Hoops Tonight - Mavericks eliminated, Lakers & Warriors' playoff matchups, Miami's spoiler potential

chance to still get into the play in tournament. Then I want to talk about just some scenarios in the Western Conference play in the way I think it's going to break out, and how I actually think it's the best matchups if you want to see some teams like the Lakers and Warriors advanced to the second round and the last, but not least, our Eastern Conference play in

tournament is completely set. I just want to talk for a few minutes about what I expect to happen in that playing tournament, as well as which team from that group I think has the most chance to make noise in the first round. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason LT so you guys don't

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this MAV's punting thing. Obviously, as competitors, it's hard for us to ever rationalize that sort of thing, right, especially as fans and fans are especially competitive, Right, that's kind of in the nature of what it's like to care about a sports team as much as we do, and so it's hard to kind of see that line of thinking. But a couple of things. I don't think this was Luca and Kyrie's decision. This was clearly from above them, and it probably is the right decision. Are they going

to beat anybody in that first round series. Are they equipped to beat a team like Denver? No, absolutely not. They have no way of ever even hoping to contain Nicola Yokich, even with everything they can do offensively to disrupt him on the other end of the floor. And then Memphis is literally one of the biggest and most physically imposing teams in the NBA. In Dallas, that's their

specific weakness. So they just there's nothing they're gonna accomplish by putting the stress on their bodies to get into that first round series and get a win. Again, I understand it from the standpoint of a competitor, but it's not necessarily the right decision. I've talked to a lot of Lakers fans before who have said varying versions of

I wish Kobe didn't go forward in twenty thirteen. You know, he killed himself down the stretch of the season to try to get the Lakers into the playoffs Tours Achilles against the Warriors in a late game, just to get them to a first round series with that super clunky roster with Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, and it it's just what in the Grand scheme of things. While competitively, it was a move that made sense, and obviously that's Kobe's personality and he's gonna want to do it that way,

it actually wasn't the best thing for the team. They would have been better off a packing things in and saving the wear and tear on Kobe's body and finding a way to kind of retool around the margins of that roster to make it work and give it a run the following year, because Kobe was playing at an incredibly high level. And that's the way that you have to look at this. Kyrie and Luca, the offensive fit is there. Kyrie's playing some of the best basketball of

his career. Just pack it in, make the necessary changes this summer, and give it another go. If there's criticism to Levy here, it's all towards Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks front office. Letting Jalen Brunson go for nothing was completely inexcusable. Even for the dollar amounts we were talking about. This was not This was not Jimmy Butler asking for the Supermax and a team like Chicago being like, like,

not worth the money. That's not what this was. This was not a situation where we were talking about enormous salary slot for a player that wasn't necessarily going to be worth it. Jalen Brunson was asking for in the mid to high twenties, and for a three level scoring guard that is as efficient as he was, who averaged twenty points per game in the previous playoff run, who had turned himself into an above average point of attack defender.

That is all plenty. That is more than worth it for a player like that, And when you have an asset like that under your control and you let it go, it's it's very difficult to compensate for that. The only way they could was by overpaying for Kyrie. And by overpaying for Kyrie, they traded away their best athlete and took the roster to a point where it was impossible for them to linger an NBA games. That's what happened.

That's not on Kyrie, that's not on Luca. That's on the front office, and that's on Mark Cuban, And so kind of, as we tie a bow on this really disappointing Dallas season, I actually am very optimistic, just like I was the day of the Kyrie Irving trade. But you know when it comes to how ugly this got in the time, since don't look at the guys in that locker room, don't look at Kyrie and Luca, look at the front office and look at Mark Cuban. They're

the ones that are responsible. All right, let's talk about some West plaint scenario. So the Lakers and Warriors both got wins last night. I'm not gonna talk about the basketball itself because it just doesn't matter. The Warriors, obviously were going against the King's team that was resting all their players. The Lakers were going against the Sun's team that was resting all their players. I've saw some Laker fans kind of hand ringing a little bit about how

the Lakers have looked the last few games. Look, they played the Utah Jazz missing all their guys, and they just didn't care. And then they ended up in a dog fight that wore their legs out a little bit. And then they were in a back to back at

the end of a long road trip against the Clippers. Obviously, we talked about that game at nauseum the other night, and then in this game in particular, once again, like you're going against campaign and a bunch of guys like you're not going to get them to get You're not gonna get them like really stokes to play in that game. And I don't really judge NBA teams when they're in a situation where they're going to play down to their competition. It's just not it's not the right representation of what

you're going to get from that team. So I'm not concerned about the Lakers looking a little sloppy against some bad teams. I'm not you know that, that to me is just kind of the natural way that you're going to see some veteran stars like Lebron James and Anthony Davis behave, especially if they feel like if they can turn it on for five minutes at the end of the game and get a win, that that'll be enough.

So I don't really care about the basketball. I'm more interested in the in the actual seating scenarios that could play play out as we go through the rest of this weekend. So my guess is that all three of the Lakers, Clippers, and Warriors will win out. Okay, I don't think the Clippers will punt the Phoenix game. The problem is, now, you might think to yourself, Okay, if we punt the Phoenix game and you know this other thing happens, then we get the sixth seed, then we

don't have to worry about playing the Suns. Yeah, that sounds great, but they're all these games are taking place at the same time in that like twelve thirty slot

on Sunday right till thirty Pacific time. So the problem is is, like, you punt the Sun's game if you're the Clippers, but by happens it happens stance, the Pelicans beat the Wolves, suddenly suddenly we end up in this like three way tie situation where the Clippers drop down to the eight seed or seventh seed, and then now they're in a play in game against the Lakers that

the Lakers will probably be slight favorites in. And if the Lakers win that game, now the Clippers are in a winner go home game against somebody like the Timberwolves or the thunder right, So like that, that is just an unacceptable scenario for the Clippers, just as Tylu that's they've they've been through that exact same situation and then bit by that in the past. So what I expect the Clippers to do is to treat that Sun's game like a must win, and I don't see any particular

reason why Phoenix would want to play spoiler. I don't see why Phoenix would want to just beat the Clippers to mess things up, because if I'm Phoenix, I want the Clippers in the first round out of that selection of teams that's kind of in that thirty eight thirty nine loss area between the Pelicans, the Lakers, the Warriors, and the Clippers. I might prefer to play the Clippers over all of those teams in terms of like them being without Paul George really not having much quality shot

creation beyond Kawhi Leonard. Like if outside of Kawhi Leonard, it's like does Norman and Powell have it tonight? And is Russell Westber gonna make more good plays than bad plays? That's pretty much your only offensive creation outside of Kawhi Leonards. So like I would prefer to prefer to play the Clippers. So I would expect the Suns to rest their guys

on Sunday and to avoid the playing tournament. I'd expect the Clippers to treat that game like a must win, which means my guess is that this is going to break down Clippers as the five seed, Warriors as the sixth seed, Lakers as the seventh seed in one of either the either the Pelicans or the Timberwolves in that eight seed. That's the way I see this breaking down from there. I expect the Lakers to win their playing

game against either of those teams. They are better than the Pelicans and they are better than the Wolves, and they have demonstrated that recently, so especially in a home game in a must win type of situation. Also from the Lakers' perspective, I actually this actually broke down pretty well with the Warriors situation, with their lack of athleticism without Andrew Wiggins. Obviously, Andrew Wiggins is coming back, but

he's out of rhythm. I would pick the Warriors to beat the Grizzlies in a later round playoff series, but a first round playoff series against the Grizzlies would be really tough because they're huge and physically imposing, and the Warriors are still trying to get Andrew Wiggins up to speed. So I think it's good that the Warriors can dodge that.

That Sacramento matchup at six is actually probably the ideal situation for the Warriors in the first round, and if you're picking somebody from one, two, three, four to play as the Warriors, Sacramento is the team you'd prefer to play,

So that breaks out perfectly for the Warriors. The Lakers. Obviously, Memphis is a tough first round matchup, but it's a good matchup for the Lakers, right So you've got this downhill force and John Morant that wants to operate around the rim that we have actively seen on many different occasions. Anthony Davis caused problems for that was one of the games earlier, like a month or so ago without Lebron James.

Anthony Davis in the first half of that game just dominated the game defensively with what he was able to do around the rim. The Memphis Grizzys are a team you can pack the paint against, so I expect the Lakers to pack the paint and have success slowing down Memphis's offense in a first round series there. So it's a good matchup. And then on the other end of the floor, obviously Memphis is physical. Dylan Brooks has guarded Lebron pretty well this season, although we'll see if he

could do it for a whole playoff series. Jaren Jackson Junior protecting the rim. It'll be a tough challenge, but I do think the Lakers have more half court offensive skill, and I actually think they're a little bit better as a half court defense when they're really locked in, and you've seen that post deadline, as the Lakers have been one of the best defenses in the league. The biggest wrinkle there will be point of attack defense in their ability to contain John Morant. But they can do that.

They can do things like put Dennis Schroeder on him as much as possible, and then during the possessions, when you know when it's the starting lineup in D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves are out there, they can do a lot of digging off of Dylan Brooks and a lot of digging off of Xavier Tillman and and maybe concede

more threes to Jaren Jackson. They can find ways to contain John Morant with their weaker point of attack defenders and then try to structure their lineup so that you can put Dennis Schroeder on John Morant during the times when there's less rim protection on the floor because Dennis is their best point of attack defenders. So I actually like that matchup for the Lakers, even though that's a

tougher series. Like I think Warrior, I think Grizzlies Lakers is gonna be very close, whereas Warriors Kings that I think the Warriors will be a decent sized favorite in that series. The Clippers, you know, it's tough, like the Suns, they don't think have a very good point of attack defense. They're gonna have to deploy Josh Akogi on Kawhi Leonard. In all likelihood, that means Russell Westbrook is gonna have

good matchups attacking down hill throughout the series. There's gonna be a lot of pressure on guys like Kevin durand DeAndre to attack the paint. But we talked about it earlier. The Clippers just don't have enough shot creation, and they're not as good defensively as you think, and they don't have great rim protection. So at the end of the day, that to me is just an easy win for the Suns.

But that breaks down pretty entertainingly because if Kad beats the Nuggets, you'll have kadivers Yokits, which is interesting, and then you could if the Lakers beat the Grizzlies and the Warriors beat the Kings, we could end up with a Warriors Lakers Steph versus Lebron for the right to play Kad in the conference finals for the right to play Jannis or Tatum and Brown and the Celtics in the finals, which would be a really really interesting playoff runs.

So my guess is it's going to break down five, six, seven with Clippers, Warriors, Lakers. My guess is that the Clippers lose to the Sun the Suns as of right now, and that the Warriors have a good chance to beat the Kings and the Lakers have somewhat of a chance to beat the Grizzlies. We'll go deeper into that as we get closer to the playoffs. But that's just kind of like where the way I see this breaking down

right now, and I think that's interesting. Last, but not least, before we get out of here, the East play in tournament is set. Atlanta is gonna travel to Miami to play in the seven eighth game, and then Chicago is gonna travel to Toronto to play in the nine ten game. I think the home teams are gonna win all three of these games, I think Miami's better than Atlanta. Atlanta's

kind of started to play a little bit better. Quinn Snyder was talking about how they're starting to figure out some stuff with their spacing, but then they go and drop a game to the playing all their guys to Philadelphia last night. Now, mind you, it doesn't really matter, but it's just weird, Like every time I have an opportunity to kind of get stoked on Atlanta doing something,

they just start to kind of look mediocre again. But that's said, I think Toronto, even though Toronto will beat Chicago, in my opinion, I think Atlanta would beat Toronto. I think Miami and Atlanta are by far the two best teams in that play in bracket right now. As far as which team has a chance to make noise in the first round, you can't go anywhere other than Miami. Miami versus Boston is an interesting psychological matchup that we've

seen a lot over the years. Miami feels confident that matchup. Miami's won two games in a row against Boston last year. Jimmy Butler pull up three at the end of Game seven that had a chance to send the Miami Heat to the NBA Finals. It's a matchup. They're comfortable, and again you can it's they're not as talented as they were last year. They just look a little bit older,

a little bit slower, a little less consistent. They've always been one of those teams that, like, if you catch them on the right night in the playoffs, they look bad. You check catch them on the other type of night, and they can look like the best team in the world. Right, So like it's they're just there's so much variance there. It's tough to really project them. But Jimmy Butler is very capable of being the best player in that series.

He's capable about playing Jayson Tatum. He did several times during the Eastern Conference Finals last year. You know, Eric Spoelstra is going to mix things up schematically and double and then not double and then run zone and then here's a little half court, you know, kind of pressure situation, and they're just going to execute extremely well and make Boston feel uncomfortable. And you can almost bet your life that's going to be at least a six game series,

which means anything can happen. When you get down to game six and game if Miami happens to pull a game out. So the East play in tournament is a little less interesting because we don't have the type of like championship level contender that we have in the Lakers at that seven seed. And again everyone freaks out. The Lakers have been the second best team in the league since the trade deadline. They've been one of the very

best defenses. They've been one of the very best rebounding teams, and they've done most of that without D'Angelo Russell and Lebron James. With D'Angelo Russell and Lebron James and their starting lineup, they are bludgeoning teams. The Lakers are good. Don't look at their record. You have to look at their record post deadline. It's not the same team. They overhauled almost the entire roster. That East play in tournament

does not have a team of that caliber. Although I do think Miami is by unique nature of their matchup with Boston and the Jimmy Butler element, that they're capable of pulling out a series there. We're gonna do a deeper dive into these playoff matchups as we get closer, but just kind of kind of headed into this weekend and how the play in tournament is shaking out. It just wanted to kind briefly touch on it. All, Right, guys, that's all I have for today. So here's the plan.

We're gonna be doing a show with Colin Coward tomorrow evening at six thirty pm Pacific time. That's gonna be breaking down everything that happened in the Sunday slate. I'm also gonna be recording a video tomorrow that will air on Monday that's gonna break down the playing tournament in some detail. So keep an eye on the feeds tomorrow night and on Monday morning for some contents arounding the

play in tournament. As always, I appreciate you guys, and I'll see you tomorrow night with Colin the Volume