The Mismatch - A Clippers Ass Whooping, Big Game KAT, Ja Goes Down, and the Grizzlies Collapse

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

Verno and Jacoby get together after the Grizzlies lose both Ja Morant and a 29-point lead to the Thunder, who are in prime position to get the sweep over the weekend (01:35). Verno shares his experience being inside the arena after Ja went out and discusses whether Lu Dort deserves any blame for the injury. Next, the guys go over the Clippers' dominance over the Nuggets and why they should really be up 3-0 in the series (20:31). Also, they discuss KAT’s performance in the Knicks' win over the Pistons to take a 2-1 series lead, as well as the weird clock malfunction that almost cost the Knicks the game (32:02). Lastly, they debate whether the Wolves-Lakers series will go the full seven games, their confidence in the Rockets now that Jimmy Butler is hurt, and the hope for the Bucks to flip that switch and make their series against the Pacers more exciting (47:29). Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone]. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producers: Jessie Lopez and Tucker Tashjian Social: Keith Fujimoto Music: "New Frontier": JG1MFMNUC8ZGQBSA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Remember, you must be 21 or over and present in select states. If you have a gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Helph.com. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jekyllis. Kobe Jacoby. Burn out.

Burnow. We're recording this at 1212 Central Standard Time. It is 12 a.m. on Friday. I have just left Grizzly's Thunder. And oh, brother. Oh, brother.

If you want to talk about the grandest swings of emotion that you could have, in an NBA game. And you know, you guys, you always goof with me. Because I always say, hey, man, there's a reasonable chance. You go to an NBA game. You may see something you've never seen before.

And I thought, certainly in the first half, I even texted you, I said, has anybody scored 40 in a quarter on them? And then the Grizzlies backed it up with 37 in the second quarter. and they are running rough shot over a 68 win Oklahoma City Thunder team, and John Morant gets clipped by Lou Dort, goes down on the ground, and Jacoby, it is hard for me to describe how the air came out of literally everything. And then for those that were watching the game, you saw how that unfolded and what life looked like against the thunder

without John Morant for the Grizzlies in the second half, a team that scored 77 in the first half, scored 31 in the second half. Oh, God. Yeah. There was a point during the first half when I asked myself, could the Grizzlies win by 51? Could they win by 51?

And I think it's important to note that the John Morant injury happened on like a two-on-zero breakout transition. which was there like second in the last five possessions because there was the one where he gave it to Knard too. They were getting pick sixes left and right. They were swarming. There was thoughts in my head. Like maybe it was a schedule loss in game one.

And maybe this series will be even in a few days. All of the things that they needed to do were things that took place. You got monster heroic efforts out of role players, like Scottie Pippin Jr. Right? You were knocking down threes. And most importantly, and keep this in mind as the thunder move on to the next round, which is going to be the Clippers, the Clippers do an unbelievable job of taking care of the ball. The Thunder are at their absolute best when they are flying around, turning you over,

and they are getting fast break points. Okay. They're getting your transition. The Grizzlies only turned the ball over three times in the first half. If you can keep the turnovers low against that team, you give yourself a chance. And obviously they had more than a chance. They were up by 26 points by the time they got the halftime. But that was key number one.

Don't let them get the points off turnovers. Don't just throw the ball to them. In the absence of Moran, it exposed they don't have another player on the team that can dribble. Not one. Nobody. And that is feeding meat to the lions when you were playing against the thunder. To wit, they turned it over 13 times in the second half. And that's how that lead totally disintegrates beyond the fact that they're playing late into the shot clock. They can't get a good shot.

Like the thunder, to their credit, absolutely cranked it up defensively. People are going to look for those that didn't watch. They're going to look at a box score. and they're going to see that Shea Gilders-Alexander at 31, they're going to see that Jalen Williams had 26. The keys to that, that game flipped on the back of Chet Holmgren's third quarter and Alex Caruso being an absolutely dominating defender.

Like, it didn't matter if Caruso was on Pippinpin, he was getting a steal. If he was on Jared Jackson, he was getting a steal. If he was on Desmond Bain, he was getting a steal. Or he was causing a massive problem. for the entire offense to be able to break down. Like Caruso was, I mean, a dominant defensive presence, but it was just like the team was smoked after Morant went out.

You said it will be hard for you to describe feeling in the building after John went out. Because remember, there's a 26 point lead at half time. And watching the game, every single person watching and every single person in the building and every single person in the grisies uniform was looking at the lead just dwindle and dwindle and dwindle. And I've never seen a home playoff crowd have like a 13 point lead and be less excited about it. So take us through it. I don't see it hard for you, but what did it feel like being there? I think that there's no there's no way I've never been through this before.

Honestly, in the way it played out. The whole sentiment at halftime. If you're up 26 on the number one team in the league, everybody is through. Once they saw Morant go down and Morant basically he took his jersey off

as to signify. He took the shooting sleeve off before he shot the free throws. And then he took the jersey off as he walked off the court. As if to signify, I'm done here. I'm not, that's it. In the city or in the game? No, I'm done. Stop.

I'm done. He's done here. Okay. Has his value ever been more apparent than, look, if there was an MVP in this game, it's pretty clear who that guy was because he walked out and all anybody, like, it was not an experience you ever. It would be like being up in a football game by, you know, three touchdowns, but your quarterback got hurt on the last play of the first half.

And so all anybody is thinking is, oh, my God, is 26 a big enough lead? That's all you're thinking. You're not thinking about how you got to 26. You're not thinking about, wow, this is an amazing environment. All you're thinking about and that nervous energy just overtook everything. And unfortunately, you saw it overtake the team. like they were smoked man like that was

and it was like where you're up by 21 but your quarterback's out and you're running the ball into the line three times and then you're no and then you're punting it away and then they're coming down

and they're scoring and then you run it back into the line three times and you punt it and they come back and you're looking at the clock you're just like how when is this going to happen because the Grizzis had the lead until like the last five minutes of the game but it just didn't feel like a lead.

And you could, the crowd noise coming through the television was so loud in the first half. And it was just dead silent in the second half. I'm looking at the score being like, guys, you're up by 18 right now. Well, until your point, at the end of the game, it's like, okay, now you got to out-execute these guys without, because it's going to be we run a play, you run a play. now that it's like dead heat at the end and you've gotten the ball stolen from you damn near every possession and then even after all that after all that after the dort free throw line stuff it's like 11 101 108 i think and he misses two free throws yeah yeah okay 11108 timeout you got the ball he has no no field goals and no free throws by the way at this point you you agree this is the biggest shot of the season Oh, no.

We'll talk about the jump ball. No, no, no. This is before that. It's 111.108. Biggest shot of the season, you're out of a timeout, right? It's Desmond Payne, right? No. It's Jared Jackson, right?

No. It's Luke Kennard? No. They threw it out to Luke Kennard. Then he drove. Then what did he do? He threw it over. The biggest shot of the season is a John Contrar

corner three. John Conchard wasn't even like didn't even play most of the he was not even in the rotation most of the season. I think he is one for 14 on playoff threes. There's another this is another conchow in Denver. The biggest shot of the season is a John Conchard corner that tells you everything you need to know about what life is like when you've got a Lou Dort Zach Ead jump ball in a key spot and I'm sitting there thinking like how could this possibly go wrong? And we'll get to the Pistons jump ball and it's wrong later. But it's like, how could this?

I'm like, well, the Memphis is going to get this. I'm mapping it out because I love you, Verno. I'm mapping out how Grizzlies can win this game. Well, Eadie is obviously going to control this jump ball. And he hits Dort in the face and it's called for a foul. So that's the weird thing too. Like you're doing the map out how they can win. Because when Morant took off his jersey and walked out,

and then he came back out. I don't think they showed. him on TV from what I could gather because I had some reporters even reach out to me. They're like, you saw him? I was like, yeah, because I tweeted it. I didn't see him come back out. But I was also paying attention to the, you know, the game of matters. So he came out in the tunnel in front

of me on crutches. Oh. Yeah. I didn't see that. Yeah. I was also watching the other game too. So I guess they must have scurried him back after he came out on crutches. I don't know. Because it was like, I guess people didn't see this. Or I guess they didn't show it because I even had a report.

from one of the big outlets at the game that text me and said, you saw, because he saw my tweet, he said, you saw Moran on crutches? I said, yes, I saw Moran on crutches right in front of me. Like, what are we talking about? He came out. He's like, he's on crutches, bro. On crutches. Like, this guy's done.

So the feeling was, like, even when he took off his jersey and he went, and then that happens at the, you know, and I see him on crutches. is like you're sitting there mapping out of weight. Like the second he went down, everybody knew. We all knew. Okay. Okay. At least it'd be cool to win one.

But even then, this is a lost cause. We can't win without this guy. Before he went down, I'm literally sitting there saying, maybe this series isn't what we thought. Maybe they can win two at home and even it up at two, two, and maybe we can go somewhere with this. because if you just watched the first half of that game, and you said one of these teams has the best defense in the NBA,

you would think it was the Grizzles. You would. You would think it was the Grizzles. Look, the arena was on fire. Fire! The team was fighting the whole thing. No. And it just, I mean, it was, I can't, I cannot describe me.

Now, I just walked out after doing the post game show like maybe 20 minutes ago. That walked to that post game show. And then we do the post game show like in front of people, right? Like they're like in the team store. I mean, it was the most depressing thing ever, honestly. Like the most depressing thing ever. Because it's like, you know, I mean, I think there's a, there's reality that you're not going to have, you got to play one more game at 2.30 on a Saturday afternoon to try to keep

your seat. Yeah, I know. Right. Like, I mean, how many, how many Grizzlies booked flights for Saturday night already that aren't to Oklahoma City, but rather to where. wherever they are going. I mean, it's just, it, when you see a team and the whole wind comes out of their sales as well, because it happened in the crowd, it happened with the team, and injuries are awful. As you were watching it on TV, do you think Grizzlies fans should blame Dort?

Or is he just a bystander to something terrible that happened? My first reaction in watching it was, how come no one punched Lou Dort in the face? That was the first thing that went through my mind. I was like, I don't care. Run off the bench. Like, someone needs to punch that man in the face. And then the replay official came back and he reviewed it and was like, Lou Dort slipped.

And then you see the replay after that. And he clearly didn't have control of his feet. So it was just a freak accident. It's a lot like the Amen Thompson thing, right? Where a fan base is going to blame Amen Thompson. But Amman Thompson is really not to me. If Lou Dort had his feet underneath him, I don't know what his plan was besides getting dunked on dramatically. But he did not have his feet underneath him.

Therefore, you cannot blame him for this. He did not have 10 toes down on the court using his leg muscles to control where he was. He was just kind of like slipping and floating and just happened to happen that way. It was just a freak accident. This under this undercut thing is brutal too, because I mean, we've seen it now twice. Oh, and twice we saw it all seasons. Staff went down, chat went down, yeah. No, no, no, but I'm saying in the playoffs last two night.

Oh. Where we're just like, where it totally changes a game. Seriously? Right. The second Jimmy Butler. Yeah, right. And if Jimmy Butler is unavailable, they're in a world of shit, right? They were in a world of shit last night without him.

I mean, hell, Steve Kerr had to dust off Kaminga. He was. Too pathetic result. Amigo is like subbing in you in the game tonight. It was just like, what? I want to, you want me to play in the basketball game? That's when you know an injury.

Hey, when you know an injury is devastating when, when Kerr is willing to put Kaminga in a game. Yeah, yeah. The, but I will say that I'm, I'm sure every other show is going to do the like,

what does Memphis do from here? And I'm not willing to do that right now. But you can feel through the television, the loss. at the start of the third quarter. And what was it? They went on a quick run to start of third quarter. Chet was hitting everything.

Chet went on like a personal run. They hit, they hit seven threes in the quarter. But it was also like in the first five minutes of the, of the second half, you knew that it was over. I will say this. And I told you this as it was going on.

So I get to come by this honest. I said, this is what I'm talking about when I'm talking about. And my, and the clippers, who I have rode with, told you. It's going to be a different world.

Everybody, I got it. They beat the Grizzlies by 70, right, you know, on the road when they were there. But if you watch this first half and you saw, like, young teams have a different reaction to being on the road. And they also have a different reaction to seeing defenses and seeing a level of intensity sometimes that they have not seen before. And I do think that that is what is going to serve. the clippers very well against Oklahoma City. And again, look, I'll either be right or I'll be wrong, but that's exactly the kind of team that I've been talking about when it's like, you've got to take your scars, you've got

to play against grown men, you've got to go against teams that have been there before. Because I've seen, I've covered now 14 different times Memphis has been in the playoffs since they have moved to the city. Now, I've covered every one of those series. I've seen the veteran-laden teams. I've seen the young teams. I've seen. And that team tonight looked like a young team on the road in the first road game of a playoff series.

And I mean, look, I don't think anybody, there's no chance Memphis loses that game if Morant doesn't take the tumble. There's no chance. There's a better chance they win by 51 than lose. Right. You can just feel it. It's one thing, I think that Memphis plays well without Morant. That's been sort of a narrative for the last few years. it's one thing to play well without Moran,

but it's another thing to be up by a ton hitting on all cylinders and then just lose them in a second. Like that's different. That's completely different. Especially when you only have one player that can dribble. It is like winning the lottery and crashing your car on the way home.

Like that it just felt like that. It was just like the high highs and low lows was just awful. But I want to pivot to this because you did text me during the game and we know what's going to happen for the rest of this series, but you are claiming that the thunder

are vulnerable. You're claiming the Thunder are young. I have all season. This is not their year. And you've been saying that. So just say it to the microphone. I know it's late for you, buddy. I know you're in an emotional space right now.

Say they will lose to the clipper. If the clippers come through, which it looks like they will, say they will lose to the clippers. They will lose to the clippers. I believe that. Why so? The same thing I've told you all year. They're the youngest team in the NBA. I'm not saying they're not great.

They are a great team. They are a great team. I just think that what we have learned over the course of the 75 plus year history of the NBA is that veteran teams win. I don't know how many times I have to say that. History is on my side on this. Now, again, things can happen. And look, if Kauai Leonard goes down in the next game, like, look, something happened tonight.

that altered it. Something happened in the Golden State series that altered it. I mean, you're, look, we're all, all these series, they're one play away from history being changed. I made a mistake before the Rockets Warriors game. I said to myself, these playoffs have been pretty healthy so far. I said that to myself. I was like, you know what?

Haven't been any big injuries. Like, the playoffs have been pretty healthy. Well, you had just watched a game without Tatum. Come on. Well, I mean, I'm not concerned about that. I got it. But I mean, we had, but we had just watching. the game. I mean, look, and it's a different world. Like, again, nobody's picking the Celtics,

and Tatum goes out, right? Like, that's just the way this goes. Did you see the clip of Joe Maz holding the trainer back and saying, saying, get up to Tatum? Did you see that? Yeah. Oh, Andy loved, Andy loved the poor Zingas blood. He's a psycho. I'm surprised he'd lick the blood off of Porzegas's his forehead. I'm surprised he didn't do that. I'm sorry, he did. I'm surprised he didn't snort it. All right, you tell me, look, I didn't get to see the clippers tonight. You tell me why I'm wrong. You tell me why that Clippers team can't handle anybody.

The first note, like I do like my notes where I do like all the possessions and everything and I do like my like for the show notes which is like the most the type. The first note says this was an ass kicking. Look to me like ass kicking. But Denver came out hot. Like Aaron Gordon was on fire to start the game.

They're on the road. And you're thinking all this, it was very tone setty for the nuggets like off the jump. Like the first sort of like seven minutes. of the game, the nuggets were rolling, rolling. And then all of a sudden, it wasn't Kauai. It was James Hardin in the first half. Like he was just hitting threes.

He was getting past his man to the left side, hitting the lefty lay up. He's getting M-1s. This, the game to me was the game. Game two was the Kauai Leonard game. This is Norm Powell, Zubach, Hardin, Kauai. They all had about, I think it was like 2020, 19, and 21, right? They all had 20 points averaged. And then you have Chris Dunn just wreaking havoc on defense. And then you have

Batoon and Derek Jones coming in, each getting into double figures. And it was really like an ideal clippers performance. Because I feel like game two was, Kauai Leonard is the best player in the planet. There's nothing you can do about it. I'm not saying that now, obviously, the Yoko Chis. But this was like the Clippers blueprint moving forward. Because I think it is now time to talk about moving forward because... We did

a show a couple weeks ago. And I told you hey, if you want to know what to look for, if we want to say that these last segments of the year gives us a peek into

who is playing at the highest level going into what we're about to go into. And I told you, well, I looked up the last 15 games. And I said, and what you found. And this was not what I wasn't even looking them up. And I found that the second best defensive rating in the entire NBA for those 15 games was the Clippers. And the best offense in the NBA was the Clippers. and the best net rating in the NBA was the Clippers at plus 17 per 100 possessions.

Like this is not something that just took place. For the last six weeks, this team has showed us over and over again. They have been playing at the highest level. And honestly, they should be up three zip on the nuggets. You can say something similar about the Pacers, but I don't believe in the Pacers the way I believe in the Clippers. You know what I mean? The Pacers were hot to finish the season two, but I don't believe. leaving them in the same way.

But they don't have numbers like that. That's fair. I mean, no one has numbers like that. The Clippers are, I think that when you look at the body of work over the three games, you start to think that Westbrook just made some plays at the end of game one. They should be up. You just start to think that like Westbrook made some place at the end of game one. And the Clippers, and you know, I love Jeff Van Gundy, and I've said this since like week one of the season, that he is impactful.

And now you see the mainstream media starting to pick up on that as well. they have decided to leave Russell Westbrook alone and if he makes one it's good for the clippers if he misses it's good for the clippers like it's just it's just a problem and and I think it's also worth saying that Michael Porter Jr. was just not himself he's hurt and then

Aaron Gordon started really hot but if you look at it there's just it's I almost feel the same way I did like week three of the season where I'm like Yokish needs more he just needs more this is not enough around him you're wasting a Yokage season.

And yes, I'm overreacting to a two one lead in the series, but I don't think I am. This series is over. This series is over. Of course it's over. It's over. All right. Jacoby. They should probably fire their GM. Oh, wait. Oh, wait.

They've already done all that. What the coach? They've already done all that. No, I mean, like, look, the clipper should be up three zipping that. first game with the overtime and obviously you had those crazy Westbrook plays. I mean, okay. So you're a Westbrook three away from being up three. And I think if you're the clippers moving forward,

I think they will move forward. I think they will face the thunder. I think tonight was big for Norman Powell because he played great all season long. In the last couple of games, he hasn't really performed in Denver. Well, he hit the biggest shot of game too. He hit the biggest shot at the end of the game. seven before that.

Right. You know what I mean? But he carried that momentum into this game. And I think it's an important game for him to sort of reestablish himself. Because now they truly have four offensive weapons to start the game and they've got a defensive stopper and Chris Dunn who can, you know, hit it three once in a while. Well, and that's why it's a great test because it's, as, look, as series go on and the adjustments are made against these, against these guys, then you're starting to see like, and this was a big, look, like, as, GA had 31, I think, tonight. I think he had, what is he? How many shots?

26 shots. Like, SGA has not been great for Oklahoma City. First half, they were deeing him up. They were making it hard on him in a way I haven't seen all season. And the thing is now, like the J. This is where it's going to put a huge spotlight on Jala Williams on Chad Holmgren to be stepping up because in the next round, the same thing is going to be true. And like you were saying, look, there's going to be extra attention.

Once Kauai Leonard establishes, like, He's friggin, like, 95 Michael Jordan. Like, you're getting. Like, now that attention goes to him. Boom. Now Norm Powell gets to cook. Now James Arden gets to cook. Now Big Zoot, right?

Like, that's the mark of the great teams are, okay, here's this guy that they're going to, like, the defense is built to make one guy's life hell. So now the other guys have to make you pay for that, right? Because this guy. And so, like, if you go look at it, at the SGA numbers. Memphis actually even, they got smoked in the first two games that he didn't have good numbers.

No. And now you get to this third one. And so it's going to be interesting to see as time goes on and the next round they're going to place a team that is much better at staying connected defensively. Memphis is a

bona fide bad defensive team. I don't know when they ended up in the rankings, but it's got to be what, 23rd or something? And so their ability to you know have even even the first half that they had i i text you and i said bro look memphis is not beating a good team in two months and they just put 77 on them this is crazy but they're playing d too but i i think it's i you didn't see the game so it is worth mentioning that westbrook is hurt like yeah right right he went back he went back into the locker

in the game and did not return and mpj had a brace on his uh left shoulder you remember that loose ball thing where he got landed on so he took the brace off after he missed a three So he's not himself. Gordon is dealing, you know, he has a calf injury that he's still working through from the end of this season. Westbrook is hurt. I don't know if he's going to play a game for. The nuggets are cooked. The nuggets are absolutely cooked.

And as a franchise and as a fan base, we'll have plenty of reason. We'll have plenty of offseason talks later. But they can say to themselves, we weren't healthy. Westbrook got hurt. Gordon was hurt. Murray was hurt and came back just at the end of the season. Like there's ways you can explain away this happening to make you feel like you don't need to wholesale changes, but what is important?

You know, but you know, this is what always happens, Jacoby. The new guy and the new GM and the new coach are going to take over and they're going to be. Hands off, laissez-faire approach to say, let's run it back. Absolutely not. Same as no. Because a new GM always wants credit. These guys all have crazy egos.

They want to build their own roster, their own roster, not the roster they inherited. they want their own roster so that they can be the ones that built them. You know what I mean? It's what it always goes. It's the way it always goes. I don't know how it's going to play out for them, but I know I'm very confident they're going to lose to the Clippers. And I'm confident that the Clippers are going to play the Thunder.

I'm not as confident as you are that the Clippers will beat the Thunder, but that will be a great series. Oh, it'll be a great series. It'll be a great series. And look, and I'm not telling you that it's impossible. Like the Thunder, they're the best team in the league this year. It's not like they can't win. I'm just saying throughout time,

that is exactly the kind of team that I have been talking about. So we will see. The clippers are exactly the kind of team that I've been talking about throughout the year. And so if they are able to beat that team, I mean, there's nothing I can say. There's nothing I can say. And honestly, then it does not matter if you're young, if you're that great.

I could easily I could see either team winning that series. Okay. Fan duel is letting you get in on the NBA playoff action right from the first tip. Because right now, all customers can get a no sweat same game parlay every weekend when you bet the NBA playoffs.

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See terms at sportsbook.bendul.com. Gambling problem. Call 100 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. And I think that we need to talk about the business in the mix. Let me hear it. We knew Towns was going to get used. We knew who's going to get used in this one. I mean, we just spent the last two days talking about how he didn't take a shot in the fourth quarter.

It's one of these things where it's like Jalen Green sucks in game one. And everybody talks about it for two days. what? Chilling Green is on fire in game two. Right. A Michael Porter Jr. gets dragged through the mud for two days. Guess what? Michael Porter Jr. in game two. He's amazing. 15 and 15, right? And we knew that it was going to be like this for

towns and they went to him early. They went to him off. He had 11 points in the first quarter. He was hitting threes. I think he had five three point attempts in the series. And then in the first quarter, he had the four. Well, this is what frustrated everybody, because there's not a natural defender for him on that on that team there's not but tobias harris like you're going to have tobias harris matched up with cat and he's going to run to the corner and stand there with his

hands on his hips like it was just stupid i was in the building watching it talking to my friend being like it tobias harris is matched up with him why are we not putting him in the action at least get him to touch the ball but this was um a really good nick's performance this made me feel confident about the rest of the series because Bridges was hitting shots. Towns was good. And I think that everyone, like, it's funny when everyone's going to walk away from this one talking about how Brunson closed the game down the stretch. But he kind of sucked for the first three quarters.

Like he was three for 11 at one point. Well, he poked him Hardaway in the eye. We've all, anyone who's ever played basketball knows that if you can't get the ball, he just try to block the vision. That's what he was trying to do. So he poked him in the eye. And it wasn't even like that wasn't even like a thing. They called it a flag or whatever, but that, that to me was not much.

But I think that this was a big game for the Knicks because they needed to show their offensive diversity in a way that they did not in game two. And they had it. And it really is about towns. It's just about towns because he can get past Tobias Harris. And then once he gets a shoulder past his defender on the perimeter, he has a lot of options. He can finish over Biggs. He can pass.

just it just unlocked everything and I feel like Tibbs heard from the world and made adjustments. Okay. So that was that was the debate on the is it is it towns fault for not being so aggressive at demanding the ball. Tibbs fall for them. Tiv's fault for that's getting him the ball, whatever. Tis and Bruns is the other one that got, uh,

hell's wrath from the fan base is Bridges. So how are we on bridges? because there was a lot of five first round draft picks and he's missing wide open threes and yada yada yada where are we on bridges did he start to mend some fences i will say that i didn't blame bridges he missed two open threes at the end of game two that were huge right but my thing is if you don't give him the ball and he's not touching the ball and then all of a sudden he has an open three at the end of the game and then you blame him for missing it,

those two things are correlated. Being so Brunson heavy in your offense and then saying, oh, here's a shot, make it, is not the way to get him going. And I felt like today in this game, they made an effort to make sure that OG touched it, bridges, touched it, towns touched it. Because it's like I said before,

like the Knicks did a great job of taking away Cade as well. And the business did a great job of taking away Brunson. But when you start going through the roster, the Knicks have a lot of options beyond Brunson and the Pistons just don't. Dern played great tonight, but the Pissons just don't. And I think that this game went the way that it should have. And one thing that was huge is this crowd, Merno, this crowd, this Detroit crowd to start the game was so high. Just absolutely on fire.

It's just, it's going crazy. And if the Pistons just took a lead like they did in game one in game two, if they kept the crowd in it, because I got my eye on my guy Jalen Rose, because he's sitting right next to the Nick Bench. And he's right on camera during the entire game. He's standing up. The whole first half, he's standing. He's pointing. He's doing stuff. He's blocking Ben Stillers view of the game.

Second half, not so much standing. You know what I mean? Like just like the energy is, it's kind of like if you don't make a run, if you don't make a run, If you don't hit a couple threes, you don't make them call timeout, you don't let the crowd get into it. It kills the confidence of the building. It kills the competence of the other team. I thought that was one of the things that Nix did so well. There were a couple runs, but taking the crowd out of the game, I think, was really big for them.

And down the stretch, Brunton was just a closer. Like, he's just their closer. It's like Mariano Rivera. It's just like he won the clutch whatever year of the clutch guy, Mr. Clutch sports, whatever he won. He won that thing today. and he proved it at the end of the game. But did you see like the very, very end of the game? What the heck happened with the back court?

It was insane. It was nuts. There's a jump ball. And I think it's Dern and Brunson, I want to say. I saw the long Zach Zarba like explanation on this and whatever. I happen to have bumped into Zach Zarba a couple times in my personal life. Great hang, by the way. Oh, yeah.

great hang. Love me some Zach Zarba. I think the two guys, the two refs that like seem like they would be super cool. And I have met people that have the same experience to you are Zarbah and Bill Kennedy. Like Bill Kennedy's just got this great attitude about it. Like they like there's a lot of the guys that just seem like like, like nobody wants to hang out with John Goble. Ever.

But I was with that. Me and Zarb have a mutual friend. And he hosted a thing. And I was like, you're Zach Zara. He's like, yeah. And he was like, he was just like totally not what he presents as a referee. You know what I mean? I always think he comes off relatively cool.

Yeah, he was so cool. But anyway, end of the game, uh, there's a jump ball. It's Jalen Dern and Brunson. The announcers are pointing out where Jalen Duren's going to put the ball. And he just smacks it out of bounds. And then there's this is over and back where Jalen Brunson's right foot is in the front court. And he kind of like doesn't catch the ball, but like kind of catches it but doesn't catch it and then puts his left foot in the back court and then possesses it.

But they review it. And the explanation made no sense to me. And again, I'm not a ref. I don't study the rules, but they were like his momentum took him into the back court. I'm like, yeah, that's over and back. Like, again, I'm a Knicksman. I'm like, yeah, his momentum took him into the back court. That's exactly what happened.

Thank you for explaining that. that's being in the front court and your momentum takes into the back court. So here's the deal. It says late in the game, this was the question because they have to do the pool report. Oh, they did? It says late in the game. It appears that Jay LaBrunsen committed a back court violation. He did. Looking for clarification on that rule.

Zach Zarba. Rule four, section 6G. The front court back court status is not. not obtained until a player with the ball has established a positive position in either half in this instance during the throw in the last two minutes of the fourth period and the last two minutes in any overtime period. So obviously, that is where we were at that point. Brunson and the trajectory of the pass were headed towards the back court.

Brunson's momentum was taking him there when he touches the ball. due to that momentum, he's not considered in a positive position at that time. That's why the play is legal. Can I ask a follow question, please, Mr. Vernon? What is a positive possession? What is a positive position? What is that? Explain to me what the words positive and position have to do with each other and what that means.

I mean, it really looks like, I mean, it looks like he's got possession on the, I mean. It looked like an. over and back. Again, like this doesn't call the game because it's a three-point games, then the pissons have to hit a three and then, you know, who knows it's going to happen from there. But when I was watching the game as a Knicks band, I was like, what are you doing?

Like, what are you doing? Yeah. And I also, like, just looking at the play, because as we're talking, I press play on the video, whatever. I guess my issue with the explanation would be, bro, he could have stopped. His momentum

is not so severe that he has to go into the back court. And if you notice, me like you, you could have stopped if you wanted to. So therefore, to me, that's a back court because,

like, you, you're willingly doing this. Like, you are willingly, like, it's not just, oh,

I can't stop myself. So that was fine, right? And then there's this. They're up by one. Because I, like, I think it was Beasley hits a crazy three.

By the way, Tim Hardaway was like, six for six to start the game. game. It was like everything he wasn't in game two. I think he was like honestly like six for six from three to start the game. It was not. He cooled off in the second half. So then Brunson's at the line and they're up by one with point five seconds left. In my head, I'm like, make the first one, miss the second one. Is someone going to jump in the air? Like only Yokic with his water polo skills could jump in the air, grab the ball and make a 90 foot three point shot to win the game. Like it's just like impossible, right?

So then the announcers start talking about it like, well, do you make them both or do you miss the second one? I'm thinking, miss the second one. He makes the first one. He's going to miss the second one, right, Berno? He misses the second one. The clock guy starts the clock when it hits the rim. Oh, no. So then the buzzer goes off before a piston has touched it.

So right now, so now the game, the buzzer went off inadvertently. Okay. It's a two-point game with 0.5 seconds left. How do you think a fair way to end this game would be? I mean, I think the best way is to try, and again, I hate these replays, but you've got to go back and you've got to time it, right? No, you can't. No, the buzzers off before anyone touches it.

The ball's in the air and the buzzer goes off and the pizzins are already like, what the fuck is that? Yeah, but you've got to go back and you've got to say, what is that, like, point three. Here's what I'm thinking. It should theoretically be point three or something, right? No, no. So I'm thinking, I'm thinking retake the shot. Again, I don't have the rule book.

I'm thinking like retake the shot. Like the client I messed up. I mean, I don't know what the distance from it. The ball comes off the rim and then immediately it's touched. The buzzer, no, the buzzer buzzes like, well, the ball's midair. And the pistons themselves are like, what was that? It was a total mistake. But what ends up happening is, is they give the pistons the ball.

So I'm thinking to myself, how did we get here? The pisses have a chance to win the game because the clock guy messed up. Oh, that's a race. He gets a race. But, and again, and they're not super smart to be like their independent clock guys. It's not like the guy doesn't like live in Flint to like drive into the game every day, 41 times a year. But the clock guy messes up and it gives the pistons.

Like again, you cannot get a rebound and make a full court heap in 0.5 seconds. Yeah. So then I'm just like, this is insane. I was like, this is so set up for the business in the game. And then inbounding the ball is Jalen Duren. And I'm thinking to myself, they must know something about Jalen Duren that I don't know. Did he play quarterback in high school? Is he a great passer? I literally, before anything happened, I was like, why is this the guy that you choose to inbound the ball? Because he sometimes catches it, most of the time, dunks it. He's not exactly like a touch athlete. You know what I mean?

Right. And then he just throws the ball out of bounce. But it was insane. The whole thing, like the Knicks had the thing in the bag. I swear they were up by like eight with like 50 seconds left. And it just all fell apart in the weirdest way. And then they walk off with a win. It was weird.

The whole thing was weird. Okay. Okay. So here is when we have talked about these series in the past, you know, I always view it through the prism of what do you have to do to get it done? And I think the reason that you feel so confident now after that one and that one becomes so crucial is because you look at it and you go, do I think the Pistons could beat the Knicks three out of four times? No chance. It just feel like it felt.

But I mean, that's the answer, right? Because when we just did this, we did this in our last episode after. the Clippers one game two. And I said the reason that's so significant is because if you lose that game, you, then now you're telling me, you got to beat Yoke it

four out of five times. Which you can do with MPJ looking the way he does and Westwood's the way he does. Maybe you could, but it's a whole lot easier to win three out of five times. But now when you're in this series that the Knicks are in, you're sitting there going,

okay, if if the tables were turned, you feel better about the better team being able to pull off something like that. If you said, okay, over the course of the season, could the Knicks beat the Pistons three out of four times? The answer in your mind would be absolutely they could do that, right? But now with the Pistons being on the wrong side of that

and the first time in the playoffs or whatever else, like to me, in order to win the series, And again, this could end up being wrong. In order to win the series, the Pistons had to win game three. Absolutely. Because now you've got to win three out of four against the team that, I mean. If you're looking at the first two games, the Pistons had the lead for the majority of both of those games. The Pistons were like, honestly, the better team for game one and game two.

But game three felt pretty dominant from the Nix. Even though the score was super tight. Yeah, if you look at the score, you're like, it's the same thing. Like I looked at NBA.com. It's like, Thunder epic comeback. I'm like, that was not an epic comeback. That was star player for the Christie's gets hurt. The entire building gets sad and the Thunder take advantage.

That's what that was. Well, and I think it's an interesting, when I bring up the whole, the pistons now have to beat them three out of four in order to win that series. I think it's interesting that we think about that. with Wolves Lakers. Yeah. Because now we're going to get a game three of that, and that's going to tell us a lot.

But I don't think either of those two teams that if I pose that same question, that no matter what the outcome of game three is, both teams are still in it. We still don't feel. Both teams are still in it. Yeah, we still don't feel like 40. And either team in a 40. game set could go three and one

against the other team. Absolutely. Like that could happen in that one because of how they are matched up and kind of where they are. I mean, that series, it is what did you make a game two? What did you make a game two? That, look,

psychologically, when you are when you are the home team and you've lost game one, there is a desperation with a game two that frankly cannot be. The other team, there's just no way you could try to say,

I mean, I've been to the press conference, like I told you, I've covered so many of these series. I've been to the press conference a million times where the guy comes in and he says, look, we came here, we got to, we got the split.

We got it back to Minnesota. Yeah. We stole home court. Yeah. Now, now they've got to win on our term. Which is such bullshit because you're still like to play game seven on the road. Like, come on.

Right. But we've got the, but, But if we take care of business, we don't even have to come back here for a game seven, right? We have the ability to win this in six now, right? We get to play on our terms now. We stole home court advantage, blah, blah, blah. So I think it was, you know, part for the course on when you've got two, I think, very good.

These teams are a good matchup against each other, that you're going to have adjustments that go on every game. You are going to give different guys that step up. every game. You know, you're going to have, okay, so Anthony Edwards was a big-time playmaker and had nine assists in game one. And then he turned around, he had nothing. He couldn't get unassessed in game two.

And Nasreed was big. Well, Nasreed was in foul trouble. And Jade McDaniels had 25 and Jay McDaniels ain't got the 25. Do you know who's been good for the wolves though? But no, but Julius Randall. Right. Right. Luca Donchich has one assist or whatever it was in game one.

And all of a sudden now you get to game two. So look, that's the ebb and flow of a series. And I got to be honest with you, I'll be disappointed if we don't get a game seven in that series. I think it's just going to go back and forth and back and forth. I really do. I think the Lakers finish it before that. Wow. No way.

I do. Before you think they win in six in Minnesota? Yes. Five? I don't know. No way. I just, no way. If you look at game one and game two, I feel like game one, the wolves couldn't miss.

Like, they just couldn't miss. I got it. But you're, don't overreact the game two because look, game two was gross. Game two is not fun to watch. I got it. But the wolves have no. They're not, why are they desperate to win game two? You know what I mean?

Like, that's the way this stuff goes. So, I mean, we always overreacted the last thing we saw. Look, everybody right now is going. going like does it look like the rockets have a much better chance against the warriors that they did the last time we talked? Of course it does. Yeah. Let's continue your father's down. Shouldn't we have an MRI result by now? It's like the middle of the night. Oh, they got it. On Thursday. Yeah, they got it. I think I saw, oh, no, I saw Slater, right? Didn't, it wasn't an Anthony Slater. I think that was him that put something out earlier today where it was like that he was

going to confirm Jimmy Butler MRI revealed no structural damage. Deep glute bruise that will be managed on a constant basis in the lead up to Saturday's game three. Source described his status as true questionable depending on response to treatment. ESPN was the first to report. So there you go. Glute bruise. But hurt. Yeah, butter.

Literally. Literally butter. He's actually butter. But hurt. Made it look like, hey, it looked like it hurt like shit. Oh my God.

I mean, he led, he was high. Jimmy Butler was sky. He bounced. He bounced off the ground. You literally bounced. You blame Draymond for that.

I blame Draymond for everything. I blame Draymond for everything. It's really just like fluky pinball stuff down there. Yeah, right. But, and the Dort one was fluky too. But like, I mean,

I don't want to do hypotheticals, but like, I don't know what Dort's plan was. besides getting dung on by John Morant, but if it didn't go down the way it did, and Steve Kerr had said, for what it's worth, Steve Kerr had said that he was,

that Jimmy said he's fine. I feel like Jimmy could, like, lose an arm and be like, I'm fine. I've got two. I mean, it's, look, extra rest, extra rest came, I mean,

is massive in this situation. Sunday? No, it's not until Saturday. So I'm saying, they were off. They had that day. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. They had that day between.

That series, I thought the Rockets would win the series, and I still feel that way. I just, I think the Rockets are going to win. I thought that, so I want to talk about Jalen Green for a second. You think they win if Butler's available?

Yeah, I do. Wow. Okay. I mean, they, look, they had the home court advantage in this one-one. Here's what Jalen Green said about game one. Quote,

the lights were bright, the crowd was here, the court looked huge, so I couldn't really get a chance to settle in. My legs was a little shaky. And of course, we all saw what he did in game too. He's great. He's great. I mean, this is the Jalen Greene experience, though. But you know, that's not, like, right?

Like, yeah, this is the way it's going to go. This is, this is Jalen Greene. This is who he is. And this is why we've always said, like, I mean, I think it's very hard. Look, I will say they played with incredible force right off the bat. It is very hard to It's hard to take a lot out of game two When we saw the Warriors with that

I promise you without Jimmy Butler The Rockets could kill the Warriors We agree Of course Right We need to see it again In a game that Jimmy Butler plays in Before I decide

Who I think can win this thing Oh I think the Rockets win the series I'm confident about that Confident about that Confident about that If Jimmy Butler is available game three. I am less confident than you. Oh, no.

I think they were a little freaked out in game one. Yeah, it sounds like you're counting on a Jalen Green 38 again. No, no. Okay, then what? They need it. It's just the defense, man. They've just got guys. Eason and Thompson and just I just feel like I just

I've always been a little down on the Warriors this season even post Jimmy Butler. I really have. I really have. I understand that there's There's logic and data that goes the other direction. But I don't look at this team and say title contenders, especially in the Western Conference.

Fair enough. I don't. I really, really don't. But that's, we're losing, we're running out of series to watch. We're running out of good series. The Warriors were minus 200 to win that series.

They're minus 200. Yeah. And they've lost a game without Jimmy Butler. So this is where me and you break ways. No, no. I'll say this, though, is the betting odds aren't directly correlated to who smart people think will win the series. Yes, they are. It's dumb bet is being like Steph Curry.

No, it's dumb better as being like. Steph Curry is going to beat who's that guy, that Turkish guy on the Rockets. Like that's what they're going to do. Vegas is not in the business of trying to lose buddy Jacoby. No, I know. But they know that the money is going to come in on the Warriors because of the brand and because of Steph. it's like the Cowboys. Like the line is just different.

You know what I mean? Because it is theft. Minus 200. That's insane. That's insane. That's insane. But I think the Rock has been in the series. But there's not a lot of competitive series out there in the first round.

I don't think the nuggets, depending on what happens with Westbrook and Michael Porter, Jr., if they're not 100%, because the depth is not something nuggets have. They've got Yokic, not much else. If those two aren't 100%, it's going to be tough to be the clippers. So, like, I think we got the Warriors wolves. Yeah. And the Grizzlies could come back and win them to the last four games. Stop.

I do think. I think warriors and, this is what we expected. I think the Warriors and the Rockets are going to go down to the end. I think the wolves and the Lakers are going to go down to the end. And the clubbers have made decently quick work of the nuggets, it appears. In the Eastern Conference. Yeah, I don't. What's the best series?

No, can either Orlando or Miami stave off a sweep? That's the only question. I think both those teams will win a game. Our game? Did you see what Garland said? Oh, about picking on Tyler Hero?

I love it. Into a microphone. He's like, yeah, yeah, we're trying to get Hero or Robinson in the action anytime we can. Robinson's like, I play like 15 minutes a game. It's like, why is my name getting involved in this? I mean, I love it. Look, our biggest hope, honestly, I hope the Bucks respond and turn that into a series.

Yes. Like, we need that one to become a series because we were counting on Bucks Pacers being a fun, long series. And, you know, it appears as if, again, I'm not going to, I'm not throwing dirt on the Pistons yet, right? If that game, if they win another game and next thing we know we're watching the game six, sure, sure. Totally. Totally reasonable. I think one thing that's really bothers me about this particular series is it's missing beef stew in so many different ways. You know what I mean? Like there's a, I don't know if you saw it.

There's a little dust up between, like Mitchell Robinson was just sitting there with his hands on his knees and B-Ball Paul like bonged into him and they kind of got into it. And then Cronty Towns acted like a tough guy for five bit seconds and pushed B-Ball Paul and got a tech. But like there was some some campaign shrewder stuff. Schrooter, by the way, is like, shrewder is on one. right oh yeah dude jesus is germany shruder Dennis the menace is here he is he is like he is Germany shruder like the pistons aren't anywhere near competitive in this series without the contributions they've got from

Dennis shrewder game two and game three it's been you know for someone who moves teams a lot and has a story history both positively and negatively he's finishing this season however it works out on a real high he's a contributor player it should be an unbelievable We will obviously reconvene on Monday, and there will be a whole new set of storylines. I'm going to go cry myself to sleep. That's what I'm going to do. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always at Jacoby.

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