The Ringer NBA Show - Top-Line Takeaways From All of Saturday’s Game 1s | Group Chat

Episode Date: April 21, 2024

Justin, Rob, and Wos bring their biggest takeaways from Saturday’s Game 1s, starting with Lakers-Nuggets (2:50). Then they discuss Knicks-Sixers (14:55) and Timberwolves-Suns (25:26), and they wrap up with Cavs-Magic (39:35). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and Wosny Lambre Producers: Isaiah Blakely and Tucker Tashjian Additional Production Supervision: Ben Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, humanoids. It's the Maskman David Shoemaker. It's a new era in professional wrestling, and that means a new era here at the Ringer Wrestling show. Kaz here, every Monday and Thursday hang out with me and my guys' shoes on the Masked Man show. And Ben Cruz here. Come kick it with me, Cal and Brian on Tuesdays for Ringer Wrestling worldwide, where we hit on the most interesting headlines and even react to some of Maskedmans and even your hottest takes. Don't tap out. Tap in to the Ringer Wrestling show feed now on Spotify. or wherever you get your podcasts. Worldwide. Hello and welcome to group chat. I am Justin Barrier and joining me

on this first post playoff day. Rob Mahoney, Big Waz. Rob, are you ready for day two? Seems like you aren't even showing signs of fatigue. Why would I? We're one day in. We've taken some bumps and bruises.

We've fallen on our shoulder hard. We're nursing some things as we go in here, but I'm thrilled. I'm riveted, Justin. And why are you lagging already? You know, my legs aren't built for the playoffs quite yet. I need a couple games to get under me, you know, before we get going. But I'm in the mix here.

Was, how are you feeling? I'm feeling good. I think even in the games that weren't, like, extremely competitive, I thought that some compelling stuff happened within those games. So it was just cool to just, you know, have the first day of playoffs happen. And just see guys, like, step up. in ways that we haven't seen them on this stage. And, you know, that's always the best part of the playoffs to me.

These revelations of guys in the most pressure-packed moments becoming, you know, going from boys to men. Or, you know, other guys turning into pumpkins, which I'm sure we'll get into. The wide-eyed realization that, oh, not only is this not like the way the NBA was being officiated in November, but it's not even the way it was being officiated a couple weeks ago. Like there's a different level of physicality allowed.

And some teams taking great advantage of it. Some players, you know, hitting the floor a little too often, I think. Debating whether or not I want to give you guys some bars of end of the road or one of these other jams. I just want to let you know the thought is there at the very least. All right. But we should get to it, though, because the second day has already started. We're doing top line takeaways from the first set of game. so the first four all on Saturday, becoming a little bit of a tradition on this pod here.

Let's start from the last game of the night and work backwards that way. The Lakers game, I guess it was predictable. I'm going to go first here because my takeaway comes in the fourth quarter when LeBron is sitting and obviously huge minutes for the Lakers. The Nuggets ultimately extend that lead. And they pan to LeBron sitting on the bench, just staring off into the abyss, wondering how he got here. My takeaway is it's going to be a long off season for LeBron yet again.

Is this your takeaway also? Like is that you whenever Waz and I are talking about the nuggets? You're just staring off into the abyss of your webcam for the most part. 100%. There was this thing with LeBron in this game. And I think AD2 where it's hard to expect more from them individually than the Lakers God. And yet I would say my takeaway is at,

no point during the second half of this game did I actually think the Lakers were going to win. And for both of those things to be true at once is, seems like a problem. Yeah, LeBron was basically good. He scored an efficient 27 points, had eight assists, you know, about six rebounds or so. But he did have seven turnovers, which that tends to happen early on in playoff series for LeBron. Like before he kind of figures out exactly what the team is trying to do, he'll have some early series turnover woe. so I'm not really too surprised by that. But that's one part where you say, all right,

he could have been much better at that. AD dropped 32, played 45 minutes. Like, what do you want from these guys? And, you know, I was talking with our friend Sabrina Merchant the other day. And Delo is, again, having this ridiculous run. And I'm like, yo, is Deelot actually good now? And she smartly was like, yo, he's making. making a lot of shots right now.

Yes. If he continues to make shots, then he will be good. Yesterday, he did not continue to make shots, guys. Justin, to your illusion earlier, maybe the pumpkinist of all the pumpkins on the opening day of the playoffs. So, D. Loe shot 42% from three in the regular season, as was a really good regular season. Past five games in the playoffs,

all of course against the Denver Nuggets. Three for 24. It's just really bad. I mean, we'll see about the rest of these games, but it just really doesn't translate for him. And I can't really tell why. I know his ability, because the basket is kind of dissipated

as his career has gone on. So he is super dependent on those shots getting in. But like, good Lord, one for nine yesterday. I just something happens in these playoff games, I think. Well, especially how often LeBron was content to, or, you know, saving energy or picking his spots, It's like just kind of playing facilitator on the perimeter and trying to let Delo cook or trying to let AD go to work.

And that's all well and good, but there are limits to this if Delo is being this aggressive and hitting this infrequently, especially when Austin Reeves was kind of on the periphery of this game, like wasn't very aggressive, wasn't very assertive. You saw him catch the ball in situations where in other moments and other games and other series he would have attacked.

And instead he was pulling the ball out and resetting offense and going to stand off in the corner. If all of that is happening at once, the Lakers just don't have enough to keep up with a team that executes as relentlessly as this Nuggets team does. Yeah, 109 offensive rating. That's according to cleaning the glass. Just not going to be good enough against this Denver Nuggets team. It's just not. You have to score at a pretty damn elite pace to keep up with these guys.

And the Nuggets, conversely, 124 offensive rating. A pretty slow game, 92 possessions. And it didn't look hard, y'all. It looked routine. Lakers came out looking very good. I will say the first quarter looked very promising. As was mentioned, LeBron looked very good. Get into the Baja, Justin.

A lot of Baja blasts going on there. Yeah. And like even the nuggets were making kind of questionable decisions. We got DJ early. We got Justin Holiday. I know Aaron Gordon was in fall trouble. But even that I was a little perplexed by. Just didn't seem like they were sharp.

And then they came out in half time, after half time, and they sharpened the ginsu knives and they actually just like cut them just slowly and the Lakers just bled out in that game. So zero turnovers as a team the Denver Nuggets in the second half. One turnover total for the starting lineup. It's wild. Yeah. Any of the lineups that not just the starting five, but if you have three of those guys out there, four of those guys out there, those are ace lineups. And so even just getting a little bit from Peyton Watson, a little bit from Christian Brown, that's proving to be enough right now.

We'll have to see how Michael Malone manages the rotation because you're right. He went basically as deep as any team did on the opening day of the playoffs. Ten players actually in the rotation, including D'Andre Jordan. Didn't play the bench all at once, though, like our Orlando Magic. No, I mean, that was a choice by Jamal Mosley to be sure. And even D'Andre Jordan, who is a flawed player, a limited player, had some great moments. Was able to finish on the role really effectively.

Was able to kind of pick his spots within the time that he got. And so, yeah, we don't know what his fate in the series will be. I don't know how much of it is Aaron Gordon's foul trouble in this game or AD being so much of an interior presence that maybe they were reluctant to go elsewhere when AG was in foul trouble. So those two things blending together kind of make this a DeAndre Jordan situation. But I thought even he played relatively well. Yeah, they didn't get hurt by having DJ out there.

The turnover thing is just insane, especially for Yo-Ker-Chu is the fulcrum of damn there every single thing that they do. And this dude just doesn't turn the ball over the whole game. Now, the Lakers are a low turnover creating team. And so obviously that plays a part in it. They just don't create turnovers. But goddamn, man, like there needs to be some more resistance and pressure put on these guys and make them look worse or try. Like the Lakers have to try something to throw a monkey wrench into the machine.

And then we haven't even talked about Jamal Murray. He didn't make any shots yesterday. And I think Murray is not like it was like something. They were putting them in impossible positions. He just wasn't making shots. And I think you can expect him to be better than he was yesterday. It's just tough to see any silver linings here if you're rooting for the Lakers in this series. Well, especially some of the looks, especially from three, that Murray and Michael Porter got,

were wide open as a result of double teams, usually on Yokic, and you have to think they're going to hit slightly more of those. Denver is not an overwhelming three-point percentage team, but those are great shooters getting amazing looks, and they're going to fall at a level that's going to punish the Lakers. Michael Porter don't make more shots, man. Somebody got to put his phone number on Instagram. I think he's going through enough right now.

Honestly, I thought he had a great game. No, he would play good. Like when Porter is just active, you know, like on defense and on offense, even when he's not, you know, getting the most shot attempts, like that's when he's at his best to me, man, when he's flying around, even when he doesn't get the shots, you know. So, yeah, no, no, he played well. I just had to get that out and take off.

That's it. Sure. I think the reason LeBron was so dispirited, or at least seemingly dispirited, It's just like the Nuggets are executing at a level that he is typically the one forcing on other teams. And so that's why you saw him, I think, getting on D. Lo for making these sort of loosey-goosey sort of decisions. They need to be, yes, they need to be on every single thing just to have a chance. And so I don't know, anything else from this game, Rob, maybe Yokic's fashion choices you'd like to diagnose. I would not.

Yeah, the less said about the entire Despicable Me franchise, the better. But that was an ad, right? that was clearly like advertising well there's there's definitely the ad component but him showing up runway style in the ad that I don't know if that's just like a personal choice to go along with the bit I think I think someone paid him off to do that

I would hope so the timing of the movie coming out at the same yeah we are talking about it we're just feeding into it god we fell right into it but I think your overarching point about LeBron is so true not only that he's used to tightening the screws in exactly this way but he knows as well as anybody how slim the margin for error is for the Lakers right now.

And so every one of those bad Dilo shots, every one of those mistakes feels gutting. And it feels especially gutting when Yokic has shifted back into just automatic mode, not just in terms of the reads, but like every touch shot, every hook shot. I am officially told that he missed eight shots in this game. I don't believe it.

It felt like everything that went up was going in. Yeah. Yeah, I know we say a lot of superlatives about Yokich on this show. His freaking conditioning is mind-blowing, bro. Like, this dude does not get tired somehow. When that used to be one of his biggest bugabooos, like that he's gotten that situated. I'm of the belief that this is the best player since Prime LeBron.

100%. Like, in these big moments, I just have no doubt that he's going to find whatever you can't stop and just destroy you with it. It's crazy. And LeBron even said so after the game. He basically said, we got to be perfect against these guys. We can't have any, we're not afforded any mistakes here. And so I think the Lakers can still take a game off of them.

The Nuggets have a tendency against most of their opponents to take their foot off the pedal. I guess against the Lakers, they just can't bring themselves to do that. But I think the Lakers can still get a game, maybe even two, because of the Nuggets are just being like, you know, whatever, we got these guys. but man, it's hard to believe that the leg is going to beat these guys four out of six times. Well, Darvin Ham has so many adjustments. He just didn't want to break them out. It didn't want to just spoil everything for the rest of the series. That was insane.

It's very early. That was fucking insane. Look, I appreciate him not spoiling things ahead of time for people like us who are on pins and needles waiting for the adjustments to come. Well, it turns out as we're recording this, Christian Wood is now available as soon as game three. Okay. So that's what he's probably waiting for. That's the answer for sure.

He's going to be the 2020 Dwight Howard equivalent because obviously Christian Wood is known for his defense and guarding some of the best bigs in the game and the best actions, the most precise actions that the NBA has to offer.

He's going to be of great resistance to that. Yeah. Well, the Lakers, they do need a little bit more defense. They need a little more interior defense. I thought the way the Nuggets were able to string AD out and some of that's because he's guarding Yokic so he's involved in a lot of screening actions.

But I got Yokicch at, 3.5 dunks for this game which look that's a winning number I'll put it that way he does not but to your point there's something a little different about playing the Lakers you know they seem to really enjoy this matchup a lot 3.5 soft layups at the basket

whatever works I feel bad for AD just seems like he has to cover so much ground it's just like things just flying at them left right but yeah and I will say for AD sorry just one last thing because you mentioned it, Justin. I used to be somebody that killed AD for crying about not wanting to play center.

It's like, shut the hell up, play center, blah, blah, blah. This is what he was talking about. You know, he raised some ballot points in retrospect. This is what he was talking about. Seems like a tough gig. All right. Why don't we move to the next game now, which was if we're going backwards in time. Next up, what a roller coaster.

Good Lord for Joel Embed. On the one hand, he throws it off the backboard and dunks it. I'm like, look at this like modern marvel of humanity. What is going on? And then he falls and crumbles. And I'm like, oh, my God, he might be done for his entire career. Then he shows up in the third quarter hobbled and has a dramatic effect, despite the fact that he barely even went inside the paint. Yes.

And so, Rob, what do you make of this whole thing? That's it for me. I think it's even a one-legged tentative Joelle Embed, just has a. serious impact on this series. And I'm curious to see how that changes and both teams get used to that reality, right? Like if the version of Joel we're going to get in this series is the version

we saw toward the back half of game one, basically entirely on the perimeter, standing out there, parking at the three point line, setting screens for Tyrese not rolling, because he doesn't really feel confident to roll into space right now. If that's the player that we get, how do both sides adjust to it? Because we saw Maxie kind of learn to leverage it

over the course of this game. As he was playing with Joel more and more out there, yo-yoing behind those screens, he was able to open up some great lanes for himself. But you have to think at some point the Knicks are going to learn how to challenge Joel and force him to do explosive things to beat them. And when that time comes, what is Joel going to be physically capable of?

And what is he going to be confident in doing? Because as much as anything, when he crumpled Justin, like, that was a scary moment. But the, like, glaze, vacant look in his eyes, that is a guy who is terrified of hurting himself again. That is a guy who is terrified in that moment. And so the idea that he's just going to go attack the basket again relentlessly, as relentlessly as you might need to do to get past Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson

and all of these guards and wings who are swooping in swiping at the ball, it's a lot to ask of him right now. It's a Joe LNB series, man. He played 36 minutes. The 76ers were plus 15 in those 36. minutes in a game they lost by seven. So folks at home, if you can do the quick math, minus 22 and 12 minutes without Joelle.

A tale is oldest time was. That is insane, dude. And, yo, look, he played 36 minutes. He might have to play 40, y'all. Like, that might be what is going to take for this particular 76ers team, man. As much as, you know, look, in the fourth court, he missed a bunch of shots. A lot of them was short. I think he might have been a little bit tired, which, you know, we got to come to expect.

He just came off of two months or whatever it was of not playing. But, man, he is the only thing between the 76ers and complete an utter ruin. And so it's hard to kill this guy when he doesn't have the best fourth quarter, even though y'all know I would love to. But it's just him. It's him. They got nothing else. So after the first quarter, I have Joel as five shots in the paint. He made two of those. I have him with seven shots outside the paint. He made one of them. On the other hand, Maxi 13 attempts in

the rim in this entire game. I think Rob is right. He's finding ways to play off of Joel, which is meaningful going forward. But I just don't know how much you can expect if Joel is basically top of the arc orchestrating. It could get you to the point where you're competitive, but I do wonder if there's only, there's limitations there, especially when you see on defense, you see guys wide open like Hart and whatnot, just able to knock those shots down if they're available. And so I don't know.

On the one hand, you're probably encouraged by seeing Joelle have such a meaningful impact on one leg functionally, but like on the other hand, I don't know how they get beyond that in order to win some of these games. Well, I think there is enough of 50-50 element. Like, okay, let's start with Josh Hart.

The hero of this game for the Knicks in a lot of ways, The last time we saw him play, his wrist was so hurt, he couldn't even get the ball to the rim on three-pointed tips. So the idea of leaving him open and making him prove it, I think is right. Now, he came up with some of the biggest shots of the game, and some of those were left open. Some of those were pressured by the end, honestly. And you have to give him credit for like full credit for that. He played an amazing, an amazing game and an amazing fourth quarter in particular.

But I thought Juell actually did have a pretty big defensive impact on this game when he was out there too. Like he was intimidating. A lot of the Knicks guys who were going into the paint. They weren't taking shots. They were pulling the ball back out. And overall, New York's first shot offense was not good. The problem was they got over half of their misses on offensive rebounds.

51% of their misses. Yes. That's where you feel Joel's injury as much as anything because this is a team that relies on him for all the big man stuff because Tobias Harris ain't doing it. So some of the other guards and ones, wings are going to have to scrap it. This is like the Kyle Lowry music, the Kelly Ubre music. Those guys are going to have to be really active on the glass to compensate for the fact that, look, Joel is just probably not going to rebound outside of his immediate area right now.

Yeah. Josh Hart, the NBA needs to make a hard hat award and name it after Josh Hart. Like, this dude is just incredible. Just the plays that this guy makes, his nose for the ball. It's freaking Dennis Rodman-esque. It's crazy with. this guy's doing at six-foot-three tall or whatever the hell he is, that he's able to do that. But, yo, the Knicks just straight up beating these guys on 27 fast break points, which just means they're just beating your ass up the floor. And 50% of their misses, they've been able to corral. They're just destroying you on the glass, winning that way somehow,

even though Rob's genius Greb Popovich pioneered the no-offensive rebound. Offensive rebounds are bad. What do you know? Extra possessions are a good thing. And it's driving New York Knicks success, man. But I think if you're the Sixers, you have to believe you can stop these guys from getting half their misses back. Well, I also thought it was surprising that they went to like a zone where they were extending so far out that they were being almost overly aggressive to overcompensate for Joel, I thought. And so I just like trying to blitz Brunson and trying to limit his effectiveness gave guys like McBride and Hart and OG open looks that they probably typically wouldn't otherwise have.

And that's probably I assume why the rebounding advantage tilted so much toward the Knicks is I know they're a good rebounding team and that's where they're going to eat a lot of the points. But like at the same time, I almost wonder strategically if they overcompensated for what happened to Joelle early on. There's some of that. But also they don't play a power forward, guys. Um, Nicholas Batum, which I don't know if you guys had this at home, that Battoon would be the third best player on the 60s. This is insane. He's not a power forward.

Lowry? Yeah, I was about saying, we got, we got to make room for Kyle Lowry. This was a ball and game from him. Yeah, he had a great, he had a great, Kyle Lowry plays. Yeah. Kyle Lowry game. Um, but Tobias Harris is not a power forward either, you know. Um, and so they're getting crushed on the boards because it's a,

personnel problem. But again, like, I have to believe that NBA players can rebound better than this. I don't give a damn how small you are, how determined the Knicks are. You have to be better than what they showed on the boards going forward. All of that said, Mitchell Robinson had like three of the sickest offensive rebounds I've ever seen in this game.

Like, he was pinning offensive rebounds against the backboard to grab them. It was incredible. That's what he does. What else from this game? take you can take forward maybe. Play but two more. Yeah.

Deuce McBride. That's the one. He is a living fucking legend. This dude is chef's kiss. Amazing, dude. I tried to tell you all the Deuce McBride game was coming.

This was the one, and I think we're getting more of them on. It's like this was the hot shooting Deuce McBride game, but you can just see the way the energy shifts when he comes into the game. And that was the contrast. Of course, the Joel to B-Ball-Paul contrast.

can be rough sometimes, especially against the front line that's as big and physical and menacing as New York's, frankly. But also when you're getting Deuce McBride coming in with a ton of energy, you're getting Boyan Bogdanovich remembering how to play basketball again. All of a sudden, all of these pieces are clicking

into a place where Deuce McBride, 28 minutes, plus 37 in this game. Incredible shit. I think the sneaky win of the OG trade was turning more of the possessions over to McBride, off the bench because I think right after that trade went down, they signed McBride to an extension. So clearly they knew there was something kind of happening in the background there and saw

something in him so that they could turn it over to him. And so he's, he's been really good for him. I think he's going to be a staple of this team going forward. They really did have a manual quickly at home, you know, didn't even need him anymore. That's right. Anything else? Should we move along? Let's keep it going. The road to the NBA finals starts now and new custom. on Fandu'll can go on their own playoff run with 150 bucks. Just place any $5 bet and you'll get

$150 in bonus bets winner-lose to use during the NBA playoffs. So we're going to look out head to Monday's slate. I'm looking at the Sixers Knicks line. I know the Knicks won in that first game and Bede was hobbled, but I think the Sixers still have a chance here. So let's go. Sixers plus 5.5 to win game two. And give me maxi 30 plus at plus 260. If they're going to to win. I think Max, he's going to have a big game, and he had over 30 in game one. So, feeling pretty good about that one. And Fandul is now live in our nation's capital. Washington, D.C. Just go to fanduel.com slash ringer MBA to get started. Fandul official sports betting partner of the NBA. Must be 21 plus and 18 plus in D.C. and present in select states.

Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG dash help.com. First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-1,000. drawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook. Fandle.com. Wohl's sons. Went about as good for the wolves as it could possibly go.

Anthony Edwards looked like a superstar was. And the Sun scored under 100 points. Couldn't draw it up any better. A couple of things. I've been on this Wolf's defensive unit being one of the elite units in the NBA all year. that they brought this thing to bear against this son's opponent that they just grounded their half-court offense

into dust. They put Carl Anthony Towns on KD. He said, KD, getting your bag. I'm sure bagged Twitter was very impressed by all the moves and the crossovers and the two-point shots. Okay? They were able to stay home on everybody else.

Their defense never gets put in compromising positions by KD doing his one-on-one stuff. One assists on the day, by the way. And it worked. KD got his. Yes, he dropped 30 efficiently. And KD gets to go home and say, I did my part.

I got 30 on efficiency. And nothing else happened for the Suns. And I think that's a credit to the Wolves' defense. Man, this defense is not a myth. And Rudy, let's face it, Nurkich is a great opponent for him. He's a great foil because he's not going to stretch him out. doesn't have to move like and stay pretty parked near the basket.

But Rudy is showing people like, no, I'm the real deal on defense. All of this shit about Rudy's not a playoff defender is nuts. It never made any sense. And he showed it today. I just think their defense, man. Allow 10 three-point attempts in the first half, y'all. This is not 1997. You have to take more threes than that, KD, Booker, and Beal.

Grayson Island, too. Put the damn, that's what you in there to do, bro. Put some shots up. So, yeah, the Wolf's defense just blew me away, man. Blown away by them. They were amazing. And you're right, they completely flattened out everything that Phoenix was trying to do and really reduced it to just Katie cooking.

And he did cook from the right side of the floor. He was amazing. Like, that's great shot making. But it was well-defendant shot making, too. Like, I thought even in the one-on-one situations, which is the majority of Phoenix's offense through large portions of this game, Gobert is contesting those KD shots well. You know, Towns, he's kind of the default defender there.

He's defending them well. McDaniels, when he's switched, is defending those shots well. And if that's all you get, because nothing going toward the basket is happening or working for Phoenix right now. And as you said, was, they're just reluctant to take threes, and it's hard to create them when everything is so contained. There's not a lot of upside for Phoenix there. And so I think the primary takeaway is that the Sons, they have to figure out a way to be more than just a finesse team. this is another team that got absolutely rocked on the offensive glass by the wolves

you have to find a way if you're going to rely on this many twos and this many tough twos you got to get out in transition you have to create second opportunities you have to find ways to at least get to the basket with some kind of momentum where you're not getting swallowed up to the freaking free throw line y'all and Devin Booker god knows was trying

but I would say trying in the wrong ways the number of times like for as much shit as we give guys like Luca for trying to bait fouls and then complaining to a point where they damage their team's transition defense. Devin Booker hitting the floor every time he felt any kind of contact. The wolves were just eating off that all game long, like running the other way as hard as they could. You could even see it in Gobert.

Like, Gobert was trying to run and get the ball out as fast as he possibly could. Everything looked hard for what the Sons did. And that's a credit to the Wolves defense. I think if we're trying to look at from the other side of things, if you want to be a Sons optimist, I just think the way they're going to win is just overwhelming with jump shots. And so I wouldn't be surprised to see this series tilt back and forth, where when they do have a hot shooting night, all of a sudden maybe they win a game. But I do think it is very hard and they're probably going to have to win four three, not like four one or anything like that. And if anything, like I'm just more worried that like even a Grayson Allen going out in this game or not even having a good game before he leaves the game means so much to this team.

Like, it's funny when it was in garbage time where you saw, like, the ghosts of role players pass for the Suns. And it's like, oh, yeah, there's that guy that they tried for seven games. And it's like, oh, bowl, bowl, remember when we had fun with him back in November? It's just like there really isn't much a margin for error for this team. So you really just have to overwhelm with offense. And that's so hard to do against a team like the Wolves. Yeah, Grayson Allen goes out with that right ankle sprain. Does not return.

I thought Roe-O'Neill stepped in and gave them some good minutes. But other than that, like, this was a bad Eric Gorham. Gordon game. Drew Eubanks looks like absolute mince meat in this matchup. And there's nobody else who can really play. And then you contrast that with everything that's happening for the wolves off the bench where, sure, they have Nas Reid, one of the six man of the year candidates. But Nikiel Alexander Walker had an amazing game, played incredible defense on Devin Booker in particular. And you're getting Monta Morris minutes. You're getting so many different things off of the Wolves bench that the Suns just don't have at their disposal. Yeah, the offensive

of stagnation, like, look, people are going to say, I'm railing on KD. It's just every KD team has this problem. It's a stagnant-ass offense. Even the freaking Golden State beautiful game, tiki-taka shit that they love to do, had to chill out because of KD and his insistence on this isolation, stagnant offense kind of stuff. They got to get the ball moving some more, man. And they got to find a way, like we said, to attack these guys.

The problem is the wolves make it hard. They have some lengthy-ass guys, athletic guys, hyperactive. They're hyper-connected. And, like, they're freaking elite. They're just elite on that end. And what the sons are trying to do, it's hard to replicate, as JV said, on a game-to-game basis where I'm just cooking a guy at 18. feed off the bounce contested long twos this is not how you create efficient offense um we know

where the efficiencies are it's at the cup and it's behind the three point line and they got to find ways to generate those looks um and i'm sure we're going to get into anthony edwards of course yeah i mean maybe that's a swing point for the sons too like edwards was so sensational in that third quarter you know shit talking kevin durant levels of sensational scorching him with durant trying to to stop him levels of sensational. Maybe that doesn't happen every single game. You know, and is going to be due for kind of a stinker in terms of field goal percentage in the series.

And maybe that's one where Durand is so efficient and Booker is hitting and Beale is contributing in ways that kind of outweigh all that. But as it stands, like, Waz, I'm in complete agreement. Like how disconnected the Sun's play is really to their detriment against an opponent like the Wolves. I think it was over when Edwards smiled and talked shit in Katie's face. C.D. respected it. Seemed to actually enjoy it.

Like, on the one hand, I kind of, like, love that about KD. Because despite all of the bag talk, I think he does have an appreciation for these sorts of moments that I think it's kind of... He's a whole pet. Yeah. Really nice to see him. It's tough when you're also getting your ass beat and also having that reaction. Like, it almost seems like he stepped outside himself for a second and be like, oh, yeah,

we're getting fucking rocked here. By the way, I just sat here and talked all the shit about the midrangers that the sons make. That's what Aunt was doing to them. He was destroying them in the mid-range. Now, I would say that the wolves might have been giving them too much respect of his drive game. To be honest, I think he's got a better reputation on his drive game than what he actually delivers on that. I think they do probably need to play him for the drive more. But, man, he was just individually spectacular in a big moment.

The freaking crowd was amazing. yesterday and it makes you kind of understand why Glenn Taylor lied and took the team back. He was front and center. Couldn't give it up yesterday. But yeah, you can live and win with Aunt Edwards midrangers when you're also defending at this level, when you're also creating second chances, and when you're hitting more of your threes than the suns are. Like if you get enough of those things going in your favor, yeah, some midrange offense

is no problem. Yeah, I don't want to take it too far here because like I said, I do think the sun's be right back in this series. I'd be surprised if they won it at this point, but I do think that they could win a game or two or three. Yeah, it's not a 25 point margin kind of series. Like this was a great performance by the wolves. It's going to be tighter than this.

And also, it's the wolves, y'all. It's the wolves. They're not exactly the Dunkin Spurs. Okay, this is not some like paragon of execution here. Like, they're going to let the sons do some things at some

point here. But I, I, I, it couldn't help my myself but thinking like how hard it is nowadays to build a big three where your entire logic is just like cramming isolation offense together and just hoping it fits. And now on the margins, the Sons haven't done a particularly good job of filling out the gaps in between those three guys. But this was always kind of like a tough fit, but there was just so much to like about what these guys can do offensively that you wanted to like wanted to the very least respect it. because how much of the recent NBA has been kind of written by three superstars just coming together and overwhelming the opponent.

It just seemed like the wolves having a just like clear thesis of what they are and who they are and how they're going to win. Like that's tough these days when there's just so much talent on every single team. And also like there's so much size plus enough offense with the wolves, it just seems like, I don't know, it just feels like a little bit of a sea change moment as we've been talking about this entire season where it's just like that old model just seems tougher than usual. even before you get into like the CBA complications. It's really tough, especially to do it wholesale the way that the Sons did, where they turned over so much of their team around Durant and Booker and kind of had to build a whole new roster from scratch to the point that

I would actually push back just on the idea that the Sons didn't do a good job with their supporting cast. I think they did about as good a job as you could do with the very limited resources that they had at their disposal. It's like almost entirely minimum guys that they're trying to plug into significant roles. And to go from what they had to hitting Grace and Allen, who's been a revelation for them this season. And if he's going to miss time, they're going to be in a very bad way.

Royce O'Neill, who's given them really good minutes, those are two really important hits to make. And Nurkich has been good enough, honestly, for the majority of this season. It's just if you're going to take 10 swings to find all the rotation players you need, you're going to get a lot of whiffs when you're playing the minimum game.

Yeah, and it's a little bit tougher, too, when your three guys are so duplicative of each other. Like, they do the same shit on offense. They're all trying to do the exact same thing. You know, at least like, for instance, and people, like, we didn't think Philadelphia had the best results out of the Harding and Embed thing. But, like, it was a compliment, right?

It's like Harding and Embed can be pick and roll partners. Can Katie set a screen for somebody, please? Like, plant somebody, create an advantage for your teammate, get the thing rolling that way. Like, that's what it's going to take, guys. Like, these guys have to play off of, each other. And yeah, man, another thing that, you know, I got to bite the bullet on.

I was like, this point guard shit's not going to matter. It kind of does. I forget where I saw this stat, like the sons, they take their shot on offense later in the shot clock than everybody else because they don't have a point guard. They don't have somebody setting the table. It takes them forever to get into their stuff, you know. And, yeah, it's tough. It's tough right now.

I think it could work. They just didn't have the requisite amount of time in order to just smooth out all the rough edges. That's a big part of it too, yeah. Yeah. I mean, the Beale thing is so I can go both ways on it because I do think like they really didn't pay that much to get a player of Beals caliber in there and they had so few routes in order to do so. But on the other hand, like, I think you're right.

It's just like he's the guy that typically stands out. It's just like, I'm in Booker in particular. It just seems like there's just so much of the same thing. And it's like, I almost wonder if they looked at what Brooklyn did around KD and just didn't recognize the specifics of like Hardin's game, for instance, when he's so good at setting people up. And Kyrie, who's so good at working in between the seams of whatever the superstars he's around, it's just like, it seems like the type of thing that seemed easy on paper. But as we're seeing, like, it would probably require at least another season to even get to the point where they would

be optimized in this setup. Well, and it may seem easy on paper, but it sure is hell not easy against the best defensive team in the league. And that's where, like, the nature of this dynamic, we focus so much going in on how difficult the shot profile was going to be for the wolves to defend. But Minnesota can take you out of a lot of your stuff. Like, they don't have to play drop all the time as we saw. Like, they can switch and they have so many good one-on-one defenders.

Rudy switched plenty of times. And honestly, like, he got burned on some of those by tough shots, but they were tough shots. Tough. Between what they're getting from him, McDaniels, Alexander Walker, Edwards playing up into people, Kyle Anderson, Nas Reid, even Kat,

like there's so much size and there's so much presence. They're taking away a lot of what Phoenix is trying to do and making what is already a complicated premise for the Suns that much more so. Yeah, the up and under

Booker shot that it's making kind of the rounds is like, oh, what an amazing feat of offensive brilliance. Like, that's a Gobert highlight. Like, he's out there just busting his ass, sticking with Booker

and forcing him to go up and under and falling over. Like, Gobert was really good yesterday. You have to give him his credit. Let's move to the last game though, which was not for the faint of heart. Do we have to? Lord, have mercy. Oh, my God. I think I said when this series was matched up that if the Cavs were able to score over 85, jokingly, that they would be fine. Turns out that that was true, because good Lord, the Orlando Magic offense, what a fucking mud pit. I think that has to be the takeaway, not just that it's a mud pit, but that in its current form, this feels

pretty unsalvageable. Like, this is about as blocked up and stymied a playoff offense as we've seen in a long time. The final numbers on it, in the half court for Orlando, 63 points per 100 possessions. You have to try to be that bad in most normal NBA circumstances. A 63 offensive rating in the half court. That is... What do you do with that? Beyond pathetic.

33% from the floor. 22% from three. 63% from free throw. Here's the most painful part. I fully expect some of the make-miss swings to go Orlando's way. Gary Harris is a good shooter.

He went 0 for 5. Jalen Suggs went 1 for 7 in this game. He hit 40% of his threes this year. Those guys will hit more shots and we all know they're being left. open. But even if they make a few more, Cleveland's, like Cleveland is going to continue to sag off of Jonathan Isaac, Paulo Bancaro, Wendell, Wendell Carter, Mo Wagner, Mark Kelloggner, Franz Wagner, they're playing off and playing that space. Cole Anthony, do you see the problem

here? It is five defenders in the paint for the most part. And Orlando, like, I don't even take too much away from what Franz and Paulo are trying to do, because they just have no space to operate in. And they're trying their best to get to the basket. But how do you do it when there's three or four defenders in front of you on your drive? Yeah, there's just absolutely zero airspace. I mean, I thought Paulo in particular, he gave it a game effort. Like this guy was trying to make things happen.

And, you know, he scored. He hit a couple of threes. And he made a couple of jump shots. But it's like, what is he supposed to do when there's a bunch of guys just planted in the painted area, watching his every move. And when he does make the right play to kick out, it ends in a horrible position.

It's just, man, it was jarring the amount of bricks that they laid, man, just over. Like, there was just a certain point where I was just like, yo, this is scary bad. Every Orlando 3 in this game felt like a huge moment. And that is not a compliment. And also, too, it had that old school.

feel of when the calves were up by nine or 11 points, I was like, this is insurmountable. It's so true. They can't get over there. I got to say, I know the spacing is a huge issue and it has been this entire season. But Paulo, I'm just feeling a little bit cold. I'm going to be honest. Like, I know that he is very, like, what do you want him to do? Do anything other than trying to barrel over the guy in front of him?

Like, he just has a very direct approach. And I recognize that if there were shooters out there, they would be more successful. But, like, it really seems like it comes down to if Evan Mobley is in front of me and I can go through his chest, then I will have an opportunity. But as soon as someone is, like, a little bit more stout, like, it seems like it just sends him into a bit of a spiral. I just think, like, ultimately, there are a lot of questions about this guy. I think the nine turnovers sticks out first and foremost. But I think- I don't know why they got him facilitating on every single freaking possession.

They're not doing him any favors, Justin. Like, I'm with you. Like, these magic people have been on my back because I said this kid is not, doesn't have the potential of a Victor Wembeen Yamma. But I do think there's a little Cade Cunningham aspect where it's like the roster construction has not helped him. It has not been beneficial to him showing his best. capability. So I would say like, man, like, you know, a stretch big would be nice. An actual point

guard would be nice. You know what I mean? I'm not even saying that Paulo can't ultimately get to a point where he's like a pretty front of the league all-star type of guy. He is legitimately skilled and big in a way that a lot of guys just can't be. I think at this point, though, to suggest that like he is already that guy, I think that's what gives me pause. I think right now he has a lot of the things you'd want from him, he's good at those things for his size. He's a very good passer for his size. He's become a respectable shooter. He deserves a lot of credit for improving that dramatically this season for his size. Obviously, his ability to draw fouls is elite, and that has markers that suggest that he could be something very good down the road there. I'm just like,

at this point, I think he has a very streamlined approach. And yes, I know it's his first playoff series and all that. He's so young and first game, yada, yeah. It's just like, right now, I'm a little bit more like wait and see to see if this guy is like the next fucking LeBron, which is what I think a lot of Magic fans want him to be in thinking he's already. It's just like, can we just like settle down a little bit? Let me go on record right now, just to very. This kid is not the next LeBron. He is not. He is not going to become the second or third or fourth greatest player in the history of the sport. He is not that. I can go. I want to limb and say that right now today. There is a bit of an expectation shift with a lot of young guys where if you come in and you're productive and especially like box score productive in the way that Palo is and an impressive player, people just expect that you will be able to have an incredible postseason career that you'll be able to do all the things creatively that stars need to do.

I think it's okay that like the three of us operate in a lot of ways in the opposite burden of proof where you're great. Now you have to come in and show that you can do it against playoff defenses. And I think Palo, I think he did it to reasonable effect in this game, given the constraints that he has. And you could even see Orlando like trying to figure out how to make their defenders into some kind of threat.

They ran like inverted pick and rolls where Suggs was screening for Palo Bancaro. Like, can we do something to shake this up and shake this loose and get Paulo going downhill to the basket in a way where if he was surrounded by shooting would feel very easy? They just don't have any paths to anything easy right now. And so, yes, the combination of he is a very straightforward player at this stage in his career. His first playoff game, his first real chance at cracking this kind of puzzle. So y'all saying Paulo ain't got no bag, huh?

I'm not, I actually think he does have a bag. I just think that like the way he's processing the game right now goes kind of in one direction. And that's okay for a young player to work that way. But for that to be on a team that doesn't have shooting, that doesn't have other mechanisms for generating offense and making things easy for him. This is what that looks like. And I think for a player at his stage in his career, that's all honestly okay.

Yes, I think we're all in agreement. And maybe I'm just shadow boxing here because you're shook. They're on your back. Oh, I could care less. Listen, I think most of Twitter at his point. Justin is definitely not mad. He's definitely not mad.

No doubt about it. Who side are you on here, buddy? Jesus fucking Christ. Were you the one fucking like telling me I hope my mom gets raped and shit like get the fuck out of here. Listen, most of Twitter at this point are people

dressed in clown suits with knives yelling at you. Why won't you debate me? It's just like, give me a fucking break. I can care less, but enjoy being blocked. Yeah, just know that if you hit me and you've got a

Paulo Banquero picture in your Twitter profile, I don't even read it. It's automatically skip, nothing to see here, useless information being shared. You know what the funny part about this game was? I think we have fully dissected the magic offense and given it the autopsy it deserves.

It's tough. Cleveland's offense was not very good either. No great shakes. No great shakes, but they're a little closer to having functional spacing than Orlando is. And honestly, having Donovan Mitchell, who can get into pocket. and hit floaters and hit pull-ups.

That's where it was. That in-between game. Yeah. It made a ton of difference. Sort of loosen up what the magic we're doing because he could, you know, he could make a floater with like two feet inside of the free throw line. He could get, you know, draw some files.

Like, he had some dynamism on the ball. That's just what the other side was sorely missing. Like Donovan Mitchell could create, man. There was some juice there when he had the rock. And it was, they won in those margins because, you know, Garland wasn't too incredible. Nobody else really had anything going on offense for them. It's just, they did just enough. No.

And Justin, if we want to talk about what other stars have that Paolo doesn't, it's exactly that. It's that kind of creative shake that Donovan Mitchell gave the calves here. Are you trying to make nice now after you betrayed me? Did I betray you? Do you to the wool? I just said you were big mad about Twitter, that's all. To those people in Orlando. Was would never.

Just saying. Yeah, I don't know if we're ready for the Darius Garland part of this, especially because they're doing well. I've just never been hugely impressed by him. Clearly, I thought this was a Donovan Mitchell game to takeover. It's hard to operate next to Mitchell, and clearly there's something between the two of them that just hasn't clicked right.

We also saw a trainer working on his back at some point in Yeah, he's 100%. You know, there are some other factors involved. But his season has been a downer. Underwhelming. It's been so disappointing. For somebody like me, I've always had a soft spot for him because he does have way above average, close to elite, court vision and passing, like the unselfishness.

He could make a pull-up three out of a pick and roll, which is an extremely valuable skill. Not always the best finisher, but like, The stuff that he has is really valuable when it's clicking. And it just hasn't been working this year, man. So we'll see. We'll see if he could pick it up for the rest of the series. Pretty solid showing, though, from the combination of Mobley and Allen, I think gave the Cavs enough of what they need.

And with Mobley in particular, I thought he was really aggressive scoring in the first half, especially Cole Anthony gets switched on to Evan Mobley. He's going right to the left block. He's going to work. I thought that stuff was clean in a way that the Cavs needed. neither of them was dominant, but they were effective enough.

And with the way Orlando was switching, I thought both them took really good advantage of that. Good to see them both being aggressive after last playoffs. At the very least, like that wasn't an issue. So that's good to see you. I will say whichever team makes it out of this series, unfortunately, he's going to get absolutely crushed by the Celtics.

That's probably the takeaway. Not a good matchup. Why don't we wrap it there? Thank you to Isaiah Blakely. Thank you to Ben Cruz. Thank you to Tucker. Tashin. We'll be back on Wednesday.

we're recording Wednesday late night after those games. So late Wednesday, early Thursday. Check it out then. We will see you later. Must be 21 plus and 18 plus in D.C. In present in select states, Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC.

Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit fandul.com slash RG in Colorado, D.C., Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Vermont. Call 1-800 Next Step or text Next Step to 533-4-2 in Arizona. 1-88-789-7-7-7 or visit ccpgg.org slash chat in Connecticut. 1-800-9 with it in Indiana.

1-800-522-470 or visit KSgamblinghelp.com in Kansas. 1877-770 stop in Louisiana. Visit MD gamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Visit 1-800 gambler.net in West Virginia or call 1-800-522-470-0 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit gambling helpline, ma.org, or call 800-327-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts, or call 187-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope N-Y in New York.