The Ringer NBA Show - The Playoff Watchability Rankings | Group Chat

Episode Date: March 21, 2019

We do some in-depth analysis on the Sixers finally getting over the hump and beating the Celtics, then wonder whether the Thunder’s recent skid means they might be one-and-done in the playoffs (2:30). Then, we rapid-fire draft the teams in the playoff field that are most watchable (40:30). Hosts: Justin Verrier, Haley O’Shaughnessy, Paolo Uggetti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello and welcome to the ringer NBA show. This is the group show with me today. Ayloshana C. I'm stressed. Are you? Louisville's playing right now. Are they up? No, they're down. It's half time. Mighty Gophers.

Paulo O'getty. What's up? How you guys doing? I'm stressed. Besides the stress, I guess the big news coming out of today, Jimmer's back. Yes, that's what I'm excited. Are you guys excited? A little March Madness advertising. Yeah, seriously, it feels like a ploy, but hey, I'm all for it. We were talking about this right before we came on.

Do we think that this is only to capture the magic of March Madness? I mean, I don't know. He's been killing it in China. Yeah? I've been saying up and watching those Chinese games. Yeah, I dvr them and just turn them on whenever I'm a little bored. No, I mean, why not? Bring him back. Big Dragons fan? It's like an Andrew Bogot situation where his season is finished.

Yeah. They're in China and so he can come and play. Right. Because otherwise, why would you come side with the suns? Right, exactly. Yeah. I guess it gives him something to watch over the next three weeks. I think his first came back is in Utah, so there you go.

Wow. Homecoming. Yeah. I love this. This is what we're all about in the group chat podcast. Just warm feelings and homecomings. All right, so two big games last night, which makes it a little easier to talk about here. The first one Celtic Sixers, the Sixers won the Super Bowl.

If you were to go by how Sixers fans are kind of reacting to this. Powell, you wrote that last night. I thought it was a funny little line. Thank you. I stole it. So thank you. I actually think Marcus Morris had a quote that literally said that. Like they were acting like it was a Super Bowl.

He's right. Terry Rozier said he thought Kennedy was going to fall. I love it. Terry can say that. He had a good game. Yes. When he has one good game, he's allowed to say, whatever he wants to. Well, I guess he also provided some motivation for Joel and Bid,

calling him, I guess, lame in a certain video clip. I don't know where it surfaced. It was the Kristen Leahy show. Okay. And I think it was like one word to describe Joel. He said lame. And then after the win, Joel posted an

Instagram and he tagged it lame town. Yeah, he's back. Which is great. Of all of his locations, it's probably not even close to the top five and spicy. No.

Follow Joel and Beat and follow his dog on Instagram. He's slowly warming up for the playoffs. You know, the closer we get to the playoffs, I think spicy hell got. Yeah, I mean, he definitely approached it like a playoff game. And the Sixers did as well. Joel ended up playing 42 minutes. which knows a lot for a regular season games

before the end of the season when it seems like the Sixers are very likely to end up in that three seat in the east. They also went to a nine-man rotation which was a little surprising. I guess they've done this a little bit of times since the trade for Tobias Harris. They did it against the Bucks the other day

and they did it against the Celtics. I guess when you look at the stakes, it makes sense that they would approach this like that. Not only just the emotional one, but based on this win, and this is from Chris Forsberg the Celtics are 93.6% likely to go against the Pacers in that first round.

So essentially the Sixers avoided the Celtics in the first round if they stay in that three seed. Yeah. So I guess in that regard, it's a pretty big windfall. Well, we can make fun of them treating it like the Super whatever,

but they had not been the Celtics in a long time, it felt like. And so, yeah, like it was something that I'm sure gave them confidence going into the playoffs. And just, it's nice to sort of beat the team your supposed rival of, and like you said, you know, putting the Celtics, you know, locking them, basically locking them in into the other seed, makes, you know,

Philly now get a probably easier matchup with the 60, they don't have to face the Pacers. Yeah, I think they was good and bad in both. Obviously, they needed to win this game if they wanted to avoid the Celtics. It did seem like they threw everything that they had at them, and it still ended up a one Jimmy Butler mid-range jumper where he was basically falling over. in order to kind of seal it there. I'm a little bit worried about what they have beyond their five-man lineup that they've kind of assembled basically with all of the

leftover assets from San Hinky. It should also be said before we go further that they didn't have Aaron Baines. The Celtics didn't. Right. And then they spent a good deal of time without Marcus Smart. Right. Yeah. Which speaks to your point, I think, of them of the Sixers not taking care of the game, even with those, you know, with Smart and Baines out,

and sort of where they stand in terms of their depth, which I think is sort of the biggest worry. Yeah. I mean, with Embed in particular, I think this is everything you want from Embedd. I think you forget that at times last year, during that playoff series, maybe we didn't get the full Embedd experience

because he was playing with that face mask. And so I wonder, well, he's just kind of throwing it on off. I wonder if this is unleashed Embeded, if we had this guy in the regular season and in last season, postseason, maybe it would have gone a different way. He had 21 free throws,

which is a lot for anyone. And so I'm kind of at this, I have the beholder moment with a lot of the results from this game and particularly that. Did they win? Because Embedd is just overwhelming and dominant, and if you don't have Baines

who went out in, I believe, the second quarter with an ankle sprain, do you just not have the bodies to throw at him and that's your advantage or are you just relying on whistles? You know what I mean? It's just a lot of minutes. It was a heavily called game.

Yeah. I will say that. It was a very heavily called game. Also, I'm not sure. For the Sixers, perhaps, it's, okay, finally, we can win. Like, we can beat them, you know, where they're shaking this, I'm sure, like, kind of spook them out a little bit because they are clearly the more talented team. But for me, and I think for everyone else, it showed more dimensions on how the Sixers

operate. How deep are they going to pull into rotation? at the end of a game when they need a shot, who's it going to be? And I think we all kind of knew, but it's so surprising to see that Jimmy Bellar is the one who's going to hit that shot. He has the most experience. I think he's the one who's going to want to go for it the most. You know, Ben Simmons and Joel and B are aggressive.

Joel and Bede takes some shots to a fault. He shouldn't be taking half the threes he's taking. But obviously, Ben Simmons, we don't trust or maybe necessarily want to take any of those final shots if it's a deep shot. But it is still strange to see that Jimmy Beller, who is so clearly the third most talented guy. And by the way, like, not even the, you know, Tobias Harris is a far better shooter. Take that final shot.

He's just like a glorified, like, closer. Like, and it's like, if we look at it in the context of just the season, that's maybe perfectly fine because that way he doesn't get in the way of what, you know, Jimmy, I mean, with Ben and Embed to want to do and even Tobias to an extent. If you look at it from a larger context of going forward, you're like, well, so like, is he worth sort of keeping around? right? Because he hasn't been like amazing at defense either. And that, you know, the thing about him was like his two-way ability. And he hasn't even been that. So I wonder just, I guess like I'm saying like it maybe it is just okay that he can come at in the fourth quarter and sort of win you a game and get you that shot. Well, and in the fourth quarter too, because like he was like you were saying this in Slack too. Like you forget he's on the team.

Yeah. For long stretches of times. And then he pulls that out. And it's the thing like it's really nice. nice to have that guy, but that guy will not, Jimmy Bellar cannot be that guy, and you're going get out of the Eastern Conference. Yeah. So Jimmy was one for seven in the first half, four points there. And then I really didn't notice him a lot earlier in the game, to Apollo's point. And just in the fourth quarter, they just kept feeding him. It was basically like any shot that he wanted. I think a big part of it was probably because Marcus Smart wasn't out there. I went back and watch some of those late possessions. And the hunting they did on Kyrie Irving was insane.

I don't know why they did this. There was probably some sort of, I assume trying to hide Kyrie, but they put him on to bias most of those late possessions. And so the Sixers would just force the switch immediately to put Kyrie on Jimmy, and then Jimmy would just go to work. And then the first possession is like, oh, he just darts past him. Kyrie is flat-footed and then yells at Horford for not covering for him, but clearly it was a Kyrie mistake.

And then Jimmy would just pull up. I guess clearly Kyrie is a weak link there. And if you're looking at this from the Sixers Optimus kind of point of view, they don't really have too many guys that you can't cover. Like you can't hide Kyrie on Robert Covington anymore. Like if Tobias Harris is the guy that, like, you have to like hide Kyrie Irving, you're going to get burnt a bunch of times. Yeah, of course.

I mean, there are two, the two guys on the court who, probably fourth and fifth on the court Tobias Harris and J.J. Reddick, which are both terrifyingly accurate outside shooters. Yeah. You want to run around and chase J.J. exactly. JJ could shoot it on one foot backwards drunk. You know what I mean? Like it's and we I feel like I've seen that a million times this season.

So from that point when you, I mean, and that's the whole thing. We say it all the time on paper and it's kind of the same thing with the Celtics. On paper, they should be. such a more dominant offense. I think a lot of my issue with them is their actual offense. Like an actual system put in place because I think that

it's been catered to their best player strengths. But it is really limiting in today's NBA what Brett Brown is doing and also refuses to do. I think it's funny that we talk about these teams, especially these two in particular, about like we're almost done with the season

and it's still like, well, you know, on paper, like they should be this. to that, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's pretty fascinating how expectations haven't met. And then again, both of these teams are like top half of their conferences. Their records are way about 500 more so than, you know, the rest of the East for sure. So it's not like they're struggling, but it is sort of a thing where we can see more for them. It's not like you're struggling, but it's like, why aren't you just as good as the bucks are? Why aren't you? You have Joel and Beed, Ben Simmons. Okay, so we're saying the top two on the bucks are Janus and Chris Middleton. And then

after Ben Simmons, you have Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris. Why aren't you just as good as the Bucks? Right. And that's, it's all about like system fit, right? Because the Bucks have tailored that roster to have every player who plays a specific role, like it fits into this larger like assembly line of a system. Whereas the Sixers have just tried to sort of put something together with talent. And that's directly coaching. Yeah, it's directly coaching.

Yeah. And I guess this game in particular fed into the strengths of a team like the Sixers that is top heavy where you have. have a guy like Jimmy Butler who, while I don't want to rely on him just kind of jacking late in games and that's how you're going to win it, he has had some success. He's 40% from three in clutch situations, which was surprising. Now that's a small sample. I don't know how much you can really trust it. I mean, he definitely is one of those guys. It's not like he's Deiont Waiters. Yeah, but like some of the shots he was taken were just like dribble up, pull up

three. And it's just, I wonder if this is just a matter of he was on in the second half and off in the first. But I guess the problem in that is on the other end, do we really have much faith in like all the defensive kind of woes that the Sixers have throughout the game. It just seemed like, I don't know if they were, I don't know if it was a bad approach, but the very least there was a lot of miscommunication, especially on Switches.

I think they were leading to a lot of easy buckets for the Celtics. And you have guys like James Ennis is really your sixth guy on this team. Mike Scott is basically your six-seven guy in this team. team. Boban played a little bit. TJ played a little bit, but it really was only a couple guys. And I don't know.

I think there are those situations where a deep team, maybe like the Raptors, are just going to be able to pick off the week leave in pretty much any lineup you could have. Toronto is a terrible matchup, I think, for them.

Which, it seems like that would be the two-three at this point. I was just going to say it's remarkable watching the Raptors who are at the primetime game afterwards. And it's like, they're like all on a string.

You know, one of them moves, all the other ones move into place on both ends of the floor. And seeing that, just after seeing the Sixers, is like if they could just get that together. Well, here's the thing. That's not going to happen. Like, it's just not going to happen for the Sixers. This is the way they have to win games, the way they won the other one last night.

Sort of grind it out, you know, cope with the fact that they literally cannot defend, like, any type of point card. Like, Kyrie and Terry were, you know, like, shredding them. And they just have to figure out a way to sort of elevate and be to what he did last night. And then hope that Jimmy comes in. You know, this is in a weird way. like as maybe strange as how that game turned out yesterday, I almost think that that's their,

one of their only, like one of the few recipes they have towards success because they can't at this point of the season still try to strive for some system that will be perfect. Yeah, and a lot of it could just be they're figuring things out still. I think that's a lot of the issues on the defensive end. But I think there's always going to be that wink-link.

I just don't know who's going to be out there that a team like itself just can't like kind of go at just pretty much every possession. Now, the flip side of that is this game, like many of the Celtics games in the past, it just didn't seem like there was anything other than Kyrie. Like, Terry definitely stepped up in certain situations, but obviously they're not going to show a floor a ton,

especially like what it exposes on the other end on defensive end. And I am just constantly flummocks by Jason Tatum. Yeah. Like, it seems like everything is set up for him to be that kind of secondary guy. So when they're overloading on Kyrie, he can kind of just do his thing. But just a lot of, like, passive, like, floating around and then just floating into, like, this mid-range pull-up. I was surprised because I wouldn't look this up afterward that he, like, is getting better at getting to the rim this season.

But if you watch this game in particular, it's just like, what do you do exactly? Because if the shot's not falling, it just seems like he kind of gets his head about it as Haley fistpumps. Sorry, a little bit more. I don't think we talk enough about Tatum's regression. Yeah. But I also think it's a unique situation we almost no one never see going from rookie a sophomore year where you were the star, your rookie season, that you had to have these possessions. And you were like a first, second option playing on a young team that had nothing to lose. And then all of a sudden you're taking a step back in terms of responsibility, but you're expected to be the same player.

He had a bucket late in the game where he got the ball on the left wing. and instead of pulling up for a shot, which would have been a three, which would have been, okay, fine, or dribbling into a mid-inch jumper, he drove in and got to lay up on the other side of the rim. And it was a really strong move. We were really just a point that the Celtics needed at that point.

And it was like one of those situations where you're like, you can do this a lot more often than you're doing it right now. Why are you not doing that? That was the thing that the playoffs, you know, during the playoffs last year, Bill you always used to say, I just want someone to tell him that he can, be that player and that he should attack it like that and still seems like that's the message

he hasn't gotten this but it's not even about taking over a game he doesn't even need to do that he just needs to be that right maybe he just can't be that right maybe that's another you know sort of point to all this is how does he fit with carrie and how does he feel about that fit but the reality is carrie is a multi-time all-star and tatam is still you know a sophomore so yeah yeah yeah he's only 20 we've talked he's only 20 First I've ever heard of that It does kind of underline He's gonna be like 36, we'll be like he's only 36

It underlines this point that just It does seem like there's this perfect storm Happening with the Celtics Because when Tatum wasn't on You're turning to guys like Marcus Morris Who's had a really good season for them But clearly like I don't know if you can count on him In this situation

He had four points, he was two for nine in this game He can't be a guy He's falling off lately He's falling all yeah I mean like Al Horford I guess That's your other I think he was the second leading scorer Of the night

Yeah, I actually, that's one thing I would want to see more of. It seemed like when they were able to go a little bit bigger when you had Baines and Horford, you could put Baines on Embed and almost like let that go. But on the other end, you can go to Horford and he can attack Tobias Harris, which I think is actually a really good matchup. And obviously they played a little bit bigger last year. And I think it's, Tobias is a better defender, but I think he's going to, or at least he's a more stout defender, I guess, I should say,

than some of the guys they could throw out there last year. But I just think like Horford seems to be the key there. Yeah, I mean, I feel like that's always been the case, especially how he could defend Embed or whatnot. Not this game, but, you know, there's a lot more track record of Horford giving him Bede troubles. So, yeah, he's probably like second world support player on the team if that's here, where to come. Yeah, and Embed went off, as we mentioned, but I was looking up the matchup stats on NBA.com.

I don't know how much you can really put stock in them because it does seem like there's a lot of noise of those stats. But in the minutes that Horford played Embed, Horford held up well. But Embeddeed really cooked against Baines and then Daniel Thais, who... Thice? Thice. I think it's dice. Dece? I don't know.

East Tice? Made it tomorrow? Richard, it's Tice. It's Tice. There you know. Thank you, Bobby. I'm always surprised when you have a mic because you don't really announce it beforehand. Wow, Bobby, your hair looks amazing today.

It's like really good. I should keep this in the pie. God. Someone on Celtics' Twitter said, Tice, like, nice, because he's nice. Tice. Yeah. There you go. But Horford only playing 35 minutes. I wonder if in a playoff series he's going to be playing more of the 40, especially if you don't have a guy like Baines in there. And we play 42 minutes. Like, I don't think we can stress out enough. That's, like, unreal. Well, he had an impact not only in the boxwork, but clearly in the emotional well-being of certain Celtics players. I'm obviously referring to Marcus Smart

and the two-handed shove heard around the world. I have to say, like, Powell brought it up that it was a flop by NB'd. I watched it a little bit afterward. No, no. Okay. Finish your point.

No, no, go ahead. You don't think it was a flop. I was just going to say, I didn't specify that it was a flop. I said he, the way he sold it, which was like he sort of sprawled all over the floor like Mbbb does. It was very like flop-adjacent,

if you will. flop like. Yes, flop like. So basically what happens is he gets a bad call going for, I think it was like a, it wasn't a loose ball, but it was like up in the air and he kind of jostled it from and bead

and Smart got called for and clearly did not like that. I think he had a case, but it's also not the type of play that should throw you out of the game. I think the next possession or the possession after that, I forgot which Smart basically catches a stray chicken wing from Juelan Bid running down the lane,

doesn't like it, and proceeds to two-handed, full-body shove Juelan Bid in the back to the ground. I love it. Which is like, wow, the power, you know? I saw this thing on Twitter and I was like, who would win in a fight? Yeah.

And I first thought I was like, Jolambede, what? Like, there's no other answer. But I don't know. Do you think there's any situation in which Marcos Smart could beat Jolambi in a fight? Smart is crazy. Any rule. Obviously, no weapons, but any rule is like, sometimes have to be like boxing or anything.

Obviously, no weapons. Thank you for the distinction. Your typical bar fight, but we're not breaking any bottles. Could he beat Joel and Bede? What if they had sticks? Who would win? Dude, Joe and Bid, 100%. Yeah, just like if they had the benefits of sticks. If it was more of like a jujitsu, like, those whackin sticks, you know what I'm talking about? I don't know why that's what you went, but. I kind of want to watch fights. with you on YouTube. No, I don't think, I think Marcus Smart is the guy I would want to fight the least in the NBA. I think his trigger is like, he goes from zero to like start craving mad in a matter of

seconds. Yeah, but that's the thing is that sometimes it seems like he's almost too mad. Like, you know, the old Serge Abba can't land a punch. But he did he kill you. Oh, I see. So he would be inaccurate. I said the other day when Tosh Gibson got in trouble, like, I don't want to fight him. This guy, like, and he's a.

underrated one because he doesn't often get into like alter occasions, but guys who are that wildly aggressive for abstract things, like for loose balls, for example, like he's throwing his entire body. Yeah. His entire body just to land on the hardwood, just to give the ball to Carl L.A. Towns who's going to give the ball to Andrew Wiggins who's going to turn it over.

And he continuously does that. Here's a wild take. I don't think I want to fight any be a player. That's a good take. There's a couple I think I could take. Oh, there you go. So not only did you kind of feel Smart's absence, I guess, over the second half of that game just found the defensive end,

but it seemed like they were kind of off offensively. It flusters a team also. Yeah. After that, I mean, and also I think that by that point, they were definitely fed up with the foul calls. That was kind of like the peak. Yeah. It just, it seems like the ball has a tendency to stick with the Celtics.

And I don't know if it's just because smart, it has a little bit more of a spacer this year. so you have to kind of guard up on him a little bit more. But he does have the ability to move the ball and keep things kind of flowing and pinging in a way that I think is really important. And you saw later in that game, it was a lot of just like ISO jule drives

to the point where like even Al Horford had one. And it was like, what are we doing here? Yeah. Where's Brad Stevens and all this? This is a question I'm wondering. Oh. You know, just throwing out there. Shall we bring out the old spicy take of this is all Brad Stevens.

No, just throwing that out there. Like, you know, hey, if Marks'clock, as smart is that important? Like, I don't know. How much can you really do with Kyrie Irving, though? He kind of, he does one thing incredibly well, which is score in isolation. Do you really want to take that away from him? No, I mean, and that's, you sort of juxtapose that with the way the Sixers won the game,

which they let Jimmy do his thing. I think there's a point where you'd let Kyrie do his thing. If it comes to that in a close game and whatnot, but it did feel like after a smart way now, like things just sort of went discombobulated, you know? So that's more what I'm talking about, I think. So I don't know. I'm a little disappointed that we won't get this likely in the playoffs if things kind of pan out as we're expecting.

But, you know, it was fun of my last. It's not possible, right? I mean, unless it's in the conference finals. It's possible. I think a lot of things would happen. Why? Kill me, because that means the Bugs and the Raptors didn't make it. I'm not.

I'm okay with that. And the Celtics and the Sixers are not. beating whoever comes out of the west. Look, nobody's beating the Warriors. That's not true. You think the Bucks or the Raptors can meet the Warriors? That's why I said. I said what I said.

Cool. Yeah, I don't know. I would want to see more of this, but it doesn't seem like we're going to get it. Let's move on to the second game, the nightcap of this marking slate of games in the middle of March. The Raptors beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 123 to 114. That game went to overtime and probably. things kind of drifted apart

or kind of fell drifted away from the Raptors late in that game but the Thunder did not have Paul George and so they ended up scoring four points in overtime Yeah and they barely had him in regulation Yes

He was terrible up until the final like minute It's all matters You got him back Like you know what I'm saying like No but like It's really interesting how You're like a casual fan who watches the NBA

But potentially only it matters. What quarter is the only thing that matters. Hey, I'm just saying the result is what matters and if you are... No, because you could have pushed them over the edge.

I mean, the Thunder had this comeback that the Raptors should not have let them get. But then again, like the Raptors are playing without Kyle Lowry. This is your chance. Yeah, I mean, the other thing is

just like, Hunter have been struggling hard lately. And they had a small chance at sort of rescuing this game out of nowhere and, you know, overtime was just terrible. The Raptors turned it on, turned on playoff mode. It literally felt like they turned off playoff mode

and just started like swarming, you know, like every perimeter player on the Thunder it had no shot at doing anything. They simmed the overtime? Yeah, it literally felt that way. Yeah, so this is the fourth loss in a row for the Thunder. It drops them all the way to eighth in the Western Conference. I guess the big thing there is that we thought

as recently as like a month ago that this is the type of team that could push the words, especially when you kind of toss in the emotional stakes there with Kevin Durant and just how that would factor into things. Now it kind of seems like their first round fodder. I don't know how they get out of this mess if Paul George doesn't really

show up here. Because it just seemed like Russell Westbrook is what he is at this point. He had a really good game. He had a good game and he deserves a lot of credit for doing last night what the Thunder have been struggling with, which one of their main problems and you know, Donovan talks a lot about this.

They even showed a clip of him saying it in the third quarter. They need to have a fast pace. That is the team that they are going to succeed as being. And you know, it's funny when you look at them, they are and their strongest people are either in their prime or young. And yet we have such a window for them. I think because we've been waiting to see if Russ could prove that he can do this, you know, without Kevin Durant for so long that it almost seems like it's going to be really bad

if they don't get out of the first round this year, even if they do play Golden State, which is like you're not going to be Golden State in the first round. But last night, he deserves a lot of credit. He was constantly pushing the pace. He was not settling for the, you know, highly contested, like, you know, threes he might have before.

He was driving to the rim and doing so very successfully and making sure that their transition game was strong, which is something that they have been lacking on lately, which is, you know, kind of what they have been, so good at all season. Yeah. So Russ scored 42 points in this one, 11 rebound, 6 assists. He was 5 for 10 from 3, which is surprising.

16 for 29 from the 4. And a lot of those shots didn't come till later on either. Yeah. Right. The surprising thing was that without Kyle Lowry out there, they stuck Pascal Siakam on him as his primary defender for most of the game, which I was like, oh, Pascal, big look for this guy. And I don't know if that would change in the event that, like,

Lowry would be out there. But he was clearly giving him those three-pointers. And so I thought it was maybe like a process over results thing that just happened to go that way. I think the big thing for The Thunder is something you're kind of circling toward Haley is just that the guys that aren't Paul George and aren't Russell Westbrook, I think you really don't have to be afraid of them very much. Right. Like Jeremy Grant is like a good athletic guy who can do some stuff around the rim. Stephen Adams, same thing. One of my like just favorite centers to watch.

They're all solid. They're all solid. It's Ferguson. But Schroder last night proved his worst. Sure. I mean, it has been. I just don't know if you really need to worry about any of them. All those guys are going to score off activity.

They're not taking a game over. And we've been talking about this all season. Like, Thunder don't have shooters. They don't have a lot of offensive weapons. Are they really going to scare you in the playoff series? And now if Paul George isn't Paul George, you can kind of just let Russell Westbrook go to work. And that's kind of what happened.

And you saw as soon as Paul George was off the floor and overtime, it just there wasn't enough there to kind of cobble together enough offense. I mean, I think you saw how they had a bunch of just like Ms. Corner 3s, like these guys you were talking about, like Terrence Ferguson, like Jeremy Grant. Like that's typically on offense, at least when Paul George is at his best, their offenses, those guys sort of being, you know, side pieces, if you will, that can just hit a shot from time to time or act as, you know, sort of like release valves for when George, you know, gets swarmed like a double team or whatever.

But with him out, it sort of completely changes the calculus. But even with him in there, like, I just wonder how many of those shots are going to hit when they need to, right? Like, if Paul George does not score 40 points, like, what's their ceiling? So if I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying that the thunder were better with Mello. I saw this take on Twitter. Actually, I saw someone like vehemently like, like, castigating someone for this, like basically putting it down and being like, no, don't say that. That, why are you saying that? Who would we have like to see?

Yeah, who would we have like to see? Okay. I mean, this actually can't happen because of Capspace. But imagine if somehow it was Tobias. Oh, yeah. I mean, incredible. Who was on, who got traded. He would be perfect.

Yeah, instead of to the Sixers. That would be perfect. And so I, well, that's the take your version of this. It doesn't even have to be someone that's strong. Well, that's what I'm, I think that's what I'm getting that. And especially because of their deep. defense too. Exactly. It doesn't necessarily even have to be it to buy. It's like that's the dream. I think the kind of the fatal flaw of the past two years of this team has actually been that they didn't nail the Patrick Patterson signing because he's actually the stretch forward that I think everyone was expecting Mello to be. Yeah. And he is just like unplayable. He's just easy injure. I was just going to point that out. Like it's got having guys like that sort of not even be on the floor like that's telling. And they've they've essentially tried. again, they've kind of rolled the dice with Marquis Smore,

Morris, who has every opportunity to play, but he's just not the same guy. I think, like, at the very least, Grant is going to give you the activity and the defensive capabilities. And so it's that spot in particular that they just don't have that one guy, and I think it shows up in a lot of different ways.

And so I just wonder, like, how far this team can even get to. Like, do we, even if it's the Denver Nuggets, Paolo, who you, your mortal enemies. Sure. I think it completely depends on the matchup. I think Denver Nugget, it's actually a good situation for them. I agree.

I would just say like it's kind of a bummer because for most of the second half or for most of the season, I was feeling like the Thunder were playing and looked like the team that could give the Warriors not enough trouble to beat them, but some trouble to make it interesting. And now they've just completely, they completely have unraveled in a way that makes me have zero trust in them. And maybe they will come back because they're, you know, they're still very talented, just up top, you know. And so, I don't know. I agree with Haley in that it does depend on the matchup. But being the 8-seat is just, you know, you're gone.

It's a disaster. The only fun part about that is that you're giving the Warriors a tough opening series. And then they're going to have to go through quite the gauntlet to the finals. Yeah. And I guess like the silver lining series is that the bottom of the West is still really congested. The fact that they fell so far is a product of the fact that everyone's kind of in the same ballpark. They are two and a half games, I believe, back from fourth. And we have, let's see here, we have 10 games to go for them.

So actually, that is kind of a lot of ground considering how few games they have and just kind of the injuries that they've had. And it seems like Paul George just still isn't right. Yeah. So I do wonder. One thing I was thinking about as this was going on, and Russ was kind of picking up his numbers. Do we think Russ is going to make all NBA?

Yeah. So, yeah. I was looking at the list a little bit here. So I think the locks right now are Harden, Steph, Kyrie, and Lillard. Can we all agree that those four are probably in your first team and second team? Who would you quibble with? I think Kyrie's the worst out of that bunch.

I think Lilow has been much better. But yeah, I mean, Kyrie will probably make it on their second team. So, yeah, it's not a hardcore one foot. Statistically, I think Kyrie has the case. I do wonder if people will knock him for just whatever, like, you know, just meditations he's doing in his first game press copies.

The other possibilities kind of out there. Russ, Drew Holiday, Jimmy Butler, Campbell Walker, Ben Simmons. I would like to give you a lot of spot. The Jimmy Butler, you know, like the whole, like, he didn't make an all-star team.

I don't think he's played well enough to make it, though, like on that team. Right. Yeah, that's the thing. he has to do anything with... No. I think you totally... Image. I mean, if you want to go that way, sure.

But I just don't think he's been that good. As good as we thought he was, you know, like as an all-emba player for sure. Yeah, I'm looking at his numbers right now. They're similar to last season. His scoring is down, especially since joining the Sixers' efficiency, about the same as three-point shooting has been pretty bad.

I don't think he'll end up getting it for the reasons that you're bringing up there. I do wonder if people will try to, to jam Simmons in there is kind of like a congrats my guy for winning all these games. Because if you're looking at just from record, I do wonder if you have to start looking at Ross in the same way you look at Bradley Beale

and kind of just guy who has really good stats but maybe like the results aren't there. I mean, but they're a playoff team. The Worcesters are out of the playoffs right now. I think Russ makes it for sure. He is averaging a triple double. He's averaging a triple double. And as much as we want to sort of quibble with, you know, everything that goes into that, it's still a ridiculous number.

I do think, I, part of me hopes that there's some justice in the world and Drew Holla to get some love here. But I just, I don't know, I don't know if that's likely. I think Beale has been awesome, but, you know, teams not in the playoffs. Should that count for something? Like, what do you guys think? Like, I feel like that differs when it comes to just, you know, person to person. I don't know how much it matters for me, to be honest, that the team is not in the playoffs or is, you know?

Well, I think games played will come into like a factor here. Ross has played 63, but you assume that he's going to finish out the rest. They'll probably end up at like 73. If he gets in the 70s, I think that's probably enough to overlook some of the flaws, including like one of the worst shooting seasons in history. That's true. Drew is at 67 and I don't see him coming back for the rest of the season. Whatever, I think he had like some minor contusion

or sprain or whatever they kind of come up with toward the end of these sort of seasons. It was like seven to ten days, but like it's also the sort of thing. It's called a tanking sprain. Right. I believe that's the medical definition of it. So I wonder if he's going to do that. I think Campbell Walker and Beale are really interesting cases for that last five.

We're assuming Russ is going to get in. Both on bad teams, Walker's team might make the playoffs, but it's looking like not. And Beal's team definitely won't make the playoffs, but how much can you hold that against them considering his roster and how bad things were when John Wall was in? It looks like everyone on the last two

all NBA teams from first to third was not a playoff team. I'm looking it up now. So there's some precedent for a non-playoff guy getting in. I think so. Yeah, even without looking at this, I would say that there definitely is. Yeah, I don't know.

It's interesting. I mean, Brian Winhorst had something on ESPN the other day just looking at kind of the contract implications of some of these things. Like a guy like Beal, if you don't make all NBA, then like the Supermax isn't on the table. And that obviously cascades down to like the wizard's tax problems and like what you do with Beal, do you trade them?

Do you build around him? Can you do that with Wall's contract? And then Kimball Walker who like the Hornets need every advantage to keep him because they look terrible. Yeah. And he should want to leave at all costs. Please leave. Please leave.

Sorry Hornets fans. Please go somewhere that. Don't they want this for him? You know, after someone gives you their all for so long and then... I don't know. That's kind of an interesting sort of a... I guess, like, feeling to expect a franchise or a fan to have. To be like, hey, you know what?

Like, we sucked. Even with you here. But your grace, and go off and flourish. Like, I don't know. I'm going to tell you this. Make a list of all of his greatest teammates. Look, I'm... We've talked about this.

telling you this. I'm telling anyone who was a Hornets fan who is listening. Sure. And then read it over and over again and really sit and think about the happiness of other people and not just yourself. Leave Kimball Walker. Please. Do not do the Anthony Davis. Look what happened to him. He requested a trade because, oh, well, I mean, okay, they did actually end up trying to surround him with someone else finally, but that was to Marcus Cousins and it didn't work. Are you saying Cody Zeller isn't enough? Come on. Frank Kerminski?

Come on it lately. All right, let's take a quick break. And then I want to get into some playoff watchability rankings. Let's go. It's the middle of March, which means the madness is almost upon us. Are you ready? As soon as you know who's in and who's out, head to Yahoo Sports to fill out your free bracket for a chance to have America's

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Well, I'll ask you guys first. Are you looking for anything different in a playoff team than you would, a regular season team? Well, yeah, the regular season teams, the watchability was, this is a young guy succeeding. I haven't seen succeed before. Right. You know, those are typically the teams that I like to, that I gravitate towards and watch a lot of.

But with that being said, if they can't, if I know that they can't survive, then no, I don't want to see them in the playoffs. I think the transition that happens is you go from novelties to sure things.

Ooh. In the regular season, you want. That's good. You like that? Pinky's up. You want the newness of like discovery,

if you will, whereas like in the playoffs, you're like, okay, I know that if I tune in to watch, you know, I don't know. I guess this year has been Paul George. Like, I'm going to get an exciting,

I'm likely to get an exciting performance or I'm likely to get, you know, Kauai going both ways like 100% or I guess Janice in this case too as well. I guess one of the things that I normally wouldn't look for in a regular season game is also coaching. Like the tactical chess match is a little bit more interesting. Maybe not in the first round, but later in the playoffs.

But, I mean, there gets to the point where it's just like, Brad Stevens, how are you going to guard Janice? For instance, that was last year. And you get to see how it like evolves game to game. So if you're watching one series in particular, it gets pretty interesting that way. So that's one thing at there. But I think it for the most part is the same. I still want to see pace.

You still want to see the scores going up. You still want to see three pointers. For sure. But the big star performances and just kind of knowing that you'll get like a good game is probably. And pretty much anything that isn't on NBA TV is also. Agreed. Yeah, that's a great way to do it. All right, so we're going to draft some of the teams here.

I would say for the most part, the 16 playoff teams are pretty much set. The heat are the only one kind of teetering on the edge here, but they already have a one and a half game lead on the magic. And as we mentioned before, the hornets are pretty much dead in the water at this point. Tough look for Orlando. Dead in the hive? Dead in the hive? Yeah. Dead in the hive.

That's good. I don't even think it makes sense. So we're going to go around the table here. Haley, since Louisville is cratering before our eyes, we're going to give you the first pick. Who's, like, the most watchable team in the first round of playoffs? I don't know. Now we're only down 14.

Whoa, only 14. This is three. But there's still a loss on my watchability rankings. My first team is Toronto. Okay. Taking Toronto with the first pick. I think that they have what it takes to go far. They have the talent that will make it interesting.

And then they also have the new. exciting player that I think is going to really make like an official name for himself, which is Pascal, this playoffs. So they have it all. I love watching Pascal. I was watching a little bit of him last night. He does a really, really, really good Kauai impersonation. And it's very interesting.

And I think that he might be the best story to come out of this season even more than Kauai. Yeah. It's a little disappointing that he's already kind of blown up because he's not the type of guy who could just all of sudden catch everybody. I don't think he necessarily has because, like, you know, when you talk to people outside of the obsessed NBA circles, they aren't super familiar with his name. That's a good point. And especially with what he's doing now. Do they only know him as P. Skills?

I believe his name, his nickname is, it's like, it's like, it's like, he's spicy or whatever. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's his, uh, hold on. His name is spicier? It's like spicy pee, you know? Spicy P. I thought something like, yeah.

I know I'm getting it right. I'd rather be spicy. Mark Jones last night kept calling him P skills in like the post game walkoff interview. And I'm like... That's his Instagram handle. That's why.

I didn't realize it at the time. But I guess that's his social media. It's his Twitter too. It's still a little bit much. I wouldn't go up to you guys and be like, what's up? H. Money. Please.

Please start doing that. Hello. Haleo something. Just start referring to you. Better. I wonder if anyone has taken that on Twitter. Yeah. But I love the.

fact that Pascal, like, you know how we always talk about, like, big guys being able to shoot over the top of people? He can, like, finish over the top of pretty much everybody. And he does everything on, like, kind of dribble drives. And so he's like, this giant Russell Westbrook, almost. But, like, smiley instead of, like, wanting to murder you.

And it's like, how do you sell the energy? You were just, you know, berating someone on the other end of the floor. Yeah. Yeah. He's extremely high energy. Watching him to get to the rim is fun. Watching him get to the rim is fun. Watching him stop other guys from getting the rim is fun. he's like he actually yeah he's probably the main reason for me why the raptors are at the top okay all right paula with the number two pick i'm gonna go with the nets

okay i can see this yeah that's a good one i just think it it's sort of a continuation of the regular season just watching them you know flourish in it in the way they play is just so fun because they play fast and they play you know with a guard who with multiple guards spencer dinwiddie and d'anel Russell, who have that sort of, you know, aesthetic appeal of being a knockdown shooter and whatnot. And also, Carrey Slevert coming back and being like a really, really strong option. So you got Jared Allen, you know, blocking people at the rim. I think it's a nice collection. Yeah, nice collection of players.

Yeah, they have a lot of those, like, junkyard dog types, including Damari Carroll, who I believe his nickname is junkyard dog. But also like Ronda Ellis Jefferson, these guys that are just like big wings that just like kind of throw their bodies around. And we can't forget about Kourke's. Kourke's, your guy. Kourke. Do you think? No, but actually, like, we shouldn't forget about Kourke.

He was good. Our guy, Rodney. Did you pick the Nets specifically because they're most likely going to get matched up with the Raptors in the first round? I didn't. I didn't even think about that. But I also think that that could be fun. It's a nice contrast and style, for sure. Yeah.

All right. I have the number three pick. I'm going to go with the Houston Rockets because I like excellence. You know? No, I just think that James Harden probably will score 50 a game, especially if Chris Paul

Is this gonna be a Yukon fan? Yeah. Didn't you say like excellence? Excellence? Yeah, I like excellent. That was a burn, Justin. Yeah, I know. They won four national titles.

I'm just really better right now. How many national titles did Louisville win? Wait, do they have any that count? No. It doesn't count now. We said two that we're not taken away by the NCAA,

unfairly. And I was there for the third one. Let me tell you, It fucking happened. Yukon had two before 2005. Welcome to One Signing Pock. It's weird that people still talk about Kemba Walker. I didn't realize it was such a big deal.

Because for me personally, it's like, it's like one of the best moments of my life. But everyone's like, yeah, who's the next Kemba in the NCAA tournament? Right. All right, guys. Respect. Respect. But the Houston Rock is.

I don't watch a little. No. I guess if we're going to make a forced transition, kind of like the Campbell Walker of the NCAA tournament, James Harden is. Probably going to score a bunch of points. There's also like that shred of doubt where he might just run out of gas at any moment.

So he's kind of always teetering on that edge. And while I think they've kind of short up their rotation a little bit, Daniel House is like incredible. I'm sorry for throwing like unintentional shade at him last week where I was like, I don't really know what Daniel House is doing. But he like quite possibly might be like one of their best wing options now. Yeah. He just keeps drilling shots.

But there's always the possibility. that injury or just fall trouble and all of a sudden that they're a little bit thin, the defense is always kind of back and forth. So I think that's going to make the games interesting while still having these big performances and I think they're going to go far. O'Four 27, also a possibility.

Always a possibility, exactly. All right, with the, let's go to the second round now. Taking the bucks. Yeah, I'm taking the bucks. Yes, I'm taking the bucks. Because last year, Yonis, last year was not a great playoff debut for Yonis. this year will be better.

He's finally surrounded by what he needs. They figured out how to put a team around him. And they have boot-in-holds. So that also helps in playoffs. Yeah. I'm a little bit worried about the injuries starting to stack up. So Brogdon is out. Well, this is the whole playoffs, though, right?

So Browndon should be back in the second round. So what was his initial diagnosis? 68. And it's like a planar fascia sort of tear. Uh-huh. Minor planar fascia tear. Oh, so my. Okay.

Well... I'm trying to get the facts. Yeah. That worries me. Anything with the fascia? You got to watch out. No, but seriously, it does sound a little more serious than... Certainly.

Miritich, who I believe just broke his thumb. I also think it's making me realize how important he was. That also sounds serious. Broken thumb? Yeah. Especially for your shooter. I don't know which hand it was in. I think it was his right hand.

Still got to use both. Yeah. That's a great point. No, but you could definitely see in the few games that they had without Brogden already, they could definitely use an extra ball handler

or a shooter because while they have all these guys who are really intriguing, there really isn't a guy you can count on. Pat Conniken is kind of like the next guy up and he's shooting like 30%.

And we'll probably should be playing baseball right now. Yeah, he's back Condon. Sterling Brown has been injured. Dante DiVincenzo has like one game every like three months. We're like, oh, I could kind of see it. Sure.

But then just kind of drifts off. Tim Frazier back, though. What's that? Tim Frazier back. Tim Frazier is back. They gave up Christian Wood, who the Pelicans immediately picked up, which I think is like a really good sign of like how much like actual tangible value Tim brings. Yeah.

At this point, but he is insurance. So I wonder how much he's going to get thrown into the fray there. But I guess what I'm saying is I'm a little bit worried because this is a team that kind of thrives on being this collective like monster. Certainly. And now you're way over the line on Janus, and in particular, Brooke Lopez, who as we've seen, has gotten kind of cooked if you were able to kind of draw them out into the criminal and jail, all this stuff. So those are the bucks, guys. My turn.

What's the score, Haley? They can't break 10. That's always the big hurdle. Yeah. You got to break the double digits. I wish Paula was a coach. Just to hear your motivational speeches. All right, Paula, who are you going with?

I'm going with the Golden State Warriors, actually. is my second pick, which you might think, oh, why? Like, they're a little boring or whatnot. Oh, why? They've only got five all-stars. Yeah. The greatest score in history. The greatest shooter in history.

It's not even about that. It's more about how, like, I'm very, very curious to see them turn on playoff mode. Like, what is that actually? Like, what can it look like with Boogie in there? And now Bogart back and KD and stuff and all of them. Like, I'm just wondering, like, whether what we've been talking to? about for most of the season, about their dysfunction and one not. Like, if that actually matters a single bit, or if it's just going to be here, we're going

to crush everybody. Like, that, you know, I think that's interesting. There are legitimate stakes for their first couple games in a way that there haven't been in years past where we just anticipated them mowing down the competition. I think having to bring Andrew Bogot over from Australia is usually a bad sign. We thought he was pretty much washed, but all of a sudden it looks like to Mark's cousins. Just like, I don't know what you're getting from him. more. The injury, it doesn't look like he's fully recovered on the offensive end.

He played really well against the Rockets where they kind of had to play through him, but how often are you going to play through to Mark his cousins? Yeah. If you push him to the bench, is he going to be mad? Like, there's a lot going on with this team that probably shouldn't be happening right now. Bogot is a more natural fit. I think they were talking about, you know, him being like him already knowing, you know, some of the plays they run and whatnot.

And then from the years he did spend there. I'm sure it's a great backup option in that sense. Or maybe he takes up a lot of Buggie's minutes if Bougu can't sort of like fit in their scheme during the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, look at what they've done since they moved on from Bougat. They've kind of just been recreating that with these kind of young draft picks or guys they kind of find, Jifail McGee, for instance, basically just rim runners, guys who can protect the rim.

Yeah. And they really haven't found that guy since Bougat left. I don't know. There's a lot going on with that. team. And I think like if the thunder end up in this eighth seed, I think that's the most interesting series on the board as I mean talking about. Exactly. So I'm going to actually go the opposite way. I'm going to go to the depths of the Western Conference. I'm going to go with the Los Angeles Clippers. Nice. This is the nobody believes in us team of the playoffs, which I think is like the most fun. I guess

they're the equivalent of the Nets on the Western Conference side. It's all upside here. They're all young guys. I mean, I want to see what Shea does. Like basically we were saying in just the regular watchability rankings. Zubatch, I mean, they also have these kind of veteran guys that they can rely on. Galnery. It's a nice mix. Lou Williams. I don't know if you've heard of Impala. Yeah.

I'm ready. Nobody believes in this team except for the only people who think that nobody believes in them is them and it's the Blazers. I want the Blazers to finally do something. This could be the year they finally do something. They're currently fourth. Yes. They're currently fourth. That has them against a jazz. Who are actually a tough opponent. That will be tough. Yeah.

But I think that they can make it out. I want them to have some kind of fuel and fury from A, like Damien Lillard is always the person who thinks he's doubted. B, they've gotten out, knocked out of the first round twice in a row, very different ways. The first time it was the Warriors and it was. was a sweep and it was like, well, it's the Warriors and maybe you guys should break it up because you're never going to beat the Warriors. This team will never beat the Warriors. The second year, it was a sweep and it was the Pelicans. And it was like, well, okay, so we can't compete with the Warriors and you can't compete with the Pelicans who then went on to get

embarrassed in the next round. I want the Blazers to do something because if not, it's going to be another year of break it up. This isn't working. Except for now, like the Blazers have kind of waited it out long enough that I'm not really. sure that they should. Commit to debate, is what you're saying. Yusuf looks great. A lot of their pieces that were young guys

that we were seeing if they were going to turn out to be something are looking like they're turning out to be helpful players. And if your strategy is to wait out the words, it looks like that's coming like this summer next. From a watchability standpoint, it's a great pick. And from a watchability standpoint, right. They're an exciting team.

I just want to see them do something. I guess the curveball here is what are we going to get from C.J. McCollum. Right. And now I think it's interesting, especially in the first round, where if they don't have him and it's just Lillard, do you get like peak Lillard at that point? And then whatever result happens, the debate over Lillard McCollum is only going to be amplified.

Right. You're not going to get away from that. If anything, they've set themselves up unintentionally to just be right back here in the same debate like two months from now. It doesn't sound like McCollum's going to like miss playoff time but that would be fascinating

if he saw sort of like how the team would work with just Lillard there in a playoff setting and if he's even hurt if he's a little bit diminished people are going to get on him and be like why are you playing him

just let Lillard cook but yeah that's a good one of my turn right yep I'm gonna take to Philadelphia 76ers just literally everything we talked about and you know

we debated and it fascinates me about them in the first section of the pod like it just how they're fitting together watching Embed just basically go crazy you know every night and sort of watching the fit

in the system and how Brett Brown you know tries to sort of produce a a competent not a competent team but a winning team you know and then again like Jimmy in the fourth quarter

like that's that's fun in its own way so I just think there's a lot of different you know compelling pieces there yeah I'll go with the nuggets here. Oh, what a grumble. No, I'm just kidding. At this point, their teams are kind of similar.

Yeah. But I think if we're looking at stakes is kind of one of the biggest things that we're looking for here. It just seems like the Nuggets have to prove themselves. Right now, they're position to go up against the Clippers. I think that they would make it pass there.

I think we've had some success against the Nuggets this season, especially in Denver. I think it would get particularly interesting if the spurs fall to the seven and they have to go against the nuggets because then you have the clash of like the veterans who know what they're doing. That crisp machine-like system versus a team still trying to kind of figure out who it is like pretty much relying on Yokic to be everything that they need them to be. So I'm intrigued to see how that kind of all pans out here. Have we done the thunder?

No. Give me the thunder. Another revenge team. Another nobody believes in this team. Bees the warriors in the first round. Come on, Russ. This is your chance. He's going to leave.

He's going to go to the east. You never know when you're going to get this stage again. You're presenting this like it's a political campaign. That's great. I think of the future of that. I was really fueled up. Like now we're down by 10. So, but still can happen.

I'm like a big believer in upsets right now. Right. You know, you have to believe, Russ, this is your time. Plus, he'll either lean into that or it's more likely that he will lean into the pressure by becoming just utterly out of control. Sure. Which either way, it's entertaining and I'm here for it. There's no good teams left.

Wow. This is when it gets interesting. Yeah. I'm going to take... You know what? I'm going to take the Detroit Pistons. Okay. A little bit of a deep cut there.

Yeah. You know, because Blake Griffin has been really good this season. I don't think he's getting enough love. and I think that they're going to end up I'm hoping they end up in the seventh seat and we get a Pistons Raptors matchup and that'll be fun

like just you know Dwayne Casey going up against his former team there you know you have Blake but you also have Drummond sort of coming on as of blade and you know grabbing like what 25 rebounds in night

it seems like Is Drummond fun for you to watch? Here's the thing it's not about him as an individual it's about the collective point. Wow. You really are, like,

leaning to this assistant coach thing. No, but I just alter you go on the bottom. It's not about the name on the backs about the name on the front. Exactly. No, this is not a great...

It's March. I'm just trying to go off the board here. I didn't want to pick the Celtics, so I'm picking the pistons because I don't know. They're just... I like the thought of them giving the Raptors or even

six or some trouble, even though it's probably not going to happen. All right. I'm going to go with the Celtics. because they have interesting players unlike Detroit Pistons I hate on Luke Kinnard like that I just think like

again this is just like the thunder almost where there's a possibility that they get upset in the first round or they just blow up in the first round and all of a sudden we're talking about them on the blogs incessantly but also I mean there's also a possibility to figure it out that Kyrie just kind of goes off

and all of a sudden they're in the Eastern Carver Finals again so yeah all right let's just do one more round jazz Give me the jazz. Give me Donnie Mitch. I know. Another upset.

They're my guys. Okay. You just like Rudy Gobert? You just want to see some blocks. I mean, they've hit their stride. I don't think a lot of people realize that a lot of non... Hardcore. Hardcore NBA fans.

Yeah. Right. Right. I mean, Mitchell is an interesting spot here. Who doesn't want to see a player like Donovan Mitchell in playoffs series either. Yeah. Especially know that they're leaning into kind of this like non-noburn. point guard set where they have Joe Ingalls sometimes

handling the ball or... Also, who doesn't want to see Joe Ingalls? Like, that guy gets aggressive and it's fun. And he throws people off their games. Yeah, I actually think the next few games for the Jazz are going to be really interesting because all of their statistics suggest that they're a sleeping giant. We've

talked about this in the past. Dan DeFine wrote about it on the ringer.com. I kind of want to see them put it together for a few more games in this regular season for me to fully believe in them. They're seven and three over their past 10 right now, but I still want to see a little bit more here. I think tonight's game is an interesting one, because I always love the Hawks.

And the Jazz are in Atlanta tonight. That's a 4.30 p.m. Pacific game. I would pick the Hawks first in every watchability ranking if I could, just because, like, I don't know, they just have everything I could ever ask for in a team. My one true love. Like wins. Exactly. Except for when, although lately, they're too good to tank. Yeah, they are.

So that game's at 4.30 p.m. Pacific. We're going to call that our watch the night. We do that once a week here, guys, because we like basketball. If you want to watch every NBA game, subscribe to NBA Leapass on MBA.com or your local cable or satellite provider. All right, Paul. Let's round it out here. Give me the heat. Okay.

You Wade's final hurrah. And just Eric Spolstra, you know, matching up his team against better teams and finding out a way to sort of we've got to win here and there. Yeah, they have a lot of parts, and so it's interesting to see how they're going to deploy them. It's pretty much game-to-game how they throw those guys out there. Last pick here. I'm going to go with the Pacers.

Wow, I forgot about the Pacers. Yeah. Nobody believes in them. Nobody does believe in them, yeah. The post Victorola Depot team somehow still in the mix here for this four seed. They're one game up on the Celtics. All signs point to them playing in that first round series. more likely than not

the type of team that if they weren't playing the Celtics they'd be in that NBA TV series Yes But I don't know I think there's something to them If they do well early on If Boyan Bogdanovich Pops again like he did last year

You'd be like Miles Turner series for sure Yeah It would be nice if Miles Turner's played Up to his potential on the offensive end He's been a monster defensively But big boy on I'm into it Let's do it

Give me the double Bs All right that's it for today, before Haley kind of... Seven point. Spondaneously combusts here. You notice how we didn't pick the spurs? Oh, we didn't. Bobby, you want them?

That's Bobby's team right there. I love long twos. Perfect. Fadeaways from DeMardo Rosen. Yeah. I mean, that feels appropriate, you know? I don't think anybody's going to be watching Derek White except for Bobby. So enjoy that one.

All right. So we're going to get out of here for this week. Pray for Haley, pray for the Louisville Cardinals. It's not looking good. No, it's not looking good. Otherwise, we will be back next week until then. Basketball is very good. Basketball is very good.