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 first. 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, weren't 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 Aviery 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 data 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.
Ruy Hachi 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 Ruy 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. Lebron 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 Hachimura 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 Jaron 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 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 Gianni's you're essentially a seventh seed. The Heat had a lead pretty much all games 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.
The Heat 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 Herro? 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 series. 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 He's just the.
Kind of guy that gives you thirty win 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 Giannie 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 win 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 probably big nick Batoon 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. MANI 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 Landrew 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.
Figured 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.
They just can't.
And it's where you're shooting him. It's when you're shooting him mostly ten to fifteen foot jumpers. I don't like that. DeAndre Ayten needs to attack the rim a lot more for the Suns to really be in it. He's a really good team. They should beat the Clippers, but not when you're taking the ball out of Katie'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, Plumbley, 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 Tyler Loose 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 skipping minutes in March to use them in April, May and June might actually make sense. Tyler shouldet 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 Tyleru 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 in the game. Russell Westbrook won the Clippers that game. He had the worst shooting game of his entire player off 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 quart again. But you know what, Tye 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 hitting. 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. It was 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, five to six games. I think it might go seven.