April 26, 2024 • 57 mins
Vince breaks down all 8 NBA playoff series including the amazing Joel Embiid 50 point game to lead the Sixers over the Knicks Thursday night, and even gets into his NFL Draft reaction.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Party. People, Welcome to the VC Show. I'm your host, VC.
It's a lot to talk about. The playoffs are here.
Also the NFL Draft, so we're gonna get into a
little bit of that. So kick your feet up. The
VC Show starts now, hold on. Got what they want
(00:59):
to then seen. For those of you that watched the
playoffs and are really tuned in, everybody knows the Knicks
and the seventy six ers are battling it out and
it's made for a fantastic series so far. Series is
(01:22):
two to one. Knicks. Obviously, Knicks, I mean playing great
this year with all of the injuries they've had, you know,
guys in and out of the lineup, you know, losing
guys left and right. You just don't know, and obviously
(01:44):
shout out the Dibodel for, you know, getting guys to
buy in. But Jalen Brunson has played at an MVP level.
I mean it says a lot about a little guy.
I mean, I mean, I think when I say little guy,
you think of what Alan Iverson did into the league.
And I'm not airing the two ladies and Joie. I'm
just saying when a little guy being able to dominate
and carry his team like he has, you know, Jalen
(02:09):
Brunson has done. Uh, you know, Julius Randall out for
the season and you just don't know. Obviously originally thought
when Jalen bruns are coming over, he's a great asset
to Julius Randall to help him, give him another guy
in the playoffs. And then here we are where Jalen
(02:29):
Brunson is looking for the supporting cast. And you know,
I mean, when you're in a situation like that, I think,
more than anything, it's great to have someone like uh
Josh Hard de Vincenzo, guys that played ball with him,
uh to lean on. He knows how they are and
everybody else has fallen in line. McBride has been playing great.
Obviously o G has been playing great. They defend they
(02:55):
were outstanding. They found ways to win. Yes, a lot
of us. You know, the two minute thing. We've heard
a lot of people shocked. Charles Barkley, multiple people talking
about the two minute report or whatever. Shack doesn't feel
like it's a great idea. You know, you know, I
my rebuttal to that would be. For a long time
(03:15):
people were upset about wanting to hold referees accountable for
missing calls or whatnot, and we finally get the two
minute report. You know, I get what people saying is like, Okay,
it doesn't change anything. I agree, but you at least
what you know, you know, our thing for a long time.
(03:37):
You know, if when players got fined or you know,
miss you know, misplays or misgang winning shots. You know,
it was all over the media. They wanted referees to
be held accountable likewise, and you know, this was where
we are. So we the people complain about it, We
get it. Now we're saying that it's useless, So it
goes hand in hand. I mean, I think it's it's
(03:59):
good to know that you know, it's not overlooked either.
I know it was said, you know, just keep it
in house. That's that's you know, fine tune. I think
many years ago it was kept in house. But we
wanted to know that, you know, the referees or if
you would reprimand it or held accountable for miss calls
(04:19):
or what the case may be. And that's what we're getting.
So yeah, I thought, you know, some files. I wasn't
very happy with in the late game play calling for
Tyrus Maxy, you know, because I said, more so than
the play, I feel like, even if Tyrus Maxy gets
(04:40):
the layup which Hartenstein blocks, if he gets the lay up,
oh yeah, it's all great, Oh big big, you know,
come back. You know, whatever they're they're leading, you still
give the Knicks six seconds, five five to seven seconds.
I can't remember of opportunity to hit the game when
shot anyway. So I just thought, you know, as far
(05:03):
as timing wise, you know, you know, Nick Nurse is
a fantastic coach. He's a champion, he understands. I just
I just thought that you know, that play to get
I like, I like the idea of getting Maxie and
open court being fast, but I thought it was a
little too much time for that type of play. I
thought the pick and roll worked where if he wanted to,
(05:24):
you know, exploit Hartenstein, the mb Maxie pick and roll
exploited that situation because they were in switch mode probably
the last two three minutes of the game, where you know,
they got what they wanted, which got them in the
position to win the game. So on and so forth.
I think, you know, some turnovers happened, I mean, the
(05:47):
Vincenzo fearless big shot by Brunson for three, so on
and so forth. And you know, on the other side,
you know, it's unfortunate with Joel Embiid's injury. You know, yes,
he had the jury coming back and then he gets
hurt again, clearly lipping you know, you know, but what
(06:10):
can you say when this man is still putting thirty
balls up with one leg against a very good Knicks defense,
and then he goes for game three, puts up fifty
and finds a ways, finds a way to win. I'll
(06:35):
say about this series in game one and two, the
one thing I understood the game plan of allowing Josh
Hart being the guy if we lose, we're gonna lose
to him. But you stalling game three now, Josh Hart
is more than a rhythm shooting the three, so you
can't just give him their shots. I'm gonna let you
shoot at whatever because he started to hurt them, and yes,
(06:57):
they were able to pull away at home, but he's
now in a shooting rhythm and he feels good. He's
now giving him X factor or another person giving Jalen
Brunson another guy to help with the scoring low along
with Devincenzo on the other side. My concern, my concern.
It's always said that players, your role players whatever, play
(07:22):
well at home. We're still looking for Buddy Hill, We're
still looking for Tobias Harris to give them another third
score because you can't rely on particularly with Joe ellenb
like he is. I just said, yes, he put up
thirty balls on one leg, okay, but you're asking a
lot for him to sustain this throughout this possibly a
(07:44):
seven game series, and Tyres Maxie's playing out of his
mind and you knew Jalen Brunson was going to break
out of his shell and he wasn't going to play
bad again. He was killing as well Game three. So
Tobias Harris, I think is huge in this series for
the for the for the seventy six as well as
(08:04):
as Buddy Hill, because those guys open the floor. Because
you look in game three, even though joellenbid was shooting
over anybody who was in front of him, he was
finishing over anybody in front. Clearly he was feeling a
lot better, able to power through multiple bodies. You know, Yes,
he was a little gimpy, but still able to have
a little thrust and a little pop in his step.
(08:26):
But if Buddy Hill, if Tobias are hitting shots, those
shrinks and double teams are a little they're you're you're
hesitating and they're a little late now and Joel can
really get get to work and will his team to win.
So it'll be interesting to see how things go moving forward.
(08:48):
So yeah, it's hard to pick who gonna come out
of this this series, but I think in Beid's performance,
his willingness to play through these injuries, you know, you
like that being that is been a a lot of
talk about load management and guys being injured not really
(09:10):
fighting through it. This is the playoffs, and you know,
you know, the old school guys always talk about man
in the playoff time. Were all hurt, you find a way,
and Joel is finding a way. He kind of gives
me the willis read vibe, you know, coming out of
the locker room finding a way to win for the
Knicks many many years ago. I even I even think
(09:33):
this this, you know, this battle gives the me versus
iverson in two thousand and one, back and forth. Let's
see if Brunton responds with the fifty ball himself. Who knows.
We'll see, all right, Moving on, the Calves were number
(10:14):
four playing the number five Magic. I was interested in
this series. I didn't think I don't think the Magic
can win the series because of lack of the experience,
not saying that they can't find a way, but I
do think this playoff run for the Orlando Magic makes
(10:39):
them scary next year with Powo, Suggs, the Widener Brothers,
well all of the young core Markel. I think he's
playing a few gaining this experience because you can teach
Jamal Mosley. First of all, I still think he should
be up there for coaching the year, for the unbelievable
(11:00):
job he's done for the team this year. But I'm
gonna throw it out there whether if he's in the
list or not, or if he doesn't win it. I
thought he's done a fantastic job and he's gotten young
guys to buy in to what he's selling, which has
now put them on this stage. And they had an
unbelievable win Game three eighty three blowout. I thought they
(11:23):
could win a game or two. I thought they would
have a better showing obviously at home. But that's this
is the growing pains. If you would for a young
team like or a young player like Polo, you know,
I remember as a player, you know you can you
can talk about what the playoffs like, and you know
(11:44):
you can't make mistakes, but you have to go through it.
And I think those guys have now gotten two now
three games under their belt, and I know they will
continue to prove the longer this series goes. But the
magic is going to be scary in the future, particularly
they can keep their coach and that core group together.
Donovan Mitchell, you know, this is an important but interesting
(12:07):
year to me for Donovan Mitchell because this is a series.
I feel like he a signature series for him. He
must find a way to come out of. You know,
a lot of a lot of talk about can he
lead a team obviously deep into the playoffs is a
very young and talented team. I think they're very capable
(12:28):
of getting out of the first round. Who knows what
happens after that. But man, man, man, man, it's still
I think, like I said, a lot of people don't
really care to watch it. I still think it's an
interesting series just for seeing these young, talented teams, because
these are two teams in the future that we'll be
watching making a run in the playoffs. In my opinion,
(12:50):
Let's move back up to the top of the East
and the Boston Celtics Number one versus the Heat or
number eight series of Time one one, and I'm interested,
you know, I've been interested to hear what, uh, you know, analysts, fans,
(13:12):
people think about this series and the performance. I'm a
little disappointed, uh with the Boston Celtics and how they're approached.
Now I say that, but I also say this has
been a heated rivalry, no pun intended, and this is
we can all agree. This is not your everyday eight seed.
(13:35):
And even when I'm Jimmy Butler, you can see that
you know this is not this is not an easy series. Like, yes,
I think the Boston Celtic Celtics should handle the Miami Heat. Yes,
I think the Miami Heat are going to give them
a fight. But it just seems like when the Celtics
(13:57):
get a lead and get comfortable, and that's when we
see the worst, uh, you know, all their mistakes and
we see the worst version of the Boston Celtics. Obviously,
they won Game one one, fourteen to ninety four. And
then I think a disappointing performance to me by the
Boston Celtics in Game two. But man shout out to
Bam and Tyler Hero particularly, Well, I'm gonna say both
(14:21):
of those guys are stepping up. No Jimmy Butler, you know,
Jimmy Butler in the regular season, he's good. Jimmy Butler
in the playoffs is why we call him playoff Jimmy,
Jimmy Buckets, whatever that, whatever you choose to call him.
Tyler Hero has stepped up. And you know, I think
this is a blessing in disguise. I mean, obviously, the
longer the series goes, the more opportunity you possibly. I
(14:44):
don't know if we're gonna see Jimmy again, but like
you're you're you're creating a monster. This is this rivalry,
This is the tough This is a tough out for
the Boston Celtics, which is I think at the end
of the day, is gonna make them better. Do I
think the Boston Celtics will win the series? Yes, I do, Yes,
I do. I just think they live in a little
(15:05):
more consistency. I think White has been Derek White has
been fantastic. He's given them a third score. Perzingis has
been a little up and down. Uh you know, I said,
I've always you know, it's been said and I'll say
it again. My concern with Porzingis was health and just consistency,
(15:26):
because I think he's damn good and I think he's
a great third score to them, just being consistent, but
they have the luxury of if he doesn't play well.
Derek White has been playing great. He's been playing great,
and they have, you know, ultimately four guys you can
put you you know, you can play I mean even
(15:47):
through holidays. Another guy who gives you a score, you know,
a guy you can play through. And he would be
the fifth guy. You know. Brown was fantastic. Game two.
I think he had like thirty three. So this series
of it's just interesting to me, and now it shifts
to Miami. I do think Miami will win at least
(16:08):
one at home. I think Boston is gonna have more
of a bounce back. I think you'll see more of
a of aggressive of an aggressive Jason Tatum at least
I hope so at the loss. I think he's very capable.
Sometimes I think he takes the back seat, you know,
you know, to guys. I like how I like how
his approach early getting guys going to make the game
(16:28):
easier for him. But sometimes I think late late third
and in the middle of the fourth when I think
he should kind of stepping up and kind of take over,
you know. But he has a luxury of a jail
and Brown who's very capable of scoring too. So yeah,
what do you saying. Let's move over to another interesting series,
(16:51):
the Milwaukee Bucks in the Pacers Bucks number three, Pacers
who are number six one one one one, and it's
a lot of things in this and here's another young team,
you know. I felt the Pacers gained some experience by
the playing tournament. Is the playing tournament like the playoffs? No,
but but it had a playoff field, so they gave
(17:15):
them some a general idea of what it's like now.
Game one, Dame went crazy. Coach Rick Carlisle made some
great adjustments. Dame didn't score in the second half. He
had thirty four in the first half. He was unconscious.
They did a great job. Yes they did not win,
they lose by what fifteen or so, but you know
(17:36):
they made adjustments and made it close, you know, made
it a game if you would. And then game two
they looked more like the Pacers. You know, the Milwaukee
Bucks did a great job of taking Halliburton out. I
think he had nine points. You know, I think nine
points that he was a closer triple double. But you
know it wasn't a typical Halliburton game where he had
(18:00):
you know, fifteen twenty points and twelve assists and zero turnovers.
And you know, their guy right now has been Pastal Siaka,
which make which why he's a great addition to the
Pacers because he's been in this situation before and if
things get stagnant, they need a bucket, a go to guy.
I mean thirty six game one, thirty seven game two,
(18:24):
and they're playing with confidence. It was interesting, you know
what Porters had to say about the places being front runner,
and you know, that's just young guy, you know, and
I get it. He's a bet, he's been around and
you know, Dame kind of talked about this with Halliburton
as well. I mean it's along the same lines as
being front runners. But you know, young guys, you know,
(18:46):
they're enjoying the moment. It's just the new agent. You know,
we as veterans were taught don't get too high, wins,
don't get too low, and losses. He kind of got
to find a happy median. And here's why. When you're
in playoff series and you're trying to win the series
to move on and maybe a star player doesn't play well,
(19:09):
or team in general they're not playing well. You know,
in this situation, Milwaukee won and then Pacers come back
and win. You do not, and I repeat, you do not.
You want to be yourself okay, but you do not
want to get team bulletin board material. You don't want
(19:30):
to give these guys any extra motivation to go out
and find another gear. You know. So that's the one
thing I say to the Pacers, you know, tread lightly,
enjoy yourselves. You guys want to have fun, do that,
you know, just you have to find a way to
do it. You don't want to poke the bears like
these these guys are you know, the Bucks feel like
(19:51):
they have a legitimate shot with what they have. Obviously
there's no honest but you just don't want to give
them bulletboard material to come out and and hit another
gear and you lose a series off of just silly stuff.
All right, but have your fun. You know, the Pacers
have been exciting, high scoring all season long. You gotta
(20:12):
be careful how you go about that because I'll tell
you. You know Dame. You know, Dame is doing Dame things.
I'm just interested to see if Giannis comes back. How
does that still work. Does Giannis take a back seat
to day because he's in rhythm and he's extremely important
to the Buck's success or does he try to do
does Doc try to implement Giannis as their number one
(20:37):
guy and kind of putting Dame off the ball again
and he loses the rhythm? You know, as a coach,
that's really the toughest decisions you have to make. It's
funning a way to obviously satisfy both of your scores,
but this is a situation where your scores coming back
get him in rhythm. I feel like Giannis is the
guy who can you know, he can get touches off
of transition. You can post him up every now, and
(20:59):
he can get off of rebounds. He can just you know,
he plays with a high motor, you know, so you
find a way. But at the same time, you gotta
you gotta keep Dame where where Dame is you You
need him playing like this feeling like the old game
of Courtland. It's my two cents to that. Oh you
(21:30):
got time yet, Nah, let's keep going. Let's go into
the West, and this wild, wild West is h It's
musch C TV. I mean, I think the Playoffs in
general has been must C TV. That's been some disappointments obviously,
you know, and be injury in the East, I mean,
(21:51):
Magic Cas, Okay, Boston, Miami. You know, I still think
there's gonna be a lot of drama. So it's still
much must watch, Pacers Bucks. You know, there's a little
trash talking, you know, with Bobby Fortis and those coming
out about the hot so you know you're gonna get
some drama there. But I'm gonna start with obviously, let's
let's start with Okay, see being number one and the Pelicans.
(22:14):
I thought the Pelicans did what they had to do
to get in the playoffs. And then Zion goes down
and it's unfortunate because I shout out to Zion. Let
me start by saying, Zion did an unbelievable job for
what was said about him. You know what, we were
curious about him coming into into this season losing twenty
(22:37):
something pounds, twenty five pounds. I think it was during
the season. That's commitment. That is commitment, that is showing
that things are okay, because it didn't sound great in
New Orleans leading into the season, and you know, they're saying, oh,
you know, we don't really see him in the building
during the summer, and you know, blah blah blah. And
(22:59):
here we are now where his commitment has helped this
team propel into the playoffs and he goes down. And
it's unfortunate, man, because you love to see when things
are rocky, guys, you know, or organization player work it
out and good things comes out of it. And you know,
(23:22):
it just puts down the onus on brandon Ingram to
step it up, and he's coming back from injury. I
just think I don't think the Pelicans. Now, I don't
think they have enough. I think Zion makes things a
little tougher. It'll been interesting to see check against Zion.
Different body styles, but two players who going to bang
(23:42):
a lot, I'd have been interesting to see. But let's
talk about Okay, See they're winning the series right now
to two games and none. Do I think SGA is
the is the MVP? I do? I do? And I
(24:06):
say that Jokis is. It's easy to get bored with
yok being this dominant great, Yes, Do I think Yokis
would be the number one? Sorry, would be m VP
if there were number one? Yes? At some point we
have to give, you know, reward the player a player,
(24:29):
that player s G A for this instance, for particularly
being in the West, particularly putting up the numbers he's
putting up, playing like he's playing. And I'm talking about
SGA just like Jan Sorry, I'm getting hit himself, just
like Jo Kic last year, best player, best team in
the toughest division or conference, and we're seeing it again.
(24:55):
I think yo Kis is by far, you know, SGA
one to right now the best players in the league.
You know, if you're welcome to argue with that, all
you want, and that's fine, but I say for a
team that's the youngest in the playoffs, you're expecting a
(25:17):
lot of mistakes. You're expecting them not know how to finish.
And I you know, forgiving what I say this, if
y'all see it as bad, I think they got the
right team for the first round, you know, with the
situation with Zion being out, and they can learn but
(25:38):
still win games to give themselves a chance down the line,
if that makes sense. And you know I said this
about the magic and I'm saying about Okay, See, you
can talk about what the playoffs is like from a
as a role player, as a superstar guy that has
in hand. Depending on the coach you play against, you
(26:00):
haven't you know, these guys haven't seen it all until
you go through it. So there again, because they're going
against the Pelicans, that's just one version of what they're
going to see when they see another great defensive team
down the line, whether it be whoever you know, Wolves, Denver,
you know, whoever, whoever they see, whatever team, you know,
it's going to be a different situation in scenario that
(26:21):
they're going to have to figure out. But you get
a series under your belt, feel confident to move on
and they've earned this number one spot, so we got
to give them their props. You know, if they can
stay healthy, I think they'll make some noise and Okay,
see in Denver. You know, would be something to watch
(26:45):
in the conference finals. It's my two cents on that.
Speaking of the Nuggets who are number two in the West,
Lakers who are number seven in the West, and a
lot was talked talked about this series. Obviously they're history
from last year, but let's just go back a little
bit with a lot of people were saying the Lakers
(27:06):
should not win to avoid the diver Nuggets to try
to get the eight seed to play. Okay, Ce and
I hear you, based on the history and the losing streak,
that all sounds great, But what will you guys or
people think in or say which as a player, and
I'm speaking from a player's perspective, if they do that
(27:28):
or did that, what would you guys say to us
as players if now we go and lose that other
game and we're out on together. It's just a dangerous
game to play. And I understand Darvin Ham's position, and
I think some of the players you know, I think
some of the players were talking about it. I know
I saw Darvin Hams saying that, no, we're gonna we're
(27:50):
winning to get ourselves the best possible position to you know,
get in the playoffs, because you don't want to fool
around with that. I think d was another guy who said,
you know, we're just here. We're trying to win and
get in and worry about it from there. Yeah, and
I know Aspan on the other side, we're saying, yeah,
I hear you, but we want to try to get
(28:11):
the best possible position to go as far as possible
because we're trying to avoid a team, you know, and
that that does happen. Don't getting wrong, you know, it
does happen. But that's typically more in the regular season
where you can kind of dictate or manipulate situations. More
so a playing tournament. You don't have that much room
(28:34):
to take those chances. But then when we get into
the games, you know, one to fourteen one O three
game one Nuggets win and one on one ninety nine
game two. Let's talk about those two first. On the road,
I thought, I think Anthony Davis has been playing lights out,
(28:54):
lights out, and I think the the storyline between game
one in game two, being at Denver, found the ways
that they're going to put Anthony Davis on Jokicic a
little more instead of REALI hachimura and try to neutralize Jokic.
(29:16):
And remember I said about the Indiana Pacers Bucks game
about bulletin board material and I think that was, you know, obviously, oh,
you're gonna put this guy. You know, he's he's you know,
Anthony Davis talking about how he's not in the Defensive
Player of the Year and he feels like he should.
And then all of a sudden they're gonna put him
on him a lot more, so on and so forth.
(29:38):
So you know, as a player, you know it's a challenge,
You're up for the challenge. But bullet board materials, so
they say, oh, he can stop me, is how I
think Jokis is thinking. Because Jokicic came out ready to play,
going at a d getting you know, getting into the paint,
getting this floaded, obviously getting other guys involved, and then
(29:58):
obviously the Lakers establish themselves early, you know, well early
and often well often. Let me just say that in
in game two up twenty and I know, I know
A lot has been said about foul calls and what
was it called? And that's fair, particularly when you get
(30:21):
down the crush down near the end of the game.
You know you want the game to go, you know,
smool the team liss where there's no foul calls. If
it's a pole, it's a real powers not the powers
should be called calling. But here's the issue, here's my issue.
You guys are up twenty and you're not You're a
veteran team, you're not a young team, regardless of you're
on the road. You have you know, one of the
(30:43):
if not the best players still in the league, and
Lebron James. You have Anthony Davis, who is champion, who's
been there. You have guys that you know that understand
how to win, particularly what it takes to win on
the road. And you let loose of a twenty point lead.
So the momentum naturally kind of swings and sways into
(31:03):
Denvers favor. And you know, when you're the aggressor, when
you're in control of the game, you tend to get
the benefit of the doubt of call and calls like,
let's just be real, that's just how it goes. And
you know it is what it is, and Jamal Murray,
(31:26):
not having a great shoot night, found his way. And
it's funny how it all works because because the NBA
now is layups and threes, there's very few guys. There's
there's a handful of guys who still utilizes the mid
range as their package in their game as what they
(31:47):
use like they still get to that mid range. We're
talking about s G A. I think Kawhi uh, you
know there's I mean, I mean Booker, k D. There's
a there's a you know, there's a pair full of guys.
And Jamal Murray got himself going by hitting a couple
of mid range jump shots. Obviously got some layers which
ultimately led to getting to a mid range fadeaway shot.
(32:10):
That's just being confidence in repetition and believing in yourself.
He said. One thing he said, I was like interesting,
He said, you know, over the past years, I've had
that match up. I felt good about it. I knew
where I can, I knew I can get my shot
off and get to my spot. He did that had
an unbelievable poster which led to now moving the series
(32:33):
to LA Game three. In Game four, you know I'll
say this game two. The question was the Lakers need
to get a third score. I said, Austin reeves what
is extremely important in their uh, in their success their Lakers,
(32:55):
because he's ability to score, defend, make play for other
guys to make the game easier. Obviously Dlo playing well,
because a lot was talked about and it was all
kind of forced or pushed at de Loo's on his shoulders,
and he responded, So, not only do you have ad
playing well, Lebron playing well, dl playing well, you gave
(33:18):
him your best punch, and you're still not able to win.
So I just felt like it's just, you know, obviously,
going to LA, I think the Lakers will get one.
But we're seeing right now that just Denver has the
Lakers number. That's just what it is. It's like those matchups,
and it goes back to it. I can already hear
(33:41):
a lot of you talking right now. But see that's
why I said they don't need to win, so we
can avoid this and see Denver later on. You're right,
you are right, You're a one hundred percent right. But
the reality is, as players coach organization, if you do
that and it doesn't work out, the noise is a
(34:03):
lot louder now than it was when you go and
play this series and you get swept or you the
gentleman sweep or whatever. The noise is a lot louder,
a lot louder because you can't even get in the
playoffs to avoid them. Yeah, you avoided the different nuggers
than you avoided everybody because you're going home. So gotta understand,
(34:24):
like it's just it's one of those unfortunate situations, you know,
in my opinion, So remember I talked about for Oklahoma City,
it's unfortunate that Zion's not in, but it's a I
hate to say, it's a favorable situation for OKC that
there's no Zion and you know they can kind of
(34:45):
get themselves together where they can get a win and
on the flip side, like the Lakers. Yes, I think
it would have been a different series against Oka. See, yes,
I agree with you, but you do not, I repeat,
want to take that chance. So they put themselves where
their backs against the wall where it can be. Now
(35:06):
we're looking at sweep or gentlemen's sweep or something just
because of the confidence. Hit me out, Lakers fans, hear
me out, please, it's because of the confidence. Well, we're
talking reality. We're not talking about hate, We're not talking
about jazz. We're just talking about realities. Yes, the Lakers
are super very capable of finding a way to you know,
(35:28):
get themselves back in the series. But Denver Nuggets right
now have confidence and understand how to win and feel
and are playing like that is just a favorable matchup
for them the end. So we talked about teams that
a little disappointing. That brings me to this team, the
(35:51):
Phoenix Suns who are number six playing the Minnesota Timbwolves,
who are three to zero right now. Wolves. Yes, they
have a bix through. Yes, Devin Booker is like that.
We've also seen Bradley Beal who is like that. But
they also have Kevin Durant And the one thing that
kind of I'm gonna say bothers me. I don't wanna
(36:12):
say disappointed that bothers me with KD if sometimes I
think KD forgets who he is. And I said this
to him by the way, you know, and not knowing
how he would take it or whatever, I said it
to him, I was like, bro, you do know who
you are? You are Kevin Durant, like you told us,
(36:33):
do you know who I am? And I say this
because I think sometimes he's a unselfish superstar who understands
the importance of other stars that he's playing with on
the floor and gets caught into that and tends to
(36:56):
forget that he needs to be who he is as well.
He kind of did a little bit of that for
those of you who are Brooklyn Nets fans when he
was there, kind of taking the back seat to Kyrie.
Not saying that Kyrie's not like that, That's not what
I'm saying. But he's also Kevin Durant and when he
steps up, well also James Harden. But I'm thinking I'm
(37:18):
talking about when he and the two of them were
on and Harden was out for a while. I'm seeing
a little bit of that again. And you know, and
I'm fine with that. You you know, you're allowing book
to be booking, particularly Bradley Beal, that third guy who's
been injured. Cool, but when your team's in a situation
(37:40):
where it's the middle of the fourth, six minutes left,
you know, late in the third leading into the fourth,
it's time to show them who you are. Bro This
is my opinion, you know, but that's kind of how
it is. As a superstar, I was in a position where, yes,
you understand how important your other guys are because if
(38:00):
they if they're going in the second half, particularly in
the fourth quarter, six minutes left in the fourth, you
could just go out there and do your thing because
they're in rhythm and it's tougher for teams to guard
all these people. Or you know, some coaches say we're
gonna stick into it where we're gonna take Durant out
and other guys get there. But it's hard to say
that when you have a Devin Booker who can go
off of fifty plus on his own, same thing with
(38:22):
Bradleys Beal. So that's the one disappointing thing. And I
think that's why not saying this is taking nothing away
from Minnesota in what they're doing. I'm just particularly talking
about Kevin Durant being Kevin Durant, and I just, yo,
he put up thirty. That's cool, but like it's not
a dominant thirty where he's like we can't stop him.
(38:43):
And you heard and would say something about, you know,
it's the point where he was just going a stretch
where KD was going. We couldn't stop him. But like,
I need a little bit more of that. I need
a little bit more of that. Not saying that Minnesota,
who I think will win the series right now, my opinion,
I think they're playing with a lot of confidence and
(39:04):
Phoenix has given them given them that confidence. I mean,
they've you done the number three team, the Timberwolves and
ed Edwards is you know, I said, as you know,
I'm doubling back. I said, SBA and Kis are the
two best players. May I please add Anthony Edwards in
(39:24):
that those are the three best players right now, and
is playing at a high level with a lot of
confidence and you know, as a superstar. You know, I'm
I'm glad to see that Edwards and Kat has come
to an agreement. Agreement maybe him y'all of who's that guy?
(39:47):
And at one point Kat felt like he was team
and I think when once he went down with the injury,
that's when we started to see and take off. Now
Kat comes back into this and kind of understands he
falls in this. He's kind of like number two guy.
Nothing wrong with that because he needs Cat to still
(40:08):
have that same mentality, you know, and I think that's
what we're seeing and that's why they it's worked and
we haven't seen the kind of the butting of heads
like we kind of saw in the beginning because it's
two young guys with an opportunity to lead a franchise
and be the guy, and you know it had to
(40:30):
be figured out and it kind of worked itself out.
Kudos the Cat because at the same time, you know
when Cat went off of fifty, you know, sixty something,
he understood. And you can see even in these wins,
Edwards has not gone off for something crazy. He's had
some crazy moments. We saw him when he was kind
of going back at going back and forth with KD
(40:52):
and we know he's very capable of it. But I
also see it's about winning. It can't be about numbers
because the end of the day, we're looking at them
being two games to none instead of one to one.
Because maybe he's trying to force the issue because he
wants to see those big numbers averaging thirty something, like
we're seeing a lot of these guys averaging right now.
(41:14):
As long as they're winning, that team understands who the
man is and when they need it to go crazy,
they will, but nas Reed is playing well, kat my Guy,
Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert. It's a point that we see
like would you have ever had a conversation here and
me or someone or watching it yourself seeing Rudy Gobert
(41:37):
being featured. But it's just now they're at a you know,
they're at a point where they just understand what works
when it's time to get guys the balling, and it's
all working. The last time I've seen Rudy Gobert being
featured is when I saw him playing in the Olympics
for his team for friends, and they are featuring him,
but he's being featured in situations and they just understand
(41:59):
who they have want to on the court. And you know,
it's great to see, particularly with younger guys buy into
if this guy is going, we're gonna give him the
ball and we're gonna we're gonna run with it. And
you can see at Edwards every time out when he
was coming when he was on the bench, coming on
the floor, jumping over guys, celebrating them. And he only
had twenty something points, maybe not twelve, twelve, thirteen points,
(42:23):
but they have a win and that's what's important. I
think it's unbelievable to seeing your superstar understand that at
an early age, and that's scary. So all that to say,
I do think Minnesota wins this series, but it's just
unfortunate because I all right, I'm gonna jump back to Phoenix.
(42:44):
I'm gonna say this, Yes, the Big Three. I was like, wow.
My question was do they have enough? Do they have enough?
And everybody's like, hey man, they got three guys, but
these are three guys. I still you know, a lot
of people have said, I do think they have a
point guard because I think you're handcuffing Devin Booker into
being a facilitator and score. That guy can score. Not
(43:08):
saying he can't facilitate, but you could be a scorer
and still be a facilitator. And you can have a
guy who is a pass first organizer off point guard
to get these guys involved. So I just think that's
what they need. I just I just didn't think they
(43:29):
had enough. I just you know, my opinion. So you know,
obviously they can outscore anybody if the mentality and everybody's
healthy and things are going right, and it's not quite
there in my opinions. Not yet. At least let's jump
over to the Clippers, who are number four and the
Mavericks who are number five. These guys have history in
(43:52):
the bubble. You know, it's one to one. Clippers win
Game one one, nine ninety seven with no Kawhi, and
I was curious about you know about that. I don't
you know, forgive me, I don't know much about what
(44:13):
was Kawhi's injury. But he did come back Game two
and they don't win. Luka and Kyrie go crazy, but
so did PJ. Washington, And I said, for this series,
for the Dallas Mavericks to win this series. Obviously, Luca
(44:34):
is gonna, you know, gonna be Luca. He's gonna play well.
Kyrie obviously can and we're seeing playing well. My first
question was, will Luca continue to allow Kyrie to be
Kyrie and make the game easier for him. It's one
thing in regular season, it's another thing, you know, when
(44:54):
it's money time and you're playing for playoffs and all
of this stuff. Will you still buy into what you're
doing because that has worked for them and Luca is
doing it. My other question was who will be their
third score? Because I mean obviously every defense Clippers, you know,
like Game one, their goal was to try to take
(45:19):
Luca out and make it tough for Kyrie. Blah blah blah.
So somebody else is gonna have to beat this. And PJ.
Washington has been great, he's been great, and it's a
great pickup for him, Gaffer. He didn't play great Game two.
But you know, as far as his activity lively, their
activity on the glass, you don't need them to put
up big numbers. You want their rebounding numbers to look
(45:41):
good obviously, to play solid defense, you want them to
try to get ten points, twelve points a piece that
gives you twenty something points as a dual threat, live threat,
chop blocker. But their offense that those guys activity on
the offensive glass creates open looks, open threes, and that's
(46:02):
what that's what's happening. So and then Kyrie is just
going crazy and it's you know, I know it's new
for Luca, but like you, that just tells you, you know,
shout out to J Kid getting kind of you know,
Luca to to kind of buy into that understanding the
bigger picture. And that's if we're gonna win, we're gonna
(46:23):
win because of you, Luca, but we're gonna also win
because you allowing Kyrie to still be the great Kyrie,
irving that he is, and then everybody else falls into place,
and that is kind of happening. And you saw an
example of that in game two. Obviously, MAVs pull off
a three point victory nine six ninety three, and I
think they had three guys and you know those three
(46:45):
guys I mentioned all score twenty points yourself, So stay too.
You know the Clippers have been up and down with injuries,
blah blah blah, big big Zoo was Zuba was amazing
in game one. I mean obviously, you know, guys stepped
up because of no excuse me, no Kawai. Then Kawhi
(47:08):
comes back in, so the roles changed. So it kind
of the back and forth the lineup not knowing your role.
That's gonna be something to watch. When that was trying
to find their way, Now they can exploit different situations
and guy's not knowing what to do or whatever the
case may be. Not saying that the Clippers can't figure out,
because ty Lou is a fantastic coach and he's proven
(47:31):
proven to figure that out. So I'm gonna keep my
eyes on that that series, and that's tough. After Game
one I said, yes, I thought the Clippers we're gonna
win this series. Man, no Kawai winning like this. M
(47:51):
I just don't know. And that's what I love about it.
That's what that's what we gotta love. That's what I
love about it. Like I want to I want to
be confused. I want to go back and forth after
a couple of series, I mean, after a couple of games,
not really knowing, because that means it's a great series
and the matchups are great and we're getting a little drama.
Playoff playoff time is the best part of the season
(48:13):
in any sport, in any sport, and I think with
the play in tournament the way you know it's presented itself,
it's given us more of this instead of just when
the playoffs starts. We've already had some of this leading
up into the playoffs, of people positioning to get in
(48:36):
the playing tournament, people surviving to get in the playing tournament,
people locking in the spot in the playing tournament. We
saw a little bit of this, a bit of this
mid season, whether we can we admit it or not.
I think it brought more eyeballs to the game, which
we don't get we meeting players or the NBA mid
season because of you know, some people just feel like, oh,
it's boring. Is boring. I thought we got some pretty
(49:00):
good stuff in the playing I'm sorry, in the n
season tournament. So yeah, this is just business as usual,
and I'm excited about it. So that's, uh, that's kind
of my thoughts on the on the on the on
the playoffs right now. Obviously it's gonna get continue to
get more interesting as we move on. You know, We're
(49:23):
gonna probably look back at what I'm saying, like maybe
I look like I'm smart, Maybe I look like I'm dumb.
I don't know. But that's the beauty of this playoffs,
which I like, is like we have our opinions, we
see what we see, and you know, a lot of players,
there's a lot of X factors who are gonna really
matter and make the difference in every one of these series.
A few of them, you know, a few of these series, Uh,
(49:47):
are gonna be some some X factor. I think. You know,
it's crazy for me to say, I think Kawhi Leonard
is gonna be the X factor for this Clippers mavers series,
because not only you know you want him on the floor,
but if he plays as well, he's tough to stop
in this Obviously, that gives that opens up PG, that
gives Hardened, that gives Russ a chance to go to
(50:08):
go crazy. And I don't think the mav if they're
playing like that with Kawhi playing well, that's a tough
that would be a tough out. I mean, that'd be
a tough guard for the Dallas Maverison. I don't think
they can handle the Clippers that's playing that way. So
stay tuned, man. We'll talk more about this as the
playoffs moves on. And I'm gonna keep moving on the
(50:31):
NFL drafts. Yeah, uh my bucks, you know we did okay,
you know, shout out to Baker Mayfield, tet out to
Mike Evans. Yes, you know, I'm gonna tike my team
up first. I'm glad we signed Mike Evans. I was concerned,
(50:54):
you know, I didn't you hear the rumors like some
of these teams, Like when I hear I heard the
Baltimore Ravens were interested in him, I was. I was
really concerned to help my team and what was going
to happen. And I think the Bucks organization, this is
as a fans perspective, we did the right thing. I
think Mike has been great, took for us, He's been
(51:16):
you know, proven, and he earned his money. And I
thought Baker played well. I didn't know if we were
going to keep him. Now I thought he played well.
He earned himself a contract, whether it was with us
or someone else. And you know, they took care of him.
So shout out to those guys and shout out to
my Bucks, and we'll see what happens. I don't care
about y'all team, but the NFL Draft. We have the
(51:42):
much anticipated rookies now solidified in the draft. Obviously Caleb
Williams going number one to the Bears, with a lot
of controversy leading up to it, whether they keep Feels
or not, with the Bears trade to pick or not.
I think the writing was on the wall one. Obviously
they traded him. You know, we knew what was gonna happen.
(52:04):
Then there was kind of some top whispers, if you would,
about Jade and Daniels possible possibly going number one. I
think he's fantastic. I think he's awesome, great arm mobile, smart,
can play in the pocket, all of these things. But
it's just you know, they want, they want what they want,
(52:26):
and you know he's that key meaning Caleb Williams. You
know once in my opinion, once your your you have
a COUMP to Patrick Mahomes. How can you not go
number one? You know what I'm saying. So, yeah, good
luck to the Bears. Obviously, Jayden Daniels goes to the
commanders at two my tar heel. Drake May goes to
(52:49):
the Patriots, which it was kind of looking a little
rocky right there was JJ McCarthy. Did j J McCarthy
move up to two? You know, it's just it's just funny.
It's it's always interesting as a fan, particularly in a
different sport. You know, I still watch and listen like
you guys do. Yeah, you're just curious to see when
(53:10):
you initially hear Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and then Drake May,
and you know the list goes on and on on
and then it just could change. Hear it changes. It's
like the why, why why is that change? When you
were so sure in the beginning, and obviously you know
you look at their workouts and blah blah blah. But
it ended up falling like they talked about obviously, Marvin
Harrison Junior. It's funny. It's it's always great to see
(53:34):
the legacies. You know, obviously my time playing basketball. You know,
these guys were in the league when I was around
the dads that is, and now to see their sons,
it's like me playing against Dell Curry and so many
other you know guys that I played against and seeing
their kids come in and doing that thing and now
(53:55):
steps on the back Well, now he's older. Let's just
say that. I'm not saying he's on the back end
because he has a couple of years. But it's just
great to see, like Marvin Harrison Junior, Like he's like, man,
I remember when his dad was doing his thing thing,
so now his son is in there doing it. And
then Elite Neighbors, which was that controversy, like it had
me confused, had me think I thought I personally thought
(54:18):
Marvin Harrison was the best wide receiver. The Arizona Cardinals
also fell up that way, but I thought Elite Neighbors
great as well. So obviously can go either way. I
think both teams would be happy. But you know, I
think these guys, I think Arizona got their guy, Giants
(54:39):
got their guy. Michael Pennix going number eight was interesting
to me, you know, I mean, obviously the talk with
these guys were kind of late first round or would
they even be in the first round? They meaning Pennix
or bow Knicks. And Michael Pennix goes eight. Bo Nicks
ends up going twelve to Denver, which obviously fits the
(55:01):
mold of what Sean Payton wants and it has had typically.
And then JJ McCarthy was that kind of that guy.
He was if you talk about the X factor, who's
the guy that can mess up the draft, it was
JJ McCarthy because he could have gone as high as
two or you know where he landed at ten. So
(55:21):
it was pretty it was pretty interesting just to see
it all play out, and to just to see the
hard work of Adam Schefter all these guys, you know,
the homework they do obviously giving us these insights and
to keep us guessing, if you would, And obviously, you know,
the teams are gonna make the decision of what they
want and we're just all assuming until we actually hear
(55:42):
what we hear, but it was pretty interesting to hear
six quarterbacks going into the first round in the first
six quarterbacks in the first twelve picks in the first
round was kind of insane. Tied the record, but like,
that's just crazy. And then fourteenth offensive players meaning alignment
as well in the first fifteen picks, which is says
(56:05):
a lot about the talent that's out there. And there's
a lot of talent obviously defensively out there, which typically
defensive players go rather high. So look at that. Sound
like a football analyst like I do this, but I
pay attention. Man, I'm a fan like everybody else, and
I really enjoyed it. So there you have it. Man,
we talked about the playoffs. We're going to continue to
(56:27):
talk about the playoffs, so you guys keep paying attention,
and we're going to collab our notes and see if
we see the same things and have us certain certain
concerns about players and teams and coaches and decisions. And
I'm interested to see what these young you know, young rookies,
if you would see how they pan out and what
they do for your and my favorite team. We'll stay tuned, So, hey,
(56:51):
I appreciate you guys, once again paying attention. Listen to
me kicking your feet up, and listen to the VC Show.
We're out of here. Let's go out s
It's the VC Show. It's the VC Show. It's the
VC Show.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's the.
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Dude Let's TV Show.
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Season two. Yeah, we back again.
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Got the world tune in there for show, so through
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Speaker 2 (00:36):
Party. People, Welcome to the VC Show. I'm your host, VC.
It's a lot to talk about. The playoffs are here.
Also the NFL Draft, so we're gonna get into a
little bit of that. So kick your feet up. The
VC Show starts now, hold on. Got what they want
(00:59):
to then seen. For those of you that watched the
playoffs and are really tuned in, everybody knows the Knicks
and the seventy six ers are battling it out and
it's made for a fantastic series so far. Series is
(01:22):
two to one. Knicks. Obviously, Knicks, I mean playing great
this year with all of the injuries they've had, you know,
guys in and out of the lineup, you know, losing
guys left and right. You just don't know, and obviously
(01:44):
shout out the Dibodel for, you know, getting guys to
buy in. But Jalen Brunson has played at an MVP level.
I mean it says a lot about a little guy.
I mean, I mean, I think when I say little guy,
you think of what Alan Iverson did into the league.
And I'm not airing the two ladies and Joie. I'm
just saying when a little guy being able to dominate
and carry his team like he has, you know, Jalen
(02:09):
Brunson has done. Uh, you know, Julius Randall out for
the season and you just don't know. Obviously originally thought
when Jalen bruns are coming over, he's a great asset
to Julius Randall to help him, give him another guy
in the playoffs. And then here we are where Jalen
(02:29):
Brunson is looking for the supporting cast. And you know,
I mean, when you're in a situation like that, I think,
more than anything, it's great to have someone like uh
Josh Hard de Vincenzo, guys that played ball with him,
uh to lean on. He knows how they are and
everybody else has fallen in line. McBride has been playing great.
Obviously o G has been playing great. They defend they
(02:55):
were outstanding. They found ways to win. Yes, a lot
of us. You know, the two minute thing. We've heard
a lot of people shocked. Charles Barkley, multiple people talking
about the two minute report or whatever. Shack doesn't feel
like it's a great idea. You know, you know, I
my rebuttal to that would be. For a long time
(03:15):
people were upset about wanting to hold referees accountable for
missing calls or whatnot, and we finally get the two
minute report. You know, I get what people saying is like, Okay,
it doesn't change anything. I agree, but you at least
what you know, you know, our thing for a long time.
(03:37):
You know, if when players got fined or you know,
miss you know, misplays or misgang winning shots. You know,
it was all over the media. They wanted referees to
be held accountable likewise, and you know, this was where
we are. So we the people complain about it, We
get it. Now we're saying that it's useless, So it
goes hand in hand. I mean, I think it's it's
(03:59):
good to know that you know, it's not overlooked either.
I know it was said, you know, just keep it
in house. That's that's you know, fine tune. I think
many years ago it was kept in house. But we
wanted to know that, you know, the referees or if
you would reprimand it or held accountable for miss calls
(04:19):
or what the case may be. And that's what we're getting.
So yeah, I thought, you know, some files. I wasn't
very happy with in the late game play calling for
Tyrus Maxy, you know, because I said, more so than
the play, I feel like, even if Tyrus Maxy gets
(04:40):
the layup which Hartenstein blocks, if he gets the lay up,
oh yeah, it's all great, Oh big big, you know,
come back. You know, whatever they're they're leading, you still
give the Knicks six seconds, five five to seven seconds.
I can't remember of opportunity to hit the game when
shot anyway. So I just thought, you know, as far
(05:03):
as timing wise, you know, you know, Nick Nurse is
a fantastic coach. He's a champion, he understands. I just
I just thought that you know, that play to get
I like, I like the idea of getting Maxie and
open court being fast, but I thought it was a
little too much time for that type of play. I
thought the pick and roll worked where if he wanted to,
(05:24):
you know, exploit Hartenstein, the mb Maxie pick and roll
exploited that situation because they were in switch mode probably
the last two three minutes of the game, where you know,
they got what they wanted, which got them in the
position to win the game. So on and so forth.
I think, you know, some turnovers happened, I mean, the
(05:47):
Vincenzo fearless big shot by Brunson for three, so on
and so forth. And you know, on the other side,
you know, it's unfortunate with Joel Embiid's injury. You know, yes,
he had the jury coming back and then he gets
hurt again, clearly lipping you know, you know, but what
(06:10):
can you say when this man is still putting thirty
balls up with one leg against a very good Knicks defense,
and then he goes for game three, puts up fifty
and finds a ways, finds a way to win. I'll
(06:35):
say about this series in game one and two, the
one thing I understood the game plan of allowing Josh
Hart being the guy if we lose, we're gonna lose
to him. But you stalling game three now, Josh Hart
is more than a rhythm shooting the three, so you
can't just give him their shots. I'm gonna let you
shoot at whatever because he started to hurt them, and yes,
(06:57):
they were able to pull away at home, but he's
now in a shooting rhythm and he feels good. He's
now giving him X factor or another person giving Jalen
Brunson another guy to help with the scoring low along
with Devincenzo on the other side. My concern, my concern.
It's always said that players, your role players whatever, play
(07:22):
well at home. We're still looking for Buddy Hill, We're
still looking for Tobias Harris to give them another third
score because you can't rely on particularly with Joe ellenb
like he is. I just said, yes, he put up
thirty balls on one leg, okay, but you're asking a
lot for him to sustain this throughout this possibly a
(07:44):
seven game series, and Tyres Maxie's playing out of his
mind and you knew Jalen Brunson was going to break
out of his shell and he wasn't going to play
bad again. He was killing as well Game three. So
Tobias Harris, I think is huge in this series for
the for the for the seventy six as well as
(08:04):
as Buddy Hill, because those guys open the floor. Because
you look in game three, even though joellenbid was shooting
over anybody who was in front of him, he was
finishing over anybody in front. Clearly he was feeling a
lot better, able to power through multiple bodies. You know, Yes,
he was a little gimpy, but still able to have
a little thrust and a little pop in his step.
(08:26):
But if Buddy Hill, if Tobias are hitting shots, those
shrinks and double teams are a little they're you're you're
hesitating and they're a little late now and Joel can
really get get to work and will his team to win.
So it'll be interesting to see how things go moving forward.
(08:48):
So yeah, it's hard to pick who gonna come out
of this this series, but I think in Beid's performance,
his willingness to play through these injuries, you know, you
like that being that is been a a lot of
talk about load management and guys being injured not really
(09:10):
fighting through it. This is the playoffs, and you know,
you know, the old school guys always talk about man
in the playoff time. Were all hurt, you find a way,
and Joel is finding a way. He kind of gives
me the willis read vibe, you know, coming out of
the locker room finding a way to win for the
Knicks many many years ago. I even I even think
(09:33):
this this, you know, this battle gives the me versus
iverson in two thousand and one, back and forth. Let's
see if Brunton responds with the fifty ball himself. Who knows.
We'll see, all right, Moving on, the Calves were number
(10:14):
four playing the number five Magic. I was interested in
this series. I didn't think I don't think the Magic
can win the series because of lack of the experience,
not saying that they can't find a way, but I
do think this playoff run for the Orlando Magic makes
(10:39):
them scary next year with Powo, Suggs, the Widener Brothers,
well all of the young core Markel. I think he's
playing a few gaining this experience because you can teach
Jamal Mosley. First of all, I still think he should
be up there for coaching the year, for the unbelievable
(11:00):
job he's done for the team this year. But I'm
gonna throw it out there whether if he's in the
list or not, or if he doesn't win it. I
thought he's done a fantastic job and he's gotten young
guys to buy in to what he's selling, which has
now put them on this stage. And they had an
unbelievable win Game three eighty three blowout. I thought they
(11:23):
could win a game or two. I thought they would
have a better showing obviously at home. But that's this
is the growing pains. If you would for a young
team like or a young player like Polo, you know,
I remember as a player, you know you can you
can talk about what the playoffs like, and you know
(11:44):
you can't make mistakes, but you have to go through it.
And I think those guys have now gotten two now
three games under their belt, and I know they will
continue to prove the longer this series goes. But the
magic is going to be scary in the future, particularly
they can keep their coach and that core group together.
Donovan Mitchell, you know, this is an important but interesting
(12:07):
year to me for Donovan Mitchell because this is a series.
I feel like he a signature series for him. He
must find a way to come out of. You know,
a lot of a lot of talk about can he
lead a team obviously deep into the playoffs is a
very young and talented team. I think they're very capable
(12:28):
of getting out of the first round. Who knows what
happens after that. But man, man, man, man, it's still
I think, like I said, a lot of people don't
really care to watch it. I still think it's an
interesting series just for seeing these young, talented teams, because
these are two teams in the future that we'll be
watching making a run in the playoffs. In my opinion,
(12:50):
Let's move back up to the top of the East
and the Boston Celtics Number one versus the Heat or
number eight series of Time one one, and I'm interested,
you know, I've been interested to hear what, uh, you know, analysts, fans,
(13:12):
people think about this series and the performance. I'm a
little disappointed, uh with the Boston Celtics and how they're approached.
Now I say that, but I also say this has
been a heated rivalry, no pun intended, and this is
we can all agree. This is not your everyday eight seed.
(13:35):
And even when I'm Jimmy Butler, you can see that
you know this is not this is not an easy series. Like, yes,
I think the Boston Celtic Celtics should handle the Miami Heat. Yes,
I think the Miami Heat are going to give them
a fight. But it just seems like when the Celtics
(13:57):
get a lead and get comfortable, and that's when we
see the worst, uh, you know, all their mistakes and
we see the worst version of the Boston Celtics. Obviously,
they won Game one one, fourteen to ninety four. And
then I think a disappointing performance to me by the
Boston Celtics in Game two. But man shout out to
Bam and Tyler Hero particularly, Well, I'm gonna say both
(14:21):
of those guys are stepping up. No Jimmy Butler, you know,
Jimmy Butler in the regular season, he's good. Jimmy Butler
in the playoffs is why we call him playoff Jimmy,
Jimmy Buckets, whatever that, whatever you choose to call him.
Tyler Hero has stepped up. And you know, I think
this is a blessing in disguise. I mean, obviously, the
longer the series goes, the more opportunity you possibly. I
(14:44):
don't know if we're gonna see Jimmy again, but like
you're you're you're creating a monster. This is this rivalry,
This is the tough This is a tough out for
the Boston Celtics, which is I think at the end
of the day, is gonna make them better. Do I
think the Boston Celtics will win the series? Yes, I do, Yes,
I do. I just think they live in a little
(15:05):
more consistency. I think White has been Derek White has
been fantastic. He's given them a third score. Perzingis has
been a little up and down. Uh you know, I said,
I've always you know, it's been said and I'll say
it again. My concern with Porzingis was health and just consistency,
(15:26):
because I think he's damn good and I think he's
a great third score to them, just being consistent, but
they have the luxury of if he doesn't play well.
Derek White has been playing great. He's been playing great,
and they have, you know, ultimately four guys you can
put you you know, you can play I mean even
(15:47):
through holidays. Another guy who gives you a score, you know,
a guy you can play through. And he would be
the fifth guy. You know. Brown was fantastic. Game two.
I think he had like thirty three. So this series
of it's just interesting to me, and now it shifts
to Miami. I do think Miami will win at least
(16:08):
one at home. I think Boston is gonna have more
of a bounce back. I think you'll see more of
a of aggressive of an aggressive Jason Tatum at least
I hope so at the loss. I think he's very capable.
Sometimes I think he takes the back seat, you know,
you know, to guys. I like how I like how
his approach early getting guys going to make the game
(16:28):
easier for him. But sometimes I think late late third
and in the middle of the fourth when I think
he should kind of stepping up and kind of take over,
you know. But he has a luxury of a jail
and Brown who's very capable of scoring too. So yeah,
what do you saying. Let's move over to another interesting series,
(16:51):
the Milwaukee Bucks in the Pacers Bucks number three, Pacers
who are number six one one one one, and it's
a lot of things in this and here's another young team,
you know. I felt the Pacers gained some experience by
the playing tournament. Is the playing tournament like the playoffs? No,
but but it had a playoff field, so they gave
(17:15):
them some a general idea of what it's like now.
Game one, Dame went crazy. Coach Rick Carlisle made some
great adjustments. Dame didn't score in the second half. He
had thirty four in the first half. He was unconscious.
They did a great job. Yes they did not win,
they lose by what fifteen or so, but you know
(17:36):
they made adjustments and made it close, you know, made
it a game if you would. And then game two
they looked more like the Pacers. You know, the Milwaukee
Bucks did a great job of taking Halliburton out. I
think he had nine points. You know, I think nine
points that he was a closer triple double. But you
know it wasn't a typical Halliburton game where he had
(18:00):
you know, fifteen twenty points and twelve assists and zero turnovers.
And you know, their guy right now has been Pastal Siaka,
which make which why he's a great addition to the
Pacers because he's been in this situation before and if
things get stagnant, they need a bucket, a go to guy.
I mean thirty six game one, thirty seven game two,
(18:24):
and they're playing with confidence. It was interesting, you know
what Porters had to say about the places being front runner,
and you know, that's just young guy, you know, and
I get it. He's a bet, he's been around and
you know, Dame kind of talked about this with Halliburton
as well. I mean it's along the same lines as
being front runners. But you know, young guys, you know,
(18:46):
they're enjoying the moment. It's just the new agent. You know,
we as veterans were taught don't get too high, wins,
don't get too low, and losses. He kind of got
to find a happy median. And here's why. When you're
in playoff series and you're trying to win the series
to move on and maybe a star player doesn't play well,
(19:09):
or team in general they're not playing well. You know,
in this situation, Milwaukee won and then Pacers come back
and win. You do not, and I repeat, you do not.
You want to be yourself okay, but you do not
want to get team bulletin board material. You don't want
(19:30):
to give these guys any extra motivation to go out
and find another gear. You know. So that's the one
thing I say to the Pacers, you know, tread lightly,
enjoy yourselves. You guys want to have fun, do that,
you know, just you have to find a way to
do it. You don't want to poke the bears like
these these guys are you know, the Bucks feel like
(19:51):
they have a legitimate shot with what they have. Obviously
there's no honest but you just don't want to give
them bulletboard material to come out and and hit another
gear and you lose a series off of just silly stuff.
All right, but have your fun. You know, the Pacers
have been exciting, high scoring all season long. You gotta
(20:12):
be careful how you go about that because I'll tell
you. You know Dame. You know, Dame is doing Dame things.
I'm just interested to see if Giannis comes back. How
does that still work. Does Giannis take a back seat
to day because he's in rhythm and he's extremely important
to the Buck's success or does he try to do
does Doc try to implement Giannis as their number one
(20:37):
guy and kind of putting Dame off the ball again
and he loses the rhythm? You know, as a coach,
that's really the toughest decisions you have to make. It's
funning a way to obviously satisfy both of your scores,
but this is a situation where your scores coming back
get him in rhythm. I feel like Giannis is the
guy who can you know, he can get touches off
of transition. You can post him up every now, and
(20:59):
he can get off of rebounds. He can just you know,
he plays with a high motor, you know, so you
find a way. But at the same time, you gotta
you gotta keep Dame where where Dame is you You
need him playing like this feeling like the old game
of Courtland. It's my two cents to that. Oh you
(21:30):
got time yet, Nah, let's keep going. Let's go into
the West, and this wild, wild West is h It's
musch C TV. I mean, I think the Playoffs in
general has been must C TV. That's been some disappointments obviously,
you know, and be injury in the East, I mean,
(21:51):
Magic Cas, Okay, Boston, Miami. You know, I still think
there's gonna be a lot of drama. So it's still
much must watch, Pacers Bucks. You know, there's a little
trash talking, you know, with Bobby Fortis and those coming
out about the hot so you know you're gonna get
some drama there. But I'm gonna start with obviously, let's
let's start with Okay, see being number one and the Pelicans.
(22:14):
I thought the Pelicans did what they had to do
to get in the playoffs. And then Zion goes down
and it's unfortunate because I shout out to Zion. Let
me start by saying, Zion did an unbelievable job for
what was said about him. You know what, we were
curious about him coming into into this season losing twenty
(22:37):
something pounds, twenty five pounds. I think it was during
the season. That's commitment. That is commitment, that is showing
that things are okay, because it didn't sound great in
New Orleans leading into the season, and you know, they're saying, oh,
you know, we don't really see him in the building
during the summer, and you know, blah blah blah. And
(22:59):
here we are now where his commitment has helped this
team propel into the playoffs and he goes down. And
it's unfortunate, man, because you love to see when things
are rocky, guys, you know, or organization player work it
out and good things comes out of it. And you know,
(23:22):
it just puts down the onus on brandon Ingram to
step it up, and he's coming back from injury. I
just think I don't think the Pelicans. Now, I don't
think they have enough. I think Zion makes things a
little tougher. It'll been interesting to see check against Zion.
Different body styles, but two players who going to bang
(23:42):
a lot, I'd have been interesting to see. But let's
talk about Okay, See they're winning the series right now
to two games and none. Do I think SGA is
the is the MVP? I do? I do? And I
(24:06):
say that Jokis is. It's easy to get bored with
yok being this dominant great, Yes, Do I think Yokis
would be the number one? Sorry, would be m VP
if there were number one? Yes? At some point we
have to give, you know, reward the player a player,
(24:29):
that player s G A for this instance, for particularly
being in the West, particularly putting up the numbers he's
putting up, playing like he's playing. And I'm talking about
SGA just like Jan Sorry, I'm getting hit himself, just
like Jo Kic last year, best player, best team in
the toughest division or conference, and we're seeing it again.
(24:55):
I think yo Kis is by far, you know, SGA
one to right now the best players in the league.
You know, if you're welcome to argue with that, all
you want, and that's fine, but I say for a
team that's the youngest in the playoffs, you're expecting a
(25:17):
lot of mistakes. You're expecting them not know how to finish.
And I you know, forgiving what I say this, if
y'all see it as bad, I think they got the
right team for the first round, you know, with the
situation with Zion being out, and they can learn but
(25:38):
still win games to give themselves a chance down the line,
if that makes sense. And you know I said this
about the magic and I'm saying about Okay, See, you
can talk about what the playoffs is like from a
as a role player, as a superstar guy that has
in hand. Depending on the coach you play against, you
(26:00):
haven't you know, these guys haven't seen it all until
you go through it. So there again, because they're going
against the Pelicans, that's just one version of what they're
going to see when they see another great defensive team
down the line, whether it be whoever you know, Wolves, Denver,
you know, whoever, whoever they see, whatever team, you know,
it's going to be a different situation in scenario that
(26:21):
they're going to have to figure out. But you get
a series under your belt, feel confident to move on
and they've earned this number one spot, so we got
to give them their props. You know, if they can
stay healthy, I think they'll make some noise and Okay,
see in Denver. You know, would be something to watch
(26:45):
in the conference finals. It's my two cents on that.
Speaking of the Nuggets who are number two in the West,
Lakers who are number seven in the West, and a
lot was talked talked about this series. Obviously they're history
from last year, but let's just go back a little
bit with a lot of people were saying the Lakers
(27:06):
should not win to avoid the diver Nuggets to try
to get the eight seed to play. Okay, Ce and
I hear you, based on the history and the losing streak,
that all sounds great, But what will you guys or
people think in or say which as a player, and
I'm speaking from a player's perspective, if they do that
(27:28):
or did that, what would you guys say to us
as players if now we go and lose that other
game and we're out on together. It's just a dangerous
game to play. And I understand Darvin Ham's position, and
I think some of the players you know, I think
some of the players were talking about it. I know
I saw Darvin Hams saying that, no, we're gonna we're
(27:50):
winning to get ourselves the best possible position to you know,
get in the playoffs, because you don't want to fool
around with that. I think d was another guy who said,
you know, we're just here. We're trying to win and
get in and worry about it from there. Yeah, and
I know Aspan on the other side, we're saying, yeah,
I hear you, but we want to try to get
(28:11):
the best possible position to go as far as possible
because we're trying to avoid a team, you know, and
that that does happen. Don't getting wrong, you know, it
does happen. But that's typically more in the regular season
where you can kind of dictate or manipulate situations. More
so a playing tournament. You don't have that much room
(28:34):
to take those chances. But then when we get into
the games, you know, one to fourteen one O three
game one Nuggets win and one on one ninety nine
game two. Let's talk about those two first. On the road,
I thought, I think Anthony Davis has been playing lights out,
(28:54):
lights out, and I think the the storyline between game
one in game two, being at Denver, found the ways
that they're going to put Anthony Davis on Jokicic a
little more instead of REALI hachimura and try to neutralize Jokic.
(29:16):
And remember I said about the Indiana Pacers Bucks game
about bulletin board material and I think that was, you know, obviously, oh,
you're gonna put this guy. You know, he's he's you know,
Anthony Davis talking about how he's not in the Defensive
Player of the Year and he feels like he should.
And then all of a sudden they're gonna put him
on him a lot more, so on and so forth.
(29:38):
So you know, as a player, you know it's a challenge,
You're up for the challenge. But bullet board materials, so
they say, oh, he can stop me, is how I
think Jokis is thinking. Because Jokicic came out ready to play,
going at a d getting you know, getting into the paint,
getting this floaded, obviously getting other guys involved, and then
(29:58):
obviously the Lakers establish themselves early, you know, well early
and often well often. Let me just say that in
in game two up twenty and I know, I know
A lot has been said about foul calls and what
was it called? And that's fair, particularly when you get
(30:21):
down the crush down near the end of the game.
You know you want the game to go, you know,
smool the team liss where there's no foul calls. If
it's a pole, it's a real powers not the powers
should be called calling. But here's the issue, here's my issue.
You guys are up twenty and you're not You're a
veteran team, you're not a young team, regardless of you're
on the road. You have you know, one of the
(30:43):
if not the best players still in the league, and
Lebron James. You have Anthony Davis, who is champion, who's
been there. You have guys that you know that understand
how to win, particularly what it takes to win on
the road. And you let loose of a twenty point lead.
So the momentum naturally kind of swings and sways into
(31:03):
Denvers favor. And you know, when you're the aggressor, when
you're in control of the game, you tend to get
the benefit of the doubt of call and calls like,
let's just be real, that's just how it goes. And
you know it is what it is, and Jamal Murray,
(31:26):
not having a great shoot night, found his way. And
it's funny how it all works because because the NBA
now is layups and threes, there's very few guys. There's
there's a handful of guys who still utilizes the mid
range as their package in their game as what they
(31:47):
use like they still get to that mid range. We're
talking about s G A. I think Kawhi uh, you
know there's I mean, I mean Booker, k D. There's
a there's a you know, there's a pair full of guys.
And Jamal Murray got himself going by hitting a couple
of mid range jump shots. Obviously got some layers which
ultimately led to getting to a mid range fadeaway shot.
(32:10):
That's just being confidence in repetition and believing in yourself.
He said. One thing he said, I was like interesting,
He said, you know, over the past years, I've had
that match up. I felt good about it. I knew
where I can, I knew I can get my shot
off and get to my spot. He did that had
an unbelievable poster which led to now moving the series
(32:33):
to LA Game three. In Game four, you know I'll
say this game two. The question was the Lakers need
to get a third score. I said, Austin reeves what
is extremely important in their uh, in their success their Lakers,
(32:55):
because he's ability to score, defend, make play for other
guys to make the game easier. Obviously Dlo playing well,
because a lot was talked about and it was all
kind of forced or pushed at de Loo's on his shoulders,
and he responded, So, not only do you have ad
playing well, Lebron playing well, dl playing well, you gave
(33:18):
him your best punch, and you're still not able to win.
So I just felt like it's just, you know, obviously,
going to LA, I think the Lakers will get one.
But we're seeing right now that just Denver has the
Lakers number. That's just what it is. It's like those matchups,
and it goes back to it. I can already hear
(33:41):
a lot of you talking right now. But see that's
why I said they don't need to win, so we
can avoid this and see Denver later on. You're right,
you are right, You're a one hundred percent right. But
the reality is, as players coach organization, if you do
that and it doesn't work out, the noise is a
(34:03):
lot louder now than it was when you go and
play this series and you get swept or you the
gentleman sweep or whatever. The noise is a lot louder,
a lot louder because you can't even get in the
playoffs to avoid them. Yeah, you avoided the different nuggers
than you avoided everybody because you're going home. So gotta understand,
(34:24):
like it's just it's one of those unfortunate situations, you know,
in my opinion, So remember I talked about for Oklahoma City,
it's unfortunate that Zion's not in, but it's a I
hate to say, it's a favorable situation for OKC that
there's no Zion and you know they can kind of
(34:45):
get themselves together where they can get a win and
on the flip side, like the Lakers. Yes, I think
it would have been a different series against Oka. See, yes,
I agree with you, but you do not, I repeat,
want to take that chance. So they put themselves where
their backs against the wall where it can be. Now
(35:06):
we're looking at sweep or gentlemen's sweep or something just
because of the confidence. Hit me out, Lakers fans, hear
me out, please, it's because of the confidence. Well, we're
talking reality. We're not talking about hate, We're not talking
about jazz. We're just talking about realities. Yes, the Lakers
are super very capable of finding a way to you know,
(35:28):
get themselves back in the series. But Denver Nuggets right
now have confidence and understand how to win and feel
and are playing like that is just a favorable matchup
for them the end. So we talked about teams that
a little disappointing. That brings me to this team, the
(35:51):
Phoenix Suns who are number six playing the Minnesota Timbwolves,
who are three to zero right now. Wolves. Yes, they
have a bix through. Yes, Devin Booker is like that.
We've also seen Bradley Beal who is like that. But
they also have Kevin Durant And the one thing that
kind of I'm gonna say bothers me. I don't wanna
(36:12):
say disappointed that bothers me with KD if sometimes I
think KD forgets who he is. And I said this
to him by the way, you know, and not knowing
how he would take it or whatever, I said it
to him, I was like, bro, you do know who
you are? You are Kevin Durant, like you told us,
(36:33):
do you know who I am? And I say this
because I think sometimes he's a unselfish superstar who understands
the importance of other stars that he's playing with on
the floor and gets caught into that and tends to
(36:56):
forget that he needs to be who he is as well.
He kind of did a little bit of that for
those of you who are Brooklyn Nets fans when he
was there, kind of taking the back seat to Kyrie.
Not saying that Kyrie's not like that, That's not what
I'm saying. But he's also Kevin Durant and when he
steps up, well also James Harden. But I'm thinking I'm
(37:18):
talking about when he and the two of them were
on and Harden was out for a while. I'm seeing
a little bit of that again. And you know, and
I'm fine with that. You you know, you're allowing book
to be booking, particularly Bradley Beal, that third guy who's
been injured. Cool, but when your team's in a situation
(37:40):
where it's the middle of the fourth, six minutes left,
you know, late in the third leading into the fourth,
it's time to show them who you are. Bro This
is my opinion, you know, but that's kind of how
it is. As a superstar, I was in a position where, yes,
you understand how important your other guys are because if
(38:00):
they if they're going in the second half, particularly in
the fourth quarter, six minutes left in the fourth, you
could just go out there and do your thing because
they're in rhythm and it's tougher for teams to guard
all these people. Or you know, some coaches say we're
gonna stick into it where we're gonna take Durant out
and other guys get there. But it's hard to say
that when you have a Devin Booker who can go
off of fifty plus on his own, same thing with
(38:22):
Bradleys Beal. So that's the one disappointing thing. And I
think that's why not saying this is taking nothing away
from Minnesota in what they're doing. I'm just particularly talking
about Kevin Durant being Kevin Durant, and I just, yo,
he put up thirty. That's cool, but like it's not
a dominant thirty where he's like we can't stop him.
(38:43):
And you heard and would say something about, you know,
it's the point where he was just going a stretch
where KD was going. We couldn't stop him. But like,
I need a little bit more of that. I need
a little bit more of that. Not saying that Minnesota,
who I think will win the series right now, my opinion,
I think they're playing with a lot of confidence and
(39:04):
Phoenix has given them given them that confidence. I mean,
they've you done the number three team, the Timberwolves and
ed Edwards is you know, I said, as you know,
I'm doubling back. I said, SBA and Kis are the
two best players. May I please add Anthony Edwards in
(39:24):
that those are the three best players right now, and
is playing at a high level with a lot of
confidence and you know, as a superstar. You know, I'm
I'm glad to see that Edwards and Kat has come
to an agreement. Agreement maybe him y'all of who's that guy?
(39:47):
And at one point Kat felt like he was team
and I think when once he went down with the injury,
that's when we started to see and take off. Now
Kat comes back into this and kind of understands he
falls in this. He's kind of like number two guy.
Nothing wrong with that because he needs Cat to still
(40:08):
have that same mentality, you know, and I think that's
what we're seeing and that's why they it's worked and
we haven't seen the kind of the butting of heads
like we kind of saw in the beginning because it's
two young guys with an opportunity to lead a franchise
and be the guy, and you know it had to
(40:30):
be figured out and it kind of worked itself out.
Kudos the Cat because at the same time, you know
when Cat went off of fifty, you know, sixty something,
he understood. And you can see even in these wins,
Edwards has not gone off for something crazy. He's had
some crazy moments. We saw him when he was kind
of going back at going back and forth with KD
(40:52):
and we know he's very capable of it. But I
also see it's about winning. It can't be about numbers
because the end of the day, we're looking at them
being two games to none instead of one to one.
Because maybe he's trying to force the issue because he
wants to see those big numbers averaging thirty something, like
we're seeing a lot of these guys averaging right now.
(41:14):
As long as they're winning, that team understands who the
man is and when they need it to go crazy,
they will, but nas Reed is playing well, kat my Guy,
Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert. It's a point that we see
like would you have ever had a conversation here and
me or someone or watching it yourself seeing Rudy Gobert
(41:37):
being featured. But it's just now they're at a you know,
they're at a point where they just understand what works
when it's time to get guys the balling, and it's
all working. The last time I've seen Rudy Gobert being
featured is when I saw him playing in the Olympics
for his team for friends, and they are featuring him,
but he's being featured in situations and they just understand
(41:59):
who they have want to on the court. And you know,
it's great to see, particularly with younger guys buy into
if this guy is going, we're gonna give him the
ball and we're gonna we're gonna run with it. And
you can see at Edwards every time out when he
was coming when he was on the bench, coming on
the floor, jumping over guys, celebrating them. And he only
had twenty something points, maybe not twelve, twelve, thirteen points,
(42:23):
but they have a win and that's what's important. I
think it's unbelievable to seeing your superstar understand that at
an early age, and that's scary. So all that to say,
I do think Minnesota wins this series, but it's just
unfortunate because I all right, I'm gonna jump back to Phoenix.
(42:44):
I'm gonna say this, Yes, the Big Three. I was like, wow.
My question was do they have enough? Do they have enough?
And everybody's like, hey man, they got three guys, but
these are three guys. I still you know, a lot
of people have said, I do think they have a
point guard because I think you're handcuffing Devin Booker into
being a facilitator and score. That guy can score. Not
(43:08):
saying he can't facilitate, but you could be a scorer
and still be a facilitator. And you can have a
guy who is a pass first organizer off point guard
to get these guys involved. So I just think that's
what they need. I just I just didn't think they
(43:29):
had enough. I just you know, my opinion. So you know,
obviously they can outscore anybody if the mentality and everybody's
healthy and things are going right, and it's not quite
there in my opinions. Not yet. At least let's jump
over to the Clippers, who are number four and the
Mavericks who are number five. These guys have history in
(43:52):
the bubble. You know, it's one to one. Clippers win
Game one one, nine ninety seven with no Kawhi, and
I was curious about you know about that. I don't
you know, forgive me, I don't know much about what
(44:13):
was Kawhi's injury. But he did come back Game two
and they don't win. Luka and Kyrie go crazy, but
so did PJ. Washington, And I said, for this series,
for the Dallas Mavericks to win this series. Obviously, Luca
(44:34):
is gonna, you know, gonna be Luca. He's gonna play well.
Kyrie obviously can and we're seeing playing well. My first
question was, will Luca continue to allow Kyrie to be
Kyrie and make the game easier for him. It's one
thing in regular season, it's another thing, you know, when
(44:54):
it's money time and you're playing for playoffs and all
of this stuff. Will you still buy into what you're
doing because that has worked for them and Luca is
doing it. My other question was who will be their
third score? Because I mean obviously every defense Clippers, you know,
like Game one, their goal was to try to take
(45:19):
Luca out and make it tough for Kyrie. Blah blah blah.
So somebody else is gonna have to beat this. And PJ.
Washington has been great, he's been great, and it's a
great pickup for him, Gaffer. He didn't play great Game two.
But you know, as far as his activity lively, their
activity on the glass, you don't need them to put
up big numbers. You want their rebounding numbers to look
(45:41):
good obviously, to play solid defense, you want them to
try to get ten points, twelve points a piece that
gives you twenty something points as a dual threat, live threat,
chop blocker. But their offense that those guys activity on
the offensive glass creates open looks, open threes, and that's
(46:02):
what that's what's happening. So and then Kyrie is just
going crazy and it's you know, I know it's new
for Luca, but like you, that just tells you, you know,
shout out to J Kid getting kind of you know,
Luca to to kind of buy into that understanding the
bigger picture. And that's if we're gonna win, we're gonna
(46:23):
win because of you, Luca, but we're gonna also win
because you allowing Kyrie to still be the great Kyrie,
irving that he is, and then everybody else falls into place,
and that is kind of happening. And you saw an
example of that in game two. Obviously, MAVs pull off
a three point victory nine six ninety three, and I
think they had three guys and you know those three
(46:45):
guys I mentioned all score twenty points yourself, So stay too.
You know the Clippers have been up and down with injuries,
blah blah blah, big big Zoo was Zuba was amazing
in game one. I mean obviously, you know, guys stepped
up because of no excuse me, no Kawai. Then Kawhi
(47:08):
comes back in, so the roles changed. So it kind
of the back and forth the lineup not knowing your role.
That's gonna be something to watch. When that was trying
to find their way, Now they can exploit different situations
and guy's not knowing what to do or whatever the
case may be. Not saying that the Clippers can't figure out,
because ty Lou is a fantastic coach and he's proven
(47:31):
proven to figure that out. So I'm gonna keep my
eyes on that that series, and that's tough. After Game
one I said, yes, I thought the Clippers we're gonna
win this series. Man, no Kawai winning like this. M
(47:51):
I just don't know. And that's what I love about it.
That's what that's what we gotta love. That's what I
love about it. Like I want to I want to
be confused. I want to go back and forth after
a couple of series, I mean, after a couple of games,
not really knowing, because that means it's a great series
and the matchups are great and we're getting a little drama.
Playoff playoff time is the best part of the season
(48:13):
in any sport, in any sport, and I think with
the play in tournament the way you know it's presented itself,
it's given us more of this instead of just when
the playoffs starts. We've already had some of this leading
up into the playoffs, of people positioning to get in
(48:36):
the playing tournament, people surviving to get in the playing tournament,
people locking in the spot in the playing tournament. We
saw a little bit of this, a bit of this
mid season, whether we can we admit it or not.
I think it brought more eyeballs to the game, which
we don't get we meeting players or the NBA mid
season because of you know, some people just feel like, oh,
it's boring. Is boring. I thought we got some pretty
(49:00):
good stuff in the playing I'm sorry, in the n
season tournament. So yeah, this is just business as usual,
and I'm excited about it. So that's, uh, that's kind
of my thoughts on the on the on the on
the playoffs right now. Obviously it's gonna get continue to
get more interesting as we move on. You know, We're
(49:23):
gonna probably look back at what I'm saying, like maybe
I look like I'm smart, Maybe I look like I'm dumb.
I don't know. But that's the beauty of this playoffs,
which I like, is like we have our opinions, we
see what we see, and you know, a lot of players,
there's a lot of X factors who are gonna really
matter and make the difference in every one of these series.
A few of them, you know, a few of these series, Uh,
(49:47):
are gonna be some some X factor. I think. You know,
it's crazy for me to say, I think Kawhi Leonard
is gonna be the X factor for this Clippers mavers series,
because not only you know you want him on the floor,
but if he plays as well, he's tough to stop
in this Obviously, that gives that opens up PG, that
gives Hardened, that gives Russ a chance to go to
(50:08):
go crazy. And I don't think the mav if they're
playing like that with Kawhi playing well, that's a tough
that would be a tough out. I mean, that'd be
a tough guard for the Dallas Maverison. I don't think
they can handle the Clippers that's playing that way. So
stay tuned, man. We'll talk more about this as the
playoffs moves on. And I'm gonna keep moving on the
(50:31):
NFL drafts. Yeah, uh my bucks, you know we did okay,
you know, shout out to Baker Mayfield, tet out to
Mike Evans. Yes, you know, I'm gonna tike my team
up first. I'm glad we signed Mike Evans. I was concerned,
(50:54):
you know, I didn't you hear the rumors like some
of these teams, Like when I hear I heard the
Baltimore Ravens were interested in him, I was. I was
really concerned to help my team and what was going
to happen. And I think the Bucks organization, this is
as a fans perspective, we did the right thing. I
think Mike has been great, took for us, He's been
(51:16):
you know, proven, and he earned his money. And I
thought Baker played well. I didn't know if we were
going to keep him. Now I thought he played well.
He earned himself a contract, whether it was with us
or someone else. And you know, they took care of him.
So shout out to those guys and shout out to
my Bucks, and we'll see what happens. I don't care
about y'all team, but the NFL Draft. We have the
(51:42):
much anticipated rookies now solidified in the draft. Obviously Caleb
Williams going number one to the Bears, with a lot
of controversy leading up to it, whether they keep Feels
or not, with the Bears trade to pick or not.
I think the writing was on the wall one. Obviously
they traded him. You know, we knew what was gonna happen.
(52:04):
Then there was kind of some top whispers, if you would,
about Jade and Daniels possible possibly going number one. I
think he's fantastic. I think he's awesome, great arm mobile, smart,
can play in the pocket, all of these things. But
it's just you know, they want, they want what they want,
(52:26):
and you know he's that key meaning Caleb Williams. You
know once in my opinion, once your your you have
a COUMP to Patrick Mahomes. How can you not go
number one? You know what I'm saying. So, yeah, good
luck to the Bears. Obviously, Jayden Daniels goes to the
commanders at two my tar heel. Drake May goes to
(52:49):
the Patriots, which it was kind of looking a little
rocky right there was JJ McCarthy. Did j J McCarthy
move up to two? You know, it's just it's just funny.
It's it's always interesting as a fan, particularly in a
different sport. You know, I still watch and listen like
you guys do. Yeah, you're just curious to see when
(53:10):
you initially hear Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and then Drake May,
and you know the list goes on and on on
and then it just could change. Hear it changes. It's
like the why, why why is that change? When you
were so sure in the beginning, and obviously you know
you look at their workouts and blah blah blah. But
it ended up falling like they talked about obviously, Marvin
Harrison Junior. It's funny. It's it's always great to see
(53:34):
the legacies. You know, obviously my time playing basketball. You know,
these guys were in the league when I was around
the dads that is, and now to see their sons,
it's like me playing against Dell Curry and so many
other you know guys that I played against and seeing
their kids come in and doing that thing and now
(53:55):
steps on the back Well, now he's older. Let's just
say that. I'm not saying he's on the back end
because he has a couple of years. But it's just
great to see, like Marvin Harrison Junior, Like he's like, man,
I remember when his dad was doing his thing thing,
so now his son is in there doing it. And
then Elite Neighbors, which was that controversy, like it had
me confused, had me think I thought I personally thought
(54:18):
Marvin Harrison was the best wide receiver. The Arizona Cardinals
also fell up that way, but I thought Elite Neighbors
great as well. So obviously can go either way. I
think both teams would be happy. But you know, I
think these guys, I think Arizona got their guy, Giants
(54:39):
got their guy. Michael Pennix going number eight was interesting
to me, you know, I mean, obviously the talk with
these guys were kind of late first round or would
they even be in the first round? They meaning Pennix
or bow Knicks. And Michael Pennix goes eight. Bo Nicks
ends up going twelve to Denver, which obviously fits the
(55:01):
mold of what Sean Payton wants and it has had typically.
And then JJ McCarthy was that kind of that guy.
He was if you talk about the X factor, who's
the guy that can mess up the draft, it was
JJ McCarthy because he could have gone as high as
two or you know where he landed at ten. So
(55:21):
it was pretty it was pretty interesting just to see
it all play out, and to just to see the
hard work of Adam Schefter all these guys, you know,
the homework they do obviously giving us these insights and
to keep us guessing, if you would, And obviously, you know,
the teams are gonna make the decision of what they
want and we're just all assuming until we actually hear
(55:42):
what we hear, but it was pretty interesting to hear
six quarterbacks going into the first round in the first
six quarterbacks in the first twelve picks in the first
round was kind of insane. Tied the record, but like,
that's just crazy. And then fourteenth offensive players meaning alignment
as well in the first fifteen picks, which is says
(56:05):
a lot about the talent that's out there. And there's
a lot of talent obviously defensively out there, which typically
defensive players go rather high. So look at that. Sound
like a football analyst like I do this, but I
pay attention. Man, I'm a fan like everybody else, and
I really enjoyed it. So there you have it. Man,
we talked about the playoffs. We're going to continue to
(56:27):
talk about the playoffs, so you guys keep paying attention,
and we're going to collab our notes and see if
we see the same things and have us certain certain
concerns about players and teams and coaches and decisions. And
I'm interested to see what these young you know, young rookies,
if you would see how they pan out and what
they do for your and my favorite team. We'll stay tuned, So, hey,
(56:51):
I appreciate you guys, once again paying attention. Listen to
me kicking your feet up, and listen to the VC Show.
We're out of here. Let's go out s
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