The Herd with Colin Cowherd - What's Wright - NBA PLAYOFF REACTION: Knicks & Nuggets CHOKE, LeBron & Lakers CAPITALIZE | Nick Wright

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet.   Nick Wright recaps the opening games from the NBA Playoffs, starting with Jalen Brunson's New York Knicks blowing a late lead against CJ McCollum and the Atlanta Hawks as well as Nikola Jokic's Denver Nuggets falling to Anthony Edwards' Minnesota Timberwolves. Then, Nick debates what LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers' chances are against the Houston Rockets given Kevin Durant’s injuries and Luka Doncic returning to practice. After, Nick discusses the upcoming NFL Draft and the Cincinnati Bengals trading for Dexter Lawrence. Later, Nick and Damonza answer your questions. #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This episode of What's Rightvin the Grite is presented to you by Boost Mobile. DeMonsei, good morning. Great to see you. Good morning. Listen, folks, I tried to prepare everyone. few days ago about the gauntlet we were all entering with the first few rounds of the NBA playoffs and just game after game night after night, sleep deprivation. You've got to prepare for these types of things. Oh, wow, breaking news, right to start the show. Billy Donovan out as

the Bulls head coach. That's probably more his decision than anything else. Billy Donovan, I wonder if he'll be interested in going back to college. I also, think he probably could get a better job than the Bulls head coaching job. That actually starts and finishes are Chicago Bulls coverage for the 2025, 2026 NBA season. They only have been referenced when we see guys they couldn't make work like A.O. Last night or Kobe White during the play in when we see those guys make contributions for other teams.

but that team is rudderless and directionless. Maybe with the new front office, they'll be better. But I think Billy Donovan's good coach, but he evidently is out. But great to see you. NBA playoffs have delivered already. We are not starting today with the Laker game from this weekend, even though that is probably what I'm most excited to discuss as they play this evening because there were two great games last night.

Three games, two great games last night. the Cavs credit to them for it not being a great game. They've looked awesome. Now, the Raptors don't appear to be ready. Brandon Ingram had arguably the worst game of his career in that spot. But the Cavs are doing what they're supposed to do as the favored team in the series. But as we're seeing in these other series, the Pistons, the Nuggets, the Nicks, the Rockets, being the favorite team does not guarantee you go up to nothing to start the series.

So we'll get into all of that. But first, straight to voicemail brought to you by our friends at Boost Mobile. The 49ers extend Trent Williams, quite simply, just one of the greatest left tackles in the history of the NFL, and one of the greatest, I mean, I'm 41-year-old grandfather. I can't say bag-getter, but one of the greatest guys at security. you know, that he gets paid. Yeah, I know, but I feel so corny saying that. At making sure he gets paid what he deserves. Does an all-time great player got a new contract is he's 38 years old now,

37 years old? Um, Wimby wins the first ever unanimous defensive player of the year. Now, he deserves it, but every time we have unanimous awards and defensive player of the year awards come out, I'm reminded of what was stolen from LeBron James because LeBron James one year got 100 out of 101 first place MVP votes. And the reason he didn't win it unanimously was because Gary Washburn decided someone needed to recognize Carmelo Anthony's season. Even though nobody thought Carmelo Anthony was the MVP. He's like, I'll do it. And so that's why LeBron, that's why LeBron, no, not defense, MVP. Did I say defense?

Because you were talking about Wembe unanimous. I thought we were talking about LeBron unanimous. Okay, copy. LeBron would have been the first ever unanimous. No, no, no. LeBron would have been the first ever unanimous MVP, but it was denied by Gary Washburn. And that same year, LeBron should have won defensive player of the year for the only time of his career that he would have won it, but somehow Mark Gassall won the award despite

not being first team all defense. So that 2013 season really kind of a tough one. And I think of it whenever we have a defensive player of the year, whenever we have a unanimous award winner, this happens to be both. With that said, it would have been ridiculous for anyone to vote for anyone other than Wimby for first place. He was far and away the most dominant defensive player in the sport this year and question marks about the future of steve cur and the warriors go ahead and mark me down as someone that thinks steve ker will be back and will be back at quite the raise we'll see i think that the he'll i think cur is going to stick around try to stick around for as long as step is there but i also think cur is like well he guys probably could pay me a little more even though he makes a ton of

money and why not exert a little bit of leverage there. I don't know that for a fact. It's just my gut. I don't think Kerr's walking away. Reminder to everybody, like, rate, subscribe, review to the show. Demonset, let's get to the late, late game last night, Wolves Nuggets. Things are getting spicy over there in Denver and Minnesota. Denver had pretty much control throughout the game. Minnesota snatched it away at the end there carried by aunt.

The robbery is heating up. What do you think that the story was of game two? well listen Denver had a 19 point lead almost instantly but Minnesota raced out in the second quarter and it took a Jamal Murray heave at half time almost the exact shot from the almost the exact same distance that Jerry West once won a finals game uh Jamal Murray hit a 50 footer to get it tied at halftime and then it was back and forth the entirety of the second half, Minnesota ends up stealing it. So there are a bunch of takeaways I have for this. My number one takeaway is very simple. Rudy Gobert won his matchup with Nikola Yokic. It's almost impossible to do. It is incredibly

rarely done, but Rudy Gobert, despite I think what did he have, four points in the game, was one of four from the field. How many points did he have? Am I, oh, two points? No, just the one dunk late. And right after Gobert dunked on kind of a scramble, loose ball situation, right on Joker, Joker had, I think, his only dunk, one-handed dunk in traffic I've maybe ever seen from him. But Gobert gave Joker help. And aside from a second quarter, when Joker really got in the flow, he's such a great offensive player that he can have 24, 15, and 8, and you feel like he wasn't that dominant, but that's what it was.

Yes, listen, it is as high of a compliment as you can pay a guy. He is held almost to a LeBron-ish standard where the first two games of this series, he has had 25, 13 and 11, 24, 15, and 8, and if you're Minnesota, you feel like we're doing great. We're holding him to right under 50% shooting. He can't make a three. He's not killing us with his passing. And Gobert is making him work for him.

And listen, very late in the game, down two with the ball, Joker drove in the lane and I thought had a little floater that for some reason or another he decided to try to pass

to Christian Brown and got a little piece of it there was a little scrum Brown gets it off, gets fouled and misses a free throw like that was not a great Joker game. You add to it that

Jamal Murray had 26 points, two minutes into the second half, and finished with 30. So he was held to four points in the final four minutes, or 24 minutes of the game, I should say. Pardon me. That's the story of the game. What happened? I'm going to, the fourth quarter, I had it, but I'm going to pull it back up. In that fourth quarter, Joker going one of seven and Jamal going one of five,

those two guys go two of 12, you're going to lose. Now, they still had opportunities to win and they could have stolen it back. But the Nuggets defense is not good enough against any legitimate competition to survive, long stretches of Joker and Murray struggling on offense. And you give Jade McDaniels and that entire crew credit for what they did on Jamal. And you give primarily Rudy Gobert credit for what he did in that fourth quarter on Joker. Because the first half of both of these games, Joker has not, done much in the third quarter when Gobert only played five minutes Joker goes off for

16.7 rebounds and then Gobert was out there for the whole fourth quarter and Joker looked uncomfortable and you know Joker's pressing when he goes to the dark arts when all of a sudden he's you know flopping a bit doing his little run-up the court thing where like he almost makes the other guy foul him like the guy is a sick competitor and a crazy smart player and he'll try to find a way to get himself going but the story of that game was Rudy Gobert the much maligned mocked by many myself included Rudy Gobert, they got him specifically to deal with Nikola Yokic in a playoff series, and because of that, they have had basically more success than any other team in the Western Conference

when playing the Nuggets. Now, Joker's stats have been awesome against Minnesota, but they built their team. this is always the worry. This is the worry some would have, and I had last year for the Celtics when they played the Knicks. This was the concern two years ago in the playoffs when the Timberwolves played the Nuggets. When a team has been built,

not specifically to win a championship, but instead been built specifically to beat one other team in the league, that's in their way to win. to get to a championship, those matchups can be closer than you think. And that's what Timberwolves Nuggets has been. The guy who built the Nuggets, got hired to then build the Timberwolves,

and he built them with the Nugget beating the Nuggets in mind. And I said I didn't think, I picked Nuggets in Six, and I still think it'll be Nuggets in Six. But I said I would have been, shocked if the Timberwolves won this series. I now will downgrade shocked to very surprised. Now, I will say this, DeMonze, and this is a issue for the entirety of the postseason,

and this happens on every show and on every podcast. And I don't know how to fix it. every playoff series that isn't just a route any playoff series that's relatively close whichever team won the last game always feels like they're going to win the series yeah like it feels like they the unless you know there are there are exceptions to that but you know we're going to talk pistons uh magic later the the entirety of the that commentary after game one was, oh my goodness,

the Pistons might be in real, real trouble. Here's why the magic and if the Pistons win tonight, or do they play tonight or tomorrow? I don't even remember what the next game is. It should be today. Well, they spread it out. It's going to be that, no,

that the tomorrow? They play tomorrow. Yeah, because they're not going to be four games every day. There's going to be three, so there's going to be some bigger gaps. It's going to be the Pistons, have taken control all the way back. Like, so I always try to caution myself against that. I do have trouble doing it.

But after game one of this series, it looked like Minnesota. Ant was limping around. It didn't look like himself. And we're going to get to him in a second. You know, what was Minnesota going to do after game, you know, after the first quarter of game two, it's like, okay, Denver's just in another class. After the end of game two,

feels, could Minnesota steal it? I would still be very surprised if Denver lost. And I know San Antonio, with no disrespect to the Timberwolves, is rooting for Minnesota. But, Joker's got to get going in a way that befits best player in the world, which is what most of us have been calling him all year long,

and he has not quite played up to that level. It's early, but he has not quite played up to that level through two games of the playoffs. All right, let's talk Ant here. So he's clearly limping around. He's got something going on with his knee. How concerning is that for the series and Minnesota going forward? I think it's hugely concerning on both fronts.

Like, they can't win this series or go on a really long run without Ant being awesome. And Ant was somewhat inefficient, but still really good last night, and played 40 minutes, even though he's not at 100%. And here's what I want to say about Anthony Edwards. There is something to be said for the guys. left in the league, particularly the young guys, who instead of trying to sell calls and feign contact, plays through all the contact.

And this is one of the reasons, I'm going to, sorry, invoke for the fourth time already on the show, LeBron, that I get so irritated when LeBron gets nailed with like, oh, even, gosh, even some of the, I think it was Seth Davis, was like writing a long tweet about how underappreciated LeBron is. And even in this long tweet, he was like, yeah, maybe he flops too much. Like, there are certain guys, and I'll use LeBron as an example, that certainly when they get hit in the face,

Really sell it. Like really sell it and try to maybe even exaggerate how much it hurt so it could maybe get reviewed. Yeah, that, do that. And LeBron definitely does that. But Anthony Edwards is cut from the LeBron cloth in this regard. If I am trying to get to the basket and you hit me. I'm going straight through you. I am going through you.

My goal at no point is to draw a foul. My goal is to make the basket. Yes. And I don't know if analytically or strategically, if you're a great free-throw shooter like Anthony Edwards is, that's even the smart way to play. Like a contested layup when you get hit where you don't get a foul call is probably worth less points than as soon as you get hit flailing backwards and going to the line.

But Anthony Edwards doesn't give a shit. He's there to go through you. And I love that about it. I love it about it. And same way on jumpers, there was a jumper in game one. He landed on a guy's foot. And he could have done that like fallback thing, try to get a flag or foul. He just plays through it.

And... Very respectable. So it's... And aesthetically pleasing. Correct. Respectable and a fun way to watch. And if Oklahoma City fans are like, is he sub-tweeting Shay? Yes.

100%. I am. And I think it's one of the reasons one guy captures the imagination. imagination and is more popular amongst casual fans even listen anthony edwards has never won anything anthony edwards has never come close to winning a league MVP anthony edwards has never been to the finals they're the sixth seed this year we think they're going to lose early but people like and respect the way he plays and it makes your route for him the with all that said His knee doesn't look right.

Now, he's going to play through it, but he is going to have to be even better than he was in the first two games of this series. If they're going to pull off the outset. Yeah, listen, I don't know anything about runners' knee. And it seems like it's the same thing Steph was dealing with, so I'm not sure. All right, let's go to this. Denver side of it. Oh, so you got Denver in the finals.

Do you think that their defense looks like a team that could sustain a run to the finals or winning a finals? Well, let's, as you said, Jaden Daniels was asked about the keys for Minnesota offensively against that Denver defense. Here's what he had to say. Well, Yokish, Jamal, all the bad defenders, Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team. just go out of them. They're all bad defenders. Bulletin board material. I mean, so here's the thing.

He's not, I don't think Cam Johnson's a bad defender, okay? And Aaron Gordon is a very good defender. He's not really wrong about the other guys. Jamal Murray's a bad defender. Tim Hardaway Jr. is a bad defender. Christian Brown's not a good defender. Joker is a great defensive rebounder and is big enough that he can, but he still can struggle a lot. But the guy who should take that the most personal is Aaron Gordon, who has struggled.

Now, the other guy on their team who's not a bad defender is Peyton Watson, but Peyton Watson's been out injured. but Aaron Gordon has to play better he's been a knockdown three-point shooter all season he's one of nine this series he has not been winning his defensive matchups the way you would want him to

in this spot and that's what his job is so all those guys should take it personal but not many of them can do much about it except for Aaron Gordon maybe Cam Johnson a little bit I don't I maybe people disagree me I don't consider Cam Johnson a bad defender um I do like the Jaden McDaniels just does not care about and the no he'll talk yes yeah and the timber wolves

clearly think they're as good as the nuggets they've played them like 30 times over the last three years It's somewhere close to 15 to 15. They're like, we're just as good as you. And I expect this series, Demonsay. I expect them to split the two in Minnesota. I expect Denver to win game five back in Denver. And then we'll see if Minnesota can force a game seven by winning game six back in Minnesota. it is worth noting that the last time they played in the playoffs,

it was 3-2 going back to Minnesota. Minnesota won by a million in game six, and then in game seven, and this is the one when we're talking, when folks bring up, Joker's place in history, Daniel's going to commit Sapoku, Sapuku, hearing all this.

when people bring up joker's place in history and they're like well what more do you want them to do it can't just be the rings a fair yeah but is when they were the defending champs they had a 20 point lead in game seven of round two at home and lost Now, I don't know that what the, how the rest of that would have gone. They would have then had to play Luca and the Mabs in the conference finals, and then they would have had to play the Celtics and the NBA finals. But that was, you know, that's the spot where it's like, ooh, that's a tough one.

You know, as the defending champs, 20-point home game set. lead and you blow it, the reason I bring that up is if this, there aren't many teams that in Denver for a game seven at altitude would feel good about their spot. Yeah, we got it. But Minnesota might be the one. And so if you're, Denver is still in control of the series, even though they lost home court. but Minnesota's got to feel pretty damn good about where it's at. A team that does not feel good about where it's at is the Knicks.

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about gambling in Florida, call 1-833 play-wise. In Indiana, if you or someone you know as 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, 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 a... 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, guys?

I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And, 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.

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and listen now. All right, Damanzai, let's talk Hawks Knicks. The Knicks blew a late lead, a late lead in the fourth. CJ McCollum cook the Knicks last night. The series is now tied 1-1. How nervous should Nick's fans be right now?

I'd be, listen, I picked Hawks in 7, so I didn't think, I'm sorry, Knicks in 7. I picked Knicks and 7. You picked the Hawks, right?

Yep. So I didn't think it'd be easy. However, shout out to C.J. McCollum, because all of my kind of Cliff's notes analysis of this series was, if a game comes down to a possession game going back and forth in the final moments, one team has Jalen Brunson and the other team has C.J. McCollum. And what I was saying was C.J. has been good and no disrespect at all to C.J. But you've got to like Jalen Brunson in that spot. Not last night.

C.J. was unbelievable. And Jalen was a little bit of a shot chucker last night. and you know i thought cj potentially had blown it with those two back-to-back miss free throws which were shocking also and i'm not going to kill noah eagle or nbc for this uh live broadcasting is hard but it was a very unfortunate statistical mistake they made so let me explain because a lot of people probably people listening right now think why didn't the nix call time out at the end CJ misses those free throws with what five seconds left and the nicks just race up the court and the answer is the nicks didn't have a timeout so here's the sequence of events here and

are only allowed to have two timeouts in the final three minutes of a game. If you have more than that, it goes away. That's why they call it a use it or lose it timeout. You have to use your third to last timeout prior to the three minute mark of the fourth quarter. The Knicks had three timeouts with four minutes left. Mike Brown called what I think he wanted to be their user-or-lose-it timeout with 247 left. But it's called user-or-lose-it because if you don't use it by the three-minute mark, you do lose it. So they didn't have three timeouts left in that spot.

They had two timeouts left. He then called his final timeout after the Hawks went up four with 10 seconds left. The graphics people, if you're watching the game, the graphics people knew it. They didn't have the Knicks with any timeouts. They had it grayed out. Their little dashes for the timeouts. They were all grayed out. But then when CJ goes to the line, the broadcast starts talking about how the Knicks

assuredly will take a timeout after CJ's free throws. and all of a sudden, one of the little timeout dashes repopulates as if they do have one. So since the broadcast said they had one and then the graphics all of a sudden showed they had one, I figured in real time, oh, they just accidentally grayed out their timeout. They did have one. And then CJ misses the free throws and they just go run. as it turns out, they knew they had no timeout, and that's what they had to do in that spot. It's just, again, I think they've done a good job.

I think Noah Eagle doesn't. Really nice job. This is not taking a shot. This is just acknowledging it was confusing for the audience as to, really, you have a timeout, and you're going to end up getting a transition turnaround, Mikhail Bridge's jump shot. That's not great. Um, but that's, I was like,

what the hell is going on? Yeah, that was everyone's initial thoughts. Um, and so, but that's not what happened. They had no choice. So that's the, that's the first kind of piece of it. Now,

I said that this was about as bad of a round one loss as you're going to see. Uh, and, you know, our producers want to know why I think that was worse than the Nuggets loss. The Nuggets, That game was tied. The Nuggets had a huge lead early,

but those of, they won the, the Nuggets won the first quarter, 39 to 25, and lost the second quarter, 39 to 25. You don't have control of an NBA playoff game

in the first half, unless you're up 25 points. Like at 25 points, if you lose that game, it's a catastrophe. Almost any other first half lead can be lost, as evidenced by the fact,

that the Nuggets had an 18 point first half lead and needed a 50-footer at the buzzer of the first half not to trail by three going into halftime. And then that game, the entire second half, was nip and tuck. The Knicks, on the other hand, this is the first time the Knicks have blown a double-digit lead going into the fourth quarter of a playoff game since their first. Reggie Miller choke sign game. It's been 30, it's been more than 30 years. They were up a dozen going into the fourth and were in total control of the series.

And like Atlanta's best player, I mean, we can say CJ McCollum, but Jalen Johnson up to that point, it really done nothing. And like the Hawks with just C.J. McCollum and like no Jailen Johnson company, you've got no business with that roster for the Knicks. losing that game. And Nikiel Alexander Walker, their third best player, was not good. It was three of 12 for nine points. Now, the Hawks have some excellent defenders,

but you let Jonathan Cominga and C.J. McCollum combine for 50 on your head in your building to blow a double-digit fourth-quarter lead. That's just brutal. It doesn't, it really doesn't get much worse than that. and Jalen going 10 of 26 it's too many shots when Towns goes 8 for 12 Jalen can't go point guard well I mean he I mean he's there he is their point guard and that's fine but he can't he can't go 10 of 26 and

now listen he hit a huge three late to tie it just real quick he had a huge three late to tie it and then he hit the another huge three to cut it to one with seven seconds left the guy's clutch there's no doubting that but he was looking for a shot a little too often in the second half to Monzae

he took 13 shots plus six free throws and had one assist that Jose Alvarado in his seven minutes in the second half had three assists like you just can't have that what was your question I'm sorry no I'm just saying like get your teammates more involved like maybe Mikhail Bridges hits that shot if he had like a couple more shot of times before but yes look for your guys your point guard yeah 10 of 26 is not okay at home in a spot where you guys are the better team and you had control and here and this is one of the things i love just love so much about the NBA playoffs is everything matters it's a two-month war and every little battle matters and this is now even if the nicks went now the nicks maybe they won't win the series i still think they will maybe they won't but even if they win this series, there is attacks on that fourth quarter.

They're a little more banged up or a little more exhausted when they get to Boston. Embedd's not coming back. Boston's about to be chilling. And I would be stunned. It absolutely gobsmacked if the Celtic Sixers series goes more than five. I think at this point, probably it goes four.

But give, I mean, there's a long, long history in the NBA of a team winning the first two at home handily. Relaxing a bit. The other team at home keeps its season alive with a game three victory. and then the better team lays the smackdown in game four to go up 3-1 and essentially put the series away. So it's really hard to predict a sweep unless you think one team is just so wildly overmatched. Like I'm not even picking a sweep right now in OKC Phoenix. Yeah, I mean, yeah. And so the sweeps are just hard to come by.

they could, but my point is Boston is going to be done after five games. Yeah. Maximum. The Knicks had no business losing that game. And I don't want to focus too much on the losers rather than the winner. C.J. McCollum has had an awesome career, an awesome career, and he deserves credit for it. because I mean he's first of all he's been in the league 13 years at his size out of Lehigh it's just it is Lehigh right fact check me on that guys I'm pretty sure he went to Lehigh a guy who was in the playoffs every year of the first you know all his whole career in Portland and was an awesome playoff performer like you take out

his rookie year okay and CJ in his playoff career in Portland 51 games 22 a game on you know pretty efficient shooting almost 40% from three in the one playoff series he played in New Orleans or the his first play I'm looking at it right now his first playoff series in New Orleans I should say he was 22 a game so I mean he's been in he's been in the league 13 years he's been in the playoffs 11 of those years despite spending one of the years in Washington where you just have no shot and and a few of the years in New Orleans where you got to the playoffs twice there.

Like it's for his career to Monzae, he's 20 a game in the playoffs. Over 70 playoff games. So, I mean, that's not nothing. And for him at his age, at 30, 34 years old, to put up a 32-point playoff game, is really impressive. Oh, yeah, they've shown FUCJ. That's so cool for him.

And I think this is his, I am going to check, but I'm not checking yet. Memory tells me he had like a 40-point playoff game in Portland. But aside from that, I had one. Aside from that, I feel like this is his second highest scoring. Now I'm checking. I had it. I can now check. Oh, he has two 41-point playoff games in Portland.

One, okay, one a loss to the war, to the Steph KD, Juggernaut Warriors. Poor guy. And then won a quadruple overtime 41-point game in a win over Denver. And so, yeah, I mean, I guess he has now 11 career 30-point playoff games. Like, shout out to CJ. It seems like a good dude, solid teammate, too, all that stuff. Great, dude. I never hear anything bad about C. Jim Cole.

Great dude. So back when he, when first things first was in the morning, so 2018 maybe, he was um okay i wanted to make sure that he was still married i can you guys check that for me um the all right it looks it looks like he is back when first things first was on in the morning um CJ was engaged to a young lady who is going to dental school in new york city and he would come in studio and beat like during some of the playoffs when he was in New York staying with his fiance and be like our basketball analyst and then he has he had like a small vineyard I think because I just remember he sent us wine I remember it because one year I forgot to participate in

first things first secret Santa and when it was my turn to give a gift no I just he had sent us wine. I got the wine from my office that he had given me and I gave it as my secret Santa present because I had forgotten to buy a present. But the, yeah, no, I mean, the young lady, her IG bio is, or one of the captions on one of her pictures, I should say, is five years married 13 years together. So, and they got pictures of their kids. So, I mean, no, he's a really good and I'm happy for him. He's kind of always lived in these trade rumors. He's had this tradable contract.

He and Simmons joked about that, that he always, but he ended up being the big prize in the Tray Young trade. Yeah. Like he was the big, he was the big return. And listen, the Knicks are in for a dog fight. um as i happen to believe whoever wins this series is going to get beat up by boston so you know the the hawks i don't think can provide much resistance and i know the nicks beat the celtics last year i don't

see that happening again um but those of us that thought this was going to be a seven game series it kind of is looking like that. And the folks like DeMonsie, Danny as well, who were bold enough to say Hawks can win it, that fourth quarter last night gives them more than a fighting chance. All right, we'll do Lakers in a second. But first, summer is just a couple months away. It's the perfect time to think about getting into better shape.

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life plus free shipping and three free gifts at men go to mars dot com that's men go to mars dot com for 50% off and three free gifts when you check out it's also available on amazon after you purchase they're going to ask where you heard about them support our show and tell them we sing hey it's us the jonas brothers and guess what we have some big news what's the news 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. And, 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. Welcome to my new podcast.

Learn the hard way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase

that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it, and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes a ball. wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person

while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose

on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search, learn the hard way, and listen now. All right, DeMonse, let's talk a little Lakers here. So, Katie, missed the game one against the Lakers. Lakers are now up 1-0. They have dropped from minus 800 to minus 230 to win the series.

So Houston was without Katie. And then Luca is also back at practice since yesterday. Have you seen enough to switch your pick from Houston to the Lakers? Yeah. I'm going to go with the Lakers. There we go. um LeBron James is quite simply the most remarkable athlete of many of our lifetimes.

Um, and I don't know what much more can be said that hasn't been said. It someone sent me the day of game one, nine years prior to the day. I was a guest on Colin Cowherd show talking about the longevity of LeBron James. Nine years ago this week, it was 2017. He was in year 14.

And he had, he was, had gone to six straight finals. And the Warriors, you know, were in the midst of their first playoff run. with Durant and people were trying to convince themselves that Kauai Leonard had overtaken LeBron as the best two-way player in the sport when LeBron was the defending champ. And I talked about the remarkable nature of the fact that LeBron at that point had been to the playoffs 12 years in a row and never once missed a play. game. Well, now it's at damn near 300 career playoff games. And while, and it's bad luck, and I love KD. KD. got banged up in practice and can't go. And Steph, for the fourth time

since KD. left the Warriors, doesn't make the playoffs at all. And Kauai has the best year of his career arguably, and his team can't get out of the play in. and LeBron without the team's two leading scorers takes on a Houston team that I understand they didn't have Durant. But what did everyone tell me going into the series? Everybody. Well, no matter how good LeBron is, the six best guys in the series, it's LeBron and five Rockets. okay so durrance out now the five best guys in the series is lebron and four rockets that's what everybody said and maybe they're right how much did that matter because while folks were busy wondering during

the regular season are the lakers better without lebron james that was a real conversation that was had on every platform imaginable. The reality is every basketball team in league history would be better with any version of LeBron James. Right now we have the least athletic, worst version of LeBron that certainly existed since he was older than 18 years old. and all he does is drop in his first playoff game and be prime Chris Paul, except bigger and stronger. What will old LeBron James look like? Well, for a night, what does year 23, age 41 LeBron look like? Prime Magic Johnson.

What would 45-year-old LeBron look like? If you needed him to be, peak point God, Chris Paul. That's the answer. And the way he set up every single one of his teammates. And the Rockets, in theory, better equipped than any team other than Oklahoma City, to throw waves at defenders on LeBron. Now, why EMA didn't have Amin Tom? just take him on to start the game.

I'm not sure. Said they start Josh Akogi, and Josh Okie is not going to bother LeBron James. It's Josh Okie. I'm not trying to be rude, but this is, this reminds me of damn near a decade ago when the Raptors drafted OG An Ananovi, who is turned into an excellent player. But I remember rookie OG Ananobe in a playoff series, the announcer saying, talk to the Raptors front office and they said they drafted him with this series in mind. Finally,

they'll have someone who can slow down LeBron. I was like, I don't know, guys. Rookie OG An Anobie against Apex LeBron James. I think you're drawn pretty slim. And, Hey, that is fair though.

OG these days. I'm not saying OG these days. No, versus 41 year old LeBron. I think if OG had entered the league a little bit earlier and was like his third or fourth year soon. Yeah, because OG is pretty.

It's a good archetype. No, absolutely. Yeah, that's how I'm not. What are you doing? But Apex LeBron, rookie OG, I mean, I don't know about that. But the thing is this, he'll, when I say he'll never be bad, I want to be clear. I know he won't play forever. But I do mean, if he wanted to play five more years, seven more years,

He'll never be bad. And the reason for that is he will always be the smartest player in the league and only get smarter. He will, he's not going to shrink. He's always going to be physically imposing one of, I don't know, call it the five or six strongest guys in the league. and he's always going to be one of the very best passers the league has ever seen. So even as the athleticism declines, and it has 23 years in declined enough to where in the second half of a playoff game, the single best athlete in the league, Amin Thompson, can beat him off the dribble to go for a driving layup,

and LeBron at this point can only barely smack it off the backboard to deny it. You're going to be live with this guy. And if you are playing a team as inherently flawed as Houston, you're going to be more than live. And so, listen, am I guaranteeing they win the series? Of course not. but here's what I do know, DeMise. 31 times LeBron is won game one in a series. His teams are 29 and 2, with 20 consecutive series wins.

32 times LeBron teams have gone up either 2-0 or 3-1 in a series, which with a win tonight, they obviously would. they are 32 and oh. He's never blown a multi-game series lead. So is tonight a must win for Houston? Yeah, of course. Is, am I certain Kevin Durant's playing?

I am not. And if Houston loses tonight, that almost like, Luca's definitely coming back by the end of this series. Would it not be? Well, unless they're... You extended that long. I mean, if they, or it doesn't get extended.

Right. Yeah, you just put it away. But, yeah, I mean, you feel like you win tonight. You obviously guarantee yourself a minimum of six games, you know, in the negative side. And I, we'll talk about the Houston side of things in a minute. I know there's another question you wanted to ask me about something I said about LeBron. But I just, there is, we do get. numb to 1,800, 1900 games 73,000 minutes.

And the guy's just still there. Whatever his team needs on any given night is what he is at least going to attempt to provide. And in game one, he controlled every single aspect of that game. Every single aspect LeBron controlled. And that was one of, you know how I said earlier to Monze? an 18-point lead early in a playoff game doesn't, you know, mean much. This was the opposite of that, where a seven-point Laker lead felt like they had a total vice grip on the game. They were never blowing out Houston, and it seemed like they were in total control the entire way.

All right, go ahead. You said LeBron is still a top 10 guy you'd want in the playoffs. who are the guys that you would take over him though? The complete list of guys that I would right now in 2026 take over LeBron in the playoffs. I know everybody's got Steph on their top 10 list and not LeBron. No disrespect to Steph. I'm taking LeBron in the playoff environment over Steph right now this moment. I'm taking LeBron over Kauai in a playoff.

I just saw Kauai once again in a play-in get locked, and once again his team's out of there. I think Devin Booker's an excellent player. I'm taking Bron over Booker right now. If he's healthy, Anthony Edwards, I will take over Braun. Just peak at his athletic performance. I'll take Anthony Edwards.

I will take Luca over Braun. Very different stylistically, but Bronn can't average 40 for a series the way Luca can. I obviously would take Joker over Braun for a playoff series. It's only been one game, but I'm going to give the young man credit. I will take Wimby over Brown. Yeah, there you go. For a playoff series. I don't have to love it.

I will take Shea over Braun for a playoff series. And so that's the West. It's five guys. In the East, I'd take Braun over Palo. I will take Bron over Tyrese Maxi for a playoff series. I will take Bronn over Donovan Mitchell for a playoff series. Donovan's been great. I'd take Braun's ability control every aspect of the game.

I'd take Bronn over Jalen Brunson. The Knicks would have loved to have LeBron last night. Would have loved it. Cade was excellent in game one, but I haven't seen it. You know what? I'll give deference to Cades. First team all NBA's peak of his powers.

Cade and win healthy Tatum. Yeah. So that's seven guys. Go ahead. I guess Janus is hurt right now, but he's not hurt. The team just doesn't want him to play. Yeah, but okay, yes. Okay, Janus.

Healthy Janus. So there's a lot of it. eight. I slide LeBronin and nine step in at 10. The guy's 41 fucking years old. It's really unbelievable. I mean, he's out there. He's, he's

the best player on the court in a playoff game that his son is playing. I was just about to say, I know it's a touchy subject with his kid, but like his kid is literally on the floor. His kid's on the court in real playoff minutes, and he's still

the best guy. He's doing lefty hooks over Jabari Smith Jr. When he literally dunked on Jabari Smith, Sr. Like there, he is, Demandze, he's in the league with Cooper Flagg. LeBron is, there is a bigger gap in age between Cooper Flagg and LeBron. than there is between LeBron and Akeem Olajuwon. There's like LeBron is closer in age. I read this today and then I checked it.

LeBron is closer in age to Barclay, Jordan, and Olajuwon than he is to Cooper Flagg. Cooper flag is when rookie the year. LeBron's won in playoff games. It's just, we're just never, we're never going to see anything like this again. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. All right, let's talk a little KD here. So he was top three in total minutes and minutes per game this year. Do you think that it was a fluke injury or maybe with his usage this year?

Might have contributed to that a little bit? Listen, I, no, I think it's a fluke injury. I also, they said he injured it diving for a loose ball in practice. That seems weird and almost a little hard to bowl. Like, I don't, I could totally see him banging knees in practice. But why is 37-year-old KD diving for a loose ball in practice? That's just weird. What I will say is this.

I think maybe, as I'm giving LeBron all his flowers, maybe I underrated how good KD was this year. Because that team, without him, offensively, is just horrible. I mean, just hard to watch bad. and listen he shouldn't have talked that trash on his teammates in any form in which it could have been found out but you know he said about shingoon your franchise player can't shoot or defend checks out he said about javari i can't trust jubari to make a shot or get a stop checks out like again he shouldn't have said it but his analysis appears to have been

spot on and no one should be more like shingoon this is supposed to be his moment and if you're a rockets fan here's the other piece of this that if you're a rockets fan is really concerning okay i understand katie is out van vleet tore up his name stephen adams got hurt those three guys were the veteran addition supposed to put you over the top right your whole young core is there. And your young core just played a Lakers team without Luca and AR and looked totally in out of its depth. Like, I'm in Thompson is going, is already a really good player. He can be a perennial all-MBA player.

If he gets a jump shot? Yes. I was texting with, I'll just say someone. I was texting with someone about Amman Thompson during the Rockets Lakers game. And the person's advice was, move over the summer, move to Iowa, lock yourself in a gym, shoot nothing but jumpers and threes, it'll be worth half a billion dollars.

And I was like, that's correct. I was like, it's like, you know those stupid things you see on Twitter? Like, would you spend one year in prison for $10 million? It's like that. Except it's way shorter. It's way shorter amount of time. It's way more fun. It's literally your job.

And it's 50x the return. If Amin Thompson just becomes a mediocre, jump shooter he's just going to get multiple super max contracts and it is uh yeah the producers say you should call up erin gordon and ask him how he did it agreed like but that shingoon shingoon's also got to ask himself am i going to end up being a poor man's joke which would be amazing or a Turkish De Manus Sabonis, which ain't going to

cut it for best player on an excellent team. And he's got to be better. All right, I do want to get to these other series and I want to talk a little bit about this Bengals trade. Hey, it's us to 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 did a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. A 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. 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 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing.

And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person why you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid because that's two different intentions bro absolutely and that that's two different levels of trust i want you to just really be a good person join me care gains is we have real conversations about healing growth fatherhood pressure and purpose on my new podcast learn the hard way open your free i heart radio app search learn the hard way and listen now but two things first one is i was supposed to tell you guys at the top of the show and i forgot yikes friday we're doing

another mailbag episode and we need some fresh questions so please send in questions weird spot though not NFL draft related questions because we're going to record the pod on thursday first round of the draft will have already you know happened when it comes out so send any questions you want but not NFL draft related they can be life they can be sports they can be whatever you want but please send the questions um on twitter or you know Instagram wherever sit just send us questions we would greatly appreciate it um all right before we get to the bangles let me remind everybody about boost mobile boost mobile's proving you don't have to overpay for great wireless unlock the savings with $25 a month forever unlimited plan

permanent price with no contracts and no price hikes you can keep your phone and your number but you save up to $600 a year compared to the major carriers stop overpaying and switch to a fair price at boostmobile.com today based on average annual single line payment of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile customers compared to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited Plan as of January 2026. For full offer details, visit boostmobile.com. All right, DeMonte, let's do the bangles here. Cincinnati made a little bit of a splash over the weekend. They traded the 10th pick for Dexter Lawrence. Dexter Lawrence is coming off a down year in terms of Saxon pressures. It'll also be the first time since the 80s that the Bengals have not had a first round pick.

Yeah. So Dexter Lawrence two years ago before he hurt his elbow was a legitimate top flight defensive player of your candidate. Last year, he had half a sack. It seemed like the elbow was bothering him. He also seemed to be over the Giants. I'm not going to hold that too much against him. I still think he's an excellent player. and the Bengals obviously for the 2026 season got better.

He's going to give them more value, and he's not on a crazy contract, than you would typically get, then they would get with the 10th overall pick this year. And again, I think Dexter Lawrence is an excellent player. And a nose tackle, their value is not really just shown up in sacks. So what he does against the run, it's the blockers he occupied. it's the pressure he creates all of it. With that said,

this is how bad franchises stay bad franchises. And this is just such a reckless, rash, inexplicable move. I, like the rest

of the football world, when we heard the Bengals had traded the 10th pick of the draft for Dexter Lawrence, all of us thought what actually happened was the Bengals had traded the 10th pick of the draft for Dexter Lawrence and pick 37, the giant second round pick. That's what everybody thought this was going to be. Once you heard 10th pick of the draft, was going back to New York,

what you thought was, okay, so they're getting Dexter Lawrence and a premium pick in return. The fact that it was, the 10th pick of the draft, straight up for Dexter Lawrence, makes this one of the most unprecedented trades

in modern NFL history. That is not an exaggeration. this century to Monzae here is the complete list of non-quarterbacks to be traded for a top 10 pick a pick that was confirmed to be in the top 10 not a future first that turned into some top 10 pick but we know where we're picking we're going to trade this top 10 pick for a non-quarterback complete list this century Randy Moss to the Raiders for the seventh pick of the draft, that's the complete list.

That's it. And Bengals fans saying, Nick, you're hating on us. I'm here to tell you a couple things. One is, as a Chiefs fan, I've got way bigger concerns than a team

that hasn't made the playoffs in three years. secondable. The Bengals have the 10th pick. The Chiefs have the 9th pick. I understand they play different positions, but I would say as far as value, what their contract says their value is, where their hierarchy in the league,

age. I think A.J. Brown and Dexter Lawrence are about, you know, similar hierarchy. And the Chiefs have a huge need in theory at wide receiver. I'm here to tell you, if the news came out that the Chiefs had traded the ninth overall pick of the draft

for A.J. Brown, I'd consider resigning. I wouldn't be able to deal with it. It's just such an objectively, it's just the only way, the only way this trade ends up being a good value for Cincinnati

is either you win the Super Bowl in the next three years, I'm sure they hope to, or Dexter Lawrence is defensive player of the year.

15 sacks? Yeah, and again, he plays nose tackle, he's not going to get 15 sacks. But it is it's, I can't believe they did this. And folks that thought, and I know the response is, well, you got to keep Joe Burrow happy.

Man, Joe Burrow's not an idiot. And Joe Burroughs going to know whether or not this team has enough quality young players to sustain what's left of his prime. and I this is one of the most shout out to the giants it's great business for the giants

I I think that of like what pick would I have given up for Dexter Lawrence I think that starting with Chicago at 25

it starts to be fair value but again do you know what you have to include with the 25th pick to get the 10th pick? You have to include another first rounder and maybe something else. I just, I, it is, they gave up so much more for Dexter Lawrence than what the Rams gave up for Trent McDuffie, who is younger and, well, not cheaper now. they gave them the new deal and less of an injury risk. I just, and not coming off a down year, I'm just so stunned by it.

All right, De Manzay, let's quickly get to these other series real as quick as we can. Thunder, Suns, Celtics, Spurs, sorry, not sons. All took care of business as expected in game one. Which one of these title contenders would you say you were the most impressed by? I mean, I give it to all of them quickly. The Thunder just exerted their wins. on Phoenix. Phoenix wasn't ready for it. We'll see if Phoenix can punch back at any point. Jason Tatum looks unbelievable.

And he really looks like he's all the way back. I can't believe it. And I didn't think the Spurs played that great. But Wimby dropped 35. You know me? I'm a Neanderthal. I'm a big fan of 30-point games. I know Wimby a month ago was trying to explain how they're not that impressive. and then all of a sudden he's like, yeah, maybe I should do it more often. And listen,

when Wimby is hitting threes, he's unguardable. Now is he going to go five of six from three all that often? Probably not, but he can. And that was a hell of a playoff debut for him. So all three of those teams are, pardon me,

are biting time until round two. They just are. And I tell you this much right now. Now, the Celtics, I don't think, the Celtics would prefer to play Atlanta, but they're, even though they lost the Knicks, they're confident against them. The Spurs would greatly prefer to play Minnesota against Denver. It'll be a war. The Thunder are confident against anybody, but would like to see the Rockets win this series. because if the Lakers get through it,

Luca and AR, I believe, will be back for that series. Now, the Thunder annihilated the Lakers when they played them this year throughout the year, different circumstances, including the game Luke and AR got hurt. So maybe they're not worried about anybody. But that also would be a very unique paradigm where I do feel like the casual fan for maybe the first time for a lot of people's basketball lives would find themselves, rooting for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers just because the Thunder are not the most likable group of all play.

They're likable guys, but the style with which they play, I don't think is all that appealing to the casual fan. All right, I'm not going to panic about the Pistons, by the way, just very quickly. It's an awful loss, and I do think the Pistons are a flawed team. However, flawed team for a one seat. I saw Orlando too often this year go through stretches of time where they just didn't want to be there. And you'd be like, they turned a corner. Man, Orlando in game 82 lost the Celtics backups and in the first play in game, lost to Philly.

Then they annihilated that always professional outfit in Charlotte. Keep just keep heading down those tracks, guys. I'm sure. I'm sure year seven is one of all click-ins. Like, wait, defense not calling out the coach, good shots, not getting beat by 30 every year we're in the playing. That'll change. And then they looked great in game one. But you seem like you're worried about Detroit.

I'm not yet worried about Detroit. You're not panicking about it. But, yeah, I think Aleno maybe has figured a little something out. I mean, at least in this series. I don't think Orlando can play as well as it's played the last two games. For another three or four? Yeah, I just don't. I just think that's on who they've been all year.

All right, reminder, please send in mailbag questions for Friday show. Enjoy, you know, get your little midday nap. A lot of basketball ahead of us the next couple days. Be back here on Thursday. I'm on with Colin in a little more than an hour. I am back here with you guys on Thursday. Thanks to Hard Rock Bet, Boost Mobile, and Mars Men. And, of course, to the volume and to Blue Duck.

Demand's a great job. Enjoy the playoffs. See you guys on Thursday. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick.

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