The Mismatch - Donovan Mitchell Balls Out and 76ers Even Series. Plus, Notes on Nets, Suns, and Award Winners.

Episode Date: June 9, 2021

Immediately following the Jazz’s Game 1 victory over the Clippers, Verno and KOC discuss Donovan Mitchell’s 45-point performance and whether the Jazz can win the series without Mike Conley (1:49). The guys then recap Joel Embiid and the Sixers' bounce-back win vs. the Hawks (20:07) before discussing how the Bucks can put up a better fight vs. KD and the Nets (37:35). Plus, are the Suns simply too deep for the Nuggets (1:00:59) and did the voters get the MVP and COTY awards right (1:11:53)? Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O'Connor Associate Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What If the Len Bias story hosted by Jordan Ritter-Kahn is the ringer's latest narrative podcast. You can find new episodes every Wednesday on the Book of Basketball 2.0 feed. Here's a quick trailer. You've heard his name, Lynn Bias, 1980s phenom, second pick in the NBA draft. And then cocaine, tragedy, one of the most shocking deaths in sports history. 35 years later, Bias' legacy is still making an impact. From Spotify and the Ringer podcast network, this is What If, the Lynn Bias story. I'm Jordan Ritter-Con.

Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon, and joining me as he does every Wednesday during these playoffs so far is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, A.Keverna, A.K.K.A. Kevin O'Conflict, A.K.K.A. Kevin O'Keeland. Kevin O'Klein. Kevin O'Brien. Kevin O'Brien. Kevin O'Kindness. Kevin! Verdo! What's up? How you doing?

We do want to remind everybody, especially because it has been commonplace the last couple of weeks that we have changed up the schedule. So we are recording on Tuesday night. So hopefully this will be there for you on Wednesday mornings. It will be that way this week. It will be that way next week and throughout the playoffs. And tonight we are recording after we just got done watching.

Pretty great night of basketball. Oh, yeah. We'll start with the one that just ended, which was the Utah Jazz defeating the L.A. Clippers in game one. It looked like this was a good Clipper night, you know, especially it was a good first half for sure for the Clippers. They hadn't gotten a ton out of Kauai Leonard. They hadn't gotten a ton out of Paul George.

And yet there they were with 60 points. and a good lead going into the second half. And then the second half was all about this Donovan Mitchell, just epic. Second half performance. The guy was an absolute bucket the whole second half. And a team that is without one of its best players, a player that was outstanding in their first round series, and Mike Conley was unable to go tonight.

And even without him, they're able to get this win in game one against the Clippers. We've learned our lesson on writing the Clippers off. That being said, you know, this was, they've got some figuring out to do because I thought the jazz, and I obviously just got done covering a series involving them, I thought they played really poorly in that first half and not liked themselves. and then there was the inevitable sharing of the ball scoring tsunami that took place in the second half. And that's when the clippers had to come up with answers and they just didn't.

For sure. I mean, in that second half, as you mentioned, Mitchell was just extraordinary. The deep threes, getting to the basket. It's kind of funny. Last week, the story was Ty Loo should play Terrence Mann and Luke Knard Moore. And this game, as Mitchell is just roasting Kennard, possession after possess. It's like maybe play canard a little bit less than the stretch of the fourth quarter,

but still should have played Terrence Mann more, or even Batum. I'm sure that's an adjustment they'll make over the course of the series. By this jazz team, the first half was weird. It was a weird half. I thought they got a number of good quality open shots that just didn't fall. And even in the entire scope of the game, 17 of 50 from 3, 34%.

It wasn't a great shooting night for them by any means, even though the second half they started hitting shots. But watching that second half, the way in which Mitchell got going, attacking mismatches, all year long, like the way the jazz plays, a lot of high pick and roll to get going. And rather than attacking mismatches. And I thought the way they adapted midgame was smart and it led to a lot more open shot opportunities. And the good thing about that is for Utah, when you're scoring and you're getting buckets and they have to take the ball out from underneath the hoop, you're getting into your half court defense, which is number one in the NBA. They allowed 0.99 points per chance in the half court this season, according to the second spectrum. They were the only team under one point per chance in the half court this year.

Their dominant half court team on defense. So when you're scoring and you're able to get into your number one defense, it's really hard for the other team to get going, especially when guys like Paul George are underwhelming and other guys weren't having big hot shooting nights like Kauai didn't tonight. Well, Kev, it's not just, and it's not even just scoring. them getting to the line. And he just flat, fouled out Reggie Jackson, out of the game completely, who Reggie Jackson had been, you know, he would have been mega useful down the stretch when you needed to come back in that game.

This guy, after game two of their last series against Dallas, he was averaging 18 points a game and shooting over 40% from three, those last five games of the season. Now you come in a game one, Reggie Jackson's, unavailable completely down the stretch. And, you know, they got Rondo in there. Rondo's not a three point threat. And then I'll be damned.

I mean, obviously the game, I thought it was poetic that the game ended on a Morris three that gets blocked in the corner by Gobert because. That was a great defensive play. Well, how much Morris twin are we going to get in the fourth quarter? Like, I'm like, do you guys know Kauai Leonard's on your team? They ran that stat that Kauai Leonard's. did not miss a shot. Oh, in four quarters.

Yeah, yeah, that's right. And I'm like, okay, look, this isn't rocket science here. If I got a guy that shoots 100%, maybe I'll give it to him some. But it was so much, Paul George, and Marcus Morris from the corner because they're trying to, you know,

get Gobert away from the goal. And it's like he can't make them pay. You know, when is Morris going to? make one of these like if that's the idea here i i it was they got to figure out what they're going to do with the big guy stuff in this too because he ran zoobots out there a long time cousins and i know the zubots numbers were you know he had better numbers than he's had recently but you know what i was monitoring kev from our buddies at stat mews i mentioned this last week they have a good step from this tonight they no remember last week on the on the on the dallas

series. They had that stat that said the clippers are 0 and 3 when Zubach plays 18 or more minutes. That's right. And so I'm sitting there looking and I keep refreshing. I'm like, when's he getting the 18? And I was like, because they lose

just to see it if it was hold up. But look, that's obviously a goofy stat. That being said, I did think that while again, his individual numbers are good, he had some flashes. That was also the span where they the jazz really got their mojo going they did and so they've got to

figure out what they want to do here do they want to try to stretch this thing out and play you know try to get goberra away from the basket try to get favors away from the basket or are they going to try to match up big for big or are they kind of you know because the combo thing doesn't work like just decide how you want to play just decide how you want to play right Right? Which are we going to do here? Because I did not think that, you know, these teams, when it gets to just planning against each other, they know what they want to attack, right? And inevitably, the clippers are going to have to figure that out after this game.

But, I mean, it's a three-point game. This honestly could have gone either way. It's a great game. Mitchell was the best player on the court. He was. For sure. Best player on the court by a wide margin. I mean, I'll tell you what, this series, I mean, we'll,

see how it develops over the next week plus or so. It opened up with Mavericks Clippers about, well, maybe have Kauai defend Luca more. And then as a series developed, it quickly became apparent. Who wins the games is which of the two stars is better. If Kauai had the better game, the Clippers would typically win. If Luca had the better game, the Mavericks would win. Maybe this series takes on that same type of vibe. Maybe not.

I mean, we'll see. Because as I mentioned earlier, though, Chris, Utah could have shot three way better. They could have shot it way better. 17 or 50. Aside for Mitchell, they were 11 of 39. The team, 11 of 35, the team could have shot the ball better. So for Utah, there's more upside to what they can do. I thought in the first half, they missed some chances and they kind of flubbed around when the clippers were switching that high pick and roll with Gobert. Because he, instead of rolling down the lane, not having somebody with him, he had a guy attached to him on those switches. I think there's ways to exploit that more with Conley once he comes

back if he comes back that they weren't able to in game one. So there's a lot of upside here for this jazz team. And I think there is for the clubpers too. And that's why I think this is going to be a deep, exciting series with a lot of strategic changes throughout. I agree with you. And what you were saying regarding Mitchell and, you know, there's going to be nights where maybe we could sit back and we could say, all right, which star had the best game, who imposed their will on this game? There's a couple of things. Number one, Mitchell needs to get starting, we need to start talking about Donovan Mitchell in a different class.

I agree. I agree. You know what I'm saying? He's not run of the mill all-star player. That's superstar stuff he was doing tonight. Like it just is. Since the bubble, since the bubble, all season this year and since the bubble. That's put a team on his back.

I am clearly the best player on the team that had the best record. And now I just watched it in the first round against the Grizzlies. You saw it in game one. You saw it last year in the bubble. They sure as hell didn't lose to Denver because of him, you know, and the performances that he was putting up over and over again. He was freaky great. And you remember, you know, it was two years ago that he had

much pressure on him as kind of being the guy. This is the year before they got Conley. And, you know, he went down in flames in the playoffs. And I remember us having the conversation. Like, you know, man, you got to take your playoffs scars. And one of the things that we got to remember is take a step back here. Guys in their second and third years in the NBA aren't supposed to be the man. Like we're getting too spoiled because of what Trey's doing, because of what Luke is

doing because of what Donovan's doing, it usually takes a long time before you're the guy, you're the best player or the leading scorer on a team that is expected to win playoff games. Rewind even a year before that replacing Gordon Hayward for Boston, you know, the face of the franchise, leaving suddenly, and then Mitchell gets drafted into that situation and is asked to be the guy. He's thrown into the fire. He's inefficient. He's working to it and all those trials and tribulations, those losses and those hits he's taken have all allowed him to gain experience and reps and big games against tough defenses, game planning for him.

And it led him to become the player we saw in the bubble, the player we saw this entire season. And we're about to see what he can become in this postseason because this Clippers team at some point you've got to think they're going to stick Kauai on them. Right. At some point. They did. They did in the fourth, and he had a couple of moves where he got there, and then they just switched too easy.

You know, they did that last year. They did that last year with the huge Lucas shot. You remember when we talked about that a lot? It's like, why are you just letting this happen? Yeah. And they just let the switch happen, and that's how he ends up with Kinnard, because they actually did have Kauai on him at the top, and then they ran some screened, and he just passed him off to Knaard. and it's like meat to the lions.

And another thing about why we got to start talking about him differently is, you know, putting the team on his back the same way. And that you can see the intangible. You know, we always talk about the things that don't show up in a box score. This guy, when they had him miced up tonight, that was a moment. And they may never have him miced up again. And they may never be allowed to run. But for all that we complain about how we never really glean anything, you know, it's a huddle and it's Nate McMillan saying, we got to defend, you know, and it's like, okay, great, that was cool.

But like that was. They always have the worst coach clips. Like it's never anything insightful. It's like, run. Play hard, guys. Yeah. We got to get good shot. That's all they ever show.

Yeah, thanks, guys. The one clip of a coach saying the most basic possible thing. Right. Whereas tonight, we get that clip of. Mitchell where he's on the mic and he's talking to those guys and you can see he's all fired up and he's like look it's a fourth quarter they just played a game seven two days ago if we can make them quit here they're going to just get ready for game two and I was like do all the smoke well and he knows he's miced up he knows he's miced up you know when he's

saying that and you also don't think they're going to show you know maybe not That was probably borderline. I'm glad they showed it. I think TNT should show more stuff like that. I think I'll also say this. I think teams and players should also be okay with showing some more stuff like that. What's wrong with a little bit of trash talk? It's great.

It makes it more exciting for people watching. If it's more exciting for people watching, it means more people are going to start wanting to watch games live. That's what, I mean, look, especially in the day and age of reality TV, which is really real. People eat up fake reality TV. That was his real. as it gets, you're really getting to hear what a star player is saying to his teammates at a timeout

when he's trying to get them amped up to go out there for the fourth quarter. And I'll be damned. He came out of that locker room in the second half and immediately had like 10 or 11 points. And then he did it again in the fourth quarter. Like, yo, just get on my back. And he had the ball every possession. Meanwhile, I'm watching the Clippers. I'm like, why the hell is Paul George got the ball every time?

And then, you know, Morris in the corner. Like, this is, what do we do with here? Like, what is happening in this game? I would have seen a clip from the Clippers bench because, you know, Chris, it's that, it's that raw emotion. That's why I love the NBA playoffs on The Bachelor so much. Yeah. Yeah.

Very similar. The only one, look, if there's a mic'd up, I want to hear Morris. That's who I want to hear Mike Dup. Oh, yeah. he's, I mean, he was like trying to roughhouse everybody at the beginning of that game. He got the tech. He's like yelling at Bogdanovich. I'm like, what does Bogdanovich ever done to anybody?

Like, what are you yelling at him for? I can understand Ingalls gets under people's skin. Gobert gets under people's skin. Maybe even Mitchell could get under your skin. But like, like, Bagdanovich is like the easiest, you know, he's never doing anything to irritate anybody. It doesn't seem. And yet he's up there in his face yelling at him.

And Bogdanovich, I don't even think Bogdanovich knew what was going on. He's like, why is this? got mad at me. He's just mad all the time. But yeah, it was highly entertaining game. It was. I think this is two very well

match teams that bring different things to the table. And, you know, there'll be a chess match that goes on throughout the series. What's your prediction for the series? I do think that if they can get con,

I think it's going to be very hard if they don't get Conley back. I do. because, you know, you are inevitably going to come up with some answers for what you want to do with the Mitchell situation, right? And I just think that in the absence of Conley, I do think there was a game seven, two days ago, you've got all the emotion, you're home, it's game one. And they didn't play well in the first half. They played great in the second half of that game, got the Clippers in foul trouble. Clippers really didn't have, you know, got, got, got,

Reggie Jackson to foul out. The rotation was kind of weird that Tailu put together. And so I think they need Conley to beat the clippers. I do. Interesting. It's a hamstring, though. It's a hamstring. Always hard with those.

You never know. Yeah, right? I mean, you're not feeling great about the prospects of a guy that's got a muscle problem. And so that's what I feel either. I mean, it sure would make it easier to have Mike Conley. I'd pick Jazz and six. I mean, we'll see if Conley comes back. I think if you're Utah, you still have enough, even without Conley.

Joe Ingalls can have better games, one of eight from three tonight. He's a much better ISO scorer than he showed in this game. Mitchell, I mean, I know he just scored 45 points, but it was on 30 shots. He can even have better games. He can and he has. There's still an even higher ceiling for him. Bogdanovich can have bigger games for that matter as well. But this was a nothing Kauai night, Kemp.

It was. I mean, Kauai can have better nights. I think a lot of guys on the courts tonight can have bigger and better games and will throughout, but I don't think it's just the clipper's side. Like the Utah entire team can shoot better from three. There's a higher ceiling for their best guys. And then there's the factor of Conley returning. And now it also adds, too.

I think Gobert can also have better games as well on the offensive end of the floor. I think there's more ways to exploit, as I said earlier, the switching defense with Gobert on the role there. They kind of got flubbed up in that first half. I'd like to see how they adjust in game two. This is going to be a really competitive series. Like I say Jazz and Six. I think almost all competitive games. This is going to be a fun, fun series.

I think they need Conley. And I also think, I mean, that's a three-point win with Paul George being bad and Kauai not doing much. And that's what this comes down to. Do your stars deliver? And the Jazz Star delivered, man. He delivered in spades. He did. You know, he was outstanding tonight.

And not only did Kauai not do that much, he didn't even get the ball that much. It was just strange. It was strange. The way that played out in the fourth quarter, it's like, is this how you're really going to go down? It is very much unlike the game earlier than the night with the Sixers and Hawks, with the Beach is getting touch after touch after touch after touch. Well, I, as you know, on my local show, I have Tony Allen on every week. And I talked to Tony today about the meniscus thing because I want to be just going.

to correct something that I talked about. Obviously, it's going to bother him. It's going to be sore, whatever. But I talked to Tony because I remember he had one. And I said, did you play a whole year or how long did you play on it? He said it was almost the whole year. And I was first team all defense. You could play on it.

And that's, again, he's not seven foot, 280 pounds. But just the idea of you can play on it, right? Like, it's going to bother you some. There's going to be some days that are worse than others. But he played through that. And a lot of guys do. And so while it sounds so daunting at the beginning, and it can be very daunting, especially for young players, I mean, it's not.

M.B's probably had a lot worse. And I got to tell you, let's just say that story never came out, Kev. We'd have no idea. None. We'd have no clue. No clue. If it was like the LeBron hand injury and the files where we did, it never really came out.

There was only the little rumblings about it and that's it. If we were like that, we had no idea. We think the story was false that he's totally healthy. I didn't know until LeBron showed up in a cast after he lost. That's what I found out. So maybe M.B. can have a full leg cast if they lose. But no, come on. He had 40 points, which is a career playoff high.

He had 13 rebounds and was by far the best. player on the court that night. And they came up with a lot more answers for Tray Young in game two after they let Danny Green get char marks on his back. I got some stats about this, Chris. Yeah. All right. Danny Green avoided that in game two. So in game one, Danny Green defended Tray Young on 49 plays. Thibble did for 14 plays. Ben Simmons did for only eight plays. In game two, here's how that changed. Danny Green defended him for only two plays compared to 49 in game one. 49 to 2.

Ben Simmons up to 31 plays in game two, Thibel up to 29 plays in game two. So Trey Young, the assignment has turned from Danny Green to Ben Simmons and Matisse Thibel, which makes a heck of a lot of sense because Ben Simmons and Matisse Thibel are your two best defensive players. And it worked a whole lot better making life harder on Trey in that game too than it been a game one.

Kevin, you're not lying. And one of the major things was when I saw those, I'm not going to make a lot of, I don't think the referees decided that game either way. So let me just go ahead and say that off the bat. It was a 16 point victory for the Sixers. And they got zero out of their bench in the first half of that game, you know, which is a two-point game. And they ran off on it.

But the big thing to me was in that game, not only did you, you not see Trey Young having the kind of success that he had in game one. You also didn't see the Sixers in foul trouble. You didn't see Trey Young going to the free throw line in immense amount, right? Which is when, and so when I said I wanted to bring up the refs, it was Scott Foster is the crew chief with Tony Brothers and Ken Mower. Now, these are the three longest tenure, probably. are close to longest 10-year.

And the other thing is Foster is well-known as you play. Like, just play, you know. And that's why Hardin hates him. That's why Chris Paul hates him, right? Because, like, he'll let it, he'll let you bump. He'll let you be physical. He's not going to be quick-whistled on stuff. And he wants to let these things play out.

And that can really, really irritate players. And especially those that have the mode of operation of playing to get calls. That's, they end, and because not only does he not call it, and then sometimes you're the boy that cried Wolf and you really do get mauled and he still doesn't call it. And then you bitch at him and he doesn't want to hear you talk. And so then you get really frustrated. And that's why there's been big problems.

Chris Paul still hates him. He brought it up last week or whatever about his record, you know, I don't think, I think he's like, Oh, and 9 or something, and Scott Foster playoff? I mean, something crazy. Like, and this is like the Players Association leader, and he's like basically calling one of the longest 10 years reps, a criminal, Hardin hates his gut. And I'm sure Trey Young feels pretty bad about him tonight, too.

But I'm just saying, if you see that, if you see him on a game, you know you're going to, there's going to be more stuff that goes on. And it's going to be, it's going to be a harder road to, for the Trey Youngs of the world. And look, it's a harder road to hoe when you've got a frigging seven-foot condor guarding you too. And Thibel, who's got a 50-foot wingspan. How many Scott Foster fans do you think listen to the pod?

They got like a Scott Foster number four years. No. Scott Foster is one of those guys that, like, you bring up his name. And no matter what team it is, the fans are like, oh, no. Yeah, Scott Foster. He's just that guy. Right? It's like both,

both teams say, oh, now. Yes. And now it's Scott Foster. Oh, no, because you just figure

you're getting screwed somehow, right, in the game. He has no fans. He has a hit. You know what? There's probably going to be some guy. Some guy on Twitter,

look, you guys, Scott Foster's burner, maybe. Yeah. Well, no, you've got a,

there's somebody out there that's like, you know, Benny, 6, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12. So somebody out there since you obviously don't care about your Twitter names anyway become like Scott Foster

fan and just like preach the gospel of Scott Foster and how awesome he is and start commenting on the calls and like how great job he did tonight at NBA official ref account of all right handles that Chris. Hey, well then change their name to Scott Foster fan. Well, getting back to the basketball, Matisse Stuyball had two plays that come to mind. In the first half, he had that. block that was called a foul. And then in the second half, he had a legit block on a Tray Young floater. I looked up on second spectrum tonight after that play happened. Trey Young's attempt that I believe the number was 255 floaters this regular season.

Only 15 of them were blocked. Only 15 out of 255. That's a low number. That's a really low number. And for Matisse Stiebill, a guy who blocks more jump shots than anybody else in the NBA this season, by far, by far. I wonder if he learned something on film to get ready for that Trayong floater. And I'm excited to see the way the Atlanta Hawks do adapt here because I'll tell you what, Chris,

even though Jake Milton went crazy with that shot at the end of the third quarter into the fourth quarter, I thought Atlanta did a pretty good job taking punches throughout the game. They might lose this series in five. Like, who knows? I don't know how the rest of the series will unfold. But I'm impressed with their resolve and their ability to punch back. They also bring a lot more firepower off that bench. I mean, Jake Milton showed up in that second half.

But the first half, the bench outscored, the Hawks bench outscored the Sixers 32 to zero. Yeah. Zero. Pretty wild. I mean, zero? Bro, I don't have one guy I brought in the game that gets me a bucket in the whole half. I mean, that's crazy.

And so one of the things I think about when I'm looking at these games is, Okay. Even when we were just talking about Utah and you were like, hey, they're probably not going to shoot 17 for 50. It's probably going to be a little higher than that. But I don't know. If you shoot that many, it's hard to hit super high volume. Who knows if Mitchell, if he's able to replicate it, we're talking super duper star status. And I thought Kauai can be much better. George can be much better. When we're talking about this series, I think what MB does is just going to be replicated. over and over again, right? And so now it's like, all right, what about Trey? Are there, is there a figuring out process that he's going to go through? Because you remember a couple weeks ago we were talking on the show and you were talking, you were, you were, you were saying, look, Devin Booker's got to do this and this. Three pointers.

Right? Three pointers off the double. Yeah. And then he started doing it. He started doing it, right? Like, I mean, the ones. The really good ones, and sometimes it takes a little bit longer for guys, and you may just have to take your lumps a whole playoff series

before you get to come back the next year and do better like Donovan did. Trey, within this series, I mean, he has to be the man. He's been the man for them all year long, right? It kind of makes the thing go because you are not, when we talk about replicate, you ain't getting that Gallinari Herder, heater that they were both on. That's what kept them in that because those guys were just shooting absolute fireballs simultaneously. Oh, yeah.

21 points for Gallo, 20 points for Herder off the bench. Well, and I don't think Herder missed a shot until his, what, seventh shot? I think he was six for six to start. I mean, I was going through my box of common cards looking for Herder rookies. By the way, Red Velvet is an amazing nickname. It is. We've talked about nicknames and the need for like really good ones. That's a great one.

Red velvet. I believe I gave a Kevin Herder rookie card to Danny Chow. Is that true? It's like a birthday present, if I remember correct. This was years ago when he was after. He still got it. Yeah, no. I think it was one it was actually a rookie.

Yeah, but when we're talking about like what can be replicated, you know, it's hard to know regarding, you know, there's nobody outside of those two off the bench. that were really great for Atlanta. And I do think a lot of that has to do with how good can Trey be. Can he be the guy that just commands so much attention and can collapse a defense? Like we just saw with Donovan. He's just constantly collapsing a defense. And you've got to be able to, you know, come off of screens and be a big problem.

And so what are the chances? Is he going to be? a big problem because that's it started in the second half of game one what do you have 25 in the first half and 10 i think in the second half yeah and now we're six for 16 tonight with him so i don't know i don't i don't know if he's going to figure out how to be 30 point tray listen i don't think it matters if you're getting this version of joel lebed you know the reason why the door was open for Atlanta was because the possibility of Embeded missing time or being limited. And I think after that game won, Atlanta won on the Sunday Night Ringer NBA show

podcast that Jay Kyle Manor going to be doing every week of the playoffs, him and I talked about, you know, Atlanta, they're going to make this more competitive than we expected, and I still stand by that. I think Atlanta can have better games and we'll have better games. But in the end, if Embedde stays healthy and you're getting this version of Joe Al-Ambed, the Sixers are going to win the series. just a matter of how many games it happens in and in what form it happens in because indeed there's a good reason why he was at one point considered the MVP by many many people

and he only ended up with one vote but that's because he got hurt he is an MVP caliber player and at times he is the best player in the world at times when he's on it's hard to stop that guy on the offensive end of the floor it's also hard to stop him hard to score against him hard to score like did you see that possession i think it was like a minute or two into the game he got switched on to Trey Young in like the right corner and just slid with him laterally launched himself side to side to stay with Trey. That's when I was like, oh, the Sixers are locked in tonight on defense when Embedith is moving like that.

He looked completely healthy if we didn't know about that injury, Chris. You know what I loved? I loved when Capella caught that one and dunked it on his head and they came right down the court and he was like, give me the damn ball. Oh, yeah. He bullies Capella out of the. the way it just donked on everybody and I was like oh my that was great that was like some shat old school shack stuff seriously like he's got that in him yeah like you you're too little

get off me and like where he used his size to just punish a guy and i mean when you can make capella just fly i mean you have got you're big you're a strong dude how about this kev you know how we've we've talked about like hey well kawai get on Donovan Mitchell. Why doesn't LeBron go guard Don't Devin Booker? Why don't we have this and this and this? And a lot of it's like, oh, well, they save it for offense. They want to conserve for offense, right?

How about this one? 57 minutes combined five field goal attempts for Ben Simmons and Matisse Thibel. They do not. have to conserve for the offensive end. Save it for defense. It's the opposite. 57 combined minutes. And between the two of them, they shot the ball five times for a team that scored

118 points. That's outrageous. It's really the polar opposite. Like, hey, we'll use ourselves up on the defense event. We don't need to. I mean, can you imagine a player going out there? Like, I mean, Ben Simmons has been like all NBA caliber, you know, these last couple of years where he's getting votes and making this team like he did last year. And it's like someone, one person gave him a MVP vote on the ballot today.

But hey, can you, can you fathom three shots? Three. Three shots. Yeah. In the entire game. Like there is no player. I can't think of any player. that good that would have three field goal attempts.

Well, I mean, and be fine with it. This is why you need to look beyond the box score, why the game is about more than scoring. Ben Simmons had four points, seven assists, three rebounds, two steals, one block. And those are low numbers. And you're like, wow, he had a great game.

He didn't have a great game because of the way he defended Trey. Because I, well, look, as a longtime fan of defenders, I am 100% on your side. I used to always argue, I don't care what the guy scored. What did he? How about we do this? How about we add the average that he kept his, whoever he guarded under,

and we add that to his points per game. So all of a sudden, you'll think it's something great. So on Trey's behalf, let's take the 14 and we'll just add it to Ben's. Now, now did he have a great game, right? Because he did. He stopped him from being the guy for Atlanta. You know, there's there's no answer for MBE. And I do think that that is the, I think that's the thing that can be replicated.

And I felt like when they got done with the Danny Green madness, that that was kind of like the, okay, we've unlocked this. They're just way better than the Hawks. They're way better. They proved it all year long that they were the better team than the Hawks, right? And so, and they're, they're full strength, right? It's not like Utah. They proved they were better all year long to the Clippers, but they proved they were better all year long with the Clippers with Mike Conley, right?

I don't, I don't think they're winning 52 games without Mike Conley. But for Philly's sake, they got their guys. Do you think, do you think Philly could beat the Nets up to, 2.0 now on the Bucks? Like, what's your confidence that if they advance past the Hawks, they could beat the Nets. I think that it is, I think it is possible again because of the Embed thing.

Because so hard to stop him, the singular force of Embedd. They don't have anything for that. Yeah. It's still the thing they don't have anything for, right? So could he be amazing in that series? I do think, like, could I envision a world where he actually was the best player in that,

series. I there's there's very few that you're it's hard it's hard to say yes over kevin right now but it is joel lebed no and i would i would not tell you that that that's what i would expect to happen i'm saying it could no he's that good the durant thing as we move to that one come on kev this is this it's really video game stuff oh yeah both ends of the floor too like like it's not that it's not just the scoring it's also the defense like him battling on the post with Brooke Lopez and dropping in the pick and roll, coming over and help coverage and block and Drew Holiday. Like, it's amazing.

Both ends of the floor. It's extraordinary. Look, it is. It is extraordinary that Brooke Lopez cannot score on him. You could throw Brooke Lopez the ball 50 times, and I think he might score four. It was, he blocked the damn ball off his mouth. Like, it's like, bro, what, what, I don't understand the point of Brooke Lopez.

I really don't in this. It's so frustrating. It's like, okay, are you playing for size? Because you're not using the size, right? Like you're allowing them to play Kevin Durant on you. That's who's guarding you, right? So, okay, so that gives me no advantage on the offensive end. And on the defensive end, all they do is hit jump shots.

They don't need to go to the friggin' basket. So you standing in front of it, the only thing you stand in front of the basket, does is you get a amazing view to all of these swishes and you have to keep on dodging it so it doesn't hit you in the head it's the damned thing it's like oh okay you want to you want to play drop coverage all right how about this we'll just shoot and kevin duran i read this morning 90% of his three pointers in the playoffs are contested 90% he is shooting 50% on them And he is shooting 50%. Like, you know the 50, 40, 90 club?

His playoff splits are 55, 50, 91. What in the F is that? Say those again? 55, 5091. That's playoff splits. 32.7 rebads. Wow. What are you supposed to do?

cry, I think. I think that's the actual answer. Cry. Just cry. You're down too. Oh, I mean, what else you're supposed to do? Well, look, I. Make adjustments is one thing, but we know Bud's not going to do that.

So just cry. This is the own, look, with Durant, once he gets the ball, you're in big trouble. The best thing you can do is ball denial and try to not let him get the ball. Now, obviously, that can be fixed with him just dribbling it up himself. But it's that first just jumping it, jumping the lane when they're trying to get to it. And you've got to gamble a little bit because honestly, once he gets it, I mean, look, if he's shooting 90% of his threes contested, but he still makes over half of them. What the hell? I mean, what's the point.

You know, here's the tough part. I don't know what the answers are. I don't know what the answers are for the bucks because on one hand, Oh, well, number one is get your head out of your ass. That's number one. Well, like I say, like half jokingly, Bud's not going to make adjustments. But like, let's say they put Janus at the five and Tucker at the four and use that a heck of a lot more than they have in the first two games. I believe they did it for a total of, I think, like five minutes total.

And it wasn't great when they did it. But let's say you do that and you go to a switching defense. Well, we've already seen Janus get shredded a couple of times, especially in that game too. Well, you know, they really went at him at times. And Katie was able to create his own shot because he's Kevin Durant. So if you go to a switching defense, that means you might be switching like Pat Conanton or Bryn Forbes onto Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving. You might be doing that.

And if you do that, you might be losing any potential advantage you'd have on offense like you did in the first quarter of game one. When you were attacking the offensive boards, they had a 42 offensive rebounding percentage in the first quarter of game one. Ever since then, Brooklyn's done a great job. gang rebounding, a much better job on defense, period. But you take away that advantage. So it's like this constant push pole between what you want to do

and what your priorities are for the bucks. And there's always something that goes wrong if you try one thing. And I don't know what the real solution is here. I'd love to see them go for a smaller lineup with Yonis of the 5 and Tucker at the 4 with a lot of switching on defense for an extended period of time. I'd like to see it for like a long stretch. See how it goes. No more short bursts.

See what happens. Maybe even start a game like that. I just think you got to switch something up and see how it works. It could work. I'm going to give them game three. No, no, no, no, no. I'm not saying to win it. I'm saying before I really make, there's a couple of things.

They have played like absolute shit. Middleton should be better. Middleton should be much better moving forward. I mean, they've played terrible. They really have. It has been a combination of the nets shooting out of their minds. Like, it's one thing to get the shots. It's another thing to make them.

I talk about it all the time. But they have shot unbelievably contested and uncontested. It doesn't matter. And you mean like Blake Griffin's of the world. Everybody. Not just Katie and Kyrie. Yeah, not just those two. I mean, because look, Katie had 32 points last night.

Okay. Honestly, Kevin, if you told me, if I'm the Bucks, sign up for KD having 32, I'd sign up for it. A hundred times out of 100, I'd sign up for it. Okay. We'll take it. He's got 32. Like, that's best case scenario to me, right? I mean, he average is 30, so 32.

I'll take it. Okay. But they've shot awfully, awfully, like not even close to what they have shot over the course of a much bigger sample size. Is that partially because of what Brooklyn is doing, though? Because I feel like Milwaukee is pressing. They're taking a lot of rush shots early in the clock. They're not moving the ball around. They just haven't even been themselves at all.

They've lost their identity, it seems like. Yes, they have. And can you get that back? Can Janus be the best? guy on the court. And the answer is yes, right? And he wasn't even close to that. Like, some of the stuff is not that hard to fix, Kevin.

You know, how about you get next to the basket or drive to the basket rather than walking into these freaking three pointers? Yeah, what's he doing? It's outrageous. He's outrageous. He's like, what's going on here? He doesn't understand it. When Marv is perplexed.

Yeah. That's what you really. I mean, he had a tough time logging in to be able to call the game. And so if he's freaked out, no disrespect to Marv Alba. I mean, I mean, it's an age thing. I mean, you have a hard time all the time logging into the Zoom, Chris. I have to go down to my father's house three times a month to fix his Apple TV. Oh, yeah.

Of course. It's generational. And Marv is his senior. But even Marb sat there and he's like, oh, wow. It's funny because, like, it's funny because, like, it's funny because, like, it's not often you hear the play-by-play guy take a shot. It almost comes as a shock when the play-by-play guy is doing it. And there's a couple other things.

They've got to figure out what they want to do rotation-wise. I know we goof on. But the Brooke Lopez thing, he has no place in this series. I'm sorry. He just doesn't. Does he if you are creating chances for offensive boards? Because I don't feel like they're not getting enough shots at the rim. Like we saw this with Utah tonight.

They got a lot of shots at the rim. There's one in the fourth quarter. remember correctly, Mitchell kind of sidestepped into the lane, threw up a little runner. Gobert was there for a tip out or an offensive board to draw a foul. The bucks are just not getting to the basket with any consistency. And if you do get to the basket with Janus or Middleton or Holiday, Brooke Lopez can be there to clean up or tip it out. So I think there's value for him, Chris.

It's just we haven't seen it since the first quarter of game one. And there was parts of game one. Yeah. But no, no, no, no. Okay, let me correct myself. there is a place for him if you do honestly what i think you should do which is play big and play big oh so you're saying the opposite of me you're saying go big not honest of the five i'm saying no i'm saying if you're going to do it you can't match up small with them yeah you're right you can't match up

small with them but if you're going to be big like i respect the fact that like quid quis nider even if things aren't going that great with go bear like obviously they're trying to play him off by going smaller later in that game. Not going to work. But guess what? He got the huge offensive rebound that they needed because he's the bigger guy. But if Brooke Lopez ain't going to play big, if Kevin Durant can block every shot you take and you're taking fadeaways,

like if you're going to be big, then be big and Janus going to the basket. You guys play a volleyball with it if we miss it. Like expose them. for not being big, right? Because that's the thing. You can't let them get away with, you got to make it to where this guy wants to put DeAndre Jordan in the game or something, right? Just somebody with some size.

You're right. But if you're going to make, if you're going to let him play KD at the five, good luck, man. Because now what? Wait, we're going to play them in a track meet? We're going to play them in a one-on-one game. Then you're dead. Like, no.

You're dead. You're dead, dead. And I will say this. Defensively, sometimes it's not about the individual players, but it is the drop-off from. Like, whatever I got to replace him with. And that's where the DeVincenzo thing matters.

Huge. Because the drop-off is to, like, when you were saying, Kev, is to a guy that has a friggin target on his back. There ain't nobody they're playing. Teague, Forbes, Connith. You name it. Every one of them has got a target on him.

Whereas Devinchenzo, he ain't got a target on him in the same way. Yeah, solid defender. I mean, he'd probably still be the guy that you attack, but he's not a weak link. No, and he'll make plays. You know what I mean? And he was actually very good against Brooklyn in that game, that epic game at the end of the year. I just, you know, now you don't want to have. Look, Nash is, that's what.

they're doing. They are seeking out this stuff and like whatever your weak link is we are going to seek it out and we are going to blast you with it and then they just got the damn bucks so rattled that they're trying to make 10 point shots

and there is no 10, right? That's why you see Janus going up jacking some crap and Middleton's been horrendous. Just horrendous. Truly horrible. Truly horrendous. I mean he's legitimately getting outplayed by Mike James.

Yeah. And it's like, says a lot. It's like, yo, are we gonna, like, Janus has got to be amazing for them.

And the other thing is they've got to play as a collective. They have, they let that thing turn into the, okay, you guys are individually spectacular. Well, I'll be individually spectacular. And it's like,

that's not your game. There's not anybody on that team. This was my complaint on the Middleton front, which is like, Janice should be able to, I could just throw him the ball and go get me a bucket, but he's now scared to go to the free throw line. And it's like the other guys, they're not a team of, I throw it to you, go get me a bucket. And the other team probably has, what, two of the three or four best guys in the world at that.

And then they've got another one that's on the damn bench that might be the best of the three of them. And just they go get me a bucket guys. And it's like, and I'll be damned if they don't pass the ball. They pass the ball like crazy. The Nets do. The Nets ball movement. It is. It's gorgeous.

It really is. It's truly unbelievable. Like they, they can toggle between ice, heavy ISO ball with beautiful ball movement, like Spursian style. Yes. Like, dash seven seconds or less sun's style. Like you can see the influence there. and it is gorgeous to watch.

And I think that's a real credit to the way in which this roster was constructed. A guy like Bruce Brown, who until this season plays point guard, point guard. And now he's screening and short rolling and he's picking apart defense and he's scoring at the rim off of rolls. It's the unselfishness of like the Joe Harris is in the Landry Shamet's cutting and moving off ball. It's Blake Griffin adapting and embracing being a role player. Everybody on this roster, including Kyrie and K.

with their high IQs and their ability to move with them without the ball and find the open guy. It's remarkable and like that's the tough part about this team. If you're getting them into an ISO, you're dead. If you're getting them in a pick and roll, you're dead. If they're able to whip the ball around the floor, you're dead. Like there's no answers for this net's offense. You have to, like it's such a cliche thing to say. You have to outscore them.

On offense, you have to get rolling. So for the bucks, Janus, step up. big time, be the size player you are, be tough, try to attack the rim, draw files, create offensive rebound opportunities. Because if you're taking these pull-up threes and these pull-up mid-range jumpers, Steve Nash might have his arms folded on the sideline the entire game or his hands in his pocket, but he is smiling, very big, cheek to cheek. When you take a jump shot, if the opposing coach is smiling, if he's cheesing when you take a jumper, you probably shouldn't do that. So for Janus, you've got to change the way you're playing mid-series right here,

to all the other stuff we've talked about. And Kev, like, that is the thing about Brooklyn that is the scariest. And this even goes back to the original question about the Philly thing. They're not dependent upon one guy being amazing. And so many of these other teams are. Philly is. Atlanta is. If Conley doesn't come back.

Denver. If Conley doesn't come back, Utah will be dependent. You're not going to be winning games without a good Donovan. And Denver, totally. We just saw Portland eliminated as soon as, you know, the Lillard thing ran out in that game seven in the second half of that game seven. After he put up the 55 the day before. You're right. Luca, you know, it's like, okay, fine, he's got a million points, but nobody else is doing anything, right?

And it's like, that's the scary thing about the Nets is like, and the same goes with the bucks. They win it unless Yannis is off the chart's great. And then everybody plays off of that. Yeah, they need Middleton. They need to have every night Middleton or Holiday to have a great game. And if both do, maybe you win the game. But like, you got to have at least one of them going off. That's right.

And Yonis has to be like all world caliber. He just does. And that will be true with Philly. Trust me, if Joe L. M. Bid is putting up 18 and 8, they ain't win it anything. It all revolves around the one guy. That's not so with the Nets. I could see them winning a game where Kevin Durant has 17 points. I know that sounds insane, but I really could.

Like, they play as a team. The Blake Griffin thing is just, I mean, I did the one he caught off the rim and they were like oh those old legs can still get up I'm like for God's sakes he's 32 old legs he's 32 what a long con huh he could have jumped off a damn he could have jumped over the damn Kia again

he did the dunk guy that's 100 years I'm like oh my god this is crazy the springs doesn't it show the power of effort like the when he was diving on the floor he had one in game one and then another one in game two just dive it on the floor to grab a loose ball the springs on his legs to react that quickly I mean I mean I know like it understandably pisses off a lot of pistons fans especially but it's really fun to watch blake ruffin play with this net's team it's so fun to watch blake play it's the same way that I'm glad carmello got an opportunity with Portland yeah I'm glad to see these older players in situations they can still be impactful It's just great to see Blake Griffin produce at a high level. I love it. I really do.

I will say, look, and this is just the old-timey, do you believe in defense? Do you believe in offense? That's the Philly Nets thing. If we if it does play out that way, because it's like, all right, if Simmons, if you can throw him, you know, and you've got a couple guys like that and you can decide what you want to do with Simmons. and this is if you can't get hardened back. Now I still do think that Philly could be a big problem for them defensively. And they can punish you for being small.

And that's what I'm saying with Milwaukee. Like, then just commit to that and decide. But if you want to try to play small ball with them, you don't have the dynamic offensive players to do that. You've got to win the hustle. You've got to win the offensive rebounds. You've got to win going to the free throw line, points in the paint. You've got to mall them at points in the paint, like mall them.

You know? And it's like none of that shit happens. None of it. They hustle more. You know one thing I want to see Milwaukee try out more, and I'm doubtful they'll change this mid-series, but we'll see. using Janus more as a screener. They do it 14.5 times per game, according to the second spectrum in this series against the Nets.

In the entire playoffs, just a couple of players who have set more pick and roll screens per game than Janus. Dwayne Deadman, Nick Batum, Brooke Lopez, Jaron Jackson Jr., Andre Drummond, Zubots. And then you're getting to some of the more obvious names Aiton, Capella, Ata Bayo, Nerkich, and so on and so forth. But, I mean, like, Dwayne Deadman should not be averaging more on-ball screens per game

than Yonis Anta-Compo. He just shouldn't be. So even if the Nets are switching that pick-and-roll action with Holiday or Mildleton as the ball handler and Janus as the screener, if you're switching that, it could lead to a major advantage in the favor of Janus on a post-up or an ISO from the elbow attacking the basket, like just use their switching against them. Try it out. Like, you're just, that's what I mean.

When I say I'm not sure what the solutions are, I'm not sure what the solutions are that stick to what they typically do. It needs to be something outside of the box that they don't ordinarily do. Like, like we just said, running more on ball screens with Janice as the pick and roll screener, I just, I'd be disappointed if we don't see it. What do you have Drew Holiday for? What do you have them for? He can create, man.

Well, the other thing is this. Why the hell does he dribble the ball up the floor? Janus? It's unnecessary. Like, Janus as an initiator, look, Janus as an initiator can work. I don't think you should take that away from him. It can work against a lot of teams. Against this Nets team, use him as a finisher.

That's what he needs to be against this Nets squad. And the fact that they're continuing to use him as an initiator through game two, I look forward to game three to seeing if that changes. I would hope for the Bucks it does. And if it doesn't, I'd be very, very, very worried in that first quarter. quarter for how the rest of the game might go and the series. Well, and the other thing, Kev, is this. The problem is on this whole switching thing, it's like with Janus, it's kind of like

the rant. There's not a great matchup for him, no matter who you switch on to him. The problem is, like, when you're trying to attack that, it's like, okay, I don't really feel that way about Holiday and I don't feel that way about Middleton. You know, that's where this kind of falls apart. part a little bit where it's like, okay, we're going to attack this, right? And so you say, we're going to attack this and we want to get this guy guarding Kauai or this guy guarding Paul George or this guy guarding Donovan Mitchell or whatever.

Janus is really the only one that I'm trying to get to an advantageous matchup because I don't think the other guys are going to torch out a matchup. You know what I'm saying? Got to give yourself a chance, I think. I mean, Middleton could have a hot game. But like, who do I want? Who am I trying to target to get to guard Drew Holiday so that Drew Holiday can go off? Or it could be the other way around.

It's who you want to guard, Janice. Yeah. No, that's all I'm saying. He's the only one I'm trying to get the match up for because the other guys, they can't, I mean, that's not their, it's not their game. They got to whip it around and they got to play as a team. They can get back to the more ball movement, I'd say. Look, they screwed themselves. And that was just, like, I'm not, I'm, the Bucks, that was so embarrassing, man.

Get your ass beat like that. You got to win that game. You got to win four, because you got to win four out of five games against Kevin Durant now. And no James Harden in the first two games you're down to, oh, that's embarrassing. Well, it's just like, after you got beat in that game one, how do you come back in game two and get beat by 40? And it never got better. It went from like 22 in your figuring, all right, they'll go on a 12-0 run. It'll be at 10 and at least they'll get a little interesting, maybe, you know, have a chance.

They did that in game one. They got it to 10. And instead, it went from 22 to 32 to 42 to 42 to 42 to 52. They just kept getting their ass beat worse and worse and worse. They have been the biggest disappointment. No lie. Big time. I mean, after being.

We talked that series up so much. We talked that series up so much. All right. The nightcap. Phoenix is able to win game one against Denver. We just talked about how much, how important it is. One guy, right? Kind of it all revolves around him.

And how appropriate that you had just done the fawning D'Andre Aiton video last week. because he to me is the story of game one. I know Paul at 36 years old had the best game of a guy that age, you know, with the 20 plus points, 10 plus assist. Paul's obviously the engine that makes it go. But we talked a lot about like, how's Aitin going to hold up against Yokic? Look, Kif, I wrote this down.

He had 20 and 10, Yokic 22 and 9 when they were out there. and the matchup minutes where they matched it up exactly for Aiton. He was only out there when Yolkich was. Phoenix won those by 13 points. I mean, that's unbelievable. That's unbelievable. Truly.

And, you know, it's a big test. This is the MVP of the league. Sky has torched everybody in his wake. And Aiton held up as good as anybody has all year. You know? So you got to give him a lot of the league. I'm a lot of credit for that. Sure.

You know, with Aiton, he has the ingredients for it because he has the size and the strength and the length and he now has that mentality that he's developed to. But what he's always had is he's always been disciplined. Even at Arizona, when Aiton got, you know, ripped for sometimes being out of position, he wasn't somebody who made stupid fouls. He didn't leap at pump fakes. He's always grounded. Or he can test shots, you know, using the rule of verticality at a high, high level.

And against Yokich, a guy who's so tricky, uses subtle little fakes and movements to try to draw contact and get to the line or to just make a move. Aiton is solid. And I think you hear the way those guys talk about each other after the games. First of all, it's really sweet. Yeah. Just the amount of praise they heap on each other is pretty cool to hear. But like from Yokic to Aitin, it is well deserved. It truly is.

And I think this will be the series that people start talking about DeAndre Aiton. There's still a little bit out there about like, oh, he's an average defender. You know, he's not a great defender. Now, this guy, this all season long for Phoenix, he's been a great defender. Well, and he has. And we're seeing it. This is when we were talking earlier with regarding Mitchell, the intangible thing. This is the intangible thing that goes along with the adding Monty Williams, Chris

Paul. Yes. Jay Crowder, all these guys, because I am one that if you want to tell me, The only thing you got to worry about is the motor. Bad motor, I'm out. Questions about motor, I'm out. I don't want any part of it. But this is a case study in a group of veterans and a coach

that have gotten the absolute most out of it and have unlocked a kid that would have... You know, you could watch him and you could say, those guys, to me, are the most frustrating. It's like, bro, you could be so unbelievable if you would crank up the intensity. If you would just play like that, you have these gifts from God that just others don't. Look, and I went through this early in my career covering Rudy Gay. I'm like, you could be the best freaking player.

You could be the best guy. Young Rudy was as talented and could fly and everything. And it's like, why don't you go and grab an eighth rebound or eight rebounds ever? Like, go do it. Go to the basket. Go and just impose your will. You are so gifted. And it's like, you watch Aiton.

It's like, they got that out of him. They do. He'll still have his moments, but you can tell that he's accountable to them, you know? And he plays like a much different guy than he ever. has before, you know? For sure. And some of that's growing up, too. To me, he's one of the stories of the season.

And, like, it's because the story's not just about him. It's, as you said, it's about Chris Paul. It's about Monty Williams. It's about Jay Crowder. It's about Devin Booker. It's about this entire team that is sticking together, playing for each other, motivating each other, embracing their own respective roles, and being stars within their roles, whatever it is,

whether you're a spot-up shooter like Cam Johnson, playing hard on defense, You're DeAndre Ait and running the floor, getting ahead of the defense to try to bring people in to open up those shooters outside or playing hard on defense and communicating. Or you're the bucket getter or the shot creator like Chris Paul or Devon Booker. Across the roster, this team has all embraced their roles. And I think the one thing that sticks with me from that game one was in that crazy third quarter and fourth quarter, just how loud the crowd was. I mean, I know we've had some issues with fans in the first round and all that. But, you know, when the fans are acting appropriate are just there to have a good time,

boy, is it sweet to have people back in crowds, man. Like, that's Sun's crowd that night and Sun's fans in general. They could not be rewarded with a better team, a more fun team to root for after 10 years of missing the playoffs. Like, we're seeing, I think a lot of the teams in the NBA right now that are still out there, Phoenix and Utah and Denver in the West, all three of them especially, and the Clippers with certain lineups, but especially Utah and Phoenix. The fit is just elite. Like the pieces just fit together, Chris, don't they?

Yeah. It's so fun to watch when they're clicking. And I, I teed you up to fawn over your sons. And you got your moment, Kevin. I did. But now is the time. Or you need to talk to me about trying to fight me over Monty Morris and Austin Rivers. Because they played last night too, Keff.

Yeah, they did. And when I told you they're not good enough, when I told you they're not good enough, you're bringing in the words of Matt Barnes, the Great Oracle, Matt Barnes, it's like bringing a spoon to a gunfight. He once said. It's just, it's like, it's a cool story. And the Portland sucks on defense. But like now it's time to

Now it's time to play against Devin Booker and Chris Paul And it's like And Cameron Payne You need you need Jamal Murray And Tori Craig You need you need Will Barton And Darius Arch

I'm just I'm just listing some sons names And aren't big big time names either Just saying No you need You need guys When you're going up When the competition gets to this level Right

You need the guys you should have Will Barton and Jamal Murray. And, you know, your starters, right? No kidding. No kidding. You'd rather have those guys. Yeah, no, but you were saying you're not giving enough credit to Monty Morris. I really, I really don't.

Well, I mean, Monty Morris would, he would have started games if he was, you know, what we're pretending he is. Which is not what, you look, Portland is fantasy land. That was real stuff last night when you're playing against, when you're playing against the sons. And look, Terry Stott's is, you don't know. his job anymore. No, he doesn't. After what happens? What was with those Neil O'Shea comments that I saw come across Twitter saying it wasn't

because the roster that our defense was bad and all that? I texted with a couple of executives about that and they're like, boy, sure makes that head coaching job appealing when the GM is throwing the coach under the bus saying it wasn't about the roster. That's the, I mean, it's like he's reciting the conversation he had with the owner. pretty much yeah no i mean i was thinking about this chris like i'm sure he was just selling like his side of things i mean it's pretty obvious part of it was the roster right your 29th ranked and defense that's not all coaching you know you don't have a short roll option and the pick and roll for

dame like draymond does with stephen curry or bruce brown for that matter with the nets and so forth you know there's a lot of situations where guys have a short roller there's a lot of missing pieces in that portland roster but what i was i was I was thinking about was this, Chris. If you're Neil O'Shea, let's say you're buying what you're selling. Let's say you really believe that it wasn't the roster. If you're Neil O'Shea, what do you think could have been done differently? Is it like playing Nassir Little more often?

A big, rangy young wing defender? Is it playing Derek Jones more often, who they gave the mid-level two? I would love to know if he buys what he's selling, what does he think could have been different with the roster? I wonder. He could have been able to roll the Zach. Collins out in his wheelchair and sit in front of the basket. I hope Zach Collins can get back and play healthy. He hasn't been able to be out there, man.

Look, I think Yusuf Nerkich is a very good player. Not a great one. But if when I remove Yusuf Nerkich, I give up 500 points per 100 possessions. Who signed in his canter? What am I doing here? Was that Stots who signed in? Oh, no, it wasn't Stots who signed in Niskaner. It wasn't the Stats.

No. No. Derek Jones was very useful in the playoffs. That was a big free agent thing too. And Robert Covington and. It's just weird. It's just weird. I hope for Blazers fans,

he was just selling BS to the media, which I understandably so that's your job. It's a savior job comment. I know. I get it. But I like I hope it's a lie if you're a Blazers fan. You hope that he looks at the roster and it's like, we have a lot of work to do.

That's what you actually hope is the case. Yes. All right. So we haven't made any grand statements about what we think. Obviously, bucks are completely up against it, but I'm willing to let that play out for three. I do not think. It's over. I do not think Denver has enough to be able to match. Suns and six with Phoenix. Utah clips, I think very likely going to go seven games. I do. And then I do think Philly, you know, unless they got great trade. I just think they're a lot better than Philly or than Atlanta. They have been all year.

I don't know. I can see Atlanta getting one of the home games. So maybe we have to have a game six in that series. Wouldn't shock me. Yeah. But I think one is clearly better than the other. A couple of things we do need to come on. The MVP got awarded.

We've talked all season about Yokic, obviously both of us in favor of this. I don't remember what you said. Was that the exact order you had, Yokic Mbid Curry? Was Curry three on yours? I forget off the top. Well, hell, the world's going to be able to see your votes. You know what I mean? Whenever that ballots released.

Yokic Mbid Curry. That was the top three. I had Yokic Mbid Yonis Curry, Luca. Yonis, okay. That was my top five. Yonis was three and Curry was four. Okay. Yeah, so you're just on the head.

Okay. It was a cool, what, 30, minutes to an hour of who the hell voted for Derek Rose until we found out it was the fan vote or whatever. That was hilarious because there was really that moment where it was like, bro, somebody really voted for Derek Rose. This is amazing. Well, it was the fan vote, which is a hilarious troll.

But who voted for Russell Westbrook, third? Who voted for Ben Simmons fourth? Oh, man. I don't know what's going on there. I don't know. I don't know, Chris. I don't know. No idea.

I don't know what's going on. No. I mean, well, look, once these guys get these MVP votes, I don't, I didn't even know you voted all the way to five. Yep, top five. Who was four and five? Who was five? Because you had Curry. I had Luca fifth.

Chris Paul ended up getting fifth on the actual vote. I got you. The Nick Wright campaign worked to get him into the top five. Well, it's probably his vote. Probably his vote. Yeah, his first, two first place votes. Oh, we did. did.

Yeah, two first place votes. More than Yadis and more than Abed. Embed got one first place vote. Very interesting. Embed got one first place. I thought Embedd would get more first place votes. It probably has to be Brian Winhorse for that big argument he had a couple months ago. He probably like, all right, I got to vote him since I made the huge argument for him.

No, I need to make that. No, I need to vote for him. Tom Tivodeau won coach of the year. and I know that this came down to really him and Monty for Phoenix. You know, look, this is a regular season award. And so I made my case for Tibbs just because I think that I don't think anybody else could have done that, really, with that roster. I think you saw how badly that roster was exposed against Atlanta in the playoffs. And the fact that they won as many games as they did play it.

having as good a defense as they did for the majority of the season, really the whole season, and then playing hard over and over again. And he got Randall, you know, to become an all-NBA caliber player during the regular season. They were projected to win, just for point of reference, like 21, 22 games, if you bet on it. There's roughly around there. If you bet on it in Vegas, they ended up winning 41. I mean, there are 20 games. better than what Vegas put their number at.

You know, and, and, Monty, I mean, look, they were like 39 and a half, and they won 51. So, I mean, that's still an unbelievable, I mean, you shattered what expectations were from Las Vegas. But I just thought, you know, just that the fact that they were in, they were in the playoffs as a top five seed, even if it was in the Eastern Conference and won 41 games. I would not have been mad if Monty Williams won that award. I would not. I voted Monty Williams. I think they both did great jobs.

I believe he should have won as we talked about weeks back at the time. Votes were cast. But Tibbs winning is fair. He had a heck of a season. The Knicks coaching staff did that entire Knicks team did. And it was a close vote. It was 351 points for Tibbs, 340 points. for Monty Williams.

Very close. Monty actually had more first place votes than Tibbs, 45 to 43. It was in the second place votes. Tibbs outdid him, therefore won in points with 42 to 32. Ranked choice voting. It's a real thing. It should be implemented in other mediums as well, besides sports. It's good.

What, The Bachelor? No. Your favorite show. You know The Bachelorette started again this week, Chris? Oh, is that right? Today with my mom, yeah. Oh. Watch it together.

What's your review? I mean, it's just the first episode. Is she hot? You meet the people. Katie was on The Bachelor. She's always that. She's a pretty girl. Great personality.

Great personality. Oh, you do? Well, if she doesn't find love, would you like to tell her that you're available? We got a lot of people that, we got a lot of people involved in that, you know? I think there's other former bachelorets in the show that I'd be into more personality-wise. Which is great. Let's just give a heads up to our home girl Juliet Litvin.

Oh, yeah, Bachelor party. Great pod. Yeah, you know they know them all too. They have them on the show and whatever they can put in the good word for it. Tell them, hey, I know this guy. He's kind of like Dan Blaserian, except he talks about the NBA, right? No. No.

No, I'm good. He has a bunch of yachts. Yads. Yeah. He plays poker. In Warzone. He plays a lot of, he's in Verdansky. He's great, great.

He jumps from airplanes a lot. He loves to skydive. Online. Yeah. He loves adventure. Loves to be spontaneous. All right. Well, look, we've got, we've got these series that are now going to be going on.

At least we still got basketball going on every night, you know? Oh, yeah. And I do think that we've got a chance to have. pretty unbelievable Eastern and Western Conference finals matchups and new blood, right? Like we didn't,

what was it? It was, yeah, it was Boston, Miami last year, right? And it was L.A. played Denver. Is that right? Wasn't that the finals? Who was the finals? I can't even remember the conference finals? The West Finals.

Was it L.A. Denver? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So yeah, we're going to have four new ones, I think. Yes, sir. In the conference finals this year, because I don't think. Yeah, we are. Yeah, obviously the three have already been eliminated.

Denver's the last one standing. And I don't know. It didn't look so great for them last night. Well, yeah, who knows? You can't count out Yokich, but that game one played out very well for Phoenix and how it bodes well moving forward for them. Yep. It's going to do it for another episode of the mismatch.

We will be back. We'll be recording on Thursday night. So check Friday morning. for your pod. It will be there for you. State our schedule. Thursday nights, so you can listen late Thursday or early Friday,

and then every Tuesday night we'll be recording. So Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. And also every Sunday night, I'll be recording a show with Jay Kyle Mann on the Ringer NBA show feed. So you can check that out as well for some more content.

That's on every Sunday night. Every Sunday night with Jake Kyleman. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, Thanks for downloading another episode, and we'll talk to you on Friday. Have a fun week, everybody.