The Herd with Colin Cowherd - What's Wright - Grizzlies-Warriors prediction & NBA Play-In, Lakers-Wolves + NBA awards

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Nick Wright dives into all of the NBA Play-In matchups, including a pivotal showdown between Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors and Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies. Next, Nick turns his attention to LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and the Los Angeles Lakers' first round matchup with Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Will LA survive a dangerous Minnesota team? Then, Nick predicts what is next for Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns after another disappointing year as well as how far Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets will advance after firing Mike Malone. Later, Nick reveals who he thinks deserves the MVP, DPOY and all the other awards in the NBA. Finally, as always, Nick and Damonza answer your questions. 0:00 - Intro/Missed the Cut 2:55 - Rory McIlroy wins The Masters 13:23 - Play-In predictions 29:29 - Lakers-Timberwolves deep dive 43:54 - Round 1 playoff matchups 51:22 - Suns fire Budenholzer 57:52 - Nick’s NBA awards ballot 1:10:39 - F1 Minute 1:13:42 - Lil Wayne shouts out Nick  #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome in, What's Right with Nick Wright, episode 319. Huge show, huge day, fresh off the Masters, NBA playoffs starting, and fresh potentially with a lot of. the new what big day for what's right maybe a new partnership and today if not today certainly this week we're going to 200,000 subscribers on YouTube so shout out to everyone works on the show shout out to de monseh myself everybody blue duck volume all the folks and shout out to my friends at seat geek more on them later in the show but I had a big meeting a few weeks ago and they're like hey who are some brands you actually use like things you actually use and like

well, you already took care of the sports betting with my draft kings. That's a check. And I was like, Peloton every day, five days a week during the NBA playoffs, but that's fine. Five to seven days a week. I said that. Cars, I said Mercedes still looked at them. Sharpies. Sharpie, I've been trying to get you guys for 10 years. I'm your number. They're probably like we don't need to pay to endorse it. He advertises us more than anyone ever. And seat geek, because I, had just when they had talked to me, I had just bought those court side tickets to Lakers, Grizzlies, hadn't gone yet on Seat Geek. I bought all my theater stuff on Seat Geek, and guess what? Seat Geek's now a part of the what's right team, and so more on them in a bit, but appreciate them.

As always, DeManzai, how are you? I know you've been a little under the weather. I'm pretty good, good to see you pops. Doing a lot better these days, but we're on the other. Okay, good. You sound good. You sound better than I thought your mom talked to you this weekend. And she was like, DeMons Day sick. He's coughing and all this stuff. I was like Tuesday's big show because listen, we can't do. And I understand Warriors Clippers happened. We have Lakers Thunder or Lakers Timberwolves.

My NBA awards ballot is today. We are preemptively bumping our NFC over unders instead of during the shows. We've done three straight shows before the show. We're now doing that Thursday because Wednesday night, we're not going to need to talk Thursday. We're not going to need to talk a lot about the Wednesday night, nine. 10 muck playing games. So Thursday we're going to do NFL over under. Today we're going to do awards ballots.

But you know what we also have to do. The producers, you know, the producers all of a sudden, they care a lot about the YouTube algorithm, about what goes viral. And they're like, yeah, Clippers Warriors was Sunday. Lakers stuff does really well. Maybe we can trick Nick into not talking about the masters by putting in what missed the cut.

So here's what missed the cut and including what's going to be a five to 20 minute missed the cut. segment. It won't be 20, but it's going to be a few minutes. Dallas drafts, Paige Becker's number one, that was obvious. Max Crosby's new assistant GM in Eastern Michigan. That doesn't matter. Here's what does matter. Rory freaking McElroy. In an all-time

Masters Sunday, an all-time Masters tournament. In the last 60 years, DeMonsei, there have been 12 people to walk on the moon. There have been two people to complete the career grand slam and golf. Rory just became one of them. It's just facts.

Since the advent of colored television, you up until Sunday, were 12 times more likely to walk on the moon than complete the career grand slam. Just fact. And Rory had been trying and trying and trying. The five people who had completed it before, they completed it.

It was Sam Snead, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Jack Nicholas, and Tiger Woods. Fact check. me on that producers but I'm 90% sure those were the five. Sarah's and Sneed player Nicholas Woods. Those five guys all completed it either on their

first try or their second or third try. Rory was on a, it had 11 tries. 11 tries couldn't get it done and then this weekend he goes into Sunday with the lead. So let me back it up a little bit.

Thursday. Rory. having one of the best masters oh, I gave it to Sam Sneed it was Ben Hogan. My apologies. My goodness gracious. Terrible job by me. Good job by Sam Sneed for me thinking it was him, but obviously it was Ben Hogan.

I got Sarasen Wright. Sneed wrong. Doesn't matter. Back to Thursday. Rory announcing himself, this is going to be my tournament. He's on his way cruising to probably a 66

round one at Augusta. and then double bogey 15, double bogey 17, all of a sudden, a majestic round turns into even part, what happened, Rory? How does that happen? But then he rebounds Friday with a great round. Saturday, despite having another double. I'm sorry, no, Saturday, another great round. And then we're like, okay, he's the leader.

Bryson hits a huge put on 18. It's going to be Bryson and Rory, the two most popular golfers in the world, both polarizing for their own reasons. Final pairing at Augusta National when just last year, when Rory was looking like he was going to win a major, Bryson up and down from the bunker at 18 to steal it from him. Rory, crestfallen, leaves without talking to the press, everyone gets mad at him. Sunday, though.

He's got the lead. Two-shot lead going into Sunday at the Masters. First hole. Another double bogey. It's now three double bogeys on the round. Only one guy ever has won the Masters with three double bogeys. He then follows that up with a terrible second hole and all of a sudden, Bryson is in the lead.

And the Rory meltdown is on, it would appear. But it wasn't. He then rallies over the next 10 holes, takes a commanding lead. I think it was a four-shot lead at that point. Demandze, on Draft Kings, he is minus 1,200 to win the tournament. Minus 1,200.

All you got to do, Rory, is cruise. Just relax, chill, don't worry, cruise. So we get to the 13th hole. Sorry, my phone's playing the sound because I'm looking at the highlight. It's so excited. Get to the 13th hole. He has a four-shot lead. Bryson has melted at this point. It's a par five. He's been going for par fives and two all weekend. He says, you know what? I'm going to be smart. No Jean Vandevelding here. I'm going to lay up. Leave myself a beautiful 80 yards to get on the green and he duffs it one of the worst pitch shots you'll ever see a professional golfer hit right into the creek right into the creek from 80 yards out and all of a sudden he has

his fourth double bogey of the day all of a sudden it's a tournament again and nobody can believe it's happened so we but very next hole another bogey is the rory meltdown complete It is not an amazing 15th and 17th hole. And all of a sudden, he gets to 18. Justin Rose holes a putt. He gets to 18 to Monzae. We just need a 4. A 4 and you put on the green jacket.

A 4. And you're a legend forever. Rory McElroy, who was such a prodigy in Northern Ireland, his dad and his buddies pulled money. when he was like 10 years old to bet with the bookies in ireland one day my son's going to come back to the united kingdom and win the british open the bookie was like give me a break he's like nope in fact i'm going to give you the exact details on that rory mackleroy dad british open bet this is an all-time story so rory's dad walks in

to a bookie shop in the UK. He says, I got a 15 year old son. He's gonna win the British Open one day. Me and my friends have, uh, me and my friends have pulled together $200. Guys like, well, all right, I'll give you $500 to one on it.

It's like, all right, $200 to win $100 to win $100.00. hundred grand. I'll take it. And 10 years later, Rory does it. 26 years old. Dad walks back in. Says, hope you spent that $200 wisely. Give me my hundred racks.

But then Rory went a decade without winning a major. Shortly after that, still no Masters, no career grand slam. He walks up to 18, knowing a four, and I win the Masters, puts it in the sand. That's okay. Just get it close, Rory. Get it close. He gets it to six feet. This put to win the Masters

pulls it left. Misses! Oh my God! This is going to be the most crushing loss in golf history. Playoff hole. Justin Rose, been steady. Round one leader, round two leader, just chilling.

All of a sudden, a crazy putt for him on 18 to get in the playoff. Rory. hits his second on set on 18 in the playoff hole within four feet shot of his life drains the putt puts on the green jacket weeps sobs the stuff dreams are made of now one of the 15 greatest golfers ever one of the 10 greatest golfers of the last hundred years rory damn mackleroy and oh yeah have you looked at the other majors this year one is the pga's that of course he crushes the opens that, of course, he's won at.

And guess where the British Open is, DeMonse? In Northern Ireland. Where he's from? Oh, my! What a weekend. What a weekend of golf. All of that took place on me and your mom's anniversary. And I was sitting in a sports book in Philadelphia where, man, sometimes being in Philadelphia,

of being Nick Wright can suck. And I don't know if your mom gave you this story. I disarmed everybody all day. Everybody that came up to me, I could see in their eye. I'm like they want to talk trash to me. So every single person that came up to me, I said, congrats on the Super Bowl.

Before they could say anything. And I disarmed everyone. Everyone because of that was quite nice, except for one person who was a little drunk at a bar and really got in my face and was really quite, rude to me and here's the tricky part about that that one person happened to be a female and your mom was sitting right there and i was like oh boy this is not going to go well for anyone involved

her boyfriend's recording i'm like oh she like really planned to this whole confrontation i'm like hey i congratulating you win the super bowl and she was like in this stupid south jersey accent like stop talking all that shit i'm like i didn't talk any shit i said congrats to win the super I'm just having a good time. She was like, then why did you come up and talk to us? I'm like, okay, you're hammered. I'm just sitting here. And as soon as she said that, your mom stood up.

I was like, oh boy, time to go. Nice to meet you. See you guys later. We're out of here. But so that was Saturday. Sunday, your mom's out shopping. The reason I even said any of this. In the sports book, the sports book folks know me and they actually like me.

So they're like, hey, Nick, we have a, it's a, We have, it's a 10 TV setup, two giant ones and then eight good ones. They basically gave me the remote for Sunday. They're like, you pick the games, you, you pick the sound. What a dream. I'm signaling them when to go from the sound of the masters to Warriors Clippers. We've got the Lakers in the bottom corner because Bronny's playing. I've got a bet on the nuggets to beat the Rockets.

We got that going. Oh my goodness. What a dream. So all that was Sunday, capped off by Rory McElroy, and capped off by the Warriors, potentially wrecking their whole season. Now to the part of the show, everyone who has a financial incentive on the show

wished I would have led with, which is the basketball, but I care too much about the golf to leave it out. Go ahead. Yes, the play in tournament starts tonight on the West. We've got Golden State of Memphis, on the east, you've got Orlando and Atlanta. There's a lot to unpack

in Orlando and Atlanta, so I don't think we're going to get to it today. You wrote, you said there's a lot to unpack. Yeah. That's funny. Another way to put it is, who gives it down?

We're not talking about Orlando and Atlanta. Go ahead. Yeah, so the big story is Golden States and the play-in. And the bigger stories, what did you think of the game that knocked them into the play-in?

They obviously took an out to the clippers. All right. So I think a lot of things. I think the first thing is, I owe Draymond Green an apology. Nine years ago, DeMonsie, the Golden State Warriors were playing the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. It's a very famous series because in those Western Conference Finals, the Thunder were up three games to one, and the Warriors came all the way back, most famously because of Clay Thompson's game six, a brilliant game seven, and then the Warriors, of course, went on to lose their own 3-1 lead in the NBA finals. many people falsely believe the reason they lost that series was because Draymond Green got suspended for game five.

Now that reason that belief is so absurd is because not only did the Cavs blow them out in game five, but the argument was, well, LeBron would never scored 41 if Draymond was on the court. And so in game six, when Draymond was on the court, LeBron scored exactly 41 again. But that's neither here or there to the apology. So in those NBA playoffs, the reason Drayman. Green got, people falsely believe Draymond Green got suspended for punching LeBron James

in the groin. That is not, or slapping him in the groin, however you want to put it. That is not quite right. Dremon Green got suspended for accumulating four flagrant foul points. He got a flagrant foul in round one against the Rockets for body

slamming Michael Beasley as the game was ending in something that no one quite could ever figure out why he did. He got a flagrant foul point for slapping at LeBron James, but in the interregnum of that, he got a flagrant foul point for attempting a layup

and kicking Stephen Adams dead in the groin. And so all that accumulated. And I was very vocal that that was obviously intentional because no human being ever has ever shot a layup and had part of the layup motion B their left leg

go at a 90 degree angle into the air towards the baseline. So obviously he was trying to do it. Nine years later, I'm here to tell you, Dremont, I apologize. I was wrong. Turns out you sometimes just spazz out

on layups. Because with the game on the line down to in overtime, Dremont Green had a wide open layupon no one to kick and in some weird failed attempt to draw a foul I guess kicked the air fell backwards and smoked the layup and that was only one of his two grievous late game mistakes so the other one is this and the

broadcast I think screwed this up end of regulation the Clippers get the ball, tie game, 31 seconds left. So what that means is make or miss, the Warriors are going to get the last shot. You play solid defense for 20, 24 seconds. You're going to have 7 to 10 seconds if you're Golden State with a timeout. Kauai gets the ball with 4 on the shot clock, and now 11 on the game clock,

And Draymond panics and takes a foul to give, which the broadcast is like, oh, that's no problem. They're not in the bonus. It's foul to give. It was a problem because now the shot clock resets to 14. There's only 10 seconds left. Now the clippers get the last shot. Now the worst case scenario for the clippers is overtime as opposed to worst case scenario being losing. So Draymond messed up the end of regulation. smoked the layup at the end of overtime,

and all of a sudden, the Warriors are in the play in. There's another part of that game that I must address, because Steph Curry, listen, Steph was utterly brilliant in the fourth quarter of that game. Hit a shot that he thought was the game winner.

I know because he did his shimmy, me afterwards, then they end up losing. And I even can not ding him too much for the eight turnovers in that game, even though those were rough. But when Kauai's locked like that and held, Chris Dunn is really impressive defensively. All of a sudden, you're going to force some turnovers. Fine, so be it. But the other thing that happened at the end of that game is something that has happened to Steph Curry at the end of close games, particularly close high leverage games for his, the majority of his career,

which is Steve Kerr takes him off the court, because he is a defensive liability. And I understand that people get so enraptured by Steph Curry's offensive brilliance, one-of-one shot-making, the gravity he has on the game, all of it, and sustained excellent at a,

37 that people sometimes get a little over their skis and they're like not only is he top 10 why is he not in the goat conversation and I have been hesitant to have him quite officially crack my all-time top 10 so my all-time top 12 in order long-time listeners know this viewers know this and i will do this off the top of my head i will know i will get it right if we end with 12 is lebron kareem michael magic russell wilt duncan cobi bird dream shack step so shack and step are right on the outside barely they are both one of one unique forces in NBA history. They both, however, have one feature that no one in the top 10 does, which is in some of the biggest games of their careers, their team took them off the court because of a

flaw in their game that they were never able to quite correct. For Shaquille O'Neal, it was late game free throws. If they had a lead late and the other team was definitely going to foul, Phil Jackson would say to Shaq, we're better off with you not on the court this possession. And Steve Kerr, for Steph's entire career, if given the opportunity to go offense defense, will have one of the greatest players of all times

stand next to him rather than be on the court. It's not disqualifying from anything other than jumping guys like Dream and Bird and Kobe and Duncan. So it's not disrespectful. You still have them ahead of Dr. Jay, out of Yokic, out of Jerry West, out of Oscar, out of Janice, out of Durant, out of all those guys. But you saw it again. And so those were my initial takeaway.

and then my further out takeaway was, wait a minute. Cominga wasn't under the weather. Comingo wasn't dinged up. Camingo was a fully healthy D&P coach's decision, which again, maybe that was covered during the broadcast, but I was toggling sound masters to the NBA. And so I didn't realize that. That is,

a huge story. And what that means for the Warriors vibe check going forward and the Warriors' chances. So Golden State had it all out in front of them. Where if they had just taken care of the Spurs game, which they blew in horrific fashion, and I don't know if we've talked since then, but that Spurs loss just like, I think we did it on Thursday. I don't know. I think it doesn't matter.

Really echoes through this season. Much like the Spurs win over the Nuggets last year cost them the one seed. Echoed through that season when the Nuggets all of a sudden are blowing a game 7 to the Timberwolves. So that loss made it to where the Warriors weren't going to be able to get to the 4-5 line. This loss puts him in the play in. And we have seen the Warriors. have issues in the play-in. LeBron hit the three over Steph,

their first game ever in the play-in. Dremond then smoked a lay-up as time expired in their elimination game of the play-in. They went to overtime and the Grizzlies beat them. And then last year, Clay has the worst game of his career

and they lose to the Kings in the play. That's 0 for 3. And while no one has been less impressed by the traveling circus that is the Memphis Grizzlies than me as of late, the Grizzlies can win tonight. And if the Grizzlies win tonight, De Monta, the warrior season ends. Not because the Warriors won't beat the winner of Mavs kings, but because the Warriors having cost themselves a winner. week off dealing with Jimmy Butler's quad contusion, Jonathan Cominga's ego contusion, and then all of a sudden heading into Oklahoma City will get absolutely cooked. Wait, so what's going on with Jonathan Comingo?

You're saying the ego thing? What's? Well, I, it's, it sounds like you know, really good. For the first time in three months, Kerr was like, no, you're just not in the rotation. And I mean, the X factor for that team. Maybe pods. I could see pods being that. But whatever it is, man, Kerr just decided in our biggest game of the year, we are better off giving you zero minutes.

And it was, and according to the people who've covered that team the closest, the players are not mad about it. So that's like now, commingo has kind of been on the outs. He wanted a big contract. They didn't give it to him. But still, you thought that he was going to be important. And so now the warrior's best case scenario is they go into a two-week all-out death match with Imey Udoka's Rocket Squad with Aman Thompson, fresh off holding Steph Curry to three points, putting him in jail for two weeks. And if you're lucky enough to get out of that series only bruised and battered, you have the Lakers waiting for you. So none of that's good, man.

So I think this weekend was disastrous for the Warriors. And I think they absolutely could lose tonight. I know there's seven point favorites. I like, you know, Jha is a live grenade. And he can go off. And so I think that is very dangerous. I know you have another playing question. Do that and then we can move?

Yeah, so how do you feel about the play? Do you think that it should maybe be taken or should they leave it to give, you know, teams like or players like Steph the opportunity to make it if you're like kind of hanging out in the back? So here's the thing. I like it under the original premise, which was the bubble created the play in,

but it was only going to exist if teams, were within X amount of games in the standings. This year, it isn't fair for the Warriors or the Grizzlies that one of them is going to be in a win or go home game against a Kings or a Mabbs team that they, the Warriors and Grizzlies both won 48 games. The Kings and Mabs won 40 and 39 respectively. So that's where I don't like it. So last year's standings are a better example of when it could be good.

Last year, the Lakers 147, the Kings and Warriors both won 46. So it's like, okay, they're a game apart. The Pelicans won 49. They were the seven initially. The Lakers beat them. And then the Pelicans, and then the. the Warriors played the Kings and the 9-10, the Kings went on, obviously, we played the Pelicans in the final playing game.

But the point being, under those circumstances where teams are that close, but last year, for example, in the East, the Sixers 147, the Heat 146, those were the 7-8, and then the Bulls 1-39 and the Hawks 1-36, and they're in a play-in. So I do like it. I don't think it should be guaranteed that we're getting it. I think we should only get it if teams are within, say, three games of making the playoffs without it. Reminder, by the way, like, rate, subscribe, review, especially since I said, I think we might be able to hit 200,000 today. And so we're at 198,000 and change.

So it would be great if anybody who's watching right now hits the bell or likes, rate, subscribe, review. and if you're listening to us right now, please subscribe on Spotify or iTunes or anywhere else, and you can drop live questions in the chat. All right, now let's get to the Lakers side of this. Lakers locked up the three seed, and now they are facing Ant in Minnesota in round one. Luca obviously took care of business,

but against them last year. He averaged 32, 9, and 8. How do you think these teams stack up against each other? Are you a little worried there? No, this is the ideal bracket for the Lakers. Okay. So, like, listen, everything's hard in the West. And everyone wanted Memphis, but once it was clear Memphis wasn't going to climb out of the play-in part of it,

then this was the best you could have hoped for. Like, you want to play the Nuggets right now? I don't. Jamal Murray's back. Joker is Joker. You want to play the Clippers right now? Holy shit. That team looks unbelievable.

The warriors because of Steph are always dangerous. So again, the best possible path for the Lakers, in my opinion, was having the thunder, nuggets, and clippers on the other side of the bracket. And they do. they are they might by the way also if the warriors lose tonight they'll if the warriors lose tonight the lakers road to the conference finals is timber wolves and then either rocket's grizzlies and even if the warriors win tonight then it's timbrewolds and either rocket's uh golden state and so ant might average 32 a game in this series the lakers do not have anyone

that can guard Anthony Edwards, but that's fine. Here are the other things that are going to happen. I don't know how you can credibly play Rudy Gobert, the amount of minutes you probably want to play him. Luca just told us a week ago. He was like, what moment from the Mavs video got you choked up the most? And it wasn't when they drafted him. It wasn't, you know, one of his,

crazy buzzer beaters. It wasn't the 70 point game. It was hitting the step back over Gobert in the conference finals, then cursing him out in Slovenia. Luca has tortured Rudy Gobert on multiple continents in the Olympic, Slovenia against France. He's done it. When Gobert was a jazz, he did it. When Gobert was a Timberwolf, he did it. So that is a rough spot for the Timberwolves to start with. You then add that the Lakers are

getting, they no longer have to deal with playoff DeAngelo Russell, which is a disaster, and instead get to go against playoff Julius Randall, which is a different type of disaster. That's nice. They don't have

Darwin Ham with his hands in his pockets, drawing up on the whiteboard, contest without fouling. They've got JJ, who's been up for 39 straight hours, figuring out how to blitz Anthony Edwards. All that's good. You also have a series that because Luca is going to want to make Rudy Gobert cry, LeBron's going to be able to sit back the first three quarters like he did in that Mavs game. So again, I think it is a hard-fought five games for the Lakers, maybe six. I will tell you guys my favorite round one bet.

Shout out to my friends at Draft Kings. By the way, like we should, I would like to, can Draft Kings, can we start getting some boosts or something? I just if there's something I really like I don't know this is plus 120 maybe they can throw my face on it make it plus 125 for what's right listeners but the Lakers minus a game and a half in the series meaning is plus 120 so the Lakers for the series is minus 200 so question is do you think the Lakers are going to win the series yes okay you bet them at minus 200 you win if they win in four or five six or seven or you can get them at minus a game and a half at plus 120 and you win if they win the series in four or five or six

so yes you cost yourself if it's a seven game lakers win but i think it's going to be seven games because I think Luca's going to light this team on fire and I think that uh listen Nas Reid's going to be a problem you got you credit where it's due jaden McDaniels is an excellent defensive player but they got we saw Luca with a worst supporting cast beat this team in five to go to the finals last year now aunt said I got tired which was odd and aunt won't be tired this time. But you also have LeBron with eight days off coming into it. On the LeBron side are like obviously not trying to speak this since the existence, but are you worried at all about his groin? So I know that was kind of acting up last week.

I saw, yeah. So it looked like he kind of tweaked it in the game against Houston, game 81. He didn't seem too concerned. And this is also why, you know, having eight days off is going to be so incredibly useful and helpful. So no, I'm not, obviously, if he truly re-aggravates his groin, if he has to miss time, then that would be a problem. But this is where I remind you guys of one of the single most remarkable stats in basketball history, which is LeBron James teams have played in 200,000. 287 playoff games, DeMonsei, in his career.

208, so teams LeBron has been on, have played in 287 playoff games. Of those 287, LeBron James has played in 287. He has never missed a single playoff game in his career. So yes, fingers crossed, knock on wood, whatever you got to do. But also that number is so bananas. it's pretty crazy. It's three and a half full seasons. Yeah.

He's played, he's, this will be his 55th career playoff series. 55 series. He's 41 and 13 in his career in playoff series. And so, yeah,

I mean, you hope, obviously he's got to stay healthy. He's done a good job of that through his career. One more question before we move on to some other stuff. So, if Minnesota ends up winning this series and Ant shows out, is he moved

closer to become in the face? So, yes, Aunt needs to tighten up his off-court life, but he's got everything else. And if he were to out-dule

LeBron and Luca in what is going to be the highest-rated round one series, yeah, that will, but I kind of look at Ant here's the optimistic look of Ant he's on the Luca trajectory Luca made an early conference finals run

the next year the team made a big trade and then took a bit of a step back for Luca was Kyrie they end up missing the playoffs for Ant they trade Carl Anthony Towns you know they end up down at the 6th line probably bounced in round one.

And the next year for Luca, they made the finals. So it's not like Ant is behind schedule at all. But yes, this would scut. This would, winning this round one series would do more for Ant's notoriety in face of the league stuff than winning the round two series. They did last year against Denver. But winning the round two series, be super important with this year.

Like if you won this one, like if they beat the Lakers and then they just lost in round two. Correct. No, no, no. You beat the Lakers. Everyone's then going to expect you to beat the Rockets or the Warriors or the Grizzlies. That part's definitely true. All right.

Before we get to the other round one series, guys, this is awesome. You guys know that one of my favorite things to do is go to sporting events. Also, love going to Broadway, actually. I just saw. Gypsy? Oh my goodness. There's an unball, Audra McDonald, my lord. But you guys also saw I was just at Lakers, Grizzlies, courtside. I, you guys might not have seen because I didn't

tweet anything from it, but I just took my nephew to his first ever basketball game, Nick's sons last weekend. And tonight, I am going to Yankees Royals because the Royals are back in town. They lost last night. That sucks. Playing the Yankees. And I get all of my seats from our new sponsor, Seat Geek. Over 28 million downloads, Seat Geek is the number one rated ticketing app. There's more than 70,000 events listed on Seat Geek, including concerts, sports, festivals, and more. Right now, you can get tickets to the MLB season again. I'm going to Yankees Royals tonight, and then I'm going to, I don't have my tickets yet for tomorrow,

but assuming the Royals win tonight, in fact doesn't matter whether they win or lose tonight I am taking my wife my daughter and one other person I'm not sure who two Yankees royals on Wednesday getting those seats from seat geek so if you guys haven't used seat geek before again the deal score you know it's been copied by other people nobody does it right it gives you a great a great feeling especially if it's for a stadium you haven't been to before like how good is this seat how good is this seat how good is this deal and it's really good for Broadway in particular because Broadway's a little confusing like sometimes like basketball games row one is the best but Broadway that's not always the case is sometimes you want to be a little further back doesn't matter point is this seek keeps you out with all of it and again right now for that that Yankee game I don't know if I can show you guys but you can get in on seat geek for 35 bucks if you want to sit in the grandstands

Hell oh there's seats right there that's a really that's a shot wow the disrespect to the Royals I'm shocked it what a good deal that is that's right next to the Royals dugout that's the best seats in the house for legend sweet you need lobster and something's 350 bucks right there on seat geeks so again Seat Geek has your back each ticket's rated on a scale of one to ten that's why I was telling you about I don't even need to read this stuff I already know it so you know you're getting a good deal the bigger the darker green and the bigger the dot that means that's the best deal the little red dots don't even worry about those you're not going to use buy those those are bad deals and every ticket is backed by their buyer guarantee and so here's the deal here's how I can help you guys you guys

can help me you can use code write 10 that's right with a w it's my last name right 10 for 10% off your next set of tickets at seat geek that's 10% off any tickets with promo code right Also if you're watching on YouTube just make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code Automatically added to your account so you can use it later Thank you my friends at seek geek again I got those courtside Grizzlies Lakers tickets from seat geek Tonight's Yankees royals tickets seekees tomorrow's Yankees royals tickets the gypsy tickets on Broadway So again seat geek promo code write 10 WR I Ghth

then the number 10, 10. You guys know what 10 is. Sorry about that. 10% off. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news.

We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend.

But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about. what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band

before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, Hey Jonas, and then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.

But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert's. Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are

trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchian win.

I mean, she went down to three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Okay, DeManzay, I got you Lakers tickets once on Seat Geek. Oh, by the way, speaking of, speaking of Lakers tickets, pal. So here's the deal. Maybe, maybe. We got to keep our fingers crossed on the bracket falling right, and we have to keep our fingers crossed on the dates working. But if there is a Lakers round two game in Houston,

kind of midway point, L.A. to Houston, maybe we do a little what's right family meetups. Hell yeah, that'd be sick. Lakers Rockets playoff game because the I'm not going to, it's just too hard for me to get to L.A. and do the show and all that stuff. But Lakers Rockets would be awesome.

That would be really awesome. Yeah. Listen, this is something you'll learn because DeMonze is filing his taxes today because today is the deadline. Since you're a professional broadcaster now, if you were to do that, that's a tax write-off. You're doing it to work.

I had to go. Oh, yeah, it's a write off. Like Kramer, just write it all off. All right, let's go to the other playoff series. Yeah, so we're waiting for the play-in to figure out what the rest of the series are going to look like across the league. But the rest of the list is set in the first round. On the west side, we've got the Lakers versus Minnesota.

We've got Denver versus the Clippers. And then on the east, you've got the Knicks versus Detroit and Indiana versus Milwaukee. Okay. So I'm going to spend the most time on Denver Clippers. We already did Lakers Timberwolves. And by the way, in about 10 minutes, we're going to do my full NBA awards ballot.

So stick around for that. Let me go to the East first. I just want Milwaukee to win. Indiana should win. They should. And Indiana has been the more consistent team. Indiana's been honestly the more impressive team. Indiana right now is the healthier team.

But do you realize, De Manzai, that Janice has not won a playoff game, has not been on the court for a playoff win since that unbelievable 40 and 11 to go up 3 to 3 to, on the Celtics in 2022. Yeah. The next game,

Janice was just as good, 44 and 20, but that was Tatum's best game of his career up to that point. Then they lost game seven. Then the next year, he got hurt during the playoffs and missed games. And then last year was out. He has not won a playoff game since that game

when it looked like they were going to defend their title. Not a game, forget a series again. he is having another unbelievable year. I would like to see him if he could just throw the team on his back and get them back to round two and then throw a scare into Cleveland. So I, the, my analysis,

go at what'd you say? If he loses, he'll leave though. I don't know that he'll leave. I don't know that he'll leave this summer. I mean, maybe, I mean, maybe, I don't know. So, Indiana is the smart pick, but I'm going with my heart and just saying, I want Yannis to do it, and I'd go with Milwaukee there. Knicks, Detroit, I disagree with the Draft King's odds on this. So they have the Knicks as huge favorites.

Oh, that's funny. Sorry, I just got an email. It was not meant for me. What? That's, no, it's, it doesn't matter. I, so they are, I was looking down my phone because I wanted to pull up the exact line. That is really sorry. The exact line, I think the Knicks are minus 400 in the series.

Let me make sure that is correct. But series markets on draft kings. Knicks are minus 400. Detroit's plus 310. I think that's too. At that price, I think Detroit is a better bet. But I think the Knicks are going to win.

I just don't think that Detroit's a pushover the way that market would say it is. But I expect the Knicks to win. And then we have what should be an absolute all-out war in round one, Denver against the Clippers. Now, it struck me as noteworthy, DeMonzei, that Jamal Murray's hamstring was just lingering.

And Jamal Murray's hamstring was such a problem that Michael Malone all of a sudden was like, listen, we hope he's back for the playoffs. And then Michael Malone got fired, and Jamal Murray's hamstring was healthy enough to play a couple days later. That struck me as, like, nobody, if people are, surprised by the Malone firing and nobody and again I'm not making any allegations but the sequence of events there to me is a noteworthy one but with Jamal Murray back and with Joker playing like this and with the nuggets seemingly you know having I guess a bit of a cloud lifted maybe they feel scary the clippers on the other hand look abjectly terrifying

Hardin was the best player on the court for Clippers Warriors. He was unbelievable in overtime. He was 39 and 10. And Kauai was sensational on both ends. Zubots has been great all year. All year. And Norman Powell was the guy everyone was playing their tiny violins for because LeBron stole his all-star spot.

And they've got an excellent coach in Ty Lou. So this is the hardest series to pick. However, when you add to the fact that Denver has home court, Denver has the best player in the world, and the Clippers have playoff hardened, I'm going to go Denver in a seven-game classic. Denver, to win the series, and let me check, again, let me check this,

as well. I hadn't looked at it yet. The Clippers plus a game and a half meaning the Clippers to either win the series or losing 7 is only minus 220. That's

somewhat attractive to me because I do think that the Clippers could win, but I if they don't, I do think it goes seven. But I I probably would just take Denver. Denver to win the series on Draft Kings is minus 135. That feels about right. Very, very close, but best player in the world, going to get

rested. I'm not even going to bring up the Kauai injury stuff because he's just not rooting for it. But it also makes them a harder team to bet on. And hardening in the playoffs is a real effect. So that's, that's to me, I like the Lakers and a hard fought, but relatively quick series, Denver in an absolute classic. The Knicks to win, but not in four or five, and the bucks in seven, because why not? That's how I feel about the matchups that we have right now. All right, let's do the Sons real quick and then get to my awards ballot. Yeah, after just one season,

head coach Mike Boulinthor has been fired from the Sons. They finished this year 36 and 46, and have now had three coaches in three years. Do you think that this Phoenix stint is going to hurt Katie's legacy? Well, certainly didn't help it. Yeah. I mean, man, basketball's so crazy. And this is one of the things I love about it.

But I was just talking about Janus's, you know, how quickly it happened for Janus. Like, they just went from being the defending champs up 3-2 on Boston, home game 6. Yonis drops 40, they lose anyway. He hasn't won a playoff game since then. Think about if you are the Phoenix Suns. You're the Phoenix Suns. You're up to 1 in the NBA final. finals. You're it's 2021. You're in Millwall like you're up to oh technically, but you get you get throttled in game three. That's supposed to happen. You're up to one in the finals and you have a chance to win game three and go or game four, pardon me, and go up.

four games to three games to one and it goes Booker missed jumper Janice's huge block on Aiton Chris Paul turnover Devin Booker missed layup and all of a sudden

it's a 2-2 series and then it's like okay it's a two-two series we're all right we're not exactly where we wanted to be but we're all right game five it's coming down to the final minutes. You make a furious comeback after being down 12 in the fourth quarter.

You have the ball. Down one, 20 seconds left. Holiday, rips Devin Booker, throws the oop to Janus, the bucks win, Yonis drops 50, then a mad,

Man buys your team and now you're just on your fourth coach in three years You've traded away everything your own in apron hell Bradley Beale is pissed because Boodenholzer's like play like Drew Holliday's like how dare you I'm Bradley Beale Kevin Durant you've got to trade him just it just you were this close The year after winning the championship you're the one seed by the way It's not like it immediately went away you're the one seed Let's go back to that real quick what happened there again you're this close to winning a

championship you don't you come back the next year you're even better you find yourself a up 3-1 on the Dallas Mavericks I'm sorry up three-two you blow them out in game five by 30 by 30 you blow them out you're gonna go back to the conference finals. You're going to play the Warriors, Chris Paul, Steph Curry. It's going to be great. And then game six,

Luca goes crazy, 33, 11, and 8. All right, doesn't matter. Game 7's in our building, no problem. And game 7, the score is 57, 27 at halftime. And Luca

has 27 by himself. And Devin Booker won't look him in the eye. And now you're just ruined. So it's less about Durant and more about that franchise just falling off a cliff. And as far as where Durant's going to go, we're going to have plenty of time to talk about that over the next few weeks. I'm not going to get into it right now. But this did not go the way he had hoped. He forced his way to a team that,

had just been to a finals and the previous year of the best record in basketball, and the team won one playoff round ever. They lost in round two, they lost in round one, they miss the playoffs. Just brutal. Just absolutely brutal.

The NBA 82 game grind is done. Now the real fun begins. The NBA playoffs are here and it's time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments and jaw dropping plays. I can't wait. If you're looking to make the playoffs even more exciting, Drafking Sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting partner of the NBA.

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Please play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas. 21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance for additional terms and responsible gaming resources. C.DKNG. C-O-S-B-B-Ball. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news.

What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there.

But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays,

the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff, Nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaders to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife-Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jenchian win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lina Rabakina is arguably the best player in the world. right now and I actually can win on any surface because if she's serving well good luck consider this your court side seat to the French Open listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts presented by Capital One founding partner of Iheart women's sports all right de Manzee let's do our MBA awards ballot and as much as we can and then we'll get to our F1 minute and some listener questions. Yeah, you still don't have the ballot, but we're just going to do this for practice sake. But we'll get you there someday. First off, you've got your MVP at one. You've got

SGA, two. Yeah, I'll go through who I have. But the, so MVP to me is quite simple. And I have been, sorry, Daniel, really, I have found it unbelievable the number of, of people who have just decided all of the rules that I laid the groundwork for last year no longer apply. And so for me, the only question for MVP is the fifth spot. One through four are pretty obvious. Shea is the league MVP. He's 33 a game on a 68 win team.

Joker should be the unanimous second place MVP guy. He's 30 a game with a triple. double carrying a team that is terrible defensively. Some of that's on him and just fired their coach. Janus is third, Tatum is fourth. And if you want to say Tatum's third, Janus is fourth, that's fine. I think what Janus has done, especially despite Dane being out, is remarkable. But that's a debate.

And then for fifth place, it was a debate between the following. Donovan, Cade. Edwards and LeBron. And I still want, well, I'll talk about all-MBA first team because my one-through-five, my MVP ballot is not my first team all-MBA. And I'll explain that in a minute. But my fifth place spot goes to LeBron. And it goes to LeBron because despite the injury, he still played 70 games. He seamlessly did what a lot of people thought he either wouldn't be willing to or able to,

which is fit with Luca. People are recreating history that, oh, the Lakers were headed for the play-in before the Luca trade. The Lakers were the four seed the day Luca made his debut with the team. They stayed even though Anthony Davis had gotten hurt. They were on a winning streak when Luca first got to the team. Their only real losing this year happened surrounding LeBron's injury. LeBron was a Swiss Army knife defensively once they got Luca. And honestly, once AD went down, they are the three-seasoned.

seed in a loaded Western conference. They were only Oklahoma City was better this year against the best 10 teams in basketball. LeBron's been the through line of it all. I have him as fifth place in MVP. Now to the top of the ballot. So here's why I find

these folks who are now saying they are going to vote for Joker. to be so disingenuous, and what they simply should say is, he's my favorite player, he's the best player in the league, so I'm voting for him. Last year, the numbers for Joker v. Luca were not close. I will remind you of them, okay? Last year, Luca averaged 34-9 and 9.

He won the scoring title on good efficiency. He averaged 34 points, 9.2 rebounds, 9.8 assists. So basically 349 and 10. The league MVP was Nikola Yokic, who averaged seven fewer points, 26 and a half, three more rebounds, 12 and a half, and one fewer assist, nine. And it wasn't close. Luca got four first place votes. And the argument was purely,

well, Joker's team won 57 games. Luca's team won 50. And Luca was not very good, even though the team was fine defensively, Luca was not very good defensively. Those same people, now this year are saying, throw those rules out

and even though Shay's team has won 68 games and Joker's team won 50 the same exact number Lucas team won last year I think Joker's going to get it

because I've never seen an offensive season like this and my question is didn't you kind of see an offensive season like this last year by a guy who got four place votes again Luca last year was 34 9 and 10 Joker this year is 30 let me yeah 29.6 called 30 13 and 10 so four fewer points four more rebounds on a team that one

the same amount of games and so that now you might say Nick last year weren't you guy that was arguing for Luca. Wouldn't that then follow that this year you should be arguing for Joker? 100%. If one of two things were true. One, I had an actual vote and it was impacting it. So I must vote with consistency or two. And this is more importantly and really the reasoning.

I do feel like the previous winner, winners, but certainly the most recent year, continues to set the precedent for the voting public because it is an undefined award. So last year, when a guy with 50 wins who's playing in the 4-5 game, who averaged 34, 9 and 10, got 4 of 100 votes because we said best player on the best team with really good stats is going to run away with it to then not give Shay when Shay is again it's like Shay's averaging 25 a game he's 33 5 and 6 with excellent defense on a 68 win team and the history of guys on teams who have won 68 plus games all of them every team that has

ever won 68 plus Steph won MVP Jordan one MVP. The 69 win Lakers did not have the league MVP. Kareem won it in 72, but that is because two Lakers split votes. Wilt and West finished third and second. That's why the Lakers didn't have one. Who are the other ones? Dave Cowens on the 68 win Celtics won MVP. Jordan won 69 games and shamefully didn't win it in 97.

The voters got sick of giving it to and gave it to Carl Malone. But it's just, folks need to just say, I like Joker the most. So even though his coach got fired and his defense has been bad, and even though last year it was about wins, this year it's about raw stats. I'm just not going to lie. I just think it's, I think Shay's the MVP. Now to All-MBA. So again, I don't have an actual vote.

But, and I know they changed the rules. I want my All-MBA first team at the very least to be two guards, two forwards and a center. And I want all of my all-MBA teams to at least be credible teams you could roll out on a basketball court. So even though I have LeBron as my fifth place in MVP voting, I do not have him as all-M-B-A-first team. I gave that to Donovan.

So I want my two guards to be Shea and Donovan, my two forwards, Janice and Tate on my center Joker. second team all-MBA for me was very simple. My two guards are Stefan Ant. Cade's technically a guard, but he's tall enough. We can just put him in kind of that point-forward spot. He and LeBron are second team. And Alpern Shingoon, who was the best player on a Rockets team that was the second seed.

He is second-team all-M-Ba. Third team all-MBA with apologies to Tyrese Hallibur. Haliburton had his spot stolen in game 82, DeMonse, by James Hardin. 39 and 10 to lock up the five seed and stay out of the play in. So it's Jalen Brunson, James Harden, Jalen Williams, as a forward because your team wins 68 games. It's not just one guy. Carl Anthony Towns is the other forward.

And Evan Mobley as the other center. again, that team won, what, 64? They need someone other than just Donovan. My defensive player of the year was not difficult for me. I think Draymond really hurt himself at the end of the year. It is Evan Mobley. My sixth man of the, I noticed the Mobley thing.

You have him as your defensive player of the year, but he's only in your third team, all-N-B-A. Yeah, so that happens sometimes. Where, hell, there have been years. Defensive player of the year didn't even make any all-MBA team. I don't think Mark is smart made an all-MBA team when he won it. I don't think, I don't know if Tony Allen. Did Tony Allen ever win defensive player of the year?

I don't remember. But that happened sometimes. But I think he's the defensive player of the year. Sixth man of the year is Malik Beasley. Just an absolute flamethrower off the bench. And I guess somewhat controversial, most improved. I think it's a Vita Zubots. I almost had Zubots on as my all-M-B-on-my-all-M-MBA team.

He jumped his scoring. by 50% over his career. He's been great defensively. Clivers have been excellent. He's been huge. I think he's the most improved player, even though he's old, and it usually doesn't go to old guys.

Clutch player of the year is LeBron. LeBron's the only player in the league with 400, 100, 100 in the fourth. LeBron's fourth quarter plus minus and the Lakers record in the fourth quarter, and his assistive turnover ratio is better than either of the previous clutch player of the year winners. and step and aunt and i understand jalen brunson's clutch numbers are going to probably make jalen brunson win this award that is in part because they do not have clutch numbers for defense in the clutch where jalen was lacking obviously because of his size ian lebrons clutch player of the year rookie of

the year is very very simple uh stephan castle is going to be close to unanimous re well risa shale get some votes and i think coach of the year de monzaa is he may who do Getting this Rockets team to the two seed when Jalen Green's a nice player. Amin Thompson's going to be an awesome player, but he's very young. I think I'm Audoka deserves coach of the year. So those are my ballots and my full NBA awards. All right. Makes sense to everybody.

Makes sense to me. So I, before we get to the listener questions, back after her spring break with our F1 minute. If you're a new viewer or listener, my goddaughter, Sierra Fidel, is our F1 correspondent. She is back updating us on what has happened in Formula One over the last couple of weeks. Here is Sierra. Hey guys, welcome back to the F1 Minute with me, Sierra.

So let's talk all things barangy. So it's been called the best race of the season so far, even with the chaotic technical difficulties. but four down, 20 more to go. Unlike the circuit last week in Suzuki, here in Bahrain, the track seriously promotes overtaking, and that's pretty much what we saw throughout the entire race. On the first lap, a big headline following quality

was Oscar Piastri starting from pole position for the second time this season. He was able to keep his position, but the rest of them pretty much played musical chairs around the first corners, but it was pretty entertaining, to say the least. The conditions and the tire strategies were a big talking point of this race,

With the cooler conditions, most cars started with softs, but the Ferrari boys started on mediums. It kind of sucked for them at first, but after a few laps around the track, the tires came alive for them, and they were doing pretty good. Piastri controlled this race pretty much the entire time, however, with sizable gaps to the front at times, Russell LeClerc, and for a small fraction of a moment, Hamilton was even fighting for a win. Notice how I did not mention Ristappen, however. Yeah, that's because he was struggling. pretty much the entire time with no grip going into the pits multiple times to switch out tires and reporting issues with his car. And there was even a safety car, but it was from debris,

not exactly a crash, so it wasn't all that notable. But at the restart, Piastri was still ahead, and Norris on fresher tires managed to pass both LeClerc and Hamilton, but not Russell and the good old Mercedes. In the end, Piastri got another win under his belt finishing 15 seconds ahead of everyone else, Russell and P2 and Norris and P3. Some honorable mentions that I cannot leave out is the fact that has finished with double points this weekend, which is a big accomplishment for a team that maybe scores one or two points here or there between two drivers. Alpine showed promising pace pretty much throughout the entire weekend and Yuki Sonoda bagging points for Red Bull, let's go. Has the second Red Bull seat curse lifted just yet? Only time will tell. But

Key takeaways, McLaren is a team to beat. That's pretty obvious. That's been so for a while now. But McLaren is a team to beat. Piastri is posing more of a threat than ever, especially to his teammate now, because he has more wins than Lando, and he's threatening his position in the driver's championship.

Little by little, Ferrari is showing better days. Hopefully, within the next few races, they can have their breakout performance, and maybe, just maybe one of them can be on the podium. Please. But that'll be all for this week's F1 minute. next week, this circus is headed to Saudi Arabia to close out the triple head here. So until then, I'll catch you next week.

Great job, as always, Sierra. Can't wait to hear from you next week. The producers, Mase, really want to get the Lil Wayne tweet in the show. I didn't do it during the Masters thing. Oh, yeah. Shows my boy. Wayne was tweeting that he couldn't watch Bryson. So I texted him, was like, hey, use the Masters app.

Here's how you do it. And then he sends out this tweet. I mean, listen, he's got 33 million followers throwing me a little. tag in there would have been nice, but it's right. No problem. Weezy. Uh, if you have the same issue I was having, all you got to do is download the Masters app. Thanks to my boy, Nick Wright. He's the nicest person in the world. People would be shocked at how nice of a guy. Even if you think he's a super nice guy, you'd be shocked by it. Um, save these listener questions for Thursday's episode. We're having a few technical issues. And more importantly,

I'm going to be late to do Cowherd Show. So I got to go. Uh, today's show went long. You did great. enjoy the playing tonight. Go Royals against the Yankees. Thank you to Seatkeek. Shout out to them. Thank you to Draft Kings. Thank you to everyone watching. See if we hit 200,000 by the end of the day.

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