The Ringer NBA Show - Utah and Minnesota Win on the Road and Philly Rolls at Home in Game 1 | Weekends With Wos

Episode Date: April 17, 2022

Wos is joined by The Ringer’s J. Kyle Mann to discuss three of the four Game 1 matchups on the first day of the NBA playoffs. They start with Utah beating the short-handed Mavericks (1:32) and then get into Minnesota’s impressive performance in beating the Grizzlies on the road (4:22). They wrap up with the Sixers dominating the Raptors at home (21:31). Host: Wosny Lambre Guest: J. Kyle Mann Associate Producer: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, everyone. I'm Ian Wright. Make sure you check out my podcast. Writers' house every Wednesday on Ringer FC. Each week, I'm joined by a rotating panel guest to talk about football, life, films, everything. Search of Ringersc on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Take it easy. With Was on the Ringer NBA Podcast Network, it's the first day of the NBA playoffs because we're not calling the playing the playoffs for some reason. Adam Silver, please make it make sense. We got a very special guest on the line today. my man, the ringer's own, Kyle J. Man, what's going on, brother? Not too much, wise. It's good to be here with you. I mean, like, in a game where elimination, you're like, it's do or die elimination, isn't that by definition of playoff? I just, like, like the literal definition of a playoff. But whatever, we're going to go with it.

Today's the first official day of the NBA playoffs for games today. We're taping this right as Golden State. and the Denver Nuggets tip off. So we won't have much for that, except for the fact that Steph Curry is coming off the bench, which I thought was a pretty interesting decision by Steve Kerr. But yeah, let's get into the games that have already happened today, Kyle. First up was Utah versus Dallas.

Utah took game 1, 99 to 93 on the road. Not much surprising there. Luca Donchis is still out with a calf strength. There's no real word on when he's going to come back. Generally speaking, previous calf strains around the league have averaged about 18 days, which is two and a half weeks, which is past the first round of the playoffs. Time that they don't have, aka. Yeah. So it's looking like Luke is not going to play this series, which makes this completely and wholly uninteresting besides the dysfunction of Utah coming in.

I don't know if you saw or had anything you wanted to. add about this game. Yeah, I think it just kind of becomes a question of the long game for them because, I mean, and, you know, people come to, it was. They come to you and I for like medical speculation. Typically, I have people hit me up all the time. Will you please speculate about some injuries? No, I mean, I've heard people say that it's higher calf in the, I learned the phrase muscle

belly for the first time this week. I'd never heard that in my life. So apparently it's in an area. The muscle deep dive? That was in a story in the athletic I just saw, but they say that it, like, has more blood flow and, like, it could heal better. But I've heard people say that, like, the lower calf stuff is more dangerous just because it's down there near the tendon, the Achilles tendon, which, you know, obviously is an area you don't want to go into. So I guess it's just a matter of, do you even try with Luca? If you got, like, this generationally special player, you know, see if you can get back.

The question for Dallas is, like, do they have enough? they're a team that's built around a player. You know, you bring in Spencer Dinwiddie, and he's like a pretty, you know, pretty capable secondary creator. But can you generate enough offense against, you know, one of the better defensive anchor, I mean, best defensive anchor in the world. And Rudy Gobert and a pretty competent veteran team in Utah. Can they generate enough offense? They struggled to do it today. So it's going to be a question of how much, how many plates can they spin and keep this alive and hope that Luca can come back, basically.

it's a tough game that they're playing right now. Well, I mean, they weren't completely putrid. It was a really slow-paced game, 93 points in about 82 possessions. Not great. Not ideal, but it wasn't completely horrible. It just felt like the Utah Jazz knew they were playing an inferior opponent without their lead dog. And they kind of played with their food all game,

but it didn't feel like Dallas was actually ever threatening them in any serious way. Donovan Mitchell kind of went crazy in the third quarter after having a kind of miserable first half. And, you know, they basically held the Mavs at arm's length the rest of the way. So I do want to get into what to me was a really exciting and interesting matchup between the Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves. Man, what I found kind of interesting and I think we talked about it on text, Kyle, was what I'm I thought would be Memphis's greatest weakness all postseason, and that's generating quality looks in the half court. Now, they weren't, like, horrible job, basically for most of the game,

if not the fourth quarter, was he was getting to the paint at will, spraying guys all around the court. He was getting it out very quickly. He looked pretty sharp all game, but towards the end, it kind of grounded to a halt, and he had some bad possessions at the end. end there. You kind of wonder what they're going to do going forward when Minnesota seems pretty geared into what they're trying to do. Yeah, it definitely, I was saying to you that like,

it definitely got to head, this vibe from the jump that Minnesota was like trying to make like a tonal statement to start this, to start this game. Like we, and I heard people say on TV, I heard like Stephen A and Jalen and them talking about how this game was stolen. My question for you was, Do we really think that was a steal? It didn't look like a steal to me. No, not at all. Actually, on group chat, I said that I thought this series would go seven games. I couldn't bring myself to pick Minnesota, but I just don't think there's some talent disparity here.

Memphis has more consistently been, you know, played up to their level of talent throughout this season. But I don't think they're way more talented, specifically when you think about the shot creation element of it where we're going to get into what Baby Jordan did today, my man Ann Edwards, but like they have three guys, Minnesota does, who can they, who they can say is average to above average as shot creation. And Memphis cannot boast that. They have one. They have one guy. Like, you're not going, as much as everybody loves Dylan Brooks and they're yelling at people

in the antics. You're not going to him for consistent shot creation. I love Desmond Bain. You're not going for him for consistent shot creation. These are secondary sort of ancillary parts to any functioning offense. Minnesota has three of them, but I just didn't think they would be able to guard at the level that they did. Specifically, Carl Towns, man. And I know that, like, he's been horrible in the drop coverage traditionally.

So all season, they've had him playing, you know, hyper aggressive on pick and roll, sort of out on the floor on the perimeter. But even when they were swinging it, he was making great rotations. When he had to switch, he was doing a credible. job like garden perimeter guys on defense like Carl towns man look like a freaking player on defense today. Yeah, he was flashing that like hard head. You were talking about getting out on the ball handler. He did a pretty good job of like meeting jaw above the level of the screen. I actually was looking at like the pick and roll efficiency here. And it's like Memphis ran 25 pick and rolls where where Minnesota basically defended it that way. Like Carl would come out and

just like he was moving and energetic and ran jaw off the line. And then I think the big, and they only generated 0.6, 8 points for possession. Whereas Minnesota doubled that on the other end. They were 1.26. And I think the big thing that jumped out to me was the physicality, you know, we talk a lot about how Memphis all year long have had this identity of thumping their chest. They turn you over. And younger teams can kind of have this. They're excited. They're not, they're not always pacing themselves because they're young. They don't necessarily have to generate in a lot of transition offense through turnovers and things like that because they have a lot of switchability.

They have a lot of guys with big wingspans. They have a lot of guys who are strong and like lanky strong and like JJJ. And like even Kyle Anderson has like a crazy wingspan. But I think that something that really jumped out to me is that the gap between Minnesota and Memphis, I didn't really see one. Like in terms of like you saw when you saw. Athleticism and physicality. Yeah.

When you saw jog it into the middle of the floor, he fell down a lot in this game. You know, he did get his, he got his looks and things like that. But it's all coming from one place. And I think the point that you made is really good too. You know, we were talking about Dallas. Do they have the secondary creators? Where is it going to come from? Because I thought that even Bain kind of looked a little limited tonight when he was

catching the ball. He was bothered by the length. And I think Minnesota's defensive physicality and like, and they're just, their profile, how big and long they are, it matches up great with Memphis and was bothering them, noticeably, I thought. Yeah, and John Morant had a really strong game, right? He was 8 of 18, got to the free throw line 20 times, right?

Which is to me, like, look, to me, the truest sign of a superstar is if you get to the line against set hack court defenses in the playoffs, that's the truest indicator of superstardom in my opinion. It means guys can't handle you and therefore have to freaking foul you. And John Moran did that.

And again, he was a, and you know, some of this plus minus stuff on a per game basis I don't really buy into, but he was a minus 16 for the game. And I thought what you said earlier was interesting about how Memphis wants to approach the game. They got down super big early in the first quarter. They're down 13.

And in the second quarter, they really turned it around by turning Minnesota over 10 times. And that's when they got. got their hit-aheads, they're throwing alley-Ubs, they're doing the stuff that they have to do in order to generate offense because it's not just going to be, they're not going to be this classic 2014 spurs, right, where they're just picking you apart in the half court because they have all of these smart, heady players and skilled players. No, they have to get into you. They have to force turnovers. And they have to get out on the floor. And they were able to do that in the

second quarter. I was like, man, if this thing, if Minnesota ends up blowing this game, is going to be because they lost this thing in the second quarter where they played pretty sloppy and they gave up all these transition opportunities. But, man, they calm down. And I'll be damned if Anthony Edwards, man, wasn't just the run killer. Every single time it looked like Memphis

was about to sort of wrestle control of the game from Minnesota. Anthony Edwards was like, no, give me the ball. I'm going to get to the cup and won or I'm just going to fire off the dribble three and splash those things. guy dropped 36 points in his first ever playoff game, 12 of 23, 4 of 11 from three point line. He got to the line eight times made all eight of his free throws.

And just, again, we saw it in the playing game against the Clippers where, like, you know, Marcus Morris is trying to guard this dude. He's like, get the hell out of here. Every single Memphis person that they tried to put in front of him, Anthony Edwards was like, you cannot stay in front of me. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he going by, like, historically, players who haven't hit their 21st birthday, that was, he tied Derek Rose for the third most points ever in a playoff game. Derek Rose in 2009 scored 36 at Boston in the east, I think it was Eastern Conference round one.

But, I mean, yeah, Ant, the big thing for me with Ant is he looked under control, you know, Aunt always has these moments where in the past he could just go nuclear and go NBA jam hot and go crazy. and you would see him reach that threshold of like, I think I'm hot. I'm going to take this extra shot to see if I'm hot. He kind of, I saw him kind of get to that, like he walked up to the ledge and kind of put his toes over, and he never like fell off.

You know, that was always the thing with Ant where it's like he'd get so amped up. And at lower levels, like at Georgia and high school, he could do those things just without any repercussions. But I think that like this Minnesota team has an identity. They have a personality. I've seen, you know, Russell got his shots up.

He wasn't super efficient. The thing that I worried about with them in the past was him being in the way. Like, it just seems like that Minnesota's identity and their pieces have kind of fallen into a hierarchy that makes sense. You know what I mean? In the past, it kind of looked like they were a little conflicted. They're just imposing their will on people. And, yeah, Anthony is, he's just an insane physical specimen, man.

Like, I don't know. I guess if you're Memphis, you just kind of hope that the variation goes your way a little bit. And he has, like, a real off game. Yeah, and you saw towards the end of the game. Like, I think he missed his last, like, three threes. And some of them were, like, classic settles, right? Meaning, like, he fires a three contested off the dribble with, like, 18 seconds left on a shot clock. Which is just, you just don't want, that's not ideal offensive possession,

if you're the Timberwolves specifically, right? Like, when you have a towns and you have DeAngelo Russell's ability to operate and pick a roll, like this better ways. You can always get that shot is the point. And he sort of settled a couple of times. But I'll be damned if he just didn't look like the most physical guy out there at times. And which was bringing me to Carl Town to, look, we killed him on Bill's show after the Clipper game. He was just.

He was god-awful. But today, you know, he had it going on both ends of the floor today. Yeah. I mean, he was fantastic. like 11 for 18 field goals. Three for five from three. Didn't force a lot of shots. You were talking about that pain point that you talked about

is 100% has been his Achilles heel in the past. Like settling, things like that. They overall were really deliberate about what they do well. 13 rebounds for Carl, though, three assists. He just looked more under control. Like he kind of just looked freaked out in the playing game. And he didn't look as freaked out. He looked like he, I mean, he, good God, that dunk that he had on Jared Jackson.

Mercy. Yeah, that was like file of police report. It looked like he got, he just, I couldn't believe he did that. But overall, Carl, yeah, I mean, he had a, he had a fantastic game. I thought that he played really well. I thought Jane McDaniels actually was terrific in this game, too. He was, man, he gives them a little extra oomph. Like when he gets a swing, swing, he can take two dribbles and make an open 15 footer. Like, when the defense is scrambling, like he's not a one dimensional guy. And I thought that was huge for them today. I love that Beasley got off 10 threes. You know, like that, like people got to understand, like, with a guy like Beasley, just that he's taking those threes, it expands everything, the scope of what Minnesota can do with their special on the ball guys. So offensively, look, I don't have any reason to believe

that Stephen Adams is going to get better at guarding Carl Towns, which he just kept running. running this man. Like, he made him look like he had cement in his shoes all game. That's just a, cat is a horrible matchup for Stephen Adams because he has to guard this guy from 25 feet on. And he's just, he's not fleet of foot enough. Memphis is going to have to eventually figure out that, like, he can't be in your big

man rotation unless, you know, you want to match up his minutes with Nas Reed, then go ahead. But Stephen Adams is, he just got cooked today. Yeah, and I guess where does Memphis go from here? Like you were talking, we were talking about how they're going to generate offense. That's a huge question looming over them because teams, I was joking with you that, like, as a Kentucky fan, I'm used to having these teams that depend on transition offense to get going.

And it's something that younger teams will run into a lot as, I think I heard you say one time that the NBA is like a talent acquisition business, basically. And everybody's trying to, in the playoffs, you're trying to look for these guys who can improvise when the team is scheming well against you. And Memphis just didn't really. We've got guys that have showed glimpses of that. Like we said, Bain. But we haven't, like Triple J, he's just not quite there yet as a shot creator. Like he's attacked a lot more off the bounce this year. I'll be interested to see, you know, Jaws is a chess player. You know, and this game was, people think of these like long super athletes like, and they think, they, they, they, don't think of them in that way. They think of them as like, oh, this guy. Just absolutely that. He's a chess player. And I'm going to be curious to see how they adjust in the next

game to see how they can generate some more offense. Yeah, look, I don't want to overreact. I think if you're Memphis Grizzlies fan, you have to, you have to believe that, you know, Anthony Edwards won't be going supernova from outside the entire series. You have to believe that you'll be able to get out to shooters better where you're not allowing, you know, Beasley, they're back. And he had a couple that he was wide open that he missed, by the way. There was a few of those. You got to believe that they're going to be able to, you know, cover that adequately.

But, you know, they don't really have the sort of perimeter length that the clippers have, but they have to look into varying their coverages against Carl Towns because the conventional way they tried to do it today just that's not going to work. I think Clark has to see more time. obviously saying Jaron Jackson Jr. needs to play way more than 24 minutes, but he's been historically a high-file player, right? And he's gotten better at it.

I think we talked about that in our text exchange. But like, the Stephen Adams thing of it all is just not going to work. They have to be strategic about when they send their doubles, their help on towns. They have to be comfortable putting non-bigs on him. They have to vary how they're defending. and I think they will. But, yeah, man, Taylor Jenkins, he got his work cut out for him.

Yeah, that was something the Clippers, I know Carl came out and said that that wasn't. Well, maybe the quote, I saw the quote gets weak that he was like, that wasn't an impact it maybe as much as people were saying. But I think the minutes distribution is an interesting thing. We were giving Jared Jackson credit for like being better on like help side stuff and not fouling as much, but he had five fouls today. So I think that's just kind of a maybe you look at the minute total at the end of the game. You think why didn't he play as much?

but it's just sort of, it's one of the things that, you know, Taylor Jenkins has to juggle is like, I don't want to end up in a situation where I can't play this guy, so he has to kind of do it slowly. But Brandon Clark, 27 minutes today. I think you're right about Adams. I think that they're probably just going to have to hope that those guys can not take themselves out of the game with the fouling. But the way the Minnesota plays, man, they're going to dare them not to foul them. I mean, they're so physical and around the basket. And another thing, too, is just like second chance points. there were just numerous times where there were just like backbreaker possessions where like McDaniels would get like an offensive rebound and keep the play alive maybe and

you know get it out to Malik Beasley for a three Beasley was four for 10 today like you were just saying those extra things like those extra little seams that teams can get you with their offense they're backbreakers and Minnesota just did more of them today yeah look I'm I'm not in panic I wouldn't be in panic mode if I was Memphis I think we saw the very best version of what this iteration of the Timberwolves can be, even with DeAngelo Russell having a horrible game. I think this is like the ideal of who they are, right? Like Anthony Edwards is killing you on the perimeter. Carl Towns is dominating his matchup. And, you know, they're getting threes and they're

getting in the pain, right? Like, this is the idealized version of themselves. I think Memphis would make some adjustments and do better, but they in a dog fight. This ain't your. typical two versus seven that we're used to seeing. This is a real legitimate series, and I'm telling you, talent for talent, Minnesota is right there with them. Yeah, I think that sometimes these things can be just distilled down to like primary color type situations, like how many, how many like elite, like the talent acquisition thing, like Ant and Kat are just their two star level players.

Cat can be up and down, you know, but we, Ant probably has to high. highest upside of any player in this series, I would say, you know, like in terms of like athleticism and creation. I think as a creator, he's got a little ways to go. But if he plays under control, if he plays under control and makes basic plays, basic reads, he's, he's a handful. I think that the way that you can really get him out of his, over his skis is you can lure him into playing out of control, lure him into making like tough decisions and if he's, and you can get him to settle. But today he didn't do that. And he looks like Young Jordan, like you said, when he does that. All right. So that was game one of the Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves.

I'm really excited to see how this unfolds. I'm sure plenty of you guys are as well. And so let's move on to the series that I've definitely circled and had my eye on this one because I'm like things might could get pretty interesting here. How did it kind of, didn't it kind of feel like the, sorry, did it didn't, didn't kind of feel like one of those tournament matchups that people, Everybody's kind of like keep an eye on Colorado State against Michigan here. And it like it kind of had that vibe to me. Like we maybe we overthought this a little bit. But yeah, that was kind of the vibe I got from.

It was sort of like an NCAA tournament type thing. Like a like a like a power five school playing like a like a really good, non-power five kind of thing. I'm not trying to insult the Raptors. Don't come at me Raptors fans. But physically that's what it felt. Yeah. So Philly beat them 131 to one of,

just an insane game from Maxie today. This kid dropped. Let me make sure I'm getting this right. 14 of 21, 5 of 8 from 3, 5 of 5 from the free throw line. He dropped 38 points today. Another guy who's been much maligned on this podcast and many others, Tobias Harris, as the, you know, least talked about Max player in the NBA. This guy was 9 and 14, 3 or 5 from 3, 5 or 6 from the free throw line,

finished with 26 points. And look, Joelle wasn't his typical dominating self. But, like, in the first half he was, he got to the line nine times. They couldn't single cover him. He was getting the ball out quick on double teams. He just dominated and got them off to an 18-point lead. And that was basically it. That was ball game after that.

And look, Toronto doesn't possess a guy who's talking. than six foot nine or six foot ten. And even their six foot nine guys aren't exactly like the beefiest people in the world. So the Joelle matchup was always going to be a problem. If they can't match up with Tobias Harris and Maxi one-on-one, this is done. But there's no reason even starting this conversation.

And we didn't even get to Hardin. I was going to say in this game today, like the Sixers didn't lead after like the nine. minute mark of the first quarter, it just kind of ballooned from there. I think the point that you made about Embed, I think, is really good that things about, like, especially big guys, stars at that level that are, like, such a threat to score, they kind of develop this way of impacting the game without directly. It's almost like this inverse thing where they don't even have to put the numbers up to have a crazy impact, because you were talking about getting the ball out quick. Like, Embed

just exists, and he was drawn doubles, like, because they, didn't have a matchup for him one-on-one. You'd see those situations where they briefly went to like a one-three-one. Embed immediately was just like any one-on-one situation in this game, he just goes straight to the block. I thought they were a couple, there were a couple times. You know, and the Sixers can put size out there on the floor, specifically because of the way the sixers put their lineups out there. They're always going to have one guy who's smaller, like Fred Van Van Ville. It was the one. And Tobias just went to the block immediately. And it really did. It really just kind of look like they don't, especially with Embed, if he's going to get rid of the ball

and be that effective and get to the line a lot. Toronto's in trouble. The other thing, too, is like the turnovers. It's kind of similar to the Memphis, Minnesota thing. Like, you know, Memphis needed to generate turnovers. The Sixers do, too. They're built that way. Like, I think that they, I had a stat written down the other day that, like, they really pick on people in early clock situations. I think they're, like, third in the league and, like, post. I just saw, I'm not, this sounds like a thing. I shouldn't know off top of my head, but I just saw. They're like third in the league and post-ups that are in the first five seconds of the shot clock. So what they love to do with Annobe and with Scotty Barnes, who we'll talk about what happened to him today.

And then with Pascal is if they turn you over, they just like go and target a mismatch if they can and post that person up and score early baskets. Well, A, that's harder to do against the Sixers because they have a lot of size out there. but then also Philly's not turning the ball over. So it's like you get into this half-court situation where Philly's so much bigger than them, it's an uphill battle for them, especially when they can't guard Philly, like you said. Yeah, and look, because I think people at home

are going to be like, how could anybody with half a brain think that Toronto was going to somehow give these guys a lot of trouble? And I think the theory of the case was that obviously they didn't have a matchup for Joel, but on the perimeter they could be really switchy, And when they did have to help, you would have the confidence that these ultra-long, ultra-athletic young guys would be able to scramble well enough to get out on people, right? Like, they had the personnel when you think about a guy like OG, C.acom, Scottie Barnes, Bouchet, Precious Chitua, like, these are guys that behind the play,

they could figure out how to scramble and get to the help side. That was the theory. Philly proved that they just blew that up and just dominating one-on-one matchups. Again, from Maxi and Tobias Harris, who I don't care if you're the biggest Philly fan ever, nobody thought those guys were going to average 25 points plus a game in this series, right?

So they came out and did that. And why that's important is because the Raptors can't win this series on offense. They have to win it, making it ugly and getting stops. They don't possess the horses. to make this into some type of track meet where they go bucket for bucket with Philly.

They don't have that type of personnel. And so we know they're going to be limited on offense. So it's hard for me to like critique. Like, yeah, Gary Trent Jr. was godawful, 2 of 11. Terrible. Two of seven from three. And like, look, Fred Van Vleet was fine. He dropped 18 points, 7 of 12, 4, 7 from 3.

But Fred Van Fleet needs to get up. He needs to be shooting 20 shots. He needs to be firing 12 threes in order to make this thing viable for the Raptors because if he's not doing that, there's no, like, we love Pascal Seaccom, but it's just not going to happen by making him the sort of oasis of everything that they do. And so, again, like, I don't know how else to say this. If they don't guard, this is not a team who will score in the half-court offense. Yeah, you know my favorite play of the game?

I told you this. I think before that, like, you know, Maxi obviously was insane, 38 points like he talked about. He got to the line. He scored 38 on only five free throw tips, but it was five for eight from three. I really loved. And he always looks like he's been like shot out of a cannon. He just looks like, and if you're playing off the catch, this has been my point with Maxi playing off of Hardin and playing off of Embed.

If you're playing off the catch like Maxi does and you can attack the rim, he had one reversal to his left hand, man, that was just flat out. God, good. God, it was nice. They did a play there where they got a switch, and Toronto tried to do like a scram switch where you got a smaller guy on a big guy and you try to quickly switch it. Maxi saw it and immediately back cut and went to the rim. If you have a player like that that it can attack the rim and finish like that,

and that was something too. I just wanted to make the point that he's leveling up in terms of like the way he attacks and when he chooses to attack and things like that. Right. Because early on in his career, he was one of those. classic one speed guys. Like he was going a hundred miles an hour. There was no variation to it. There was no like control levels. Like, nope, I'm getting this and I'm zooming to that spot that I want to get to. And like you said, he's become more sophisticated in his attacks. Yeah, he's definitely controlling, getting into his speeds, figuring out what his gears are,

things like that. The other thing, too, man, is just like, we, we were talking about, like, Hardin. I'm not trying to do that thing where we're like, we talked about, we talked about. But like, Harden, there really wasn't as much pressure on him. All Harden kind of had to do was, you know, he didn't have like a super efficient game, six for 17, so like 35.3%, but he went four for seven from three. We were kind of talking about, you know, the way the Raptors like to guard is they like to come up and dare you to run you off the line and then they have a helper all the way in the gap. They created a couple threes early from that just because James Hardin is an incredible

fucking passer. Yeah, yeah. All Hardin had to do was just like barely get his guy on a rope. I forget who was even on him at that point. But he just kind of barely got his guy on the hook and a dude for the Raptors jumped into the gap to stop Hardin from driving. And he created an immediate open three. And I was just like, well, you would think that they're going to make Hardin kind of play one on one in this series. I don't know. Do you think that this is going to shift? Did Hardin kind of lay in the weeds a little bit? Like, are we going to see any pressure get put on him? Or do you think that the Raptors are like super in trouble here? No, I don't think they're in trouble with Hardin. I thought they did a good job of making him go right. He loves to go right, come back with his left hand and sort of force that elbow into you to draw the contact and get the file. I thought they did a pretty good job of just making him do that, making him do the stepback. Where they got in trouble to me is when they tried to do some of the more conventional picking roll coverages where it's just like, bro, when Hardin's in the screen, just switching. Do not, don't, don't come to the level.

Don't try to blitz him. Don't, no, don't drop. Switch it. Because every other coverage is, he can beat it. He can still beat it because his vision is so elite. I think if they just consistently switch that thing, get him off of his left hand, stay in front of him, let him throw that garbage that he throws

when he goes right. He can't shoot it with his right hand. So he always comes back with the left, comes up, trying to draw the contact, let him do all that. that. I thought they did a decent enough job on Hardin. It's the others who just smoked them. And I'm not sure what you do about the Embed problem going forward. Because I think to me, everything flows out of the fact that you can't single, like you can't, right? Like, they used to have a Sergei Baco on his team, a Mark Nassau on the championship team, where that's why they

were able to guard Philly so effectively. They left those guys on islands against Joelle Embed and were completely fine with it, right? And then you talk about all the elite defenders they had besides that. They don't possess that person. So I don't know how that problem is going to disappear for them. Yeah, they don't have that big, like, I remember back when, like, Marcus saw, he was like a great foil for Embed when he was healthy and still kind of spry. But, like, he could, like, come up and, like, meet, rotate and meet Embed.

And he was thick enough to bother him. But he also had great hands. You know, the Raptors just don't have a five, like, they don't have a true five, period. You know, they've got Kim Birch, I guess, is the closest thing. And, you know, they try to simulate some of that, like, having the length of a big out there without having an actual big out there since, like, I think, like, six or seven of their guys in the rotation have, like, seven foot plus wingspans or something like that. But it's a probably, I don't think that Toronto is going to be able to present. Now, let's say the Philly does move on. I'm speculating, obviously.

I just don't know. I think you're right about Hardin and the fact that, like, they're not going to be able to challenge. Philly enough to like make that hardened thing a pain point. I think that James isn't off the hook. Like whenever they start to play some of these better teams in the East, like if they say they get up against Milwaukee or something like that, it's going to become an issue. But Toronto, the other thing that we haven't mentioned is, you know, Scotty Barnes, who like Hughie Brown today talked about him like he wants to adopt him. I've never heard Huey talk about a rookie like that. It looked pretty bad. I mean, like, he was forcing a lot of stuff. The turnover

were pretty ugly. Some of the, he was trying to thread the needle on so many of these passes. And it just, it was, it was bad, Scotty Barnes. He's a rookie. It's to be expected. But he's, but the other thing, too, is just that he's hurt. I mean, Joel, I don't even, Joe L's over 300 pounds, I guess, that, like, stepped directly on Scotty's ankle.

I mean, it was a major cringe moment. The report I saw was that, uh, that it was just a sprain, but, uh, I don't know. Like, if Barnes can't go, like, his mobility and his, like, lateral, like, his, ability to move laterally with guys as part of his thing, like part of his appeal. He can't move, man. That's another big problem for Toronto because he's such a weapon for them. Yeah. And again, like it's not like he was like some sort of turnover machine in his, in his minutes. It's just that look, Philly was, they were, they, they, they knew exactly how they wanted to attack Toronto offensively. And it was just like, look, like, you guys want to get in the pain and cause a lot of

troubles, we're here. Our big guys not leaving here. And even when they try to do some of their five-out stuff, it's just the Sixers were ready for them. They don't possess the level of shooting that makes you absolutely have to hug guys on the three-point line. So, you know, shout to Scotty Barnes. I love his physicality. I just love the motor that he plays with, but this series might be a little bit too big for him and his mates. So yeah, I think us basketball hipsters, Kyle. We thought we had one. You resist the basketball history.

No, I was a hipster for thinking that Toronto could do something in this series. That was a hipster instinct there. That definitely was the case. And today, like, again, Joel understands what his assignment is. And he's very keen on executing it. I just like, I like his approach. I like his disposition in game one. He was like, I'm going to dominate these guys.

And he did. They scored 70 points. And we're up by 18 at halftime. Like, you know. You know what reminds. Have you seen Game of Thrones? Have you seen Game of Thrones? Of course.

The scene where they're in the fighting pits and they're arguing about like, I think it's like Dario, whatever, he was talking with that guy. He was like, my experience, the fast man always went because he used the fast guy. Right. The other guy was like, the big guy always wins. He was like, watch nine times out of ten. And then like the fast guy kind of gets the upper hand. And then it ends with the big guy just like ripping the dudes head off and like screaming

and stuff like that. I kind of feel like that's got over. Philly just has a big guy that, like, if Toronto's not going to be able to turn them over or stop them, it's going to be a big issue. And like the shot creation, too, it's a similar thing for Memphis. These two teams are similar in that way.

But the problem is that, like, Toronto doesn't even have the options with bigs that Memphis has. So it's going to be an uphill climb. And, you know, I don't know. Just going on what we saw today, Nick Nurse is a great coach. Like, he could come out with something that could surprise. us. They have guys that could play better. Like we said, Gary Trent did not play well at all today. Two for 11, two for seven from three. Minus three. We're not going to go overboard. But like, the things that you, that people thought Philly would be able to do well against them happened today.

So yeah, y'all do with that, which y'all will. You got anything else, James? No, not off the top of my head. It's, it's, these playoffs, man, are going to be really fun. It's, I don't, I don't, dude, who was your pick for the, for the finals? I didn't, I didn't get to hear that. I'm bucks and sons. I'm basic. I'm just like, like, I watch Janus this year and just, he has the answers for every single question on both ends of the floor.

And I just don't think he's going to be denied, man. So long as Drew is able to stay healthy, um, they got Lopez back so they can do Janus at the five or they could do Janus at the four and just be extra big and smother you and make it impossible to get paint scores. It's just, yeah, I'm bucks, and I just think the Suns because of the dearth of competition in the Western Conference. And, yeah, give me the Bucks for the repeat, bro. Yeah, I actually, I picked the Sons.

Maybe I'm being a basketball hipster, but I picked Sons over Bucks in the finals. We'll see. There you go. We'll see. But I'm excited, man. This was a great first day. Like I said, that Memphis series, those young guys getting up and down the floor, I just, I just love it.

I'm really excited for the rest of it. Tell the people where they can check you out. You can see a lot of my work on our YouTube channel. You go on there and we have a lot of stuff on there that's really good. And I host a show that's in hiatus right now where we talk about like younger players, things like that, called Upside High. And yeah, and I write some things here and there on the website, the ringer.com. A lot of good stuff on there. All right, wonderful.

That's weekends with WISE on the Ringer NBA show podcast network. We'll see you guys next weekend. Well, I'll probably see you before that on group chat this Wednesday. More playoff coverage throughout the website, all of our podcast networks. That's our show today. Shouts to Isaiah Blakely for producing the show. My man Ben Hamine Cruz as well. We're out of here.

Peace.