The Ringer NBA Show - Here They Don’t Come: The Celtics Bulldoze the Sixers, Plus Cavs-Raptors and Pelicans-Warriors | The Ringer NBA Show (Ep. 259)

Episode Date: May 1, 2018

The Ringer’s Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor react to the Boston Celtics’ convincing victory over the Philadelphia 76ers (1:19), debate whether LeBron could carry the Cleveland Cavaliers past the Toronto Raptors (41:46), and gauge the New Orleans Pelicans’ chances to make the series competitive against the Golden State Warriors (1:01:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's show is brought to you by the Dave Chang Show on the Ringer Podcast Network. Michelin Star Chef Dave Chang now has a podcast right here on the Ringer Podcast Network, produced in partnership with Major Domo Media. Volume 1 of the pre-opening diaries went up last Thursday in which Dave sits down with our boss Bill Simmons to talk about everything that led up to him deciding to move to Los Angeles. It's a riveting conversation in which you get to hear one of the greatest chefs in the world share his thought process in opening a restaurant. Volume 2 is coming this Thursday, so go subscribe to the Dave Chang Show on Apple Podcast

or wherever you get your podcast. And now, The Ringer MBA Show. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Varner, and join me as he does every Tuesday, which we are recording late Monday night after we just watched Game 1 of the Celtics v. 76ers is from the ringer.com. Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, aka Kevin O'Concert, a.k.a. Kevin O'C. A.k.a.

Whatever. Kevin. Chris, I think this is our first Monday night edition of the show. I'm excited. It is a late Monday night edition of the show. We just got done watching Celtics versus Sixers.

117 to 101. Terry Rozier, Scary Terry Alhorford, Jason Tatum, combined for 83 points. The Celtics led by as much as 19 in the game and a rather surprising.

What adjective do we use to describe this performance? I mean, this is like a friggin' masterpiece considering Jalen Brown was out. It's stunning to me in the sense that part of, like, okay, everybody expected the Celtics defense to possibly give the Sixers some problems, right? But everything that could have went right for Boston this game absolutely did. They came in with a spectacular game pin building a wall to keep Ben Simmons out of the paint. Their transition defense was fantastic. All the key guys you already mentioned had fantastic games for them. Philly wasn't hitting some of the open shots they were getting.

But overall, I mean, Boston, I think, completely exploited some of the matchups on the floor. Tatum versus Reddick pulling in B'd out of the paint with Al Horford. They came in with a spectacular game plan and really almost a wake-up call for Philadelphia. face the defense like this in months. Well, do you see the percentage that Boston shot for this game? 48% from the field, 47% from three. And that's, and meanwhile, Philly shoots 19% from three. I mean, just from the three point line.

Let's see, they had 17. Philly had five three-pointers for the game. So that's a 36-point difference just from the three-point line. Wow. For sure. And I think, you know, it's easy to say, look, Philadelphia hit shots. If Robert Covington didn't have such a poor game, it would have been different. And that's true.

But I do think Celtics defense certainly knocked Philadelphia out of their rhythm with their defense. Ben Simmons was really, really limited in the half court. The way Boston was defending it with Al Horford was the primary defender for the majority of the possessions. But they're really building a wall with their entire defense to keep him out of the lane. And Philadelphia was a bit more stagnant on the offensive end of the floor. the tracking numbers aren't out yet, but I would imagine that they probably had fewer passes over the course of the game.

It just seemed like the ball wasn't moving as crisply as it usually does for that team. And I think a lot of threes that they were taking weren't of the higher quality threes that they normally would get like they did versus the heat or that they did during their win streak towards the end of the season.

Well, this is one thing that is worth mentioning. They were so good within the three-point line against Miami that it didn't matter. matter. They got out shot by Miami from the three point line, 36% to 39%. And in fact, there were two of those games towards the end where you just didn't notice because they ended up winning. I mean, they won that series by a margin of 11 points a game. But there were two of those games where they were a combined 14 of 59 from three, which is 24%. So, I mean, it's not like it's the first time we've seen Philly have bad shooting nights from the three point line.

The thing was when they were 14 to 59, they still won. So it wasn't that noticeable, right? It becomes super noticeable when they hit five tonight and they get smacked around. Sure. It's definitely partially the shooting. And what came to mind watching the game was also just some of the matchups. I mean, Philadelphia putting J.J. Reddick on Jason Tatum is a good matchup for the Celtics, which they exploited straight out of the gate.

Tatum has a size advantage and athleticism advantage, a speed advantage too for that manner. And he scored a career high, 28 points, which actually matches his high that he had at Duke as well as a college freshman. Boston really just, I don't want to say that they took what Philadelphia gave them, but they certainly were strategic in what they were attacking.

When Al Horford was at center, they were pulling Embed out of the paint. And Embedde was often reluctant. to close out on Al Horford, who had a absolutely tremendous game on both ends of the floor. He was primary defender against Ben Simmons, 10 of 12 from the floor, seven rebounds, four assists. He did what Al Horford does. He does all the little things, but he also did a lot of the big things for Boston as well. Well, we know from what we saw from Simmons in the first round, if you, listen, if there are games where he is going to have more turnovers than assist, Philly's in real trouble. And that's what happened in game one, right?

He ends up with seven turnovers. He ends up with six assists. I mean, he's the engine. Everything depends upon him. It really does. With Ben Simmons, we've talked about this before. I've written about it before. It's, you know, tons of people have talked about it.

But with Simmons, the question entering the playoffs was, how does Miami defend him? Do they sag off of him? Do they pressure him? And they sagged off in game one, it didn't work. Then they pressured him. It still didn't work. And that question remains moving forward. Whether Philadelphia beats Boston or not, moving forward, it'll be the question against the Raptors or the Cavaliers.

It would be the question in the finals. And it's the question now, too. And they're facing the best defense in basketball, despite the fact that the team doesn't have Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward snapped his leg five minutes into the season. Their defense is still tremendous. And they have a number of guys that they can put on Simmons as the primary defender, whether it's Al Horford, whether it's even Marcus Smart, who had some really good possessions against Ben Simmons over. the course of the game, whether it's Shemi-Ogele or Marcus Morris or when Jalen Brown comes back, Tatum for that matter on a switch, they have a lot of bodies that they can put on Ben Simmons and feel good about the matchup because their defense is so connected with rotations,

with communications, and it's so talented that if I'm a Sixers fan, I watch this game and I'm like, I mean, we got to figure out a way to get Simmons involved, right? Whether it's posting him up more in having him be aggressive down low, which Philadelphia did start to do, Chris, you know, in that second half. Like, they posted him up on Marcus Smart. But maybe you need to be a little bit more aggressive there and have Simmons posting up to score more so than posting up just a pass because he was deferring without even really looking to score.

And I think moving forward, Philadelphia might need a little bit more of an aggressive Ben Simmons. You also, and if you can get that, then you can get these guys to play off of him. because you got virtually, I mean, you got negative production out of that bench. And so far, I mean, I think, I know there's a bunch of noise in the net ratings, the plus minuses, whatever you want to call them. But Bellanelli was behind only Joel Embed in plus minus per 48 minutes for the Sixers. It was a big winning proposition, you know, whether you want to say it's because he was on the court or not. but his number, he has been a big positive for them, as has Ilyosovo. And tonight, Bellanelli was a nothing, right?

I mean, he was negative. It was a negative impact. Yeah, no doubt. And Ilyosovah, you know, he came in and actually, he grabbed rebounds. I mean, he missed the shots that he took, but still, you know, they're better with Ilyosov on the court more nights than not. And there just wasn't much out of that bench. In fact, those were the only two guys to get even a point for the Sixers that weren't in the starting lineup.

And despite that, you know, watching the game, right, Celtics immediately, anytime Bill and Ellie was on the floor, they attacked. They just relentlessly attacked him anytime he was out there. And that's a little bit worrisome because of his importance as a scorer off the bench, especially, you know, whether he's with JJ Reddick or without him. I'm not sure in this series you can play both those guys together too much. Something me and producer Isaac Lee talked about during the game is Maybe Philadelphia needs to cut their rotation a little bit T.J. McConnell played second half, but maybe you don't play Amir Johnson Maybe you play Balletka.

But they only played those guys like five minutes. I know, but nobody even got real minutes for them. I know, but maybe you really need to trim your rotation. Boston played only eight guys until the end of the game when Yabuselli and Nader came in. So you're saying even the five minutes that you throw Amir out there The six minutes you throw McConnell out there. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I could be totally overreacting just to one game here.

But the way Boston did attack Bell and Ellie, the way they attacked Redick, we just talked a little bit earlier about how the Celtics have so many guys that they can match up against different players. Philadelphia needs to figure out those matchups. I think one of the things they need to do is, you know, just don't defend Marcus Smart. I mean, I know we hit two threes tonight, but Marcus Smart is playing with a bandage on his right hand and he re-injured it during the game. Marcus Smart is going to hit some shots because that's what Marcus Smart does occasionally, but he's also a sub-30% three-point shooter with a hurt right

hand. I think you get to give him the Tony Allen treatment. You got to clog the paint because Boston was really attacking those mismatches. So maybe what you do, if you're Philadelphia, is put your best defender. Maybe you put Ben Simmons on Marcus. When I say best, when I say best defender, I mean, best perimeter defender, arguably, Ben Simmons, when he wants to be. So maybe you put him on Marcus Smart, have him roam, right, off ball, and reek have it in passing lanes, have him help on attackers. Maybe that's what you do. And if Marcus Smart beats you, you know, you live with it. But certainly I do worry about some of the matchup problems the Sixers have.

Because that is the shocking thing from this. It is, while the Sixers have been so fantastic and, there's obviously always, you know, the talk is always going to be about offense. They got to go to the defensive drawing board because those percentages, you can just chalk that up and say, well, they just shot out of their mind. But the truth is this, I thought, and I think most people thought the last thing on earth Boston wants to do. In fact, if you would have told me going in that Boston's going to score 117, I would have

thought, oh, I don't know if that's great, right? Because you might think that, because we've seen the Sixers get to 130, right? We just saw it in that Heat series. We know they're capable of that, right? I don't know. Celtics got the best defensive basketball, though. No, I get it. I get it.

I'm just saying that I thought given, I mean, they scored 117 without their best player. Unless you want to say to best players. No, I'm saying they're the best guy they've got theoretically available in Jalen. Oh, Jaylen. Oh, okay. That's what I'm saying. He should be available. Yeah, sure.

I'm saying of what they've done so far in the playoffs. You're not even counting Kyrie or Gordon Hayward. No, I'm not counting that. But they put it this way, they were out three of their five best players. Yes, but at least we saw Jalen in the last round. And so what I'm thinking is, okay, this is a guy that was able to get 30 for you on a couple of different nights. And play really good defense, too. He was their leading score, except for Scary Terry Terry turns into a different cat at home.

That being said... Isn't that a great nickname? Isn't Scary Terry a great nickname? The best nickname. I love Scary Terry. That's so funny. So here's what I'm saying. I thought they're going to have to play him 98 to 92, right?

Like that's the way you're not going to be able to put up 117 when you don't have Brown in the line up. Like who's scoring those points? And I'll be damned. I mean, Brad Stevens has got this thing. There was a moment in time where I'm watching that game. and I'm like, you know what? You know what it was reminiscent of?

It was the spurs prior to, like, I know they got throttled after they lost Kauai last year. But for so many years, it was like, it doesn't even matter who's in the lineup and who's not. I mean, they lost Kauai and beat the Rockets last year. But it was like, I don't even know if it matters. Like, who's in the game? It spurs-esque what these Celtics have done in the sense that, like, how the hell? Like, you remember you used to watch and it would be like a Bellanelli or it would be Patty Mills or it would be like, it doesn't even matter who's wearing the jerseys. Jonathan Simmons, right, whoever.

And so now that's what it feels like with the Celtics. Like any other team, you lose Jalen Brown, you're dead. instead they throw up 117 against a higher seated team as a five point underdog on their home floor and Al Horford has 26 Jason Tatum has

28 Terry Roseir has 29 here's the thing so we talked about this today in the room we were watching the game and look Brad Stevens is one of the best coaches in the game if not the best coach right

and he certainly enhances all the players that he's brought into his system, whether it was at Butler, whether it was before the Celtics are good, or whether it's now. He enhances everybody, he puts them and his staff in the best positions to succeed.

But the roster construction comes from the front office, too, right? They're the ones who drafted Shemi-Ojolay, a super versatile defender with the 37th pick. They're the ones who traded Avery Bradley from Marcus Morris,

who has been really good defensively for the Celtics all season once he got healthy. They're the ones who drafted Terry Rozier with the 16th pick. They're the ones who acquired Aaron Baines to replace Amir Johnson, who's done. They're the ones who traded down for Jason Tatum,

who drafted Jalen Brown when all the fans wanted Chris Dunn. They constructed a versatile roster that's built to play against virtually any type of team. They can match up against anybody. We mentioned it earlier. How many guys are they going to throw with Simmons? How about the fact that they can throw any of those guys that aren't on Simmons against virtually anybody else on the roster.

Philadelphia is going to matchup problem this series. Philadelphia probably is still going to be favored, but I feel a lot. I picked Philadelphia in six before the series. It's just one game, but I feel a lot less optimistic about that pick right now. Well, listen, they do get credit for the roster construction, but I believe this wholeheartedly. People can scoff it as they want. Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart, Aaron Baines. Jason Tatum, Al Horford.

Nobody else wins a playoff game with that starting lineup. Nobody wins a playoff game. Those are some good players though, dude. Stop. Those are good players, Chris. He makes them look even better. He makes them, he maximizes them

more than anybody else could. Sure. We did a show last year talking about Jonathan Simmons and that guy is in witness protection. I'm telling us. you that these kids, if they went elsewhere and played for somebody else, it would not be the same. Maybe. Maybe. It's possible, but maybe in a different situation, Tatum would still be jacking up mid-arranged jumpers instead of taking sidesteps into three-pointers. Maybe he would be. But Marcus Smart has

always been a great defensive player. Terry Rozier, he's made progressive progress. Is that because of Brad Stevens and the developmental system? Could be. Or it could be that he puts in a hell of a work over there each off-season and the opportunity has finally come. Who knows? Maybe Roseir could have been having games like this earlier if he hadn't been buried under the Depp chart behind other guys. Who knows? I think, look, Brad Stevens enhances everybody. This is a knock against him, obviously. He's coach of the year, in my opinion. I think it would be almost a little surprising if he didn't win, or at least if he didn't get a lot of top three votes. He's fantastic, but a lot of the players on this team are

really good too. And that's why they had such a successful game against the Sixers. It's not just the game plan. It's also the players that the game plan has helped enhance. I said this when we were talking about it, whatever it was, a couple of weeks ago with the, who was it? Like, Shane Larkin? I think it was like Shane Larkin. I seen Shane Larkin. That's another guy picking up, getting him from Europe. I'm saying everybody's better playing for Brad Stevens. Everybody. I don't think there's one player that would be better not playing for Brad Stevens. I agree.

I agree with you. Has there been any Celtic that has become better? We're on the same page, Chris. But my only point is that it's like people are stunned that the Celtics are beating the bucks or that they beat the Sixers. Like there's a lot of good players on this team. Tatum might be only 20 and granted Brown didn't play game one. Oh, he's only 21, but there's a lot of good talent on the team.

I very rarely think that it is about the coach. but with the Spurs system and now the Celtic system, I do. That's the two times I felt like if I flip the coaches on the sideline, it would be a different story. Brad Steve, yeah, he's one of those that I feel like I could throw him on any of these sidelines. I promise you this. You give Brad Stevens that Bucks team.

They would have kicked the shit out of the Celtics. And I don't care how many. Don't give me a break. Give me a break. Are you kidding me? I realize I'm on an island here. It was Joe Prunty or whatever the guy's name is. I mean, I don't even know who it is.

The Bucks would have beaten the Celtics if they had Brad Stevens, but that doesn't change the fact that the Bucks roster still needs to make improvements. Like, they still need to change the players on the roster. Yes, I know. There's one Brad Stevens. That's what I'm saying. There's one Brad Stevens. By the way, Chris, like Philadelphia, they need more from a guy like,

this is a random change of topic, but they need more from a guy like Robert Covington. O for four from tonight from three, O for six from the field. he's been just terribly inconsistent over the course of the season. They need more from him. It's not even just the star players. It's some of their complimentary guys that had big games. Like Bell and Ellie hit some wild shots against Miami. They need some of these other guys to go off.

Yeah, well, especially because you expect it more than 31 and 13 out of Embed? I mean, you got that. You got 31 and 13 out of him. Maybe we do need to expect more. And what I mean is... It's 31 and 13. It ain't his fault. I know that, but maybe it's the type of thing where if you're not getting more from some of the other guys,

you need to just force feed Joe Ellen beat the ball. But that's the problem, Kevin. How the hell are they not having better games if he's got 31 and 13? You know what I mean? It's not like, right, if he's killing it, those other guys should be able to feast. Sure. And I mean, and also on the other side, you could say, well, Terry Rozier is not going to shoot seven for nine from three every game. I mean, you're, Al Horford's honor is going to be 10 for 12 from the floor.

You could say that on the other side, too. Well, and what happens on, I did wonder what happens a team that has, they have been over the course of the last couple of years, part of their system is shooting an immense amount of threes, right? And as we said, this is a Sixers. Okay, yeah. And it did not come back to bite them. It didn't matter that they shot a low percentage or in a,

in a couple of the games against the heat, right? But if you find the team, and we saw this last year with the Spurs and the Rockets, if you find a team that's not going to let you shoot a high percentage, that's going to run you off the line all the time, then what's happening, right? And you will freely admit, most of these guys are not like drive to the basket guys. Bellanelli is not going to kill you driving against you.

Reddick's not going to kill you driving against you, right? That's not what these guys do. And so what happens when you make their life hell beyond the three-point arc? And that's kind of what we saw in game number one. And that's why they end up five of 26. I get it. They miss some open ones, but also. Along those lines, Chris, there's been a lot of statistical studies out there that talk about

three-point defense. And a lot of the conclusion usually is that three-point shooting is relatively random in that three-point defense might necessarily affect three-point percentages. And yet, pretty much annually, a team like Boston has had the best three-point shooting defense. And I do wonder if that's maybe the type of thing that's a little bit hard to quantify sometimes. Well, it was the hallmark of the spurs for so many years. There were two things, right? The spurs were always good at two things, defending the three-point line and defending the rim.

Right? Like that was, like way before this all became in vogue, they were always good at those two things. You can shoot whatever percentage you want from the other spots on the floor, but we are going to attempt to keep you at a low percentage around the back. So like now everybody says, you know, the lay it up or tray it up. That's kind of the systems. That's why they beat the rockets last year, right? They were good at that. That's what they were able to prevent you from having a layup line and they were able to make it hell on you

from outside the three point line. And so, I don't buy that. I don't buy that it's completely random, especially in specific situations. Some teams are great at that and school their players in that. And for what it's worth, I just pulled up the numbers, this season, the Celtics said, the number one three-point shooting defense. Last year, it was number two.

The year prior, it was fourth. The year before that, it was fourth. And then the year before that, Brad Stevens' first year, Southingshead coach, it was fifth. So they've been top five in each of Brad Stevens. seasons as this coach and an opponent three point percentage. And maybe that's random? I don't think so. I think it's partially systematic. Oh, for sure. How many of these teams do you see get killed from the corner? You don't see Boston getting killed from the corner. Yeah, it's certainly, I mean,

that's what we mentioned kind of at the top, right? You know, Philadelphia, you know, shot five of 26. It's easy to say next time those shots might fall. But it's also about the quality of a shot, whether it's in the rhythm of the offense. There's so many variables. That's a tough thing with data. It's like one thing I'm fascinated by is like what direct, like what does a guy shoot when a pass comes from the left side compared to the right side compared to straight ahead?

Like little things like that I wish could be studied a little bit more using all the amazing tracking data we have. That's what I'd really be into because quality matters. It's like anybody playing pickup ball, there's always little things that you're more comfortable doing. It's not just us. It's also professional athletes, too. And I do wonder, well, sir, it seemed like tonight that this quality of shots Philadelphia was getting from the three point line wasn't on par what it usually is for them. And maybe it is an overreaction and maybe Philly makes the proper adjustments and they look like a radically different team.

And all of a sudden, Terry Rozier is more like 12 point scary Terry than 29 points. I mean, you know what I mean? That's totally possible. We've seen it, right? Philadelphia's got a really good team. Yes, they've got a really good team. They've got a really good coach and that they make the adjustments. In the end, I'm watching it tonight and I go,

they are counting on three guys that have never been here and frankly have never been anywhere. They're all, you know, like, Sorich is the guy that's played the most games of their three best guys. When you're talking about Simmons, M. Bid, and Sarich. Like, he's for sure. Like, right? And the other two are really good complimentary players when I speak of Redick or the other three. Redick, Ilyossova, and Bellanelli. Those are the other three contributors.

You've already talked about how you, you know, they got to get more out of Covington. But Simmons, M.B. and Sarich, this is their first time through, unless you want to count the heat, which they were obviously just a much better team. They, they shot poor percentages and still beat the crap out of them. So they're just way better. Did we emphasize enough that, like, a lot of this starts and ends with Ben Simmons, like with him being contained? Like that's what leads to the quality shots When Ben Simmons can touch the paint and kick it out to three like

Again like getting to the tracking data I would love to see a stat that That that That grades or that counts the amount of times Ben Simmons Drove into the paint and either scored Drew a foul or kicked it out for a pass that result in a shot attempt And I would be willing to bet that it was far lower in this game than it usually is over the same amount of minutes

and everything else, whether it's on the playoffs or over the course of regular season, he just wasn't getting to the pain as much because Boston was playing spectacular transition defense and that they were also just limiting him anytime Philadelphia was in the half court.

It seemed like the only time Simmons really got in the paint was when he was open, like off ball, certain cuts. There was a great play that they called out of a timeout in the third quarter that got him a dunk. There just wasn't a lot of instances

that Simmons attacked relentlessly because Boston wasn't I didn't get there. Philadelphia needs to figure out a way to get him rolling. Well, and we talked about this in the last series, a series in which they dominated, which is their offense so many times can be predicated upon their defense. That's what they've really got to fix in that film room. How are we not taking the ball out of the net?

Because that's when those guys are super devastating. That's when Bell and Ellie and Reddick can just run to their. spot and Simmons can either drive to the basket or find them kicking it out on the wing. But the problem is they were taking the ball out of the basket all night. I mean, the subjects had three quarters. Once they got past that first quarter, a quarter in which they won, they went 31, 31.30. I mean, you can't be giving up 30 points every single quarter. And because, I mean, you got to get that kid in some open space.

playing half-court basketball with Ben Simmons as your point guard is when you can really dial up against him. Now all of a sudden it's a little easier to stop. But when he's snatching the ball off the rim and he's going end to end, forget it. Yeah, only 10 fast break points for Philadelphia. And just to play devil's advocate a little bit here, Boston's not going to get 83 points a game from Horford, Tatum, and Rozier either. So maybe if you're Philadelphia, you're like, okay, that's good. You know, because they're not going to get that every game. So if you're Boston, you need some more explosive games from someone like Marcus Morris.

You need him perhaps to have a big game. Like we talked about Bellanelli needs to have a big game for the Sixers or Covington needs to step up. And for Boston, that could be true too, where they need someone like Marcus Morris to have a big game or Jalen Brown to come back and be himself as well. You don't think Scary Terry is going seven for nine from three every night. Well, no, he's not, but the funny thing is, Chris, he's done it a couple. I mean, he hasn't got seven and three, but he's had some explosive scoring games already in this playoff so far. 26 in game seven against Drew Bletso and the Bucs, 23 points in games one and two. Drew Bledso, huh?

You want to hit him with the slander, too. It's just funny how Rosier wore the Drew Bledso jersey to the game, and is a podium game, too, wearing the Drew Bledso jersey. classic Patriots uniform, pretty funny. The real test for Old Scary Terry. So, right, we get to that round one. He comes out of the gate against the bucks. He comes out of the gate against the bucks. Seven of 18, four of nine from three.

Next game, eight of 14, three of five from three. He went 23 and 23 in the first two games. He went on the road. He went nine point, ten points. And very inefficient too. Right? in those next two games. Now, obviously, as you mentioned, he had 26 in that last one,

but, I mean, his home road splits have been pretty stark. Scary Terry's a different guy in Boston. For sure. Only 24 years old, still getting better. I tweeted this during the game, but, like, it feels like this, ever since Kyrie Irving, you know, his season ended, Rozier has really earned himself some money ahead of 2019 for agents. He's not going to be a free agent until then,

but he is certainly showing a lot of potential of giving the opportunity to be a starting point guard. If I'm a team in need of a point guard that isn't in a position to draft one or doesn't really want to sign any of the guys out there this year, I'd be hitting up the Celtics,

like, you know, what's it going to take? You're not going to overpay, but he's appealing. I professed my love, okay, for scary. That being said, don't you wonder a little bit, and maybe we'll never know what Isaiah Thomas,

we'll never get a good gauge, right, because of the hip thing. And maybe it was just a moment. But when you see Isaiah Thomas have one of the greatest offensive seasons ever for a guard. And that's not an exaggeration either. No. And it was the king of the fourth. Remember that?

I mean, that happened. And then you have Kyrie Irving, who admittedly was already amazing, but certainly had no drop off and was having another great season while playing for Brad Stevens. And now you have Terry Rozier. Isn't there at least a part of you that goes, well, geez, maybe this is a little more about the system they're playing in than their individual talents. And maybe Terry Rozier playing for somebody else isn't dropping 30 points in the game or 28 points or 26 points or whatever. And I only say that because we saw Thomas who was, I mean, he was one of the best players in the whole NBA playing for Stevens. And so I do wonder about that a little bit. And Irving had the most efficient scoring season of his career, too.

Right. Underbred Stevens. You know, he obviously was tremendous in Cleveland, obviously. But the real test would be if Terry bumped his toe and Shane Larkin has the start of game. And he goes for 27. Then it's like, all right. Well, I think a lot of the things Rizier does well would translate to other systems. I think he's a good defensive player, first of all.

So that gives him a foundation of stand. the court. He's developed into a really reliable pick and roll playmaker. And that's something at Louisville in college. He wasn't the best decision maker. He's gotten a lot better at making reads in the court. He's really learned how to slow down and speed up and play at different speeds. He can shoot off screens. He can shoot off the move. He's solid off the dribble. The question with him, you know, in terms of what level he reaches is his at-arm finishing. He's had some really, really like really nice highlight finishes but his numbers aren't too good around the rim

really against contact sometimes he has some issues or he takes off from too far away to me that's the question if I'm another team is like what level can Razir get to for us you know if you're if you're the sons or whoever a team in need of a point card the magic you know what level can

Rizier get to as an at-room finisher that can allow him to draw more files and finish more efficiently. That's what I wonder I wonder if a lot of these guys are like the spurs guys, which are you never hear from them again, or they're certainly nowhere near as good as they were when they were playing in San Antonio, right? Who can you ever remember going, leaving San Antonio and you having a higher opinion of them? Whereas, like, all the years we thought, like,

whether it's like Bobon or anybody, Jonathan Sima, all the, there's been all manner of guys that have come through there over the years, Gary Neal, on and on and on and on. And then they go somewhere else and we're like, oh, you know, like what happened to that guy? Remember when he was playing for the Spurs? We thought he was awesome. I just don't know. I don't know.

Am I misremembering this or was that a thing that Danny Ains was holding on to Terry Rozier and people would like roll their eyes about that? Am I miss, right? Like in like, was it the George trade or was it other deals where it was like, oh, the Celtics don't want to get rid of Terry Rozier and everybody was like, what the F? I mean, it's been kind of almost a joke on Reddit and on NBA Twitter that Terry Rozier is untouchable. And now Danny Hage is like smoking a cigar like Red Alba? Untouchable for the team that blew up its entire roster last summer despite going to the Ysaccarvitz finals.

Credit to Celtics ownership for having the guts to give Aege the least to do that. Not a lot of teams would do that after going to the Eastern Conference Finals. They blew up the whole damn roster, dude. So a weird story. How about if, if Danny Hange came to you and he said, Kevin, I love your work at the ringer. Oh, thank you. And then he said, I can only keep one of them for next year. Smarter, Rosie.

Terroseer. I know that they are on different. Terroseer. Yeah, no doubt. And I really would have. You would have never said that a month ago. No, I would have. No, that's not true. We just never talked about it. So it's the truth. So one of my friends, Eric Weiss, him and I have chatted about this for maybe past two years or so. You know, we talk a lot about player value and we talk about who were the guys around the league that you would target.

That might be a little bit undervalued that could turn into a really good player. And we've talked about, you know, the Marcus Smart versus Terry Rozier discussion. And him and I both have agreed for maybe a year and a half now. something around those lines that Roseir is the better prospect and it's because of the fact that he has better burst, he's a better shooter, and we're

seeing that manifest now with the opportunity that he's been provided. Smart is a truly elite defensive player with his versatility and his really is it factor. But he's a poor shooter, he's a poor veteran finisher and he's not any better as a playmaker than Rozier and we're

seeing that now from Terry Rozier. And Rozier's the guy that I would have taken. And that's, I mean, I could have been wrong a year ago, but it turned out to be right, I think. I'll tell you this. Imagine if they had Kyrie and Hayward. I swear to God, they win the title. They would have. If they have Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward and Jalen Brown added to what I just watched tonight, who is beating them?

You know what? I think it's a shame we're not going to get that because Toronto is playing at a really high level right now. now. And if, let's say, LeBron and the Cavs beat Toronto and they go to the Eastern Commerce finals, we would have that fantastic storyline of like this loaded Celtics team going against LeBron, right? Like, the odds would be against LeBron. And if he would have beat that Celtics team, it would be one of the crowning achievements of his entire career. And it still would be, for what it's worth. It still would be if he gets through Toronto and he gets through the Celtics or the Sixers and goes to the files. It still would be a remarkable achievement with this weak Cavaliers

roster. Plus, guess what? We would have. gone, Kyrie versus LeBron. Yeah, so what? I guess their theoretical lineup would be those three guys, Kyrie and Horford. You just play them all? You play Brown, Tatum, and Gordon? Talk about super versatility, right?

I mean, yeah. It doesn't even matter who's playing the two, I guess. I mean, obviously it'd be Jalen, right? Yeah. So you have Jalen Brown, and then you just put Tatum at the four? Are we, we're like talking about the Celtics so much. Are we sleeping on the six

The Sixers at all just because of one game, are we? No. I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so either. I think we kind of covered what they need to do. I think it all starts with Ben Simmons. It really does. It starts with getting Ben Simmons going.

You get 31 and 13 out of Joel Embed and you get beat by 16. Listen, you're trusting three guys that have never been through it before. You're trusted. Sarich M.B. and Simmons. They will make adjustments. I do not think this is going to be. some kind of blowout series by any means. So let me get that out of the way.

I also think that that was quite the statement tonight and that Brad Stevens can concoct something to confuse guys and make life difficult on guys that have never had to go through this before, right? For sure. They have been able, they have not faced, in my opinion, they have not faced somebody that has the talent and the game plan. like what they face tonight. Well, that's the dirty secret of Philly's win streak

towards the end of the season. They didn't really beat anybody. I'm just going to read through the teams quickly. Nicks, Nets, Hornets, Grizzlies, Magic, Wolves, Nuggets, Nicks, Hawks, Hawks, Knicks, Horns, Knicks, Hots, there's a couple of good wins in there. But for the most part, there's a lot of weak teams and they haven't really faced a truly elite defense

for a couple of months now. I mean, Miami's defense is really good, but it's not elite, elite. And I think certainly there's going to be adjustment for Philadelphia. I mean, obviously, we just watched game one, facing a defense of that level, of that caliber, especially with playoff level intensity with game to game preparation, because it's not just going to be Philly making adjustments after game one. It's also going to be Boston, too. That's for sure.

All right, we're going to take a quick break, and we're going to talk about these games that we are going to have tonight, including the Cavs and Raptors open their series and the World War. and the Pelicans are going to play in game two. We'll give our thoughts on those after these words. Support for today's NBA show comes from Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is your hub for teamwork in Office 365. With so much to look after, wouldn't it be great if there was just one place to look? Teams is a single workplace where you can work, share, and connect with the people in your work life. Teams brings together your chats, meetings, files, and apps all in one place. Take teamwork where you work with apps for mobile and desktop. So whether you're sprinting towards a deadline or sharing your next big idea,

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All right, Kevin, we are going to have the first game of the other Eastern Conference semifinals matchup, and it is Cavs versus the Raptors. We saw the end of the Cavs Series against the Pacers over the weekend. One shocking note on that, did you see that note that said that that game was the most watched first round game in 14 years? Unbelievable. I mean, the Cavs Pacers of all series. Most watched first round game in 14 years. The one that since April 25th, 2000.

dozen and four, Rockets, Lakers, game five, a game in which Carl Malone has three points. Carl Malone, unbelievable. And NBA is on top of the world right now. I guess so. 14 years. It's been a long time. And then at the end, LeBron, he is a beaten down man. Now, I'm sure it's nothing that a million dollars of recuperation equipment that he owns

and a bottle of Vino can't fix. He was down-trodden after that series. He has an entire franchise on his back. That's probably making him a little bit tired. Then now they're facing the Raptors, who have been a difficult team over the years to trust and for good reason. And they also have a LeBron hump to get over. Like, this is the moment.

You have this Toronto team who came back, had their best season. They are now facing. I think what we would say, the worst of the LeBron versions that they have gotten to face. So if it doesn't happen for Toronto, you do wonder, like, okay. Blow it up. Is that all the kidding? No, I'm just saying, but like, honestly, if it doesn't happen, if you can't beat him now. And the one thing I worry about, and I thought of this this morning when I was getting ready to prepare for this particular series and talking about it, the first thing that came to my mind, do you remember when.

they lost to him last year. And at the end of the series, De Rosen was at the podium. And his, I'm paraphrasing, but his basic sentiment, people could look this up, was they have LeBron and we don't.

Ah, yeah, I do remember that quote. Yeah. And it was kind of like, all right, like, you know,

like, hey, y'all, and I remember, like, lauding him and saying, like, hey,

at least you keep it real. Like, that is the truth. Like, in the end, they have LeBron and you don't. But it's not exactly

what you want to hear from your star. But that stuck in my mind when I was thinking Raptors' calves. Not only is there a mental slash physical hurdle for them to get over, they also, we know how that guy feels, right? Like I don't think he feels like, all right. Like I think he, I think that statement does say a lot. It's I laud him for his honesty, but in the other sense, he said that shit, which was, Hey man, they got LeBron and we don't. That's why we lose.

And so is that the case now? Yeah, the quote was, the quote was, if we had LeBron on our team, too, we would have won. Yeah. Okay, so now, same thing. You know what I'm saying? Like, are you able to get over that? Because you clearly feel that, right? You're giving true serum.

That's what you feel. We would have won if we had LeBron. We ain't got LeBron. Well, guess what, bro? You ain't got LeBron tonight either. And that's precisely why. Despite the fact that Toronto has the better overall team, they have clearly the better bench. They probably have the better coach.

They have the better up and down, go up and down the roster. They have better pretty much everything that you can think of on their team. And yet, Cleveland should not be counted out because they have LeBron James. It's literally that simple. It really is that simple. And that's why I picked Cleveland to beat Toronto before the playoffs started. I don't feel that good about that now. You don't?

No, I don't. I don't because... I mean, it is seven years in a row. I know. I know. I mean, what if I don't? Listen, the stupid bad is... But history...

How much does history matter, though? It does... I mean, like right now, LeBron just went seven games in the first round for the first time and forever after, I believe, four years straight of sweeping the first round.

Right. Like, I don't know. how much those years matter when this year's Cavaliers team. Woof. I mean, it's just not that good outside of LeBron James. Kevin Love is a complete shell of its former self and his thumb is hurt. You know, Tristan Thompson

had a tremendous first quarter in game seven against the Pacers, but the rest of that roster, dude, it's not that good. Are they going to do anything? Is Larry Nance, Jordan Clarkson? Are they going to do anything? It's just not a good roster. And Toronto's

team is really good. It's really deep. That benching it is terrific, especially with Fred Van Bleep back. Look, you know what? He's the big difference. I do believe that. I believe their bench, I mean, I watched them several times through the year where Casey would just let

him ride. Like, you know, it'd be time to put the starters back in. Yeah, just be like, no. Let them go. Yeah, second quarter, that last six minutes of the third quarter, you know, they'd come back in that last, whatever, five minutes of the third quarter. And he may just

let them rock it out, right? Just let them finish the rest of the game out. And he's really like the thing that makes that bench unit go. They've really missed him up to this point. And I think that's why they played in maybe a little harder series against the Wizards than some may have expected. But if they've got Van Fleetback, it's especially a different animal against the calves whose bench is trash.

For sure. It's certainly. that. I think one thing I'm worried about for Toronto, Chris, is that aside from O.G. Annanobie, who is the primary defender against the Cavalier, against LeBron James during the regular season, aside from O.G.,

who's only a rookie, by the way, they don't have a lot of guys on their team that they can put on LeBron and feel any good about the matchup. And even with O.G., he's a rookie. Right. Yeah, you don't think LeBron's going to get that kid too early foul? Yeah, and that's part of it. Like, who goes on LeBron? Like, let's

say O.G.'s in foul trouble. Sergei Baca is not what he used to be on defense anymore. Demardo Rosen can't, you know, Kyle Laurie's too small. Seacum, perhaps. But I don't think he's the quality of the defender necessary to even neutralize LeBron James. O.G. is going to have to have a tremendous series against LeBron in order to force Cleveland's other guys to beat them.

And granted, LeBron's still going to get his numbers. LeBron's going to be... Now, we pencil him in for four. 40 and so now we got to figure out where the other 60, 60 or 70 come from. And that's the, that's the trick, right? But I mean, where are Jordan Clarkson and Rodney Hood and Larry? I mean, these guys, they just, I don't know. It's almost like we overreacted to the Cavalier's trade deadline with them getting

and passed his prime point guard with an injury-prone wing in Rodney Hood, inexperienced big man and Larry Nance and an inconsistent guard in Jordan Clarks and I think me and a lot of others overreacted to I still think it was a necessary move to give themselves a shot like Isaiah Thomas isn't even playing anymore right but they probably shouldn't

the other thing that first round pick that's one thing in the Lakers deal that's going to play on. Here's what I'll say let me make an excuse for them okay they're throwing it all together in like 20 games and now you're playing against teams that all they can do. It's not like on a

a random night, a random Tuesday night against somebody that might be on a back-to-back or whatever. Now you are playing against a team that hones in on you and only you. And you don't even know you all that well. And that's why I think you're seeing the kind

of basketball you are out of the Cavs. It's just LeBron and then whatever else. Right? But they're clearly not on a string defensively. They're not in sync offensively. and how could they be? They've logged a sample size of minutes playing with each other that like anybody that would want to do statistical analysis would scoff.

They'd say, that's not enough minutes to get a sample out of, right? How do we know if it's not a good lineup with Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson and LeBron and Larry Nance or whatever, right? Like these guys, I mean, it was thrown together in what? mid late February. Yeah, right? Early February 6th trade deadline now. Okay, so how many games you got after that?

20. Not a lot. What was, yeah, I mean, you're talking, you ain't got a lot of games to throw that together. And so when you don't even really know yourself and playing together as a group and have, they clearly don't have chemistry. They don't as a team.

It's just some nights it clicks and some nights it doesn't. And when you've got a team that's just all they're trying to do is figure out how to stop you, you know, when you don't know yourself, it's certainly hard to attack, you know, an opponent. If LeBron James were replaced with an average player, let's just like a comparable, you know, skill set forward. Let me restate that. Not a comparable skill set, but a guy who plays the same position, like Trevor Booker, a big man who could handle the ball, like LeBron. Trevor Booker. If LeBron James was replaced with Trevor Booker. My question is, how many games of this Cavaliers roster win during the regular season?

They won 50 with this team. How many would they have won replacing LeBron James with Trevor Brooker? Well, you know. Let me make it easy. Over under 29 and a half. Would they win 30? Oh, I thought you were going to say over under 50 and you were going to go with our boss's Patrick Ewing theory. Are you saying that you don't believe that LeBron could apply to the Ewing theory?

know how bad you think the roster is like without LeBron if LeBron were taking It's disgusting Yeah it's probably like a 22 win team or something like that I would say I would want Is it worse than the Suns Grisley Hawks and Mavericks?

Is it worse than any of those four teams? Healthy? Are you saying those teams healthy? Give me a number Chris. How many games would they win? I'd say under. Under, yeah, me too. With Trevor Booker? three.

Listen, half the Trevor Booker. Dude, half the guys legitimately suck. All right. So I say Clarkson, Love,

Nance Jr. Those might own, I'm dead serious. Like if I ran a team and they called me and said, like, who do you want? I don't know.

I certainly would not, I don't care about Calderon Green. Hood is whatever. He's replacement level to me. Corvers, Long in the Tooth, Cetty Osmond, Kendrick Perkins,

J.R. Tristan, Ocaro, White. Okay, yeah, I don't care about any of these guys. No, it's terrible. It's terrible. It's LeBron. LeBron is throwing that thing on his back. He is, he is a... Okay, now that I look at it, your pick is stupid. Wait, what?

Wait, what? Now that I actually look at their roster again, your pick of them winning is dumb. Oh, of them beating the Raptors? I'm just kidding. It's still LeBron. It's still LeBron. Wait a minute.

I'm confused. Who do you think is going to win the series? The Cavs. Now, and this is the only reason I'm saying that. I'm picking the Cavs too. Just because it was my pick before the playoffs. It's very difficult for me to do that after you just made me look at their roster again. All right. Now that I'm looking, now that I'm looking at their roster again, it feels very, you know how they do like the and, like the, you know, like it would be, like I made one years ago when the Grizzlies made the Western Conference playoffs and it was like Mike and Tony and Zebo and Mark and Tashon, right?

Yeah. Yeah, like, what does that shirt even say? LeBron and Kevin and what? It's just a blank. No, like, what were the other? Like if I said, hey, I want to do a Cavs lineup shirt. You know what I'm saying? Like, seriously.

I wonder if there was one to buy online. I wonder, like, what I would have to Google. Like, who would give me the other three? George? Okay, so George Hill. So it would be George. What would it be George Hill, though? Well, he's starting point guard.

Not in game seven coming off the bench. Maybe moving forward if he's. You're going to put Jose? How about Jeff? How about Jeff Green? LeBron and Kevin and Jeff and Kyle something like that. And Tristan. Or maybe you just put a shirt out there that just simply says LeBron on it.

Seriously, the lowest selling shirt of all time would be the Cavs lineup shirt. It would sell better if you just put just LeBron's name on there. That would be a great shirt. Okay. A search just says LeBron on it. I want to believe that Toronto can pull it off. Here's what I'm saying. I'm only saying the calves because I'm hedging against the seven years.

If I say LeBron won't win and he does, I feel like an imbecile. If I say LeBron, or I'm sorry, if I say LeBron, yeah, won't win and then he does. I feel like an imbecile. If I say LeBron wins and then he doesn't, then it's like, all right, like he didn't win for the, sorry, I banked on, you know, what we've done for the last seven years is people trying to pick against him. And then in the end, he ends up in the NBA finals. When am I going to learn my lesson?

And the other thing is I get the shit all over you with the Jordan stuff. Come on, man. How about this? If LeBron beats the Raptors with this team, and then he beats the Celtics or the Sixers and goes to the finals. Can we please not talking about the Raptor, this Raptors, the 2018 Raptors, like he's beating the 84 Celtics? But what I'm saying is, it's more about his team, Chris. If LeBron gets this team that you're saying they can't make a lineup shirt out of, if he gets this team to the finals,

it's not going to change the goat argument for you, but is it not one of his more unbelievable accomplishments to get this team to the finals? I say this, if he goes, six or seven against this team, which I think that probably, you know, I think it's fair to say we think that series is going to be long. Either way. It's going to be six or seven games, right? We agree? Yeah, I think so. The next round can really be a bitch.

Seriously. Because if you're playing, because he goes 45 minutes every night. And that was the thing. He always got to coast through the first round. But if you're talking about he's logged 13 or 14 playoff games already playing 45 at the night,

and now he's got to go up either against the Celtics or the Sixers. Yikes. That's where he becomes really, I mean, at some point, right, you can't just go back to the well every single night. Can you? I guess you can if you're him. He's a machine. He should have been in that damn Infinity Wars.

Oh, and by the way, Chris, if LeBron does get this team to the finals and they're going to get smoked by Golden Sater, Houston. You know, you're going to be saying, Oh, LeBron's three and six in the finals. He's lost six finals. That's why it's used against him as the argument, even though actually getting that team to the finals, just like the 07 Cleveland Cavalier's team

with Boobie Gibson and all these bums getting them to the finals against the Spurs. Come on, man. You can't use a finals loss against him. Don't you dare slander Larry Hughes in my face. Drew Gooden. Drew Gooden, too. Larry Hughes.

Hey, listen to Brad Stee. Stevens coached him, you'd be like, these guys are good players. Stop ball washing Brad Stevens. These guys are great. Drew Gooden and whoever else, right? I mean, no, I told you this. If LeBron wins a title having to play with Jeff Green, I will vault him over Jordan. How about gets to the finals of this year's team with Jeff Green playing heavy minutes?

why does he have to win the title? No, I've already, listen, you already got a cue. I know. I know. We're not going to get into the LeVrogg-Goard argument. I know. No, no, no. I've got it queued up anyway, because let's just say we think this, if the Celtics win the series, it's like, oh, wow,

we beat the Celtics without their friggin' five best players. Please stop talking about the Toronto Raptors. Like, they're the 2000. Dude, the Raptors are a good team. Come on. They're a good team, Chris. They are a good team. really good team. None of these

these teams are like all-timers. Come on. Of course they're not. Come on, dude. It's not like Jordan beat all-timer teams in the playoffs either each every year. I didn't say he beat all-time teams every year. But why is that the competition for LeBron? No, no.

His team. I'm just saying you're like, if he beats this team, come on. Like, come on. No, what I'm actually saying is if he beats the Raptors with this team, like his teammates. with Jeff Green,

with old Kyle Corver, and Jose Calderon, and George Hill and Roddy Hood who can't stay on the floor. If he does it with this team, his team, that's a remarkable achievement. I'll just say they're great players,

and we underrated them. I know you will. I know. Larry Manson Jr. A couple weeks from now, a couple weeks from now. Remember that podcast we did on Monday night after game one,

a Celtics Sixers when we trashed the Cleveland Cowan's roster? We were wrong. And then. And after the Sixers won that series, four to one, it's scary, Terry average two point three points per game. Yeah, Ben Simmons starts going off. It's a problem with the instant reaction stuff. I'm well aware you can end up looking foolish, right?

Like, it's totally possible. By next Tuesday, we're like, oh, God. I'll tell you what, though. Got to instant react, instant react because that's what the coaches are doing too. They're thinking about, oh, what do we have to do next game? What adjustments need to be made based off this one game? Well, what a perfect segue because there are adjustments to be made severe ones by the New Orleans Pelicans. Now, it is Alvin Gentry's charge to make this a more competitive series than it appeared to be in game one.

Stuck around there for a while, right? First quarter. For a couple of minutes, you know? They got 41, I think, dropped on them in the second quarter. I think it was. Oh, boy. Yeah, and then it kind of felt decided. honestly, after that. And so the final margin was 20 plus. Now, what we know throughout NBA history

is if usually somebody gets maimed in the way that the Pelicans did, the next game's usually close. And we've talked about this before. There's so much psychology that goes into it. The team that gets killed, they make all, they've got a ton of adjustments to make, right? To make life harder on the other team and easier for them, whereas it is a more difficult proposition for the winning team to go into that film room and say, here's what we need to do different, right? And so you typically get a much more competitive game in game number two. And there are several examples over the course of the last couple of years where we have seen series that we thought after watching one game, oh, God, this is not going to be competitive at all. And then game,

Game two, maybe it wasn't either it was a close loss or the team that lost game one had a shocking result in game two. I actually leaned towards that. I think the Pelicans are going to be very competitive tonight against the Golden State Warriors. What say you? Stefan Curry's probable even with him back at home at Oracle Arena in the starting lineup instead of Nick Young, starting their death lineup, Drayvon Green, Andre Goddala, Kevin Durant,

Clay Thompson, Stefan Curry, even then? Yes, because I actually think this is weird. The psychology of that, because I am a master of psychology, would be that you can dick around

when Curry's back. I don't know if you, if you have him back in the lineup, if you're keyed up to a thousand, right? Man, and I say that he'll probably have 30 points in the first half.

I just think that you're going to make like you'll see the pelicans they're going to uh they're going to alter what they do a lot and and i think that i i'm not willing to give up what i saw which was the pelicans were really damn good kev i know they got smoked in game one um by a team that was you know that was loaded for bear and ran off on them um but i watch that pelicans team down the stretch and i watch that Pelicans team totally dispose of the Blazers, and I don't think they're a team that's going to get their ass kicked every night in this series. I thought they'd be able to challenge the Warriors, and so it would be against my gut to think that they can't be competitive in a

game, too. That's fair. I picked the Warriors to win the series in five, so I also picked them to win a game. But with Stefan Curry returning for Game 2, which is a little bit unexpected, with the fact that what New Orleans did against Portland that was so effective where they were trapping and blitzing pick and rolls and Anthony Davis was on Al

Farruca Mena when he was able to roam and really just disrupt passing lanes, able to help on Dame and C.J. McCollum. That's not going to work against Golden State because reason one, Golden State doesn't run a lot of pick and rolls. So they don't have a lot of opportunities to do that. And secondly, one of the

things that defenses can trap and they can blitz and they can hedge against teams that don't have like a secondary playmaker or or a big man that can really make you pay. Golden State is a roster littered with guys that can make you pay. So I'm not sure the things that New Orleans did well and the first series against Portland are at all can be, can it all be applied to this series against Golden State. And their defense was different. They switched more on-ball screens rather than blitzing. They did change their defense. And I think they do need to switch even a little bit more so off ball as well.

But I don't know, dude. The other thing that scares me. I don't feel good at all for both the series of the rules. I don't feel good. I don't think Gentry will probably do it because they went through this, you know, very, very serious change in gameplay post-buggy, which was they became the fastest-paced team in the NBA. and I think that is absolute suicide against Golden State.

I've told you this. This has been an ongoing theme throughout the season, whether it is the Rockets or the Warriors, and it would be very interesting to see those teams play against each other. What you want to do is get them uncomfortable and play a game in the 90s if you can. If you want to teeter a little bit above 100, fine. But what you can't do is get in some kind of scorefest with those teams. You want to limit the possessions.

You want to make life hell on them. And you want to play as much half-court basketball as you can against them. Because if you want to get in the track meet, you don't have the horses. Once those possessions start getting up there, Houston's just going to bomb you out. And Golden State's going to bomb you out. And I don't think Golden – I don't think New Orleans is going to slow it down. You've seen it. You saw the Spurs do it.

You've seen – I tell you, if Utah had Rubio, they could do it against Houston. Let's be real here. Golden State had the number one half-court scoring offense. They had the number five half-court defense. Well, there's not a stat you're going to find that they're not an awesome bad. But my point is that we're talking about how New Orleans can even win a game. Not like win the series win a game. You know what they need?

They need Anthony Davis to have one of his 40 and 20 games, and they need to have a hot three-point shooting game. The adjustments matter a lot, but Golden State is going to win the series. But to win a game, to steal a game, maybe steal two games, they just need Anthony Davis to just be the guy that he was in the past month. They have to be, obviously, much better defensively. For sure. And they've got two really good defensive guards, and that didn't even matter. They need to switch more Michael Pina from Vox,

or a really good article today, I believe, or yesterday, actually, about the defensive adjustments wrong. New Orleans needs to mate and he hit the nail on the head. It's really a lot of the offball cuts. The Golden State, they were essentially Clay Thompson would run around screens

and it was situations where you would expect perhaps New Orleans would switch a screen but rather than passing to the guy going through the screen, they would go through the guy setting the screen. It was interesting wrinkle but from Golden State that they've done all season, of course.

They're one of the highest frequency cutting teams in the league. But I think New Orleans would be better sort of switching those screens. that's something to look for in game two. But even then, though, that's like still a risky risk, though, because if you're getting a larger defender matched up on a quicker guy, then get you in trouble as well if you're facing an isolation.

But maybe that's preferable to open layoffs off of cuts. Yeah. And you would, the other disappointing thing is you would think if there's somebody that would know pretty well how to deal with the opponent, it would be gentry. Like, how could you, how does he not know? Sure. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I mean, when you come out the gate and get blasted that way, it's like, you had a guy on the inside. Like, if there's somebody that would say, hey, this is what gives Clay trouble, this is what gives Kevin trouble, this is what, right, whoever, it may be, certainly more so with Clay and Draymond than, right? Because he's, because he's been gone since they got Duran. But you would think he would have, you know, he's certainly been alongside Steve Kerr for some amount of time. And it doesn't matter.

I mean, honestly, you watch those games and it's like, it really doesn't matter. We can analyze it all we want. In the end, they still got frigid Kevin Durant and Tramon Green and Clay Thompson and Step Curry. And you can play any style and you can play any defense and you could do this and you could do that. And they're still beat you. I got to be totally real with you. I'm already thinking about Golden State Houston, how those teams. are going to match up.

I'm already at that point. I'm already thinking about how those teams are going to match up. I hate Rubio got hurt so bad. I really do. Because they were like, what, like 34 and 8 or something like that in their last 42 games? It was not a small sample size. And that Utah team was rocking. And I really think that could have been a great series.

But they have to have, they got to have Rubio. You know what I mean? They got to have Rubio. I don't think that they're going to mall them out. though completely. You think Houston's just going to just demolish them? I mean,

they didn't demolish Minnesota. Yeah, I think both Houston and Golden State sweep. I had New Orleans and five before the series, I think. But I think... At least Minnesota was in some competitive games.

You know what I'm saying? Sure. And look, I mean, I could be completely underselling Utah here. They're a really, really good team. But Rubio is quite a loss for them. Big loss.

All right. Well, we'll see. Boy, you think whoever's going to be doing the Wednesday podcast, you thought we got to overreact? Wait till frigging game one of LeBron and the Raptors is what they're talking about tomorrow. Hell yeah, baby.

Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I can't wait. I have no idea what's going to happen. None. Do you? I feel like I've got no gauge on that. I mean, I've got a gauge that LeBron will be awesome, but in terms of I can't imagine the reactions on

Wednesday morning one way or the other, because I certainly have. very little confidence of what's going to take place in that particular game. If Cleveland goes into Toronto and wins, boy. I think that would be almost the more, it wouldn't be stunning, but that would be the more dramatic night if that were to happen. Whereas Toronto takes care of business, it's like, oh, yep, they are kind of, well, the other thing is their home court, I was talking to my buddy, I was talking to my buddy Kevin Arnivitz, who'd been covering that series,

the Raptors and the Wizards. And I was talking to them about, because one of the things I asked him, I was like, you know how to like the Wizards have won all of these home games the last two years? Like they haven't lost the playoff home games.

I'm like, is their environment crazy? And he's like, no, it's like league average, like whatever. And he said, Toronto is an absolute madhouse.

He said, you go in there for playoff games. And he's like, because they're hockey fans. And he's like, it's just nuts. Absolutely. That is a real, like, major home court advantage environment. There's some good ones. Both Boston and Philadelphia, tremendous home crowd. Toronto, fantastic. Utah, unbelievable home crowd. Golden State as well. Some really rocking.

It appears Utah can get under people's skin. Especially Russell Westbrook. That was something else at the end of that game, wasn't it? He slapped that dude's phone. Hey, how scared was that guy? How scared was that guy when he walked out and he yelled something? And Russ made him flinch. Unbelievable. Can you imagine if you had to go to work the next day after Russ turned to you?

You were yelling whatever, all manner of things at him. And Russ turned to you. And you were like, oh, no. It's like if the guy's name's Charles, it's like, hey, Charles, look at this video. It's a video on loop of him flinching at Russell Westbrook. I know. It's like the new Rick Roll for him. his own personal life.

That's right. That was a Twitter egg in real life. That's what that was. That moment, the moment that the Twitter egg actually gets acknowledged. By the way, are we ever going to see the video that the guy took when Russell Westbrook tried slapping the phone on his hand? Is that going to ever come out? Is that like up on LiveLeak or something like that? No.

That guy died of humiliation. You didn't hear? Oh, come on. Yeah, he uploaded the video probably to like his Facebook. And that's it. He's probably like not on Twitter, which is unfortunate. We got to find that video. If you know the guy, if you know the guy who,

whose phone almost got slapped out of his hand from Russell Westbrook, we want to see the video here at the Ringar, NBA show. That's our only mission right now. Who is the other guy that slapped the phone completely? You remember that that happened earlier this year? And the guy got fined real bad? Who was that? Because it wasn't like, it wasn't like, it wasn't like,

It was Rodney Hood. I googled it. My memory is not that good. Watch out, Toronto. Watch out. All right. That's going to do it for the Ringer NBA show. It's fun to do it on a Monday night.

I hope everybody digs the show. If you dig what you heard, give us a rating and review on iTunes. It certainly helps. And Kevin, I will talk to you next week. This is fun. Have a good one, Chris. Thanks, brother.