Come on, come on this episode of the Heat Check.
The first play ins are done and the Wolves and Nets have moved on to the actual playoffs. Only two more playoff spots open and four teams left. We're gonna break down those games from last night as well as previously the nine tenths for tonight. It's playoff time, Brock, So do me a favor and drop that beat. All right, So, the first round of the play in tournament went pretty much exactly how it was supposed to be drawn up.
As we said on Monday's Heat Check, the Nets should win, but the would cover the nine and a half, which is exactly what happened. Credit to us, the Nets huge early lead thanks to Kyrie Irving. By the way, Kyrie Irving with no food and water inside of his body practicing ramadan just like fasting.
Going twelve for twelve is maybe.
One of the most insane athletic achievements I've heard of.
And then he just goes on and like shrugs it off.
When they ask him how he can do that, He's like, oh, it's fine, Like I'm my.
Brothers and sisters all over the world do it too.
It's like yeah, but they're not playing against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Ramadan anyway. Kad, of course was KD, you know, best player on the on the planet.
And if you're a.
Nets fan, there's reasons on one hand to be optimistic and then also equally a lot to.
Be concerned about.
One. You blew a twenty point lead at one point market and must opened three that would have cut the lead in the fourth to a single bucket. Epic games from Kyrie and KD, and you still didn't cover the number. So Brooklyn has shown a hugely bad habit of not putting teams away in the second half or starting out slow, and that just is gonna kill them against the Celtics, who they play in the next round.
If their second unit comes in and Boston, who's.
A lot deeper, continues to widen the gap, it's going to be really hard. They're gonna need Kevin Durant to go off for fifty, Kyrie to go off for fifty, and it's just going to tire them out. The series is going to be incredible, though. Celtics lead the league right now in defensive efficiency and opponent points per game at one hundred and four points per game.
The more impressive thing.
Their defense travels equally on the road, and Robert Williams himself said that the Celtics are going into a postseason with the mindset that he's going to be unavailable during.
The first round. His surgery partially torn meniscus.
That's four to six weeks to heal minimum, and I would say that that's the only reason that the Nets have a chance. Defense is just not the same without Robert Williams. They're gonna rely on Daniel Tice to back up Horford. Tys has gone from twelve minutes a game to over twenty four minutes, averaging eleven to five and one. In his absence, Robert Williams was averaging four ten and
two with lockdown defense. Bruce Brown tried to throw shade on Daniel Tice, tried to throw shade on Al Horford, and listen, Kevin Durant is not about that shit.
Kevin Durant had this to.
Say, I mean, I mean, we can't let say them get fifty. We got to be physical with them. Now they don't have Robert Williams, so they have less of a presence in the paint, and we could attack Al Horford Entice. So then not having Robert Williams is huge.
You know what did Bruce Brown say?
Got up here?
No, well he said something I ain't like somebody just told me I love you to Champ. Yeah, like what he said. All right, man, that's caffeine probably talking take someone before the game.
They got.
These two dudes, you can do the same stuff. I ain't gonna be that easy. I'll tell you that. I know you were maybe half joker the Bruce comment, but just when you come in that bothers you want in that comment. I mean, we respect our opponents.
It's like.
We don't need to talk about you know, what we're gonna do to them. Like, I just don't like that, you know. But that's just about Bruce says. You know, he comes in and he says that. You know, he keeps the same.
Energy throughout the whole season.
So but yeah, you need to say shit like that.
Let's just go out there and hope, just go out there and hoop for the record. Essentially, my man, Bruce Brown said, Daniel Tye and Al Horford, we're gonna be barbecue chicken.
But Tyson's no slouch.
He's gonna bang I think the Celtics could win this matchup, which is, like, by the way, a repeat of last year, only in reverse. Like at this point last year, the Nets were the team at the top of the standings and the Celtics were the one that had to claw themselves in due the playoff through the play in tournament. So I can see the same thing again happening in reverse.
I could see.
I know it's crazy to say, but I could see a six game series, five game series going the Celtics way. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving are gonna have to go absolutely nuclear in order to remain competitive. Kevin Durant, of course, can win two games by himself. But defensively, the Nets are very, very undermatch and the Celtics have a complete team defense that extends deep in the bench. Everyone is bought in and that's troubling against a team. For the
Nets with a team with zero depth. Kevin Durant's gonna have to play forty plus minutes. Now that Joe Harris is out, Patty Mills is gonna be the one coming off the bench. He's good, but not good enough. And I think that the Celtics are going to eventually where Kevin Durant and the Nets out and their stars will just get too tired, and at that point the Celtics can just take advantage of the mismatches. The question mark for me is will Ben Simmons even play at all?
There's optimisms in some quote unquote circles, But listen, Nash is telling us he's not even sprinting yet, which means he's probably working doing five on five drills. Like if Nash tells you he's not even sprinting, he's probably going five on five because he's just been lying to us all year. Prediction time Celtics and six all right out West second playing GAMEO, what a gritty win.
For my wolves. My Wolves.
My Wolves came up huge take the seventh seed from the Clippers. We talked about how the Clippers had too much experience for the young Wolves and that they'd outlast him in a tight game, and for most of that plan that's exactly what happened. But but then some little wrinkles happened close to the end of the game. So Tylo's plan was to nullify Karl Anthony Towns and that that worked out perfect, absolutely perfect. Could not have gone better.
Karl Anthony Towns had four fouls with about five minutes left in the second quarter, then picked up his fifth foul and the third fouled out on a dumb over the back foul with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Clippers were up ten, and it felt like it felt like a disastrous situation.
I thought that that was it.
No Towns, Clippers in complete control, sleep Mask Wolves playing for their lives and the eight seed Thursday night. But you know who did not get that memo? D Lo and Beverly and especially ant Man. From the time Karl Anthony Towns took a seat on the bench, the Wolves went on a sixteen and two.
Run, never trailed again.
Lots of people unhappy with Tyler's coaching in the last six minutes, But when Anthony Edwards is doing whatever he wants, I don't know much how much you can do. So speaking of Aunt, he went for thirty five and two in that game, had five threes. I think his three point prop from a gambling standpoint was two and a half. After the game, he named his new aunt dog his
new dog Aunt Junior. He opened an eye ig account for that dog, and after the game he used that account to congratulate himself on making the playoffs, who I just absolutely love.
I love him.
So anyway, we get the seven seed Wolves taking on the number two Grizzlies, probably the better, the best series to me in the entire playoffs. Steven Adams and Jared Jackson are gonna be a huge problem for Karl Anthony Towns.
The Grizzlies and Wolves.
Have become, I would say, uniquely good home courts rough matchup for Memphis to be a two and then to be a seven, they should be playing the Jazz right now. And when you have Chuck and Shaq who are taking the Wolves in the matchup, it feels like the Wolves are just quote unquote the sexy pick and tells me also, people haven't been watching Memphis all year long.
I think this is going to be a tight matchup.
Jaw versus Aunt in terms of star power, electric Dylan Brooks versus Pat bev Insane, Jaren Jackson Junior versus Karl Anthony Towns that's also great. And Anthony Edwards in high pressure moments is I think he's going to rise to the occasion and become a superstar. Steven Adams will body cat every single time, and he'll frustrate him every single time. So probably Chris Pinch will plan on D'Angelo Russell being
the main guy. Both teams have very deep benches. They have role players who can step in if someone gets into foul trouble. We saw Nas read Nas read two crucial buckets, one from three, one underneath the basket, and I think that that has this series has the chance for that kind of a thing to happen again. Role players showing out bench haz the Anthony Melton, Tyas Jones, Zire Williams.
What's that kid? I always think is Dereck White.
Kyle Anderson aka Dereck White also really a very good bucket.
And the key player to me for the Wolves is d Low.
He went off for thirty when they won those two two home games this year, and when he saw he just doesn't miss.
He's a walking heat check. We saw that last night as well.
Dribble, dribble, pull up three, put him up five, I want to say, And the key player for me for the grizz has got to be Dylan Brooks. Pat Beverly for the Grizzlies didn't play in any of those games. By the way that the Wolves and the Grizzlies played against one another.
He's going to be a huge factor.
I think, and Pat Beverly try to go against the world and tell the world that nobody can guard Anthony Edwards. But Dylan Brooks is going to be the man to try. I think Desmond Bay's get to be Ondi Angelo Russell and with Dylan Brooks in the game, that changes the entire defensive scheme from top to bottom for Memphis in a huge way.
My prediction prediction time Grizzlies in seven.
All right, let's move on to the nine to ten matchups that go on tonight.
Hawks versus Hornets. What a gross game? Like if people are, oh, you.
Don't like Trey Young versus LaMelo ball, Like, it's just a it's not a good game, Like the level of basketball quality is low. We've got guys chucking from thirty. I don't see this happening for the Hornets. Atlanta wins games at home and pretty much only at home. I'm not sure who's going to be able to check Clint Capella down low. Given that you just got Montrez Harrell
and one plumb Lee. You know, this shoe obviously is no, John Collins and Lou Williams are out, but the Hawks have been playing without them.
For a while now.
The Hornets, to me, to win this game are gonna have to shoot like forty five percent from three. Oubre's gonna go have to go nuclear, you know, and Terry, you're gonna have to actually try.
On defense, which is a huge ask in Charlotte this year.
I mean, the team are just gonna be chucking. What is the total? Two thirty six and a half. I want to say it is the total in this game.
The amount of the combined points that Vegas thinks is going to be scored is two thirty five and a half.
So over over one.
Hundred and seventeen points each, that is un unreal. So I guess, to me, if if Charlotte gets hot and Atlanta goes cold.
That's that's the way it happens.
I guess it doesn't feel like it's gonna happen to me.
It just doesn't, you know.
Like it's it's they're just too injured. Gordon Hayward's not around. There's too many issues with the center position. I mean, you know what time it is, It's not I don't even know why I'm previewing this game. Truthfully, both these teams are disappointments. I guess Trey Young, you could say, is like he's got playoff experience because he's gone to the Eastern Conference Finals. But like a lot of that
was the Sixers throwing up all over themselves. So I give it to I give it to Atlanta, give it to Atlanta both just I mean, what, like you win the chance to lose the heat like I don't know, Like I don't know. You have to beat but you have to beat the Calves the next game. I give it to the Hawks. The numbers five and a half, I want to say, the betting number five and a half, no shot. I think Charlotte could cover no bet. There absolutely no bet there. All right, let's move forward to
the better game of the night. I think Out West Spurs Pelicans in New Orleans. Great story for both of these teams. They were absolutely cooked. Just both were supposed. I think what the New Orleans Pelicans went one in twelve to start the season.
This team's in the playing.
One in twelve, it's their first twelve games.
That's absurd.
I think they went two and sixteen to start the year. Don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure that's what it is. And then all of a sudden they end up getting some performances. Once they decided we don't need Zion, no Mo, we're not waiting for Zion, things started to roll. Herb Jones started playing a lot better, Devonte Graham started playing better. They traded guys out that they didn't need, like Nikile, Alexander Walker, Jackson Hayes has been getting minutes. Obviously, the
JV to New Orleans trade was huge. He's been putting up like eighteen and twelve, and then of course the CJ.
McCollum trade.
As a Portland Trailblazer fan, I already know what he can do. He can perform in huge minutes, huge moments like the Western Conference Semifinals against the Nuggets where he had an electric Game seven where they had to come back from they were down like twenty points, I want to say, in the fourth quarter to the Nuggets. So I think that you have to give the edge to New Orleans, which is crazy to say, just because Greg
Popovich is that guy. He's one of the best head coaches in the NBA and has been for.
A very long time. The Spurs are interesting.
They got interesting when Greg Popovic got interested in coaching again, truthfully and probably because everyone seems to want to push him into retirement. But they're hot right now.
They won. Excuse me, excuse me? They won.
Who They won seven of the last nine games, seven of their last nine games before clinching and resting their starters, including beating the Pelicans by four on March twenty sixth.
I like the Spurs.
I think they can light it up, but I don't trust Yaka Perle with the game on the line against jv Yonis Valanciunas, so I give it to the Pelicans. I don't know necessarily think they'll cover, but I think they'll win. In two days though, we're gonna have a
whole playoff schedule set. We have Celtics nets Memphis versus Minnesota, Golden State versus Denver MAVs possibly without Luca by the way, Golden State, possibly without Steph versus the Jazz Mas versus the Jazz Sixers versus the Raptors, Bucks versus the Bulls and the Heat and the Suns with the final winners of the final playing game, let the fun begin. I cannot wait just a little baby episode, just a tiny, little baby episode.
That is all the time that we have for the Heat Check.
We will be back Friday to preview the number one and number two playoff series. Number one and number two seed series follow the Heat Check to help you prepare for the playoffs. Do not forget to download, subscribe, Tell your friends, every damn one of them. Also follow us on heat on social at this heat check and at Trista Criek on TikTok and at Tristan underscore Creik on Twitter. We will see you Friday and enjoy tonight's playing games.
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