The Ringer NBA Show - Round 1 Check-In: Where Do Teams Stand? Plus, Player-Fan Interaction | Heat Check

Episode Date: April 22, 2019

With the first round of the NBA playoffs in full effect, Joe House calls in to check on where the current Eastern and Western Conference matchups stand (02:51), including 76ers - Nets (18:03) and Clippers - Warriors (28:59). Then Tyler Tynes discusses his recent piece on the touchy relationship between NBA players and fans (50:14). Read Tyler Tynes's piece on fan abuse towards players here. Host: John Gonzalez Guests: Joe House, Tyler Tynes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's heat check is brought to you by Turo. Turo is a peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace where you can book any car you want, whenever you want it, from a community of local hosts. From exotic sports cars to practical daily drivers, you can choose the best car for you, whatever the budget. Download the T-U-R-O app, that's T-U-R-O on the App Store or Google Play or visit Turo.com and get $25 off your first trip when you sign up for Turo and use promo code Ringer at checkout. apply. And now, heat check. Welcome to Heat Check. I'm your host, John Gonzalez. I'm on the road for the NBA playoffs. Per usual, I was in Philly. Then I was up in Brooklyn where I saw my guys, Dan Devine,

and Tyler Tynes. Now I'm back in Philly and Dave the Greek's living room, and I am joined not by my producer, Isaac Lee, but by my producer Evan Campbell. Evan, thank you for doing this. Hey, no problem. Happy to be here. This is wonderful. You're pinch hitting for Isaac. Isaac is off mourning his clippers lost. They got very close, but not close enough. Isaac may be back next week. Who knows? Maybe he'll still be in morning. We'll see what happens. But we've got a big show. The playoffs keep rolling along. There's a lot to get into. But first, I want to thank you guys for listening. Please rate and review us and all of our fantastic Ringer NBA shows and pods. And don't forget that there's a lot of great content on the ringer.com.

We got Paolo on how James Harden and the Rockets gave the Jazz the perfect opportunity and they squandered it. You got KOC with the top 30 NBA draft big board. Dan Devon. who like I said, I saw in Brooklyn, he wrote a great piece. I was actually thinking about this as we were at the game. He wrote a great piece about Ben Simmons leaning into his role as the villain. And I'm watching this game and everybody in Brooklyn is losing their minds about Ben Simmons and they're blowing the hell out of him. And I'm thinking of myself, man, Ben Simmons has really become a great villain.

And then boom, Dan Devine writes the story. Get out of my head, Dan Devine, but read his piece. It was really good. And then I wrote about how the Sixers Short and Long-Term Success is directly tied to one Joelle Embed and his health, which is forever up in the, air. So go and read all those things. As I mentioned, I saw Tyler Times in Brooklyn, and we started talking and he just wrote a great story on how fans interact with players at NBA games and how often that puts black players in tough spots. And it was just a killer piece. And he and I were chatting

about it. And I'm like, come on heat check. Talk about that. And of course, he's going to have some sixers takes for you. So everybody will be excited. But first, there's all these other playoffs series going on. And for that, we need someone with the hottest of heat check takes. Let's bring a He's heating up. He's on fire. All right, joining me on the other line, a man from Fairway Rowland from House of Carbs. He needs no introduction. He goes by one name now. It's House. House. We're doing this on a Sunday night on Easter Sunday. Happy Easter, happy Passover to everybody. But we're doing it on a Sunday night. And I want to know right now, as you're speaking to me, how much of your bloodstream is currently ham. Gonzo, you know I'm going to answer that question. But first, I have a question for you.

Yes. It is Sunday evening a little after 9 p.m. on the East Coast. And as you know, I'm always humbled and honored to come on the heat check. I'm always here for you, Gonson. Yes. But I got to ask, did you invite me because you knew that out of everybody in the entire Ringer universe, I'd be the only one watching NBA instead of watching Game of Thrones? Yeah.

So basically, when they moved the podcast to Sunday night, half of our roster was just like, I can't do it. I'm doing Thrones. I'm part of the Thrones machinery at the ringer. I'm watching Thrones. We have Tyler Tynes on the podcast later on. He's he was like not that thrilled about doing it because of Thrones. But you, my friend, you're a gamer. You're ready to rock. You can see Thrones anytime. I'm going to, I'll watch it later on. But there's there's live basketball on television. It's playoff basketball. It's Easter Sunday. I had my Easter ham gone. So I had my Easter biscuit. My Easter keish. I some Easter cake. I mean, you know, we're loaded up and ready for some heat check action. Well, how, what's your level of fullness right now? Like, have you taken some notches out of the belt or what? Fortunately, the meal today was about at 4 o'clock. So all of the Easter beers are in the rearview mirror because it was, there was, it was beers, plural today, Gons, oh, believe me.

It was beautiful here on the East Coast. I thought, I was wondering if we were going to get a replay of your pod with Simmons that time. I was hopeful. but you sound like you're in much better shape and spirits. We have a lot of basketball to talk about. So you and I, we're going to just run through all the series and check in on where they are. And we'll, you know,

we'll have a couple of conversations. I can't wait. All right. So Magic and Raptors just wrapped as we're recording this. Shouts to Kevin Clark. Sadly, the momentum that they had from that game one win where they shot the lights out has not continued.

The Raptors took a commanding 3-1 lead. They look really good. I think everybody who was nervous about Toronto and what they were doing, in that series, less nervous now. I mean, was anybody really nervous? Toronto lost game one because that's what they do. Toronto loses game ones.

It's the playoffs. Toronto's going to lose game one. But Kauai Leonard got his one bad game out of the way. He came in. He was dominant tonight. Orlando can't keep up with this team. The East matchups.

Now, I am a proponent of teams that are on the come-up, making the playoffs. It's meaningful for teams like the Nets to get these playoff reps, to get these playoff minutes for teams like Orlando that haven't been in the playoffs for a long time, seven years, getting some of these kids, you know, some playoff reps. The same is true of Detroit. You know, Andre Drummond needs to be on the big stage, even though they never stood a chance. And the Pacers, you know, this was their reward

for playing hard all season was getting swept out of the first round by the Celtics. I mean, none of these series. Only the Nets Sixers has any. intrigue to it and that's because of like the chippiness which we you know the true playoff beef which is just the best kind of beef but otherwise you know this this this this thing is going everybody is going to be it's going to be two four o's and two four ones the playoff beef goes with the easter sunday ham it's been a fun series and we'll get to that in the second but with the raptors like i think that there was some nerves with the raptors when they dropped that first game i hear what you're saying when you're saying it's the playoffs and this happens with them but the magic

looked really good in that game and shot the lights out. And then since then, have looked less good. This last game, the Sunday night game, Kauai looked incredible. He got his bad game out of the way. Pascal Seaccom looked good per usual. Norman Powell looks good. Like Fred Van Fleet was out there doing Fred Van Fleet things. I'm super excited house for this second round, not to get too ahead of ourselves because

it is only 3-1. But as you mentioned, the Sixers go up 3-1 in their series. Now all of a sudden, these two teams, that could be, that could be an enjoyable second-round series. It's what we've been waiting for, Gonzo. I mean, I'm telling you, 40404-1-4-1. These are the preliminaries. And I respect what these, you know, the seeds, 8, 7, 6, 5, you know, just making it to the dance. They can say we make it. They get to treat their home fans to a little bit of playoff basketball. That is to say, watch the other teams play play playoff basketball. But look, you know, all of this is just preliminaries. We're done with the four play, Gonzo. Let's get into the action.

I love the way you put things. You have a way with language house. How do you feel? I mean, like, I get what you're saying about, like, just them getting into the dance and they should feel good about it. I wonder, I wonder how our guy, Kevin Clark feels about this right now. I know that he was super excited that they made the playoffs. It was seven years since they made the playoffs.

They're back in it. They've got some nice young pieces. They've got to figure out what they're going to do with Vucevich in the off season. Not to, again, not to get too ahead of ourselves, but it does feel like the series is over. But, like, on the whole, how would you describe the magic season? Would you give them a good for this? Do they get a good?

It's a good. You know, it can't be, it could not have been that much fun for Kevin Clark, our beloved KC, sitting there in the stands and watching Evan Fornier throw up brick after brick from free point range and watching Terrence Ross, wait until the halfway through the third quarter to make a basket. I think he finished minus 23 on his plus minus tonight or perhaps even a little worse. Minus 25 for Terrence Ross. Pardon me, Terrence.

I didn't mean to shortchange you. But, you know, so if you're, if you're a magic fan, your team was completely outmaned, overmatched, and never had a chance once the tip went up. But they got to see, you know, one of the five best players in the game in the form of Kauai Leonard run up and down the court and show everybody what playoff basketball looks like. And, you know, Toronto is deep. It's a terrific team. So deep.

So deep. So this is why, you know, the next round is the interesting. but tip of the hat to Orlando. Like they made it back to the playoffs. They have young pieces. They're interesting. Tip of the hat to Orlando. I think you're right.

I think that they were overmatched. Similarly overmatched. I'm a little surprised by it. I didn't think that they would win the series. I didn't even think, you know, it would be particularly close. But I thought they'd steal a game here or there. And that was not true for the Indiana payers who,

as you mentioned, got swept out of the playoffs today by the Boston Celtics. And by the way, before we congratulate the Boston Celtics, I got to congratulate you have. because I had said to you when we did our pre-post season podcast that I was not at all rooting for the Boston Celtics, not surprisingly. And you said you were because you added a little bit of action on them and one round done for you, buddy. Well, look, I have a little action on a lot of teams. So that doesn't really distinguish Boston. But Boston went out and handled their business.

I thought today was the day that the patients might steal one that a deadly one o'clock Sunday start. It's a holiday. You know, it's Easter holiday. it would have been fine for Boston to, you know, have gone ahead and let Indiana steal one today. If Indiana was going to steal one, it was today. And they were in the game. They were in the game house.

House, they were up again at the half. It was the third time in the series that they've been up at the half. Obviously, they lost all of those. I thought this was the one. Miles Turner threw down that one dunk on Gordon Hayward. I thought that was the end of Gordon Hayward. It was a wows-a-dunk. You know, the only thing that I regretted, Hayward was almost far enough under the

basket for that ball to bounce off his head. That's the true disrespect. That's what takes this disrespectful dunk index up. That's when you get a 95 to to 100 when the ball bounces off the head. And Hayward's head was so close because my man Miles was so far above the rim. It was really a crotch jam. I mean, he really gave Gordon a good taste, a good look at it and then slammed it down. And if the ball bounced off Gordon's head, that might have been a full hundred.

I might have to give that one a full hundred. Gordon survived, the Celtics survived. You mentioned playoff beef a little bit ago. I thought that there was some fun playoff beef in this one too where Jalen Brown was really feeling himself. He blew a kiss to the bench, to the Indiana Pacers bench after he hit a three. He was getting into it with Kyle O' Quinn. And then at the end, just to like really rub some salt into the wound, he swept the floor, he pantomime sweeping the floor. I love all that stuff. Like I got a lot of heat from Sixers fans and my friends and family in Philadelphia for saying that I like Jared Dudley's act. but I like Jared Dudley's act. It's fun.

I like when players go at each other and get into all that stuff. Yeah, my only quibble with Jared Dudley. And we can talk about that series because it's the only one that's really interesting in the East. I don't have any problem at all with Jalen Brown doing that. It's playoff basketball. If you don't like that kind of disrespect, don't get your ass swept. How about that? Don't get swept.

And Boston is showing us what it's capable of. Bill Simmons was on the Twitter. He was very deliberate in not. naming names, but boy, does he like where Gordon Hayward is at this moment in his, you know, comeback? We really have been waiting to see this kind of sustained contribution out of him. And this was a perfect series for him to get his playoff feet wet again. And the Celtics really do. Look, Tatum isn't taken 22-foot, you know, forced jumpers, you know, five seconds into the shot clock on the regular anymore. Karee is playing within himself. That

that's a version of the Celtics that we just watched in that series that ought to be scary to the Milwaukee Bucks. Yeah, the Pacers get a pass here too. I mean, because again, they're playing without Depot and they're going to have as many as seven free agents in the off season. Who knows what that team's going to look like. But for them to like even stay in that three, four, five mix for as long as they did when they were just trying to squeeze out wins and the back end of their schedule was tough. They got the second straight year where they're on the road at the end of the season for a really brutal road trip. I think that that like they get a good too in the same way that the magic get a good. They get a better good than the magic, but it's still a good,

good for them. But you're right. Like with the Celtics, I wonder, I still wonder what the hell this team is because you see a super efficient game from Gordon Hayward in the closeout game. He played 34 minutes.

He made seven of his nine shots. Made all of his threes, all of his free throws. He was plus 13. And Kyrie played pretty well too. And afterwards House, Gordon Hayward said, it's just the beginning for us.

And Kyrie said, honestly, I'm not, because he was, you know, he was asked about, potentially playing the bucks. He said, honestly, I'm not even really paying attention to who the top team is in the conference during the regular season. Those wins are racked up already.

I think at this point, it's about who can beat a team in a seven game series. You know I love when Kyrie pops off, but are these guys right? Like, is the regular season nothing? And like now, like the bucks have to be thinking about how the Celtics are playing really well. Um, yes. These guys are right. The regular season is nothing. This is it. It's, it's game time now. Kyrie more than anybody has been telling us all season long, at least since Christmas time, how much in a hurry he was to get to the playoffs, to get to this stage and flip that switch. And I don't like when guys get hurt and it has the effect of changing a rotation. But Mark is smart being hurt and putting the Celtics into like their perfect eight-man rotation

is in a lot of respects in this early stage of things kind of helpful. Yeah, I think so. I'm super excited for that second round series as well. And I guess we'll talk about the Pistons and the Bucks right now and we'll do it quickly. I have Ugg. I have Ugg written down in my notes for that series. Like it's a brutal series. The Bucks are up 3-0.

Blake Griffin missed the first two games. He played in the third. It still didn't matter. House, they lost that third game where they get Blake Griffin back by 16 points. And that was the closest game in the whole series for them. They lost game one. The Pistons did by 35. They lost game two by 21.

So I guess losing by 16. 16 represents progress, but the Pistons have been absolutely no match for the Bucks and the Bucks are going to, you know, roll through them and probably sweep them and then go on and play the Boston Celtics. The true justice of that matchup is that, you know, it fits what some of us have been clamoring for in terms of revamping the NBA playoff seating. The number one team in the entire NBA, by record, was Milwaukee Bucks and the worst team to make the playoffs among all 16 teams.

was Detroit. So it was it was proper justice for Milwaukee to have Detroit as its first round fodder and for Milwaukee to go off and get this win. And for Janus to get up on that big stage and show us all, you know, it was in his shorts. And he's putting it on the table. And off we go. Yeah, I'm excited about that. Well, before we move on to the last Eastern conference series, which I want to spend a second on, I'm interested to see your take on this. So as somebody who is a DC guy and not necessarily Steve, in the boo first, boo always culture of, you know, New York, Philly, and Boston. Blake Griffin defended Andre Drummond who got booed at home. And he said, you never want to

hear that, especially from your home crowd. He busted his ass and played hard for this franchise. We wouldn't be where we are without him. Where they are is like just just barely squeaking into the playoffs and then like getting their their asses handed to them by the bucks. So if I was a Pistons fan, I would probably be inclined to boo too. I don't blame Pistons fans. But what's your take on no booing up by the home crowd of the home players. No, no, I don't, I don't abide that. I don't, I don't tolerate that. I think it's absolutely fine. The problem is we as fans can't boo our general managers. We can't boo the decision makers. We can't boo the true culprits responsible for assembling these teams and putting out there a product that, you know, for whatever

reason, chemistry wise, skill set wise, depth wise doesn't meet our hopes and expectations. All you can do is boo the player. And so that's why, you know, here in Washington, Jan Mahinmi, you know, he, he's not responsible for the big dummy Ernie Grunfeld, given him a $64 million contract. All he did is play hard for the Pacers and have an incredible opportunity presented to him by, you know, the basketball gods looking down and creating this moment where every GM lost their mind and overpaid everybody. The same is true for Drum. And he's overpaid. He's not a difference maker, but he's got a difference maker contract, and he has occasionally difference maker stats. He's just not wired as a killer. So I understand Detroit,

Detroit has a long storied basketball tradition, the bad boys. You know, they have, they know what big guys who are tough big guys look like. I don't read drum is not a tough big guy. So they want to boo him, boo him. I don't have any problem with it. Yeah, I say boo who you want to boo, especially because as we learn, and this is scientific house, we had learned here in Philadelphia as the primary example that booing works. What happened in game one? They booed the hell out of Ben Simmons. What happened since then?

Ben Simmons has been a killer. Sixers go up three one in the series. Direct link. He needed to hear it. I mean, you know, there's nothing wrong with booing Ben Simmons. He needed to hear it. Ben Simmons should thank Philadelphia for booing him and encourage them to boo him more. The Sixers, this has been a hell of a series.

I've been on the East Coast for almost two weeks now. Following this series, I was in Philly, then I was up in Brooklyn. Now I'm back in Philly. I met my guy Dave the Greek's house right now as we record this. Oh, I love Dave the Greek. You love Dave the Greek. All Philadelphia loves Dave the Greek and all Philadelphia loves the Sixers. I got back to town last night after the game for Sixers win,

stopped into a local watering establishment to get some food and a beverage. And Sixers fans are feeling themselves right now, house. What? Hold on. Feeling themselves. Shocking. Have they been watching these games? They think they're going to cruise.

I mean, in this series, who knows what happens with this series when game five comes to Philadelphia on Friday night. The Nets have acquitted themselves really well. Game one was great. They shot the lights out. Game two, not so good because of that 51.3 third quarter. Game three, I could have seen it going either way. And certainly game four. Game four was really like, that is such a crushing blow for the Nets, who, again, have played well.

They've got those three guards that have given the Sixers fits. Jared Dudley ends up getting ejected along with Jimmy Butler and, like, like just a silly situation. I don't think either of them should have been ejected, frankly. I agree. I wouldn't know. That whole thing was the typical, the most predictable NBA overcompensation. They should have given Mbide the flagrant two that he deserved for Bustin Allen in the face with that elbow.

There's a reason that Joel Mbid has the second most flagrant fouls in the league. He gets those elbows high with the frequency. that's kind of unacceptable. And in playoff basketball, the time to resolve that malfeasance was right there in the moment when it occurred. He elbowed Allen in the face, blood was drawn. If there's going to be, you know, fist of cuffs or any kind of interaction among the teams, that was the moment for it. Go ahead and resolve it. It's just in hockey, you know, they would have sent somebody out and there would have been a fight and then it would have been over.

We move on. But, you know, in basketball, you know, the rest got it wrong. they give him a flagrant one because it's Embed and then we want to see him out on the court and the ratings are important to everybody and now he comes back he plays in this game four and his foul on Allen

it was a very clean block shot an emphatic block shot more clean than anything else it was it was barely a foul and all of this overcompensation with you know Dudley because he missed the opportunity when he should have stood up for his teammate comes rushing in

I don't have any problem with any of it They should have, all, everybody should have kept playing. It was dumb to kick anybody out. And Beads foul should have been reduced below flagrant. The NBA is not going to do it because they're stubborn. It's ridiculous. But, you know, it's fine. Let's just move on.

The Sixers are going to win this series. The Nets just don't have enough firepower. I mean, all credit to the, to the guards and to Kenny Atkinson. And Sean Marks has been suspended because he went into the rest locker room. Like, how deep? Are these nets feeling it? You know what I'm saying? Like Atkinson was sitting at the podium yesterday, ripping the no call on Tobias Harris's

grab as I can't remember who was coming off a screen. Man, they're really living every minute. It's exactly what you want to see out of a franchise like Brooklyn on the come-up. If they could just get, I mean, how was it? You were physically there. Yeah. It just didn't seem like it was that electric of a crowd. It felt like it was a 50-50 crowd.

No, no. The game four was killer. I mean, Brooklyn brought it. Game three, they had less to get excited about because the Nets came out so flat. And if they had hit some shots, it might have been different. But game four, they were, like, Brooklyn was there. And it was a really fun atmosphere. I've been in that building a lot.

And that was the first time where I felt like that the Nets had a distinct home court advantage. And they, you know, the crowd really wanted them to win that game. And I thought for most of the game that they were going to, they were up, what, seven points with under five minutes to go. And Sixers had lost Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler is obviously the guy that is best at covering those speedy guards on the perimeter, and after that they get super thin. And like somehow, and not just somehow, I mean, we know how it was Joel Embed. The Sixers stole that game and it was an absolute killer.

And I want to just like throw this line out at you. In that game house, Joe Alambit had, when he was doubtful to go and all of a sudden is cleared like however many minutes before the game that they clear him and they decided they're going to play him, he has 31.16 rebounds, seven assists and six blocks. According to basketball reference, the only other person in NBA history to do that in a playoff game was Kareem back in 1974. We're seeing some real impressive basketball from Joel Embed. I just wrote about this. I mean, like, if he's healthy and playing, the Sixers could be in the finals.

And if he's not healthy and not playing, like, the Nets could have bounced them. That's 100% true. It really does require that his performance. I hope we see accolades, you know, in. the things that go up tonight, tomorrow, because he really is a transcendent basketball player. I mean, when you're talking about the only comp for what he did in that game for is

Kareem. He single-handedly willed the Sixers to win that basketball game, and it's apparent that he is impaired. He's got something, you know, whatever his lingering knee issue is, he still moves slow, but God, he's so agile.

He's got an incredible basketball IQ. The tip out to Mike Scott that was the three-pointer that really, you know, sealed the game for the Sixers was an incredible basketball play. And I mean, I just can't hyperboize how great Embed is and what he means, you know, to the Sixers. It feels like a dumb thing to say like what the point you just made. Yeah, anything's possible as long as he's playing. And my big issue is like if you, I just resent him going to the All-Star game. I'm not going to get over it. I mean, this season is a season for the Sixers to make a mark.

Josh Harris, one of the owners of the Sixers, said they're not accepting a first round or even a second round out, right? Like Brett Brown's job is on the line. With all that's at stake for the Sixers and the mark that they intend to make, they acquired Jimmy Butler. They acquired Tobias Harris. You can't have the guy that is, you know, one of the 10 best players in the league, probably the best young player in the entire NBA.

You can't have him entering the playoffs with tendonitis that's from wear and tear. Knee tendonitis. Yeah, I think, I mean, like, if you're going to knock him for playing in the All-Star game, though, I would just as soon knock the franchise for getting the whole load management thing completely backwards, where he misses 13 of the final 23 games of the season, but he plays the first 26 and he's averaging 34 minutes, around 34 minutes per game in the first 26 and he plays in four back to backs. Like the whole point of this is to front load the management part so that you have more

load left in the postseason. They got it completely backwards. So like, yeah, he went to the All-Star game, but I think like the bigger problem was how they structured when and how he was going to play earlier. A thousand percent, but even a team that's dumb had the opportunity to give the man a full week off. put his ass on the beach.

What is the point of going, you know, the All Star game, as you know, as it a frequent attendee of All Star Week, that's a full busy ass week for the guys that participate, that play in the game. It's round the clock obligations from the minute you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to bed at night, it's appearances, it's, you know, it's fan stuff, it's league stuff, it's practices, it's parties. and, you know, for a franchise that's really out of crossroads, like the Sixers, who you just made the point, effed up the load management for this player with a known vulnerability.

Like, you know, him getting the 82 games will be a real seismic achievement whenever it occurs in his career. I would bet the under on that. Well, right. So what are you doing? You have a week in February and you know what's coming up. they had 22, 23 games left in the season, that's the end push. Get the man his rest. Come on.

I get this. Him missing playoff games is a bummer and him not going to not be in 100% healthy for this Raptors tussle. I mean, it's an epic battle that's coming up here, Raptors, Sixers. If he can't play in every game, I'm pissed. I'm, uh, I'm wondering if they might set him in game five and, and prep him for that, although Brad had said before game four that he doesn't think like that. He doesn't think like, oh, we're up to one.

And I'm playing with house money. He doesn't think. You got that right. He don't think. You're right. I agree with you. When's he going to shave the playoff beard? I love the playoff beard.

I will not have any more Brett Brown slander on this program. I will say one more quick thing before we move on. Did you see the ESPN story about Brett Brown where there was a whole bunch of stuff about his early life and Australia and his career and whatnot? In that piece, though, there was an anecdote about him stealing emu eggs with his buddy for breakfast one time. And I thought I'd bring this to you because you are like the crossover of sports and food is perfect for you. Have you had an emu egg before? I have not. I don't even know if I've been in

the presence of an emu egg. We need to get you an emu egg. Well, I'm open to it. I mean, I'm sure. I'm coming out to Los Angeles. I'm sure they exist out there. Let's go find a new emu. Speaking of food and this series, by the way, I wanted to tell you I've, I've eaten not all of the press buffets in the NBA, but many of them. And had the Brooklyn Nets playoff press buffet. Okay. Real close to the top of my rankings. buddy. That makes sense. It was excellent, excellent showing by them that a carving station that had a risotto made to order. They had a bunch of different vegetables and salads and there was roasted chicken and it was great. She should have some slices from Lucali's. You just have a nice

lucali pie. I mean, you're in Brooklyn and people expect to eat. It better be high quality. It better be top notch. Otherwise, everybody say, why do I'm going to eat this? I'm just going to walk right outside and get a terrific slice. We need to do another House of Carbs heat check crossover where we talk about the press buffet rankings. Oh, I love it. I'm into that. It's going to happen. All right, moving to the Western Conference, uh, Isaac Lee not here. So on behalf of Isaac Lee, Wompwomp, uh, I was really rooting for the clippers. They looked really good in this game. They looked good in the series. They stole a game. And now all of a sudden, they're down three one. They were up five in the third

quarter house, which was their largest lead of the series and the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the Warriors won on an eight-o run and they're the Warriors and they're going to put the cupers to bat. It's a shame. Well, I mean, KD is going to KD. KD. KD took the game over and that's how the Warriors won. And our boy, Clay Thompson, took a dip in the ocean. Yesterday was 420. I wonder if he had any convening with nature while he was taking his dip in the ocean, clearing his mind, getting, becoming one with Mother Earth. He'd showed up with his stroke today. I don't know what did. It could have been the dip in the ocean. It could have been him celebrating certain other earthly attributes. I'm glad for him. I'm glad for

the warriors. Are you glad for the warriors? Because I'm not glad for the warriors. I was thinking like how great a story it would be if somehow the clippers had tied it up to two, two and given the warriors, again, you know, Clippers aren't going to beat the Warriors in a series, but like giving them like more run that they wanted in a first round series where they just kind of probably expected, hey, we're going to roll over these guys. And the clippers were like, no, we're not going to let you roll over us. And I, I, I want somebody to keep the warriors from rolling over them. That happened. The Clippers had a historic comeback once in a, in a lifetime comeback and stole a game where they had no business whatsoever winning any games in, in this series. And not that you

attribute this to the Clippers, but, you know, the fates, the basketball fates finally have intervened with this Golden State team. I'm very, very disappointed. in Boogie's injury. You know, I don't wish anything but good fortune for him. It's not going to be a long recovery and, you know, whatever his next payday is going to be has been postponed by quite a bit. But there was going to be at some point with this warrior's team a meaningful injury. They have escaped the injury bug for the most part over the entirety of this run.

I mean, Steph has been dinged at different points. And him being dinged definitely had a role in the series that they, Cleveland came back three to one from. But, you know, for the most part, they've had their full compliment for this, for the entirety of this run that they've been on. So it was a matter of time that a meaningful player for the Warriors was going to be hurt. And, you know, this is it with Boogie. But really, this is that the whole point of the first round of these playoffs is to get to the

second round because that's where all the matchups are. Houston and Golden State is going to be the contest for the NBA title. Excellent transition by you. In addition, you mentioned all these other series that are going to be, you know, four ones or four o's. The Jazz had a chance here. They had a chance. The rockets are up three,

oh, they were so close in game four. James Hardin started out over 15 house, which was ridiculous. It was the most consecutive misses in his career. And then he goes on and he scores 14 of 22 points in the fourth quarter. He said, let me run this past you. He said he had no idea he missed his first 15 shots. You buying it or bullshit?

I believe that he knew he missed a quantity of shots. I think he's telling the truth when he says, you know, if he said, I didn't know it was 15. He just knew that he missed a bunch. Like, I don't think he's going to the bench and they're giving him a running tally of how much he's missing. He just knows that he's missing buckets. And he, and he damn sure knew that he was missing buckets until a fourth quarter until he had that dunk. There's no doubt that he was aware of that. But it's a, unfortunate for Utah because any other matchup in the entire Western Conference would have been better for them than Houston. Houston just, they can't play with Houston. They have the wrong personnel to try and compete with Houston.

Rudy Gobert can't be on the floor and have them compete against Houston. He's the wrong kind of defensive stopper. You can't stop Houston with a rim stopper. It doesn't work. They make all their baskets from other places. and they can get him so far out of whack. The Capella's just, just eating him up. So, I mean, I'm disappointed for Utah because I thought they had a really good season.

They got the 50 win mark that I thought that they would get to this year. And they continue to be on the come up, but they're going to lose this series. They'll be lucky to get to take the last one at home. Yeah, the Jazz got a good, too, for their season. But you're right about it being a bad matchup. I thought it would be a little bit closer than this. I mean, the Jazz are a defense first team. and I was interested to see what kind of schemes they threw out.

And Zachlo just had a great piece on ESPN, kind of explaining about like how a couple of years ago pop and the Spurs sort of designed the go-to conventional wisdom on how you might stop James Hardin. And then James Hardin just basically tore up the blueprint because they just went to full ISO ball. They moved Capella from the left side of the floor and the dunker spot to the right side of the floor because everybody tries to force hard and right because he's lefty. And it just unlocked a bunch of things.

And it puts the defense in a really, really difficult spot. Like who's in the paint, in this case, go bare and like you got to stay home as late as possible. So Harden can't drop that floater over you, but also, you know, you want to keep the dunker in the dunker spot in Capella from throwing down a lob on you.

And it's just such a tough spot for any opposition, like that goes against Houston. I thought the jazz would be slightly better at it. But if they were going to do it, it would have happened in game four and they didn't get there. So it's unfortunate for them. Other series in the Western Conference, Spurs and Nuggets.

This one's been fun. Tide 2-2. Spurs won the first one, then the Nuggets, then the Spurs again, then the Nuggets. I thought going into game four, it was interesting. I want to see what you thought about this. Mike Malone basically threw Jamal Murray under the bus after game three because he was saying, like, they didn't play hard enough. He wanted more from Jamal Murray.

Derek White went out and had a career high 36 points in game three, many of which were scored on Jamal Murray. And I thought like calling him out was kind of an interesting strategy, but it worked in game four, Jamal Murray played great. The Nuggets 1, series is tied to too. Well, the big thing, and this is credit to Mike Malone, I have no problem with him attempting to motivate

Murray. I believe that he understands how Murray is wired and whether or not Murray can accept that kind of criticism. Murray wants to be considered a top dog. So calling him out, I don't think that there's any issue with that. The true genius of Mike Malone in game

four is he started Torrey Craig over Will Barton because Will Barton has been Will busted. He can't make anything. And that gave Malone the opportunity to slide Gary Harris over onto Derek White. And Gary Harris is one bad

mother effort of a defender. And if you look at the, I don't have the numbers in front of me. Derek White had a dramatically different game in game four. And Denver just made the decision. We're not going to let Derek White beat us tonight. We're going to

try this. And so they put their very best defender. And that meant that Harris came off of Damar de Rosen, but they effectively said, well, we'll take that. We'll let Damar de Rosen go get his. He's going to get his anyway. He's been getting it. Harris on Derek White was a game changer and potentially a series changer. Now, this is where the chess match starts because you know that Pop was taking notes last night. I still think, you know, I believe that Denver's going to win this when I watch the spurs, there are too many long stretches where they have a hard time scoring. I wish Lamarcus Aldridge would be a little more forceful. I wish he'd demand the ball lower in the post instead of at the 12 foot mark so he can do

a turnaround. But that's just me wishing for shit that I'm not. That's never going to happen. So, you know, the spurs I think are going to lose because the nuggets just have too many, they're just too deep. They just have wave after wave of competent basketball dudes coming up. Now, with Derek White, when he's playing out of his mind, the spurs, I believe, actually have kind of a back court advantage,

which is a weird thing to say because of all the depth that Denver has. But if this defensive switch works for Denver, then it might be like a four two series. Yeah, the adjustments here have been really interesting. And I'm sort of surprised that Will Barton hasn't played well. I'm a Will Barton fan. He just hasn't looked right since returning since, like after his injury. There were been moments, little flashes where you see the Will Barton that we got last year,

where he was just really consistent and good and underrated. And this year, it's been hit or miss off and on, super streaky. But yeah, I think that the adjustments moving forward in the series will be interesting to watch. I'm going to go the other way, though. You're going to take the nuggets. I'll take the spurs because I've learned the hard way, as Dan Devine, our ringer colleague, reminds me at every turn. Back in December, when they were, like, really struggling and they couldn't get anything going,

and they didn't look like they had ever played together before. and they looked like they were desperate need of leadership. I wrote that no cavalry was coming for the spurs. And then they just played lights out or really well anyway for the rest of the season. And now they're in the postseason, given the nuggets all they can handle. I'm not counting the spurs out anymore. Also, Shea would yell at me. I'll take the spurs.

Oh, I'm not, I'm not counting them out either. I just think that ultimately the nuggets, the nuggets have to validate the season that they had, and especially the season that the Joker had. And the only way to validate it is to make it to the second round. I don't mind them going out and losing in the second round, which I honestly think is in the cards. Although, who knows with this Portland OKC matchup, who Denver's going to get, it's actually probably better for Denver. I think they match up better against both those two teams than they do against the Spurs. They have to survive this Spurs series and then catch one of either Portland or OKC.

And look, who knows, they might end up in the Western Conference finals. Survive the Spurs. That's what always happens in the playoffs. before we get under that last series, The Thunder and the Blazers, you mentioned Pop. Did you see that before Game 4, he went and sat for his pregame press conference,

and nobody grabbed the mic to ask him a question. It took a while, I think like a lot of people are intimidated to ask Pop questions or maybe there weren't that many media there. I don't know. But he waited a couple of seconds and then said, thanks and got up and rolled out. Do you like Pop's media schstick?

Of course I do. It's fine. I do too. he's earned it like of anybody you know i i understand what a kind of anachronism that whole um artifice is now uh i just used two SAT words yes you did you're smart man i don't know what's wrong with me it's sunday night i didn't have enough to drink but like you know that that whole press conference thing is you know it's just not the best way to elicit useful information other than like injuries and and some thought processes on on rotations and so forth i just

wonder about its continued utility. But like, here's what if it was me, why wouldn't you ask him like, you know, what was the wine last night? Like you talk about stuff that he's interested in. I wonder in that setting if he would like how he would be with that kind of question. Like he's he's hit or mess. Sometimes you ask him stuff like that and he's killer, right? And if you ask him about people that have coached with him or for him or players that he likes, he's great. And just you have to really find the right lane with pop. Um, And then, you know, he's he's fantastic. But the reason why I wanted to bring this up is because, like, I do like Pops Schick.

Russell Westbrook is employing a different type of schick. He's, he's targeting one single guy in Oklahoma City. He's not a Barry Trammell fan in Oklahoma City. And Russ was asked, like, after game three, what happened to help them pull away? And he just said next question. And then PG was sitting next to him. And he was asked, like, hey, why did you throw down that double reverse dunk when the game was over and the buzzer had already sounded?

trying to send a message and they next question him too and those guys got crushed for it and I think like there's definitely some hypocrisy there from you know fans in the media where they go oh you know pops just being pop but then when Russ and PG do it not as good. I have a different view on that. I don't think it's hypocrisy. The players get their money from the way that they hold themselves out to the public. So the press conference as it relates to, to the players is an entirely different animal. The players, where's the money coming from? The television contracts that ESPN and TNT and ABC and everybody has for the NBA

have everything to do with these front facing players that the fans, the consuming public of this industry, have an unending interest in. And we want to see those guys talk. We're interested in their perspective. on stuff. It's been demonstrated throughout. Like NBA Twitter is a thing because of how accessible and interesting and, you know, just the entire sort of availability and transparency of the players that play NBA basketball. It's all driven by that.

And so those guys actually, in my view, have an obligation to interface with the press because we, we human being fans can't be sitting in a room asking those guys questions. The press are our proxy for that role. And I think those guys have an obligation to play along. Now, I know what's going on in Oklahoma City. The franchise has basically taken a crap all over its relationship with the press core there for whatever reason. And that's their prerogative, I guess.

I don't know why the league countenance is it. the league is better served by having its players participate and interact with the press, even when these guys grow tired of answering questions. But that's what the money is for. Yeah, I'm sort of torn on it. I'll say this, though, I do like, in the same way that I like Jared Dudley and Ben Simmons playing the villains, I do like Russ and PG. And even Dennis Schrooter, who was doing dames, dame time move when the game was over,

leaning into their villain role. Like the thunder have gotten good at it. Like, and I think that they know that they've gotten good at it. And like maybe that's just part of it is just care. Like it's not just, hey, we're going to be the villains for whoever we're playing. And, you know, it's us against the world. But it's also like us against the media and.

I can accept that. Yeah, I like it. I like it. I can accept that. To pull back the curtain just a little bit, thunder and blazers are happening as we record this because we're recording it late on a Sunday night because of the holiday. And as you mentioned,

all of the game of throne, stepfers, we had to start the pot a little bit earlier, so we won't be able to get into whether or not the Thunder end up tying the series of the Blazers go ahead 3-1. It's been a really fun series, though, House, because I tweeted out in Game 4, the Sixers Net series that every playoff game should be Sixers Nets. And the only pushback I got from anybody about the playoffs so far was add in Thunderblazers because it's been super fun. I like how they've got this super intense robbery. I still have no idea who's going to win this series.

I mean, this is, I love in some respects, the comeback by Portland. They really took last year's sweep by New Orleans to heart. They came back with their first 50 win, 50 plus win season in eons. And they have entered this playoffs clearly on a mission. I think they're deeper than Oklahoma City. And Anna's Cantor is like an X factor in this thing, which is bananas. I don't understand what's going on with Paul George.

Is he hurt? he's not completely right, but he's still incredible. I mean, even at some percentage of Paul George, he's still incredible. But you'll have to tune in to the mismatch on Tuesdays people to find out exactly where this series is. Joe House, you're going to go and digest all that wonderful food that you ate. Oh, no, no. It's, I'm going to go have my snack. I have my 10 o'clock snack and I'm going to watch my Game of Thrones.

What do you mean? It's 10.10. I'm going to go have a snack and a beverage and then the Thrones. What a great way to end the Easter weekend. Second dinner for house, more beers for house. House, you're excellent. Listen to him on Fairway Rowland. Listen to him on House of Carbs.

You're the best, buddy. Thanks, God. And so always a pleasure. All right, I want to thank Joe House. That was excellent before we go to Tyler Tynes. Let's take a quick break for a word from our sponsors. Today's heat check is brought to you by Turro. Turro is a peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace where you can book any car you want whenever

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RIP Detroit was a fun run while it lasted. It didn't last that long. And then that will be followed by the Rockets at Utah in Game 4 as well. Both could be close-out games. See if the Jazz can figure out a way to stop or if not stop, at least slow James Hardin and the Rockets down, as Powell wrote in his piece on the ringer.com. The Jazz had it.

They were right there. And then they let it slip away and James Hardin got hot again. And all of a sudden you go from maybe getting, back into this series, climbing in it to 2-1 to down 3-0 and just fighting for your life. So it's a shame. I was hoping that series would go longer. I was sort of intrigued by it before it started. And now, less intrigued.

But both of those games will be on TNT. And remember, gang, if you want to watch every NBA game, subscribe to NBA League Pass on NBA. Or from your preferred video provider. And now, back to heat check. Boots Chakalaka. He's heating up. He's on fire.

Joining me on the other line, he's a staff writer from the ringer.com. He's a killer writer. I just saw his smiling face in Brooklyn. It's Tyler Tynes. What's up, man? It's me, man. I'm too perfect. I'm too pretty.

How you living? It was good to see you in Brooklyn. We had a wonderful time. We went out with your friend and my friend. It was only okay to see you. I'll take okay. Better than okay, however, was a piece that you just wrote for our wonderful website titled.

The NBA players speak out against verbal abuse in arenas. And this is a subject that you and I have talked about. It's something that we discussed maybe you doing right after the issue that Russ had with the fan in Utah who got banned. And you did it. You went out there and you talked to a bunch of people from Malcolm Brogden to Fred Van Vleet to Brad Stevens and Michelle Roberts. My sons. You did a great job with it. Give us the overarching piece. I mean, it's a difficult piece to digest. You couldn't do it in an elevator pitch, but tell people what you learned and what you thought about it. I think it's important to kind of lay it out fully, right? And so the problem that we've kind of faced,

I guess, you know, in the NBA and in multiple sports, because the biggest part about this is that we should not localize this to be something that is very specific, right? Like, yes, Boston is racist because San Diego is racist, because Philadelphia is racist, because our country has found itself at an impasse where racism is the actual prevailing thought. Because of that, there's always going to be a sense for the NBA, especially where there is the most proximity for white fans to black players, where white fans can say whatever they'd like to, because there's a transactional relationship between those fans who are majority. white to the players who are majority black, right? That's kind of the axis that we stand on. As you kind of move further, the understanding as whiteness kind of operates under its ideology is that black people often are not people, right? And when they fall into different parameters of those different things, whether it's sports,

whether it's entertainment, whether it is you being entertained via sports, it's that transactional relationships allow the white fans who come into these arenas to believe that they are just being entertained by black objects, right? it ships the humanity from these people. And plenty of those players are savvy enough to understand that and know that, and they've all told me that. The problem here is that there is a rare opportunity where fans who happen to be heckling often take it to a second level. And in that second level, there comes an espousment of racism. And within that racism, there are different intersectional tones with which we then say those different things, right?

We call players boys, we call players the N-word, we call players plenty of different things. And the thing, the very simple thing that players want you to understand is that this is unacceptable. I was really interested in how open and candid Fred Van Fleet was with you because that is not always the case with all players. And he had a couple of different things that he said here that were just like blow me over quotes where he said, this is from Fred Van Fleet. Realize that we're still people at the end of the day. It's not the zoo. And when you go to the zoo, you don't jump over the fence and talk the tigers and shit like that.

It's real consequences behind stuff like that. the imagery that he's using there about players as animals is like really powerful and loaded. What was he like to talk to when you were going through this? I mean, because he had a lot to say. Ah, man, you know, Fred was that dude, man. You know, shout out Fred. I think the thing that's important to know here is that all of these players are different people and they're not just cogs in the athletic system that, you know, allows all of us to watch, you know,

amazing things on our televisions in our arenas. These are people. And that's the simplest way to understand this. right? When I came to Fred Van Fleet and I asked him about this, he was very clear, just like Sterling Brown was, just like Malcolm Brogden was, you know, Jared Dudley was, Spencer Dinwiddie, Ethan Thomas, David, David West, a variety of people who talked to me for the story, you know, over 20 people who talked to me for the story. Fred was very much, you know, himself. A lot of players think the same thing that he does. Ekpewudos said the exact same thing

in a player's Shibune video with Kyle Corver. It's, you know, think whatever you want about the Kyle Corver thing, but whatever. When you've gone through this for so long, From the high school level and the pee-wee level to college and now here, you become so exasperated about being black in certain circumstances that it just comes out. It's not anything novel that Fred Van Fleet said what he said. It is something very singular and something very consistent in how a lot of different black people talk about these issues. You know, we should not harold Fred Van Fleet as if he said something that's very different. This is the apparatus with which all of these players exist. They are cogs in a machine or white people who have never really considered blackness as anything other than just a thing that exists next to them.

It's what they are. They're black people who exist in a black game that is run by often white coaches and white power brokers who are wishing for something to change. And if you are not empathetic to that, then you are a part of the problem. You had mentioned in your piece the Kyle Korver story in the Players Tribune. I was thinking about it just when you were saying like, you know, white people or white players who hadn't spent much time thinking about this issue. And that, like, that piece was mentioned in your story. And I was curious, like, how much that came up in the course of your reporting? because on the one hand, people didn't really talk about it.

So that's interesting because Kyle Corver got a lot of pottets for that piece. And I think, like, Kyle Corver writing that it was fine and good for Kyle Corver, but also to your point about like, hey, not spending much time thinking about this, it also smacked of that a little bit. And I just thought perhaps potentially that would have been a topic of conversation, but you're saying not that much. No, I mean, look, Kyle Corver said what Kyle Corver wanted because it made Kyle Corver feel good, just like it made other white people feel good about the thing that kind of.

Kyle Culver said. We see these things in a variety of different media spectrums, and it's not important nor new, right? Like, some people will tell you that what Kyle Culver said is important because it changes the narrative of how we do these things. It doesn't. What Kyle Cover told you is that he didn't believe Thabalcephalosha when he got his leg broke from my police. That's a problem. And so what Kyle Cover said is fine, but it's mostly only a first step for what we need to do to make sure black players and black people within the league not only are advancing, but also feel safe right now. And so unless Kyle Corver is going to take those same words to Gail Miller or to other white power brokers around the league,

then Kyle Corver mostly just wrote in his diary. And that's fine. You know, we want white players to say these things and to be with their black counterparts. But Kyle Corver isn't protesting. Cal Corver isn't challenging the power spectrum of the NBA. Kyle Corver is not saying that what's going on in the NBA is not, you know, a part of some sort of level of moderation that is sort of insidious while also being weird next to conservatism, which would be the NFL. Kyle Corver is just talking, and the NBA has a pension in this decade of protest to talk about these issues. A lot of folks are really, really, really tired of talking. They want action, and action should be had. And if Kyle Corver is only going to talk, then Kyle Corver is only going to talk, and he will be just like so many other white athletes who have talked about this issue.

And thank you for talking. But for me, I will need more action to actually believe the words that you've put down on paper. Yeah, and I understand your point. I definitely do. I give him slightly a little bit more credit than you, in that I think conversation is generally good. And also, there isn't a lot of action by anyone, like not just not Kyle Corver,

but also not like anybody in the NBA. I mean, like when Kaepernick was doing his thing with the Niners, and I remember like the league being asked, hey, would there be what would happen if somebody protested during the anthem? And they said, you know, we have a rule. They were like, chill fam. Nobody said, nobody said shit.

So I get your point. I hear exactly what you're saying. But I think that like that same statement could be said of the entire league. You make a lot of really good point. The piece is absolutely excellent. I highly encourage everybody to go and read Tyler Tynes. He covers the intersection of politics and race and sports for us. It's a really, really good piece, man. You did a great job with it. You have a lot of stuff going on. It's a weekend. I have a lot of stuff going on. There's no good transition here before I let you go. I want you to, because while we were having beers, we talked about this piece and talking about this piece. And then you said, and you have to let me fire off some sixers takes. I'm going to lead you, however. Do you, do you? want to with the Sixers up 3-1 as we record this podcast, do you want to apologize to Brett Brown? All I'm going to say about this, guys, I'm going to say it real quick.

Brett Brown's done a phenomenal job in this series against some scrubs. We shouldn't have lost one game, but I'm glad they got a wake-up call about that. Ben Simmons looks good. Joel N.B. got arthritis, but he looked good. Jimmy Butler looked good. Yeah, I mean, Toby looked good. And so do Bobine. Y'all was talking a lot of shit about Bob, but he looked good.

All I'm going to say, man, is that, you know, outside of my allegiance to the city where I was born, Yes, this is fun, right? Yes. One, the Sixers need this. You know, it's the same as the Miami series last year where Goran Drogic's crusty ass decided to try to low-key fight a few Sixers players. I don't think it's bad at all

that Jared Dutley did what he did. You know, this team is going to lose this series. They have no real reason to win this series because it took, you know, Kenny Atkins in four games to play the best player on his team, Karris Lavert. And so they're not going to win this series, right? And so if I'm also Jared Dutley, I would try to start a fight to get one of the best

players on the team kicked off the team. That's simple logic. Tyler Tynes, you always bring it. Reddit, I'm sure, will be thrilled with your second appearance on Heat Check. We'll have you back. This is wonderful. And the Reddit and the Reddit whites will be very happy that I'm here. I was happy to see you.

It was good for us to have beers and good to have you on Heech. Go and read them on the ringer.com. He's really good. He's Tyler Times. I'm happy he didn't drink any oat milk, man. We'll talk about the oat milk story another time. Thanks, Holmes. All right, that was Tyler Tines.

I want to thank him. want to thank Joe House. I want to thank Evan Campbell for filling in for one, Isaac Lee. I want to thank all of you for listening to Hecheck. Please rate and review us on iTunes if you would be so inclined. Please read all of our content on the ringer.com. And don't forget, as the playoffs continue, we've got all of your NBA needs right here on the NBA show feed.

You've got the mismatch on Tuesdays. Corner 3 now has been moved to Wednesdays. Group chat still on Thursdays. Maybe Isaac and I will be back. I'll be back on Monday with Heech. Thanks for listening, everybody. Bye. Bye.