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or insider Nick Stauskas. After game five of this Sixers Knick series, and what a Game five it was at Madison Square Garden. The Sixers were down ninety six ninety with less than thirty seconds left in regulation. They go on to win by six one twelve one ZHO six in overtime at the Garden. Tyrese Maxi was a big part of it. Joel Embiid had his first career playoff
triple double. There's a lot to get into, Nick, but off the top as you, I mean, you actually texted me that it could go down as one of the best comebacks or most unlikely comebacks in NBA history. What was your reaction?
I mean, I thought the season was dead in the water, down six with twenty eight seconds left. Not sure how many times that's been done in the playoffs in NBA history, but definitely a tough feat to do. And you know, almost feels like a little bit of payback for the comeback the Knicks had in Game two at the Garden, And so sometimes you need to get a little bit lucky, and in this case, just everything went just right in that last thirty seconds of the game. And man, that boy,
Tyreees actually is something special. My goodness. We talked about coming into this series, the playoffs being you know, a trampoline to kind of, you know, boost yourself to that next level of going from star to superstar. And the performances he's had in this first round, and you know, to do it on a stage like the Madison Square Garden hostile environment season on the line. It was just truly an incredible game to watch.
And the Reggie Miller performance that a lot of people are comparing the Maxi end of the game too, was in nineteen ninety five, a series that the Pacers ended up winning in seven games at MSG. So if you're it was earlier in that series, but if you're a Sixers fan, you're hoping that history can repeat itself with the visiting team winning in a game seven. That's what it will take for the Sixers against the number two seed the Knicks and Lauren. For Tyrese, it was seven
points in the final twenty five seconds. He goes for forty six, five and nine in Game five, seven of twelve from three point range. What was your instant reaction.
I know I said this sort of immediately on X but I was thrilled for him.
I was totally unsurprised, just because it feels like we've been building to this type of Tyrese Maxie performance now for four consecutive years. He has played a major role in every playoffs he's ever been part of, including his rookie playoff season that he harkens back to a lot when he talks about falling out of.
The rotation not playing a.
Few times early in that year, a conversation he had with Doc Rivers about how he was going to go on to help that team win a playoff game.
At coach, how am I going to do that? I'm not even playing.
Sure enough, goes into that playoff run, ends up coming up huge for his team that was again a veteran depthy team.
Then watching him.
Do it again year after year after year, and now to be able to do it in such a dramatic fashion, to be likened to a Reggie Miller, to be talked about among Michael Jordan, the greats in the game right now. I mean Anthony Edwards well deserved has gotten so much shine in these playoffs so far. But this morning you wake up and people are saying that Tyrese's playoff performance is the performance of the playoffs thus far, and you
love to hear that. You love to hear his name mentioned among the greats because he deserves it and he's been working towards it for so long. So it was spectacular to watch. It was really cool to watch. But I wasn't I really am not just saying this. I was not surprised to see him put on that type of performance.
Someone was going to be able to do something like that. To me, it was Tyrese Maxi.
The Michael Jordan man. Is that forty six points ties Jordan from the ninety five ninety six playoffs for the most points by a visiting player in a playoff game at MSG. That's Tyrese Maxey getting forty six and Nick how it transpired was chaotic, just like our game two references. So first with the four point play that he got on Mitchell Robinson, how did that happen?
If you're the Knicks, if you're Thibodeau, like you have to be livid with your guys. The one thing you don't do is give up a four point play when you're up six with twenty eight seconds left.
Then you know he got.
Robinson on his feet, just off his feet just a little bit, and you know he was able to finish through some contact, gets the call and then knocks it down.
But really to me and the.
Broadcasting team, you know, touched on this on the national broadcast, but tyrese, what was maybe the most impressive part about the whole thing was he didn't look tired ever, like he was going a million.
Miles an hour all game long.
That last shot was a thirty thirty footer, you know, to tie the game. Had his legs underneath them, had all the pop. I mean, some of his takes to the basket was just using pure speed and strength. Like the amount of energy he had to exert throughout the whole night and overtime.
He never looked worn down. He never looked like he was running out of gas.
And I think that might be the most impressive part, and that's something that comes from you got to be in the gym. You got to be in the gym, and you got to be putting in the time and effort to get yourself in a position where it's second nature. You don't get tired because your body's so conditioned to keep going, keep going, keep going. And this is one
of those games where it's an instant classic. I think all New York fans will definitely remember this one as a heartbreaker, and obviously all Philly fans are going to hopefully remember this as the game that maybe turned their season around as they were kind of against the ropes and the sense.
Nick, you talked about how he didn't look tired, and I completely agree. Even after the game he was wired. He was the first player in the weight room. And I will say, people that sort of don't understand how the course of an NBA game works, going to the weight room immediately following a game is not actually that abnormal.
It's part of some guy's game to game routine. My understanding, and Nick obviously correct me if I'm wrong, is that if you work your muscles while they're tired, that is helpful for future really long game performances where you have to continue to have that type of energy. Right, So that's a habit that he's built up all season long. He did it again last night after playing fifty plus minutes.
And what I was going to say to you guys, is how.
Useful, in hindsight was that double overtime performance in San Antonio without Joel Embiid not the first.
Time in a one month period a one month.
Span where Tyres has played fifty plus minutes in a game where he put the team.
On his back to go on and win spectacular And the.
Last time we had a podcast with the three of us, they ran a similar play to the end of the Spurs game and Maxi was not the hero in that game, so and it was at the garden, so like he had a chance to redeem himself from that he ends up playing fifty one minutes on the logo three Nick, should Tibbs and the Knicks have intentionally fouled up by three? Or was there too much time? Or you think they should have done it?
I mean, I think most coaches in that scenario, they would prefer to foul, just because the guys are just
too good now. They're too good, and it's you take on too much risk by not fouling, because you have guys like Maxie who can step over half court and they're within range, and so you know, it's such a tricky thing now because guys have also become so good at anticipating the foul, and the last thing you want to do is, you know, foul someone thirty five feet outside the basket as they're you know, going up into
a shooting motion. But you know, for me, it wasn't even just that last Obviously, what's getting the most attention is those last two shots of regulation, but it was really throughout the entire night he was consistently making the big play. Like even overtime started, they were down five and I'm like, oh, here we go again. They're you know, dead in the water. Who answers Maxi step back three,
you know, cuts it to two. Even at halftime, you know, coming into half knicks, we're kind of making up some I think they're up eight or nine points and Maxi comes flying down the court for a high off blast finger roll to kind of cut that momentum a little bit. And it just seemed like all throughout the night, anytime
the team needed him, he was stepping up. And it's just it's special to watch, especially when you have a guy like Joel who's maybe you know, not quite himself right now, as we would all expect, you know, to have a second a second option. I feel about even calling Maxi a second option, but have someone like that who's capable of just complete taking over it is insane.
Credit to the partnership that the two of them share too, because Joel shows a lot of humility to me in Game five, understanding that his partner has it going more than he does. And he called himself in postgame he said, listen, if I have to be a decoy, that's what I'm gonna do. And then Tyree said something funny too. Terry's talked about the defense. He played down the stretch in overtime where Joel was fantastic defensively, but said he did
such a good job of being seven feet tall. And I loved that, like the way that they just understand what each of them is able to do on any given night. For Joel to know, hey, yes, this is my team. I am the rating MVP, but my twenty three year old, who a lot of people consider my number two or my sidekick, has it more than I do tonight, and I'm going to do everything I can in the body that I'm in tonight to make sure that he is able to get it done for the team.
I love what they have been able to do for each other, the respect that they share for each other that I feel continues to grow every time they go through adversity like this.
Nineteen points sixteen rebounds, a playoff career high ten assist for Embiid four block shots. It's his first playoff career triple double. And yes, the nine turnovers. Turnovers were really a problem for both teams in this game. It was played much sloppier than the first few games in the series.
Early in the game felt looser, like they were playing with more especially the Sixers, playing with more freedom, as you have to in that type of elimination game situation. Being I mean, Nick, you tell me, but tension can often be a disservice in a high pressure moment, and it was good to see them playing looser. But as you mentioned, turnovers one of the first things that coach Nurse and Joel said they're going to have to fix for game six.
Well, rebounding was something they had to fix as well, and then Joel goes out and grabs sixteen And the rebounding battle is not always indicative of the winning team, but it has been in this series, so that to me was a sign of Joelle's leadership and just evaluating his situation and going and grabbing a game high sixteen rebounds felt important, and the ten assists, a lot of
those were well executed passes. You just wanted to clean it up on the turnover column obviously, but his floor game overall, how did you evaluate it?
Lauren?
You mentioned that, you know, he shows some humility and understanding that you know, maybe it wasn't his night to carry the team, you know, and I heard you had a migraine as well, maybe wasn't feeling great physically and mentally.
And what I loved is still him being able to attract the double teams in the post knowing the whole time he probably was never going to attack, and just you know, having those quick hitters out to Maxi for three who it just seemed like he Maxi didn't miss any step in three throughout the night, especially when Joel
was kicking out to him. But you got to give credit to Joel and just understanding that, hey, you know, in order for this to work, I'm going to have to make some sacrifices and adjustments to.
The way I normally play.
And you know, it provides opportunity for other guys to
really come in and make plays. And it wasn't just Maxi too, I mean Kelly Ubrig, Tobias Harris, you know, both did their fair share in helping this team win, and it's just, you know, it's crazy to see you you know, playoffs start and things begin to shrink in terms of the rotation and the amount of guys that are even playing, Like you see the Knicks one playing seven guys, and so, you know, the people who are playing, it really calls a lot on them to step up and do their part.
We have a visitor to the podcast, Nick's daughter popping on to screen a little behind the scenes. That's awesome. He's on dad duty right now, so we appreciate it for sure. Campaign had some big shots for the Sixers while Kyle Lowry was dealing with boll trouble. So these rotations, and there's a question that we had submitted about Buddy Healed as well that we want Nick's take on. But
really good Tobias moments. Kelly Ubred Junior had some big buckets when the lead kept changing hands and also Batoom, you don't get to the overtime without his block of Brunson on the last play. It took an extra stop.
Yeah, it took a little bit from everybody last night, and that was sort of something that this group has talked about and continue to talk about last night after the victory that they are yet to play their best basketball together. Last night felt like a very positive step
in the right direction, getting contributions across the board. You mentioned guys that have played in this series, Buddy heal d Anthony Melton, who didn't have the opportunity to play last night, but you could see affecting things positively as this playoff run hopefully continues.
Right.
So the way that the group was each able to step up, I mean Tobias scoring first, scoring early and more often makes a huge difference for this team overall, because when you have to take Tobias into account, you're already doubling Joelle Tyrese then has the night of his life. What are you doing as a defense, especially when you're only going seven deep? Is New York now probably for
the rest of the series right without Bogdanovich, yesh. So that's going to be something that they're going to have to contend with, getting Tobias going early, having more productivity from Kelly Ray Junior, like he's now done on both sides of the ball in this series. They're going to be hard to chase around in these next couple games.
So you hope that the Sixers now are able to sort of build on this momentum and take these factors that it does feel a little bit like things are lining up in their favor in a way that they really didn't in the first couple games of this series. Now, heading into Game six and seven.
Hopefully Tobias had a three to start the game. He also had a three that brought an eighteen to two Nicks run to an end in the second quarter, which felt important. And now Game six is a nine pm local start with the potential to start later. So you talk about recovery for all these players that played fifty plus minutes, how do you prep for a game that is scheduled to start that late.
It definitely throws your throws your timing off a little bit. I remember my last year playing when I was on the Celtics, the NBA Finals games. Because of the East Coast West Coast, the games in Boston would all start at nine to nine thirty and the game would finish and it's like we're in the locker room at like midnight and it just you know, you get home, it's one in one thirty, And it threw me off a
little bit. But I guess that's at the end of the day, it's an entertainment business, and so I guess the TV slots are what matters most. But I feel like NBA players are just so used to having their clock all messed up with, like the travel and you know, flying after games and getting in late to hotels, that if there's anyone that can do it seamlessly, it's it's you know, these athletes. But you know, maybe just an extra long nap in the afternoon and maybe some of MJ's secret stuff as well.
So that's what I was going to ask Nick.
Logistically, as we get into sort of the later later hours of the pod, if you're still listening, hopefully you're as interested in these little logistical NBA you.
Might even say that we all love each other again on the sign.
Off, and I hope so.
But Nick, what I'm curious about when you go into a situation where you start having your game two hours later, you'd imagine that more often than not.
There's a shoot around in the morning. Do you prefer that the whole day gets pushed back?
Would you rather shoot around later, would you rather start your nap later or just take a much longer one, do you wake up groggier if you take a longer nap, Like what goes into the calculus of reordering your day when you're really giving two hours back.
Personally, I would prefer to do a normal shoot around maybe like ten am, you finish at eleven am, and then bam, you got seven eight hours to really get yourself together before you got to head back to the arena and get prepared for the game. So as a player, I was definitely a huge napper in the afternoon, Like I would take three four hour naps and I was fine doing that. The thought of doing that now when I'm not playing would just I don't even understand how
I took such a long nap in the afternoon. But again, I think you you just get used to it, like you have game days and then you have practice days as an NBA player, and I think you just get used to whatever rhythm is working best for you. And I think everyone's different with their preferences. Like I'm sure some guys they only nap for you know, twenty thirty minutes, and that.
Might work for them.
I was kind of like, get my half of my sleep at night, half of my sleep during the day, so probably not very healthy, but we may do so.
If you're playing for the sixers in this game six are you taking a six hour nap?
I don't know. It would be like a it would be like a.
That's a slumber.
Well, you said a three or four hour nap, so you get two hours back now we're talking of I feel like.
You can five or six hour nap.
Like you can't sleep for more than three at least for me, you can't sleep like more than three or four hours during the day.
Otherwise it's like big trouble.
You wake up at the same time then, though, and you don't have to go to the arena for two more hours than you'd normally spend.
Like what are you doing in that extra time? Are you getting nervous? Are you keeping yourself calm? Are you welcoming anxiety?
Do you go to the arena earlier than usual?
Personally, I would probably just like keep my arrival time kind of like at the same time, you know, depending on what my shooting time is before.
The game, you know what my way hold on.
Just again, while we're being really specific, the same time on the clock or the same time of day, because for context, players operate based on the clocks. If your shooting time is ninety minutes on the clock, that can be a different time of day depending on what time the game starts. So are you saying you're going at the same time or you're going at the same amount of time removed from tip off.
Same amount of time removed from tip off you get to the arena, everything is the exact same in terms of, you know, it's going to take you know, five ten minutes to get your you know, shoes on, your tights, get your ankles, tape, whatever it might be, do your whole thing and get on the court. Do you warm up, listen to your music, meditate, whatever it is you need
to do, whatever your routine is. You want to try to keep that, as you know, consistent as possible, no matter what the game, no matter what time the game starts. So that's for me personally. But maybe some guys would use the extra two hours to you know, maybe take a longer nap or you know, whatever it.
Is they do.
I'm sure you know, some of these guys have kids too. They probably you know, doing dad duties at home and all that stuff.
Believe it or not.
I have two more items on this before we wrap up with the Buddy Heel question, and it's that Nick Nurse just said he too loves the late start, like Nick was saying about the NBA Finals games with his experience in that he says he's had a lot of them in the playoffs and he loves the late start.
And the other one to tie it back to six Ers Nicks, Walt Clyde Fraser, the Knicks legend who is their TV analyst, was saying that his first playoff experience, he ate his lunch too early or his pregame meal too early in the day, and that he was hungry by halftime of the game. So that was his rookie mistake. And he said so many of the Nicks are new to this that stuff like that could happen to them, and who knows about the Sixers. So just some other
food for thought there. But my last thing before if Lauren has any closing thoughts, is the question that Mary submitted, which I thought was a really good one to get in here, And.
Can I get a little to Mary context before you read the question. So one of the little subplots, as you guys know, if you listen this deep into the podcast or into any programming that I'm a part of. Are sort of bench subplots, interpersonal subplots, and obviously Buddy Heald played at the beginning of this series, hasn't played in the last couple of games. Has had an extremely positive attitude though, despite being in a position that no player wants to find themselves in. And I thought it
was really interesting last night. We talked about all the great things that Tyrese Maxey did in his performance in Game five, heroic truly, but when he missed those free throws towards the end of regulation, it was all over his face, how upset he was with himself. It reminded me of the free throws he missed on Christmas Day in Miami. It just really bothers him. He's a great free throw shooter. He's one of the best guys when it comes to preparation in the entire NBA. Guys all
over the league are giving him credit for that. So he's not one that's going to take missed free throws in a big moment. Well, it was all over his face when he went back to the bench. I of course wasn't in the huddle, but I did watch this moment between he and Buddy Healed where Buddy sort of and again, these guys haven't known each other for that long, They've only been teammates for a couple months. But Buddy had no problem getting in his face. And I didn't
know what they said. But what we do know is what happened next. Tyrese went out there, put the entire team, the entire city of Philadelphia on his back, and then after the game was very quick to credit Buddy Healed for what ended up happening in that conversation, which was as follows, Buddy pulls Tyree's aside and says, hey, I would be upset too if I had missed those free throws, But you.
Are you and you know what you can do, so just go do it.
And it was so cool to hear Tyresee quickly giving credit to a teammate for what he was able to do for him on the bench in a moment that would not have come out without Tyrese telling the story right. So that leads us, of course, to some questions that we got relating to that story, including one from a loyal listener, Mary.
Yeah, Mary loved hearing that story and asks what advice would you give to Buddy as he works through this playoff rotation that the Sixers have right now.
Well, a couple of things. You know.
First, just kind of piggybacking off the story that Lauren just told it, it seems like he has the right mindset in terms of just trying to be as helpful as he can to his teammates. If he's not going to play, try to have a good attitude, try to have a smile on his face, try to encourage his teammates. Seems like he's doing all the right things. And secondly, you know, just a little precursor here, like Buddy Heal should not be ever taking any advice from me. The
guy is an absolute stud. He's car himself into one of the elite three point shooters that the NBA has ever seen, and the numbers have said that and in a lot of different ways. So by no means what I ever tried to give him advice, because the guy knows what he's doing. But I think I would just you know, I would say that in the playoffs, depending on who you're playing, obviously, coaches are going to go
with certain rotations that they are favorable to. Them, and I think it's just important for him to remember that that can always change if they move on to the next series, or if the Knicks make an adjustment in terms of who they might be playing. It's just important to stay engaged and locked in because things change so quickly in these series and just in the playoffs in general. So I think he has the right mindset in terms of staying positive and staying ready, and I think he
just needs to remind himself. For me, if I was ever down, the thing that worked best for me is going back and watching old highlights of myself, like having my greatest game and you know, having that swagger and confidence to remind yourself like that's who I am, that's what I'm capable of doing. And in his situation, when he has played, it's been limited minutes, and so every shot takes on so much meaning. So if you miss two shots, you miss three shots all of a sudden, if that's your whole.
Game, then you're like, well, man, I had a terrible game.
But the reality is for a guy like Buddy, throughout the stretch of a normal regular season game where he's playing thirty five minutes, forty minutes There's plenty of times where in a quarter he might miss three in a row, but when you get more opportunity, you kind of forget about that because you know eventually those shots are going
to drop. And so I think it's just important to put those things in a perspective and just realize that once he gets those opportunities again, you know, I'm sure the real Buddy, Heel, the old Buddy Heill, whatever you want to call it, will come out to play.
For sure.
Nick Nurse has said all season long, and I'm sure beyond our time shared with him, he's a big believer in energy and that at any given moment in a team environ, you are either giving energy or taking energy away.
To understand that.
Buddy is in a suboptimal situation right now, but was going to give energy no matter what, and then to see it manifest itself and be rewarded for that energy given despite playing zero minutes in the game.
That's exactly what Nick Nurse is talking about.
That's giving energy, not taking it away, being strategic about where you give it and how you give it, and then seeing rewards from it. So I just think that that was a really cool pullback of the curtain. And again, like I said, I saw it happen, but I have no idea what was said, nor does anyone that wasn't there. So I also credit Tyrese for giving Buddy his flowers when he really did make a meaningful impact on a game that he didn't play in.
I love when Nick Nurse talks about energy, just that word around him. He said something on Media Day that was sort of philosophical like that. I don't have the exact quote, but yeah, really good stuff. I love the point about future games things can we're talking about seven eight man rotations when we this could be any player on the sixers who could get a moment at any point going forward in the next game, in a potential
next round, all of that stuff. So it's just a roller coaster of a time the NBA playoffs, And now we know on the old Nick Stauskas YouTube videos, if there's like a Nick Stauskas fan eleven commenting this guy's awesome, that might be that might be.
Nick Listen, whatever you got to do to keep yourself confidence high.
I love it.
I love it.
I'm not accusing you of anything.
Yeah, I mean even now, even now that I'm not playing.
I still go back and just have to remind myself every now and then so I can come out of bed. Now my back's hurt and feeling old. I'm like, didn't always it wasn't always like that. I used to wake up, get out of bed, wind mill like it was nothing. And yeah, you know, ty Resee is he's got those young legs right now. Tyrese is going through that phase where just you could get out, get up out of bed and be ready to go. It's it's a great feeling.
Where does the whatever amount eight threes or whatever against Billy Donovan and the Florida Gators video rank in your years?
To be honest, I go back and watch sophomore year Michigan highlights because I was here, I won Big Ten Player of the Year, and I just feel like I was I was an extra bouncy that year, so I would like dunk on some guys, and I feel like I enjoy watching those highlights more than anything.
But man, I know what.
I'm doing this afternoon. I haven't watched any of that time. To be a good friend and a good co host and go check out some Nick Stauskis sophomore tape.
I'm going to watch the one where you made whatever in your driveway, like whatever. The number of free throws was.
Yeah, we did like as many threes as you could make in five minutes, but it was it was raining outside, so it was like a little bit.
It was great, And didn't Steph Curry see it.
It was right after we lost to we lost to Louisville in the National Championship game, and then I went back home, you know, after you know, the school semester finished, and so like I guess there was a lot of attension on you know, all of us from that Michigan team, and.
So I put out that video.
I think I went seventy for seventy six, but I made my first forty six in the video, so I was like forty six before start, and so I posted it. And I used to always post YouTube videos like that. I didn't think anything of it. And the next morning, I remember, I woke up and my phone was crazy, like all these notifications, and all the notifications had Steph Curry's name in it, and I was like, what did Steff? Because it was playoffs at this time, I was like, what did Steph do?
Last night? Like, you know, blah blah blah.
And then I realized that he like responded to my video I posted and he said three point shootouts sometime with the question mark and like that stuff was like my favorite player at that time. So I was like over the moon happy that he just acknowledged my existence.
And yeah, we actually Steph Cree was supposed to come to my backyard to do a three point shootout, but at that time, the amateurism thing of the NC double A basically didn't allow for me to have a like because it was gonna be televised like TSN in Canada was like going to televise and every everything was set and the NC double A like stepped in and they basically said I wasn't allowed to do it because it was a televised event against amateur versus professional, and.
So nowadays it would be definitely TV.
It's just it's a shame I came a little too a little too early.
Did he address that at the twenty twenty one NBA Finals when you were playing against him, So he was he.
Had bigger fish to fry.
You don't say.
In a time of year that is typically crazy with the playoffs, this Sixers Knicks series has gone beyond crazy, so we will see how it unfolds. And Nick Staskas, thank you so much.
Can't wait to watch game six with you. Nick, thanks for joining us.
Thank you guys. I'm come to be in the building tomorrow. It's gonna be a great time. We got a color board me, we'll get the outfits going. It's gonna be it's gonna be phenomenal.
We will Nick's askas, thank you so much.