Wolves at Denver gross worst game of the weekend by far. That's why it was on Sunday night. For East Coast fans, you're probably in bed.
It's one am. It's one am on the East Coast, no fucking shot.
Everyone knew that it was gonna be bad because the game went off at ten thirty West Coast time, ten thirty East Coast time. Excuse me, half the country was sound asleep by halftime. You're not gonna see King's Warriors in that death slot. You're not gonna see Clippers Sons in the death slot. You give it to Denver. Here are my takeaways. Playoff Yokicic is here and he's really good. Playoff Yokic is different than anybody else. Playoff Yokic is
very different than himself. In the regular season, he had thirteen four and six and twenty eight minutes and he fouled out with the Nuggets up twenty.
But in the first quarter of first half, they just went.
To him time and time and time and time again, facilitating perfectly sweeping the boards, going up against multiple seven footers, and just being the MVP that everybody knows he has been so second. Another point is the Nuggets are just really really good. The Nuggets are really efficient. They have multiple guys they can get you fifteen points. Aaron Gordon had thirteen, Porter had eighteen, Jokic thirteen, Jamal Murray twenty four.
He was kind of the leading scorer.
On that team, and ksep with fifteen, Bruce Brown off the bench fourteen. So it was probably the most balanced scoring effort of any team in the playoffs this year. And you don't need a guy like NICOLEA. Jokicic to go off for forty, you don't. You have guys along the way they can help you with thirteen, twelve, fifteen, seventeen along the way. Really hard to beat a team like that. If you have to defend every single player and there is no weakness and they can all shoot
and score, that's tough. That's a really tough team to beat. And then you know, the thing somebody mentioned to me was like, wow, a Michael Porter Junior is a de wildcard, And I said, well, I think this is a team full of wildcards. You never know what you're gonna get from MPJ, but you also don't know what you're gonna get from KCP. KCP could give you five for six from three, and he could also go zero for nine from three day to day. The Nuggets are like night
and day. Thirdly, man the Wolves, the Wolves are They're just not themselves. They've played two playoff games already. They might have been gassed coming to Mile High in Denver, but I don't really care. This is a team with Rudy and Kat on the floor that does not make an ounce of sense. And we know that Rudy got ran off the floor again. He was in negative twenty eight and twenty seven minutes because the Nuggets exposed him. Karl Anthony Towns was better, but listen, this roster is
getting exposed. They miss Jaden McDaniels, they miss nas Reed, and I'm not really sure that they can keep up with his Denver team without that defense.
The series is gonna be over fast.
Game three is the key Nuggets can win against the Wolves on the road.
It's probably night Night sleep mask.
So Celtics Hawks another one that's gonna be over fast? Is this series over before it started? Celtics blew the doors off the Hawks in Game one. They built the lead of like twenty fast and in the process served everybody in the NBA. The Boston Celtics are back right that they actually are, especially with Giannis going down, Maybe the team to be in the East. Three takeaways. Trey Young sucks. He's terrible in playoffs. He just really is. Whatever his point number is when you're betting him, just
take the under every single time. Is the fun levels are at an all time low for portray According to Dan Greenberg, how bad is it Trey Young versus the Celtics guards well versus Derek White. He had thirty one possessions six points and went two for s verse Marcus Smart, reigning Defensive Player of the Year sixteen possessions five points, two for six shooting, verse. Malcolm Brogden two possessions, zero points, zero for one shooting. There is nobody that he can
score on. Derek White's probably a shoe in for all defensive NBA team. Brogden has a defensive rating of one to twelve point six this year, which is about the same as Derek Whites. I have no idea how Trey Young is going to be able to get loose. Second, the Celtics are going to dominate and manage to dominate the Hawks, despite the fact that Robert Williams was a non factor. He was legit the only player on the roster wide a negative plus minus minus seven, and this
was despite going six for six from the field. I don't think he's the same player, and I do not think it matters against a team like the Hawks. And Boston doesn't need him to beat Atlanta. They're one hundred percent going to need him to beat the Sixers. But old boy, listen, the Hawks feel they're.
In trouble if Trey continues.
Thirdly, his run of mediocre play in Atlanta, does this mean he's getting traded? I don't mean to be woo Janowski right now and like move forward too far. But Quinn Snyder is a good coach and he was brought on to suss out whether Trey Young is the future point guard for this team. And they do feel like they have some major issues to contend with because they've
got Dejonte Andre. If Quinn Snyder wants to build this team to be beating the rest of these Eastern Conference teams like the Celtics and like the Sixers, and I just showed you all of his stats that were booboo, what is he gonna do? This series could be over and four and Trey Young could be moved to some random team in the offseason. Knicks versus Cavs. What a fascinating matchup this is. I think everybody expected it to
go seven, and I think it still will. Nick stole home court right out from under Cleveland with performances from their star, a buddy game from Julius Randall, but also Josh Hart.
Josh Hart is so good on this team.
That first round pick that they had to give up to get him is worth every single penny. First off, the takeaways that it is just that Jalen Brunson and Josh Hard like peas and carrots. Heart was eight for eleven for seventeen, Brunson went off for twenty seven. That's forty four for two guys in the backcourt that went to school together at Villanova. When you can get that, it's really hard to beat somebody. When Hart is coming
off the bench and giving you fifteen plus. Jalen Brunston had the ball on his hands for the final minute and there was some timely offensive rebounding that went into the books for a Nicks win. But listen, you also had a timely bucket from Josh Hart. They're not the most talented team, but boy did they find a way to scheme to make Darius Garland uncomfortable.
They just bodied him.
Secondly, they made life so uncomfortable for Darius Garland, trapping him the entire game. They forced him into five turnovers and he had seventeen points on seven for thirteen shooting.
He was just a wounded duck, Just a wounded duck.
Josh Hart Emmanuel quickly and Garland didn't put up a single shot in the second half. So I think the Calves are gonna have to figure out a way to fix that. They apparently say that they're going to be more physical in game two because Darius Garland said that the refs let them play a lot.
However, the refs changed game to game folks.
He said, we need to hit first and see how the refs react instead of being punched in the face and just laying down.
We're gonna see how that turns out.
The last takeaways that Donovan Mitchell is worth every single cent he is him.
He's single handedly.
Brought the Calves back almost one of the game too. They didn't have any business being in the game, but Donovan Mitchell had thirty eight six threes, and without him, I think the Calves lose by twenty. Well, without him, the Caves aren't even there. Calves are probably just a playing team that just gets bounced. I think there's a good chances the series go seven Net Sixers. I mean, this is like the Wolves versus the Nuggets. It's a mismatch.
We kind of knew it was going to be. We were hoping that there was going to be a role player like Michel Bridges who could help you compete.
But when PJ. Tucker is hitting early threes, you know it's going to be a bad night.
The Sixers I think they won every single quarter and they did three takeaways from the game.
Joel is activated.
Playoff mode is really really good. The box score doesn't look like he did anything twenty six to five and three, but he was throwing his round with reckless abandon The Nets have no answer. They have no answer for Joel embiid nck Claxton. You're too small. Joel can facilitate around you. It is hard for anyone to defend joelmb which we know. The problem though, is that he took another bad fall. Every time that happens. The entire Sixers fan base just
gasps this time. This time mbat seems fine. But the Maury it's the ground boy, the more likely he's gonna get hurt.
This version. Secondly, of James Harden is very dangerous.
Harden at twenty three points and thirteen assists for a game high of plus twenty, he is the most impactful guy on the court. He's probably one of the best passers in the league, and after really a different renaissance of him being the best scorer in the league, his transformation, I think.
Is just very impressive.
As long as his hamstring, his achilles, his feet hold up, I think that this team's dangerous. And thirdly, I don't care that the nets are getting blown out. Mckail bridges is him. Mckal bridges is the man too. He had thirty like clockwork. Every single game. He's seemingly putting up thirty. How good is he? I think that there are now multiple fan bases that want to give up four or five for Seawn draft picks for McHale. He's a number
one option. He's very, very, very good. He's probably close to being an All NBA player at thirty and five, playing elite defense if the Nets keep them, and they're already calling in Brooklyn Bridges, so I feel like I feel like they do want to keep them, They're going
to need to add another star around them. I don't see this series going long, so I don't have a lot of things to say, but the Nets are going to need to figure out something defending the home court well against the Sixers, and they're always one injury away from disaster.