The Ringer NBA Show - A Celtics Therapy Session. Plus, Resetting Every First-Round Series After Two Games. | Group Chat

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

Justin, Rob, and Wos take a look at every playoff series after two games and discuss their thoughts on what they’ve seen so far and their keys moving forward. Heat-Celtics: (1:29) Thunder-Pelicans: (20:43) Clippers-Mavericks: (36:05) Timberwolves-Suns: (44:02) Nuggets-Lakers: (50:39) Knicks-Sixers: (55:15) Bucks-Pacers: (1:00:18) Cavs-Magic: (1:03:55) The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and Wosny Lambre Producer: Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervision: Ben Cruz 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 Danny Kelly, and I host the Ringer NFL Draft Show with Danny Hyfitz, Ben Solac, and Craig Boralbeck. We cover trades, free agency, and the draft, obviously. We'll tell you about everything, including which quarterbacks are good, which quarterbacks are not as good, and which quarterbacks are just Kirk Cousins. Search the Ringer NFL Draft Show on Spotify. Hello and welcome to group chat. I am Justin Barrier, and joining me, as always, Rob Mahoney, and foaming at the mouth, it is Big Wads.

Was, happy holidays, buddy. Listen, man, you guys really think I get some sick satisfaction out of every Celtics loss. And you're right, but only slightly, okay? Only slightly. So, but yeah, tonight was one hell of a roller coaster ride watching game two up in Boston, man. Yeah. For those of us who weren't in our chat here as we started the podcast, Was came in mid-cackle, ready to just unload takes on the Celtics.

I'm really looking forward to that section, Justin. In Medeus Cackle. Yeah. So we're going to reset every first round series. This is a weird break here where every series has gone two games. So I think it's a good time to reflect on everyone. But we have to talk about the events of tonight, first and foremost, the Boston Celtics, losing to the Miami heat.

the heat just threw up a barrage of goddamn three-pointers. But there's a lot to pick apart here. Wads, where do you want to start? Man, I think, honestly, just Boston's coverages being exactly the same as what they did in the Eastern Conference finals that they lost to this very team last year and changing nothing about it. is dumbfounding because today I was having a conversation with our guy, Zach Harper, and I was like, yo, it's kind of bullshit that Joe Missoula and this damn near 2017 Warriors point differential

can't get a sniff for finalists for coach of the year. And then I immediately regret that opinion tonight watching this guy coach an overwhelmingly better, more talented team and then just do some of the craziest stuff. Like, we're talking about 33 bombs into the game. Al Horford is playing a deep drop coverage on a Tyler Hero pick and roll. As if you are just so afraid to meet this dude at the level. Tyler Hero and his wizardry with the ball handling.

Like, I'm like, am I going insane here? Can these people really, can their game plan really be? let's let this entire team shoot practice threes for the whole game. Just their refusal to do something different is just boggles the mind. Well, let me set you up here, Rob, because I want to get your take. So the heat hit 23, three-pointers, shot 53.5% from three overall. It's a franchise record for made threes. And on top of that, it is the fourth game over the past two seasons in which the heat have hit 50%

or more of their threes against the Boston Celtics. So is this something that Missoula isn't willing to change, or is this just a goddamn miracle that just keeps happening? Is this the plague of locust that just cannot slow down? Well, it's the plague of locust that they keep summoning upon themselves to Waz's point. This is the game plan. And it does reek a little bit of when you are the more talented team, when you are the favorite in a series,

you are compelled to play the percentages, right? to play it safe, to play your safety net. And in this case, your safety net is, yeah, Haywood Highsmith, Caleb Martin, Jaime Hockes, in some cases, Tyler Hero, we're going to give you a certain amount of these looks, and we're going to default to taking away the rim instead, to taking away everything else inside.

As much as you can understand some of the underlying logic of that, at some point in a game like this, you have to stop playing the percentages and play the fucking game. Like, you have to show up and adjust and tweak and understand that there, starting going to be knights, not unlike the end of game one, Dailon Wright is going to go off and hit a bunch of threes in a row. And if you're not ready to compensate for that in a game that's this tight,

this is what happens to you, is you end up losing games that ultimately you have every reason to win. I'm fine with giving up three-point shots to Highsmith and Wright and some of these other guys, Hakez, who nobody's idea of Ray Allen. Cool. Can they be under some duress? while taking these threes, can there be some pressure applied

to these three-point shots? Where at one point it looked like they were playing some kind of, on that last Highsmith three, it looked like they were playing some kind of boxing one where Highsmith gets the ball and like literally nobody is giving a contest and it's crazy. And then you contrast that.

So, you know, I'm screaming on Twitter to howling at the moon, obviously, because Joe Missoula can't hear me. And I'm like, you know what? It's nice that Boston is attacking the paint because you know what? When teams decide they're going to stay home on all your shooters,

not give any help. When you spread them out, to make them pay, you have to go to the rack. Eventually you have to make them start sending help, and then you can spray out to your shooters. And that's the game of basketball. ball folks. So I'm like, Miami is just like, yo, we know Boston wants to shoot threes.

And yes, Boston has three-point shooters with much better reputation than Miami does collectively. So obviously, it's a no-brainer that they want to take this tact. But like, Miami's like, we're cutting the three-point oxygen off. They got to beat us one-on-one with the dribble going to the basket. And we're daring Jalen Brown to do it against Tyler Hero. We're daring Jason Tatum, alleged MVP candidate, to do it against these guys. We're daring Drew Holiday. We're daring those guys. Joe Missoula can't bring himself to dare Jaime Hakez and Hayesmith to do the same thing.

It doesn't make sense when Miami is daring your all-stars to do it. It's craziness. Yeah, the issue, I think, was compounded by what happened on offense, specifically for the Celtics after halftime, because I think they only scored 40 points. And I think you have to look at a lot of candidates here, but Christopps Prozingis, whoof. And they brought him in with a lot of Ballyhoo about what he could do as a post-up threat.

And obviously, he was successful to a large degree this regular season. One for nine in this game, minus 32. He got bullied around by Caleb Martin, Rob. And so, like, it was almost as if things couldn't go bad enough. They're like, let me just actually do this one thing that can make it absolutely worse. Yeah, when we say that Spoh is the best coach in the league,

this is what we mean, and it's that there's nobody better at closing the gap in terms of talent and available firepower between teams. Some of that is what we've already talked about, switching everything, limiting Boston's three-point attempts, jacking up your own three-point attempts to close that gap. That's all well and good. But honestly, this is, every team should be taking notice

of this particular strategy with Chris Sop's Porzengis, which is you welcome the switches, you contain everything to the perimeter and take away the threes, and you dare Boston for as much as they've talked about wanting to feed KP in the Post. They've done it very successfully all throughout the regular season. But you see how that goes when they have to do it five possessions in a row. And you see how every other Celtic response. And you see in this game some of the passes that they're trying to throw to him

over-fronting defenders that are sailing out of bounds. And all of those things combined, the Celtics are obviously incredibly capable and incredibly talented. And if we're all being very honest here, they're going to win this series. Like, I feel very confident about that even still. But when a team that's better than the heat is able to pull off some of these same things, the dynamics could look very, very different.

And I think that the test for Boston is still make them feed KP in the post. Make them go to that over and over and over and see what happens if he misses two or three in a row and see where the psychology of the team goes at that point. Here's the thing about Spowe being the best coach in the NBA.

teams figured out how to guard Ryan Anderson. Remember when he was like the big thing because he was a stretch for? Teams figured out how to guard him 12 years ago, folks. They said, we're switched at. We'll put a little guy on him. Like, that's literally the answer. Put a little guy on this dude

because he doesn't have to possess the type of game to beat a little guy on a switch. And essentially, the heat deployed this same strategy against Chris Dad's Four Ziggis, who all freaking year, All I heard about was, oh, Chris Staps is the Switchbuster. Oh, Chris Staps. Have you seen his efficiency numbers in the post?

Oh, my God. Chris Staps is going to kill the switches when it comes. And what does this man do? The first sign of, we need you to bust the switch. Dick. Well, he did bust the switches in game one. In fairness, he did bust the switches. I think the Ryan Anderson comparison is maybe a little bit unfair.

it's a little but that is more or less what we appreciate it yeah like you know a little too much sauce on it but you know

the flavor is good there you go yeah what if this was just KP's right of passage to becoming a Celtics he just really had to get

his face thrown into mud and to realize that you can get your ass whipped by a team of just a band of three point shooters and grinders on defense I thought throughout

this game it was going to turn the Celtics way and I thought, thought this was going to be an awesome test case for them overcoming some of the past trauma as I was kind of expecting the series to be. And it looked like it was going to be the case. Janlon Brown was really coming alive toward half time. Well, it didn't end up that way. I wonder if it ultimately can still be the same thing. I think the next game is probably going to tell

the tale of whether or not Miami can make this a seven game, even six game series. But I wonder if the Celtics in a weird way needed this. They needed to be reminded that they could still get kind of thrown into a tizzy in this way. And if anything, I always ultimately come back to Derek White, almost being the salve, being the answer for a lot of these things, especially down the stretch. I know, like, maybe you want to save that for Crunchtime. Maybe you want to save that for important possessions. But like, I wonder if we just need to keep tilting things more toward Derek White, less towards Tatum and Brown. It's ultimately where I always kind of default to in these situations. See, I don't even have a really, I don't really have a problem with the way Tatum and Brown were

playing for the most part. I think when Jason Tadenham was in the game is when the Celtics looked the most ordered. When he wasn't in the game is when Peyton Pritchard was dribbling a lot. And I'm more concerned about those minutes than anything that Jason Tatum was doing. I'm more worried about some of Drew Holiday's decisions

as we often are than anything Jason Tatum was doing. Drew Holiday, this was a night for Drew Holiday and the world beating you know, he's Scotty Pippin and Bill Russell in a point guard's body. Boy, when they got Drew Holiday, boy, It just got one of the greatest players in NBA.

Oh, my God. Drew Holiday, he is so great. That's all I'm freaking here. We are 10 minutes. We are 10 minutes into this podcast. And Christophefs Porzingis is the alleged switchbuster. Jason Tatum is the would-be MVP candidate. And New Holiday is Scotty Pippin.

I hope they put this on YouTube too, because the visual of Waz doing this in front of a pilgrim with what seems to be also a zombie, it really just enhances. everything that's going on here. Listen, when I'm watching Tyler freaking hero drop 14 dimes on a team that possesses a dude who I'm told is the greatest vice grip in point guard history

and Tyler Hero is just through the legs, bopping, finding people all game while Drew Holiday is out there. I'm confused, folks. To get back to, I just had to do the Drew thing because I heard too much shit about how great, Drew Holiday is this whole damn year and it pisses me off because he does this every single playoffs.

Only starting member of the starting lineup with the plus plus minus, but okay. Oh, please, because he was just so plus. Tatum too. So Tatum and Brown absolutely need to be faster in how they attack. They need to be more deliberate on turning their one-on-ones

into shots that are closer to the basket and not fade away from 11 feet away. I think they can improve upon that. The guys they're going up against, it's not going to be impossible to get some decent looks and generate that stuff. I think they do need to shore up that stuff. They need to attack quicker. They need to get in their stuff a little bit quicker. They got bogged down. They got pretty stagnant. I think they need to clean that up. But again, ultimately, I think, and Rob shared this with me before they came on, the heat had a 119-and-a-half offensive

rating in this game. No Jimmy Butler. That is, again, I get it. The shooting was very hot. This is the fourth time since the Eastern Conference finals that they've made better than half of their threes against the Boston Celtics. Four times. Shouts to my boy Cooper Morehead. According to him, no team has done that once in that time span. I think I'm actually more surprised that you guys are sharing notes without me. Am I not on this thread or something? What's going on? I literally just ax him for one thing. Yeah. Was one to a little dig.

I got to hook him up. Look, look, you want some stats. Justin. Wow. Collusion out of here. I see what you're fucking doing.

No, my thing is it's like, it's tough because this is the whole conversation with the Celtics. It's almost like baked into how they succeed to allow Tatum and Brown to kind of get out and do their thing. On the other hand, it's just like, Tatum, even at the nail or at the free throw line in kind of the post up Christop,

zone buster position also wasn't really like, orchestrating and really killing it in the way that he should have. And so my thing with White is just like, it just seems like there's off an order in the ball moves. And especially against the zone where you need that movement, like that to me feels like a reason to at least tilt toward him more, even if it's only the series. Yeah, that's the thing. Against the zone,

I think it makes all the sense in the world. And so long as Miami is playing Kevin Love the way they're playing him, which we'll have to see how much that lasts going forward, the zone is going to be a part of what they do. But I wouldn't be surprised, given the success against Porzingis down low, we'll see Haywood Highsmith guard him sometimes. We'll see Jaime Hawkes guard him sometimes. Obviously, we saw Caleb Martin get some reps there.

So it's not like the heater bound to that strategy. And so long as they're switching, that's where all that creative stuff becomes so much more arduous for Boss. It just becomes such a taxing process to get anything resembling an open three for them when a team is guarding them this way. So, was, do you think that Miami wins this? series or you're not that point. The real question is, does Isaiah think that Miami wins this series?

Zay, can we, say, can we get your experience of watching this game unfold? What are like the ebbs and the flows? What are you thinking and feeling as you're watching this? I was in the office trying to be a professional doing work, but I had it watching the game, like literally the whole time. And I'm just trying to figure out like, like you guys said, like at what point do we just play the fucking game, bro? Just guard Caleb Martin.

Like we can't do this two years in a row. The deja vu is kicking my ass. I had season five before this. This is going seven whether I wanted to or not. So the heat are inevitable in that way. Definitely some bud energy from Missoula tonight. I'll say that. Like unwillingness to change at the very least his approach under the defensive end.

Yeah, which is odd for him. Like that's not the coach he's been in the regular season. He's been throwing stuff at the wall all year. And for some reason in this moment, he wanted to stick to his guns. And that could be a like, let's play this one game and see how it goes. And then we'll see a very different Celtics coverage coming into game three. But you would hope that he would be able to shift a little bit on the fly too. Yeah.

And it wasn't just the team three point shooting overall or the fact. that like Nicola Yovich looked like Clay Thompson. Hell yeah, I did. Or it was like Bam hitting practically every mid-range jumper he took. And Bam, there's a lot of credit because he was a stabilizer for the heat in this game. It's just like when you look at it from like outside ourselves from like you step away so you can't hear Waz's cackling in the background anymore. Like I do think that the heat are going to have to repeat a lot of things that are

unrepeatable in order to win this series. And so hopefully for the Celtics, it's a speed bump, but you never know with this team. Yeah, some of the results are going to be hard to repeat. Just making this many threes is going to be hard to repeat. As you said, Bam hitting all those shots is going to be hard to repeat. But things like Bam was just so much more involved in the offense in this game. And I don't even mean that in terms of getting up shots, but using them as a screener, running hero band pick and roll over and over.

He was setting some punishing screens, guys. That's all it takes and it's really important. You know, all of that is much preferred to, for, you know, as effective as Jaime Hawkes was in game one of just like getting to the rim over and over and over. That's not the solution to playoff offense. Like you have to have a more varied attack than that.

And it starts with that kind of two-man action. Also, BAM and I want to credit Golden State and Dreymann and Steph for inventing this. But generally, you know, back in the days, teams would just suck in, the guy that's guarding the non-shooting big would just suck into the paint. And BAM's like, okay, you want to leave your guy?

on an island against me and my shooter friend, I'm going to bury this guy with a screen and therefore my guy's going to be wide-ass open for a three-point shot. And he did that many times today. Like, they put a highlight package of Tyler freaking hero taking threes. And at least four of those makes, y'all.

Nobody in his airspace. Just free as a bird for Tyler Hero. They're probably their second best or best shooter. to just shoot like that. Like, these are things that I have to believe the Celtics can improve upon. Uh,

wise, do you have anyone else you want to throw under the bus for Boston or can we move along here? Uh, no, I think we're straight. We're straight. I just wanted to get to the two.

Johnny Damon. The two offseason acquisitions that turn this team into the championship favorite, allegedly and some juggernaut that could not be stopped in the playoffs. I just had to address that. It's been sitting on my chest for 82. games. I think they're probably still going to be pretty good in the playoffs, but

they did not look good in this one. And I think we should give the heat a little bit more credit, right? Tyler freaking hero did have an uncharacteristically great game, but he had an uncharacteristically great game. Just spotless stuff from him. Great shot making. The playmaking was awesome.

I would love it if we could get this kind of Tyler Hero performance all the time. We know that we won't, but let's cherish it while it's here. You know, good things are fleeting in life. The heat would love it so he could do somewhere else. I was going to say, damn.

Congratulations, you earned a phone call and not a text before you get traded this time. But I'm sure he could ride this one into Abiza and just like live it up this summer off of that one performance. The nightcap in this one, Thunder Pels, not as exciting as the first game.

I would think the big thing in Waz, this is your holiday still. It seemed like Chet earned his playoff big boy pants in this game. Yeah, he started off crazy, just dominating, man. making a couple of threes, getting some buckets inside,

getting some offensive boards. He was just so active and everywhere. I just love his motor, his energy, his competitiveness. Like, for a big, that's not always a given, man. And so, like, him starting his game too that way against, you know, in a matchup where he knows he's, like, at a size and strength disadvantage, that he's using his activity to create advantages for himself.

It was just dope, just awesome for him and only his second playoff game. And I think this is just a great test for the Young Thunder, man, like a veteran-laden group that, you know, can sort of press some of their disadvantages, especially in the physicality department. But ultimately, the Thunder just out-talancing these guys. Their dudes are just way better tonight. How can you not love the balance of this team? The way the Thunder play is so fun to watch.

it's so engaging. And they had so much of the juice that it felt like Boston was missing, you know, on the other part of this slate tonight, where it's not enough to just create advantages in the playoffs. You have to be able to create advantages that you build out of, that go to drawing double teams, forcing rotations. Like, that's why team assists are kind of a bogus metric sometimes.

And I don't take them as an indicator of like, oh, the thunder are so unselfish, although they are an unselfish team. It's more, how are you leveraging what you do well into bigger and better stuff? And Oklahoma City's been so good at that in this series. Yeah, I think after the first game, I think a lot of people, including myself, are lamenting the fact that OKC didn't go out and get that extra big.

I mean, they could have had Daniel Gafford. I think the Dallas Mavericks rerouted a pick from OKC to just go get him and just put him on the bench and use them when you needed to. But in this game, I think this is why you do so because you could allow Chet to play through that. And then you see how his advantages ultimately diminish someone like Valcunus, who just kind of was neutralized in this game. Yeah, you just lose in the aggregate. You know, Valentuna scores the first 11 points of this game for the Pelicans.

Doesn't mean a damn thing because Chet's battling him. He gets enough hands on enough balls, enough contests. He's fighting him on the offensive, or on the, you know, the Thunder's defensive glass. I thought, I thought Chet played this about as well as you could. And on the other side of it, he is not the shooter you want to let it rip with if you're a defense. If that's how you're scheming and your scheme is allowing him to take wide open shots, you're going to lose. You're going to lose the balance of that matchup a lot of times. Rob, were you saying going into this series that you'd heard people wonder out loud whether

or not Shea like could translate to the playoffs or at least like his MVP level brilliance? There was just some questioning about specifically the foul drawing, I think is what people were curious to see. Not a concern I had. Like we've seen him be a mid-range killer and ISO killer pulling up against tough defenses all year. Not a concern that I have held going into this series. and honestly, like the foul drawing is going to come and go for a lot of guys. The question is, what do you and your team do

when you don't have momentum? And the Thunder are kind of figuring that out, right? We saw, I think, more in game one than in game two, but when things do stall out, where do you turn? When the threes aren't falling, where do you go? And so often, the answer is either Shea or J-dub, both of whom were awesome in this game, and they're both able to create out of space

good shots out of thin air with nothing else really going for the offense. So that's where you want to be, if you're a playoff team, to have those sorts of dial-up options, just sitting ready to roll out whenever you want. Yeah, Shay's ability to create space is just second to none. He's going to get space.

He's going to get his shot off. And if he has even an ounce of daylight inside of 19 feet, basically, that thing is damn near automatic. Also, three-threes in this game? Just to flex on him a little more? Not afraid to, and, you know, that's not what he goes for. He's not a high-volume three-point guy, but he's proven that that's a consistent shot for him.

And of course, all of this is supplementing his drive game where he's just a great finisher. Like, you know, I think the foul stuff, when you get in the mud with some of the better teams, being able to draw fouls on key possessions, can sometimes usually is the difference, you know, a superstar being able to just get to the line on these tough possessions where, you know,

you've gone four or five possessions in a row coming up empty in a, you know, a game five where you're two, too, right? Having that free throw is going to be important, and I think you'll be able to ultimately get there. But, yeah, you know, I like the challenge that's being presented here for the Thunder. And it's, you know, they legitimately have to solve these guys. And the Pelicans aren't going to make it easy.

They're going to play really hard. But I just love how much these guys, both Shea and Jalen drive with the purpose of passing, man. They drive the pass. They drive to set up their guys. I watched their postgame interview that Shea's doing with four of the dudes with Ali LaForce. And that shit isn't corny to me. Like, it feels legitimate that these guys are connected with one another.

I'm actually touched by the guy. You know what I mean? What's wrong with you, Justin? No heart, no warmth in your heart for the dogs. I like the parking. I'm just sick in the head. Vary is one sick, sick, sick individual. Come on.

Come on. I like it if we could turn what Rob just did into a drop that we could just play on and on again. Look, anytime J. Dove does something great, pull the drop, let's go. I'm happy to be a part of it. And I'll say this. I hated when the Hawks won Eastern Conference Player of the Month.

That was annoying. I triply hated it when the goddamn Patriots came out in the Super Bowl against the Rams. Oh, we're not going to be announced. Oh, we're just going to run out as a team because we're a unit. I hated that shit. I don't even know what you're talking about. anymore. I hated that. I do.

I hate that shit. But I was into that post game. It seems like these guys really, really like mess with each other, man. I like that the arena has now picked that up and they start barking very loudly in this game whenever he does it. So if it becomes like a communal thing,

I'm for it, but like all the guys during an interview, it's just like, that's been done before. It's not even like new. It's just like, it's typical young people doing something that was happened 10 years ago, but they didn't know it happened 10 years or but like I guess we have to pretend that it's cute and fun. Justin's a male unity.

If you're a young person, you don't have the whole of human history in your head, get a life, you know, five years ago. Hit the books. Come on. I'm sure old school OKC with Katie and the Browington did the same thing. And I'm sure we had the same cycle. We know that. On the other end of this, at what point do we need to talk about Branden

in Ingram because it's something just hasn't been right with him pretty much all season. He had his own injury issues, which at this point is pretty much annual. It just seemed like when Zion stepped to the fore and the team really kind of became Zion's team, he struggled to really orient himself. And I would expect in a situation like this, which is similar to the kind of the setup he had, what was it, two years ago against the Suns when they had that kind of really fun, scrappy first round series and he was the guy and he seemed like kind of the focal point of what they were going to do going forward. He really has struggled to get back there. And I'm curious what you think,

Rob. It's just like something's just like he's just not really integrating into reintegrating himself into what the team is doing. Yeah, I think the first thing that's probably bothering him is Lou Dort in his jersey, possession after possession after possession, just crushing it defensively, hounding him relentlessly. Those things are real. The problem with Ingram, and I think this question has been lingering for a while as far as like what his ideal role is where he should be and alongside what kinds of players

because we see here his limitations as a first option score. When you need to go to him over and over and over, he does have the high release point, but if you pressure him very high on the floor, it's hard for him to get to his spot sometimes. But he also doesn't really have the complimentary game that makes him an ideal second option score.

And he won't take spot up threes with any consistency, even though he's pretty good at them for the most part. He's very particular. He is very particular. Yes, I think, and a lot of scores are this way, especially these kind of pull-up shooting artists. Can be very particular, but the timing and the rhythm of how they get their attempts. Ingram has always been one of those guys.

He's still incredibly talented. He's still very capable. He's still coming back from injury. We need to say that over and over as he's kind of feeling his way through these games. We saw what Kawhi Leonard looked like in his first game back, barely a shadow of his usual self. Ingram is a little closer to the standard vintage, but he's working his way back too.

Yeah, he's not a gap filler. I think we saw that with Team USA when, you know, like you said, he wouldn't take the spot-up threes and he just doesn't like seamlessly fit into, you know, a system or something that's happening like with the five men. It kind of has to be him working off

what he likes to do. And the shit he's trying to get off against Lou Dord, he just happens to be the worst possible matchup for what, you know, Brandon Ingram is trying to achieve. And the other thing, it's like, it's not as if when he's rolling, it lifts all boats either, right? Like, it's nice, it's awesome. It definitely helps the team.

But when he gets rolling, things don't automatically start getting easier for Herb Jones and the other guys. Like, it doesn't work that way. And so I think he's bumping up against the limitations of the way his game functions even in the best of times. Yeah, what are the symbiotic relationships on the court for Brandon Ingram? Again, a very good and very talented player. But when Shea gets going, Chet benefits, right? Yes.

You know, Isaiah Joe on the weak side benefits. Kaysen Wallace benefits. You see the tangible results of that. I don't know who those guys are for the Pelicans. And that's not to say that Ingram doesn't make great passes sometimes because he does. but it's a little bit more of a complicated premise for him. By the way, when Zion gets rolling, teams be like,

yo, I got to send like three people into the paint and those shooters start getting some fresh air and oxygen and they can let it fly. What's the Ingram thing, you know? Yeah, you see him on paper and you're like, this guy could probably work around everything. He can handle it. He can shoot it.

He's very long. He's very athletic. But when you see it in practice, I think I keep coming back. to the word particular. It's like he does a very specific thing. He wants to get to his specific spots. And it's really hard to tailor make that, especially when Zion is coming to form. And obviously, like, Trey Murphy and Herb Jones also are taking steps forward. And so I think it's a particularly interesting conversation to have, especially going into this offseason.

Ingram only has one year left on his deal. He did not make all NBA and thus he's not super max eligible. And so, like, there's a pretty big decision to have here, both for him, because the Pelicans no longer have like the means to keep him beyond an extra year on a contract, but also for the Pelican, the team that hasn't paid the luxury tax. And so all these contracts are starting to pile up here. Trey Murphy, I believe, is rookie contract extension eligible. He's going to get a fat deal because he is incredible and has looked really good in this series at time, although sometimes the shot selection a little off, but we'll work on it.

He's who we thought Cam Johnson was. There's some truth to that. And defensively, more than Cam Johnson was ever. thought to be. Ever, ever, ever, ever. You can also dunk on your head. That deeps out of the gym, Trey Murphy. So, I don't know, it just feels like things are mounting and at least gaining momentum toward, like, maybe the Pelicans and even Ingram are better off, maybe finding a divorce here in the summer, but I guess we'll see. Yeah, it's two really interesting case studies in this series of teams trying to play a balanced style. And OKCs just

feels a lot more well-worn, and the grooves feel a lot more natural in terms of how they find their supporting guys the ball. Versus, you know, even in the best version of New Orleans, there's a lot of plates you got to keep spinning at once. And plates you got to keep spinning in different ways. Like the mechanisms to set up Jonas Valenctunus in the Post are very different than the ones to get Brandon Ingram off or to get C.J. McCollum free or to get Trey Murphy a wide open three.

It's hard to do all of those things at once. And so they do inevitably have to pick and choose. And when Zion's out there, it makes the picking and choosing a little bit easier. Like the gravitational pull is going to tug in his direction. But without him, you know, you got to figure a lot out to make this team work at a really high level. Yeah, I guess we're going to talk about Ingram.

I'm going to mention C.J. McCollum, not that much better here. I mean, honestly, the game kind of dragged along toward the end there. I mean, I was already starting to think about hypothetical trades in areas, but I could see even trading the two of them together for like a star, I think would actually be, what do you guys think about this one? Just humor me because I know Rob is about the flip out. It's game two.

It's a conversation. We're having fun. Who says no in an Ingram plus McCollum trade for Damien Lillard? The Milwaukee Bucks say no. What is

what is Ingram do for the bucks? He don't guard. You're basically splitting Dame into two I guess would be the thing. And you just have more options as opposed to in the best of days, this man barely passed the ball. And now that he can't even dribble past anybody,

he can't turn the corner on people. It's like, he's not even bringing that no more. So I just can't see it. And like Brandon Ingram, it's the funny thing, too, because in 2019, I went to a couple of Laker games and one of which they were playing the Warriors. And I saw him give, like, two and a half straight possessions of just insane contests on KD pull-ups in ISO.

And I was like, this kid is the future of NBA defense. I convinced myself for this because he did that against KD. And yeah. Yeah. What have you thought of his defense since then? It never materialized, bro. Never did, unfortunately. The stray block from him, some hustle plays here and there, but really inconsistent effort.

I think everything we just said about Brandon Ingram to me is why you would not want him as a Milwaukee buck. Yeah. You know, all the fit questions. The next generation. You know, you get a little younger on the long term. You spread it out.

You do get younger, but, you know, you already got Chris Middleton. What do you need to Brandon Ingram for, ultimately? I don't know if Chris Milton's going to make it. To next year, let alone two years from now. All right. Which series do we want to hit next? Since we're in the West, do you want to go down the standings here?

Maybe Wool Suns. Let's do Dallas and the Clippers because I was in the building last night. Kauai, obviously, his first game back. Even when he's at his best physically, you would never consider Kauai's game to be fluid. I don't think that's the word. Elastic is not the word you would use. It's almost like a car that you haven't started in three years. like how to inch it might go

that's kind of what it felt like watching Kauai you know just come up short on so many of his jump shots last night and his timing was just off timing, rhythm just off and he is a station by station

machine like player and you could tell that it was just a lot of rust to his game but you know ultimately man he's got to turn that around because the Clippers they don't have any one-on-one creation elsewhere. Paul George can't turn the corner on Maxi Kleber,

Luca Donchich. He's just not able to do it. I think Tailu is, you know, one of these great matchup hunters, and Paul George could get to a point where he's getting smaller guys on him, and he's using his size to create a little space to rise and fire in two-point range. But, like, he's not getting to the rack. he's not getting the calls when he does get there. Their offense looked a mess yesterday.

And the bottom line is Luca and Kyrie looked like stars. You know, they look like guys that could put their respective teams on their back and get it done possession by possession, or even when they wanted to send two in the fourth quarter at Luca, and he was just like, look, we're going to give it to you, we're going to pass it to him in the corner and just orchestrating like that. Dallas looked like they had stars. The clippers looked like they did.

not. Yeah. That might seem platitudey, but it really felt true. And it was just long stretches of stagnant offense for the clippers. I do think Paul George might have a little more juice than you give him credit for. I thought in some of those matchups, it was more him settling than the fact that he couldn't get by certain guys. So some of that is going to be up to him to kind of force through, even if it's just kind of like running through Luca a little more in those situational matchups, which we should say, Luca guarded his ass off in this game. Really slap the floor and got into it in a way that the Mavs needed him to. And I thought the collective defensive energy from,

not just Luca, but Kyrie from PJ Washington showing up for the first time in this series, from Derek Jones Jr., who I thought was revved up in a different way, there was just a lot more collective help in terms of protecting the rim, where it wasn't always up to mostly Derek lively inside, sometimes Maxi Kleba. You know, Daniel Gafford has been in and out of this series now with a back injury, so we'll have to see how much he can really participate in it. But those other guys were crashing inside in a way that helped a ton. Yeah, the thing that jumped out to me was this is a series for the olds like us.

Like this whole past decade of the MEEA was kind of written by guys hopping teams. Like they're just instill an AAU and it's funny that it's now like Kyrie and Hardin and all these guys all in the same series. But the Hardin Kyrie like dueling was really spicy. And I appreciated that. Some definite spice there. Where's the Skullville scale on that, do you think? what does it go up to?

It can go, it can be in the millions. Oh, yeah, it's tens and hundreds of thousands. But like pepper-wise, what do you like a Fresno? So, okay, Serrano. Serrano. Pretty spicy. But still room for spicy here. Yeah, it's not quite a habanero.

Obviously, not a ghost pepper or a Trinidadian scorpion, but like, Serrano pepper. It's very solid. Yeah. I think Russ also showing up late in the game, both in, having an effect positively for his team and then having an effect on PJ Washington diving into the floor like he was on a slip inside that was so awesome the fact that they didn't call that was so incredible completely missed it um it was great russ i thought man look russ i thought gave them great energy he had a couple of block shots a couple of like monster

rebounds for them. Like, I understand what he's bringing to the table. It's just at a certain point, Tailu, like, I don't know why you need to have Russ and Zub on the floor. I get it. Zub is giving you some good-ass minutes,

but your offense, when your guys can't create advantages on their own one-on-one, it's tough, man, to manufacture some space. I thought Norm could have done, could have been a little bit more aggressive. Good a one game. on first names basis with all these guys.

Oh, yeah, of course. I mean, Norm's a norm. Norm is, yeah, Norm is Norm. He's been Norm. Kai Reed, speaking of which, man, his effort level, Kai, my boy, Kai, his effort level is just eye-popping, dude. Like, obviously he's been a model citizen since he got to Dallas. But the way that there can be like five possessions in a row where they pretend that the guy

doesn't exist. he's just like whatever. He's just seamlessly fitting into the team concept, stepping up when ass, taking his defense seriously, being a setup, man. Like, I'm really proud of what Kyrie's doing out there. It's pretty cool to watch.

And he was a major factor in why they won that game. Yeah, this was a perfect case study in why he and Luca functioned so well together. But that ability to activate instantly, even if it's been five possessions since he touched the ball, there just aren't a lot of guys who can do that at this level. So we can zip around a little bit here. Give us the key to this series, Rob, going forward.

I mean, this game was super tight. Like, I think the complexion of this series is much, much closer to game two than game one. I think the key is going to be the bigs. And in particular, can they continue to keep Zhu under wraps? Because Gafford was having no luck doing it before he got hurt. Lively is prone to lots of foul trouble. Max Cclibea hit two of the biggest shots of his life to put this game away. and he doesn't really do that on a consistent basis.

So weirdly enough, given all the star power we've talked about, I think the bigs are going to end up deciding a lot of it. Yeah, lively looked a little over his head. Kawhi, make some shots, force them to send some help your way, get the defensive rotation, get your team's offense out the mug. The road to the NBA finals starts now, and new customers on Fandul can go on their own playoff run with $150 bucks. Just place any $5 bet and you'll get $150 in both.

bonus bets, win or lose, to use during the NBA playoffs. So we're going to keep this one simple. I like the Cavs plus two in game three on the road in Orlando. Honestly, like the margins here are going to be pretty slim considering the way both teams are playing offense, but I do not have any faith in the Orlando Magic. And give me nuggets plus one in L.A. against the Lakers. I know, I know you assume the Lakers will get one of these one day, but it seems like the Nuggets have a lot of pride on the line here to keep them off of the win total ledger. So let's do that. Nuggets plus one, calves plus two, lock it in. And guess what? Fandul is now

live in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Let's go, baby. Just go to fandle.com slash ringer MBA to get started. Fandul official sports betting partner of the NBA. Must be 21 plus and 18 plus in D.C. And present in select states gambling problem. Call 1,800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. C-terms at sportsbook. fandal.com.

Do you want to do Lakers Nugs or Wolfs Sons? Let's just move straight up. So let's go Wolf's Sons first. So Ant and Towns had seven combining points at halftime. And the wolves won this game somehow. I think this is, this might be a wrap. Things could flip completely differently in Phoenix. they did against the Nuggets last year,

but boy, watching the three guys Beal and KD and Booker interact is, it's almost as if they haven't played together. It is almost that way. We might have to change the three guys. I think it's two guys and Bradley Beal. Like, that's where we're at.

It's those two guys, it's Bradley. Bradley Beal, he's closer to NERC than he is to Booker and Durant. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And when you said the three guys that you say you keep whatever. The three guys that came to my mind was Rudy

and Jaden on defense. A pack of fucking wolves, bro. Is that the best we've ever seen Jaden McDaniels play? It's got to be in the running. They forced 19 turnovers in game two. Just supplicating all of this stuff, just completely

taking the oxygen, the will to live and survive from these guys. These dudes look defeated after game. to. And like, again, it's like their offense was like kind of pedestrian. You know, Mike Conley came through and it was nice, but they just dominated them. Shut off everything they want to do on offense. And, yo, Nikiel Alexander Walker, man, he has been a find of revelation. I feel like he was borderline damn there out of the league by the time he got to

Minnesota and has turned this thing around. He is a mad dog on defense out there. He's picking guys up court like devil hounding this dude. Yo, these guys were setting screens in the back court because they couldn't get the freaking ball across the court, guys. We're talking about three max players out there.

Blown away by what Minnesota's doing. Big ups to Chris Finch, all the buy-in that he's getting from these guys, the way that they play as a collective on defense. Rudy Gobert has been vindicated. This I did it. He's not a playoff center on defense. Can we say that one more time, a little

louder about Rudy. Rudy Gobert has been vindicated, y'all. Give Rudy his props. He's not crying about making all-star teams no more. Rob won't let us talk about the off-season after two games. We can't vindicate Rudy Go-Ber. I'm sorry. You know what?

The truth is he didn't need to be vindicated. The real ones already knew, you know? That fair. That's Christ. That's it. I think it's weird how big the wolves look in comparison to the sons. And yet the sons don't have the math advantage in order to play small. small, it's mind-boggling.

Waz brought this up a last podcast, and I wanted to revisit this because the Suns took 11-3s at half, 22 overall. It's like, if you go small, the advantages you have the shooting to take him down. Like, even David had a slingshot, you know? It's just like, it's a legit three-point range. On the other hand, they're just like throwing rocks at these much larger humans, and they just get swallowed alive in certain possessions. I'm just like, where is the advantage coming from?

Yeah, a team with Kevin Durant, Brad Beal, Devin Booker, somewhat Grayson Allen, although he turned his ankle and it looked even nastier than the first time. That is a major loss. Huge deal for them. And like, let's lump Royce O'Neill in there, too, and Eric Gordon. That team is averaging fewer three-point attempts than any other team in the playoffs. Make it make sense because it never will to me. Because guys like Katie, they're part of bagged Twitter,

and he can do a couple of crossovers against. Rudy and it looks sweet and he crossed them up and look at the handle, look at the sick handle, and take ultimately a pull-up long two. And sometimes KD's hiding, you'll make it like game one and drop 31, and guess what, y'all still going to lose.

Because the defense is not affected by that. And an offense cannot run on KD being a one-on-one supernova. You're not going to out-tallent these guys with that. Rudy is guarding you on an island and he don't give a fuck about it. Okay?

When you want to be a bag maven, mid-range maven, this is what you get, y'all. We should start a reform program for bag Twitter members. If you get out of the cult, come to us, and we will re-educate you on the ways of the basketball world. All you bag mavens out here, you're not wanted here. Bradley Beale makes $50.2 million next season, fifth highest in the NBA. Kevin Durant. We should all be so lucky. Kevin Duran

Sixth highest in the NBA contract Devin Booker tied for seventh This is a like No Breaks Win or Go Home roster Like that's the way they built it That's what their objectives are And they're gonna have a lot of trouble

Making it out of the series alive I can't even come up with a trade for this one That's how bad it is $200 million Left on Brad Bills deal For the next four years And he's got a no trade clause Yeah

Good night Phoenix, good night. You're done. The financial questions are all relative. You may have to figure out, oh, can we afford a roster with towns and Nas Reid and Gobert making all this money? Maybe you can. Maybe you can't. But guess what?

At least you're going to win a series like this one with those guys on your roster and with a defense that's this good. Hopefully your owner can sell some more subprime mortgages. Some triple Bs out there. Just one last thing before we move on. Is Devin Booker the biggest asshole in the NBA? And how much rope does he get because he's handsome? Objection, Your Honor. These are multiple leading questions.

I think, just like every single series, he's always getting it into with somebody. Every single NBA, like, playoff series he's been in. He's gotten to a fight with someone. And I appreciate it because outside of the lines, he'll like have a, he'll take a step back and be able to acknowledge

that it's not that big of a deal. and I appreciate that. But every single fucking series, he's about to fight someone. Yeah, he's always talking shit. He's the most fogger of all-star players. Put that on a shoe commercial.

All right. I guess we have to talk about the Nuggets and the Lakers. Oh, yeah, we do. It's just so dispiriting. Like, I didn't think it got worse after game one.

But, like, the Lakers looked legitimately good for, what, three quarters. Like Dilo had the game of his fucking life. It preserved LeBron. To the point we're in the third quarter, LeBron and AD were kind of carving up Yokic in the pick and roll. And I was like,

let's fucking go. Play off the team is no more. I don't have to hear this shit anymore. And then things just turned around at the end as they typically do. I just, I don't know what you do here unless Christian Wood can come in. He's basically Moses out there. Yeah,

when the injury report is whether Christian Wood or Jared Vanderbilt, will be available for this series. I'm sorry, guys. It's a wrap. Like, if you can't get this game, I don't know how you could expect to win. So, like, here's the thing. The genius adjustment that Michael Malone made

was like, all right, we're going to switch A.G. onto AD. And it was working. It stopped a lot of stuff and all of that. LeBron, you know that bum hunting thing that y'all do? You know you could do that, like, off. the ball too. Like, you know, AD could, like, have Yokic's man

set a screen for him and force the switch or force the defense to react because AD is now in an advantageous position off of the screen. You know, you don't have to spam the one thing that was working after they make an adjustment. It's like, and it's certainly... And this is where, like, I get dispulsture love because I feel it, too.

It's like Spow would have tried something else after the Nuggets did that. Well, found a way to get Anthony Davis the ball for critical stretches of this game. He had been good every time he touched it. And the offense just could not find him, could not find him in spots. They went to Rui instead. And Rui is just the bare minimum of an NBA rotation player. It's a real choice. And now you're down 02 and you're supposed to beat these guys four out of five games.

no home court advantage, your season is done. You're done. Yeah, Justin, you brought up in game one, zero turnovers for the nuggets in game one. Just to follow up on that, two turnovers in the entire second half for them in game two. Like, they just turn into an execution machine

in these second halves. And if you're not finding your best players and getting them the ball, I don't know how you expect to compete with that. Yokic, what he did to AD for like three possessions in a row, was fucking mean, man. That one where he just had him on his back and he stuck his ass out

and AD basically had to file him over the top and smacked his head and one. I'm just like, this is fucked up, man. This is a defensive player of the year candidate this is happening to. It's ridiculous. When Yokic tried to draw the foul from what was it, like basically mid-court.

Oh, my God. And yet Gordon saved it and toe-tapped like he was Justin Jefferson. and then basically one touched it to Michael Porter in rhythm and shot the three as like, this is divine intervention. Like there's nothing we could do here. Yokic has been trying to get that call for years

and he's never gotten it. Why would you try? Why would you try to do it in this moment? It's the crisp Paul in him. He's got a little Chris Paul in him with that stuff. He does. Lakers are chapsui though. We know it.

We can move on from them. Well, part of the reason we should at least acknowledge is Jamal Murray hitting an incredible shot. Phenomenal. Yet another little feather in the cap of one of the best clutch performers in the NBA right now. I did see from the fine folks at DNVR, they're floating ideas for a name for this shot. I'm curious of these two options for you guys. Do you prefer the Laker Breaker or Hale Murray was the other suggestion?

You like Hale Murray? I mean, Laker Breaker is pretty good, though. Hail Murray is nice. We almost suffocated Anthony Davis. That was chill. I was just watching. I was like, someone please, KCP of all people had to get him out of it.

Dig him out. Yes. In clutch, we trust. I'd be trying to tell y'all. Some bonds to the members of teams. I'll be trying to tell y'all. I'll be trying to tell you.

You, I don't listen. All right. Let's flip to the east now. We got to do Nick Sixers up the top here. And let's start here. I know the NBA didn't actually penalize Daryl Morey for whatever happened with China a few years ago. I think if he actually files this fucking complaint, this book report that he's reportedly going to put out about the officiating games one and two. I think he needs to get the fuck out of it.

We need to deport this guy. Send him to Canada somewhere else. I don't want to hear from him ever again. He's a loser. He's a loser. He's fostering a losing identity within this team. the idea that you're up all of these points within the last two minutes

and you don't close it out and you start crying about officiating instead of looking within in a game that you had firmly in your grass is because you're fucking losers. You're losers. There's nothing else to say. It's not about playing better.

It's not about boxing Hartenstein out. I mean, it is about that. It's not about inbounding a freaking ball or knowing that you have a timeout and calling it or calling them. the timeout while you're on the floor, rolling around with the ball. It's not about any of that.

It's about the freaking refs. Loser. They're losers, bro. It's loser behavior. Up and down that damn franchise, that team. It all started with the nasty process and this praising of losing and fostering an atmosphere of, oh, our prince savior is the process. Oh, they're so special.

And they're lifting us up. And they're going to get us to the second round and not anywhere further. The process is loser shit. It's loser shit. What did Hollis Thompson do to you? You know? Leave him out of this. Yeah.

I say all of that to say, I'm being dramatic, honestly. I think, like, they freaking shut the Knicks water off for two games. The Knicks can't score against this team. No. I don't see why Philly can't believe that they can't win two freaking games at home against this Knicks squad that they so clearly have, you know, the ability to stop and beat. they've had the two best players on the floor. Even with Joelle Embed in a compromise position

and even, I don't know if you guys have been keeping up with this today, but with what appears to be some weird left eye injury where his left eye just like does not blink. This is insane. It's way above our pay grade, but something is going on nerve-wise, structurally. I don't know what it is, but it's noticeable. I think it was at that point where I realized that

Embedd needs this more than anybody else in the world. Like his quote and his video after the game the other day, like I am legitimately feeling sad for him because it just feels like he needs this so badly to go right. But if he does play that way, I know he's hurt, but like there are rebounds that are bouncing off his hands. There's times where he's getting out-foxed

by Dante DiVincenzo and Josh Hart and do like, do some pride. Like these guys are absolutely like the Knicks are complete gamers top to bottom. Like that roster, They show up, they play hard in these games, they deliver in these moments. The chaos of those final possession suits them, to be sure. Team full of back alley guys, Rob, hard hat guys.

No doubt. Blue collar guys. But the Sixers had it in their power to not go down the dark alley and maybe avoid the blue collar guys. They just chose not to. They just chose not to. Batman origin story E, but we'll keep going here. Yeah, this after Dante Divencenzos three went through, the pearls just scattered across the MSG floor.

Look, man, the nigs are a team full of dogs, a team full of guys, a men who work with their hands, old school guys, man. And the Sixers, I shouldn't even say, they played their asses off, man. Like, these guys played hard. Tobias Harris is horrible on offense, but like he's giving it everything he can on defense.

But Toom's defense, I swear to God, man, they need to pass that man a piss cup what he's doing against Jalen Brunson, bro. It's crazy. You know, Ubrey, all, like these guys are playing hard as hell. Like, again, how can you believe that you can't beat the Knicks two times at home? I mean, it could very easily have been 206ers right now.

I know all the B told me this. Our whole tenor in this conversation would be totally different. different, if not for a Josh Hart III and a Dante Divencher. Or really, the fluky offensive rebound that Hartenstein snared up leading to the second Dante Divencino attempt. I do think it is the stuff on the margins, though. And that's why I have Nix going forward. I mean, I could see the Sixers winning the next two games, but the fact that they've been

able to come up in these like toss up situations. Like, I don't see that going the other way, especially with Indeed Hobbled. Is there anything else, Rob, you're seeing keys of the series-wise that might swing this? Just fucking chaos. Apparently. every game is going to boil down to it. And that's where I agree with you. Like, how do you pick against these Knicks

coming up with the craziest plays of every game? Because they've shown that they're going to do it. Bucks Pacers, I got to say, I was feeling oddly optimistic, even though the Pacers kind of put it on the Bucks in that second game, held game to eight points,

I think, believe. After halftime, combined in the first two games. We're able to run off. of practically every miss shot. The bucks looked old. And yeah, I was like, if Janus is in there, he probably solves a lot of the issues that the Pacers are exploiting,

especially maybe Pascal Seacom, getting so much off of activity and down low. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like Janus is coming back anytime. Soon, Shams had a report today that he's doing some stationary jump shooting, but not much cutting, no scrimaging, no all-out running yet. Yeah. which is going to be tough. Game two was a lot of all-out running.

Yeah. Yeah. And so the next game isn't until I believe Friday, so they had some time. And I thought maybe if he can get into that game, get his feet underneath them, and then they could really hit the ground running. But like, damn, was this is unfortunate. They got a prey that this man comes back in game four. Again, I still think they can beat the Pacers without, be honest.

It's just, it's going to be by the skin of their teeth, if that is the case. And so, yeah, they need this guy back if they're going to advance. And, you know, the season has been so discombobulated and disjointed. Like, this would just be right in that mix of how this season has gone, man. And, you know, it is what it is. Then be the breaks. Yeah. And how the Pacers factor into that, too, I think is important.

Game one, I thought Indiana's defensive showing was about as horrendous as we've seen from a play in a long time, just like, we're not ready to play. complete breakdowns, inexplicable breakdowns all throughout game one. They played so much better on offense in game two, but they also tightened up a lot of that stuff. Just the like losing guys completely on cuts to the basket have been much less frequently, much less of a problem in game two. And so if you're doing that, then we're starting to see the limits of what Dame can accomplish on his own on offense, right?

If he has to do this much lifting all the time, that's a hell of a burden to put on a guy. And right now, Pascal and Dame are won two in the playoffs in. scoring average. And Pascal has been everything the Pacers have could have possibly wanted from him and more in these first two games. A save, like the loan saving grace in game one. And really carrying a lot of the scoring that

Tyrese Halliborne has not been able to muster in both of these games so far. Haliburne, pretty pedestrian. I thought game two is pretty good. Game one just like did not know what was required of him clearly in game one. But I thought he showed up much to much greater effect in game two.

I'm often surprised though when he steps inside the three point arc. He had, I believe, six total shots in the paint between these two games. I know he's doing a lot of quiet work there drawing the defenders out in order to, like guard a high screen basically toward the mid-court line, giving Seacum and some of these guys some extra space to do this. So he is doing a lot there just subtly. It's just, he just seems muted in a way that is kind of reminiscent of the regular season. You're hoping when he got to the playoffs, maybe he can kick it up a notch. It just seems like he's not maybe all that way back from the injury or whatever happened to him.

And so, I mean, the opening is there for that reason and others, as we talked about for the bucks. I just don't know if they have anything other than Dame scoring pretty much 30 and a half in order to get over that. Even Chris Milton, as we alluded to before, just turned his ankle yet again during that game in the first half just didn't seem right the entire way. Should we talk about Cavs Magic? Yeah.

Do we have about Cavs Magic? Yeah. What is evolved in Cavs Magic? It feels very similar to Game One. is basically every single thing we said the wolves are doing to the Phoenix Suns, except it was expected. That's the difference. We expected the Mavericks offense to struggle in the playoffs.

We did. We all did. The magic, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think if Jamal Mosley trots out one more all-bench lineup, he should have all of his coach of the year votes revoked. Like, they just don't. take him away from...

Also be revolt? It's just like, we're in the playoffs, man. I get that the bench was so critical to what you did. And the defense was so critical to what you did. But like, let's try some new stuff. You know, everyone's playing their best players here. I don't really want to see this much Mo Wagner going out there. Yeah.

I mean, look, you took two cracks at this with the rotation that you had. You scored 85 points a game. Your team shot 34% from the floor. If you do not dramatically change your rotation at this point, your season is over. And honestly, your season is probably over anyway, but you have to at least try some things. I would think this is the point

where you pull the cord, Palo at the 5, like Jonathan Isaac out of the starting lineup, he's a sensational defender, but it's just not working offensively for you. And honestly, like, I'm throwing like Caleb Houston in there. Like, maybe Joe Ingalls, if you want to do like more of a veteran hand,

although like, okay, Joe Engels, maybe the best three-point shooter on this team has taken two three-point attempt. in 30 total minutes. Stop pump faking. Stop it. I don't even care if they're lightly contested. You need to shoot.

And more importantly, as Isaiah would say, he's a cone. That man could not guard anything. No. But we can deal with some cones. You know, I'm fine with a cone if he can shoot. He just prioritizes the defense above all. And I know it's your identity. And I know you want to stick with what worked.

But it's not working anymore. You need to score over 90 points. It's tough. Yeah, they're not shooting 24% from three for this series. You're like, this is the way that's going to go, you know? Jalen Suggs 10% on his three-point attempt so far. Ingalls, who is my solution, has not made a three in this series. These are your good shooters, much less, you know, you're Jonathan Isaacs.

And, you know, like, Palo is always kind of so-so and pretty streaky in that regard. There's just, there's nowhere that the space is going to. come from and therefore there's nowhere that the offensive flow is going to come from so this roster kind of is what it is right now all right why don't we wrap it there was you want to let everyone know where they could find you on truth social after this the failing orlando magic uh all right uh we'll be back i think saturday night we're going to record uh because the games are ending a little earlier pt than is typical uh so look for your feeds late Saturday earlier than usual on Sunday.

We'll be back then. Thank you to Isaiah Blakely. Thank you to Ben Cruz. We'll see you then. Must be 21 plus and 18 plus in D.C. In present in select states, Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC.

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