It is the end of the season, and at this point we're all pretty much playing hurt. Someone I met today, an insider friend of show, Jake Fisher, told me, I sound like I have been smoking two packs of cigarettes for the last two weeks at night, So sounds like my voice is starting to go on me.
But the show continues.
The show continues because we got some things to do. Let's start first before we break down on what happened the first playing games.
I have a gripe to get off my chest. Hey, Adam Silver, can.
You use your hammer of justice to officially make the playing games count as playoff games? Can we get some stats? Can those stats count for something? Because what most people don't know that stats from playing games don't count towards the regular season. They don't count towards the playoffs. They're just lost. They're just gone. They count for nothing, They're gone forever. Even Basketball Reference, which I couldn't live one day without, doesn't even have play in stats when you
call up a player's season game log. So what do you have to do? You have to go into the individual games themselves. Do you remember when Jason Tatum put up fifty on the Wizards in the twenty twenty Playing Game. Good luck finding that, good luck seeing that it was real. Jason Tatum's gonna tell his son that Duce Tatum when Duce Tatum's like ten years old. And then Duce Tatum's gonna be like, prove it to me. You can't do those stats count towards his career totals.
Who the fuck knows? I don't know. Fix this.
Otherwise, people are gonna think that the playing game is an exhibition game because finding Summer League stats, I think, is easier than find stats for the play in games.
I digress.
Fascinating things happened in the first Playing games. Mostly they have to do with the teams that lost, though, So okay, Miami, they were the number one seed in the East last year, might not make the playoffs this year.
The Pelicans one of the.
Most exciting teams coming into the season this year. They were at one point this season the best team in the West. They were number one in the West before if a Zion got hurt, we were all excited about what they would do. They took Phoenix to the brink last year, and you know what, They're gonna watch the playoffs from the couch three to two, one can coon, so it goes. The Wolves were considered to be one
of the best young hot teams. They made the move for Rudy Gobert so that they could win right now. And you know what they're doing. They are hoping upon all hope that they can they can beat the OKC.
Thunder tomorrow or tonight and the Raptors. The Raptors were so exciting. The Raptors.
Everyone had these huge expectations for them. You have multiple players used to play defense, and you know what you do. You get cooked by DeMar DeRozan and Zach Lavine. You don't make the playoffs. And now you're rebuilding.
All of these teams.
Have had success recently, had high expectations, and now they're at the crossroads. You're gonna probably either see roster rebuilds or coaching changes in all of those scenarios.
That's the thing. That's the thing about expectations.
If you perform ahead of schedule and then you take a step back, oftentimes you pay a price.
People are like, what are we doing? What's wrong with Toronto? What's wrong with the Pelicans. It's like, I don't know, Like CJ.
McCollum, Torres Labram, I don't know his thumb also torn, like Brendon Ingram was insane, like Herb Jones can't shoot threes, like have you seen a three point shot?
It's a push shot. It's a ten year old girls push shot and probably even worse than that. What are we doing?
And now we've got issues? Right onto the games and their implications. Hawks won sixteen one oh five to the Heat. I thought there was no chance for the Atlanta Hawks.
None.
Hawks pulled a major upset to the fact that all seventeen ESPN commentaars picked the Heat to beat him. De Jon Tay Murray tweeted the jokes on you when he heard this, because the reality is, the joke is on all of us. It wasn't because we underestimated the Hawks. It was because we overestimated the Heat. The heat fucking suck.
Okay, we're gonna.
Talk a little bit later about how Brian Windhorst thinks that Damian Lillard's going to the Heat.
And to that end, I say, for who, for who do we want? Who?
The Blazers want, No one, no one on that god forsaken team. There is real trouble brewing in Miami, and it might end up that the roster all together just disintegrates. Eric Spolstra might end up having to find a new job. I was asked before the BETMGM show, my betting show, on a scale of one to ten, one being zero and ten being very confident, how confident are you that the Hawks can pull up an upset against the Heat, And I said one.
I said one.
There's no chance the Hawks suck. The Heat missed fifteen layups. I think it was like saran wrap was around the rim. You had Quinn Snyder coaching his little lass off out there. You had Spo looking shook. They out rebounded the Miami Heat by a gajillion. I think Capella had twenty one rebounds. The high low action between Bam on Bam and Lowry, it was like mouse.
In the house, Mouse and the house. It was one of those.
Scenarios where you're like, oh yeah, like it's never really close. Heat can make a couple of runs and Atlanta just keeps extending said lead. You could see the riding on the wall as it went on. You can see almost the future of the two teams in front of you playing right. You're like oh, like, actually, the future's.
Kind of bright for the Hawks.
I can see what they're trying to do, Like, oh, I see guys moving without the basketball.
I see it.
You see Miami and you're like, oh god, Miami, I think is done. Kyle Lowry, where's he been? Came out of retirement for this game?
He played.
I think he played all the minutes. I think he went on a fast for this. He had over thirty. It did not matter. Trey played well, Dejonte played well on Yeka Akongu was incredible five for six, twelve points, twenty minutes plus seven. Sidik Bay was everywhere. That team looked good. It was really cool too to see how the Hawks moved without the ball. It's exactly the type of offense that Quinn Snyder wanted to run in Utah.
It's just like so simple a change.
I don't know, is it weird to say that, Like when you move without the basketball, when and just continue to do it and pass to those people who are moving that it's like hard to get open shots. It's weird that people just don't do that. They just stand around the perimeter and hope that they're going to get open.
It's like very of and simple that, Hey, when you don't have the ball, why don't you cut, cut to the lane, cut away from the lane, literally instrument some sort of motion offense, and then pass to the guys that are moving like that.
That's what it was.
Sidiq Bay was everywhere looking like Gary Payton the second cut into the basket, deflecting balls, hitting timely three. He's like, oh wow, like Sideique Bay, get him out of Detroit, get him with a real coach, and Jesus Christ, sidek Bay's pretty good. Now, the Hawks take on the Celtics, and I'll just say this, the Hawks already have dismantled one franchise in the East. You better watch out or Jalen Brown's gonna go somewhere else. I'm not saying that
the Hawks have a chance to beat the Celtics. I'm just saying that they're not going to roll over. And Quinn Snyder's for real. Quinn Snyder is coaching this team much better than Lloyd Pierce or Nate mcmellan ever did. This is what a real coach looks like. Uh, let's see how Rob Williams looks. Because Capella and a Coongwu are coming for him. If his knee isn't right, we'll have to see. I'm really excited too to see Trey Young versus Marcus Smart. Trey averages twenty six, eight and
three against Boston in his career. He's already had thirty one, four and eleven this year. And then outside of that in Miami, the nails in the coffin, they're already dead. The Bulls are gonna slice them and dice them and eat them for breakfast.
No chance. It's time for South Beach to go on vacation.
It's been an incredible year, an incredibly bad one, and it's time for them to make some choices moving forward. Lakers won o eight, Wolves one oh two. Oh my god, what was that game? The game stunk. It was the most It was the most dramatic and bad fourth quarter I think I've ever seen. I think that the Wolves put up twelve points in the fourth quarter.
Lebron James was a freak.
He played forty five out of the fifty three minutes, including all of overtime, Ade chipped in.
Oh yeah.
By the way, Lebron had thirty ten and six with the steal and two blocks. Anthony Davis was really good twenty four, fifteen and five. He had two steals, three blocks, and listen, the problem for Minnesota and for Karl Anthony Towns is that Karl Anthony Towns is just not that guy.
You can't have him be the tone setter.
You just can't because when he's setting the tone, he's fouling guys and getting into trouble. He had I think two thousand in like two minutes. All of a sudden, he's sitting on the bench because he's got three fouls in the first half or something like that. You have to figure out a way to stay on the floor, Karl Anthony Towns.
That's the point. You have no center.
Rudigobert is nowhere to be found. He's been sent away from the team jettison, and that's all you have is you. It's it's crazy. The Wolves still had a chance to win. Even with all that, they still had a chance to win. Mike Conley is really good. You see why they brought him in. Uh Anthony Edwards was again nothing. He was dealing with the shoulder issue. I think he was zero for nine from three. Continued to chuck, wasn't a great, didn't use his athleticism at all.
It was just one of.
Those scenarios where you're wondering, where is the guy that shows up in these big moments. Will the fighting frenchman o huh Rudy Goldbert ahu monteur Rudy. Will he be a factor in this next game?
We'll have to see.
As for the Lakers, man, you gotta give him a gritty win for that. They look like they were on the ropes. They look like they were dead, and now they take on a Memphis team without Steven Adams, without Brandon Clark, and a Jaren Jackson who's just basically like Karl Anthony town is a guy who's a undersized five who should really play four, who's always in foul trouble, and the backup is Xavier Tillman. So it's not really a great scenario. Is Anthony Davis going to eat these
boys for lunch? Probably as long as Anthony Davis is healthy, the Lakers should win this series. A DLLO was a massive disappointment against the Grizzlies last year in the playoffs. How will he redeem himself. We're gonna have to see. But he's up for a contract, and if he doesn't play well.
In the playoffs.
I don't know that the Lakers want to extend him. To me, the X factor is Dennis Shooter. He was incredible in that game against the Tea Wolves. Everywhere he was pretty much the only guy that you could rely on to hit timely shots. He was deflecting balls, he was defensively everywhere.
It's gonna be interesting.
It's probably the best matchup for the Lakers that they could ask for, because why because the Grizzlies can't shoot threes and neither can the Lakers. That's pretty much it. You saw Darvin Ham go away from all the guys that he traded for, which I thought was hilarious. They were all sitting their asses on the bench and it was just the normies. Austin reeves. We need to have a big series for them. If there is an upset in the first round that happens, I think.
That this is it right here.
Moving forward, Bulls won oh nine Raptors one oh five. What a fucking game that was. Raptors get out.
To a massive lead.
Credit to the Bulls. They do not give up. They turn their season around. Everyone thought that they were dead. All they did was pick up it. Was just Pat Beverly, wasn't it?
It was just him?
All of a sudden, there are one of the better teams in the East since the trade deadline.
This team is now dangerous.
They upset a Raptors team that most people thought would have very little problem winning this game. I think the Raptors closed as six and a half point favorites. Midway through the third the Raptors were up fifteen points and then the Bulls just locked in. Oh my god, you can't let Zach Lavine slice you like a hot knife through butter. I think he had what fourteen in the third quarter.
Can't you? You can't do that. You cannot do that.
That's the problem with fucking around with a team with a couple of superstars and a couple of gritty, defensive dudes. Levine had almost forty, had thirty nine points, DeRozan had twenty three. You had those two things together, and that's hard to compete with. They missed eighteen of thirty six frets.
Why what happened?
Well, Demart de Rosen brought his nine year old daughter there and she screamed, blood curdling, bloody murder. In the six in Toronto, he brought her to Toronto so that she can scream murder every time that a Raptor went to the free throw line. Now, it's a long offseason for the Raptors.
Just like Kylie.
Anderson said, you've got a lot of decisions to make during the summer. Nick Nurse probably gone, Pascal may be gone, Og may be gone, Fred van Fleet for sure gone, Gary Trent probably gone. So we could have just the Scottie Barn summer and that's it.
It might just be a rebuilding team and a bunch of draft picks. OKC one twenty three.
New Orleans Pelicans won eighteen man Man oh man, was that.
A good one? Okase?
He's a gritty, little fun team, aren't they. Lou Dort was incredible. He was hitting threes upon threes.
He was making your rain.
The Pelicans were containing Shay and you had to say to yourself, at some point, he's going to be able to break through, And you know what, Giddy and Dort went off. Thirty one for Giddy, twenty seven for Dort, and then Shay still figured out a way to get thirty. A quiet thirty. But man Andy didn't have a free throw in the first half starting five for OKAC, all
under the age of twenty three. All five played thirty two minutes or more, with Shae Giddy dort All playing an average of forty minutes, scoring eighty eight points combined.
Look Out.
OKAC now moves to play the Wolves, and this is a matchup nightmare for the Wolves.
Denver waits.
Both Okasee and Minnesota could be trouble for that team in different ways. We're gonna find out how good Denver is soon enough,