The Ringer NBA Show - The Clippers Are on the Verge of Disaster Again, Plus the Real Nets and Lakers Show Up | Group Chat

Episode Date: May 26, 2021

Justin, Rob, and Wos start by discussing another disappointing performance from Clippers against the Mavs. Then they discuss the Lakers evening up their series and Anthony Davis’s bounce back performance. Lastly they discuss the Nets blow-out win over the Celtics, and they talk about how the Nets will match up in future rounds. Hosts: Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, Wosny Lambre Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They don't have guests. They have contestants. Ten Questions with Kyle Brandt is the perfect game show and talk show hybrid that you need. Check out 10 questions exclusively on Spotify. Hello, welcome to group chat. We're this weekly NBA group discussion with Daniel Aturu died so the Schaden Freud could live. I am Justin Verrier. We are checking in here at 1024 Pacific time because we just witnessed a raucous night of NBA basketball in the playoffs.

Rob Mahoney is here. Hey, what's going on? What a slate. Big Was also joining us. Yo, yo. So I think the place to start here is the Clippers are now down 2-0 after just another just disastrous night in L.A. Rob, what do you see from this one

and how bad is it for the Clippers? I mean, what I see is a complete lack of cohesive defense. You know, this is a team that's supposed to have two-way wings that's supposed to have a lot of two-way veterans and players, and you can mix and match, you can have all these different looks, they somehow got stuck between not putting enough pressure on Luca and also not staying home enough on the role players to take them out. I mean, you really have to thread the needle to do that

when you have the personnel that they do. I don't know how they ended up in that place. And it was tricky because in the first half, they were able to read Luca a little bit better than what we saw in game one. You know, they were picking them off on the weak side a little bit. And then everything just kind of got teased apart. You know, Luca can pull apart those coverages. He can string you out.

He can feel out when you're doubling and when you're not really well. And I think most importantly, all of these supplementary guys, the Tim Hardaway Juniors and the KP's and the Jalen Brunson's, they all stepped up and played, you know, basically pitched perfect games in terms of delivering in the spots they were supposed to deliver in. Yeah. So this was like a wild night here where for some reason the NBA decided

to schedule both LA teams at pretty much the same time. I think they were only a half hour apart, which meant that you were watching two games at once, which at time was kind of fun, but unfortunately because of how bullshit league passes, quite frankly, that meant like trying, if you're in L.A., like most of us are finding some illegal stream

and being five minutes behind everything and like trying to... Let's bleep out the sources of your streaming. Oh, no, no, no, it's totally fine because they deserve this. They can come after me because on my work laptop right now is probably like just like mounds of viruses and just Russian porn bots that I had to get through just to watch this fucking game. So that's a long way of saying that we probably didn't get as close of look. But every time I looked over at this game, it just is like the clippers are always playing from behind because it seems like there's just pressure washing over them at all times here. Was, what did you think about what you saw from this one? I mean, it begins and it ends on defense, as Rob just mentioned, right?

The reason why they didn't close out Denver last year is that their defense completely collapsed. And again, this was a team last year, who we were told had some of the best defensive talent in the NBA. Their wings were versatile in the amount of people they could guard. They had rim protection with Zubach, who, you know, his rim protection numbers last year anyway, were amongst the best in the league at his position when Zubach was around the rim defending a shot. And so it was thought that these guys had everything that it took to defend most, you know,

competent NBA offenses. And we're seeing again, again in the playoffs that the defense is just failing them. At no point did Luca Donch's look uncomfortable today, right? And, you know, part of it is that he just refuses to give up the ball or the clippers are not making him do that. Like, he's orchestrating everything. I would love to know what his individual usage was for this game because he had his hand in every single thing that was happening for the Maver.

That could be expected. And again, last year, I said it already inside the Mabbs organization, they felt very comfortable about the offense that they could generate against the freaking Clippers. When Chris Staps was out there, like, we can spread. you out and we don't believe in any of you guys's individual ability to stop Luca. And, you know, Luca's gotten really good at the LeBron bum hunting situation. He's like, yo, Patrick Beverly, you're nine inches shorter than I am. I'm going to get a screen.

I'm going to make sure you switch and I'm going to treat you like a baby, like a child, like a toddler. Then I'm going to yell at you and let you know about it. It's, it's looking pretty bad, guys. pretty bad for the clips here. The thing about his head hunting, too, that's different from LeBron's, I think, is that he's doing both ends of the spectrum a little bit. To start the games, they're going after Zubots.

They're saying, oh, that's your rim protector. We're going to pull him 30 feet from the hoop, and I'm going to walk around him. Oh, you're going to take him out of the game. That it's exactly what you're talking about was. I'm going to walk Patrick Beverly to the rim. And there were two of those late where there was zero help. Nobody rotated. And, like, Kauai is complicit in this, too.

PG is complicit in this too. I think those guys played pretty good games, but they were in the vicinity as Luca is getting layups with the game. And, you know, 2-0 isn't a death now, but pretty close to your season on the line. Yeah, I mean, part of that was because they went to this extremely small ball lineup. Like Marcus Morris followed out, and all of a sudden you have Reggie Jackson out there.

You have Terrence Mann and Bev surrounding PG and Kauai. And like on the one hand, it shows just like how deep and how deep and how versatile the clippers are, right? And that's why we all love them. They have all these switchable wings. We talk about this all the freaking time. But then on the other hand, you realize this is the move of a desperate team.

Like they had to go to this because nothing else was working. And this is how it keeps playing out. And listen, I don't believe in karma, but we talked about this. If there was a previously on before this episode, it would be us talking about how cowardly, I believe, was the specific verbiage I used.

it was in order to tank to avoid the Lakers, even though it seems, no, even though it was the smart play, right? This is kind of like this giant comeuppins. And like, I can't even remember the last time anything has happened like this. Like, not even maybe since the, the Mavs lost to the we believe Warriors in the first round. Like, if that, if they ultimately go out here, that is the closest comp we have. And that's pretty fucking bleak for a team that was built to win the title last year and this year. Well, we're not there yet, but I think if we have clarified anything so far, it's that playing against Luca Donchich is never the smart play.

Like, if you can avoid that, do not do it. Right. And, you know, and the thing is it, and I don't want to come up here and talk about things that can't be quantified, you know, basically empirically on a piece of paper. But, like, again, if we're going to get into Carmen, I don't believe in curses, in fact. I barely believe in a God. I'm just saying. It's another podcast, man.

Save it for the offseason, what? All I'm saying is what it does, not just, all right, you're supposed to be a team that has championship aspirations and you're quote-unquote ducking teams. That's bad comically.

What I also don't like that it does is it sends a message to the Mavericks. Like, yeah, we think you could beat us. And the Maver's like, hold up. Excuse me? You guys were, barely doing anything with us when we were at full stream when we played just last year. Why do you think you're going to come in and wax us?

Like, where's the evidence of this? We have our full squad here. We have one of the five to six best players in the league already. He's already proven in aptitude to do well against you guys in a playoff format. Excuse me, how dare you? They probably ticked off over there. Like, these guys must be outside of their damn minds. Yeah.

And Luke is kind of the work. type of player. Like the, the Mavs are the worst type of team to do this to because he's just going to say, fuck it. And he's going to shoot 29 times a game. Like, to your point, like, his usage rate is probably at 30 million and he can make things happen. Like, toward the end of that game, like, I am pretty sure somebody else scored. I vaguely recall a Christop's prosaigas dunk. But, like, Luca was not passing the ball at all. And while, like, you know, on paper, that makes sense. Like, you know, just crowd him. They forced a turnover late there. Like, he just make magic out of nothing to the point where, like, the clip that's going.

around now is just like him hitting this like fade away one footed three pointer like unbelievable i am not i am not going to force a match up with a guy who could literally create magic on the floor i want to shout out chris spursingus too because he is put in a spot in this series that is very hard for a young star big to be put in a guy who wants to prove himself who wants to show oh i can post up these smaller dudes i can get buckets on these guys he's playing the margins he's flashing to the paint he's like he's playing the good soldier he's doing a exactly what they need him to do in this game specifically. And JV, you hit on it, like that dunk that, you know,

he managed to squeeze in in between some great Luca possessions and some great Tim Hardaway Jr. possessions. That's both of these games now where towards the end of these games, KPS flashed middle against the pressure they're putting on Luca. They passed around. They work it to him. Completely uncontested dunk down the stretch of these close games. Like, I mean, inexcusable for the Clippers to allow that to happen in this situation.

and great reads by KP to find those opportunities. And traditionally in the playoffs, Tyloo has been a guy who has made adjustments constantly. He's always looking for stuff that's going to work. I noticed Sergei Baca got six minutes tonight. That's tough, right? Because I think what the clippers have to do is they got to put two on the ball when Luca has it

and basically hope for the best. Because this idea that you're just going to let him dribble around and find the spots and dissect you, that cannot be your answer. But to me, you have to be doing it with size, right? Because it can't just be two little small guys coming to send to where Luca, he's 6-8. He can see over the top of your freaking defense

and figure out the optimal place to put it. If you're not sending size at the ball when Luca has it, that's kind of defeating the purpose too. And I wonder, is it going to be Zubb? Since Ibac is clearly too hurt to play, where's the size they can even send to execute doubling up on Luca to make it uncomfortable? Because, again, you can double people.

But if it doesn't make them hesitate, if it doesn't make them send it to a corner that's suboptimal or send it all the way out to a sort of safety valve type of guy, and he's literally pinpointing the exact weakness of your defense every time you send a double, that's not good enough. And you wonder where these answers are going to come from. Like, I don't know. And, I mean, they don't have enough length or energy at some of the other spots, too.

Like, 72 combined minutes in this game between Beverly, Rondo, Reggie Jackson, that is too many point guard minutes. For a team that, I mean, you want to match up with Jalen Brunson when he's in the game. That's kind of the only point guard-sized threat you need to match up with. And I actually really, in terms of adjustments, I liked what they got from Terrence Mann. here in a pretty limited run. He just has kind of a more chaotic energy that if you're talking about how do we slow down the guy who has us all figured out, let's put this kind of rogue element on the floor who maybe Luca can't read as easily as some of these more veteran types. Yeah, I'm glad you brought

that up there because I do feel like they have that lineup in them, right? They could put on the floor five just switchable wings with good size. I mean, Marcus Morris went out earlier, but and I don't know how much you want to trust Marcus Morris in these situations because it's proving to be that you can. But like you do have that. in theory in order to just go five wings, just switch everything and try to contain them that way. I think the one thing that's in maybe

the Clippers favor or maybe not is just the three-point shooting from the Mavericks. So Zach Cran pointed this out on Twitter here, Mabs are shooting 50% from three in this series. And now you could say on one hand, well, this is what the Mavericks do. Like Demardaway Jr., Luca, Chris Stops,

they have a lot of shooters who could throw out there. I'm pretty sure J.J. Reddick is still somewhere on that bench, just like writing out his own outline to his podcast. On the other hand, like maybe the shooting just isn't there one game and things just don't bounce their way and all of a sudden that's how they get back in this game. I don't know. Like, Rob, how do you feel about this?

Do you feel like there are adjustments beyond like some of the defensive ones we were talking about or is this really like the clippers are kind of playing from behind here? Well, the thing about playing that percentage game is if the clippers keep their coverage as it is, those are target practice threes for these. guys. You know, like, you can say, oh, they're going to regress. Obviously, over 50% threes is crazy. That is a crazy number. But the looks these guys are taking, those are great looks. And, you know, Dorian Finney Smith, who's been a really good three-point shooter all season, he wasn't hitting in this game. So there's already been some of that trade-off. I wouldn't be

banking on that to save you. I think you just need to be tighter in how you're containing the ball. You need to, like, you need, they're trying to mix up their coverages. They're trying to walk that line and juggle it. They just weren't on top of it enough. in this one. And some of it was the people they were putting in those situations or the people they were putting on the floor to get hunted down. And look, man, Kawhi Leonard, there was a point after the Raptors championship. People were calling him the best player in all of basketball. And I think he was justified. He was so incredible in the postseason, so amazing and big moments. This man was 14 of 21 for 41 points.

Yeah, 30 a half time. Yeah. Okay. That's 41 points. on 26 shooting possessions. I'm sorry. If you get cracked in the head when your best player goes 14 for 21 because you can't stop a nosebleed, and you're going back to Dallas? And, you know, in Texas,

they're going to pack that thing to the brim. They're not playing these Gavin Newsom games with y'all. They're not playing with y'all. Yeah, what was going on with the Clippers' like lower bowl where they filled them all with cardboard cutouts and Dirk Novitsky, who is for some reason hiding in the middle of these cardboard cutouts? Like, it is like every joke you can make about the clippers they tend to make for themselves. And I'm just watching this.

And it's just like, can you get any more less inviting, less intimidating, more joyless than what they have going on there? They're playing this fucking, like, Thunderdome court where it's like black and there's just like all these like lines in it. Like the whole thing is just really. Terrible. If I remember one image from these playoffs, it's going to be that. It's going to be a section of Clipper cardboard cutouts and Dirk Noviceky and his wife just

chilling. So weird. So weird. But wonderful. I mean, I'm here for it. Yeah. It's just like every game that the Clippers play, it's like they're playing not to lose.

Like they went through all this bluster and like proclaiming that they're going to take back L.A., which lasted like two weeks or whatever until L.A. Are we? Yeah. Yeah, we are away. I've seen so many billboards. And it just doesn't work. Like, you know what it is?

It's just like the heat when LeBron went there. They definitely leaned into this villain act. But the problem is nobody cares about Kauai. Nobody cares about Paul George. They like, if anything, they reverted back into their shells media-wise to the point where, like, they're not out there doing the interviews and whatnot. It's like the worst possible scenario. And like, I don't know.

And I don't want to say the deserve it, but like, in a lot of ways, like, I'm not mad that this happened. And it's a stark contrast with the game that we're going to talk about after this where there's just a lack of connectedness with that group that, for whatever reason, the Lakers have it. I don't know how or why they've achieved this where Montrez is getting no run and he's losing his freaking mind on the bench when they make big plays. Like, for whatever reason, that group feels connected.

and the clippers just don't. I don't know who to blame is that. I don't know if it's your two leaders who make a lot of paper and are supposed to be superstars. I don't know if that's the coaching staff. I don't know what it is. It feels like when the Lakers get into a tough jam,

it feels like they're going to figure something out because they often have basically in the playoffs when it came down to it since LeBron and AD have clicked up, right? in the five series that we've seen. The Clippers, man, they, like, I don't know. I know that's not, you know, ground-breaking analysis,

but I can't call it. Well, I want to hear in a couple days which of the players in this team tried to get guys together, tried to rally, tried to give some speech. I don't know who that Clipper is because a lot of these guys

do not have a track record of doing that or when they've tried to do it have kind of been undercut by their teammates for doing it. you know, maybe in a moment like this theoretically you're leaning on a surge of Baca type, but he played six minutes in this game. He's been injured for the majority

of the season. His voice isn't going to be there in that way. Rondo joined this team pretty late. And frankly, I think they could probably use a little bit of that like Lou Will fuck it attitude right now in terms of coming back at the Mavs versus, you know, Rondo's obviously giving them important minutes. I think

he's played a good role in this series. But they just, they don't have that intangible something, whether you want to call it leadership or motivation or cohesiveness like you were saying was they're just missing that tether together. And are they going to throw a punch? Are they going to muddy this up? Are they going to switch it up?

Because to me, man, I guess if you're the clippers, you should feel like you have a more potent half-court set because you have these two electrifying wings. But like when I'm seeing second quarters in a playoff game 36 to 40, to me, that's like, you guys are not mucking this thing up. And I keep saying that because in the playoffs, that's how you make people uncomfortable and keep them off balance. Decided that Lucas is just going to breeze through

and run his stuff and make his reads without any tension whatsoever. That's not how you overcome in the playoffs. How you overcome is to get them to stop doing their thing that they're the best at doing. Right? Like whatever they do best, you need to be taking that away from them

or making it feel harder for them. to do. And it just doesn't feel like they're doing that right now. Marcus Morris heard thorough a punch and he's like, ooh, I know what I'm going to do next to this game. That's my worry with them, though. Like, that's what they're probably going to end up doing, something stupid, like making it too physical and it's just going to go a different way. But let's move on for the Clippers. Let's talk about the Lakers. Actually, let's take a quick break first and then we'll come back. We'll talk about the Lakers. All right. So on the other end of the L.A. rivalry spectrum here, the Lakers, the Lakers, the

Lakers pulled out a win against the Suns 109-102. So the big story going into this game was you can't play AD at the 4 as much as they did in that first game. He's better at the 5. The bigs on the Lakers are just disappointing. Why do they sign so many of them? The Lakers went the other way, in fact, and doubled down, didn't play 80 as a true 5 until late in the game. Now, they blew the doors off the Sons when they did. that, but they stuck to their guns and it worked out.

Rob, what do you think about just generally that approach? Do you think it's like something that'll work for them again? Or were they kind of just lucky that they found the right lineup to go with down the stretch? I'm glad that Waz brought up with the Clippers. There's kind of a moment late in that game where it's like, okay, are they going to get the stops? Are they going to make the plays down the stretch of this game to figure it out? And you compare them to the Lakers and said, that's not a problem over there. that's exactly what happened.

There's a point about four minutes left in this game. AD goes to the five, and it is a clear before and after. Everything after that was complete Lakers domination. And not only were they getting stops, they were getting like leave no doubt stops, drain the clock all the way down and then AD blocks you at the buzzer. Completely demolishing every action the sons were doing just by putting AD at the five.

And they have that in their pocket whenever they want it. When you're a team that has the personnel that they do and the veterans they have, there's a certain amount of servicing that needs to be done with minutes in series that aren't being pushed to the brink yet. Montrez expects to get some opportunities. Drummond does, Gassal does.

You can't just play AD at the 5 nonstop. You do have to, like, suit some egos with that. But I think what this game shows is that when they're in these high leverage situations, if the game is close enough, AD can swing it. He can be dominant, and dominant without scoring a basket.

Like put all his scoring in a totally different category, completely defensively dominant whenever they need him to be. Yeah, to me, the big man question comes down to, am I at least getting stops, right? Like in a series against a team as good as the sons are, you know, halfway through the first quarter, the sons had 12 points.

And I'm like, all right, they're making the sons play in the half court. And meanwhile, the Lakers, you know, some of the threes that were missed, these threes are wide open. That's not going to remain the case. and if the Lakers come out in the game two of a game that's not must win like the freaking Clippers. The Lakers are going home after this, right? Like they're going home for two,

they're going to L.A. for two home games. The Clippers are going on the road down O2. Even the Lakers, this is not really must win. They're going back to their place and they could have did what they had to do. I'm watching them in the first court. I'm like, wow, they've shown Phoenix like, when we get back on defense

and we play half-court defense, we're going to stop you guys, right? Right? Like, our spacing gets kind of gummed up with drumming, but they kind of like the duckins and whatever. They feel like they can get decent enough looks while being powerful inside and getting the boards and getting stops. They got stops.

To me, that's the difference. And I hate to sound like a crusty old defensive-minded, blah, blah, blah, and this NBA, I think that's the main difference between the Clippers and the Lakers. The Lakers, when they want to put on their hard hats and, you know, pull themselves up by the bootstraps, they do it. And they do it with versatility. Like, when you see Kuzma out there flying around on closeouts, I'm like, bro, they can do it to you so many different ways if they want to pound you with the big guys

or if they want to be like, yo, we're going straight wing versatility. We got AD at the 5. We're literally choking out every single thing you want to do. That's the difference, man. And when it was 92, 93, just like Mahoney said, the Lakers were just like, you're done. And then AD finally makes one three

and then the top gets blown off of the offense for them. It just takes one wide open freaking look for the Lakers to bury you. I just can't believe we already made Waza defense guy. We already got it.

Maybe you did. I'm still in the fence. No, I mean, I think you're right. It's just like toward the end of the game. LeBron has a turnaround jumper then he hits that big three

that pulls the dagger in him. I mean, my question is just like why not go to this sooner? Like, why not just make it easier on you? Because 80's line looks incredible after the fact. And it's like actually getting me to reconsider my position here. He had 34, 10, and 7.

Just crazy efficient night. He went to the line 21 times. But, like, I don't think he had a particularly good night. Like, I think it was bumpy. I'll say that. He had a good night, but it was bumpy getting there. He was really aggressive to start with, ends up kicking Jay Crowder and the dick.

And then he has two fouls on him. And, like, you could see him kind of, like, not really know what to do from there. Luckily, Gasol gets in the game and opens things up for him. But, like, he just looks uncomfortable playing the four, particularly against the Sons, because it's turning him into a jump shooter. And I'm curious, like, how much that has to do with Aiton being in there. Like, it seems like the Sun's specific approach with Aiton at the five and then Crowder and Cam and some of these other kind of like fours with some size, you know, enough size is giving

them a little bit of trouble and like they're kind of feeling their way out still. And I'm a little surprised by that. Rob, why don't we talk about Aiton here quickly? Because he's having an incredible series and I don't want to overlook it. Do we owe DeAndre Ait in an apologies? Is he like to credit for some of these 80 issues he's having? We owe him lots of apologies for a lot of different I mean, he's been incredible in this series in ways that young bigs are almost never incredible. You know, playing his role really well. And, I mean, it brings a tear to my eye. The sons are a team that actually looks for their bigs when they drive, when they cut.

Like, they're actually finding him. It's such an amazing and frankly, a rare thing sometimes in the NBA. But, I mean, these two games are by far the most encouraging sign for Aiton's long-term progress, even after an already really encouraging year. The fact that he can compete in a series like this in these. these kinds of matchups, incredible for him in the Sun's future. But as you're saying, too,

he's playing such an important role in the layers that they're putting between AD and the rim. I think they're guarding AD about as well as they can, given the personnel that they have. And it starts with challenging him to shoot those face-up shots, which, you know, last year in the bubble, AD was just unbelievably hot on those mid-arrangers. But when you look at his career,

and even just the last couple years, that's kind of a 37-39% shot for him, of the time. So that's what you... When he settles. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's what you play. You're playing for that, hoping that those odds break in your favor. And AD, I think to his credit, is trying not to settle for that too much. He's driving into traffic. He's trying to draw fouls.

But he is being caught in that space where he doesn't know how to be aggressive when they're giving him shots, but it's the shots he doesn't want. And Aiden is a huge part of that. Just the ability to be at the rim, to be waiting for him with that second line. And when Drummond's in there, it makes it that much easier for him to just set up shot for Aiton to just set up shop in between AD and the basket. Yeah, and, you know, another part of it, too, with playing drumming as well is, it's kind of like, yo, I have LeBron on my team. So I feel comfortable in a half-court playoff setting that I can generate quality offense,

good enough offense. Like, if Drummond is still, if Drummond is still making me good enough on. on defense to get quality stops, to play at a high level on defense, look, man, I'll figure it out in a half court with LeBron and AD. That's kind of, and you kind of have to take that stance, specifically if you know AD doesn't want to do

the five-man thing full time, right? Like, it's Vogel, he's playing it perfectly, just like he did last year. He's like, look, I'm gonna buy myself as many non-AD five minutes to keep them happy, keep them fresh as I can. I think as the playoffs go further and further out, as you saw against the heat, they stopped completely messing around with that.

They were like, this is the finals. We can't afford this shit. AD has to play the five full time because that's the only way we're going to beat this team, right? And so I think Vogel is just buying his time. I think rightfully he doesn't see Phoenix as a credible threat. And that's what we're seeing. The Lakers did their cool man act where, you know, we're at nine points up, eight points up. We're going to try to hopefully let them make enough

mistakes. We get enough transition. The A.N. 1. We finally make an open 3. We get it to 17. And we just coast the rest of the game. That's what they always are trying to do. But Phoenix, give them a credit, man. Campaign and all of these dudes, they just kept coming at the Lakers. Yeah. I do want to talk about the Sons, but I don't know, like, if they are doing what you're saying they're doing and they're just like trying to feel their way through this first round series, it feels like they're kind of playing with fire. no pun intended here, but like it was a 92 to 93 game with like however many minutes left,

two minutes or whatever. They lost the first game and like I think there were legitimate concerns. And I think there were legitimate concerns still, even though they won this, in part because LeBron still hasn't had a full on LeBron game. Again, LeBron had a good statistical game. Like he came through in the clutch, like just like he did against the Warriors. But like, man, he's not getting to the rim at all anymore. Like, if you look at his shot chart after this game, like, most of his buckets are long two or three-pointers. He took nine three-pointers in this game.

He made four of them, so it's great. But it's just like he is having trouble turning the corner, getting downhill. And I'm like, man, like, that's probably what where the slim margins are coming from. And I don't know how long that's going to last. Like, I guess it's up to whether or not his ankle will be fine. But, like, those little things are starting to concern me because, like, you guys are alluding to, like, this team is AD and LeBron and everything else just kind of comes along with it. They can be the best two players, best top five players. This team is fine.

But, like, I don't know. I'm not, like, I'm not feeling good about the Lakers right now is how I feel. But that's a lot of this stuff that we're talking about, whether it's LeBron turning it on or how much to play AD at the five. Those are, that's the difference between down O2 problems and down O1 problems. Yeah. You know, if they're down O2, AD might well start at the five. Then it's like, okay, fucking around time is over. You know, we're throwing everything out.

We're going to start playing for real. When you're in this in-between zone, you know, down O-1, who knows what's going on, Chris Paul and how healthy he's going to be, you can still play that Frank Vogel long game, which is what they're doing. And I'm with Waz. I think they managed it pretty well. You know, it's a little, a little hairy in spots. And there's certainly those moments where, you know, games tied up.

It's a one-point game. minutes left, but that's when you're banking on exactly what we've been talking about. You have the two best players on the floor. This other team, especially with CP out of there, is young and inexperienced, and they've never seen anything like this moment before in their careers. And another thing we haven't seen, of course, look, when LeBron can take guys off the dribble, that's great. But in the most recent years, when push came the shove, it was like, go find the small

guy, back his ass down. That's what he has, that's been his go-to move for a few years now. It's not the, you know, I remember back in the Miami days, the most unstoppable play was when Bosch would come set the screen at like 30 feet and LeBron gets a freaking head of steam and it's just like, you are completely toast when that happens, right? When this dude is turning a corner on a screen at 28 feet and he's coming downhill and he's still dunking on everybody's head and he still has the Corvette. to hit whoever in the corner,

that's an unstoppable play. That's not a play you can go to anymore. He doesn't have that. But when I'm watching Cam Johnson guard this guy and he's not posting him up and putting him underneath the basket, I'm like, yeah, Brian is not taking it serious yet. Because that's definitely his break glass

in case of emergency. It's like, hold on, hold on. Let's go set the screen for campaign. Everybody get the hell out the way. I'm going to back this little kid down, draw a foul, draw a double, get it to the open man. None of that is happening.

and then I'm playing AD at the five. So that's why I'm just like, look, Phoenix, we just not taking you serious yet, man. That's what it feels like. I think LeBron is get way up for an Alleyoop healthy, but he's not break you down for five straight possessions healthy yet. He's not quite there. And that's, I mean, that's going to be the thing.

Whenever we see them really push to the brink, and it gets into that zone where LeBron would normally completely take over, pick you apart, pick out his matchups and score over and over, is he going to have the juice to do that? Right now he's not that player. By then he might be. Yeah, I feel like he's falling into this like full Chris Paul mode where he's definitely taking it easier in the first, second and third quarters.

And then you see in the fourth quarter he's like full LeBron, like doing everything that he does, barking at teammates like right in their face, including KCP. Like he was, he was real like, I am taking this game by the throat and like just get on my back here. Unfortunately, Chris Paul, not very much like Chris Paul in this game. Uh, only six points campaign really had to do the Chris Paul act in this one because, uh, Paul kind of disappeared six points. He's just,

yeah, I mean, so, yeah, he does. He got, he got ejected the previous game for just being a, uh, like a gnat, but, uh, I'm sure he'll look back on this game and tell his grandkids that at one point he was in a playoff game and played 33 minutes. But yeah, no, he's, he's fine. He's fine. I feel like you're being a little disrespectful for a dude who was just, torching the Lakers.

He did his thing tonight. That would have been basically a 15-point blowout. He had a Caruso night, man. He's, he is, he is Caruso. Caruso is also good. What are you talking about? He's a good NBA players. Sometimes.

Anyway, so the sons, yeah. Are you, are you like, how are you feeling about the suns these days, Was. Look, I was very happy with the story coming into the season because I was very bullish on them. I love the move for Chris Paul. I love what they did in the bubble. I'm happy for the season that they had to earn a number two seed. The way they played all season was pretty dope. But I just didn't think this matchup was that great for them. I like, you know, I guess you might think to yourself that Devin Booker could just be this like straight up put the team on my back kind of guy and would individually be able to beat every Laker defender until making them do crazy things like hard

doubles at 30 feet, et cetera, et cetera. Like, I didn't think he was going to have that type of series against the Lakers. And so who did you think was going to get great, generate great looks against what is what is clearly to me the best defense in the NBA? I don't know how they were supposed to defeat this matchup, right? Like, I think with Luca, you would say, well, you know, Luca has kind of shown an aptitude to beat all kinds of defenses in all kinds of ways, right? Like, you know, he's shown himself to be that type of player.

or Steph Curry or whatever. Devin Booker, like, he's not that type of play. And I just don't think Phoenix is going to make the Lakers look crummy enough on offense. Remember before the playoff bubble, everybody was complaining about, you know, the concern trolling about the Lakers outside shooting. Are they going to make enough buckets? I don't know. I just don't know if they're going to do it. I still haven't seen the team stop them consistently.

And they still have the best defense. So it's like unless you're going to tell me the Phoenix Suns are just going to make the Lakers look horrible on offense, I don't see how it's happening for them. This game was a great example of that because non-Lebron and A.D. Lakers hit four three-pointers in this game. KCP was actively looking for any excuse not to shoot.

And he's their best spot-up guy. And still... He's having a series, yeah. He's having a series. But still, like, they can grind out these games. Their defense is going to be good enough. They're going to get the star-level stuff from their guys. And the other thing, too, I mean, when you get down in the trenches with these things,

in games like this, with those late tied games where you need buckets, if you don't have Chris Paul on the floor if you're the sons, there's just a difference in brain power and processing power that you can't problem solve. And you saw that when they're trying to run the pick and rolls with Booker and Aiden and Booker's getting doubled. And it's like, okay, when that's the start of a possession, one of three things is going to happen and it's going to run through campaign

or Jay Crowder or Cam Johnson or Mikhail Bridges and do you trust those guys in this moment to make the biggest plays of their life I just don't think they're quite there yet and that's where it really sucks to not have Chris Paul on the floor and be able to be more active in the series

because even when he was out there given with one arm barely hanging out of its socket kinesio taped onto his body he was at least able to kind of help them process some of that stuff but you just can't do it from the bench as much as you want to grab the clipboard and drop the plays. Like he's doing the best he can.

There's just only so much. Guys, we're burying the lead in this section because history was made in this game. I don't know if you were aware. It was Andre Drummond's first playoff win. Wow. Congrats to the young fella, man. And by the way, he was getting smoked on Lakers Twitter and he played just fine tonight. He was fine.

It was nothing wrong with his minutes tonight. I think he justified his rotational spots. He's fine. Like, let's throw him a fucking party. You were fine on the court and you, and you weren't like just total dog shit. Great. Like, congrats, my friend.

Well, listen, that's all he's asked to do on this team. He's not asked to carry the franchise like he was in Detroit, where he was clearly miscast in that role. He's asked to be a competent, serviceable big in minutes at a position that Anthony Davis hates playing. So, like, that's... He's employed because AD is late. Man.

Let's see. Let's see. Okay. Lazy is not fair either. Come on. Anyway. All right. I have news from the Clippers locker room or whatever the hell they're doing now,

podium, Zoom. This is Paul George. We have to rise to the occasion. Fact of the matter is, if we don't, we're done for. But there's no level of concern. Paul George. Paul George is not an effective communicator. Communication is, he's just not.

he's not effective. At this point, he's just, every playoffs, that was a lucky shot. This was not a championship or bus season, which I understood what he was trying to say, like, we're not going to break up the team because we didn't win a championship. But that's not what championship or bust means. That means you either win the championship or get to the championship or your season was a disappointment or a failure. Anyway, and now he's saying whatever the hell he just said very,

is, yeah, English is just, it's just not his strong suit. We got to incorporate our defense. I would say so. That seems like a good idea. You got to incorporate a defense. This is the most fun I've had with the Clippers in like two years.

I'm sorry to the people, like the five fans that they actually have, uh, who are mourning this loss, but, uh, this is, this is great. The cutouts are the fans, do you think? It's, yeah, Dirk in a, in a, in a, in a clipper's jersey. Um, all right, let's take,

one more quick break. And then we're going to talk about the third game because there was actually a third game that happened earlier today. If you can remember, we'll be right back. All right. So the Nets game that happened earlier today, a little bit clear cut here. The Nets are incredible. The Celtics are not. I would say succinctly.

Jason Tatum went out in this game. You got poked in the eye, I think. And then just by the end of it, it was like Tremont Waters was playing guys I'd never heard of before. we're taking the court for the Celtics. My big takeaway from this game is just the Nets offense in particular. When they want to, they could just obliterate anyone and they could run people off the court. I tweeted about this, which it took me a lot because I rarely tweet. But in the first quarter, when they have that starting lineup there, where it's the big three plus Blake and Joe Harris, Joe Harris, who is now, I don't know, like Kyle Corver incarnate, but.

the paint is just like an oasis. It's like the Woolsmith, like, end of Fresh Prince of Bel Air meme where he's just sitting and there's nobody there in sight. Like, I know this happened a little bit with Hardin, but like it's wild to see this in a playoff game against a team that's like, you know, scrappy on defense with the Celtics. And I'm just like, I don't know, man.

Like, the Nets look incredible. And I don't know who's going to touch them. At the very least, who's going to slow down that offense. which is y'all's favorite version of the nets to watch because we've got starting lineup nets we've got james hardin and the bench nets which is like all stepback threes and lobs basically and then we got katie and karee and some bench guys like the basically the what we signed up for for those two guys uh version of the nets i mean all three of them are kind of awesome i i have grown really partial to the hardened and the bench group that is that is a hell of a second unit to

throw at you know whether it's the sixers or the bucks or these other top teams going to run into, who's going to compete with a second unit run by James Harden? Yeah, I mean, for me, I don't know if this was my favorite unit, but the unit that allows for Joe Harris to shoot completely wide open threes and bury a team in one freaking quarter, yeah, that's the unit I want to watch because, you know, I tweeted it and I'm like, I may be crazy, but I don't think Joe Harris wide open threes is the optimal way to guard this team. I just, that can't be the best option, right? But, and again, the Celtics have had a horrible season.

They've been snake-bitten by injury and management and competence and, et cetera, et cetera. And they lose their second best player or to some people their best player. We won't do that today, though. They lose one of their best guys right before the playoff start. It's like, they know they're not going to win this series. And then you compound that with the volume of problems that the Nets offense presents to a defense. And it's like, it's overload.

It's a brain overload. What am I supposed to do? This is a long-ass season that we started two months after the last one ended. Everybody's freaking injured. It's just been a huge disappointment. And we get our gift at our rainbow at the end of the rain or the light at the end of the tunnel is a train.

is the freaking nets who have come to murder us. And that's exactly what they did in game too. I do want to talk about that Joe Harris of it all because after this game, KD said that when Joe Harris is shooting like that, it just unlocks the whole team, which I think is kind of getting the causalities backwards in that to me,

Joe Harris is kind of like the barometer of how the nets are flowing. He's an expression of the healthiest version of their offense because if he's getting the ball at all, that means you're drawing and kicking, that means the ball's moving, That means you're penetrating. It means you're out in transition.

It means you're doing all the things that are going to lead to the nets to put up 135 points in a playoff game. So every time you see him with one of these big games, that's kind of what happened. It wasn't that people left Joe Harris open because they don't trust him or they don't think he's a great shooter or whatever. It's that Kevin freaking Durant was driving to the rim and what am I supposed to do? Having said that, though, having the best three-point shooter in the NBA on this team is wild. It's not bad. Rockets. It's not bad. Not get this guy and end up with the corpse of Victor Oladipo instead. I don't understand how this team with the three best, like the three best offensive players put together on one team still has Harris and guys like Blake and everyone else filling in.

It's just, it's wild to me. And what I want folks to understand, and I guess I am being the staggy old man, you can go back and watch the 2016 West. conference finals, right? This is an example of a team playing against somebody, a team in OKC playing against the 73 win warriors who nobody had figured out how to do anything with as far as defensively about how to guard them. And if you remember that series,

Stephen Adams and Sergei Baca executed things on the back line of that defense that were just insane. Sergei Baca was chasing Steph Curry around screens, points, right? They executed every single switch. They got everything right. They tagged Steph every single time he went through the lane. Like the reason they went up 3-1 is because they executed their defensive assignments and game plans at a ridiculous level. Yeah, you can say Steph was kind of hobbled, et cetera, et cetera. But their level and attention to defense

was insane. Nobody had done this to the Warriors yet. Some might argue, uh, what? What Memphis was able to carry on before they just decided that they're not going to guard total New Island was up there. But that's about as close as it got. And the 73 win team was a lot better and more advanced and smarter about attacking defenses than even that team was. Who actually won the championship in the 2016 team didn't, right? That's not what Boston was doing tonight. Okay. They were playing against a juggernaut offense.

did dick. It was just not, it's unacceptable how he played defensively. Well, I think some of it was an act of mercy after Jason Tatum left this game. It was, I mean, this series is quickly winding to a close. I'm getting kind of gentleman's sweep vibe

out of it, but this is, we're not going to be here too long. Well, I mean, the big question for the Nets is the defense, right? And I think the way the things are shaping up, it's going to be Nets versus Bucks. And I do think, like, the Janice problem is going to be interesting.

I think it's going to be interesting on both sides of it. Because, like, I watched the Nets tonight for like five minutes, and I'm like, oh, Brooke Lopez cannot play in this series. Like, there's just no one for him to guard because he's going to have to be, like, at half court pretty much guarding these guys. And it's going to take him seven years just to get down to the pay in order to try to stop it in these guys. I'm sorry.

I could see Rob Wincing when I take a jab at a big man. How dare you? On the other end, like, Katie was effectively the center. I'm pretty sure he took the jump ball, like the tip off, because he's the tallest guy on the court. Like, is he going to have to guard Janus? Like, I'm starting to think about those things. I don't know if you guys are, too. Well, over these last two days, I mean, obviously the offense of the start of this game was incredible,

but so was the Nets defense. The reason they were getting out into those threes is because they were getting stops to start the game. We saw basically the same thing from Milwaukee in their game. Two games of really high-level defense to start leading to incredible transition. play. Milwaukee's a lot more reliant on that kind of stuff than the Nets are, which is what makes Brooklyn so scary. Even if you want to bog them down to the half court,

they can always fall back on James Harden, high pick and roll, on KD's side post-up, on, you know, I want to hit Kyrie too because one of the things that's jumped out about these two games is Kyrie Irving doing all the little things, extra passes, cutting to the basket, following his shot for offensive rebounds.

I don't know what more you could ask of Kyrie Irving from an effort standpoint, in terms of his role in the offense, especially for a guy who a little way into the season, basically got demoted from being the starting point card of this team. And he's been bought in every step of the way.

I know he gets a lot of flack for just being Kyrie Irving, but I think he's been sensational in terms of the buy-in in these two games so far. Yeah, and I think the thing that's happening with the box is very similar to the Lakers. They don't respect this incantation of the heat. And so, you know, they're playing Brooke Lopez as much as they would ordinarily do,

And then for whatever reason, I don't know why, but Spolcher refuses to play Robinson and Hero at the same time. Like, you're having trouble gooseing offense and how you were able to do that last year was you had two deadly guys against the drop coverage, right? Like, when you only have the one guy who can really, really kill you, like, we love Kendrick Nunn, but he's not some shooter. Neither is Aresa, neither is Iggy, neither is Jimmy. only have two guys and when you refuse to play them together, which I'm sure is a defensive-minded situation, but like you're unable to blow the top off of that defense, right? Like, there's enough length and speed and athleticism behind Brooke Lopez that they can cover up for the fact that he still literally refuses to leave past the free throw line. Um, but since Spolsh is not

doing that, like, shoot, I'm going to play Brooke Lopez as much as I can when it comes to playing against the nets that's untenable. Janice at the five is their AD at the five. You understand? The only way they're going to be able to beat Miami is Jan is playing most of, if not all of his minutes

at the center position and being the guy who's sort of the triceratops flying all over the place in order to help and recover for the bucks. Triceratops? Is that a reference? Flying all over the place.

I'm pretty sure as a power ranger. Yeah, the black Power Ranger, right? There you go. There you go. I think it was blue, dog. Come on. Was he? At least we were talking

OG Power Rangers. Somebody. So if I didn't date myself with the gritty, defense, floor burns, chatter, I think the Power Rangers' reference did the trick. It finally did trick.

All right. Rob? What do you think? Mike, I mean, I don't think we're going to be in this series for more than two or three more games. And honestly, judging by like the body horror of seeing Kevin Durant's floor burn shoulder and 1080p, I'm about ready to be done with this thing. Well, what can we learn?

Like, if we're looking forward to the bucks or hypothetical, you know, let's throw the heat in there too. That series isn't over. What can we learn about the Nets over the end of the series? You're so reasonable. I'm sorry. It's 2-0. Just like, just given.

Anyway, continue. No, I just want to know what we can learn about the Nets that we haven't learned already. This is a team that in theory, we haven't seen these stars play together that much. I don't know how much non-garbage time is left.

But what are you guys watching for? Yeah, until proven otherwise, get your conventional pick and roll defense out of here. That's done. Get that out. You're going to get shredded up by, I don't care what you're trying to do.

If you're trying to do the drop, obviously drop coverage is out of the freaking question with the shooters that they can put on the ball in pick and roll, right? And that goes from Hardin, Kyrie to KD. Like, these are three on-the-ball shooters pull-up type of guys that will just fillet you. Bring your guy to the level. These guys are not afraid to turn a corner on your big and get all the way to the hoop. Like, sending two on the ball where somebody catches it wide open at the top of the key. that seems like it's going to freaking destroy you.

I don't know how you do that conventionally pick and roll-wise. It feels like this switching thing is somebody's going to have to figure out how to get enough defenders and length out there to switch on these cats because conventional pick-and-roll defense is, that's barbecue. Yeah, I saw something in this game I don't think I've ever seen before, which is two Celtics trying to trap James Hardin and as he got a four-point play out of it, Like he shot a three against the trap and they pushed him over a four point play. I honestly don't think I've ever seen it before.

So that's what you're dealing with on an average possession in the second quarter. Good luck bench unit, whoever the Nets end up playing next. What I'm looking for for these next two games is probably more routine Blake Griffin dunks that people use as evidence that he is back

and then he is for some reason better, like light years better than he ever was on the Pistons. He made the freaking all. star team when he was with the pistons. Let's not forget that like he was just comatose the entire time. Like he was absolutely brutal. Like I can't remember a guy who used to be an all star just playing like dropping to that level so quickly. And he's not like an old guy. I know he's gone through a lot of surgeries and whatnot. But now he makes one dunk where I'm pretty sure he fell on the floor for one of them.

And the other was like, I'm pretty sure they just miced it really loud. And everyone's like, oh my God, Blake's back. He's just incredible. He's like, he's fine. He's like, he probably might not be on the floor in crunch time in a big series. Can we just like take a step back here? You know what it reminds me of? And I think you guys are going to appreciate this.

You ever be on social and you see somebody who's like a decent looking person, post a picture of them looking like kind of good? And then they get a flood of a thousand comments. And the people who are doing it don't realize that they're patronizing the It's just like, come on, dude, this wasn't that impressive. And like, that's Blake Griffin right now. He's that person who people perceive to be so damn ugly that when he posts the pick of looking moderately decent, it's hard emojis and the hard eyes and all that.

It's like, guys, like, this is having the opposite effect. You're basically calling this dude a corpse now. Like, you're not complimenting the person for real. Right. It's kind of like when someone posts a long story on Twitter and people are like, this is brilliant. I can't believe this exercise in journalism. You're Grantlin Rice reincarnate, my friend. Great job.

I just learned so much. You're so great. Amazing thread. Guys, my whole social media history is flashing before my eyes right now. How many times have both of these things happen to me? Who knows? All right, before we go here, I do want to talk about the Celtics because unfortunately, they're done here. And so I think it's appropriate to start looking ahead just a little bit.

What do the Celtics need to do here? Because this team, for the most part, is coming back. I mean, they can move some pieces and if they really want to shake things up here. But one of the things that, like, if we're looking for a bright spot, like Bob Williams, our guy, Bob Williams III, seems like, He's got a Rob energy. Some people have, like Covington has Bob energy. He's absolutely Rob Williams. How do you decipher between a Rob and a Robert?

Oh, that's a good question. I mean, I don't know that many people who actually go by Robert. It's a pretty minority group. How did you make your decision? I'm just going to keep peppering you with questions about this. You think I made that choice? No one makes that choice.

I'm not making up nicknames for myself. How come nobody calls you Bob? I mean, you're welcome to start. Bob Mahoney, yeah, that's your new name. You Bob Mahoney from now. Bobby Mahoney, actually. You can go full Michael Malone and call out the sideline reporter

when they try to shorten it. Like, I don't know we're getting off the rails here, but like I don't trust people who force you to call them by their full name. Like, there's something wrong with you. In fairness, that's been like a three-year crusade for Michael Malone. I don't know where it got off the rails

from going Michael to Mike and it got locked into that lane, but he's been trying to correct the record for a long time. Yeah. It's the new Amari with an apostrophe. Right. No, so the selfish. So Robert Williams has played particularly.

I'm trying to make this work. Just keep rolling. Robert Williams is playing well here. He had like, what, nine blocks in his first game. And I thought he was decent in the minutes he played tonight. I don't know why he isn't playing more. He's injured. Yeah.

Well, still. I mean, hobbled Robert Williams is probably better than Tristan Thompson at this point. That is one, like, bright spot. I'm curious, like, in addition to him, do we see what the Celtics can do here going forward? Payton Pritchard? No, just kidding. You want to do 20 on Pritchard real quick? I don't know, man.

I'm obviously the two kids, the wings, Tatum and Brown are what they are, right? I think Brown has shown, And so has Tatum too. And, you know, I actually owe him an apology for that. He's definitely shown an ability to bring improvements to his game year after year. Now, are either one of those guys capable of becoming the type of offensive hub in the postseason that it takes on the, that it feels like it takes on the wing to advance every single year? I don't think so. right and so if the whole plan was about how genius everybody was for drafting these kids and how they were the future

X, Y and Z, I don't know how you could look at the kids and think these are the type of wing players that carry me through the postseason because they are so dominant at what they do. I eat a Luca Donchage, you know, like are they the type of, and that's not to say it's just Lucas, like are they a hardened? are they a curry? Are they, you know, are they, I'm not going to say LeBron and Katie, because that seems blasphemous to even, to even bring up. But again, like, are you the type of offensive wing that in the postseason, we can just have you and know that we're going to generate quality looks every single night out?

I don't think that's the case. And so what does that mean when you consider that the whole team was built around the premise that these two kids were going to be that? Not only did they have one, but they had two of them. And all of the people that they didn't trade for and all of the hardened trades that they ignored and all of that was based on the idea that these guys were going to be dominant wings in the playoffs. We'll see. You know, again, because I remember Tatum isolating on OG An An An Anobie last year. That wasn't going nowhere.

That was not a good look for him. OG was like, leave me on the island on this kid. I got him. And if that's your best wing player and teams can just put one guy on him and say, he's doing nothing, I don't know what else to say, guys. Yeah, I think implicit in all of that is how do you take this roster and get it to a place where the talent is compounding each other, where these players are building on each other? I mean, the Tatum example you brought up with OG as a great one was,

because look at what the Blazers are doing with Yokic, for example. they're single covering him for a lot of that series. He's still getting buckets and he's still getting assists. Look what the Clippers are doing with Lucas. Same thing. If you want to be like a franchise driving superstar, that's the level you got to be on. And you can be a good team otherwise.

And the Celtics are very well positioned to be a very good team. But if they're going to take that jump, one of those two guys has to be able to do that or else you have to start making some moves. We've already talked about some of that stuff on previous episodes. They need a better bench. They need some ball movers in general. They just need a healthy Jalen Brown.

obviously, but I don't know where, I don't know how they're going to surpass that ceiling to get to that level when they don't have that kind of transcendent player. Tatum is a transcendent score. He's a great two-way player. I just don't know that he's augmenting what's around him in the way that some of the other top players do.

You think Romeo Langford can be that guy? Maybe Neesmith. Jabari Parker. The Jabari Parker minutes are wild. They just like feed him as if he's like thick Jamal Crocker. That's thick with two Cs for the people at home. At least by having him on the floor, though, between him and Fornier and Kemba, nobody's feeling

like really picked on because everyone's getting picked on. You know, there's so many different places the Nets can go. Speaking of getting picked on, Montrez-Harrel has checked into Twitter tonight. we have one, two, three, four crying, laughing emojis. Oh, man. Jesus Christ. Just going enjoy life man, exclamation point. Jesus Christ.

I love it. This is why I love the playoffs. This is why I love the NBA. A guy who basically gets a DMP coach's decision in a really big game. He can still find solace in the misery of his ex-co workers who tried to put that damn Denver loss on him. They did. They tried to make that thing all Montrez

Harrell's fault. He was like, oh, okay. I got that. I got something for that ass. I got to say. So shout's the Montres. Doing that when you DMPed, you got to have some balls for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I respect it much more to do it when you

DMP'd. I mean, commit to it. All right. Let's wrap it up there. from the Trich Saratops, from the White Ranger, the Pink Ranger, Isaiah Blakely on production. We will be back next week at this time. I know we've been flipping the schedule a little bit,

but there are a lot of moving parts around here, a lot of podcasts. So we will be recording for the foreseeable at Tuesday night. So you could probably catch these podcasts late Tuesday about the games that just happened and then into Wednesday. And eventually we'll get into some locker room stuff. not just yet. But that is the plan. And until we change it next week, let's just go with that.

That is it for us. Thank you, Isaiah. Shouts the Charks, and we will be back next to you. See it.