will be. It was starting to, Lucha was getting super mad in the, he was flying around. I caught the third period, and the Kings missed like 17 chances to tie the game in the last three minutes. So I think it's going to be, it feels like it will just go back and forth.

It will be a great series. So did you catch the third period before or after Joe Pavelski dominated Andrzej Kovatar with his wraparound goal? Pavelski's good. Yeah. That's the thing. These things – it always – I don't know. Hockey, usually the cream rises to the top in a series. And if you just have somebody who's awesome in a series, they can swing it.

And Pavelski's really good. Burns is a beast. But I think the Kings are really good. Like, I'd pick them to win the Cup. Yeah, I mean, the other thing with the Sharks is that I don't think enough people have been talking about the season Joe Thornton had. I know. They stripped him of the captaincy. He had 82 points

in 82 games. He was fourth in scoring in the league and he also stands most importantly he is number three on my list of players that I want to see raise the Stanley Cup. Number three? Who are the other two?

Number one is Henrik Lundqvist, obviously. Number two is Alex Ovechkin, just because I'd love to see him just go crazy with the cup. Do you think he tried to slam it against the boards and then break the glass? As I was saying that, I just had a mental image of him spiking it or something. I don't know why. Just Hulk smashing it or something. He's a threat to have sex with the Stanley Cup. I think we should make sure there's always people around him. Yeah, he'll carry on the tradition that the New York Rangers, bringing it or something. He's a threat to have sex with the Stanley Cup. I think we should make sure there's always people around him.

Yeah, he'll carry on the tradition that the New York Rangers, you know, bringing it to scores. I don't know what the D.C. equivalent of scores is or the Moscow equivalent. But come on, you know, you don't really think the Caps are going to win the Stanley Cup. I think. They just have too much baggage. I don't see it. Word out of Washington is that fans are kind of like, I'll believe it when I see it. The guard is up.

Yeah. Especially also with like the Nats playoff. Like they're all just, they're just, they don't believe in anything anymore. It's secretly one of the most tortured cities. Like people always mention Cleveland and Buffalo and Minnesota. And meanwhile, like Washington has not been a good three-and-a-half-decade run. Yeah, I don't think the Caps have got past the second round of the playoffs since, like, 98 or something.

It was the O-tier, right? Yeah, it was just pretty crazy just considering how kind of good they've been and the fact that Ovechkin was kind of the, you know, he and Crosby were the two guys in the league for a while. That's why I picked the Panthers. I wanted to take a flyer on somebody in the East. I don't know. I like why I picked the Panthers. I wanted to take a flyer on somebody in the East. I don't know. I like the mix of the Panthers.

I didn't see the game last night, but they gave up five goals to the Islanders, which is not a good sign. I know, especially considering people thought Luongo could be kind of a difference maker and goal. But I love the Panthers. They're a really fun mix. They're kind of like a barbell of a team. They've got super young guys, and then they've got Yarmir Yager

and Willie Mitchell, although Willie's injured. But the thing with Yager, though, he's had this great season. We all love Yager. He's actually number four on my list of guys I want to see. He's won before, but it would be nice to see him win again. But he's got, like like one goal in his last 33 playoff games i saw that yeah um i mean i don't know if he just you know it's a long season and his his weighted sticks and weighted vests that he skates in at you know one in the morning kind of

finally weigh him down no pun intended but um you know we'll see if kind of i feel like every year we kind of have this jogger story and then he kind of gets a little injured, or he just doesn't. I don't know if it's just the stress of the playoffs. Sean Thornton they have, too, which is always the guy people always mention is one of the great leaders. He's great. He'll stick up for his teammates. He'll tell somebody they're not trying hard.

The quintessential big, bad Bruin, right? Yeah, he was great for the Bruins. Tampa was another one I was looking at a little because it's just so easy to cross them off because Stamkos is out. So that guy, Druin, I went to a Kings game before they buried him. I remember his name from the draft,

but so I'm watching, I'm like, who the hell is that guy? That guy's amazing. And I was talking to from the draft, but so I'm watching him like, who the hell is that guy? That guy's amazing. And I was talking to the guy, Darrell, who sits behind me, who knows everything about hockey. He's like, oh, yeah, that was the number three pick. I was like, oh, well, I didn't make the connection. He's like, yeah, he hasn't really made it.

And I was hoping the Bruins were going to trade for him because he was kind of up for grabs for a little bit there. And now he's kind of been thrust into this. I could see him like going nuts. So my eyes on Tampa is like a possible Ewing theory. Yeah. It's a tiny bit. Yeah.

I mean, I think, you know, he's had kind of a really strange career so far. Really strange. Yeah. Even last year in the playoffs, like in the cup final, you know, he had been sitting and then he played. but it was kind of the swirling controversy. And then this season was a little out of control. Like he, you know, got demoted and then missed a meeting and then was kind of benched. And yeah, everyone thinks basketball players are the dicks.

No. Hockey has a lot of like those Evander Kane, Drew type guys who just see me. You're like, what's going on? Why does everybody not like this guy? I think, think you know if there's any like entrepreneurs out there i think they someone can make a lot of money with like a foolproof alarm app for hockey players specifically because they just they sleep through meetings like no one i've ever experienced um it's tough with the beer and the painkill. It's just tough to wake up the next day. The thing with Tampa, though, is it's not just Stamkos who's out. One of the kind of bigger losses, I think, not necessarily bigger,

but just as big is defenseman Anton Strahlman, who was such a huge part of their cup run last year to the final. And him being out and Stamkos, those are like, you know, that's rough. Well, that's one of the reasons. Like, I always, I'm super wary of picking anyone who made the finals the year before. Yeah. I just think it's too brutal. I watched it with the Kings last year.

Like, they were just corpses. Yeah. You're playing for, you're playing basically from the beginning of October all the way through June. And the hockey playoffs is one of the most brutal things all the way through June and the hockey playoffs is one of the most brutal things we put athletes through to do that for four rounds like the amount of punishment I don't understand how they do it

yeah I mean the amount of injuries that get revealed afterwards oh they all lie I remember Patrice Bergeron he had a lacerated spleen I forget what it was but it was something where you're like how is he even getting out of bed, let alone playing?

All the kings, they all had like torn stomach muscles and, you know, broken shoulders. And they're all just, none of them want to be the person who says, I can't play, I'm too banged up. Because then you're like an outcast. Yeah. I think the thing with Tampa is like even, I think they can get past the wings because I don't really think the wings are that great. I know. I was kind of excited to pick them as a sleeper, and I did some research. I even threw it out on Twitter.

People are like, no, run, run. Who is your sleeper? Well, it was kind of borderline. The Panthers are a borderline sleeper, right? Yeah. For the West, I just think the West is too stacked. I don't see a sleeper. San Jose is probably the best bet for a sleeper because they have real guys.

What's funny is that two teams in the West that you could kind of say that about would be San Jose and then also St. Louis. And they're two teams that have been so good for so long but have never, especially in the last few years, just haven't, you know, because the West is so stacked, as you said, they haven't gotten past the Kings or they haven't gotten past Chicago. And so, you know, the Blues, I think, were lucky to get their overtime win. I was kind of expecting that to be one of those like quadruple overtime games, but it ended a lot sooner than I thought. I was so ready last night for the OT game. Have we even had an OT game yet in two days? I mean, just the one, and it was short. We haven't had the 2 a.m. on the East Coast. I'm so ready. I need it. That's one of the benefits of the West Coast, as you know. Those are the best.

Because on the East Coast, it's like, really? Oh, no. Now I'm going to be up until 2.30 in the morning? Yeah. On the West Coast, it's great. This is the best all-around. I've had the King season tickets now for five years. I'd probably go to half the home games.

I think it's the best all-around team they've had, top to bottom. They're a little weak on D is the one hole. Brandon McNabb I just can't take. He's way too involved. I just wish they had had – and you can't because with the cap, everybody's got the one hole. They don't have that one extra dude. That's what scares me about them.

The crazy thing about the Kings is that not only are they, have they been one of like the best possession team in the league, they, over the last 25, 26 games, which can be like one of the best indicators of playoff success. Yeah. You know,

that they're, they also lead the league. And then right behind them is Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Jose. The last four include Chicago, which is interesting. And this is kind of just, you know, it's weird with the Blackhawks because you never know how much they're just sort of cruising to the playoffs

and resting and lying in wait and how much is actually indicative of their play. But then you've also got Minnesota and then my beloved New York Rangers, last terrible last 26 games. Isn't that great? Henrik Lundqvist just got stabbed in the eye by a teammate. I know. A teammate whose brother was their big free agent acquisition and I think had like three goals in the last 20 games.

So Rangers are, I've got everyone right where they want them right now the rangers penguins is i always like when there's just a series where it's just it's almost like boxing where the rangers are just like just a ton of size and then pittsburgh's just a ton of speed and it's only i never know where to go when that when that's the matchup and they could it's always like you're watching oh i should have known they have too much size like they're just manhandling pittsburgh or then you'll watch and be like oh my god pittsburgh is way too fast for them this is ridiculous and i don't know how that's gonna go yeah and i feel like in the league in general that's that has sort of gone back and forth over the last few years you

kind of had the you know the big you know la and bru. And then last year, Blackhawks-Tampa was, like, one of the fastest matchups. Right now, I think a lot of the question with Pittsburgh is you've got Gino Malkin coming back, supposedly. Yeah, when does that happen? It's unclear. There's been a little viewing theory with him, too, right? He's been – I think he was, like, taking rushes in practice today and, like, doing some power play stuff, like, is what I'm seeing. So I don't know if he's going to be back for game two or what. But now people are saying, but he's slower than the rest of the team.

Is he going to ruin their speed? And, you know, I have to think that he can't slow things down that much, having him on the ice. I mean, as an opposing team, I'd be scared of him. But I can see how you don't want to disrupt the formula that's been working for them for a while. I'm pretty sure I'd find a spot for Malkin. Yeah, I don't think he's someone you want to just kind of leave on. Oh, geez, what do we have?

Sorry, you're too slow. Sorry, dude. I've had these tickets for five years, and there's been only like eight guys who have stood out. It's really hard to stand out on a rink. Yeah. You know? You can't tell who's who. Everyone's got their helmets on. And then there's a couple like eight guys who have stood out. It's really hard to stand out on a rink. Yeah. You know? You can't tell who's who.

Everyone's got their helmets on. And then there's a couple guys you're like, Jesus. I think Lucha's actually like that. He's just one of a kind. He's like a one-on-one. You notice him. And Kopitar's somebody that if he wasn't playing here, I think he would be a bigger star because of all the stuff.

He's just amazing. He does everything. He's complete package. But Malkin's one of those. The first time I saw him in person with the seats we have, just watching the way he just holds people off while he holds the puck. Yeah. There's only like three, four guys in the league that can do that,

that can do the skate around, keep possession. Guys are banging them. Guys are hitting them with their sticks, and they're just like they're unfazed. Yeah. When he's like really on his game. I mean, his problem is he's quite injury prone. But he's so big, but so kind of agile. Yeah.

And it's a crazy combination to see. So you notice it, you know. Kind of this, he should be like a lumbering guy. And he's not. Where do you stand on, because I'm biased, He should be like a lumbering guy, and he's not. Where do you stand on, because I'm biased, because I judge all my hockey opinions based on the games I go to, and I just think Dowdy's incredible, but where does he stand in the hierarchy?

Well, there's a big controversy in awards voting this year is him or Eric Carlson as know best defenseman and um i think dowdy's i mean i think they're both incredible they kind of different style games but um but he's i mean he's kind of top one or two depending on okay because the thing that's crazy about he just has to play like it almost reminds me of watching bork in the 80s where he just had to be out there for 30 minutes he's had to we don't have a choice he's like oh oh it the 80s where he just had to be out there for 30 minutes. He just had to. We don't have a choice. He's like, oh, it's a power play? He's got to be out there.

Oh, we're short-handed? He's got to be out there. Oh, it's the last three minutes? Let's double shift him. That's where Dowdy is for the Kings. I think he's awesome. He's really great. He's also just like a – as a guy, he's kind of like a funny guy and he speaks his mind.

He's the one they worry about after they win the Stanley Cup. Right. Daddy's gone. Where'd he go? They're worried about him. You don't want to lose sight of that guy. I think he was the one who... San Jose fans must hate him. I think he was the one

who after San Jose lost in that one series he said, I could see it in their eyes. I think he was the one who after San Jose lost in that one series, he said, like, I could see it in their eyes. I could see the defeat in Joe Thorne's eyes. It is true. I was there for them. They did quit in that series. I mean, he's right. There's no question. You can tell in hockey. Really, hockey, everyone always

tries to come up with theories and the hot goalie, all that shit. It really comes down to when the entire team's just locked in and going 130 percent and it's just every line and they're just flying around and that's how you win in hockey and you need some luck and you need a puck to go bounce off somebody's leg like the kings won in 2014 they had so much luck in that run yeah the winning goal bounced off about 20 people in one of those series i mean the what's interesting this year about, you mentioned the hot goalie,

and that's always kind of like the discussion. But this year, to me, the thing that I'm interested to see what happens in terms of goalies is there's several teams that have kind of two starting goalies. Yeah, they're juggling. Yeah, and, you know, there's like the old quarterback saying if you have two starting quarterbacks, you don't have a starting quarterback. So I think that it's the kind of thing where it can lead you to the playoffs because you're able to kind of rotate these guys.

They can rest. But then once you're in the playoffs, you have that worry of every time you lose a game, every time one goalie gives up a bad goal. What do you do? The leaves start swirling, and it's like in the same way way teams if they have a bad you know first 10 games of the season they fire the coach it's like you have one bad game and all of a sudden it's you change the goalie and i just think it becomes such a distraction and um it's hard to really like get into a rhythm when you're potentially going to be juggling guys um so dallas is a team that has that going on i mean it i don't think

it's necessarily hurt them yet and i'm not sold on dallas they they don't defend well enough yeah i mean you just score on them they have a lot of depth um you know they i i think in the first round that's a pretty lopsided matchup with minnesota especially with um minnesota has a bunch of injuries to vanak and pre Prezi. Prezi hurts. Yeah, and Eric Holla. So I think Dallas is fine right now. But, you know, it's just like what happens when there's one bad game? Are they going to start shuffling goalies around,

and then that becomes the, you know, everyone's asking about the goalies, and then you start to. Plus, if it's Dallas, L.A., they're done, because Sagan won't be able to handle being in LA for three to four days. He's done. With his old buddy, Looch. Looch will be like, I got Sagan. I'm taking him out tonight.

We'll be skating around like luggage the next day. My feelings on Looch will always be his, I don't know if it's his fiance or girlfriend or wife. Wife. She had the shoes that she was wearing on the ice after they won the cup. Like she is talented beyond belief. She was wearing stiletto like sequin heels and trotting along on the ice. And I was like, I could never do that. He's the best.

We met him after one of the Kings games because my son really wanted to meet him. And he's just he's like the Hulk. I don't think people realize, especially when you see it on the ice, he's one, like, you could be an alien that just landed. You'd be like, who's that guy? Your son really knows how to, like, seek out the people most likely to compete in WrestleMania. He's, like, basically everything my son ever wanted from a King.

It's like he's just been waiting for five years for somebody like this to show up this big guy and it's the best like at these games if somebody like if somebody checks him without luch didn't see it or he feels like some line has been crossed and where i was like oh watch this oh he's gonna he's gonna get somebody and you just he's skating around like charles bronson waiting to take somebody out. He's the best. I love watching that guy. I don't think he's going to sign. I think he'll sign with somebody else after the year.

I don't think they have the cap space for him. But they'll get one great year out of him. So the California team we have not yet discussed, the Anaheim Ducks. The most disgusting collection of people who have ever been put together. Yeah, we didn't discuss them. I love how hockey in California is the most competitive. It's surly. Yeah, it's good.

Surly. Everyone hates each other. Everyone's very creative. And you have all these Kings bloggers that just rip on these teams. There's not much the teams can do to defend themselves. The good thing I like about hockey, like if I said in basketball, like if I just tweeted like Kevin Durant sucks, I hate that guy. People would be like, oh, my God.

It would be like blog posts written about it. In hockey, you can just say anyone sucks, but it's part of hockey. Like I hate Corey Perry. I go to games. We yell at Corey Perry. My kids yell at him, and that's part of hockey. It's good that I can yell at Corey Perry. I go to games. We yell at Corey Perry. My kids yell at him. And that's part of hockey. It's good that I can yell at Corey Perry.

It's not like I don't want him to die in a car crash. But I love rooting against him. Who do you sports hate more, Corey Perry or the Sidians? Oh, Corey Perry. Yeah. The Sidians aren't as relevant anymore. I don't know if he's a bad person in real life. But as a hockey player, he's a bad person. He does bad things. I feel like I remember

when he won the heart a few years back, he like cried at the podium and I was like, screw him. Those are fake tears. They have, they have four people that I can't stand. And it's amazing. It's rare for a hockey team to get to four. Getzlaff, screw him. Kessler, I've had it with that guy. And then the sneaky one that never gets thrown into these things is BXA. Oh, yeah. He's the worst.

I hate that guy. Yeah, he's the worst. He's a little cheap shot artist. Well, if his name were Loochie, maybe you'd love him. Well, that's the the thing i'm sure they would feel the same way about luch right they'd be like oh i hate that guy and probably kyle quifford and a couple other ones so every team has i was gonna say kyle yeah yeah the uh the crazy thing about the ducks is like you have to kind of look back and they they started like one seven and two and they were gonna fire bruce budro i know i was so excited come on we always need bruce budro in the league well i was just excited that they were in the tank

yeah yeah and then i mean they really i do wonder if they peaked a little too early yeah that'd be my one my one uh thing to watch but you know i i think ducks kings round two if it can happen would be an incredible series with so much bad blood and so many subplots and some real history. You know? Yeah. That would be good. I mean, just any of this California team, you know, I wish they could like somehow have like a three-team round robin round. Yeah, there's real bad blood.

It's really funny. And the Kings fans out here, at least, they either love the Kings or nobody knows what's going on. So it's like this self-contained group of diehards. And then like the casual fans that jump in if they make the finals. What Eastern Conference series would you be the most excited about? You mean like Eastern Conference final? Yeah, just anything. Matt, is there two teams that you would love to see? I'm interested to see what happens in the first round with Flyers Capitals

because I think the Flyers. The owner who died? I know. Yeah, that always seems to work in the team's favor. Yeah, as much as I hate to kind of use that as the reason, those things do have a way of. They do. They're going to come back to Philly

and have an emotional pregame tribute i'm sure and house was upset about that yeah when when yeah house at capitol st is like really oh no it's like one last way for ed snyder to like stick it to someone emotion this is terrible yeah i mean the uh i think the flyers had like a good end to the season um and but that said and you know and the Capitals have the weight of the President's Trophy. It is weighty. Yeah, but I mean...

It usually has a way of messing things up. Yeah, I mean, I hope this is one of those series that like... I hope it's like the Pittsburgh-Philly series of a few years back where everyone just demolished each other. Yeah. It was like.

There were fights yesterday, right? Didn't Simmons get into it with somebody? Oh, well, I saw that Ovechkin kind of injured someone. Ooh. Yeah, and so maybe that was the result. I didn't see that part of the game. I was listening on the radio. They were talking about how it got chippy when I was driving back from our little gathering last night.

I mean, like Islanders fans and Rangers fans and Penguins fans were eyeing that series and saying, like, kill them all. Yeah, seriously. That's one great thing about hockey when you're in the other bracket or you're just rooting for just carnage in the series that's happening. Yeah, that's why that Philly-Pittsburgh series from a few years ago, I have such a strong memory of because they got under Crosby's skin. And that was the series where we all thought that Claude Giroux was going to be the best player in the league forever. And I mean, if every playoff series was like that, I'd be happy.

I think we'd probably lose a bunch of players in the process but you never congratulated me for you know i don't break them out that often anymore but the the reverse jinx tweets when i go in i go in hard and i completely ruined the canadian season i've never been prouder and it was all intentional they were when they had that hot streak to start the season i was like like, it's over, give them the cup. And some Canadians fans knew what I was doing and flipped out. And then other ones were like, yeah, even he sees it.

And I was like, this is great. It's almost like the Stephen Colbert. It's like, who are you trolling? I was so happy. And then their season fell apart and half the people are yelling at me. And then the other half were like, he's such an apart. And half the people are yelling at me. And then the other half were like, he's such an idiot.

He thought the Canadians were going to win. I'm like, this is the best. I love this. It was great. I've never been prouder of Rivers-Jenks because I hate the Canadians. Sorry, Montreal. It's my least favorite hockey team. It's been a rough year for Canada.

No one in the playoffs. Not the first time recently that's happened. So what do they do? They just root for the most popular Canadian in the playoffs? How do they handle it when they don't have a team? Well, that's a very good question. Thank you. The big thing that's coming out of Canada right now is that Leafs fans are getting really

riled up that they think Stephen Stamkos will come to the Leafs. So I don't know if that means they're... I guess it means they're probably rooting against Tampa so that Stamkos is at maximum, you know, anger and wants to get out of the situation and, you know, comes to Toronto where they – you know, his homeland where they believe he's – But Toronto should have a good team, though. It's an – it would be so much fun if they were good. I'm always rooting for them to be good, and it just seems like they're always in their own way i can never decide if i think toronto or edmonton is like the knicks of the i think toronto toronto

is the next edmonton has the money yeah edmonton has its like reasons but i mean the big difference between edmonton and the next is edmonton's actually picked in the first round of the draft because they don't trade away their number one picks or their lottery picks. Well, they still have five cups. Right, but I mean like recently. But yeah, the Leafs to me are very Nick-like because it's just been forever. They keep kind of turning over management. They have no good memories other than like 1993.

Yeah, like people talk about 1967. They're like, we're not even born yet. So, I mean, they've got good people in place right now in terms of like, you know, the management. But, you know, they haven't done anything. Their fans are just always disgruntled. Well, now the fans are just beaten down now. Now it's like almost like the hope's been beaten out of them. Edmonton's interesting because they're going to have top two pick again and i have a suggestion i i

would really focus start focusing on um the defensive side of the ice you know i probably wouldn't take another forward maybe is there some franchise defenseman they could take or some trade it for a goalie like anything because that team has I saw them twice this year first of all McDavid is magnificent yeah he really is flat out magnificent

oh he's so good yeah Taylor Hall is really good like they have good players I was nervous because when I went to Edmonton for the Women's World Cup this past summer

when you go to like the baggage claim they have these kind of life-size cardboard cutouts of Edmonton Oilers players like on top of the luggage carousel.

And then they had this TV setup that had like a closed circuit stream of just Connor McDavid highlights. And he hadn't even played a game for them yet. And I was like, this is not going to end well. Well, his rookie card was already being sold for crazy money. He hadn't even played a game yet, but he's unbelievable. He's fantastic. It's a no-brainer that he's going to be a massive superstar.

Unless something bad happens. It was fun going into the season with the talk of him and Eichel. Eichel had a good season, too. Eichel's good, yeah. There's a bunch of several other rookies that have had great seasons, too, as there always are.

The Red Wings kid is really good. Yeah, Larkin. So, they... Yeah, but i mean mcdavid i mean you just watch him and it's like i wish he was like an eight seed yeah to like just because i don't even think he's on anyone's radar other than hockey fans yeah like the casual fans don't even know that he's like that i know yeah he's so fast that i actually got scared for him. Like, I'm not surprised he broke his collarbone or whatever he did, because it's almost like he's too fast. It's dangerous.

I don't know, like, if he gets knocked off, he's just going to, like, fly through the boards and, you know, go into the stands. Especially because the Oilers have a long and storied history of their young players having repeated injuries. All, having terrible things happen to them. All right, we have to go, so give me your pick right now. So I'm going to – my pick is like total just kind of what I want to happen. Yeah.

But I – so I want to see San Jose, Washington. Oh, a Joe Thornton Ovechkin who gets to hoist the cup? Yeah, it's like, which one? Yeah, so I'm guaranteed one of my guys. And who do I think would win that? I think I'd go San Jose. But that said, both of those teams could also lose in the first round. I'm worried about San Jose,

and I think I was blinded a little bit by the Kings because I forgot the Martin Jones part of it. Just that they traded him but didn't make sure that he wasn't going to get retraded back into their division. Maybe they should have factored that one in. Right. Last thing, you had a child. I had a child. How has that affected your hockey watching?

It may be a good thing, actually, because you're doing weird feedings at weird times of the night. You can take games. I will say the first sporting event that my child saw the morning after he was born was Rangers-Bruins. Good. The Bruins came back in the fourth quarter, or the fourth quarter, the third period, to win the game as I lay in my hospital bed. Like, just, ugh. This is, like, the story of my life. So a loss coming out of the gate.

Right, exactly. But you know what, though? I would be careful because when he gets older, you're not going to be living in New York, probably. No. He might go just local. He might. He might be like, I kind of like the Sharks jerseys.

I was going to say, he's going to be swept into the California hockey vortex. It's very possible. He's going to be like a blogger doing weird photo shops. My son is ready to root for the Rams. Yeah? Yeah. I told him like the Rams made a trade. They're trading quarterback.

He's like, who? And I was like, wait, you're too excited about this. He's just ready to jump on any LA bandwagon and I've failed as a father just flat out failed what did your daughter have to say about last night's game she went

she just thought they should have they blew too many chances late she was upset and not worried not worried at all I was thinking about like which rounds have like the most panic kind of after game one because there's always the fan base that totally panics and la and chicago they're like coolest cucumbers they've been here

before ain't no thing the kings are really good you're not gonna panic if you're a kings fan and until they're down three games to one or something. She was the most excited. There was almost a fight in our section, which always, she approaches from like the most basic human level of why would two human beings want to actually throw punches at a sporting event? So she's like, just the dynamics of it, she could talk about for three hours. Oh, I'm sure. Somebody was yelling at Martin Jones and he kept yelling and he kept yelling.

And somebody was like, hey, dude, enough. Hey, don't tell me what to do. It was one of those hockey fights that happens constantly. And they're going, and then after the end of the period, they walked up the stairs, and they had to be separated. It was like, oh, here we go. Playoff hockey. I want to know how many years it'll be before one of those guys is your son. Isn't he a chirper?

We might be there. Yeah. He does, after every King's Goal, he goes into the aisle and does the Dolph Ziggler shaking the ass dance and then pounds the glass. Yeah. It's there.

It's the right sport for him. He likes hockey and pro wrestling. Hockey and wrestling. He's a mass hole who happens to be living in Los Angeles. There you go. Hockey and wrestling are perfect together. Yeah.

Well, congrats on the kid. Congrats on Yale's NCAA moment. Yeah. I thought of you. It was big. You know, what annoyed me was all the terrible Twitter jokes about the Yale Duke game. I know. None of them were good.

None of them. It's too easy to- If you wrote a Twitter joke about Yale Duke, it was bad. Too easy. And we love having you back in the fold. So happy to be here. Excited to read you again this summer. Looking forward to it.

Katie Bakes, thank you. Thanks to SeatGeek, the presenting sponsor of the BS podcast. Go check out their app right now. Or go to SeatGeek.com slash BS to start using SeatGeek. If you go to the app and enter promo code BS, SeatGeek sends you $20 upon your first purchase. Thanks to HBO Now, you don't need cable or satellite to watch HBO. Download the HBO Now app. Start a free one-month trial right now

just in time to get After the Thrones. And thanks to The Ringer, my website. Go to theringer.com to subscribe to our newsletter. Enjoy the weekend, everybody. Anytime y'all want to see me again, rewind this track right here. Close your your eyes and picture me