On this mini episode of the Heat Check, we have a special interview with Jared Greenberg, NBA TNT reporter, here to help us break down the second round of the playoffs. Oh yeah, it was a good one. Let's not waste any more time, Anthony drop that motherfucking beat that should be Rihanna. All right, Jared Greenberg is here from GMG give us a perspective to the NBA play Jared enjoyed my other show, that m Jena Knight, where I was
joined by michaelos Ryan horvat Beam Jam the Night. As I have said many times before, airs Monday through Friday, seven to eleven Eastern on the radio in most national markets and also live on YouTube and on Twitch. Great conversation with Jared. He actually gave us some time right after jumping off the plane into OKC before the OKC MAVs game, so he was live and on the ground. His perspective was very valuable. So let's get into it.
We welcome out now Jared Greenberg, NBA on TNT reporter, NBA TV host and reporter as well. Jared, thanks so much for giving us some time. Busy time for you. I'm guessing obviously what do you think about this series?
Man?
I mean, I think once we got midway point of the regular season, a lot of people did expect the Knicks to be here, to be able to win a playoff series, maybe to be a threat even to Boston if we get to the Eastern Conference finals, Pacers a little bit of a surprise because Milwaukee was dealing with so many injuries. Your thoughts just initially on what we're going to see in this series and who you like?
Yeah, you know, I think that this is going to be I think it has a chance to be a competitive series, but I do see the Knicks winning this one, probably five maybe six games. I just think that the Knicks approach throughout the course of the regular season has led to them being where they are now, and I'm
really happy to see it. It's really weird for me to talk glowingly about the Knicks the way I have over the last couple of weeks, because that's not usually in my nature, as most New York Knick fans will tell you. But I just think that they have taken this anti load management approach and that's the reason why they beat the Sixers, and ultimately, I think while they will probably have to go deeper into their bench against the Pacers just because of some matchups that will favor them.
I think that they're more prepared for these moments than Indiana is.
You know, it's funny because the knock on TIBs, especially when he was in Chicago's that he runs his players into the ground. Do you think any other head coach would have this Knicks team here in the second round playing like this this season?
And listen, I do think he runs his players into the ground. And I do think long term, we may ultimately in five years or so, look back and say, guys like Josh Harden Jalen Brunson maybe don't have the longevity. Maybe that is the case. I'm not sure we certainly he saw it with plenty of guys over the course of his years in Chicago and briefly in Minnesota. But I just think for this team it makes sense, and
I think oftentimes it's cliche. We use it in college a lot, like oh, these guys take on the approach or the charisma of their coach, and usually it's not true. This time that it really is true.
Who do you think is going to be able to stop Jalen Brunson because he's the king of rejecting the screen. He's the king of his fast twitch muscles, getting him to spots that you don't even know he's at before he's already there. I think I saw that aaron Ne Smith has been getting cooked, Andrew Nemhart has some more success. But if you're the Pacers, obviously it starts at the
head of the snake. What do you think Rick Carlisle does, who's obviously very familiar with Jalen Brunson as his form erer coach, to slow him down.
And by the way, I think that's going to be a fantastic secondary subplot to this series is how much Jalen Brunson wants to take it out on Rick Carlisle, who didn't give him as much run. And maybe listen, I'm not here to say that Ricardli was wrong. I just think at that point of his career, Brunson wasn't ready for the type of role he has now. And I think too many times we don't realize how it takes years of development to get guys to where they are.
Not everybody is Victor Webbinyama, but I think that they're going to probably try and go small with guys like TJ McConnell, which Brunson's a big dude, like he could be physical with you. So I'm not so sure McConnell will work. But maybe they go bigger, right, and maybe maybe they try and be more physical with them, and maybe, you know, we see some switching where Siakam gets them, and I'm not so sure that's going to be advantageous for Indiana either.
Yeah, that's interesting. I watched this Cavaliers magic game yesterday, Jared, and it looked like it was going to be night Night sleep mask for the Cavs. They come back after being down twenty, and the Donovan Mitchell saga continues. Do you think that you give Cleveland any chance against Boston to even get a game or two? And if so, how are they going to do it?
No, I don't, And listen, as much as that sounds like that's a knock on Cleveland, I just think I'm all in on Boston. It is the Celtics Invitational right now in the Eastern Conference, and I think it behooves them to make easy work of Cleveland here in the second round, and I think they will in particular, you know, they Cleveland had a healthy Jared Allen this year, and I think what he did, particularly in the defensive side
of the ball, got underappreciated. I was this close to putting Jared Allen on All Defense second team this year in the NBA. I stayed away from it just because I thought better of it. But him not being completely healthy is going to be an issue for Cleveland.
So what do you think they do really quickly? Just to follow up, I wasn't gonna ask this, but now Evan Mobley Jared Allen, like, do you think they should stay together as a tandem because it feels like Evan Mobley's better without Jared Allen in some ways, in some ways actually worse.
Yeah. I mean we've seen this throughout the course of the years. You know, we saw withus and Miles Turner. I remember several years ago we had the issue in Utah with having Derek Favors and Enis Canter. There's just some bigs that don't play well together on the same team.
I think Cleveland is a team that could be patient and could be really competitive for a really long time to come, but I think ultimately they need to change some of their foundational pieces in order to raise their ceiling, and I think that's what we're going to see this summer.
How worried should the Nuggets be, especially the way that Ant's playing right now. They have a one to zero series lead, They're six and a half point underdogs tonight. We're still waiting to see if Rudy Gobert is going to be able to show up to the game or not. But how worried should Nuggets be, especially with Jamal Murray kind of beat up right now?
I wouldn't be. And this is one of those things. I was so impressed by what I saw from Minnesota the other night. I'm with everybody, I understand it. But if we learned anything from the playoffs over the last however many years we've all been watching basketball, it's not to overreact in one game, particularly when we're talking about the team that is head and shoulders the favorite in
the Western Conference. Now, listen, if Denver loses tonight, particularly if Minnesota doesn't have Gobert, then we can have that conversation. But I would be stunned if Denver loses this game. I would be stunned if they win it by any less than double figures.
Wow, that's a good point. It's been tough though to watch because you watch Jamal Murray, who is kind of the fourth quarter king, the two man game that he runs with Jokic, but Minnesota is making things super tough on him. How much do you think that that's his injury in that calf that he's been dealing with the last couple of months, And how much of that would you put on what Chris Finch and then boys are doing defensively?
You know, I'm not sure. I only had the pleasure of doing one of Denver's games against LA and at that point he wasn't dealing with it as much. I would just say this, like, as good as Jamal Murray is at times, obviously he hit two iconic buzzure beats. Understand that, right, That's what we're drawing from. But what made Denver so dangerous this year compared to last year has their ability to get big time performances from guys
like Michael Porter Junior and Aaron Gordon. This absolutely they could win games without Jamal Murray being a playoff superhero.
Yeah. I want to get your feedback on this MAVs OKC series because Luca he also is dealing with an injury, he averaged twenty nine. Even though he was injured against the Clippers before the ankle injury, he got thirty five. Do you think that Okac lays it on the MAVs And how competitive do you think this series is?
Well, that's where I am. I just got to Oklahoma City today. We're all awaiting all these tornadoes that can touch down here any minute, so I'm letting them still on the air with you guys, But you know, I haven't gotten a sense. I'm gonna go talk to the Mavericks tomorrow. I spoke to everybody at okay See camp today going to practice. I gotta say, like, I'm really
torn on this series. I don't think we may have some lopsided games, but I think this series goes to distance and I think ultimately it's one of the more competitive series that we have all playoffs long. I can't pick a winner right now, and it feels like Luca has the ability to overcome anything at this point in his career.
Do you think either of those teams is a better match up against Denver than the other just because the style of play, Like, do you think like if Dallas gets through they're a better match up against Denver. You know, okay SE's just so young, Like I've tried to make the case against them all year, but they're also really good defensively. Nobody talks about that.
No, I agree with you in all the traits that you would poke holes in a young team that doesn't seem to fit Ryan with with Okac, like their maturity, their composure, their play in the clutch this past year has been unbelievable. I would say Dallas is a better matchup from the standpoint that they have more bodies to throw at Jokic. Now that took a bit of a hit with the fact that Maxi Claba is going to be out for at least this series. I would find it hard to believe that he's back for next series.
But maybe in a miracle world he can be. But still, Dallas has an inordinate amount of bodies to throw at yokch and Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Junior with a ton of length that would make life very very difficult, and in particular two without guys like Bruce Brown who they had last year to guard the perimeter, it would be tough. It will be tough for Denver to guard Murray, to guard Kyrie and Lucas.
Pat Riley Jared decided, Yeah, he did his best. Tom Brady Rose. Everybody was getting thrown under the bus. It didn't matter if they were role players, star players, current players, former players, or Eric Spostra, who it felt like pat Riley said, needs to up his game, offensive scheme and defensive scheme. He said that there were only two or three players in the league that made sense for him to go all in on, or just anyone to go
all in on. What the hell is happening? And what do we gather from his comments today?
Listen, I have been at the front of the line criticizing this whole nonsense of Heat culture over the last couple of years now. Prior to that, I got it, but I loved every second of what pat Riley did today. Today, what he did was throw the gauntlet down and say
enough is enough. We are getting back to the core of who the Miami Heat are, and to me, the biggest shots he threw obviously Tyler Hero, but also to Jimmy Butler, like the fact that Jimmy Butler chooses picks and chooses when he plays regular season games and for two straight years put the Heat in such a hole where, yes, they dug out of it and got to the NBA Finals last year, but the amount of work and effort they had to do to get there left them with
nothing in the tank for the NBA Finals. If Jimmy Butler doesn't start to take the regular season more seriously and start to put the Heat in a more advantagious position going into the playoffs, I don't really understand how it benefits Heat culture to have a guy whose only playoff Jimmy when when he got there this year, who wasn't even available.
Yeah, that's a good point, because sometimes I wonder, Jared, and I'd love to get your thoughts on this. Is it Jimmy picking and choosing, or is Jimmy's body no longer able to sustain the eighty two games and he's trying to figure out a way to get his rickety old body to get to the playoffs?
Maybe? I mean this kind of brings the conversation full circle, right, Tim certainly did play him a whole bunch of minutes earlier in his career. I don't know, but it's not a good look when you show up to a tennis event one day and then you're not available to play the next day. Right, Like, there's just too many suspect things. And I'm not doubting whether Jimmy Butler is injured or not.
I'm doubting his approach with the communication with the team and saying, listen, you got to take the you can't just take the second half of the NBA regular season and then the playoffs. Seriously, You've got to do some things as a leader to not put your team. If you say you care about your team, you can't put your teammates in position in a regular baby to have to pick up the slack for you because you're not available.
Jared, we got about sixty seconds. I'm a big Jason Tatum fan, trist that usually gives me a hard time.
Because don't showing up in the moments.
Yeah, sometimes he doesn't show up in the clutch. How important like for his I hate to be like legacy guy, but how important is it for Boston to at least get back to the finals and for actually just for him, for Boston to win the finals this year?
It's massive. And that's not to say it's the end all be all right. He's got a really long career ahead of him. I think we tend to forget because of how good he has been or how good the Celtics teams have been, that he is still very relatively young in his career. But as I mentioned, this is the Celtics Invitational in the Eastern Conference. They have to come out of the East. There is no excuse for them not to come out of the East unless like
three of their guys are not available. I think that they absolutely have to get to the NBA Finals and they have to have a good showing. Maybe they don't have to win it, but they can't get run out of the gym in the NBA Finals.
Jared, thanks so much for giving us some time man enjoy the game tonight.
Guys.
Thanks, that's all the time. When we after this mini episode of the Heat Check, come back Friday for an all new episode, and check out the feed for past episodes of many episodes like this one which drop unexpectedly like Ben Affleck at a celebrity roast, Pull the ripcord next time, at least pivot find some more jokes. Those ones are terrible. Do not forget to follow the Heat Check as we head into the playoffs and continue into
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