April 27, 2024 • 44 mins
Episode 170: Do the Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers suddenly have enough life to be dangerous? Are the Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns, LA Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers already cooked? Arky Shea and Joel C. Cordes check in with each 2024 NBA Playoffs series, detailing how the Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves have dominated while the Indiana Pacers and Dallas Mavericks have made things interesting.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome into Basketball by Association. Myname is Association, that is the basketball
man himself, doctor Joel c Cordas. Doctor Joel, I'd like to say
hello, but let's not waste time. Do you want to talk some hoops,
Let's do it this at the homeoffice version of Basketball by Association.
You can find us on spreaker,Spotify, iTunes if you want the audio
only flavor of this. If youwant video, it's on YouTube, like
(00:24):
share subscribe over there. Let's doit. It's the WFH version there for
mister Cordas. So let's just brieflytalk about the game that's literally happening right
now as we're recording. A blowout'shappening right now in Orlando. It's one
O, one seventy five and thefour. Just give you an idea.
We're actually recording this in favor ofthe magic and the magic. But to
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Polly, even with that series,uh, Joel, this series I thought
from the very beginning was going tobe star studded and very entertaining, and
I have been so right. Ithas been a close competitive series his entire
time, Joel, the series iskind of suck man like. This has
not been a very good series sofar. And it's not scores versions,
it's not like big banging against eachother's version. It's just it's just not
(01:10):
been the best series I thought itwould be. I don't even know if
maybe I just had a misread onNo. One, but this hasn't been
very good. Yeah, two teamsthat have been very good defensively all year.
Cleveland has been a little bit betteroffensively but was kind of scuffling coming
into the playoffs. Orlando had runout of a little bit of fuel at
the end there too, But yeah, Game one ninety seven eighty three,
Cavs ninety six eighty six. InGame two, Cleveland wins that. Game
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three, the Magic one twenty oneto eighty three over the Cavaliers, and
as you said, Game four islooking to be another Magic blow out.
It was close at halftime and thenthird quarter the Magic held Cleveland to ten
total points. That to me hasbeen the biggest thing is that, Yeah,
both teams can defend. They bothhave played hard, but there's been
these massive power outages for the opponent, and it's been the road team where
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it just comes. Yeah, it'sit's missing open shots, but then it's
ugly basketball to even get to thoseopen shots. And as you said,
you and I were kind of lookingat this as like a sleeper type of
series, and it said, it'sjust been a snoozefest. Can you I
could not imagine thinking that about aseries is better be died two to two.
That'd be that bory. We haven'teven series, but it's just been
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like, like I will say this, the entertaining part for me did come
in Game three when it was closeearly on, and all of a sudden,
Orlando hit that first three and itfelt like not just the first three
in the game for the Magic,it felt as if it had been the
first three in the entire series.There was just this weight that fell off
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their shoulders and I think it wasFranz Wagner who hit it. But then
what do you know, all ofa sudden, the lid came off the
basket. The crowd in Orlando gotinto it, and there was this sense
that, Okay, they're young,they're went behind the ears, they got
punched when they were up in Cleveland, but you know what, this is
the four or five matchup. Anybodycan hang with anybody in this series matchup,
(03:08):
and it happened, and you sawOrlando come to life and all of
a sudden make a much better showingof themselves to remind people why they got
here in the first place. Andthey really did play well in that third
game. They ran the Cabs outof the gym and gave them a taste
of their own medicine. So thatway it was fun. But you're right,
can we please get a competitive gamefrom start to finish? That would
(03:29):
be nice? Yeah, I mean, I don't it's not gonna salvage the
series for me, obviously because thefirst four had been so li for the
most part, but like it wouldmake me feel like a like a little
better, right, like a littlebetter about what this five game? Yes,
now, at least six right rightnow, Cleveland is halfway through the
(03:50):
second half. They've scored sixteen totalpoints, four of sixteen from downtown for
the entire game. It's that typeof craw fest that we've seen from Cleveland
last game here in Orlando and thenthe magic of the two games up in
Cleveland. So it's not just gooddefense, it's that and in Cleveland's case,
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like you have Darius Garland and DonovanMitchell on your team, you have
Max Struce who has completely forgotten howto hit a three pointer, and George's
nang is not too far behind.Like those were the guys that were brought
in to take care of this problemfor Cleveland, which was a lack of
outside shooting outside of Lori Markinen inthe past, and it's just not getting
(04:31):
done. And we're starting to getback to some of those Donovan Mitchell playoff
struggle type of questions, which hasbeen a thing over the last few seasons.
Joe, We're going all over theplace when it comes to the series.
I'm not gonna necessarily go just bythe scheduled stuff because I think the
next one I really want to talkabout. Look at your Minnesota Timberwolves.
How about the sleep out the PhoenixSuns in their own building. Now,
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I know you're gonna say the typicalcoach speak like it's not over till it's
over. You got to win itat their place again if you want to
get the sweep and blah blah blah. But this is a team that you
were very worried about MATCHI and howand on the verge for two straight years.
Is Phoenix of being embarrassed out ofthe playoffs, early, early,
early, First let's talk about Minnesotaand then we'll sort of talk about what's
(05:20):
this sort of meaning for Phoenix andwhat they look like for Minnesota Coming into
it, the big question was goingto be the coaching adjustment and then the
adjustment of their youngest players. Youknew that the veterans would be ready to
go, but Anthony Edwards especially struggledagainst the Phoenix side thirty thirty six last
night. Man, he's been yeah, and he's by the way, not
been the greatest this series overall.No, because they've they've done a good
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job of loading up on Ant.They show him a wall. They play
in the regular season, the Sun'splayed a very tight shell concept and Anthony
Edwards he's got a little bit ofan ego to him. That's part of
what makes him great. He's ahumble kid with his teammates, but when
you challenge on the court as anopponent. We've seen this, whether it's
against his idol Kevin Durant, whetherit's been chirping and then smiling with Bradley
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Beal. Anthony Edwards wants to puthis head down and run through a brick
wall. But he could not dothat during the regular season, and I
think it took those games of gettingembarrassed in Minnesota got embarrassed. Phoenix was
the only Western Conference team that didthis to them all year for them to
be able to go back, andthey had a lot of stuff on tape
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to be able to work through tosay we cannot do this. This does
not work. Edwards. You haveto get the defense to collapse on you,
but you can't fight it. Yougot to make the right pass.
And it's not for Edwards being aballhog or anything like that. It's that
sense that he's got to put theteam on his back when they're struggling.
So it's been very helpful that KarlAnthony Towns has come out and even though
he's been in foul trouble, he'sshot the ball really really well from Downtown
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Nikhil. Alexander Walker is having thebest series, probably the best couple of
games stretch of his career, andit's happening in the playoffs. But he
has become such a valuable three andD guy for them off the bench this
season that ability to stretch the flora. Jaden McDaniels has shook off some late
season. Rust has also opened thingsup ever so slightly, and now it's
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Edwards making that right play. Butreally, when it comes to Minnesota,
it's their defense, right That's whatgot them here in the first place.
The offense has been hit or missall year, but Minnesota, you've seen
them lock in Defensively, They're flyingaround but still within this team concept,
and you see the cracks with theSuns where they just don't have the chemistry
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to move the ball on the fourth, fifth pass, to work through the
third or fourth rotation. Defensively,stuff breaks down after the initial effort at
it, and the Sons have playedhard, but this is where you get
into those issues of too many newguys. They shuffled the deck at the
deadline. Their stars were never allhealthy together in the first place, and
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this was the first year of toput these stars together. So we all
had big hopes for the Suns.But one of these teams has been together
for a couple of years now andhas been building towards this and the other
one is just trying to figure itout. When they're here against what would
have been the number one team inthe West. Kad said after the game
that they're getting booed there in Phoenix, and he said, hope that ignites
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us. It's like, that's whatyou need to ignite you down three nothing
partner, You're you're in some you'rsaid, do well. We do need
to see is that killer instinct fromMinnesota. We do need to see them
sort of cut off the team fromtheir legs, know that they're on the
throat. Just get it done.Don't have to waste time to get back
to Minnesota to end this thing.Just go ahead and get done with it.
Uh. And I I'm surprised hadthe has the potential of being a
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sweep tomorrow Sunday. That is uh, I am too. I thought this
was going to be a classic sevengame series for sure. But if you
are the Phoenix Suns, I willsay this, do not hand it.
Even if you get swept, lookacross the court at the Minnesota Timberwolves and
realize that you are them just oneyear behind. Because last year Minnesota had
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this huge experiment with Rudy Gobert.But Towns was never healthy throughout the whole
year, and Edwards looked a littlebit lost at times, even though he
had had a great season two yearsbefore. It was all of a suddenly
like he regressed. They weren't workingwell with d Angela Russell. Then you
bring in Mike Conley at the deadline. They shuffled a few other pieces around
the deadline, and they did notplay well down the end of the stretch,
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and they kind of went out mutelylast year. But with a full
training camp and with health, yousaw the Timberwolves take advantage of the vision
behind what this roster was supposed tobe. That can be very much for
Phoenix next year. A couple oftweaks here and there, a chance to
get healthy, chance to get theyou know, the right guys in there
and adjust the scheme a little bit, and Phoenix could very well become what
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we thought they were going to bethis season. Now into the series of
the postseason, soar the Knicks andthe seventy six ers. Philadelphia polls within
two games to one of New York. Joel and Bigos for fifty one.
I think he scored fifty four,though in the third quarter it felt like
in that game the Knicks should haveNicks arguably could be in a three to
(10:16):
zero seat right now, Maybe shouldbe had not him been knowing gone nuts
but literally did about the dirty oneof the dirtiest plays he's done as a
as a as a professional basketball player. Yeah, did not get tossed for
that, which is bizarre to me. It's just it's nowhere near a basket,
especially because they reviewed it right.It's not like the old days where
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it's like, yeah, they madea mistake, and on second, what's
not dirty? What's not dismissive ofa game when you're on the ground pulling
at the lake. The NBA hasbeen so forward thinking as far as you
can't get under players when they're upin the air. You gotta protect the
shooters, so to speak. Soto have someone literally not just be under
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someone, but to be actively pullingthem down bizarre, bizarre, And you
can't tell me that if the situationwere reversed and it was Mitchell Robinson who
Evan forbid touched Joel Embiid and didthat and didn't wash his hands first,
Like, you can't tell me that, he wouldn't have been ejected for the
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Mitchell Robinson would be on the nextflight out of Calcutta, like he's not
coming back to the league. Theyjust won't allow it. That's the kind
of disparity I thought was there.That was still a winnable game though for
the Knicks at the time when thathappened, and had you had a not
white hot with Joel Embid in thegame because he should have been pucked out
of the game, things could havebeen differently different in that game. Regardless
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of two games won in favor ofNew York, they play again on Sunday
to see if the Knicks could takethree games one or if joelan Bee can
keep company and even a thing.I think, honestly, I'm happy that
the Knicks were up two games toone. They obviously got the two of
home I would be. I'm notworried about this series much as I thought,
because it took a fifty one pointoutburst and an insane third quarter when
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the Knicks were things were up bigin that to half, and it took
a crazy man effort to get beinga Philadelphia back into the game and little
home cooking for the refs there tokeep the big star into the game that
I'm not too worried about the Knicksin this series. I still think the
Knicks have shown to be so farthe better team, and that's without Jalen
Brunson being King Kong Bundy on topof everything. Well, and the Knicks
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survive a game where well, Iguess they didn't survive because they lost,
but they they stomach a game whereDante DiVincenzo really struggled and he's been super
helpful for them. Twenty point especiallywas he was huge. You know,
they get twenty points out of Joshhart though they get fourteen out of Isaiah
Hartenstein. You're waiting for somebody offthe bench, whether it's Deuce McBride,
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he's had a couple of big games, play on Bogdanovic just had some rumblings
here or there. But they're goingto need one of those guys, I
think to have a fifteen to twentypoint game off the bench, and Devin
chandl is gonna have to shoot better. Philadelphia, I still feel like they
have not reached their potential yet either. Remember they're reacclimating Joel Embiid after yet
another lengthy absence. There's a lotof weapons with that group. That starting
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lineup is really really solid when youhave Kelly Ubery and Tobias Harris as your
third and fourth wheel around Tyrese Maxiand Joel and Bi. Plus you get
Kyle Lowry in the mix, andyou can bring off the bench Patoom and
Paul Reed and Campaign who had anice little burst for them eleven points and
sixteen minutes, and Buddy Healed whoonly played four minutes. There are a
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handful of other guys kJ Martin Obamba, d Anthony Melton who all could do
something in this series. So whileyou're confident and I think the Knicks are
the better team here, they seemto have more cohesion. Philadelphia has some
upside, They have depth, Theyare very well coached with Nick Nurse,
and I would feel a lot morecomfortable if I were the Knicks if I
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could have put away that Game threeto leave the door open here too to
one. This is one of thoseseries that you and I talked about where,
yeah, it's probably gonna be reallycompetitive throughout. We could see it
going seven games, and I stillkind of feel that, Like I feel,
oh, I feel I don't.They got some punches left to throw
here. I still think it couldgo seven games. I just don't.
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I would not be The bad thingis if the Knicks came back and lost
Game five, like if they lostGame five back in the yell, that
would be them. Okay, what'sgoing on here? Even if the Knicks
were up, you know, threegames to one at the time, you
know, that was the chance tosort of put it away. And I'm
not so mad at them. Theydidn't put the game away because, like
Joel and Beiid had sometimes guys justgo why hot, right, Jalen Brunson
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had a great game. He shothit the best he shot overall in this
series he's had. I mean,he shot like fifteen percent from three in
the first two games. Like it'sjust not quite the same as he was
in game three. You'll love tohave had that effort end up to be
able to win. But then again, you know the refs be cheating.
So Julia Jalen Brunson gets to hisspots the way that Juli Yes Randall wants
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to get to his spots, okay, and Brunson is better at it despite
being you know, seventy pounds lessthan Julius Randall normally is It's funny that
they're so similar in a lot ofways of what they do on the court,
just different positions but similar strength profiles. And Brunson has been so fun
to watch for the Knicks, andhe fits in with what they do.
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The guy that is already I thinkfitting into the background, and this is
by design, But I don't wantKnicks fans to forget because I think he
can be one of the all timefavorite Knicks, especially if they can make
a run over the next couple years. O Gian Andobi seeing him in a
Knicks uniform and I loved him upin Toronto, but what he is doing
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defensively for this team and the gritthat he adds to be able to then
pair with Hertenstein and Mitch Robinson andJosh Hart, like, oh my goodness,
that's such a nice it's handing glovelike it really is handing glove in
this system, it really really,And I hope it's able to sort of
propel this team deep into the playoffstoo. Anaonobe looks like he could have
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been the starting Nick small forward,you know, back in ninety seven to
for the nixt or any of thosePatrick u in years, Like, how
do you know he was definitely hedefinitely could have been there. Yeah,
how do you know he wasn't backthere? Well? I remember this Larry
Johnson guy, you know, amblingup and down the court room. Yeah,
he's a big old fellow. Thoughcome on now, it's a different
it's it's a big, big lump. No, no shade on l J.
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I always wanted him to be healthierthan he was up in New York
because he was such a beast inCharlotte. And that's not quite the guy
that they got in New York.But yeah, but he had a pretty
good run in New York like earlierhe did reason, Yeah, there probably
could have been more to give mea little bit better shape. Okay,
let's go back to the West coastwhere what do you make of Dallas in
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Los Angeles? Because for the firsttime that I was and I didn't watch
a ton of Clippers to be honestwith you, this year, but they
kind of looked at a sync likein that game, and they I mean
Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook's never beenejected from a playoff games. Say whatever
you want about him, he hasnever been ejected from a playoff game.
That is not true. That's that'strue. Not in a playoff game.
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Uh, just a bizarre, crazyrough foul there on Luca like Kawhi Leonards
hanging on the rim like after adunk grant that wasn't a huge deal so
to speak, right, but justit didn't sort of feel like that they
were like in sorts, right likeit like that doesn't mean it speaks on
the entire series in that game,though, they just felt they felt it
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very much felt like Dallas was themuch better, much more on point team
in Game three. I don't knowwhat it means the rest of the way,
but it was. It was.It was sort of interesting to sort
of watch that Clippers team kind ofcome on glued a little bit. It's
a hard series to fully get thepulse of because the Clippers just demolish Dallas
(18:03):
in Game one. Granted it's inLA, but it's not like the Clippers
typically has been one of those homecourt advantages in the playoffs or whatever that
you're really fearful of. But theythe Clippers don't have Kawhi Leonard. The
Mavericks play as bad of a firstthree quarters as you will ever see in
the playoffs. Just ask for Orlandoor Cleveland. You know, they couldn't
do anything, and yet they comeback and they tie, They bring it
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to within twelve by the time thegame is over, and it looked okay.
Then Kawhi comes back, and we'reall thinking, all right, if
the Clippers played that well against Dallasand now you get Kawhi on top of
that, oh it's it's good night. Mavericks didn't play very well to begin
game two and then suddenly take control. They win by three. Then they
keep the momentum going here in gamethree, and again Kawhi Leonard plays in
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that one. It's I guess thethings that stand out to me. Game
three Kawhi Leonard nine points, PaulGeorge seven points. Oh yeah, they
were not productive. What I seelike like seven made baskets or something between,
like they're big three. Like itdidn't that's not good. It's not
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Yeah, nearly tear Terrence Man twopoints, so that's your starting lineup,
and then nineteen turnovers. Meanwhile,for Dallas, Luca's twenty two, ten
and nine, Kyrie's twenty one,six and four, like those aren't even
great games for those two guys,Like they're solid games, but it's not.
It's not world beating games. Lucawas seven to twenty five from the
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field, three or fourteen from downtown. So yeah, you do get the
sense that it's like Dallas played wellenough in those two games, but the
Clippers have these opportunities and are juststumbling. But also to be fair like
the Clippers, I think it wasthe right now. I think the Clipper
has like seven technicals in Game three, like that was a eleven point game.
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That's a huge difference. It's huge, Like this was not a thirty
point blowout. Wur guys were justlike getting chippy just to leave. It
was a chippy game where Dallas,yeah, with that Kyrie fella, was
the more levelheaded team like that outthere, and the Clippers were just yeah,
I don't know. And that's wherethat's where you need. You need
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somebody of the veterans to not feedinto that. Yes, somebody leave for
four hundred years like that. Right, Great, he's the high head of
everybody, but these are refs.He might be suspended. Yeah, this
is this is a veteran laden team. Somebody should be stepping up in there
and calming everybody down. Jo,he's pushing refs like, I don't know
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if the NBA will suspend him,but like they can make the case they
could. Yeah. And here againit's a double standard because if it's a
role player. Russ is right onthe border of this. Yeah he's a
he's a notable name, but he'sliving off of his pass now at this
point, role players don't get awaywith that stars every once in a while
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or two, Hey can I canI ask you something? As we move
forward back to the East, whyMiami got to Miami like that? Like?
Why what is up with the Miamihe why do they have to go
and score four hundred threes against Bostonto even the series? And it is
I do find it funny that youknow, a sweep could happen, like
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to I think tonight that don't theLakers play tonight? Yeah, the Lakers
could get swept tonight. But Bostonand New England just play. Excuse me,
a Boston and Miami are playing Gamethree. But you know, regardless,
what do you I don't even knowwhat to say about Miami anymore.
Like it's just the great enigma,and like I just there's just no one
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like Eric Spolstra. There's just noone like Pat Roley when they're talking,
when they're putting a game plan together, putting a team together, like ingrated
record three numbers is not every day. But to have the dudes. They
could do that on the road ina big time atmosphere without your guy.
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I mean, I'd really like tosee someone put them into the dirt for
good, but no one seems toknow ad it puts them in the dirt
for good. No, no JimmyButler, no Terry Rogier. So you're
missing what You're not your two bestscorers, because we've got a factor Tyler
Herro in there in bam Adebayo,but two of your top four scorers.
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I'll say this about Eric Spolstra,and I have said this before, but
it's been a long time since Ibrought this point up. Eric Spolsra does
not necessarily coach to win regular seasongames. He coaches to teach, and
he coaches to coach during regular seasongames. That's why you will see them
in a random January game all ofa sudden throw out this, you know,
(23:06):
a crazy zone look, and they'llwork on it for a quarter or
they'll be all sorts of different matchups, and he shuffles the starting lineup constantly,
although some of that's by necessity withinjuries because it is an older team,
but different guys are in they getdifferent looks and Spoe is not one
of those guys who picks his eightand just rolls with that the entire season.
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He is constantly coaching up his roleplayers and constantly getting them ready for
these moments, and then they goout there and they just see what happens,
and you know, Boston got colddown the stretch. The Celtics actually
have felt had most of that momentumthrough the first half. Miami was hanging
around, but it really felt likeBoston was just one punch away for being
(23:52):
able to end the heat in Gametwo. But this is only what it
felt like last year too, inMilwaukee, Boston, Boston. This is
a fascinating thing to pay attention to. Boston hasn't had to really fight a
lot this year. They had.They have been blowing people out from from
(24:14):
nine to one in the NBA,and it has been just a train a
train run on the entire league forthe for the majority of the year.
So if a team stays with them, a team might be able to make
them nervous. Granted, they're youngguys in Boston, aren't young guys so
speaking any more, especial when comesto playoff minutes, But still, if
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you haven't if you don't have thatmuscle built up over the season, Miami,
because still two or three games andwho knows what once you get into
their heads that you can't win,and you clearly did in their building.
I mean, I'm fascinated for whatthis thing is going to look like coming
up in Miami. Boston better beready to dig in and not try to
(24:55):
out finesse this team. Right,You've got the scorers, you've got the
firepower, but that's just it.You're gonna have to out execute and get
to those fifty to fifty balls.If there's anything that speaks in favor for
the Celtics, it's that Miami playsthis magnificent game overall. But rebounds were
even, assists were basically even,steals, turnovers all basically even. The
(25:15):
only big differentiator is that Miami shootstwenty three or forty three from downtown?
Are they really? Are they theMiami Heat Sands, Jimmy Butler and Terry
Rozier really going to be able todo that consistently? But they did it
once and they stole a game.Yes, and you get that in the
mindset, and this Heat team isone where okay, they did that,
(25:38):
but next game it could be somethingcompletely different. Right, they win the
rebounding battle the next time by adozen, and that's the difference, or
the turnover battle by six, andthat's the difference. Miami's not a team
that goes away from something that's workingin that game. So if they start
seeing that the three is going,they'll keep feeding it. If they see
that any type of the game isworking, They're not dumb. They're not
(26:02):
just gonna go away from it justfor Funzie's sake. Like, if it's
working, figure out more stuff toget what's working going. And so we'll
see they gets up the working ingame three. You saw those guys first
hand last year as a Knicks fan. Not to bring up the pain,
but Miami just gave pain to thewhole Eastern Conference last year. Obviously you've
got no love for Boston, Butif you are a Celtics fan, I
(26:26):
dare you to put yourself in thosedirty shoes for a second. How worried
are you going into Game three orlooking at the rest of the series,
big worried, Big wordy, eventhough you won sixty four games and you're
setting in first place and you don'thave any major injuries. Remember last year
Milwaukee they were dealing with Giannis issuesand injuries. There was a little bit
(26:48):
more to that story. But bigworry. They're they'reing it for World Championships,
not to try to get the moralplayoffs, the victories and try to
get to the Eastern Conference finals.Like this is a team not far from
moved from the NBA Finals. Likethis team believes with this construction and why
not. The regular season strip haveshown They've been the best team in the
in the regular season, clearly byfar. But if I'm them, like
(27:11):
I get nervous. I get bignervous when a team comes into your building
and stays with you, even thoughyou've been able to blow other teams out,
including you played really well against Miamiin Game one. For them to
come back like that and to gethot like that at one time and to
still one of the games in Bostonand grant if you're up two to one
going in game four, you know, or going to game four because they
(27:33):
won one of the games in Miamiand not in Boston. It's a little
different. But I'm a fan,sure, I'm worried about that. That's
that's crazy, Like you would expectthat no matter who this eighth seed is,
you should be able to push throughthem, especially when there's no Jimmy
Butler and there's no Tyler or TerryRozier like and Tyler Harrow is not playing
the like. If you if youget all what you've got going for you
(27:56):
that Boston had against Miami and youstill lose that game at home, no
matter how it happens, they canbe fifty three. Still you gotta be
like, no, this cannot bewhat starts to snowball, because I think
Miami more than any other team inthe league is probably in the playoff right
now. It's a momentum type teamand things start going momentum wise their way.
(28:18):
They've done it before. They've gotthe track history of the show that
they don't have to have everybody everynight to be really good in to beat
you. And that's that's frustrating.Cayleb Martin twenty one points in that game,
Iimi Hakas Junior fourteen, Nikola JovichYovich eleven, which you do nine
and six, eleven, nine andsix. So here you got these role
(28:41):
players stepping up. We've seen CaylebMartin do this before. In the playoffs.
We've seen hawkas Junior do this duringthe regular season. Yovich has been
a prospect who's gotten some run withthem late in the year. But all
of a sudden, Yeah, thoseguys get plugged into a starting lineup.
They're playing while Tyler Hero has agood game. He strugg Golden Game one
against Boston a little bit, butyou know, and Bam Metebio continues to
(29:03):
be just like the constant for thatgroup. All right, let's let's move
forward back to the west. Okac, I have a chance to go three
nil upon the New Orleans Pelicans arenow back in New Orleans. Joe,
I just think, okay, seeoverwhelms them, like I think they look
(29:25):
overwhelming in their in their first coupleof creating games. Granted, that's a
tough building to play in if you'reNew Orleans. I totally get that,
especially for playoff time. But NewOrleans I didn't think was a very strong
playoff contender coming into this. Nomatter who their matchup was going to be,
this one. This is a badmatchup. This is a bad matchup
(29:45):
for for I think this New Orleansteam. So I'd be surprised if this
thing when more than five. Thisis kind of going the way I thought
it would go. I think NewOrleans and Oklahoma City match up against each
other uniquely because both teams are very, very long and interchangeable throughout the positions.
The difference really is at the centerspot, where you've got Jonas Valancunas,
(30:07):
who's strong and ground bound and wantsto play through the low post.
And then you have you know,the human string being and chet Holmgren who
run down the floor and can faceup, but yeah, he can light
you up from downtown and you're seeingjust Oklahoma City. I called them the
most dangerous team in the playoffs threeweeks before the playoffs even began, and
(30:29):
we've been talking about them through thesecond half of the season. The starting
five is so locked in together,and they've got so many different weapons to
bring off the bench, young legs. They keep coming in waves. Mark
Daggan all the head coach there.What he played He played nine guys in
the first quarter alone of Game two. He played at nine, he played
(30:49):
nine, he played nine in thefirst quarter. He played eleven guys in
game one. So they're coming inwaves, and this is where you get
a sense of of almost Miami Heatbasketball in that these guys are ready.
They're ready to jump into the differentspots of different roles, whether it's three
minutes, ten minutes, seventeen minutesoff the bench, different guys in the
(31:12):
starting lineup step up, and theyrun all sorts of crazy things because they've
been working on this through the year. I see a lot of similarities between
Spoe and Mark Daganell and Oklahoma City. So yeah, New Orleans, I
think they would have This is reallyobvious. They would have a much better
chance if Zion Williamson was available,because then they can come down and they
(31:34):
can force the issue offensively due tohis sheer athleticism. But Oklahoma City's length
and their defensive pressure and their abilityto then turn that defense into offense that
would still be there whether Zion wason the floor or not. So you're
right. I think OKAC has shownwhy they're the number one seed, but
let's also recognize that or the numbertwo seed, excuse me, or no,
(31:59):
they weren't number one. This hasgot confusing at the edge of the
three way tie for number one,only eight games separated OKAC and New Orleans.
Though on the regular season is whereI was going with that. So
New Orleans has been a good team, and I think they steal one,
maybe even two at home. Butyou think they can you think they can
(32:21):
steal two games. I think theycan steal two games. I don't see
them winning in Okay see. Andthe one concern is that the Pelicans weren't
all that good at home this year. But I do think getting a playoff
crowd behind you, but I'll saythey can they can get one, they
can get one. Okay, allright, fair enough, let's go.
(32:44):
We have two more series to talkabout. Real quick. Let's go to
Milwaukee, Indiana. This thing haslived up to the billing as far as
to these two teams is not beingbig fans of each other. Now it
doesn't have all the technical fouls andthe ejections of what we saw for LA
in Dallas. But we saw anotherfive fine outing for these two. It
was last night. There was agame, right mm hm, oh yeah,
(33:04):
last a nice overtime matchup between thosetwo Indiana. He's a series two
games to one now. And eversince we were talking about Milwaukee, you
know, proved everybody wrong and winin the game, won and prove that
they were going to be it.Indiana's looks like they want to take control
of this series, So it's,uh, do you think this is Indiana's
to take? Oh yeah, ohyeah, Because now Damian Lillard dealing with
(33:29):
an achilles spring. We don't evenknow what his status is going to be
for Game four. If he's unableto play, the Bucks are in just
an absolute world of hurt. Lillardhad twenty eight points in Game three and
the overtime game it was six totwenty from the floor, and they said
second half that really he was beingused as a decoy. This was going
(33:50):
to be a bad matchup for theBucks even if they had Giannis the placers
that we talked about that quite abit, but you take Giannis out of
the equation, and in Indiana's offensewas already better than Milwaukee's offense. The
Bucks had a better defense than thePacers simply because the Pacers were that bad
defensively all year and the Bucks theygot better. You know, the Bucks
(34:13):
did get better defensively under Doc Rivers. But who is the guy who makes
the Bucks defense go. It's Yannis, right, you know, Tyrese Haliburton
gets that shot off that floater towin the game for the Pacers. You
can't tell me that he's going toget that good of a look. If
Yannis is there patrolling the paint downthe stretch, that becomes a different look,
(34:34):
a different shot. So Milwaukee's advantageswere not better than Indiana's advantages,
and that was even if Jannis wasthere, and now with him gone,
you don't have anybody in that Milwaukeestarting lineup outside of Damian Lillard who can
create their own shot. Chris Middletonis a play finisher, not a play
starter. And if you take Lillardout of that, you know, Pat
(34:57):
Beverly j Crowder looked like absolutely shellsof themselves. Although Beverly has played a
little bit better than Crowder has,Crowder has been almost unplayable down the stretch
of the season. Here, nobodyoff that bench is giving them anything of
a push. They had six pointstotal from the bench unit, six points
total in an overtime game, theyeven got extra time, and they're just
(35:17):
not getting anything from that group,whether it's Pat Conaton, Malik Beasley,
AJ Green, somebody has got tostep up because Chris Middleton is struggling with
injuries too. So you're telling mea team that already was a little bit
out of sorts chemistry wise, nowis missing their MVP. Then it's going
to be missing their multi time AllStar and they're gonna go against a team
(35:39):
that wants to play fast. Thisis a recipe for disaster for the Bucks
down the rest of the way,unless the Pacers just get so sloppy,
which we've seen happen before, wereso bad defensively that they leave the door
open. Next time we talk,Milalonka will be out of this playoffs,
they think so. Yeah, Iat least at least we will talk after
(36:01):
talk about doc Rivers blowed another threegames a one lead, right, no
depth, there's they're just saving gracefor Doc Rivers fans out there that are
still holding onto the two thousand andeight title like it's the only thing that
ever happened in the NBA Okay FinalSeries. It's the best series, ladies
and gentlemen. It's the Los AngelesLakers one game away from getting swept by
(36:22):
the Denver Nuggets again. Uh andthis year playoffs, by the way,
also haven't been beaten them in theregular season either. I have to have
the Lakers. This is straight.It is a really, really bad matchup
apparently for Los Angeles. But here'sthe good note, mister Joelsey Cortis,
if you are a Lakers fan.Darvin Ham says, no changes to the
(36:44):
starting lineup, gonna keep everybody ofthe same. So that's the good thing,
is that we should make no adjustmentsto the starting lineup. And Joe,
I don't know this. This onedoesn't surprise me that it's been so
one sided. I was only alittle concerned that the Denver maybe a little
fat and happy after the last year, after the last after last year's playoffs,
(37:07):
and who knows how hot they wouldcome into this year playoff. Maybe
they'd warm into it. But Ishould pay attention more to what they did
to them in the regular season.Also that this just seems to be a
team that Yo Kitchen Company really donot want on their same court, Like
they are really, really really goodagainst them. Any chance Lakers get one,
(37:30):
Yes, I think the Lakers canget one. You know they're fine.
Happened now, right there? Yougo five to twenty seven. In
Game three, they got twelve pointstotal between the point guard platoon of D'Angelo
Russell, who was scoreless and dlo Is fantastic in game two, but
scoreless in game three. Spencer Dinwiddiegives them eight points, Gabe Vincent gives
(37:52):
them four points. You can pointthe fingers good. Oh, that's good,
right, that's really good. Pointthe finger at the fact that,
like Tori and Prince, he hadseven and ruy Hatchemur had five. So
you put all of the eggs inthe Anthony Davis, Lebron James and in
this game Austin Reeves basket previously wasdlo and not so much Reeves, So
(38:15):
it's been a disjointed scoring attack.But I think there's also that the eyeball
test is showing something to me andthat the time to let Lebron James carry
an entire team and that he's goingto be the eraser of all sins is
gone. And Anthony Davis has beengood. But Anthony Davis can be played
(38:37):
to a draw by Jokic. Everythingthat Davis brings to the table, Jokic
can neutralize and at least make itpalatable enough. That's not to say you
can't still build a team around AnthonyDavis, because this really is more his
team than Lebron's. I'm not tryingto kick unnecessary shade at Lebron. It
(38:57):
just is I watched Ron, andI've watched the drives and the threes,
and we're past the point where yougo, he's going to make it,
and then you're surprised when he doesn't. He puts up a shot and it
feels like most other players are like, well, that doesn't look like a
great shot, and lo and beholdit doesn't go in. And again I'm
(39:19):
not blaming him for the role playersnot hitting any shots, but I do
think, yeah, you go backto game two right when like he could,
like he could, he was wideopen for about a minute and a
half in the last twenty seconds ofthat game, could have won the game
for them, or at least putthem ahead. And you see what happens
in the game. Instead, Murraycomes down the other end, puts the
basket in. Now they're up totwo games to none in that series.
(39:39):
And then you sort of watch thepress conferences afterward in the in fact that
Anthony Davis, who's played well inthis series, he's probably done as much
as you could probably expect from himoutside of having a Joel Mpte output.
One of these nights just be frustrated, like I love this. The final
sort of question that got him outwhere he's just done, which was,
so what'd you see on that finalplay or what happened af to play?
(40:00):
It's like Murray play, Murray madea shot and it just slams down,
the microphone walks away, because heknew that that had to be the game
that they were going to steal,and that was probably going to start pushing
their momentum one way or the other. Uh. And then Denver just sort
of took the energy and the momentumfrom that and did not let up.
Uh. Even though they didn't blowout Los Angeles in game three, that
(40:21):
was still a pretty competitive game throughoutthe large chunk of it. Still though
it Denver just I had a friendI used to play raquetball with all the
time, right, His name isDavid, still is David actually, uh,
And I would all the time loseto him, like not just a
single victory. Many times I wouldget the match point on him or game
(40:46):
point on him, and I'd beup like four or five points. I
would not be consciously thinking about it, but he'd come back and beat me
every single time. And there wasjust something in my head, and I
don't know. I can't consciously tellyou what it was that did not let
(41:07):
me win that game. It didnot let me get over that hump.
Did I choke every time? Yeah? But how? I don't know.
I got up like eleven to fouron them a couple of times, like
we're about to. I'm gonna takethis though. I don't know what it
is. It feels like that kindof is what it is with the Lakers.
You get the wide open chance tobasically or potentially winning Game two.
(41:27):
It played well enough of Game threeto be in it. They were.
They were up at halftime again inGame three, and there's just something that
won't let them get over the DenverNuggets, and I'm not quite sure what
that is. Well, and thescary thing is, you know, I
pointed out that the Lakers hit fiveof twenty seven and so they probably won't
do that again. But in thewin, the Nuggets were five of twenty
eight from Yeah, like the Nuggetsdid, they probably won't do that again.
(41:50):
I want to. I want togive big props in this series to
Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Junior,the front line up there with jokicch because
a lot of times we talked aboutYo Kicchen, we talk about Murray,
and rightly so, but both ofthose two guys have grown into their role
so much. And Aaron Gordon,we saw this last year through the playoffs
and through the championship run, theability to play tough, to fill the
(42:13):
dunkers spot, to be their defensiveleader in a lot of situations. But
he had twenty nine and fifteen.Aaron Gordon was a guy in Orlando who
was a featured scorer and was probablymiscast in that role, but he really
stepped up to be the leading scorerin game three. And Michael Porter Junior,
to me, it's everything with bodylanguage is different. Last year he
was not confident, he was tentative. He would shoot shots and it was
(42:37):
like he was trying. He wastrying to see if they would go in.
He was trying to finesse them in. Michael Porter Junior, right now,
I see him running off of screens, he's getting the spots, he's
stepping into his jump shot. There'sjust that body language that he expects it
to go in. And more importantly, twenty points, ten boards, three
assists. He's finding other ways toget involved, and I've seen him be
(42:58):
more active defense. So as hehas taken that step forward this year,
I think that's really helped to maskthe fact that they don't have a Bruce
Brown, they don't have a JeffGreen, and that sort of thing off
the bench. The bench has beenjust good enough all year with Peyton Watson,
Reggie Jackson and Chris Brown. That'sbasically been it for them. It's
(43:20):
been just good enough. But there'sso much chemistry and cohesion with that starting
five and there again, it's kindof like looking at the Lakers is kind
of like looking at the Suns.All sorts of talent, all sorts of
depth. The problem is not allthat depth is available right now. Very
little of that depth all got toplay together throughout the year, and they
just they're not on the same tightstring that a Denver is or a Miami
(43:45):
is, or even an Oklahoma Cityor Minnesota are right now. There is
a difference between those teams that getthere are healthy, locked in and everybody
knows their job. You can seeit when you're looking for it, and
it's a different kind of locked inwhen you get to the playoffs. You
can tell who's there early on andwho's just sort of floundering to try to
find their footing somewhere. Yeah,it's pretty pretty easy to tell so far
(44:07):
in the first few games. Allright, Joe, that's good to do
it for us. Next time wetalk, the Lakers will be out,
and so Milwaukee, anybody else youwant to predictable quick to be out?
I mean I should have been ableto say Orlando, right, but I
guess we're saying New Orleans will beout by the next time we talked to
all Right, that's at least threethat's almost half the playoffs. Did we
say the Suns because I think they'reYou don't I'll say the Suns. You
(44:28):
don't want to say because you don'twant to jinx it. But I'll say
the Suns will be out. How'sthat good? All right, that'll be
half the field. But then wewill be down to half the field.
Joe, say goodbye to the goodpeople. Goodbye, good people. This
has been Basketball by Association again.Find a speaker, Spotify, iTunes,
wherever you get your podcasts or YouTubelike Share, subscribe on all of those.
We will see you next time.Goodbye.
Welcome into Basketball by Association. Myname is Association, that is the basketball
man himself, doctor Joel c Cordas. Doctor Joel, I'd like to say
hello, but let's not waste time. Do you want to talk some hoops,
Let's do it this at the homeoffice version of Basketball by Association.
You can find us on spreaker,Spotify, iTunes if you want the audio
only flavor of this. If youwant video, it's on YouTube, like
(00:24):
share subscribe over there. Let's doit. It's the WFH version there for
mister Cordas. So let's just brieflytalk about the game that's literally happening right
now as we're recording. A blowout'shappening right now in Orlando. It's one
O, one seventy five and thefour. Just give you an idea.
We're actually recording this in favor ofthe magic and the magic. But to
(00:46):
Polly, even with that series,uh, Joel, this series I thought
from the very beginning was going tobe star studded and very entertaining, and
I have been so right. Ithas been a close competitive series his entire
time, Joel, the series iskind of suck man like. This has
not been a very good series sofar. And it's not scores versions,
it's not like big banging against eachother's version. It's just it's just not
(01:10):
been the best series I thought itwould be. I don't even know if
maybe I just had a misread onNo. One, but this hasn't been
very good. Yeah, two teamsthat have been very good defensively all year.
Cleveland has been a little bit betteroffensively but was kind of scuffling coming
into the playoffs. Orlando had runout of a little bit of fuel at
the end there too, But yeah, Game one ninety seven eighty three,
Cavs ninety six eighty six. InGame two, Cleveland wins that. Game
(01:34):
three, the Magic one twenty oneto eighty three over the Cavaliers, and
as you said, Game four islooking to be another Magic blow out.
It was close at halftime and thenthird quarter the Magic held Cleveland to ten
total points. That to me hasbeen the biggest thing is that, Yeah,
both teams can defend. They bothhave played hard, but there's been
these massive power outages for the opponent, and it's been the road team where
(01:59):
it just comes. Yeah, it'sit's missing open shots, but then it's
ugly basketball to even get to thoseopen shots. And as you said,
you and I were kind of lookingat this as like a sleeper type of
series, and it said, it'sjust been a snoozefest. Can you I
could not imagine thinking that about aseries is better be died two to two.
That'd be that bory. We haven'teven series, but it's just been
(02:21):
like, like I will say this, the entertaining part for me did come
in Game three when it was closeearly on, and all of a sudden,
Orlando hit that first three and itfelt like not just the first three
in the game for the Magic,it felt as if it had been the
first three in the entire series.There was just this weight that fell off
(02:46):
their shoulders and I think it wasFranz Wagner who hit it. But then
what do you know, all ofa sudden, the lid came off the
basket. The crowd in Orlando gotinto it, and there was this sense
that, Okay, they're young,they're went behind the ears, they got
punched when they were up in Cleveland, but you know what, this is
the four or five matchup. Anybodycan hang with anybody in this series matchup,
(03:08):
and it happened, and you sawOrlando come to life and all of
a sudden make a much better showingof themselves to remind people why they got
here in the first place. Andthey really did play well in that third
game. They ran the Cabs outof the gym and gave them a taste
of their own medicine. So thatway it was fun. But you're right,
can we please get a competitive gamefrom start to finish? That would
(03:29):
be nice? Yeah, I mean, I don't it's not gonna salvage the
series for me, obviously because thefirst four had been so li for the
most part, but like it wouldmake me feel like a like a little
better, right, like a littlebetter about what this five game? Yes,
now, at least six right rightnow, Cleveland is halfway through the
(03:50):
second half. They've scored sixteen totalpoints, four of sixteen from downtown for
the entire game. It's that typeof craw fest that we've seen from Cleveland
last game here in Orlando and thenthe magic of the two games up in
Cleveland. So it's not just gooddefense, it's that and in Cleveland's case,
(04:11):
like you have Darius Garland and DonovanMitchell on your team, you have
Max Struce who has completely forgotten howto hit a three pointer, and George's
nang is not too far behind.Like those were the guys that were brought
in to take care of this problemfor Cleveland, which was a lack of
outside shooting outside of Lori Markinen inthe past, and it's just not getting
(04:31):
done. And we're starting to getback to some of those Donovan Mitchell playoff
struggle type of questions, which hasbeen a thing over the last few seasons.
Joe, We're going all over theplace when it comes to the series.
I'm not gonna necessarily go just bythe scheduled stuff because I think the
next one I really want to talkabout. Look at your Minnesota Timberwolves.
How about the sleep out the PhoenixSuns in their own building. Now,
(04:57):
I know you're gonna say the typicalcoach speak like it's not over till it's
over. You got to win itat their place again if you want to
get the sweep and blah blah blah. But this is a team that you
were very worried about MATCHI and howand on the verge for two straight years.
Is Phoenix of being embarrassed out ofthe playoffs, early, early,
early, First let's talk about Minnesotaand then we'll sort of talk about what's
(05:20):
this sort of meaning for Phoenix andwhat they look like for Minnesota Coming into
it, the big question was goingto be the coaching adjustment and then the
adjustment of their youngest players. Youknew that the veterans would be ready to
go, but Anthony Edwards especially struggledagainst the Phoenix side thirty thirty six last
night. Man, he's been yeah, and he's by the way, not
been the greatest this series overall.No, because they've they've done a good
(05:44):
job of loading up on Ant.They show him a wall. They play
in the regular season, the Sun'splayed a very tight shell concept and Anthony
Edwards he's got a little bit ofan ego to him. That's part of
what makes him great. He's ahumble kid with his teammates, but when
you challenge on the court as anopponent. We've seen this, whether it's
against his idol Kevin Durant, whetherit's been chirping and then smiling with Bradley
(06:06):
Beal. Anthony Edwards wants to puthis head down and run through a brick
wall. But he could not dothat during the regular season, and I
think it took those games of gettingembarrassed in Minnesota got embarrassed. Phoenix was
the only Western Conference team that didthis to them all year for them to
be able to go back, andthey had a lot of stuff on tape
(06:27):
to be able to work through tosay we cannot do this. This does
not work. Edwards. You haveto get the defense to collapse on you,
but you can't fight it. Yougot to make the right pass.
And it's not for Edwards being aballhog or anything like that. It's that
sense that he's got to put theteam on his back when they're struggling.
So it's been very helpful that KarlAnthony Towns has come out and even though
he's been in foul trouble, he'sshot the ball really really well from Downtown
(06:51):
Nikhil. Alexander Walker is having thebest series, probably the best couple of
games stretch of his career, andit's happening in the playoffs. But he
has become such a valuable three andD guy for them off the bench this
season that ability to stretch the flora. Jaden McDaniels has shook off some late
season. Rust has also opened thingsup ever so slightly, and now it's
(07:14):
Edwards making that right play. Butreally, when it comes to Minnesota,
it's their defense, right That's whatgot them here in the first place.
The offense has been hit or missall year, but Minnesota, you've seen
them lock in Defensively, They're flyingaround but still within this team concept,
and you see the cracks with theSuns where they just don't have the chemistry
(07:36):
to move the ball on the fourth, fifth pass, to work through the
third or fourth rotation. Defensively,stuff breaks down after the initial effort at
it, and the Sons have playedhard, but this is where you get
into those issues of too many newguys. They shuffled the deck at the
deadline. Their stars were never allhealthy together in the first place, and
(07:58):
this was the first year of toput these stars together. So we all
had big hopes for the Suns.But one of these teams has been together
for a couple of years now andhas been building towards this and the other
one is just trying to figure itout. When they're here against what would
have been the number one team inthe West. Kad said after the game
that they're getting booed there in Phoenix, and he said, hope that ignites
(08:22):
us. It's like, that's whatyou need to ignite you down three nothing
partner, You're you're in some you'rsaid, do well. We do need
to see is that killer instinct fromMinnesota. We do need to see them
sort of cut off the team fromtheir legs, know that they're on the
throat. Just get it done.Don't have to waste time to get back
to Minnesota to end this thing.Just go ahead and get done with it.
Uh. And I I'm surprised hadthe has the potential of being a
(08:48):
sweep tomorrow Sunday. That is uh, I am too. I thought this
was going to be a classic sevengame series for sure. But if you
are the Phoenix Suns, I willsay this, do not hand it.
Even if you get swept, lookacross the court at the Minnesota Timberwolves and
realize that you are them just oneyear behind. Because last year Minnesota had
(09:09):
this huge experiment with Rudy Gobert.But Towns was never healthy throughout the whole
year, and Edwards looked a littlebit lost at times, even though he
had had a great season two yearsbefore. It was all of a suddenly
like he regressed. They weren't workingwell with d Angela Russell. Then you
bring in Mike Conley at the deadline. They shuffled a few other pieces around
the deadline, and they did notplay well down the end of the stretch,
(09:33):
and they kind of went out mutelylast year. But with a full
training camp and with health, yousaw the Timberwolves take advantage of the vision
behind what this roster was supposed tobe. That can be very much for
Phoenix next year. A couple oftweaks here and there, a chance to
get healthy, chance to get theyou know, the right guys in there
and adjust the scheme a little bit, and Phoenix could very well become what
(09:54):
we thought they were going to bethis season. Now into the series of
the postseason, soar the Knicks andthe seventy six ers. Philadelphia polls within
two games to one of New York. Joel and Bigos for fifty one.
I think he scored fifty four,though in the third quarter it felt like
in that game the Knicks should haveNicks arguably could be in a three to
(10:16):
zero seat right now, Maybe shouldbe had not him been knowing gone nuts
but literally did about the dirty oneof the dirtiest plays he's done as a
as a as a professional basketball player. Yeah, did not get tossed for
that, which is bizarre to me. It's just it's nowhere near a basket,
especially because they reviewed it right.It's not like the old days where
(10:37):
it's like, yeah, they madea mistake, and on second, what's
not dirty? What's not dismissive ofa game when you're on the ground pulling
at the lake. The NBA hasbeen so forward thinking as far as you
can't get under players when they're upin the air. You gotta protect the
shooters, so to speak. Soto have someone literally not just be under
(10:58):
someone, but to be actively pullingthem down bizarre, bizarre, And you
can't tell me that if the situationwere reversed and it was Mitchell Robinson who
Evan forbid touched Joel Embiid and didthat and didn't wash his hands first,
Like, you can't tell me that, he wouldn't have been ejected for the
(11:20):
Mitchell Robinson would be on the nextflight out of Calcutta, like he's not
coming back to the league. Theyjust won't allow it. That's the kind
of disparity I thought was there.That was still a winnable game though for
the Knicks at the time when thathappened, and had you had a not
white hot with Joel Embid in thegame because he should have been pucked out
of the game, things could havebeen differently different in that game. Regardless
(11:41):
of two games won in favor ofNew York, they play again on Sunday
to see if the Knicks could takethree games one or if joelan Bee can
keep company and even a thing.I think, honestly, I'm happy that
the Knicks were up two games toone. They obviously got the two of
home I would be. I'm notworried about this series much as I thought,
because it took a fifty one pointoutburst and an insane third quarter when
(12:05):
the Knicks were things were up bigin that to half, and it took
a crazy man effort to get beinga Philadelphia back into the game and little
home cooking for the refs there tokeep the big star into the game that
I'm not too worried about the Knicksin this series. I still think the
Knicks have shown to be so farthe better team, and that's without Jalen
Brunson being King Kong Bundy on topof everything. Well, and the Knicks
(12:28):
survive a game where well, Iguess they didn't survive because they lost,
but they they stomach a game whereDante DiVincenzo really struggled and he's been super
helpful for them. Twenty point especiallywas he was huge. You know,
they get twenty points out of Joshhart though they get fourteen out of Isaiah
Hartenstein. You're waiting for somebody offthe bench, whether it's Deuce McBride,
(12:52):
he's had a couple of big games, play on Bogdanovic just had some rumblings
here or there. But they're goingto need one of those guys, I
think to have a fifteen to twentypoint game off the bench, and Devin
chandl is gonna have to shoot better. Philadelphia, I still feel like they
have not reached their potential yet either. Remember they're reacclimating Joel Embiid after yet
another lengthy absence. There's a lotof weapons with that group. That starting
(13:13):
lineup is really really solid when youhave Kelly Ubery and Tobias Harris as your
third and fourth wheel around Tyrese Maxiand Joel and Bi. Plus you get
Kyle Lowry in the mix, andyou can bring off the bench Patoom and
Paul Reed and Campaign who had anice little burst for them eleven points and
sixteen minutes, and Buddy Healed whoonly played four minutes. There are a
(13:33):
handful of other guys kJ Martin Obamba, d Anthony Melton who all could do
something in this series. So whileyou're confident and I think the Knicks are
the better team here, they seemto have more cohesion. Philadelphia has some
upside, They have depth, Theyare very well coached with Nick Nurse,
and I would feel a lot morecomfortable if I were the Knicks if I
(13:56):
could have put away that Game threeto leave the door open here too to
one. This is one of thoseseries that you and I talked about where,
yeah, it's probably gonna be reallycompetitive throughout. We could see it
going seven games, and I stillkind of feel that, Like I feel,
oh, I feel I don't.They got some punches left to throw
here. I still think it couldgo seven games. I just don't.
(14:16):
I would not be The bad thingis if the Knicks came back and lost
Game five, like if they lostGame five back in the yell, that
would be them. Okay, what'sgoing on here? Even if the Knicks
were up, you know, threegames to one at the time, you
know, that was the chance tosort of put it away. And I'm
not so mad at them. Theydidn't put the game away because, like
Joel and Beiid had sometimes guys justgo why hot, right, Jalen Brunson
(14:37):
had a great game. He shothit the best he shot overall in this
series he's had. I mean,he shot like fifteen percent from three in
the first two games. Like it'sjust not quite the same as he was
in game three. You'll love tohave had that effort end up to be
able to win. But then again, you know the refs be cheating.
So Julia Jalen Brunson gets to hisspots the way that Juli Yes Randall wants
(15:01):
to get to his spots, okay, and Brunson is better at it despite
being you know, seventy pounds lessthan Julius Randall normally is It's funny that
they're so similar in a lot ofways of what they do on the court,
just different positions but similar strength profiles. And Brunson has been so fun
to watch for the Knicks, andhe fits in with what they do.
(15:22):
The guy that is already I thinkfitting into the background, and this is
by design, But I don't wantKnicks fans to forget because I think he
can be one of the all timefavorite Knicks, especially if they can make
a run over the next couple years. O Gian Andobi seeing him in a
Knicks uniform and I loved him upin Toronto, but what he is doing
(15:43):
defensively for this team and the gritthat he adds to be able to then
pair with Hertenstein and Mitch Robinson andJosh Hart, like, oh my goodness,
that's such a nice it's handing glovelike it really is handing glove in
this system, it really really,And I hope it's able to sort of
propel this team deep into the playoffstoo. Anaonobe looks like he could have
(16:06):
been the starting Nick small forward,you know, back in ninety seven to
for the nixt or any of thosePatrick u in years, Like, how
do you know he was definitely hedefinitely could have been there. Yeah,
how do you know he wasn't backthere? Well? I remember this Larry
Johnson guy, you know, amblingup and down the court room. Yeah,
he's a big old fellow. Thoughcome on now, it's a different
it's it's a big, big lump. No, no shade on l J.
(16:30):
I always wanted him to be healthierthan he was up in New York
because he was such a beast inCharlotte. And that's not quite the guy
that they got in New York.But yeah, but he had a pretty
good run in New York like earlierhe did reason, Yeah, there probably
could have been more to give mea little bit better shape. Okay,
let's go back to the West coastwhere what do you make of Dallas in
(16:55):
Los Angeles? Because for the firsttime that I was and I didn't watch
a ton of Clippers to be honestwith you, this year, but they
kind of looked at a sync likein that game, and they I mean
Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook's never beenejected from a playoff games. Say whatever
you want about him, he hasnever been ejected from a playoff game.
That is not true. That's that'strue. Not in a playoff game.
(17:18):
Uh, just a bizarre, crazyrough foul there on Luca like Kawhi Leonards
hanging on the rim like after adunk grant that wasn't a huge deal so
to speak, right, but justit didn't sort of feel like that they
were like in sorts, right likeit like that doesn't mean it speaks on
the entire series in that game,though, they just felt they felt it
(17:41):
very much felt like Dallas was themuch better, much more on point team
in Game three. I don't knowwhat it means the rest of the way,
but it was. It was.It was sort of interesting to sort
of watch that Clippers team kind ofcome on glued a little bit. It's
a hard series to fully get thepulse of because the Clippers just demolish Dallas
(18:03):
in Game one. Granted it's inLA, but it's not like the Clippers
typically has been one of those homecourt advantages in the playoffs or whatever that
you're really fearful of. But theythe Clippers don't have Kawhi Leonard. The
Mavericks play as bad of a firstthree quarters as you will ever see in
the playoffs. Just ask for Orlandoor Cleveland. You know, they couldn't
do anything, and yet they comeback and they tie, They bring it
(18:26):
to within twelve by the time thegame is over, and it looked okay.
Then Kawhi comes back, and we'reall thinking, all right, if
the Clippers played that well against Dallasand now you get Kawhi on top of
that, oh it's it's good night. Mavericks didn't play very well to begin
game two and then suddenly take control. They win by three. Then they
keep the momentum going here in gamethree, and again Kawhi Leonard plays in
(18:48):
that one. It's I guess thethings that stand out to me. Game
three Kawhi Leonard nine points, PaulGeorge seven points. Oh yeah, they
were not productive. What I seelike like seven made baskets or something between,
like they're big three. Like itdidn't that's not good. It's not
(19:10):
Yeah, nearly tear Terrence Man twopoints, so that's your starting lineup,
and then nineteen turnovers. Meanwhile,for Dallas, Luca's twenty two, ten
and nine, Kyrie's twenty one,six and four, like those aren't even
great games for those two guys,Like they're solid games, but it's not.
It's not world beating games. Lucawas seven to twenty five from the
(19:33):
field, three or fourteen from downtown. So yeah, you do get the
sense that it's like Dallas played wellenough in those two games, but the
Clippers have these opportunities and are juststumbling. But also to be fair like
the Clippers, I think it wasthe right now. I think the Clipper
has like seven technicals in Game three, like that was a eleven point game.
(19:56):
That's a huge difference. It's huge, Like this was not a thirty
point blowout. Wur guys were justlike getting chippy just to leave. It
was a chippy game where Dallas,yeah, with that Kyrie fella, was
the more levelheaded team like that outthere, and the Clippers were just yeah,
I don't know. And that's wherethat's where you need. You need
(20:18):
somebody of the veterans to not feedinto that. Yes, somebody leave for
four hundred years like that. Right, Great, he's the high head of
everybody, but these are refs.He might be suspended. Yeah, this
is this is a veteran laden team. Somebody should be stepping up in there
and calming everybody down. Jo,he's pushing refs like, I don't know
(20:42):
if the NBA will suspend him,but like they can make the case they
could. Yeah. And here againit's a double standard because if it's a
role player. Russ is right onthe border of this. Yeah he's a
he's a notable name, but he'sliving off of his pass now at this
point, role players don't get awaywith that stars every once in a while
(21:07):
or two, Hey can I canI ask you something? As we move
forward back to the East, whyMiami got to Miami like that? Like?
Why what is up with the Miamihe why do they have to go
and score four hundred threes against Bostonto even the series? And it is
I do find it funny that youknow, a sweep could happen, like
(21:30):
to I think tonight that don't theLakers play tonight? Yeah, the Lakers
could get swept tonight. But Bostonand New England just play. Excuse me,
a Boston and Miami are playing Gamethree. But you know, regardless,
what do you I don't even knowwhat to say about Miami anymore.
Like it's just the great enigma,and like I just there's just no one
(21:53):
like Eric Spolstra. There's just noone like Pat Roley when they're talking,
when they're putting a game plan together, putting a team together, like ingrated
record three numbers is not every day. But to have the dudes. They
could do that on the road ina big time atmosphere without your guy.
(22:18):
I mean, I'd really like tosee someone put them into the dirt for
good, but no one seems toknow ad it puts them in the dirt
for good. No, no JimmyButler, no Terry Rogier. So you're
missing what You're not your two bestscorers, because we've got a factor Tyler
Herro in there in bam Adebayo,but two of your top four scorers.
(22:44):
I'll say this about Eric Spolstra,and I have said this before, but
it's been a long time since Ibrought this point up. Eric Spolsra does
not necessarily coach to win regular seasongames. He coaches to teach, and
he coaches to coach during regular seasongames. That's why you will see them
in a random January game all ofa sudden throw out this, you know,
(23:06):
a crazy zone look, and they'llwork on it for a quarter or
they'll be all sorts of different matchups, and he shuffles the starting lineup constantly,
although some of that's by necessity withinjuries because it is an older team,
but different guys are in they getdifferent looks and Spoe is not one
of those guys who picks his eightand just rolls with that the entire season.
(23:29):
He is constantly coaching up his roleplayers and constantly getting them ready for
these moments, and then they goout there and they just see what happens,
and you know, Boston got colddown the stretch. The Celtics actually
have felt had most of that momentumthrough the first half. Miami was hanging
around, but it really felt likeBoston was just one punch away for being
(23:52):
able to end the heat in Gametwo. But this is only what it
felt like last year too, inMilwaukee, Boston, Boston. This is
a fascinating thing to pay attention to. Boston hasn't had to really fight a
lot this year. They had.They have been blowing people out from from
(24:14):
nine to one in the NBA,and it has been just a train a
train run on the entire league forthe for the majority of the year.
So if a team stays with them, a team might be able to make
them nervous. Granted, they're youngguys in Boston, aren't young guys so
speaking any more, especial when comesto playoff minutes, But still, if
(24:34):
you haven't if you don't have thatmuscle built up over the season, Miami,
because still two or three games andwho knows what once you get into
their heads that you can't win,and you clearly did in their building.
I mean, I'm fascinated for whatthis thing is going to look like coming
up in Miami. Boston better beready to dig in and not try to
(24:55):
out finesse this team. Right,You've got the scorers, you've got the
firepower, but that's just it.You're gonna have to out execute and get
to those fifty to fifty balls.If there's anything that speaks in favor for
the Celtics, it's that Miami playsthis magnificent game overall. But rebounds were
even, assists were basically even,steals, turnovers all basically even. The
(25:15):
only big differentiator is that Miami shootstwenty three or forty three from downtown?
Are they really? Are they theMiami Heat Sands, Jimmy Butler and Terry
Rozier really going to be able todo that consistently? But they did it
once and they stole a game.Yes, and you get that in the
mindset, and this Heat team isone where okay, they did that,
(25:38):
but next game it could be somethingcompletely different. Right, they win the
rebounding battle the next time by adozen, and that's the difference, or
the turnover battle by six, andthat's the difference. Miami's not a team
that goes away from something that's workingin that game. So if they start
seeing that the three is going,they'll keep feeding it. If they see
that any type of the game isworking, They're not dumb. They're not
(26:02):
just gonna go away from it justfor Funzie's sake. Like, if it's
working, figure out more stuff toget what's working going. And so we'll
see they gets up the working ingame three. You saw those guys first
hand last year as a Knicks fan. Not to bring up the pain,
but Miami just gave pain to thewhole Eastern Conference last year. Obviously you've
got no love for Boston, Butif you are a Celtics fan, I
(26:26):
dare you to put yourself in thosedirty shoes for a second. How worried
are you going into Game three orlooking at the rest of the series,
big worried, Big wordy, eventhough you won sixty four games and you're
setting in first place and you don'thave any major injuries. Remember last year
Milwaukee they were dealing with Giannis issuesand injuries. There was a little bit
(26:48):
more to that story. But bigworry. They're they'reing it for World Championships,
not to try to get the moralplayoffs, the victories and try to
get to the Eastern Conference finals.Like this is a team not far from
moved from the NBA Finals. Likethis team believes with this construction and why
not. The regular season strip haveshown They've been the best team in the
in the regular season, clearly byfar. But if I'm them, like
(27:11):
I get nervous. I get bignervous when a team comes into your building
and stays with you, even thoughyou've been able to blow other teams out,
including you played really well against Miamiin Game one. For them to
come back like that and to gethot like that at one time and to
still one of the games in Bostonand grant if you're up two to one
going in game four, you know, or going to game four because they
(27:33):
won one of the games in Miamiand not in Boston. It's a little
different. But I'm a fan,sure, I'm worried about that. That's
that's crazy, Like you would expectthat no matter who this eighth seed is,
you should be able to push throughthem, especially when there's no Jimmy
Butler and there's no Tyler or TerryRozier like and Tyler Harrow is not playing
the like. If you if youget all what you've got going for you
(27:56):
that Boston had against Miami and youstill lose that game at home, no
matter how it happens, they canbe fifty three. Still you gotta be
like, no, this cannot bewhat starts to snowball, because I think
Miami more than any other team inthe league is probably in the playoff right
now. It's a momentum type teamand things start going momentum wise their way.
(28:18):
They've done it before. They've gotthe track history of the show that
they don't have to have everybody everynight to be really good in to beat
you. And that's that's frustrating.Cayleb Martin twenty one points in that game,
Iimi Hakas Junior fourteen, Nikola JovichYovich eleven, which you do nine
and six, eleven, nine andsix. So here you got these role
(28:41):
players stepping up. We've seen CaylebMartin do this before. In the playoffs.
We've seen hawkas Junior do this duringthe regular season. Yovich has been
a prospect who's gotten some run withthem late in the year. But all
of a sudden, Yeah, thoseguys get plugged into a starting lineup.
They're playing while Tyler Hero has agood game. He strugg Golden Game one
against Boston a little bit, butyou know, and Bam Metebio continues to
(29:03):
be just like the constant for thatgroup. All right, let's let's move
forward back to the west. Okac, I have a chance to go three
nil upon the New Orleans Pelicans arenow back in New Orleans. Joe,
I just think, okay, seeoverwhelms them, like I think they look
(29:25):
overwhelming in their in their first coupleof creating games. Granted, that's a
tough building to play in if you'reNew Orleans. I totally get that,
especially for playoff time. But NewOrleans I didn't think was a very strong
playoff contender coming into this. Nomatter who their matchup was going to be,
this one. This is a badmatchup. This is a bad matchup
(29:45):
for for I think this New Orleansteam. So I'd be surprised if this
thing when more than five. Thisis kind of going the way I thought
it would go. I think NewOrleans and Oklahoma City match up against each
other uniquely because both teams are very, very long and interchangeable throughout the positions.
The difference really is at the centerspot, where you've got Jonas Valancunas,
(30:07):
who's strong and ground bound and wantsto play through the low post.
And then you have you know,the human string being and chet Holmgren who
run down the floor and can faceup, but yeah, he can light
you up from downtown and you're seeingjust Oklahoma City. I called them the
most dangerous team in the playoffs threeweeks before the playoffs even began, and
(30:29):
we've been talking about them through thesecond half of the season. The starting
five is so locked in together,and they've got so many different weapons to
bring off the bench, young legs. They keep coming in waves. Mark
Daggan all the head coach there.What he played He played nine guys in
the first quarter alone of Game two. He played at nine, he played
(30:49):
nine, he played nine in thefirst quarter. He played eleven guys in
game one. So they're coming inwaves, and this is where you get
a sense of of almost Miami Heatbasketball in that these guys are ready.
They're ready to jump into the differentspots of different roles, whether it's three
minutes, ten minutes, seventeen minutesoff the bench, different guys in the
(31:12):
starting lineup step up, and theyrun all sorts of crazy things because they've
been working on this through the year. I see a lot of similarities between
Spoe and Mark Daganell and Oklahoma City. So yeah, New Orleans, I
think they would have This is reallyobvious. They would have a much better
chance if Zion Williamson was available,because then they can come down and they
(31:34):
can force the issue offensively due tohis sheer athleticism. But Oklahoma City's length
and their defensive pressure and their abilityto then turn that defense into offense that
would still be there whether Zion wason the floor or not. So you're
right. I think OKAC has shownwhy they're the number one seed, but
let's also recognize that or the numbertwo seed, excuse me, or no,
(31:59):
they weren't number one. This hasgot confusing at the edge of the
three way tie for number one,only eight games separated OKAC and New Orleans.
Though on the regular season is whereI was going with that. So
New Orleans has been a good team, and I think they steal one,
maybe even two at home. Butyou think they can you think they can
(32:21):
steal two games. I think theycan steal two games. I don't see
them winning in Okay see. Andthe one concern is that the Pelicans weren't
all that good at home this year. But I do think getting a playoff
crowd behind you, but I'll saythey can they can get one, they
can get one. Okay, allright, fair enough, let's go.
(32:44):
We have two more series to talkabout. Real quick. Let's go to
Milwaukee, Indiana. This thing haslived up to the billing as far as
to these two teams is not beingbig fans of each other. Now it
doesn't have all the technical fouls andthe ejections of what we saw for LA
in Dallas. But we saw anotherfive fine outing for these two. It
was last night. There was agame, right mm hm, oh yeah,
(33:04):
last a nice overtime matchup between thosetwo Indiana. He's a series two
games to one now. And eversince we were talking about Milwaukee, you
know, proved everybody wrong and winin the game, won and prove that
they were going to be it.Indiana's looks like they want to take control
of this series, So it's,uh, do you think this is Indiana's
to take? Oh yeah, ohyeah, Because now Damian Lillard dealing with
(33:29):
an achilles spring. We don't evenknow what his status is going to be
for Game four. If he's unableto play, the Bucks are in just
an absolute world of hurt. Lillardhad twenty eight points in Game three and
the overtime game it was six totwenty from the floor, and they said
second half that really he was beingused as a decoy. This was going
(33:50):
to be a bad matchup for theBucks even if they had Giannis the placers
that we talked about that quite abit, but you take Giannis out of
the equation, and in Indiana's offensewas already better than Milwaukee's offense. The
Bucks had a better defense than thePacers simply because the Pacers were that bad
defensively all year and the Bucks theygot better. You know, the Bucks
(34:13):
did get better defensively under Doc Rivers. But who is the guy who makes
the Bucks defense go. It's Yannis, right, you know, Tyrese Haliburton
gets that shot off that floater towin the game for the Pacers. You
can't tell me that he's going toget that good of a look. If
Yannis is there patrolling the paint downthe stretch, that becomes a different look,
(34:34):
a different shot. So Milwaukee's advantageswere not better than Indiana's advantages,
and that was even if Jannis wasthere, and now with him gone,
you don't have anybody in that Milwaukeestarting lineup outside of Damian Lillard who can
create their own shot. Chris Middletonis a play finisher, not a play
starter. And if you take Lillardout of that, you know, Pat
(34:57):
Beverly j Crowder looked like absolutely shellsof themselves. Although Beverly has played a
little bit better than Crowder has,Crowder has been almost unplayable down the stretch
of the season. Here, nobodyoff that bench is giving them anything of
a push. They had six pointstotal from the bench unit, six points
total in an overtime game, theyeven got extra time, and they're just
(35:17):
not getting anything from that group,whether it's Pat Conaton, Malik Beasley,
AJ Green, somebody has got tostep up because Chris Middleton is struggling with
injuries too. So you're telling mea team that already was a little bit
out of sorts chemistry wise, nowis missing their MVP. Then it's going
to be missing their multi time AllStar and they're gonna go against a team
(35:39):
that wants to play fast. Thisis a recipe for disaster for the Bucks
down the rest of the way,unless the Pacers just get so sloppy,
which we've seen happen before, wereso bad defensively that they leave the door
open. Next time we talk,Milalonka will be out of this playoffs,
they think so. Yeah, Iat least at least we will talk after
(36:01):
talk about doc Rivers blowed another threegames a one lead, right, no
depth, there's they're just saving gracefor Doc Rivers fans out there that are
still holding onto the two thousand andeight title like it's the only thing that
ever happened in the NBA Okay FinalSeries. It's the best series, ladies
and gentlemen. It's the Los AngelesLakers one game away from getting swept by
(36:22):
the Denver Nuggets again. Uh andthis year playoffs, by the way,
also haven't been beaten them in theregular season either. I have to have
the Lakers. This is straight.It is a really, really bad matchup
apparently for Los Angeles. But here'sthe good note, mister Joelsey Cortis,
if you are a Lakers fan.Darvin Ham says, no changes to the
(36:44):
starting lineup, gonna keep everybody ofthe same. So that's the good thing,
is that we should make no adjustmentsto the starting lineup. And Joe,
I don't know this. This onedoesn't surprise me that it's been so
one sided. I was only alittle concerned that the Denver maybe a little
fat and happy after the last year, after the last after last year's playoffs,
(37:07):
and who knows how hot they wouldcome into this year playoff. Maybe
they'd warm into it. But Ishould pay attention more to what they did
to them in the regular season.Also that this just seems to be a
team that Yo Kitchen Company really donot want on their same court, Like
they are really, really really goodagainst them. Any chance Lakers get one,
(37:30):
Yes, I think the Lakers canget one. You know they're fine.
Happened now, right there? Yougo five to twenty seven. In
Game three, they got twelve pointstotal between the point guard platoon of D'Angelo
Russell, who was scoreless and dlo Is fantastic in game two, but
scoreless in game three. Spencer Dinwiddiegives them eight points, Gabe Vincent gives
(37:52):
them four points. You can pointthe fingers good. Oh, that's good,
right, that's really good. Pointthe finger at the fact that,
like Tori and Prince, he hadseven and ruy Hatchemur had five. So
you put all of the eggs inthe Anthony Davis, Lebron James and in
this game Austin Reeves basket previously wasdlo and not so much Reeves, So
(38:15):
it's been a disjointed scoring attack.But I think there's also that the eyeball
test is showing something to me andthat the time to let Lebron James carry
an entire team and that he's goingto be the eraser of all sins is
gone. And Anthony Davis has beengood. But Anthony Davis can be played
(38:37):
to a draw by Jokic. Everythingthat Davis brings to the table, Jokic
can neutralize and at least make itpalatable enough. That's not to say you
can't still build a team around AnthonyDavis, because this really is more his
team than Lebron's. I'm not tryingto kick unnecessary shade at Lebron. It
(38:57):
just is I watched Ron, andI've watched the drives and the threes,
and we're past the point where yougo, he's going to make it,
and then you're surprised when he doesn't. He puts up a shot and it
feels like most other players are like, well, that doesn't look like a
great shot, and lo and beholdit doesn't go in. And again I'm
(39:19):
not blaming him for the role playersnot hitting any shots, but I do
think, yeah, you go backto game two right when like he could,
like he could, he was wideopen for about a minute and a
half in the last twenty seconds ofthat game, could have won the game
for them, or at least putthem ahead. And you see what happens
in the game. Instead, Murraycomes down the other end, puts the
basket in. Now they're up totwo games to none in that series.
(39:39):
And then you sort of watch thepress conferences afterward in the in fact that
Anthony Davis, who's played well inthis series, he's probably done as much
as you could probably expect from himoutside of having a Joel Mpte output.
One of these nights just be frustrated, like I love this. The final
sort of question that got him outwhere he's just done, which was,
so what'd you see on that finalplay or what happened af to play?
(40:00):
It's like Murray play, Murray madea shot and it just slams down,
the microphone walks away, because heknew that that had to be the game
that they were going to steal,and that was probably going to start pushing
their momentum one way or the other. Uh. And then Denver just sort
of took the energy and the momentumfrom that and did not let up.
Uh. Even though they didn't blowout Los Angeles in game three, that
(40:21):
was still a pretty competitive game throughoutthe large chunk of it. Still though
it Denver just I had a friendI used to play raquetball with all the
time, right, His name isDavid, still is David actually, uh,
And I would all the time loseto him, like not just a
single victory. Many times I wouldget the match point on him or game
(40:46):
point on him, and I'd beup like four or five points. I
would not be consciously thinking about it, but he'd come back and beat me
every single time. And there wasjust something in my head, and I
don't know. I can't consciously tellyou what it was that did not let
(41:07):
me win that game. It didnot let me get over that hump.
Did I choke every time? Yeah? But how? I don't know.
I got up like eleven to fouron them a couple of times, like
we're about to. I'm gonna takethis though. I don't know what it
is. It feels like that kindof is what it is with the Lakers.
You get the wide open chance tobasically or potentially winning Game two.
(41:27):
It played well enough of Game threeto be in it. They were.
They were up at halftime again inGame three, and there's just something that
won't let them get over the DenverNuggets, and I'm not quite sure what
that is. Well, and thescary thing is, you know, I
pointed out that the Lakers hit fiveof twenty seven and so they probably won't
do that again. But in thewin, the Nuggets were five of twenty
eight from Yeah, like the Nuggetsdid, they probably won't do that again.
(41:50):
I want to. I want togive big props in this series to
Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Junior,the front line up there with jokicch because
a lot of times we talked aboutYo Kicchen, we talk about Murray,
and rightly so, but both ofthose two guys have grown into their role
so much. And Aaron Gordon,we saw this last year through the playoffs
and through the championship run, theability to play tough, to fill the
(42:13):
dunkers spot, to be their defensiveleader in a lot of situations. But
he had twenty nine and fifteen.Aaron Gordon was a guy in Orlando who
was a featured scorer and was probablymiscast in that role, but he really
stepped up to be the leading scorerin game three. And Michael Porter Junior,
to me, it's everything with bodylanguage is different. Last year he
was not confident, he was tentative. He would shoot shots and it was
(42:37):
like he was trying. He wastrying to see if they would go in.
He was trying to finesse them in. Michael Porter Junior, right now,
I see him running off of screens, he's getting the spots, he's
stepping into his jump shot. There'sjust that body language that he expects it
to go in. And more importantly, twenty points, ten boards, three
assists. He's finding other ways toget involved, and I've seen him be
(42:58):
more active defense. So as hehas taken that step forward this year,
I think that's really helped to maskthe fact that they don't have a Bruce
Brown, they don't have a JeffGreen, and that sort of thing off
the bench. The bench has beenjust good enough all year with Peyton Watson,
Reggie Jackson and Chris Brown. That'sbasically been it for them. It's
(43:20):
been just good enough. But there'sso much chemistry and cohesion with that starting
five and there again, it's kindof like looking at the Lakers is kind
of like looking at the Suns.All sorts of talent, all sorts of
depth. The problem is not allthat depth is available right now. Very
little of that depth all got toplay together throughout the year, and they
just they're not on the same tightstring that a Denver is or a Miami
(43:45):
is, or even an Oklahoma Cityor Minnesota are right now. There is
a difference between those teams that getthere are healthy, locked in and everybody
knows their job. You can seeit when you're looking for it, and
it's a different kind of locked inwhen you get to the playoffs. You
can tell who's there early on andwho's just sort of floundering to try to
find their footing somewhere. Yeah,it's pretty pretty easy to tell so far
(44:07):
in the first few games. Allright, Joe, that's good to do
it for us. Next time wetalk, the Lakers will be out,
and so Milwaukee, anybody else youwant to predictable quick to be out?
I mean I should have been ableto say Orlando, right, but I
guess we're saying New Orleans will beout by the next time we talked to
all Right, that's at least threethat's almost half the playoffs. Did we
say the Suns because I think they'reYou don't I'll say the Suns. You
(44:28):
don't want to say because you don'twant to jinx it. But I'll say
the Suns will be out. How'sthat good? All right, that'll be
half the field. But then wewill be down to half the field.
Joe, say goodbye to the goodpeople. Goodbye, good people. This
has been Basketball by Association again.Find a speaker, Spotify, iTunes,
wherever you get your podcasts or YouTubelike Share, subscribe on all of those.
We will see you next time.Goodbye.
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