Hot and Cold, Real Threats & Paper Tigers

It sickens me to even say that, but it's true. What a crazy year. If you're a MAVs fan. He hasn't gone quite the way that you were hoping when you saw Luca play for Team Slovenia, you were hoping that maybe this would get him in shape faster, and in fact it actually got him out of shape faster because he chilled all the way out after the Olympics were over, said I ate too much. I hung around on the beach too much, and then he was basically fat and injured for the majority of the beginning of

the season. And as Luca goes, the MAVs go. Last year ended, of course disastrously. The MAVs should have beaten the Clippers, but Kawhi was the robot, so like Fine right, they led to the exit of the only coach to ever win a championship in Dallas. There was tons of drama. Luca hated Rick Carlisle. Luca hated the fact that kristavs Porzingis was still a Maverick. Luca hated the fact that

they got rid of Dennis Smith Junior. There was just hit piece after hit piece after hit peace accusations about the front office. There was scandals, There was finger pointing. There was Luca saying nothing, chirp, chirp, And of course that led to Rick Carlisle being offered a one year deal, which was pretty much like a prove it deal. He said no, Now he's in Indiana. Now we've got Jason Kidd.

Fast forward and all all of this was then dumped into the lap of Jason Kidd, who will, let's face it, has had his own share of off the court controversy, I might say. So things were starting off a little rocky, a little rocky from a reputational standpoint, like, hey, do we even want to hire Jason Kidd? You hire a first time GM who came from the brand side in Nico Harrison. Good dude, but unprecedented. Does he even have relationships with the rest of the league. He's been slanging

shoes for athletes for twenty years. So let's just say the expectations were sort of tepid. Right fast forward to today. Not only has the team been restructured by shipping out Porzingis to Washington for Breton's and Dinwittie, but the entire nature of this team has been transformed. So let's get into it, because there's a few major things that the Maps have done to put themselves into a position to do what I would consider to be damage they could

knock off a really good team in the first round. First, Luca is back in shape, Luca's not fat anymore. Luca has been able to finish out games strong. He said, he's not winded in fourth quarters anymore. That's huge. I would say you're superstar, not being winded in fourth quarters, completely out of breath, needing the oxygen mask. I would say that's huge. Also, the MAVs are the hottest team in the West right now. Momentum is big. It has

everything to do with that defensive intensity. And of course Luca's health and we'll call it wellness fat fatness. And because he's not fluffy anymore, he's able to defend well, he's still kind of fluffy. He's defending at a career high point. He even told people, I think it was la He yelled at the crowd, I fucking play defense now, what's up? Like, okay, Luca. He went from Eliya bil where everybody was making fun of him because he was

slow and like able to get cooked. Even KD said, like he kind of plays possum with how quick he is. He tries to be slow on purpose. And now he's a plus defender right now, since December thirty first, when the MAVs started their tear Luca has a defensive rating of one hundred and four point five and an offensive rating of one hundred and twelve. That is an eight and a half net rating, and he was a negative

fourteen when he was fat. That's a big turnaround, I'd say, And because he's not a defensive liability anymore, the team defense is all the way up, as they say. A lot of this, though, falls on a couple of players, Reggie Bullock, who they poached from the Knicks, and Maxi Kleba. Reggie Bullock has a defensive rating of one hundred and eight point six and Maxi Kleiba has a defensive rating of one hundred and six as well. But the team defense is the reason to me that the Dallas is

so dangerous. Mavericks, by the numbers will get into some nerd shit really fast. Number two in NBA in opponents points per game one hundred and three point seven. Number one in the NBA right now in opponents points in the fourth quarter, twenty four points they're allowing in the fourth quarter. That's ridiculous. That is absolutely absurd. Number two in defending the three they're only giving up just shy of eleven threes per game. They're number six in opponent

free throws per game at fifteen point one. They don't foul a lot, and that is because they're able to play defense and stay out of the bonus in a place where that leads to less fourth quarter points per game. Number two in opponents offensive rebounds per game at nine point four. They're number one in the NBA in blocks per game at just SHIA four. They're number three in the NBA it steals per game at just shia seven.

So what does this all mean to me? It means that Jason Kidd has installed not only an incredibly active defense that challenges a lot of shots hence the blocks, presses the ball beyond the three point line, hence the three point defense blocking out like a stone wall, which is why the other teams aren't getting any rebounds and doing it all while not fouling, which means that fourth

quarter points come at a premium. Given the fact, like I said, that they're not in the bonus these opposing teams, they're basically able to have greater cushion in the fourth quarter to amp out the amp up the defensive intensity while not worrying about teams going to the free throw line. Shesh. Second thing about the MAVs is that they have decided we're building around Luca and we're okay with just one star.

We're okay with just one star. Probably the only team with one star that could actually contend right now is the MAVs. And that meant get rid of the unicorn, give up that experiment. He is no star and not going to be a star here, so ship them all the way out. Here's what became apparent to Jason Kidd. He felt that Kevin kristavs Porzingis was in the way, and then the opportunity arose to get two contracts that

are movable for one big inflative contract. So they pulled the trigger and he did that knowing full well what the ceiling could be on a one star team. The MAVs did it with Dirk Noavisky. They won it with one star and a bunch of role players like himself.

They brought in Davis Breton's and Spencer Dinwiddie. They got a system that works for both players, and it shows the new starting lineup of Luca, Dorian Finney, Smith, Reggie Bullock, Jalen Brunston, and Dwight Poweller checked this number NERD shit nerdshit Alert Alert, open your eyes. Plus fifty one in one hundred and seventy three minutes. That starting lineup is a plus fifty one in a hun in seventy three minutes, And of course that means that they are winning a

lot of basketball games. Dimwitty said recently on a quote that this team knows what they need to do. Brunston knows how he fits with Luca on the court and knows how to lead when Luca is resting. They both know how to work together synergistically to be able to lift up that superstar a single superstar and a bunch

of really good role players. And although they don't have a super high race, super highly rated offense, they are number three in the NBA in the least amount of turnovers, they're number seven in the league and assist the turnover ratio, So they're super efficient on offense because Jalen Brunston is

one of the best point guards in the league. And we've talked about this before at not turning the ball over and being able to assist at a high rate he's only at He's averaging only one point seventy three turnovers per game on set on thirty two minutes a game. Luca averaged like five turnovers a game, So if they didn't have Luke on the team, they would be probably number one in the league at assist the turnover ratio period.

And of course, another big turning point for this team is getting Spencer Dinwitty, who the Wizards did not want, who the Wizard's thought was a cultural issue. Who the Wizard's thought was clashing with the rest of the squad and Bradbeiale in particular, because he wanted to be a star. But listen, Dinwitty on a good team understands he is no star. He understands he's a good off the bench guy, and he's fitting in perfectly eighteen two and six in

his first few weeks. But what's even more important is how he functions when Lucas off the floor, which we've seen as well. We'll get to that in a second, and that is shocking. The whole fit with Dallas is probably shocking to a lot of Wizards fans. Dinwitty I thought he was a cancer. A lot of people in Washington thought he was the locker room problem. But now that he's out in Dallas. By the way, Dinwitty had thirty six two and seven leading a Lucalis MAVs team

thirty six two and seven. Wow to come from. That's a low assist number, though, isn't it. He was be was hoopin'. He let the world know after the fact after they played the Kings how he was feeling about playing in Washington. This is what Dinwoodie said. When the road changed in Washington and they wanted me to pass more. They felt like I was scoring a lot, and I did that. I took my foot off the gas scoring

scoring wise, because that's what they felt. Well, the team needed to get Kuzma and KCP involved and those guy shots. I said, look, I already got paid. I don't care if this is about y'all trying to get the shots y'all need whatever, But to be bashed on the way out of the door hurt my feelings. For sure. I think I'm human. Of course, the I think I'm human part just solidifies to me who Dinwoody is. But that

is another story and another topic for another day. Because when someone says I think I'm human, he's he's questioning all of his reality at all times. It's something that's definitely get off the weed. Spencer. Anyway, when asked about the different the biggest difference between the two teams, Spencer said, not to be the dead horse, but Dallas's commitment to the collective and of the winning games is all that

matters to them. Yikes, that is damning. That is damning in terms of how the Wizards were operating while he was there in his opinion, and of course the NBA being the NBA. The Wizards responded and wes Unseld Junior decided I'm going to go into deflection mode and said, well,

we're not gonna get into the accuracy of that statement. Okay, that's one of those classic coach speak where it's like he's definitely calling Spencer Dinwiddie a liar without saying he's a liar, because it's like, well, I'm just not gonna get into the accuracy or by the way, Spencer Dinwiddy could be totally telling the truth, and that's like the biggest deflection because he doesn't even want to say whether he's gonna question the validity or not, because if he did,

he might have to lie on the record. Classic stuff. Then we have Kyle Kuzma, who then was also asked about Spencer Dinwiddie's comments NBA dramas my favorite thing in the world, and he goes, I'm sure if you go back to tidbits, I know I always said I wanted him to be aggressive. I know Beale always said he wanted Spence to be aggressive. So I'm just gonna leave it at that. We're past that, honestly, We're focused on the guys that are here. If you go back to tidbits,

that's such a funny word, tidbits. Here's the thing that's true. Spencer was pissed because he was getting buckets, his role was asked to change. He didn't want to be a six man when he was being paid to be a starter. That was pretty evident and said multiple times around the team.

Because Spencer Dinwiddie believes that his skill set is on the same level as Kyrie Irving, he didn't want to be relegated on a team like the Wizards, which frankly makes a lot of sense given when he was scoring a lot the Wizards were winning, and when he was not scoring a lot. The Wizards were losing, so I get all that probably a better scorer than the rest of the Wizard's roster outside of maybe maybe Coups, maybe Beale, probably Beale, but not in the fourth quarter for sure

or not. He's not a point guard, but he's not quite as shooting guard. So the fit was weird. The role was strange, and truthfully, the biggest criticism that I've heard about the Wizards is all about Wes Unsell Junior. A lot of players I heard find his offense to be quite confusing, and they are what was it, what did he say? I'm not going to get into and they're not going to get into the accuracy of whether

he can coach or not. They're not going to get into the accuracy of whether his shit makes any damn sense at all, but they're questioning whether it is the case.

Jason kidd though, who has done this a time or two, is making shit very simple in Dallas, and that's how you get guys like Spencer Dinwiddie to not worry about all the noise and focus on like six plays, which is what happened when Spencer Dinwood he ended up leading the ship when Luca was out, they gave him six plays to run and they kept it super duper simple. And this is what Spencer told the Dallas Morning News coach Kid one of the greatest point guards of all time.

He simplifies everything and make sure it's streamlined and what it needs to be. Processing information and a lot of information is hard. Making it more complex than it needs to be makes it even worse, like it makes the goal almost unachievable and unattainable. That's what we strive to do here is make complex shit sound as simple as it possibly can. And sometimes it takes a very high brain processor in order to make things that are complex simple. I'm not going to get into the accuracy of the

processing speed of west Unseld Junior at this time. He probably summed up what's happening in Washington as well as anyone when Spencer didn when he said this, I think, well, Washington's kind of in flux. You're looking at their roster. They were trying to get Beal to sign the Supermax. They still are. They've got a bunch of young guys like Denny Ruey that they need to develop. Then you've got guys that came from the Lakers that wanted expanded roles. They all all wanted to be the guy. You got

a first time head coach. So you've got all these different dynamics going on where people are trying to establish themselves in whatever roles or positions they may want to be in the league for the next five to ten years. With that being said, all those balls in the air, hard juggling process, tough to do for any coach, any organization. The amount of ricochet shots being said in that paragraph. Everyone is powermongering, everyone is fighting for an expanded role.

No one was willing to sacrifice. And you have a new head coach who doesn't know how to manage egos and that shit is disastrous. Then you've got Bradley Beale that goes down with the season ending injury, has surgery and it's night Night sleep mask. But I'm looking forward to see what then, what he does. I'm looking forward to being on the lookout for the MAVs and if you're a MAVs fan, there's a lot to be excited about. And on top of that, the schedule. Let's talk about

the schedule here for another second. Very favorable power rankings show that there are only four teams that the MAVs are not favored against for the remainder of the schedule. They might even progress to a four seed and get home court against the Jazz. There's a possibility that's going to be four or five Jazz and MAVs. It just

depends on who's going to get home court advantage. MAVs have won seven of nine clutch games, defined as a game within five points within five minutes, and the big criticism of Luca over the course of his tenure has been that the MAVs have sucked in the clutch. But since he returned January first, the Mavericks are eleven to five and clutch games with a net rating of plus

four point three. Nerd shit. The Mavericks are twelve and both offensive and defensive rating during that time span during those critical clutch moments, and the numbers have only improved with Spence, Sir Dinwitty and Davis Burton's Mavericks are now five and one since they've acquired those two in clutch games and they have a net rating during that time period of plus seventy two point seven. Small sample size, but pretty incredible. And now that Rick Carlisle is gone

and the stench of him is gone. Lucas actually dunking on people, Lucas happy, he's smiling, he's laughing and joking in his postgame pressers. He likes this team even more so now that christavs Porzingis is fucking gone. All the shit he didn't want on the team gone, all the players that help him become better here. Does that mean they're going to make it to the finals. Probably not,

but they could upset somebody. And it shows Luca, like I said, skying for dunks, brunts and shooting seventy percent from the field, and Dinwitty might have just found himself a long term home. Man I promise, come on and when it all falls down, man I promise, I'm so self conscious, that's why you aren't. We see me with at least one of our time. Man I promise. These teams right now are so self conscious they have no

idea why they're at the top of the standing. Oh boy, when the playoffs are coming six weeks away, it is not too early to point out that there are some fan bases that feel good, some fan bases that feel kind of shook. But there are teams that are paper tigers right now. And if you're a fan of any of those four teams, you got real reasons to stress. Let's start with Chicago. The Bulls have relied on Demorrow time and time and time again to bail them out.

And the world might think, is that a good thing? Don't you have a fourth quarter scoring option? When Zach Lavine and all these boys get back healthy, they're gonna be a force. This has happened thirty times a year. But it appears that this team has real trouble against good teams. The Bulls allow more shots at the room than any other team in the league, according to Cleaning the Glass. More concerning, though, the Bulls are three to

ten this season against the top five East contenders. Worse, they are not only winless against Miami, Philly and Milwaukee, they haven't even beaten any of the top three teams in the West either. They are ah win thirteen against the top six teams in the league, the Sixers, Bucks, Heat, Grizzlies, Warriors, Suns. And if you're saying, well, these are tight contested battles, you know it's a chess match, it's a boxing meat ring. No, they've lost these games by an average of twelve point

eight points. They're getting absolutely stomped by the good teams in the West and the good teams in the East. So if you're a Bulls fan and if you're lucky enough to get out of the second round, is going to be a beast for you. I don't I think this. They're upset city. They are one of the teams you should be absolutely scared about. Will they be better with

Patrick Williams? Fuck it, I don't know, Alex Cruso. You know, Zach Lavine is his knee right, he keeps getting platelet replacement therapy, which is literally spinning his plasma inside of his knee and reinjecting it. That shit hurts. That's not a healthy knee. That's not a healthy knee. So Bulls Paper Tiger won everyone's darling Number two Paper Tiger Cleveland Cavaliers.

And it's not because they're like they have organizational issues besides just the fact that they're owner's a piece of shit. But like, outside of that awesome, they've been in insanely exciting and having the talent all over the roster organically that you could only dream of. Their win total was like twenty seven and a half, and they blew past it by the All Star break. So they're pretty steadily in the top four until the East. In the East, until a recent run of really injuries. Every team has

bad stretches. I mean someone like the Trailblazers stretched that over an entire season. So like, we've been this way all year, but this is like the thing that's been very troubling. The Calves are in the last three weeks suddenly gone from number one defense in the league or number two defense, depending on what metric you're using and

what time premi you're using. But they've gone from being one of the toughest defenses in the league to suddenly allowing one hundred and fifteen point eight points per one hundred possessions, which is now twenty ninth in league, which is Trailblazer's territory before that stretch started. They're the number three d ranked in the entire NBA. Yuck. Why has this happened? Well, besides injuries. JB. Bickerstaff, the coach, thinks it's because they just got too comfortable, But I think

the truth is much harder to fix. This team is just way too banged up. They just are and that sucks because that monster line that they've been running out has been super fun. But the injuries have been way too hard to deal with. I'm not talking about just Sexton and Rubio. This team was twenty and fourteen with Rubio and sixteen and fifteen without them. Markanen has missed twenty one games. Garlands missed thirteen games, Cheddy Osmond has

missed twelve games. Kevin Love, Jared Allen, and Evan Mobley have all missed eight games. Karris Lavert has missed six out of a possible ten games since being traded, and now the latest, the worst blow all star Jared Allen has now a fractured finger and it's down indefinitely. This is rot roll land, this is paper tiger land. The Cavs now face a very hard, very long stretch without him, and they are not the same team without either of them. They're five and twelve when either Evan or Jared Allen

are not playing. They're thirty two and fifteen when they both play, which would put them as that percentage of when percentage would put them as the number one seed in the East. Just terrible, terrible luck all around, and I was super stoked to see this team maybe like knock off somebody, they get all the home court advantage, they get an eight seed, like that would be cool. I'd like to see that, you know, like take out a power I don't know, maybe like face the Nets

in the first round. It's like Kyrie goes back to Cleveland, burning stage. We'd love to see that. But I don't think that that's happening. I think that they are going to end up in the playoffs and probably be barbecue chicken, like very easy meat to feast off of for whoever ends up getting them in the first round. Third paper tiger team, the Utah Jazz. Yeah, of course, they're just like paper Tiger all year, every year, like pretty much, that's what they do. They just throw water on them.

They just just collapse. As Nate Robinson said to me once, trash trash utah, trash utah. I've been predicting their playoff failures for a very long time. I said that they were the most overrated team in the NBA going into the playoffs last year. That happened to be the case. I also predicted it preseason. This year. They've had some good runs. They looked exciting for the first twenty games they saw maybe they were gonna be the number one seed. Now they're not even able to get the one seed.

They're not even able to do what they did last year in the regular season, be a regular season team. Zach Low just broke down the Jazz on his pod and said pretty much what I've been saying. They've done nothing to address the issues systemically on the roster. They cannot defend on the perimeter. We've discussed this millions of times.

They are too slow and too old and not athletic enough on the wing to basically be able to handle these guys like the Clippers, right, And you might be saying Trista, but they're saying playing so much better now Spider's back. They went one and seven when he was out and Rudy was hurt too. An know, they're eight and two in their last ten. And to that, I say, it's the two losses, those two losses that you look

in and you say, well, that's troubling. They lost to the Clippers by five, a team that one hundred percent has their number. They got their doors blown off by the Pelicans this weekend by thirty what thirty four points in a game where Donovan Mitchell praised Herb Jones as an absolute problem walking him down, and Herb only had two points. Spider told Pell's coach Willie Green that Herbs herbs instincts are incredible, said he's one of the very few rookies that he has to plan for, like Davion

Mitchell and Sacramento. So losses like these underscore how unsettled the Jazz can get against teams that are very athletic, can run their small and they're able to move, switch everything, be able to pass the ball around. The Pelicans blow out was their second loss to New Orleans this year, so this is not an anomaly. They've lost to Memphis twice, another young athletic team. They've lost Minnesota on their own home floor this year, after Minnesota beat them twice last year.

The blueprint for the Jazz to the blueprint to beat the Jazz is just be more athletic and skilled in them like Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert all very good pieces, but they just can't athletically hang. The question that I have for Jazz fans is this, if they

couldn't hang last year with these athletic teams. What exactly has changed this year that makes you think that they can go to the finals, Because I just heard today on some NBA show that like maybe it was a podcast, that they might blow up the entire roster if they don't go to the Western Conference finals this year or to the finals like alert alert. Let me just say this very very clearly, like Steven, they would say, we get all that, like we get all that, they're not

going to the finals this year. They're not. There is going to be organizational change. They are going to have to blow everything up. They tried to get Nikile Alexander Walker from the Portland thought that would be some rotation player. He hasn't even played, like, he has not sniffed any minutes. This team is not good. Joe Ingles tore his ACL he's out. You don't even have that shooter anymore. The team without Joe Ingles is not even as good as

last year's disappointment. Right now, they're staring a four or five matchup with the Mavericks. They might get bounced out of the first round. And I tell you what, even if they go up up three to one, I don't put it past the MAVs because it's happened twice before. Utah lost to the Nuggets. Utah lost to the Clippers when it looked like they had the series in hand. Anyone who thinks that the Jazz can survive a seven game series or a game seven against the best defense

in the league. In twenty twenty two, they hold a one and a half point game one and a half game lead for home court. Gross can you imagine Dallas Game seven in Dallas fast long? At what? No? Come on? Now? They could be a five seed when the playoffs come around, and that is a big yikes. I mean, let's just say this, like, the Jazz are cooked. The Jazz are the team that's been cooked for a long time now. They're not even a paper tiger. They're just like paper.

They're just paper. Finally filed under things that you hate to see Trista Creek being right, just only in March instead of in October. The team that I thought could definitely disappoint ended up going nine to one their first ten games. The things, though, that I said could happen, are now happening. Yes, folks, could the Golden State Warriors and number two seed in the West actually be a potential paper tiger. Yes, because things have gone off the rails in the Bay in a way that not anybody,

not just anybody, could predict, only me, only me. Following their stellar start to the season, they went twenty six and six out of the blocks. People were talking about seventy wins, myself included, even I became prisoner of the moment. Stay firm, Little Trista, stay firm, Stand tall in your beliefs. Don't let them bully you online. But listen. They have only won two of their last ten games, in their last twenty seven, They're just fourteen and thirteen. This is

not a good team right now. All Star quote unquote All Star forward Andrew Wiggins is averaging fourteen four and three in the last ten, down from seventeen a game before this. Jordan Poole fourteen four and three as well, down from eighteen a game before this. Steph Curry is in the worst shooting slump of his entire career. Draymond Green, his return still up in the air, has a bulging disc in his back. That shit does not just go away. James Wiseman, where is he? He's a ghost somehow, traveling

with the team not seeing him. His return probably not imminent. Jordan Poole looks like a little deer in headlights right now. His ego and his confidence is shot. Now with the return of Klay Thompson, He's basically getting benched for Moses Moody. Moses Mody, the guy Otto Porter, the guy that looks like well the still he's disappeared. All those players we thought were giving the Warrior significant benefits like be a, be a Why you acting like a He's now out

of the picture. Come on now, Iguidala nowhere to be found. Klay Thompson still struggling, he's rusty, shooting forty one percent from the field in his return. And here is the real problem. Without Draymond, their defensive rating has fallen from one oh one point nine top five in the NBA with drey on the floor, to one hundred and eleven

point seven without him nineteenth in the NBA. The defensive raiding has fallen from top five to nineteenth in the time period that Draymond has been gone, and Draymond has missed twenty six consecutive games. Not only has the defense collapsed, but the offense was twenty second in the league in January after being number one. They're keeph in February in the offense with no dre to be the playmaker in the middle, and NBC Moni Pool summed it up best.

Despite their impressive record, the Warriors are vulnerable to most. Any team that competes hard enough and long enough to expose the worst of the Warriors, wait for them to anesthetize date, particularly at home, as the Mavericks did on Sunday, and then go take what you want. The word is out. Jump The Warriors jump them hard, push them to the kind of anxious moments that lead to mental errors, which are more likely with experimental rotations in play. With Green

and Iguidala out of the picture. They are fresh meat in prison. Hey girl, what's your names? Come over here, Come over here. They got their fresh They got their fresh prison prison Guarbond and everybody in prison looks around like this person is easy work. They don't even know what's coming. Jason Kid even talked about this same exact thing after a huge comeback win against Golden State. He said this, the guys just kept believing that if we could get three stops, we felt that the crowd kind

of gets out of the game. The energy wasn't there, so we just slowly felt if we just stayed around watching the last game that they played in Denver when they gave up a huge lead as well, it was very similar double team. Curry pressure the Warriors to make bad shots and wait for them to fold, like the cheap suit to suit right folding chair, cheap cheap suit. And you know what that sounds like an early exit. It sounds like me shooting out crow. Other people eating

said crow. Tell me I'm wrong. The Warriors. We gotta get back to this brock. We gotta get back to my prediction when I said that they would be potentially very vulnerable with all these little role players and Steph Curry having his shoulder all the burden. Who knows what plays really going to look like. Listen, if Jaymond comes back fully, fully, fully, fully healthy, he looks like the player that he was. All bets off the table. But I am not banking on that, and neither should you.

This is exactly how the Memphis Grizzlies beat Golden State last year. Blitz Steph forced him to turn the ball over with his loose ass handle in the playoffs, which he has force other guys like Wiggins in high pressure moments to shoot the ball, and they and he will never make those fourth quarter playoff. Wiggins is maybe the

worst basketball player I've ever seen. He's I think I tweeted about it endlessly during that game and the play in against the Warriors or against the Memphis Grizzlies when they bounced them out. They didn't even make the playoffs.

They gave up a huge lead to the Lakers because the Lakers did the exact same thing to Steph as I'm giving you the blueprint for now, and the Grizzlies would almost certainly see the Warriors in the second how second round if somehow they managed to win, they could probably get bounced in the first round, depending on who they end up facing. If that doesn't make Golden State fans nervous, I don't know what will, except for the fact that I'm going to be annoying as fucks when

I'm right. That's all the time that we have for the heat Check. We'll be back Wednesday with a new episode Wednesday and night, most likely. Do not forget to download, subscribe, Please tell your friends, follow us on social at this heat Check and Tristan Criek on TikTok. We will sleep