The Ringer NBA Show - The Warriors Blew a 31-Point Lead | The Mismatch

Episode Date: April 16, 2019

The resilient Los Angeles Clippers make a historic comeback against the reigning champion Golden State Warriors in Game 2 (0:42) and the Philadelphia 76ers redeem themselves with a resounding win against the Brooklyn Nets (26:44). Hosts: Chris Vernon, Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Mismatch is brought to you by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration. If you're ever stopped at a railway crossing, the signals are flashing and you don't see the train, or it looks like it's moving slow, and you're thinking maybe you could get across the tracks before the train comes? Think about this. In 2018 alone, 270 people were killed at railroad crossings. 270. Stop. Trains can't. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every day. Tuesday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, a.k.a. Kevin O. Conflict, A.k.a. Kevin O. Conflict.

A.k.a. Kevin O. Kavanaugh. Verno. We get so much we have to talk about today. I'm excited. Oh, my goodness. This is the playoff edition. Yes. Produced by a pantsless Isaac Lee as his Los Angeles Clippers. Have you put pants back on? I just want to make sure. My pants are fully on.

Okay. I would not show up to work without pants. All right. 31 points. The Los Angeles Clippers are down to the Golden State Warriors last night with less than seven minutes to go in the third quarter. And one of the most improbable comebacks. And in fact, the biggest comeback in playoff history takes place last night. And it's not just, Kev, the 31.

It's not like they were down 31 in the second quarter or even in the first half of the third quarter. Do be down 31 with less than seven minutes left to go in the third quarter? That's the margin. And then come all the way back and win that game. This is, I mean, obviously, it was a historic night. What was the first thing that ran through your mind when Curry misses? Harrell obviously hits the free throws. sham it hits the big three

so this is all playing out at the end but it becomes real that oh my God the clippers really did this they really came all the way back and somehow stole this game what are you thinking well I mean first of all just that entire comeback especially when it got close I just couldn't

stop laughing like it was just hard to believe it was actually happening and even this morning waking up after watching the game I tweeted last night how can you imagine going to bed when the clippers were down 31 and then waking up and seeing the score. It was hard to believe even waking up having seen the game that it actually happened.

That's how stunning it was. So like while it's happening, Chris, the feeling is the same. It was just hard to believe that this Clippers team trailing as much as they did made that ferocious comeback really led by Lou Williams scoring 20 plus points over that final stretch, getting contributions from rookies and Shay Gildes of Alexander and Landry Shamet. Montrez Harold stepping his game up and Danilo Galanari doing what he's done all season. It's just unfathomable that it actually happened. And yet, this Clippers team all season long has been resilient.

They have played with heart. So if there's any team that could do this, it probably would have been them. So it's stunning. But in some ways, this Clippers team, it's just a continuation of the heart that they've played with this entire regular season now into game one of the NBA playoffs. I'm shocked, Chris. You know what's crazy is many years ago, I was in an arena when, in fact, the Clippers came back from 27 down in a playoff game and ended up beating the Grizzlies. But it was like, you know, their bench guys had come in and it was all these dogs.

It was Kenyon Martin and Reggie Evans and Eric Bledsoe and Karan Butler and these kind of guys. It wasn't like the Lob City guys necessarily completed the comeback. And I recall throughout that, Nick Young just buried every three over and over again. And when you think about when the Rockets made their comeback, the famous one with, which happened to the Clippers, no less. You know, and Hardens on the bench and you've got some of the bench guys, Josh Smith, etc. burying three after three after three. That's the craziest thing about this to me. The Clippers in that comeback, Kevin, made five threes.

Five. They were 14 of 15 on layups. To come back from 31, only hitting five threes, that makes it like infinitely more impossible to me. Because these big comebacks, it's somebody gets hot. Like I mentioned, the Nick Young thing or the Josh Smith thing. And it's just like, wait, what the crap? These guys just are seeing dead red and they're burying every three. And that's how you can come back quickly.

To be able to come back from 31 while only hitting five threes and just turning them over time after time and getting layup after layup, that makes it like way more crazy to me. No, no doubt about it. I mean, I think we've seen this so far in the playoffs. We've seen it all the time. Like that's just the way the game is now with three pointers serving as a equalizer, right? If a team has a hot shooting night, if you're taking a lot of threes, you always have a chance. That's why a team, a lot of teams like Milwaukee started taking more threes this year. It's why Houston continues to take more and more threes every year because the three-pointer

is simply more valuable than mid-range jumpers. So that's what you're wanting. But what the clippers did, Chris, is as you said, they're also getting to the basket drawing free throws. But part of it is like, regardless of where you're taking the shot from, Lou Williams was just unstoppable down the stretch. that game. He hit some nasty, heavily contested jump shots that not many guys across the league would have even a chance of hitting, but Lou Will, his whole career, has been one of those guys who

can be a microwave scorer for you off the bench. But for him, like in today's league, it's really perfect for him with the amount of space and his shot creation ability in order to get just a little bit of space that he needs to unleash a shot. It was really remarkable watching him last night. I was, I was blown away, dude. I'm still blown away that that actually happened. Well, I did a lot of talking interviews, etc., about the playoffs going into them. And at one point, I remember being asked about the Clippers series, and I said, listen, they're not going to be able to beat Golden State. But if they win a game or they win, if they are to cause a problem for them,

it will be because they're able to bring Lou Williams and Montres Harrell off the bench, who are starting caliber players. I know the lineups get shorter, but the depth on the Warriors is just not there. know this, right? And so if you're going to make any hay, that's when it's going to be. And those two guys, the first two games of this series, and I know they got punched in game one, but when you add it up after these two games, I think they've got 112 points combined, kept, in the first two games, which is, I mean, absolutely unbelievable. And it is as they get deeper. Who knows what's going to happen with this series. But as the Warriors go on,

and they face the deeper teams, the teams that bring guys off the bench that can really bust you up, that is something to watch because the Clippers may not have enough in their starting unit right now. But you see when they bring off some guys that can truly be devastating off the bench, that can be a problem. And in fairness, listen, they were good enough to be up 31 on them. That is one of those times where they just took their foot off. And I've thought about this so much throughout this year for some reason.

But at the end of the college football season, Oklahoma played against Alabama. And Alabama was just drilling them. I mean, beating them to death at halftime, right? Oklahoma scored on like their last six drives. Next thing you know, it was like a close game by the time it was all said and done. And I talked to a football coach that I'm friends with a collegiate football coach for one of these teams on a high major team. And I said, so should that make me concerned about Alabama? and obviously it should have in retrospect,

but he said, listen, I'm telling you this, and especially with college kids, but this even extends to the pros, when you've got a group of guys that turns it off, it is harder than hell to get them to turn it back on. Like,

once they've just decided it's over, and once they've turned it off, because they're all amped up, they're ready to go, they beat the hell out of you, and then they just shut it down. And now it's like, oh, crap,

you've got to turn this thing back on. And I thought about it last night. I thought about it so much during the NBA season. When you see these teams sometimes get big leads poached from them, that once you turn it off, I mean, getting it back on is so hard to do. And obviously, the Warriors, I mean, it just cascaded to the next thing you know. I cannot believe they lost that game. I really can't.

Like 31 is just, it would be different if it was any other team too, right, Kiv? like any other team losing a 31 point lead. I can see that happening to somebody else, but them? It's also poetic that it was 31 for obvious reasons for the team that blew the 3-1 lead many moons ago. Hey, poor Steph Curry, by the way. Can we mention that? Poor Steph Curry, incredibly unfortunate tweet on Sunday. Did you see this that got him?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Where he says, Tiger Woods, the greatest comeback in the history of sports. and he was inundated with about 5,000 blew a 3-1 lead memes and LeBron, you know, pinning the ball against the backboard. And then the next day, it's like the greatest comeback can't playoff history. Like, Steph Curry can't buy a break on the... I mean, with this Clippers team, though,

like, if they don't win another game this series, I think it's a given that they're going to be competitive, right? Like, they're going to continue busting their ass on the floor. Because while you said how Golden State built the 31 point lead, they're not going to do that every single game. They're not going to be clicking the way they did at that level every single game. So for this Clippers team, I look at the efforts of somebody like Landry Schammett, he's somebody who when he entered the league, he was somebody who was not a good defensive player. He did not move well laterally.

He was really just a shooter who could playmake a little bit for you off the dribble. And this year, even in the NBA, starting with the Sixers and then with the clippers, he had his defensive struggles. But last night, I thought he had one of the best defensive games that I have ever seen from him. He had that sequence down the final stretch where he hit the go-ahead three to give the clippers a lead. And then he tipped the ball out to gain possession for the clippers, which led Montres

Harold to get to the line and shoot the two free throws to clinch the game. Shamet made so many plays the entire game that just blew me away in ways that, like, you didn't expect this from him one year ago. when he was just a draft prospect. What he did last night was something new. And it goes to show, in my opinion, two things, Chris, how much effort matters on defense, obviously. That goes without saying.

But you can be a player who may be athletically limited. But if you're playing with effort and fundamentals, and you're in the right position, and also you're surrounded by other hard-nosed defensive players, like Patrick Beverly, of course, who had an unbelievable defensive game on the floor and a bunch of other guys who are communicating, that's what makes good defense.

it's more than one player. It's one whole unit trying hard together. And then also with Shamet, another older prospect. We've talked about this before, not to go talk about the draft, but older prospects can sometimes come in and contribute earlier in their careers. And Shammit did that for the Sixers

and now we're doing it for the Clippers at a high level. Just so many ways to look at this game, Chris. The one thing we didn't even mention, though, is like the one veteran, DeMarcus cousins coming down with that quad injury. That could really, really hurt Golden State moving forward because he was coming along a little bit more the past month or so. And you mentioned their lack of depth.

Boogie would have been somebody who, if he's out for the season and it did not look good, Adrian Wojianowski reported that it's probably not good. Steve Kerr said it's not good. So by the time you hear this podcast, we might actually know what it is. But with his thigh sticking out, it did not look good. And for them, they're going to lose versatility moving forward against the rockets in the second round if they advance or however far they advance, having boogie would have been a valuable tool

and not going to have them now. Yeah, watching that replay last night, my initial reaction of being honest was, oh, God. I thought the second I saw it, I thought this is a big injury that's going to cost him the playoffs. This is the same leg as the Achilles, too.

That's what made it especially scary. Yeah, and it's the way he came down on it and you saw the wince on his face. And like that was obviously, this wasn't like a tweak. it didn't look like. Now, hopefully they end up getting good news, but, you know, last night, Wojinovsky said there's a significant concern that he suffered a torn left quad. And there's not going to be certainty, but it did look like, you know, I mean, you got a hope against hope,

but it looked like a major muscle that got busted up. And you hate that for him because, God forbid, the kid just came back from, he missed out on all the money, you know, and had to play this season out to prove himself to get ready for another payday this off season. And obviously, if he did, Terse Quad, you're talking about a guy that, you know, has torn his Achilles and torn his quad in the last two years. And it's, again, you know, time for the payday, right? And you see, I mean, you see now why so many guys sign the contracts early because sometimes the big payday never hits. And I think about two guys. And who knows what will happen with him? but you can't help but think about Isaiah Thomas, right?

It was back up the Brinks time. And that contract is never happening. And the same may be true for Boogie, which sucks. It sucks. Well, you know, the wild thing for both Isaiah Thomas and DeMarcus cousins is either of those guys even had the option to sign the contract earlier. Because Sacramento was reluctant to give cousins the contract. And Boston may not have even backed up the Brinks truck for Isaiah Thomas heading into that offseason. I think there's a chance they would have, they may have, quote, unquote, lowballed him in his eyes that summer.

So both of those guys would have had options to sign deals had they hit the market. They're in the respective summers, but maybe not even at the level. They did not have the choice to do it early, is what I'm trying to say. And with DeMarcus cousins, if this is a major quad injury, Charles Barkley said after the game that it looked like from what he saw, from the photo that showed DeMarcus cousins walking down in the hallway afterwards, he said it reminded him. of the quad injury that ended his career. And so for DeMarcus Cousins, right now, he'll turn 29 before next season coming off a major Achilles injury and we'll see what happens with the quad injury. Somebody who did not look the same this year with Golden State, he got a little bit better,

but not quite what he was as the dominant interior force with the Sacramento Kings for so many years. He's somebody that he's either going to have to, if this is a major injury, you're going to have to change the way he plays or take on a less significant role. moving forward. So for DeMarcus Cousins, a really sad individual night for him and for the Golden State Warriors, obviously a historic loss. But for a team that already didn't have much valuable depth, losing a guy like Cousins who could

have, even if Cousins won you just two games, one game moving forward in the playoffs, just by turning back the clock, that could be the difference between winning a series or not. And Golden State losing that could end up being the end of them at some point in this postseason. Yeah, regarding that game last night and this amazing Clippers comeback, one of the other things that I do want to mention, you already mentioned the shamit and the older rookies and the ability, you know, sometimes we've become agist when it comes to the NBA draft. The NBA certainly does. Beyond that, you see why I am always, I always love the Bulldogs. I always love the guys that are going to go hard no matter what that aren't going to quit because it makes it. much more fun to root for. It just does, right? When you feel like your guys are really willing

to run through a wall. And obviously, if you can combine that with the requisite talent, you've got the makings of a real championship team. But you see something like what took place last night with the Clippers. They end up with the eight seed. And I've tried to work you over for years. But certainly you must see the value in what took place last night to those young guys and to that team and to that fan base because it would be easy to say, who cares that they make the playoffs or not? They're the 8 seed. They might as well just, you know, be bad and get another pick and add to the mix or whatever

because instead they're just going to get smoked by the Warriors. But then something like that happens last night. And I do think that if you are a prospective free agent, I do think that if you are a draftable player, all of the sudden, you know, you look at that and your agent wants to get you to places like that because of what happened last night, and they may end up losing the next three games. But what happened last night becomes front page news for a long time. And when we think about the Clippers, we'll think about a team that gives it everything

they got and you better not stop playing against. I think when it comes to those eight seeds, Chris, I think it depends on who the team is, right? There's certain teams that I would look at and say, yeah, maybe it's not for the best for them to push for that eight seat. I felt that way about a team like they, Charlotte Hornets, a team, you know,

like the Grizzlies, obviously they were trying to win games for different reasons at the end, but a team like the normal, not the Pelicans, but after the Anthony Davis trade request, they were a team that made sense, you know what,

take a step back. But the Clippers, this is a team that won 48 games, and as you mentioned, has two max slots moving forward. They're a team that they do have a lot to gain simply by making some noise in the postseason and displaying their talent and their coaching and their chemistry and their city and their team to any free agents.

This is the stage to do it. And last night's game, they did it better than you ever could have anticipated just with the heart that they played with coming back led by Patrick Beverly, one of those guys, just defending Kevin Durant and wanting to defend Kevin Durant and their young players. So if you're a free agent looking at the Clippers, you're thinking, that this is the team that is already really good without you. And imagine what will happen as these young guys get better alongside you as a proven star player. So whether that comes in a trade, whether it's these assets looking at like higher value

players for a trade, someone like Anthony Davis, or whether it's a free agent that you just outright sign like Kawhi Leonard. It's hard not to look at this Clippers team after last night's game after this entire a regular season and not see major appeal and then moving forward as a destination team. It's impossible to think any other way about this roster, isn't it, Chris? But it wouldn't have been, you know, I think we all thought they were punting at the trade deadline because they got rid of their leading scorer and their leading rebound. I don't know about punting. I mean, I forget like what we talked about at the time.

We can do revisionist history now, but we didn't think that was a trade to get better. Yeah, it felt like a redistribution of assets. necessarily punting. I felt like it was just redistributing Tobias Harris, the player who was going to be a free agent for different assets. I didn't really look at it necessarily. At least I don't think I did. Like I said, I don't want to be revising history here. But to me, it wasn't necessarily about a step back as much as just exchanging assets. It just also may have come with a step back, you know? Well, that it was a move for the future rather than the present, that this was not about this year's team, clearly. Yes, it was a move for the future.

I'm with you there, definitely. Yeah, it wasn't about maximizing this year's team, and yet it very well may have maximized this year's team. And we've seen this happen before. You know, like this happened with, do you remember long ago when like Rudy Gay got traded from the Toronto Raptors? There have been teams that have done this before that sometimes they make deals, and it actually, you know, improves them a great deal when maybe that wasn't necessarily their intent was to improve their current team.

a great deal, but rather make a move for the future. And it ends up having that kind of an impact. And you look up and it's now all of a sudden that's a playoff team that was able to win a playoff game against Golden State. And I do think the opinion, the opinion changes greatly of, I do think players, free agents, etc. If they are in that spot and are able to accomplish what they did last night or if they would have missed the playoffs and say they were the nine seed and say Sacramento pulled that

off. Let's say Sacramento moved one up, right? And that's the team. Then all of a sudden, guess what? Free agents go, hey, you know what? Buddy Heald and Deeran Fox and Marvin Bagley and you know, you add me to that and all of a sudden, maybe you got some. It depends on who you are. That's what I mean. Like the Kings have young appealing players. The Clippers have young appealing players and they're in a great city. Some teams don't have that situation or they don't have that cap space to even appeal to other teams. That's why it's really situation-based whenever it comes to like going for the eight seed or trying to lose some games and get a higher draft odds. It all depends on the team situation. And we also got to give big credit to Doc Rivers because he made me think of it when you mentioned sham it. That is Doc.

It just is. From the time I've talked to so many players that have been a player for him that swear by him, number one, and number two, they will all express. to you, you know, in terms of game preparation and commitment to the defensive end, it's just something that is expected immediately. And he can maximize you. And so that's why something, I do think obviously there's an impact from the other players. And one player playing at a breakneck speed, like a Beverly, like a Harold, these kind of guys that aren't going to give up no matter what.

And they're going to play hard every time they're out on the court, that has an impact. impact on players, but also Doc Rivers has a track record of being able to get the most out of guys and guys defending and rookies having to really pay attention. And I think Doc would have been one of the guys that people would say, ah, that ain't a great place to be a rookie. And then look, biggest play of the game is a rookie point guard passing to a rookie shooting guard burying a huge three on the road in Golden State. I mean, he's obviously evolved a lot.

And you see a situation like that with Shamit with Gilgis Alexander and the trust that he has for those guys and how they've gotten better as the season goes on. And the coach, he deserves credit for that for sure. Oh, no doubt about it. In some ways, it's kind of funny. Doc Rivers didn't have a choice, right, to play these young rookies. I mean, that's also a credit to the front office led by Lawrence Frank for a question. acquiring these players. If you look at who they closed last night's game with, the final six guys that they had in the game, they all came via trade over the past two years. Gallinari and the sign

and trade in 2017, then Beverly, Harold, and Lou Williams from the Chris Paul trade, Gilges Alexander and the Blake Griffin Blockbuster, he was a pick from that. And then Shamet, obviously, in the Tobias Harris trade, all these guys are recent acquisitions. And the young guys specifically, Doc doesn't have a choice, but to play these guys because they're so good. And that's also a credit to the front office for actually finding these players in those big trades. Yeah, but usually, and maybe he did. Who knows? You'll have another story.

Usually what you have is a coach goes to somebody and says, I can't do it with this. You know, get me a veteran point card. Just get me, you know, get me somebody. And next thing you know, or you start Beverly. You know what I'm saying? Like, you really put a lot of trust. And obviously when he traded for sham it, he doesn't have to play him. I don't have to.

Yeah, but because these young players are so productive, it's like you don't really have another choice. You know what I mean? Yes, yes. It's just very rarely do you see the old guard NBA guys, certainly of which Doc was a part of trusting and playing rookies, especially in the biggest of moments. And he found a combo last night, stuck with it. and empowered them and look what they did. All right, Kevin, we'll get right back to it. First, I want to remind everybody, today's episode of the mismatch is brought to you by Hulu.

Hulu's paying some of the league's best players, a lot of money to do some pretty crazy stuff. Joel changed his nickname from the process to Joel. Hulu has live sports and Bede. Damian Lillard got a tattoo that says Hulu has live sports. Clearly, they want you to know that Hulu has live sports. Get over 60 live and on-demand channels, tons of shows and movies, and exclusive originals with Hulu. Get rid of your cable and make the switch for only $45 a month. Watch your favorite teams and the biggest games all season with no cable required.

Watch on the go and on all your favorite devices. Live TV plan required? Restrictions apply. Learn more at Hulu.com. All right, kid, we talked about the big Clippers comeback. The game that took place before that was the 76ers evening up the same. series against the Brooklyn Nets tight game going into the second half and then the, I guess a hell of a halftime speech because the 76ers came out and just buried the net

in like the first four minutes. It was something like 21 to 4 or some crazy. Buried the Nets. Obviously, even that series up at one after dropping a game number one. you wrote about the two ends of the spectrum that we have dealt with regarding Ben Simmons in game one in game two, and then kind of projecting what this is going to mean going forward. So if you can, instant thoughts on Sixers tying that back up. And in addition to that, how Simmons and what we have seen in these first two games and what that means towards what we may see the rest of this series,

and more importantly, if they are able to advance from there. I guess it's not totally surprising, you know, heading into this series, the expectation was that Philly would win it. I picked them to win in five games. I think with Brooklyn, that game one game plan that they had against Ben Simmons was really tremendous. I thought Jared Dudley did a great job. They did not have him in game two. And that's not why they lost.

Philly just played better. The way they utilized Ben Simmons, Ben Simmons himself was more aggressive. and Embed himself was not jacking up three-pointers either. Overall, in many respects, the Sixers were better. I thought they made better use of JJ Redick off the ball as well. They ran that really nice dribble handoff at the top of the key with Ben Simmons, where one of the ways Brooklyn has defended Simmons was not defending him at all. And in Philadelphia, I used that against Brooklyn by essentially running Heretic through a dribble handoff at the top of the key.

and because Simmons defender is not close, there's no help defender there for Red X three point shot to get contested. So I thought Philadelphia did a much better job, overall playing with better effort, better shot distribution as well. They just played a better overall game. And then with Brooklyn, they just don't have the same amount of talent.

With Ben Simmons, Chris, I am curious, after that game won, were you at all worried for him for the rest of the series against the Nets? Or were you thinking that was just one blip against the infreep? against the inferior team. I thought that he is constantly going to have to be adjusting to the adjustments that the opposite

team makes. I promise you, Kenny Atkinson will have something else ready for the next game. I mean, that's the way these series go. You play one game, the team that loses, goes back and looks at the tape and says, all right, guys, here's how we fix this. the team that wins, it's a much harder film session, right? Because what you did worked. And so now, guess what?

Brooklyn's going to go back. They're going to look at the film and they're going to go, all right, that didn't work. So they figure that one out. It's a chess match as the series goes on. And you asked me, so I do think that there will be the constant adjustments that Simmons have to make. It's weird. He was not what I was thinking about all that much coming out of game one.

What I was thinking about, honestly, was Embed. He did not look right. And I don't know if you have it a worse, but, you know, I follow the pro football doc on Twitter, who has been absolutely unbelievable throughout football season. David Chow is his name. And he was a team doctor in the NFL for 17, over 17 years. And he has this Twitter feed and he writes articles for the San Diego Union Tribune, etc. And he does appearances on a lot of different shows and whatnot. And I can't tell you how many times

that he has seen people will send him a clip or will watch a clip and he will be able to tell you what it looks like. I mean, he obviously has an incredible amount of experience. And one of the things that he tweeted out that I was like, oh my God. And he actually wrote an article about this was he noticed, and this is something that a team doctor for that many years would notice, but others wouldn't. he noticed that there was a brace that Embed was wearing and he said, okay, this is only two things, like basically. One of them is a bone bruise and there's no way the Philly doctors are letting it play through the bone bruise. The other one is we use that brace for tendonitis.

And there is no, there's no cure for that. There's no cure for that. And so there should be real concern about the long-term availability. for Embed and what he might be playing through now. And that's when I was like, oh, my God. Like, I would have never known that. I would have never picked up on that. They just say, oh, he's been battling some knee or whatever.

But, I mean, this guy said, evidently, there was some, there was a brace that he was wearing that he immediately spotted and said, like, why, you know, why is he wearing that? You know, and obviously there is a reason to be wearing that. So M. Bede was the one I was thinking of, honestly. No doubt. I think with Embed, for what it's worth, we're not doctors, but I did talk to a doctor about that specific article that you're referencing, where it was mentioned that that brace is used for players who have arthritis in their knee. And B. did admit, you know, he has admitted over the course of the season that he does feel a little bit of aching and tendonitis in that knee. The one thing that the doctor did say to me is that meniscus injury does often cause arthritis afterwards. for certain people. So that's a risk when it comes to having meniscus surgery like Joe Al-M-Bin did two years ago,

whether it's whether it's tendonitis, whether it's arthritis, whether he needs another surgery during the off-season, which would be very scary for somebody that's had the amount of injuries that he has had. The fact is that Joe Al-M-Bide right now is 25 years old and he's lumbering around like he's 35 years old, wearing knee braces, getting treatment before the games. It's scary, right? because Embedee is one of the great young players in this league. One of the funest players to watch on the court.

One of the funest players to follow on social media. Just a real bright spot in a league that's full of bright players. It would be sad. It is sad that we're already dealing with this concern of injury with him. But this has been constant. Like, in a way, we're used to this ever since he was a prospect in the 2014 draft when he had that back injury that knocked him down to the third pick where Philadelphia was able to get him.

This is really nothing new, the concern of injury with Joel Embed, but now it's manifesting on the court. He just does not have the same amount of quickness defending the pick and roll, changing directions on the offensive end. He does not seem to have the same lift. And Chris,

like you're mentioning, like you thought of Joel Ambide after that game one, and I feel exactly the same. But that's why I was thinking so much about Ben Simmons, because if Embeddead is limited, to me, it's about how can you get more out of Ben Simmons because he has shown so much already without a jump shot.

We've talked before about how he shoots with the wrong hand, how he's reluctant to shoot, and all that's true. Like, that's a flaw, and it will take a long time for that to get fixed if it ever get fixed at all. But there's still ways that I think Ben Simmons can be better utilized by Sixers Head Coach Brett Brown. I would really like to see them take what they did last night to a greater extreme. They did a good job using shallow pick and rolls, setting screens, for Simmons in the paint, again, using the net style of defense against them.

But I think another part of it is also when Simmons is off the ball, because at the end of games, Jamie Butler and Tobias Harris are going to have the ball in their hands because they're better shot makers from the perimeter. And to me, instead of having Ben Simmons standing in the dunker spot floating around just wrestling for position, use him as an on-ball screener. Simmons is somebody who he can score with finesse on the role. He can score with power on the role like a vintage Blake Griffin. He's somebody who on the short role can be like Draymond Green and pick apart defenses.

And they did that a couple of times during the season, only 13 times, by the way, that he finished the possession as the pick and roll screener. But last night they did it a handful of times as well. And I just want to see more of that. I think that's the best way to maximize who Ben Simmons is as a half court player because you can activate his playmaking by putting him in the direct action as a screener. Because if he gets the ball, he can score on the drive, finish with power, or find somebody who's open. That's the way I think you can best utilize Ben Simmons as some sort of Swiss Army knife in the half court compared to that transition playmaking machine that he is.

That's how you get the most out of Ben Simmons. And I want to see that moving forward, especially if a beat is limited. Yeah, and obviously the easy answer is, hey, just get stopped. so we don't have to worry about it, right? So we could get out on the run because he's going down here. He's devastating. I mean, we're only talking about...

He's unstoppable. When they've got to run these half-court sets, that's where it becomes problematic. Well, guess what? You don't have to run nearly as many if you're able to get the stops, which was what they struggled with so much in game number one.

Brooklyn offensively really got it cracking, and it was a real problem for him. I actually, I think that's going to be a long series, though. I do. I think we'll see a game six in Brooklyn. Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me. Brooklyn's a well-coached team with a guy. It's like we mentioned at the top of the show with the Clippers, a lot of hardworking players,

a lot of smart players who communicate. They can definitely win another game in this series. I think with Ben, like one of the advantages that Philadelphia had in that game is, you know, simply Brooklyn missing shots, Philadelphia getting stops, which allowed Simmons to have that runway to just get to the rim.

He played more aggressively to get to that right-hand layup at the rim, but he was also looking for the pass early as well. He had one pass in game one where he just threw a laser to JJ Redick on the wing for three. And he had a couple of those in game two, including one to Tobias Harris. I believe it was in the third quarter. Simmons all around was extraordinary in game two. And yet, like, there's still more to him that I think the Sixers can get out of him just by making a couple of tweaks to who's screening and pick and rolls. I mean, that's just one way. There's other ways that are in the article that you can check out on the ringer.

But I do want to see more of that, Chris. For sure, check out Kevin's article on Ben Simmons. He is easily one of the most confounding stars that we have in the league because there's one game where you can go, oh, my God, he's killing them. And then the next game, you're like, oh, my God, he's killing them, meaning the opposing team, right? Like, I mean, he is, I don't know if there's anybody truly like him where, I don't know, If a box score shows up and he has seven points, it's not shocking.

And if a box score shows up and he's got 26, 12, and 11, it's not all that shocking either, right? He's got these two opposite sides of the spectrum for sure. Let's talk about a couple of these games that are going on tonight, including our NBA watch of the night, which is going to be the last of those games, which is the Oklahoma City Portland game. Tonight, 10.30 Eastern. And what are they call him? What are they call it? What are they calling him?

Because he's shooting from the logo. So Logo Lillard and the Portland Trailblazers were able to get the game one win over Oklahoma City. What do you think the chances are that they're 2-0 going into Oklahoma? Well, if Ennis Canter continues playing like he's, you know, totally healthy Joe L&B, there's a good chance that they'll be up to in the series. Ennis Cantor was somebody who heading into the series on Friday show on the corner three we had talked about. Can Cantor even play in the series? And boy, he could play.

He had a sensational game one for the Portland Trailblazers alongside, obviously, Damien Lillard, having a great game. And C.J. McCall, I'm a little surprised. OKC didn't attack him more. They did it a little bit early and they went a wiserable. away from it. I think if you're Oklahoma City, you need to attack even more, even if you're not having success

the first couple of times, continue doing it because of Cantor's long track record. All right, so you think that honestly, do you believe that tonight's game, that if I look at Cantor's box score, I'm going to get a good read on whether or not Portland won the game?

Maybe, but also it's like Damian Lillard. Maybe. No, but like, look, Damian Lillard can be better too, right? like Damian Lord was 9 for 21 in game one. Damian Lillard can also be better. Dame could be somebody who this tonight, he could be 17 of 25.

So, but like Cantor, I think could be an indicator in that game one. He was plus 15 when he was on the floor, 18 rebounds, 8 to 15. Maybe it's looking at Cantor's minutes. If he's able to play 30 plus minutes and he's in the pluses, that's a good indicator. If he's down to like 20 minutes, it probably means he was pulled because he was getting exposed by that

Russell Westbrook led pick and roll on the other side of the floor. I walked away from that game saying the Thunder got this because they went five of 33 from three, Kev, and they had a chance at the end. I mean, they had a chance at the end. They shot less than 40% as a team and were five of 33 from three, including, and four of those were Paul George, who was four of 15. I mean, if you just even get a couple, five of 33. is just a ridiculous number.

And so I think I'd be really surprised if the thunder, I mean, listen, this Portland team has impressed me all year long. You and I talked about when they lost NERCITG, that was, I mean, I don't want to say a death blow for their playoffs hopes, but certainly maybe too long of a bridge to cross. And I know that George has not looked completely healthy. The shooting wasn't good the other night. But again, it's five for 33.

And that was coming down to a possession at the end of the game. I think that if you are the thunder, you got to feel pretty good about, yeah, it sucks to lose. But how many times is that going to happen? And hell, maybe it happens a bunch, but I doubt it. You're right in the sense that you're probably not going to go 533 again. I think that's a very fair comment to think. but it's like we've talked about the past couple of weeks, Chris, Paul George is not right.

He is not the same guy after that shoulder injury that he was prior to it. And I think whether it's in this series against Portland or whether it's moving forward, that is a concern for me with this Oklahoma City Thunder team. He was vital to what they were during the regular season when he was an MVP candidate and they were a top seed. He was vital to that. And moving forward, man, it is a serious concern that he's not going to be able to find his shooting stroke back on the

offensive end of the floor because he needs to. They're not a great shooting team. So like five for 33 is not unfathomable from this team when they don't have many great shooters on the roster. It's hard to go five for 33, but if there's any team that's going to do it, it may be the team that they're not shoot well from three over the course of the regular season. It is Oklahoma City versus Portland tonight. And remember every season, if you want to watch every NBA game, subscribe to NBA League Pass on NBA.com or from your preferred video provider.

Other two games that are going to be going on tonight that we do need to at least comment on, can the Toronto Raptor solve the offensive juggernaut that is DJ Augustine? Yeah! DJ Augustine. You called it,

Chris, last Tuesday. You called it. You said it. I was laughing. I was laughing. A. win this series for the Orlando Magic, didn't you? I was laughing my ass off. I was like, you have got to be kidding me. Number one, he is the best player on the floor for a good portion of the time.

Number two, he outscores Kyle Lowry like 26 to zero or something. It was just the damnedest thing I ever saw. And all praise to DJ Augustine and that backcorp, because he made a three-pointer with 4.2, seconds left after he had tied the game with a layup. And after the Raptors went on their run at the second half, I was like, all right, you know, it was nice for Orlando to be up by as much as they were. But now the Raptors are really honed in. And then it got later and later.

And every time the Raptors would make a play, the magic would come firing right back. And sometimes, you know, I guess I gave the shout out to Doc a little bit earlier. Let me tell you this. You know, sometimes we wonder how big a difference, you know, a coach can make. And it feels like anytime anybody talks about a coach, it's always critically. I honestly don't know if there's anybody else in the world that could coach that Orlando team to the success that Clifford has this year. And then getting them that playoff win the other night. That guy is unbelievable.

Truly, I was a big fan of his Charlotte teams. I think that guy is a great coach and I have no idea how they are up 1-0 against the Toronto Raptors. I suppose you could just go with history and say the Raptors always lose game one. I obviously don't think Orlando is going to win the series

but even for them to get that win on the road in game one was mega impressive. Oh, for sure. I mean, I think this Orlando team all season long, especially since around the All-Star break, they've been one of the top defensive teams

ranked 8th in the NBA this season. They're a team that has a lot of long defenders, Jonathan and Isaac, a lot of athletic defenders like Aaron Gordon, but they still have one hole on their defense, and that's the superstar player. One of the greatest players we've ever seen, DJ Augustine, he is still not a plus defensive player. And if I'm the Toronto Raptors in game two,

you do need to try to attack Augustine more, whether it's on switches, getting Kauai Leonard matched up against him, whether it's just running more pick and roll with Kyle Lowry and Mark Gassol. Like, well, you and I talked about this a couple weeks ago. Maybe it was even last week with Gassol. He ran so many pick and pops with the Memphis Grizzlies where he just got open threes at the top of the key. And with Toronto, they have not done that very often.

Maybe that's one way to get Orlando Magic into trouble by using Lowry, Gassol, pick and pop and Gassol. And if Gassol is somebody who can attack the close out and playmake. And if they do effectively stop the pick and pop, maybe Lowry has a driving lane against Augustine. Because a ferocious offensive player like Augustine, I do think you need to try to attack him on the other end of the floor. That's key moving forward, Chris. I am going to shock our listeners right now because, and maybe they have heard this. But I was unaware until yesterday.

So I wrote this down because I had read this article, starting February, 1st, okay? Starting February 1st, Orlando had a record of 22 and 9, and only the Rockets and the Bucks had a better winning percentage in the NBA during that time. I was like, what the hell?

I mean, I knew they scraped it Claude to make the playoffs and then obviously get up there. They were 22 and 9, and only the Rockets and the Bucks had better winning percentages since January 31st. And that is not a small sample, Kev. That's 31 games. And it's like, I guess we just, as the season goes on, you kind of lose track. But I guess for me, and I think for a lot of people, you know, especially those bottom four seeds in the Eastern conference, it was like, ah, whatever. But 22 and 9 is nothing to scoff at. And it did make me wonder,

like, geez, man, they've been playing great basketball for, that's a long period of time. I'm not putting them in the class of the Rockets and the Bucks, but they certainly deserve. Please, please don't put them in that class. Please don't. But I will say over the course of 31. 31 games, that is an astonishing record. And what I was left thinking was, you know, I thought this was going to be a bloodbath, but damn, man, I mean, they've been playing so well.

like they may be able to make a series of this thing. And because most of the time, the team that hasn't been to the playoffs in forever will win the game three. It's their first time their fans have had a home game in forever. I'll be surprised if Brooklyn loses game three to Philly. And I'll be surprised of Orlando loses game three to Toronto. But I don't know, man. 22 and 9, that's real.

And maybe they're a lot better than we have thought. Is that fair? Yeah, I mean, I think it's always interesting to see how decisions pan out in the postseason. Like in game one, Orlando decided that they are going to help significantly off of Pascal Seacom. Seacum shot 37% from three this year. He was even better from the corners, but Orlando just helped off him completely, clogging the driving lanes for other Raptors players. And instead, Toronto put the ball in Seacom's hands.

And he had a good game. He had a good game on the ball like he has many times this season. but they essentially sold out on defending him when he was off the ball in order to limit Kauai Leonard and other Raptors players. I wonder if moving forward that decision is something that they pay for by helping off him. It's similar to not to jump to a different series, but watching Game 2 on Wednesday night of Houston and Utah in game one, the Jazz helped off of PJ Tucker, which allowed James Harden to make easy passes to the perimeter, either for Tucker or he could swing it to another guy.

it's just always fascinating to see the little decisions that coaches make in the playoffs that sometimes can work out significantly for you like it did at certain points of game one for the magic but can also really screw you if there's a subtle counter moving forward in the series and adjustment from Nick Nurse. All right. And what are we thinking on? I got a text from Chase Serrano while I was saying that. It ruined my flow, Chris.

He joked about one of my tweets. yesterday. My low-key, what-as-hell joke on Twitter yesterday. He poked fun at me for that. Good. It was about the whitest tweet in history. Oh, man.

All right. Speaking of Shea Serrano, his beloved San Antonio Spurs are on the road for a game two against the Denver Nuggets. I think everybody looked at that series, and thought, you know, Denver, it's their first time there.

Of all the teams you don't want to be matched up with, it's these guys that have all these playoff miles, guys that have made a bunch of all-star teams into Rosen and Aldridge, and most importantly, Greg Popovich. And I thought it was interesting because after the game, you saw Mike Malone, you know, talking about, listen, we go to our bench and we're bringing off guys that were like, you know, G-League guys, and they're bringing off like Rudy Gay and Patty Mills.

And I was like, damn. You know what I mean? Like, I get it. Right? Like, so just the idea that the personnel, the personnel topic came up after game one and kind of what comes off the bench for both of these teams was interesting to me. Again, I guess I'd be surprised if Denver didn't take care of business in a game number two because what usually is common amongst veteran teams is that it's like, all right, well, we would. went to Denver and we got accomplished what we needed to accomplish, right? We stole home court advantage and where it's like, it's life or death for Denver right now.

You're bags against a wall. You cannot go down O2 to this San Antonio team and expect a happy ending. And so I do think that Denver will probably be able to get the game, but certainly made us think a little differently, I think after game one, right? Yeah, a little bit. I think on both sides, there are some good things, some bad things in the sense that it was interesting to see San Antonio double Nicola Yokic so much on the post. It did not work for the nuggets when they generated open shots from those post-ups. So that's something for San Antonio. It was effective for them, getting the ball out of Yokic's hands, making him a playmaker.

But ultimately, like, Denver did get a lot of open three-point shots that just did not fall. They shot the ball very poorly in that opening game. But moving forward, doesn't that seem like a, a positive indicator for Denver that they were at least getting those open looks? It does. The only thing I would worry about, I agree with you. And obviously, Yokic could have had 100 assists if his guys end up making shots. So they did not make them pay for that move, defensive move they made.

That being said, they didn't score in transition at all. I think it was zero. I mean, they didn't score in transition. And I do think that when you're talking about a team like Denver, usually younger, less experienced playoff teams, certainly they want to get good, feeling good about themselves, not play, fog down half court basketball all the time. And want to have some good stuff happening, especially when they're getting out and running and getting into space and making plays. When you're not in space and you're not making plays and you're not scoring in transition, that's when you're your mental fortitude. that's when it really gets tested. And obviously they weren't able to knock down any shots at game one.

I do agree with you. They got a lot of good shots. And certainly you would think there'll be some progression to the mean, as they say. But they're in for a tough series, for sure. Well, they took some really good open three-point shots from Yokic post-ups, but they also took some horrific shots early in the clock. Like the opening possession for the Nuggets, Jamal Murray took an inexcusable pull-up three-pointer for no,

reason at all. And then Will Barton did it twice later in that same quarter. These are shots that the Nuggets should not be taking, especially against a defense like the San Antonio Spurs. And you mentioned how they limited Denver's transition opportunities. San Antonio is one of the best transition defenses in the league. They get back on defense very, very well. On the other end of the floor, I thought Denver did a nice job defending Lamarcus Aldridge. Yokic had one of his better games on the defensive end. He was a brick wall against Aldridge, but they also helped and double the Marcus Aldridge very aggressively down in the post, forcing him to kick out the ball to San Antonio shooters. And the Spurs hit seven of their 15 three-pointers, but most of those kickouts resulted in

pull-up twos. And some of those twos were heavily contested shots. So it goes both ways where San Antonio hit a lot of shots, you don't expect them to hit, but then Denver missed a lot of shots that they probably should make. Okay. I hear you, Kev. But listen, DeMarta Rosen and Lamarcus Aldridge are not going to score 33 combined and miss 24 of 36 shots either. I mean, DeRosen has had a handful of these games, though, Chris. Six of 17 is not unusual from him necessarily. I'm saying combined for them to go 24 of 36 and have to get it picked up by Forbes, white, and gay, the Spurs didn't play so great.

And their best players certainly didn't. Their best players got 18 and 15 points. Yeah, their best players didn't. play great partially because Denver was just selling out on stopping them. Well, Marcus Aldridge was constantly under pressure in that game. So other role players had to step up and they came through. Derek White had a great overall performance. Bryn Forbes had a great game as well, both starters for San Antonio.

And off the bench, Rudy Gay came off and, you know, just had 14 points on six of nine. Patty Mills played well in his 21 minutes. They got positive production from basically all their role players. And you're not going to get that every game. either, right? So it goes both ways. I think with Aldridge, it's more so the process of how these teams defended. The Spurs constantly doubled Yokic and turned him into a playmaker, and the Nuggets constantly doubled the Marcus Aldridge on the post, trying to turn him into a playmaker, getting the ball out of his hands is one of the leagues more threatening post-presences.

I think both teams are playing similar strategies. It's just for Denver in game one. they happen to lose because they did not shoot the ball from well at all from game three they shot it very poorly and san antonio hit a lot of really really tough mid-range contested shots after those double teams i think that bodes well moving forward for denver but like you said though chris you're right there's things san antonio can do better as well but to me the quality of the shots from those double teams is why i feel good for denver moving forward all right i don't um boston indiana just so we touch on these Boston, Indiana, I think we both don't expect that to be some kind of great series, certainly not Milwaukee and Detroit. The only other one that we need to touch on for sure is Houston and Utah.

Houston bashes them in game number one. They will not play game two until tomorrow night, which is Wednesday night. I think there were several people that thought it would be a six, possibly seven game series. This could be a very competitive series, especially given how well Utah has played the last few. few months, are you persuaded that it may not be a very good series because of what took place game one? Or is that just a Houston home game number one? Utah got smacked. Now they'll make some adjustments and that could still end up being a rather entertaining series. What do you think? Well, I would say this. I didn't watch this game live. I watched it after it aired. And, you know,

during the game, I saw a lot of tweets about how much of a joke it was, how Utah was defending Hardin by shading him to his left, forcing him to go right, and now Hardin constantly exposed their defense. All those tweets were right. There was accurate. Hardin got him to the paint at will. He had 30 plus paint touches, and he was, you know, picking apart the defense because Utah doesn't have the same amount of length that Milwaukee does. When they so effectively use that same style of defense with their lengthy superior defenders,

like Eric Blentzo was a better defender on the ball than Ricky Rubio. They have better off ball defenders and a better overall unit for this style of defense. With that said, I do think it's intriguing that the Jazz did force so many floaters from James Harden. If they can do a better job of shutting down those passing lanes in game two, I do think it could be more effective for them moving forward. Harden shot only two for seven on floaters in that game, a shot that he normally hits at 47%. but that's the shot you want him to take. You don't want him taking a step back, jumper to his left.

You don't want him taking a layup or a dunk or drawing a fall at the rim. So they did two things well. They limited him from getting to the line. He shot only three free throws. And he shot two for seven on floaters. It's the amount of floaters that's a plus for the Utah Jazz. So while it was horrible defense in game one, I do think if they do a better job of shutting down the passing lanes,

it can be effective for them moving forward. So in some ways I'm encouraged for Utah, despite how Port it worked in game one, it was also their first time doing it. And I think there was some positive indicators for them moving forward. Obviously, the numbers at the end look very good with 29, 10, and 8 for Hardin. But I will say this. If you are Utah, you will take Hardin scoring 29 on 26 shots every single game.

The problem is it's the rest of the team and how much easier it makes it for everybody else. So if your goal is to make it difficult on Hardin and yeah, if he's going to score 30, we want him doing it on 25 shots and we don't want him doing it at the free throw line. That was accomplished. But now it's almost like if you plug one hole, the other one sprouts up, shooting water because, okay, now everybody else has got it easy. And if they're going to beat you, they're going to beat you, right? So congratulations. You got James Harden to score 29 on 26 shots. Good. Now, PJ Tucker was four for eight, and Clint Capella was eight for 13, and Paul was seven for 12, and Gordon's five for 10. I mean, is anybody not going to shoot 50%? Kenneth Farid, four for five, one of one from three, two of two from the line. Like a perfect game almost for Kenneth Farid. It's crazy. Kenneth Farid, one for one from three, is the most amazing thing you said in that in that spiel right there.

It's crazy, right? It's like we're talking about the Rockets offense. But when I say I'm like weirdly encouraged for Utah, it's like only specifically I'm talking about that shading hard into his left defense. Because Utah on the other end of the floor, Chris, like they had no offense. They scored only 90 points. And here's the thing, Kev, Joe Ingalls has got to show the hell up. Last year, he captured our hearts of mind. You know, he's shooting three-pointers at a rate that was just crazy.

People are talking about him being one of the most underrated players in all of the league. He emasculates. He looks like an NBA player. Yeah, he emasculates Paul George in the playoffs. He came back this year. All his percentages are down. He averaged 12 points a game. And in game one, he's one for four for three points?

What is that? What is that? I don't even get it. I mean, I was on the Ingalls train. I like the guy. but that's a disaster. And this season, he didn't take that big leap to like the next. I do wonder if he's 31.

He's 31. No, no, no, no, no. I'm talking about like, okay, now I just had these playoff moments. I just bombed out Paul George in the playoffs. Now I have like moved into a different class of player within the NBA. What? You think he didn't expect that for Joe Ingalls? Joe Ingalls is a.

It's a high-end role player. Wait, are you expecting him to get worse? No. I was saying it was one game. He's still a good role player. No, this whole season, it's a whole season. He's not the guy who's going to win the series for the Utah Jazz. That has to come from Donovan Mitchell, who was contained by Eric Gordon in that game.

It's going to have to come from other guys. Not Joe Engels. He needs to give more, but he's not going to be the guy to swing the whole series for Utah. He is not going to be the guy that swings the whole series. Yet when you are making one shot, like I guess my opinion was too high. I guess my opinion is too high. He's a role player. And I just, I guess you were asleep last year when he was going 20, 20 points during

Oklahoma City series. Like he's going, he went 12, 16, 20, 21. Then he have a bummed three point game. And then he had 13. No, he went 13, 3. And then he went 21, 2016, 12 in the last five games that series. He's a good player. He's a good player.

But they need more from Mitchell. They need Mitchell to be at a higher level. That's the guy who needs to take the leap in this postseason. But what do you want him to score? Fucking 45 points? Like, who else is going to score? Derek Favors? Rudy Gober?

Ricky Rubio. That's the problem with the jazz right now, Chris. We talked about this on Friday's corner three and I'm sure we'll hit it on tomorrow or a show too. I'm just not sure this team has enough weapons. That's why Mitchell needs to be the guy to really, really, really elevate his play to a higher level. And that's a lot to expect for a second year player.

They certainly don't when the guy I was getting a possible 16 to 20 out of in the playoffs last year against Paul George is getting me three. I'll tell you that's when they really don't have. Engels can give more. You're right. I'm with you. He is going to be the reason.

I will tell you this. He will be the reason that this is a competitive series or not. I absolutely believe that. He's got to be. There's nobody else on that team that's going to get you 20. on average, like, or three of the games. You know what I mean? How are we arguing about Joe Ingalls right now?

Because you acted like it's no big deal and he's just a role player and whatever. Like, we were all on his jock last year. Yeah, because he's a good role player. He was a lot more than a good role player for them last year. People were talking about him being one of the most underrated players in the NBA. He was shooting a higher three point percentage than like anybody but Steph. and then he had the monster playoffs where he raised his game even another level. He was underrated, it's true, because of his shooting prowess, because of his

versatile defense, because of his secondary playmaking, for sure. But I think to expect more just because of that playoff run is a little bit much. He's a good role player. And he's an important player for the Utah Jazz, and he should give more. But he's not the guy who's going to have to swing the series. That's going to have to come from Mitchell especially, but a guy like Jay Crowder as well, who was a historically streaky shooter, only one for seven in that game, one for nine from the field. He's somebody who needs a step up as well. They need contributions from everybody up

and down that roster. You mentioned how Houston was like everybody was shooting over 50%, Utah is going to need that from the rest of their team. It can't just be Ingalls. It needs to be Mitchell leading the charge and other guys following along. And obviously, you know, you can run a lot of offense through Ingalls, too, which you have to, because you don't have much to run the offense through. You know what I mean? Certainly on the side. He was so good on that side pick and roll and paring threes and whatever else. It's just like

non-existent in game number one. We'll see what happens when they meet up again. I know that there is an update on the NBA draft guide that is going to be dropping very soon. What's the biggest changes in it? Did you change your list at all? Move guys up and down?

Yeah. So tomorrow, I believe on Wednesday, we're going to be expanding to 30 players. in the draft guide. I think this update will just have my rankings on there. It'll be a big board, not a mock draft. So I'm looking forward to having that go out.

And I believe next month, I want to say May 14th, I think we're going to expand to 60 players. So in the coming weeks, we'll be adding more little goodies in there. I think we're going to have some type of shot chart or radar chart from Zach Cram at some point on the draft guide,

as well as some mini little blurbs from Jonathan Charks and Roger Sherman, and Danny Chow, among others, who will be out to the guys. I can't wait. We got 30 players starting tomorrow with the NBA draft guide. Check out the ringer.com

and the draft guide will be updated and now more expanded than ever. Kevin, it's always a pleasure and I will talk to you next week. Have a good one, Chris. What a great opening weekend of NBA playoffs. It's awesome. Thanks to everybody for listening

to another edition of the mismatch. If you dig what you're hearing, go give us a rating and review on iTunes. and we will talk to you next week.