You're tuned into Heat Check with Trystal Quick.
On this episode of the Heat Check, our friend Brendan Glasheen returns to break down what's happening in his corner of the NBA world. For those who don't know, Brendan is the play by play man for the Main Celtics of the G League and the WNBA's Connecticut Sun, as well as contributor on ESPN DraftKings Action Network as well. Brennan joined me and my co host PJ. Glasser from BEDMGM Tonight on a recent episode and gave his unfiltered
thoughts on Cleveland, Utah and Golden State. It's a fun conversation, so Nick, give me a favor and drop that beat. What's your thoughts about sort of what you're seeing from the calves down the stretch? Latent games because a few games in a row on the West Coast, they let these leads evaporate into losses.
Yeah, four straight losses. That's a tough trip.
Golden State Sacramento Clippers, and that's a Clippers team that's had guys in and out of the lineup.
As we know.
Golden State, like we last talked about when I was on the show. We were wondering are they going to get their act together, and it feels like we're still getting Jeckyll and Hyde Golden State.
I think it's a mixture. Now.
It's funny you bring that up, Trista, because I thought Cleveland down the stretch and that win against Boston, both of their wins against Boston overtime, give the ball to Donovan Mitchell and get out of the way. And that's a credit to Darius Garland for being willing, knowing he's been in Cleveland longer than Mitchell to sort of hand it off to the star player that they acquired via trade. And Mitchell made big shots down the stretch. And I
think now opponents have looked at Cleveland. They're going to give the ball to Mitchell. Everyone else is going to get out of the way, and he's going to do his thing. Now they've looked great at home Cleveland. Even in the Lebron era, Cleveland has always had great fans. They've had a great home court advantage with Lebron James, and even when they drafted Kyrie Irving, they sort of
still had a star at the end of games. Now, I think for Cleveland, they've got to find different ways other than giving it to Mitchell and everyone else getting out of the way. They've got enough shooters, and Garland has been an All Star player the way the numbers he's put up, So I think it's just they've become a little predictable how they want.
To finish these games.
And it's more so now of Mitchell trusting what he has around him. And I would like to think based on what this roster has done. It feels weird to say because how good Utah was their consistency at the end with players, I think Cleveland has just as good surrounding cast players that find the open man and make the right play. So I think that's what that is. It's a learning curve down the stretch. It's a new team when you have a superstar being your best player.
Yeah, and maybe even better than what Utah had, honestly in terms of the year. Agree you mentioned Utah. Obviously, the new head coach, Will Hardy has some roots in Boston.
I'm curious if you had any sort of interactions with him and what you think, just either from what you know from talking to him or talking to people around him, what is his special sauce in why he's been able to be so successful immediately on a team that many thought was not only going to be rebuilding, but actively tanking, and they've looked awesome.
I don't know Will personally.
I know the Celtics were very interested in Will Hardy. He was one of their top candidates before they decided to move forward with em Udoka. But Hardy was someone that the Celtics were in discussions with to be the next coach, and Brad Stevens has spoken very highly of him. Folks in Milwaukee have spoke very highly of him. Look it's I made this comparison a couple weeks ago when
I last joined. They remind me of the JV Celtics, like a bunch of cast of characters who people don't really believe in that there may be slightly overpaid because previous teams gave them big contracts, and they've put guys like Lori Markenen in great positions to not only put up good numbers but play winning basketball. Jordan Clarkson, to me, is a phenomenal player who who gets overlooked. He might have been like Option three with Mitchell and Gobert when
those two were there. Now Jordan Clarkson has unlocked other skills and other abilities that we may not have seen at this level.
He's been fantastic for them.
So I think it's just guys playing with a chip on their shoulder, and Will has always had I think a lot of times in the NBA, when assistant coaches are promoted or get that first opportunity to be a head coach, a lot of times they think that the relationship they have with individual players goes a long way. And of course the next step in like any sport, when you go from the assistant or the coordinator role to head coach, you've got to oversee the whole operation.
You're the sound piece for the organization. And Will has been able to filter whatever those individual relationships were with previous jobs into the overall team concept. And they've they've played team basketball, and they've been great. If you've been if you're a better and you like Utah, they've been good against the spread, and they've been good overall, and then they continue to respond. So a lot of folks around the NBA had nothing but great things to say
about Will Hardy. So it's a bit surprising because you wonder when Danny Ainge was appointed as someone who was going to oversee the operation. I wondered, Well, knowing Danny Ainge, he loves to accumulate draft picks and the Wembin Yama sweepstakes, they were one team that popped up in conversations because Danny Ainge would either be in conversations here in Boston. He was always connected to all right, we're gonna move
up and get Jason Tatum. We're gonna draft Jalen Brown instead of Chris Dunn, for example back in twenty sixteen, or we flipped those picks and go get Anthony Davis or Paul George or Kawhi Leonard. So Danny Ainge attracted the draft picks and right now, this collection of talent, they have certainly exceeded expectations.
And that's a credit to Hardy.
A major think piece actually just came out on Klay Thompson, Steve Kerr basically said that the Warriors dynasty as we know it is in its last year. Do you like their younger core to move forward with this dynasty or do you think that he's right that the dynasty after this year, especially with all the contract stuff, is truly over it.
Feels very last Dance ish, and they know that's it's like really dangerous territory to step into. Because it sounds like I'm comparing the Jordan Bulls to this team, but the comparisons are fair.
They've dominated the league.
They've been in the finals, and that's of course without Durant, then with Durant, and then without Durant again. But as I mentioned, they had a nice win against San Antonio the other night and blow out fashion, and that's the Warriors at home, of course, so they're a different squad when they're at home. That home court advantage is real. They had a great third quarter. The Warriors are the best third quarter team in basketball. They outscored the Spurs
thirty eight twenty three. But they're star players. And by the way, I left out Andrew Wiggins, who was arguably the NBA Finals MVP had it not been for Steph and what he means to this run that they've been on over the previous years. But they got great knights out of their bench. Kamenga, Anthony Lamb go UVM Vermont Catamounts. Anthony Lamb, great player there, Moody was. It was phenomenal in that game. So they're still looking to get more on a Wiseman, which is a work in progress because
he didn't play at the end of last year. So that their top pick Wiseman, who by the way, they took him because the year they were without Thompson and he was hurt.
They had a high draft pick that year.
Of course, I don't want to, you know, I'm not trying to get on freezing cold takes and say they're done, they're out of it. If they get in in that top if they can get in.
The play in minimum, do you want to play them? I don't think so. I don't think you want to run into this team.
It feels to me that they're playing like, let's just get in or by Christmas, get our rotation figured out, give Steph Clay, Draymond Wiggins if needed, give these guys their appropriate rest, solve all their internal issues, and then by Christmas we'll take off and start taking game seriously.
It's truly. It's not like in the super Bowl.
We always talk about the team that loses the Super Bowl that they're in danger. Well, I think in the NBA, when you win the whole thing and you've won as much as this team has. It's hard to get up every night in the regular season and take big games, and that's why I think tonight's a great spot for them. Like, Oh, this is the team that won the most games in the West last year. They got humiliated on their home court in Game seven by Dallas. They're going to be
fired up for this one more than we will. Oh, you think we won't be ready to go? So they've been consistent, their bench has been inconsistent. They need more consistency to give guys like Curry and Thompson nights where they don't have to play thirty five to thirty eight minutes and be dominant.
Bet MGM Tonight airs Monday through Friday live seven pm to eleven pm Eastern Standard Time. It's available on demand on the Odyssey app also in podcast form wherever you find your podcast a million thanks to my co host Ryan Horvat and my super producer cam and Gray. That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check. We'll be back Monday with an all new episode. Please check out the feed as well for many episodes and
past episodes. They drop pretty much every single day. I'm doing a lot of work for y'all, so listen up, do not forget to download subscribe. Please tell your friends, every single one of them, and follow us on social at the heat Check and at Trista Criek on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram