Saltier. Adam Ausland here cleared up the playoff situation. You know, it's funny. I just checked Twitter, all right, I said I was wrong, meaning we were wrong, but I thought I was wrong, corrected it. I could have told you that stop. Then I was told, no, you're not wrong, We're right. Okay. Then we brought an Adam who just explained it, which confirmed what our listeners said. And now I go to Twitter and they go, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with
you? The confusion is based around last season. It was a spur of the moment. They made an amendment to the end of the season because they didn't think it was fair for teams to not have a shot to get in because they didn't play the full eighty two games the season. Season was unexpectedly cut short. So what they did was they said, okay, Portland's the eighth seed right now, Memphis is the ninth seed. The ninth seed has a chance to get to the eighth seed because they shortened all those games.
So if they beat Portland twice, they get in. If Portland beats them once, they get in. That's what happened. Portland became the eighth seed. They just had to beat Memphis once, all right, And I was of the belief that the ruling from last season carried over into this season. And I believe that is where the genesis of all the confusion started. It started with me, not with Fred or with Rodney. It was for me and all the listeners. Again, can you break it down one more time?
Okay, Lakers win tomorrow night. Let's say that happens, right, they're the seventh seed, the seven and eight. Whoever comes out of that game tomorrow night. In both conferences, they are the seventh seed. In the Eastern Conference, that's Washington taken on the Boston Celtics tonight. Whoever win, whoever wins, becomes the seventh. Sea doesn't win, or Golden State
win, never win. Whoever wins that game, the loser takes on the winner of the nine ten, which in the Western Conference will be Memphis versus the San Antonio Spurs. So even if the Lakers lost the Golden State Warriors, it's double elimination. They would still have another chance to get the eighth seed by beating the winner of Memphis and San Antonio. All Right, they don't play the Golden State Warrior twice. No, no, sir, that
was just something unique to last year. All right, since you do a Clipper countdown and you are the pregame, halftime and postgame host of all Clippers, did they go into tank at the end of the season. I'm calling this sports media malpractice with what I've heard over the past couple of days is they're just not enough to talk about because the premise is built upon a lie, a falsehood. You can go back and say, well, the Clippers
did not play hard against Houston or OKAC. They didn't play their regulars. Well, why should they have to? They earn the right first of all to rest guys. And they have their two superstars who are both dealing with foot injuries in Kauai and Paul George. And oh yeah, Friday night's game that was the second game of a back to back. It's consistent with what they've been doing over the last month on back to backs. They've been resting
guys. So that game makes sense to me, even though gen Ronod still played thirty minutes and they were still in it late. But the fact that people are saying it's further proven that they were trying to throw the end of the game or the end of the regular seasons and not match up against the Lakers because they lost to okay See on Sunday. Wait a second, that
game had no bearing on them playing the Los Angeles Lakers. They already knew going into Sunday that they were going to take on either the Dallas Mavericks or the Portland Trailblazers. No matter what happened in that game, they had no control over that. They weren't going to play the Los Angeles Lakers. It was already determined after Friday night it was over. So to say, not only did they throw a game against the Houston Rockets Friday night, then they
lose one of the worst teams again in the ok See Thunder. That game had nothing to do with it. So either people are lying being disingenuous about it, just taking shots of the Clippers because it's open season for whatever I guess, because they blew that three once serious lead against the Denver Nuggets, or they're just completely uninformed. So okay, so I get the Sunday but the Friday. Do people have a legitimate beef about the Friday night game because
it wasn't determined there. They haven't been playing Kawhi Leonard or Paul George on back to backs recently. If you have a chance to give both of your guys a week and a half off, the two guys that are most important to making that long playoff run, you do that, and that is what ended up happening. It would be one thing if you could gain some momentum and some runway going into the playoffs. Let's say the season ended on Sunday
in the first round started on Tuesday or Wednesday. But that's not the situation now because of the play in tournament. Every team is having five to six to seven days off from the end of the regular season into the first round. So it's not even like you can get into a rhythm by playing these guys at the end of the year. There's no incentive to play them. It doesn't make sense. Laker fans are just unhappy because they ended up being
in the play in tournament. Go get upset with the Portland Trailblazers or Denver Nuggets. If that's the case. That was the ultimate game that determined whether or not they were going to get in or not. Yeah, I mean I think yeah, maybe Laker fans, they can feel, you know, maybe superior, like the Clippers are scared of them. But I think it's more than just Laker fans that felt that way. I think it's across the country that people were like, whoa, the Clippers kind of kind of adduct
it. But to the real point, if you really think about it, if you're the Clippers, well, when do you want to face the Lakers? You want to face them early or do you want to face them in the finals where they've had a couple of series under their belt. If you're the Clippers, don't you want to face them in the first round when they're the most vulnerable. I think the Clippers right now, based upon the last three weeks, they are also vulnerable. I don't think they've been playing their
best basketball since Kauhi returned from his foot injury. They just haven't looked the same overall. So I've heard a lot about this where well, you could catch the Lakers slipping right now, it's perfect time get them in the first round, take them out. They're reimplementing Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Well, it's not like Paul George and Kawhi Leonard have been playing in a ton of games recently. They're also banged up, and they just got Sergebaca back,
who is going to be necessary going up against Anthony Davis. He just played his first two games in the last two months, so they need to get into a rhythm too. Now, they could still see the Lakers, by the way, in the second round. If the Lakers end up losing to the Golden State Warriors tomorrow night and then they win against whoever comes out between the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs, they're the eighth seed they'll take
on the one. If they upset the Utah Jazz in that case, and the Clippers won against the Dallas Mavericks, they would match up in the second round. So the fact that the Clippers could have won both games and the Lakers still wouldn't have got in to the playoffs, that tells you all you need to know. Why would the Clippers be worried about anyone else but themselves? All right, what do you think about Lebron's I thought he looked pretty
good with the burst on a Sunday against the Pelicans. Now it sounds like he had a minor tweak at the end. But they're all saying, I'm fine, Everything's fine to me. The play was telling where he had the steal and took it coast to coast for the underhand layup. He looked like the freight train. Lebron James. He looked as fast as ever. And I don't think it takes a lot of time for someone like him and for the guys around him to get back in sync when you're talking about Lebron James,
because he's that ultimate connector out there on the floor. He makes everyone so much better, and in his eighteenth year or whatever it is, I don't think it's going to take him long to get back and rhythm. Individually, he looked good. Anthony Davis has looked really good at times over the last week two. The Lakers are in a pretty good spot considering how many games have been missed by Lebron James and Anthony Davis. I think Lebron has
missed twenty seven eighty has missed somewhere around thirty five. And they're coming together just at the right time, and they have a team in Golden State that doesn't match up well against them. I'm expecting the Lakers to win by fifteen to twenty points tomorrow night. Yeah, all right, So what do you think assuming that it all stays the same The Lakers beat the Warriors, Warriors beat whoever San Antonio or Memphis, it stays seven and eight with Lakers and
Warriors. What matchup in this first round of the Western Conference are you excited about or should be the most exciting matchup? Most exciting, I mean it could be because of the likelihood of an upset. It could be that two seven matchup between the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Lakers, because Phoenix has done all this work to be the two seed and the reward is getting to play the Los Angeles Lakers, who they don't have the personnel to match up
very well against. They don't have enough size. And that last game without Lebron James, where the Lakers won handily, where Ad looked like himself going for forty plus points out there, that could be a preview a sign of things to come. As good as CP three has been this season and Devin Booker and DeAndre Aden, they just don't have a lot of answers for the Lakers size. That would be a really good matchup for the Los Angeles Lakers.
People have talked about this. The fact that they can still be the seventh seed going through the play in tournament could actually benefit them. I talked about all the other teams dealing with being out of sync and out of rhythm. Because they're going to have a week off between the end of or from the end of the end of the regular season into the first round. The Lakers might actually have some momentum. If they win big tomorrow night, they
may feel really good about themselves. And Phoenix that is just a really tough draw for them. I said this earlier on the FA podcast, But it's just it is the undefeated bad luck of Chris Paul. It's always been like that for him in the playoffs. If they end up getting the Los Angeles Lakers and get bounced in six games in the first round, it is going to be devastating for Phoenix Jones fans who really thought they had a chance at
least to get to the Western Conference finals. Adam appreciate the infol today. Thanks for jumping in all right, love you guys, Even new Fred