If you're tuned into Heat Check with Triste Quick.
On this episode of the Heat Check, I think Steph Curry is God.
I think he might be God.
I am here to tell you I have some new thoughts about Steph Curry.
I see him in a completely different light.
I think churches are gonna start popping up with his name on him.
Is he the best point guard ever in life? In history? Over Magic Johnson? I think he might be. We also get into that.
As well as how the regular season does not matter at all to championship caliber teams. That is very obvious. Now we will also touch on some news from around the league. My Lord, the first round is over, and boy was it memorable. So do me a favor, Nick and drop that beat that should be reON, Lord, have mercy wardell Stephan Curry. If you haven't seen Steph's performance in Game seven against the Kinks, and you haven't seen the highlights, you should probably just stop this podcast right
now and go watch it. What we saw, what we witnessed was the elevation from legend to God to godhood or maybe possibly Goathood, as we will get to as well. Steph Curry did things that we've only seen in NBA jam and we are going to be talking about this performance forever. Fifty years from now, people are gonna be talking about this Game seven performance. So after the embarrassment of Game six where our dubs got blown out at the crib in the largest loss of the Steve Kerr.
Era, Steph was not taking no chances with that whole one team one dream bullshit.
No, it was it is gonna be Steph's show, and that happened from the very tip off. If they were gonna lose, it was not gonna be because Jordan Poole was looking at Baddie's court side and was turning the ball over ten times.
That's just not what was gonna happen.
And what we got, I think was probably better than his teammates could have even anticipated. The best Game seven performance in NBA history. Let me say that again, that was the best Game seven performance in the history of the NBA in existence. Steph put up a fifty piece against probably their best foe since the.
Probably twenty sixteen.
Calves, Lebron Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and a bunch of those role players. It was Electricity. Kings led by two at half, but you knew what time it was. Steph already had twenty in the first half, already had twenty. Fox was struggling to get going, and you're like, man, it's only a matter of time before they break this thing open. It's just we are just waiting for the
dam to burst. And you would think maybe Mike Brown would have made some adjustments because he coached against or with Curry for eight years during his time coaching the Golden State Warriors.
But no, he did not.
He had nothing up his sleeve to stop Steph Curry from doing Steph Curry things. And Steph even though in the second half the Kings knew that they had to put more attention and pressure on Curry, he would think, oh, maybe second half he like just puts up eighteen or sixteen.
No, he's actually better. In the second half with.
Everyone scheming and game planning to shut him down, he put up thirty. It was a better second half than it was in the first half, where he just casually put up twenty. The most demonic shit that I saw from him, This is what I knew it was over. Was at the end of the third quarter, Warriors are starting to pull away and he had already missed for the first time ever in my memory, two consecutive free throws, and you're like, oh.
God, like, what's step up to? Is he frustrated?
He gets to the line again moments later, because that's just the kind of night it was with the Scott Foster game, by the way, that was a factor. And they panned to his face and he's grinning from ear to ear. It was the most diabolical, sick, twisted, sadistic smile I have ever seen on anyone's face. It was not a normal, I'm happy grin. It's a let me make myself happy in the moment, and let me show these Kings I'm coming and this is over for them.
That's when I knew it was inevitable. He is inevitable. There was gonna be no comeback. They were only down seven, but it could have been seventy. At that point, it was over. He shot thirty eight times in thirty eight minutes, from everywhere, from deep, from the paint, off balance, runners, floaters, everything but a dunk.
One.
There was one point five seconds left to go on the shot clock. Kings had defended this team very mightily. One point five seconds left on the shot clock, they inbound the pass, Steph mbounds the pass, immediately gets it back contested corner three splash. The only thing that was surprising was when Steph would miss. I was actually shocked when not every single shot that he let fly did not go in. He said this about his sadistic smile after the game.
Attitude can manifest a lot of things. And I told Q on the sidelines that I missed four or five three those the last two games. Not like me, but never over overthink it. Just enjoyed the moment. So the smile was intentional on trying to just be in the present. As simple as it is, is just trying to make a free throw, so I like to have fun with it.
Yeah, No, it was more than that.
And then Draymond, as he said on the podcast today, because of course he didn't do in game six, real shocking that there was no dream on episode. After Game six, which was the most embarrassing loss, he probably would have cussed everybody out. So I get it. It all began with the pregame speech from Steph Wardell Creek.
I'm not gonna lie man game six. That was a gut punch That night. I sent those two guys a text message. I sent that text at three am. The first line is, so I can't sleep period. Just finish the film again and then I go into some other things. Steph text back at six am, like, can't sleep either, but let me deliver the message before film say no more. And he delivered such a powerful message. Listen, we just got embarrassed last night. We got embarrassed on our home floor.
An opportunity to close out a team, and we never showed up. He said, if you getting on this bus, you making a commitment to this team. I don't care how many minutes you play. I don't care if you don't play a single second. I don't care if it's points, rebounds, whatever it is. But if you getting on this bus, you are saying I am going to do whatever it takes as far as my preparation goes to win this game. We not going out like that. We have an opportunity to play in game seven.
They've rare.
They don't come around. Take advantage of the moment, embrace the moment. When he delivered that speech, I just can't say I knew he was going to come out and get fifty. But I knew he was going to come out and do something incredible, and I knew there was no way he was going to allow us to lose.
Oh, I tell you what, Yeah, I don't really know what more you can say after that. Hey, Jordan Poole, suck it up. Hey Jonathan Kaminga, you're not playing anymore. You're not effective enough for us. Don't be whining and.
Bitching and moping on the sideline.
Do not bring the vibes down. This is a championship caliber team. We have championship DNA and you know what, we could have traded your ass for somebody with better attitude, but you know what, we have faith in you, So sit your little ass down there on the bench and play your role. And that was the moment after that game, after that Game seven, which let's be honest, I wanted the Kings to win because the dynasty I'm hoping will end.
At some point. I want to see a new piece, new blood come to the forefront.
I came to terms with the reality that Steph Curry is the best to ever do.
It at the point guard position. He just is.
That was the performance fifty piece Game seven, when you're only surprised that he missed. That was point god. As John Morant would say, that was point goat performance.
He puts up fifty.
After an embarrassing Game six, the worst defeat that they ever had in the Steve Kerr era. In Game six, stays up all night, watches film, then comes ready to kill.
He is.
I always was like, Oh, it's so cute that they call him the baby Face Assassin. You know, you're like, that's a really cute nickname. No, he really is. He really is Liam Neeson. He really is a man with some very specific skills. He really does take pleasure in telling fifty cent, Hey, why don't you?
Did you see it?
He pretended to light the beam on fifty cent, Like this beam, bitch, That's what that was. It's sick, it's twisted. The look on his face when he's ending you is pure sick delight. It's not just joy for joy's sake, because I enjoy playing a child's game make sixty million dollars a year. No, No, I enjoy ending you. I enjoy you thinking you're gonna win, and me silencing your cute little crowd at Golden One.
It's disgusting. It's like a boa constrictor. Around your neck, and there's no feeling like it. It's an outer body experience. You're sitting there.
On your couch or wherever you are, and you're like, the game's not over, but it's over, and you're watching yourself in awe of you dying right there.
That's what that was. So now the NBA gets what they want.
Steph Curry versus Lebron in the playoffs, first time they've ever faced each other in the playoffs, not in the finals, which I think is incredible. Lakers, of course, get the job done by giving Dylan Brooks exactly what he wanted, a forty piece, a forty point loss in a closeout game, which gives us a seven seed playing a six seed in the second round of the playoffs.
Warriors now get home advantage. Isn't that a bitch?
You sit there and you scrap and claw, and you think that the Warriors are dead, and now they have home court until.
They play the Nuggets or the Suns.
Isn't that something The narratives obviously will be out of control because these are two out of the five best players in NBA history going up one against one another, both in the tail end of their careers, but not looking a day over twenty seven, and you'd think maybe this was the first time. Oh maybe the NBA wished it was the Western Conference finals. But I think they are going to smash the ratings again for the second round, just like they did in the first round.
The difference. I don't think this goes seven games.
Steph Curry was asked a question which I've been thinking about all day. The question was, Hey, Steph, who can stop Steph Curry? And he said he said, hopefully we never find out what.
Hopefully we'll never find out. He is deadly. I can't.
This is like the new show Citadel, where is he's an assassin who's gonna beat our dubs?
Nobody that's who.
This is a championship team and their toughest test they.
Just finished his seventh I want to talk about something.
More broad than the individual games themselves. After watching the first round of the NBA playoffs, something has become very evident, very obvious. Playoff seating doesn't matter anymore at all. There was a time where teams would scratch and they would claw to try to get home court advantage in the playoffs. I mean, after all, we've been told for decades that having home court is a difference between life and death, between cant.
Coon and a deep run of the playoffs. That's just not true anymore.
That's not the Miami Heat. We're a playing team, not just a playing team. They lost their first game in the play in tournament. They were down by double digits of the Chicago Bulls. Scratched in clawed just to get the eight seed. And you know what they did. They just beat a team that won two years ago the NBA title. Yes, there was no Joannis for two games, but it didn't matter.
They didn't have Tyler Hero.
Either, one of their best shooters. They made quick work of them in five. Everybody thought that the Heat were gonna get bounced in four.
Nope.
Duncan Robinson has emerged from the crypt. He had fourteen threes in four games after the Tyler Hero injury, fourteen.
Steph Curry.
His performance, Jimmy Butler's performance was pretty good too, fifty six points.
The Bucks are done.
Bud might get fired, he might have dismantled the Milwaukee Bucks. Jimmy Butler an eight seed. The Warriors, the fact that they were a six seed joke. Jokeville made no sense. They were always we said this all year. The Warriors are a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Do not sleep.
The only thing that the Warriors are pretending is that they're not contending.
That's it. There was all this talk, Oh, Warriors are old. Oh they're done. Their road records trash. How are they gonna win in the playoffs that they can't win on the road. That was some bullshit. Did you see what they just said?
They got two wins against the Sacramento Kings, one of the toughest places to play.
In the NBA.
Oh, they don't have youth on their side. But the truth is what we now know. This is a fact. Fact nobody's talking about. The Warriors don't have a tank for the regular season anymore.
They are old.
Their tank is twenty eight games, the amount of games that the playoffs are.
We'll give you some good games in January. Maybe we'll see you a couple of good games in February. We'll get up for our home crowd.
But where we go on the road, you're not getting our A squad, you're not getting our A efforts. And if we lose to Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars arena. Be thankful that we didn't give you our full force, because when we have it, there's no one on the planet who can beat us. And that's what Draymond said. I can barely get out of bed in February. Jesus Christ, did you see the performances that he had in the playoffs? He had twenty something points, one of the most efficient
performances in saane defense. Yeah, he did stop someone in the chest. Turns out that was pretty effective for them too. When he got suspended, unlocked the things that they needed to know in order to have better spacing. That's the kind of bad luck that the Warriors have, bad luck that ultimately turns into good luck. You've got Steph thirty five, Clay thirty three, Draymond thirty They're not mustering up the energy to play defense against the Detroit Pistons, Are.
You kidding me?
No, So the next time the Warriors are in February and they're like a borderline fringe playing team, just remember they're still a title team.
They are never dead until one of them leaves, one of those core three leave. Maybe that's this offseason. I don't know.
And I have Kevon Looney who I think maybe the best center we've ever seen, the best rebounding small center.
He had more What was that tweet? I saw this?
Kevon Looney has had as many twenty plus rebound games in the first round of this playoffs than David Robinson, Hakeem Elijauan, Karl Malone, to Kembe Matumbo and Bill Walton had in their entire playoff careers, just shy of one hundred and twenty eight, which is Bill Russell for most all time.
That's that's unbelievable.
There were people who said it, not me, said so the Bonus would eat Kevon Looney for lunch, No, sir, So bonus got eaten for lunch from Kvan. So yeah, it doesn't really matter to Golden State. They just wanted to avoid the playing tournament, which honestly, even if they made it.
To the play in tournament, they probably would have stilled.
They probably would have played the Nuggets and beat the Nuggets in six. This is the potency. It is a team that is built for the playoffs. Do you want to play the Warriors? Ever, the answer is no. The answer along your path. That's why I didn't want the Kings to play the Warriors in the first round because they are at the end of the day inevitable. This is the trend though, of the future for me. I
think you're seeing this with Lebron. Lebron just takes full plays off in the middle of the game to conserve his energy for winning time, because.
That's the only we are not allowed. We're not gonna go, go go. They're not robots.
Their tank isn't just completely unlimited where they can be their game set evan fourth quarter winning time South in the middle of a random Tuesday game against some bottom feeder team.
Absolutely fucking not.
Remember when Lebron James broke the scoring record and they lost to OKC and we thought that that was meaningful in any way.
It was not.
This was a team given up for dead at the trade deadline below five hundred, Lebron James injured, Anthony Davis injured. In other words, they were cooked. Rob Polinka pulled something out of his hat. I don't know who he has pictures on where he was able to make those trades.
But retooled the roster, reinvigorated.
The team, and now that they now, they are scary. I think this is the trend of the future. It is now called the conservation.
Of star power.
All of this means the regular season is just not very meaningful anymore.
Doesn't mean it's not fun.
It doesn't mean teams can't build on regular season success. It doesn't mean that we should just cancel it all together. It means that guys like Lebron and Steph and Draymond cannot be judged by their individual performances or team performances until playoff time.
That's it.
Because if you can go off in for fifty in a Game seven, after being embarrassed and straight up flattened in Game six on the road.
Who gives a fuck what you do in February? Who cares?
That's gonna mean skipping Tuesdays against Utah and not really trying that hard till April. That's it. That's that's the takeaway.
All right. Let's move around some quick updates news from Run the League.
So the Sixers and Celtics played last night, because this is coming out Tuesday.
I haven't seen the game yet, but I can just I can just already know what's gonna happen.
The line is Celtics by nine and a half, and I would not take.
The sixers plus nine and a half. I'll tell you that no EMBIID indefinitely.
He hasn't even started doing physical activity, has not done any drills, has only been doing light stretching shams. Schams said that it was even more severe than initially thought. He has gotten PRP. That is platelet rich plasma rich plasma rich replacement therapy. I believe it's what it's called. It's a big ass needle where they take your blood out of you and then they put it back in you after they spun it around in some sort of machine.
Apparently it feels terrible.
It's one of the thickest needles my friend has ever shown me who has gotten.
Kobe used to go.
To Germany to get PRP on his old ass knees back in the day.
It's not good. Would you say that in the middle of the playoffs? Not good?
And if there's no EMBIID, then what are we even talking about. If there's no EMBIID in this series, what are we even saying. We're saying nothing, there's no it's done.
It's a rap.
It's a coast for the Boston Celtics. We thought that the Milwaukee Bucks had the easier path to the Eastern Conference Finals. Turns out that was a lie. Turns out avoiding Jimmy Butler what you want to do. The only possibility for the Sixers to win the series, or at least compete in the series, is if James Harden turns back time like Chaer and is the Houston Rockets version of James Harden when he was an MVP putting up fifty.
In the ragul.
He's not just gotta be James Harden in Houston, He's gotta be regular season James Harden in Houston, because God knows that James Harden has never been a good playoff player, and Tyrese Maxi has to be a version of himself we have only seen in glimpses just to compete unless the question. There's one little factor that could possibly put a wrench in Boston's plans, and his name is Bible thumping Joe Miszula, one of the worst clutch time play
callers I've ever seen. Definitely surprised that he's the head coach of the Boston Celtics. But honestly, it might not even come into play because this thing might be a blowout until they figure out a way to put Joel Embiid's lifeless body back onto the court. Moving forward, on the Knicks Heat series that already looks shaky without Julius Randall. Another player that has gone down with an injury. And I tell you what, he had played really well against the Heat for the regular season.
He was missed.
Nicks looked really good in the first half. They were blowing out the Heat and then what happened. Heat did heat things and it wasn't even close in the second half. Heat blew the Knicks out in the Garden Night Night Sleep mask. One little wrinkle, Jimmy Butler turned his ankle. Apparently it was the size of the baseball. Yeah, not great, he'll play. I'm sure he's questionable for Game two. But without Jimmy, this is a G League team. No shade on Max Struz or Gabe Vincent or fat ass Kyle
Lowry who's re emerged from the crypt as well. But the playoffs reminds us never count out Eric Spolstra as for the next Julius Randall.
Still day to day.
Tib says that he's not limping, but he hasn't done anything on the court other than shooting.
On Friday.
That sounds like he's probably not coming back for a game or two out West.
Denver is about.
To to dethrown the Suns, aren't they It did not look good. It did not look like a good fun situation for Phoenix. The Hoop Collective, Boys Winhorse and all them said that Denver is playing as well as they have since midseason, and I think that's right. Jamal Murray is playing like bubble Jamal Murray. Jokich is playing like a two time MVP. And here's a fun stat. In the last seven years, the Nuggets are eighteen and three against the Suns. When Jamal Murray plays, they are one
in eight without him. Remember that with Sons and four they were the ones that were the victims of Sons and four. The most concerning thing though about the Sons is their role players. They just they don't have that math to math up with the Nuggets. On top of the fact that DeAndre Ayton, my guy who called himself Dominatan is complacent as hell, does not look interested in playing basketball under the rim at the moment. There's a viral clip of him standing around watching Jokic get multiple
offensive rebounds and putbacks. Just watching just like, hey, shit looks fun as hell.
This is a good game.
He's got to figure that out. He's got to be more involved that they're going to compete. And speaking of the Sun's real quick little funny story about Kevin Durant, Jeff Green dropped they a fascinating factoid following Game one at the presser. He said, because Katie and him play together in Seattle when there was a team there and they became super close. And Green said this, Kevin Durant
has been lying about his height this whole time. He's actually not six' eleven, He's not seven feet He's seven foot one. Kevin Durant, he's just been just been underestimating his height this whole time. And nobody's ever thought to break out a ruler and be like, hey, you look taller than six eleven, Like there's just I know you're skinny, but you look taller than seven feet to me. And if you think about it, that's pretty on brand for Katie, Like, ah, nah,
I'm like six 't ten. Maybe he's more like Chet Holmer and than we thought.
Uh. And then the Mavericks, we haven't really talked about.
Them much other than the fact that they got a fine for tanking. Tim Cato dropped an article about them. They give some insight into what they're going to do in the off season. Their number one priority is to sign re signed Kyrie, of course, and now the Lakers, which is an interesting little nugget of information. The Lakers are no longer interested in signing Kyrie Irving, even though Kyrie Irving has been showing up at every game behind the bench doing his best maybe pay me impression that
you could ask for. He was at the Laker Memphis game, he was at the Sacramento Kings.
Game versus the Warriors. Who is he trying to play for in that little duo?
But I think Kyrie's real opportunity to get a Max deal's probably Dallas, looks like.
Also, Dallas is not interested.
In keeping Christian Wood, so they had to pay a first round pick for him to be there for like one year. Sources are saying that he's no longer in their future plans. Javel McGee no longer in their future plans, Maxi Klaiber probably not in their future plans. And Dwight Powell, even though they like him a lot, they might not keep him they're also looking to move Tim Hardaway. It
kind of sounds like in Everything Must Go Sale. If I'm honest, it's gonna be really hard to move Tim Hardaway because he gets paid a lot of money, and you know how hard it is to move assets that are not as valuable as.
You're paying them.
Their focus is DeAndre Dominaton, which I don't know if necessarily is gonna be a great situation for them, considering I just told you his lack of interest in playing defense is quite evident in the playoffs. Chris Middleton, who has had a swollen knee since twenty twelve, on and off, and uh yeah, the MAVs are cooked. Probably Luke is gone if they don't make a move to at least show good faith. Luke is probably asking out next year.
Moving on to Memphis.
Memphis, Uh boy, was that embarrassing. And both the stars, well, both the players who've been popping off at the mouth, John Moran and Dylan.
Brooks both skipping out right after the game ends. The miss media availability. That's some punk shit.
And now we have a slew of offseason interviews to fall back on. First, John Morant, they said, hey, that you're good in the West comment how about that, and he says he didn't regret saying it.
How do you fix this?
According to jaw Less trash talking friend of showed to Michael Cole reported that jaw has pledged to be more humble and do less trash talking. If I do that, then the rest of the team will follow. Sounds like Jaw knows what we all knew everybody who has a target on them, given the fact that they are fucking annoying and they have too much shit to say and they have accomplished nothing. Are the Grizzlies the Grizzlies if they don't have that unabashed swagger, a quiet ja Morant.
I don't know what that will mean moving forward. I think that they should double down and Benba, the NBA's villains, don't know if that's gonna make them a better team. Dylan Brooks and his poked the Bear comments probably got him a one way ticket out of Memphis.
He's probably not going to be re signed.
Taylor Jenkins and Zach Kleman both said that self created distraction hurt the Grizzlies in the playoffs. Looks like Dylan Brook's probably out of there one thing's for sure. GM Zach Kleman says that the grizz are going to be active, one hundred percent active on the trademarket. That means probably going after Michel Bridges, probably going after ogn Andobi, probably going after Pascal Siakam, all the guys.
That are available, most likely for the right price. That's all the time that we after the heat Check.
We will be back Friday with an all new episode covering the second round series. I hope they're all as exciting as King's Warriors were in the first round. Do not forget to download, subscribe. Tell your friends, every single one of them. I mean it, Brandon, I mean it. Follow us on social at this heat Check and at Trista Creek on TikTok because the heat Check never sleeps, not even during the playoffs.