The Bill Simmons Podcast - Part 2: The Panic Battle of LA, Sleeper Memphis, Plus More West Overreactions With Ryen Russillo

Episode Date: May 24, 2021

In Part two of the Sunday night podcast, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Ryen Russillo to discuss the Grizzlies' win over the Jazz in Game 1 (2:00), the Lakers losing their first game to the Suns (24:00), the Mavericks’ Game 1 upset over the Clippers, Trail Blazers-Nuggets (42:30), Game 2 predictions, an impromptu Parent Corner, and more (1:08:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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winning the PGA at age 50, listen to Fairway Rowland with House and Nathan. They put a podcast up. We also put part one of this podcast up a few hours ago. We covered the East. We're about to cover the West right now and all the storylines. Clippers, Lakers, the Grizzlies

game that just happened. Are the Nuggets done? All that stuff. It's all next, first, Pearl Jam. All right, part two of the Simmons-Brasillo Sunday Night Extravaganza. I'm glad we waited for the end of Grizzlies Jazz. That turned out to be a really good game. Intriguing game. Intriguing storyline. Might as well start there.

It is now 9-18 PT, so we're past midnight on the East Coast. We just watched eight basketball games. But the Grizzlies kind of handed it to the Jazz. Now, obviously, no Mitchell. But I went into that game thinking, man, emotional Friday night game over the Jazz. Now, obviously, no Mitchell, but I went into that game thinking, man, emotional Friday night game over the Warriors. They're not going to have a lot left in the tank. Cross this one off.

Game two, they'll rally. No, they came out throwing haymakers, and Ja looked great. And do you think they can win this series? If Utah's going to let Ja and Dylan Brooks get to wherever they want, then yeah, Memphis can win. I mean, of all the things,

like you think of like major themes, okay, what do you think of this game? The number one that stands out, and there's a lot of important stuff here, but Ja got as deep as he wanted to every single time. And then Brooks in the third quarter did whatever he wanted.

And you just keep watching it, and you're like, okay, when is this going to stop? And with Ja, it's so tough because he's going to get by you if he wants to get by you. And then once he's in the middle in that kind of like, you know, inside the paint two point range, he, he, he's got such lift that's quick that you, you're kind of just waiting for him. And there's no way you can match his movement. Like once he's decided he's going to do what he's going to do, you're already late and it's devastating when it's working. And you know, for a Utah team that we've always liked defensively, I thought that was pretty

poor effort from them. Yeah. It's funny. You think like a week ago, Josh sucked in that Warriors game. They left them wide open. He missed a bunch of threes. His rookie cards plunged. And they did. Is did? Is that true? Oh, yeah. This is a whole thing. In the Sports Cards Nonsense podcast, Gio, he says the overreactions up and down with the playoffs are nuts. So right now, like Trae Young and Ja Morant are the two hottest cards.

A week ago, Ja was free-falling because he sucked in that Warriors game. And in a week, he salvaged it. And the thing that makes him special, you're talking about like his floaters and stuff. And he has the two versions of it, right? He just has a traditional floater, which Trae Young has as well. But then he has that move where he goes left and then he just does that quick, crazy spin.

And he's just completely in control and the perfect shooting thing. And the defender's like still playing him like he's going to the left. And by the time they know, all of a sudden he's shooting it. As you said, he got wherever he wanted. And Brooks, you know, I know Brooks is, Verno, we've always talked about him. He's definitely a frustrating grizzly to the diehard Grizzlies fans because when he's good, he's really good.

But he can also be the guy who's like, I got this. And meanwhile, he's like six for 22. Um, he's, he's a really unique player because he's a guy like in a playoff series. I kind of want him out there. And he's, he's another 90, 10 guy, right? The 10%. Eh, he'll take the three. Maybe he shouldn't take everyone's well, but he plays so freaking hard. Um, he's plays so freaking hard. He's almost like a hockey player. He's like a hockey player in a hockey series where it's just like, he's knocking dudes over. He's, he's just in the middle of everything.

And I like this team. I liked them after Friday night. I thought that was a really, really impressive win to do that in golden state against Steph, especially when golden state started hitting them back. They fought it off. They regrouped. This team's good.

They're young, but they're really, really talented. And I think Utah should be scared. Yeah, the Dylan Brooks thing is pretty fascinating because if you look at it when it's right, you nailed it because he's tough, right? There's no doubt in his mind the entire time. And discovering or trying to figure out exactly what you want out of every player, like how confident do I want you to be?

Well, I want you to be more confident than you should be, but I don't want you so confident that you're taking away from everything else that's happening. Jordan Clarkson, who has been terrific for Utah this year, you saw in those moments tonight where it's like, okay, well, I guess I'm just going to have to score because we're down. And you're like, yeah, but now you're not really doing anything. Like the whole reason we like Utah

is because of this team that a bunch of guys initiating the offense, moving the ball around, and there's seven to 35 from threes and guys are just bombing away and they don't even look like the offense that we fell in. Well, I fell in love with this strong,

but a team that had the best record in the NBA. Like I know the reaction is Utah sucks and be like, okay, but they didn't NBA. Like, I know the reaction is Utah sucks. And you're like, okay. But they didn't suck. Okay? They didn't suck. And to see them struggle like this offensively, although they made a late run,

and then to see a guy like Brooks, who's just like, I don't care who you guys are. I don't care. Like, I don't care. And everything was going in. But if I'm Utah today, or going into tomorrow and looking at the film of this and I'd be like, hey, do you guys want to defend anybody? And I know Rudy fouled out, but Rudy

was in there for a lot of it too. I think the scariest part for Utah is at one point, I think there was only two starters at the start of the fourth quarter for Memphis in, and they got the lead to like 94-77. So it was like, hey, are they going to maintain this eight to 10 point lead? They almost doubled it. So there's just so much of this where you talk, you're like, what are you guys doing? You're not going to shoot it that badly. Again,

I wouldn't expect, but the first thing you have to figure out is like, I realized jaw is challenging and he cooked Conley on that miss layup too. That was like, right. So there's towards the end. And I didn't feel like Conley was all that impactful, but they've got to figure out a way to fix that a little bit more.

Tillman plays eight minutes and does nothing today. He's the hero on Friday night, but they get, uh, they get some Bain. Bain was this guy who the Celtics basically gave away in the draft last year. They had the 30th pick. They kind of didn't want to pay a third first rounder and they were like, cool, take Bain. We'll give us a future second. And I forget what else, but it really was a giveaway. And Bane hit that three at the end of the third quarter, I think, and talked more trash after it than anyone on the Celtics has, I think, all year. I was like, oh, it would have been nice to have Bane on our team.

At least he would have barked at somebody. But they have so many guys on this team. Like Clark and Winslow got DNPs again. No, they're sneaky. Yeah, they're sneaky deep. And the great thing about Bane is you went, okay, how often is he going to be allowed to do the stuff that he was doing in college? Because he was running everything.

Everything kind of went through him. And then he comes to Memphis and he plays off everybody. But you even saw there was one possession, I think, in particular, where he did get deep in the paint and set something up up it was like oh yeah that's right that's the guy that's in college that's handling the ball a little bit more i want to ask you a brooks question though because i forgot it as we were run through brooks yeah do you think in a weird way the memphis experience for him has been perfect though because if he had been on a better team you know people would have told him to stop doing any of the stuff he was doing because if you look at the

advanced stuff this is the best advanced PER he's ever had, and it's still below average. His advanced numbers have been pretty bad for four years. He shoots at 34% from three, which isn't great. But he's physical, and I just wonder if he were on a better team with less of an opportunity, where clearly throughout these years, because because of injuries and Memphis hasn't been great, they've needed him to be more of an alpha for this team

where I think his growth, a lot of it is because he was allowed to be the guy he's been where with another team, them benching him probably for a lot of stuff that he did with Memphis where Memphis needed him to be out there through his mistakes. I think another situation he may have never developed into the guy that has the confidence he has now.

I'm not sure they knew he was this guy either because then why do you do the Justice Winslow trade last year? Right, because Winslow's a lottery guy and probably half the fan bases are holding out hope for Justice Winslow. Justice Winslow, yeah. But you do that trade because you think, hey, we like Brooks,

but I'm not sure this is our starting backcourt for the next 10 years. I'll say this, and we didn't really talk about the Friday night game that much, but he did this on Sunday too. I don't know if it's the best I've ever seen anyone defend Steph, but it's in the conversation. And I'm trying to think like Drew.

Delo Vadova. Remember when Deloovadova almost died in the 15 finals? Right. I forgot about that. I just think Steph's almost impossible to defend and he did pretty much everything you want to do. Steph was still getting his points, but he really made him work and he really gave him issues. Caruso does an okay job against Steph, but I thought Brooks was fantastic against him. Steph really worked for every single point he had. And he did all the right things, right?

He wasn't talking too much trash, but he was always around him. He was always in his space. You know, he's got hands. There's just... He leads the league in fouls. He's just annoying to play again. Yeah, but I don't think he cares.

I think he's just a really physical two-guard. It wasn't even me being negative about it, because he fouled out of the last regular season game when he lost, I believe. Can we talk about the hottest topic that's not a playoff topic right now? Canada's 2024 Olympic team? Wiggins. Offense runs through him.

Alexander Walker on the Pelicans RJ Chris Boucher Never misses a shot Brissette on the Pacers You're reaching a bit Brandon Clark Apparently Dort

Counts Dort does count Why would he not count? SGA. Corey Joseph, veteran. Jamal Murray. Kelly Olenek. Dwight Powell, Tristan Thompson, Wiggins.

That's a real team. And our guy, Dylan Brooks. That's a real team. I'm not as excited. I mean, you know, you just named a bunch of guys from Canada and some are pretty good.

Canada? Where can I bet on them for 2024? To do what? All-Illinic? It's like Illinic and the Illinicettes? I don't know.

This Mitchell thing, you want to talk about it? There's all kinds of rumors. I don't know what's true and not true, but all I know is Utah was minus 1,300 to win this series on Fando. Memphis was plus 700 underdog to win the series.

Everyone thought Mitchell was playing. Everyone thought he was fine. There was no word that he wasn't playing. And then two hours for all of a sudden he's not playing. And he's saying they make it seem like it was the team's decision. The whole thing was weird. I'm sure it's going to blow up tomorrow. Maybe even by the time people hear this podcast,

but very strange. I don't know what happened. Yeah. I don't know what happened. I know there's, there's different, I mean, because of this podcast,

I don't want to say like, Hey, there's, I don't know. I don't know what happened. People thought he was ready to go and then he wasn't, but the team's the one that said that they shut it down. And he was out there.

There's competing theories about what may have happened. We'll leave it at that. In the basketball community, there's a lot of buzz with different theories. Let's just say it's not as many as the JFK assassination, but there's multiple theories. No. No. But I don't know what's right or not.

You could chalk it up to that. If you're Utah, you want to sit here and make excuses and be like, well, you finally are not getting Mitchell. You still should. You've played with Mitchell. You've played without him enough. I still think you're supposed to win this game. You're at home. You're the better basketball team. And really, if you had never told anybody what the records were, you'd be like, wait, they're better than them? Because it didn't look like it. I mean, that's what's kind of the scary thing. I guess you could just say at one point when Utah was 7-35 from 3, and they made the number look a little bit better because Bogdanovich went crazy in the second half. But Conley didn't look that great offensively. I think they had moments for favors. This is kind of like a bigger Rudy Gobert thing, too.

If you really are one of the 15 best players in the league, and he's getting MVP votes, I think Hollinger voted him second for his mvp i just go wait what i should i double check that because i don't want to like get that i didn't even feel great about putting him 13 all nba as my 13 all nba center like it good for the reason you said i'm like am i positive this is one of the best 15 players in the league it's just in those those moments. It's like, you know what? If you're going to be one of these guys, I need you to be one of these guys. Like, you know what I'm saying?

Like, I need you to be somebody who feels like, okay, now we can use Rudy now. We can use Rudy now because Mitchell's out. Mitchell's out. We'll ride Rudy a little bit more. We have this top 15 player. And, you know, on top of it, too, you're like, okay, well, you guys understand the defensive impact. We've all seen the numbers. It's been going on for years.

We know what the on-off court stuff is. It's insane. It always has been for him. And it was even better again. You know what I mean? After, like, taking a dip back. But then when you're watching it happen, you're going, all right, so Ja's getting whatever he wants. I mean, we can blame it on foul trouble.

We can do all those different things. But it's just, it's a fact. There are Rudy Gobert playoff games where you go, wait, I'm supposed to believe he's one of the 15 best players in the league? Like, that doesn't feel like it's accurate. And Valanchunas is a weird matchup for him that not necessarily the perfect guy for him to go against. What's weird

to me about the Grizzlies thing is Jackson really hasn't looked that good since he came back and he missed two-thirds of the season, three-fourths of the season, whatever it was, but they're not even really getting a lot from him yet. And I do feel like the longer they can hang around in the post season, at some point he's going to heat up. We both think he's good. I just feel he just seems a little rusty to me and how does he fit in and the team's in a good groove, but if they can get 24 to 28 really good minutes out of him,

this looks better and better. But Dylan Brooks took 26 shots tonight, which I think is hilarious. Did you find out if Hollinger voted Gobert second for MVP? That can't be true. There's no way he put him over Jokic and Embiid. That's crazy. All right, we looked it up.

He did have him second. So he had Jokic first, Embiid. That's crazy. All right. We looked it up. He did have him second. So he had Jokic first, Embiid second. Look, there's a statistical case for it, I guess, but it's, I personally don't see how he's above Embiid or Curry, but this is why it's fun to have votes. It's fun to argue about them. I don't get it. I don't get that one. Memphis, every lower seed won this weekend in the West, except for the Los Angeles Lakers. Did you know that?

Yeah. Yeah. Portland six. Yeah. Yeah. I'm able to figure it out. Last year, the two one seeds lost their first games.

So you have a scenario where if dallas can upset the clips and we'll talk about that series in a second and memphis can somehow donkey punch the jazz out of nowhere and and pull off i'm not quite there yet i'm just i'm hypothetical We could have a Dallas Memphis round two. And then if it's Phoenix holds on to beat the Lakers again, this is all overreaction Sunday. We could have a final four of Phoenix, Portland, Dallas

and Memphis. That would be fucking weird. It's in play. I don't think it'll happen, but it's in play. If Golden State's in that game today, what happens? Because I am of the theory that if Utah isn't hitting

threes, anyone can beat them in one game. They're so built around at least shooting 32-34% from three. If they just tank from three like that, I think they're extremely vulnerable against any decent team. They beat Memphis three times this year.

And if I look through it, I'm sure they're missing like one of their guys, either Conley or Mitchell at some point for one of those games. So I've been on the record throughout all of this run as much fun as I've been watching a Golden State, you know, get all these role players get going in the defensive numbers to close the season and Steph, Steph, Steph, but that's just not that great of a basketball team. You know, I was surprised

they were that close with the Lakers, but one game we all knew Steph was capable of anything. That whole game going into the Memphis second playing game. And at least I have this on the record because Cowhert called me and I go, I think Memphis wins this game. Like I just have some weird thing where I feel like storyline. We'll just remember like, oh, that's right. And Steph ended up not being in the playing game. So I don't want to talk about stuff that much more anyway. But if it's Golden State instead, Utah probably has a better chance. I just don't think that Golden State team was that good. I love the playing game. I wonder if the seven, eight, if it's too dramatic of an impact for the team that loses, if it's a game where it's like basically a game seven and then you lose. And then all of a sudden you have to play the nine,

10 and the nine, the nine seed just has an easier game. The 10 seed is going to be their mediocre or worst. 7-8, you start talking yourself into it. You know, it's just, it was weird how, in a weird way, Golden State would have been better off finishing nine and playing San Antonio and easing into the Memphis game versus, I think they went, you know, obviously I was there,

so I was watching their bench and stuff. They really thought they were going to win that Laker game. That whole team did. They had this game plan. They were trying to execute it. They were all in on it. And I think they really thought they were going to catch the Lakers by surprise, which leads me to. Yeah, but before you do that, though, let's just stay on this because I do think this is a real results-based conversation.

Because then it's like if Memphis got smoked, we'd all be saying, well, you know, the emotional turnaround, right? Because Golden State lost to Memphis because the Lakers game. That's what I was led to believe, right? Not that Golden State is not that good. No, but that game was physical

and they basically played seven guys. It took a lot out of Curry, I think. I think that's a fair, there was some residue. But if we want to connect everything, we always connect things to the results.

So if Memphis had gotten smoked tonight, it'd be like, you know what? Two playing games, on the road, traveling. That's the turnaround. It can't happen. But they're a young team, though. Well, no.

You're saying that now, but I know exactly what would happen. I'm just in retrospect of saying it. Young team. That Friday game bounced off them. This team has the advantage. I think we all do this stuff based on the results. I'm going to point to two games last year. I think Denver had the quick turnaround where they got smoked by LA in the first game of the second round series. And then why was that?

Because you're like, oh, Denver just played this ridiculous series with Utah. The quick turnaround, you can't, you know what I mean? Like people were even suggesting, cause this happens out there with the minutes freaks of just punt on game one. You're like, well, dude, it's a set best of seven. You can't do that. Yeah. And so then it's like a punt on game one. So then what did Houston have? They have that seven game series, Oklahoma city. They play on a Wednesday game one against the Lakers is a Friday. Everybody is like your mortgage on the Lakers because Houston, the Everybody is like your mortgage on the Lakers because Houston, the emotional turnaround, and they win by 15 points.

So I think we get really caught up in the connecting results because of all the, but now it's like, well, Memphis, they're riding this emotional high and then Utah was just sitting around where if it were the other way around, we'd be like, that's too much to ask of a young Memphis team so I don't buy a lot of this stuff can I give you a better theory on this Memphis Utah game today I think the Mitchell thing was a really

weird story and I'm glad you brought it up major distraction yeah there's like wait a second I thought Mitchell was playing to say he's not playing wait he's saying the team's telling him not to play like that's not a way to get ready for a playoff series. Yeah. I'm glad you brought it up again because I think it's important. We'll find out what the hell's going on this week. See what's up. Well, Memphis is going to win the title.

Coming up, we're going to talk about the Lakers. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey. Before he rocked that Super Bowl ring, he rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too. You won't win the Super Bowl,

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Just search Movember. All right. So you were talking about results-based conclusions. So I think back to Wednesday night where the Warriors seemed like they were going to beat the Lakers and then kind of lost control of the steering wheel. Then they gained the steering wheel again. Then they blew it in the last three minutes. Lakers clinched a seven seed. Then they sucked again today. They basically played one good half out of the last four.

And this is something I was arguing with you about a few weeks ago that I'd rather catch the Lakers early. I watched them today for, I mean, we can talk about what happened to Davis in a second because that was weird. But I still don't think they know what their rotation is. I don't think Vogel knows who his guys are. I don't think he has a feel for the team. And I don't think the team has a feel for

itself. Now, the longer the playoffs goes, they're going to, they're going to get a feel for it, but you could really feel it today. It's like, there's like these, there's these drumming minutes. And then that there's a certain style with that. And then he comes out and then there's this Herald thing, which is a completely different style and energy than the German thing. And then ultimately they end up with, nah, fuck both of those guys. Let's play Davis big. They haven't really figured out who their reliable guys are in that Caruso, Schroeder, KCP, Kuzma, Wes Matthews.

It's like they can't just settle on three of them. And I just don't feel like they have an identity. Now, it might not matter if LeBron just flips the Nas switch from Fast and Furious and just does LeBron stuff and then Davis runs into shape. But they just look really sloppy to me. And I expected more from them, especially when they had four days off. The Suns seem like they had a perfect game plan. They seemed really confident. Chris gets hurt. Doesn't matter.

Booker's torching them. He's doing whatever he wants. And they had a real game plan on Davis, and Aiton showed up. That was a really nice win for the Suns. The Aiton part of this is incredible. Because if you look at the regular season in the three games, he was 16 and like six and a half rebounds per game.

And in this one, he's 21 and 16. So the reason I always liked LA in this matchup, and we even saw Anthony Davis go for 42 and 12 a week ago against them. Yeah. And that was without LeBron. You're like, oh, this is why. I wanted to pick Phoenix out of the West so badly, but I didn't want to after this matchup.

So, Aiton, who I think I've been really fair about because you go, I don't know, I don't know. But the effort is there. Like, he does seem to care. And the Drummond-sized, Harold LeBron-sized thing, I don't understand the Drummond minutes. I don't. Somebody would have to explain them to me.

I don't get them. Have we talked about this yet? Maybe we've touched on it. No, I don't think on a pod. I just, I didn't know if we texted on it. I did a little bit. Because when he got those three possessions against the Warriors, where they actually got him the ball three times,

and then he never, I think you, did you talk to me or send me a text? I think I was texting you about it. Because I was like, I don't get, you and House. I was like. He never came was texting you about it because I was like, you in-house. He never came back, right? Yeah, I was like, I don't get this drumming thing at all. It just seems like a weird fit. Doesn't seem like they like playing with him. Not sure why he's here.

They tried to get him going again today and it didn't work. Anyway, I interrupted you. He only played 19 minutes today. No, and so there's that part of it. Harold played 15. Yeah, and then I think they're doing this west matthews thing because they thought they get some life from him which um you know talonhorn and tucker tucker's not really part of the rotation here he's only seven minutes today lebron had eight

points the first four plus minutes of this game think about that then he had 10 the rest of the way so lebron scoring 18 anthony davis being awful awful. And for everybody that's the best, I'm a huge Anthony Davis guy. But no matter who the player is, we can do the takedown of him. Like, all right, I love Steph. Kind of wish he didn't turn over as much as he does. Because he has some moments where it's not just a bad turnover or force. It's just kind of lazy. And this is a whole other problem in the league.

These screen pocket passes where the two stay with the ball handler on the pick and roll and everybody just wants to throw these slick sideways bounce passes that Harden's actually great at and Donchik is really good at, but everybody else wants to do them. I swear to God, the success rate is way lower than it should be because they throw these stupid side pocket passes. And you're like, are you even looking at where the defense is when somebody drops back off? Because that's not going to go through those guys and i think guys just already have it like programmed like oh here's the read he's cutting whatever bounce pass let's see what happens the

warriors had how many 40 of them and those two playing games that didn't work out it's unbelievable so i mean the warriors are are like criminal with it but so as i mentioned like steph no matter who the person is, I'll find a way to go. Yeah, if I want to be negative about it, like I could focus on some of these things. But Anthony Davis seems to need

that kick in the ass. I mean, he came on after, did all the postgame stuff. Bill was like, this is on me. This is on me. This is on me. He's been 20% from three

the last two months. Now you say, OK, is that because he hasn't really been healthy? But then you look at the last week that he had during the regular season. He went 36 and 12, 42 and 12, 20 and 6, 28 and 10.

So he's putting up numbers and he was still rebounding. So if he was hurt, I don't know that I would see. Like the guy I saw in the Phoenix regular season game was why I was like, yeah, this is why LA is going to be fine in this series. But it didn't work out because Davis, LeBron, and as you pointed out, Booker got whatever he wanted and you got like a 50% Chris Paul in this game, if that.

I'll go further. I wish I hadn't seen that last Phoenix game. Because I came away from that game thinking they'll never beat Davis. Forgetting the part that Davis just no-shows playoff games. This isn't like the first game where you're watching it.

Like, is he awake? Like he had five free throw attempts today. It's just 39 minutes, five free throw attempts, seven rebounds. It was like, he was barely there.

He was like a empty vessel. And then you'll see him another night. And he looks like he's, you know, the logical successor to bill Russell and crew. He's a really frustrating player. A lot of people went down or got hurt in this game. And I almost wonder if he had FOMO.

Like if he was just going to go down to the ground and hold something just to get in on the action. Did you think that play was dirty by Paul underneath him? I did not. I thought he undercut him a little, but I didn't think it was like... I've seen Paul. I've seen others do worse. I thought he undercut him a little, but I didn't think it was like, I've seen Paul, I've seen others do worse.

I thought he boxed him out. I thought LeBron tried to draw the foul call and actually like misjudged his flop on it and ended up like really scared. I think he was just off balance. I thought, I didn't have a problem with it though. And the Payne Caruso thing

was a carryover from a previous possession where they rammed into each other and nothing was called. Yeah, you would think Caruso would get in more altercations because he's in the middle of it every game. He's really feisty and not afraid. He's a little Dylan Brooks-y. He chucked him and then he

threw the ball at him after he got back up. Yeah, that's good. So, if I'm looking at this from the Suns' standpoint, you talk about don't overreact to game one. I think this is, you talk about don't overreact to game one. I think this is a good example of don't overreact to game one. They had a week to prepare for this. They caught a Davis asleep. Aiton was awesome.

I'm not sure Aiton's going to go 10 for 11 with 16 rebounds every playoff game. The sustainable thing for me is that their swings didn't really shoot the ball well, right? You think Cam Johnson, Crowder, and Bridges, and those guys were four for 17 from three. And usually with that team, if those guys aren't hitting threes, then somebody else has to step up in a big way. And today it was Booker.

The Booker thing did seem sustainable to me. A lot like how Trey in that Knicks game where it was just like, oh shit. I mean, they're really going to have to figure out a strategy because they are not going to be able to stop this. Booker's, it wasn't just that he scored 34. I thought he did it pretty easily. I thought he got wherever he wanted.

I liked all the shots he took. I didn't feel like there was a heat check i just thought it was all flow of the offense really good stuff and then you know the announcer who was the announcer for that game was it van gundy can't remember whoever the announcer was was saying chris paul can't shoot they should be dropping off him yeah that was the mark jones Jones. Mark Jackson's Jones kept bringing up how he was dribbling lefty. Yeah. Because Paul hit that fade away that I couldn't believe he hit that.

That was the only good one he made. But they were saying how his guy just should have been dropping off and going to Booker. And I was kind of agreed because it seemed like Paul was playing with one arm. I actually thought they should have taken him out. But he said he felt a crack. And so, you know the whole time i'm watching being like are you serious like they're winning this game they're the two seed they get a real chance to do something here in the west and he's going to be hurt again so he did

come back but it didn't look very good but i'm with you on the booker part of it because there's a there's a lesson that i think we all were it was a reinforced lesson for all of us that spent a lot of time watching games because i think it comes up a lot like when somebody's cooking you just be like how come they don't double how come they don't double lakers tried to double booker it didn't matter because as soon as they would and it wasn't always a hard just straight up we're gonna keep them two with you or two off the screen it would be like okay once you start going this way make sure the second defender starts leaning your way a little bit like that as soon as nba players figure out where

the double is coming from, you're toast. And the same thing happened with Donchich and the Clippers. Like you want to see this sellout double team defense and then you get it. And then as soon as the code is cracked, it's horrifying. So you run a guy to the middle and he's an outlet. And now you have two defenders that are way out of the play to defend one

guy. And that's why we don't see double teams. I don't mind a double off Steph inbound down three. He's catching it in the backcourt. Yeah, run two out and force the ball out of his hands. Live with the results on something else. But this idea that you can consistently double team NBA players, especially a guy like Booker who can handle, who can shoot, and can pass,

or Doncic who has that kind of size. We were reminded again this weekend, what happens because the Lakers tried a bunch of things with Booker and none of it worked, man. None of it worked in the fourth quarter. Eight near the rim and you can't really leave their shooters open, even though they didn't make the threes today. The Knicks are in the same spot with Trey Young, right? They can't do the Steph defense where they greet him at midcourt with two guys because that team has shooters all over the place. So I don't know what their wrinkle is going to be to fix how to stop Trey from getting in the paint

and doing that stuff, but it's not going to be double teaming. The Booker thing's weird because... It could be to keep like a Taj or whoever up and go, all right, if we get burned on lobs, you get burned on lobs. But it was clear they were worried about the lob more with the Knicks on Trey. Because I think a lot of us are like, what are the adjustments?

There's usually not. Like if somebody's awesome, it's not like all of a sudden this guy who's awesome is going to have 12 points. It's not how it works. I think they're better off going with a taller guy with them. With Trey? Yeah. I would try RJ on him.

I would put size on him and give him help and at least he has like a little bit more of a reach. But with the Booker thing, it's tough because it's all half court. You know, the Suns, the pace that,

this is the reason we've liked them all year, the pace they play in their half court offense is what makes them special. Like they're just really good at getting him good shots consistently all the time. I love all the shots he takes. I love, I love when he banks it. I just, I'm never like disappointed in a son's possession unless it's, you know, the, the pick and roll where Aiden fumbles it out of bounds or

something. But, um, it was an impressive win. And, you know, what do we make of that LeBron performance? I didn't feel any urgency at all from him in that game. He seemed totally, it was almost like he thought they were going to lose or something. And he was like, I'm saving it for game two. I didn't get it at all. There's also another weird element of this game where they had 19 free throws before the Suns had one.

Yeah, it was 17 and nothing. And then the Lakers missed a bunch of those free throws too. I'm going to throw something at you because it just kept popping up. Of all the things you're trying to keep track of in a game, there's just things if you wanted to watch one thing versus what I wanted to watch, you may see the game differently.

Did you notice Bridges holding up pretty well against LeBron? I 1000% did. I was like, Whoa, this is by the way, on Wednesday night, Wiggins,

same thing. LeBron couldn't back up Wiggins. And I, I was, and I was with my friend Shannon. I was like, is Wiggins stronger than I realized he was? But I,

so that one wasn't as concerning though, because what ended up happening in that LeBron-Lakers deal against Golden State. He got going. Right. This game, he scored eight points from the seven-minute mark on,

or 10 points from the seven-minute mark on. What, my theory? Yeah. I don't think his wheels are right. And I think when he's a hundred percent physically and somebody's on him like that, and he could just power them backwards and do that bully ball thing. It's coming from his knees down, right? Ultimately he's using his ass and his knees and how strong his shoulders are. I don't think he, I noticed that on Wednesday night, I didn't feel like he trusted his wheels. And then the second half he got going, he was trying to get ahead of steam and stuff like that, but he didn't do a lot of like crazy cuts or anything like that. So I wonder, remember in the last game, it seemed like he stepped on somebody's foot and then they were like, he's

fine. He's fine. What the new Orleans game.? Yeah. Yeah, he was great. LeBron can have these injuries that would sideline other people for three weeks and he just plays with them and he seems fine. But I don't think he's 100% healthy. That's my theory. We touched on it though when he said it. Hey, I'll never be 100% again. And we're like, why would he do that?

And maybe it's because he knows that he's hurt. But I wasn't as worried about it because I felt like ultimately we got pretty close to a LeBron version of him. And even in that New Orleans game, he was really good, even though they turned the ankle again.

His routine on the court, you can't ever tell how hurt he is because you think he may die with the way it plays out on the court and then it'll be right back in the play. But I thought there were a couple times where he got bridges and he went to turn his back on him

and work and it didn't really happen. And bridges didn't go backwards at all. Yeah, and I was like, wow. I don't know what I'm supposed to do here because that is a, if that's a real thing, and it's still, you know, to sit here and LeBron can get 35 in game two and you'd be like, okay,

I don't want to make that mistake. But if that's a real thing, like that's a real game changer for the series. Who do you think their best five is out of curiosity? The Lakers? Yeah. If you're going down. They're down 3-2 at home.

I think it's four, and I don't ever know who the fifth guy is. But if you're guessing, they're down 3-2 in the series. They're home for game six. They're down eight with six minutes left. Who's on the floor? Well, it's Davis, LeBron.

I think it's Schroeder. Are you sure it's Schroeder? I know he's had some rough, rough moments, but he's also had good moments this season. What are you saying? Pope and Caruso? I think Pope and Caruso are out there, and I'm not sure who the fifth is.

I don't think it's Kuzma, even though I think Kuzma fit with them and stretches better this season, where I thought it was pretty obvious before he didn't really fit into what they're doing. They don't do Kuzma any favors. Even look at the minutes today. Kuzma plays 19, Horton Tucker Tucker plays seven and Matthews plays 12.

Like I don't get that. Like it's the playoffs. I'd want one of those guys to at least have 25 and get like a real run. I just don't think somebody is helping you in 12 minutes. That just tells me they don't really know what they're getting out of those guys. I personally would not play Horton Tucker. I know.

I think it's a size thing with Booker. I think that's what the Matthews deal is because at least size-wise, they feel like you can hold up because the other guys are too small. That's just a guess. Well, the one thing with this Sun series that I thought was going to be awful for them

was when Aiton didn't play. And they survived those minutes too. They don't have a backup center. I can't believe they don't have a backup center. I cannot believe that happened this year where you're like, what? What about Kim Birch? Fucking Toronto got him. They didn't even make the

playoffs. They couldn't have gotten Kim Birch. They just needed like Dedman, anybody to play 12 minutes for them. Yeah. Or the Atlantic buyout. Anything. Alright, so neither of us are worried about the Lakers, but I think we're a little worried because

the size advantage thing I mean, are you going to sit here and be shocked now if Phoenix wins the series? I don't know. I always thought the Lakers that was the worst draw for them because the size and the front line thing, I'm not going to sit here and be shocked now if Phoenix wins the series? I don't know. I always thought the Lakers that was the worst draw for them because the size and the front line thing. I'm not going to deviate from it too much, but we also got to figure out

what's going on with Paul too. Yeah. This one, I'm not doing any sort of big conclusions other than they'll figure out the Booker thing. One of those guys will step up. The Chris Paul thing, he just didn't look right.

And it couldn't be like, oh, I kind of bumped my shoulder. Like, it really seemed like something was wrong. And then he's saying after he felt a crack, like, none of that sounds good. He's old. He's played a lot of minutes. He was in the 2005 draft. I know, it just sucks. He's played like 1,200 games, you know? I was thinking of you when that got happened.

I was thinking of you in Manhattan Beach going, no! No! Like Dr. Loomis, not again! No! Running down the street, people were like, is it a family member? I'd be like, almost. It feels like it sometimes.

He knows I care. Even if I've never talked to him. I think I've talked to him a couple times. So panic meter. I'm going to give you the Lakers. I'm going to give you the Jazz. And I'm going to give you the Clippers. The Clippers is so much higher that it's not even worth debating.

I feel that way as well. We're going to talk about them right after this break Alright, the Clippers lose to Dallas in game one Lucas Springs one of the most delightful high IQ basketball games we've seen in a while

It was shades of LeBron LeBron at his peak. He just dissected them. Did some queen on the chessboard shit. They tried all these things that they thought were going to work and he's like, cool. And just made the right decision every time. He just picked them apart like he was picking butterfly wings off. Dallas shoots 17 for 36 from three. So they clearly go into the series thinking

they're going to double Luka. Our shooters have to shoot. Take the threes. We're not going to be mad at you. Just do it. They get nothing out of poor Zingas who continues to be a borderline sunk cost for them in a lot of ways.

He was put up 14 and four. He missed nine to 13 shots. And even worse, he's pissed about it the whole time. He has the shittiest attitude. I know. It really bums me out. Yeah, I don't understand it. He has this look like... I don't even know.

I don't even know what dumb analogy I could compare it to. It's like the guy who thought he was going to be the star of the senior class in high school. And then somebody else showed up and that person's the football quarterback and that he's like, all right, here we go.

I got it. Matt Damon in school ties. It's like, I thought it was going to be the football star. Where the fuck did Brandon Frazier come from? Now, it went, it gets dark. That analogy gets dark.

We won't go to the Wizz. I feel like it's a little bit like an ESPN radio sales function 2009. And I walk in and it's a Mike and Mike Van Pelt and cow herd on the poster when you walk in. And I walk around being like, this again? Fair. And they'll be like, hey, make sure you show up because none of the other people want to show up. And I'll be like, all right, I'll be there bright and early. And then I'll see the poster and go.

You guys can even fucking couldn't even like throw a headshot up there. Sneak ban. Yeah. Dallas knows who their best seven guys are. Granted, poor Zingas is one of them. They know exactly who they are offensively. They have an incredible player, which gives them the ability to beat anybody.

On the flip side, I don't think the Clippers know who the hell they are. Now, if you actually watch them, and I don't know why, but I would kind of hate watching in the last couple months of the season. Mann was incredibly important for them in the last two months of the year.

He was playing like 23, 24 minutes a game. I thought he gave them like an unpredictable athleticism, quirkiness, like he was just kind of different than anybody they have. Zero minutes in game one. They just punted on him. And yet they're playing all these Reggie Jackson, all those dudes, Beverly.

I just don't think they know what their team is. I'm super confused by them. I don't enjoy watching them. And I wouldn't be surprised if they lost. This was not a great Clippers game. It goes without saying. I mean, it's an obvious statement when you lose game one. And it looked like... I mean, the weird thing that's funny about this is everybody making fun of the

clippers and it's like actually dallas didn't want to play them either um yet if you look at how the regular season went down and where do i start first of all you're right because they have i mean this is the downside of having a million moving pieces and never being able to play your guys together all the time i mean they were a far better situation than brooklyn nets but they still have a little bit of that in them where it's like exactly like how are we doing this so they decide they don't want to play zuat so he's out beverly starts on donchich which i almost weirdly thought they wanted him to foul out so they didn't have to put him in later but i don't i don't think it's such a great idea to coach this meeting. Hey,

what do we do about Beverly? He's going to be so pissed if he doesn't play. Let's get him in foul trouble immediately. Okay. All right. So then they close

with Serge plays 13 minutes. So he's not even a factor in this, which is why we, that made no sense either. We like the Clippers because of, Hey, they can go big with zoo

or they can go smaller with a Baca. And then it's like, no, they're just going to go smaller. So it's Kawhi, it's Morris, it's George, it's Rondo and it's Batum to close. And there was two plays in the first quarter. I went out, here we go. Paul George gets it out on the break, left side, wide open three-point attempt, whips it to the corner, Reggie Jackson clank.ank and i go are you fucking kidding me man like are we gonna do this shit again now george ended up with 23 he had some really good moments

i think in the third quarter so all right fine marcus morris had a play where he got the ball almost at the free throw line and all he had to do was dribble once and it was a wide open layup he caught it didn't even look and turn to make sure he got the ball out of his hands so i was like this looks familiar so in that first quarter you know it's oh well hey we were in the bubble it was hard on us oh we you know this is and it's it's always something with this team and like look when kawai almost like it's a manslaughter charge for what he does to kleber. It's also George and Morris standing over Matt being like, ha, we got you. And it's like, okay, but where are you guys going to be in the fourth quarter? And Kawhi had moments where I thought he got annoyed where he was like, all right, I guess

I got to take this thing over. And he was terrific in spots. But if you're closing with Rondo and you're closing with Batum, and here's another question I ask you. By the way, that sentence batted itself. Right. You're closing with Batum. Am I insane?

If you have George and Kawhi and the whole thing was how great it was that you have these big switchable wings, why is Batum face guarding Doncic? Are you getting ready for the pre-switch? I don't know every single defensive possession and how it all played out, but as much as I run through all that Clipper side of it, Doncic hit the threes.

The goal was to try to make him shoot those. He hits them. The team hits them. And then when they change their defense, none of that mattered because Doncic tore that all apart too in the fourth quarter. I don't understand really anything I watched from them. Now you could argue they're just a team that when they, you know, like a couple other teams we have in the playoffs,

if they don't make threes, there's no plan B. They're 11 for 40 from three during the season. I think they're over 40%. Over 41%. Yeah. But this is now the third game out of four, three regular season and playoff games where the Clippers have been under 30% against Dallas. I hate watching their offense and I don't really like watching their team, which I had a chance to get playoff tickets in the lottery because I'm a season ticket holder. No, thanks. No way. Yeah. Didn't even get him.

I don't really like watching their team. Here's their team. Either people go one-on-one or somebody jacks up a three. That's it. There's no movement. I thought Rondo was going to be able to come in and at least glue stuff together. And it's like,

even I don't, as a long time Rondo guy, I don't like the look on his face with this team. You noticed it, you know, when Rondo is like super engaged and he's like, oh, finally, this team appreciates my genius. On this team, he kind of has that look like he's had in a couple other stops where he's kind of like, eh, fuck these guys.

Like he just, you can kind of see it in his eyes. Like they haven't handed him the car keys yet. And it just doesn't look like it's a fun team to play for. And they're also front runners, which I hate. just doesn't look like it's a fun team to play for. And they're also frontrunners, which I hate. You mentioned it earlier. Like, it's the classic, oh, somebody dunked over you

and the other, the two Cobra Kai guys have to come in on the side. Yeah, get him a body bag. It's like, you guys are going to lose. So you think they're going to lose the series now? No, I don't think they're going to

lose the series because I think they have moves. I think, I think Mann and abaca have to play more and i and they just have to realize that and understand that baka has to be at at least 25 minutes and i think man is an important i would i thought man was a borderline crunch time guy for them i really like that guy but they needed clipper fan about man it's like that guy was a fucking stud for time guy for them. I really liked that guy. Ask any Clipper fan about man. It's like that guy was a fucking stud for them. He was terrific. But then you got to ask,

okay, so what are you doing with how you're doing the Donchage deal? Well, you know, Morris, as you know, Morris would be out for me. He's playing 10 minutes a game if I'm coaching. I've seen his act in the playoffs. I'm good. I'm good with Morris.

I'm good with Reggie Jackson too. You are who you are. Those guys good with Reggie Jackson too. You, you are who you are. Those guys are in their thirties now. They're not going to change. And Zubats, it's like, this just isn't the series for him.

And if you're going to play him, play him off the bench, you know, when you have some, some possible size advantages. The way, the way Donchich ruined them was, was so impressive because it wasn't just the shots. It was like,

all right, so Batum's going to meet me at half court, and he's going to stand here, and he's going to be in my face. And so I don't even know if... I think the Batum thing was trying to match size. I think they wanted to have size everywhere. So if you go man, does that mean Rondo's sitting? Does that mean then man? They're not going to let him run the offense.

So that means Kawhi's probably running the offense. So is that too much? But you're right. There was a couple possessions where... You'll see this in games. Wait a second. Wait a second. Why is Batum playing at all?

I think it's because of the size part of it. Explain this to me. You have Kawhi and Paul George, and everybody gets a huge jerk-off circle when they get those guys. It's like, oh, my God. They're going to be unbelievable defensively. Oh, imagine the switching. They'll shut down everybody.

And then Kawhi doesn't even guard Luka. To me, it's like, I take out Luka, I win the series. I'm not going to take him out. He's one of the best five players in the league. Can I half take him out? Can I third take him out? Why am I not throwing Paul George and Kawhi on him for 42 minutes? Those would be

the only two guys that should guard him. I don't even care about their offense. It's like take out Luka. Kawhi, do your thing. You're one of the best defensive perimeter players of all time. Take out Luka. When you take out Luka, we win the series. Why is it that you're not guarding him at all? That's why whenever we'll talk about

certain guys' defensive reputation, it frustrates me because I'll look and see what somebody's capable of, but then I'll also see their assignment all the time. So like, is LeBron ever going to guard Booker? You know, if LeBron actually is still this guy defensively, wouldn't he guard Booker at some point? Yeah, but maybe he's just too slow for Booker,

especially now if we're talking about the injury. Look, I'm with you. I just said it. I don't know why, because you know what will happen. If they're down 2-0 or if they're down in the second game, then they're probably going to be like, hey, we got to do some different stuff with Luka here here the problem for this was they were getting the ball out of his hands and then the secondary thing off the Porzingis dunk was I think Hardaway and then Hardaway had a three or maybe it was Finney Smith that made the pass to Porzingis but they they

torched the Clippers off of the stuff they were doing to stop Doncic and that's that's the part where you're like oh damn it like you thought we had a plan, and then it went even worse. 2017 Kawhi, who's Zach Lowe picked to win the MVP over Harden and Westbrook. That dude is guarding Luka in this series.

Well, that's why I mentioned at times when we were doing the all-NBA stuff, and I said, I know what Kawhi's reputation is, but I feel like he floats. And that's why I didn't vote for him for first team. I'll be. And that's why I rigged it.

So I made Luca forward. Cause I was like, Kawhi wasn't one of the best five players I saw this year. I'm not putting him first team. I'll be at a reputation. I think their best five. Call me crazy. Is Kawhi and George Rondo man,

a Baca. And I don't think they're... They probably won't play that lineup the entire series. But against this Dallas team, that's their best lineup. Have Kawhi handle Luka and have him not shut him down, but do his thing. He's supposed to be one of the best defensive players of all time at that position.

So either he's not anymore or you're using him wrong. I don't get it. One other thing. So man, after the all-star break, he was 22.3 minutes a game. His splits were 53, 44, 85, and he averaged almost 10 points a game. And if you watch the Clippers, he really gave them energy and athleticism that nobody else on the roster gives them other than their best two guys. And Kennard. Yeah, poor Kennard.

So then from a panic button, blow it up standpoint, they're three losses away from an earthquake happening transactionally because everyone at the front office is out. And I'm not reporting that.

I'm just saying they can't bring that front office back when all of these moves they've made, they kind of struck out. Kennard, $64 million for Morris, et cetera, et cetera. Brutal. And then on top of it, they locked down Paul George to that extension. And if I'm Kawhi,

and even though it's been widely reported that he's going to resign, we haven't officially gotten word that he's definitely 100% resigning with the Clippers. And if I'm Kawhi, I'm like, we're going to run this back again? I won one playoff series in two years. We have no first round picks for a hundred years.

Like, what are we doing? What's happening? So, you know, and lurking in the background of all of this is the fact that Kawhi hasn't signed the extension yet and could opt out. And the Knicks have a million kajillion dollars in cap space. I'm not saying he'd go there, but it's not like he doesn't have options.

Pretending you know what's going on with Kawhi is usually a mistake. So I don't think either of us are making that mistake right now because he's the toughest guy to read. But I mean, this is why, you know, there'll be things that'll happen in the league and you'll ask a team, like, why did you do that? And be like like i don't know you know it was like the anthony davis one was always one like until he's signed he's not signed so we'll always try to maybe maneuver you know what if

anthony davis went to the lakers hated it didn't like it and then even everything i mean plenty of things have been predicted contractually that didn't happen well how about kairi kairi in boston i don't think he was ever staying. I think he faded all of Boston and convinced the front office that he was staying when he never was going to stay. But you're right. Everybody thought he was going to stay.

Yes, everyone. Yeah, I don't think he ever was going to stay. The only case for Kawhi staying with the Clips is just that he loves it here and he wanted to live in California, all that stuff. Yeah, so maybe he stays and maybe it's fine so i when you say like earthquake i i've heard i'm not going to tell you you're wrong because it'd be incredibly disappointing but then you go okay what are the real moves like what are the real moves can i give you one yeah i love this

part of your game as you know i've been known to come up with a fake trade from time to time. Carson Edwards in two seconds. Who says no to a Paul George Brandon Ingram trade? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a good one. Normally, I would think the Clippers would say no. I don't think so.

I would think the Clippers would say no, but they might be sick of them. Again, who knows? The Clippers could be in the Western Conference Finals in a couple weeks. They've only lost one game. I've already got to pay the trade. But that was a trade I thought made a ton of sense for both sides. That solves a lot

of issues each way. Gives the Clips a little extra scoring. Kind of breaks the... Anyway. Can't overreact yet. I will say this, though. Can't overreact yet. Can't overreact yet. I will say this though. Can't overreact yet. Can't overreact yet. Even though I just traded a quip or second best part.

Um, I will say this. I love watching Luca and he's has a chance to be an all time guy. And the history of these all time guys is they usually happens earlier than you think. There's usually a run before you expect it. It happened with LeBron in 07. All of a sudden,

he was in the finals. And we were like, he's in the finals with that team? One of the greatest accomplishments of his career. With, who is it? Eric Snow and Delonte West. I can't even remember. That team was Pavlovich. That team was a disaster. They beat the Pistons.

He beat Hall of Famer Ben Wallace. Oh, no. Ben Wallace was gone by that point. He beat Rashid, Billups, Hamilton. I think Antonio McDyess was on there. But anyway, LeBron creeped in there and we were all completely stunned. I don't think it's far-fetched to think

Luka could creep into the finals with this team just because of how good he is. And it's a weird year. Same thing for the Blazers, who we're about to talk about. They looked like they were dead three weeks ago. Now they have this incredible matchup with the Nuggets that you watch one game and you're like, holy shit, how the fuck are the Blazers going to beat them? I mean, excuse me, how are the Nuggets going to beat them when the backcourt matchup is such a profound disadvantage it almost seems insurmountable.

So the Blazers beat the Nuggets, then the Suns beat the Lakers, all of a sudden it's looking good for the Blazers. Anyway, you just never know with this shit. We got to give the Blazers some love here. Yeah, let's do that. We can end on that. Here's what would alarm me if I was a Nuggets fan.

Jokic and Porter put up a combined 59 and 25. They shot 26 for 48. And that game wasn't close. And I don't know what plan B is. It's not like those guys can score more. I mean, yeah, could they get to 65 combined? Maybe. But when you have a backcourt matchup like that,

it's just like, I was getting Matt Maloney flashbacks. It's an NBA deep cut. Remember that series? You're going to have to remind me Stockton I looked it up Stockton was 21 and 10 Matt Maloney was 7

and 3 1997 West Finals oh Houston Houston Matt Maloney yeah Advantage Utah Lillard Compasso Compasso's nice

I mean he's like a good 10th man I guess but Dame's just gonna destroy him the whole series then you have McCollum

next to him and I just don't see a map for Denver and it was weird because I kind of like Denver

heading into the series because ah Jokic he'll figure it out and then you watch you're like Jokic could go 40 and 20 out. And then you watch it like, Jokic could go 40 and 20 every game and I don't think they're going to win this series.

That seems to be the goal. He had one assist. Jokic had one assist in a playoff game where he played 35 minutes. That's ridiculous. And so that's kind of what they said after the fact. Like, we're going to let him score. Not let him score, but we're going to single cover him.

So that way we're not helping off. And then he's going to beat us with all of his passing and so porter has 25 but he went one of 10 from three with zero free throw attempts yokich had four free throw attempts i think yeah so the nuggets made four free throws in a playoff game four four There's definitely you know, Nurkic who I don't think looked right for most of the season, but he definitely does seem like semi-comfortable defending Jokic

because they have that whole history together, right? And he was efficient. If you're going to get a consistently efficient, active Nurkic making it tough on everybody for 30 plus minutes, then it kind of changes everything whereas when i watch them closing the regular season like if you go all-star break denver number eight on offense so post all-star break where your rankings denver 13th on defense like hey shocker denver once again like it's kind of middle of the pack

defensively portland was the best offense in the nba after the all-star break but they were atrocious defensively and their record was bad against teams over 500. So when I look at their defense and there were certain nights where I felt like when it was wings that they had to deal with that it was a problem or closing minutes, I'd be like, ah, this team's just better than them. And Portland's not going to be able to like, you're just going to be able to get what you want on Portland when you can go ahead and do that. But for one game, the approach with Jokic, and it kind of reminds me like if, if it ends up being Brooklyn and Philly, would we see some version of this with Brooklyn and Philly? We're like, all right, MB, go get 45. Like we don't

care. Like we don't care, but we're not going to collapse defensively. And I think for a night, Portland played it perfectly on top of them moving the ball well. A lot of guys feeling like they're engaged. And the other thing too, is that, you know, the teams, who do they know who they are? They know who they are. They played eight guys and Simons gave them good minutes off the bench as well. Same thing with Anthony and Cantor's at least a nice big body that can beat up on Jokic a little bit where the quickness part of Cantor's game isn't at such a, it's not going to be exposed the same way it would against some other guys. So for a night, it worked out perfectly.

I guess I'm just like for the series, Portland didn't beat good teams and they were terrible defensively. So let's see what happens. And they were also 19 for 40 from three in this game. So, perfect game for them.

It's interesting that of all their big moves this offseason, and everyone was talking about how the Blazers won the offseason, Covington helped them, obviously. Cantor played a little, and none of the other guys even played. Giles, Derrick Jones. Giles is not.

You bring up Giles like he was. Well, I'm just like, they signed all these dudes. They gave him like a million bucks. The thing they really needed was a backup point guard. So now it's on Simons, but Simons was actually good in game one. If he can give them 20 decent minutes, that really helps them. Because Lillard played 40 and McCollum played 36. So they basically need somebody to play 20 minutes for them as a third guard.

It goes back to what we talked about in part one where they could have had Derrick Rose, right? Somebody like that for nothing. Yeah, but they brought in Norman Powell. So there's three guarding you to death with Simons as the fourth. I'm talking like a ball handling guard. So Simons has to be the third kind of person

who can handle the ball with those other two. Anyway, good start for them. I feel bad for Jokic. has to be the third kind of person who can handle the ball with those other two anyway um good good start for them i feel bad for yokich i would have loved to have seen this series with murray we did not get that what's murray's deal by the way in game one active active so i think he saw what clay was doing in those two playing games and felt like he needed to step it up a notch was my guess. Because Clay was like a caged animal during those games. I don't know if they're showing it on Wednesday night, but he was like pacing behind the bench back and forth.

Yeah, but Murray was going to the center court line in the coach's box. Yeah. That was a little weird. Denver's three through nine rotation or three through 10. Aaron Gordon, Austin Rivers, Compazzo, Millsap, Jermichael Green, Morris and Howard. That's 80% of their playoff rotation. It's pretty rough. I think you could argue that's the worst 3-10 in the playoffs unless you want to make a case for Washington. It'll be kind of funny to see how the Gordon thing plays out here. 16 shots is a lot for him in this offense. He was fine.

But the size is supposed to be the factor here. So you know what? Look, I think that Jokic is smart enough that he's going to go into the second game with a different approach. I mean, there's plenty of stuff I saw in game one where you go, okay, you're going to have to figure this out. You know, Bam, they're dropping against Bam

in that Milwaukee approach, like what they're doing with him. So it's like, okay, next time you get the ball, be a little bit more ready. I mean, there's a few other things I've just noticed from games where you're going to see guys go, okay, this is what they're doing.

All right, now we're going to adjust. And I would expect Jokic and this team to figure out something. Maybe they start with the ball not in his hands for a quarter. Try some different stuff there. So we'll see. Do you want to talk about the LeBron not getting suspended thing? Yeah, I'm confused. I don't know.

I read the article and I remember being like, oh my gosh. And then immediately the article was like, it was deemed that this wasn't a thing. So if it wasn't a thing, that's fine. I can't help but ask the question if it's Dennis Schroeder, he's missing the first round.

It's weird because the NBA, on the one hand, has been pretty fanatical about sticking to protocol no matter what it was, right? Most famously with the Horry shove or the Miami Knicks fight in the late 90s, stuff like that.

This time around, I don't even know what the excuse was. And it just seems like they kind of swept it under the rug. There was a big sports weekend. It played out over a weekend. So, you know, if this was a Monday, Tuesday situation, I think it leads first take. Maybe it takes a different life. But I thought it was bizarre when I saw the pictures of him at the party because I was like, wait a

second. Is he supposed to be around people like this? Did they lift the restrictions? Then obviously they didn't. But I think they were just like, we are just not going to suspend the best player in the league. Or not suspend, but not prevent him from playing for a week or whatever it is. But they changed the rules. That's what it seemed like. It did. I'm not confident saying I know 100% because I haven't talked to anybody about it. But I remember reading the article.

I haven't talked to one person. It just seems like they changed the rules in this case. It was very telling that when I clicked on the articles for it, within a paragraph, it was telling you why this wasn't a big deal. So I was like, oh, okay. All right. And I didn't want to suspend it either. So it wasn't like I was saying, oh, it needs to be suspended.

That's the thing. I was delighted they didn't suspend him. But the history of the league is that they usually say, nope, we got it. This is protocol. Look, there were guys, I don't know what happened with Zach Levine this year with the protocol.

They were like, oh, it's still out. More days with protocol. And so there would be times we were like, what the hell's going on? And then it'd be like, the league's not letting him come back. And then the player would even hit it. Like, I don't even know what the hell's going on.

I didn't even test positive for COVID. So I'm not sure what's up. So, you know, if the league was like, we're going to be a little loose with the rules on this one, because it's LeBron James, that's fine.

I think what gets frustrating at times is when you're here, the rationale for it, where it's like, well, I only do what I need to do for my family. Like, no, you went to a fucking cool tequila party with,

with Drake and Michael B. Jordan. Like, that's a cool thing to do. And you clearly wanted to go ahead and do that. But if it weren't somebody that we think is all about winning, you could also argue it feels a bit selfish. But I don't know. Maybe everybody in there had a vaccination card.

Maybe it was some sort of thing where everything was cool. Maybe they had asked about it ahead of time. I don't know, so I'm not going to criticize the guy. Me neither. I thought the whole story was weird. I didn't understand it. I still don't know, so I'm not going to criticize the guy. Me neither. I thought the whole story was weird. I didn't understand it. I still don't. And I wonder what would have happened if it had been, I don't know, Evan Fournier.

Deported. Do you have any prediction for these game twos before we go? I'd expect the Lakers to have things figured out. I don't know what the Clippers are going to do. I expect a better game from Denver. I think Boston's going to be even worse. Washington will be worse. I think Milwaukee gets game two.

I'm just running through it. I don't see any scenario where the Nets don't sweep the Celtics unless one of those three guys got hurt I could see those guys getting one game just because that's the Nets I don't see it I could see the Nets going like I don't feel like playing tonight but that's what would have to happen

that's what I mean they don't even suit up I could see those guys being like maintenance, resting, we always want to miss one first rounder. You'd be like, wait, what? I don't see them doing that. I see them getting this series over as fast as they can and trying to think about like,

whoa, no team's ever gone 60 in and out. Like one of those type of things. I think that's more realistic. I think Denver's in a shitload of trouble and it's an amazing test at Jokic. I agree with you, Washington. So long. Lakers-Suns

will be the most fascinating adjustments series, I think, of all of them. And then Clips-Dallas will be the most fascinating from... Just like, could the Clips just crater? If the most fascinating from just like, could the Clips just crater? If you're going to be like, who is your most likely team to just completely crater and get swept? Like what was that year when the Pelicans beat the Blazers?

When all of a sudden the Pelicans were sweeping the Blazers, like what's happening? They're getting swept. I would say the Clippers are my most likely team to just completely crater. There's no real great evidence of of real fortitude from that group. So I'm not going to take the other side of that. But if we're 1-1 here and the Clippers hit some threes and they're a little bit more keyed into Doncic

and Doncic doesn't start off on fire in the first quarter and the Clippers even the series, I'm not going to be surprised by that either. Because Dallas could win that game too. And then it goes back to Dallas, which will be a full house, right? They'll have to sell out. Texas, right? And then it's a game three.

Porzingis has decided not to play. Texas has been open for a year, I think. Porzingis is questionable with the shitty look on his face. It's not an injury. He's got a grimace that actually froze on his right cheek. He's questionable. It's a game-time decision.

DNP attitude. It's like, poor St. Louis. Can't they take him to smiling camp? He's still a heck of a talented player, but he seems to be miserable in this current setup. Can I do a quick parent corner with you before we go? Yeah, please.

It seems like Ben Simmons is getting into girls again. He was off of them? Well, you know, late sixth, seventh grade, the guy-girl, then all of a sudden it comes back. That seventh grade, it gets dicey for like half a year.

It's back. And yesterday he asked to sleep over his friend's Jackson's house. It turns out it's because they wanted to go to a mall. They went to a mall and they were just cruising around in a mall for a couple hours trying to run into girls. Ben Simmons.

Food court? That kind of stuff? Remember the days where it's like where do we go just go to a mall well i kind of do because i remember what it was like when it first started happening and you would just see a girl from another town and it was like discovering a new country right because you would just go like oh my god what's going on right like oh wow who do you know do you know anyone no you don't know anyone you're young none of you have licenses some older brother dropped you off and he's miserable that he had to do it and he picks you up and you're not ready and all that kind of stuff but it was all ripped

from me very quickly because that was when you moved to martha's vineyard there's no one from another town right there's no hey are you are you from the mainland can you take me away from this place do you have highways? Yeah, there's definitely, there's also some, there's a whole online scene. What are they doing? With the different schools and FaceTime and friends of FaceTime and group FaceTime and Omegle and all these different sites

where they just kind of meet people and cross paths. And Kyle, do you understand when Ben talks about it? Do you totally understand this weird world that's going on here? I thought Omega was strangers, so I think I probably don't understand exactly what it is. I thought it was sort of like you just get a random person that shows up on your screen.

That might have been something else, but that's what I thought it was, so I wouldn't want either of those two on that, to be honest with you. And then there's like, they'll have like a Netflix watch party where they'll watch a movie together and it'll just be a whole bunch of people like cracking jokes on a text thread. There might be a couple.

No, it's like you actually can see each other. It's like FaceTime crossed with watching a movie together because it started with a pandemic. So it's a lot of stuff. I'll keep you posted though because I feel like this summer is going to be a breakout for him. Okay, what's he like though though, because I feel like, uh, I feel like this summer is going to be a breakout for him. Okay.

What's he like though around? Cause he's, he's honestly one of the most confident people I've ever seen. So I don't, I don't think he's going to, but you never know. Like he's confident around dudes, you know, I think he's pretty confident.

Yeah. I'm not going to Kyle. Do you have a better scouting report than the dad does in this situation? Kyle just had dinner with them, so he got to see it in action. Yeah, he's killing it. All aspects. That's all I have. He's my guy. I'm not going to say anything.

Kyle, did I say too much? No. I don't think so. Okay, great. I just like that he's going to a mall and they're just doing the circles like it's a 1980s movie or like Superbad. I thought it was cool when Kyle was like, I'm not going to get you cigarettes,

but I'll get you some dip. Bangle jewel pods. Uh, and then last night my daughter was just bored. Okay. Holding it against us. It was like, I'm just bored.

It's just boring to be here. It's like, all right, well, you don't have a driver's license yet. What do you want from us? And it brought me back to the days when you would just be 16 and angry because nothing was going on and you were bored. She's going to be pretty close to getting her license though, right?

Yeah, in a couple months. Yeah, the fights are going to be on with my wife and daughter at that point, there's gonna be some incredible conflict. Cause she's like, she's like, I'll just get in my car and just drive around just to drive. Like I'll just go drive down the beach.

And my, my wife's like, you're not doing that. You're not using a car unless we know why you're using it. Why you don't trust. And then they're just yelling at each other. And I'm just like, hey, can you guys keep it down? The Clippers are blowing a lead here.

Also, What are you going to do about the car situation? Well, everyone in my family hates me because between the Bruins and all the playoff games, all I've done is watch TV really since Wednesday night and everyone's had it.

This is a big weekend. Between this, the golf, F1. The Mickelson was amazing. I got to say, the Bruins handed it to the Caps. I watched every game. They fucking gave it to them.

They caps, they snuck out game one, bees rally back in two. And by game four, it was like, just the Bruins were just clearly better. Their top two line. This might be the best two lie top two lines they've ever had.

At least since I've been watching them, both of the, either line can score on any shift. It's unbelievable. They put so much pressure on, on the caps. The caps were like, you could tell they were just spent.

I'm not going to pretend I know everything that's going on, but I, I had all five games on, on another TV and I found myself and I knew this was going to happen. Cause then I started watching my Oilers. Jeez guys, just kidding. But my eyes kept drifting and I was like, geez, guys. I'm just kidding. But my eyes kept drifting.

And I was like, look, one pays the bills. The other one doesn't. So stop watching hockey. Even though I had this kind of epiphany between all the soccer that was going on this week. It's a real thing. But hockey and soccer are better television products than basketball and football.

They're pretty good. The widescreens and the HD has been unbelievable for hockey. But it's also that, okay, here we go. Let's play 20 minutes. All right. Soccer, uninterrupted. Like, look, I don't like soccer better than basketball or football. But when you talk about the stoppages the reviews

all the stuff about the regular season basketball that we've complained about and i know when i throw the nfl in there people push back because i actually still play college football better than the nfl um i don't expect many people to agree with me but i'm telling you like if you're starting to think of your league and going 20 30 years out i don't know that hockey's ever going to be mainstream enough to kind of. I always felt like it had a lot of momentum in the 90s because the video game was so prevalent. Like everybody played the video game. So everybody knew who all the players were.

And then you start paying attention because you were kind of invested. And that's all you need to do. Then the devil's ruined everything. Yeah. Then the devil's ruined everybody with their zone. But when I've spent, I think there's only six nights that I didn't watch basketball all season, and three of those when I went out of the country because there's no TV

in my room, which I didn't know when I booked it ahead of time, but I probably needed. The guy's like, oh, there's no televisions in Tulum. I'm like, zero? There's not any TVs in Tulum? I'm like, there's probably a couple places that have TVs. But the point is, as I'm peeking to the other stuff, I'm like, there's probably a couple of places to have TVs. So, but the point is,

is I, as I'm peeking to the other stuff, I'm like, so they just keep playing, huh? Like it's uninterrupted. And like, people don't just sit around and complain every single,

every 30 seconds. I don't know. I don't look, I'm you and I are basketball guys, but I think to be fair about it, I watched some of these other sports ago. I think this is a more enjoyable watch for two hours. I think the thing that hurts hockey with this stuff, and I sat behind the net for Kings games for three years, really trying to like figure out what was going

on. I was, I really enjoyed it. I used to take my daughter all the time. I had a great time. Um, and a lot of times it was just like one team skated slightly harder than the time. I had a great time. And a lot of times it was just like one team skated slightly harder than the other. These two teams were dead even and then this wrist shot hit a defenseman's shoulder and squeaked through and that's how we lost the series.

It just seems so random in such a frustrating way sometimes. That's why this Bruin thing, they were just like, they're just better than the Caps, you could tell. I don't know what'll happen for the next series, but I think with hockey,

it's just not that fun to talk about because like in basketball, we can even talk about something like the Rose, the what do we do with Trey Young? What do the Knicks do? Well, if you take out Rose to put in quickly for defense, you lose.

We have all these variables. With hockey, it's like there's this next level of conversation. The hockey people can do it, but I think it's hard for the casual fans, or maybe there's not a lot there to do it with. I don't know. I don't think there's an hour

to do about Bruins caps. It was just the Bruins are better. Their two lines are better. We can't do it. Other people can do it. We can't. I know I can't do it. So I don't, I don't think, but I'll agree with you

how frustrating the ends are to some of these overtimes where you can be in control. You're deep. You know, you're getting shots, not, and then somebody fucking flicks it off.

Somebody else's skate. And it's like being shot from behind in a movie. It's like, that's how we won game three. It was like the dumbest goal. Yeah. part oh we won okay you don't really have that in basketball like the reason i've always liked basketball the most is hey who's the best guy all right well now the best guy has to do something and it's kind of on him to do it and

then you get to see who the best guy is or isn't because basketball is like all out there there's no hiding in basketball and football football, there's a million moving pieces. If you found one thing, I would just feel like there's teams that lose in hockey. You're like, I can't believe we lost in that stupid goal. To watch 20 minutes

uninterrupted, though, of action is really great considering that's just not what basketball is in the biggest moments anymore. It's also insane how fast these dudes are. Like Pasternak, he hit this goal, the first goal of the game today. Did you see it? It was like a video game goal. He was on the left side. The guy came at him to poke check. He brought the puck behind him, then did a bit like between the legs, almost like a basketball move and then slid across Deke,

the goalie. I mean, it was like, if anybody had done that, like 1980, I would have had a stroke. Like if Terry Riley had done that, I just would have been like,

what? My head would have come off my body. By the way, Bruins Islanders is looming. It's very, it's in play. That was one of the great random tough losses of my childhood. What, Pat LaFontaine?

No, the earlier, the, when the Islanders were ripping off cups, we, we went, we went against them and Gillies and O'Reilly. I think they fought four times in six games. Gillies kind of if you're going to score it, it was like 10-9, 10-9, maybe 10-10, then like a 10-8.

I don't know if O'Reilly beat them once and then they shook hands after. Which I, that will be etched in my mind, but it would be good. A little Bruins Islanders would be fun. I think the Bruins are really good. Like I really do think they have a chance to win this Stanley cup.

Yeah, but it's always just, the sport is just so much more open, but you know what? This is what I'm gonna stop myself here because I just started watching like a couple of weeks ago. Cause I don't, I don't have time for anything else.

And it just happened to be that they would be on early enough that I was like, okay, now that, you know, we got through the regular season part of it. All right, let's end this. We're going to end every Sunday night.

Gun to your head. Who's in the finals and who wins? I just want to see if we have the same pick every week. I'll stay Philly Lakers. I'm staying Milwaukee Lakers, but I don't feel great about it. I don't either. I mean, we should probably just get it over with and pick Brooklyn. But we both don't want to.

I'm just not going to do it. I can't afford it. We both, we both don't want to. I mean, I felt terrible because I tweeted out when it was 36-33 and the Celtics had made a bunch of threes and Brooklyn missed all of them. And I was like, this game's over. I was like, this game is over. And then I spent the rest of the game kind of like wanting Brooklyn to win,

so my tweet wasn't wrong. And I go, this is even worse. Don't do this again. Like, at least pretend you're rooting for somebody or you care about it. But I don't know. I'm not going to have much emotionally invested in these playoffs already. Do you think in game two, can I see for five minutes

Smart, Neesmith, Tatum, Fournier, Rob Williams, those five guys? I can't believe we're an hour and a half in. Can I see it for five minutes? No, that's it. That's what I'm leaving you with. Okay.'ll be back here on Sunday. Who knows? Somebody will be swept. There'll be at least one or two sweeps,

but we will see you next Sunday. I will see you here on Tuesday. New rewatchables coming tomorrow night. We did The Rock.

Nick Cage, Sean Connery. So be ready for that one. Nephew Kyle, a.k.a. Kyle Creighton, produced this podcast. And that's it. Don't forget about part one, too, if you missed it. See you on Tuesday. I don't have a few years

with him on the wayside I'm a person never I don't have a few years