The Ringer NBA Show - Washington Resurges, Sixers Escalate, Pelicans Sweep, and Cavs Edge One Out | Heat Check (Ep. 253)

Episode Date: April 23, 2018

The Ringer’s John Gonzalez sits down with Joe House to react to all of the weekend’s playoff action, including the Washington Wizards’ electric comeback against the Toronto Raptors (2:29), the Philadelphia 76ers’ impressive rise to contention (23:59), the New Orleans Pelicans’ surprising sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers (32:03), and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ rocky road thus far (50:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Download the Google Assistant today. Welcome to the Heat Check podcast. I'm your host John Gonzalez. Normally I am in LA. I haven't been in L.A. for a little while. Iceman is still back in L.A. I was in Philadelphia. I did not return home. Instead, I took the train down to D.C. to do a piece on the Wizards who are inexplicably still alive. You can read that piece on the ringer.com right now. You can also check out all of our other weekend playoff NBA coverage. Palo has a piece up there right now about the incredible Pelican sweep, which is just very disconcerting to me as a quasi-blazers backer, but we're going to get into that a little bit later.

And we've got a ton of NBA show stuff coming up for you every day this week during the playoffs. You're going to want to check out all of our great, awesome NBA show podcast. And normally, as you guys know, listeners to the Heat Check know that this is a rotating podcast, right? We have a rotating crew that comes through. Normally a lot of your favorite ringer personalities. But because I'm in D.C., who else would we have on? We're going to do this one time only and just do it with one guest.

But he's an amazing guest, and I'm sitting right next to him right now. He's holding up a DC Family Rally Channel, what'd you call it? Family! It's Joe House. DC Family. Welcome to the East Coast, Wongon. I know you're an East Coaster by blood and by nature and by DNA, but everybody that goes out to that left coast comes back a little confused.

So I'm glad that you are here for an extended run. You have consumed, you have witnessed some outstanding basketball, both in your own hometown of Philadelphia. And now down here in the D to the M to the V, my friend. So you and I both just got back from game four of the Wizards Raptors series. I was anticipating that this was a rap. That the Raptors came out in the game. They went up early.

They were playing very well. Bradley Beale got in early foul trouble. ended up fouling out. They were down 11 at the half. It didn't make any sense to me. The wizard's season hasn't made any sense to me. Guess what? They won.

They tied the series. They're going back to you, too. This is what happens. You use the word at the outside of this program today. Inexplicably, the Wizards have tied up this series. A series continues. There will be a game six in this series, which I'm very excited about because it means that I get to head over to the,

it's called Capital One. I've got to come up with a name for Capital One. You don't like Capital One. because it was Verizon gave up a nice VZ center, right? Let's get to the VZ. Let's go take it easy at the VZ. I got to work on Cap 1. Maybe some of our friends out there can hype us a little bit with a cap 1 attitude.

I'm not there yet. But this is precisely the theme of this almost bullet season, right? Inexplicable. And I will not bore all of our fabulous friends listening to this with a complete recitation of how weird the season has been here in Washington. No, we have to get into it. I wrote about it. I wrote about 3,000 words about the Wizards and how crazy their season has been.

Because at any point during this season, you could have looked up and been like, well, that's the end for the Wizards. There were so many different flashpoints for them where you thought that that was going to be the thing that broke their back. You know, Wall went down. He was out for two months. And then they had Satteransky in there, who you liked quite a bit. And that led to the Everybody Eats Calamity, where Wall thought that Beal and Gortot were

throwing shade at him, and then they had to walk that back, and then he came back, and they weren't playing well, and the Raptors went up 2-0, and you thought that was going to be the end, and then the beginning of the game that you and I, as we record this tonight on a Sunday night for the Monday listeners, it looked again that they were going to be done, and once again, they get up off the mat. Yes, what I say to you, Wangan, and yet, here we are, I believe on this very podcast, I observe to you that with the talent that this team has assembled and the slightly improved bench, and by slightly improved, I mean, they went from a historically bad bench for the 2016-2017 season

into a bench that is passable with some real young talent sort of, you know, coming up, which we're going to get to this very curious rotation that Scottie Brooks has come across with the, inclusion of Ty Lawson. But this iteration of the Almost Bullets, as they are presently configured in this Eastern Conference, 2017, 2018, I said to you, I'm not afraid of anybody. And here we are. It's the one seat against the eight seed. And everybody with their own two eyes can watch the last two games and reach only one

conclusion, which is that Washington is every bit as good as the Toronto Raptors. They might be. I don't know. How can you say they're not? I don't know. Right. No, I mean, they're tied to two right now. And I think, like, during the game, I tweeted this out during game four, we've had an entire

season to look at the Washington Wizards, plus half of a first round playoff series. And I still have no idea if they're any good. I have no idea if they're bad, if they're good, what they are in between. They might be as good as the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. But it doesn't make any sense to me because they limped into the playoffs. They looked terrible down the stretch. The only reason that they made the playoffs is because the Detroit Pistons were. in the nine seed.

And they gave up months ago. They quit on Stan Van Gundy months ago. So that helped them a little bit. But did you actually feel good about the Wizards going into the playoffs? Even you, even Joe House, who likes to obfuscate and like pretend that the Wizards... How dare you? They likes to pretend that the Wizards are maybe better than they are. Like, you couldn't have felt good at the end of the regular season?

Well, the only thing that I felt bad about that I was disappointed by was not limping into the playoffs and facing the Boston Celtics in the first round, which I thought was our very best chance of advancing and mainly on just the sheer, you know, the injury opportunity that Boston represents. I mean, still, with all the injuries, we're getting incredible performances out of them. You expect nothing less. I mean, Brad Stevens should win Coach of the Year

for the next five years for the job that he's done and the overperformance. I mean, Jay and Lynn Brown today, Lord have mercy, that Boston team is just relentless. And still, that's the team that I prefer, the Washington Bullets have confronted in the first round of these playoffs this year. But I certainly am not afraid of Toronto. And we certainly have seen, in this fourth quarter, it was nut-crunching time,

Wangan, my brother. And we saw some of those old tropes, some of those old familiar themes that people have characterized with the Toronto approach of saying the ball stops moving. or there's a hot potato, who's going to take the shot? Now, I have to give it up. Demarrozen is a monster. He's good. He plays like a man.

But the shot selection for them inside of the last five minutes, I'd love to go back and look at the game cast and just sort of look at where on the floor they took their shots from because they got away from the sort of successful paradigm that they've been using earlier. It felt like to me. But this was another. reason why I didn't expect the Wizards to win this game, because early on, in addition to being

down 11 at the half, they were also settling for way too many long twos. They weren't hardly shooting threes at all. They were taking way too many long twos. Welcome to the Scotty Brooks era. Welcome to the Scotty Brooks era. As you mentioned, we're very strange. So you are, you and I have talked about this on the Heat Check podcast several times. You were a Satiransky lover. Still I am. Are, excuse me, I didn't mean to make it past tense. I apologize for that. But they go and they get Ty Lawson from China. He was playing for Shandong in China. And we were talking to him the other day when I got to town.

And in game two, Scotty Brooks gave him like 30 minutes, right? And he played him early too late. It was like eight minutes into game two where he called Ty Lawson's number. And Ty Lawson told the story where he was like, I was sitting on the bench. And I heard him say my name. And I was like, wait, who? And even Ty Lawson could not believe that he just got off the plane from China and is now a part of the watch.

Washington Wizards and apparently an integral part. Well, that's befuddling. Yeah. I hadn't heard that story. Thank you for sharing it. You're welcome. It further... I tell stories for 11th.

It's further disquieting. It further sabotages my confidence. What little confidence I had left in Scotty Brooks. And the problem with this iteration of the almost bullets is that the head coach seems to be an impediment in much the same way that the head coach was an impediment in the previous iteration. Well, but so he said. said in between Canada, I guess like between when they left Canada and got to the states,

like maybe while they were going through customs or something, they had a meeting between Scott Brooks and John Wall and Brad Beale. And Brad Beale was basically like, you know, I'm not getting enough good shots. And I guess he says that Scott Brooks apologized to him for not finding him enough good looks. And then afterwards, Scott Brooks said, well, I don't know if apologize would be the right word. But whatever happened in that meeting and whatever was said and whatever they decided, All of a sudden, Bradley Beal in the next two games, he's gotten a lot of good shots.

Yes, he fouled out, but he looks like the guy that you saw as an all-star rather than the guy you saw in the first two games. I'm never going to make a joke about any of my guys going up to Canada and coming back looking rejuvenated because that's not how I roll. That's not what you do. That's not with my guys.

I'll make that joke about everybody else. But look, he looked exhausted in the first two games. I didn't think the issue was the quality of the shots. I thought it was the quality of his legs. He looked like. like he was playing flat-footed. He front-rimmed quite a bit of those shots. The last two games,

maybe he came back and got in Gilbert Arena's this hyperbaric chamber and has been getting the sleep and the ice and all the rest of it because his lift is terrific. Yeah, he looks really good. They looked as good in games three and four as they looked bad in games one and two.

And yet another reason that I didn't think that this was going to happen, that I thought that they were finished when they came back. And we talked about this. We went to dinner when I got to town. We did. We went to a fun dinner where we ate way to... I had heard about your prodigious eating ability.

And it was like, you're a marathon eater, and I wasn't quite ready for it. And we had so many things on the table that literally, I think it was a manager stopped by our table and asked if we needed another table for all of our food. The answer, of course, was yes. Yes, so they brought out more food. But while we were talking about this, I asked you about the picture from Game 2 that everybody was famously talking about where Wall and Gortat looked like they were arguing. And Bradley Beale had his head.

head in his hands. And I'm like, that's the wizards. And you said, they don't really need to like each other to play well. They haven't really liked each other. And like, they're just co-workers. And you can sometimes not get along with your coworkers and still perform well at work. And a reminder. Not us, other people. Well, we like each other. Right. Here we are. You know, groundbreaking revelation, winning cures a lot of ills, right? I mean, all of a sudden, the guy, everybody's got debt for each other and there's hugs and, you know, they're looking out for each other. They are kind of schizophrenic in that way, and that, like, they could be one moment yelling

at each other on Twitter or in person or sitting on the sideline, like, looking like they're bickering. And then they win that game, game three, and Wall and Beale did the press conference together. And they were, like, super chummy. Right. And they were laughing about how Gortat had shaved off his Mohawk. And it was, like, all good. Beloved.

I'm like, two seconds ago, you guys were, you looked like you were going to knife each other, and now all of a sudden you're hugging each other. Well, this is the beauty of the kind of moment. that we're in with the league, where every single thing is dissected ad nauseum. And so each of these instances that occurs over the course of an NBA season. And you think about that NBA season as kind of a workspace. I like that metaphor, right? And think about all of the miles that they log, all the time they spend with each other.

And it's an intense working relationship. So there's going to be disagreements. There's going to be misperceptions and indignation. and, you know, disappointments along the way. But at the end of the day, the wonderful thing about this game is that galvanizing effect. And we have seen this here in Washington. The same thing was true in 2015 when the almost bullets sweat the Toronto Raptors. The same limping into the playoffs kind of theme applied.

And Randy Whitman was under the microscope in terms of both his coaching ability, but also his longevity here in Washington. And Paul Pierce and the almost bullets went in and kicked ass. Okay, so this is such a weird thing about Washington because I feel like, and tell me if I'm wrong here, because I've talked to other Washingtonians while I've been here in D.C. about their feeling on the Wizards. And I was told, like, they kind of fall like third on the pecking order, right? It's going to be football and the baseball team.

And then, like, you could toss it in the caps and the Wizards together. And people, like, kind of have these low bar expectations for them. But then all of a sudden they tie the series. He's a 2-2, and, like, everybody's back on board. Pretty good crowd tonight, right? It was a, right? Game 3 crowd, people were kind of like, meh, they won big, we're going to go home. Game 4, great NBA crowd.

Again, to the schizophrenia, I don't think anybody here in this town, forget about just, like, those of us from outside watching as NBA observers, I think even in this town, nobody knows what to make of them. Well, here's the thing. You have to remember. It'll be a very, very quick history lesson on the Almost Bullets and where they reside in the pecking order here in Washington. Washington is a deep basketball.

town. Deep hoop heads, strong basketball tradition, high schools that are nationally renowned every single year in the top 10 of the nation's best high school programs in the country. Many of the teams here are in there. And, you know, the roster of players that have come out of the DMV is varied and deep and accomplished. And I don't need to run through the whole thing. The people in this area know hoops, they love hoops. The problem is, you're talking. You're talking about a franchise that has not won 50 games in 40 years. 40 years. 40 years.

It's insane how long it's been since they've really done anything. And in the Ernie Grunfeld era, they've never made it to, I mean, conference finals forget about it. The best they did was last year when they were down O2 against the Celtics, which is also something funny because people around here kept asking them about it and kept saying, hey, do you think you could stage another comeback like you did last year? And I'm like, are you guys talking about when they lost in seven games? Like, yeah, they were down O2, they still lost the series, but that passed for, like, a really

great outcome. Like, people were excited about maybe they could do that again. I'm like, maybe they could lose in game seven? This is crazy. I don't know. I think, like, the way that people react to the Wizards here is very curious. But they're tied to, too, too. Yes, it.

They're still alive. It's a three-game series, and I like our odds just as much as before the whole series started. They're tied to two, too. There's no reason they can't win. We're going to move on from the Wizards, because that's probably the most Wizards talk we've done on the Heat Check podcast all year, and I think we're good now. Also tied 2-2 now is the Celtics and Bucks series. Celtics won the first two, Bucks won the second two.

Celtics came back from down 20, but couldn't pull it off. They had a last second shot with like five seconds left where Marcus Morris was supposed to kick out the ball for an open three to Terry Rozier, but instead he took a baseline jumper for two and he missed. And Brad Steven said the reason why was because Brogg didn't jump down and switched, and Morris read it right and Stevens, and this is a quote from Stevens, I felt really good about that shot

with five seconds left in the game, you know who did not feel good about it. Simmons family. Oh. Boss man Bill tweeted out a text message screenshot from Dr. Bill, and Dr. Bill said, I didn't feel good about it, Brad, which I thought was pretty great.

But you did mention the Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum being monsters. Shouts to the J-Team. Yeah. They combined for 55 points. Those two guys, they have a bright future, but it's been a fun series. I have to, speaking of the boss man, Bill Simmons, I don't know how he's going to feel about me sharing this anecdote because it was in a private communication.

But he... Betray his trust for the listeners, please. As is our want, as is our inclination. We often compare notes as these games come together and we sort of observe trend lines and see things. We're looking for an advantage perhaps in the wagering halls. We are thinking about particular angles that we might play that might favor a strategy where we might try and make a dollar or two with some speculation. Always. I'm looking for a little return on investment.

And one of the themes that came up after the Celtics beat the Bucs ass pretty good, the first two games, was, I mean, I know that they went in overtime, but it took a miracle from Middleton. Who on Milwaukee can score other than the freak? Who on Milwaukee can score? Well, Middleton. I mean, Jabari played better defense today, but he hasn't been much of a factor before today's game. But if you're talking about just scoring, yeah, it's Janus, and you've got Middleton, and then you cross your fingers.

I mean, Bletso. Bletso is fine in theory. Terry Rozier's been eating his lunch. Right. But I watched today's game with kind of one eye. I was at a family gathering of sorts. So I wasn't able to see how the Bucks put the seltz in the hole so quickly. My understanding was this is the thing that's interesting and the sort of rebuttal for Brother Bill.

Who on the Celtics is going to score? I mean, you have, you need this extraordinary performance by somebody other than Tatum. Brown and Tatum killed it today. Yes. So I thought this was like sort of an interesting and interesting stat. They combined for 55 points, which was the second most points combined for in a playoff game by teammates who were 22 or younger. That's pretty good. Yeah.

KD. and Russ hold the record at 56 from 2010. So those guys, like I said, I mean, for a future. But how are you parlaying this into your gambling future? That particular angle has already been quashed. All those bets were lost. So we've already moved on. Okay. Because Milwaukee's figuring out of the score.

How's your gambling going so far this year for the playoffs? Well, I have been tried to be careful because I took a beating on the over unders, the season long overunders. We were very, we didn't expect Joelle and B. to play a whole lot of basketball in the season. He played a ton of basketball. Yeah, and he's, and you know what he's good. We're going to get into that, too.

He's good. And I've been very much enjoying. That's a bet, although it hurts, I'm kind of happy we lost it because it's such a good story. It's worth losing the money for the great story and for the incredible basketball. Yeah, it's been, well, Janus is playing some incredible basketball, too, for the bucks. And, like, that's how they've ended up tying it. I mean, he absolutely murdered them in game three. He murdered them in game four.

He had 27 points in game four, seven and five. He also dunked out. Horford, I think, out of the league. It was wonderful. And I want to just say, I regret to inform Al's family that he's no longer with us. And condolences to COC, who's probably curled up in the fetal position right now, crying. KOC has a really, like, I like Al Horford fine. Yeah. Like, Al Horford, if Al Horford's your third guy, you're doing fine. You're doing good. It still hurts that he's not here in Washington. That's a big one that screwed you, because you ended up with Yon Mahemme. Yeah. And that's like, you know, going from a Cadillac to a Yugo. I

I can't even come up. That's like going from, well, I can't use food because there's no food that tastes bad. The only food that tastes bad to me, that's like going from a delicious lobster dinner to yellow squash, boiled yellow squash. That's the most disgusting food I can come up with. Yeah, well, that's where you draw the line. My mom used to make it, and it was just inedible. Hungry enough, I feel like you would end up eating it anyway.

Where do you think, I mean, how do you see the series going, Soutics and Bucks? Because it's tied to two. And like you said, the young guys for the Sautics and. Celtics are absolutely fantastic. Al Horford no longer with us. He can't play any more basketball because he's done. Yonnis ended him. Yonis is the best player on the floor there.

Right, right. That's an old playoff rule. The Celtics advantage coaches, advantage depth. Advantage the series being on their floor for more games. That's right. But the best player in the series plays for the box. And he has somehow overcome Joe Prunty being his head coach and won two games for them. I think the Celtics are going to win.

And I think they might win the next two games. I think it's going to be a 4-2 series. I do too. I think we're headed for Sixers Celtics. It could be pretty good. Yeah, could be fun. Warriors and Spurs, it was 3-0. The Spurs won a game.

I'm sad for Pop. Yeah, I think this is like, you know, a nod to Pop and then to that whole, the situation. And they all came, rose up for this one moment, a tip of the cap, you know, a testament to the power of that family. Condolences to that family. Condolences to Pop. It's a horrible thing. And, you know, Genoblee! He did it, right?

Genobley and Parker. Some good stuff, man who hit some crazy shots. The Marcus Aldridge late in the game in Game 4 to hit this ridiculous turnaround bank shot three to, like, put them ahead. The Warriors only shot 25% from three. Clay didn't do well. All that happened is they ruined a bunch of betters who bet the Warriors to sweep. And also, reporters. What happens?

I wasn't one of them, by the way. You didn't bet it. You didn't bet that series. It's very interesting. I wanted to do it. I thought about it. In addition to ruining the gamblers, they also ruined all of the reporters

who have to go back to Oakland for another game. Like, this is a little secret that I'll let you in and about how the journalism sausage gets made. Some of us have teams that we like to watch or root for, but mostly we root for ourselves. So, like, if... I bet some of those San Antonio writers were rooting for a sweep.

Like, secretly in there, secretly deep down, they were thinking to themselves, if they lose, it's vacation time. Now, let's pursue this. a bit further, though. Because if you live in San Antonio, and you have the opportunity to fly to San Francisco, and your employers have paying for you to fly to San Francisco,

and you're getting per DM to enjoy. What do you think the per diem is? I mean, we're writers. We're not sitting out for, I mean, go down to the mission and get a burrito. Fair enough. The best places on the planet to get a burrito. Fair enough. I'm going to guess you can get a burrito in San Antonio, though. I mean, I'm probably getting a good burrito in San Antonio. But I'm saying, like, like, I hear.

hear what you're saying, in theory, you'd be like, of course, why wouldn't you want to go to the Bay Area and, like, spend some more time? Writers don't think about it that way. They think, ah, God damn it, I got to write more stories. I got to get on a plane. Who knows what time I'm getting up? Right, I got to work. It's going to happen to church. Okay.

So the series continues for the wars. And you know what? I'm happy, I'm happy for Shay, though. Yeah, is still in it. Shouts to Shea Serrano. It would have been a rough weekend for him if they got stuck because he also had to go to Dallas to promote something because he's super popular. So he got a win. The Spurs are still alive.

I mean, he's a bigger MVP. He's the ring around every Pee. Are you kidding me? It's amazing. Although I would like to say to Shea, when the Spurs do finally get ultimately bounced out, he is welcome to join the Sixers bandwagon because the Sixers, my friend, have you watched the 10-9-8-76ers? Holy shit are they good.

They pulled out yet another win against the heat. They've won 19 of their last 20 house. Simmons triple-dubled. They had 26 or 27 turnovers, the box score got changed. And they still won. Brett Brown said, like, there was basically no. no way that they should have won. He's called it unheard of to win with that volume of turnovers

because they just kept coughing the ball up at a horrible first half. And they won on the road anyway, commanding 3-1 lead for the Sixers. Do they have the four best players in the series? I mean, how many of... They have the two best players in the series. They have the two best players in the series. Who else are you throwing in there? Dwayne White's had a good series.

Bellinelli. Bellinelli's been amazing. He's hit some circus shots. Yeah. And you throw an Erson in there, too? Or JJ? Or JJ? I mean, you know, you can just take a sixer, put a sixer uniform in there, and, you know, put a shooter face on it and just call it the fourth best player.

JJ's got the freshest hair count, I'll tell you that much. My man Michael Baumann from the Ringer MLB show did not like his hair cut. I personally think it looks quite dapper. He can get away with that. It looks very dapper. He got 23 million bucks to go to the Sixers and play on a team that's probably going to the finals. I just said it. I don't know.

I'm not afraid to say it. All right. Can I slow you down a little bit? Because I got to, this is something we're going to have to pause here. This is a Philly guy. People in Philadelphia are very excited about the Sixers right now. With good reason. Okay.

They think, as you mentioned, two best players in the series. The East is wide open. This could be a year where they actually go and do something significant, right? And like, I don't want to jinx it, but we're all talking about it in Philadelphia. What we are not excited about is the you and Simmons and Cousin-Salle jinxing with you guys getting on board? I want to know when this had like, first of all, first of all, first of all, Simmons sent out a couple of tweets after the game where he said, Philly's going to win the East if they say healthy.

And he said the Sixers are like the 86 rockets or the 95 magic when it's time. It's time. Talent trumps everything. Plus, on top of that, you and Simmons and Cousin Sal bet on them. That's all true. I don't like any of this. This is like triple mush. Look, Bill Simmons said it.

And he knows some things about basketball. Talent, Trumps, everything. They have the best team. They have the most poised team. Can it trump the three of you, though? is what I want to know because I don't, like, you're getting your chocolate all up all up in our peanut butter and I don't like it.

That's the biggest hurdle. Let there be no doubt. Our triple mush is... The triple mush is in effect now. I mean, especially on this season. I'm not even lying to. I have been contacted by quite a few Sixers in Philadelphia fans begging me to beg you guys to just pick anybody else. Tell them to pay. Yeah, you can buy my piece.

You want to buy my piece? I'll sell it to you at five to one. You can have my piece at five to one. Yeah, of course. I'm in at 7 to 1. If you want to buy, if you want to pay me off five times what I went in on, great. Let's do it. Let's make a deal, Philly. It really is amazing, though, that, like, the Sixers went from at the beginning of the year

where people were like, how many games can Ambide play? Yeah, I was one of those people. And, like, isn't it too soon? They're going to have to figure out how to play together. There was the whole false thing that was super strange. It kind of remained strange. Still strange. Can't wait for that.

People were questioning whether or not Brett Brown could coach and all this stuff, right? And now all of a sudden, they've always a sudden. He's an excellent coach. And now all of a sudden they've won 19 of 20, and they're everybody's favorites, and you've got to be the masked man just crushing people. It's fascinating that it's happened this quickly. The real thing that I think the Sixers deserve credit for

is the mid-season, like recognizing what they had with these kids, and then surrounding them with Eliasova. Just a bunch of shooters. Not just that, but guys who have some miles. Oh, you like the veteran angle. I do like the veteran angle. And they've been a calming influence, right? Both of those heat games, the last two heat games, were winnable.

They were. Miami had them on the ropes. They did. Miami should have won game four. I agree with this. Should have one game four. There's no doubt about it. And they coughed it up.

And that's a weird team, too. I mean, like, when Dwayne Wade has been the best player in the series for them. And Hassan Whiteside has been basically a non-factor. Like, yeah, he played more minutes in, game four and he had a double double, but it was like an empty double double. And he's their max money guy. I wrote about this for the ringer last week. They gave him max money.

They could barely get him on the floor in the first three games. They're so weird. It's a weird team. I didn't watch enough of them. I thought they were pretty tough and pretty mentally tough. And I like Spow. I think he's a good coach. Yeah, he is good coach.

And I thought he made some adjustments as the year went on that had them poised to go do damage. And I thought the narrative for the series was going to be the Sixers were a great story. These kids are coming into their own. It's going to be fun to watch, but the heat are going to win the series because they're... Oh, you picked the heat to win the series? I did, yeah. I mean, they had the maturity.

This is what I'm talking about. What? This is what I would like you to do. We had a revelation. We had a revelation. I had a revelation after, you know, I don't want you to have any more revelations. I had an idea about what was going to happen, and then it turned out to be wrong because the heat stink.

Hassan Whiteside doesn't want to play basketball with this group that he's together with. And Goran Dragich is two steps. from being dead. So what do you want me to do? You're out on Gorge. You look terrible. The Sixers will make you look terrible. That's how good they are. I'm excited about the Sixers. I'm excited about all the other basketball that we're going to talk about. But first, we're going to take a break to talk about our sponsors. Today's Ringer MBA show Heat Check is brought to you by ZipRecruiter.

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All right, so in addition to how excited I am about the Sixers, here's how not excited I am about the Blazers. is getting swept because everybody who listens to the Heechuk podcast knows that our Heechek loyalists understand that I like the Blazers. I like watching them. I like all things Portland. They were a good team this year. Dame Lillard was in the MVP conversation. They all of a sudden went from not playing defense last year to being a very good defensive

team this year. And then out of nowhere, the New Orleans Pelicans sweep them. I don't know about you. I did not see that coming. A sweep. I mean, come on. This is part of the thing that's so great about the end. NBA and the playoffs. And you never know the particular alchemy that a team is arriving in the

playoffs with. And then they get into a matchup. And in the first, like, game, they can, they learn something about themselves and their opponent. And everything kind of changes. It's the beauty of the seven game series where a matchup can be, you know, a very bad kind of head-to-head thing. And it's really not indicative of whether or not a team, you know, whether it's good or not, whether it's objectively, a team that had proper ambition for achieving greater things than wherever they end up, like getting swept in the first round. Like, this wasn't really a referendum on whether or not Portland had a successful season, except for they had an unsuccessful season because they got swept in the first round.

You understand what I'm saying? It was a very terrible matchup for them because Anthony Davis reminded everybody, you know, y'all forgot about me. Anthony Davis and Drew Holiday were a revelation. They killed it this entire series. And I think it was really interesting to see how the Pelicans played post-Buggy. Because I thought, like, once Bougy went down, like, they were, you know, a middle of the pack covering around 500 team with Bougy. And it looked like they were going to be a playoff team.

But who knew what they could actually do once they made to the postseason? And then he goes down. And again, it looked like the same cast of characters that he's always had around him, which is like Drew Holiday and a bunch of shoulder shrugs. Like, guys, you're like, yeah, it's not good enough. all of a sudden, the Pelicans figured it out, and it was just absolutely insane. I mean, Davis and Holiday have been fantastic together. They had, what, 88 points, which tied for the NBA record for the most points ever scored by a duo in a single game to close it out in playoff history.

Michael and Scotty never did that. That was one point better than Michael and Scotty. Like, I don't understand how we missed. Everybody missed this badly on this series. I mean, it really was just like an absolute throttling from beginning to end. Blazers were never in this. This is the thing. I mentioned it at their discussion on the almost bullets and the Raptors.

Nobody would have picked the bullets, the wizards, to beat the Raptors in a sweep, a four-o sweep in 2015. It is the unique beast that is the NBA playoffs and these head-to-head matchups, and you don't know what's going on inside a locker room either. Like those Pelican guys played with a confidence, they expected to beat the Blazers' ass. And they did it, right? Like, there was never a moment where I felt like they had a waffle or they wondered. They were having any kind of misapprehension around what they. They just went out and kicked their ass, and it really didn't feel that close.

No, it really didn't. Alvin Gentry, like, in addition, because, like, everybody expected that Anthony Davis was going to be good, right? He was the best player on the floor. And Drew Holiday played really well. But Alvin Gentry said at the beginning of the series, and I laughed about this with Justin Barry and Danny Chow last week, Alvin Gentry said he's a believer in Playoff Rondo. I'm like, I'm not. That's ridiculous.

Playoff Rondo had 53 assists in four games. Oh, he exists. He rose from the dead. He might as well be on the Walking Dead zombie show. And then out of nowhere, he comes back and he starts playing well. If you had said to me at the beginning of the year that Ron, this is going to be it for Rondo. Rondo's washed. I would have bought it.

And now all of a sudden, definitely not washed. Because it's the playoffs. The playoff Rondo has arrived. It's just been fascinating to me what the Pelicans have been. been able to do. This is something that like people sort of kicked around on on Twitter. And your guy Simmons is one of them who tweeted out of a Ewing picture along with this. Are they better without Bogie? No, of course not. No, it's an absurd thing to say.

What it has created though, which is a really interesting thing to me is perhaps the best opportunity for Drew to be Drew. Like this is the guy that deserves that mega contract that everybody was scratching their heads about what do the pelicans see in this guy because he's shown flashes. We know he's a tough SOB. Yeah. So you want to always invest in a young, tough guy. That makes sense.

And he can definitely be a prolific score. He's a great on the ball defender. Yeah. But like 27 million, 26 million? Is that, you know, what are we talking? Is this going to be like the Otto Porter kind of deal? But I think boogie's injury and the last like, you know, 30 games of the regular season and into the playoffs.

have been the very best opportunity for Drew to be Drew. And I also think... I'm happy for him because when he left the Sixers, it kind of like jump started the process, and I was happy about that. But I'm glad he's found success in New Orleans. I also think the mid-season pickup of Meritich, very underrated. This team...

Very underrated. Staggered that this works. I'm staggered that this works. What chances... I mean, so it looks like they're barreling towards a... Like, unless the Spurs pull out an all-time crazy comeback. It's going to be the Warriors. Maybe they steal a game.

steal a game. Steal a game. They might win, too, because this Golden State team keeps on. It's a weird matchup. Anthony Davis, they don't have it. I mean, like, I don't know who they guard. No, I don't, look, the Warriors are going to win that series for sure, but I'm saying, like, that's a weird matchup.

It's going to be really fun to watch because this is, we've been asking for a couple of years now. Can we please see Anthony Davis at the height of his powers? Also, and you guys did mention this on your food podcast. New Orleans Bay series for food. Yeah, pretty good. That's an excellent food podcast. I wish I was a see a few. If I was a beat writer, this would be one.

Then I would be excited about it. Then I'd be excited about it. Before we move on, the Blazers. So this season for them was a huge success right up until it wasn't. Right up until the playoffs. Great point. So KOC wrote a piece on Friday about blowing up the Blazers. We call him KOC Stradamus around the ringer because he predicted this.

He's like, even before they got swept, he was like, hey, is it time. Neil Lashay in the exit interviews, the GM for the Blazers. I was like, where were all these people who, I'm quoting him now, we're all these people who wanted to see sweeping changes 10 days ago. They were the ones bouncing off the walls 10 days ago when we had the third seed for the first time since 2000. You don't take four games and overreact and take away what you accomplished in 82 games. He said, don't overreact.

House, let's overreact. Should they blow it up? I don't know. I mean, I really don't have a good answer for this because I think that they just ran into a terrible matchup kind of situation. They got caught in the NBA playoff alchemy machine, and it was just science was against them. It was just a DNA problem.

And I think O'Shea is right. Like, you, Olshea. Yeah, it's a hard name to pronounce. Because you have to put the Ewan. You've got to put the Ellen. I mean, I went to Irish Catholic for college. I mean, all I know is the O'Shea's. But the problem is he's kind of right.

Like, which is the true Blazers team? Is it the team that rattled off, what was it, 18 of 19, as the end of the season, and then they went and grabbed the three seed. They didn't, but, you know. Yeah, they had to beat the jazz at the end. It was a seizing. I mean, and it was like a very encouraging step

in the evolution of this group with this backcourt, and they were really vindicated for what they did with Nurkich. That was a great acquisition. So what's the identity? Who do they intend to be? Are they just a piece away? I don't know. Well, that's the thing.

And, like, who could you go out and get? And, like, how do you change the roster? One of the ways you could potentially change the roster, and this is something the KOC tweeted out as well, where he put out a poll, if you were going to trade one between Dame Lillard and C.J. McCollard, who would you rather keep? Neither. I just wouldn't do it. That's not entertaining that.

You're just going to. I actually wouldn't blow it up. And McCollum brought up a really good point. He said, like, people will have to write about something. You're going to talk about something when you get swept. But he made a good point. point that, like, a lot of cities would like to have a team that went to five straight playoffs.

And they have one of the best backcourts in the NBA. And I don't think I could bring, if I were Neil Olshay, I don't think I could bring myself to trade one of them. Like, they're both really, really good. Yeah, I wouldn't do that either. So, Portland, that sucked, but you had a great season. And, like, yeah, I think you run it back next year and you hope for the best. I agree.

Rocks and Wolves, Houston Rockets. This is, like, the least interesting series to me so far. Why do you say that? I know, it just, it's been a weird. series, like Carl Anthony Towns wasn't good in the first two games. He bounced back in the second game. They picked up a win. Houston leads to one.

Cat had 18 and 16. It was fine. Jimmy G. Buckets had 28 points. The Wolf shot 50% from the floor. Dan Tony and Hardin were like, you know, we didn't have a rhythm. The Rockets are going to win the series. Is this series been interesting to you? Yeah, it is interesting to me because I feel like it's an indication of the rocket ceiling.

Right? The Rockets have real ambition. And a lot of the NBA commentariat is ready for some new blood in the NBA finals. And the sort of, you know, the way before the playoffs started, folks were sort of circling Houston as the most likely replacement for either the calves or the Warriors. And I and lots of other folks, you know, wanted to see some games get played before we were. Oh, you weren't buying it. The Rockets had an amazing season. Yes, that's right.

I was very much buying it. I still very much am buying it. They're going to be fine. Look, we have a large sample size to know what kind of basketball they play and how fast they play and how well they shoot from three. And that the reason why they play so heavy ISO ball is KOC and our friends at the Ringer put together a wonderful video explaining it, they're scoring off their first and second actions.

I mean, they're not really moving the ball because they don't have to because they have such a fantastic team of shooters and scorers. I really like this team. And they played great defense this year. And yeah, those were all wonderful. regular season accomplishments and congratulations on all those accolades. To my way of thinking

from the basketball that I've observed, I think this series should be 2-1 T-Wolves because I think the T-Wolves played plenty well enough to go take game one. Game one. What, the Daryk Rose game? 44 points. I want to do a real quick

on T-Rose. Do it real quick. Go ahead. I think he might have gone to Canada. I mean, let's be honest. Have you seen his spring? God, his burst. is back. He looks great. His legs look awesome. He's getting to the rim. He's fearless.

I don't know how much. This is the most amazing take. You should be doing this on NBA desktop. How much rest has he had? It feels like three years worth of rest. And speaking of the hyperbaric chamber and the centrifuge in Germany and, you know, whatever else, the balm and the playlets and the cream. Yeah, all of it. He's got, I don't know where the juvenileation came from. He is rejuvenated. There's the juvenated and the rejuvenated. I'm in. I love this version of D. Rose. Get to the hoot D. Rose. I think this is hilarious. Right now, somewhere Jason Concepcion is laughing and screaming about spice because that's

some spice. Let me just tell you something. And this is definitive. There are, like, you could check the numbers and all the analytics. If you're saying that Derek Rose is your guy and that's the chance of winning the series, you have already lost. It's already over. I'm not saying that.

And that, by the way, and I don't mean to jump in. Jimmy Butler is the guy. and Carl Anthony Towns is the guy, and if you have to rely on Derek Rose, you are fucked. This is the problem with the Indiana Pacers. They have a Lance Stevenson problem. It is precisely that construct.

Now, here's the thing, and I don't mean to jump into the Pacers Cavs series. Which we will, it's still going on. We're going to get to it at the end. Yeah. But until the revelation of Bogboi, I mean, the boy on Bogdovich, 30 point or out of nothing.

Did I get it right? Which Bogdavich? which is this one. Boy, that's right. He's a bog boy. I mean, we have our blog boys

here at the ringer. That's right. My bog boy. God forbid, we've re-signed him here in Washington. It sure would have been nice to have a guy

at that two-three slot to back up Bradley Bill when Bill had to go out fouled out. But, you know, we had all that money invested in Jan Mahimmi. So, you know,

we didn't have all that when I showed up to do the podcast with you tonight at your wonderful K Street digs, this massive... It's how we do it here in D. amazing office.

You immediately went on a Bogdanovich ran and how the wizards let him go and how they could have definitely used him when Beal was out and it still sticks in your crawl a little bit. You're right. All right, so let's talk about Thunder and Jazz. The Jazz are up to one. They got another game, Ricky Rubio this time, with a triple double, which is crazy at 26 points.

He's scoring all over the place and looking very handsome, by the way. Like, where are you on his top knot, his samurai topnot look? I think it's very, very, very on brand. I love. But here's the thing. Shouts to Megan Schuster, by the way, my ringer homie who also likes Ricky Rubyo. Well, I don't think we can continue to call him Ricky.

So many of our... Rick, I call him Rick. This is it. A ringer brethren have, he's matured. He's Rick Rubio. He is Rick Rubio. We're officially at the point where he deserves a Rick. And he single-handedly changed the outcome of that game.

And I can't tell you how much I enjoy what the jazz are doing to the thunder. I am such a non-believer in the thunder construct. And this is the wonderful thing about the NBA. Because last summer, it felt like the executive of the year was done. Just give the award to Sam Presti on August the 15th. He went out and stole P. George. And he added in Mellow. And here we are three games in the first round of the NBA.

First of all, OKC underachieves by quite a. But I ask you this. Where is Paul George going to play next season? That's a great question. I mean, in theory, I liked the three-man triumvirate, right? I was like, oh, this is going to be good. This is going to supercharge the thunder. They're going to be back in the mix.

I don't know if it works. And I don't know if he knows that it works. He was really good in game one. And then since then, the thunder, I mean, this has been the thunder all year long. Because you mentioned the thunder being underachievers, while the jazz have been overachievers this year. But the Thunder all year long, you think, okay, this is the moment where they're going to, at like so many points during the season, you thought, this is the moment where they're going to finally take that step forward and be three all-stars on the same team and go crush people.

And they take one step forward and they take one step back. They just kind of stumble through the whole year. To be fair, they are missing their obvious MVP, Andre Roberson, because as soon as he went out, the whole thing, well, I'm just saying he must be the MVP of the team because as soon as he went out, the stretch that they were on of really sort of riding the ship, they were, they've been completely at a loss ever since. They haven't been able to replicate the defensive effort. And it looks to me just like effort.

I don't know enough about OPC. I don't understand it, but it just looks like effort to me. The effort part is a really good point because Russell Westbrook was guarding Ricky Rubio for a lot of the evening. Guarding? Okay, well, here's the thing. Russ, being Russ, started like chasing a triple double. And then when he looked up and found out that Ricky Rubio had a triple double after the loss,

Russ said he made shots too comfortable, but I'm going to shut that shit off next game, though, guarantee that. That was hilarious to me. That was like one of those, well, like, wait till I see him next time he better cross the street. Like some guy just kicked your ass and you're like, I'm going to get out. He better cross the street when he sees me. Russ, you had an opportunity to go play defense and you didn't and you're talking about the next game? This is the essential RWB, the quintessential Brody. This is the essence of the dude who chased the triple double all season last.

season, MVP, one of the, you know, go down in the annals as one of the worst MVP's in the history of the National Basketball Association, and he backed it up this season with a highly underwhelming inability to figure out a way to make other guys better, including current all-stars and former all-stars. I've never been a Westbrook fan. I felt like he was holding KD back. Last season was a hoops perversity, and I called out all the hoops perversity. I called out all the Hoops Perverts that voted for him for MVP. I'll call him out again. And here we are in this perverted moment.

And look, we're in the exact same position. If they don't write the ship in this series against the Jazz, they lose this series. They're starting at Square Zero. It's crazy. And also, I like Russ afterwards saying that a lot of shit is going on with my body, but that's everybody right now. And Billy Donovan was asked about that. Like, hey, is Russ hurt? He said that a lot of shit's going on with his body.

He goes, yeah, I don't know. He looks fine to me. Like, which made me laugh. So Billy Donovan's like, yeah, he's full of shit. I don't know what you're talking about. Also, we should just give credit to the jazz because I think a lot of the time we talk about the Thunder because it's an easier storyline. We talk about the three superstars and what they're doing or not doing.

And like, we focus on that. The jazz, as I said, and I wrote about this, Quinn Snyder has done a wonderful job with them. Ricky Rubio has played really well lately. Rudy Gobert has been excellent. Donovan Mitchell, not the rookie of the year, but a very, very good rookie. And the rookie that they need because they need scoring. So kudos to the jazz.

They're pretty deep, and it doesn't hurt to have the defensive player of the year. And as far as I'm concerned, every single year that Gobert plays and plays more than, say, 55 games, he's the defensive player of the year. Because he just changes so much about what happens on the floor. If you can't shoot inside of the paint, you can't even approach the paint, it just forces such an awkward kind of thing. And guys find it's a perfect matchup for the jazz to go against a team with two players who have a history. of lazy mid-range to long-range twos. And that's the thunder in the form of RWB and Mello. Mello, by the way, is going to take somebody's head off

with one of these shots. Have you been watching his misses? Yeah, it's not great. I mean, they're not even bricks. He has not looked good. The Thunder have not looked good. They're decapitators. Thunder better get their shit together.

The series is going to be over real quick. All right, the last game of the weekend just wrapped up House. We watched it in your office. The Cavaliers pulled it out. What a crazy season it's been for the Cavaliers. They beat the Paisers. for it's now tied 2-2. I don't feel good about either of these teams right now.

I think if I had a pick, I'd rather put some money on the Pacers. I know the Cavs just won a game, but everything they do is like an ugly grinding out, beg and pray and hope to whatever basketball God that you observe. And it's working. They're still alive for now, but do you feel good about the Cavs? No, that's their identity right now. And I anticipated in the same way we talked. talked about Washington and a galvanizing effect and smoothing over any kind of differences that

might occur over the course of the season, there might be for the calves a different kind of galvanizing effect, but one that would make them the kind of contender that we anticipate the calves to be for the winners of the Eastern Conference. And that is the chemistry that is still pretty tenuous with this group because they've been playing together for all of 60 days on the calendar. The interesting thing to me is there is one very important player for the Cavaliers that has so far in this series almost entirely sucked. And that is Kevin Love.

Yeah, you were excited to give him heat. Well, he has shot from the field in three of the four games. Did you write this down on a tiny post-a note? I just need to see this under 40. He's well under 40%. in three of the four games. He had a good game three, I believe, and shot like seven of 13 or so.

But, you know, he has scored nine points, 15 points, 19 points, and tonight, a lowly five points. Yeah. That's just not getting it done. And I don't know if it's a function of the rotation, is if it's a function of the inexperience of Tailu and this group, what to attribute this to. But the problem with the cavalier.

is Jeff Green is playing 24 freaking minutes. Yeah, well, I mean, they don't have a lot of options, though, right? Because you look at their rotation right now, George Hill was out. They had to start Jose Calderon at point guard, which immediately I saw that come across my push notifications, and I thought, oh, no, that's really bad news. I mean, Jose is completely and totally wash, but they somehow pulled out this game, and they lost game three when they probably should have won game three and then lost game four. Game three, the final shot was a heaved by J.R. Smith that didn't go in.

And shouts to Haley O'Shaughnessy, our colleague at the ringer, who tweeted out, JR with a chance to win at the buzzer is not a sentence the Cavs wanted to hear. And it, like, it didn't go well for them. I mean, like, you've got J.R. playing 35 minutes. As you said, Kevin Love's not playing well. They had to get 26 minutes out of Corver, who he actually did okay. But they don't have a lot of offense from anywhere. And then defensively, they haven't had really anybody who was capable of guarding Victorola

Eladipo. It's a weird series. It's a slow series. It's an ugly series. The basketball is bad. I don't mind. This is the thing. And I will own up. I have been disrespectful towards the Pacers all season long. I just don't believe in them. I've been very impressed by their ability to rejuvenate on the fly. They're very quick reassembly, like, you know, putting themselves in a position to take assets in exchange for Paul George and really, see what these a couple of young guys have in them. And like, what a, what a great trade it turned out to be for them with the Oladipo. Like that, that's a rarity of like nearly 90 cents, maybe more than 90 cents on the dollar

of Paul George for Oladipo when you add in the sub bonus component as well and what he represents to the depth and all of it. It's really, it's interesting because they're two completely different approaches. Like, obviously it's for the cabs, as we said, like I don't like their team because they're not getting anything out of anybody but LeBron. And it's all LeBron. And if it's not all LeBron, they're screwed, right? But then with the Pacers, it's very much a team.

They had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven guys score in double figures in game four. They lost. But that goes to, like, how they play, right? They are, aside from Victor Oladipo, and anybody on their team could be having a night type of team. I mean, like, they very much, like, they share the ball, they move it around. And that's exactly the problem. That's why you don't like about this.

Well, they have O'ODipo's their main guy, but I'm saying they have a better supporting cast than the Cavs do. So we watched, I made you come look over my shoulder. Yes, we watched it on your computer screen. I said, look how many points the Pacers have scored inside the last six minutes. Because this is, this is, it's winning time, right? They got to 92 points and then, basically, until the three that Ola Depot hit to get them up to 100 points, they'd only scored three points over the balance of most of that six minutes. And, you know, the calves converted a few opportunities. That's the difference in the game.

And that is a function of the Pacers not having many viable options besides Ola Depot when it's nut crunch in time. Yeah. Ola Depot is their main guy. I'm going to get Lance or I'm going to get Bogdanovich or I'm going to get, you know, where's Miles Turner? He's not even getting touches inside the six minutes. Miles Turner had a good game, though. But they lost. You bring up a good point.

But like with the Cavs, I just wonder, even if they can. get out of this series. I wonder how sustainable this is because you see so many games in this four-game series so far where LeBron looks completely exhausted because he has to do so much all the time. I mean, he played 46 minutes in game four.

Like, he's like out there for everybody. I mean, he's basically doing the halftime show. He's refereeing the game. He's trying to, like, sweating his ass off. I mean, he's got to be absolutely wiped by now. If they get out of this, I wonder if that's going to take a toll. Well, here's the thing with this chemistry experiment that they're pursuing. What if George Hill and Rodney Hood and Kevin Love, those are the scoring, their primary scoring options,

and then the secondary scoring options in the form of Corver and maybe a little Clarkson, you know, maybe a taste of Clarkson. You can't keep giving Jeff Green 24 minutes. That's crazy. But I'm just as a what if. Those are the guys that you need, like, where is Rodney Hood? You need... You made this move.

17 to 24 points a night from him. You know that he has the capacity to do that. The problem for Rodney is this trade is not looking good for him and his agent in terms of what future they might have in mind. Because this is the very best opportunity for him to be in the national spotlight. And either you're up to it and you elevate and you're on the national state. and you're scoring at a rate because he's a scorer. Rodney Hood is a score. He's a stone cold score.

But if we ain't seeing it, we ain't seeing it, Wang. We did not see it. It did not look good. What did look good, and I have to ask you about this real quick before we wrap it up, they did matching suits, the Cavs did in games three and four. I love a nicely tailored suit. What did you think of that?

Because it didn't work out in game three, and then game four, they went like more of the Reservoir Dogs, classic black, white, black. I love it all. There's no piece of it that I can take issue with. I think it's very lovely. Obviously, they have a tailor. So who's the tailor?

One, did they get the measurements? How did all this happen? My theory would be LeBron. Everything with this team begins and ends with LeBron. And I think this is an inspiration that he felt and he brought it and he's trying to, look, this is, we've been talking a chemistry experiment. So you go to some of these other ways to build that camaraderie. For guys, he doesn't really know that well, right?

It doesn't spend any time with these dudes. It hasn't been to war with any of these guys. Let's make everybody look good because if you, as you know, one good. Oh, do it. Do it. Oh, I can't. Look good. I know.

Feel good. It's better. It's better to look good than it is to feel good. Yeah, it's excellent. This was fun. We've got a lot more basketball coming up for you this week on the ringer. Tomorrow you're going to get Verno and KOC. You've got group chat on Thursdays.

You've got draft class on Fridays. Of course, Bill Simmons is going to talk about basketball all the time. Oh, my God. Oh, wow. He's very excited about it. I want to thank Isaac Lee for producing this. I want to thank my man Joe House for doing this in his office. Very late on a Sunday night in Washington, D.C.

after his almost bullets, we call him the almost bullets. I do it. You call him the almost bullets. But they won. They won. They won. They won. It's a two.

Was it going to be a game six here in D.C.? It's tied at two. It's very exciting stuff. But we're going to have all kinds of basketball for you throughout the playoffs. I will be back next week on the Heat Check podcast from points unknown. I was in Philly, now I'm in D.C. Who knows? I might be an ally.

Nobody knows where I'm going to be, but I will be back on this program. Thanks for listening, everybody. Joe House, thank you. It is better to look good than it is to feel good. See ya.