The Mismatch - Damian Lillard Puts Up Historic 55-Point Performance in Game 5 Loss to the Nuggets. Plus: The Lakers' Collapse and Looking Forward to Nets-Bucks.

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

Verno and KOC first get into Damian Lillard’s unbelievable 55-point, 10-assist performance in a double-overtime loss to the Nuggets in a thrilling Game 5 (0:30). Then they talk about every Laker who isn’t LeBron’s utter collapse against the Suns to drop Game 5 of their series (19:32), and the very intriguing upcoming Nets-Bucks second-round series now that the Nets have ousted the Celtics (40:29). Finally, they look forward to Wednesday night’s games in light of Embiid’s injury, Trae Young’s dominance, Ja Morant’s incredible performances against the Jazz, and the Clippers’ comeback (52:26). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On R2C2, C-C-2, C-Sabathia and Ryan Rucco guide listeners through everything going on in the MLB, NBA, and NFL. They also talk to friends, athletes, and celebrities about the world of sports, and much more. Check out R2C2 with C-C-Sabathia and Ryan Rucco on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Misfarney. Join me as he does every Tuesday from the ringer.com. It's Kevin O'Connor, A.K.A. Kevin O'O.comber, A.K.K.E. Kevin O'O. Kahneman O'C., Kevin O'O. Kavanaugh. Chris, I am glad that we waited until Tuesday night to record this week because all the game we just watched, what a night.

Oh, boy. This is one that will be on, you know, NBA classics for till the end of time. I mean, when you sign up to watch a playoff game, what you expect is not always what gets delivered, but this exceeded all expectations. Denver wins. 147 to 140 in a game 5 over Portland, which has been a highly competitive series. Double Overtime.

And we saw one of the most unbelievable performances in the history of the NBA. In fact, no one has ever hit more three-pointers in a playoff game than Damien Lillard's 12 for 17. He scored 55 points. He was 17 to 24 from the field. And he lost the game. I don't, I mean, it seems impossible that you could lose a game with that kind of performance. Steph Curry is tweeting about it. Kevin Durant, I mean, it felt like everyone was watching this game that was unbelievably on NBA TV.

You know, they put it on NBA TV. And there it felt like everyone in the NBA community was watching this game because we knew what we are witnessing is something so. insanely special. Katie called it a spiritual experience. Godlike. Godlike. He said it was. He's God mode.

God mode. I mean, he was, look, there are so many things that happened in this game that I felt were huge. And yet by the end of the game, I was having trouble remembering them. Like that's how ridiculous.

Yes, it's how ridiculous. Like, how long ago did it seem that Austin Rivers got a phantom foul called on him at the end of regulation? I mean, we got two overtime periods after that. You know, one of the things that I had written down in my notes was Nirkich fouls out, which was, I mean, it's just insane for him. He has got to know his level of importance to that team. He challenges an Aaron Gordon dunk. Now, in fairness, Gordon did go and miss the free throw, so it did save them. a bucket, but it's not worth getting his six foul there.

And that was with four minutes left to go. And the reason that I wrote that down was because this morning I had seen John Schumann post. And again, it's a very small sample size, but I do think it's relevant towards what's happening in the playoffs. He posted all of these numbers about on-court, off-court numbers for different guys. And number one, in terms of the disparity of what his team does on-court off-court was actually Doreen Finney Smith for Dallas.

Then it was Bogdanovich for Atlanta, and then it was Use of Nerkich for Portland. I mean, it's followed by LeBron James and Damien Lillard. And we talked about how Nerkich is, like, their defense is absolutely atrocious. And they don't have anybody big except for, you know, canter to play, you know, at the end when they're, They tried that for a little bit.

They put him in every single screen. Monty Morris is banging threes. Monty Morris was awesome tonight. He was incredible. Incredible. Nirk was 20 points off the bench. Yeah, Nerkis fell out with four minutes left in regulation. The thing ends up going two overtimes.

The only guy that scored was Damien Lillard. I think he had their last 17 points. I got those stats. Going back to the last shot in regulation, the three that he hit to tie it up, send it to the first overtime. 20 points on 7 of 9 shooting Damian Lillard in the last second of regulation overtime in the double O T. All other Blazers.

Since that moment, Dame tied the game in regulation. Two points on one of 19 shooting. Two points on one of 19. Awful. It's horrific. And you think about some of those possessions. You've got Covington missing a dunk.

You've got CJ stepping out of bound. Those dunks, two of them. On the putback, he went for a putback. dunk. And then on the other opportunity, he went for a poster slam on the contest by Yokic. Go just, listen, watch what the Spurs did for 20 years and go for a layup. Or for a layup in those moments. It was just, like, easy for me to say watching from home. That's right. I feel like in a moment like that, I think the, the layup was a safer bet. But what I would have done is just pass the ball to Damien Lillard every time I time I

done. That's what I would have done. I feel like this game. Also like credit to Denver. I mean like they overcame the fact Michael Malone was foolish and not falling up three, not once, but twice against one of the greatest. I sure it was only twice. It felt like the guy hit game tying shots five times in that game.

Michael Malone is a very good coach, a very good coach who is on many top three coach of the year ballots, not falling up three. I get philosophically. any situations, but not against Damien Lohd. The first time, whatever. The second time, what are you doing? What are you doing?

I don't know. I'm falling. I'm up three in the end of the first overtime. What are you doing? How are you letting him on an island get to that step back? What's going on? And by the way, that step back, wow. Like the footwork and the balance and the body control and the touch in the guts to hit

that shot in that moment. Damien Lord, what we just saw 55 points on 17 of 24 shooting is one of the greatest offensive performances I will ever see in my entire lifetime. One of the greatest clutch performances that we've seen in sports. I mean, I can't think of many great clutch performances and a loss like of this level with the shot making that he had. Just it's sad because this Portland team, this is what I've been hammering since before the season.

Like this is, I get Blazers fans being pissed at me for saying they were comment. overrated before the year. Totally understand. Tonight's game is why. You have Dame go off for 55 with an all-time performance, a game that's going to be replayed over and over for years to come because it was that great. And your team goes two for 19 in overtime.

Your team can't get stops down the stretch. Your team doesn't have enough support behind him. Your team can only rely on Ennis Cantor, the guy who became a meme because his head coach said on the bench can't play canter. I just, I look at the rest of this roster. C.J. McCollum going, for 22, 22, stepping out of bounds late in the game.

I look at this team and it's like, Damien Lillard deserves better. He just does. You can't bet against Dane. You can never count out a team with him because of how specially he is. But it's just unfortunate that against a team that just lost their second best player to a torn ACL a little over a month ago, that they're down on a series against them and not pummeling them. Damien Lillard deserves better than the supporting cast that he has.

I am just telling you this as a friend. I would slow down just a little bit, only because of the way this is all playing out. It's not over. They could win the series. No, because look, they're going to, I think they will win game six. That's my opinion. They could win the whole series. And then seven, all bets are off.

And then it's feeding into and we're going to get to all these games, but just much different situations all around. If we looked up at either of these teams are in the Western Conference finals, it's not a shocker. It's not going to surprise us anymore. Not a shocker. Not a shocker. And it doesn't change in my perspective that the supporting cast needs to be better.

And like maybe like I'll look silly in the end. But I'll tell you what, if they go far, if they go to the West Finals, if they even go to the NBA finals, it's because of Damien Lillard. Well, there's no question about that. There's no question about that. I mean, look, there's a lot of rough supporting casts around there that are being pretty exposed by one player being out of the lineup. And I will give Portland credit because they have had big injuries the last couple of years

and have been able to withstand them. And now, look, that was just, there's only, there's only been two 50 point 10, three-pointer performances in NBA history in the playoffs. They're both him. They're both him. And I, forgive me, God, I wish I knew who tweeted this out. But it was such a, it stuck with me as I read it. They said, what would we think of Damian Lillard if Steph Curry never existed? Now, maybe Damian Lillard is not playing like Damian Lillard.

Is Steph Curry never existed, right? Because of how much the game changed because of those Warriors teams. But you really do. You put that in perspective. He was in the background, especially of those Curry, you know, winning the MVP, winning the title, all this kind of stuff. and it's taken a long time for him to get full credit, first team all NBA,

the accolades and everything else. But I mean, he's right there, man. I mean, he's right there with anybody in the league. That is a bona fide superstar. Dame has a chance to be an all-time great. You know, we watched in this game two guys that have a chance to be all-time great. Stemy and the Lord and Nicola Yokic, some of the plays that Yokich makes when like Ennis Cantor or Yerkerich are right in his face and he manages with like no space to still launch a three and sink it when he's double team in the post.

The pass that he looped over the top of the defense to Michael Porter Jr. for the corner three where Robert Coverton broke his ankles as he recovered. That pass. Look, Kiv. To your point about. To your point about, about Portland, the kind of what's around dame and not delivering. the truth is this, oh, it's Monty Morris and it's Austin Rivers

hitting monster shots for the other team. You know what I'm saying? Morris is a really good but I mean, those are the guys that are making those shots, right? Monty Morris,

he's probably not taking those, he's not taking those shots of Jamal Murray's, you know, available. Austin Rivers might not be on the team if Jamal Murray is available. And yet these are guys that are delivering one of the crazy things.

Marcus Howard gave pretty good minutes too off the bench. Well, the other thing is this could have been, and this is the way the playoffs goes, all of that stuff, you know, the Malone stuff and whatever else, it'll all be forgotten. It just will because you won. It all gets forgotten. Exactly.

Kevin, they were up eight with a minute left in overtime. You are up eight. This would have been one of the most unbelievable collapse. I mean, up eight with a minute. And Damien Lillard hits that three with a minute to cut it again. Now you're up five with a minute left to go. Who loses that game, right? And they ended up winning the game.

So all that goes away. But, I mean, you don't see a lot of eight-point leads get disintegrated in one minute's time. and yet Denver did have that happen to them. This is so evenly matched. It's such a good series. I want it to go seven. I want to see them both in that situation against each other because you got two guys at peak of powers,

you know, between Lillard and Yokic, yeah. And they really, you know, they don't have as good as supporting cast as a lot of their peers. And yet they are dragging their teams to this point to where they're playing so well. And that, it's just, it's a really good series. That, that, that, every time he would make one of those, that's just very few times do you watch something that's truly jaw dropping to where everybody's like, oh my God. My phone exploded.

I felt like everybody I know was watching that. and we're all in unison going, oh my God, this is insane. He just can't be stopped. Yeah, it was something else, man. I mean, I think these are the types of games that, you know, it's just special. It really is special just to see these guys perform at this level. Damien Lower, the shots he hit, Yokic, the plays he made. You know, you said earlier that like Denver's bench and Portland's bench,

the lack of a supporting cast, it's true. I mean, for Denver, part of it's due to injuries and with Portland. Like it's, you know, just young guys haven't developed and other guys are like, Nurkich was out and all that. But, you know, I think you also do, again, to give some credit to some of the guys on that Denver bench. Like, they really played some strong minutes in this game. You know, I think Mark's- Big response for Porter.

I mean, what he had a dreadful game for. Michael Porter got going early. They called the first play for him, 10 for 13 on the night. I know, I don't know what it touches. The tracking stats aren't out yet. It seemed like his touches were up from the first four games in the series. I'm curious to see what the numbers are after the game. But, you know, Marcus Howard hitting some big shots, playing some quality minutes for them.

Monte Morris, as you said earlier, just remarkable performance for him. Like, he's always been more since he was at Ohio, Iowa State was always a guy who just was steady. Like he came off the bench and the NBA immediately could steady in offense. But for him to have big scoring nights, 28 points and to hit some of the shots that he did, That's over the top stuff, man. And, like, he's capable of it. You get Jim Michael Green and Paul Millsab given some quality minutes as well. That Denver bench, they're not necessarily the biggest names,

but those guys came out big in this time, in this performance. Also, huge, huge, huge free throws for Morris. I know he missed the one that enabled Dame to tie it, but he also hit the big ones at the end of the game. Yes. Right. In the double overtime, he stuck with it. And he had some big, big threes when they needed it, too.

I don't know why the hell C.J. McCollum was going. under the screen. I mean, the kid had been shooting fireballs. Like, you know what I mean? Like, why are you going under? Because of course, every time they saw Enos Canter out there, Yokic ran straight to the top, set the screen, and it's like, okay. And the guards just got to try to stay with him because

cancer's not going to, I mean, there's nothing you could do. They ended up just abandoning the Canter thing and playing small. It's tough, man. Like, you know, Terry Stott's, a lot of Blazers fans would want him gone if they lose the series. And understandably so for some, you know, different reasons. The offensive system. You know, that's just the fact you're moving within the flow, not a lot of

play calling. Maybe it would be better to have somebody who is more hands on with play calls, the defensive rotations and whatnot. But like, you look at the bench and it's like, he doesn't have a lot of options here. You know, you have Annis Canter as your backup center. Zach Collins has not developed and hasn't stayed healthy. He went to Rondea Hollis Jefferson for nine minutes. And in those nine minutes, the Blazers were a minus 21, a minus 21 in Hollis Jefferson's nine minutes and he was a guy they signed weeks before the season ended you know to give themselves a chance with like a small ball like we're you know we'll talk about Bruce brown later on when we talk about the Nets and Celtics that type of guy who can be a short role option for you but

like Hollis Jefferson is in theory a quality player but hasn't been at many of his stops in the league so for thoughts it's like where are the options where is the options on the bench the young guys just haven't developed this year little is not ready yet Anthony Simons is not ready yet Like Zach Collins, like I said earlier, not staying healthy, not ready yet. It's just unfortunate that some of their draft picks that on paper makes sense and maybe could turn into quality players years from now, just aren't ready yet for a moment like this on a night like this when Damien Miller put up the numbers that he did. It's just unfortunate that this night is going to be remembered in a loss.

And one of the good recent moves that they did make was the drafting of Trent Jr., but they used that piece to acquire Powell. Yeah, and Powell, five for 14 tonight, 13 points. And like, Paul has had some great moments. Like, don't get us wrong here. But I don't think that decision. If they don't, if he gets paid a fortune. Well, yeah, and that's the thing.

Like, we, we don't know. Like, they clearly didn't want to pay Gary Trent to make that deal. But that doesn't mean Norman Powell for sure will stay because there's going to be a heck of a lot of other teams that would love to have Norman Powell on their roster. Oh, for sure. And to read the stories, I think Norma Powell's representatives think that he's going to be getting, you know, like a $20 million contract. You know what I'm saying? From what I understand, there's a strong possibility of that. Yeah.

I mean, there's a guy that shooting guard market. I mean, there's going to be guys out there that are getting a lot of money. He's a good player, man. Yeah, he is a good player. That's why they made the deal. To me, here's what I, like, will have more like breakdowns of the Blazers, like depending on what happened to the. series but my theory is this if you're the blazers it makes sense to have norman paul on the roster if you plan to trade c j mccallum i don't think keeping all three makes a heck of a lot of

sense that's but if if you're planned is to flip mccullum elsewhere keep norman pao pam whatever it takes a powell lillard backcourt because of powell's defensive ability and his shot making ability makes a heck of a lot more sense if you can flip mccallum for a bigger wing or a big or it's like whatever it might be it just makes sense to me we'll see what happens There's a lot more time to discuss theoretical possibilities, but that just makes it make more sense for me. Yeah, I agree with that. Look, I think we are going to be able to talk by our Friday show.

I think we're going to be able to talk about a game seven and how great this is going to be that we're going to get one, because I would assume Portland will take care of business in a series that's so evenly matched. We'll see, man. You know, I would think that they will win game six. of game seven, but look, Denver, Denver has flipped the tables on teams, you know, the last couple of years. And so it's certainly a possibility they could close them out. It's crazy

that the game that we all were focused on was the one on NBA TV, Spirodidis and Greg Anthony on the call for that one, because the premier game was on TNT. And that game, and that game was over in about 20 minutes time. Yeah, like early second quarter. It was like, yeah, time to tune out. I mean, look, it came out of the box and Booker is just, I mean, he, he's shooting fireballs. He's got, what, 18, I think, at the first quarter? Are we sure Devin Booker's good?

Are we sure Devin Booker's not a bad team, good stats player? Are we sure that's what he is? I think we're sure. and the other guy campaign which everybody loves these kind of stories and Cameron Payne you know I've talked about this

I talked about it is actually years ago now I can't remember who he was playing for maybe it was during the bubble but campaign he's a Memphis kid so like I'm very aware of his story and he went to a small high school

you know private school here in Memphis it was it's actually the same school that Marcus Hall went to, no less, Lausanne. And he, Kevin, I know of kids. I had a, I had a, I had a dad that's one of the, like, the ones that, like, loves all the prep basketball and everything. He sent me a picture of this amazing fifth grader that he saw tonight in some AAU tournament.

And I'm like, bro, what? Like, my son is in that grade, so it was relevant. But I'm just telling, I'm telling you that in, in a small town that's a basketball city, there's nobody, like, that comes out of nowhere that you haven't heard of. You're usually aware of who all the best players are by the time their freshman in high school, at least by their junior year, you know of them. Cameron Payne just went completely under the radar on the Memphis and national basketball scene and grew a lot from his freshman to whatever year, a senior year.

and then he gets this, you know, this recruiting offer at Murray State, turns himself into a damn lottery picked there, and everybody's like looking back like, what? Like, I never even, like, you know, you people go and see high school basketball games in a town like Memphis, right, and any big prospect that's come out. So when Daddy is young was coming up, the games were packed. When James Wiseman was playing, the games are packed. Like, I never even heard of campaign.

And turns himself. into a lottery pick, then he's out of the league. He's over in China. Yeah. For goodness sakes. And he ends up now 26 years old, I think. And there he is in a massive pivotal playoff game. 16 points. 14 in the first. Yeah, 16 points and 19 minutes for the whole game. 7.11 shooting. Unbelievable. It's a shooting for shooting from outside, getting to the rim, doing it all. Just a heck of a performance. You want to talk about a story of sticking to it. You know, I saw that there was a meme going around about there was one of the quotes

from the Bulls when he went there and it was like this picture of campaign with the quote next to it. I think John Moran tweeted it actually because John Moran is a Murray State guy. And it said the quote was, we knew after the second practice he's not an NBA player. And that it's like anonymous bulls, whatever. Now, of course, all those Bulls people are gone now. I saw our buddy Kenny chime in with that one. But all those Bulls guys are gone now.

But it is just... Kenny Beach him. Kenny, yeah. He's got his new show called game. That's right. It's been pretty good. And so all those Bulls people are gone. But, I mean, the CAM story is one of total persistence.

And you have guys like that. Just like we talk about Rivers or Monty Morris or these are guys. They show up in the playoffs. And they make a name for themselves. This is when the lights are the brightest. And so, you know, obviously we talk a lot about Chris Paul. We talk a lot about Devin Booker, Deirdre Aiton, and how awesome he's been. Oh, yeah, fantastic.

But it's the campaigns of the world that you're not, you're not counting on that. And I don't know what the hell the Lakers are counting on tonight because they just got their ass kid from the beginning. It was terrible. And I'll tell you what, though, with Phoenix, it's gotten to the point. that you sometimes you are counting on it from campaign like he has proven himself time and time again this season but this is legit this is for real he has spoken at many press conferences about you know his growth and his maturity and how you know going to china like he that was like a wake up moment like this is time to lock in and grow up and work harder it works smarter

and the player that he's turned himself into by doing that is really an example of what you put into it and the mindset and approach you take to the game. And I think it's admirable and I think it's great to see him perform at the level that he has all season long, especially now in the playoffs against the Lakers. Being up three two, Chris, the Phoenix Sun's just going to win one to advance. What's your confidence level that they get this series over with and end up the win over the Lakers? I'd say six. Six out of ten. Yeah, I'd say six, right? So I'm going a little bit above a 50-50 shot, right? I'd say 60% right now

because they've got that 3-2 lead. And it might be a little bit higher, Kev, honestly, because I do not. Just covering all of these games and teams, different iterations of teams and injuries for so many years, that groin thing, call this stuff whatever they want to. The groin things like the hamstring thing.

It is a muscle. And muscles don't. heel, right? I've seen ankles that when a guy takes off a shoe, it swells up the size of a bowling ball and you're like, oh my God, he's never, and then they ice it and they treat it and they shoot it up and they do all manner of things and they get that swelling down and they've got a pain tolerance that, but you can, you can deal with it, right? Rex Ryan's love a mess. The muscle thing, you can like massage, you could do your massage treatments and all this kind of stuff, but man, it is just. You got to heal. And the other thing is, he's had the Achilles thing too. You're just worried about all manner of things.

And he wasn't good, by the way, before he went out of that game. And so what percentage do you get? We saw what a debilitated Anthony Davis gave you in the last game. They need the great Anthony Davis in order to beat this Phoenix team. now we do need to monitor the Paul stuff too, right? Because every time we think Paul's healthy, Paul is banged up again, right? But let me just read you the Lakers starters tonight. LeBron James, 9 of 19 for the field, 24 points.

Andre Drummond, 2 of 5, 7 points. Marquith Morris, 1 of 2, 4 points. Catavia's Caldwell Pope. O of 1, 0.1, 0.0.0.0.000. And he got injured and had to leave the game. Dennis Schroeder. O of 9 from the field. 0 of 4 from 3, zero points in 25 minutes.

Unreal. The client of $21 million contract annually during the season. Bro, that's 35 points. 24 of which are LeBron James. I mean, that's just impossible. Yeah. Impossible. What was Frank Vogel thinking with this starting five? I'm curious, was he not thinking?

Because you're putting Markief Morrison there with Andre Drummond when the pretty clear solution. And like, I feel like a lot of Lakers writers, a lot of Lakers fans were like, start your guy, Chris, Marcusal at the 5 with LeBron James at the 4. I saw that tweeted out by so many Lakers people that I fall the last couple of days, you would not believe it. It's like, yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Maximize LeBron James with Gasol spacing the floor at the 5 and you started drumming and Morris just kind of, kind of odd. It was an odd decision. I was texting with one of my buddies before the game who's a Lakers fan. about this. And he's like, I don't know, maybe this will be like inject some energy, you know,

with Morris getting in the starting five. But he's like, I don't know about this either. Well, I don't know about it. Definitely not after seeing it. Will they go, you know, to a Gasol 80 front court in game six, assuming 80 can be back or do they go straight to 80 at the five? Because if you're a Lakers fan watching these games, you're going to be like, enough, enough. Time to go with either 80 at the five or Gasol at the five to maximize floor spacing. Like it's time, it's time to make that change when you're down three, two in the series. I've never, I've never denied the greatness of LeBron James, but not even LeBron James. Maybe Frank Vogel was thinking, what is the shittiest lineup I could put with LeBron and him still?

Look, Kevin, Dennis Schrooter, Caldwell Pope, Marquief Morris, and Andre Drummond. That is a 60-lost team, no matter who the other guy. is. I mean, maybe LeBron, they don't lose 60. But the I mean, think about those guys. If you take them away from the LeBron Hemisphere and I told you

next year, the whoever, just named the team. The, you know, the, the expansion team, the Seattle Supersonics. The new expansion team in Seattle is going to have Dennis Schroeder, Catavius

Caldwell, Part, Marky Morris, and Andre Drummond. You're bad against them. Four of their starters. Dude, it wouldn't matter who I told you was the fifth starter. I mean, it doesn't matter. That's just terrible. And by the way, outside of, you know, I mean, KCP was there for it last year, too.

I mean, this is the playoffs. This is like, who's won something? That's part of the reason why people talk about Marcus, at least Marcus Saul has won something. You know what I mean? He's been part of winning. Hell, Montrez-Herald has won something. Caruso has won something. He was at least part of something that won. You know what? Those guys, what are we talking about here? I just don't get it. Like, I really, I really don't get it because I just, I don't understand. Like I said, it's not that like the writers are correct. It's not like the analysts. It's not like, you know, at Tim underscore NBA who runs a great website, B-Ball index.

It's not like he's right about everything the Lakers should do, but it just seemed like the logical step to take is to maximize the floor spacing. And you know what? It might not have made a difference tonight with a different starting five. It might not have made a difference one bit. To your point, Chris, because even like inserting Gasol into that conversation, and it's not going to be like a great team.

It's just not. But here's the thing. What they did with Chris Paul, he went out there and he said, Hey, hey, you, guarded by Markief Morris. Come set this screen real quick. Bingo. Okay, boom, we got a switch. He literally drove right past him and laid the ball in.

Exactly. With no rim protection. No rim protection. So he just drives in. I mean, you're going to play against the sons who bop the ball around and Aitans just kind of do it. They don't run plays for Aiton. What the hell are you doing with two big Oafs in there?

You know what I'm saying? Like, he's a cleanup guy. The rest of them, crowd are. popping it around, bookers popping it around, campaign ball, Miles Bridge, or I'm sorry, not Miles Bridges,

McKell Bridges, and they're throwing cross-court passes and whatever, they got you in scramble mode and your scramble mode is two big oaths. Yeah. I mean,

like, what are you? You expected Andre Drummond to Markief Morris to close out? I mean, you got this star-studded coaching staff there. A lot of smart coaches. Crazy.

some of which are former players in different levels of basketball. I just don't get it, Chris. I don't get it. And like I said, though, might not have made a difference. Phoenix played tremendous from the opening tip. That team is great. They could make a run here. They could very well beat the Lakers.

I picked the Lakers in seven before the series. I'm picking the Sons the rest of the way now. You think you're going to win? I'm picking the Phoenix Sons the rest of the way now. This team is checking off the boxes, Chris. DeAndre Aiton. every single game, this series, has been some of the best basketball that he's ever played in his entire life. And he's played some great games this season for the Phoenix Suns.

He had his best game of his life in that game one win that they had this series. McKell Bridges, Cameron Johnson, some of these young guys on this team, checking the boxes. Roll players, Jerry Crowder, they're up in the series despite him starting 0 for 100 to start the series 3 for 9 tonight. If he gives them a good game in a game 6 or a game 7, they very well could get away. with this. This team is checking all the boxes. When I was talking earlier and I was giving you those numbers that John Schumann had put out those

on off court and I listed all the way down to I believe. LeBron and Lillard were the guys. So I went through that list just to look at it because NERCIT was so incredibly high, as was Dorian, Finney Smith, Bogdanovich. Crowder's right there.

Crowder was on the list. I mean, this is the entire list. Finney Smith, Bogdanovich, Nerkich, LeBron, Damien Lillard, Joe Harris, Crowder, Drew Holiday, Joel Embed, Luca Donchage. I mean, it's crazy to see the name in there, right? You know what I'm saying?

And it doesn't, and he's owe for a million. He makes a three like once a year, it feels like recently. And yet you see how vital he is on off-court numbers. They have been outstanding with Crowder on the floor. And he is, for as many shots as he misses sometimes, he is a role player that does keep the ball moving. He doesn't make defensive mistakes.

He rarely is taking some ridiculous shot. He's got to make open threes. Like that's not like he's taking a million contested ones. And you wish he would stop at some point. But hell, they win when Jay Crowder's on the floor. For sure, he's a good player. And one other amazing. stat here via stat muse

Schroeder is the first Laker to go scoreless in a playoff game while attempting nine plus shots since the Lakers moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960. Since 1960,

the first time. That's wild. It's never happened. Not since 1960, according to stat muse. First Laker to go scoreless attempting nine or more shots. That's for more. The Lakers have been to, I don't know how many playoffs since then.

History. A lot. A lot. That's historic. We saw a historic performance. Well, let's just frame it in the positive. Tonight, we saw historic performance by Dennis Schrooter, something we've never seen.

And in fact, something your father never even saw. Oh, God. O for nine from the field. Those guys did not exactly come along with LeBroad James. there for the fight. And again, they got to have good, great Chris Paul. They did. Yeah, I mean, unless AD doesn't play again, we'll see. The Lakers without Anthony Davis just looked. They looked, they looked off defensively. To me, it seemed like the regular season,

Lakers defense was great without AD and without LeBron. They still were awesome. But the playoffs, it felt to me watching the game that the Sons came prepared to expose every hole and get to the basket, get layups, create kickout opportunities for threes or attack closeouts with a rotating defense. It just seemed to me the sons were prepared to expose them. And that's what the playoffs do. Yep. Unbelievable performance from Booker with the 30 points and all around. I mean, they just, you know, that was a that was a team that really, really, really played as a team. And you see how vital, you know, Davis is. And I just, I would really question, if there's any chance,

there is no chance he's going to be 100%. No way. It's just how good can you be not 100% and at least the evidence suggested in the last game he wasn't good at all. You know, it wasn't pretty when he was in the game

before he ended up going out. And that stuff does not heal easy. And so they're in trouble, Ben. They are in big, big trouble. And you think the sons are going to take care of it. I think the sons are going to win the series. Damn.

And like I said, it sounds to me like you're taking LeBron James for granted. I'll never take LeBron for granted. Or anything for that matter. Every day needs to be charged. Yeah. We have, look,

that is not one that we all bemoaned the fact that, damn, man, after all these years, the sons get there, they get that second seed. I'm just not willing to put a stake in LeBron until it's over, over.

You know what to be? This guy. Trust me. I'm not saying that with full confidence because you have, it's like we talked about with Portland, Denver. I'd pick Denver to win the rest of the series. I picked them before the series. But they have Damien Lode on that side. In this case, LeBron James is on the other side, right? I mean, like you, it's hard to pick against those guys. He right now is not the LeBron that's going to get you 38, 19, and 12, right? And like, Unless he turns into that guy. No.

He can turn. That guy's not going to be there this year. Maybe not. We'll find out. We'll find out next game. I mean, Thursday night, we're going to find out if LeBron can turn into that LeBron. If that guy was available, I think you would have showed a little more than height. You know what I mean?

Yeah, but, you know, I'd be like he conceivably, if you weren't down 35, 100 points in the second quarter, maybe in the second half, he could have turned that on. But like I said, I, I'd be like, conceivably, he could have turned that on. But like I said, I. think it's on the coaching staff to maximize lebron put margerson on the starting lineup if ad doesn't play or just have a d at the five if ad can play maximize force basing for lebron james and optimize what he can be like you need you need to lean on lebron and make the most of lebron like this needs to be like a heliocentric game where you're playing through him every single possession like there's nothing else you can do he he needs to be that version of lebron james and like you said through

five games. It doesn't look like you can rely on that version of LeBron being there. But we know from seeing LeBron ever since I've been 13 years old in 2003 when he got drafted, like ever since I've been a little kid, this guy has always had the ability to turn it on. Can he do what Thursday night? I look forward to watching that game and finding out. I mean, otherwise it would be pretty unbelievable for a team, for them to get knocked out on their home floor by the Phoenix Suns. I mean, could you imagine if I would have told you that before? the season. If I had told you

before the season, LeBron James and the Lakers season is going to be on the line. First of all, I would have said, why are they playing a home game six? Like, what happened here? What happened with the schedule? And then I would have said,

how the hell are they playing the Suns? Like, how? But here we are, right? And it meant for insane entertainment. Also to the Suns fans, just enjoy this series, no matter what happens. Embrace every moment of this.

This is special. Enjoy it. I cannot fathom being in that arena tonight as they are just bombing out the late. They can't stop making it. It's like 40 to 13 or something. People are going crazy. Campaigns banged out shots. It's like, let's go.

I can't wait for game six. Thursday night's going to be awesome, dude. It's going to be great. All right, kid. We've got to talk about the other games that went all. including the Boston Celtics being done. They are gone fishing, as they say, on TNT, as the Brooklyn Nets disposed of them 123 to 109.

One of the things that dawned on me as I was watching that game was, I'm not so sure that when we come back for the next NBA season, that Jason Tatum is not the only remaining starter from the lineup that played in a playoff game, right? I mean, you've got Jason. What they started tonight was Tatum Fornier, Langford, Smart, Thompson. It would not be shocking at all if Tatum is the only starter on opening night when they announced their starting lineup that Tatum's the only guy. And he is the one positive from what was a rather dismal series.

he was there for it. You know, he performed at an insanely high level, including tonight. But he doesn't have his running buddy Jalen Brown, and they were just wildly overmatched. Absolutely. I mean, the Brooklyn Nets dismantled them front to back in this series, except for the one game, Boston won. And like you said, that's because of Tatum and the performance that he put on

and their lone win in this series. And, you know, I think for any Celtics fan thinking about this season, we've talked about it a bunch of this, past month, Chris, and I'd reiterate it again. This season has been a nightmare, a disappointment. It's been underwhelming. And yet, Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown got much better. They're younger guys, Robert Williams, Peyton Pritchard, they got better.

So there's some silver linings in the season for the Celtics, and when you have Tatum and Brown performing at the level that they are, there's plenty of reason to feel optimism for the future. With that said, though, a lot of work to be done in Boston to get it right around these guys because it is clear the Brooklyn Nets and the team that they're about to face and the Milwaukee Bucks are just on another level. And dude, this series,

Bucks Nets, it could be the series of the playoffs. I'm so stoked for it. And it's pretty wild because it's been like a week. We kind of knew it's a matter of time and the Bucks disposed of the Miami Heat. And so it was like a matter of time. But we were able to look ahead and start thinking about that series.

And so I was trying to watch these games against Boston, last couple of games, thinking about that buck series and especially what kind of different lineups might be used against the bucks. And I got to tell you, there was, there was a moment tonight where I was watching. And before they did the acquisitions of Blake Griffin and, and Lamarcus Aldridge, who ended up having to retire, you know, we had really fall in love with the Brown kid, Bruce Brown. And... Oh, yeah. Love him.

There is part of me when I watch them and I go, I don't care if he's smaller. Like, this guy is just... He is a great fit to do what they need him to do. The question is... So as I'm watching it, I'm thinking that. But again, that's against the Celtics. That's not against a team that's got Janus. That's not against a team that's got Middleton.

that's not against the team that's got Brooke Lopez that they might use, right? Some real, legit, big guys on that team. And so he might be the best in terms of, and so as I was thinking, can they go small? Like, can they play it small and just play that way? Obviously, you'd play Lopez off the court and then just try to match up all around with the brown thing. because they feel like they're more, because he's just a constant passer, it feels like there's more like,

they care of Blake Griffin scores. That's how it feels to me. How about that? That's the best way for me to say it. It feels like they care of Blake Griffin scores, like they're setting Blake Griffin up. Nobody cares if Brown scores. He's just like doing everything else,

you know, just being your consummate role player. and you got you got stars, but he's doing dirty work, right? And I know Blake can do some dirty work, but Blake still, he's, you know, he is,

he's fit into this role, but it does feel still feel like when he sets a screen, like, hey, you better look to get him the ball or they are looking to get him the ball as he rolls to the basket, whereas nobody,

nobody cares if Brown touches the ball. With Bruce Brown, he plays bigger than his body. Yeah. And, you know, I love watching that guy play the heart that he plays with. You know, he has the ability to do the heavier things for that team. He can defend some bigger guys.

You can defend some smaller guys. And that's what I'm so looking forward to in the series against the bucks. And we'll have a lot more time on Friday show, which we're going to be recording on Thursday night. So that'll be in your feeds Friday morning or late Thursday or wherever you are somewhere in the world listening to the show. Because the series starts on Saturday. That'll be game one on this Saturday. So we'll have a lot more time to talk about it. then. But yeah, man, like I think just my initial thought, you know, about this series is similar to

the Bruce Brown, like the Nets, they switched so many screens. Bruce Brown, he was kind of like with one of the faces of their versatility. The Bucks, this playoffs in the first round against the heat, they switched 18% of their pick and rolls against the Miami Heat last season and throughout the entire postseason, only 7%. Dribble handoffs. They switched 26% of handoffs run by the Miami Heat in the first round. Last postseason, only five. percent total the entire playoffs so the bucks we talked about it throughout the year they've changed their defense it worked against the miami heat how will it work against the toughest test of them all in terms of offensive production in the entire league in the brooklyn nets i'm stoked i can't wait to do

more research over the course of the week for our friday show to talk about more about with a series but um man like more than it's just going to be fun it's just going to be fun more than everything else you know, I view this as kind of a good versus evil in a couple of different ways, not that Brooklyn is evil. But as you should, it's the homegrown small market team that did it through trades. They're the one free agent they were going to get flops. Yeah, they drafted these guys. They built it organically.

They, you know, Chris Middleton was once a throw into a trade. With the pistons, many moons ago. Yeah, I mean, and they built that and their star stayed when he could have gone anywhere else, right? Instead, he signed up for the long haul there. And meanwhile, you have three guys that could theoretically be the best players on their teams. And instead of having their own team just decided to all pile together in order to create a super team, as it were. And the other thing is you watch those two teams and one of them shares the ball and plays this team basketball in a much different way where they've got to do it as a collective than their opponent, right? You might be lucky to see a two-pass possession if you're Brooklyn.

You might also see a six-pass possession, you know, for Milwaukee with the way they pop the ball around. And so the way they play basketball, the way they were built. All of that stuff. And I want to believe that in the case that if they were able to beat Brooklyn, that maybe it does, at least in some ways, bolster guys to believe I don't have to go and team up with other superstars in order to achieve the success that I want to. Because there is a feeling of if you're up against that, I can see how there is a feeling of despair, right? Like, this is what I'm like, you're either going to get with it or you're not because there's, there's always going to be guys that are trying to get together and to play together.

And obviously, Durant and Kyrie, you know, wanted to go together as a unit, which they did. And then James Hardin was able to force his way to his handpicked team. That's where he wanted to go. And he was able to make that happen. And so I don't know, I don't, it's my opinion, that's not good for the league overall if that, if that takes place, right? You don't want stars in markets being able to say, hey, I want to go there. I know you signed me up for this, you know, massive financial commitment, but I want to go play with my friends on this team and go start that up. And, I mean, it's good for a couple of teams, but the league as a whole, I'm not so sure that that's the case.

And so I, you know, I'm not, I'm not having to make this up. I really do feel in a lot of ways Milwaukee exemplifies so much good about the NBA. And Brooklyn is, you know, I mean, and God, I want to believe that you have to play together, you know. I want to believe that you have to like play together. Unless you're the Utah Jazz and then F you, if you're the Utah Jazz and Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell and all those guys. That if you're Chris Vernon, it's F you to them, but that's a different situation. No, I respect the Utah Jazz. I like the way, look, I don't have any probably.

They play the right way and they build up the right way. Don't bring you. I don't want to talk about Utah. Totally. I do not want to talk about the jazz. That's great. Just kidding anyway. I know, like, you know, you respect that.

It's just, you know, the bear style that we talk about. But anyway, like, to your point, though, you mentioned how the Nets are like the evil side. I feel like you could look at them in two different. ways. Yes, they signed Kevin Durant and Carrie Irving. They traded for James Hardin. This team is a super team with all these guys. Easy to hate, easy to look at it and say, I don't want to root for that team. But on the flip side, you can look at this as a team that botched the first time they tried going for this by trading for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, trading away their entire future, killing the organization, trying to build up from the bottom. And they did. And then in 2018-19 season,

they had a fun team that made the playoffs. Kenny Hackinson, a head coach, Joe Harris, Karis Levert, Spencer Didwitty, Jared Allen. And they sacrificed all of them. All of it. All of it. Yep. And that's like where the weird part is.

They sacrificed it, Chris. But that team and what they built up towards is what made the organization at least appealing enough for Durant and Kyrie Irving to choose. So, like, it's both, I think, are true in their own respective ways. I tend to lean towards the fact that if we're talking about the Brooklyn Nets, it's more fun to look at them as a villain. It's more fun to look at them as the evil team. It's more fun to look at it in that sense of battle of a small market team building organically versus a team that ultimately did it the right way, but then went fast.

It's just funner that way. So, like, I'm with you ultimately, Chris, that it's funner to look at it like that. but like Brooklyn did do it the right way and then it just got to the point that quickly good can turn to evil that's right today did turn to evil god I can't wait for that series it's going to be unbelievable I that is that's going to be an incredible treat um so let's get to the games that are going on tonight because we do have uh four that are going on uh first games yeah Sixers wizard uh that's a three one lead right now I I think we fully expect you know, the Sixers to close the door.

We do for sure, but you got to admit, it's a little bit concerning that Embed has a knee injury. That's true. And then you got Ben Simmons who can't hit his free throws and you have Doc Rivers who, for whatever reason, why are you inbounding the ball to Ben Simmons and letting them intentional fall? Maybe that's part of the reason. Have free throws getting into half court offense.

I get the reasoning. But I would have been curious to see if things could have worked out a little bit better with more Simmons as a screener. But, you know, look, you don't think that it's a fair trade-off that the Sixers have lost M-Beeb for game five, but the Wizards have lost Bertons? You don't think that's fair trade-off?

You know? What are you having about? I mean, now it seems reasonable. Okay, you're down here. You're down your. star, we're down our star. Yeah. Boy, though.

All serious is the like, hopefully in B can get healthy and I'm probably overreacting to the decision by Doc there. I think there's some logic to it. But I just, it's more concerning that you're put in that situation with Ben Simmons being, having an

inability to hit his free throws. And I just wonder will we see Haka Simmons again in the playoffs? Of course you will. We see it again. Yes. Because if he's hitting, if he's hitting 61% of his free throws, you might not. But if he's hitting sub 50% like he has the series, oh,

you 100% will. Like he got himself, he's got to get himself right quickly, whatever's going on. Well, look, it's not shocking that a team with Westbrook and Bill could win a game, right? And they might could pull off

the game five if M. B's not there. It's possible. And then that would put a little pressure. I am more concerned. You could get one of those Russ 45 in, like on 24. Sean, it's like an efficient rustian. You could get that. It's possible. I will say this.

It's much more concerning looking forward than it is for this particular series. The Sixers are going to get through this. I don't know if they could knock off the Hawks without a bead. Exactly. And it gets really interesting fast. And then you're like, holy crap, could the Hawks be in the East Finals? It's not out of the road possibility. But it's not the Hawks are playing well, man. They've been playing well for a long time too.

Dave got to go win in New York. Oh, boy. And you see that Click Capella trash talk today? I did not. What did he say? Oh, good grief. What now? So he was talking about how the NICs are trying to push them around, be tough and all that.

And then he goes into this little quote right here. We can be physical, but we can win. games as well. Now you're coming to our home to win this game. We'll send you on vacation. What? Oh, good, great. We'll send you on vacation. He's really feeling himself, huh? That's a great line if they win the game. It is. It's going to look bad if they lose it. But, yeah, this Atlanta team is, uh, they're playing at a high level right now, dude. Well, it's like, look, two things. The Knicks thing has been intensely fun. Um, you know, the whole season, the fact that

the Knicks are relevant again, the fact that they got the seed that they did. And now the reality has been when you look through, Trey Young has performed at a star level for the Hawks. And Bogdanovich has been absolutely awesome. They've gotten Collins going a little bit. And they've got guys that are contributing. And on the other side, when you look at the Knicks, their best player has been Derek Rose.

And it's like, this isn't 2011. It's 2021. Like you can't. I love Derek. Your best player can't be Derek Rose. Right? And that has been the case. Your third leading score has been Alec Berks.

I mean, it is what it is. I mean, because you don't have Julius Randall's field goal percentage is 20. 7%. This guy's going to make all NBA. He's 27% from the field. That is unconscionable. I've never even heard of that happening. There's no way.

There's no way someone that has made an all NBA team. I would be surprised if anybody shot under. 40% much less under 30% from the field at a volume and it's just like that's like it is what it is right your best player

has shot 27% from the field he has shot 33% from 3 in this series and your best and the guy who has been your best player is a guy that you know you acquired midway through the season who is a veteran backup point guard or so you thought he has played better than that but

you know i don't i don't know like what the answers are here either for the mix because you know well first of all i think they can try to attack tray young more you know like they are having bullock come on and set on ball screens but they're not really attacking tray to force a switch like they're allowing trade to recover back and like they haven't many times the series according to the second spectrum, there's only been six instances in which they've had Tray Young's guy that he's defending come and set a screen for Julius Randall. And in those plays, like watching them back, Randall's not attacking at the moment of the screen. I just, I'd like to see that switch and see what happens. It might not work. It might not make a difference. You know, Atlanta could have something

else that they tried doing. They could pull a page from the book of what the Celtics did back in the playoffs with Isaiah Thomas by having him switch on ball when they start trying to set the screen. We could see a counterattack. But I just like to see the Knicks do something a little bit different with Trey. Like you get to attack him more. But with that said, like Julius Rangel has not looked good this series, Chris. Like, even if you

do do something else, like, how confident can, how confident can you feel that he's going to be that most improved player of the year? Like, are you losing a little faith in this series or where are you at with what he's doing? Yes, I'm losing faith. Because here's the thing. The reason I thought the

Knicks could win this series, and I would not be shocked at all if they win game five, right? Oh, yeah. Tough team, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But because they could make Atlanta uncomfortable. They are a team that could force Atlanta to play a lot of half-court basketball, right? You run a play, we run a play. But guess what?

You can't force a team. You can't be physical and force a team to play half-court basketball when you can't score. If your best player shooting 27% I don't get to keep you out of transition. You get my long rebound and you go. And this is where that's a team that can, you know, pace and space you. They can play that. What you want to do with the team like that is to drag them into the mud

and make them uncomfortable. But if you can't score yourself, now all of a sudden, they're going to be able to, you know, those guys get out in space. base, they got a lot of guys that can create off the bounce and they got a lot of guys that can knock down shots. No doubt about that. I mean, that Atlanta team, like, you know, I'll tell you this, I picked the Knicks,

I believe, to win the series and looking like I'll be wrong there, I think I underrated what the Hawks were and what they could be in a postseason setting when they're really locking in and focusing in game planning on one opponent. And like the level of talent that they have, it just looks so much more significant. on the court. It just is a more talented team. This next team, great regular season and no matter what happens, like tonight or the rest of the series, it's a successful year. It is. It's a successful year still. But this Atlanta team, it's more successful for them. It just is. Like the level of improvement over the course of the season, digging their self out of a ditch

and then making the postseason and possibly winning around one, the development they've gotten from so many of their young guys. This Hawks team is really on the up and up. I think it's time to recognize that and recognize how tremendous of a player, Trey Young is. He has not so far in round one been somebody who's a liability on defense, and he is lifting this team by playing on the ball and off the ball and offense, and he's special.

No, he has been absolutely outstanding. And, you know, a guy that fit in amongst they went and got good players to surround him. and he has fit right in, right? He has fit right in and has continued to be insanely productive. You know, it's a lot like what you were talking about, and you referenced it earlier, which is not always the case with players that they can adapt. And once the team gets good,

they can still be a guy that can produce at a very, very high level. And you referenced it with Booker, right? it was something that befell him earlier than the screen. Like, are you, right, right? Like, are, are you a guy that, you know, yeah, you're putting up all these numbers and that's awesome. But in a winning context, you're not going to put those kind of numbers up, right? Like, that's, that stuff's not adding up to winning.

And so, but the truly great ones, what you find out is there's a lot of guys that do fall by the wayside. What you find is their numbers were, that was because they played on rat team. and they were able, somebody's got to score every single night, right? But when they are within the winning context, they can't perform like that. Both those kids have absolutely proven they can perform like that. And in fact, in many cases are enhanced because now they got somebody to pass to. You know what I mean?

Right? Makes their life a little bit easier. Yeah, I hope it does go six. I'd love to see a six game in Atlanta. I'd love to see seven. I'd love to see either. Maybe Julius Redder could make some shots, you know what I mean? We have game five of the Jazz and the Grizzlies.

Obviously, I was at the last of these two games. And, you know, I tweeted out after the game on Monday night, you know, this is, I've seen this a lot before. It's too young, you know, and it's like these games, they come down. to one or two possessions, you know, if you, if you can, if you can play with the other team. And you've got all the moxie and you've got the talent and you've got the, you know, the confidence, all that kind of stuff, brashness, whatever you want to say. But when it comes down to the last couple of possessions of a game and it's exactly what happened, right?

Like, this is what ends up flipping a series. You got the whole crowd on your side. It's a four-point game. John Morant goes in the lane. It's a turnover. They come back the other way. Conley buries a three because that's what a team like the Jazz does. Come back down.

Morant, because he's young, tries to get a three up so that he can get it back for making the mistake you just made. These are things you don't do as you become a veteran. They come back down. Bogdanovich hits a three in the corner. Four goes to 10. It's literally two possessions that, you know, can flip these things. Right.

If you get a three, if Morant goes in the lane, he throws it out, to Grayson County, and he hits a three, and it's a one-point game. Maybe it's a different world. But that's why they win 52 games. That's why they're the number one seed. And after getting to see them up close to personal, you know, and I've seen them now several times this year, they remind me so much of the old time he spurs. They really do.

I know what you mean. Much more so than other teams. efficiency and by how crisp they are. Yeah, the ability to share the ball and pass to get the better shot. The other thing is the difficulty you have getting on a run against them. For sure. That they constantly make timely shots in order to make your run stop, right? You're not going on typically all of these games.

It's like a 12 to 2. run or in the case of the suns tonight, a 24 to one run they had against the Lakers. Like, you'd see run. You see double-digit runs all the time in the NBA. You do not see that much, at least against the jazz, because they've got that old spurs thing. And it's unsurprising because Quinn did come from Popovich, right? That they, they hit timely shots. They got an awesome back court.

And they've got a star star in. Mitchell, who knows exactly what he wants to do and where he wants to go. You know, I mean, I sit there and I go, man, I can't imagine the decision, you know, how different it's going to be when I look up at three years for Jha. And that's going to be what Mitchell is now. But just like Mitchell, Moran's got to take his lumps and make the mistakes, you know, and wish you had them back. But they have been, I will tell you, the Grizzlies have been,

more competitive than I think any of us would have imagined. Right there. They've made, they have made a really good team beat them, right? Which has been promising. They're not being run over. They're not getting pummeled. And they also seem like a prepared team.

Yeah. But they're executing at a high level. And that's also a credit to the coaching staff. I would have told you going into this. I would, and also just the way it's played out, I would have thought that the Grizzies would have a bad, a really hard time scoring.

And they have not lost because of their offense. They've lost because they give up all-star game level scores. Do you know that the Jazz shot 49% from three, 49? I mean, you're not beating that team. If they shoot 49% from three. And the stat to back that up is this, Chris. So I know the other day you got like a little Twitter riff with some like fans when you criticize the stat somebody put up which I mean beats me Chris if you saw like it was a good stat. This this stat is in that same spirit.

Okay. When John Morant is on the floor and Rudy Gober is also on the floor, the grizzlies get outscored by 15 points for 100 possessions. And that's because of their defensive rating like 131 points per horn of possession they give up. when Jaws on the floor and Rudy Gober is off the floor, the Grizzlies outscore Utah by three points per one of possessions. And their defense is really good in those situations. Their offense is slightly better too because Gobert's not on the floor, but it's their defense that's been the difference.

Like you said, they're not losing this game because they can't put points in the Jazz. The Grizzlies have done a pretty good job at scoring with or without a bear. It's the defense, and that's a credit to the Jazz offense. And that's why this team, they have a real legit shot to get to the finals, Chris. That offense is better than people give it credit for. This isn't the Utah of past years.

This is a potent high scoring offense and it has been all season long, regardless of the level of opponent they're against. And they could very well go all the way. I mean, do you feel the same watching this team in your building? Or do you still doubt them compared to some of the other favorites that are out there? I think that the drop, again, you can, we could do the defensive analytics stuff if we want to. I think the drop coverage thing is going to hurt.

So I think at some point it hurts them. I know. I'm watching John Moran averages 35 points a game. I mean, I'm watching Dylan Brooks. These guys are not playing to their average. I mean, Jamal Murray averaged 75 points a game last year against them.

I mean, it's just hard to play that way, Kev. It is. You know, Chris, like, Jha is shooting 43% from the, floor when Gobert is on the floor. So he's been worse. Like he's shooting 60% when Gobert is off the floor. So like there's a big difference there. But to your point though, like this, it's not just Gobert with this jazz defense. And Jaws not necessarily the type of three point shooter that you're

talking about that could be a problem for this Gobert drop coverage. Joss still is getting buckets. He's still averaging over 20 points. He's still creating against one of the best defenses in the league. it's about more than Gobert. It's not just Gobert that makes this defense really good. And Ja is still putting up numbers. Like, you have to be coming away from this feeling really, really good

about Jha where he's at now and what he can be in the future. But Kevin, when Jha is on the floor with the start, that's what I was telling this guy the other day. I know. When he's on the course with the starters, he's playing 40-something minutes.

I know. The Grizzly's bench didn't, could not score against the Pistons with Wayne Ellington and Isaiah a steward. That's not because Rudy O'Bair's on the floor. It's because they can't score

against anybody. And he's on the floor with both the bench and the starters. And when he's on the floor with the starters, the starters aren't having a problem, Kevin. They're not having a problem scoring when he's out there with the starters. The problem is when the bench comes

in. The Valanchunis Morant offensive rating was 120. That's what I quoted. I mean, of course, it's harder for John Moran when he's out there without a center that has to be worried about, right? And by the way, Valachutus is dang good. No, he is good. He's way underrated, I think, nationally right now.

He's a really good center. That's all I was saying, when a center is on the floor. If you just let the guy stand in front of the basket without anything to worry about, then you've got a problem under hands. but I'm watching these games. It's not as if there is some massive deterrent from him being able to score. He's so, he's doubling his averages. For God's sakes.

Curry might average 65 points a game against that because he can shoot. Josh shooting 25% from three, by the way. And it went down last night. So what's the number now? Less than 20? He's shooting less than 20% from three and 59% for the field. And that's the interesting thing is in those 55 minutes, Jaws four of seven from three during that stretch.

Interesting. We need him to shoot forward to the window and win for him. We go bears in the game, I guess. I don't know. I just think that guards have an easy time with that. Because if you can set that screen up top, now all of a sudden, if he's not going to come all the way out there,

your guard is either given a runway or cannot knock down threes. And so in Jaws case, it's given a runway. That's why I say, if Curry was playing against that, boy, I don't know what you'd do. Seriously. I guess you'd have to blitz with somebody else. But, I mean, I just think Draymond coming out and setting that screen.

You saw what Murray did last year. And so the thing will be, you know, if we assume it's the clippers, can they make you pay for it? They were a great three-point shooting team throughout the year. And this is no disrespect to the jet. The jazz, in their own right, are outstanding. Really good team. I think most of these teams, honestly, what we've come to find out,

most of these teams there is not that big of a difference. In the east there is. In the West, I really don't think there is. You know, these games are coming down to a couple of possessions, you know, in every series. Honestly, every series, nobody's bombing anybody out. In the east, there's those three at the top. that are significantly better than the rest of the teams. In the West, I mean, I do think it's going to come down to the end of,

I don't think that anybody's going to wipe out the jazz, and I don't think the jazz are going to wipe anybody out. They're going to be great series. Yeah. I mean, there's not big separations between these teams, but what they have is they've got the reps, you know. I will say this, though, do you feel in the Dallas, LA Clippers series, that separation is happening before our eyes. And I'm saying this after our

conversation last Friday's episode. We need to apologize. When we, when we ripped the Clippers, how the tables have turned. I'll leave the way. I apologize. I apologize to Ty Lou. I apologize to Kauai Leonard. I don't apologize to Clippers fans. I don't care about them. But I do apologize to those individuals that I might have hurt. I hope I inspired you. Well, look, I'm not going to take all of it back because you were stupider than hell in the first two games. But when I goofed about Tyloos saying,

oh, yeah, they shot that way here. Let them shoot that way at home. Like, I don't, I'm sorry I goofed on you, man. Because the truth was those were super outlier shooting performances. They were. And it just so happened. It happened twice in L.A. And there has been a severe regression to the mean.

And you've got a banged up Luca right now. He does not look right. No, he doesn't look right. He throws that cross-court pass. And he tried to do that in that last game. And he was in friggin agony when he did it. You know, because I don't know what he did this nerve thing. They say he couldn't feel his arm.

And, I mean, he's just not. that guy. How many times did you see him? I saw this happen one night. He, if you go back, they got waxed in Memphis towards the end of the season, but he had flipped over like a, he ran for a loose ball and he flipped over a table and he landed like flat on his back, right, during that game. And the rest of that game, I kept telling my buddies, I'm like, this dude is hurt because he was coming up the court and he was like, like just throwing the ball to Brunson or whoever else. And he was just running off to the side, like to be a decoy.

And you saw a lot of that in that last game. And I was like, bro, he never plays like this. He is the offense. He is conducting this entire operation. And when he's banged up, that's when you know. When he's not right, he goes and just tries to play decoy. and doesn't want to really be part of the play, but he knows he's such a threat.

They're guarding him out there, so maybe it can create space for the others. But, I mean, he has to be amazing, Luca. But I take back completely what I said about the Clippers couldn't beat them four out of the next five games. It's horrendous. I mean, they, Kauai Leonard,

those games in Dallas, he looked like the best player in the universe. I'm not kidding. He was fantastic. Find somebody that looked better than he looked. He said, what does he got, 120-something points in four games?

I mean, he's like snatching the boy. He's driving straight to the hole and freaking Tomahawking. And he's, I don't, I don't know what the hell got into this dude, but he is gone ballistic.

Kauai looks in control of everything that's happening on the court, everything that's happening. And that is like, the mark of a legend, right? The guys who can do that. And that's the level he's playing at right now. And for this Clippers team and this Mavericks team being limited with Luca, we don't know what he's going to look like next game.

And Chris Staps, Porzingis as well, the lack of self-creation ability. Like, it hurts in situations like this. If you can't go to your other player, your other Max player, your number two, and get a bucket from him, that's a problem to me. And this is a situation where you could use him to have the ability to step up. So this Clippers team has a real opportunity right here to not just win, you know, four or the next five. They can win four straight.

I mean, that very well could be a possibility here with all these factors at play. Like the Mav's going to have either KP get going, Luke could be healthy or another hot shooting night. Because this Clippers team with the level Kauai is playing at leading them, going to be hard to stop them as well. Well, the first couple games, the best player on the floor was Luke about pretty wide margin, right? And that has flipped, as has the series. And also, you know, I'm not going to let Ty Luke completely off the hook here because he did, you know, it took him, it took him getting beat twice at home to wake up a little bit on some of these, you know, who I'm going to roll with deal.

Batum has been good for him. So I got to give him credit on that for believing that that would. be okay. But, you know, a lot more Rondo and virtually no PAB. I mean, PAB was just, he played five minutes in the last game, right? And they're not running Zubots out there trying to be big, you know, because that's not, that's not when they're at their best. A lot more Terrence man.

A lot more. He's been terrific. Like that, like we got a lot wrong on Friday. Well, but we said. Terrence man is one thing like we, I think a lot of Clippers fans want. going to see and it's helping. One of the things we fought about, and I do about this was, you know, look, it looked, it looked clueless in those first two games.

I'm not going to, I'm not going to apologize for saying that or, or saying he might be a bozo because he did bozo-esque things. They, he did in those first two games. We said they have the goods. They've got the better team. I mean, they do. They've got the better roster. They've got the better roster.

It's just why. Why is this happening? I mean, honestly, I feel that way. I don't know if from top to bottom, the Lakers have the better roster, but even with what they do have, the fact that, you know, Andre Drummond plays over Martin Assault will forever be the stupidest thing that I've ever seen in my life. It's just dumb. And it's insulting. And it's a pathetic thing to do to.

all the time great like Marcus Hall, Andre Drummond. That's a disgrace. Andre Drummond and Marcus or Marquief Morris running around there like two Oves trying to find Jay Crowder and McKell Bridges.

Again, they've got the goods. They've got guys on their team. Marcus Morris. Whatever. Who cares? I can't stand to either of them. I couldn't help you. I don't. Leave that in. I like that. I like that.

mess them up. Because it doesn't matter to be. Six or one half dozen. They both annoy me. Oh, God. But those teams have the goods. They do. Some teams,

you just sit there, like, we made the excuse for Terry Stott. Who the hell you want them to put in, bro? Narkich goes out of the game. What you want them to do? You don't put Derek Jones,

Jr. And play center? Not a fan of Harry Giles, Chris? I mean, no. I'm not. I wish Harry Giles talking about injuries.

I wish Harry Giles is one of those guys. Boy, I wish he could have stayed healthy, man. Oh, I wish you would have been in my room tonight watching at Celtics Brooklyn. Well, maybe not because it would have been a hard watch for you. But when my son. That was a tough game to watch.

When my son with absolutely no context, okay he doesn't know anything about is goofing on jabari parker and i'm explaining to him how awesome and i pull up on my phone duke jabari parker highlights he goes that is not the same guy i said it is i said it is the same guy i said he played at derrick ross's high school he won four state championships i thought this guy was going to be a big star he's like he's like he can he dunk? And I'm like, I don't know. It doesn't look like it. But he didn't, he knew nothing. He knew nothing about him except he's watching TV and he's like, is that Jabari Parker?

And I'm like, dude, that's a sad one to watch. I hadn't thought about the experience of what that must be like, you know, to be a kid who doesn't know about like how great of the prospect Jabari Parker seemed to be. What a shocker to what a shocker to William, huh? Yeah, look. Well, no, he went through it at a very young age. What a twist. I told that story years ago. You remember where the first time when we're playing basketball, he's like, he's asking me about the beat.

And I said, yeah, we took him second. He's like, and he just wasn't any good. He's the worst basketball player ever. And he said, well, who else was in that draft? And I was like, you know, Steph Curry, James Harden. You know, I'm like, go with it. He's like, we could have had Steph Curry and James Hart. I'm like, just shut up.

Go inside. Go talk to your mother. We're not talking about this anymore. End of discussion. By the way, I have to say one other thing about Jabari Parker, though, another guy, multiple torn ACLs. Oh, yeah. And his career, he had one great season of Milwaukee. Like, it seemed like things were getting better for him.

Maybe things would have been different if he stayed healthy, too. You know, like a lot of careers are derailed because of injury. And whether it's like underperforming or what, like, it's disappointing. or what. Like, it's disappointing that he also hasn't been able to stay healthy. Because, like, Jabari,

Jabari was so fun at Duke. And, like, early in his career, he had some fun moments, too. And it's just a shame when you didn't get to see more of those because I loved watching him, especially at Duke. On that video, I showed him,

the number one highlight, he catches an alley you past the side of the backboard with one hand and finishes it. In the air. And he goes, that was him? And I'm like, it's a sense.

Once we sign out of this, Zoom, I'm watching Sanjarri Highlands. I'm watching Sanjarra. Let's just act like we're frozen in time. I loved him going out of college. I did. I loved him going out of college.

I loved him so much. I think my top three that year before the Embeddeed injury was Embed Parker Wiggins. Pretty sure that was the top three. So I was a Jibari guy in that draft. I love them. Wiggins, as we know now, Chris. Yeah, I know.

It's the better player. We know the well. I know. I know. Not in that playing game, though, huh? Not that night. You're not feeling great about the Mabs either, huh? No, I'm not.

We get a video coming out on Thursday for the void talking about Chris Stavs forzingis. So we'll see how that goes. But yeah, man, I think with KP, the lack of self-creation is real concerning. If Luca is limited at all, like you get to have either Tim Hardaway, go off, which he very well could, or you're going to have KP do something. Like he's got to have one of those big KP performances like we saw his last season with the Knicks

and at times last year with the Dallas Mavericks. Like he's shown it. So let's see if he can bring it out. Let's see. And beyond that, Luca, like he showed in the first two games, he's got to be the best player in the series.

For them to win. That changed. Kauai is the best player in the series. We always say, if you've got the guy that can be the best player in the series, you got a chance. I mean, if Luke is the best player in the series, I don't think they're going to lose. You know, if Kauai is the best player in the series, I don't think they're going to lose. And we saw the flip. Yep, I'm with you there, Chris.

And one other thing that I think I was wrong about saying Clippers don't have heart, you prove you have heart when you battle through a moment of adversity. and the clipers coming back, yep. Well, look, especially when you said that the Lakers have cohesion. They had cohesion and 11 points outside of LeBronty. For their starters. That cohesion really went well for Dennis Schroeder. They all knew their role with just the suck.

Sometimes in the NBA, Tala wins, right? The healthier team sometimes. Everybody's happy when What we learned is everybody is happy with their role when Anthony Davis is on the team. We'll just do this and this and this. Right?

I can't wait for this to all to play out. And who knows? Hopefully we get a couple game sevens out of these series. We will for certain at least have a couple game sixes that we are going to get to see. Kevin, it's been fun.

Thank you to our executive producer, Sasha Eschel, as always. And we will talk to you on Friday. Man, I'm looking forward to Friday show, Chris. Have a fun week, everybody.