You're tuned into Heat Check with Trystal Quick.
On this episode of the Heat Check, It's uh, we're recording this Sunday night, so anything that happens on Monday is not going to be discussed. So it is the first round of the playoffs and they are halfway through. Damn. Is there a lot popping around the league? And not just some incredible things happening with this Kings and Warriors series. We got news from all this series, so that you're going to be caught up to start the week. My
last hit from San Francisco. Let's so let's get straight to it, Nick and do me a favor then drop that same beat that should be Rihanna. Oh okay. I am sitting here in my hotel room about a mile from Chase Center. I am chilling after Game four of the Warriors Kings game, and I have to tell you that was one of the wildest, most the rilling games that I have seen in a long long time. I can't remember an NBA game I've seen in person as
good as that one recently. It was exactly the opposite of Game three, full of drama, big shots, runs by both teams, surprises everywhere. My God, that Steph timeout, which we'll get to. I'm sure there wasn't a timeout. The Fab five moments. You know, our dubs, the champions that they are, they pulled it out in the last second. Some would say they dodged a bullet. I would say, that's just championship DNA coming back to rear its beautiful head. Now we head back to Sacramento. We are tied to too.
The series is everything that everyone wanted it to be. A dogfight, a dogfight between the team that the national media wants, the darlings of the national media aka the Sacramento Kings and a veteran in what I think the NBA wants to tell us as an aging team, the last dance of the dynasty, and a team that knows how to win, versus this young, upstart team that's trying
to rip out their throats. So the overarching story, of course, was the return of Draymond Green, and I think after Game three, people in the media were whispering and like hypothesizing what if Draymond Green came off the bench, like, Hey, the elephant in the room right after the game was in the elevator, in the media elevator, like Hey, you think, no, No, that's crazy, that's crazy. I don't know, man, it kind
of feels like it's the right thing to do. Like they look pretty good out air offensively, it was just one non shooter out there. You think maybe like Looney or like Draymond come off the bench. And multiple days were going by, and that started to get louder and louder. And it turns out that Draymond Green saw the same thing that we saw. So he comes up to Steve Kerr, according to Steve Kerr after the game today, and said, Hey, what do you think about me coming off of the bench.
Steve Kerr was already thinking about that, and he was like, huh, that's an interesting thought. I haven't thought about that. He was thinking about that, and Draymond said, listen, like I didn't want to shake things up just because I came back from a suspension. That wasn't right. You know, Jordan Poole earned the right to be in the starting line lineup, and I am not going to be one of those veteran that think that I'm entitled to the starting job.
I'm back on the Draymond train. By the way, that presser his performance today the way that he handles being a winner, the way that he handles being selfless, all the things that people accusing him of, the opposite of I love him, I do. I'm back on me and
Draymond are back on. Looney, of course was amazing. He had four and twenty on four to twenty in game three, but we've got not surprisingly, Mike Brown had a plan and that was to move some bonus out to the top of the arc to open up the spacing for them, and it definitely worked. Definitely worked. There's more open space, a lot more scoring. Looney was nowhere the force that he was on the rebounds, and that was much more typical Golden State game right, a lot of big runs, threes,
Draymond doing Draymond things. So another thing that I thought was really funny was the Draymond and this postgame presser kind of going backwards here, but Draymond said that Kerr called him on Saturday and was like, hey, uh, I just want to make sure you're you're good with this decision, Like how do you feel about coming off the bench, And this is what Draymond said.
Coming into this game. I came off the bench, I went to coach Kerkr after the game. I told him, right then, I'm like, yo, coach, if I need to come off the bench, like fine, Like, I'll come off the bench, no problem. And he's like, oh, I could almost call him by surprise, Like he's like, oh, the one thing that I didn't want to happen was like I come back and everybody's like, oh, this work. Well, Loon comes out the star lineup. That's bullshit, Like, that's bullshit.
You're an awful fucking teammate if that's what you think should happen. Looney just had twenty rebounds, nine assists, dominated a game. You don't then go to him and say, hey, your reward is to come out of start lineup. That's as a leader of a team. That's how you lose. Coach called me a day later and said, all right, this is what we're doing. But you haven't. You haven't come off the bench in nine years. How are you in a playoff game? How are you gonna feel about that?
I said, well, coach number one, who fucking cares? Who cares how I feel about that doesn't matter. Feelings don't matter. You don't have time for feelings in the playoffs. You get caught in your feelings, you get caught on the boat to can Kun number two. I feel great, I'm fine. I'll be ready to go when it's time for me to go in big question is do you keep coming off the bench?
I don't care. Draymond Green did not care. He was a beast. He shot a million times, and you know what, he was one of the most impactful dudes. Even though he had a tray Young like an efficient performance, not today's tra Young, not today's tra tray Young is pretty good today twelve, ten and seven, had a steal and a block, had some defensive plays in crunch time. He had a tech early too, And you know it was funny.
I couldn't find this part of the presser, but someone in the press conference room asked him about that tech, and he goes, wasn't that just beautiful? That was just poetic, wasn't it. You know what? I love that I got a tech. Why because nobody's going to change me. Not a suspension, not an ejection. You're not going to move me off my spot. I'm going to continue to play the type of basketball that I play no matter what, which I love it. He got into it with the
Aaron Fox. Why because A Draymond Green hit Keiki Murray in the mouth, and it's like, yeah, Steph Curry didn't know that the team was without a time out. Because here's what happened. So offensive foul happened, and Draymond implored Steve Kerr to call a challenge. It was a moving screen. Kevon Looney on, I believe Malik Monk, it was definitely a three hundred percent a moving screen. They call a challenge, they lose the challenge, they lose their final timeout. Steve
Curry doesn't tell the team. According to him, forgets to tell the team, Hey, we are out of timeouts. Forty seven seconds left, Warriors up five, and Steph Curry is in the back court all by him, his lonesome, trapped. He's got to call the timeout. Oh no, Warriors get the technical foul. Malik Monk hits the free throw Sacramento ball. Dearon Fox, mister clutch time himself, iso On Draymon hits a step back three. Oh my god, King's only down one.
Steph Curry bricks King's ball. Ten seconds time out. And then here's where it gets tricky. They out of bounce play Fox takes it in the back court, takes him five seconds just to get down to the front court, and they trap Fox, Smart Steph and Draymond out the Harrison Barnes and Harrison Barnes misses an open three on a closeout which would have sent them into winning Game four, going up three to one, and would have been probably the most epic choke job in Warriors dynastic history. However,
they do come out unscathed. And I saw this on Twitter, and I don't know if it's real, but a lot of people said the Harrison Barnes continues to win Golden State championships just by being on another team there is it's just cold out here on these treats for Harrison Bars he wants it so bad. They buried him for so long after that twenty sixteen you can tell he's talked about it in multiple times in these pressers too. But now we get a light, nice long break before
Game five and Sacramento Wednesday night. Both teams have a lot to game plan for. But this is the best series in the NBA so far. What Kings fans are scared. Kings fans are terrified, as they should be. And our Dubs. They feel more and more confident by the minute. The only other really good series so far has been the Knicks and the Calves. It is now three to one New York after another great back and forth game. Our man Donovan Mitchell wasn't good. Was not good. Calves came
roaring back. Nicks blew the lead Nicks bench Julius Randall, They bring in Obi Topping and then they put the boot on Cleveland's neck. Julius Randall. You heard that right, benched for Obi. Ain't no stop in Obi top and butt Tom Thibodeau. And you know what, Ari from Manhattan on Twitter summed it up for all Knicks fans when he said, Thomas Joseph Thibodeau Junior really just benched Julius Randle for Obi Topping. In Game four of the playoffs,
I could literally cry right now. And it worked. They scored outscored the Cavs by seven in the fourth in a game that they won by nine. Brunton had twenty nine, RJ had twenty seven. Cleveland Garland did well on this team. He had a bounce back game with twenty three two ten, And like I said, Donovan Mitchell was getting strapped eleven points, five for eighteen, shooting zero threes. Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. And also they shut down Seventh Street. It was a
mass chaos party in the middle of Manhattan. Even one of the guys on Twitter said, you have five minutes to shelter in place if you are in this area because as it is going to be a zoo. And it was incredible. It was incredible. Spider said this about the game. I played, like, shit, you're right, you did, and now we're wondering what's going on with Randall. The benching is huge news. He looked pissed on the bench.
He bolted the stadium, did not talk to the media, and Tims and Brunson were out there sounding Julius love. After the game, Thibodeau said of this, Julius is our horse, you.
Know, and he's given us everything that he has. You know a lot of guys who probably you know, probably wouldn't even be playing. So I knew that with the quick turnaround, probably impact him more than than you know, most players. You know, he was out in an extended amount of time, so uh, you know, we got multiple days here before the next game. He'll get a chance to to, you know, get some recovery time. But I think that's a big part of it.
So basically he's hurt, he shouldn't be playing. He's a hard rock. We had a very quick turnaround. What do you expect? His ankles fucked, which kind of changes the perspective. Who knows if he's really hurt, then he's just absolutely an iron man for even playing at all. Brunton and Heart echoed exactly what Tim said.
Uh, Jrew has.
Been a leader since the day I came here. What he's able to do while he's either on or off the floor has been incredible. He's uh, he's been special. All he wants to do is win. And when he has that mindset, he's just it's very contagious. And so he's been a leader and we're just we always got his back and he just nothing. He wants nothing else but to win.
Jalen Brunson winner, Josh Hart winner, Julius Randall obviously a winner as well. And what he wants to do this is these are three leaders leading the charge. Knicks are back, Baby bing Bong. I think the Knicks win at Madison Square Garden in six Baby, just a few notes about the rest of these series. We'll get into them a lot more this week when they reach closeouts Philly. I mean it was bing bang boom. The Nets are dead, like close them out four games, multiple players now on
the trade block, insane in, insane shit, PJ. Tucker killed it, Daniel House, d' anthony meltin. Listen. This is not a pushover team that they've been in the past. The Nets aren't great, we know that, but have now lost ten straight playoff games dating back to twenty twenty one. But a sweep for a team that was missing embiid is very impressive. And now they get a full week off to get m beat healthy for what will be not a walk in the park against Boston in the next round.
Milwaukee Bucks. Oh they are in trouble, baby, Oh no, they you know they're playing the Heat. It's not a great matchup for them without Yannis. Not something I would have said ten days ago. They are down two to one to the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat almost like didn't make the playoffs. Yannis missed Game three. We don't know when he's gonna be back on the floor, hopefully as soon. Because this is not a team that you can expect to have any title aspirations without their guy.
Playoff Jimmy has arrived. He is single handedly carried every single substandard player on his team. No one is there now. The Tyler hero is gone and the team is still succeeding. Also, by the way, really sad news. Victor Oladipo. I believe the final answer to his he got injured last game, and I believe it was a tendon. Yeah, a torn pateeller tendon in his left knee, which, by the way, is the other knee that his other knee was the one who got injured, and he had a surgery on.
So bad bad stuff there. Crazy. The Heat lead the NBA right now in offensive rating in the playoffs, field goal percentage, three point shooting percentage, Just like hew, they all drew it up right, just makes sense. Fourth from the bottom all year and now they're just they're just snipers Without Tyler Herro. Everybody would have predicted that, right, That's how it all went. Clippers are also on the ropes.
Kawhi Leonard is injured, he's got a nie sprain. Phoenix is about to put the Clippers to bed, and Russell Westbrook is trying his very best to keep them from getting Night Night sleep mask no Kuhi no PG. When they were healthy, they were going to really make noise in the playoffs. Now they're down three to one. I think they're going to struggle to get a game six in the Suns. Good news, bad news, Good news, Katie is doing Katie things, just a book, bucket, walking, bucket Booker.
Booker's been really really good too. The bad news is they're not destroying a team that does not have Kawhi, Leonard and Paul George. They are, as Doc Rivers would say, playing with their meat, and when you play with your meat, your meat tends to bite back. Teams like Denver and the Lakers are not gonna fuck around in the next round. So eight needs to find more consistency. Kdie needs to play less minutes. They need to finish this series off in five so that they can get more time to
get their ship in order. Denver thought they were gonna sweep the Tea Wolves, and they did not. This is going to be the least interesting series of the first round. I'm sorry, Minnesota, I don't want to see another game of this. You should just lay down and stay down. Barkley doesn't want to even talk about it. He said he was watching hockey on TBS. This game is boring as hell. I'm gonna be honest with you. After game one, in game two, I stop watching, so I don't have
any insight. I don't have I just know Edwards is doing really well. I know he had thirty four, five and five. I know he had two steals. We'll watch more of the highlights later. This is bad. I don't care. I don't care. Do you care? No, Let's move on. Then the Lakers versus the Grizzlies could be very interesting. Lakers took it to the grizz in Game three. They have a two to one league going to the game
four the crypt. If they win in LA, now it's problems, But there is a glaring seven foot hole in the middle of their lineup named Steven Adams and Brandon Clark. Without those guys, they are getting manhandled. Dylan Brooks is now a comic book villain. He punched Braun in the dick that is now the third dick punch in the playoffs. Who would have said that was gonna happen? So many guys kicking dicks and punching dicks. Dylan Brooks is committed to now being this character. I think it is hurting
his team. He was ejected. Difference between Draymond and Dylan Brooks is Dylan's not getting suspended next game. So that's really interesting. Day after he called braun Old and said, listen, like he's washed and I'm not gonna respect him until he gives me forty the Lakers ran out to a thirty five to nine first quarter lead. So yeah, the funny thing, just like Draymond, he was three for thirteen.
Unlike Draymond, his team got his ass kicked. Dylan said now that even though he just had an article calling himself Dylan the villain, now somehow it's us that's making him out to be a villain. This is what he said. The media is making me a villain. The fans are making me a villain, and that just creates this different persona of me. Sir, pause, you literally did an article with the ESPN like three weeks ago about how you
love to be the villain. You called yourself Dylan the villain. Anyway, he says, so you think I intended to hit Lebron James and the nuts I'm playing basketball. I'm a basketball player. So if I intended and that's whatever it is in the flagrant two category, if you think I did that, then you that means you think I'm that type of person. Here's the thing, Dylan, You've already hit Donovan Mitchell in not so far this year, so it's hard for us to just believe you don't mean to do it. This
is gonna be an awesome series. I hope it goes seven. I would not be shocked if it goes seven, but the Grizz need to get their shit together or it's done after basically next game. That's all the time that we have for this episode. That Heat Checked my voice is going. Check back Thursday for an all new episode as we break down the playoffs. To not forget to check the feed for past episodes in interviews, please follow
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