On this bonus episode of the Check, time to lay down the wall on the Clippers. As Clippers Insider are, Law Murray is here to break down the Clippers chances in the Mavericks series as well as to give his opinion on the rest of the NBA playoffs and play in very insightful stuff. He gives us the really real never holds back his opinion, which is why we love him.
We busy all week, Anthony, So drop that motherfucker beat that should be Rihanna all right on this special bonus episode Clippers Insider, who's been on the beat for fucking forever. He joined my other show bet MGM Tonight, which airs seven to eleven Eastern on the radio in most major markets as well as live on YouTube and TWI, which I was joined by my co host Ryan Horbot, who's the other voice you hear in this interview. Let's get right into it.
Talk about the playing tournament and the playoffs. We walk come out now, Law Murray from the Athletic thanks man for giving us some time. How you doing.
I'm doing well. I'm glad to not be in the plays towards me, that's for sure.
Yeah, I actually wanted to start with that Lakers Pelicans matchup. I just the more I think about this, man, I actually like Los Angeles in this game. They're one and a half point underdogs. How do you see this one playing out? And who would you lean with?
I don't understand why the Lakers are underdogs, Like we've.
Seen this matchup in high profile situations multiple times already, and unless the Lakers, maybe that's what it is, Like people think the Lakers are ducking smoke, but like, if it's strictly going to be a legitimate game competition between the Pelicans, the Lakers understand what they need to do to.
Beat the Pelicans.
So I really that the only reason, the only reason they would be underdogs is because obviously beating the Pelicans would lead to a first round series against the Denver Nuggets, who are the only team that the Lakers probably have an issue within the Western Conference overall. I believe that I'm not sure there was another team, well, Sacramento, but obviously Sacramento.
Is just hoping to get to the playoffs.
But the risk that you take is, let's say you throw the Pelicans game. Sacramento Kings are you know they're one win away? From meeting you there. And then you got the Golden State Warriors, who the Lakers struggled with this year. They only beat them once out of four times, and that took double overtime and a ridiculous level of foul.
So, I mean, the easiest path to the playoffs for.
The Lakers and if they want to get a seven game series is to just do what they've done all year against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Yeah, beat the hell out of them. Yeah, that's pretty much in hype. I think the Pelicans beat them once at the crowd, but it was like not a high stakes game at all. The play in turn of the n season tournament and then the last game of the season, which the Pelicans very much needed to win, they just could not show up. I want to get your thoughts on Kawhi Law because there's now reports like you can make whatever you want to make out of what Chris
Broussard says. But Chris Bouchard says that he is hearing that Kawhi has a lot of swelling in his knee. He was in contact with someone in the know and they said they are concerned. Don't know what to make of that. What do you make of that reporting and what do you know.
I mean, he probably does have swelling. He's dealing with inflammation and a need at ended. Last year because of the meniscus tear, he had a recedure on his knee over the off season, and then obviously in twenty twenty one you tour the Aco.
It was a partial tear.
But when you get surgery, doesn't matter if it's a partial tear, complete tear, whatever, like, it's still surgery and you still need a rehab and you still need to get it back. And the perspective that I have is the last time that we've had Againstance where Kawhi was on a road trip got sent home for treatment because of the new discomfort. It was to start the last year when he came off the Benks for a couple of games and then they went to Oklahoma City. It
was supposed to be for a mini series. He wind up going home in the middle of that mini series. He didn't come back to play for another three weeks. So the best case scenario, or not even the best case scenarios, he's practicing, he plays Game one, there's nothing to talk about. But I'm thinking that we got to see him practice and that will assuage any concerns that exists.
You want to see him play. But if that timeframe matches up with the timeframe that I described back in October and November twenty twenty two, then that puts his status for Game one in some jeopardy and that's obviously going to be a concern for Kawhi. Now for the Clippers,
Toronto Loo doesn't seem to be super bothered. I'm not sure if that's because of an opportunity to have some gamesmanship here with the Mavericks, Like no one quite knows the status of Kawhi as well as the readiness of the Clippers to play without Kauai more than Toronto Lou. So if Toronto Lou's saying that he's not as concerned, then Burger's just going to have to wait and see.
How it is with Kawhi.
But it definitely helps to run that the Clippers that played well without him.
Don't you feel like Kawhi is one of those players. I've said this before. You came on last segment where it's like Kawhi Leonard questionable day to day knee inflammation, Kawhi Leonard questionable knee inflammation. Kawhi Leonard all of a sudden has entered like has season ending surgery. Like that's kind of how they approach That's kind of how they approach Kawhi. That's what happened in twenty twenty one when he was supposed to play the Suns. That's what happened.
And the last time he got injured as well, where they don't really give us any real information until he's like shut down.
Yeah, I mean, and that's what I'm used to. Is like, the difference here is we knew.
That he was dealing with a serious injury last year and the year before.
When they call it a spring, like you can dig as much as you want to. It's like, Okay, he.
Tore something, so you guys can let us know what he tore. But they're not describing this as a spring. They are describing this as inflammation. And that's why I always use the previous reference because I've been covering this team for way too long and have been dealing with this way too long. It's like, I'm never comfortable. I'm
never content with what we have. You know, the best version of Kawhi is the guy playing on the floor and even then you're like, you know, I remember being on the road, being in Philly, being Orlando.
It's like, man, every time he gets the ground, he's getting up, flex in his hands, flexing his wrists and whatnot. And had to ask him about that. That's the last time I talked to him.
So when it comes to this, I don't believe that Kawhi is dealing with us an injury that's going to end his season.
I don't think we're dealing with that right now. Obviously you don't want him to have a setback, and I don't.
Think he's dealing with that either. But I don't think this is load management. I don't think that this is the team hiding something. I think he's dealing with, you know, a case where that knee has flared up on him and he's in a bit of a race right now.
To be ready. And I think that that's the tricky part.
Is you're so used to the misinformation, or at least the lack of transparency. But I don't think that they're hiding anything more serious than that.
Another injury is obviously Giannis, and it looks like he's doubtful for Game one with the calf strain. I hate this matchup for the Box against the Pacers. They can't stop him. I think the Pacers have scored like two or one hundred and thirty five points in every single game against Milwaukee this year. How do you see that series playing out? Do you give Indiana any chance, especially if Giannis isn't one hundred percent?
I give Indiana a great chance to win that series of like a great chance even if Giannis was there. And the reason for it is because the Pacers have been one of the best offenses in the NBA all season long.
I mean, are league.
The best if you want to look at the how the whole season played out, I mean you're talking about a team that is confident scoring the basketball and they don't do it in ways that like the Boston were the best offense, but the Boston Celtics they were the best offense in league because they pretty much were like, as talented as we are, we're just gonna line up an entire rotation of shooters. And that's not to take away from what Boston can do. Besides that, I mean,
Jason Tatum Jylen Brown are obviously buckets Beyond shooting. Three is but those guys are the worst shooters in the rotation. That says a lot. What the Indiana Pacers do is a little bit more complex. Tyrese Haliburn gets his guys incredible shots every time down. They're the only team in the league that made more than fifty percent from the field.
Why that matters for the Bucks. The Bucks basically changed head coaches twice in the last year because they weren't sure how they wanted to play basket Paul, they weren't sure who they wanted to be led by. And now you're at a situation where they're not playing well, their stars hurt, which this always happens to DCS teams, Like just talked about the Clippers. Well, Doc is very.
Used to playing shorthanded at some point.
Plus he just got done with with Joe l you know, in Philadelphia, being compromised injury all three of those years in Philadelphia. Now he comes to the Bucks and Giannis
might not be ready to start the series. It's this is a great matchup for the Indiana Pacers, but they know that Damian Lillard, as great as he is, as far as having the reputation of being a killer in the playoffs, he also is one of those guys who defensively you can attack and if Tyrese Halibergan has a whole series where a Bucks team that struggles to force turnovers where they're definitely not forced turnovers against Indiana, And if you don't force ERNs against Indiana, they're just going
to get to their spots and those spots are likely going to end up with Buckets And that's going to be tough on the Bucks for a full seven game series.
Not to jump around too much to go back to the Clippers, because I do want to get your insight on the rest of the league in the playoffs in general, but you know James Harden, Like we're getting playoff James Harden early last twenty four games, he's averaging fifteen nine to five, and I know, like that's probably wrong to pick on him in that way, in that general of a way, but like, what is explaining the declining productivity? What do you think Paul George is perplexed by it?
Like what should we expect from him? And like just generally, how do you expect this matchup to go?
When it comes to James. I'd be more concerned.
If one Kawhi is not there, putting more pressure on James to score to basketball, but also too, like I feel like I was more concerned before the Clippers won seven out of eight. I think Russell West Were coming back was huge for someone like James because it gave James another guy who you can take some pressure off from a.
Ball healing standpoint, a guy who.
Can push James on the floor, off the floor in the huddles and all that, and a guy who can just another guy who can guard like Russell West were coming back helped the team win seven out of eight games, games that they needed to clinch, everything.
They needed to clinch.
So that's that's the that's going to help James out in this playoffs series. If James is going to play with Kawhi and Paul, you're talking about James is the third best guy, which is a situation he hasn't been in since maybe Oklahoma City. That is that's gonna be
huge for him because now James job is pretty simple. Offensively, get the ball to Paul and Kawhi and to the role man and then hit just a couple of those step back three is a game, and then defensively, just be there, just be a presence, and I think James can do that.
He is.
I feel like James is going to be ready for this plostseason. I feel like James from a coaching standpoint is going to be ready. He's got one of the best head coaches that he's gotten to work with in a playoff series. The relationship is good there, which it wasn't always good with Doc in Philadelphia.
The pedigree and the accolades to challenge James.
But the connection wasn't quite there. I think the connection is better there and this is a good series for James. Harden like Dallas is not the type of defense that is going to be focused on taking a player like James away.
I think Dallas is.
A physical Dallas is upgraded at the rim incredibly well, and that's going to be a consideration. But because Daniel Gafford has been so instrumental to Dallas, I feel like that's actually going to help the Clippers because that helps a guy like a visinss Zubat say on the on both ends as well. So I feel like it's going to be a tough series. I think that the Kawhi is uncertainty is going to be something that makes things way hard on the Clippers, then it should be if he was completely fine.
But I think if this does go seven, the Clippers.
I feel like, getting home court advantage, they can win that game seven like they did back in twenty twenty one.
Yeah. I in terms of like the Kyrie Luca pairing, do you think that's working? Do you think that is something that's going to be a problem for the Clippers to stop? I guess, like, what if you're covering the Clippers, which you are if you're a Clipper fan, Like, what scares you the most about the mass I think.
What scares you the most is the fact that you don't know exactly how well they match up against the Mavericks because you haven't seen the version of the team that they are now, So you're betting on just your team being better than them.
It's really that simple.
Dallas has played the best basketball in the league in the Western Conference over the last quarter of the season, and they've done it in a way that we've never seen the Mavericks win before with Luka Doncic, and that's defensively, like they actually defended well. So when you look at that level of success, if nothing else, it gives Dallas a lot of confidence, and that when the way that they're playing, what gives the Clippers confidence is that the
Mavericks were playing teams like the Clippers. From a personnel standpoint, yes, the Mavericks have Kyrie Irving, they did not have that
level of shot creation to help Luca in. We're talking about guys like Trey Burke and the not all NBA version of Jalen Brunson, like Jalen didn't play in the bubble and Jalen let's just say that my vivid memory of Jalen Brunson in the twenty twenty one playoffs is Luke Canard coming into the game and stealing the ball from him, like not the Jalen Brunston that you saw against the Jazz and the Maverick or against the Suns in twenty twenty two, or the guy seeing one the
Knicks right now. So Kyrie's an upgrade there, But the Mavericks don't have a Chris as brasigis either. And even the version of Christafs that in twenty twenty one was basically diminished by his own coaching staff. You know, no post offs, they weren't going to give him the ball in his spots. Is everything catered to Luca everything?
Now, like you don't you don't have that mismatch up front, Like as good as.
Gafferd's playing as just better than Pj's ben in Dallas compared to Charlotte, guys are to.
I gotta ask you really quick. I played before the season for the second consecutive year, actually third Clippers NBA Finals prices eighteen to one. How nervous? Just should I be about this series against Dallas? I'm thinking about hedging and betting from Dallas? Man, Yeah, just tell me the truth because I want to believe. Man if Kawhi is healthy, I still believe, but I don't know. The last couple of weeks, I just don't feel as good.
Should I had?
Should I play some Dallas? Or do you feel good at least about the first round here?
Honestly?
If I I've hedged, like this is as toss up a series as it gets, I still feel like the Clippers can win it. I even feel like they can get a game or two if Kawhi is not there, Like that's how good the matchup I feel like is from a personnel standpoint for the Clippers. But that's no disrespect to the Mavericks. There's no disrespect to Luka Dacic. Like, the fact is this is going to be a really tough series. Toughest series to call, I feel like of all of them in the first round, no matter how
the playing tournament winds up. So I think the Clippers will win it. I wouldn't want to bet on it. That's that's my takeaway.
So the Timberwolves play the Suns in the last game of the season, and the Suns have been very erratic and now they have to play the Suns again. Anthony Edwards for whatever reason, law is just awful against the Suns. Feels like they got probably the worst matchup that they could have gotten in the first round. Oh, what do you think about this series? Like what are the key matchups? And like what makes the Sun so difficult on Minnesota.
I'm gonna just say this, this is the series where Anthony Edwards mid range game. This would be a great time for him to find it, and every nine again you see him had it. But I feel like the way that the Timberwlves play defense, this is the best defense in the NBA, and the Timberwolves, they they take the three ball away. They take a lot of what you want to do in isolation away. They have really Gobert waiting for you.
They have the.
Size right, but they give you the entire mid range because of all the things that they take away. And guess what, the Phoenix Suns live in the mid range.
So that's a problem the quarter.
Yeah, like the Suns are they they've become the most accurate three point shooting team over the last quarter of the season, and so that makes the Suns a little bit harder to defend because again, as good as Minnesota is taking the three ball away, it's still the three point shot in this era of the NBA. Like you got guys who can hit them. It's obviously a lot harder to defend the Suns. Really, they just haven't been shooting threes for most of the year, but now they're
starting to take more threes. This is their their jump shooting team and the way they can get those shots. Again, Minnesota, they want you to shoot in the mid range. But the problem with the Suns is they hit those shots. That's going to be a challenge for Minnesota defense. But again coming back to Minnesota's offense, they're inconsistent. They're trying
to work Karl Anthony Talons back. That's always hard when you played so long, and they played reasonably well without Cat, but now to get him back, they got to reintegrate that. And the thing with an is and is really good when he can kind of ease his way into games, he can eat his way into a series.
Probably you can't really do that.
He's gotta be a one from day one and wear number five. Let's see what he's got for the people.
Yeah, I'm surprised that the Sixers, I mean, I'm surprised that the Knicks wanted that two seed to play the loser of the or the winner of the Heat Sixer series instead of just playing the Pacers in that three to six matchup.
But here we are.
I placed a little Heat Future plus sixteen hundred to win the East just because it's April and that's when the Heat Thrive placed the Little Sixers Future just because you never know when Embiad's gonna be healthy. But like say, it's Heat versus the Celtics kind of feels like do or die for the Celtics in this one. Do you give the Heat a chance?
I think the Heat a chance simply because they're comfortable. You know, they would be comfortable in any playoff series like this is where exposor as you mentioned, this is where X sposter Jimmy Butler.
They thrive.
But my thing with the my thing with the Heat is they're so inconsistent. I'm not sure if they're going to survive the playing tournament. We saw last year they were the seven and dropped to eight and the Bulls were one quarter away from keeping them out of the playoffs. Now from there, he had a fortuitous run all the way to tying the NBA Finals, So the Heat are always going to have that benefited the doubt publicly and internally. But I feel like it's hard to bottle that up
every time. And this ain't the same Heat team. They don't have the same guys, Like I'm not sure how healthy Terrors here is. His neck has been an issue for a good week now, Duncan Robinson has been dealing with some things physically as well.
Tyler Herro is back.
But I just feel like the Heat, as much as their reputation precedes them.
It's going to be tough for them. It's going to be tough for.
Them to get by Philadelphia in the playing tournament, and if you got heat Celtics.
The Celtics are just so much better this year. They are so.
Much better equipped to make the Heat pay for the things that the heat will give you. They're another team where the heat they'll give you threes against certain teams that you know aren't great shooting teams. That's one thing against the most lethal three point shooting team in the entire league. I just think it's a bad matchup this year in the way that it wasn't last year.
Sticking in the East, what are your thoughts on Calves Orlando? Do you think Orlando's too young? Do you think that they could win this series? Where would you go in that one?
The Magic certainly aren't too young against a team like Cleveland. The Cleveland Cavaliers haven't done anything in the playoffs, So if you're a Magic, you're thrilled to face a team like the Cavaliers because there's no intimidation factor there. There's no like, oh, we're playing against a team like the Cavs. Are absolutely going to be playing desperate and hungry because of the experiences that they've had the last two years.
But the Magic that's I don't think that's a factor in a way that it would be if they're playing another team. I also think that the Magic they're a mature team, at least on the defensive end, beyond their years, like for a team to be that young. I mean the Thunder rightfully, so get the credit that they've gotten for the way that they've played with a young roster. But Orlando is the Eastern Conference version of that, and that's gonna make things hard on the Cleveland team that's
been rocky offensively, whether Donovan's been there or not. So I get the Magic more than a chance. I think that'll be a seven game series as well. It's gonna be a really difficult series to watch if you like offensive basketball, So apologies in advance. I think the NBA knows that too, so you might see that reflected in some broadcast decisions.
But I think the Orlando Magic don't be surprised if they squeaked that series out in the game seven.
What do you think about the Knicks? How far can they go? Because with Ogi and Obi they've been absolutely unreal.
I think that the Knicks got a great draw as far as how the bracket Brooks, So I mean they're gonna have a tough first round series anyway you look at it, dealing with either Joel Embiid or I think the Miami Heat would love to play the play the Knicks.
Obviously.
You saw last year, even with Julius Ranald there, it was a tough series and the Heat wound up winning it. Julius isn't even there, and I don't think that the Knicks have another level. The good thing is that they've been extremely good with og playing and I think that their ability to defend a lot more versatilely than they did when they had Julius that's gonna help. But like, I just feel like the Knicks played too many of
those guys. Like the minutes are crazy, and I think if there's one team that you can bet on to have some breakdowns due to fatigue, it's the New York Knicks. And that's not something that it's like, I don't want
to be right here. It's just that if you're reasonably looking at the playoffs and looking at workloads and seeing, okay, who has another level because they were man into a certain way because a team used their depth, well, the Knicks had to play guys forty minutes for most of the last quarter of this season, and I wonder how much of a toll that's going to take on a guy like Jalen Brunson who's been in absolute fulcrum of
offense for so long. Like, Okay, in the playoffs, let's just be real, it's easier to be physical with smaller guards. Take those guys out of their rhythm, make them more inefficient. And so I think the Knicks they can get.
To the conference finals.
But I don't expect any of those guys that you saw the way they played in the regular season have another level to be significantly better in the playoffs.
Got about a minute. Just want to go back to the West really fast about Oka. See, say they play a team like the Warriors, which kind of feels like the matchup they're gonna get, maybe even the Kings, But I think the Warriors, Like, how do you think OKAC matches up with them? Say they end up playing the Lakers. Obviously Lakers are much bigger team. Like, what do you think about the Thunder in this West?
I think the Thunder will be thrilled to just avoid the Lakers. I think the Lakers are the only team that gave the Thunder a real problem because.
Of the size, because of the fact that.
The Thunder they want you to shoot, but the Lakers don't really care, and the Lakers are a little bit more virtual offensively. Anyway, that size and the respect of the officials whistle, let's just call it what it is. That's that's tough on a team like the Thunder. Like the Thunder, or they're gonna struggle defensively against that level of expertise, Like that's the one team where you go, Okay, the years are gonna matter, the experience is gonna matter.
Everybody else, they're gonna be fine. And that's scary for the Western Conference that that team is.
They're gonna be fine. Golden State.
We saw early in the season when the courts were painted with the end season tournaments. We saw early how good that the Thunder were going to be in a matchup with those guys. Steve Kerr thought that there was confidence there, and it took the rest of November for the Thunder to make it clear that that.
Was in the case. So watch out for you them.
Low, Thanks so much, man, and join the playoffs. We'll talk again soon, all right.
Thank you guys.
That's all the time when we ask for this episode of the Heat Check. Thanks to law Murray for swinging by. Come back on tomorrow as we have more information breaking down the playoff seedings and the playing teams. Check out the feeds for past episodes as many episodes which drop onexpectedly like Tyrese Maxi and the Most Improved Player award standings. Do not forget the follow the Heat Check as we head into the playoffs. That means download, let me subscribe.
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