The Ringer NBA Show - Should We Be Surprised by What Jimmy Butler and LeBron James Did? | The Answer

Episode Date: April 25, 2023

Seerat and Michael begin the pod by sharing their reactions to Jimmy Butler's amazing performance in the Heat's win over the Bucks on Monday night, despite Milwaukee’s physical advantages. They discuss the Bucks’ mindset since they're down 3-1 and some of the concerns they have for Miami going forward in the series (9:18). Next, they dissect the Lakers' gritty win over the Grizzlies, which was fueled by LeBron James’s vintage playmaking down the stretch (25:48). They touch on the sloppy tactics by Memphis and debate the potency of L.A.’s role players since the trade deadline (35:02). They end the pod by pondering whether De’Aaron Fox’s injury is forecasting a Lakers-Warriors Round 2 matchup (39:17). Hosts: Seerat Sohi and Michael Pina Associate Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Benjamin Cruz and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers from the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's a new year and I have a new podcast here at the ringer Offguard hosted by me and my guy Pasha Higigi. Austin and I go way back and talk so much hoop already that we figure it was time to fire up the mics and let you in all of these conversations. Every week, Pasha and I will hit on the biggest stories happening in the league and get Austin's perspective of someone currently hooping in the NBA. Tap into Offguard every Friday on the Ringer NBA show feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Another episode of The Answer on a Monday night. I'm here with Michael Pina. Michael, have you heard the rumors about basketball? I have not. Can you enlighten me? It's very good. It's very good. We are just coming off an incredible, incredible night of basketball. I'm coming off a pretty epic high as an incredible LeBron James Homer, as everybody here knows.

Mike, I don't know if you're feeling the exact same way. We also had an incredible Jimmy Butler night. we'll start there. Let's start with Heat Bucks. Let's start with game four. The Heat go up 3-1. Jimmy puts up 56 points, nine rebounds in just one of the gutsiest, most Jimmy Butler-esque, hard performances of all time. I was watching TNT after the game, and Ali LaForest asked Jimmy how he makes it look so easy. And he was like, it is not easy. And I got to say, it didn't look very easy. It didn't look very easy at all. It reminded me of him just hanging off. hanging off the railing there in the bubble in my in uh in uh in Orlando uh but just one of the best playoff performances maybe the best performance of jimmy baller's career reggie miller suggested it was the best performance of a heat player in the playoffs ever i think we got a solo roll a little bit there just because i don't know there's there's a little bit you know now that we're here mike and you're just having such a good night there was also lebron's game six performance against the Celtics, which I know that you dearly remember as well. But let's, let's, we're not here to talk

about that as much as, you know, I would love to base on the look on your face, which is you guys can't see it, but not, not great. No, I know, I appreciate you bringing that up, for sure, one of the worst nights of my life. Jimmy was incredible, 56 points, uh, basically had no help from his teammates. You know, Duncan Robinson hit a few threes. Bam was off. Kyle Lowry was playing defense. Couldn't really score. 56 points is tied for the fourth most in NBA playoff history. He was 16 for 20 inside the arc. He was 11 for 13 in the paint.

He had that go-ahead steel with about three minutes to go when Janus looked like he was trying to call a timeout, dunk on the other end, just absolute pandemonium. He had the straightaway three over Jew Holiday. They were hunting Chris Middleton in the fourth quarter. Drew ducks under the screen. He just pulls up, drills the three. It was his first above the break three of the entire game. Next play, he switches onto Janus, cuts off Janus's drive, forces him into this bad push shot, miss, takes it up the other end.

15 on the shot clock, he has a step back. Would be a three, but his toe was on the line, so it was a long two. Just like one of the craziest end sequences you'll ever see. I don't know if it was the best. I do know it was not the best heat playoff performance. I want to get that out of the way. it was one of the best games, I don't know, that like I've ever seen. Like, just he was amazing.

And the fact that it puts the Miami Heat up 3-1, just there's a lot of relevance here and a lot of significance too going forward. Yeah, absolutely. He, it started off with, it just looked like this was going to be him keeping it, him keeping the heat in a game that they weren't going to win. He has a 22 point first quarter. He slows down in the second quarter. and you start wondering, okay, who else is going to show up for Miami?

They start to get the dribble handoff action going with Bamad of Bio and Duncan Robinson. The Bucks choose to play the drop every single time on it. And you're like, oh, wow, is it 2020 again? Are we back in the bubble? There's just so many markers of the past here. They go away from that. And I'm not really sure why. But, you know, that's just, I don't know.

I don't know why they did that. But they start running a lot more pick and roll in the same. second half. They get BAM going a little bit in the third quarter. I think that was important. Everyone, you know, everyone did just enough. Everyone did just enough. But overall, this Miami Heat team was so tactically undermatched in this entire game in pretty much every facet. There was pretty much no answer for the buck's size. There was no answer for Janus. There was no answer for Brooke. They're just giving up turnovers all over. the place. I think the Bucks ended up getting 24 points off of

of turnovers in this game. There was no answer for any of, you know, the different things that Janus was able to do. They tried playing zone in the second quarter in the fourth quarter. Yonis basically tears it up and we can get into all of that. But right now, the only point of me saying that is to say that this was just purely Jimmy Butler willing these guys to a victory. If you look at pretty much every marker in this game, the Bucks won it other than three-point accuracy.

They out-rebounded them. They had far more offensive rebounds. There was really, I don't know, like you just couldn't, they didn't have an answer. They didn't have an answer beyond the fact that Jimmy just decides a 19% three-point shooter in the regular season decides that he's going to hit some of the biggest, outside shots of his career in a game that is critical for Milwaukee to win.

Like we, I don't know, like this is now. So the Bucs are now, they're down 3-1 in this series and I think they're the superior team. I just think Janus missed some time and Jimmy Butler did Jimmy Butler things and now we're in this scenario where the 1C just might get knocked out of the playoffs way, way early. And the East is open and yeah, I don't know. The fact that he did all this against Drew Holiday, who, I mean, Drew, if you can go back and watch this game, like Drew Holiday's defense was stupendous. Like, he made him, made Jimmy fight for every inch, did not relent, was super physical, just an amazing defensive performance by Drew Holiday.

And like I said earlier, they really, I think one thing that really stood out to me in the fourth quarter in particular was just how limited Chris Middleton looked on the defensive end. did not have a good shooting performance once Eric's supposed to realize that Gabe Vincent cannot guard Chris Middleton. He subbed Gabe Vincent out of the game, put Caleb Martin in and switch the matchups a little bit. But like hunting Chris Middleton, getting good looks as a team, as an offense down the stretch every single time they did that. That's a little worrisome.

But I wrote in my notes, like before the game was over, I was like, Jimmy just, it's looking like one of those games where Jimmy basically just. whatever he wants, isn't getting help, and it's just a 9, 10, 11-point game the whole way. And then suddenly they go on this run. I thought Caleb Martin hit some huge shots down the stretch, made some great plays. Like, Jimmy was guarding Brooke Lopez for the last three minutes of this basketball game. Just wild stuff. Janus, the triple double, I thought it was one of his better passing performances that I've seen in a really long time.

Like you said, he was just cutting up Miami's zone, anything they wanted to do. He was just very deliberate in his attack. The fact that he only had four free throw attempts in the game could be related to the fact that he had only played 11 minutes in this series coming into tonight with a back injury. And his game is just so physical. And so, I mean, he was more willing to give the ball up than I think he normally is in this game. And I agree with you that Milwaukee is the better team, obviously, win healthy, but they aren't healthy. And down 3-1, like, I'm really not ready to call this series over yet because Miami has lived on just outrageous shot-making.

But you're up 3-1, and history says you're going to win the series. And that's just absolutely wild to me. And if it actually does happen, the Eastern Conference, yeah, it's just, it's a wild ride right now. I would not be surprised if the Bucks made a comeback in this series, but he only need to win one of three now. And, I mean, they just had this guy show up for one of the all-time performances, and I don't think he's going to do it again in game five. I think that's a little bit too much to ask.

But if you give him six and seven, I don't know. How dare you doubt Jimmy Butler? Oh, my goodness. I'm not doubting Jimmy Butler. I'm just suggesting that maybe he's going to pace himself a little bit. But yeah, look, so the, So moving forward with this with this series, I guess. There was a lot of things that concerned me about Miami.

Let's get into the zone a little bit. And this is partially just like all compliments to Janice. Just the way that he was manipulating the zone was incredible. But the thing is, so they usually went to the zone when Bam was out of the game because they just don't have anything else going. And they need to protect the paint in those situations. but then it just, it really, really overtaxed a whole bunch of wings. You know, you've got Duncan Robinson basically trying to front Brooke Lopez. You've got Vincent trying to front Brooke Lopez.

And you've got Janice who can see over everybody. And the second that he gets into the middle of the paint, Miami basically just has to put all of its resources there. And they actually are really lucky. I mean, like, the amount of corner threes that Pat Connington missed tonight, I just don't think that's going to happen over time consistently. It's just, you know, like that's, you got to, it's a strategy, I guess, right? Like, you'd rather have them take threes.

But at the same time, like, those are going to go in more often than not. And, you know, I think you also, I think it also kind of turned when they lost Kevin Love, too. Like, that was, he ended up starting in the second half, which I think was smart. But then he just picked up a bunch of fouls. And he was really good positionally. But again, like, you know, I think there was, there were a couple of second chance opportunities. That's where Lopez is huge. where they just

can't really do much and we kind of talked about it while we were texting too there's also just like when you play man it's tough too because if you put I think the best way to defend the bucks if you're

Miami is to go with Butler on Janice and Bam on Lopez but then you still need help to cover that pick and roll and then like you know Duncan Robinson's not going to be the guy that gets it done there right

Like they're just going to finish right over him. So it's just tough. There's no good scenario there, right? Like if you switch those matchups like you do like they did in the fourth, that's probably one of the better configurations of it, just because Jimmy's a little quicker. I don't know. What do you think?

I just looked up the zone numbers as you were talking. And according to Second Spectrum, Miami throughout their zone for only eight possessions in this game, it seemed like more. Milwaukee average 1.7 points per possession, which is just off the charts. Yeah, that's absolutely ridiculous. I mean, when we talk about like individual matchups, I mean, first of all, bam getting in foul trouble from the jump, two quick fouls, take them out, Haywood High Smith comes in.

Cody Zeller played some minutes. I think he played like seven minutes in this one. They're just so limited in the front court and so small. I mean, honestly, it's a slight miracle that they won with Caleb Martin and Kyle Lowry on the floor at the end. And they're just tiny. I mean, obviously, Kyle Lowry plays bigger than he is on the defensive end for sure. And he forced some really key turnovers and is always in the right spot, always just being a nuisance. But on the backside, like my thing with matching up Jimmy on Janus, obviously, that's like extremely.

Obviously, that's, like, extremely taxing for him physically. I don't know how many minutes you could actually do that. Just ask him. But honestly, like, I got it. Honestly, like, Bud only playing Bobby Portis, 13 minutes. And, like, I don't know how much second-guessing I want to do with the coaching because, like, sometimes a guy scores 56 and there's nothing you can really do. But I thought it was a little curious there because if I was. Milwaukee, I would really be leveraging my physical advantage.

I would be attacking the offensive glass as much as possible. Like you said, they won the possession game, just didn't get shots to fall. I don't think there's like a lot to be super concerned with if you're Milwaukee. Besides Middleton, I think Middleton, his defense was a problem. And you got to play him. So maybe that's more of a long-term thing if they were to survive their series. but like, I don't know, like Miami shot the crap out of the ball. Jimmy Butler had a historic performance.

You were in control the entire game and you lost it. Like, I don't know. Should they be panicking? Oh, you have to panic. You're down 3-1. It's fair. It's weird. It's a fair rebuttal.

There's just, there's no option. But Jimmy also had a really smart play towards the end of the game where he just, he just fouled, uh, fouled a middleton out. Like, he knew that Middleton wasn't going to be able to defend him if he didn't foul. slowed down. So it was either going to be like a layup or a bell. And it was like one of those plays where it's like, oh, you kind of wonder why he didn't slow the game,

so the game down a little bit and just run clock. But, you know, it was really smart. He fouled middle to know. And he had a couple really nice plays. I mean, more than a couple. He had some really nice plays around the rim too, like where he just like he caught the ball in deep pose, whether it was against Drew or Janice or he had this one and one against

Lopez where it's like, it was just like pump fake, pivot, find an angle and finish. And I went on this tangent only because I want to set this up. Michael, guess how much, Guess what Jimmy is shooting at the rim in this series? 70%. 69%. Wow.

Yeah. That was close. That was the only reason I said any of that. Which is amazing because I tweeted this during the middle of the third quarter. They were like four for 10 or something in the restricted area, which is like the fact that Milwaukee was limiting their attempts. Amazing. the fact that they were shooting like 40% at the rim in an NBA game. Like that's kind of unheard of.

Like I just, I don't know, like it's only one game and they got the W and they're up 3-1, but it's just like so much weird stuff happened for Miami to win this game and to be up 3-1. And if Janus is, I don't know what his physical condition is. I think that that's a question mark also going forward. But I don't know. Like, I'm, if I was a Bucks fan, I wouldn't be super nervous. That's another place where Milwaukee sneaky won tactically in this game, too. Miami ended up shooting 47% at the rim for the game and only took 24% of their shots,

which, like, if you know, if you know what Mike Boodenholzer likes to force, like, they're happy with that. Like, they'll live with a lot of these shots. They'll live with so much of this. The only thing you can't live with here is just Jimmy Butler going off for 56 points. And, like, I don't know, he just can't stress this enough. Miami just had no business winning this game in any way. And, like, you know, I think moving forward, though, one thing to look at is that Miami can actually do a little bit better that, again, like, I don't know this. I don't know about the sustainability factor is, is Bam adabio just being more aggressive.

Now, before this game, so like these numbers will have changed and it was only 11 actions. But Bam going up against Lopez was generating about 0.6. points per direct action, which is not exactly what you're looking for. But also, there are, there are things that they're giving him. You know, like there are moments where he just, he opened the, he opened the third quarter. And I was really watching this play because he had a really bad start to the game. He had foul trouble. And like, he just needed more from anybody. And you were hoping it'd be bam. And he gets ignored from midrange completely. He tries to sneak a pass to Gabe Vincent. And he gets it there. But Lopez isn't like, Lopez is right there.

He's ignoring BAM. So Vincent tries to pass it right back to him, and Middleton is right there for the steel. And turnovers, by the way, were a huge issue for Miami in this game. Another place where the Bucks tactically won. But, you know, he's trying to force-feed it to the rim. And they do need more shots going to the rim. But when Lopez is doing that, you got to take your shot. It's a 10-footer.

Lopet, I mean, Bam shot 47% on those shots this season. He's just got to take those more. And then he started to do that And you started to see him getting going downhill He started hitting a few floaters And then he had an awesome dunk Where he gets the end one Basically on a ball that bounces six feet into the air

On a dunk And then somehow gets a friendly role I don't know how that happens But hey fun Fun to watch He just he just needs to play He needs to play a little bit more like third quarter bam In this series

And I guess maybe not in this series And then three to one They'll probably win one of the these next three games somehow just through the course of the playoffs if miami is going to make a deep run they just you know you're not going to have tally hero they need something on an offense and that's just going to have to be bam and i think it's been you know it's been a long time of basically i feel like there has been there has been something on the stove for a really long time and it's been heating up and we just need somebody to throw the butter on there and like explode

because it's it's like this developmental sort of trajectory of things going as slowly as as they've gone for him. I don't know. It's just like, it's time. It's time. I want it. I want like full metal like early season, December, Bam, Atabio for the rest of the playoffs.

It's 1.30 where I am and that butter metaphor just made me really hungry. I just want to say. I'm sorry. It's okay. Bam, I like you bringing up the jumpers in the paint. It's, that's like his signature shot.

It's so critical to hit those against Brooke Lopez, who doesn't really want to come out. and contest. Like, he'll late contest, but he's fine with Bam taking those and then just, you know, protecting the pain, grabbing the rebound, et cetera. But I don't know. Like, Bam, Bam's having a weird stretch for me. He's one of my favorite players.

I respect him so much. One of the best defenders in basketball. But when he's just like, I mean, when he's committing these sloppy turnovers, like unforced turnovers, live ball turnovers. He committed a few of those tonight in bad spots. When he's not aggressive, looking for his shot, super passive. I just don't like his game offensively. And we're seeing a lot of that.

He was not efficient tonight, scoring the ball. They just need more from him, I feel like. And I feel like he's capable of it. I mean, he was not good really in the plan by and large for a guy. who there were conversations, there have been conversations over the past couple of seasons where it's like,

who is the best player on the Miami Heat? And it's just like that is the like gap between Jimmy and Bam if you watch this team for the past six weeks or so is like gargantuan.

And I feel like it shouldn't be. And so Bam is just a really curious player for me right now when I watch him play. I want to see him score more. I want to see a little bit more playmaking, especially with Kyle Lowry

limited and the lineups that they've been playing. He runs the two main game with Duncan and Struce, and it's fine. Struz was just a total zero in this game, which is another reason why it's just a stunning development that the Miami Heat won. But Bam's weird to me, and I'd like to see him play better.

I feel like he will, but I like to see him play better as the series progresses. I agree. I agree. It also kind of felt like Jimmy and Janice were sort of having this proxy battle over who can be the gutsyest player on the team. You know, like Jimmy's checking back into the game and there's like a heat pad. Janus has like a trainer is taking a therigan like to like all over his butt basically like on the sidelines or a couple great shots of that.

By the way, for anybody who has actually tried that, it feels amazing. Like do not judge Janus for that. it is incredible, highly, highly recommend, especially if you spend a lot of time sitting down these days, which if you're taking to, if you're just watching the first round of the NBA playoffs, you're probably sitting around a lot these days. Highly, highly, highly recommend. But yeah, it was just kind of like a funny sort of side plot. Like, Yonis starts limping. He's like, he's waving off, bud, like, no, don't take me out of this game. I want to beat this game. But hey, I mean, Janus looks great. Yonis looks great.

And that's obviously important for the books. I don't know. What do you think is going to happen? I mean, I feel like I've been talking about how the Milwaukee books shouldn't be nervous. I'm not picking them to win this series, though. That'd be stupid. I think Miami's going to advance. And we might get a Miami Heat, New York Knicks, like old school mid-90s playoff series.

Like, I'm thrilled. Fourth grade me is so. pumped for this. It's incredible stuff. It's like the Chris Herring slash Pat Riley series. Who do you think it's more important to between those two? Definitely Chris. Definitely Chris.

Definitely Chris. You don't think it's Pat's, like maybe Pat's final revenge or like maybe he's a little chuchel to care at this point. He's got, he's gotten some of his victories. Also it just feels like, you know, Embed, Doc said it would be highly unlikely that Embedde plays in game one of a second round. I feel like the Celtics just kind of cleared their path to the finals here. Yeah, no comment on that at this stage.

We don't jinx anything in this household. But Boston's path does look pretty good. The Celtics look pretty good. I mean, Dejante Murray getting suspended for Game 5 of that series is kind of a bummer. I've enjoyed watching him play. He's been fantastic. He just totally lost his cool with the referees at the end of games four. But, yeah, I want him beat to be healthy.

and it's like just a bummer that he's not that's kind of been a theme of this whole playoffs and we could get sidetrack going down the hole but um but yeah the Eastern Conference playoff picture is just like really muddy right now it's interesting but it's muddy the NBA playoffs are here and you can turn crossovers into cash

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www.1-800 gambler.net in West Virginia. Okay, so let's chat about the Lakers Grizzlies game. The Lakers escaped by the score of 117 and 111 and overtime. Really interesting, exciting, thrilling game for Lakers fans. devastating loss for the Memphis Grizzlies that were up two points with six seconds to go. I am just generally just zooming out when I watch the Los Angeles Lakers these days, all I'm watching or what I'm really focused on is LeBron James in his physical condition, what he can do, what he can't do.

In the fourth quarter of this game, DeAngelo Russell hit three humongous three-pointers. They don't win the game without that right before he fouled out. and the ball was in DeLo's hands. The ball was in Austin Reeves' Sands. I think Austin Rees led this team in scoring, which is absolutely just one of the wildest developments of this postseason is his emergence.

But LeBron, not scoring in the fourth quarter until there was 0.8 seconds left of the driving right-handed layup to send it into overtime, tie the game. Like, I kissed it like six inches above the box over Jared Jackson Jr.'s fingertip, vintage LeBron shot.

I just, I'm at the stage now when I watch him. I guess we can just start talking about LeBron and then we can zoom out on the game. When I watch him, I'm surprised that he's doing stuff like this. Should I be surprised, given his age, given the wear and tear, given how he's moving, given the foot injury? Or did you have faith, Sir, I know you love him. Did you have faith that he was going to come through at the end of this one?

I think he's kind of at a place now where when he had the game three, he had, you don't necessarily expect a repeat performance of that. Game three in and of itself was kind of an outlier. Ever since he's come back from his injury, he's just had a lot more trouble getting to the rim. It feels like he's still a little slow. He's had a great season, though, overall. So it does feel like one of those things where maybe he's just trying to get his feet back

under him. He had a really hard time beating anybody off the dribble tonight. I felt like he almost opted out. The Grizzlies were being really physical. with him and he just decided no. And early on in the game, that looked like it was an okay proposition. Like, Vando hit two corner three is just right out, right out as a gate. Huge shots.

Huge shots. And the role player is really showing up. Like, even like, you know, Davis only had, I think he ended up having two points at the half. Maybe he ended up having four. But, and even Russell was struggling from the field in the first half. But, you know, you had Reeves. You had Vanderbilt.

You had Trotter. And it was one of those things where the. Grizzlies were just playing so poorly. Now that I actually think about it, it was more so that the Grizzlies came out in this game, and you were like, what the hell is going on with you guys? And nothing really turned for them until Desmond Bain started,

like he found his shot. He found his shot at some point in the second quarter and the whole complexion of the game change. And it went from, oh, man, I wish we were still watching this heat bucks game. So like, oh, okay, okay. We got some real action going here.

But yeah, just like, you know, we start this game. off with like, Dylan Brooks can shoot every shot that he wants. Like, they're just going to give it to him at this point. They're just playing really sloppy. They're not playing any defense. Jackson gets in foul trouble early. They have to, they put David Roddy in the game.

And this is where like the lack of depth with the injuries really, really hurts some. Because he ended up having like this really weird sloppy start to the game where they put him on LeBron, first of all, which is just like, that's a hell of a thing to do to a rookie. Those are probably the moments where LeBron got most of his first half offense, right? And it was just, it was just like one of those halves where it looked like, oh, okay, like, the Lakers might actually just get to kind of cruise to a victory. And we can just kind of talk about how great their supporting cast is and how great their trade, their trade deadline acquisitions have been.

And, you know, they have like this real team around LeBron James, and which we will talk about. But then Bain turned it on. and Jackson got back in the game and he started making some really gritty plays and they got back, I think it had 10 offensive rebounds in the first half, like they got back into the game and all of a sudden it was a half and you're like, oh, okay, I don't know how it is exactly that we got here,

but this is a viable basketball game. Yeah, I feel like I'm, I don't know, was I being too harsh on LeBron? Like the fact that he played 46 minutes, he had 20 rebounds. Like, it was, was, like, he's not what he used to be, but he's, like, maximizing just his, like, greatness and, like, channeling it in these ways that we just are not used to seeing, I guess. And maybe I

shouldn't be so critical because he's impacting the game off ball in different ways, even though he's not hitting threes and he's not, like, hyper-efficient. And he's not able to consistently drive by David Roddy or Tillman or whoever's on him, really. He's still undeniably effective and undeniably a plus player. But when I look at this Lakers team, like I've never been of the mind that the trade deadline moves were super special. Like, Rui Hachimura is having an out-of-body experience in this series. He kind of came back to Earth tonight, but he's not good. I've never been a D-Lo person.

I thought it was the best thing that could possibly happen in this team when he fouled out after he hit the threes because he was about to start being like, he was about to start feeling himself and he just missed a pull-up too. And that's just like really, when he's feeling himself late in games,

it's like a really bad scenario for his team usually. But I don't know, like I think LeBron needs to be more. I think he needs to be the LeBron we know, and I've grown accustomed to over the past 20-odd years, for them to actually make a deep playoff run, for them to actually beat the Golden State Warriors or even the Sacramento Kings or the Denver Nuggets or this Phoenix Sunstein that's like super frustrating and not deep at all, but in terms of talent, which I just feel like they would blow them out of the water, honestly.

And we're not getting that, LeBron. So I think that's where my criticism comes into play where I'm like, I don't see them making a deep playoff run because LeBron isn't a top 10 player right now. Like, not even close. So a couple things there. First off, when you started that off saying, am I being too hard on LeBron despite X, Y, and Z? And it was more like ABC, D, E, FG. It was kind of like when Doris in game three was like, you know, Dylan's not. not an elite defender.

I mean, no, he's not, he doesn't have elite, he doesn't have elite athleticism. He had exactly shoot up. And that clip was cut. In reality, it was actually a compliment about Dylan's defense. But it kind of sounded a lot like that, which is to say, I think your criticisms of LeBron or fair on the Lakers supporting cast, I cannot believe how good of the past two games, Dilo has been in the last two games. Like, I am, I am shocked, especially considering how much he struggles against physicality

general. I feel like in game three, he kind of used his lack of size to his advantage. He kind of just like slithered through and like made some floaters and stuff like that, made some great plays in the pain and was like super aggressive. And then this game, he just, uh, he hits those, like, he hits those back to back threes and you're just like back to back to back actually because he hit one right after the timeout. Um, as well. And, uh, yeah, it was just, it was just one of those games where I was like, I didn't, don't expect to see this from Delo in the series, but it's kind of a nice surprise. I got to push back against the trade deadline act, position's not being good for them.

I think they've just been an awesome team since then. Like all the metrics kind of show it. And you've got Vando, like the things that Jared Vanderbilt has been able to do to draw him at, like there was no one on this Lakers roster that had any ability to do that to anybody at any point, like, at all, you know? And like you can, you can see it in the possessions where like, like they close the game with Schroeder on him. And it's kind of like this game of like if Schroeder doesn't poke the ball away or

Jod doesn't screw this play up by himself. just by like, you know, he has a bummerist right now. He's going to kind of get what he wants unless the defense is really good. And that's where I want to take this back to LeBron. We're just seeing a different version of him right now. I think it's a lot more just like low post and like not necessarily posting up, but just playing defense, being more of a rim protector, you know, taking the Jaron Jackson matchup sometimes just to keep AD in the paint.

Boxing out, like kind of doing a lot of dirty work. Some huge blocks. Some huge blocks. Huge blocks. Some charges, like huge charge on jaw. And by the way, watching jaw was just absolutely terrifying tonight. Like, it's always terrifying. But when he fell on his wrist again, I was like, Doug, what are you doing? Like, settle down. Like, someone needs to talk to him. That's the job or at. Yeah, you think you think someone needs to talk to John Marat? Yeah, it's just like, stop playing basketball. Like, you're jumping out of a helicopter. Like, what are we doing? Like, your, your hand is like impaired. You can't, like, I just don't understand

what his mentality is on some of these full court sprint like let me take off like I'm jumping off a trampoline. I don't know how I'm on the land I'll worry about it later. Like that's just not smart basketball and both of them were turnovers. Yeah, I just don't think I don't think he knows another way and like

man the paint the paint's pretty clogged these days. The paint is pretty clogged in Memphis these days. They're missing their depth and you know I mean Brooks. They're just they're finding more and more embarrassing ways to not guard Dylan Brooks. Like it kind of started off with every single time Brooks sets a screen for Jha there and they switch it like

they'll trap and then Jha will kick it to Dylan and Vandobert will get there for the contest and he's like always running at him because he knows he doesn't have to be careful because he knows he's going to take the shot and they'll live with a contested above the break Dylan Brookstreet like every single time but like it just got it just got like increasingly more disrespectful I just want to find this in my notes. Oh yeah. Okay. So late in the game, Jha wants to switch a bunch of screens to try to get onto Dangel Russell as opposed to being on Vanderbilt or Schroeder. And Vando is so unworthy about Brooks that even when Brooks cuts to the rim, instead of like slipping to the three point line, he kind of like barely guards it and then goes back to Jha. And then Delo just like saunters to

Brooks after that. Like, they do the most obvious switchback in history while the guy who's watching it, like has a ball in his hands. And it just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter at all. Dylan Brooks is at his head right now, I feel like. A little bit. Yeah.

Usually, like, I don't know, watching the Grizzlies over the past couple seasons, two, three years, I've felt like he's the most confident player in the NBA for, mostly for worse. And he's just not playing with confidence right now. And it's, it impacts everything about him. He's like committing really dumb fouls. They need him on the floor. They need him to be aggressive. And he's, he made actually like a couple really nice passes tonight, which is kind of out of character for him. But what I really like Taylor Jenkins, the adjustment he made was setting the screen, those ball screens when you're trying to get a switch with Luke Conard instead of Brooks because Luke Carnard's like one of the best shooters alive and you have to respect him,

especially when he's setting a back screen or a ball screen for Ja. And Ja can get downhill there because it's really hard to help on the nail. He'll whip it out to Conard and that's a, I mean, that's probably going to be a bucket. So I thought that that adjustment was really nice for as brief as it was. You can't really play Luke Conard big minutes, unfortunately. at least you don't want to because of defensive concerns. But I thought that was pretty interesting. I don't know.

Like I will say, so let me clarify real quick about the trade deadline. My comment there. I think it was the moves were good in the sense that they were really bad before the trade deadline. Like they were a bad team that was in like 12th place or whatever they were. and you make these moves and I think it elevates people who are already on the team and it accentuates LeBron and AD obviously.

I just don't think that they're as good as what their record was down the stretch and every time I watch them play a good team, they lost. And I don't see them winning playoff series again. I think a lot of this is more to do with the fact that their opponent is physically depleted than it is about their greatness,

if that makes any sense. So the Kings and Warriors series is tied up, but Fox is now doubtful to play game five. I think he broke a bone in his finger. There is precedence for players playing through that injury, and it has been suggested that he might try. I'm not really sure what that looks like or what his shooting percentages end up looking like in that situation,

which is to say, that Warriors Lakers is kind of just like screaming at us right now. I think like I just want the basketball. I want Deer and Fox to be healthy. But I want I want the basketball gods to make, make Warriors Kings happen. And I think it might because I think Draymond kind of figured out a way to guard Fox regardless.

And towards the end of that game. And now it's like, I don't know. So like there's there is precedence, right? Like Curry actually. Would he had the broken finger? This is okay. Yeah, this is actually,

this is a good point. This is a good point. I haven't gone back and watched the game again. knowing, like those possessions again, knowing that Fox had a broken finger. But either way, that's the version of Fox that they're going to be dealing with with the rest of the series. And he was absolutely unguardable. Like, Gary Payton was the only guy who had a shot against him.

And so now it's like the biggest issue that the Warriors couldn't solve is pretty much gone now. I mean, not gone, like, but just probably hampered. And then like, I don't know, we'll see if he plays. Like, Curry has played through this injury. Kobe very famously played through this injury. You had to wear a splint. you know, you got to wrap that, wrap it up. I think it's going to depend, like, very much on, like,

just, like, what finger it is and how they have to wrap it up and, like, how that's going to impact his shooting and how quickly he can adjust to all of that. So it is still very much a question. And, like, I wouldn't be surprised if he gutted it out and, like, played well or was, you know, some version of Deer and Fox. But just, I don't know, what do you kind of make of that series in the Fox injury? I mean, it's obviously a huge bummer.

Game 5 in Sacramento was shaping up to be an absolute classic. Like, I can't recall a first round game that I was looking more forward to than that. I still think it'll be competitive. I still think that Kings can obviously win that game. Not having Fox at 100%. He might not even play. I think he's listed as doubtful as we're recording this. They're going to need, I mean, frankly, like,

they're going to need like Subonis to look like Subonis at some point in this series for a legitimate stretch. I feel like people who did not watch him during the regular season think he's not good and he's amazing. He's an amazing offensive player.

And so if he can get himself going as a scorer, if he can get, I assume Malik Monk is going to play a lot in this game. I assume Davion Mitchell's going to play more. Kegan Murray got himself going in game four, which is a really big development. If Kevin Hurder's shot, it finds his shot,

if Malik Monk continues to cook, Davion Mitchell, like I said, he's played really well in this series and defensively is held up. Like, I think they can totally stay in that game and even win it. Winning two without Fox or Fox impaired is going to be really difficult,

even though the Warriors are known, all season long to really struggle on the road and they're going to have to win in Sacramento to win this series, which is going to be difficult. But yeah, just generally, my takeaway is that it sucks. And I wanted Fox to be healthy. All the injuries throughout the playoffs have been terrible. Huge bummer. I hope he gets well soon. I hope he plays.

Yeah, I'm still looking forward to game five and the rest of that series. I'm not really, like, sure how he's going to shake out. I mean, obviously the Kings go back, both go back home. And the Warriors have just no idea how. to win on the road right now. Like they still haven't really figured that out. So I don't know. I mean,

I think the Warriors tactically figured out a few things in that game that can carry over. So I kind of want to give them the edge for this series. And I'm also kind of very much, like I said, trying to manifest a Curry versus LeBron finals or series. I think finals slipped out of my mouth because that's what we're used to. But a Curry versus LeBron's second round, like that just has that has so much electricity for being the second round. just like with LeBron's age, even with Curry's age, I don't know how many shots at that we're

going to get. So I'm rooting for it, honestly. I love the Kings. Love their season. I'm glad they got to light the beam twice, but that's what I'm rooting for. I'm a frontrunner. I think, can I make a prediction against a series that hasn't manifested yet? I think the Warriors will sweep the Lakers if they play them. I'm just going to put that on record. We're going to get that out there in the universe. Okay. I strongly feel that.

All right. I just think that Anthony Davis in the front court might have somebody to say about that. I don't know. Did you watch Anthony Davis in tonight's game? Just when I, you know, we didn't really touch on him because he basically didn't play. But no, I'm just kidding. He played great defensively, but totally non-existent on the offensive end for like three quarters. No, that's fair.

That's fair. He had a better second half. Look, we're not, I'm not going to, I'm not going to get bogged down in a Lakers Warriors series assessment. I just think it's incredibly disrespectful to one of the greatest players of all time to say that he's going to get swept. But hey, you know, that's the bet that you're making. LeBron still had 22 and 20. Like, that's, that's a bad game for LeBron. He had seven assists.

He probably would have had a triple double if anybody, if any of the three-point shooters on the Lakers could hit a shot tonight. So, you know, I don't know. I still think, I still think he's got something left in the tank. He had that game three. He can pull it out every once in a shot. while. So yeah, yeah, I'm on till. I'm on till. This has been the answer. This has been the answer. Thank you so much, Michael. And I really, really mean it. Thank you, Chris, for producing. Thank you guys for listening. We'll talk to you next week.