The Mismatch - T’Wolves Steal Game, The Knicks Blowout Tour Continues, and Can The Lakers Make Another Push?

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

Verno and Jacoby return to react to Monday’s playoff matchups. Minnesota takes the first game in San Antonio, and the Knicks continue to click on all cylinders. Then they preview the Lakers-Thunder and Cavs-Pistons series. Welcome to The Mismatch! (0:23) Wolves-Spurs: Wolves Steal game 1, Champagnie misses last-second shot (1:37) Timberwolves with early series road victory 104-102 (3:42) Randle Double-Double: 21 pts, 10 Reb, Clutch buckets in the 4th (11:06) Anthony Edwards Return: 18pts (8/13 FG) 4th Quarter Heroics (13:57) Wemby 12-Block Night: Playoff Record not enough in defeat (20:47) Wolves Shut Down Spurs Stars: Contain Wemby in Game 1 (23:43) 76ers-Knicks: New York takes game 1 with a 137-98 victory (26:03) Brunson Dominates: 35pts, 27 in first half (27:06) Knicks put on Clinic: 63% Fg, 51% from the Arch (30:13) Knicks Capitalize on Sixers' 19 turnovers (32:59) Sixers Stars Flat Effort: Maxey 13pts, George 17pts (33:48) Cavs-Pistons: JB Bickerstaff Revenge Series (43:42) Jaylen Brown Meltdown on Twitch (48:03) Embiid Struggles: 14pts on 3 for 11 Shooting (54:29) Lakers-OKC: Thunder outscored LA by 117pts in regular season sweep (1:03:23) 2019 Draft Loyalty Leave us a message on our Mismatch Voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producers: Stefan Anderson and Jeff Shearin Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by L'Oreal Group. Beauty is a powerful force that moves us. That's why L'Oreal Group has built a business that is inclusive at its heart with 100% of its brands, championing diversity. With 25,000 professional opportunities for people under 30 worldwide and 54% of leading positions held by women, diversity is a strength that helps L'Oreal Group create the best beauty products for all people. Visit L'Oreal.com to learn more.

I'm Chris Farnan. And joining me, he does every week from the wringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacobi. So, Bruno, you've got a spiral notebook front

where you take your handwritten notes. And I was just curious, like, what is at the top after what we just witnessed? Like, what is like the A1 note on the spiral notebook? It says,

Champani, 38% for the year, 62% from three in the first round. That was the first, that was the top note, if you want to know because Julie ship had a wide open three to win the game. This episode of The Mismatch is presented to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows Winter is the MVP in making a mess.

You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping, then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy. about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear, as the mud you're inevitably going to step in this summer, you don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. So visit weathertech.com today.

Well, and I was just going to check. I was like, man, this guy has shot the cover off the ball this year and certainly did in that first round. And, you know, I many times I will bring up that years ago I read this article and Jeff Van Gundy was quoted in Sports Illustrated. He said, you can have the perfect play. You can either draw up the perfect player or the perfect play plays out. Guys got a wide open three to win the game, balls in the air, good coach, bad coach, good coach, bad coach, good coach, bad coach.

And I always think about it in those moments. And so I don't want to overreact too much to the spurs losing this game one, because that was literally the ball is in the air and we are about to make grand decisions upon what we saw based upon whether that shot drops in or not. But one thing we know for certain, which is not a grand decision,

is that was an amazing playoff basketball game. What a game. Oh, it's so good. They had the Fiesta colors out. It's late. So the game literally just ended. So, excuse me if I don't have all the information. I think they had a time out and decided not to call it, correct?

They did. They played it out. Listen, I mean, if it goes in, great coach, Mrs. Bad coach. But I was pretty surprised they did not call a time. Well, I mean, do you get, again, it's seven seconds left. No, balls in the air. Was it a good decision or not?

If he makes it, it was a good, it was a good look. It was a good look. It was a great look from a guy. a guy that literally shot 62% from three and made all kinds of winning plays down the stretch of that game. His offensive rebounds, which Aunt actually used his postgame walkoff to criticize himself for giving up those offensive rebounds to Champany down the stretch. But just a couple big plays down the stretch got them right back into it. This was a heavyweight fight. I mean, they're, they're evenly matched and, you know, I mean.

No, I'm going to have to interrupt here. I'm going to have to interrupt here. My biggest takeaway is Julius Randall, like Julius Randall. Like, they didn't even use Gobert against Wembe. I mean, like, the majority of the fourth quarter, Randall, the counting stats are not going to be great. I mean, I can look at them right here. What is he eight for 20 from the field, two for six from three? But the physicality.

He, he. he made Wembenyama look human and you know we've seen it before this isn't new put someone shorter, stronger on Wembenyama, get under him, get into him and Randall did

such a great job on that end but then on the other end their best offense that Timberworld had was give it to Randall, let him work. Well, and he is an ox. How many of the castle

fouls were just trying to tussle with him for position. And Randall, like it just seemed like Randall, he was a problem on the offensive end. And as you mentioned, on the defensive end as well. And you had to know that was going to be what the Timberwolves are trying to do, right? They're trying to put a body on this guy all the time. I thought it would be Gobert, didn't you? Yeah, but here's the problem. your offense is in such a pickle in that fourth quarter if you've got Rudy out there because

Rudy, he's not going to go out to the three point line ever. Even if Rudy sets that screen, they're going to fight over that screen. They're just going to decide. But you got to get that guy away from the paint some way somehow. And they put Wembe on Terrence Shannon. And you have to respect Terrence Shannon a little bit, you know, like, you thought this. leave him in the corner. It looked like this guy.

It looked like he was going to have 25 blocks in this game. Wemby? Oh, yeah. We have eight in the first half? It was crazy. It was crazy. He was swatting everything. Like help side stuff.

And so it's like, dude, just get him as far away from the basket. You can. If you can get by with Reed and Randall, we're going to do that as long as we could. And that's why, you know, and the other thing is you don't want, you even saw it down the stretch. You don't want Gobert getting fouled. He can't catch. And then if he does catch, you know, you foul him immediately. I thought it was actually smart, like at the very end,

they ended up, Randall took like one bad one. Which one? Tomal Crawford even said, Tomol Crawford even said, I wonder if they're just going to foul go bear here. I wonder if they're just going to file it. But it was under two minutes.

You can't just file under two minutes. I wonder if they're just going to try to foul the guy, you know. But he has to catch it. I mean, it's under two minutes. Right, right, right, right. I thought Crawford was good throughout the game. I was fascinated with, I was fascinated with the way this thing played out because, as I said, we look at things so much differently, depending on whether that shot goes down or not.

I mean, that is, that is, you took the heavyweight punch, got off the mat, and still were able to win that game. Instead, you know what this is. They're still in the mat. No. You know what this is. this is a scar. Oh.

This is a scar. Oh. This is a scar? That's a scar? That's a playoff scar right there. Wait, hold on a second. Yeah. Hold on. Losing a game one at home.

I can't do the 4K chess right now. Yeah. So does the scar make it more likely for them to win the series or less likely? I can't tell. I can't. More likely. I don't think. Because they have the scars now.

No, no. It just felt like, look, there was a, there were segments of that game that felt like, here's men with experience in the playoffs versus young guys that are going through this for the first time. And so it, because there were moments where it felt like, oh, my God, look at what Dylan Harper's doing. This is unbelievable, right? When you're young and you're doing it for the first time, it's like all surprising. And it's all praiseworthy. And then as you get older, then you have the expectation.

And like, the expectation is, you know, we talked about this last week. with a lot of these guys that we, because they get paid so early, they're in this, like, there's in this trajectory where they might just be like 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, right? But most guys over the course of NBA history aren't ready to win until they're 26, 27, 28, and they're in their upper 20s, right? Even the greatest players of all time, that's typically when they win for the first time. But we ask guys to carry the load in playoffs at earlier ages

because we have already vaulted them up to top five, top 10 rankings, whatever. I mean, Wempey tonight, he didn't get to double digits until the very end of the game. Oh, offensively, he was not affected. The dunk, I think he got him into double digits, right? I think so. He ended up with 11 points. Yeah. So it was the dunk that got him to, they got to, they got to,

him to double digits. Otherwise, I mean, this is a single digit game. Castle fouls out of the game, right? Like, and, and it's the difference between Castle fouling out and McDaniels playing basically the last six minutes of that game with five fouls because he picked that one up and he's able to play it out. Now, I just think there's something. Well, he lets some people score a couple times. There is. He knew what he was doing. He was like, go ahead, score. Right. But then. But then. And you don't have Castle. Can't do it.

And, am I wrong? Didn't Castle foul out a couple times in the previous series, too? Yeah. You also don't have Castle to guard Randall down the stretch. Because he's fouled out of the gang. You know, and I do that. Kind of don't have a person for Randall. No.

I mean, they tried, the castle was, I mean, Castle is such a dog. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. I mean, he gives it. He gives it everything he got. But like I said, Randall's an ox. I mean, he is so strong. And you see the way, and Castle was just,

picking up fouls trying to, trying to jockey for position. Like some of those weren't even, again, if you went back and looked at his six fouls. If you do go back and look at those files, he regrets about three of them. Yes. And I don't think they got a good whistle. I thought the Timberwolves got the better whistle tonight. I did. Jaylen Brown stop.

Chailing Brown stop. No, no. Twitch. You're going on Twitch now? No, they did get it. I'm just, I am objectively watching the game. I have no rooting interest in this. Yeah, me neither.

I'm watching the game. I thought it was a fantastic viewing experience. It was. I loved it. Outstanding. And with the T-shirts and the crowd and the whole thing and Jamal Crawford's great, I had a great time watching this game. I'm fired up right now.

It would not shock you at all if we get seven and we're playing a game at San Antonio. Like that's that, this series needs to be unbelievable. Because the other one in the Western Conference, which we'll get to later, the expectation is not that that is going to be a fun watch. I did not expect this to be a fun watch either. Oh, really? We didn't even know that. We didn't know that Anthony Edwards was playing until like eight hours ago.

Yeah, but that team, I mean, I assumed Edwards was out until like the end of May. I, look, I thought, I thought Minnesota was going to be a bitch to play regardless, simply because of what we saw them pull off against Denver. That was so impressive. And they have been so impressive. And they obviously, like,

they got a group of fighters and they play with a lot of heart and they got some they got grown ass men on that team and you're playing against guys that are in their first second and third years in the NBA it's a big ass and and by the way Anthony Edwards is what I mean I know Bill is the percentage guy but I mean what are we putting him at 60 I don't know percent of Anthony Edwards I mean he looks better than I expected him to He looked better than I expected him to. Remember game? One of the last series, he didn't look that good.

You look pretty good. There were moments, but he does not have that burst that, like, takes Anthony Edwards to a different level. No, no, no, no. And that explosion. And I do think that he's probably, and you see him kind of limping around out there. But, hey, hey, but big credit to him for showing up.

It's, I mean, Big Hart. I mean, that was shocking to everybody. He's going to play a game one. Like they were talking like he wasn't going to be like hopefully. Wasn't the whole story? It was like hopefully he'll be available by the time they get to Minnesota for game three. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Game three in Minnesota.

And he's been out for nine days and he showed up. And they still didn't have Dissoumoo either. So they're in the driver's seat right now. Like they did what they came to do in San Antonio. And they stole home court advantage. and you've got to imagine Anthony Edwards is going to get healthier as this goes on. Hopefully they could get Dissue move back. Obviously, the Devin Chenzo thing sucks.

But, but Terrence Shannon has been, I mean, that one transition. Oh, my God. When he was on transition, he just went past everybody and scored. You want to talk about it. What is this? No, it looks like Westbrook. That's a mega athlete. A mega athlete.

And it's not like he was playing, he was not playing 30 minutes a game during the regular season either. No. And they and like he gets you 16 tonight. He gets you 16 and he plays 34 minutes for you. Mike Connolly turned back the clock, gave you minutes and knocked out a corner three. Huge corner three. I know you love Mike Connolly. That was huge. I love him. Huge. Huge. enormous. He was an assistant coach for part of the season this year. I know 38 years old. Yeah. And man, I'll tell you something. So if we're looking forward to game two, I think that Menyama's going to have a huge game too. Like, he just,

very civilian performance from him on the offensive end. And they, you can't go over eight from three. Well, here's the thing. One of the things that we know is true about Chris Finch is he is one of these coaches that is outstanding at game planning against you. And they are always going to,

you know how we always talk about the whiteboard. Like, okay, here's what you like to do. Here's what you also like to do. We're taking that away. And now, okay, if Julia and Shepenny or Vassell are going to make a bunch of shots, but what we're not going to do is we're not going to let this be a Fox Wemby show. It was not a Fox Mambi show. At all.

They damn near didn't break 20 points until the end. That's unbelievable. Fox had 10. That's unbelievable. 5 or 14 from Fox. Fox with 10 and Wemby didn't break double digits. until the end? I mean, right, he didn't break double digits,

though, until the very end of the gang. So, I mean, the transition done. You know, when they went into this, they're looking, they're going, if we get beat by Devin Bucel, and if we get beat by Julian Champany, and we get beat by Stefan Castle, knocking down shots from the perimeter,

you know, okay, we'll live with it. But what we're going to do is not make life easy on Wembe, and we're not going to make life easy on, Deeran Fox. And again, this is where Mitch Johnson, you will inevitably go try to make the adjustments to make it easier for your star players. But Minnesota is so good at coming up with a game plan

to make your stars look like crap and forcing your other guys to be good. In the very first series that this crew, Ant's first playoff run, I covered that series. against Memphis. And we were on the air talking about if John Morant was hurt.

Like he's got to be hurt. Like what's wrong with him? What is wrong with him? Because it was all Desmond Bayne and Brandon Clark. And it was like, what is wrong with him? And then it was like, and then you get to the next game and you're like, oh, wait, nothing's wrong with him. They're just like, he's never seen this before.

He's never seen this kind of defense where it's like, I look up and now there's a second guy standing at the free throw. line, right? And it's like, you're, no, you don't get to, you don't get to drive anymore. That's not what we're doing here, right? And he's got frigging James McDaniels, garden him and whatever else. But I mean, it, it forces you to adjust. And that'll be the trick for San Antonio. It's just hard to make any grand proclamations when I know it's a wide open ship, any three. And that, that's the thing is, you look at this, Fox was not himself, Wimby was not himself. they did not play well.

And if that three goes down, it's 1-0 spurs. Yes. So you can go glass half full for the spurs very easily. Absolutely. Absolutely. You can go glass-half-full for the spurs. It sucks to lose a game one at home. But when you team up, the things that you said,

like they're best players. And that's a goal. That's a goal. But, I mean, that's what a series is. And it's like, okay, now you got to do it again. Now you've got to make his life hell again. And you got over the course of seven games, the truly great players figure it out.

Once upon a time we were doing podcasts, we were talking about how Cape Cunningham can't stop turning the ball over. That's no longer a story. You know what I mean? Kind of. It's not. We'll see tomorrow night. It's not the way it was.

I thought, honestly, the biggest takeaway from me from this was Randall's defense on women. And it's the stuff you don't see, the stuff that doesn't show up in the statute. it's just keeping him off the boards. When one of his teammates shoots, Randall's just like, you're not going around the basket. Your long-ass arms are not going to grab this rebound and put it back and get fouled like you always do.

And I just felt like, and you know I'm not a big Julius Randall guy. I don't think that's the secret. I don't think that's the mismatch. I just thought it was a really, really good Julius Randall performance and the cameras are not going to reflect that, but he was the key of the game to me. And he's roughhousing. And that's what you need.

That's what you need. That's a man. He is the kind of guy that, like, Julius Randall is that, like, he doesn't have, like, show muscles. He's got, like, hey, man, can you help me push his car out of this ditch muscle? You know what I mean? He's, like, country strong. You know what I mean? Stephen Adams is probably the first guy that he wants to push the car out of ditch.

Julius Randall might be second. Just country strong. Yes. Yes. Like, those kind of guys, right? Like, one of those guys is, like, I don't lift weights. Right. I throw bales of hay over fences.

That's what I do. That's what it feels like. Yeah. God, he was so good tonight. He was so good. He was so good. And Minnesota, I mean, this team cannot impress us anymore. What they did, what they did against Denver ending.

I counted them out in game seven. They got, by the way, you want to apologize to me since Shams tweeted out that the whole Denver team's available? Except for Yonkitch. He did. Please. They're all available. You can have any of them.

No, don't get you staying. The rest of them can go. That's what it said. They're all available. So they ended them. And they did it without Anthony Edwards. And they did it without Dante DiVincenzo. They did it without I.O.

D'Soumoo. And now they walk in and win a game one on the road with a Anthony Edwards coming off the bench. And still no DeVincenzo. or D'Soon Boo. They got Mike Conley and Terrence Shannon, for God's sake. Terrence Shannon looked great. It's unbelievable.

He looked great. Jalen Clark. It's like, what's happening? Oh, dude. Who are these people? Jalen Clark's with the shit too, isn't he? He's like, he's like, I feel like he, like it's just seven minutes and he shot out of a cannon. Every time.

At Terrence Shannon, I mean, 35 minutes in a playoff game. Yes. 16 points. He needed all of them. But in the fourth quarter, he had two huge ones. That transition bucket was just like, like the entire, you could feel the entire crowd, like, what just happened?

Did he just score? A blink of an eye. He looked like Westbrook. This was such a good game. It was such a good game. I am so excited. I think the Wembeiyama's going to really respond. If you're in the,

Wibayama, you go 0 for 8 from 3 in the second round of the, the first time in the second round of the playoffs, you go 0 for 8 from 3. Well, because that's a little bit like, do you remember that M.B game when he was over five in the first half, goes into the locker room. He's just like, I'm not shooting free anymore. Well, that's because it gets them off the hook on the Rudy thing. He's got to be able to knock these down.

He's got to be able to knock him down. He's trying to pull Rudy. You know what I mean? Like, that's the trick. It's like, all right, no, you don't get to play. Like, you saw it. Like, we're going to get to the next thing. But like, they're putting M.B.

Through hell. Like, all right, bro. I got it, but I'm saying you're not, you don't get to stand back there. You're not going to get to stand back there. I'm going to come out of here, but you can't exactly make them pay for it if you can't knock a shot back.

Like, he just shot like hell. He missed everyone. I thought Randall was just in him. Randall was in him. Yeah, yeah, but those threes. I mean, those are available shots and he's just missing them. You know what I mean? And so I agree with you. Like, look, this is, This is the first go through, right?

That's what, they did not feel real playoff basketball against Portland because they're so much better than them. You know what I mean? They felt it maybe once and then they got used to it. There was some good first half. I thought Portland put together some good first half that made them think. But there's levels to this and this is a team. This is a team that's filled with vets that have Western Conference finals, you know,

on their pedigree and have been through a lot of playoff series, just got done having to play against Yokich and Murray. And so like they, you know, for a lot of those guys, that's like that, that was a hardcore playoff game. Like half court, everything's tough. Everything's contested. Like, this was not run up and down the court. Let's have some fun.

Like everything was, it was a war. It was great. It was great. When you watch the Rockets, they double Durant. They get it out of his hands. The Rockets was kind of like, I, we didn't even. know what to do. They just stall out. Right? Yeah. But like when you double

Edwards, it's like, I'm going to kick it to Shannon. Yeah. I'm going to kick it to Conley. I'm going to Kiddell. Like there's other people that can't create and score. Yes. If you double Edwards, which they started to do in the fourth quarter. Yes. God, McDaniels is just, he's having a real like Jimmy Butler in the bubble like playoff run.

I tell you this. You get done watching that game tonight and like, considering we have not, and we'll see what happens with the other series, but like you walk away and you're going, all right, we've got one. We've got one that we're going to get to keep watching, and we're going to be excited about every time because... I am one of Mocenui.

On July 10th. Maui, you will board my boat and restore the heart of Tefi. And here we go. The journey begins. See her light up the night in the sea. She calls me... The ocean chose you. Let's go save the world.

I got your back, chosen one. Disney's Moana. Boots Nick. His name is Hay Hey Hey. His name is Yum Yum. When he goes in my tum-tum in theater's July 10th. Let's go back in time. Buddy, what the Knicks did to the 76ers tonight was appalling.

It was appalling. You know, they pulled this, though. You know, you could say they just played this. the game seven and they had to go here and whatever. Yeah, that's what I texted you. It felt like a team that just played a game set. I got it, but they pulled this crap against Boston. Didn't they lose by 32?

They lost by 32. Was that game two? No, the first game, right? Wasn't game one? Didn't they lose that game by like a thousand? I thought game two was the big one they lost. Because they got, they got smoke right out the gate in that Boston series. And it was like, oh, brother.

what is just going to be. And I remember, because I remember having like the same feeling. I think I'm right about this. Let me go back and look. Yeah, you're probably right. Huh? You're probably right.

I'm usually wrong when it comes to the sense. I'll go back and look. Yeah, 123 to 92. Or 123.91. And then they won the next game. They got beat by 32 points. They got beat by 32 points. They got beat by 32 points in game one.

But on the next side of things, this is now quick math uh all right 90 they've won the last three games by 119 points it's the first time that any team has won three playoff games by 25 plus in a row 25 plus oh well then you're just adding they're doing 25 plus because tonight was 29 but yeah the other two are 39 and 51 so I mean, this could have been a thousand tonight. If they would have just, like, put the pedal down and just decided, because, I mean,

their bench was coming and colics, knocking down threes. I was watching the game. I watched the game and then, like, up on the bug on the upper right side. It was like, you know, San Antonio 10 in Minnesota 9. I was like, oh, that game's on. Let me switch over quick. I stopped watching. I didn't watch the fourth quarter of the game.

If you add in the game before, it's four straight playoff games by 100. 35 points. Jesus. That's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Well, I mean, and I mean, Brunson was on his way to 50. Would he have 27 at half?

27 at the half, but then shifting it down into third gear. Like the second half, just like in the Hawks game, which is kind of like, well, Nick Nurse, like, wait. He waved the white flag in the 30. Early. Yeah. Early. Yeah, he was, I was pretty surprised.

He's like, all right, we lost this one. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, it's so hard to take anything from it. It was such an ass beating. That's how I felt about the, the Hawks game six. But I also feel like, much like Wimbunyama, I expect the Sixers to bounce back in game two. This was, I thought Paul George looked great. I think Paul George's looked great in these playoffs. Like bounce back like not getting beat by a thousand? Yeah, I don't know. Stay within single digits for the first half. That was crazy. Honestly, like, they looked so good, Jacoby.

Everything they shot was going in. Everything. Everything. Everything they shot was going in. It was bonkers. Because during the regular season, they got their asses kicked by the Sixers. And do you know that Dan Devine tweeted this out?

And I was like, what in the world? It said, Carl Towns had five assists. in the first half of this game. Okay. He had... Legit assist, though. Like, not every assist is equal. Like, he had, like,

I'm passing you open under the basket for a layup assists. He had 13, five assist games the entire season. And he has now had four straight. That's kind of wild, though. 13 over the course of the entire season. Like, that's not what he was doing. And now he's, like, getting the ball at the top of the key

and he's, like, just dictating things. He was so fired. He was so fired up coming into that game tonight. He was just mad he missed the Met Gala. It's the Met Gala tonight in New York. Big, big fan points for Shalame. Oh, yeah. He knew what he was doing.

I mean, his girl is there. I saw her pictures everywhere. Yeah, the fake nipples. And she's alone. She has fake nipples. No one on her arm. And she's got the fake nipples out. Fake nipples.

on her arm. And then there's Chalemay in the front row. Ben Stiller, what are you doing at the Mek Gala? He's at the Mets guy. You're 60, dude. You're 60. He's at the Mett Gala. Go to the game.

Salome ditching the Mett Gala to go to the Knicks game. Big points. Because you know that was a conversation. And he had that conversation like last week. And he won it. And he won it. He won the conference. There's a stylist that fitted him for an outfit.

Oh, yeah. That spent $10,000 on it. And he was like, I'm sorry. I'm going to be wearing some soma classics in a straped sweater going on the next game. Do you think if the Oscars wouldn't have frozen out Marty Supreme completely, he would have gone? That he's like, you know what the hell? Oh, if he was on like an Oscar room? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The hell with all these people. But what they're going to do is they're going to tell me they loved the movie and it was bullshit. I didn't get anything. And blah, like, I got it. I would want to be around all the stuff. people either. Yeah.

I'd rather be a step on the big picture's toes, but I thought Marty Supreme was fine. I didn't think it's great. I'd rather, but I'd rather be in the next game of amongst next game. Yeah. These are people, they respect me.

These Hollywood people, they don't respect me. You know what I mean? Only when I play Bob Dylan. That movie was awful. Did you see that thing? No, everybody told me it was boring.

It was awful. Very, perhaps so sorry. I can't forget it. There's not even much to say about the next game. There really isn't. Like, everyone did exactly what they were there to do.

All right. Game two will tell us the story. And if they whoop their ass again, then we're going to have to have the conversation of like, bro, did they just like flip a switch and become the most dominant NBA team ever? Because the way they beat the hell out of the hawks, and then turned around and just destroyed this team tonight. Again, it, all right, this one doesn't tell us much.

I'm saying as a compilation, when it's four games in a row now, and you've won by 135, and it feels like you can't miss, and nobody can score on you. No one can score on O'G and Inobie. But that just happened with a team that theoretically was making adjustments to play you, and you beat their faces in. three times in a row. And then you turn to this game

and it's another face beating. It's like, okay, if they do it again, like, because it's a trend here, they're beating the shit out of people. Yeah, it's the defense. You know what I mean? The defense in the last month of the regular season was great.

Defense was great in the Hawk series, except for a couple games against CJ McCollum. And like, Mbid was three for 11, too. No one can score on OG and a node. Nobody. You know who he reminds me? Michael Jordan. Kuwait.

Kuil Chamberman. Kauai. That's who it reminds you. He might have less of a personality than Kauai Laker. It's like these, but it's like. He might have less of a personality. But it is this like two dribble mid-range pull up and then like just. Never, not a single highlight.

Not a single highlight. No, not a single highlight. A bank three. You know, when he hit from the top of the game. Zero assists. Let's see if you hadn't insist. And he's, And he's also like just, like, it matters not who he gets switched on to.

Also, shouts to Macau Bridges for getting everything off his plate. Like, I mean, that was getting, it was getting dark when he was struggling in the Atlanta series and was getting bench. And he has really redeemed himself and been very good. Hell you. He's been very good. And I think that's been very good concerted effort from the team, though. For sure. I think that that has been strategic.

That is not happy. We said that that night that it looked like he was going to cry. It was like, bro, you can't, like, you can't lose him. They're getting him. They're getting him opportunities. They're getting him buckets. And he gets to 13 feet. And he turns around.

He's got the stupid double dribble release. And he gets a shot off. There's no one to cover him. But he even started tonight's game. He was the first bucket of the game with a dunk. And I was like, oh, that's good for him. Right. Like he'll be, you know, I mean, that's the best way to start.

I think that is the worst. I've seen Maxine, the worst I've seen in B against the Knicks. And in fairness, and B missed a couple games. In fairness, just like we were talking about with Fox and Wemby, that's the plan. Yeah. Right. I also see it, I see it bouncing back in both series. I'm not saying the Knicks are going to lose.

Right. But I can't imagine that Embed and Maxie play like this again. I would agree. After what they did in Boston. I would agree with that. And Wimby, too. I thought Wimby was good, but offensively it was just like, you got to figure it out.

Well, let me just tell you, I hope you're right, because we're going to be watching all of these games, and I don't want Spurs Wolves to be the only good series. Now, we'll get to the one that's going to be starting, the ones that are going to be starting tomorrow. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you.

It's everything you want denim. to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming. Plus, that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. Pistons calves should be good.

It sets up to be good. Because they played each other four times during the regular season. It was two and two. One of them was a four-point game. One of them was a three-point game. One of them was a four-point game. So three of the four were decided in the,

and one of them was an overtime game, no less. And you saw at the very end of their series in game sevens, you had unlikely characters step up, Jared Allen, with the 22 and 19, and Jalen Duren decided to join the Pistons. Oh, welcome to the party, Mr. Duren. The Pistons Magic series. And don't forget Toby.

Toby Harris is showing up too. They joined each other. And the Pistons, all heart, coming back from 3-1 to turn it around against the magic. And I know that this is going to be a huge one, too. You know, another little sneaky storyline is the Cavs fired J.B. Bickerstaff. Oh, yeah. Yes, it is. That happened.

Yeah. And so there's something there, too, right? I promise you. J.B. Bickers staff felt wronged by that and desperately wants to beat the Cavaliers more than anything. I mean, that's the get back, right? I mean, outside of Hardin, it's the same nucleus, too. You walk away from, I don't know how you feel about this series.

I walk away from both of those series being much more impressed with the Pistons and their resolve and them able to come back against Orlando and do what they did. Well, that game six when they were down 24. But and the Cavs having to go seven against a Raptor. This could have been a Magic Raptor series. Yeah, it really could have been. Thank God for our eyeballs that this is not a Magic Raptor series. Well, and you know, the Magic fired their coach today this morning.

Today. So he didn't make it through. I hope they decided to part ways. No, they fired him. That was this morning. That feels like him three days ago. It sounds like they're, and Tibbs' name is in the, mix. Oh, I'll tell you what I know

about this. Not that I'm a big reporter. But I'm going to... Oh, you're breaking news, Bruno? No, I'm just going to go... No, I'm not going to break news. You're breaking news? Did you check this out with the newsroom at the ringer? No. You have three independent sources to validate this. You go to journalism school? I just said I'm not breaking news.

I'm going to tell you something that was told to me by somebody that knows things. Oh. This is... Before the Magic Piston series, I asked the person I know, is Billy Donovan going to be the next coach of the magic? They said, doubtful, the guy sued him years ago. And I was like, what?

You remember, he left Florida, took the magic job, and then went back to Florida. Oh, yeah. A hundred years ago. And so I was like, oh, all right. And I think that's why Tibbs's name is coming up too, like recently. Now, I'm not saying that maybe they could reconvene and maybe it's water under the bridge or whatever. But like, that did happen with the magic years and years ago. But anyways, I said, is Billy Donovan going to be the next magic coach.

And that's when I had that conversation. And in passing, this person said to me, it may not be Billy, but it'll be somebody. Mosley's going to the Pelicans. that's what they thought. I've heard that as well this was in the Pelicans. This was before that series. And then I think maybe the series could have

changed things for him, but. But I don't know. The report that came out was like, we don't care if we win the championship, we're still firing Jamal mostly. We don't care what happens. We'll have the parade. We'll fire him the next day.

I mean, I think that's probably Apollo thing or whatever. Yeah, that's what the rumblings are. Well, and also they made the, look, when you do the win now moves, you've got to win now. That's it. Kenny Atkinson will be gone too if they lose. When you make the win now moves, when you sacrifice the future for the now, you have to win now. Like, that's the deal, right? So if we're going to trade our future picks for Desmond Bain, we've got to win now.

If we're going to trade Darius Garland away for James Hardin, we got to win now. There is no... If you trade a 26-year-old for 36-year-old, you are in win now, you got to win now. And so this will be interesting because the Pistons are

offensively deficient at times. At times? Defensively unbelievable. But if there's one thing, they ain't soft. And I think that Cavs team is soft. I do. I can't stand them.

I, I, I, I, I, oh, no, you're not normally like this. You can't stand the calves. It's just watching them against Toronto, I was like, oh, my God, if Toronto had one more player, if they just had to quickly, or if they just didn't have friggin crap portal, if they just had somebody else. Something. Because they got, because they got frigging Jamal Shed going for 14 in the first half of that game. And it's like, dude, they're just not good enough to.

So in that game seven, the calves did their thing. where they dribble the ball into the ground 100,000 times. And if there's one thing you can't do against the Raptors, is just dribble because they are active defensively. They have defenders. Shed, they're defunders. Shed Barnes, these guys, and they hustle like hell. And CMB.

And so now they're able to fly up and down the court. They can get themselves transition buckets. You know, Reggie Miller, who 22nd, why is Reggie Miller so much better with Mike Tariko than he was with Kevin Hart? why he doesn't annoy me anymore i don't understand i was watching that game and i'm like i i think terrico has some kind of secret sauce he he he uses or something but by the way unbelievable he was at the damn kentucky derby and then was calling game seven that night oh uh no no i don't give people flowers for that was awesome getting on a plane

getting on a private plane going from one event to another and having like a team of researchers. It's I've been behind the curtain. It's not hard work. It was big done. It's not hard work. Big time. Talk to nurses.

Talk to nurses and teachers. Shut up. Those are the people that deserve the flowers. Oh my God. Not broadcasters. Oh my God. I've been around these broadcasters. It's not a zero some game.

One person cannot be doing something that is praiseworthy. So then I have to praise everybody else that does harder jobs. Yes. praise the bricklayers. Yeah, praise the NBA podcasters. Shut up. It's 102 in the morning. Mike, Mike Dorico, look, more importantly than doing the derby and the game seven

was making Reggie Miller somehow less than a week. Which is unbelievable. But as soon as the calves just started moving the ball from side to side and like not just dribbling around recklessly, then it turned into a. half-core basketball game and it's like, all right, Toronto smoke. Yeah. What do they get? I thought Mobile look at it.

I mean, for the, Al-Hast Piston series is going to be really interesting. I think that, so the pisses, John Schumann had this stat that over the course of the series, the Orlando Magic, shot 45% in the paint, which is the lowest any team has ever shot.

I was going to say. In seven years, no one has had that kind of percentage in the paint. 45% in the paint. So it's just a matter of, look, I do not like your, I don't like. That's not restricted, obviously. So it's like you get little floters in there and stuff and little turnarounds. Well, and J.B. Bickerstaff should have some institutional knowledge on how to best deal with Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobile.

I mean? Also, coached Hardin in Houston. Huh. When he was there. He knows all these guys. Interesting. He knows all of these guys. So you're picking the pistons?

100%. Because the cabs are soft. They just went seven games with Toronto, who can't shoot and was without Ingram and quickly. Who's the best offensive player on Toronto in game seven? I was watching out, who can get you a bucket of this team? Who can get you a bucket on this whole entire team?

Scotty Barnes. RJ can get to his left hand. No, Barnes and Barnes and RJ were there for all series. Yeah. It's just you can't do it when the other three or Jamal shed Jacob, Walter and Yakob. I don't care how good your two guys are. It's ridiculous.

I'm like, this sucks. But I will say they played hard. Toronto team played hard. Yes. I just did not come away impressed with Cleveland at all. I was like, oh, brother, this is not. This is not a fun watch for me. Can we just briefly talk about Jamal Brown screaming after the game?

Do you mean? Jamal Brown. Small Brown is on my high school basketball team. Shout to him. Can we talk about who the red-headed guy is sitting next to him? Who are these other people? Who are the hype men? Who's at your house at one in the morning, bro?

He's like, Kais, and it doesn't have your last name. He's like. No one is at my house at one in the morning. It doesn't have my last name. Those are his whole. I guess, but they're all wearing like self-ex gear. It's like nodding along. And they're wearing sunglasses inside on a Twitch stream at 1.30

in the morning after a loss. What is happening there? Do they ever talk? But like what is your, what is their function? I need to do that for this podcast. I need to go get like, we need. Yes, we need people. We need extras.

You know what? One of these episodes, I'm going to have my kids sit behind me. Yeah, I'm having mine do it too. They're just like this. my kids I was just trying to talk to him today I was like hey guys like there's a huge next game today huge next game none of my kids care at all at all the whole entire city is on fire

not a single Jacoby kid cares about the next game wow not a single one that's depressing failing I'm failing as a parent but who are those other people in Jamal Brown's stream because he always has who is Jamal Brown on my basketball team in high school Taylor Brown Jamal Brown was fast. He was like, look like Terran Shannon.

And then binging about the envied fouls when your team missed 36-3s is pretty rich. I mean. And then saying that it was his favorite year ever. The whole thing was like everyone tells me how smart you are. Jalen Brown, sorry, Jamal. Like, dude, are you that smart? Are you?

He said, everyone tells me how smart. you are, don't seem like you're making smart moves. Maybe one of those three people next to you should be like, tap you on the shoulder and be like, hey, man, why we shut down the stream and just have a chat? What do you think the text between like the business operations and the PR staff

and everybody and they're like, can anybody get a hold of him? Like, please. Tell me, I've called. Someone's like, I've called four times. He's not making up. Please turn this off. Can we cut off the electricity to his house? Please, is there anything we can do?

Can somebody please ask? him not to do this. Is this allowed? Right. Like, this was, this is, this is my team just lost. Is wearing sunglasses? I know. They just lost a 3-1 lead.

He had his best statistical year. The other guy, you know, who's a running mate was out for 67 games. And he's like, this is my, this is my favorite year. My favorite year. Playing basketball. Not the one where I won the East Finals and the finals MVP. And the championship. And I was MVP of all of it.

Yeah, yeah, that that wasn't as much fun as this. When I got a ball on a time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When I got the ball and I, oh, but also what the hell was Joe Missoula doing? Bro. What was he doing? What are we doing? What are we doing?

Honestly, like, I think my wife would be like, um, so wait, wait, wait, so the entire year, these five people have never played basketball together, but now it's, game seven and you're going to have them play basketball together, I don't love that idea. That's my wife who knows nothing about basketball. You remember I said this? And you were like, you know, he's trying, you know, he's trying stuff. It came sick.

And I said to you, I said, they've got six guys with grimes. And then, like, well, piecemeal, Drummond will play five minutes and maybe Justin Edwards will go out there for four. But it's eight max, but we got our six.

and it's grind, right? And they played 11 guys all these minutes for Boston. And I'm like, it's game six and you still don't know who you're rocking with. And then got to game seven and just said, the hell with it. We'll play. And then there was that stat. It's like no three starters have ever all had zero in a game. You know, whatever.

I'm like, yeah, that's because nobody ever. They're not starters. Nobody ever starts their worst players. I'm surprised Brad Stevens didn't check in at one point. I was like, what are we doing? It's the most important game of the year. What are we doing? That was bizarre.

Truly bizarre. Anyway. Do you think the MB makes it through the series? No. I don't think so. I mean, it's just that's just that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's that's not me trying to put a curse on him. That's me just the history.

I would, if it weren't every other day. But, I mean, there's three times a game where I think he's about to go. to the locker room. I also think they let him off the hook. I would just run him around. I would put him in everything all the time always. They let him off the hook because cat doesn't move that much on offense. I would just run from one side of the court to the other, just back and forth.

Just move him. He can't move. I mean, he's got bad knees. I'm putting him in everything. And it's every other day. I know at least the short travel. But, I mean, it's going to take a lot to get him out there for every game, to think he could make it through an entire series. when they're going to try to run them to death for sure.

I would. I thought they let him up the hook today. But again, that goes kind of nothing game. But like, if I'm, if I'm Mike Brown, like whoever he is covering, run from one side of the court to the other side of court to the other side of the court before we even get over a half court. And then you set a screen.

Yeah. Well, it looked like they're going to do that. They look like at the very beginning of that game, they're going to use up all their fouls. We got first quarter Huck 40. I feel so bad. Mad for Mitch, man. This is, like, one of my things about him.

Like, I love him so much, but, like, he just, he looks like a little child at the free throw line. He just can't hit one. He can't, he can't go one for two. Like, even Rudy went one for two at the end of the game. Like, Mitch can't go one for two. I can't. You know, there's that interview from, like, a year ago,

where it's, like, Rick Petino saying he was, he was called Tom Tibado. And he's like, I'll fix him. bro do you think Rick Petitin do you think like no one else has tried no no and then the the rest of that interview is Rick Petino going and then I watched him and called him back and said I cannot help you I can't I don't remember this he's a lost cause it was in Boston last year so it must have been game four in Boston last year he went like six for eight and they stopped hacking but it's a real problem you know and nobody wants to do that you know and nobody wants to

do this because they look like a wuss. If there's anybody in NBA history that should do the underhand thing, it's him. Seriously. Like, he should do it. He has no chance. Do you Sohan do that? He has no chance of hitting it. Didn't Jeremy Sohan

do that a couple years ago? Correctly. You know, there's an old podcast that I listened to many years ago. It was Malcolm Gladwell's podcast. He does this podcast called Revisionous History and he does like different stories. And one of the episodes was about underhanded free throws.

There's a Rick Perry, right? Yeah. But also, he tells this story, and I'll paraphrase this because I'm going to get some of the details wrong. But Will Chamberlain came into a year. He was always a terrible free throw shooter.

And then he shot underhanded free throw like in whatever it was, 1962, 1963. If you go look up, it's his best statistical year ever. And he shot like 60-something percent from free throws. And, like, I mean, now he was completely unstoppable, right?

And he shot. And he shot his best percentage and did it and had his best statistical year, whatever. And then the next year just went right back to missing them all the time. And so the whole thing was, why don't you want to do that? You know, because you think it looked, it's not masculine because the fans jump on you. You look kind of crazy doing it. Bro, so check this out. He, part of the podcast.

as he goes to a women's basketball team and asks them if they'll do it. They're like, no, you look like a sissy. So chicks don't want to do it either. Something about bending the knees and putting the ball between your needs. So the whole point is, the whole point of the whole point of the whole. It looks like you're birthing of basketball into the basket. The whole point thing was, was even if it was the most effective thing,

even if it was the most effective way and the thing and it was for Will Chamberlain still it was something that looked so stupid you couldn't get past even if it would make you better. In Will's defense he was still putting up like 60 points and 25 free pounds he's like it doesn't matter if I make free throws or not.

I mean I used to say I used to say this that I thought the only one it would take somebody it could become a thing if somebody like Janus did it. You remember when we went through that? But it is, Chris, like, honestly, I'm not a good golfer. You're like a golf guy. If I just had my pitching wedge and my putter, I'd probably get a better score. If I just had my pitching wedge in my punt.

I would definitely get a better score. You'd never hit another club? No, those are the only clubs I had. I would get a better score than I score now. But it's not fun. You know, I have one of those broomstick putters, and I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. You went through your hands are all far away from each other?

Yes. I couldn't do it. I have one. I wouldn't. I wouldn't let you get away with that. If we were all together, I would not let you get away with that. It's just a comment every time. It's just ridiculous.

Your buddy's just wear you out. The whole thing comes the broomstick. And then when you don't make it with the damn thing, I'm going to miss Puts anyway. It's like when you, Chrissy Fantasia over here. When you don't make, when you're carrying the broomstick and you don't make it. You got to sink the putts. No, it's so much worse because there's no expectation that I'm going to make a putt with my Scotty Cameron.

Right? They know I'm going to miss the putt, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But now I'm using this damn thing theoretically to make putt. So now when I'm missing putts with that, now I look like a goofy ass and I'm missing it. Like my friends that take their glove off. to putt. Oh, you could feel, you could feel the putter better. I'm like, what do you think that's the difference? You think that's why you're, you're scoring over a hundred because you can feel the putter better? Please, your glove on. All right. One other series we do need

to talk about. The Thunder beat the Lakers for Zip during the regular season. But not, they didn't just beat them. Dude, I was so fired up for these regular season games because just the star power and most of them I know there's a couple of injuries and some of them. And they were all duds. Duds. To your point, it was an average of 29 points, which was the most between any two teams. But I think one of them was like 11. Well, LeBron, Reeves, and Luca only played in the same game once. Yeah.

That was the first one, right? And then we're saying like, oh, well, but what if Luka comes back? The Lakers were outscored by 56 points in 59 minutes that Luca played against Oklahoma City. They got absolutely pants. I remember Austin Reeves coming off a pick and roll and trying to throw a pocket pass, and the thunder just laughed at him. They're like, what are you doing? And this went pick six,

pick six, pick six. It was gnarly, these matchups. Yeah, and Jalen Williams being out, I mean, it probably won't show up until the next round that that matters, right? Like, it can't, it could matter against either San Antonio or Minnesota, but it would be Chris,

isn't there a part of you? It's LeBron James. Oh, shut up. Isn't there a part of you? No. There's a little part of me. No. I think they're going to get destroyed.

Like, this is going to be... God, that Lakers Houston series was so... The basketball was so bad. So... We just got done watching this epic-ass game tonight. It was so good. There's no way you could watch Minnesota and San Antonio after you watched Laker.

like the Lakers and the Rockets as they were constructed at the end, neither of them would be playoff teams. Neither of them. So of course they weren't playing high level playoff caliber basketball. But this Oklahoma City thing, they are. And, yeah, I think, I think this is going to be bad. I do. I'd be shocked if, if there was, I mean, I guess you could give them one.

So game three. Like, you know, Portland got one against San Antonio. But, yeah, in fact, I'll be honest with you. I'll be thrilled. So this is for the Laker Panetta. I'll be thrilled if you can even play them close. Because then I'll at least be able to be entertained. I'd be pretty surprised.

It's the difficulty they had dribbling the basketball and moving forward towards the basket in those regular season games against the Thunder was shocking. shocking. You remember when Kaysa and Wallace just kept stealing the ball from Bronny? That wasn't nice. That felt rude.

Yeah, that was. That felt personal. Bullying. But that was the end. I remember the first one. I think it was a Saturday afternoon. I was so excited for the game. I'm like, Lakers Thunder.

Everyone leave me alone. Tell my wife to take the kid somewhere. I'm going to lock in and watch this. And it was just a slaughter. A slaughter. I mean, couldn't get the ball over. half court.

I mean, look, we just got them why a Phoenix couldn't hang with them and make these games good. And it's like, I don't know, man. I don't think the Lakers could be able to make this. Who knows? If Rui hits a bunch of threes. Oh, my God. LeBron does stuff.

It's like Rui, Reeves, they just have to hit threes. That's all it is. I don't see it. They have to hit threes. I don't see it. Bronny locks up Shea. I don't see it. Some sort of plane accident.

I don't know. It's going to be tough. I'm excited about the Knicks, though, man. I just want to say that. You should be. I'm excited about the Knicks. I mean, Nick's Dunder finals is going to be great. Nix who?

Nick's Thunder. Oh, slow down. We're going to the finals. We're going to the finals. Slow down. Might be the spurs. Might be the wolves. You know, I thought about going to the game tonight.

I think, I'll tell you this. spurs or wolves, both are going to set up to be a great series with Oklahoma City. I do believe that. What I saw tonight. That'll be high-level play. Has me very excited about the rest of this series. We just got to get through. Once it gets to Minnesota, because dude, I thought, I thought the Nuggets had more talent

than the wolves, but that crowd, the intensity, Jade McDaniels, the defense, like. They've also got options, right? They've got the Rudy option. they've got the Nas Reid, Randall, let's just stretch it out option. And they still got like, because they got big wings and they got guys that play hard. Like they can make up for it. And man, they hustle. They hustle.

And you can take the ball out of Edwards hands and they have other creators. Jane McDaniels can get you a bucket. Randall can get you a bucket. Taryn can dribble past you. Like it's not like other teams like Cade, for example. They need get the ball out of his hands and that's just nothing. Because they lost Steven, And so they really do need Iyo back for, they need to get him back to be able to.

Certainly if they were, they would, they're going to need him later in the Spurs series if they can get him back. But certainly if they were able to advance would need him as well. Like they, I do worry about that. Like they need another one. Because that Mike Connolly thing. That was awesome tonight. But I mean, when you're played Oklahoma City, it's a different world. You're going to need.

And so. Well, yeah, I get past the Spurs. And again, and again. I expect the Spurs to win the series, don't you? I do. I expect them to win the series. I thought they didn't play that well to me. I don't know.

I don't want to. Castle Files out. Whammy wasn't himself offensively. Like, they've got to figure something out. I just don't want to bet against that Minnesota thing after what they did to Denver. I guess. You know, I just, I still can't believe that. You know what I mean?

Spurs. The Spurs have some. Scars now. Scars. No, they have a scar. Oscar. Oh. And it was, I mean,

they were one shot away from a pretty unbelievable victory. That game was so good. I would watch that back, honestly. Like, there's very few games I would watch that. I was taking notes.

And I took notes of literally every single possession because every possession was awesome. It was so good. Something fun happened on every single possession. We need Pistons Cavs to be great. And I know you're not going to like this, but I hope Philly can at least make it competitive in game two to give us,

to give us. This Philly's going to, to give us got horses. And they've got, I got two games at home. But I want to get some confidence that they're going to be able to make in a series and like we can at least possibly see a game six in some of these. Because we're going to get a,

I'd be shocked if we don't get a game six in Minnesota, San Antonio. I'd imagine we're going to get a game six or seven in Pistons Cavs. I would imagine we're going to get four games in Thunderlakers. And so I would like Netsnilly to be good. I mean, I remember they played four times in the regular season. I think I'm top of my head, so I have the numbers for me. I think Maxie had like 32, 30, 36, and 24 against the Knicks.

Wow. Like they have no one. can stop. And I just think, I just think they were just like kind of tired and hung over from game seven in Boston two days ago. Honestly. It's tough.

To be in Boston two days ago in a game seven and then to show up at the garden, primetime, that's a, that's a tall order. With a team that did get to rest, right? Like, because they had because they were able to close out.

They were able to close out. You know, well, also take that into account. Also, I think, I think you're right. Because here's what we know.

Sometimes you watch these games and you go, was that just a horrible representation of what that team looks like? And much like Game 1 in Boston, they comported themselves in an awful way that was a horrible representation of what they are capable of. Like, we know that's not how bad. And you could also say that that's right after they beat the magic. So they're coming off another.

game, a do-and-die game. So there are parallels there. Yeah, there are. I expect game two to be competitive in New York. I'm going to say I'm going to leave you with one thing at the very end, which is going to be just, we were watching that Spurs-Wolfs game, right? Keldon Johnson, six man of the year. Love Keldon Johnson.

He's in the game. Check this out. Keldon Johnson was in the 2019 draft. Okay. And he is a San Antonio Spurk. Went and looked it up. There are only five players. No.

From the first round that are with the team that drafted. Oh, okay. That makes sense. No. Look. Zion. John Morant. So that'll change.

I'm about to say the clock is ticking on both of those. Oh, Brandon Clark. That'll change. Uh-huh. Tyler Hero Might change And Keldon Johnson That's it

Isn't that wild That's not that long ago bro I mean a lot of them are still in the league That has got moved And they're also in like The second contract part of their career So it's not so crazy No no no but like our

That's an RJ draft That's Darius Garland was in that draft The only like right I was in Brooklyn I think Kobe White Yeah I was there at the draft Yeah it was there at the draft covering it for ESPN, yeah.

It's kind of wild, though. Yeah, there's five, and there'll probably be three by the time we get to the summer, maybe two. I was doing like, hey, we're going to look up and the only first rounders that are with their teams are going to be, well, we'll see with Hero. But Zion and Kelton Johnson, you figure it out. There you go.

That draft, I was doing social content for ESPN, my girl, Kayla, shout to her. And I was so excited to talk to, Kobe White because his name's Jacobi. And I was like, you're Jacobi, I'm Jacobi, this is amazing. And he's looking back at me and he's just like, who

the fuck are you? I don't care about this conversation. Leave me alone. How do you even know that my name is Jacoby and who are you? And I was like, all right, great to meet you buddy. And he's such a nice guy, dude. He's just like, I was high energy.

You know what I mean? I was excited. I was like, you're Jacobi, I'm Jacobi. And he's just like, what are you talking about? He couldn't eat. You want nothing to do with me. I'm on his side on that. Yeah, it's a good read. It's a good read.

A great read from Kobe White. It wants nothing to do with David Jacoby. Well, at least we had a great night. The great night. The second game was unbelievable. And you had a great night. Wait, we're coming back on Thursday. Thursday night.

We'll get the other set of games. We'll get the other set of games. Hey, I think we're going to get to start recording at half time of Thunderlaker. I don't know, man. I got some, I got some hopes for the lake show. I always, I just always believe in LeBron. I always believe in LeBron. That sounds like a guy that's work. No, Junior, LeBronny Jr. No, that's what I meant. But I said LeBron, I meant, you know, blah. Oh, Bob, Jr. All right. Thank you to Jeff and Steph, as always. Jacoby. I'll talk to you

later this week. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if, like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what-eth. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.