The Herd with Colin Cowherd - What's Wright - NBA Play-In PREDICTIONS, Spurs CATASTROPHE, NBA regular season RECAP + Rory’s LEGACY | Nick Wright

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet.   Nick Wright recaps a wild end to the NBA season with the San Antonio Spurs losing to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, and the ramifications on the playoffs. Then, Nick previews the Play-In Tournament and breaks down the real contenders and pretenders of the NBA postseason. After, Nick discusses LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers' chances in the playoffs with Luka Doncic & Austin Reaves injured as well as Rory McIlroy’s legacy after winning The Masters for the second year in a row. Later, Nick and Damonza answer your questions. #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome in. What's right with Nick Wright, episode 445. The NBA playoffs are essentially finally here. We have a few play-in games to figure out. out what all of the matchups will be, but the regular season, at times brilliant and at times maddening, has come to a close and what the entirety of the NBA calendar is now built around the postseason, which sure is hell better deliver this year, is upon us to Monzae, good morning.

Great shirt. Is that new space jam or old space jam? Is that bronze space jam or the original? I think this is, it doesn't have, I'm pretty sure it's. The old one, it's got like a barge madness. Yeah, I think that's the original. Yeah, they got a target. Well, okay, great.

Looking awesome. Great to see you. You got to see, uh, today is DeMonsay's three year anniversary of moving to L.A., which also means we're coming up on the three year anniversary of DeMonte's brief departure from the pot. Yes. In fact, because you left the pod for a few months. Like two, three months.

Yeah. Yeah. Diora took over. as DeMonte was getting settled in Los Angeles. And so, you know, great to see everybody. A ton to do today. I want to just, and by the way, also, I was on, I don't know if it's posted yet.

Maybe it posted this morning. But I was on Jason Timph's podcast, Hoops Tonight, the inventor of Roll Gravity. He and I argued not really a bit about that. And I had a really good time with him if people want to check that out. I also, I don't know if he left it in the pot or not, but at the end, uh,

paid him a compliment that I don't know that I, you know, have ever paid someone younger than me like live, which is he's just an excellent broadcaster. Like I was really taking it back at what a quality like sound broadcaster he is. Also, you, DeManzi,

check out his Twitter feed because if his pinned tweet is clips of him playing basketball, he was a real hooper. We might finally have someone in the basketball podcast space that isn't a retired pro that I think might give you a run for your money. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the clips look, I assume it's him. It would be weird if he was just posting

like granny video of somebody else. But I assume it was him. But so that was fun. All right, this episode of What's Right, is brought to you by Boost Mobile. We will get straight to voicemail brought to you by Boost Mobile. The Dallas Wings selected Asie Fudd with the first overall pick of the draft. I watched Asi Fud and her now girlfriend Paige Beckers, who's now her teammate with Dallas,

play in college together. They both actually dapped up your youngest sister, Deanna, as we had great seats to a game at MSG to watch the Yukon women play. I'm very happy for Asi. I also, you know, was not so. scouring the WMBA mock drafts. You know, there's a little scuttle butt. Well, she may be a little overdrafted because of her personal relationship with their superstar Page Beckers. And if that is the case, I personally have no problem with it.

But everyone who was crying alligator tears about Brony James going 55th overall, I really do expect you guys to write letters to your editor. I'm talking to you, Anna Horford and others. Mikhail Bridges keeps his Ironman streak alive, kind of, checks in for 30 seconds. So I think it's 683 straight games he's played. And Caleb Williams attends Coachella. That seems, there aren't many things like this that I literally believe this to be true. But this is one of those things that people pay a lot of money to go to.

And I do not think you could. I think you would have to pay me a lot of money to go. I do not think outdoor multi-day music festival is my thing. DeMonte did one of those once, like six, five years ago, five, six years ago. He had a better time than I would have had. And the outdoor staying in a tent, whatever is, multi-day music festival, not my style. I hope Caleb had a good time. Reminder to everybody, like, rate, subscribe, review to the pod.

Before we get to the postseason, DeMonte, let's talk about how the regular season ended. All right, yeah, so the regular season ended on Sunday. A lot happened. We're going to start with Spurs Nuggets. The Spurs play the Nuggets lost. They were locked into the two seed, but could have gotten a better playoff path had they won that game. You think the loss was something or nothing? I think this was an utter catastrophe for the Spurs.

and I'm just shocked they let it happen. Shocked. All they had to do was win one game against the Nuggets backups. Joker started, but Joker was not going to play a long time. He just needed to get to his 20 minutes or 15 minutes, whatever it was, for award eligibility. And the Spurs, opted into sitting wimby and his backup Luke Cornett.

And they thought they could win anyway. Vegas thought, Hard Rock Beth thought they could win anyway. They were 10 and a half point favorites, and they lost. And now if you're the Spurs, instead of in round two, facing either a Rockets team who's, Durant might be their best player. Shingoon's probably the most important player. But the most complimentary thing anyone can say about Alpern Shingoon, and this is complimentary, is that he is a homeless man's Nikola Yokic.

That's who you would have had to play in round two as opposed to the actual Nikoliyokic. Or, you know, maybe the Lakers win that series and Luca comes back at less than full strength and Austin Reeves is not probably back by then. either way, your round two was going to be a flawed Rockets team who, yes, played better down the stretch, but a lot of that was against tankers, or a Lakers team that two of its top two leading scorers right now are both out with soft tissue injuries. Instead, you play the Nuggets, who I believe this to be the best Nuggets team they've had. I think this is better than the team that won the championship. I think Jamal Murray's having the best season of his career. Aaron Gordon has become this devastating knockdown shooter.

With those no-dip threes, he's the only guy in the league that does. And Joker's playing as well as he's ever played. And Joker seems to take real pleasure and is really excited about the Wimby matchups. And he draws Wimby away from the basket. That is the one place where Wimby has struggled this year defensively. if he's asked to guard one-on-one on the perimeter, which, I mean, the guy's 7-5. I'm not knocking him for it, but Joker can pull him away from there and bang into him, which a guy who has bruised ribs probably don't want Joker banging into you,

and you didn't have to have this matchup. I, so the biggest winner of Game 82 was the Thunder. The Thunder go from staring at a 7-12. game series with Denver. Two, they now get the winner of Lakers Rockets, and they get to watch the Spurs and the Nuggets throw two weeks of absolute haymakers at each other. I don't get it. And for a team that is as smart as the Spurs, as well run as the Spurs, man, oh man, it feels

like they took their eye off the ball at the final moment. they played Wimby Friday when he was, you know, less far removed from injuring his ribs so he could check the box of award eligibility. And then they don't play him Sunday in a game that was wildly important to win. I would have, and I think the Spurs do match up, and I think the Spurs do match up, and I think, there's proof of this really well with OKC, but they don't match up well with Denver. Had the Spurs de Manzay simply won game 82, I might have been planning to pick them to make the finals

with the thought process of they will basically be able to coast to the conference finals and then maybe get Denver or maybe get an OKC team that just had a seven-game war with Denver that they've had a lot of success against. Now, I expect the Spurs to lose in round two. I'm telling you right now, my Western Conference Finals pick is Thunder and Nuggets, and Thursday or Friday, I'll probably do my official picks, but I'll tell you where I'm leaning.

I'm leaning towards a finals that it feels like we have been circling around for a few years, but never quite got it. These teams have been to three of the last four NBA finals collectively, but never against each other. And that is the Boston Celtics playing the Denver Nuggets. That is what I think, that that's where I'm leaning. If that's not my finals pick, it'll be the Boston Celtics playing the Oklahoma City Thunder. What will not be my, and by the way, I reserve the right to change all of that if Luca comes back and looks healthy, and I'll probably just pick the Lakers. But this is a real catastrophe for the Spurs, and I don't know why they didn't take that final game more seriously.

Do you think that Denver was even trying to win the game? no because i think denver didn't care right i mean Denver obviously wasn't they they were they were prioritizing health and Denver knew that their round two is hell no matter what right you know what i mean they either their round two is either on the road in san antonio or on the road in okayc so either way Denver was going to have a brutal round two now you could say Denver maybe wanted to lose because round one for them now is a little harder because you get San-in-I'm sorry, you get Minnesota who's beaten them in a series. But I just, I think this Denver team is better than the Denver team that lost to

Minnesota. And I think this Minnesota team's not quite as good. And Anthony Edwards hasn't looked like real Anthony Edwards in a few weeks. So I think Denver was, you know, they obviously didn't prioritize winning the game, they rested everybody. But the guys who were out there, were out there trying to win. And I just can't believe the Spurs did it. I really, really can't believe that, and I also can't believe that if you were only going to

play Wimby one game at the end of the season to get his awards eligibility, why did you burn it against the Mavs who don't want to win. And now, Wimby scored 40 in like 26 minutes against them. I mean, he looked fine and not save him for the Nuggets game where you can knock the nuggets to the other side of the bracket. I just, I think it was really,

really foolish what they ended up doing. And I, I'm really surprised by it. All right, let's go to some of the other play-ins. stuff. So Orlando lost home court in their playing game, losing to my Celtics bench. What happened

to Orlando? We were very high on them at the beginning of the season. Seems like they've kind of fallen off cliff. I mean, it's a, if people cared more about the magic, we would talk more about what a catastrophe this year was.

The magic last year, right, are ahead of schedule they make the postseason. You feel good about where they're at. They end up getting clocked in round one by Boston. And then this off season,

they trade five first round picks for Desmond Bain. Their projected win total is 50 wins. They get a basically healthy year out of Palo. He doesn't seem to be, I don't want to say he's not going in the right. direction. But Paolo He's not trending upward, it doesn't seem like. Yeah, I mean, he seems to have stagnated.

Right. Year two, Palo, was 22, 7 and 5 on 45%. And year four, Palo is 22, 8, and 5 on 45%. His three-point shooting never got there. He is stagnated. Obviously, they were missing Franz a lot of the year. Bain played all 82. and gave you 20 points a game.

I don't know how much, you know, drastically more you could have asked for him, but the coach, Jamal Mosley, seems to have lost that team. Paolo doesn't, I think it's fair to say, doesn't seem to like the coach. And now Orlando Go,

Orlando lost to a Boston team that was playing three guys on Boston set their career high in that game. Baylor's shy. with 30.7 and 7. Ron Harper Jr. The other kid of Ron Harper in the NBA, Dylan Harper's the number two pick for the Spurs.

His brother goes for 27. Luke Garza goes for 27. Someone I've truly never heard of. The only, like, no, no, no, no. John Tangi. It went for 13. No, I've heard of Luke Garza. Luke Garz has been playing for him intermittently this year.

John Tangi goes for 13. And you had your full lineup and you lost. And now listen, they were not going to be the out of the play in regardless. Like it's not like that cost them the six seed. But they were going to be hosting the Sixers instead of going to the six. Sixers, and that matters. And that's because this game's in Philly, DeMonse. The Sixers without,

Embedde are on Hard Rock Bet, point and a half favorites. So listen, the magic season is going to come to a whimpering end, and that's fine. I believe they'll lose to Philly and then, you know, maybe. I'm going to go on the record and say that I think they're going to beat Philly. Really? I think they're going to beat Philly. I know they're bad, but I just have no faith in Philly. It's, uh, it's all me.

I kind of want to go to that game. Wednesday night, a Sixers playing game. Heck yeah. Also, like, uh, let me, hold on. This is, I want, I want to check and see just real quick. Um, what, like, actual. What would court side or close to court side cost for that? Because I don't think Philly fans right now are, you know, over the moon about the team.

Yeah. All right. Well, it's a court side, even with that, still, well, hold on. All right. You can get the single best seat in the house, center court, court side. is five grand that's a little rich for a magic's sixers game yeah baseline court side is three grand and then okay well now now we're talking my loomys what is this row a a hold on i don't i mean now we're talking is uh daniel seems to know um the hold on let me just see where this row

AA is. Oh, is he right? It's right behind the scores. Right behind the scores table. The two seats like right behind where the broadcasters are. 800 bucks. Hold on. Who's broadcasting this game? That would

I, it might almost be worth it if it's an ESPN broadcast just for me to just be sitting right behind. Who's, who's got that game? Prime. Damn it. Still, it still be cool. It would be a little more fun to be just sitting there.

We have first things like a, you know, vote for first things first for the Emmy T-shirt in the ESPN broadcast. I might go to the game. I got to see your, it would be me Indiana because your mom's in L.A. seeing your daughter. That might happen. I don't know. If they, now the flip side is, you know what, I'm talking about this through in real time.

if I think the Sixers are going to win, which I do, probably better off saving that trip and that money for a game against them in Boston. Yeah, well, because they'd be playing Boston around one, which would be fun. I'm also just scarred by living in New York City and what these MSG tickets cost.

Just unbelievable. I was going to go to Nick Celtics. Celtics, ninth row, forget court side, ninth row in the corner, like corner,

not baseline, but not sideline. Ninth row corner for Nick Celtics regular season was $1,500 a ticket. I was like, you got to be kidding me. I just didn't go.

I was planning on going. I told your mom we were going, and I was like, sorry, but you can't justify it. Just can't justify it. All right, let's talk a little more play or playoff stuff before we get to the other things. So Hawks and Raptors flip-flopped in the standings.

Who do you think is happier Knicks or the Cavs? Well, listen. It's the Cavs. The Knicks, I think, have beaten Toronto 13 games in a row. So the, and they sw, I think they were 5-0 on them this year. So the Knicks would have really liked Toronto in round one. Hawks, meanwhile, have been excellent since the All-Star break. Have the best record in the East since the All-Star break.

Have the best net rating in the East since the All-Star break. So I think Knicks-Hawks is going to be a tough series. There we go. I think at the end of the game, the fact that when the Knicks have to get a bucket, it's Jalen Brunson. And when the Hawks have to get a bucket, it's C.J. McCormick. Cullum, and I like CJ, and he's had an awesome career. That obviously leans heavily to the Knicks favor. But I think this goes seven.

I think we get a Knicks Hawks game seven at MSG. And even as much as I don't trust James Hardin in the playoffs, I don't expect the Raptors to beat them in round one. So I think that, now let me be fair here, because Raptor fans were mad. I left Scotty Barnes off King of the Hill a few weeks back and said I haven't given the Raptors enough respect. You know what? I'm not Zach Lowe and I don't pretend to be. Hand up.

I've not watched a ton of the Raptors this year. There's games on and I'm like, it's very rare when I'm perusing league pass does the Raptor game get first choice. So I will admit, I'm not as dialed maybe. I'm just saying I'm just being honest. 30 team league. First or second. Yeah, I mean, there's just not a ton of nights where I'm like, man, I can't wait to watch the Raptors game.

So maybe they'll surprise me. But I would imagine that the only, I want to know, here's one other thing about Philly in the play-in. And this obviously is a risky business. But I actually think if we expect Embed back for round one, which I don't know anything about recovery from appendectomies and the internet doctors have very differing timelines on this, I think Philly would have a better chance of upsetting Detroit as the eight seed than Boston as the seven seed. Now, in order to get the eight seed, you got to lose your first game and then win your eight. second. So like you don't, you know, that's not a

way to be in. But if you, if you, I just, and there's no disrespect to Detroit, I just think Boston is one of the two best teams in the NBA. And Boston obviously has had success against Philly in the playoffs in the past. All right, today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet, Florida Sportsbooks. Spring is in the air. That can only mean one thing. Baseball back. Hard Rock bet makes it easy to bet on America's pastime in just a few easy taps. Not just picking winners. You can bet on home runs, strikeouts, even whether there's a run scored in the

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In Indiana, if you or someone you know is a gambling problem wants help, call 1-800-9 with it. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, huge news? we created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... 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 did 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 the four 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 guide, 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, S&L'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 the 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 SportsSlice 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, 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 SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelive 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. All right, DeManzai, let's keep going. Our pretty eventful year for the NBA, so we had the crazy MVP race, the tanking.

BAM scored 83 at one point, what will stand out to you the most from this season? Well, I think history, we got to see how the postseason goes and we got to see how the next few years go, really. But I think history will probably remember the story of this season will probably be the ascent of Wimby. I think that will be, you know, Wimby stamping himself as a perennial, legitimate MVP candidate will be how this season is remembered years from now. But again, the vast majority of what we remember from seasons in the past are determined by what happens in the postseason. It is quite rare that the biggest regular season story is the biggest story of that season.

you could argue that in the last decade, the two times that happened the same regular season, where Kobe's final game and the 60 points, that happened the same night of the Warriors getting their 73rd win. That's what, in theory, we remember that season for, but not really because the Warrior 73 win season is always the first half of a sentence that ends with, and then blew a 3-1 lead in the finals. So, like, that is, it's just stories of a season, Wilts 50-point game season, Oscar's triple double season, that was the same season.

That has more resonance than the fact that big shocker, the Celtics won the title that year. But it's usually dictated by what happens in the postseason. But I think Wimby's assent. Bams 83 just continues to be one of, of the most bizarre things that's ever happened in NBA history, but I don't think people will remember when it happened. Just like I don't think the average fan knows what year Kobe scored 81. They just know he scored 81. The MVP race was all time marred a bit by three of the four guys

either barely getting to 65 game eligibility or not getting there. Shea's the only one who cleared it easily. Joker needed to play the final regular season game. Wimby needed to play one of the final two, and Luca missed it, but I think he's going to be eligible, which does allow me, if I may, quickly, here is where I landed with my, and I don't have a vote. You might be like, Nick, you don't have an NBA awards vote? No, why don't you? No way to tell. I used to really want one. I used to campaign for one. My buddy Adam Lefko, I hope he doesn't mind me saying this, you even tried to help get me one.

I'm iced out. So be it. No problem. You know what? And if I had one, I probably would have watched more Raptors. I would have felt a responsibility. But I don't have one, so I'm not obligated. So, you know, it works out for everybody.

Here is how my ballot would have landed. And I think people will be surprised by a shakeup on it. At number five, and a pretty solid and pretty easy number five, because Ant and Kade ended up not being eligible,

Kauai's team is the nine seed. So for me, a pretty solid and easy number five is Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown was the consistent offensive force. I don't give a shit about the fact that actually the Celtics net rating is worse with Jalen Brown on than off doesn't matter. He was their best player all year. He gave them 30 basically every night. They went from a team that we thought would be fighting for the play into a team that was the two seed most of the year. Jalen Brown fifth place.

I know right now he is not eligible. I think he is going to win his appeal. However, missing the end of the season. And the Lakers falling from the three to the four pushed Luca from my second MVP to fourth. I think that the games played in time has to matter. And Luca getting hurt, unfortunately, right when he was playing the best ball of his season, and the Lakers were playing their best ball, pushed him out of my top three. while the games matter, what also really matters is minutes, and that is why at three,

I have Wembe, not higher. Because, listen, Wimby barely hit the game's threshold, just like Joker. However, Wimby's, you know, played so many fewer minutes than all of those other guys that we're talking about. It's just on court time. Now, his impact per minute was excessive. exceptional, but the fact that he played, you know, less basketball essentially than any of these guys is clearly the, even though he's really good, the least impactful offensive player of any of these guys. And the fact that, you know, I think the Spurs made a grievous error in not playing him down, you know, in the final game of the year, how much that impacts his MVP.

he's standing, I don't know, but I have him third. All the way up to second, a guy I had fourth most of the year is Joker. Joker, the team did get to the three seed. He, aside from the time he missed with the sprained knee, was the most consistent off, in my opinion, offensive engine and force in the entire league. That battle he at against Wemby a couple weeks ago was the game of the year in the NBA. and he outplayed Wimby and hit the game-winning impossible, high-arcing turnaround fadeaway jumper over him.

Joker comes in second. And first, because you win 60 plus games, you're the number one seed, you're the scoring champ, you do it on 55%, you're the MVP of the league. First is Shea. Now, do I think Shea's better than Joker? No. Do I think that who would I rather have Shea or Joker? Joker.

Who would I rather have Shea or Luca? If I ignore the health concern with Luca, the answer's Luca. But Shea's production is unimpeachable. His team was the best record in the league, wire to wire. He scored 20 points in every game he played all season. For the second straight year, he's the MVP. And this is an all-time great MVP race. It's not the greatest.

It's an all-time great MVP race. And then last but not least, DeMonsé, is what you said, the tanking epidemic. And it wasn't just tanking. It was resting stars. It was the fact that you're trying to handicap these playoff series and you look at how one team did against another team in the regular season. And it's mostly fucking useless. So it's like, oh, well, in this game, this team was shorthanded. And that game, that team was shorthanded.

And then it's very rare you get full strength on full strength. and I spent a lot of time on this on the TV show. I spent a good deal of time on this on Jason Timp's podcast. But it is, there was an interesting United Bank of Scotland report to shareholders about Nike that came out this week, about Nike's stock drop. And one of the reasons they considered Nike to not be on solid of ground as it once was, was their words not mine, the declining social and cultural relevance of the NBA in America. Wow. And I love this league.

I think for the vast majority of my life, this was my favorite sport. the chiefs turning into the chiefs made the NFL overtake it for me personally, but it is still a strong number two. LeBron's my favorite athlete of all time. I think most people probably consider me more of an authority on the NBA and its history than anything else kind of in my repertoire. And I am here to tell you, the health of the league is not determined by the 75 billion television deal. and that can be misleading about the NBA not doing right by its current and maybe most importantly

future fan base and if Adam Silver plus the players union plus the owners don't take drastic massive measures in addressing how the NBA's regular season has become essentially a boring precursor to its postseason for a lot of the fans your league can become the NBA can become the NHL faster than anybody would think and I I I the there are you know I'm a big proponent of You know, one of the ways to make the regular season matter more is you draft your playoff opponent. The number one seed gets to pick from teams five through eight who they play in round one. And, oh, man, you were, you had an awesome season and then a good season, but your star player is out for a couple weeks.

and you're the five seed, well, too bad. The number one seed pick you guys. Be better next year. Get into that top four. And the two seed then picks of the remaining teams, the three seed picks of the remaining teams. And then in round two, it happens again. Highest remaining seed gets to decide who they play in round two.

And then so that would make the regular season matter more. I there are other things you could do as far as truly penalizing teams not trying to win and truly penalizing teams sitting healthy players and there are real things you need to do to address why the Achilles and soft tissue injuries are so much more rampant about changing the rules of the game because the game has clearly become too much pace and space for players bodies. But if you just keep going forward as if everything's fine, everything will not be fine. And we had a third of the league this year not trying to win.

That's not tenable. Now, I have not figured out the best lottery solution, the best, because every good idea I read, I'm like, oh, that's smart. Then someone comes out with the unintended kind of, consequences of that. I'm like, oh, yeah, that would happen. So I don't have the solve there, but I'm not paid to have the solve there. But that the league needs to address those things. And they're playing a dangerous game if they don't. All right, what are the follow-ups here? Who was the biggest overachiever and biggest underachiever this year? I think the biggest overachiever, it's a two-man race for me. And it's go ahead who do you think i got you got boston i imagine and then you would have oh the spurs no you know now they weren't who came to mind immediately but maybe they should have i was going to

say boston and detroit i didn't think 60 wins i mean Detroit 60 wins and basically best record in the conference the whole year survived kades collapsed lungs fine. Yeah, that's fair. But there, I mean, the Spurs, though, got 62 wins. And I don't think anybody saw that coming. I don't know what would have surprised people more. If before the year, we, I think Detroit was probably is Detroit would have surprised. Yeah. People said that, yeah, the Spurs won 62. We'd be like, oh, Wimby was healthy most. Now, what's so impressive about the Spurs is they did it without Wimby. being healthy the whole year.

Like so, but the, and Boston, we just got numb to the fact that Boston was supposed to win 41 games this year. They won 56 and, you know, Tatum coming back. So those three teams all

are to me massive overachievers. The underachiever list is not short. I'm going to focus on one that we have all kind of forgotten. But this was a team, DeMonse,

that some folks thought was going to be in the NBA finals, was a trendy pick to win the Western Conference. And that's the Dallas Mavericks. And they ended up just being terrible. I was looking on that boat a little bit last year. Yes.

It was like, oh, Cooper Flagg, Kyrie coming back. I told you guys all off-season. Kyrie is not rushing back from an ACL. At this point, especially. And, you know, AD ended up being hurting and then traded. The Mavericks, though, are high on that list. The Clippers, obviously, are high on the list.

In that they were another team, people were like, well, if Kauai's healthy, Kauai had the best healthiest year of his whole Clippers career. They barely got to... And Kavis said that we can't win the championship, literally. Yeah, right. And they ended up being the nine seed. Obviously, Milwaukee's season was a true travesty.

And we already kind of touched on Orlando a bit. Orlando ending up in the play-in is just brutal for them. But I am going to pick two teams. teams or three teams that are all top five seeds as underachievers. Because they had good years and they're good teams. But they all thought we can win the championship this year and I no longer think they can. And that's Houston, Cleveland, and the Knicks. And that might feel unfair to the Knicks because they won more games in last year.

they have better metrics in last year, but they were supposed to be the Pistons. The team that takes advantage of the Downeastern Conference ascends. And if it wasn't them, it was supposed to be the Cavs. Caves ended up having to make a panic trade at midseason. And the Rockets, maybe we all should have sold some of our rocket stock when Fred Van Vleek got hurt and certainly when Stephen Adams was shut down for the year. But Kevin Durant was supposed to be the final piece. And all of those teams feel like nice, solid, good team.

that are going to get popped in round two. And that is disappointing given where we were at on them going into the season. And so that's my answer there. All right, let's go to the true contenders section. So the playoffs are not 100% set yet, but we can kind of guess the paths. Where do you draw the line at teams that are true contenders and pretenders? listen, I believe as we sit here today, there are only four actual. I think that there is a greater than, I'll call it, 97% chance that one of the following four teams wins the championship.

Boston, OKC, Denver, San Antonio. So that's where I would draw the line. I think that we are overwhelmingly likely it's going to be one of those four teams. Now, Pistons fans and Knicks fans are probably, maybe Cavs fans a little bit, are pissed at hearing that. And the fact that three of those teams, are in the West and only ones in the East means maybe I'm overvaluing the Celtics a bit.

But I don't want to call the other teams pretenders. But as far as being able to win the title, I don't see the path. Is there anything you could see from a fringe round of one team to change your mind? I guess you just said you don't see the path. Well, listen, I had for the majority of, the All-Star break up until a week or two ago in that group, the Lakers. So what I could see in round one is Luca coming back. If Luca comes back, then they'd be at the bottom of that group,

but they are in that group. If the Knicks just annihilate the Hawks. Like it hit a playoff gear. that I didn't know they had, then I would reconsider how good of a chance they have to beat Boston.

And so that's, and in the, if you make the finals, you can win the championship. Like everybody thought last year going into the finals, the Pacers had no shot, and Pacers find themselves

leading in a game seven before their best player gets hurt. So like, um, and, and the, if the, if the,

Pistons folks are like, we have a great point differential. We won 60 games. We're healthy now. Cade is back. We have another scorer now that we discovered in Janice Jenkins. Our path is pretty good with the Knicks and Celtics being on the other side of the bracket. Why can't we win the title? I wouldn't have a great rebuttal to that other than I just can't see it.

I think the Pistons are a really good team that are going to be in the conference. finals and lose. But as far as, you know, life on the line, how far would I expand that group, Boston, OKC, Denver, and the Spurs? The, if I'm right, I get $10 million. And if I'm wrong, I, you know, I, the, I have to quit my job about. teams that could win the title, how big would I expand the group? I would add Lakers, Pistons, Knicks, Cavs, if I had to. So essentially, the top four in each conference, I would not be worried that the Raptors,

Hawks, Rockets, Timberwolves are going to, you know, end up costing me. I would be a tiny, tiny, bit worried that Embed comes back healthy and the Sixers look great. Just because of the upper end talent on that team overall. But it's very hard to imagine

them winning four straight rounds. So that might have been a bit of a cop-out. I just said, you know, the top four teams in each conference. But I really think, I think we're down to four real contenders. And I wonder, hold on, Hard Rock Bet, NBA title odds.

I wonder if Hard Rock Bet agrees with me on that. The NBA championship futures, so the Thunder are plus 110, the Celtics are plus 550, the Spurs are plus 500, the Nuggets are plus 1,000, and the next closest team is the Cavs. 16 to 1. So they face Hard Rock Betts with me that,

I mean, Hard Rock bet might say there's really only three contenders that the nuggets aren't in there, but that the nuggets are the, you know, next on the list, so to speak. And then after that, you get real long shots. And the Lakers are a nice, cool, crisp, 250 to 1,

which means they are not optimistic that Luca is coming back, which, is fine. All right, today's episode is sponsored by ethos. You need to be ready for anything in life and making sure you have a plan for your family and the event of unforeseen circumstances should be a top priority. It's certainly at the top of my mind as a parent.

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All right, DeMonze, let's go to the play-in. A few weeks back, you were talking about how the play-in should be canceled, Adam Silver did not listen to you because the play-in starts tonight. Have you changed your tune a little bit on that? So here's what I think about it. I think that there, if you're below 500, you should not qualify for the play-in flatly. I think that is, so like this year,

we wouldn't have a 9-10 in the West. The Warriors would just be out. and I think you have to be fluid and flexible on how the play-in is going to work. Of course, you would have to have rules set in place, but just let me give you an example of how I would do it this season. So the sixth seed in the West, Minnesota has 49 wins. The seven-seed Phoenix has 45, and then the eight-seed, Portland. has 42, same with the Clippers, and the 10 seed Golden State has 37. There should not exist a world

where Golden State makes the playoffs and Phoenix doesn't. Just shouldn't exist. So I would, and if you remember the first ever play in in the bubble, it was something like this. It was like, we will do a tournament if teams are within X amount of games, like they were doing it on the fly. So in the West this year, Phoenix would be in. You won three more games than the eight seed. You're eight games above 500. You're a playoff team. You're in at 45 wins.

And Portland and the Clippers are going to play each other for the eight seed. You're both at 42 wins. That's better than a head-to-head tiebreaker. We could determine who gets home court for that based on season-long head-to-head record. And then the winner is going to be the 8 seed. In the East this year, there actually is a solid argument for the play-in as the 5-6 seeds have 46 wins, the 7- and 8-seeds have 45 wins, and the 9-10 seats have 44 and 43 wins, while Milwaukee's the 11-seed at 32 wins.

So this year in the East, I'm fine with it. Like you, Atlanta got hot enough. They played themselves all the way out of the play-in into the official playoffs. Charlotte played well enough down the stretch. They got themselves into the play-in. And giving Charlotte and Miami a shot to extend their season and Philly and Orlando, you know, a shot to hold serve, that's fine.

So I just, I don't, the, The fact that because the Pelicans were so bad and the rest of the West was so bad that the Warriors with a few weeks to go in the season were basically like, all right, we're going to be a playing team no matter what. I don't think that's helpful. I also am not certain to Monzae the Warriors have much interest in the play in, as they evidently are not, you know, chaos period no i'm i'm just the scykegir said like you made it clear that

steff in horford and i think draymond certainly step in horford like don't get me wrong they're not going to play 40 minutes in this game like they are they're kind of over it and over this season yeah um i mean yeah especially especially those three guys it's very understandable

um no no but it's their season i mean it's a you know their season ends if you lose You don't have to leave a lot in the tank. But I think they know like, so wait, we went back to back, do or die games, and then our reward is we get curb stomped by the thunder in four straight games. Not a lot of fun.

Which team from the play in could I see doing the most damage? I had said throughout the year that I thought if the Clippers ended up against the Spurs in round one, that could be an intriguing matchup. But the Clippers can't get the Spurs in round one. They're the nine, so the highest they can go is the eight seed. And because of that, I don't think anyone that's the eight seed can give the thunder a game. I do wonder if the Sons beat the Blazers tonight, if the Sons could throw a bit of a scare into San Antonio.

They've got Booker and Brooks back, which they haven't had all year long, or I shouldn't say all year long. They lost, they were without both of them for long stretches of the season. They have Booker, they have way more, I guess everybody does, but way more playoff experience than San Antonio,

with Booker having been to the finals, Brooks having been in the playoffs a few times. I just find that matchup potentially intriguing. Probably it's just Spurs and 5, but it's potentially intriguing. And in the East, my answer is only Philly and only if Embedde comes back from the appendectomy. But I do. Oh, wow. Can you guys hear that? Yeah. There's, you guys hear that in the background?

Somebody's being scolded outside. somebody's there's a big argument going on right outside our podcast window i don't know the i'm wow they're just really still just yelling at each other all right well just keep it rolling i don't know how distracting is for the audience but you know city living um all right let's talk of lakers actually first let me tell you guys this um you ever notice how everything keeps going up rents going up streaming services going up your favorite burrito spot suddenly thinks salza is going to cost extra, but Boost Mobile, you and your phone bill don't have to play the will this go up soon game. Why? Because Boost Mobile is unlimited. Talk, text, and data plan at a price

that'll never go up. In fact, it's the same price you pay for life. So switch now for unlimited wireless at a price that'll never go up only at Boost Mobile. After 30 gigs, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $25 per month as long as they remain active on the Boost Unlimited Plan. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news? 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, 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, S&L'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 the 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,

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 SportsClyce on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. All right, DeManzai, let's go to the Lakers. All right, so Luca will not get back from Spain until later this week and we'll still need to be re-evaluated when he gets back. Reeves is looking even worse, and Houston is minus 800 favorites. Vegas knows what's best usually.

How are you reading into this? I mean, that they think the Lakers got no shot. They're five-point dogs for game one in L.A. And listen, and we'll talk more about this specific series on Thursday. But obviously, it would be a total catastrophe. for the Rockets to lose this series. And a stinging Durant indictment. If this is,

if you were to say, listen, I understand I'm probably in the minority here, but I think he's proving it the moment he's asked to be the lead option again, the level LeBron can still get to. I think LeBron is still better than Durant. I think the Lakers do have the best player in this series.

I also think the Rockets have the next five. Like, that's the, if I were stacking players in this series, I would go, Braun, followed by Durant, Shingoon, Amin Thompson. I like Reed Shepherd. It doesn't seem like Ima Hutoka does. Jabari Smith is probably the next five before I get to another Laker. Like right now is the second best Laker I don't know

Luke Conard Is it is it Rui You know I'm not Mark is smart Part of the second most important And so They don't think If they can get a game though

That's the thing Get a game Get a game And See what happens So what is Hold on Do we have the full

even though we don't hold on oh no we don't gosh darn it stupid playing because we don't know they haven't set the full schedule yet so like we don't know you know how many days are between games and all of it now they spread the first round out a lot um can they split the first two in la and then can they steal one of the next two in houston and make it a best of three with Luca heroically returning for a game five. That would be the path. Now, is Luca going to return?

I got no idea. It doesn't seem like there's a ton of optimism surrounding it, but he clearly thinks he can return or else he wouldn't have gone to Spain for this treatment. But we'll do a full-blown series preview on Thursday for Lakers Rockets. But I just the, as LeBron, by the way, yesterday was named the Western Conference Player of the Week for the final week of the season, which puts him at a nice, tidy,

70 player of the week awards in his career. Second most in NBA history is either Durant or Kobe with 30. and so he also he also I think has 41 player of the month awards and I think second most is 17 and so

the it'll never end well no that those types of things are just never going to be touched ever if if LeBron could pull this off it would

be one of the most impressive non-championship-related feats of his career. Like the most impressive LeBron playoff moments or stretches that didn't end in a championship was when he was 22 years old in 07 carrying the Cavs to the NBA finals, including the 48 special, and announcing himself as the best player in the league. When he was 30 years old in 2015, that final series that they lost 4-2 to the Warriors, when he averaged 36, 13, and 9, and the guy guarding him won finals MVP because they held him to 36, 13, and 9, when he didn't have Kevin Love or Kyrie Irving. And then when he was 33 years old in 2018, the run to the NBA final.

with no Kyrie, that Cavs team, when he had eight 40-point games, two buzzer beaters, and then the greatest game anyone's ever played in the history of the league, the 51, 9-9-9 game one of the finals to Katie and Steph and the Warriors. Those are the most impressive non-championship adjacent accomplishments. At 41 in year 23, if you were to pull this off, it's right up there.

But my God, that's a huge ask. My God, it's a huge ask. All right, De Manzay, now for your favorite thing. Let's get to the Masters. So, yeah, Roy won the Masters again, becoming just the fourth to ever win back to back. He held a big lead, stumbled a bit, and then got it back, finishing 12 under.

What were your biggest takeaways from the Masters? is a shoe. It's just, I mean, the sight of the fact that every golfer I bet on in the morning of a round, then just played their worst round of the tournament. It's really unbelievable. I mean, I bet on Kepka Sunday morning and by, no, that's wrong. I bet on Kepka, whenever I bet on Kepka right before he collapsed a bit. I bet on Shane Lowry Sunday morning. he was a couple strokes off the lead by the third hole

CBS wasn't even showing his shots anymore. They're like he's out of it. But my biggest takeaway is Rory has reached his destiny, which is he's the greatest European golfer of all time. Bar none. Sorry to Sevi

by Astero, sorry to Nick Faldo. He's the greatest. He is, in my opinion, the second greatest golfer of the last 30 years behind only Tiger. I think he's better than Phil. And he won four majors almost instantly. And then DeMond's day, it was really weird up until last year's Masters. The decade leading into it, he won the FedEx Cup multiple times. He was player of the year multiple times.

He was the number one ranked golfer in the world for 122 weeks in his career. But he didn't win a single major. So he won four right off the bat, went a decade without winning him. Then last year at the Masters, four-shot lead with six to play, collapses, recovers, wins it. This year at the Masters, six-shot lead going into Saturday, loses it by the 14th. 14th hole Saturday recovers to be the co-leader going into Sunday. Early Sunday is two shots down, has blown the lead entirely, recovers to win kind of comfortably. And now he's at 6 at age 36 and can just keep winning.

And so the greatest non-American golfer ever is Gary Player, South Africa. African with nine majors, he could run him down. Like him, him getting to double digit majors is on the board. He's dialed all the pressures off him. He has the career grand slam. He's won the Masters back to back. And he seems at peace and very happy.

And I'm so happy for him. And his family story is so interesting to Monze. Like golf is kind of typically like a rich person sport. They were not a rich family. His parents early on recognized that he was this prodigious talent and reworked their entire careers and life schedule around around nurturing his talent. I think I've told the story, but I've told it poorly before.

So I'm going to Google it to get it exactly right. Roy McElroy, dad bet British Open. He was a kid. So, so this is a great story. That let me, okay, so this is so good, DeMonsay. You know, in the UK, gambling's been legal forever. And they just, like, you just walk up. It's like almost like the frequency of like a check cashing place.

There's little gambling kiosks or, you know, places. You walk in and make a bet. So Rory, Rory's 36. So hold on. I want to make sure I get this right. So Rory was born in 1989. Okay. So in 2004, so Rory was 14 or 15.

Rory's dad and some friends walked into one of these betting parlors and asked them, said, hey, what odds will you give me that my son, 14-year-old, wins the British Open in the next 10 years? And they made them a line. They were like, I don't know.

500 to 1. Yeah. So he and his friends pulled together 200 pounds, which is the equivalent of $340 at the time, and bet Rory to win the British Open within 10 years. That was in 2004. And in 2014, 23-year-old Rory McElroy won the British Open.

That's freaking. And isn't that unbelievable? I mean, did they go there immediately? You got to go collect that. I mean, I don't know. They won 140 grand. And it's so cool, right? Like, that is such a cool thing.

And so he was 14 at the time, you said? 13, 14? He was 14. He was 14 and he was a great youth golfer. And they, you know, it's not like they have lines posted on that. The bookmaker made the line for him. Like, sure, buddy. This guy's going to give me to him.

pounds he thinks his kid's going to win the British open and by the way in a very narrow window right like really only means he's what but also but he's 14 when you bet it no you can't win a major you know at 17 like so it's really saying like he's going to win it in this three year band and he did it um and so the it's just really cool and listen Rory's a somewhat polarizing guy because he can be a bit of a clue i guess but i love you think that the odds were a little low for that oh yeah you got terrible odds of course like a guy uh the i mean 500 to one on a good professional golfer so no no what i'm saying is what i'm saying is like let me think of somebody who we watch this week weekend.

Like, I would imagine, like, the odds of, of Hedekhi Matsuyama winning the British Open in the next 10 years. He's an active, accomplished professional golfer who's won a major. It's probably like 75 to 1. Like, so to bet it on, no, the fair odds should have been like, 5,000 to 1. Right.

But whatever it is, it's just so cool. And I'm really happy for him. Now, evidently, I didn't realize this. Evidently, this, I'm reading from this article from 10 years ago. The bets are called special odds request. People in Europe frequently called bookmakers like Ladbrokes to place a bet on their offspring winning some major sporting event. Bridge said the firm takes more than 300 of these bets a year,

and one bet usually comes through every couple of years. And it says the last big one that paid off, when Lewis Hamilton, the F1 driver, who ended up for a time being the best F1 driver alive, when he was nine years old, friends and family placed a wager of under 100 pounds that he would one day win a Formula One race and the F1 championship.

And their 100 pound bet paid off 100. $125,000 or 125,000 pounds. So they got great odds. They got way better odds than Rory and his head to win the champion. That's really cool. I like that. Really cool. And so I'm happy.

Yeah. No, I'm just like, how did the Rory thing? Like is his parents, they just took him to a game. He's hitting around and they're like, yeah, dude, you're going to win the masters. Well, I mean, I think he obviously was an amateur golfer. And just, but as a little kid, he was better than everybody. Yeah. And as a little kid being better than everyone, they then poured all their resources into it.

And now he is legitimately one of the 10 greatest golfers of the last 100 years. And it's really cool. Proozers asked me, what 10-year bet would I put on Deanna now? Oh, that's such a good one. Ten year bet? I mean, in a TV roll, right? Or like a small, like actually on 10 years? I could really go like off the board, huge upset, probably get the best odds on it.

Would she, would Deanna be my first of my three kids ever to be arrested for something on the board? Sometimes things go a different way. Talk to you guys Thursday. What's right. Hey guys, it's us The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? 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. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories,

their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lerabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stub's tennis podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.