The Daily Zeitgeist - MJGMB #58: MVPs and AD with SBNation NBA's Harrison Faigen

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Miles and Jack were joined by SBNation NBA's Manager and podcaster for Silver Screen & Roll Harrison Faigen on today's episode. Beyond discussing each series, the trio got into Joel's "Embiid-P" season, Steph's brilliance, AD's continued defensive dominance and plenty more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even Lucha Libre. Join us for the new podcast, Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal.

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MTV's official challenge podcast is back for another season. That's right. The Challenge is about to embark on its monumental 40th season, y'all. And we are coming along for the ride. Woohoo! That would be me, Devin Simone. And then there's me, Davon Rogers. And we're here to take you behind the scenes of the Challenge 40, Battle of the Eras.

Join us as we break down each episode, interview challengers, and take you behind the scenes of this iconic season. Listen to MTV's official challenge podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm back, y'all. And guess what? We've got second round action as Denver has already taken a 2-0 lead. The Lakers stole game one up in the Bay.

Philly did the same in Boston. We love to see that on this show. Meanwhile, the starting to feel fan service at this point. It's starting to feel like the NBA is just writing to us for us. I love it. You know what, Silver? Keep these results coming. Meanwhile, the Knicks and Heat are battling out for all of our 90s nostalgia.

It's a really good one to see for all of us who are living in the 90s. And we're going to get into all of that with the SB Nation NBA manager and fantastic podcast host Harrison Fagan. On today's episode, I'm Miles Gray. And I'm Jack O'Brien. And this is Miles and Jack Jack on that boosty! Woo! Three on one.

Davis. Love. LeBron! There you go. And the driving, spinning, fading, hitting! Curry, a three-pointer. Bang! Steph Curry from downtown again!

Giannis with the take. Uh-oh, look out. No showtime. What you again. Giannis with the take. Uh-oh, look out. A little showtime. What you got, Giannis? Harrison Fagan, SB Nation NBA manager, co-host of the Rewind and Reconsider and Lakers Lounge podcast. Welcome to the show, Harrison. How are you living? How are you feeling?

How are you doing? You know, I'm doing great. I'm, you know, much like you, I think, you know, floating a little bit off of that, off of that win last night, you know, a lot more fun to stay up past midnight for games like that. When, uh, you know, the team that you're covering or the team that you're rooting for in my case wins. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean, yeah, that's a, we'll get to that. We'll get, we're going to get to the Western conference, but Hey, up top, Jack, we should mention who is the nba mvp mbp joelle is it your boy joelle oh all right did you see him reacting to it when he found out i did not was he surprised he was yeah when they said when they go and is from the philadelphia 76ers and like he just like collapsed and he was just like, he got real emotional. And then James Harden is hugging him. And I think maybe Tyrese Maxey was like,

he crying. I don't know. I'm not very happy for Joel Embiid. Uh, this debate and conversation is, uh, stupid, like uninteresting to me.

So, but I'm glad that he got it. Like, there's a lot of people who are like sixers fans bullied us into voting for him and it should have been yokich because he's not hurt right now which leads into this whole thing that like just the fandom and a lot of the like podcasts and the culture around the nba is like so weird right now. It's so negative. Everyone's just so mean to players who get hurt. They're like, they stink. They're unreliable. Street clothes.

It's a wild time to... I don't know. This is going back always, but after the Milwaukee Bucks game, Jimmy Butler, games four and five like those were two of the coolest things i've ever seen a human being do on a basketball court what jimmy butler did in games four and five like just bent the laws of physics and basketball to his

will out of nowhere just seemed to be able to have complete control. And then like, I like, I tuned into the, the Zach Lowe podcast, like, cause he always has like interesting insight and like the whole hour and a half was just him just talking about like, how was the,

a bucks collapse and like a bucks choke job. And like, just mentioned that Jimmy Butler had a good game in passing like it just i don't know what it is i think because it's just like our human desire to like point and laugh and it just like it gets out of control we're now like our confirmation bias is set to well who took the l yeah rather than like man jimmy butler like wow how about that and i think like nobody knows anything nobody knows who's gonna about that and i think like nobody knows anything nobody knows who's gonna win but like i think they feel like they have to predict everything

and so like when they get something wrong like the bucks losing like their feelings get hurt and they feel like they have to you blew it yeah you let me down it's just like yo like this is like a sport we watch for fun and that was like one of the most fun things to watch and like you have to like just focus on like structural bureaucratic problems within the milwaukee bucks franchise and like what are they gonna do with these contracts and it's like yo just like wax poetic about how amazing what you just saw was uh friday so jack 15 minutes hit on exactly sort of like where all of this comes from it's from the fact that i think a lot of nba discussion and look as like somebody who is a blogger who oversees blogs like i'm not blameless

in this i've contributed to this there's a lot of fan interest in player movement in trades and free agency in all of this stuff. And I think that like that has so shifted the way that we talk about basketball as much as like as much as like dunking on people and like laughing at people has like online has shifted it. I also think a lot of it is like, OK, you know, like this team that was the favorite that a lot of people cared about that a lot of people thought was really good loss. Like, what can they do to get back instead of talking about you know sort of like because there's a desire from people to listen to that like they want to know okay wait yannis lost in the first round like are the bucks doomed like what can they do you know they have like this middleton thing you know where he is going into free agency but looked like a shell of himself

you know drew has been charitably up and down in the playoffs i think um depending on which end of the floor he's playing and it's just like is is the bucks coach gonna get fired you know there's like that's all they wanted to talk about people want to hear about and so i think that it almost like in some ways has overtaken the basketball just broadly maybe i'm weird because i just like did not want to hear about that i did not not care about that at all. And just, yeah, just across the thing, like the Bill Simmons podcast, which I think like he knows a lot about basketball. He can be really fun to listen to. Like a lot of the time, like it's just like so negative.

Well, Jack, let's bring the vibes back up because I do want to show you the moment Joel Embiid does find out that he is a Kia NBA MVP. Tonight, 2023 MVP from the Philadelphia 76ers. So he puts his head in his hands. MVP! MVP! MVP! MVP! MVP! MVP! So anyway, yeah, good times. Anyways, he stinks. He's hurt uh he's the best back that's what he said right at that party i think you know so he's back yeah he's back all right i do appreciate that he said that and then the sixers are like well he you know he's doubtful

for game two i don't know he's i don't know if he's right play word right i mean he says that he says a lot of things. Who's to say what I'm back means? He could be back anywhere. That doesn't mean back in the game. Oh, I'm sorry. I meant my back. I pulled something back there.

It's the LeBron Sprite commercial. He was cracking a bottle behind him. Right, right. But shall we move to the Eastern Conference matchups? Just to kind of give ourselves a state of play here. Heat and Knicks, they're squared up they're right now one one yeah like i was loving to see like everybody else i love seeing the nicks in the postseason i just feel like it it makes me feel like a kid again the heat there too was great

although i felt like man spolstra was he did a job on them yesterday even though they lost i was like does tibbs know how to like adjust at all it felt like a very it felt like a master class from eric spolster despite the loss absolute master class mate um yeah eric spolster is one of the great coaches of all time it feels like at this point everyone coach of the year i was about to ask that i don't think he has it's sort of like pop never won it phil jackson's never won it it's like these guys that aren't the kind of one-offs where it's like unexpected number with all due respect to mike brown he's won coach of the year like three times like he should not have three times more rewards yeah which has no right yeah like again i think mike brown did a great job this year great very deserving of coach of the year but

it's like in the playoffs, we see year after year. Every single time the Heat are in the playoffs, we don't see them lose because of Spolstra. Heat fans may be the one fan base in the entire NBA that does not complain about their coach. Maybe the Spurs too. Yeah, they got good ones.

Yeah, I mean, all these awards are about narrative and the narrative going into every season is Heat culture, they're going to be good so you can't really do anything that exceeds that narrative that much right same with popovich right people are just like the spurs are rock solid what a great franchise so how do you how do you exceed that all that much this is going to be a super fun series to keep watching especially if jimmy butler makes it back. Like I said, since we last recorded, he

had the Game 5 against Milwaukee that was... It wasn't as good as Game 4 where he was scoring at will, but he had that game-winning tip-in, and then his Game 1... I don't know. He's doing something

that I feel like we've never seen where somebody just wills themselves to be more dominant in the postseason like in ways that don't make sense like it shouldn't be a matter of will that you suddenly are able to make threes um but he just like is like no i actually just try really hard to make the threes in the postseason um it's wild you know he doesn't care that much during the regular season it's just like hey he's No, I actually just try really hard to make the threes in the postseason. It's wild. He doesn't care that much during the regular season. It's just like, hey, he's like, you know, I'll just toss this up here.

Who cares about my follow through? I'm not even looking in the regular season. I'm not even looking when I shoot a three. You see me on media day. I wore a wig. That is still. He closes his eyes during the regular season before shooting just to make it a challenge you know it's just oh yeah i open what's your secret oh i open my eyes now in the playoff yeah oh like you could play the whole regular season with your eyes closed then yeah you know things

just really open up in the playoffs like yeah the wig is such a great like still despite the fact that i'm saying like these are some of the greatest playoff games I've ever seen a player play, the wig is still my favorite thing he's done this season. Oh, yeah. The fake hair. Absolutely. It's what we all needed. Especially for me as somebody who's like, man, I would love to wear a wig in an official capacity.

For media day. You are one of the great wig wearers, I know. I am. Just for the official pictures wearing the wig and then was like yeah i'm never it's good i'm never wearing this again and then now every single official broadcaster is this like basically he pranked the nba broadcasters yeah i'm you know i'm all in on i think that's like it's an amazing role jobs we've ever seen from an nba player yeah yeah and i i was really concerned going to game two. I mean, look, they could

have used him in game two, but I mean, how, what's his, his ankle injury in game one, how long is he set to be out for now? We don't know. I mean, they're playing. Yeah, they haven't said the heat, the only injury update the heat keep giving is they're like, we'll tell you before next game if he's playing or not. Because we literally have to.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, game two of the Sixers Celtics is, you know, a couple hours after we record this, we don't know if Embiid is actually playing. They haven't made an official announcement at this point. Right. They're going to wait till the last possible moment because why wouldn't they? But Super Producer Jabari did a cool thing and just looked at Vegas odds for all these series heading in when it was 0-0 and

like this one's interesting because it's like Heat win series 4-2 and Knicks win series 4-3 are like tied as the most likely but this one's basically a complete mix where it could go either way Knicks win in 4-2 is the next most likely then Heat win series 4-1 is the next most likely and so this is a super interesting series like you said it's so fun to have basketball back in madison square garden and i just can't wait to see who loses this series so we can start talking trash about how they're in free fall and choked yeah jimmy should have taken photo day more seriously that's my take if the heat lose you know i'm just gonna say like i mean mean wasn't you know he wasn't focused

on the game all year he spent all training camp trying to prank the league broadcast partners you know it's just like it's that lack of focus that cost the heat in the end i'm gonna i'm gonna write that article if uh if the heat moves exactly you go you know who else wears wigs to work clowns yeah okay jimmy butler was not focused enough on the playoffs. That's my headline. If I was Spolstra, that's what I would have told him. You're a clown, friend.

You're a clown, Jimmy. Get out of my office. This guy's a clown. What's he doing out there? Sixers-Celtics. Sixers won game one. I'm not sure there's much to say about this one. Should we move on to the Western Conference?

What did he say? Nothing to say because it's a wrap, you're saying? Is he going there? All right, well, we'll take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk about our two teams' series and how we're feeling. We'll be right back. All right, here we go. It's Cam Jordan from New Orleans Saints here to tell you it's going down

on season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan. Can't stop it. You know what's going to happen. Can't stop it. That's right. Catch new episodes every Wednesday, all season long. That's what you look for in year 14, to do more. No days off! And I'll have my friends, who happen to be some of the NFL's biggest stars, join me on the pod. We'll give you a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moments from around the league. And you know we'll have fun doing it.

Ha! Yeah! Oh, and I'll have a special guest each month join me to mix it up a little bit. Who is it? None other than... Psyche! You'll have to tune in to find out. Ha ha!

Hoo hoo! Hee hee hee! So tap in to Off the Edge with Cam Jordan's podcast, your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Mike Wright from the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast.

You heard that right. The Fantasy Footballers have officially entered the Dynasty space. Every week we bring you the same in-depth analysis and entertainment you've come to expect from the Fantasy Footballers, only now from a Dynasty perspective. Maybe you've been living in the dynasty fantasy football space for a while well we're here to take your game to the next level maybe you love fantasy football and you've been feeling that itch to jump into the dynasty format but it feels a little bit intimidating no matter where you're coming from

the fantasy footballers dynasty podcast has something for you and you're gonna from, the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast has something for you, and you're going to have a great time listening, I promise. Join me and the rest of the crew every Wednesday for a new episode. Listen to the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It was December 2019 when the story blew up. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, former Packers star Kabir Bajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. KGB explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian, now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning.

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The Vegas odds heading in, first of all, when the series was 0-0. This one was not mixed. The top four most likely outcomes, according to Vegas, were Celtics 4-1, Celtics 4-0, Celtics 4-3, Celtics 4-2. A sweep by Boston was the second most likely scenario. Celtics fans are reacting

to the Sixers getting a single game off of them as the apocalypse. Yeah. There's some feelings. Big feelings, as we say to our children. People have big feelings about this. A lot of big feelings. I love it.

I love to see Celtics fans having gigantic feelings about this. A lot of big feelings. I love it. I love to see Celtics fans having gigantic feelings about this. But I'm very petty. But yeah, I see. I see how they might feel a bit aggrieved. Yeah. So game one, Embiid is out. Big game, Jim Harden came to play.

Big game, big pants. Big game, bigger pants. Bigger pants. you watch what he wore to the game like it was on the level with like Jimmy Butler's wig like it was it had to be a bit I think yeah someone said it looked like he skinned the cookie monster like and

decided to wear him his pants it was half mascot costume like the bottom half seemed to be like made of mascot costume yeah he actually thought the Sixers were going to be like made of mascot costume yeah yeah he actually thought the sixers were going to be eliminated by now that was his met gala outfit he's just like well i can't waste it like i'm just gonna you know around the right time of year i'm gonna use it yeah right i hope he wears something more ludicrous to game two like i know keep getting

it clearly worked just like maybe he should go full mascot costume yeah the game too right like show up in like a full cookie monster suit you know and going into boston like how like baseball players do like a post-season beard you know what i mean like he needs to be like as long as i'll keep winning the pants better get bigger yeah yeah i want to see him in like the inflatable halloween pants by like game three you know like the the costumes that like blow up. In game four, he's in a full parade float, just like inside. They're just like pushing a parade balloon through the walk-in tunnel hallways.

And it's just his pants. But he put up 45. It's his greatest performance in the postseason of all time for somebody who has traditionally been defined as somebody who doesn't come to play in big games in the postseason. This was kind of an ideal situation because they were 10-point underdogs, which is pretty uncommon for a second round game. People aren't usually double-digit favorites at that point. But obviously, they were missing the MVP. It was in Boston, and Boston has completely had their number this season.

So the things that are making me feel good as a Sixers fan, beyond the fact that they won, is that the Celtics have these inexplicable losses and have for a while. And I've heard Zach Lowe and Brian Scalabrini, who does their games and has watched every game, talk about this. I've witnessed it with my own eyes. And nobody has given me a good explanation of what happens. Where they're just the better team. They're getting much easier shots.

The thing that was most remarkable to me about that game, other than when the Sixers put it together and pulled it out, was how easy the shots were for the Celtics they were like it was like truly a layup line like truly the most open layups I've ever seen to the point that I was like is this their strategy that they give them so many open twos that then the Sixers try and like shoot themselves into it by shooting threes and just being like, yeah, but those are only worth two points. It was very strange

that they lost that game. I still don't fully understand why they lost it. There's also a weird thing where there were just these moments in the lead up to the series, the confidence of Celtics fans heading in was just,

I don't know. It felt like the confidence that you hear from teams fans who are like, are about to like, just, they were like, just with every pride before the fall and board ride before the fall, it was like they were breathing, exhaling bulletin board material,

which I just feel like in any sport postseason, that's like never a good sign. That said, I think it could very easily be a gentleman sweep. Like the fact that it was a hard and out of body and out of mind performance. I've seen him have those before. They don't usually come in clusters the way they do with some other players. Like it's rarely a thing where it's like, now he was great for you know the rest of the postseason it's he he can be a little spotty the fact that it was with and beat out and obviously i'm not saying the sixers are better without and bead just that like it's sort of an off-speed pitch that worked this time because like one of the reasons the sixers don't match up well

with the celtics is they spread the floor so well, and having a center be the most important player on your team can be a liability against a team that's as quick and spreads and shoots as well as Boston. And then just the fact that it's Doc Rivers, and Doc Rivers' teams tend to get worse as the series progresses as opposed to figure things out and get better. Those are the things that are making me feel like

this is not good and bad. That's where I'm at as a toxic Sixers fan. Can I distill what you said? I think first you said Celtics lose inexplicably. The pride that the Celtics fans had feels like it's before the fall. Joel Embiid sucks.

And then you also said Joel Embiid sucks. Yeah. And then you also Joel Embiid is terrible. Yeah, that's what I said. I think he called him a regular season merchant. Was the exact quote. He just said he's more interested

in MVPs than winning. I think that was the exact quote. I think that was a good one. Okay, I just want to make sure I have that. I don't know. I won't feel safe in this one

until the Sixers have four wins and there's a press conference going on afterwards. Maybe that's the Celtics' plan. They're like, well, we're going to let him get up 3-1 because then we're going to be unstoppable for three games. Yes. Because, yeah, Joe Mazzulla, he did save his Quizlet cards for that scenario. Yeah, he remembered that one.

That one was not in the quiz. He wrote that one down on physical paper. He's like, man, I put all my energy into Embiid being out there, guys. I am upside down on this scouting report. I'm not going to lie, fellas. All my notes on Tobias Harris are gone. I'm sorry. I don't even know who that is.

Who's that guy? Hey, hey, hey. Hey, Jason, who's that guy. Who's that guy? Hey, hey, hey. Hey, Jason, who's that guy? Who's that guy? Tyrese Maxey? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you know about him? Dude, what?

Is he good? I forgot. I had a lot of notes on a lot of guys, guys. I'm really sorry. And I'm sorry. What was your name? I know they call you Time Lord, but what's your real name, buddy? He doesn't even know his own player's name um all right uh well we'll see how all this works out the nugget suns like people

think it's a wrap at this point yeah nuggets up to oh they looked a lot better uh than the suns and kind of both games for i think all of the quarters like eight quarters they just seemed better and now chris paul is out injured for at least the next three games i think they think yeah i didn't see a timeline on that but yeah groin injury you wouldn't think it's going to be a quick return back yeah at least now they describe it as you can't put weight on that leg you're like oh that's that seems a bit higher either of you have ever had a groin injury but like they don't it's not a fast healing thing you know you kind of you need your groin to walk it's it's kind of an important thing it's hard to rest it you know yeah it's crazy that doctors say i

have one of the most impervious to injuries groins of all time so i've actually never impervious to injuries groins yeah i am built different uh the doctors also have said i have that dog in me uh so which can be a good thing and bad thing um but the i i just feel like this is another one where everyone has gotten a little bit ahead of themselves and are like just burying the suns and denver's a hard place to play the suns are still figuring things out rotationally, like Katie figuring out how to get involved. I think he will be like by necessity, much more involved going forward.

Um, and I don't know. I, I just don't think it's a wrap at this point. Yeah. I think it's like a couple of things. Like for me, it's like hearing Chris Paul get injured,

Katie not playing as well as he can. Like in my mind, my shorthand, it's like a thought killing cliche in my mind is like, well, then they're done. And I think that's how I'm looking at it. But I mean, in that second game too, they're like, what if we just make Jokic score and see what he does there? And that completely did not work out.

And I'm like, sort of like, well, hmm, I'm starting to see maybe how this all comes together. But, you know, at the end of the day, I don't know if we get out of this round. I don't know if I want to meet up with the Nuggets, though. That's for sure. I think the Nuggets are going to win at this point. But I would also say that I don't think KD is going to play that bad again. I don't think it's going to be a sweep.

Like, you know, the Suns strategy is also sort of a tough one to do in Denver, where it's like we need to play all our stars like 45 minutes a game to have a chance because our bench is terrible. Let's do it in one of the cities where it's hard to breathe as you're walking around. You know, like they're probably going to, I think, you know, be a little better in Phoenix and a little less gas, you would think. Even though, you know, again, there's like some cumulative probably from like having to play them that much just to beat that horrible clippers team in the first round and then you know like having to play them that much in two losses you know there is going to be a cumulative toll there i think the nuggets sort of have the advantage and are probably going to take this series but i would imagine like i still think it probably goes you know six like the suns are not as terrible as they've looked in denver so far and the nuggets players probably won't continue to shoot this well,

you know, like in Phoenix on the road. That's just like, it's a cliche, but it's true. Like role players just generally do not play as well on the road. And so you'd think like, uh,

like Phoenix would get some level of boost from sort of those home confines. Yeah. So we'll see. I mean, they're, they're extremely thin depth matters. Uh, depth especially matters in a series where four of the games are played in Denver, but yeah, home confines yeah so we'll see i mean they're they're extremely thin depth matters uh depth especially matters in a series where four of the games are played in denver but yeah yeah not

everyone's like the lakers and can just overhaul their roster at the deadline and be good immediately like it just uh has that ever happened with a team to this effect let's take a quick break and come back and talk about that uh warriorsakers series, which I think is, has to be the most exciting round two series I can remember. Right. Like it's got a lot of dramatic undercurrents. Yeah, for sure.

All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. All right, here we go. It's Cam Jordan from the New Orleans Saints, here to tell you it's going down on season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan.

Can't stop it. You know what's going to happen. Can't stop it. That's right. Catch new episodes every Wednesday, all season long. That's what you look for in year 14, to do more. No days off. And I have my friends, who happen to be some of the NFL's biggest stars join me on the pod. We'll give you a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends,

and did that really just happen moments from around the league. And you know we'll have fun doing it. Oh, and I'll have a special guest each month join me to mix it up a little bit. Who is it? None other than Syke psych you have to tune in to find out so tap in to off the edge with cam jordan's podcast your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football listen on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts hey this is mike right from the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast. You heard that right. The Fantasy Footballers have officially entered the Dynasty space. Every week we bring you the same in-depth analysis and entertainment

you've come to expect from the Fantasy Footballers, only now from a Dynasty perspective. Maybe you've been living in the Dynasty Fantasy Football space for a while. Well, we're here to take your game to the next level. Maybe you love fantasy football and you've been feeling that itch to jump into the Dynasty format, but it feels a little bit intimidating. No matter where you're coming from, the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty podcast has something for you,

and you're going to have a great time listening, I promise. Join me and the rest of the crew every Wednesday for a new episode. Listen to the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado, mariachi, delicious cuisine, and of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha Libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. And we're back. And so are my hopes for the Lakers. It's time to talk about this matchup in the Western Conference. Yeah, the Lakers stole game one up in the Bay. I mean, look, during the regular season, I know a lot of people were like,

oh, man, Lakers took three out of four. And I'm like, LeBron didn't even play half of them. So I wasn't really taking that to heart or letting that make me feel more confident going into it. So you think the Lakers are better without LeBron, is what you're saying? really taking that to heart or help letting that make me feel more confident going into it so you think the lakers are better without lebron is what you're saying i think the lakers are better without lebron and anthony davis that's where i'm at jack that's time to unleash mo bamba you know yeah exactly what he can do against this warrior defense right uh but yeah i mean i think us being able to carry the momentum from that Grizzlies series into this game,

that's been the biggest thing for me. I'm like, okay, Anthony, you're doing it, baby. Let me see you. I was texting you and Jabari during the game six, and I was just like, I want to marry Anthony Davis. Yeah, it was getting weird. We weren't even, at first, we were giving the ha-ha response, like tap backs and then like i was sending you photoshopped images from my actual wedding where i put anthony davis's

head on my wife's head yeah and i was like yeah we look good yeah yeah that's how much i'm shipping us but no it's been unbelievable watching how just just him dominate especially in that first game i was i'm heartened i'm heart'm yeah. It's been heartening. It's been cool to see him do what it feels like. We always felt like he could do same question, him and James Harden to him less than James Harden. Cause there's less of a body of work of like disappearing in the post season. But just like that first round, it really felt like when Anthony Davis was playing well, the Lakers were unbeatable in that series. And then in the games where it was like, wait, why isn't Anthony Davis playing? Oh, he is.

He's just not like really doing anything. They would lose. So it really feels like that's kind of what we're dealing with. It's just as Anthony Davis goes, so go the Lakers fortunes. But yeah, all that said, the supporting cast was awesome in game one and has been awesome. Oh, yeah. This is truly an amazing like revival from where we were midseason. It is wild that the Lakers are this good to the point where like it's funny how like even

with among Laker fans, there are people who are just mostly talking about Vanderbilt's performance. And I'm like, let's also talk about, you know, D'Angelo Russell's also coming out. Like he's showing up too.

Yeah. 100%. But yeah, it was, I mean, yeah. Harrison, what was it like for you?

How are you feeling going into that? Cause I know Jabari and I, we were talking to Jack. We're like, let's see how they do in the first quarter before we get excited and see what version of the Lakers show up. And I'm happy to say that I liked what I saw. But how are you feeling? Yeah, they certainly got the good version of the Lakers last night.

I think they came in with a good game plan. I think we saw that they have some guy like, you know, the whole idea of a star stopper, you know, like the Ruben Patterson, Kobe stopper, your LeBron stoppers, your Steph stoppers, those guys don't actually exist, except for Reuben Patterson. He does exist. He was not a Kobe stopper. The Lakers don't have Steph stoppers, but they have guys who they can change up defensive looks on Steph. They can make him at least sort of think about things, make it a little harder on him, make it more difficult. He had a pretty bad game last night until the fourth quarter, really. make him at least sort of think about things, you know, make it a little harder on him, make it more difficult. You know,

he had a pretty bad game last night. I don't think that, or until the fourth quarter, really like he was not all that efficient. And so I don't think that that's going to continue for the entire series. I don't think like, you know, Jared Vanderbilt is just gonna,

I don't think that we've suddenly discovered that like Steph was just unstoppable until he ran up against Jared Vanderbilt postseason. And you got to contest his shot from the side, Cobeson yeah you got like but between Vando and you know Dennis Schroeder as like sort of a different on ball pesky like make him pick up his dribble give up the ball type of look you got Austin Reeves to chase him over screens and sort of do things that way you know you at least have some you know options to make Steph think about it and then you know on the other end of the court one of the things going into this series that like for the Lakers to have a chance it was going to have to be an Anthony Davis series he was going to have to be their best player because the Warriors have guys to throw at LeBron especially this version of LeBron where he is

clearly still at least a little limited by that kind of foot injury that he said that he was going to have to get surgery on until German doctors came through and did whatever magic, you know, German doctor magic they did to his foot to allow him to play. But, you know, between Wiggins,

Draymond, like that's two pretty good guys to throw at LeBron, put a body on him, make things harder at Gary Payton. The second, even to some degree. But on Anthony Davis, Draymond is a guy who has traditionally frustrated him a little bit. And so I would say, like, as somebody who's rooting for the Lakers to win this series, like, I was heartened by the fact that AD was able to impose his will even in those minutes. I wasn't really that worried about him being able to get going against Kevon Looney. You know, obviously, Draymond coming with double teams, they were going to try and get the ball out of his hand sometimes but the lakers have been really he's ad has been really great on the boards on both ends and the lakers guards have been especially d low with his sort of height

has been really good at getting the ball over the top of defenders to anthony davis and being able to sort of see those passing angles and get it into him in a position where he's not having to post up survey the floor wait for a double whatever like he's just going up and scoring almost immediately and both d low and and Austin Reeves have been, I think, really smart about when they are driving. They are looking to see, you can tell, and you could see them looking to see, does AD have his guy on his back or not?

And if he does, then they're just putting up a shot because either they make that little mid-range, you know, like jumper, or AD is in a perfect position to just put it right back in with his long sort of inflatable tube man arms. And so, you know, and then just, we're talking all this about offense but he's just a monster defensively i i don't know that i've ever seen a single player completely wall off the paint like he has these last couple games for the lakers where you know it's one thing to do it against

the grizzlies where they just don't really have shooting and their entire strategy is just like we are going to throw ourselves at the rim as hard as we possibly can and hope something good happens but like against the warriors where they have this horrifying level of shooting around the perimeter to be able to still sort of you know contest guys enough that they're still thinking about maybe driving in and then they get there and then it's like oh my god like anthony davis is way too tall and mobile what have i done this please give the ball to j pool. I don't know. Just somebody else do something with it. Um,

he is, this is the most dominant defense. I think I've ever seen him play over a sustained stretch. There was a point like in the early in the game where Jeff Van Gundy was like, and the, the problem for the Lakers is going to be that like Anthony Davis can't leave or no, I think it was actually Charles Barkley after the first half was like,

they like something about how like Kavon Looney and like his inability to like leave him is going to make it hard for him to defend. And like, he just, I don't know. He just left him and they're hoping that other guys can do a good enough job boxing out. Yeah.

Me too. And, and it, the Looney made them pay for it a couple of times. Like he's a really good offensive rebounder. He's super smart about cutting and crashing the second that ad rotates away from him so they're going to win some of those battles for sure but the idea that like anthony davis has to stay attached at the hip to kavan looney and is not going to be able to defend the paint was not realistic to me it's been one of the best

defensive performances i think i've ever seen like just the this postseason i am king of recency bias but like that that's what makes me so excited is like yeah the jimmy butler what what he's done on offense and what anthony davis is doing on defense even in the games where he's like not showing up a lot on offense uh it's still a real problem for anybody trying to score around the rim yeah although i'm i am i'm nervous to see what the response is from the warriors because man they are you i mean as much as i want to be like as much confidence that it instills in me i'm still like steph also put a 50 when he needed to and he's very capable and so is everybody else what clay said after the game last night no he he was like he's like

we had an off night we typically respond well to those it's like dude you guys shot like 50 from three what do you mean you have yeah right like this is they're gonna they're gonna shoot 70 the next game like if this is uh if this is actually true and yeah like steph is not gonna go i don't know did he go like i think it was like six for 16 from three or something like that it was somewhere around there but like he was not super efficient he's going to be more efficient. That was not just the Lakers defense. Some of that was probably legs from playing,

you know, dropping 50 in a game seven, two days ago, he's going to be better as the series goes along. And, you know, I, I said this on Twitter last night,

I'll say it again here. Like rooting against Steph is already after one game, like a top five, most horrifying sporting experience of my life. Like, I don't know. I don't know how Cavs calves fans are still alive i don't know how they did this for four years like every single time that guy shoots i think that he is i think it's going in it's just oh yeah and also like it's it's just his demeanor too because you're like it doesn't

change he's so icy all the time. He never hesitates. Yeah. Anyway, but no. Focus on the positive. Focus on the positive. Yeah, we took that game one out for the bait. Let's go. Lakers in one. Alright, let's see you on the... Single elimination. We just changed the rules. Sorry. It's over. Go home. Alright, shall we move on? Yeah. I think it's time. Is it time? I think it's time.

Enough messing about with Harrison. Harrison, get ready. Hold on to your butts, as Sam Jackson said in Jurassic Park, because it is time for the rapid fire round of questioning. Now, you know how this works. We're going to ask you a question. Don't think on it. Just give us a rapid response.

Don't extend your answer because it's on you to keep this segment moving because it is the fastest moving question answer segment in all sports podcasting okay i'm ready pray for the people at double speed here we go start the clock um jack should we go first or well you know sometimes brian can't hear me and i have to raise my voice uh heart do you try go first you go first you go let me go first okay thanks what a gentleman Harrison, 11 of the last 12 NBA Finals have featured at least one of LeBron or Steph. Which one of them has the best chance of keeping that

amazing trend alive? I'm going to go LeBron. Thank you. And we don't have to say much more about that. I'm not nervous. That is crazy. 11 of the last 12 NBA Finals. Yeah, called Dominash. Dominash maybe. Dominatin. last 12 NBA finals. Um, yeah. I'll dominate. Dominate.

Maybe. Dominating. Dominating rather. Oh, we didn't even touch on dominating, but dominating. He was not, um, Steph won most of those.

So yeah. Yeah. True that. He also had Katie for a few of them who he does not have anymore. Who? Oh yeah. Yeah. I guess that's a good point.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's that for the sons. Now, apparently. Stinks guys stinking it up harrison is there a single nba player you would take right

now over the chance of taking victor himbenyama uh with the first pick himbenyama i'd still go yannis just because we've seen it for so long and uh you know wimby as great as he looks like he is going to be we still don't for sure know and yannis hasimby as great as he looks like he is going to be we still don't

for sure no yeah and yeah this has shown like a level of durability i'd still go janice did you not hear act one were you i thought you were here for act one when we talked about how janice stinks and he's a choke artist who can't do it in the he's above yeah he's a failure he's a free life and life and career and just in every aspect because he lost Jimmy Butler in the playoffs with a horrible back injury. Failure. And put up 38-20

in the game. It looked like he could barely move. Put up like, you know, almost 40-20, but yeah, failure. Yeah, stinks.

Finished. Yeah, finished. Harrison, what is your favorite NBA city to visit? And what's your must-have meal in that town?

I'm very hungry. This isn't even a question we wrote. I just wanted to ask. I mean I'm a vegetarian so I'm a bad person to answer the second part of this question but I'm gonna go I'm gonna go New York uh just because it's one of the NBA cities that I've went to and had the best time there um yeah since I can't name Los Angeles which I also love and live in wait so what would you how okay but what would you what would you eat in New York? What's your must-have meal over there? I don't know. Have you ever had pizza in New York?

Yeah. One of those Sparrow. It's great. Yeah, the Sparrow right across from Madison Square Garden. Yeah, the real New York slice. My favorite New York pizza joint, Sparrow. Yeah, I went to some Italian place that I'm forgetting the name of there that was incredible. But yeah, there's a ton of good food in New York pizza joint Sparrow. Yeah, I went, I don't know. I went to some Italian place that I'm forgetting the name of there that was like incredible.

But yeah, there's a ton of good food in New York. Yeah. Okay, I'm sorry, Harrison. We gotta keep this movie, man. As much as I like to hear about the jokes that reference The Office and your love of Sparrow, we do have to keep this movie. Jack, do you want to answer the next one? Yeah, is Jalen Rose's hair too good to be true? Yes. Yeah, that's not

fair. Yeah. Okay. That's not fair. But do we think it's being painted? I mean, there are definitely parts of it that are being painted on. I think we've learned since the last time you were co-hosting Miles that there are pictures where it seems clearly to have been put on with a stencil of some sort.

I mean, he's what, 50? There's no way it can be like that perfect at that age like right i feel the same way i don't say that as a bitter bald guy right yeah but he's on no yeah i'm gonna hate on anyone with hair yeah it's just in general you know what i mean but he's saying boozer or no boozer not a full boozer you know it's not all spray on i think some of that is natural but what if that was all spray on that would be like the level of technological like painting layers just to get it up harrison you can take any former laker and put him on this current team which former grade are you choosing to make a run in today's nba and especially in this postseason yeah Yeah, it's Kobe. Hey! Yeah. Predictable.

Jabari said Pig Miller. Anthony Pig Miller. I wanted to go Nick Van Exel for you, but they already have Dennis. St. Nick Van Exel? Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Imagine Shaq and Anthony Davis.

Lakers in three, you know? Lakers in two. Yeah. I just want to see the mythical Shaq versus Draymond matchup because people talk during those years like, could they beat mythical Shaq versus Draymond matchup because people talk like you talk during the right. Like, could they beat the Shaq and Kobe Lakers? Like, I mean, maybe with threes and stuff. But the idea that Draymond could have guarded Shaq in any way, like Draymond would have been out for the series after game two from being dunked on too hard too many times.

This is secretly what I'm wishing that the Sixers do is just like do what they did in game one. Stick Embiid in the middle, but just treat Embiid like the Shaq that he could be. Just right around the rim. Just nothing but dunks. Right. Just feeding, feeding them like that Wu-Tang interlude. Just keep feeding them. And just feeding them.

He is the biggest body since Shaq. I think like when you watch how people bounce off of him. I mean, I don't know. Anyways. Harrison, we got to keep this moving, man. I'm sorry. Harrison, come on, man. Final question, Jack or Miles?

Easy, Miles, I think. Hey! I'm sorry, Jack. I can't pick a Celtics fan in this. A Celtics fan? He's not a Celtics fan. Is that how I came off? As a Celtics fan?

I'm a Sixers fan. but all right thank you i'm back thank you thank you and i have all my propaganda gear in the background you hear that celtics fans who say that i'm too mean to the celtics this man just recorded an entire podcast with us and thought i was a celtics fan yeah find a new angle it's a normal size collar it's a normal size collar yes find a new angle haters oh man harrison-sized collar. It's a normal-sized collar. Yes. Find a new angle, haters. Oh, man. Harrison, Fagan, thank you so much for joining us this week on Miles and Jack Got Mad Boosties. Once again.

Yeah, man. Where can people find you and support you and do all that? You know, just check out SB Nation NBA. You know, if you have a team, we have a team site, most likely. And, you know, silver screen and roll where I'm going to be blogging about the lakers throughout the duration of the playoffs all right uh and gotta shout out all of our mad boosties twitter followers i'll follow us on twitter at mad boosties m-a-d-b-double-o-s-t-i-e-s uh we posited the question which player would maintain the finals trend that we were just speaking about and 61 of our listeners are very intelligent because i said lebron is most likely to continue

this trend thank you so much i will use that trend to go to sleep tonight uh and until i have to reconcile that with reality also we have a show called the daily zeitgeist uh one of our one of our listeners seemed to like they were like this nba show should like comment on this like political thing news and culture culture. Yeah. Well, yeah. So we, we also have a political show that we do 10 times a week that you can go check out,

uh, called the daily zeitgeist. If you're not aware. Yeah. Check that out. Or you can just listen to this. It was a better show. I thought they had invented a genius idea.

I love these guys. They should comment on more news and stuff. Other things. Yeah. You don't say, you don't say, but yeah, we're doing that over there. So check that out.

All right, y'all. Well, thanks so much for listening to us on this edition of Miles and Jack. I'm Matt Boosties. We'll be back. And our spirits will be lighter or heavier. We don't know. But that's the fun of this show because we check back in with you all. So until then, take care.

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