You're tuned into heat Check, buttal quick on this episode of the Heat Check.
The first weekend of the NBA Playoffs are here and they did not disappoint. We got upsets in Milwaukee and Phoenix, we got blowouts in Denver and Philly, and of course we have drama baby between our dogs and the Bean team the Sacramento Kings. I'm here to break it all down for you, So Nick my man, drop that generic ass beat that should be Rihanna.
So the first weekend.
Of the playoffs has come and gone, and we have some storylines already that are brewing. What I'm gonna give you is my three things that I found interesting from each of the series, beginning out West, ending with my breakdown of the Warriors and the Kings, because as you know, I'm in the grind and I am in Sacramento, but I did want to get you caught up for So let's start out West, where three of the four series got interesting really fast. Let's start in Memphis, Lakers Grizzlies.
Fascinating game. Fascinating game, full of good, bad, and mostly ugly for the Grizzlies. They end up losing to the Lakers one eight one twelve. So it was the blowout, folks. They pull out a row win, they steal home court from the number two team in the West, And yeah, I think a lot of people saw that coming, right. I think a lot of people said the matchups don't favor the Grizzlies because there's no Steven Adams, there's no Brandon Clark, and what is Xavier Y Chilman gonna do.
He's gonna get eaten alive by Anthony Davis. But the way that it ended up happening was in a way that nobody did see coming.
So here are the three things that I took away from this game.
First, the Lakers beat the Grizzlies on their home court despite the fact that Anthony day To Davis got injured in that game. It nullified him essentially in the second half. That was huge. Everybody says that if Anthony Davis isn't healthy, this team is cooked.
They were not cooked. When Anthony Davis could not lift his arm.
He was out there in the second half barely able to function, and he was a non factor offensively in the second half. So despite that, this team can win without him in the short term. Second, the Grizzlies dared the Lakers role players to beat him, and they lost.
They did.
Ruey Hatchi Murray had twenty nine and six, mostly on uncontested shots. In the postgame, Desmond Bain admitted that was slightly a flaw in our system. Let's see if Ruey can do it again. These role players were gonna make them beat us every single time. But the problem is Rouy only has to do it for one game. He did it once. They got their job done and now the Lakers all they have to do is continue to
hole home court. And understanding the Laker role players means looking at Lebron as well, because Lebron another thing to think about. Ron just took one shot in the fourth quarter, only why so that he could get the ball to Ruey Hachimura and Austin Reeves. They were combined nine for ten from the floor in the fourth quarter.
Think about that.
Lebron James, the fourth quarter man, the clutchman himself, deferred to Austin Reeves and Ruey Hotchi Mura and it paid off.
So if you're the Grizzlies.
Thirdly, you must be in panic mode because Ja Morant hurt himself. Not only did he hurt his wrist. He's doubtful for Game two and maybe longer. But the truth is that he was hurt five minutes left in the game, and he just really wasn't a factor in that game. Jaron Jackson Junior played really well. He had thirty one, four and five, and they still got dogwalk. You're gonna need big performances out of Jaren to just compete. Imagine
how much things can change. The Lakers were cooked, they didn't even look like a plan team, and now it feels like they could possibly sweep the Grizzlies.
Let's move on to Heat versus Bucks. What happened there?
I mean, in a nutshell, Jannis got hurt before you know, the second if I think before the first quarter even ended, right, he seems to be okay. It's a tailbone issue, but they were getting blown out before Yannis even left the court. He'll be banged up, of course, in the short term moving forward, But listen, man, if you don't have Giannis, you're essentially a seventh seed. The Heat had a lead pretty much all game before and after Jannis left the court.
Jannis might miss Game two. Tailbone injuries are no joke. I mean Steph missed I think ten games with a tailbone injury. He had to wear a diaper when he came back, So it's gonna be really interesting to see what happens with Giannis. More importantly, though, Tyler Hero broken hand drained a corner three with a broken hand out for the rest of the playoffs.
Massive loss to.
The Heat that he and are one of those teams that when they are streaking and when they are hitting threes, they are really really good, and when they're not, they fucking stink. The team against the Bucks shot sixty five percent from three. That's gonna be something that you need to look out moving forward Without Tyler Herro. What is the solution to replace Tyler Hero? Do not say Duncan Robinson.
Do not say that he got six minutes in the entire game, and he's that's probably the amount that he's gonna get all serious. His agent probably called Spolster and said, we need six minutes for Duncan sometime. Probably gonna need a big Oladipo game, Probably gonna need a big Caleb Martin game. Probably gonna need a big Gay Visit game. I don't love that for the Heat. Second, the Bucks need to find someone they can hit a three. They were pathetic. It was fucking horrible. They were twenty four
percent from three. That's not gonna get it done. Jay Crowder very streaky player. Bobby port Is very streaky player. Middleton and Drew you need more from They were all combined four for twenty five. You cannot, you cannot, You cannot do that.
You cannot do that. Joe Ingles he played pretty well from three. Maybe you feature him more.
God he's slow. Goran Dragic got a DMP. Maybe he's a part of that answer listen. And thirdly, it's the Jimmy Butler show. Forty three minutes was the most all day by any player. He was on the court pretty much the entire time. He's gonna try to will this team in the second round, and it's just we know it's not gonna happen, but playoff. Jimmy Butler is a real force. I think he had thirty five, five and eleven. I think he had three steals. But that bench, that
bench for the heat is fucking awful. Kyle Lowry can't be the one who helps you. He's just the kind of guy that gives you thirty one one night gives you two the next he's a bad lawnmower with a bad spark plug, like you don't know if it's gonna start or not on any given day. But this is a weird series. Both teams feel like they're equally in trouble. Felt very very sure that the Bucks were going to be able to take this in five, maybe even in four.
But if Giannis is out, I don't know. They live and die with Giannis. If he's hurt, you.
Rest him as long as you can as necessary, but hopefully not so long that you can't crawl out of a hole. Very very interesting series. Did not see that heat went coming Clippers versus the Suns. You look at the box score, you see the Clippers pull out an upset. They take game one one fifteen one ten in the valley, and you say, wow, probably you know, probably big Nick Batoomb game, Like wow, Russ must have had twenty five or thirty. But no, the game was not at all
what you thought. It was the Kawhi show, of course, and he did not disappoint. Thirty eight points, including a clutch dagger after clutch dagger in the second half, he was hitting threes. He looked really, really good. On the flip side, KD carried the Suns, was seventeen in the second quarter. Didn't look good in the first quarter. And the problem though with the Suns is that KD did not take a shot in the final five minutes of the game. That's a big problem. Moni did not learn
his mistakes from last year. Dude ran out eleven players, which is pretty insane considering that their bench is fucking awful.
You know that the bench stinks.
We've always known that, ever since Kevin dray Trent Kevin Durant trade went down. We do not need to see Landry Schmidt and ish Wayne Wright in clutch time. We do not many Williams. Why are you getting out coached? From the time that you played the Bucks till now. DeAndre Ayton figures to be non factor. I don't know what's happening with him, but he's not a guy that you can really rely on to get you late end of the game buckets.
He's not in any rhythm.
The Clippers are giving him all kinds of space to shoot mid range jumpers, and he's shooting him and he's he's largely missing them. There is no world that DeAndre Ayton should be shooting more shots than Kevin Durant and Devin Booker just can't. And it's where you're shooting him, it's when you're shooting him.
Mostly ten fifteen foot jumpers. I don't I don't like that.
DeAndre Ayten needs to attack the rim a lot more for the Suns to really be in it.
This is a really good team. They should beat the Clippers.
But now when you're taking the ball out of Kadi's hands, Devin Booker's hands, and even to a small degree, Chris Paul's hands, like you look at it, and he's going up against Ayton, is going up against Zubac, plumb Lee and Batoum. None of them have more than four fouls. You have to get them into foul trouble if you're gonna win those games. And we've got to give Tylero some love, right, Like he's a really really good coach,
really really good coach. There's a million strategy decisions that you can break down, from how smart his rotations are to the decision to play Kawhi finally forty two minutes. Like I said, Jimmy Butler only played more minutes yesterday than Kawhi. That's the only player on the floor that played more. That's wild considering how listen like, TYLERU got a lot of shit for load managing Kawhi, he really did.
Kind of feels like skip minutes in March to use them in April, May and June might actually make sense. Tyler should get all the flowers, listen, and he should get all the flowers for this. Russell Westbrook was not believed in in La at all, and he came to the Clippers and Tyler said, we're gonna let Russell Westbrook be him and people thought he was crazy. But that loyalty and belief in Russell Westbrook is what won them
the game. Russell Westbrook won the Clippers that game. He had the worst shooting game of his entire playoff career, which was three for nineteen, and yet in the final two minutes he was the most impactful guy on the court. He was hunting for his shots, he was swatting balls away, he was playing incredibly good defense. Russ went to the bench in the third quarter when the Clippers were down double digits.
Kawhi made a run.
It was a four point lead, and it felt like Russ was never going to see the court again. But you know what, Tyde put him back in and he let him control the offense all the way to the end of the game. He didn't give a shit whether his shot was He was his usual Tasmanian devil self. In the final two minutes, he attacked the rim, he got fouled, he made two huge free throws. With seventeen seconds left, he made the game saving defensive play on Devin Booker. Like he made six plays in the final
two minutes that won the Clippers the game. Without him, they don't win that game. So that's a really, really interesting matchup. Can't wait to see. I think it might be a long series. Actually I thought this would be four or five to six games. I think it might go seven.
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 Yokics is very different than himself. In the regular season, he had thirteen, four and six in 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 that 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 KCP 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.
Jokicch to go off for forty.
You don't you have guys along the way that 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, I think the thing somebody mentioned to me was like.
Wow, 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 this 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 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, may be 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 seven verse Marcus Smart, reigning Defensive Player of the Year sixteen possessions, five points, two for six shooting, Versus 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 the sho 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 ide a negative plus minus min 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 like 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 gutty 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 is just that Jalen Brunson and Josh Hard are like peas and carrots.
Heart was eight for eleven for seventeen. Brunson went off for twenty seven. That's forty four for the 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 Brunson had the ball on his hands for the final minute and there was some timely offensive rebounding that.
Went into the books for a nixt 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 them.
Secondly, they made life so uncomfortable for Darius Garland, trapping him the entire game. They forced them 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 Cabs are going to 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 change 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 them, I think the Calves lose by twenty. Well, without them, the Calves aren't even there. Calves are probably just a playing team that just gets bounced. I think there's a good chance the series goes 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 gonna be a role player like Michal Bridges who could help you compete. But when PJ. Tucker is hitting early threes, you know it's going to be a bad night. 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 Nick Claxton, you're too small. Joel can facilitate around you. It is hard for anyone to defend Joel Emba, 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, embat seems fine.
But the more 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 was 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. Mckal Bridges is him. Mckl 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 first seaund draft picks for McHale. He's a number one option. He's 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 on 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 him. 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 are always one injury away from disaster, Let's talk a little.
Bit about this King's Warriors game.
The atmosphere was crazy. People were giving me a hard time, like I've never been to an NBA arena because I said that they had this whole thing planned. This is the first time they've been in the playoffs in seventeen years, first time in Golden One, so they wanted to do it upright. They had black lights and the whole thing. And if you follow me on social media, you know that I'm out here. I'm out here in Sacramento right now.
But I want to give an up close and personal look about that insane game.
One. Here are some random thoughts. One Alex Len.
I did not expect him to go crazy. I did not expect Alex len sanity. Did anybody? Did anybody think he was going to be a difference maker in this game? Besides Mike Brown. Mike Brown was coaching his ass off, boy, because Alex lenn was a largely forgotten big man that they got from the Wizards, and he was a plus ten in that game in thirteen minutes. Trey Lyles another impactful role player on this team. I saw him practicing.
He was the last guy on the court right before the game time, and I was like, wow, he's hit fifty consecutive threes in a row. He was four for six from three, had sixteen points off the bench. I think without Trey Lyles they lose game one absolutely. Number three, Darren Fox has shown the world that he might be better than Drammeran. We'll talk about this another time in a deep dive, but I think you could make the case statistically that that Jaw does less things well than Fox.
And now Fox on a national stage, you got Stephen A. Smith apologizing to him. You know you've made it. He's the best clutch player in the NBA for a reason, and that was exactly what he did against the Warriors. He hit clutch shot after clutch shot, especially when Steph curries throwing Haymakers at you. Oh man, I tell you what he arrived. Darren Fox has arrived. Wiggins looks really good, doesn't look like he's out of shape. Hit a bunch
of good shots, defended well. If he's playing thirty forty minutes, that's gonna be tough.
He was one for eight from three. I do not expect that to continue.
Harrison Barnes had some big moments. I thought he was really impactful. He had this one step back that it was like, oh no, Harrison, Oh yes, Harrison, But you didn't expect him to shoot it.
He did.
He had thirteen points, one for three from three. But man, that three pointer was clutch. I tell you what. Kevon Looney had just hit two free throws. They had made it a one possession game with two forty nine left, and Barnes just blew the entire arena up with a clutch three to put him up six. Every time the Warriors clawed, somebody responded, which I think was really the story for the Warriors is every time the Warriors did
Warriors things, the Kings responded like they were the Warriors. Lastly, like, there's no real answer for Milik Monk. I don't know that this team can stop him. He was fourteen for fourteen from the free throw line, but he was slicing through that defense like a knife through hot butter, or a hot knife through butter.
He's too athletic for them. He is.
He's gonna get Kevon Looney in foul trouble. He sees that he's faster, he sees that he's more crafty. Yes, maybe he's a wildcard from a shooting standpoint, but if he's getting into the lane, which I think that the defense is going to allow him to do. I mean, you can see Milik Monk easily getting twenty five points to night finish it up with some quick thoughts, quick hitters. The refs were terrible, uh Kevon Looney was really good
against the Bonus, not so great against the guards. He could end up getting I think ran off the floor by you know, guys like Mike Mounk. I think both teams are gonna push the pace a lot. Mike Brown and Steve Kerr talked about it before the game that they're gonna actually go faster than they do in the regular season.
And listen, like, I don't think you can count on Sabonis. I don't.
He's not gonna put up a lot of points in the series. It's a very bad matchup for him. He's gonna eat from the rebounds. But outside of that, I don't see him ever getting twenty points in this series. Both teams, though offensively started so bad from three, there's gonna be a lot more offense to be had.
It still hit the over and they started off slow.
At one point, the Kings were like, I think four for twenty one.
Everybody thinks that they feel good about.
The Warriors and r Dubs, but the Kings at one point were, oh, I scolled and they were only down twelve. If they come out like themselves, this could get ugly, really really fast. A couple of other points really quick before we go to game two. It was interesting seeing the game up close and then see how the national media talks about the King's victory, and not surprisingly, most of them are spinning it in the warriors favor. But let's face it, like it's Golden State. Golden State's the
marquee team of the league. That's why they're on national TV and other teams like okay see, and the Kings aren't. I can explain why that is. I think that they're just a team that is centering itself in every conversation. The national narratives push this at every opportunity. This is what the Athletic wrote. The Warriors lost Game one, but it felt like they won something too. They finally got
Wiggins back and he's ready for this. In game one, he galloped all over the floor blogging it three or high four shots, made seven of this first twelve, and played twenty eight rowdy minutes. Like, I don't know that I would put Andrew Wiggins in that light. He was good, but I don't think he's just this monster that's gonna turn Golden State into some sort of powerhouse against the Kinks. Here's another example of a pregame of what ESPN hid like.
The entire thing was going off, you know.
Lasers, stroll lights, black lights, and what we got instead was woes breaking down. Clay wanting a two hundred million max contract this year. I don't think that that's something that anybody cares.
About right now. I just don't. I just don't.
I don't think we care about contract situations in game one of the first round of an NBA playoff game, but it was one of the loudest environments I've ever seen. It was one of the coolest moments for a fan base that needs it. I just wanted ESPN to show it. The sizzle for Game two is ESPN showing twenty four different shots to Steph Curry and nothing else. Even the cable description says that the Warriors already won Game one. The disrespect is real. I will be out west through
Game four. You'll be getting a lot of reports from on the ground. Follow me on social media at this heat Check, at Trista Creek on Twitter and ig this heat Check on YouTube.
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It is been busy. I've got to go on DL and Casey right now, talk to some of the folks from BETMGM tonight later on as well, but I will be on the ground. I will continue to post.
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