The Bill Simmons Podcast - Part 1: Boston Prevails in 7 With Ryen Russillo

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

In Part 1 of a two-part podcast, The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss the Celtics eliminating the Bucks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. They talk about where Jayson Tatum ranks among top NBA players, whether the Bucks could've made any adjustments to change the outcome, some trademark moments from the series, why Bill's superstitions wouldn't allow him to watch Game 7 in Boston, a look ahead to Celtics-Heat, and more! Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Ryen Russillo Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up on this podcast, I don't know what we're going to talk about. Hockey, boxing, baseball. Oh, wait, I have an idea. Game seven, Celtics Bucks. That's next. It's the Bill Simmons podcast presented by FanDuel. Football is in full action. FanDuel's highest rated sports book is the best place to bet it all. We've been doing pretty well on million dollar picks this year. I love the first month of the season because you have to go into the season thinking, I think Pittsburgh's going to be good. I think the Chargers are going to be good. I think Seattle's going to be good.

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So stay tuned for that. Coming up on this podcast, it is part one. Priscilla and I are going to talk about Bucks Celtics game seven, part two, Suns-Mavs coming much later tonight after Suns-Mavs. And we'll talk about James Harden and a whole bunch of other stuff. This is part one. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, taping this. It is 325 Pacific time. Celtics just beat the Bucs in a game seven that I did not go to.

I'll explain my reasons to a solo later. We're going to talk about some karma stuff, but this was an awesome series. This was a weirdly dramatic game for a 28 point game. And the big takeaway I had, the reason I felt confident even heading into this game was the Bucs could have had a game seven at home. They decided it didn't matter. And it all rears its ugly head.

This is why you want the game sevens at home. Cause you get the role players. You get Peyton Pritchard coming in, hitting four threes and screaming. This is what I do at his bench. You get great Williams. What did he finish with seven threes, eight threes.

This is what happens within game sevens with weird role players. Whereas the bucks, their, their wings, we're not good. Two for 17 in this game. I think Game 7 is the role guys matter. What was your big takeaway? It's just the overarching Celtics storyline

that we've been talking about. The fact that we're here now, they just beat Giannis in Game 7. They're going to the Eastern Conference Finals. They're going to be favored over Miami. I've never seen anything happen like this. I just don't. I'm sure it has happened.

I just can't think of a team that I was so done with that I stopped watching them, Bill. Me too. I was like, you know what? I don't really feel like watching them stink on offense for the last five minutes of a close game again. And to now go into it with them where you're like, this team's tough.

You're expecting things of them. And maybe, you know, how like whenever we're talking about players to these kind of individual steps of like maybe Lucas set up for his coming out party. Right. You know what I mean? Like because the playoffs are kind of where all this stuff happens. But for Tatum to get one against Giannis again today, I just I don't know, man. It's such a weird thing. It's so weird. And you brought that up, too, about the home court. And I was like, wait, you don't know, man. It's such a weird thing. It's so weird. And you brought that up too

about the home court. And I was like, wait, you don't think Milwaukee's loud? And I've been paying attention to the arenas more as I've been watching. And I actually do think you're right. I don't think it's a Homer thing at all.

Because when I listen to like how intense the crowds are at times, I think you were right on that call. And I thought maybe people were probably just giving you crap for it. People in Milwaukee told me that they didn't throw away those games that ended up changing the seeds for any other reason other than they were really worried about how tired their team was.

And they just said, we need the rest at this point more than we need to worry about where our playoff positioning is. Now, I was told this earlier in the series, even before, but I still, to me, it's like if I can get two game sevens at home in the first two rounds, I want it. There's a Tatum-Yannis thing that comes out of this series now. Right.

Where, you know, I thought Windhorse wrote a really good piece yesterday at ESPN that summed up a lot of what I was feeling coming out of that game six, where, you know, the Bucs were going to win that game. It was, they had moved within, they had moved up to within four. The Celtics had blown their lead

and they hit a point in that fourth quarter where Tatum, it's like, are you great or not? Like, maybe you're going to be great next year or the year after, but are you great this year? Let's see it. And he ended up having one of the most iconic playoff games in recent Celtics playoff history. And is at least a guy now that can go toe-to-toe with the guy who I think is, I said on

Thursday, the second best player I've seen in person this century. So I think you have to have somebody that good or close to that good to even go to war with somebody like Giannis. Now, Giannis didn't have Middleton today, but the Tatum thing, you're waiting on it, you're waiting on it, you're waiting on it to watch him actually just do it in real time. We're watching all these games. We're obsessing over it. The storylines change constantly, but then there's these big, big, big picture things that sometimes can get a little lost. And for me, it was like this Tatum thing is we, how many times do we talk? Is he a top five guys, top 10 guy? Is he in that final level? Is he in the, is he on the shortest list? So I think he emerges from this series. Now he's on the shortest list would be my takeaway. What about you? Yeah. Cause I also

love that we had a game three in there where he had 10 points and we're like, wait, is Wesley Matthews going to rip this guy's soul out? like what's happening we've just we just got done praising you for going head to head with the rant and playing that well against him defensively and now wes matthews is gonna own you like is that gonna happen is this gonna end it's like nope it isn't 46 in game six uh and now you can kind of even though you know sometimes like with the playoff success, I can feel a little bit like, all right, you're only allowed to be this guy. You know, you can't be this guy. Like for people that always get annoyed with Luka, right? Like the Luka conversation of like, wait, if this guy's really a top five, how come the guy's never getting out of the first round?

And that changed this year. But I just think with Tatum, maybe it sounds stupid. You can be the same player, but now we're allowed to have different conversations about you. KFC and I, I hopped on the void on Friday night. We're talking about, you could see things slow down for him as the series went along. Those first two games, first three games and all the stuff the Bucks were doing. And on top of it, when they had Giannis and Lopez out there together, you got to worry about when I go to the basket, these guys, can I get my shot off over them? Where's Giannis? Drew Holiday is annoying. They're trapping me sometimes. Sometimes they're not. They're pressuring me on full court. And it was just all these little tests that he just had to pass as the series went along and I thought by game six, you could just see he slowed down. He would try to get his thing. Nope. Oh, I'm going to pull it back. I'm going to reset. Can I get it now? Oh,

Grayson Allen's on me. Okay. And it was just constantly, he was so locked in. Today he had seven turnovers, I think. And he had four fouls. I'm not saying he had the greatest game ever, but I thought when he came back in, in the fourth quarter, the passing that he was doing and the way he dissected the Bucs, I thought, well, I just don't think he could have done that four months ago. Do you? Like you have to find a way to, to balance your offense. You have to find a way to get people involved around you. If you're going to be that superstar, because it's not going to be easy for you all the time. I don't know if that means grant. I mean, grant, if you had told me in a playoff game that grant Williams was going to have

22 shots, he took 18 threes. Well, he took 18 threes. And at one point it was like, is he, are they going to have to take them out? Is he, is he losing his confidence have to take him out is he is he losing his confidence in the first quarter i felt like wow he might actually be losing his confidence and then it seemed like they called out of a timeout they called a three for him smart whipped it across the floor to him and that guy it just kind of got him going but i i what a roller coaster

ride with him and that was clearly the bucks game plan like we're leaving you open the celtics took the most threes i think in the history of the playoffs today. 55? I think it was a record. And the Bucs, that was their strategy in game one. We're going to give you all of these. Let's see if you can make 20 of them. And we're going to miss every one. And on the other

end, we're missing every three we take. And the Bucs won't let them down. They went 4-33 and I don't remember, like, I don't remember them. You know? Because it was like, hey, they missed again. It's 4-33, and I don't remember them. Because it was like, hey, they missed again. It's like, oh, they missed 12 in a row. They missed 13 in a row. I was like, this is ridiculous.

Connaughton missing was surprising, right? Because it felt like he was pretty locked in this series. And then he just couldn't make anything today. No, but look, 22 minutes from Wes Matthews, 1-5. 22 minutes from Graysons, one of five. 22 minutes from Grayson Allen, 0 for 6. And then 32 minutes from Connaughton, 1 for 6. I mean, you're not going to beat anybody.

And then Hill played 11 minutes, was 0 for 0. A couple of the Bucs fans in my life were just completely outraged that they kept playing Grayson Allen as a serious one along when he was a defensive mismatch and he just wasn't playing well offensively. They were saying Carter should be playing. Not that Javon Carter is the godsend, but at least if you put him out there, we can pressure

full court and he'll bring something to the table, unlike Grayson Allen. Bud just wouldn't change it. I actually think this game could have been a lot worse because you think the Bucs were up eight in the first quarter. They lose by 28. And there were moments where like if Drew didn't just go to the basket and create some, how many times did he create some crazy shot with a hand in his face or four seconds left in a shot clock, just figured out how to laser one away every game. Like he was nine for 21. He has like 9 loud field goals that he made.

They were all important, weirdly. I can't believe their shot selection though sometimes. I love Drew. I'd love to have him. I love watching him play. I can't believe the shot selection. And there were times in game 6 where I was like, do you guys want to lose this game? What the hell's going on here? Did you think they were going to win

game 6? The Bucs? Well, I don't know. Who'd you think was going to win game six? The Bucs? Well, I don't, I mean, who'd you think was going to win game six? I thought the Celts had a really good chance to win game six. I thought they were going to win game six and lose game seven at home

because of the turnaround of 36, the 36 hours later. I mean, you could feel it. Porford was two for seven today, right? Smart was two for nine. Like the guys that are going all out, 40 minutes a game, when that turnaround from that Friday night to the Sunday, I? Smart was two for nine. The guys that are going all out 40 minutes a game, when that turned around from that Friday night to the Sunday, I was just really worried

about him. And I thought Giannis, all right, well, they have an alien on their team. He's not going to be tired. That was one of the crazy things about today. He looked tired to me. And I was texting my dad because my dad was there. I was like, does Giannis look tired? Are his hands on his knees during the breaks? But he's know, he's missing shots around the rim that I just don't think he would normally miss. But they just played five games in nine days and he was playing 40 to 43 minutes a game and doing everything.

And then in the fourth quarter, he got this weird burst of energy where he started picking up Tatum full court and Smart full court. And it's like, what's going on? Did you just give this guy a Gatorade? Look, they didn't have Middleton. Do you think they win this series without Middleton?

No, once Middleton was out, I'm like, Boston, because I'll admit too, it's a little bit like the Trey Young conversation, right? Where I'll admit that deep down, I'm probably feeling something, right? I'm feeling something the entire time, but I may not share it because it doesn't seem like it makes any sense, right? Yeah.

And then when they lost and they looked awful and they were a huge disappointment, I was kind of like, all right, that's how I felt deep down. I had a little of that with Boston. I thought they're going to lose game six. You know, I was like, they'll probably just lose game six. And I did my part on Thursday saying, you know, Milwaukee probably punched his ticket to the finals, which was dismissive of Boston. And I agree with you.

I agree. Yeah. I think so. That was the right take. These are the best two teams in the playoffs with what we've seen from Phoenix. I think Milwaukee and Boston, especially with Middleton coming back next round,

I think that was the right take. Look, Tatum had to play the best game he's ever played in his entire life for them to survive the game six. That's what happened. If you're a Bucs fan, you have to look back at that game 10 years from now,

the same way like the OKC fans would look back at the Klay Thompson game. You know, in 2016, we're like, we would have made it if that didn't happen. And just Tatum at 30 in the second half against a Bucs team that has Drew happen and just Tatum and 30 in the second half against a Bucks team that has drew holiday and Giannis and that none of them were easy shots.

It wasn't like, you know, it's like, Oh, they forgot to guard Tatum again. And their whole defense was concentrated around him. So that's what needed to happen for Boston to win the series. On the other hand,

Cerruti said before, and I agree with him, like the Celtics, they're two plays away from winning this series six to one. See that too. The Bucs were down 10, 13, 14, I think in five of these games. So that

has to mean something too. They were always clawing back, scrapping back, and they always had the Giannis piece. But I left the building game five, walking back with my dad, and I talked about it on my pod on Thursday. Just felt like we lost the title. Now, it's a reaction. You're upset, but it was like, man, like we lost the title. Now it's a reaction. You're upset, but it was like, man, we just blew the title. We didn't get a fucking rebound.

We blew the title. What was it like? What was that like those last couple of minutes in the building? Got super tense. Just sometimes it happens. And the Bucks bench was locked in, you know, Giannis's brother, who's like the new Bundini Brown, he's over like almost in the coach box just screaming. And, you know, their whole bench, they just really thought they could steal that game. The difference is Connaughton was playing well that game, so they had three guys. This game, they had Lopez going a little bit, but I just think it's different.

I think they needed so badly that one shooter to stretch the floor for them because their shots were open. You know, and they just couldn't's different. I think they needed so badly that one shooter to stretch the floor for them because their shots were open. They just couldn't get them. They had 56 rebounds in this game. They're going to look back and be like, man, the Wings. I want to do this now. Do you think the Bucs kind of wasted a vintage Giannis season? Or do you just blame the Middleton thing? Because I feel like,

I really feel like he's one of the two best players I've seen in person this century. And I think he's on the level of Shaq in those early 2000s and guys like that. Like really like the greatest players of all time. I actually think he's in that neighborhood. And to only get out of only round two and you're done.

Can you blame that all on Middleton? Or are there some other stuff for you to pinpoint? When you say waste, though, it makes me think like, did they do things wrong that they were supposed to get right? You know what I mean?

Is that kind of what you're saying? I just think they lost. If they had Middleton, they'd probably win the series. Well, let's go Grayson Allen. I don't think that bet paid off. The Ibaka trade, DiFrancengio was their one kind of

something. They turned into Ibaka, who apparently just couldn't play. Those were two spots combined with the Middleton thing that... I don't know. If I'm a Bucs fan, I'm just looking at the last five years and be like, man,

we only got to one finals with this guy. Like now next year, I would say they have some of the most pressure of any team next year. You know, Brooklyn obviously does. We could go through, there's going to be all kinds of teams that's bearing pressure,

but they're in this crazy position where they have this transcendent guy. And now Boston has arisen. And I don't know. I would be thinking about that if I was a Bucs fan. He's 27. So, you know, you're going to get a lot. You're going to get more swings at this.

You know, I guess I couldn't help but like in game six, I'm going, oh, if they lose, like, will it mean that they lost this awesome team or will it be that I think deep down, hey, this Celtics team just... The doubts I had about them started creeping in. You know what I mean? The doubts of like...

It was just a weird thing to be in after all... We've talked about for two years, it was just a weird thing to go, wait, do I have like full blown confidence in this basketball team? Like, is that how I look at them? Do I watch the Celtics with expectations? Especially in closed games. And I don't know that I ever fully got there. You know what I mean? Despite the profile, the record, the wins, so many smart players, guys that seem to play the right way, the defense being something that you can go to when their offense isn't working.

That they had different options. That Yudoka looked like he really figured some things out. And I kept being like, are you sure you feel that way? Are you sure you feel? And now with this win, I'm like, okay, yeah.

Like, here we go. Now, like, expectations for me increased dramatically just because of what happened today. Well, and because of what happened in game six. That was the game they've blown for how many years? Dating back to, I don't know, 2019. They would just lose that game.

Come close. Oh my God. One play, two plays. You'd point to it. All right. Way more to talk about. We'll take a quick break. Make every game feel like game seven on FanDuel Sportsbook, an official partner of the NBA.

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800-889-9789. And in West Virginia, 1800 Gamble.net. What would you have done differently if you were the Bucs? I actually thought other than playing Grayson Allen too much, I thought they did a really good job of

changing strategies as the season went along. Like, I don't want to say grasping for straws, but it was a little close. Like, let's try this. Maybe they won't be ready for this. By game seven, they had come all the way full circle back to their game one strategy, which was to, they even tried to play the bigger lineup,

you know, and just let's hope Boston misses some threes, basically. Let's hope Grant Williams isn't ready for the moment. Let's hope Derek White misses. Derek White, by the way, all he did was miss. He made the one huge three near the end of the third quarter. But other than that, he went back to first two games, Derek White.

I don't know what other moves they had. Didn't you feel like they exhausted the move pile? Well, I just think the way they're constructed, I don't really know what else they're going to do you know what i mean like yeah the real push is just off of misses that that's that's like the box that's the whole thing with them because every time yannis goes he's going to the free throw line and he didn't today so they made way more threes they missed all of theirs and yannis I think, only had six free throws. And so you're going to win that game every time. But the Giannis part of it,

I don't know really what you could do, how you could play differently, how you could engage or get your offense started differently when the best offense maybe in the league now is just that guy off a defensive rebound. I thought that missed on one thing. I would have played

Carter and Holiday together and I would have played Carter and Holiday together, and I would have pressured the Celtics full court because the Celtics dribbling stuff is just a bizarre subplot, not only to the series, but to the playoffs, where Jalen Brown, just like some games, he just can't totally dribble. I don't know what's going on here. Smart, Tatum, they're super sloppy,

and over and over again, I can't remember a series where I was more nervous about eight-second calls every game. Every time they're crossing the line at 17 seconds. I thought the Bucs actually, if they'd gotten their defense going, maybe that would have helped their offense. I just would have pressed and pushed and just tried to make the Celtics uncomfortable.

I don't think they did that enough in this series. It was one of the reasons they won game one. Yeah, their defense was kind of a little overrated anyway, though. I thought, like, I kept waiting for it and was wondering, because a lot of times, especially these last three seasons, you look at numbers and go, okay, well, is that a real number? Is that a real number or is it a fake number? And with Milwaukee, when I look at their defensive stuff,

I go, you know, that's not really that great. And then the numbers, I mean, to just go playoff defensive offensive ratings can be a little weird, too, because it's like, well, who did you play? And when Milwaukee's playing Chicago, like I wasn't going to look at the defensive rating being like, oh, wow, this is actually the best defense. So I think overall, the defense was probably a little disappointing considering what you think when you think of the Bucs and what you think of them. But then you think like Grayson Allen's out there, Connaughton, Wes Matthews, who was by far their best wing defender, but was a guy who was almost out of the league two years ago. So you think of it that way.

That would be the one, I guess, if they're trying to beef up for next year, you get Middleton healthy. And then maybe one more of those kind of Jay Crowder, circa 2020 type guys. So maybe an upgrade. That was the other thing too, not having Lopez most of the season. You could argue that the regular season numbers are worthless to look at anyway

because they have a major 30-minute guy coming back and impacting what they do. But yeah, I guess I just don't have a ton of blame to go around here because they missed every single shot today. Me neither. I should have made this point sooner. I guess I just don't have like a ton of blame to go around here because they missed every single shot today. I should have made this point sooner. I guess I said it on the pod on Thursday. I just thought, I was so impressed by the Bucs

as a defending champ. I really care about defending champ stuff. I really value it. I think it needs to tie into the previous season in some ways where how you defended the title almost should be like the,

you know, the epilogue to the actual title. And I thought they defended it and really cared about it and fought to the bitter end and fought until they had absolutely nothing left. And I thought the Celtics had a better team. Didn't mean they were definitely going to win the series, but they definitely had a better team without Middleton.

And the Bucks were still almost able to pull it out because of how great Giannis is and how fucking hard they play. Like winning that game five was really, really, really impressive. And the kind of thing you do when you're a great team that takes a lot of pride in the fact that you have the belt. And sometimes we see teams throw those years away. We saw the Lakers last year, right? They won the bubble title, come back last year. It's like, oh, Davis is hurt? They checked out, you know? And Dallas in 2012, that was another one where they have this great, and then it's like, eh, we don't need Chandler.

And all of a sudden, it's like there was no defense. So I really liked that and respected that with Milwaukee. More stuff from this game. Giannis, which I think we can both agree Giannis didn't really have

a good game by his standards. Today? No. Well, he finished with a 25-20-9. Giannis' bad games would be like the best game of Dwight Howard's career. I felt like every game there was a Giannis quarter and I didn't, I didn't do it.

We got it today. I mean, you could argue we got it in the first quarter, unfortunately for the bucks, right? He, what do you have in the first quarter? He was, uh, he had a 10, eight, six in the first quarter. Oh, well, yeah, maybe, maybe my standards for him are a little too high. I guess it's that helpless. Like, I didn't feel like Boston was helpless in the first quarter against him,

where I still think, what was it? Game two, maybe, in the third quarter? Yeah. Where I was like, this is horrifying. Right. There's just nothing. He's madder than everybody out there, and you're just not going to be able to do anything.

So maybe it needed to be more visual for me to be like oh he's having one of his quarters but um well one thing that Celtics unlocked was they started throwing smart at him a little bit more as the series went along and I thought that really helped them especially like in the transition stuff because you know I think Giannis was afraid of getting charges because smart's so good at that and just in general he was able to hold his own at least enough that it gave them another guy because Horford, I mean, the 35-year-old Al Horford surviving the series is just nuts.

He basically stopped shooting because I think his legs were done by game six. So today he's passing up threes that were wide open because he's like, I'm done, I'm out. I'm just going to set some picks and rebound and keep the ball moving. I got nothing left. I got to stay in front of this, this crazy man.

I have to guard, you know, for two and a half hours. Um, but the, they just had the right kind of mix. I felt, which was crazy.

Cause the no Robert Williams piece you thought would have mattered more, but I think Giannis actually liked going at Robert Williams, it seemed like. At least the first two games. Yeah, he was available, right? I don't think he was. I think he was available like break glass in case of emergency type of thing.

Like if there was foul trouble or something where it became a situation of, Hey, we have to play you. Al Horford just fouled out, you know, one of those type things. Um,

yeah, this had, I mean, to think of the storyline for the Celtics side of it, though, you have the Tatum game six, you have the Horford games where you're like, there's no way he's ever going to do that again.

And then he comes back the next game. He's even better. Yeah. Um, you've got the game you went to. My dad was there too. He was very worried about the jump balls. He's like, how come we lose every jump ball?

Possession error would just solve it right away. Yeah, I was like, you know what? His big thing is always the jump ball goes to defense. He's a big Drew Holiday fan too, if you're curious about that. He's like, love that guy. Doesn't complain, just does his job. I was like, alright, cool. I feel the same way. He doesn't complain. Just does his job. He's like, all right, cool. I feel the same way. He doesn't complain.

This series, my Drew Holiday respect, which was already, I think, higher than most, went to a whole other level. He was just so scary. And it's not like he was never like 18 for 22 in a game or anything crazy like that, right? He was always like 8 for 18, 9 for 20. But he has a sense of the moment in these games

when his team really needs one. And that's usually when he does it. I'll tell you the things I won't miss from this series. Because this has now been 15 days of this as a battle. And I think it was, by NBA playoff standards, pretty, pretty high level. I'm not ready to throw it in the all-time greatest playoff series of all times

because I don't think it was. Especially, you need the great game seven, I think, to be in that conversation. But I think this was a really, really, really awesome series to watch. I will not miss the holiday shots with two seconds left on the shot clock that I just feel like are going in every time.

I will not miss Giannis' brother, who I just think is the most impactful bench guy who doesn't play from a kind of chemistry, energy standpoint, like maybe ever, especially you see it in person. It's fucking crazy. He's got like electricity running through him. I won't miss the wide open condom threes, even though he missed them today.

I won't miss Grayson Allen's face. I just don't like his face. Sorry. I won't miss the crazy Bobby Portis eyes. And last but not least, I will not miss the ongoing conundrum of how the fuck do you

officiate Giannis? Because I don't know the answer. I just don't. I think he's the hardest guy to check. You could tell me, like he had that charge in the first quarter day against Grant Williams

and it was like, that was a charge. And the ref's like, no, it wasn't. Okay. And then they'll call the same thing a quarter later or he'll dip his shoulder

into somebody and they'll call it then they won't call it. I just think the refs don't know what to do with him. He's a very hard guy to play. I will not miss it. I want to know if Bucs fans ever feel guilty.

Like, do they ever feel bad that, I mean, I don't want to turn, look, Seltz won. I don't want to turn it into like, hey, let's find a way to criticize Giannis. I think we're both pretty nice to the guy. I'm a huge fan. It's almost unfair at times.

You're like, so he's just going to get the ball in transition. He's always going to get a foul. He does that thing with the elbows where he gets the contact with the elbows and the guys get hit in the face. Then Tatum did it once and they called the offensive foul on him. He does seem to get leeway. But if you ask the Bucs fans,

they'll say, oh, these guys flop against Giannis. Everyone's exaggerating the contact trying to get leeway but if you ask the Bucks fans they'll say all these guys flop against Giannis everyone's exaggerating the contact trying to get fouls on him and it's actually not as bad as people think

so I don't know it's somewhere in the middle but I think it's very Shaq-like where I don't I don't really know what the answer is but it just seems like

there's 10 times a game where it was like man that seemed like a charge or wow I can't believe they called him on that one it didn't seem like one. And it's just all over the map. I think he'd be a nightmare to officiate.

That's my take. I did not enjoy today, the officiating. Well, we had Kane Fitzgerald, who's trying to establish himself as Tony Brothers 2.0. I don't know if you noticed. Was that him?

Number five. He's number five? He was the one who took over the game for like three minutes. Yeah. Where it's just everything was a charge and a foul. Everything was a charge. Yeah.

I don't know who said this. Again, I know you've said it before, but they need to make the charge a less, it needs to be the least cool thing you can do. So instead of like a point the other way or a head behind the hand.

It should be a head shake. It has to be like something that you'd be like i don't even want to do that yeah so then you don't want to call as much you're absolutely he took over in that stretch and the whole bucks bench was screaming at him and he would just be like going the other way like he was yelling at him too everyone was yelling at him he reached that that Tony Brothers level where everybody's yelling at me at the same time. You know, it's a special referee performance. I saw him on the list and I was worried, not as worried as I would have been for Tony Brothers. By the way, Tony Brothers is doing game seven,

which we'll be covering in part two of Suns Dallas. But Tony will get involved for longer than three, four minutes. But yeah, I think for the most part, I talked about this on my Thursday pod. Giannis, it's really weird. He's, oh, you'll like this. I had a whole thing about sneaky, dirty guys,

which I'm saying as a compliment. He is kind of a sneaky, dirty guy in a good way. Like he, like the same way John Stockton was like that and some of the other ones, Michael Jordan was like that over the years. Well, they'll definitely, they'll get away with stuff. And then,

but they, they seem like such a good guy. You kind of don't want to hang them on him, but he'll, he does stuff. He knows how to use his body, his elbows. Um,

you know, he's not afraid in a good way. I couldn't believe the call on Tatum. That was horrible. That was horrible. Because Giannis did that, what, 20 times? A couple other things from this game. Derek White is one of those guys.

You're the creator of Shamit Face. Yeah. Derek White's one of those guys you kind of know in the first five minutes. He's like a date. Where it's like, if somebody set me up on a date, well, they wouldn't anymore because I'm married.

Somebody sets you up on a date. Yeah, that'd be weird. And you'll know in five minutes, right? Is there something here? Is there something not here? But Derek White is like that better or worse every game. So I knew right away today.

I was like, he doesn't have it. But the other, some of, like game three, game four, I was like, oh, he's got it today.

And it's like this weird aggressive posture, you know, he just, you can kind of see it. And when he doesn't have it like he did today, you can see it.

And he pulled him. He pulled him, I think, with like five or six minutes after he went in and just put Pritchard in because he was like, this guy doesn't have it.

And then they kind of had to ease him back because they needed his defense. But pretty interesting player. I'm going to be interested to see how he reacts to this Miami series. Are we being really dismissive of Miami? We're not. I want to talk about them in the next segment.

Okay. By the way, the Derek White part of this, he's better than this. And he just hasn't been great with this team. Well, we saw it. Games three through six, I thought he was really valuable. You didn't think so?

No, I just, I don't expect these absolute duds from him, though. I agree with you. It feels like you can see him. You'll know. And it's also interesting, like in game five, there was a possession in particular where I was like,

oh, look at this. Like he, Marcus wanted the ball back and White was like, no, like I got this possession. I'm initiating the offense. And he kind of just did a little like dribble and then turn,

hand it off to Tice, I think. Yeah. Was Tice, he hit the three. It was, it ended up being a good play. Tice did not hit a three. You're definitely remembering that one, Rob, because there's, this was a game where Daniel Tice did not hit a three. You're definitely remembering that one, Rob, because this was a game where Daniel Tice did not hit a three.

No, no, no. I was talking about game five. It was game five. Yeah, okay. By the way, I don't even know. Yeah, maybe he did in game five. I've blocked out all the Daniel Tice threes from this series out of my brain. All right.

Now I actually have to look it up here. Well, as you're looking up, I'll tell you this. Smart was two for nine and Derek White was one for 10. Combined, they were three for 19. This is what happens though in these game sevens. Like remember that Celtics, that Celtics Cavs box score is like a fucking murder report from 2018.

Where Rozier and Jalen Brown and Smart at the where were they like seven for 42 combined something like that it's tough and then same thing for the bucks today um by the way this game was in the 30s with like two minutes to go before the half yeah so i was sitting there being like wait are we going to crack 40 points here yeah 317 it was. It was 39-38. And I was like, this is ridiculous. Corford had three fouls. Celts were up 45-43. Third foul in the Tatum. They called the Tatum charge.

And then Smart, those three free throws right before the half. Nice little cushion there. Yeah, it was huge. Still kind of up five, playing like crap. Wow. Grant Williams has been our only good guy. Jesus. Before we move on to the Celts Miami. So I didn't stay. And you and I are very different in this respect.

So I'm going to give you the chance to make fun of me. I didn't stay for the possibility of a game seven because after game five, I was traumatized. I stayed all day. I didn't leave Boston until Friday. And I wanted to work on my pod on Thursday and I had to tape it and stayed for the basketball games. And I'm like, I'm going to leave on Friday. I made a flight.

But I was like, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll stay. And then Friday morning, I was just like, I think they're better off if I leave. So I left. I actually believed I could help if I left. I left. I could have just watched game six with my dad.

Had a great time. We would have won. And then I would have stayed for game seven and gotten to go today. But I really felt like I had to leave. Does that sound psychotic? Yeah, a little bit, but I've done stuff like that. I mean, I used to, I used to do, I used to have a routine for Red Sox games. Like it was, I was a loser, you know, I mean, 20 years ago,

but like, I'd have to be sitting a certain way, you know, or I would do this thing with like big pitches where I would stare at the glove. I mean, it's, it's idiotic. So yeah, it's, it's like hot. It's all of those things, but it's cause you would have, did your dad go though? He went today, right? My dad went with my step-mom. Great time. Good luck. Good luck all the way around. They've been to a lot of big games. And, uh, I just felt like I was pretty traumatized by game five. And I felt like if I stayed, they were going to lose game six. And then I was going to have the cross-country flight of shame home on Saturday, kicking myself that I didn't go back the day earlier because I screwed things up. Listen, I'm not saying this is rational. I'm not proud of it.

But that was where my head was at. I easily could have stayed. And I was like, I should go. We'll be better off. We're better off with me 3,000 miles away. Wick, tell the guys. Tell the guys I'm not going to be there. Tell the guys I'm not going to be there.

Yeah, listen. I'm not proud of it. I can't defend it. I still don't know that we've gotten enough real detail of what the walk out of that building was like in game five. Now you can laugh about it. I mean, about as quiet as I can remember. That was why I did the worst losses I've ever seen in person for my Thursday pod.

And they all have the same kind of connective tissue where it's just people kind of walking out like zombies. And very low level chatter, just quiet. People just kind of want to leave. It's like leaving a crime scene. It's kind of what it's like. You just want to get out. You want to get away from the area you just witnessed, what you just witnessed. You just want to get outside. Just get to air and just kind of get to wherever you're going. That's what it felt

like. And this one I think was pretty rare because it really did feel like they blew the title on Wednesday night. So the fact that they're still alive is freaking nuts. We're going to take a break, come back, talk, uh, Miami Celtics. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Superbowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too. You won't win the Superbowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research. And if you don't want to grow a mustache,

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business with up to 55 interest-free days and the ability to reach further with access to over 1400 airport lounges worldwide. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. Alright, Boston, Miami. Miami has home court advantage.

What do you think the line is on FanDuel right now for the series? For the series, I would just guess that Boston's favorite. By a little? More than a little or a lot? A little.

Yeah, so that's what I thought. Is it a lot? They're minus 175. Miami's plus 145. And the reason I mentioned that, being alarmed by that, is because there's a lot of history of game one after the seven-game brutal battle

and the team advancing when the other team has some rest. There's some pretty good history for that. The team that played the game seven coming out and kind of sucking in game one. I think it's like 65% straight up last 50 or something like that. Raheem Palmer

had some stuff on his Twitter feed about it. I just think that's a really hard game one where you just got, you just climbed this, you just climbed Giannis Mountain. You just beat the best player in the league. You came down from 3-2. You had the greatest, greatest victory of the entire Tatum Brown era by far.

Even though they've, you know, won some series, they've won some game sevens, whatever. This 2022 team is so much better than that 2018 team that beat the Wizards. You know, and now you're in Miami,

whole new series. They've been game planning for either team for the last week. I just think it's a hard spot. Yeah, look, it is. I mean, obviously. But I mean, the Miami part of this, which again, no one's going to like on that side of it. I think they're good. I don't think they're great.

I just don't. I think it's a little like the Titans for me. You know, when you were like, hey, is this one of the weakest one seeds we've had in the AFC in a while? I just don't. I think it's a little like the Titans for me. When you were like, hey, is this one of the weakest one seeds we've had in the AFC in a while? It was like, yeah, historically, that was the case. And I know that Miami would say, well, we didn't have our guys. It's like, well, nobody yet. This whole season, most teams were missing major guys, like 20, 25% of it. So their record, yeah, sure,

it would have been better if all those guys played, but that was kind of the story of the season. So when I think about what I've seen from them in the playoffs too, Atlanta's awful. Philly's a mess. You're getting Embiid for half of the series and he's not even with it. Harden's aging like rapidly. Yeah. And I'm like,

here they are in the Eastern conference finals. And I feel way better about who Boston is based on how they've played and there's who they've gone up against as opposed to Miami's path. Not saying that I don't think they're good. And of course, as I'm saying this, watching them end up being in Boston six games or something stupid, but I'm just, I don't look at them as a team. That's like, Oh, how, like if you just beat Milwaukee, there's no party thinking, okay, now this is like,

this is, this is thought. I would imagine the team looks at it this way being like, okay, we actually got through the toughest part of the playoffs, at least on this side of the Eastern side of it by getting past Milwaukee. I would agree with you if game seven was in Boston.

Cause I think this spot, so Miami's favored by one and a half in game one, which is interesting because they're not favored to win the series. You lose game one and then game seven's in Miami. So then could the Celtics win four of the next five? Like, seems doubtful if they lose game one. And then that game seven's in Miami. So it makes me nervous. It makes me nervous that Miami beat them two years ago. Now, different Celtics team at that point. Tatum's at a whole different point of his career. I don't think they're as deep.

I think Dragic was incredibly important in that series. And we were in the bubble. Celtics have more options now on that Bam, Curl, Alley-oop thing that they killed them with. You know what I mean? That play was like, Oh,

here comes Bam. Here comes Bam again. And now Boston actually just has options. So I don't, I don't think the team, you know, I wouldn't compare this team to two years ago at all, or this series.

And there's a little bit though. I, it wasn't that long ago, you know, it's less than two years ago. And the last time they played him, they beat him. So I do feel like that matters a tiny

bit if I'm Miami because I'm like, we just beat these guys two years ago. Yeah, they're better, but we're better too. Now Hero's at a different level of his career. Philly was doing some stuff trapping him in the last series that I'm wondering if maybe the Celtics will do that if we don't get a full

Lowry. I don't know. Lowry is the X factor of the series. I guess Rob Williams is too, but my instincts is maybe we don't see Rob Williams in this series either. If he's got a legitimate bone bruise on his knee that resembles what Ja had, Ja was out for the playoffs. So that makes me think if we didn't see Rob today, he didn't throw him out there for three minutes, it makes me nervous that we see him next round too. Because it's a different injury than the MCL. So you have that

and then Lowry, I just don't know what to make him anymore. He's like this car, it's like you go in the garage, you turn the key on. Is it going to start? I don't know. No, I mean, even when he was out there, man, it was tough to watch. They're better without him.

Well, if he's on one leg, they're better without him. If he's healthy, they're not better without him. That's what I thought. I didn't know what you were saying there. Yeah. The Oladipo stuff

has been okay it hasn't been great please shoot you have that three whenever you want it please take it Duncan apparently back in the mix now a guy who's killed the Celtics in the past

Oladipo's 28% from three in the playoffs or he was in that Sixer series. Not awesome. Because they're, look, they're kind of a weird team too because the Lowry part of it, like you're not really sure,

like what are you getting here? Is Jimmy, can Jimmy do enough on his own? That's the whole part where I'm just like, as much as I love Bam, he's still a dependent offensive player.

The Lowry part of it with him running around looking as bad as he did, you kind of take that out of the factor. I just don't know if Jimmy can do enough offensively to carry this team. I wonder, so Jimmy, I think, is the best thing about this series if I'm Miami,

and he might potentially be the worst thing too. Because he just watched this whole Tatum versus Giannis. I mean, we talked about it earlier in the podcast. Like, this is now the rivalry in the East. The road through the East goes through one of these two guys or so it seems. And Jimmy, I think sees all that stuff. And Jimmy's gonna be like, wait, I'm better than Jason Tatum. Watch this. Now he might actually not be better than Jason Tatum, but I do think he's going to try to, you know, it's like, there's actually three guys in the East, not two. And they're actually forward to rip, but you know what I mean like, there's actually three guys in these, not two.

And they actually forward to rip, but you know what I mean? Like I can see Jimmy psyching himself up with this. Oh, Tatum's the guy now. Yeah. Beat that guy two years ago. Watch this. And then he does all the Jimmy stuff.

The difference is he's not going against Tobias Harris this time, you know? and by the way, I thought that was weird that Jimmy was saying they picked him over to buy Tobias Harris this time. You know, and by the way, I thought that was weird that Jimmy was saying they picked him over, Tobias Harris over him. That's like not what happened. Why does he think that's what happened? When he came out of the locker,

when he was leaving the floor and he was like, Tobias Harris over me? I was like, that's not what happened. They picked Al Horford over you. They took the money they were going to give you and gave it to Al Horford. And what I heard was Jimmy was like not exactly in love with the situation either.

No, because he didn't like Simmons. He was like team Embiid. He was against Simmons. He didn't think Simmons had the work ethic. I mean, there are a whole bunch of reasons. I think he's probably even talked about him. But I don't feel like he felt like those guys were mature enough yet as to understand what it is.

I think Embiid is now, but maybe four years ago, I don't think Embiid was wired that way. It was pretty out of shape. You know? Yeah, that's what I'd heard, is that Butler was kind of like, you know,

I want to work with adults. You know? And that's what he got. But I mean, you know, Jimmy Butler, the funniest thing about Jimmy Butler is like, he's the best guy ever in these commercials. Like, hey, what's Jimmy Butler doing? Oh, let's get him singing and dancing.

He's having a Michelob late. Yeah. What is that commercial? Yeah. Hey, can we get a Mick Ultra and have Jimmy Butler do a dance for us? Because he's such a, just a fun hang. Yeah, that's amazing. Let's do that. And then it's like, he's given us because he's such a fun hang? Yeah, that's amazing.

Let's do that. And then it's like he's the opposite of that guy. Right. He's constantly getting into people. That would be a better Michelob Black commercial or whatever brand that is. Jimmy gets really upset. Somebody drank his last Mic Ultra.

Starts yelling at everybody. Flips over a video screen. Mic Ultra should just have it next to another beer. And then somebody grabs the wrong beer and brings it to him. He's like, you picked that over Mic Ultra? You picked that over Mic Ultra? The other ad that I'm super into is that if you have a Subaru, your family just likes you more now.

There's a lot more love. Hard to not prove. Yeah, I can't say it's not true. you have a Subaru, your family just likes you more now. There's a lot more love. Hard to not prove. Yeah, I can't say it's not true. Fair. Fair counter. And then the Steph Curry crypto one, where it's his wallet. And Shaq's voice? Yeah, Shaq's, you know, and I

wonder if Steph was like, hey, can I do all of them except for the mime one? Do I have to dress as a mime? Or Shaq plane got derailed and it was like he was supposed to be there, but they had to audible. They had one day to do a VO. Because the other thing too

is that when he opens his wallet, I just thought it was great that they had to be like, what's a number in there that makes sense? What would be in Steph Curry's crypto wallet? You know, how much does he have? And he only has 15,000. Now some say, oh, only 15,000.

That's a lot. Well, not really for Steph. But they couldn't- It's $50 million a year. Yeah, right. But they couldn't put like 17 million in his crypto position because then it would just be an absurd commercial.

So I think that's an awesome conversation. Probably not for this pod, so I'm going to stop. But- I'd actually like to keep going. I really like the Snoop Dogg Andy Samberg commercial. I think it's really good. I like the vibe. They showed it too much, so I was getting tired of it,

but I thought that was a really good commercial too. It's always weird to me that they only make one commercial and then they show it for three weeks. You have those guys for a shoot all day. Why not make five versions of the commercial and then just keep pumping them out over the

course of the playoffs for over everyone just getting tired of that commercial. But I like those two guys together. That's a good point of the commercial. Probably because the rate would be so absurd. Because I remember the one commercial I ever did was Dick's Sporting Goods. And I got it because of Van Pelt.

Let's not pretend there was any other reason I was in it. And they had some weird thing in it for me. So if I did it more, like if it ran, they were like, hey, we're going to run it again another 60 days. Are you okay with that? And of course you're like, well, of course I'm okay with it.

Although I look kind of fat at Bill, I have to admit. I did. We filmed all day for the second year I did Countdown. We filmed all those ESPN commercials. Promos. I did one with Van Gundy where we were sharing a bunk bed on the car. But Jalen and I, we ad-libbed like an hour and a half of stuff where I'm driving and he's in the passenger seat. I swear to God, God was really funny. I mean, I, I don't,

I don't feel like I'm going out on a limb saying like, we've done, we did some funny stuff back then. We had all this stuff and it was like, they didn't use any of it for anything. I don't know. Maybe they were mad at me at that point. Cause I guess that gets suspended. No, I wasn't suspended yet. I don't know. They just froze us out. But it was like, what the fuck? We filmed for like two hours of us ad-libbing and making fun of each other. Like nothing?

Could have shown anything? I'm not sure Andy Sandberg feels that way. Yeah. I don't know. Do you remember when they did the neighborhood one and everybody was at Brad Nessler's house and he was wearing an apron cooking? And then Steve Nash brings over like a neighborhood kid and he's like hey can weasel stay for dinner and brad nestler's like grab a plate weasel it is still it's been like

15 years oh it should be on youtube i don't understand why they are love brad nestler saying grab a plate weasel i think that's the line i I got to double check. Yeah. I thought the call was good today with Breen and Van Gundy and Jackson. I thought they were on the right things. Yeah, I thought they had the right points. They were confused by the right things. It mirrored a lot of what I was thinking watching the game.

You know, I thought Gus Johnson and Greg Anthony were really good. I thought Mauro Ranallo was really good on the Showtime boxing thing I watched last night. The Charlo fight,

which was excellent. I think there's been, I thought Sean McDonough and Steve Levy were both really good calling hockey. Especially McDonough. I thought it was just nice

and just, the hockey, it's, you just need, it has a certain rhythm to it, right? Something about it. You either have it or you don't. And I don't want to say who doesn't.

But there's people out there that sometimes they don't. There's a cadence to it that when somebody doesn't have it, you're just thrown off the whole time. To the point where I have to mute if they don't have it. I thought Wachusen last night was awesome on the whole time. Like to the point where I have to mute if they don't have it. I thought, which was in last night, was awesome on the Kings game. Yeah.

Edmonton. And it's just because, you know, I don't watch it. I don't even think I watch hockey as much as you do. I've really killed off a lot. It's just the cadence though,

like through the blue paint, you know, like there's just all this stuff. Over to McDavid, back to, no, no, no, that's not. But like, there's just all this stuff. Over to McDavid, back to... No, no, no, that's not. But like there's little descriptive things

that each guy has that is just cooler. Like it makes it a cool sport to call and the pace and everything. I actually do have a funny story because I was watching the game last night and I was talking to my buddy who played for him a long time ago, right? And he came to visit. We've already touched on this. But there was one of the young dudes on

the team gave me his number. And my buddy was like, do you really know him? I'm like, no, not at all. But I was like, I could just say like, hey, we're going to the game because I think he lives near me too. And he didn't text me back. And so my buddy who's retired thinks it's the funniest thing ever. He's like this, this dude, who's like a cool guy on the hockey team didn't text you back because he's just like, Oh, this guy's going to want to like hang out, which could actually happen to me too. So I'm aware of like what it is. And so now I'm just going to keep texting him to make my friend laugh because I know he's never going to respond.

So be like, great shift, bro. You know what my kids call this? I'm going to bring you into the minds of the teenagers. On Snapchat, you can tell if your stuff's been read. So if I send you a snap, and they call it undelivered so they'll

like Ben will have some girl that he likes which by the way is every week and be like ah she undelivered me last night

I'm like what's that mean it's like I sent her something she just didn't open it didn't open it so undelivered

is a big teen logo lingo thing right now where it's like it. So undelivered is a big teen lingo thing right now where it's like if somebody undelivered you, you have to kind of read into what the purpose of, did they not get to it yet? Or did they get to it? Are they trying to make a statement?

Are they waiting you out? It's become the new, how many days do I have to wait until I call person X? Now it's like the, oh, I sent the snap undelivered. Why is it undelivered? That's weird. And it's like the new PowerPoint right now. I think I represented that correctly. Yeah, I think you did. I think you did. I mean, obviously you could have people, I just think there's psychopaths that would have read receipt on notifications on their texts.

When somebody will say, they look at my text You know, when somebody will say like, you know, they look at my text and says, read, I'm like, wow, living, living dangerously.

I have my, my thing set. So it can't say that I read a text. Right. You can turn that off. Like most people. Yeah. I think that's like the normal way to do it.

Yeah. The read is either a power play or somebody doesn't know to use their settings. Yeah. It's definitely, it's definitely a lot of like, I don't know to use their settings yeah it's definitely it's definitely a lot of like i don't know how to turn it off the other one now is like the do not disturb thing that like oh your notifications have been silenced yeah yeah i don't get that either does

that mean i'm not supposed to text you and why are you texting me back if all your notifications have been silenced so you saw your notifications but you're glancing at your phone all the time exactly so like do you want me to think you're important but then you're just you just have a like a purple thing that's saying hey i'm not taking messages and then you're taking them all so i i asked my kids about that too and they said it's that just that button that silences your phone. I think that's why it says everything's been silenced. Pretty sure. All right. We'll be back on old guys talking about technology after this.

No. What kind of antenna are you using now? Miami Celtics. Who are you picking? Boston. I am too I don't feel awesome about it but I think

I think Boston Milwaukee and Phoenix are the three best teams and I'm not sure about Phoenix which is will be so great about this part too

now right now it's 419 the game is still a while away from starting 419 Pacific time there's a chance the Suns are just an awesome home team and just for whatever reason right now shaking on

the road. But if you just study their home stuff, they're okay. And they're home tonight and they have home court in every series. And they might be okay. With that said, I said this to you last week and you didn't know if I was being reactionary or not

about that game three and four I just thought was weird where Dallas just, I thought, completely handled them in a way that alarmed me and I still feel like, you know,

the Celtics can somehow get to a Phoenix series. I think the Celtics could win a game there. So Phoenix is going to have to solve this weird road thing. I don't get it. Chris, I don't know what's going on with him. It's like the hockey

thing where it's like, I know something's wrong with hockey superstar X, but they're not telling us. And then the series ends and they're like, he had a broken collarbone the whole time. I don't know if Chris is nursing an injury or he's just wearing down. What's your take? Oh, man. I guess we're going to find out tonight.

I guess I'm stepping on game seven. I'm a wreck, by the way. I'm not ready for this. Yeah, I'm not ready for this. Five series where you lose the 2-0s. I guess we'll wait until part two to talk about it. But Boston, I think, has the best team right now. We can agree on that.

It doesn't mean they're going to win the finals, but the way they're playing is the best. I just think so much of this Phoenixoenix team i do but now i'm shook i'm just shook because you know game three you could say well paul you know had a million turnovers actually settled down in the second half they lose gets all the fouls fouls out in game four and then game five i was like you know they won that game but he wasn't very good so the game five, I was like, you know, they won that game, but he wasn't very good. So the game five, I was legitimately like worried. And then in game six, when he went down with a hand thing and he took forever to get up again. And the way he looked when he went back to the bench, I go, something's wrong. Something's wrong.

And now that completely changes the way you frame any Phoenix conversation. Because even if they do get game seven, you seven, I feel like, I don't know. We'll learn today. He might put up like a 27 and 12. We'll be like, okay, Chris Paul's fine. We'll stay with Booker because Booker was the one I thought, especially in this series, I thought he'd have, I don't think he's as good as Tatum,

but I thought he would have moments where like, oh, add him to the next generation conversation. Quickly, Golden State Memphis. There was a moment during that Golden State Memphis thing where I was starting to wonder if this was going to go badly. It had a feel,

and I was in the house for this. Celtics-Nicks 1990, Game 5, where the Celtics won the first two and the Knicks won the next three including game five in the Boston Garden Bird missed a reverse dunk Ewing hit the three in the corner where it was like wait we're not really gonna lose to these guys are we and then all of a sudden you're losing it started to take on that feels where you're going wait they're not gonna Dylan Brooks isn't gonna have 50 points in this game, is he?

Like, are they going to blow this and Golden State's throwing the ball out of bounds or throwing it sideways? Then they finally started making some threes. The thing that would alarm me if I was a Golden State fan

was how sloppy they are with the ball and I still don't know who their five is. Who's their five for you? My season's on the line. Who's playing? Oh, I think it four. My season's on the line. Who's playing? Oh, I think it's Poole and Looney out.

So Green, Wiggins, Curry, Clay. I don't know. That's not going to fly in these next two series. They're going to need more size. They end up playing Looney 35 minutes in game six. Looney had, he does this every once in a while. What did he have, 20 rebounds? 22.

11 offensive rebounds. They had 70 rebounds in this game. It's a weird team. They're kind of two eras happening at the same time where they have this really, really, I think, interesting young core. Right? With Poole and Kaminga.

Everybody loves Moody. Like by all accounts, Moody's the real deal. He just can't get playing time right now. And then Wiggins is relatively young. So you have that. And then you have this Clay. I have no idea what I'm getting from him game to game. Draymond offensively is just bizarre at this point.

Like the fact that he's not shooting anymore. And Steph is still really, really, really impactful and awesome but I don't think you could say he's where he was in the 2015-18 range he could show the extended flashes of it but he's 33 years old I just don't think he's at the tail end of his prime at this point

his prime might last for a long time but I just think it think he's at the tail end of his prime at this point. His prime might last for a long time. But I just think it's an odd team. Sometimes that'll happen where you have this older core and then this younger core that's ready to come up. The 91 Celtics had that when they had the Shaw and Dee Brown and Reggie Lewis. They weren't quite ready yet. And then on the flip side, the Bird, McHale, Parrish were too old. So I don't know what to make of it.

Today they were the favorites to win the title. I don't think they're going to win the title. Do you? I don't. I haven't felt that way about... Well, actually, I did an open right when they had that week. Remember, they had beaten Denver and Boston was coming in. They started figuring some

things out. And I did an open and I never do it like this. I did it, I taped it the day before for whatever reason so that we were going to be like quicker to go to the podcast the next morning.

And my whole thing was like, print the shirts, I'm all in. Like I had this window where I was like, this team's awesome again, they can win the title and that was the whole deal.

Curry gets rolled by Marcus Smart like three hours later. And I call Kyle, I'm like'm like hey just take it out and i'll figure it out we'll see how's that a bar he's like wait what hold on can i call you back in 10 i just put it i just put in five songs in the frolic room hold on like i'm on the eighth hole in Golden Tee. Can you hold on? I'm minus seven right now. So he takes it out, and from that point on, I was kind of like, remember how weird you felt about Golden State there for a couple weeks? That was a real

thing. It was culminating. I was like, okay, now I have this open. I'm going to do this whole thing. Look, they never take care of the basketball. I did this on Thursday. They always turn the basketball over. How about Friday night was the worst version of that? It's a joke. It looked like they had like smoked bath salts

for three quarters. But they did it when they were winning. They were one of the worst turnover teams. And then you have the Wiggins piece. I just,

if anyone can figure that dude out game to game, good luck. Yeah. How do you know? How do you know quarter to quarter? What motivates him? what fires him up like he literally is the cat he just jumps on your lap then he's gone it's like where is he

he's out in the woods oh he's back he wants to be fed his nickname should be the cat do you think it's jumped on our lap today whoa do you think uh do you think do you think they want Dallas for obvious reasons or matchup reasons honestly they might want Phoenix you're that off of Phoenix now no I'm not off of Phoenix

I just think if Dallas wins this game today now this is stupid because anyone listening to this they already know what happened but if Dallas wins that game today I would be stupid because anyone listening to this they'll already know what happened but if Dallas wins that game today I would be way more afraid of Dallas like just coming out of like winning in Phoenix game 7 with he would assume Luka would have some amazing game I don't know Phoenix

they played them a bunch of times I think they probably feel like they can match up with them and if they hit shots they can beat anybody so I think they would have some form of confidence. Who guards Luka on Golden State? Wiggins? Yeah. It's not awesome.

They'll get switched. They'll probably try to attack Klay. I'm sure Draymond will probably get a chance at him. Right? You'd think. Yeah, I doubt he's like again you know the starting assignments are are different to the other ones but yeah dallas ended up being a lot better than i thought you know dallas was kind of like a weird boston story in a weird way where when you look at some

of the numbers after the trade deadline like the only team that had a better record than dallas was boston and then i would always point out that even though the record was great, there were some other numbers that I didn't really like that were kind of baked in there. They had this great record, but there were some other stuff that didn't look all that great. And them getting game six, them getting game six at home, I was just

like, all right, I give up. I submit that Dallas is better than I thought they were. Shit, we should wrap this up so people can listen to it. When we do part two, which will be after Suns-Mavs, we'll hit that. We'll talk about that matchup of whoever

comes out against the Warriors. And we gotta hit Harden. You haven't been able to talk about Have you talked about Harden on any platform since that game? So I know you got some stuff saved up for that. And then we'll do a couple more things. So part two coming later tonight. This is produced by Kyle Creighton.

As always, I always got to start and cheat. Thanks to Steve Cerutti and Dylan Berkey. We will see you for part two, probably about two hours after that Mavs-Sunskating joke. I don't have I don't have I don't have I don't have I don't have

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