The Mismatch - Thrillers in Denver and New York, Plus Breaking Down Every NBA Playoff Series

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Verno and KOC go through all the playoff matchups from Monday night, starting off with Jamal Murray’s game-winning shot to put the Nuggets up 2-0 over the Lakers (01:26). Next, they discuss how the Knicks were able to grind out a victory over Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and the Sixers (14:06). Also, the guys discuss what makes the Cavs a little different this year, and debate how far the Timberwolves can go with this version of Anthony Edwards (30:06). They then discuss why Khris Middleton is pivotal for the Bucks' success, what the key difference is in the Mavs-Clippers series, and debate whether the Pelicans can truly challenge the Thunder (48:12). Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out rg-help.com to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are a lot of quarterbacks in the NFL draft this year. My name is Ben Solac and I host the Ringer NFL Draft Show with Danny Kelly, Danny Hypatts, and Craig Horleck. We cover trades, free agency, and the draft, which is, yeah, obviously. We'll tell you about everything, which includes which quarterbacks are good, which quarterbacks are bad, and which quarterbacks are just Kirk Cousins. That is the Ringer NFL Draft show. Search the Ringer NFL Draft show on Spotify. Welcome to the mismatch.

I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me on this Monday night from the Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, a.k. Kevin O.O. Conflict, Kevin O. O. Kandiland, Kevin O. Kevin O'Sphere. Kevin! Oh, what an amazing night of basketball, dude. That was incredible.

Amazing night of basketball. We will get to the Knicks 76ers in our second segment, but we've got to start with the game that we just watched, which was a Jamal Murray dagger puts the nuggets up to zip on the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers had at one point a 20 plus point lead in this game. not enough as they were still up 10 going into the fourth, but lose that fourth quarter by 11 as Jamal Murray hits, an unbelievable playoff game winner to do the Lakers in and now.

It was 101 to 99 was the final. Outscored 32 to 20 in the fourth quarter. And so now that series is, is to zip. And if the Lakers were to be able to move on in the playoffs, they're going to have to beat the Denver Nuggets four out of the next five times. Seems like a big task, Kev. Good luck.

They needed that one. You know, the game turned in the third quarter when the Nuggets changed up their defensive scheme. They went to Yokic on Rui, KCP on LeBron James, and then Aaron Gordon on Anthony Davis. Lakers were up 17 midway through the third quarter. Nuggets made that switch. And that's where it just felt like the Lakers offense became discombobulated,

end of the third quarter, all the way through the fourth quarter, where they weren't getting quality shots anymore. They weren't able to go to the LeBron A.D. pick a roll, which was so effective. That on top of the fact that it just felt like AD ran out of steam. On defense, you also saw Darwin Ham put A.D. off of Yokich at one point. You put him on Aaron Gordon and went back to Rui on Yokic, which we know doesn't work, having AD Rome. So I wonder if AD ran out of steam.

He started missing shots. And we do know LeBron did at the end of the third quarter. He had a stretch at the end of the third quarter where he had a turnover, kind of a, definitely a fatigue fall. Then the start of the fourth, he had a missed shot at the rim. And then he had another fall. He was gassed. Immediately went out of the game. So for LeBron and AD, you know, we're talking about some of the things that didn't happen

for them down the stretch and yet those guys were amazing for the Lakers and yet you don't win the game. They were defending the best players on the nuggets. At the end of the game, it's LeBron on Murray and Eady on Yokic. They're the guys leading the way for them all throughout the game.

LeBron on defense with blocks, effort, taking a charge in the first three minutes of the game, 80, not missing a single shot, and yet you still lose the game. The Lakers couldn't have asked for anymore from their best players, and yet it still wasn't enough.

Well, they could have asked for a little more. Yeah, a little bit more, man. But like, it's a lot to ask when you got all that. Okay, but Kevin, I'll have to go back and check. Forget scoring. I don't think Anthony Davis touched the basketball in the fourth quarter. I don't think he ever touched it. I don't think anyone ever passed it to him.

The one attempt was DeAngelo Russell, which got him taken out of the game, just an insane attempt to pass, like a hook shot pass, like for an alley-up. I don't think he touched the ball in the fourth quarter. Their offense was absolutely abysmal. And honestly, like, it took it until the very end for Denver to take that lead. Denver was getting every shot they wanted on the offensive end. And the Lakers, I mean, it starts off. It's like a buzzer beating three from Tarene Prince.

then LeBron hit those two threes from the top of the key. Other than that, that was like all they had for the first six, six and a half minutes of that fourth quarter. And it was, and then of course, you know, some other guys hit some shots down the stretch. You had Russell hit one. You had Reeves hit one. And LeBron had his drive and also his steel and his dunk.

So, I mean, they rallied together 20 points in the quarter. but I honestly, I do not remember a time where Anthony Davis touched the basketball in the fourth quarter. It's unfathomable to me, truly unfathomable to me. Well, this speaks to, I mean, I think, again, that adjustment the Nuggets made by putting Yokic on Rui and then Gordon on ID, it just ruined the flow of that Lakers offense. And for Darwin Ham, you know that this was going to happen at some point. and you had this happen to you last year and the fact that they still went into a dead

dead stretch on offense where 80's not getting those touches as you said I do think is in part a knock on him where he leaves the game he still got two timeouts he still got a challenge he didn't make adjustments to that defensive scheme change that the nuggets made this again there's a report earlier today that the expectation is that ham would be back as lakers head coach next season and they're not going to go anywhere with Darwin Ham as their head coach. They're just not.

He does not make game adjustments the way the best coaches in the league do. And I thought that was an example in the fourth quarter tonight where just a simple tweak back to something that we've already seen the Nuggets do before. The Lakers did not have a counterpunch to that. Third quarter, they forced fed it to 80 a little bit, but they did not go back to that at all on the fourth. I think this is, again, in part on Ham. But also, like I said, I do think 80 ran out of steam.

He did seem tired towards the end of the quarter. In fairness to Darvin Ham, though, Kevin. LeBron James has a three at the top of the key to win that game. He misses it. Jamal Murray hits one fading away with Anthony Davis, like, in his face. I mean, of course. But you mentioned, you mentioned like 80 not getting a touch on the fourth. I'm just responding to that.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And their offense was just abysmal. They didn't get anything good. I mean, they got a couple of drives here. and there, a couple kickouts, but that was a rough go in that fourth quarter. And it felt like, man, you're going to need a lot more than a 10-point lead because Yokic turned up and Murray, who had had a total dud of a game and dud of a series thus far for his standards, you know, makes a couple of the mid-range shots down the stretch and then hits that massive game winner.

And obviously we're burying the fact that Nicola Yokic, who we should not be. tired of doing the incredible, but it's now X minutes into this podcast before we're even mentioning that they had a graphic that he had a 20, 20, and 10 game and that that had been done in the history of the NBA by Kevin Garnett once, and it had been done by Tim Duncan once,

and it had been done by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once, and it'd be done by Dave Cowan's once, and it has now been done by Yokey. four times. Yokic is the best player in the world, man. He proves it time and time and time again that he is the best player on the planet. How about the blender he put A-D in down the stretch

for the end one? Oh, my God. Dude, he is, it just feels like with Denver, because of Yokic, they are just inevitable that you know they're going to come. How many Lakers Nuggets can, have followed the same script where the Lakers have a lead at some point in the second half and then the Nuggets just storm back and build a lead on their own.

And granted, this one goes to the final buzzer, but that's in part due to Yokic and what he does to you, where he just makes perfect decisions on the floor. He does not make mistakes. And even sometimes where things slip up a little bit, like in the play, after LeBron had this amazing steel, the strip on Murray at the end. of the shot clock and then he has a slam and transition and then yokage brings the ball up the floor and he kind of looks like he tried to draw a foul on a three and it kind of was an awkward play gordon saved him going out of bounds but like even when it doesn't go right somehow for yokch it still does

because eventually a ball finds it in pj's hands he ties it with a three after that lebron moment it felt like things might be swinging back to the lakers but somehow even for yokish what things aren't exactly as plan. They still seem to work out. The dude is, the dude's remarkable. I cannot get over that guy. That shot that you just mentioned, that is a massive shot by Michael Porter, Jr. Dude, it really

was. I mean, he himself had a really strong game, too. He was great. He had a 13 from the floor for the nuggets. Well, and, you know, we talk so much throughout these playoffs about, like, the other guys in the series, you know, there was a ton of energy. KCP gave him a lot

in that third quarter. Christian Brown. Great minutes. Great minutes. Obviously he left those two free throws out there that he missed, but just doing all that energy stuff, we wondered who's going to be the guys this year that do the Jeff Green stuff, that do the Bruce Brown stuff, like those ancillary parts, and who's going to be doing it? And, you know, we saw it tonight. That's a nip-tuck game. And you get some winning plays from Peyton Watson. You get some winning plays from Christian Brown. You know, those were the only two guys that even got you a bucket off the bench today. But on the other side, the Lakers got literally nothing off of their bench. They got Taurine Prince hitting those two threes. That's it, Kev. Nothing out of Vincent. Nothing out of Dinwiddie, nothing out of Jackson Hayes. Yep, that's my point earlier when I said you got everything you could ask for out of old man, LeBron James. And,

And AD, you didn't get enough from everybody else of the team. Even Austin Reeves, four for 11 in the game, Rui, one of seven. Dilo was really the only guy who was on a scorcher to start the game, 7-11 from 3, 8 of 16 from the field. But even he, like, he's 7-11 from 3, but 1 of 5 from 2. You still didn't get enough from anybody else, whereas AD he was incredible to start the game. The first 2 and a half, first 3 quarters or so. LeBron, even though he wasn't scoring, he was making ridiculous passes out the floor on the floor. His defense, LeBron's defense was incredible.

He had the block on Gordon from behind in the second quarter. He blocked Murray in transition leading to an N-1. He took the charge in the first three minutes. He had an amazing block in the first three minutes. He was incredible. It's just they didn't get enough from everybody else in the team, which is kind of the inverse of what we expected. And during the season for the Lakers,

where you thought their supporting cast was good on paper, but the question was, what level can LeBron and AD reach? Just not enough against Yokish, the best player in the world and against Murray, who can reach those heights late in games. Yeah, and part of that, though, is, like, in that fourth quarter where we're focused on so much

and it got bogged down, like, LeBron was playing quasi-point guard, and it's really just LeBron dribbling up top. Maybe he makes a play or not. And no one, no one else is moving. And then it's just LeBron dribbling in and then throwing it out to somebody, maybe, right? And so it's like it was all bogged down.

There was no, there's no movement. There's no like, you never saw three past possessions ever. You just never saw it. It was either LeBron does something incredible or nothing gets done. Like I said, the Lakers did not, the Lakers did not have a counter for the defense the Nuggets went to after a year of seeing it. Can somebody move ever? Can anybody move? Like, there's just, it's four guys standing outside.

And then Anthony Davis will come up and, like, set a screen. And that's like the gist of it. And then LeBron, LeBron did turn back the clock and make some real plays in that fourth quarter. But certainly felt like the first part of the game, everybody was involved. He had like 12 assists going into the fourth quarter. So, I mean, other guys were getting some shots and certainly. The Davis part of it is just crazy to me. I don't know how a guy like that doesn't even touch the ball.

But can they win a game? That's the question now. They're not going to win four out of five. No. Can they win a game? Or do you think that just ripped their heart out? I don't know. They can win a game, sure.

Maybe one. But, I mean, they've lost 10 a row, so I might be asking a bit much. It is 10 in a row. And playoff, Jamal Murray, though, he had not been great in the first two games. my God, what a shot. What a shot. On to the first game of the night. And oh, Kevin, did we get more than we bargained for with Nick Sixers? 104 to 101. The Knicks go up 2-0 in the series. And the way this game ended is one that, no hyperbole, we honestly will not forget. Because how rare is it to see a team that is up by Five points, give up six points in a 22nd span off of a Brunson three, then a steel, then an

offensive rebound, a DeVincenzo missed three, then a DeVincenzo made three that ends up giving the, giving the Knicks the lead, and then they're able to hold on. They end up going up by three, and then Embedd misses a game tying three at the very end of the game. Oh my God. What a game this was. This is incredible. It's probably one of the heartbreaking losses in this entire last decade of Sixers basketball. From the start of the process, the Kauai four bounces, and then this where you feel like you were stealing a game on the road, a game two to tie it up, then you're going back home with good vibes and you're feeling good about yourself. And then you lose the way in which you did with a sloppy turnover, get nurse on

the sideline calling for a timeout, but it's too late. Maxi loses control of the ball. And you lose like that after that performance by a beat on one leg and Maxi playing sick. After all of that and you still lose, I think the series at this point, how can the Sixers take this back? How do you bounce back from that is the way I'm feeling right now? It's a, what a bummer for Sixers fans. And boy, oh boy, for Nick's fans, that kind of epitomizes who they are playing with heart and Hartenstein down the stretch of that game. Awesome.

And Hartinstein, you want to talk about game winning plays. Holy mackerel. Not only did he get the huge offensive rebound when it mattered most, then the block on Maxie on a game tying opportunity for them. I mean, just huge, huge plays. Even Chris, the play that didn't go right for the Knicks when Hartinstein was defending and beat at the elbow when he kicked it out to Maxi for three to take the lead. Hardinstein did a great job on that possession to run.

really hold steady against a bead. It's just heart overheld. And that's what left Maxie open. But even on the play where it didn't go right, I felt like he played awesome defense. Like every moment down the stretch, he was unbelievable for the Knicks. And it's just a couple of plays.

It's one of those that, you know, when we, sometimes it gets out trite that every play matters. Like truly, the Sixers flip that game completely. The Knicks were dead in the water. It was an 18 to 6 run for like the last seven minutes of that game. 11 of those by Maxi. Maxi was off the charts great. And he's got 11 of this 18 to 18 to 6 run.

They flipped the game completely. They're still up five. Bam, bam, right? At the end of that game, I mean, do you see the way that that plays out? where they've got the ball. It's Lowry hits a free throw and makes it 101 to 96. Then you come back down, Brunson hits that corner three or from the side or right in front of the bench and then absolute chaos after that.

But I mean, you were up by, you were up 101. 96 with 47 seconds left. That's a tough one to lose. That is a tough one to lose. It's, and it follows the same script in a lot of different ways because in this game today, the Sixers were a plus three and Embed's minutes on the floor. He had 34 points in the game. Granted, it was on 29 shots. It wasn't the most efficient game for Joelle Embed, but they still were positive with him in the game.

Just like game one, which they also lose. And that performance with Embed, they were a big plus with him on the floor and a huge minus with him off the floor. And this is now, these two games are the ninth and tenth time in his entire playoff career in which the Sixers had a positive plus minus with Embed on the floor, but they lost. And that includes two game seven losses. So for Embed, this is the same as it's always been where he's been a plus on a lot of these games that the Sixers have managed to lose. And I think for the Philadelphia Seventh-A-Sixir series is not over yet.

but man like those non-imbed minutes they have to find a way to be better and I don't think they have the solutions right now with this team because when Paul Reed is out there you saw it at the end of the third quarter they were double in Maxie on offense pressure on him trying to get the ball out of his hands and they were just going at the rim with ease with Paul Reed protecting the rim and not Joel and Beat out there I just don't think this Philly roster despite all the good improvements they've made this year at the wing spot and Maxie's own improvement in the back court even last. Lowry, the mid-season edition, he's been very good for them. They don't have the size behind a bead that they need. Somebody's got to step up besides those two, though. I mean, you get 69 points out of Maxie and Embeded. That's all you're asking for. Like, you got massive production, and Maxi almost gets to a triple double. He's got 35, 10, and 9.

Mbeed's got 34, 10, and 6. And it's like, they got one other guy in double digits. And that's Tobias Harris, who, if you remember a play Tobias Harris made, then good luck to you. But the rest of them are like, Ubre or, you know, you're not going to get some kind of big offensive output out of Kyle Lowry, but they have had guys when they have been at their best step up. Ubray has stepped up in the past. Batum stepped up huge. Right there at the very tail end of the season and the play-end game, that was like the Batum game.

but I mean, buddy healed. I mean, he's, he's irrelevant. He's got two points on one of three shooting. I mean, they got to get somebody else to go along. Whoever that third guy is, it's going to really be able to contribute. Now, in fairness. And you mentioned healed, Chris? Like, that's one of them where it's like, what the hell has happened?

A buddy healed? Where is the shot? Like, he just doesn't even shoot sometimes. I mean, you talk about like the Sixers needing, you know, players, to step up when it beat is on the floor. You can talk about the lack of a big behind him, but they're plus 17, 75 minutes in the series than I beat him before.

They're winning the minutes and beat is on, but there are minus 24 and only 21 minutes in the minutes that Embed has been off. That's where he needs to just start taking threes. He needs to make shots. You need to find other ways to generate offense. Harris has to do something, and they're just not getting any of that, any of them at all.

I'm not going to pronounce him dead yet, though. and here's why. Because that environment at Madison Square Garden was a 50 out of 10. It was unbelievable. I need to go to a game. I want to go to a game so bad in MSG. I've only been to MSG when the Knicks have been bad, not with this type of team. With as effusive in praise as you have been for the sphere,

Dolan will probably roll out the red carpet for you. I would love that. To go to the garden. I'll be there next month for dead and company. I can't wait. The point is that. whole environment was raucous, unbelievable, and we know role players always play better at home.

And the Knicks got it out of guys, right? Like, they got it out of Josh Hart. They got it out of Hartinstein. They got it out of a lot of these dogs. I mean, that's a team that's pretty easy to root for for anybody that likes basketball. Oh, yeah. Because they got a lot of tryhards on that team.

But you had a lot of their ancillary players play a lot better in front of that home crowd. roofs coming off the place. Philly's going to be a tough environment too. And so that's where when we talk about, look, I think in some ways, it's a positive that the best players for Philly are going off. Like those guys are doing what they need to do.

Now, obviously, you don't have home court in this series, but you could have stolen that one easily tonight if you're Philly. This is how I talked myself into it. Could have stolen that one easily. You go back home. You get those two. Now we can go win. We have proven to ourselves.

They have a problem with our two best players. And we are making life hell for their best player. The fact that there was not a course correction for the Brunson thing in game two would set off a few alarms, I think. Isn't that fair? Oh, for sure. You would go, hey, man. Like, it's one thing to be bad after one game, but that's two games. That's two games where he had a really, really tough time.

He hit the huge shot at the end, but you're not going to be able to, you're not going to be able to go over the course of a long series with Jalen Brunson shooting in the 30s. Yeah, he was eight for 26 in game one and eight for 29 in game two. And like you said, granted he hit the winner. It was a stinker performance for him against that Philadelphia length. And I think for, you know, you can flip that the other way too, though. You can say, well, Brunson's had plenty of games where he's gone off scoring against length over the duration of the regular season. We're winning games and we're up to, oh, despite Brunson only hitting 16 shots so far in the series, you could flip that the other way from the Knicks perspective too.

So I think for Philadelphia, yes, you're going home. That's the great silver lining in all of this. And you still, you were in these games or you feel like you got a shot. Like, they still only lose by seven in game one as well. But ultimately, though, they had game two and they lost game two. It slipped through their fingers at the end of the game. And I don't feel good about their odds of winning the series at this point, especially with Joel Lambeed, not being 100%.

He's just not, he's not anywhere close to 100% the way he's moving out there, especially you see it on defense, kind of moving in kind of those close spaces when it comes his agility, he's so good in those small spaces in the paint. He's not moving the same way right now, recovering from one guy to the other. So I think for Philadelphia, I'd feel a lot of concern here. No, no, no. Look, they're uphill. They are severely uphill. You know, I always talk about this through the prism of a seven-game series,

and you sit there and you go, all right, if you get this one tonight in your Philly, can we beat this Knicks team three out of the next four times, three out of the next five times? The answer to that is yes. You've got to go three and two the rest of the way. Now they put in their selves in a position where they got to win four or five. Can they beat that team four out of five games? That seems severely. That's a big, big ask.

That's a big ask. And look, they've gotten, I think, you know, for at least the next two games, you just want to try to even that thing up. and you want to get those others, whether it's Tobias Harris, whether it's Kelly Ubre, whether it's Buddy Healed, whoever it may be, you want them to perform at home like role players can perform or typically do at home. Because you just saw it from the Knicks. Josh Hart just went 22 points, 21 points, 15 rebounds, 13 rebounds, back to back.

They just played two home games and Josh Hart had 43 points and 28 rebounds. Now, I'm not saying that Josh Hart can't travel and do that, but you saw Hart, you saw McBride, you saw Hartenstein, like, that kind of stuff happens regularly when you're playing in front of home, raucous crowds. Chris, how about game one, Mitchell Robinson, a 40% free throw shooter hitting both shots in the final minutes of the game? Even little things like that all add up. But will that help you at home that you might not get on the road. But I think it can travel for the Knicks because these guys are such dogs through and through, especially your guy, Josh Hart. Dude, amazing two games for him with the Knicks, especially that game one with those clutch shots at the end.

I was screaming. I was howling at home. He's a real foxhole guy. Yeah, he is. Like, you want Josh Hart. Like, Josh Hart is going to play like it's his last game on Earth every time when it comes to these big moments. The Sixers are selling out on Brunson. That's one of the reasons why they struggle.

They get two guys looking at him at all times. And Hart's getting these open shots and he's drilling him. But the thing is, even when Hart isn't being left open, he had the transition three where he dribbled up the ball himself and he took the three. It doesn't matter if you're leaving him open or not. He still seems to be hitting shots in this series. The Sixers, Nick Nurse, may have to readjust that strategy.

Well, and then you've got those other guys like we were mentioned. Like, you know, Deuce McBride, he comes off the bench. He rips a ball away from Max. He completely puts it in. And he gets to and one. And they're like, those are kind of things. I mean, the crowd, it's just pandemonium there. Yeah.

Right? Like, you rip a ball away from somebody at Philly. Everybody's booing your ass, right? It's just not the same energy. And so I'm not going to consider Philly completely dead, but they will regret not winning that one forever. I mean, that's brutal. That you can't lose up five with 47 seconds left without getting a shot off.

Like two straight possessions where you get. gave up one and then, and what a role, by the way, king of the shooter's role for Brunson. That was crazy. And so he gets the shooters role, but then that whole melee and the steel and not, and then again, you could have secured the offensive rebound off of the first DeVincenzo

miss, just hustle to the core. And so congrats to the Knicks. They have certainly put the 76ers in a precarious situation where they now would have to win four out of the next five games in order to move on to the next round and the Knicks are in pole position. Great game, great game to say the least.

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Bonus issued as non-adrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandul.com. As far as the other game that was played tonight, the Cavaliers went up to Zip on the Magic by virtue of their 96 to 86 to 86, win over the magic. 86 is black. I mean,

this has been a rough go for the magic in these first two games when in the first game they put up 83 and then you make your adjustments, you would suppose, and you come back and score three more points than you did the first time.

I mean, next time you might get to 90. Who knows? We'll see. This is the one is not hard to analyze. Magic don't have anybody that could shoot the ball. No. Nine of 35 in game one from three, 25.7%. Eight of 37 in game two, 21.6%.

They're leaving Isaac open. He goes one for seven. They're leaving Franz Wagner open, Fultz open, all these non-shooters on the magic because there's really no shooters to worry about. Gary Harris, that's pretty much it. You know, Wagner goes two for four tonight, but he's, you know, like we talked about last week, he has not been playing well, not shooting the ball well at all in months.

So I think for the magic, it's pretty clear what's going on here and what needs to change this offseason to maximize Paulo Bencaro and Franz Wagner moving forward. But Cleveland, more than anything else, though, Chris, where I missed with them was Donovan Mitchell. He looks more like the Donovan Mitchell we've come to expect after he had really, you know, a pretty long stretch. about a month or so where he just was not looking good after returning from injury. And then his last two games of the season, he looked good. And now he's looked great through two playoff games. How about that first quarter?

Oh, my God. When he took off with two legs and then spiked that thing straight to the ground like a dunk contest dunk. I was like, uh, I guess his knee's okay. And you know, we forget he is one of the great playoff performers. He really is. He's one, he's near the tops in terms of playoff points per game over the course of his career. He is a dog, man. He came out looking for blood.

Right away, he had the pole three, his first shot that he made, and then he had the hard drive and transition. He's like screaming and crowds going wild. Yeah, Mitchell was unbelievable in both these games. And I think for Orlando, I picked him to win the series. That was a poor choice. I think the Cavs are going to win this pretty handily with the way in which, they've come out with his game plan and the way in which Mitchell is playing. He's been outstanding.

And I'll also give some credit to my old buddy, J.B. Bickerstaff, because, you know, they, it does not, their best players do not fit the best. And staggering them, getting them on the court at different times and trying to figure that out. And it's the same thing when we get to the Pelicans later that Willie Green is dealing with, right? And it's like massaging these lineups to try to make sure because it's not the most ideal to have Garland and Mitchell and Allen and Mobley out there at the same time. Right. Like, and we saw through a, when they were at their best, they had some guys out and they had a bunch of roll guys out there. Now, he only went eight deep in this particular game in game two.

But, I mean, you saw it in game one where you saw like Garland getting to cook and have the ball in his hands a lot. while down to have been Mitchell's over there on the sideline. And you see Alan getting to play sometimes where he's not in there with mobile. Now this one, it's not as big a deal that they've got the multiple bigs because that's all Orlando has. They just got a freaking 15 bigs, it feels like. And none of them can shoot. And so nobody cares if you're going to do anything outside, we could just build a wall and you're not going to get your points in the paint.

And I'm going to give another little bit of credit in these first two games. to Jared Allen. Jared Allen had 20 freaking rebounds tonight. And this is a guy that got pummeled last year by the Knicks and then had to come out and say like, you know, this was a learning experience, right? Like, I mean, the guy got abused last year. And doesn't it feel like he's doing to the magic

what the Knicks did to him? Exactly, right? And you got to give him credit, right? You guys bounced back and it's not just like, he was not going to let it be like, oh, Jared Allen, you know, lame playoff performer. I said 38 rebounds. And 38 rebounds against that team is a real, real number.

Because all they got is a bunch of giants on that team. But man, they are depressing in the sense that just, you know, if you game playing out against them and you've got big guys and you could stop them from getting to the rim and you could stop them from making their, making hay on, two-pointers, then you're seeing they're just letting these guys shoot. And the magic are either, like, are they ever going to make some? Maybe when they get home, they'll be able to knock some down that they were not able.

But that's like, it's pretty gross to have 83 and 86 points in the first two games. These have both been rock fights. The only good part of the game for the magic is the fact that, you know, Suggs walks off with what looks like a major injury. And then after the game... He didn't even walk off. He got carried off. Yeah, he got carried off.

But like then after the game, he says himself that he expects to be playing in game three. They need him desperately. Dude, no kidding. And they need him to be good. Yes. You know? Because he's a guy who can get hot as a shooter. He can have good shooting stretches.

It's also just that energy. It's that energy that he brings. It's creating the chaos. It's getting some turnovers. And when they're throwing guards at you that they have, you need sucks out there. Oh, for sure. Garland and Mitchell, that back court, you need, you need Suggs. And, I mean, he shot nearly 40% from three this year. Like, you need as many shooters as you possibly can. Fultz just doesn't offer that. Anthony Black doesn't offer that as a rookie. There's no other guard.

I mean, Cole Anthony is not as good of a shooter as Jalen Suggs for that matter either. So you need it from Suggs, considering the fact he also brings it for you on defense. Yeah, and unfortunately, he goes out in the game. And then it's a lot of, Apollo, a lot of France. I mean, they got 12 turnovers between the two of them. Yeah. They're young.

They're taking their, look, I always talk about it. You got to get your scars. Yeah. Right? They're getting their ass. They're getting their ass beat so far. You know what I mean?

They're getting some, they're getting some scars against Cleveland. And honestly, I kind of feel like some of the guys have really held up. And it's just, it's a, it's a roster issue. It's a roster issue that any team worth their salt was going to be able to

expose. Truly. That at a game in, game out basis, it's not going to, it's going to be okay to deal with. But when you are

attention to detail and you are just planning to play one opponent, boy, you can expose everything. And the magic not being able to shoot has been exposed pretty badly. All right,

let's get to all these other series. Let's go to the ones that are going to be tipping off today. Well, most people are going to listen to this podcast on Tuesday. So these are the games that are going to be going on on Tuesday. Suns Wolves.

So in game one, the wolves beat them 120 to 95. Just the statement of all statements. The Suns failed to score 100 points five times all season long. And they matched their second lowest scoring output of the year in game one. against Minnesota. There was a seven-minute stretch to close the third quarter without a field goal for the Sons. Meanwhile, on the other side, Anthony Edwards is going absolutely ballistic, and he had 18 points by himself in the third quarter of that game. But the second half just went all wrong for the Sons after he got to about midway through that third quarter, ended up with nine turnovers and

seven assists as a team and only scored 44 points in the in the second half uh booker brutal five for 16 has 18 points but seven of those were in the fourth after the game was literally over so he had one of his worst games in recent memory yeah so he was in nothing and i we we talk about this a lot like the suns throughout the regular season were a shining example of how you could really put that Minnesota defense on skates and make them uncomfortable because the sons had scored more points per 100 possessions than any other team against Minnesota. And none of that showed up in game one. You had mentioned, does Chris Finch have something up his sleeve?

They looked bigger. They looked stronger. They looked more physical. and not only were they not able to play the Biggs of Minnesota off the court, the Biggs of Minnesota destroyed them, destroyed them. Like, what was it, 50-something rebounds to 20-something rebounds? It's crazy. In every single way, too.

You know, like Rudy Gobert defending high and picking roles against Evan Booker. He was pivotal in there in containment of Booker, obviously on ball as well. you have McDaniels playing his ass off against Booker, but Gobert is well on those pick and roll situations. Carl Towns, I felt like played a really strong game. I know Katie went off, but I think that's part of the formula there with the decision that they decided to make.

Kat, I felt like offensively, he didn't have the biggest game by any means. I mean, you look at the box score from Minnesota, and it's not like they had to play through Kat, and yet I kind of, coming away from watching game one, I feel like that maybe Carl Anthony Towns is due for a potential big game in the series because he had nine shots.

But every time he got fed the ball on the post, they sent two to him. The first play, he touched it on the post, he found Gober off a cut. Every time he found an open guy. And the one time they didn't send two, he just completely plowed through Kevin Durant backing him down. And that was one of the instances that the Sons went small with Katie at the five, which was not effective for Phoenix in game one, in part because of Gobert, because of Cat. And I just wonder if at some point where you have Phoenix sending to it Cat on the post,

sending two at Edwards on his drives to the basket, spraying out and getting these open shots, at one point does Carl Anthony Town start getting single coverage when he's defended by Kevin Durant or defended by sometimes Bradley Beale or Royce O'Neill, where Cat ends up becoming the guy who has a monster performance for Minnesota. That's one of the things that was on my mind because 14 points on nine shots, it's a really good game. But I think the game one take away for me is Kat at some point is going to have a 30 plus point banger in this series once Phoenix makes some adjustments.

Yeah, and it's going to be interesting to see the adjustments that Phoenix makes because it has been my experience over the years. I, you know, in many cases, when you lose game one, I almost preferred getting run out in game one. That it be some kind of a bloodbath, right? Like then this game turned into a bloodbath, right? Like you end up losing the game by 25 points, right?

Which is extreme. Because what I think happened, and I think, you know, I don't have the numbers on this, but it's just been over the years of watching this take place, The adjustments then become so much more extreme for a game two, that if you get your ass kicked in game one, both teams, you've got to think about it through the prison.

They're both going back and they're both going to watch tape. Well, the team that did the ass kicking is going, all right, guys, loved what you did here, loved what you did here. There ain't much to fix, right? Whereas the team that got their ass kicked, it's like, okay, all these things that went wrong for us in game one, here's how we fixed them for game two. and you've got that game tape,

and then you'll find out if they're worth their salt and how competitive they can make a game too. But here's what I know, no matter what adjustments they make, they've got to get Booker going. Like, it can't be, like, the success of their, their success that they had had against a wolves this year was in large part due to how great their offense was

against that wolf's defense, okay? But also, they did an unbelievable job against Edwards in those games. Edwards cannot be the best player. He can't. If the sons are going to have a chance, that's got to be Durant. Booker and Durant probably need to be the two best players in the game.

And if not one of them, there's got to be Beal. But they can't have Anthony Edwards being the best player on the court. And Anthony Edwards absolutely lit their ass on fire in game one. And so I bet you're going to see some pretty serious adjustments to how they're going to try to deal with Ant in that second game. Because I think that, you know, you say that it could be set up for a Big Towns game. I'd much rather to live, if I die by Carl Anthony Towns, then so be it. But what I can't do is die by this guy. Because if he's going off, then everybody else is just going to be playing off of him.

And we can't stop him. And so they got to make some key adjustments to how they're going to deal with Edwards to try to make life difficult on him and not let him get going in the manner that he did. Well, in that case, on that note, you know, what is it that you do? Because in the game, for the most part, it was not Kevin Durant defending him until kind of a third quarter. Is the answer putting KD on Edwards more often when you had Beal for the most part of the game? game, a little bit of Royce O'Neill. Durant defended him part of that explosion by Edwards in the third quarter, but are you putting Durant more on Edwards rather than Carl Anthony Towns?

Is that what you're choosing to do? This is where it really hurts not having Biggs because they couldn't even play Eubanks. He was terrible in the game. And NERC is like, NERC's a 26-minute player. It's what he is. Okay. So you got to figure out the other 20-20. two minutes and without getting pummeled by big.

But typically what you'd want to do, I would say is do you make him C2 every time? Like he gets that treatment. After he does that, you make him C2. And if he's going to, if he's going to hit step back jumpers on me, then he's going to hit step back jump on me. But he did, like, later in the game in the fourth, they did start shading two against him more often. And he was just picking apart the defense as a playmaker.

So I think with hands, like what we're seeing for him. others though make him make him do that totally understand totally understand but what we're seeing with aunt i think throughout this entire season and now we're seeing it in the playoffs as well is this is a guy who through his first you know two postseason experiences was awesome he was great his first two times in the postseason but now he's a more advanced playmaker that being able to handle those advanced defenses and handling pressures and traps and doubles and different coverages and I think for Minnesota, if this is the leap, if this is a sign of the ant you're going to get throughout this playoffs,

if they get through Phoenix and then they face Denver next round, and this is the ant you have, this is the player who gives you a chance to make a run all the way to the finals. The guy we saw in game one gives you belief in what you can become, the heights you can reach. Because I thought that the third quarter explosion was great, but the playmaking feel as well, the decision making is,

a higher level that he's starting to tap into that would really, really have me excited as a Wolf's fan. He is the best player on the floor in that game one. So now the game two becomes mega fascinating because Frank Vogel's not a dummy. You know, this guy's going to make adjustments and he's going to get his team to be more competitive in game two. Game two will be a much more competitive game. That's what I imagine.

If it's not, then that is curtains for the sons. And certainly, they need to get to. get more out of their reserves because they just got blasted by, you know, Alexander Walker and Nas Reid, you know, he just torched them. I mean, and the reserves of 41 to 18. You can't get blasted like that. And you do wonder, like, who to turn to because they don't have many options. And boy, oh, boy, if they can't get Grayson Allen back with the sprained ankle,

they don't have enough players. It's like, okay, here's Eric Gordon. And now who else? It gets bleak fast. It gets bleak fast. But I am super excited for that game, too. Pacers Bucks. That's also going to be going on tonight.

So game one, Damien Liller just put him out of their misery in the first half. And nothing else even really mattered. I mean, they led him to a 30-point lead late in the first half. He had 35 points in that first half. And the second half had zero, as we know. But, you know. Kind of weird, isn't it? Yeah.

But they win the game 109 to 94. And I had that stat last week about Indiana. They had 81 games. You remember me saying that? 81 games that they scored over 100 points. They're like the fourth team in NBA history to do that. So only one time they didn't score 100 this year. Then you get to game one of the playoffs.

playing against a Janus Les, Milwaukee Bucks team, and he put up 94. Your best player, well, I guess your best player was Siaka, but who we think is the best player on Indiana, the one that's probably going to make all NBA teams or at least be close to it is Halliburton. What the hell? I mean, how distant did it feel,

how distant a memory was me and you sitting at that in-season tournament watching this guy just roast the bucks, tapping his watch, you know, hally time, the whole thing. And it's like, that guy, it just feels so, like it's a different human than it was now. I know he came back and I know that we'll probably get the story after the year

that, you know, because of the 65 game thing and wanting to make all NBA, that he came back when he shouldn't have come back and he just never was himself again. He, like, literally has never been that guy. He's just a guy. Seven shots. Seven shots. Really? I know.

I know. I mean, crazy. I know they all say he's healthy and all that. I don't, I don't totally buy it at all. He just, he's been far more hesitant since as a shooter.

His three point percentage has fallen off a cliff ever since the injury. It just seems to me that something shifted with him after that injury. And like you said, I think we'll get the whole story after the season. And if it's not because of the injury, then that's an even bigger issue. Then it's, oh, the Lakers showed how to defend him and the league caught on. Yes, exactly. He's not the devastating performer that we thought it was.

Absolutely. But ultimately, for the buck side of that, taking that game won in a series in which Dame has not looked the same for a while now. He's been dealing with a lower body injury himself. It's not just that Yannis was out. it's that Dame has not been good for a long while. And then for him to come out and have that first half has to make you feel pretty good about your chances of getting through this series.

Maybe you get Janus back midway through. And then you feel like you're back on track with an opportunity to win a second round series against either the Knicks or the Sixers, more likely the Knicks right now, because I'll tell you what, Chris, it's not just the Dame game, 35 points. I was also highly impressed by Chris Middleton, 23 points on 14 shots. He's been very, very good for weeks now after having his minutes managed midway through the year, coming back from injury.

He's been very good for the Bucks. And he's been one of their most important clutch time players throughout all of their runs on the playoffs. Some of the series that they have lost in the past has been because he's been out. But when they've had him, they win the finals. they have a big series against Boston and now against the Pacers without Janus Middleton looks like he's more like himself and so that's critical for them

and you go up and down their roster I mean they got a million playoff games under their belt and that's what it looked like it looked like a team going to the playoffs not understanding you know the the level of intensity, physicality and everything else I mean they got grown men veterans

on that Bucks team with or without Janus that's what they have and they were they were there to answer the call. Pacers were abysmal, just abysmal. And who the F is Ben Shepard? Rick Carlisle? What are we doing? Nine minutes of Ben Shepard in the playoffs?

He's a rookie. He's a rookie. Dude, enough. Enough. Nine minutes too many, though. I know. I know. What are we doing?

out of Belmont, Ben Shepard. Might need to trim that rotation for sure. You think? But, yeah. But I mean, you're down by 30 in the first half. Of course. Yeah, get a little experience for those guys. But ultimately, if I'm a Bucks fan,

I'm feeling pretty good after game one, considering not just the performance of Dame, but also of Chris Middleton. To me, the Chris Middleton factor has gone underrated and overlooked here, considering all the attention on Dame in game one, and all the attention really on Dame the past month with his struggles, but Middleton has looked good, and he continues to. So for the Bucks, that, that is, that is huge.

I mean, we forget, I know it was years ago, and I know, I know they, like, they end up losing the series, but I just think about some of those games he had against Boston where he's just hitting clutch buckets down the stretch years ago, like 2018, 2019, whatever year it was, never mind what he did in the finals. Like, Chris Middleton is pivotal to the Buc's success. And I think for him, the 40 points in the finals against Phoenix, they've missed him in multiple post seasons. Having him is really the key because of his pick and roll playmaking ability, his creation

ability. He's not the defender he once was, but he's the key to all of this, in my opinion, even more so than some of these role players we talk about with them, like getting Jay Crowder back or like how do you, like playing rookies. Like, I'll remember me at the beginning of the year? play Andre Jackson and all that. It's really Chris Middleton getting back to becoming Chris Middleton with him and Janus together and now Dame is the third piece.

Those three together. That's why I picked them to win the finals. That's why I did, not win the finals, but make the final before the season. Was the assumption Chris Middleton would get back. And so we'll see if this continues. We'll see if Dame is more like first half dame or second half dame. That's also some of the considered two. Halliburton was full game Halliburton because that was abysmal.

Well, I mean, he's been at Halliburton since what, mid, mid late January? Not seven, seven shots, though. Come on. I know, I know, I know. I know. Speaking of being down 30 points in the first half, that was the fate of the Mavericks against the Clippers. This was the most shocking result of the weekend. This is shocking.

Shocking number one, because post-all-Star break in 24 games, James Harden, shot 38% from the field and 30% from 3. And was just lame for 24 games. And when I saw them earlier this season, you remember I came on the pod and I said, that is the best team I've seen in person. Like they were devastating. This is when they were on their run.

And to me, It was all about Hardin. When I saw them, it was like, Hardin was just like, he was just playmaking, setting up Zubots that are running this pick and roll. And then, you know, you've got Kauai on one side. You got George on the other side. And I was like, God, then they'd come off the bench and they'd have Terrence man and Russell Westbrook and Amir coffee.

And they're just flying around everywhere with energy. And I was like, good grief. This team is loaded. Norm Powell comes off and knocks down a couple threes. and they were when I saw them during their crazy run that they were on where they were like 30 and 10 or whatever. I saw them right in the middle of that. And I walked out of that arena and I'm like, boy, if somebody's going to beat Denver, it might be these guys because again, Kauai looked healthy and was amazing at that point as well. But so much of that was about Hardin and how good Hardin had been assimilating to that team.

And really how good he had made Zubat. I felt like he really had a connection with him. And I saw an amazing Zubat's game in person this year. And so then he comes out. Zubat's got 20 and 15 in this game. And Harten's got. Zubatz was amazing. They just fed him on the post early in the game.

He's just pounding Daniel Gafford. Pondishing him. Totally. Get off me. Completely overmatching him with his size and strength. On the year with Zubots, 95 post-ups. he scored 1.28 points per possession on those post-ups, one of the highest marks in the entire league.

Clearly, the Clippers knew that his size and strength advantage over Gafford and lively, who are very similar to his players, kind of leaner bigs, you know, they're not the biggest or the strongest. They knew Zubats was an advantage there for them. And so for the Clippers, credit to them going to that early, because very clearly that's what Ty Loo spotlighted as an early advantage in that game. Lively gets a complete pass as far as I'm concerned with the whole He's a rookie.

He's also going through the death of his mother recently. And it's just, it's all so much. Terrible. I can't imagine how he's even able to focus him and play this out. Gafford on the other hand, no excuse. And he even said after the game, you know, they were more physical. They were more intense. I mean, that was the crazy thing.

He was like, Dallas is not a bunch of young guys. And that was just lunch money stuff. Clippers just came out and just bullied them and looked like the more physical, intense, like they were the ones paying attention to detail. They were the ones that knew every possession matters. And that anemic scoring performance in the second quarter was just unbelievable. Eight points for the Mabs.

That's the least they've had in any quarter. And, you know, and the Clippers build that 26-point lead. The eight-point second quarter, Chris. That's unforgivable for the Dallas side of things. Like, that shouldn't happen no matter what the opponent is doing. But you got to give the credit to the Clippers as well, though, because I thought their defense throughout the entire game, it's going to be a riddle that the Mavericks are going to have to solve

because they're constantly switching the way they're playing. They're going with deep drops. They're hedging. They're trapping sometimes. They're even switching Zubots at times against Luca. it was a different defense all the time, and they were especially blitzing against Kyrie Irving with his pick and rolls.

And I just felt like Ty Lou, whether it was the Zubat's post-ups, or Terrence Mann on ball sticking against Luca or the switching of the pick-and-roll schemes, especially in that second quarter, that was what fueled it. Dallas should be better. They shouldn't just score eight when you have Luca and Kyrie

and all the talent on that team. But the Clippers' defensive game plan executed at such an elite level switching schemes, that is hard to do, constantly doing something different on defense. And I felt they nailed it. Terrence Mann deserves a heck of a lot of credit. Zubots does.

He defended at an all-world level in that game. And ultimately, this is now the fourth. He deserves. Because you know, much like the Rudy Gobert and Touncing, all that pressure, that's what they, in the series that we've seen before, it's just hunt zoo,

hunt zoo, hunt zoo, with Luca over and over and over. He held up. Not anymore. He held up. Not anymore. And this is true in multiple series. We saw Zubat surviving on defense in this game.

We saw Rudy Gobert on an island against Katie at times. He survived. All these guys who have been burned in the past on these switches on the perimeter did really well. And more than anything else. Brooke Lopez. Brooke Lopez, too. Brooke Lopez has gotten way better on defense. Granted, he's still kind of an interior guy.

that's it. But I think the number one thing on my mind, though, is just that coaching mismatch. You got Ty Lou against Jason Kidd who just lost his fourth straight game one.

What is Kidd going to do against Ty Loo? And I'm sure Ty Loo has more tricks up his sleeves, but the biggest mismatch might actually be between the coaches, Ty Loo and Jason Kidd. And Kidd has a lot of changes that he's going to have to make in the series. Well, and he keeps saying he's getting Kauai back.

He's been pretty forthright. He keeps saying he's getting it back. It might happen game two. Tuesday night. We'll see. Who knows? Look, if they get that, James Hardin, they're going to be just fine. By the way, on the Mavs side, what the heck happened to Maxie Kleba?

What the heck happened on Maxie Kleber? For two years, he was an almost. 40% guy from three. For two years, he shot 39% on four attempts per game. He was 87% of the free throw line. Since then, 33.6% from three, 71% from the line. And earlier today, I was rewatching some of his old shots from the years that he was a knockdown shooter on a high volume.

He had a kind of a leaner base. His base is very wide now when he shoots the ball. And it looks like his release is a little bit more clunky. than it once was. Like something changed for Maxie Kleba with his form as a shooter. It has just completely falling apart. He's clearly lost confidence. He's more reluctant to take open jumpers.

And so for the clippers, you are putting this pressure on Kyrie, get the ball out of his hands, on Luca, you're containing him and focusing multiple eyes and attention on him and saying, hey, PJ Washington, make us pay. Maxi Kleba, make us pay. All these other guys, you know, get. Gafford, Lively, do something out of the short roll. And none of them are doing it right now. Washington was the only one with double digits.

The only one. And I can't help but wonder if maybe they need to use more PJ Washington and ball screens. We've seen PJ Washington have huge scoring performances. Granted it was for the Hornets, some crappy teams. But I wonder if maybe you're going to use PJ Washington as an all-ball screener, have him slip out of some of those inevitable switches that you'll see the clippers do and get him in the short role with a man advantage because they didn't do that in game one.

They used PJ Washington and some double high screens, but not as like a lone screener and a high ball screen for Kyrie or Luca. Maybe that's something they need to go to, even though you know the switch is probably going to come, because you know he can get you buckets. It certainly looked like they needed to make some serious adjustments after getting pummeled the way they did in game one.

Crazy. Regarding the games that are going to be going on on Wednesday, I don't have anything to say about the heat and the Celtics, do you? I mean, the series is all over. It's a bummer that Jimmy Butler's not playing. Once Jimmy went out,

it's like, what is there to analyze? Seriously, this is going to be a mercy killing. You don't want to talk about Peyton Pritchard or? I mean, you can you talk about Pritchard and Houser if you want to, but I just,

I mean, It's like pick up basketball. I mean, like, you know, you got Porzingis just taking step back threes and whatever. I mean, you're never, you're getting mangled if you're going to let them make 22 threes or whatever. It's probably going to be a sweep. I mean, I think it would be super impressive for the heat to win a game against some team. It'd be quite an achievement. It would be an achievement.

Without Jimmy Butler? To get a gentleman sweep out of that would be an achievement. When you got Hawkes and Yovic and your starting lineup, two really young players, that'd be a pretty big win. No Jimmy Butler just ruined that series from being, you know, something fun.

It's a major bummer. It is a bummer, honestly. It is. Okay, let's get to the other one then. Pelicans Thunder. Now, this is the best game one that we had in terms of competition. So much like I told you,

when we were talking about some of the other teams that got drilled in game one, I kind of prefer if I'm rooting for a team to get drilled in game one, if I'm going to lose game one, rather than have a heartbreaker that I should have felt like I had. Because I feel like then if you play like a game like this, a 94-92, both of them are going to go. And like Oklahoma City got the best of both worlds. They got the win and they get to go and see.

all the stuff that they screwed up in game number one because they did not play great, but they got away with an ugly win. And that is going to be like the pelicans are going to super regret. You know, and it comes down to a shot. I mean, McCallum got a shot off at the buzzer and it's like that ball goes in. Everything is viewed radically differently in the series. But, you know, I don't know how strong the adjustments are going to be. be for a game two given the way you played.

I think if you're the Pelicans, you're sitting there and you're going, well, we can't have Brandon Ingram, we go five for 17. Oh, well, Lou Doherd's going to do everything he can to make that happen every game in the series. But I mean, I thought, I thought that like all the like hustle stuff, all the like, all the things that I thought the Pelicans could, you know, cause problems for. the Thunder doing, I felt like they did. They stopped them from scoring.

They made Shea's life hard. They just ripped the ball away from the Pelicans or from the Thunder, like several times. The Thunder were like uncharacteristically, just throwing the ball out of bounds and stuff. And I felt like, okay, this is where the youth kind of shows up. Some of the stuff that, you know, this is not a regular season game anymore. and I loved the Pelicans defense. I mean, you give up 94, you have to win that game. If you give up 94 to that Oklahoma City team, you have to win that game.

It's just the offense for the Pelicans was so brutal. And to my point about the, I like so much that they did, no better example. It's 90 to 90, right? It's a minute 22 left. They come down, miss a shot, rebound, miss a shot, rebound. They got three consecutive offensive. rebounds and took a crappy shot off of all of them. All of them.

I'm like, what is this? Like, what are you doing if you're the Pelicans? You're getting, and so it's like the hustle plays were there over and over. The length of Murphy and, and, and, uh, Herb Jones. Herb, yeah, just flying around in these passing lanes. Sometimes just ripping the ball away from people. Nance flying around You know

Gets a rebound Throws it out of bounds To Trey Murphy Just like weird It's like They made all these It's like it was like The anti-Nicks

They made all the hustle plays But then didn't do anything Off of them And I think that's actually Going to be a longer series Than I think most people anticipated.

What about you? I don't think so I think New Orleans had to have that game And it'll still get wrapped up Pretty early I think I mean I'm higher

an okayc than you. I mean, I have been for quite a while now when it comes to projecting their playoff hopes, and I still am now. I think you saw it in game one, Dort, his man-to-man defense against Ingram throughout the game. He was absolutely outstanding, fighting over screens. He had a possession early in the fourth quarter sticking to him like Lou making Ingram's life hell. We saw Kasson Wallace, the final possession of the game against C.J. McCollum, defending him man-to-man, poking the ball away, forcing him into kind of an awkward. leaning jumper at the buzzer. This OKC team,

a chat with the block, they got dogs. Hold on. I didn't see it the other way around. What game did you watch? There was like five minutes. Five minutes, Oklahoma City, like in crunch time,

five minutes straight, they could not score. I know, because New Orleans also has dogs. New Orleans also has dogs. They do. New Orleans also does with Herb Jones. And Trey Murphy, they both do.

Both of these teams do. I'm with you. But I just think without Zion. Pelkin just can't score. I can't score. Exactly. Without Zion, the sheer talent level that Oklahoma City has will win out. Shea in that game, 11 for 24 in the game, primarily defended throughout by Herb Jones,

who is an outstanding defender. He better be a first team all defender. The guy is amazing. He made Shea's life really difficult. I just think OKC has far more cards to play. You talk about adjustments, what a coach is going to do. I think Dagnal just has so many more cards at play that he can pull out for this OKC team that Willie Green does. And credit to him, it's a really good game plan.

They did great. They executed it at a high level. They kept themselves in a game that a lot of people thought they might get blown out on the road with this crazy OKC crowd. And they kept it close and they fought. and those guys executed at a high level. But I just think, OK, C has so many more different cards that they can play than New Orleans does. And I just ultimately don't love the Pelican chances in this series without the talent level of Zion. And because, like you said, I know, OK, C had that scoring drought in the fourth quarter.

But we also saw with New Orleans at times, like, CJ, can you rely in him to create an efficient shot? Brennan Ingram against Lou Dort, five of 17 in the game. it's tough for them to find answers on their end as well. Yeah, but the thing was, at least when they miss, they get the ball back. Valenciennes had more offensive rebounds than the whole Thunder team. Yep, a lot of second chances. And that could be a sign of why eventually OKC does lose in the playoffs. The 27th in rebounding showed up.

You know what I mean? Yep. They're 27th throughout the year, and it's, you know, obviously your weaknesses are going to get exposed. but I think this series is going to be longer than you do. I do not. I did not walk away from that game. Think of the Pelicans. I thought they should have won that game.

I thought they should have won the game. And I thought that they will regret it. And I thought that, you know, I mean, they were McCollum three away. He's still got a pretty good, clean look at it. But Gildes-Alexander, though he did not have his most spectacular game, made the two biggest shots of the game.

and you've always been a guy that loves Ingram. What the hell? What's wrong with him, man? It's falling off a lot. What's wrong with him? The guy's a bucket who has turned into a non-bucket. The 27-7 and 7 series he had many ages ago against the sons in the first round for the pelicans. Feels like a different player than the guy right now.

I mean, I know he's only been back for a couple of games, but still, geez, five for 17. That's the other thing. I sit there and I go, man, Ingram's 5 for 17 with 12 points and they're still in a bucket game. I don't know. I think I came away. I think oddly, I came away more positive about the Pelicans than you. Your Thunder love is real, real. Real is the street.

All right. Pelicans are missing their best player, man. Simple as that. They're missing Zion. No, they are. They are. They still got a lot of good players, though. They do.

Trey Murphy's great. Herb Jones is great. I love those guys. The Jonas Valentudas, underrated player, they got a lot of good players. And you know my love for Larry Nance? I've loved Nance for a long time. He was flying around everywhere. Oh, my God.

I loved Larry Nance. I've loved him for many years since he was with the Lakers. I love Larry Nance. The guy he was in Cleveland and Portland. I've loved Larry Nance for a long time, but they don't have Zion. And they needed Zion. And that's where it's like such. a bummer with so many of these

series right now. Oklahoma City would have been in a world of crap if they had Zion. We might be talking about an 8-1 upset if the Pelicans had Zion. How would they get the ball? How would they get the ball? Seriously. It's just, they're having a hard time getting the ball with just Valentinus down there.

I mean, it really does suck, though. Like, no Zion for the Pelicans. And the game one, no Kauai. You got in the east, no Jimmy Butler. No Janus. No Janus. Even for the Knicks, like no Randall, even a guy at that level, not at the same caliber player of others, but there's just a lot of guys out.

But hopefully the week of games is as competitive as that O'KC, New Orleans game, because that game was just straight up awesome to watch. It was such a fun game. That's why I can't wait for more games like that. It felt like a game one playoff game. It's just a mess. It was a mess. Teams were having hard time scoring.

They're doing uncharacteristically weird things. The intensity's been all ramped up. I'll tell you this, though, that Oklahoma City crowd never disappoints. Oh, my God. One of the best. I can't wait to go to a game there. People were tweeting me during the game saying that were at that game. Because I put out, I said, nobody gets T-shirt participation like Oklahoma City.

Because I've been there for playoff games. There was a bunch of Grisley series back in the day when they had West. Brooke and Durant. And they put on those t-shirts, boy, they put those things on, all of them, everybody puts them on. And you know what they say?

They, this is how they do it. It's bully tactics. Did you know this? This is what people were tweeting me. They put your ass up on the jumbo trine if you're not wearing it. And then like they boo you.

It's like you get bullied into putting on the t-shirt. I love it. It's so authentically like small market. You can never. never get any can you imagine the lakers trying to get everybody to put on a t-shirt a jack diggelson kim carnashian there on the front row right no chance no chance

it's kind of a fun bit though Denzel Washington sitting courtside to get him to put on a t-shirt or like Ben Stiller and chris rock who are sitting next to each other tonight yep uh playoffs been good so far obviously we're going to have games going on every single night and we will reconvene on Thursday. Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez, as always. And Kevin, I'll talk to you Thursday night. Have a good week.

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