The Bill Simmons Podcast - Part 1: Detroit’s Comeback, Philly’s Resurrection, and Celtics Questions With Zach Lowe

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

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Zach Lois here, Zach Lo is here. Zach Loe doing double duty this weekend. He did a little brief podcast after game seven, not game seven. Game seven, game seven. Yeah, the Celtics season is over. You know that, right? That was game seven. It felt like game nine.

Wait, before we start, wanted to mention new rewatchables coming tomorrow. It is Netflix is a joke month, so we're doing some comedies. we did there's something about mary it's going to be running tomorrow and uh let's see what do they have on the service this month slap shot fletch 48 hours mrs dowfire meet the parents long came polly we've done episodes on all of those already there on netflix ghostbusters kindergarten cop we just did tropic thunder tootsie splash and borat wow that is uh all available heavy hitters wonder what's going to happen anyway orlando detroit just happened it did Not a lot of comedy in this series, unless you like tragic comedy.

Tragic comedy? Yeah, that's a phrase. Detroit wins going away. We have two teams that came back from 3-1 and a round one. I'm just going to throw a bunch of stuff for you, things that happened just in the last five days. Okay. Joker got bounced by McDaniels-Gaer, Shannon, and zombie Mike Conley.

That was the thing that happened. Atlanta fell behind 72 to 30. 22 in a do or die home game. Orlando blew a 24 point lead in a game 6. Clincher for them with a 19 point second half. LeBron at age 41 was the best guy in a playoff series. Embeded won a game seven. Paul George outplayed Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown in a playoff series.

I think that is debatable, but I'm going to throw it in there. Cade and Maxie have now jumped a level up into some getting near the final level of levels. The Brown Tatumera, for all we know, could be over. We'll talk about that later. Wow. And then two teams came back from 3-1. Just some of the things that have happened. Orlando, Detroit Friday night is the weirdest thing that happened all playoffs, though.

Just bizarre. 19 points in the second half, and it must-win game. So I watched that game, and obviously you're digesting as it happens that the magic have not made a basket in quite a long time. another miss, another miss, another miss. For some reason I didn't realize until after the game had ended, that they had only scored 19 points in an entire half of basketball. Like, I just didn't put to do the math in real time. And I looked at the box score and I just stared at it.

Like the Mona Lisa had appeared in my house. I just sat there in silence for like 30 seconds, looking at 118 next to each other and being like, is that even possible? And look, if not for a late run of full court press and Detroit comedy turnovers at the end of this game, we would have been looking at like 105 points combined over six quarters of basketball for an NBA playoff team. And it ended up being, I think, 113 instead. But still, I mean, like 113 points in six quarters is kind of a problem.

I know Franz Wagner is out. That's a big deal. But not great. I screenshotted the second half box score of Orlando. And I think I'm just going to keep it in my Apple Cloud for the rest of my life. Four for 37. 108 was the field goal percentage. They were two for 18 from three.

They had 17 rebounds in Detroit at 34. Said half as many. Seven turnovers. Palo and Bain combined were two for 20. Suggs was 0 for 6. and Bain was minus 39 and a half, and just one half, minus 39. It's really, really special.

The fact that they didn't cover, or even cover like a double-digit spread, they lost by 14. They were up 24 early in the third quarter. It was, and at home, it was an amazing collapse. They were laughing at the Pistons. Like, I mean, literally, like Duncan Robinson, remember I think he threw an in-bounds pass

out of bounds all the way to the other sideline. And Desmond Bain grinned in his face, like cackled in his face. When Del Carter Jr. was laughing. They were mocking the Pistons up 24 in that game. And then they missed, I don't remember, it was like two dozen shots in a row. They just could not make any baskets for a team that's been a horrendous offensive team now for a long time. Absolute. It's funny.

Like, how would you regard this, right? Like, it was a disaster season, disaster season. Everyone's heard all the time. It doesn't gel. It doesn't gel. Then it gels, and they blitz the Hornets in the playing tournament, the team that all of the NBA world outside of Orlando was rooting for the hornets to get into the playoffs. They go up three one against the number one seat.

And it's like, all right, this is the team 50 and a half over under. They got their mojo back. Maybe the Moseley-Bankero thing is fine. Wow. And then they lose the next three games in increasingly dispirited fashion. And do you look at this? It's like, well, we lost to the number one seed in seven games without our spousy. best or second best, I guess after this Palo game, I would say second best player in Franz

Wagner. Yeah. That's not so bad or is it so bad? It's a way, it seems very bad right now in the moment. Well, think about a week ago. So I remember talking to my dad after the Celtics were up three one and just being like, see, I told you we, we wanted to play Philly over Orlando. That was the consensus, right? That was seven days ago. So many things flipped in. And, in eight days, like the Knicks, all their fans were in complete panic when they were down to one. They have this must-win game, game four in Atlanta. And it feels like if this game goes wrong, we could just see the Knicks completely blow everything up. Now they're the favorites to win the East, like pretty convincingly. And then Orlando and Philly basically

switched places. I had, before we get into Game 7, I had some big picture stuff. And you brought up Franz. Does Orlando win the series if he doesn't get hurt? Because I feel like they in game six. I do feel like they had figured out at least something with him defending Cade that made it reasonable to shut down Detroit offensively at least a little bit. Once Franz was out, Cade went basically apeshit. Up 3-1, you would say they probably do, I think, but I don't really care, honestly. He gets injured and the entire team other than Banking Carrot. And Bain, Bain was good for the bulk of the series and okay today. Got got some points late when it was out of hand. He was okay. I'm going to give him okay. I'm not going to give him four first

round picks good. Well, I mean, that's the bigger picture is that, yeah, Franz goes out and he's defending Cade pretty well. He's a well-rounded offensive player. The fit with Bancero has never been great, but the talent is the talent. And then they just cease to function as an offensive basketball team. and they're paying jail and Suggs $32 million next year. He has four more years left on his contract. He can't make a shot. Anthony Black- Not only can he not make a shot.

His shots are going left, right, long, short. You almost don't know which direction they're going. It's like a compass. Anthony Black is extension eligible, and I don't even know where to begin with negotiating that contract. I know where I'd begin with, if I were his agent, they are paying Bain, Bancaro, and Wagner, like $135 million combined next year.

They're in the tax, right? Next year, no matter what happens. There might be double tax. Jet Howard, they declined his fourth year option for next season. He was a fairly important first year on pick. Jace Richardson, now he's the 25th pick, couldn't get on the floor. Tristan De Silva, like, kind of roll got scrunched a little bit toward the end of the series. Like, there's, it's, and then if Suggs is just, if Suggs is going to be the 32,

million-dollar glue guy, elite-level glue guy, like the Derek White, we'll talk about Derek White's series, the Derek White of the magic once every three weeks for two games, then that contract is a borderline disaster. And his shooting in this series

was like, it's just not acceptable for a guy in that role. I'm sorry. He didn't used to be nearly as bad, but I don't know what happened to him in this series. Like, I almost, the shots were so bad, it made you wonder, was he hurt? Yeah, so you'd

they just started, Palo kicks in next year, the five for 240, whatever that is. And then Franz, year two. He's got four for 184 left. Baines at 39, 4245, brutal. And then you mentioned the Suggs. They also have Carter at 18 and 19, and they have Batase at seven and a half next year. So they have really no outs to get under the tax unless, you know, you do, like you trade Suggs and get a $4 million guy back, something like that.

They are also missing all their picks. They have 27, they have 31. And in 2029, they can swap with Memphis, but it's Memphis's call. And that's all they have for picks because of the Bain trade. Do you think, I still want to dive in in this game, seven, but do you think that after Bain and Bridges, these trades are just done now? This was like this thinking outside the box, Zag, we're close. These picks aren't going to matter anybody.

This is a way for us to elevate our team and go to another level, but we're not getting, an all-N-B-A player or maybe not even an All-Star? I mean, it's not a coincidence. I don't think that both those teams are in the East, right? And the East sort of has this openness to it that convinces these teams who have not really done anything. I mean, Orlando has not really done anything in the Bayamona playoff series with this group of guys. But it convinces them that, like, we can jump all the way from that to, if you're trading four first-round picks for an in-his prime late-20s veteran, you're saying, like, we think we can make the

finals right now. I thought that trade was fine for them because I liked it for them, to be honest with it, because I just didn't know what other direction, what other player were they going to get that fit everything that they needed? We all knew that they had overpaid, but it was the sort of, but then you look at the opportunity cost, they're stuck now. Like, they don't have a lot of outs other than trading. You never want to be in a position where you're out is trading one of your best players from a position of like, we don't really have anything else to do. And that's kind of where they are. I want to say I like the Bain Trade when it happened.

I did too. Because I thought, I hate putting it this way, but I honestly thought he was better. Like even what you saw with Franz out, I thought there were moments. Remember there was that stretchy out of Memphis where he was like running their offense and scoring 25, 2070 game? I actually wanted to see what that would look like on this team with those two guys. And then they had, it was a classic not enough, not enough points. at the table for everybody's situation sometimes,

and you could see him kind of step back, he'd step up, he'd step back. I thought this would be like, okay, Franz is out. It's Desmond Bain time, and it's just, maybe he's not that guy. I don't know. What do you see?

It's not only not enough plates. It's like everyone is trying to get the same food or food is being tossed. The main guys just don't fit very well together. And Palo is a classic, like, he has the game and style. of a number one offensive player because he doesn't have the game

and style of a number two offensive player because of his shooting liabilities, but he's just not good enough at the number one offense. Despite a brilliant game today when no one else is with him, he's just not at that level as a number one guy yet. Maybe he'll get there someday. And so you just don't,

the whole team's offense just feels amorphous, unformed, lack of identity, lack of cohesion, lack of understanding on a lot of possessions of what they want to do. And all of that just coalesced into that second half of game six where they just did all the wrong things, attacked all the wrong matchups, missed all the wrong shots and just had no plan B on any possession

after one action. And that's just a weird mix of guys. And you want to keep saying, well, if they're healthy, if they're healthy, even when they've been healthy, it just hasn't worked well enough on offense. game six second half was a good example of it's nice to have an old school guard on your team that can be like come on guys calm down and it that guy could be zombie by connolly it could be anybody

but um i think they're probably expecting black who i think had some moments this year and even in this playoff series had a couple moments but i think for where they needed him to be he just couldn't get there but he's he's a weird team he's the same issue as palo just many tears down the league hierarchy and that he is like an on-ball creator kind of player, but just not good enough to do that a lot at a high level and doesn't have the jump shot yet. I mean, he shot it much better this year, but he's never going to shoot it at volume

or he hasn't yet to be an off-ball. Like, there's just a lot of pieces that don't fit together to add up to more than the sum of their parts, which we knew. Like, this is not been a good offensive team ever in this era. Sometimes you've got to rise to the challenge. Like me today, I'm incredibly hungover. Wow.

I can't even tell you what happened yesterday, but there were a lot of drinks and it was bad. And I'm fighting through it today. And maybe the audience barely knows, except for the nine times I stammered and when I could remember it was a game seven yesterday, filling in Boston.

I chalked that one up to you're having a tough emotional time. That's, I just, I gave you some grace on that one. Well, it was my daughter's 21st birthday yesterday. And we decided to go to a bar in Manhattan Beach and watch the Celtic game.

And drinks ensued. And then the game was tense. And we're going to talk about that later. Her first, Zoe's first drink ever? On the 21st birthday? Well, midnight Friday night was the first official legal in a bar. Here's my ID drink. Which is always fun.

Always nice to be there for those. Big picture for Detroit because they were great today. They finally got an awesome Tobias Harris game in a must-win situation. Love it. I was thinking about Doc Rivers because I think his two favorite players he's probably coached in the last 15 years were Maxie and Harris, and both of those guys were awesome. Maxie, we'll talk about later. Hey, look, I don't want to get too far ahead. And I don't know that this outcome is particularly likely, but we are one round away from a entire city of Philadelphia versus Tobias Harris

conference finals matchup. Oh, my God, it is possible. Well, he was great. He had 17 the second quarter. they had a 40 points in second quarter. And it was basically Tobias and Cade. Dern was at least rebounding. I don't know what's happened to him offensively. Again, I voted for him second team Omba. And he's just completely lost his confidence with like the little quick jump hooks.

And I don't know. And it's beyond like, oh, Orlando's doing something. He just seems spooked to me. And that would be the biggest red flag I would have. We don't know who they're playing yet in the next round. But the fact that he's just, a complete mess from four to eight feet around the rim. I don't really fully understand.

What happened to him? Yeah, I mean, part of it is what Orlando has been doing since game one, which is we're going to go under every K'd pick and switch and at the same time and take away your rolls to the rim. And every roll to the rim felt like, like just, oh, my God, that's what the whole regular season looked like, and we haven't seen it.

And then like one would happen per game. You'd be like, oh, my God, it's like an alien landed in my backyard. Jail and Dern got a free roll to the rim. But you're right that I think that got into his head. And it just feels like every time he gets the ball with a smidgen of an opening in the paint, he's just almost throwing it up there, like rushing it up there. Yeah, it's like these quick shots. There's no touch on it.

But I will give him credit. Like he pounded the offensive glass today, which if we're going to switch against him, he has to do. And his rim protection was pretty goddamn solid the entire series to the point that the outcry among some Pistons fans for more Isaiah Stewart, less jail, and Duren, even start Isaiah. Stewart kind of petered out. And so does Isaiah Stewart's minutes. And we got more Paul Reed. And we got, look, we all, like, Isaiah Stewart's a fun NBA character. We all enjoy them.

Seven minutes today. I mean, these fouls where he's just throwing people to the ground and running them over is just, you're hurting your team. I understand it's like your identity. It's the role you play on the team. But there's a way to do that without. And Mo Wagner is a good actor, probably exaggerated. But, like, you just can't play like that.

And I think even J.B. Bickerstaff is like, dude, come on. Well, and then you have Cade who in game five as 45 and just single-handedly drags them through that game. Game six in the second half, 24 points, nine rebounds, four steals, nine and ten from the free throw line, and then 32 and nine today. So this goes from, hey, do you think it'll be 100% for this for this Orlando series to, hey, this is why he probably would have been number four or number five for him? He would have been an absolute first team NBA guy. And I just thought he was incredible. I mean, that's everything, him and Maxi,

everything you would want from your best guy in a playoff series. He was great. He hit threes and teams are going to dare him to shoot threes and he knows that and he hit enough of them in this series. Defensively, he guards Palo now and then. Like he'll guard up, he'll guard down. He plays hard. He makes plays at the rim.

He plays really, occasionally like any SAR player, he'll get a little bit unfocused away from the ball and try to rest a little bit, but he plays really hard on both ends of the floor. And the other guy, the sort of pendulum of referendums on this type of player is so interesting because it's hard to be a non-shooting perimeter player in the playoffs.

We all know that. We all know what happens to them. We need a name for those guys. I feel like the Thompson twins. I feel like a Sarr Thompson fought through that and was undeniably a major asset for the Pistons coming back and winning this series. Just unbelievable defensively, flying everywhere.

And they started using him more in the offense as a screener, as a cutter, as a DHO guy. And I think that's what you have to do when teams ignore them. And he's this spectacular of an athlete. It looked after two or three games like, oh, another non-shooter is going to be like kind of exposed in the playoffs. And Asar Thompson fought through that. And like, it was plus 12 today. I think he was plus 13 or 14 coming into the series. Like he was a big part of their comeback.

You know, I looked up before, so where were they in, so they're 16 for 33 today in threes, Detroit. Who. Heading into this, I looked at the basketball reference where they have the series stats and they have everybody ranked in different categories on their playoff page. Detroit was 16th and three point percentage heading into today at 29.7. So they finally had a game where they hit some threes. And what's interesting is Duncan Robinson felt like he missed like six wide open ones. So it really could have been like a 22 for 33. So good game for them, not sure if it was an aberration three-point shooting game.

Because I don't, other than Duncan Robinson, and even like Cade's been a little spotty. I don't know how many people I trust in big moments. We will see. It's still an amazing, amazing, amazing comeback for them. And then for Orlando, is it fair to say Mosley has completed the definitely getting fired? and probably has saved his job definitely getting fired Triple Axel.

We don't see this very often. I was thinking about that in game six and game seven and if you were Orlando's front office and you had been leaning toward firing him before the play in tournament and everything like that, I think you'd have to lean that way again

because the offense is just so rudderless and without any cohesion at all and it just at some point something has to change. And I am interested. I think their pivot is one of the more interesting stories of the offseason. And it has to go beyond a coaching change if that happens. And I just don't know, I don't know what it is. I don't know what their move is to shake this roster up in a way that makes it more functional.

Well, you know what does it make sense is trading Janus for Palo. Who does it not make sense for? Orlando. Because it doesn't get them any closer to being anywhere. I would rather just keep Palo and see how this plays out. You look at their roster around Palo slash Janus, and it's undeniable that you would kind of feel. They're just not enough shooting.

And who knows what people do. And I'd also have to probably put more stuff than that. So that was a really fun fake trade during the season, but I think that one has now expired. And I got not much other stuff to put in it, right? Like my picks went out in the Bain trade. My young guys aren't playing much. Like, other than Anthony Black,

I don't know what else I got. No, your move this year is we like this team. We're going to change coaches. We're going to see how this goes. Palo is no longer a poison pill guy. We want to see what this looks like for the first half of the year and then we'll figure it out. But I think, and by the way, is Billy Donovan? No inside info, but this is the kind of team I would want to coach if I was Billy Donovan

and I wanted to keep coaching in the NBA, right? A lot of young assets. It's almost like an older college. team. Well, he's certainly been linked. There's an identity. The rumor mill has certainly linked him to this job potentially. Obviously, there's the Florida connection.

Don't you think Billy Donovan, when he thinks of what type of team he'd like to coach if he stayed in the NBA? Is it just like anything but the Bulls? It's just anything's going to feel great. Just any other jobs is going to feel fantastic. Or he probably looks at all the guys he had on the roster the last couple years and wonders, maybe we should have made a run. Kobe White and I-O, all these dudes.

Oh, good. That's not, that's not, dude. Let's not even do it. We're going to take a break. I have a very important big picture question for you about the league, and then we're going to rehash, sadly, Celtic Sixers. Ooh. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandul. It's been a wild playoff run. Not over yet.

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entry deadlines, and prizes and details. All right, we're in talk Celtics Sixers, but I have a big picture question for you because we saw, we almost saw Orlando that they just taking care of business

in the second half, an eight seed would have won, then a seventh seed would have won, which they did with Philadelphia, and then a six seed one of Minnesota, you know, they lost multiple people. Listen, this isn't the first time this topic has brought up about regular season versus playoffs, and we know they're two different sports.

I think the thing that has changed for me is wondering, like, if I was in charge of a team, how much value I even put in the regular season anymore? And would my only goal be to have everybody, healthy in April and would I not care about seeds at all? Right? Because even when you talk about Denver, Minnesota, it's like, shit, they won. If they had lost, they could have played Lakers Houston and that was where seeds matter. I think you could look at this season and be like, you know what? None of the seeds really mattered at all except who's going to have game seven thunder spurs because that's going to be

the only series that really ultimately matters, right? Other than that, put anyone in any seed and we probably would have had competitive series with any of the other 14 teams for the most part. And I'm just wondering, like, the Celtics, if they had to do this over again, how much of the stuff would they have done differently, knowing what they know now? Well, what's stuff? Like, just lighten the load on Derek White, so he's not, whatever, war and out or whatever the hell happened to him in this. I'm talking, Derek White, 10 less games, 300 less minutes.

Jalen, eight less games, 400 less minutes. Tatum 30 minute max the entire time. And that's, I mean, I've been saying this on the pod for weeks now. Putting the minutes on Tatum like they did, I feel like that that caused the injury. I'm always going to feel that way. It made no sense to me as they were doing it. Him playing 43 minutes in one game and 40 and another in the playoffs. I just thought it was insane.

Don't you think part of that there had to have been some sports science behind that. If like if we're going to actually ramp him up for big playoff minutes, we got to ramp him up like in the regular season. we have to sort of give him heavier minutes loads of the new. But did you see his quotes today, though? About his quotes today were basically like, yeah, my right leg's not as strong as my left leg yet. You figured this was going to happen? Like he had, there was one quote in there that made me wonder like, damn. This is what he said.

It was just unfortunate timing, but I guess a little bit to be expected, right? I was away for 10-5 months and then I came back and I'm playing every other day. I was playing 36 to 40 minutes so it's not unusual that something would come up. It was inevitable at some point I was going to have to deal with something that kind of came at the worst possible time. Was it inevitable? Shouldn't they have just played this 20, 30 minutes? Look at how the spurs have treated Wembe Niyama, basically his whole career, but especially this year. Like they've been adamant about not trying to put too many miles on them. And conversely, like I look at Denver, and I know Joker had to make the LNBA run, which probably in retrospect

was a bad idea. But they're just putting all these miles on Yoko Jemurie, who immediately, you know, looked like they ran out of gas in the first round. So would you rethink how you treat the playoffs versus the regular season just holistically from what we're watching right now? First of all, this entire conversation is music to Adam Silver's ears. How can we make the regular season matter even less and seem less relevant

for like an undending slog of six months of games? like, please let's have more teams think this way. There need to be fewer games. We know there need to be fewer games. Everybody knows and agrees there need to be fewer games. But we know that's not happening. No, no one is actually willing to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to do that. So then we're stuck in this situation where, yeah, the playoffs are a completely different game than the regular season.

Different types of players have different kinds of playoff experiences than in the regular season. Like the 16 game versus 82 kind of players that Traymond Green famously said a few years ago. gap is getting bigger. Kirk Goldsbury wrote about this for the ringer last week. The gap in style between the regular season and the playoffs is just getting wider and wider to the point that they are the same sport, but very different versions of it. Right. And I mean, sure, ideally you would, if you could just know, I'm going to be a top six seed, so at least I'm not in the play in tournament, because you can't risk that, no matter what you can't risk. I don't know, Philly risked it. Philly got, what, 30, 30 games out of him.

How many did he actually play? He played some amount of Embed games. 38 games. Paul George took a 25-month suspension vacation for whatever he did and came back and looked better than ever and looked like 2021 Paul George. The only people they put real minutes on the whole season were Maxie and Edgecombe. Maxie played a lot of minutes. He ended up only playing 70 games, but he played 38 minutes a game.

He led the league. Vijay was a rookie played 35, but that's young legs. but none of it matter because for five games of the playoffs they had their team. It's really just shocking how quickly Philly just materialized.

Like, oh, this is the dream Philadelphia 76ers team that we never thought we would see. And like, oh my God, here it is. Like, Joel Embed is firing behind the back passes to Kelly Ubrey who's dunking and everyone's going crazy and Tyrese maxi's roasting everyone.

Yeah, but even in real time, people still weren't believing it when it was happening. The Celtics were, I think, minus 2,200 after game four. Even after they lost game five, there were minus 1,100, which House and I were both like, whoa, that seems crazy. And then in game seven, without Tatum, they were six and a half point favorites to Celtics. I thought that was going to be a 50-50 game. I didn't think anybody should be favored.

I was shocked by that, but nobody believed in Philly until they did it. I mean, we all have Philly fans in our lives. we have some at the ringer in Spotify. I have just random, I've had random Philly fans that I have not heard from in months reach out in the last 48 hours. They're just as shocked as everybody else. The ones that are reaching out to me are like,

I can't, I'm just walking around with a big grin on my face. I can't even believe what's just happened. I mean, shock is a word that multiple of the muse. They just, even they are like, this, this happened? Like, this team just suddenly clicked into place like this. I can't believe it. It was incredible to watch as it was happening. Game two, I just thought the Celtics played like crap and Philly made some threes.

I was alarmed and talked about it in the pot after game six was equally alarming. You look at the last second half of game five, game six, game seven, Philly basically dominated those three games. I mean, they were up, I think, 15 plus in all the games. The Celtics never really had a lead ever. Always felt like they were playing come from behind basketball. And there's a few things I'm shocked. one um one was just how kind of competent in b'd look like he he he wasn't doing we've seen him come back from not playing and he falls down a lot and you always think like the next one like he was

i thought pretty good that was about as good as you're going to get from him defensively like protecting the glass someone was passing i thought i just thought he played well i was really surprised by that right he was outstanding on both on both offensively especially defensively can come and go for him a little bit, but he was moving around a lot, very well in games five and six. Game seven was good enough, and offensively, he was absolutely brilliant in that game. And Paul George, you know, who I guess was sick in game seven, but Paul George just was the equal of Brown and Tatum on a lot of these minutes and quarters, you know, game seven maybe not as much, but that one was shocking. Kelly Ubra's defense, which I was like, ah, he's,

he's not bad. He gives an honest effort, like he was invaluable. And then, you know, just riding maxi. The one thing you could have predicted, and we did our most intriguing players draft, and I think I took Maxi as my leap guy, because I was like, this is, fits the profile of if somebody was going to make the massive leap, he kind of checks a lot of those boxes. He was awesome. And he was, if you think about like the next series, them versus the Knicks, if they win it will be because he's the best player in the series,

sounds like stupid and cliche, but that's usually the best part usually wins the series. And they would need him to just go nuts in the series, I think. I think the Knicks can throw some stuff in a bead.

I don't know if Paul George can do that again. Edgecombe, one game, you had that stat. What was he 0 for 16 and the losses from threes? That wasn't me,

but yeah, it was something like that. It swings hard with Vijay's three-point shot. He's trick-or-tree from three, which is fine. But I'll tell you it's never trick-or-tree with him.

Absolutely fearless and is just unafraid of any these big moments, wants the ball. And in transition, for a guard who's not huge, he has just mediocrically risen into like,

he's one of the five most terrifying players in transition in the entire league. It doesn't even matter if somebody's back, if that guy's bigger than him, if he's got ahead of scene, he's going to finish over you, and there's just nothing you can do about it. Yeah, it reminds me of some of the,

some of the all-time great transition guards we've had that you knew in the first year, like Rose and Westbrook, were both like this. Westbrook just taken out of like, Jesus. You said being like shot out like a cannon. I thought Nick Nurse was awesome in the series. And conversely, I thought Missoula was bad.

And we can talk about that now or later. I was going to say, I've been waiting to hear you weigh in on whatever. I thought Missoula was incredible in the regular season. It was honestly, I voted for him for Coach to the Year. I thought he was incredible. I would have too. And I don't know what they were thinking with this playoffs. I have so many questions.

And look, did Philly win the series or did Boston blow it? I think the answer is both. They went back to their 2024 style without the same players is my biggest issue. They slowed it down. They didn't put it with pace. They gave up on their bench. And I was saying it on the podcast at the time. I didn't really understand it.

It was interesting. Jalen after the game yesterday was like, actually liked how we played. I thought we looked like us. that's who we were all season. That's kind of how I felt. They gave up on the bench until they started half of it in the most important game of the season.

I know. Well, that almost seemed like symbolic for Joe, like just to say, I screwed up. I did this wrong. But the problem is, so you have two different problems. One is you do the assignments for Vucevich trade to get under the luxury tax, which I get. And I understand all the benefits for that.

But my dad, who is the most bitter I've ever heard him after a playoff series loss, I was going to have him on the podcast today. And he's so mad about the series that I decided not to have him. Because he was just furious to everybody. And after the game, he was like, I was going to go up to Chisholm and congratulate him for getting under the luxury tax. Like, just furious.

Because not only do you not have Simons, who I think would have had at least a couple real moments in the series and would have mattered. He got injured, but who knows what would have happened. Well, did he get injured? I don't know. He had like a lottery injury. But then you bring Vucevich in.

So you have that swing. And I just felt, this is my honest feeling. I think Missoula treated this series like, let's figure out what we have for when we play the Knicks and the Pistons and whoever comes out of the West. I'm going to use this as my litmus test series. I'm going to see what I have with Vucevich. I'm going to shorten my rotations.

I'm going to try to do the 2024 thing again. And they just got away from what succeeded for them. The bench was the superpower of this team. It was guys like Hugo and Walsh coming. in and being maniacs for five, six minutes. And he just punted on it. And then in a game seven, it's like, hey, Shireman, can you go back to being awesome like you were the last two months of the season?

It's like, you've been yanking me around. Of course, he went in zero points in game seven. This guy was a real asset down the stretch. So I just, I really think Missoula screwed the series out, but I'm always going to think that. I was going to say, if he was in the lab experimenting in preparation for the next rounds, what was the game seven experiment? Was that like me melting things on the Bunsen burner in ninth grade chemistry class?

Just like throwing a pen cap on the, oh, look, it's melting. What experiment was taking place? That was an admission of I screwed up. I need to ride with my bench guys in the crowd. Listen, Garza starting is totally explainable to me because they're trying not to get Kada in foul trouble, right? And they're trying to move Kada, more of Kada's minutes against Drummond. Like, I get it.

Hopefully Garza can hit. He was great on those threes at the top of the arc, missed a couple. and we never saw him again. And Shireman should have started for Tatum, and even though he was getting yanked around all series, and so I thought was going to start. The Ron Harper thing did catch my attention. That one was like, huh,

because he just hadn't played. That is a fantastic way. I wasn't against it. I wasn't against it, but I was like, oh, okay. And I think they put him in an unfair spot, which is another thing you have to think about. I probably would have just started Walsh and been okay. But this goes to the bigger thing of like, you're playing Tatum and Brown these big

minutes in the first six games and you're not giving those minutes to the bench guys. So then when you actually need the bench guys, you're basically throwing them in cold. I just don't get it. Walsh playing only five minutes is pretty surprising. And I know he's, you know, he's not going to be guarded on the perimeter, although he shot okay this year. But defensively, he was far and away their best option on maxi from the start of the season until now. And I just like, if you're going to play, if you're going to juggle it up and play all these random dudes, like, it seems weird to me that, you know, falling through the cracks is the one guy who's actually guarding Maxie pretty well.

And Jalen Brown. Who done a great job against him during the season. Really, really, really effective. And Jalen Brown took the assignment in game seven and was like fine, but there was just nothing that they, I mean, in the end, maybe it wouldn't have mattered. Maxi was just too brilliant and too multifaceted and offensive player for whatever they threw at him. But just the whole game was just starting with Tatum being not on the injury report to questionable to out to the starting five to them falling behind early, coming back late.

And the whole game was just very weird. This episode is brought to you by Square. If you're in the restaurant game, you know that efficiency is everything. Square lets you take payments, track sales, handle inventory, manage staff, send invoices and keep up with finance, all from one streamlined system. That means flying through orders were zero mistakes, getting the data you need, and keeping everything working together. So you're ready for whatever's next. Learn more about their customizable plans at squareup.com. I knew on Thursday that we weren't going to see Tatum.

I was convinced. I said it on the pod. You could tell you it was hurt, and they weren't going to mess with it. And it was the other leg, and this is what always happens when these people have these traumatic injuries to one leg, you know, favoring the other leg. and it's always a concern because you're putting more stress on it and they played them too many minutes. I mean, the big thing for me is

I don't think they were beating San Antonio or O KC. So it's not like, oh, we blew the title. It's more like, I just know if we did this, if you just reset buttoned this and went back two weeks and you basically have to win those first two games. He had a feeling Embed was going to come back

midway through the series. But the way they played game two with all the threes, just letting Maxie and Edgecombe do it whatever they wanted. And then game five was even worse. But I know they would have tried to mix that up, used a bigger bench.

Like even what Minnesota did against Murray, let's put some miles on Murray. Let's make them dribble the ball up, 94 feet. You know, I know Maxey is the minutes later in the league, but at least like they just made it so easy for him. I felt like he was going downhill, like a running back for two straight weeks, right? By the way, I don't know how much we're going to talk about it

because it starts tomorrow. but Anthony Edwards was just upgraded to questionable for game one of that series. You mentioned Minnesota and cleared the Timberwell said he's cleared for all basketball activities, on-court activities and upgraded to questionable. The Devencho injury is heartbreaking. It's always sucks, and he's a big part of their team. I can't wait for that series. If Ann is like a full go and is, you know, the last couple of games he played against Denver,

he did not look like himself. He was not assertive. He was not explosive. But if he's closer to himself, I mean, he's always. already had a 50-point game against them this year. The idea of him trying to dunk on Wembe by itself is just beyond intoxicating. You got the French center battle. There's a lot to love about this matchup that we haven't really gotten to sink our teeth into because it was just we just didn't know who was going to be left of the Minnesota Timberwolves. And by the way, kudos for

the Minnesota Timberwolves you've talked about already for finding a way to win that series against the Nuggets without so many guys. That was an awesome, awesome effort by them. Yeah, and that's the thing. They figured it out. They, they zagged a little bit. They tried to do some different things. Like the Terran Shannon thing was incredible. Like just, not only just playing him, but unleashing him and just saying, go attack Jamal Murray. His legs are dead. And conversely with the Souths, Missoula was so good during the season. And I just didn't see the ingenuity in the same way. It really felt like he was trying to replicate 24. And I can't say this strongly enough. This was not the same. this was always supposed to be a transition year into next year to get under the tax.

And instead of Porzingis and Drew Holiday and Horford, you have guys that just aren't as good and aren't as experienced on the team and you weren't going to be able to replicate it. So I think the superpower for this team was the bench and the unpredictability and the wildcard nature of just these guys that would have these weird heat checks. It was happening all year and it just went away from it. I said it last night on my reaction podcast. with Pina, it just felt like the Sixers and the Celtics

swapped arcs in astonishingly fast fashion and that the Sixers became the team that they were always able to be on paper but never would be in reality, and they became it. And the Celtics became the team that I was low on before the season. It looked so foolish for being low on because they had shed so much talent, because there was so much uncertainty about their big man rotation,

and all those concerns just were completely invalid until they were immediately valid at the most pressing possible time. I wish you're... How many years is your dad been a season ticket holder? 54. If you're a 50... Absolutely furious.

If you've been a season ticket holder for 54 years, you can absolutely go up to Bill Chisholm and sarcastically congratulate him on ducking to all the aprons. You can give him, you can gift him an apron. You should have bought him an apron with like, congratulations. we lost in the first round,

here's your apron, go barbecue with this. The only way to defend it is did they know Tatum was going to look like he did. They hoped he was going to look a lot like it, but they didn't know when they did that move because they also didn't have to do it.

They thought Tatum was going to replace the Simon's minutes, but they really miscouted Vucevich, it seems like. Because he just was done. You could see it. The moment he showed up in the team, didn't look right. Got hurt, came back, didn't look right.

came in the playoffs was clearly a disaster matchup against any Philadelphia BigBad basically. But especially when Embedde came back, they had to see two more games that that wasn't going to work with him versus Embed. And that was their big move. They could have, I guess, if you're going to criticize them, then they maybe could have flipped Vucevic for something else.

But, you know, I think they thought he was going to help. Like, I really do. And it was just a misfire. And the Tatum, you mentioned the Tatum comments today about, you know, it was inevitable, something when happened. I remember saying, like, I'm a little hesitant to crown Boston as the favorites because I just,

I remember making this gesture of ups and downs. There's going to be ups and downs with Tatum recovering from this injury, and there just weren't any. And I just sort of let myself believe, and I think everybody else did that there would, I guess this is just a medical marvel. They're not going to be any downs. He's playing a ton of minutes.

He's playing awesome. They've been the best team in these. And then at the worst possible time, there was it we don't really even know what happened when it happened what the injury is but i don't i just don't believe it was the knee either i know they had to say that but it was during the game you could see it was his calf and they had the stuff on his the raptor on his calf and you know i think he it was unclear whether he was cleared to play or not i thought his his words were interesting about him and his trainer decided not to play so clearly um they didn't

feel comfortable with it and i don't think they should have i don't think it was worth it they working him in the title this year, let him go. But to find out after the season that his right leg was only 85% of his left leg or whatever, or like he didn't have the, he's not going to be able to build the calf up fully until, you know, the summer. So that's, well, why are you playing 42 minutes a game then? The whole thing is a little bit, a little bit strange. But Philly went and took the series from him.

And this is, I mean, the conversation I really want to have with you is like, so what now? Like, you're not, like, like, I don't know. I just would say what now for the Celtics? Well, first they have to go to the doctor and see if they can find a cure for We Got Great Looks Disease because that's been three of the last four playoffs

of losing a game and then talking about how great the looks were after. And by the way, the looks were great because they were coming back at the end. They got four straight awesome shots and they missed all of them. And that's why they lost. So this was always my,

and I would go back and forth playfully with Mike Budenhosa about. it. It was my thing with every Boodenholzer team that would be eliminated from the playoffs. It was like, well, we just, the shooting luck went against us. And it was why I would always make fun of the Celtics. It's like, well, congratulations. You can hang the banner for like expected effective

field goal percentage champions of 26. This is Darryor with the Rockets too. Same thing. You have four. It's great that you had an unbelievable expected effective field goal percentage. It's awesome. That's a wonderful process.

And yeah, you just missed. Well, all you got to do is just miss three. times in seven games and then have another game where the team outplays you substantially or whatever. Then your season is over. It's not a hundred game series. It's like a very finite amount of time. And if this thing isn't working, the right answer isn't always just keep doing the thing until it works. You've got to have some other thing.

I mean, this has been my thing with Boston forever. It doesn't. They want a title. The fact is they want a title. They have a great core. I'm not sure what, if anything, they can really do in the off season. Pritchard let them down in this series, too, other than his one game four. So great game four.

Great game four. And other than that, I forget, hold on, I'm going to queue up his stats. He just, he just wasn't good enough in the series. And the shot that killed me, Jalen missed a couple. Hauser had one around the rim, but the one that killed me was two minutes left. Kada makes a great play at the rim, comes back down. Kata's running the floor and Bede's jogging back. Kate is out running him.

Brown, it would have been a tough pass to him. There's some Celtic fans today that were like, oh, Jalen missed, Miss Cade's. The ball ended up in the right spot. It was Pritchard in the corner, wide open to take a lead, and he missed it. And I would take that shot a hundred times out of a hundred. And if he makes that shot,

I honestly think they win. Did the crowd. My dad said the crowd was as loud as any crowd they've had for a playoff game during the comeback. Like he was like, the energy was electric. it was we could not get over the hump and all we needed was that one shot and it just never went in but I would have taken my chances with that shot you know I would have bet my life he was going to

make that shot that's why sports are so cool and I know it's not a great day for Boston fans but I've seen that game so many times in my head and in my life and what happens is that shot goes in the crowd goes bananas and a team on the other end with a history of postseason letdowns and hiccups just sort of melts down a little bit and the game peters out and the Celtics win in in your soul and my soul like when that shot goes up that's what i'm envisioning and it went completely the other way not only did the shot miss but philly and maxi in particular he like rose up under that kind of pressure in a hostile environment and put the game to bed and it was just of like a very against script kind of ending.

Even in the bar, it was a, oh, it was like one of the, so I can't even imagine what it was like to be there. Well, PG and Maxi from three were 45 for 95. Wow. I don't know if that's replicable against the Knicks and the Knicks. I mean, there's a whole bunch of reasons the Knicks are a better matchup than the Celtics were. Embed in those four games was in the game 70

was 28, 9 and 7. He missed 150 regular season games in the last three years and magically turned back into Joe Embed at the worst possible time for the Celtics. I was thinking about it. I saw the Sixers played two games

during this season that I thought made them intriguing as a dark horse. One was against the Celtics and then Embed got hurt right after that, I think. Then there was another one, I want to say it was against maybe the Knicks on a Saturday

or maybe the game somewhere around that range when they played the Knicks and were really going toe to toe to with them and it was just like man there really is a ceiling with this team. But we all do that right? Like we this is... I know, but think about it. They played six good games all year probably and they're in round two though.

There's a reason that we just never thought we would see the apex version of this team for any prolonged period of time. And by the way, we still have to see it for a prolonged period of time because now it gets every other day, for the rest of the way. And obviously this is a pretty soft travel schedule for them. Philly, New York is an easy trip and all that. But the stat I will keep just hammering about, and always Maxi, always Maxi.

And in this series, MBEED is those two combined for all the heavy lifting they do on offense, 3.3 combined turnovers per game, two per game for MBE who's had a history of like bad turnover games in the playoffs and 1.3 for Maxi. And Maxi never turns the ball over. It's one of his secret superpowers. he just never turns it over. And like, that's a, that's a astonishingly low number

for those two guys combined. Where is Maxie for you now and the best players in the league list? I'm just going to read you the best players. Well, I had them on all-N-B-A, their team all-N-B-A. Well, I'm going to read you right now. Okay.

You wouldn't put them against, you wouldn't put them over Joker, S.J.R. Wembe, so let's cross them off. Feels premature. No, I mean, right now. Yeah, I know. No, yeah. It would feel premature to put him over those guys.

You wouldn't put him over Luca. No. Would you put him over Aunt, healthy? No. All right, so there's six. Would you put him over Cade? Now that's kind of an argument. Yeah, you get into this morass of like Brunson, Mitchell, Cade, you know,

Curry is still in there. And it's just a bunch of guards that are just depending on your taste, depending on the week. He might have a case, yeah. So you might have a case to be the number of guy on that. So that's the seven spot unless you want to put Janus over all of those guys. I think Janus still belongs over all those guys. And I definitely remember Ringer 100 doing it every month. There was a, he was around like 10, 11, 12 a lot for me during the season.

I don't know where I had him on my latest one. But I definitely remember one in particular when I moved him up like very early in the season from like 19 to 11. And it felt like, yeah, that's about where he is right now. So this goes back to one of my favorite dumb topics. The all-time aberration 2020 COVID draft just zooms and maybe some illegal workouts with guys wearing masks on where Edwards goes first and then Wiseman goes second off of three college games.

Lamello third. It goes Patrick Williams, Isaac Acorro, 4 or 5. Killing Hayes is 7. Denny is nine. It's a great pick. Halliburton is 12. Denny must be doing great for the Wizards these days. There's a great pick by the Wizards at number nine.

Yeah, they get credit for that. Your guy, Poku was 17. Wait, wait a second. My guy, Poku. Your guy, Poku. How did that happen? And then listen to this, the 20s. Tyrese Baxi 21.

Yeah. Quickly 25. Pritchard 26. Jaden McDaniels 28 and Bain 30. We're going to have to do a redraft. this draft this summer for fun. It sounds great. This is a fucking bonkers. Like, how does this happen? Well, you're just

leaving out so many guys who are in the 20s. Leandro Ball Morrow, I literally don't even remember him. It seems like he played 49 games, whoever he was. He played four. I just have no memory of him doing anything in the NBA, not one thing.

All Raptors fans know this draft well because they picked Malachi Flynn one spot ahead of Desmond Bain. Oh, well, that a pick traded by the Boston Celtics. And then the second round is just pretty much a train wreck. It's Sam Merrill at 60. I didn't know.

I forgot Sam Maril was Mr. Irrelevant. That's right. Isaiah Joe's in there. Vic Kretchey. But yeah, just the 20s of that draft, getting Tyrese Maxie. So this, you know, my guy, Darrell, I think not only saved this job with this series, but I think you got to look back at, like, Maxie. the Edgecombe pick,

the Paul George, even though Embed and Paul George were one and two in the worst contracts draft, now that's looking better. I think Daryl sticks around now. Oh, that's one of the ripple effects

I meant to mention last night is I think Nurse and Mori both are... Oh, yeah. But the crazy thing about Maxie and Edgecombe is the Sixers were like very, very close to getting neither of those guys. It took a Mike Muscala,

avalanche of threes on the last day of the season to flip that maxi pick into Philadelphia's possession. I forgot about that. And then at the lottery last year, it looked like they were not going to give their pick to Oklahoma City and then they moved up, shoot, up to number three and got Edgecombe. So like this is what this is what it turns on sometimes. It's like it's a multiple sliding doors within sliding doors. Well, as we discussed those sliding doors, is Jaylen on the Celtics next year?

Why did it take you so long to get here? This is the most exciting moment of the podcast. We're going to wrap up here and then go watch this other game and come back for part two. So tell me the rationale. Tell me, tell me the rationale. Do you want, are you trading him to just reset the finances, restock the assets, and go to Jason Tatum and Derek White and be like, I know we just won 57 games or whatever. That was supposed to be the gap year. This is going to signal to you that this might actually be the gap year.

Or are you trying for some sort of three for one that fits better, one for one that fits better? Can you get younger in the trade with a cheaper guy in the spot? Are you going for it next year or are you taking a step back next year? Oh, I think you're going for it next year. So then I don't know what I'm on the record as I want Jaylen Brown to play his entire crew of the Celtics. I get in arguments about him. I hate the stupid plus minus thing that goes around with him. Look at the moment he comes out, they're way better.

It happened yesterday. I just like Jalen Brown. I think he plays hard and he's durable. And I think he's aged about as well as you could expect from a 10-year forward in the league. This would be the time to trade him right now because 57, 61 and 65 the next three years money-wise. Tatum's 58, 62, and 67. And if you're going to make a case to trade them, it's like, can you just afford two guys making that much money? So I have not said.

And you've won't entitle with them. I have not sat and played around with the Jalen Brown trade machine. I suspect that you have, and you might have some ideas. I don't know, though. I haven't either, and I haven't really wanted to do it, and also the loss just happened yesterday. But in my head, it's something like, well, there's, is the Yonis move, which I think they would be one of the contenders for Yonis.

And I think Jalen as an asset, they either goes back to Milwaukee or goes to a third team and then that team gives their stuff to Milwaukee would be how that trade goes like a team like Atlanta where he's from a team that that controls this Milwaukee situation with their pick this year so it's something like that they could get super creative because they have this 27.7 million trade exception where you could take somebody back on a team that has cap space like a Dyson Daniels where you just take that back with Atlanta's pick put Daniels into the trade exception, trade Jalen, and now you have a max player trade except. They'd have like the biggest trade exception of all time and see where you can do that.

Or you look at a team like New Orleans and could you just go, Tray Murphy, Herb Jones in a contract, Trey Murphy, Jordan Poole, and a pick, like something like that where you're carrying the pool contract for a year, it's such an expiring, but you've reset around a cheaper Jalen Brown basically. That would be the mindset. I hope they keep them together. I'm just going to say that again, and I'm going to keep saying it. But I would understand if these are the kind of discussions they're having in dark, depressing rooms right now.

Yeah, again, having not gone through it, those two teams, I'm looking at the standings over here, just jumped into my head. I mean, I was trying to think like rockets, flame out. Is there something there? But I don't know what the trade would be. You know, I didn't think of the Pelicans, actually, that you kind of surprised me with that one in terms of like, but it's interesting. Yeah, there's a lot. And I'm sure this will be a podcast topic at some point. But Utah is another one.

Like Utah. They just did a lot of stuff, though. They just made some big moves. Yeah. But what about, I mean, well, how about, can I give you another version of this scenario? Sure. What if Jalen Brown goes to the team and says, it's time, I want my own team?

Why? Wow. This is just, are you coping? Is this coping? This is coping. It's been a dark 24 hours. Then I applaud your, you know. We've seen weirder things in the NBA than Jalen Brown deciding.

I'd like my own team now. You know, I just something just popped, a team that just popped in my head and we're about to go watch their game is like, if it's just a disaster Cleveland loss in this game, you know, this is a team that just hasn't been able to fill a wing spot with a player like that. But he just, it's just hard.

His contract is so big. And I don't know what they'll be thinking. But we'll see. We get maybe Cleveland won by 30. and then would they be favored in the next round over Detroit? I have no idea, but that would be, that series is going to be wild either way, whoever it is. I vote for keeping them together because we've already seen them win a title.

It did happen. And I think that they can improve around the edges with this team, especially with the trade exception. I think Hauser probably, like if we're going realistic, I think Hauser gets traded because he's 10, 11, and 12. You can, I think a lot of teams could use somebody like him, And you could just move Shireman and Hugo into those minutes, right? And then that 27.7, I think you can get somebody good with that.

And I think they'd want to bring Simons back. Simon's a free agent. They have their mid-level to use. I could see him coming back. I thought they were a guard short this whole season anyway. So I think getting a guard and figure out another big man to put with Keda would be the two things I would look at. But who knows? This is the NBA.

We're prepared for anything at all times. and if Janice is actually on the table and says at some point like I'd love to go to Boston and play with Jason Tatum like they're going to try to have conversations about that they just lost in round one I feel the same way about Denver

like like Sean said today on ESPN everyone's on the table for Denver except Yokage they're accepting calls and like that's how they should feel they lost in round one with one of the best players of this century and they should be thinking that way yeah that was kind of a notion

shit moment. But yeah, obviously. But, no, but that's significant that they said every player is on the table. Yeah. Because what's on set. Because that means Jamal Murray's on the table and Aaron Gordon's on the table. What's unsaid is Jamal Murray. I mean, Aaron Gordon, the Aaron Gordon thing is just, we've

unfortunately reached a point in which if I'm building the nuggets, I have to, now if I were building nuggets, I would see all the medical records, I would know everything. But from the outside looking in, I just can't assume he'll stay healthy for an entire playoffs ever, ever again. The leg stuff just crops up over and over again. I don't really know what to do

with that because they're just not close to the same team without him. It goes back to what I asked you 20 minutes ago. Maybe your goal is just to get him healthy in April, May, June, and you're treating him like a car in the garage that you just take out for a spin once a week. But can you even do that? Like you, you, you can find the sports science people on lots of teams. I know a lot of them who will tell you. Like, that actually, there are sports science guys. who will say the players aren't playing enough because it does them a disservice to try to try to ramp them up to like okay now you've we've been treating you with kid gloves all season the playoffs you're going to play 42 super hard minutes every single game for the rest of the way right even if you did that

with erin gordon like i don't know that he would be able to stay healthy for a month straight even if you treated the regular season like a big a big nothing but anyway we're far afield and we have a game seven to another game seven coming up. Yeah, so this is the end of part one. We're going to come back after Toronto Cleveland, a game that I think already has had two shots and maybe a gin and tonic before it even started. I'm prepared for anything in this game. You opened this podcast by saying all the crazy stuff that has happened over the last

five days, and we forgot the RJ Barrett shot that hit the ceiling on the same goddamn rim as the Kauai shot from seven years ago. Like, that was up there for a long, long, time and just whoop. It was Halliburton shot, but in Toronto and in game six. Don't forget the play that led up to RJ Barrett, Evan Mobley for some reason being thrown the ball, even though it was the worst free throw shooter out there and

seemed like got body check from behind. I think we never saw the best possible replay of that. But all of a sudden, the ball's out of bounds and it's Toronto's ball and R.J. Barrett, I didn't think it was going in. Did you? Uh, When it bounced straight up at this point... I'm just saying when he was releasing it,

did you think it was going in? No, but when it bounced on the rim, I'm now conditioned to be like, it could be perfect. It could be going right up and right now. So I was actually not surprised when it went in. But yeah, when Scotty Barnes sort of stumbles in there

and kicks it out, you're like, it's not really what they were looking for, down one. And then, boom, it goes in and here we are, game seven. All right,

we're going to watch game seven. And then we're going to come back for your part two. That would be a little shorter than this podcast. Thanks for letting me talk out the Celtics. Apologies to my dad for a piece of that I'm on.

We just scratched the surface. I think there's more. Well, there's, fortunately, we have many more podcasts coming. Thanks to Gahal and Eduardo as well. And we will be back on Netflix,

ironically, right after game seven. Seen a little bit. Must be 21 plus in president's select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus in president in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming.

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