Nick Wright breaks down the New York Knicks losing home court advantage vs. the Detroit Pistons and how they can bounce back. Then, Nick recaps game 2 between the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard’s insane night. Later, Nick goes series by series, analyzing what he has seen so far, including how LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and the Los Angeles Lakers will rebound vs. Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves, if the Houston Rockets can save their season vs. Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, and if the addition of Damian Lillard will be too little too late for Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. Finally, as always, Nick and Damonza answer your questions.
0:00 - Intro/Missed the Cut
3:58 – Clippers take control vs Nuggets
23:35 – Pistons even series with Knicks
35:53 – What the Lakers need to fix to beat the Timberwolves
44:39 – Can Rockets comeback vs the Warriors?
52:58 – Dame returning too little too late for Bucks?
56:14 – Playoff blowouts
59:31 – Nick and Damonza answer your questions
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome in What Driving the Cred Episode three twenty two.
Fresh off a great night of playoff basketball, I was
at the Garden for Nick's Piston, so I did miss
the first quarter ish of Clippers Nuggets, which is just
going to be an absolute war, and I think every
(00:24):
game is going to look like the first couple games did,
where it comes down to the final seconds. I also
will say this, you know, it's always important in life to,
you know, stay even keeled, not get too high, and
not get too low. Last seventy two hours, for the
first time since I've lived in New York, got in
(00:45):
a car accident. My fault wrecked my beautiful, just work
of art car that I love so much, and I lost.
I've lost every single bet I've made in these NBA playoffs,
So you know what, sometimes you need that you need
to just kind of be brought flying a little too high,
get brought back down to earth. I did. Everything I
(01:07):
did this weekend are the exact things I've tried to
counsel Demonsee on not doing distracted driving, check chasing my losses,
check betting games that I don't really have a feel for,
just because I'm trying to get even on the other one,
check all of it, and so you know, it was
(01:29):
just a really real tour de force. But I'm not
gonna let that bring me down. Good to see you
as always, demondse Happy.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Ladies Easter, Happy Lady Easter. Just stay there. You bring
yourself back out of that.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Exactly right. And this is a big moment. The next
nine hours me deciding, you know what, even though I
am certain the Lakers are evening the series, and even
though I have an opportunity to pull myself out of
(02:00):
the hole with an oversized Lakers money line, bet I'm
not gonna do it. Because if I do that, even
if I you know what, just let's just take a
quick breather. Let's just take a quick breather. Enjoy the games,
you know, reset, you take a survey of the landscape,
because the other thing. You always counsel yourself not to
do this, but it is so hard not to overreact
(02:23):
to all these games. And so I watch Piston's Knicks
and we're gonna get into a Piston's next game one
and I'm like, ah, the Knicks are just so much better.
These kids aren't ready. And then I'm there yesterday, I'm
like man, the Pistons have been the better team seven
of the eight quarters.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Of this series.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Like maybe I had that exactly exactly wrong, and so
all of that, here's what missed the cut. Cooper flag
declares for the draft, we knew that was coming. Jalen
Milroe says he's faster than Lamar Jackson. I don't know that.
I believe he might be faster than Lamar is today.
I don't think he's faster than Lamar, and Lamar came
(03:04):
out of the draft. And because our producers are just
so desperately incredibly afraid of aliens and robots, they have
put in there that evidently robots. Ryan Beijing Half Marathon
reminder to everyone watching in the chat, we greatly appreciate you.
Like great subscribe review. It's always we always hit a
(03:26):
bit of a lull. It feels like in subscriptions after
we hit a big round number, because it's like, well,
we're so far away from the next thing, but it
really the next milestone wasn't two hundred thousand, it was
two hundred and fifty thousand. It feels like you get
to one hundred thousand and then a quarter million, so
we're fifty thousand away forty nine thousand away. We'd like that.
(03:47):
We also were trying to up the audio subscription, so
if you're on iTunes Spotify, check that out now. Demand's
let's get to what has been two classic games in
Nuggets Clipper Thus far, it has more than lived up
to the hype. I think most people thought this would
be the most competitive Round one series. It has been.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Go ahead. Uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Kawhi went off last night for thirty nine. Seemed like
he was hidden just about every shot, and that was
enough to beat the Nuggets by three points. Jokic did
his usual stuff on offense. He had a few turnovers
that he had seven and his free throw for his
free throws were not hidden. Do you think the Clippers
took control of this series with the last game.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I don't think anyone's in control of this series, and
I don't think anyone's going to be in control of
this series. The Clippers avoided what would have been emotionally
very tough to overcome, which is two opportunities to win
on Denver's home court and not and going over to that,
(04:51):
to me, would have been more devastating than if these
games it had been in law Los Angeles. Then obviously
you can deal with it if you're in if you're
in Los Angeles, and well, I know that's not right.
They needed to get a split given how well they
(05:14):
played and the opportunity to steal those games. The story,
of course, is Kawhi Leonard now James Harden. After the
game comes out and it's like, listen, Kuhi has always
been disrespected or whatever it is, that's not true. I'm
not gonna I'm not going to allow for revisionist history.
I actually think Kawhi Leonard, throughout his NBA career has
(05:36):
never once ever been underrated. I think he has either
been properly rated or he had a brief period of
time right when he signed with the Clippers when he
was a touch overrated. He's never been underrated, and everyone
has always understood that a healthy Kawhi Leonard is a
playoff monster. The question is has been the last few
(05:59):
years hasn't even really been a question, just been an answer.
We're not getting healthy Kawhi Leonard in the playoffs this year.
Through two games, you're getting it. He was okay in
Game one yesterday, though, was the first truly great Kawhi
Leonard playoff moment we've had in a couple of years.
(06:21):
As you mentioned, he couldn't miss fifteen of nineteen from
the field. What was he ten of eleven in the
first half? Thirty nine points, five assists, Good defense in
a game in a night that Harden didn't really have it,
that Norman Powell that the tiny violins were out because
(06:41):
poor Norman Powell had his all star reserve spots stolen
by Lebron James showing up to the game. Norman Powell
didn't have it, and Kawhi was exceptional, and I was
skeptical on what we were going to get from Kawhi
in this game because of how the schedule fell a
(07:02):
lot of these guys, or a lot of these series,
I should say, you had two days between games one
and two for Clippers Nuggets. They played Saturday night and
then to Monday night. And when you had that Saturday
night game go to overtime, you had and we again,
we did a bonus pod yesterday and we're gonna do
(07:26):
a bunch of those during these NBA playoffs. So we're
not gonna do too much on Game one of that
series today because we now have had Game two. If
you want to hear my thoughts on game one on
that series. You can check it out on YouTuber on
the podcast feed. But game one going to overtime Saturday night,
and then a quick turnaround Game two at altitude, when
(07:47):
Kawhi and Harden both played forty plus minutes. I was
really skeptic or pessimistic is probably the right word about
how sharp Kawhi was going to look. And while Harden
looked a little fatigued, Kawhi absolutely unequivocally did not. And
(08:08):
he was the best player on the court, Which does
bring us to Nikolejokic, who you do not to. You're
not gonna kill the guy, but fair is fair. He
is universally regarded as the best player in the world.
(08:29):
That was a game his team could have won, and Jokic,
for the first time, honestly in a couple years, I thought,
had a downright bad playoff game. I guess you could
argue Game seven again last year against the Timberwolves, just
by virtue of blowing that big of a lead at home.
(08:52):
But Jokich seven turnovers in the fourth quarter, three turnover.
You mentioned the miss free throw late he had By
the way, he missed two free throws late in game one,
they were able to overcome it after the biggest play
(09:14):
of the game in Game one, he trusted and open
Russell Westbrook to hit that three. That was why you
know that the Clippers were daring him to take. Last night,
after was a Christian Brown's awful shot, Jokich had Aaron
Gordon wide open in the corner, the spot Gordon likes instead,
(09:36):
and it was very uncharacteristic. He took the shot. It
wasn't even close. He was kind of flopping about throughout
the night. And that was the first game in a again,
depending on how you judged, just the game seven team
wide meltdown. And I know he had a triple double.
(09:57):
And I'm curious you can put in the the chat
Daniel that I can see or in this you know
our notes if you think I'm being unfair Daniel or
resident Nuggets fan and you're allowed to have bad playoff games.
Even the best player in the world can have bad
playoff games. It was just jarring to see him that
lose with the ball and to see a game that
(10:20):
the Nuggets could have won. But he's got aware that
he was a big part of the loss. And so
I think that if you are the Clippers through two games,
the most optimistic thing for the Clippers through two games,
other than stealing home court is you're kind of happy
(10:44):
with how you've dealt with Joker, And I know it's
a testament to his greatness, But twenty nine to nine
to twelve, Game one on fifty percent, which is about
as low of a percentage as he's gonna show in
a game twenty six ten or twelve and ten with
seven turnovers, again on fifty percent. Game one horrendous defensively
(11:12):
in the first quarter, and then tighten it up and
Game two really loose with the ball late. So I
think most of us, if you picked the Nuggets like
I did, the argument and the thought process was with
respect to Zubats, who did as good of a job
(11:34):
as anyone in the league this year guarding Joker. You
thought Joker would be so far and away the best
player in the series that it would be enough to
overcome the fact that the Clippers are a deeper team
up to this point. That has not been the case,
and it is not something I think will continue. But
(11:57):
it also would be almost disrespectful to his place in
the league to not acknowledge, Hey man, need more from
Joker in a game that's in the balance like last night.
And here's the other piece that worries me for the Nuggets.
(12:19):
So Michael Porter Junior, after being put on ice in
game one, they put him in in Game two. He rebounded,
He played his thirty three minutes, hit him threes, fifteen points,
fifteen rebounds. He had a few turnovers as well. I
mean the twenty turnovers for the Nuggets just killed them,
and going fourteen of twenty two from the line didn't
help either. But the other piece of that is after
(12:42):
the game he talked about injuring I think his shoulder.
They do not have the depth. This is one of
the reasons Calvin Booth is no longer employed as the GM.
They do not have the depth to have any of
their five startup missed time because you're already you're playing
(13:05):
your five starters, crazy heavy minutes playing Russell Westbrook, in
my opinion, more minutes than is really you know safe. Now,
I know Demons sometimes thinks I'm too hard on Russ,
and Russ has not been a problem this series.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
La Yeah, what he needed to do, no.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
No, no, and and in game one he hit the
huge three. He had some amazing offensive rebounds. He also
had another eternal save.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah yeah, I mean it was.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
The full game. One was the full Russell Westbrook experience.
Game two, like twenty minutes from RUSS is about fine,
But if Michael Porter Junior's out, you're talking forty minutes
from RUSS. Because Jalen Pickett cannot be in these games.
Peyton Watson they want to trust, they clearly don't. And hell,
(14:03):
last night you put DeAndre Jordan on the court for
five minutes like so they just are not deep enough
if Michael Porter Junior is truly banged up. So that
is up to this point in the playoffs, I thought
we had a super impactful and it would have been
an absolute shame of an injury on Easter because I
(14:25):
thought Jason Tatum broke his hand the way he was reacting.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, Joe knew he didn't.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Miss Joe is an insane person. I know that's like
not breaking news to anyone else, but I used to
think Missoula's kind of demeanor was a bit. But if
you guys haven't seen the clip, so Jason Tatum goes
(14:54):
up for Lea, but it wasn't Did you think that
was a dirty foul? I didn't think it was a
dirty foul.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I didn't think it was dirty. I also kind of,
I honestly did not think that Tatum was about to
have some long lasting injury after he got up.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So so here's the thing. The foul and the fall
all looked normal, right, It just everything looked normal, however,
and you're you're gonna laugh at me. When I saw
the way he was grabbing his wrist, like his hand
and his wrist like this, and then I also saw
(15:30):
the way he fell, I was like, well, that's exactly
how I fell a year ago when I broke my arm,
and exactly when I broke my you know, arm, wrist whatever,
And it's exactly how I you know, when I fell,
how I tried to break my fall just kind of
awkwardly palms down and I was like, I mean you
(15:53):
And so I was like, oh, that certainly is a
mechanism where and it doesn't even hurt that bad. It's
just like, oh shit, like you know what I mean,
I just broke my arm, and the way he was
holding it, I was like, oh no, like this is
his shooting hand. That it's I thought he was going
(16:17):
to be out. Who did not think he was going
to be out was Joe Missoula. The trainer is trying
to go over to Tatum, and Missoula says, like, stops him,
and then you see him yell, get up like just
a madman.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
But I think the guy's received that well and and
I think you I don't want to say he was
one hundred percent correct for going about it like that,
but at the end of like you saw, Tatum was
not hurt, like is the waist and I think it's
it's also your arm you could get up.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
But yeah, yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
So all right, so let's do a couple follow ups
for because we're Clippers Nuggets. I the more all of
the story for me just quickly as Michael Porter Junior's injury.
The reason I even got on the Tatum thing was
if he has to miss time, it's our first significant
injury of the postseason. And if there's any news on
(17:14):
that that anybody has just like texted to me or
put it in the doc. I haven't seen anything other
than his postgame comments last night, which were somewhat alarming.
All right, what are our follow ups? Where you get
to Nick's pistons.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
How many players in the league are you taking in
the playoffs over at healthy Kawhi.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Joker for sure, Giannis for sure, Luca for sure, I Shay,
I think has earned it by this regular season, Steph
(17:56):
lebron Man, and I think that's the So here's here
is the thing. I so, and this is where I
think we have to be like honest, like we can
be respectful to what he did last night and you know,
even odd by what he did last night without kind
(18:20):
of over stating, you know, the his his game to
game impact. So like Game one of this series, that
was healthy Kwhi he had twenty two points on fifteen shots,
good efficiency and seven turnovers. So that is like, that's
(18:45):
that just is what it is. Now last year he
was not healthy. In the playoffs. Two years ago, he
was healthy those first two games. And in Game one
two years ago against Phoenix, he was a lot like
he was last night. He had thirty eight points on
fifty four percent from the field in a win, and
(19:07):
in Game two he had thirty one points in on
fifty five percent and a loss. I So here's I
guess the point I'm making Healthy Kawhi is an awesome
playoff performer, and the way he raises his game in
the playoffs is really the stuff of legends. But we
(19:31):
don't need to act as if you know that meme
people put up sometimes like they show you an athlete,
like there's like four NBA players and they'll show you
Steph Curry and it's like but with shack size, or
they'll you know, it's like add one attribute to these
(19:54):
great players. We don't need to act as if the
only thing standing between Kawhi being, you know, the greatest
player of all time is his health. Like, Kuhi is
an awesome player and health robbed him of a bunch
of great playoff runs. But Kawhi at his peak was
never the best player in the world. And so a
(20:16):
healthy Kawhi I am not going to put over Jannis,
Luca or Joker, all of whom either have been or
will be the best player in the world. And I'm
not right now, I don't think Kawhi is going to
be better the rest of these playoffs than Steph or Lebron.
And so I understand Lebron had a really bad game one,
and if we want to argue the Lebron. Think Lebron's
(20:38):
seven years older than Kawi, that Kawhi has passing, so
be it. So I think that's right where he lands
in that hierarchy. I don't think that's disrespectful to him.
I also think it's worth noting that this year on
his team, James Harden was the best player, so like
now James Harden's the opposite as far as his playoff
(20:59):
performance plummets. So I'm not I'm not at all trying
to take away last night was the best game anyone's
had in these playoffs so far. I think that's pretty clear.
Yeah right, there's there's no one I'm missing. With that said,
(21:19):
there's only been ten games like and so now it'll
when the playoffs are over, it'll still be one of
the best games. But yeah, so that's that's where I
have it shake up. All right, One last question here
before we move on to Nick's pistons.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah, so, does the series have the potential will be
like six Ers Knicks Round one last year?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
I think it does, meaning every game is you know,
a bit of something of a classic. I think that
one only went six right? Am I wrong about that?
You guys can remind me. I think that was like
six amazing games with amazing finishes. I think it does.
That might not bode well at all for either of
(22:02):
these teams. Team right, and so especially with OKC getting it,
you know, the NBA version of a first round by
and so they're gonna be have a week plus off
like if so this if let me look at the
NBA calendar real quick. So let's just assume OKAC is
(22:26):
going to sweep Okay just for the sake of argument.
Game two, uh is tonight. Game three in the OKAC
series is Thursday, and Game four is Saturday, so they
could be done on Saturday, April twenty six. If this
(22:53):
series does go seven, that Game seven is Saturday, May third,
which would put game one of Round two Monday, May fifth.
So if the Thunders sweep, they will have nine days
(23:14):
off in the middle of the playoffs just to rest
recuperate all of it. Now I understand people will be
like Rust versus Rest. The Thunder too good for that
to matter. And these two teams are gonna beat the
hell out of each other, all right. Speaking of teams
that want to beat the hell out of each other,
let's do Nick Pistons from last night.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Uh yeah, last night you got to watch Detroit in
person in their playoff drought first playoff win and I
don't know how.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Long I heard it was since two thousand and eight. Yeah,
since two thousand and eight. Crazy. Yes, very happy for them.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
So that series is tied up. Obviously, Kate Cunningham led them.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Last night.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
New York needed a twenty one oh comeback in game
one to come back, I can win that one.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Last night they couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Are you surprised that the Pistons are hanging with the
Knicks like this giving them some shits?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, so it's weird. I I said before, my pick
before the series was nix and six, And so you
might be like, oh, so you thought it would be
tightly contested, And my answer was no, not really. The
way I thought it would go would be the Knicks
(24:27):
win the first two in New York, not easily, but comfortably.
They then kind of relax a bit and lose Game
three in Detroit, which typically happens. They then win game
four to retake control of the series, and then relax
(24:50):
a bit, lose a game five, and then wrap it
up in six. So sometimes a six game series there
isn't a lot of If it goes up to h
up three to one, winning six, there's not a lot
of pressure points. And so I thought that the Pistons
(25:10):
threw their best shot in Game one. The Knicks overwhelmed
them with that twenty one to nothing run, where they
looked frazzled, where they looked young, where they looked unable
to find their offense. I was like, oh, okay, so
that happened without anyone on the Knicks having this outlier game.
(25:31):
So now they're just going to get rolled in Game two.
And I mentioned losing all these bets. I my bets
on the Knicks were at the game at halftime because
I was like, oh the Pistons, you know are they're
(25:53):
up six the Knicks had at that point. I got
into the free throw line one time. I was like,
they're gonna get the calls in the second half. Cadi'll
cooled down, you know that Jalen will get rolling, and
the Pistons won't have enough offense. And I was kind
of right that all those things happened, except for Caid
(26:16):
cooling down. The Knicks got after shooting two free throws
in the first half, shot seventeen in the second half.
The Pistons only made six three pointers the entire game.
There Jalen you know, flopped around, but also you know,
got to the bucket and scored. He scored thirty seven.
(26:37):
The problem for the Knicks was other than Jalen Brunson
and Miles McBride, who the hell was ready to play?
I mean, Josh Hart did Josh Hart things, but he's
not a reliable shooter. Karl Anthony Towns no showed, just
no show. I mean it was after such a good
(27:01):
game one from Kat, he let the Pistons big men
punk him throughout the night, the greatest, the self reclaimed
greatest shooting big man of all time. It only took
two threes. Og couldn't slow down Kate on one end
and couldn't get his offense going on the other end.
(27:22):
And Michale Bridges, who was okay but man missed so
many what could have been not dagger but game changing threes.
And now the Knicks, all of a sudden, with a
somewhat banged up Jalen Brunson, find themselves in a real fight.
(27:44):
And the problem with that is this Pistons team is
so young and so athletic that they are just going
to keep coming. And I shouldn't say they're so young
because they do play ten Hardaway Junior and Tobias Harris
big minutes and shrewder. But really I'm talking about Cad
(28:06):
Jalen Duran and Asar who I mean, he and his brother.
If either one of them ever learned to shoot, look
out everybody. They're just defensive madmen, you know that are
just insane athletes, just like insane athletes, and they're just
(28:26):
gonna keep coming at you. And the Knicks meanwhile, I mean,
we know what Tibbs is gonna do. From a minute's perspective.
Everybody's gonna be playing forty plus and now they're in
a real fight, and I can't imagine how on fire
that Piston's crowd is going to be. So yeah, like
(28:49):
that is the thing about not having won a playoff
game since two thousand and eight. An underrated all time
run by the Way Demands was the three two two
thousand and eight Detroit Pistons, the Chauncey Rip Hamilton, Ben Wallace,
(29:09):
Tayshaun Prince oh three fifty wins, Conference finalists, four fifty
four wins, upset the Shaq Kobe Lakers to win the championship.
Five fifty four wins, lose in seven to the San
Antonio Spurs in the finals. Six sixty four wins, lose
(29:36):
in the conference finals to Shaq d Wade. Oh, seven
fifty three wins, lose to twenty two year old Lebron
in the conference finals the forty eight special game. You
know what I mean is what flips that series? Eight
fifty nine wins, conference finals, lose to the Big Three Celtics.
So that team from three to eight, six seasons fifty
(30:02):
plus wins every single year? Was that seven seasons? Uh
well from two from two to eight, which is the
seven seasons, they had fifty wins every single year. But
three to eight they made the conference finals. Every single year.
They made an NBA Finals and won it, made an
(30:25):
NBA Finals and lost to uh maybe you know one
of the best Spurs teams ever in seven and the
teams that beat them after they won the championship and
then lost the finals in seven, they lost to the
I think I said Shaq Kobe heat, the Shack D
(30:46):
Wade Heat, Lebron and the Big Three Celtics. But I
say all that to say this that was the last
time they won a playoff game. The last playoff game
that they won was against Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and
Kevin Garnett in two thousand and eight. George W. Bush
(31:08):
was the president. Since then, they have made the playoffs
three times swept, swept, swept, And since they were last
swept by Giannis in twenty nineteen, they have won the
following number of games twenty twenty, twenty three, seventeen, fourteen,
(31:30):
and in this year forty four. It's an unbelievable single
season turnaround. That and those kids now think they can win.
And here's the other important thing. They think I They
think they have the best player in the series, and
(31:51):
that is I Cade, to me this year had a
better season than Jalen brunt. I'm not ready to say
he's a better player than Jalen Brunson, but on my
fake all NBA teams, I think I had Cade's second
team and Jalen third team. I'm pretty sure that's how
(32:13):
I had it. And now the Pistons feel like we
can beat him up. Karl Anthony Towns is gonna back down,
and they are and they are not afraid. And so
I was shocked watching that last night that the and
(32:35):
some breaking new sham says Dame is playing tonight. That's
not I mean once he was upgrade to questionable. That's
about what we expected. We'll talk about that in a
bit with Pacers Bucks. But I thought last night that
that when the Knicks were slowly chipping away, demanse that
if they could just get over the hump, the garden
(32:57):
was so electric and the Knicks at that point were
getting every call that I said, Okay, I think they're
gonna win. And then to his credit, man Dennis Shrewder
bang bang Yeah. But after the Shrewder three, the Knicks
had plenty of opportunities. Man, they like we can. The
(33:19):
Shrewder three was obviously the biggest shout of the game.
But after the Shrewder three and we ended up with
I got very lucky. I was able to buy kind
of last minute some really good seats, so we were
right behind the Knicks bench. Shout out John Taturo of
Rounders and Severance and every a bunch of other uh
(33:40):
fame who we got to talk with for a moment. Uh.
After that three by Shrewder, the Knicks possessions were Jalen
Brunson pull up three decent look miss. McHale Bridges pull
up three wide open miss. They then foul Shrewder. He
(34:05):
only goes one of two. So now there's eight seconds left,
you have your time out, you're down four. Make a
shot and you're gonna have a shot to tie it.
And Jalen Brunson open three kind of miss and game over.
And so just a brutal, brutal close to the game
(34:28):
there for for the Knicks.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
How many years?
Speaker 2 (34:32):
How many years before you think Kate Cunningham can make
club superstar?
Speaker 1 (34:38):
I guess it's I gotta you know. I think this
year's too early, but he's in contention and I would
expect him maybe to be in next year. And so
that's I would expect next year. It'd be disappointed if
he's not in next year. And listen if they pull
(34:59):
up this upset when the Knicks have after Cad, do
the Knicks have the like of the five best players
in this series are four on the Knicks, Jalen, cat Bridges,
Og and Cad. Those are the five best guys in
the series, right, It'd be pretty remarkable if he pulls
(35:22):
this off. What's Matthew and the Chad Askin.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
He says, does bitch Robinson need more minutes?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I mean, if Carly and tam is gonna play like that,
maybe or maybe you want to go super big and
play them both kind of kill your spacing. But I
guess you it won't kill your space because Cat's a
shooter anyway, but you probably can't play Mitch and Josh
Hart a ton of minutes together and have two just
non shooters out there. All right, let's talk Lakers Timberwolves.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
So the Lakers are in a spot.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Unfortunately, they lost their first game at home, so they're
back tonight. Who do you think has the most pressure
of figuring out in game two? Between Lebron, JJ or Austin.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Reeves along with Luca.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Oh, Luca obviously, sorry, you're fine.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Sorry, you can clear your throat. This got to be
a Lebron game. I like, here's the deal. I ain't Lebron.
You know, can survey the landscape and say warriors rockets
should be and we'll talk more about that shortly. Should
(36:34):
be a war and the Lakers should be in good
position to reach the conference finals if they can figure
out the Timberwolves. And so I'm sure Lebron, who's very,
(36:55):
very strategic and understands how much you know, how many
he has left in the gun better than any athlete
in sports history, which is why he's been able to
perform at this level for as long as he has.
I'm sure Lebron was hoping to not have to shoot
one of those bullets in the second game of the playoffs,
(37:18):
But if they lose tonight, they they just might be done.
Like I'm not, it's not a I feel like if
the Rockets lose Game two, they are done. That is
a true must win for the Rockets. They are too
young and too inexperienced to lose both of the games
at home to a championship caliber team or a champion
(37:43):
champion leaden team in Golden State and come back from it.
I won't call, I won't officially right off the Lakers
if they lose this game tonight, but they will be
on life support. And so that means Lebron has to
be more aggressive from the beginning, like this is to me,
(38:05):
demon's I'm going to talk about all four of those guys.
For Lebron, it's simple from the opening tip. He needs
to be more aggressive offensively Julius Randall seemed to want
to take on the challenge of going at Lebron on
one end and guarding him on the other. Awesome, that
(38:26):
is a that is a real opportunity for Lebron, and
to also put Julius on the defensive, so to speak,
from the opening tip, which I think could leak into
Julius's offensive game, which while he hit open threes in
(38:50):
Game one and give him credit for it, he also
had seven turnovers. He also seemed a little too eager
to go at Lebron and I don't think that's a
winning matchup for the Timberwolf. So Lebron's just got to
be more aggressive from the opening tip and as opposed
to lighting the game come to him Austin if they are,
(39:10):
Austin cannot let the Timberwolves get away with guarding him.
With Mike Conley, the Timberwolves are at an offensive edge
if they are able to keep Mike Conley on the
floor big minutes because with Aunt being a willing passer,
if you also have Mike Conley out there and you
have two willing passers at the guard position, with that
(39:34):
many good shooters that they have, the Timberwolves will be
even harder to defend. The way to play Mike Conley
off the court is to make him defend. They are
going to try to hide him if they can. I'm
sure they'll try to hide him on you know, Dorian
(39:57):
Finney Smith. I guess, but he's probably gonna end up
matched up on Austin. Austin has to make him pay
Luca very simple. The Lakers are at their best when
Luca is collapsing the defense and sprang it out to
open shooters. Thirty said, Luca played well in game one.
(40:21):
The idea that he should be you know, how accountable
he is for only having the one assist when a
lot of guys listen, there weren't open shooters, and guys
when they were open weren't making shots. I'm not killing
Luca for that at all. However, they lukea in that
game created forty points. That's not gonna be enough because
(40:42):
he scored thirty seven and had one assist. I'm Luca
doesn't have to score thirty seven. They do need him
to have eight, nine, ten assists. And then JJ and
this is really interesting because JJ and I don't know
how much of its games been I don't know how
much of it is Not wanting to tip his hand,
(41:03):
but JJ saying basically in these press conferences, I liked
what we were doing schematically, we just didn't execute. I
I didn't like what they were doing schematically. I'm not
scapegoating JJ. The players did not come out with enough
force or energy or intensity. And JJ's been excellent all
(41:24):
year long. But the Timberwolves are at their most dangerous
when Anthony Edwards is creating shots for other people. They're
seven to oh this year when he has eight or
more assists. Last year in the regular season, they were
nine and three when he had eight or more assists,
(41:44):
and the three losses they averaged one hundred and sixteen points.
So the offense wasn't the problem. The year before that,
they were six and zero in the regular season when
he had eight or more assists. That tells you two things.
One is it's a rare occurrence. Then Anthony Edwards is
close to double d it assists. The other one is
that's when their offense is humming. And so no, I
(42:07):
don't think nas Reed and Jaden McDaniels are going to
score at the level that they did in Game one.
But I also think that It wasn't just dumb luck
that led to them scoring at that level. It was
the fact that the Lakers were terrified of Anthony Edwards
getting to the rim on them, and because of that,
(42:27):
they collapsed a defense that already was packed in the paint.
And of those forty two Timberwold shots, thirty seven of
them were classified as either wide open or open. They
weren't making tough, contested threes, they were making practice shots.
So Lebron's got to be more aggressive. Luca has to
(42:51):
try to spoon feed Dorian and Ruie and Austin some
open looks. Austin has to be more has to be
more willing to try to hunt a Mike Conley mismatch.
And JJ has to really figure out is Anthony Edwards
(43:11):
at his most dangerous when he's flirting with a twenty
and ten or when he's flirting with a thirty five
point two assist game? Because I would rather sign up
for the thirty five point two assist game if I'm
the Lakers. So that's my thoughts on the series. Demand
how much trouble do you think the Lakers are in
before we move on?
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Yeah? I was gonna sit there in a rough spot.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
But I said at the beginning of the series, I
could I could see it going forward to either way.
Obviously got to pick up the game tonight. I think
you lose this game, You're you're in a rough shot.
You're in a rough spot. The Timberwolves is just younger
and uh.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
And yeah, Timberwolves are younger and there with ant. They're
not going to be afraid. I mean they they rolled
the pacer at the Pacers the Suns in Round one
last year. They stare Joker in the face in his
building and beat them, so they're not gonna be afraid.
I also think this though they are a team that
will those guys are not going to be quite as
(44:14):
active defensively if they are not also seeing their own
shots go in and feeling good about their offense. Yeah,
it's a it's another reason to not let the defensive
approach be. Have everyone else other than Anthony Edwards beat you.
I just think it's the wrong approach. All right, let's
(44:36):
do Rockets Warriors.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
So after dropping Game one at home, the Rockets are
now down in that series. You had the Rockets winning
this series, So how do you see them turning it around?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Well, so such I think they can. It was really
interesting game one because when Steph hits that moon ball
insane three to go up twenty three points, you would
expect the game to you know, go up twenty three
points late in the third quarter, the game to just
(45:06):
be over. And the Rockets never lost faith and never
lost contact. And despite the fact that they couldn't down
twenty three in a game where neither team breaks one
hundred is like being down thirty five in a regular
NBA game. And despite that, they got it to a
(45:28):
one possession game late, They had it to a four
point game when they should have, you know, with the
ball at one point in the fourth quarter. They just
couldn't get over the hump. So the how do they
turn things around? Amen Thompson needs to be better defensively. Listen,
young player, first playoff game, he's chasing around Steph Curry.
(45:48):
Get it, no problem. Game two's got to be different.
Jalen Green has to show up. If Jalen Green, Fred
van Vliet I believe will show up. I just think
he had a rough shitight. Fred van Vliet's a champion.
Fred van Vlietz played big and big spots. Jalen Green
has got to get you at least twenty. They're just
(46:10):
not gonna score enough points otherwise. The reason for optimism
for the Warriors is you played Stephen Jimmy huge minutes.
They the optimism for the Rockets. I should say. They
answered with fifty six points between them, but the rest
of the team only scored thirty nine. Draymond was unbelievable defensively,
(46:33):
but he had another triple single. They pods gave you
a little. Moody made one shot. They're throwing Gee Santos
and Quinton Post who really shouldn't be on the court
in high leverage playoff spots at this point in their career.
The Rockets have more high quality rotation players. They just
(46:55):
have nobody, it seems like, other than Van Vliet and
Shinnon that are confident offensively. And so yeah, Dylan Brooks
needs to make the Rockets. Ultimately, when needs happened is
Rockets got to make some shots and they cannot fall
down two at home. Now. I thought that they were
(47:18):
going to win Game one. I obviously was wrong. I
don't think the Warriors have enough high quality players, and
I don't think you can rely on Steph and Jimmy
to combine for around sixty in every game in order
(47:40):
for the Warriors to run away with this series. But
my pick was Rockets in seven. And I will admit
I watched that game thinking, okay, let's say we get
to a game seven. Who the hell on the Rockets
is not going to be absolutely petrified every time they
have the ball. In that game seven, and now, Shingoon
(48:02):
was more aggressive offensively than he was in most games,
the only average eighteen points a game the regular season.
Draymond was daring him to take those ten twelve fourteen footers.
He took him, he made them. Shingoon's got to be
even more aggressive offensively, like flatly, Shingoon's just gotta say,
it's not really my game, but I'm gonna try to
go out here and score thirty. I'm gonna make you
(48:23):
double me and see if that can generate some open looks.
And so I thought the Warriors. I thought there was
a real cost to manse for the Warriors almost blowing
that twenty three point lead, because if you heard that
Steve Kerr huddle, he said to Steph and Jimmy, he
(48:47):
was like, you guys are gonna play forty plus minutes
do you need a break? Are you tired? And they
were like no, and he ran with him through the
end of the game. I don't think that's what they
wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Yeah, is that when do you think they would get hit?
Speaker 2 (49:04):
I mean even if they ended up beating Houston the
next round, I mean.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
I would think the next round it particularly if they're
playing the Lakers, but maybe even against the Thunder. Like,
here's the thing about Steph. So Jimmy maybe is more
used to this, but Jimmy also playoff. Jimmy is unbelievable
and he is showing up. I had skeptical about if
it was going to show up this year, but thus
(49:29):
far in the play in the Clippers game, all those games,
he has shown up. Steph is not a super high
minutes guy, even in the playoffs. So Steph last year
against the Lakers or two years ago, last time they
made the playoffs, had one game in that series when
(49:52):
he was at forty minutes and they lost. It's like
they were cruising. They lost the series. Steph against the
the Kings that year, they used him super heavy minutes
in down two to one in the series, and then
(50:12):
in Game five forty two and forty two minutes, and
then they just couldn't use him insane minutes in game
six and in Game seven, where he had one of
his greatest playoff games ever a fifty piece. In Game seven,
he still only played thirty seven minutes, even though he
had fifty points the previous year they made the playoffs.
(50:35):
When they won the championship in twenty twenty two, that
entire playoff run, Steph had one game where he played
more than forty minutes and was forty minutes forty one seconds.
So like it's he is not a guy, and that's
when he obviously was far younger that historically. Because and
(50:57):
this isn't a knock on him, the guys out there
running mini marathons, you know, without the ball that is
gonna be playing these super heavy minutes. Now with Jimmy,
they can survive the non Steph minutes in a way
they couldn't before. Buy think the Rockets are gonna wear
him down if this can be a long series. But
(51:19):
in order for this to be a long series, Rockets
have to win Game two. All right, let's get to
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Let's do pacers box quickly before we get out of here.
Speaker 2 (53:45):
There might be some trouble over there at Milwaukee. Halliburton
struggle to score, and they still won the game pretty easily,
even with Giannis putting on a show. Dame miss game one,
but it sounds like he might be back for game two.
Do you Thinklwaukee can turn this around or is it possibly?
Speaker 1 (54:02):
I don't. I'm I picked them. I'm really worried about them.
They just don't have enough good players. Man. One takeaway
from these playoffs the first weekend was man, the three
teams that had the best records in the regular season
the Thunder, the Celtics, and the Calves. More so the
(54:25):
Thunder and Celtics than the Calves, to be totally honest,
but include the Calves are the only teams that you
feel like, oh, they can have five quality players on
the court and equality players sitting on the bench. Every
other team. You watch them and it's like in Milwaukee
(54:46):
more than anybody Milwaukee, you watch him and you're like,
there's one guy out there that I that I think
is a quality player. I mean, Torrian Prince has been
cooked for a couple of years. But Arvin ham loves him,
loved him with the Lakers, loves him. There Kuzma twenty
point twenty minutes, zero stats, Brook Lopez, God, love him.
(55:09):
What are we doing? Not? What are we doing? He's
just old? And Ryan Rollins it was a starter. So
you look at them and it's like, Okay, yes, Dame
Will help, and Gary Trent Junior's good and Bobby Portis
is good, but they don't have enough good players. The Pacers,
(55:30):
to their credit, have a bunch of good players. They
have no great players. They're one player who can be great.
Halliburton had an off night, it didn't matter, and so
I think the Bucks are in real trouble. I also
think it would be foolish to expect Dame after a
month off to come back and immediately look like Dame,
(55:50):
and Dame is not going to help you defend the Pacers,
who scored sixty seven in the first half games over
a halftime is thirty six and twelve. You're down sixty
seven forty three and a half. So I picked the
Bucks because I wanted the Bucks to win, because I
like Giannis. I think there now again overreaction, you know,
(56:14):
to all these game ones.
Speaker 2 (56:16):
I Bucks, I'm actually problem shocked that you have like
no faith at all, even like not not a title run,
but at least to take care of that.
Speaker 1 (56:24):
Yeah, they're playing a lot of bad players, bro it is,
it's just a lot of players you don't trust. And
then quickly listen because some of these pods might be
closer to an hour instead of ninety minutes because we
might I might be back on the air tomorrow morning
to do a quick Lakers Timberwolves reaction, uh pod. This
(56:47):
part of the NBA playoffs, I feel like we almost
should be on every day. Uh you know, so the
I'm not going to get and we've got some NFL
Draft stuff later in the week, so the other series
we can just do quickly. I'm just gonna tell you
guys right now, I do this for a living. I
(57:08):
love the NBA, I love the playoffs. I do not
feel a personal nor a professional obligation to really watch
three of these series. Celtics Magic. I don't feel like
I am doing anyone of disservice by just passively having
(57:31):
on in the background Calves Heat. I might not watch
a second of it, I'm telling you right now. Like
it's gonna the and thunder Grizzlies, you almost want just
to see how bad of a massacre it can be.
But like tomorrow night, we have the old seven o'clock Magic, Celtics,
(57:56):
seven thirty Heat, Calves and then nine thirty one Warriors
Rockets tomorrow night. You know what that sounds like to me?
To Monday, that sounds like a date night, an early
dinner date night, and then back in the house Warriors Rocket.
Speaker 3 (58:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:12):
I mean, I just it's and by the way, this
is a this is a out of respect to the Thunder,
the Celtics and the Calves. It's not because those teams
aren't interesting. It's not because those teams aren't awesome. It's because, yes,
see in round two, man, I mean, the Grizzlies got
(58:32):
beat by fifty. Shay doesn't score twenty for the first
times in to Halloween. It doesn't matter. The Celtics have
Tatum Brown and Chris STAPs I think combined for like
fifteen of forty four. It doesn't matter because the Magic
can't score. Paalo scores thirty six, the rest of the
team scored fifty and heat Calves. I can't tell you
(58:55):
what happened. I can't tell you the score. I'm I
don't even was that game Sunday?
Speaker 3 (59:02):
When was that?
Speaker 1 (59:03):
That must have been in the middle of the Easter
egg hunt, because I vividly remember Magic Celtics. Oh, I
know what happened with Heat Calves. One of my mom's
dear friends who was over for Easter is married to
a Canadian and there was the hockey playoffs on, and
he was like, do you care if we turn on
the hockey playoffs. I'm like, it's Heat Calves, buddy, you
(59:26):
go right out at it. So I was like, it
was like, You're very lucky because this could have been
a very awk. Like usually when someone's like, hey, do
you mind if I turned something on, the answers always no,
of course, go ahead. But if Warriors Rockets was the
early game, the answer would have been yes, I mind,
and know you can't. But it was Heat Calves. So
I watched a little It was two Canadian teams playing
(59:48):
each other. It is Toronto against Ontario. Maybe I don't know,
but whatever, I watched a little playoff hockey shout out
to me and so Heat Calves. I don't know what happened,
und I'm looking. So I don't have analysis for you
on it. I don't feel like I'm not doing my
job because of it. I am. I'm just those series
(01:00:09):
are over. Let's all right, remember like rate, subscribe, review,
do all that cool stuff. And it was Toronto Ottawa.
There we go, all right, let's do some listener questions.
Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Uh, Dylan asked, can Kawhi make the top fifty all time.
Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
After these playoffs, he's.
Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Already in the top fifty all time h A two finals, MVPs,
a couple seasons where he was top five MVP finisher,
top fifty all time, Like, I you know that is
he's already cemented there. If they were to win the championship,
(01:00:50):
then top twenty five all time, is I think fair?
I think like he becomes like a rich rich man's
Bill Walton, where you know these super high peaks that
with a career that was kind of derailed a bit
due to injury. But if he wins a championship here
(01:01:12):
and listen, the Clippers are not gonna win the championship.
But if he were to, then yeah, then you have
to say that he Like right now, I don't have
him ahead of and I know this will irk people
on my all time whole career list. I don't have
(01:01:33):
him ahead of James Harden. I understand why is a
champion and Harden isn't. But Harden has you know, ten
unbelievable seasons and Kawi just you know has four. Uh,
But if you were to win the championship even alongside Harden,
Harden gets a ring too. He then jumps him. If
Kawi is the man on the run, all right, we
(01:01:55):
have another Kauhi question.
Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
Uh, how is Kawhi eligibile for club Superstar given that
he's been kicked out before?
Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
Yes, Anthony Davis got kicked out and got back in.
Any Davis also might get kicked out again. Then again,
do you become more of a superstar because you were
traded for Luka Dancic? I don't know. Go to Christian's question.
Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Uh, Christian, do you not live tweet during games because
you don't want to be tied to your heat of
the moment takes?
Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Well, it's it's a number of reasons. One is I'm
not really on Twitter during games. I don't enjoy that experience.
I enjoy watching the games, So there's that. I have
a hard time if I am tweeting during games. So
much of it is just going to be ripping Reggie
(01:02:45):
Miller's commentary, and that's not good for anybody. So I
just leave that alone, and I don't feel an obligation.
So here's the deal, little media, pull back the curtain
a bit. And I'm sure a lot of you have picked.
Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
Up on this.
Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Some people in my profession live tweet during games to
try to prove to you there watching. They're not adding
any like thing super interesting or nuance or whatever. It's
just like, wow, what a play just to be like, hey, guys,
(01:03:25):
I'm watching you see this a lot with guys you
know in the like late night NBA games. It's like, oh,
I stayed up to do this. And by the way,
I'm I'm not acting like I never did that. So
I when the TV show first started, especially when like
you know, TV show was on in the morning, I
would sometimes intentionally just send a totally banaal tweet, like
(01:03:50):
with two minutes left in a one am Lakers game,
just be like, man, I'm watching this, then I'm gonna
be up. I don't feel an obligation to do that
anymore because I feel like I I've established myself as someone
who watches the games, so the I don't think I
feel like I have to prove it to everyone. And
I'm not saying everyone does that, but some people are
(01:04:10):
definitely doing that. And here's the other thing, because I
did you know, I made it clear I don't read
my mentions, but I do occasionally when I open Twitter
click that tab and just you know, see it for
a second, and there was a lot of folks. Oh,
(01:04:31):
after I tweeted out the link to yesterday's emergency pot,
a lot of people like, oh, this guy was hiding
all weekend because the Lakers lost and the Warriors won
and blah blah blah ah this stuff. I'm now gonna
say something really obnoxious. I understand why for folks fan
(01:04:57):
adjacent people who might have, like you know, a team
oriented spaces that they do on Twitter or a very
very lightly listen to them and their friends podcast, but
have a legitimate social media following view media through the
(01:05:21):
prism of if you're not giving your take on Twitter,
you didn't give your take. I happen to have enough
real platforms that I can say nothing on Twitter and
the whole world gets to hear what I had to
say anyway. So I don't feel an obligation to be like,
(01:05:42):
oh man, Laker's in trouble in one hundred and forty characters,
what a shot by Steph, because I'll do that on
the YouTube show, the podcast, the TV show, or something else.
So I there's there's very little running that can be
done when you're on national television every single day. You
(01:06:06):
just might have to wait for the actual show to
get my takes on things. And with that, we'll wrap
today's show. See you guys all with Colin in about
ninety minutes. Again, I'm not gonna tweet about that appearance.
It's still gonna happen. And then I'll see you on
the TV show in a few hours. Great job demands,
talk to everybody soon, See you guys. Thanks to Blue Duck,
(01:06:28):
thanks to Volume, Thanks DraftKings. We'll train
Welcome in What Driving the Cred Episode three twenty two.
Fresh off a great night of playoff basketball, I was
at the Garden for Nick's Piston, so I did miss
the first quarter ish of Clippers Nuggets, which is just
going to be an absolute war, and I think every
(00:24):
game is going to look like the first couple games did,
where it comes down to the final seconds. I also
will say this, you know, it's always important in life to,
you know, stay even keeled, not get too high, and
not get too low. Last seventy two hours, for the
first time since I've lived in New York, got in
(00:45):
a car accident. My fault wrecked my beautiful, just work
of art car that I love so much, and I lost.
I've lost every single bet I've made in these NBA playoffs,
So you know what, sometimes you need that you need
to just kind of be brought flying a little too high,
get brought back down to earth. I did. Everything I
(01:07):
did this weekend are the exact things I've tried to
counsel Demonsee on not doing distracted driving, check chasing my losses,
check betting games that I don't really have a feel for,
just because I'm trying to get even on the other one,
check all of it, and so you know, it was
(01:29):
just a really real tour de force. But I'm not
gonna let that bring me down. Good to see you
as always, demondse Happy.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Ladies Easter, Happy Lady Easter. Just stay there. You bring
yourself back out of that.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Exactly right. And this is a big moment. The next
nine hours me deciding, you know what, even though I
am certain the Lakers are evening the series, and even
though I have an opportunity to pull myself out of
(02:00):
the hole with an oversized Lakers money line, bet I'm
not gonna do it. Because if I do that, even
if I you know what, just let's just take a
quick breather. Let's just take a quick breather. Enjoy the games,
you know, reset, you take a survey of the landscape,
because the other thing. You always counsel yourself not to
do this, but it is so hard not to overreact
(02:23):
to all these games. And so I watch Piston's Knicks
and we're gonna get into a Piston's next game one
and I'm like, ah, the Knicks are just so much better.
These kids aren't ready. And then I'm there yesterday, I'm
like man, the Pistons have been the better team seven
of the eight quarters.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Of this series.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Like maybe I had that exactly exactly wrong, and so
all of that, here's what missed the cut. Cooper flag
declares for the draft, we knew that was coming. Jalen
Milroe says he's faster than Lamar Jackson. I don't know that.
I believe he might be faster than Lamar is today.
I don't think he's faster than Lamar, and Lamar came
(03:04):
out of the draft. And because our producers are just
so desperately incredibly afraid of aliens and robots, they have
put in there that evidently robots. Ryan Beijing Half Marathon
reminder to everyone watching in the chat, we greatly appreciate you.
Like great subscribe review. It's always we always hit a
(03:26):
bit of a lull. It feels like in subscriptions after
we hit a big round number, because it's like, well,
we're so far away from the next thing, but it
really the next milestone wasn't two hundred thousand, it was
two hundred and fifty thousand. It feels like you get
to one hundred thousand and then a quarter million, so
we're fifty thousand away forty nine thousand away. We'd like that.
(03:47):
We also were trying to up the audio subscription, so
if you're on iTunes Spotify, check that out now. Demand's
let's get to what has been two classic games in
Nuggets Clipper Thus far, it has more than lived up
to the hype. I think most people thought this would
be the most competitive Round one series. It has been.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Go ahead. Uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Kawhi went off last night for thirty nine. Seemed like
he was hidden just about every shot, and that was
enough to beat the Nuggets by three points. Jokic did
his usual stuff on offense. He had a few turnovers
that he had seven and his free throw for his
free throws were not hidden. Do you think the Clippers
took control of this series with the last game.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I don't think anyone's in control of this series, and
I don't think anyone's going to be in control of
this series. The Clippers avoided what would have been emotionally
very tough to overcome, which is two opportunities to win
on Denver's home court and not and going over to that,
(04:51):
to me, would have been more devastating than if these
games it had been in law Los Angeles. Then obviously
you can deal with it if you're in if you're
in Los Angeles, and well, I know that's not right.
They needed to get a split given how well they
(05:14):
played and the opportunity to steal those games. The story,
of course, is Kawhi Leonard now James Harden. After the
game comes out and it's like, listen, Kuhi has always
been disrespected or whatever it is, that's not true. I'm
not gonna I'm not going to allow for revisionist history.
I actually think Kawhi Leonard, throughout his NBA career has
(05:36):
never once ever been underrated. I think he has either
been properly rated or he had a brief period of
time right when he signed with the Clippers when he
was a touch overrated. He's never been underrated, and everyone
has always understood that a healthy Kawhi Leonard is a
playoff monster. The question is has been the last few
(05:59):
years hasn't even really been a question, just been an answer.
We're not getting healthy Kawhi Leonard in the playoffs this year.
Through two games, you're getting it. He was okay in
Game one yesterday, though, was the first truly great Kawhi
Leonard playoff moment we've had in a couple of years.
(06:21):
As you mentioned, he couldn't miss fifteen of nineteen from
the field. What was he ten of eleven in the
first half? Thirty nine points, five assists, Good defense in
a game in a night that Harden didn't really have it,
that Norman Powell that the tiny violins were out because
(06:41):
poor Norman Powell had his all star reserve spots stolen
by Lebron James showing up to the game. Norman Powell
didn't have it, and Kawhi was exceptional, and I was
skeptical on what we were going to get from Kawhi
in this game because of how the schedule fell a
(07:02):
lot of these guys, or a lot of these series,
I should say, you had two days between games one
and two for Clippers Nuggets. They played Saturday night and
then to Monday night. And when you had that Saturday
night game go to overtime, you had and we again,
we did a bonus pod yesterday and we're gonna do
(07:26):
a bunch of those during these NBA playoffs. So we're
not gonna do too much on Game one of that
series today because we now have had Game two. If
you want to hear my thoughts on game one on
that series. You can check it out on YouTuber on
the podcast feed. But game one going to overtime Saturday night,
and then a quick turnaround Game two at altitude, when
(07:47):
Kawhi and Harden both played forty plus minutes. I was
really skeptic or pessimistic is probably the right word about
how sharp Kawhi was going to look. And while Harden
looked a little fatigued, Kawhi absolutely unequivocally did not. And
(08:08):
he was the best player on the court, Which does
bring us to Nikolejokic, who you do not to. You're
not gonna kill the guy, but fair is fair. He
is universally regarded as the best player in the world.
(08:29):
That was a game his team could have won, and Jokic,
for the first time, honestly in a couple years, I thought,
had a downright bad playoff game. I guess you could
argue Game seven again last year against the Timberwolves, just
by virtue of blowing that big of a lead at home.
(08:52):
But Jokich seven turnovers in the fourth quarter, three turnover.
You mentioned the miss free throw late he had By
the way, he missed two free throws late in game one,
they were able to overcome it after the biggest play
(09:14):
of the game in Game one, he trusted and open
Russell Westbrook to hit that three. That was why you
know that the Clippers were daring him to take. Last night,
after was a Christian Brown's awful shot, Jokich had Aaron
Gordon wide open in the corner, the spot Gordon likes instead,
(09:36):
and it was very uncharacteristic. He took the shot. It
wasn't even close. He was kind of flopping about throughout
the night. And that was the first game in a again,
depending on how you judged, just the game seven team
wide meltdown. And I know he had a triple double.
(09:57):
And I'm curious you can put in the the chat
Daniel that I can see or in this you know
our notes if you think I'm being unfair Daniel or
resident Nuggets fan and you're allowed to have bad playoff games.
Even the best player in the world can have bad
playoff games. It was just jarring to see him that
lose with the ball and to see a game that
(10:20):
the Nuggets could have won. But he's got aware that
he was a big part of the loss. And so
I think that if you are the Clippers through two games,
the most optimistic thing for the Clippers through two games,
other than stealing home court is you're kind of happy
(10:44):
with how you've dealt with Joker, And I know it's
a testament to his greatness, But twenty nine to nine
to twelve, Game one on fifty percent, which is about
as low of a percentage as he's gonna show in
a game twenty six ten or twelve and ten with
seven turnovers, again on fifty percent. Game one horrendous defensively
(11:12):
in the first quarter, and then tighten it up and
Game two really loose with the ball late. So I
think most of us, if you picked the Nuggets like
I did, the argument and the thought process was with
respect to Zubats, who did as good of a job
(11:34):
as anyone in the league this year guarding Joker. You
thought Joker would be so far and away the best
player in the series that it would be enough to
overcome the fact that the Clippers are a deeper team
up to this point. That has not been the case,
and it is not something I think will continue. But
(11:57):
it also would be almost disrespectful to his place in
the league to not acknowledge, Hey man, need more from
Joker in a game that's in the balance like last night.
And here's the other piece that worries me for the Nuggets.
(12:19):
So Michael Porter Junior, after being put on ice in
game one, they put him in in Game two. He rebounded,
He played his thirty three minutes, hit him threes, fifteen points,
fifteen rebounds. He had a few turnovers as well. I
mean the twenty turnovers for the Nuggets just killed them,
and going fourteen of twenty two from the line didn't
help either. But the other piece of that is after
(12:42):
the game he talked about injuring I think his shoulder.
They do not have the depth. This is one of
the reasons Calvin Booth is no longer employed as the GM.
They do not have the depth to have any of
their five startup missed time because you're already you're playing
(13:05):
your five starters, crazy heavy minutes playing Russell Westbrook, in
my opinion, more minutes than is really you know safe. Now,
I know Demons sometimes thinks I'm too hard on Russ,
and Russ has not been a problem this series.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
La Yeah, what he needed to do, no.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
No, no, and and in game one he hit the
huge three. He had some amazing offensive rebounds. He also
had another eternal save.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah yeah, I mean it was.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
The full game. One was the full Russell Westbrook experience.
Game two, like twenty minutes from RUSS is about fine,
But if Michael Porter Junior's out, you're talking forty minutes
from RUSS. Because Jalen Pickett cannot be in these games.
Peyton Watson they want to trust, they clearly don't. And hell,
(14:03):
last night you put DeAndre Jordan on the court for
five minutes like so they just are not deep enough
if Michael Porter Junior is truly banged up. So that
is up to this point in the playoffs, I thought
we had a super impactful and it would have been
an absolute shame of an injury on Easter because I
(14:25):
thought Jason Tatum broke his hand the way he was reacting.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yeah, Joe knew he didn't.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Miss Joe is an insane person. I know that's like
not breaking news to anyone else, but I used to
think Missoula's kind of demeanor was a bit. But if
you guys haven't seen the clip, so Jason Tatum goes
(14:54):
up for Lea, but it wasn't Did you think that
was a dirty foul? I didn't think it was a
dirty foul.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I didn't think it was dirty. I also kind of,
I honestly did not think that Tatum was about to
have some long lasting injury after he got up.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So so here's the thing. The foul and the fall
all looked normal, right, It just everything looked normal, however,
and you're you're gonna laugh at me. When I saw
the way he was grabbing his wrist, like his hand
and his wrist like this, and then I also saw
(15:30):
the way he fell, I was like, well, that's exactly
how I fell a year ago when I broke my arm,
and exactly when I broke my you know, arm, wrist whatever,
And it's exactly how I you know, when I fell,
how I tried to break my fall just kind of
awkwardly palms down and I was like, I mean you
(15:53):
And so I was like, oh, that certainly is a
mechanism where and it doesn't even hurt that bad. It's
just like, oh shit, like you know what I mean,
I just broke my arm, and the way he was
holding it, I was like, oh no, like this is
his shooting hand. That it's I thought he was going
(16:17):
to be out. Who did not think he was going
to be out was Joe Missoula. The trainer is trying
to go over to Tatum, and Missoula says, like, stops him,
and then you see him yell, get up like just
a madman.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
But I think the guy's received that well and and
I think you I don't want to say he was
one hundred percent correct for going about it like that,
but at the end of like you saw, Tatum was
not hurt, like is the waist and I think it's
it's also your arm you could get up.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
But yeah, yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
So all right, so let's do a couple follow ups
for because we're Clippers Nuggets. I the more all of
the story for me just quickly as Michael Porter Junior's injury.
The reason I even got on the Tatum thing was
if he has to miss time, it's our first significant
injury of the postseason. And if there's any news on
(17:14):
that that anybody has just like texted to me or
put it in the doc. I haven't seen anything other
than his postgame comments last night, which were somewhat alarming.
All right, what are our follow ups? Where you get
to Nick's pistons.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
How many players in the league are you taking in
the playoffs over at healthy Kawhi.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Joker for sure, Giannis for sure, Luca for sure, I Shay,
I think has earned it by this regular season, Steph
(17:56):
lebron Man, and I think that's the So here's here
is the thing. I so, and this is where I
think we have to be like honest, like we can
be respectful to what he did last night and you know,
even odd by what he did last night without kind
(18:20):
of over stating, you know, the his his game to
game impact. So like Game one of this series, that
was healthy Kwhi he had twenty two points on fifteen shots,
good efficiency and seven turnovers. So that is like, that's
(18:45):
that just is what it is. Now last year he
was not healthy. In the playoffs. Two years ago, he
was healthy those first two games. And in Game one
two years ago against Phoenix, he was a lot like
he was last night. He had thirty eight points on
fifty four percent from the field in a win, and
(19:07):
in Game two he had thirty one points in on
fifty five percent and a loss. I So here's I
guess the point I'm making Healthy Kawhi is an awesome
playoff performer, and the way he raises his game in
the playoffs is really the stuff of legends. But we
(19:31):
don't need to act as if you know that meme
people put up sometimes like they show you an athlete,
like there's like four NBA players and they'll show you
Steph Curry and it's like but with shack size, or
they'll you know, it's like add one attribute to these
(19:54):
great players. We don't need to act as if the
only thing standing between Kawhi being, you know, the greatest
player of all time is his health. Like, Kuhi is
an awesome player and health robbed him of a bunch
of great playoff runs. But Kawhi at his peak was
never the best player in the world. And so a
(20:16):
healthy Kawhi I am not going to put over Jannis,
Luca or Joker, all of whom either have been or
will be the best player in the world. And I'm
not right now, I don't think Kawhi is going to
be better the rest of these playoffs than Steph or Lebron.
And so I understand Lebron had a really bad game one,
and if we want to argue the Lebron. Think Lebron's
(20:38):
seven years older than Kawi, that Kawhi has passing, so
be it. So I think that's right where he lands
in that hierarchy. I don't think that's disrespectful to him.
I also think it's worth noting that this year on
his team, James Harden was the best player, so like
now James Harden's the opposite as far as his playoff
(20:59):
performance plummets. So I'm not I'm not at all trying
to take away last night was the best game anyone's
had in these playoffs so far. I think that's pretty clear.
Yeah right, there's there's no one I'm missing. With that said,
(21:19):
there's only been ten games like and so now it'll
when the playoffs are over, it'll still be one of
the best games. But yeah, so that's that's where I
have it shake up. All right, One last question here
before we move on to Nick's pistons.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Yeah, so, does the series have the potential will be
like six Ers Knicks Round one last year?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
I think it does, meaning every game is you know,
a bit of something of a classic. I think that
one only went six right? Am I wrong about that?
You guys can remind me. I think that was like
six amazing games with amazing finishes. I think it does.
That might not bode well at all for either of
(22:02):
these teams. Team right, and so especially with OKC getting it,
you know, the NBA version of a first round by
and so they're gonna be have a week plus off
like if so this if let me look at the
NBA calendar real quick. So let's just assume OKAC is
(22:26):
going to sweep Okay just for the sake of argument.
Game two, uh is tonight. Game three in the OKAC
series is Thursday, and Game four is Saturday, so they
could be done on Saturday, April twenty six. If this
(22:53):
series does go seven, that Game seven is Saturday, May third,
which would put game one of Round two Monday, May fifth.
So if the Thunders sweep, they will have nine days
(23:14):
off in the middle of the playoffs just to rest
recuperate all of it. Now I understand people will be
like Rust versus Rest. The Thunder too good for that
to matter. And these two teams are gonna beat the
hell out of each other, all right. Speaking of teams
that want to beat the hell out of each other,
let's do Nick Pistons from last night.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Uh yeah, last night you got to watch Detroit in
person in their playoff drought first playoff win and I
don't know how.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Long I heard it was since two thousand and eight. Yeah,
since two thousand and eight. Crazy. Yes, very happy for them.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
So that series is tied up. Obviously, Kate Cunningham led them.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Last night.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
New York needed a twenty one oh comeback in game
one to come back, I can win that one.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Last night they couldn't do it.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Are you surprised that the Pistons are hanging with the
Knicks like this giving them some shits?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, so it's weird. I I said before, my pick
before the series was nix and six, And so you
might be like, oh, so you thought it would be
tightly contested, And my answer was no, not really. The
way I thought it would go would be the Knicks
(24:27):
win the first two in New York, not easily, but comfortably.
They then kind of relax a bit and lose Game
three in Detroit, which typically happens. They then win game
four to retake control of the series, and then relax
(24:50):
a bit, lose a game five, and then wrap it
up in six. So sometimes a six game series there
isn't a lot of If it goes up to h
up three to one, winning six, there's not a lot
of pressure points. And so I thought that the Pistons
(25:10):
threw their best shot in Game one. The Knicks overwhelmed
them with that twenty one to nothing run, where they
looked frazzled, where they looked young, where they looked unable
to find their offense. I was like, oh, okay, so
that happened without anyone on the Knicks having this outlier game.
(25:31):
So now they're just going to get rolled in Game two.
And I mentioned losing all these bets. I my bets
on the Knicks were at the game at halftime because
I was like, oh the Pistons, you know are they're
(25:53):
up six the Knicks had at that point. I got
into the free throw line one time. I was like,
they're gonna get the calls in the second half. Cadi'll
cooled down, you know that Jalen will get rolling, and
the Pistons won't have enough offense. And I was kind
of right that all those things happened, except for Caid
(26:16):
cooling down. The Knicks got after shooting two free throws
in the first half, shot seventeen in the second half.
The Pistons only made six three pointers the entire game.
There Jalen you know, flopped around, but also you know,
got to the bucket and scored. He scored thirty seven.
(26:37):
The problem for the Knicks was other than Jalen Brunson
and Miles McBride, who the hell was ready to play?
I mean, Josh Hart did Josh Hart things, but he's
not a reliable shooter. Karl Anthony Towns no showed, just
no show. I mean it was after such a good
(27:01):
game one from Kat, he let the Pistons big men
punk him throughout the night, the greatest, the self reclaimed
greatest shooting big man of all time. It only took
two threes. Og couldn't slow down Kate on one end
and couldn't get his offense going on the other end.
(27:22):
And Michale Bridges, who was okay but man missed so
many what could have been not dagger but game changing threes.
And now the Knicks, all of a sudden, with a
somewhat banged up Jalen Brunson, find themselves in a real fight.
(27:44):
And the problem with that is this Pistons team is
so young and so athletic that they are just going
to keep coming. And I shouldn't say they're so young
because they do play ten Hardaway Junior and Tobias Harris
big minutes and shrewder. But really I'm talking about Cad
(28:06):
Jalen Duran and Asar who I mean, he and his brother.
If either one of them ever learned to shoot, look
out everybody. They're just defensive madmen, you know that are
just insane athletes, just like insane athletes, and they're just
(28:26):
gonna keep coming at you. And the Knicks meanwhile, I mean,
we know what Tibbs is gonna do. From a minute's perspective.
Everybody's gonna be playing forty plus and now they're in
a real fight, and I can't imagine how on fire
that Piston's crowd is going to be. So yeah, like
(28:49):
that is the thing about not having won a playoff
game since two thousand and eight. An underrated all time
run by the Way Demands was the three two two
thousand and eight Detroit Pistons, the Chauncey Rip Hamilton, Ben Wallace,
(29:09):
Tayshaun Prince oh three fifty wins, Conference finalists, four fifty
four wins, upset the Shaq Kobe Lakers to win the championship.
Five fifty four wins, lose in seven to the San
Antonio Spurs in the finals. Six sixty four wins, lose
(29:36):
in the conference finals to Shaq d Wade. Oh, seven
fifty three wins, lose to twenty two year old Lebron
in the conference finals the forty eight special game. You
know what I mean is what flips that series? Eight
fifty nine wins, conference finals, lose to the Big Three Celtics.
So that team from three to eight, six seasons fifty
(30:02):
plus wins every single year? Was that seven seasons? Uh
well from two from two to eight, which is the
seven seasons, they had fifty wins every single year. But
three to eight they made the conference finals. Every single year.
They made an NBA Finals and won it, made an
(30:25):
NBA Finals and lost to uh maybe you know one
of the best Spurs teams ever in seven and the
teams that beat them after they won the championship and
then lost the finals in seven, they lost to the
I think I said Shaq Kobe heat, the Shack D
(30:46):
Wade Heat, Lebron and the Big Three Celtics. But I
say all that to say this that was the last
time they won a playoff game. The last playoff game
that they won was against Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and
Kevin Garnett in two thousand and eight. George W. Bush
(31:08):
was the president. Since then, they have made the playoffs
three times swept, swept, swept, And since they were last
swept by Giannis in twenty nineteen, they have won the
following number of games twenty twenty, twenty three, seventeen, fourteen,
(31:30):
and in this year forty four. It's an unbelievable single
season turnaround. That and those kids now think they can win.
And here's the other important thing. They think I They
think they have the best player in the series, and
(31:51):
that is I Cade, to me this year had a
better season than Jalen brunt. I'm not ready to say
he's a better player than Jalen Brunson, but on my
fake all NBA teams, I think I had Cade's second
team and Jalen third team. I'm pretty sure that's how
(32:13):
I had it. And now the Pistons feel like we
can beat him up. Karl Anthony Towns is gonna back down,
and they are and they are not afraid. And so
I was shocked watching that last night that the and
(32:35):
some breaking new sham says Dame is playing tonight. That's
not I mean once he was upgrade to questionable. That's
about what we expected. We'll talk about that in a
bit with Pacers Bucks. But I thought last night that
that when the Knicks were slowly chipping away, demanse that
if they could just get over the hump, the garden
(32:57):
was so electric and the Knicks at that point were
getting every call that I said, Okay, I think they're
gonna win. And then to his credit, man Dennis Shrewder
bang bang Yeah. But after the Shrewder three, the Knicks
had plenty of opportunities. Man, they like we can. The
(33:19):
Shrewder three was obviously the biggest shout of the game.
But after the Shrewder three and we ended up with
I got very lucky. I was able to buy kind
of last minute some really good seats, so we were
right behind the Knicks bench. Shout out John Taturo of
Rounders and Severance and every a bunch of other uh
(33:40):
fame who we got to talk with for a moment. Uh.
After that three by Shrewder, the Knicks possessions were Jalen
Brunson pull up three decent look miss. McHale Bridges pull
up three wide open miss. They then foul Shrewder. He
(34:05):
only goes one of two. So now there's eight seconds left,
you have your time out, you're down four. Make a
shot and you're gonna have a shot to tie it.
And Jalen Brunson open three kind of miss and game over.
And so just a brutal, brutal close to the game
(34:28):
there for for the Knicks.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
How many years?
Speaker 2 (34:32):
How many years before you think Kate Cunningham can make
club superstar?
Speaker 1 (34:38):
I guess it's I gotta you know. I think this
year's too early, but he's in contention and I would
expect him maybe to be in next year. And so
that's I would expect next year. It'd be disappointed if
he's not in next year. And listen if they pull
(34:59):
up this upset when the Knicks have after Cad, do
the Knicks have the like of the five best players
in this series are four on the Knicks, Jalen, cat Bridges,
Og and Cad. Those are the five best guys in
the series, right, It'd be pretty remarkable if he pulls
(35:22):
this off. What's Matthew and the Chad Askin.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
He says, does bitch Robinson need more minutes?
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I mean, if Carly and tam is gonna play like that,
maybe or maybe you want to go super big and
play them both kind of kill your spacing. But I
guess you it won't kill your space because Cat's a
shooter anyway, but you probably can't play Mitch and Josh
Hart a ton of minutes together and have two just
non shooters out there. All right, let's talk Lakers Timberwolves.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
So the Lakers are in a spot.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Unfortunately, they lost their first game at home, so they're
back tonight. Who do you think has the most pressure
of figuring out in game two? Between Lebron, JJ or Austin.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Reeves along with Luca.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
Oh, Luca obviously, sorry, you're fine.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Sorry, you can clear your throat. This got to be
a Lebron game. I like, here's the deal. I ain't Lebron.
You know, can survey the landscape and say warriors rockets
should be and we'll talk more about that shortly. Should
(36:34):
be a war and the Lakers should be in good
position to reach the conference finals if they can figure
out the Timberwolves. And so I'm sure Lebron, who's very,
(36:55):
very strategic and understands how much you know, how many
he has left in the gun better than any athlete
in sports history, which is why he's been able to
perform at this level for as long as he has.
I'm sure Lebron was hoping to not have to shoot
one of those bullets in the second game of the playoffs,
(37:18):
But if they lose tonight, they they just might be done.
Like I'm not, it's not a I feel like if
the Rockets lose Game two, they are done. That is
a true must win for the Rockets. They are too
young and too inexperienced to lose both of the games
at home to a championship caliber team or a champion
(37:43):
champion leaden team in Golden State and come back from it.
I won't call, I won't officially right off the Lakers
if they lose this game tonight, but they will be
on life support. And so that means Lebron has to
be more aggressive from the beginning, like this is to me,
(38:05):
demon's I'm going to talk about all four of those guys.
For Lebron, it's simple from the opening tip. He needs
to be more aggressive offensively Julius Randall seemed to want
to take on the challenge of going at Lebron on
one end and guarding him on the other. Awesome, that
(38:26):
is a that is a real opportunity for Lebron, and
to also put Julius on the defensive, so to speak,
from the opening tip, which I think could leak into
Julius's offensive game, which while he hit open threes in
(38:50):
Game one and give him credit for it, he also
had seven turnovers. He also seemed a little too eager
to go at Lebron and I don't think that's a
winning matchup for the Timberwolf. So Lebron's just got to
be more aggressive from the opening tip and as opposed
to lighting the game come to him Austin if they are,
(39:10):
Austin cannot let the Timberwolves get away with guarding him.
With Mike Conley, the Timberwolves are at an offensive edge
if they are able to keep Mike Conley on the
floor big minutes because with Aunt being a willing passer,
if you also have Mike Conley out there and you
have two willing passers at the guard position, with that
(39:34):
many good shooters that they have, the Timberwolves will be
even harder to defend. The way to play Mike Conley
off the court is to make him defend. They are
going to try to hide him if they can. I'm
sure they'll try to hide him on you know, Dorian
(39:57):
Finney Smith. I guess, but he's probably gonna end up
matched up on Austin. Austin has to make him pay
Luca very simple. The Lakers are at their best when
Luca is collapsing the defense and sprang it out to
open shooters. Thirty said, Luca played well in game one.
(40:21):
The idea that he should be you know, how accountable
he is for only having the one assist when a
lot of guys listen, there weren't open shooters, and guys
when they were open weren't making shots. I'm not killing
Luca for that at all. However, they lukea in that
game created forty points. That's not gonna be enough because
(40:42):
he scored thirty seven and had one assist. I'm Luca
doesn't have to score thirty seven. They do need him
to have eight, nine, ten assists. And then JJ and
this is really interesting because JJ and I don't know
how much of its games been I don't know how
much of it is Not wanting to tip his hand,
(41:03):
but JJ saying basically in these press conferences, I liked
what we were doing schematically, we just didn't execute. I
I didn't like what they were doing schematically. I'm not
scapegoating JJ. The players did not come out with enough
force or energy or intensity. And JJ's been excellent all
(41:24):
year long. But the Timberwolves are at their most dangerous
when Anthony Edwards is creating shots for other people. They're
seven to oh this year when he has eight or
more assists. Last year in the regular season, they were
nine and three when he had eight or more assists,
(41:44):
and the three losses they averaged one hundred and sixteen points.
So the offense wasn't the problem. The year before that,
they were six and zero in the regular season when
he had eight or more assists. That tells you two things.
One is it's a rare occurrence. Then Anthony Edwards is
close to double d it assists. The other one is
that's when their offense is humming. And so no, I
(42:07):
don't think nas Reed and Jaden McDaniels are going to
score at the level that they did in Game one.
But I also think that It wasn't just dumb luck
that led to them scoring at that level. It was
the fact that the Lakers were terrified of Anthony Edwards
getting to the rim on them, and because of that,
(42:27):
they collapsed a defense that already was packed in the paint.
And of those forty two Timberwold shots, thirty seven of
them were classified as either wide open or open. They
weren't making tough, contested threes, they were making practice shots.
So Lebron's got to be more aggressive. Luca has to
(42:51):
try to spoon feed Dorian and Ruie and Austin some
open looks. Austin has to be more has to be
more willing to try to hunt a Mike Conley mismatch.
And JJ has to really figure out is Anthony Edwards
(43:11):
at his most dangerous when he's flirting with a twenty
and ten or when he's flirting with a thirty five
point two assist game? Because I would rather sign up
for the thirty five point two assist game if I'm
the Lakers. So that's my thoughts on the series. Demand
how much trouble do you think the Lakers are in
before we move on?
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Yeah? I was gonna sit there in a rough spot.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
But I said at the beginning of the series, I
could I could see it going forward to either way.
Obviously got to pick up the game tonight. I think
you lose this game, You're you're in a rough shot.
You're in a rough spot. The Timberwolves is just younger
and uh.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
And yeah, Timberwolves are younger and there with ant. They're
not going to be afraid. I mean they they rolled
the pacer at the Pacers the Suns in Round one
last year. They stare Joker in the face in his
building and beat them, so they're not gonna be afraid.
I also think this though they are a team that
will those guys are not going to be quite as
(44:14):
active defensively if they are not also seeing their own
shots go in and feeling good about their offense. Yeah,
it's a it's another reason to not let the defensive
approach be. Have everyone else other than Anthony Edwards beat you.
I just think it's the wrong approach. All right, let's
(44:36):
do Rockets Warriors.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
So after dropping Game one at home, the Rockets are
now down in that series. You had the Rockets winning
this series, So how do you see them turning it around?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Well, so such I think they can. It was really
interesting game one because when Steph hits that moon ball
insane three to go up twenty three points, you would
expect the game to you know, go up twenty three
points late in the third quarter, the game to just
(45:06):
be over. And the Rockets never lost faith and never
lost contact. And despite the fact that they couldn't down
twenty three in a game where neither team breaks one
hundred is like being down thirty five in a regular
NBA game. And despite that, they got it to a
(45:28):
one possession game late, They had it to a four
point game when they should have, you know, with the
ball at one point in the fourth quarter. They just
couldn't get over the hump. So the how do they
turn things around? Amen Thompson needs to be better defensively. Listen,
young player, first playoff game, he's chasing around Steph Curry.
(45:48):
Get it, no problem. Game two's got to be different.
Jalen Green has to show up. If Jalen Green, Fred
van Vliet I believe will show up. I just think
he had a rough shitight. Fred van Vliet's a champion.
Fred van Vlietz played big and big spots. Jalen Green
has got to get you at least twenty. They're just
(46:10):
not gonna score enough points otherwise. The reason for optimism
for the Warriors is you played Stephen Jimmy huge minutes.
They the optimism for the Rockets. I should say. They
answered with fifty six points between them, but the rest
of the team only scored thirty nine. Draymond was unbelievable defensively,
(46:33):
but he had another triple single. They pods gave you
a little. Moody made one shot. They're throwing Gee Santos
and Quinton Post who really shouldn't be on the court
in high leverage playoff spots at this point in their career.
The Rockets have more high quality rotation players. They just
(46:55):
have nobody, it seems like, other than Van Vliet and
Shinnon that are confident offensively. And so yeah, Dylan Brooks
needs to make the Rockets. Ultimately, when needs happened is
Rockets got to make some shots and they cannot fall
down two at home. Now. I thought that they were
(47:18):
going to win Game one. I obviously was wrong. I
don't think the Warriors have enough high quality players, and
I don't think you can rely on Steph and Jimmy
to combine for around sixty in every game in order
(47:40):
for the Warriors to run away with this series. But
my pick was Rockets in seven. And I will admit
I watched that game thinking, okay, let's say we get
to a game seven. Who the hell on the Rockets
is not going to be absolutely petrified every time they
have the ball. In that game seven, and now, Shingoon
(48:02):
was more aggressive offensively than he was in most games,
the only average eighteen points a game the regular season.
Draymond was daring him to take those ten twelve fourteen footers.
He took him, he made them. Shingoon's got to be
even more aggressive offensively, like flatly, Shingoon's just gotta say,
it's not really my game, but I'm gonna try to
go out here and score thirty. I'm gonna make you
(48:23):
double me and see if that can generate some open looks.
And so I thought the Warriors. I thought there was
a real cost to manse for the Warriors almost blowing
that twenty three point lead, because if you heard that
Steve Kerr huddle, he said to Steph and Jimmy, he
(48:47):
was like, you guys are gonna play forty plus minutes
do you need a break? Are you tired? And they
were like no, and he ran with him through the
end of the game. I don't think that's what they
wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Yeah, is that when do you think they would get hit?
Speaker 2 (49:04):
I mean even if they ended up beating Houston the
next round, I mean.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
I would think the next round it particularly if they're
playing the Lakers, but maybe even against the Thunder. Like,
here's the thing about Steph. So Jimmy maybe is more
used to this, but Jimmy also playoff. Jimmy is unbelievable
and he is showing up. I had skeptical about if
it was going to show up this year, but thus
(49:29):
far in the play in the Clippers game, all those games,
he has shown up. Steph is not a super high
minutes guy, even in the playoffs. So Steph last year
against the Lakers or two years ago, last time they
made the playoffs, had one game in that series when
(49:52):
he was at forty minutes and they lost. It's like
they were cruising. They lost the series. Steph against the
the Kings that year, they used him super heavy minutes
in down two to one in the series, and then
(50:12):
in Game five forty two and forty two minutes, and
then they just couldn't use him insane minutes in game
six and in Game seven, where he had one of
his greatest playoff games ever a fifty piece. In Game seven,
he still only played thirty seven minutes, even though he
had fifty points the previous year they made the playoffs.
(50:35):
When they won the championship in twenty twenty two, that
entire playoff run, Steph had one game where he played
more than forty minutes and was forty minutes forty one seconds.
So like it's he is not a guy, and that's
when he obviously was far younger that historically. Because and
(50:57):
this isn't a knock on him, the guys out there
running mini marathons, you know, without the ball that is
gonna be playing these super heavy minutes. Now with Jimmy,
they can survive the non Steph minutes in a way
they couldn't before. Buy think the Rockets are gonna wear
him down if this can be a long series. But
(51:19):
in order for this to be a long series, Rockets
have to win Game two. All right, let's get to
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Let's do pacers box quickly before we get out of here.
Speaker 2 (53:45):
There might be some trouble over there at Milwaukee. Halliburton
struggle to score, and they still won the game pretty easily,
even with Giannis putting on a show. Dame miss game one,
but it sounds like he might be back for game two.
Do you Thinklwaukee can turn this around or is it possibly?
Speaker 1 (54:02):
I don't. I'm I picked them. I'm really worried about them.
They just don't have enough good players. Man. One takeaway
from these playoffs the first weekend was man, the three
teams that had the best records in the regular season
the Thunder, the Celtics, and the Calves. More so the
(54:25):
Thunder and Celtics than the Calves, to be totally honest,
but include the Calves are the only teams that you
feel like, oh, they can have five quality players on
the court and equality players sitting on the bench. Every
other team. You watch them and it's like in Milwaukee
(54:46):
more than anybody Milwaukee, you watch him and you're like,
there's one guy out there that I that I think
is a quality player. I mean, Torrian Prince has been
cooked for a couple of years. But Arvin ham loves him,
loved him with the Lakers, loves him. There Kuzma twenty
point twenty minutes, zero stats, Brook Lopez, God, love him.
(55:09):
What are we doing? Not? What are we doing? He's
just old? And Ryan Rollins it was a starter. So
you look at them and it's like, Okay, yes, Dame
Will help, and Gary Trent Junior's good and Bobby Portis
is good, but they don't have enough good players. The Pacers,
(55:30):
to their credit, have a bunch of good players. They
have no great players. They're one player who can be great.
Halliburton had an off night, it didn't matter, and so
I think the Bucks are in real trouble. I also
think it would be foolish to expect Dame after a
month off to come back and immediately look like Dame,
(55:50):
and Dame is not going to help you defend the Pacers,
who scored sixty seven in the first half games over
a halftime is thirty six and twelve. You're down sixty
seven forty three and a half. So I picked the
Bucks because I wanted the Bucks to win, because I
like Giannis. I think there now again overreaction, you know,
(56:14):
to all these game ones.
Speaker 2 (56:16):
I Bucks, I'm actually problem shocked that you have like
no faith at all, even like not not a title run,
but at least to take care of that.
Speaker 1 (56:24):
Yeah, they're playing a lot of bad players, bro it is,
it's just a lot of players you don't trust. And
then quickly listen because some of these pods might be
closer to an hour instead of ninety minutes because we
might I might be back on the air tomorrow morning
to do a quick Lakers Timberwolves reaction, uh pod. This
(56:47):
part of the NBA playoffs, I feel like we almost
should be on every day. Uh you know, so the
I'm not going to get and we've got some NFL
Draft stuff later in the week, so the other series
we can just do quickly. I'm just gonna tell you
guys right now, I do this for a living. I
(57:08):
love the NBA, I love the playoffs. I do not
feel a personal nor a professional obligation to really watch
three of these series. Celtics Magic. I don't feel like
I am doing anyone of disservice by just passively having
(57:31):
on in the background Calves Heat. I might not watch
a second of it, I'm telling you right now. Like
it's gonna the and thunder Grizzlies, you almost want just
to see how bad of a massacre it can be.
But like tomorrow night, we have the old seven o'clock Magic, Celtics,
(57:56):
seven thirty Heat, Calves and then nine thirty one Warriors
Rockets tomorrow night. You know what that sounds like to me?
To Monday, that sounds like a date night, an early
dinner date night, and then back in the house Warriors Rocket.
Speaker 3 (58:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (58:12):
I mean, I just it's and by the way, this
is a this is a out of respect to the Thunder,
the Celtics and the Calves. It's not because those teams
aren't interesting. It's not because those teams aren't awesome. It's because, yes,
see in round two, man, I mean, the Grizzlies got
(58:32):
beat by fifty. Shay doesn't score twenty for the first
times in to Halloween. It doesn't matter. The Celtics have
Tatum Brown and Chris STAPs I think combined for like
fifteen of forty four. It doesn't matter because the Magic
can't score. Paalo scores thirty six, the rest of the
team scored fifty and heat Calves. I can't tell you
(58:55):
what happened. I can't tell you the score. I'm I
don't even was that game Sunday?
Speaker 3 (59:02):
When was that?
Speaker 1 (59:03):
That must have been in the middle of the Easter
egg hunt, because I vividly remember Magic Celtics. Oh, I
know what happened with Heat Calves. One of my mom's
dear friends who was over for Easter is married to
a Canadian and there was the hockey playoffs on, and
he was like, do you care if we turn on
the hockey playoffs. I'm like, it's Heat Calves, buddy, you
(59:26):
go right out at it. So I was like, it
was like, You're very lucky because this could have been
a very awk. Like usually when someone's like, hey, do
you mind if I turned something on, the answers always no,
of course, go ahead. But if Warriors Rockets was the
early game, the answer would have been yes, I mind,
and know you can't. But it was Heat Calves. So
I watched a little It was two Canadian teams playing
(59:48):
each other. It is Toronto against Ontario. Maybe I don't know,
but whatever, I watched a little playoff hockey shout out
to me and so Heat Calves. I don't know what happened,
und I'm looking. So I don't have analysis for you
on it. I don't feel like I'm not doing my
job because of it. I am. I'm just those series
(01:00:09):
are over. Let's all right, remember like rate, subscribe, review,
do all that cool stuff. And it was Toronto Ottawa.
There we go, all right, let's do some listener questions.
Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Uh, Dylan asked, can Kawhi make the top fifty all time.
Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
After these playoffs, he's.
Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Already in the top fifty all time h A two finals, MVPs,
a couple seasons where he was top five MVP finisher,
top fifty all time, Like, I you know that is
he's already cemented there. If they were to win the championship,
(01:00:50):
then top twenty five all time, is I think fair?
I think like he becomes like a rich rich man's
Bill Walton, where you know these super high peaks that
with a career that was kind of derailed a bit
due to injury. But if he wins a championship here
(01:01:12):
and listen, the Clippers are not gonna win the championship.
But if he were to, then yeah, then you have
to say that he Like right now, I don't have
him ahead of and I know this will irk people
on my all time whole career list. I don't have
(01:01:33):
him ahead of James Harden. I understand why is a
champion and Harden isn't. But Harden has you know, ten
unbelievable seasons and Kawi just you know has four. Uh,
But if you were to win the championship even alongside Harden,
Harden gets a ring too. He then jumps him. If
Kawi is the man on the run, all right, we
(01:01:55):
have another Kauhi question.
Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
Uh, how is Kawhi eligibile for club Superstar given that
he's been kicked out before?
Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
Yes, Anthony Davis got kicked out and got back in.
Any Davis also might get kicked out again. Then again,
do you become more of a superstar because you were
traded for Luka Dancic? I don't know. Go to Christian's question.
Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Uh, Christian, do you not live tweet during games because
you don't want to be tied to your heat of
the moment takes?
Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Well, it's it's a number of reasons. One is I'm
not really on Twitter during games. I don't enjoy that experience.
I enjoy watching the games, So there's that. I have
a hard time if I am tweeting during games. So
much of it is just going to be ripping Reggie
(01:02:45):
Miller's commentary, and that's not good for anybody. So I
just leave that alone, and I don't feel an obligation.
So here's the deal, little media, pull back the curtain
a bit. And I'm sure a lot of you have picked.
Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
Up on this.
Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Some people in my profession live tweet during games to
try to prove to you there watching. They're not adding
any like thing super interesting or nuance or whatever. It's
just like, wow, what a play just to be like, hey, guys,
(01:03:25):
I'm watching you see this a lot with guys you
know in the like late night NBA games. It's like, oh,
I stayed up to do this. And by the way,
I'm I'm not acting like I never did that. So
I when the TV show first started, especially when like
you know, TV show was on in the morning, I
would sometimes intentionally just send a totally banaal tweet, like
(01:03:50):
with two minutes left in a one am Lakers game,
just be like, man, I'm watching this, then I'm gonna
be up. I don't feel an obligation to do that
anymore because I feel like I I've established myself as someone
who watches the games, so the I don't think I
feel like I have to prove it to everyone. And
I'm not saying everyone does that, but some people are
(01:04:10):
definitely doing that. And here's the other thing, because I
did you know, I made it clear I don't read
my mentions, but I do occasionally when I open Twitter
click that tab and just you know, see it for
a second, and there was a lot of folks. Oh,
(01:04:31):
after I tweeted out the link to yesterday's emergency pot,
a lot of people like, oh, this guy was hiding
all weekend because the Lakers lost and the Warriors won
and blah blah blah ah this stuff. I'm now gonna
say something really obnoxious. I understand why for folks fan
(01:04:57):
adjacent people who might have, like you know, a team
oriented spaces that they do on Twitter or a very
very lightly listen to them and their friends podcast, but
have a legitimate social media following view media through the
(01:05:21):
prism of if you're not giving your take on Twitter,
you didn't give your take. I happen to have enough
real platforms that I can say nothing on Twitter and
the whole world gets to hear what I had to
say anyway. So I don't feel an obligation to be like,
(01:05:42):
oh man, Laker's in trouble in one hundred and forty characters,
what a shot by Steph, because I'll do that on
the YouTube show, the podcast, the TV show, or something else.
So I there's there's very little running that can be
done when you're on national television every single day. You
(01:06:06):
just might have to wait for the actual show to
get my takes on things. And with that, we'll wrap
today's show. See you guys all with Colin in about
ninety minutes. Again, I'm not gonna tweet about that appearance.
It's still gonna happen. And then I'll see you on
the TV show in a few hours. Great job demands,
talk to everybody soon, See you guys. Thanks to Blue Duck,
(01:06:28):
thanks to Volume, Thanks DraftKings. We'll train
Host
Nick Wright
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