Swing the cards huge three.
Next, lad, welcome into the NBA Pulster production of iHeartRadio in the NBA. I'm Sarah Kustack, NBA analyst for the Yes Network, and today is Friday, May third, and from our extraordinary core group of NBA journalists, We're joined now by NBA dot Com Senior writer Michael c Ryde. And oh, we had some good ones last night. An amazing series between the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. Michael, we will get to the Pacers closing out the Bucks
season as well in just a bit. Uh but one eighteen one fifteen game six win in Philadelphia for a Jalen Brunson led Villanova former Villanova led crew of New York Knicks and Tom Thibodeau, and Brunson was once again exceptional. He finished off the final three games of the series with forty or more points. He had averaged more than thirty five throughout the course of the series.
We're a fifty five second what.
Big bucket ber Jalen Brunson when you look at the the moments, the ways in which he commanded and controlled things, and really there's so much to get to with everyone because of the way we see saw Maxie perform, obviously, Joel Embiid fighting through a lot of things, and Josh Hart hitting a key, key three point shot in the Type all game with just under twenty five seconds left that really helps steal this for and next. But I want to focus on Jalen Brunson and what you saw
to him the final four games. He averaged nearly forty two points per game. How, how surprised, impressed? What what word would you use to kind of categorize the way in which Jalen Brunson seemingly put himself in a different category, and how we view him after this postseason performance thus far.
Well, Sarah, you know they say in the postseason that's where you make your reputation, and obviously throughout the regular season, you know, he was starting to get into the MVP conversation, So you know, I think all he did was just sort of reinforced his case for MVP. Now he's not gonna win it, but you know what I mean, Like, Okay, he did it in the regular season. Now we see
what he's doing in the playoffs. But like you said, forty points and more in each of the last three games, first Nick to do that since Menara King forty years ago, first NBA player since Michael Jordan in nineteen eighty nine to close the series with forty or more points. So it was it was unbelievable what he did. And the thing about that game, though, is the Knicks jumped out like what thirty three thirty thirty three eleven I believe, and I stopped watching. I was like, Eh, this is
over the Knicks. They're gonna cook the Sixers. And then I look back up and the Sixers going this thirty four to eleven run and now they're leading at halftime. I'm like, whoa. And the whole game was like that. It was like the whole series was like that. It was very exciting. And you know, when you see a guy like Jalen Brunton perform the way he did with the stakes so high, it's just it was just unbelievable.
I mean, think about this, Sarah. Since nineteen ninety six ninety seven, there have been five playoff games where a team trailed by five points or more in the final thirty seconds in regulation and came back to win that game, and two of those games were in this series. Game two in Game five, so it was unbelievable. I don't know what the TV ratings were, but they should be phenomenal because, oh my gosh, that was a good series.
Yeah, absolutely extraordinary.
I think selfishly I was hoping for a Game seven just because I wanted to see a little bit more of it. But it was incredibly close. There were so many clutch plays this series. Within the six games, the Knicks out scored in total Philadelphia.
By just one point.
So it was something I really think will continue to look back and just a lot of iconic plays and moments, especially when you're looking at two organizations like this. But when it comes to Philadelphia in this is a circumstance. I think there's a lot of layers to it when you look at what they have achieved have not achieved. Where did they go from here? What does it look like they've got fifty five million dollars in cap space
moving forward? Tyres Maxie, I think you talk about players that have kind of maybe changed the perspective of who they are, what they are, the growth of them. I think Maxi is one of those players who was extraordinary throughout the course.
Of this series.
Joel embiid Steel still trying to make that conference finals with all he has done, the MVP under his belt. Just the health always kind of circles back to being an issue. Tobias Harris a player that this summer is a free agent. Tyres Maxi is an unrestricted free agent. But what do you look at this Philadelphia's seventy six ers team and think should be their potential pathway moving forward?
Given how the season finished.
Well, the first priority for me is to make sure Tyrese Maxi is good, you know, keep him with Joel and b because that kid was unbelievable. On the night we were just talking about how Jalen Bruns had had forty and on a night like that, Tyrese Maxi has forty six and wins the game for him essentially. I mean, so you definitely have to keep those two guys together.
And the funny thing about Tyres is that it seems like over the years they've done everything but try to make Tyrese Maxey the guy, you know what I mean, Like you bring in James Harden, you know, and it's everybody but Tyrese, And then this season, Tyree's just has an unbelievable season, and now I think, you know, you've got to make sure like he's the guy that Joel
joelnbid always need it right next to him. And so for me, I mean think about that was a game five six point deficit, twenty five point four seconds left. He scores a team's final six points to force ot and then he goes off in overtime. It's just you gotta have that guy on the team. But you look at Tobias Harris contract expiring, I don't know, I don't know.
He's a veteran, he's getting up there. I think they have sort of a couple of foundational pieces and they all they need to do is sort of build around the edges. I think a lot of teams need to start taking the playbook or the I guess the manual. From a team like Denver, they didn't go in and do a bunch of crazy stuff. They just you draft guys and then you bring in guys that really fit you, and you do it slowly. And so I don't I
know they've got capro. I know Darryl Morey's a wheeler and dealer, but I think they should just, you know, just you add a couple solid vets. You don't have to go get a superstar, and I think they're gonna be right back in the thick of it next year.
Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to watch just across the league, all the movement, some of the dominoes that may fall, because I think there are a lot of teams that question marks are are gonna come to. One of those the Milwaukee Bucks who lost in Indiana Pacers and in despite the fact that jamst Kupo did not play in the entirety of the series, Dame Lillard did come back
and play last night, though was struggling with that. Achilles glad to see that that he's okay and obviously came out of that fine had twenty eight points, seven to sixteen. It was solid games from Brook Lopez, from Bobby Portis, Chris Middleton, but not enough for the Pacers.
For the Pacers.
Bench Obi top and twenty one points. TJ McConnell twenty points. You kind of look down the list in the roster of what this Pacers team does, and in what they do is score.
That's a big part of the pace they play with.
It's gonna be really interesting to see the contrasting styles between the Pacers and the Knicks in this matchup, and it's going to be interesting.
There's storyline, storylines on storylines.
Let's go back to Reggie Miller and those great series with the Pacers and the Knicks. You look at Rick Carlisle, head coach of this Pacers team. Of course, head coached Jalen Brunson when he was in Dallas, and there's just a lot of layers to what this is going to look like. What intrigues you most about this matchup in the Eastern Conference, Semis.
I think there's sort of a contrast of styles. Obviously, Indiana gets up and down the floor at a breakneck pace, and can New York handle that. I actually think they can because they have shown the ability to play pretty good defense. So I want to see how that plays out. And then let's be real that Madison Square Garden stage is something else. Either you shine on it or you will there's really no in between in Madison Square Garden, and so I'm interested to see how that goes for
this Indiana Pacers team that is sort of young. They're pretty young team. So for a couple of games in the Milwaukee series, we saw the return of spicy P with Pascal Siaka. Well, you know, he had like thirty something points in two straight games, then all of a sudden he sort of tailed off there at the end. So are we gonna see spicy P or are we gonna see mild p?
Like?
What are we gonna see in this round? So, like you said, there's a lot of great storylines, and you know, you've got a couple of the NBA's great coaches too, so that makes it more fun because there's gonna be strategy, you know, tactics, whatever they do, and that'll be fun to watch. But who are you, like, what are you expecting to come out of this? Like, what's gonna be the big storyline for you.
To me is can the Knicks find a way to slow down Indiana? I mean that's what it's been all about. And defensively, my big, my big. I wouldn't say question Mark because he's been But does Tyrese Haliburton look like the Tyre's Halliburton we saw the early part of the season.
Yeah, yeah, in.
Just getting back to and I know a lot of that him coming back from injury, but I think he's going to be the key component you always talk about any playoff series and who is the best player in the series, and Jalen Brunson proved to be the best player in the next series, and obviously the compliments of his cast, but he you know, Tom Sabodeau went a whole seven deep, and he pretty much.
Went six I would say six deep.
It's felt like throughout the course of the games how much they play, and so how does that kind of factor into what things look like with the way the Pacers play and if they get hot, if they're knocking down three, then it changes the dynamic of it. But if not, they're obviously not a team that does a
whole lot in terms of defending you. And so I think it's going to be interesting to see to your point about these coaches, the chess match is given the contrast of these styles in what it looks like the team. The Pacers, though did knock out mention the Milwaukee Bucks. It was a really it was a interesting season for them, and not necessarily in a great way. Started with a team that for the most part was sicking, sitting in second in the Eastern Conference. Yet fires Adrian Griffin brings
in Doc Rivers. I'm not sure if the team looked like they had improved a whole lot and obviously dealing with some injuries, but it just felt very disjointed throughout the entirety of the season. And you get tell other a team that has had championship aspirations, but they are starting to age. Some key components are starting to age.
What do you think is next for the Bucks in terms of what changes may need to be made in what the future looks like for a team that still, I imagine wants to be contending for titles.
I've got a feeling that they internally feel like they would be okay just running it back. And you mentioned some very interesting points in the main one is that these guys are aging, you know, I mean, even your depth is getting old, and so that's that's something to watch. But I think part of like Doc Rivers and that whole organization, I think they feel like, well, you know, we got together sort of late. We hadn't had a whole off season together, haven't had time to really implement
what we want to be as a team. So I think that the Bucks will try to They'll try to bring bring it, bring everybody back for the most part, and have a whole complete off season with all these guys and try to run it back next year. And then also these injuries that just popped up out of nowhere. It seems like those were major for the Bucks. And you know your best suit players are hurt pretty much the whole series, and you know that's that's gonna sink
you in most cases. I mean Gianni's answer to coopbo didn't even play the entire season. That's a problem. So I think they running back, but they but they got to sort of in the fringes. Depth wise, you need to go get some younger people that can contribute right now.
Yeah, and say with Bobby there was just not a whole lot of consistency out of that. But I think it's to me, I'm curious to see how they go about it, because there's reasons, and I don't want to call them excuses, but excuses for why you get knocked out in the first round, playing without Giannis, and the changes throughout the course of the season, and obviously them getting accustomed to Dame Lillard and Middleton dealing with some injury.
But it's still never felt right. It's still never felt like how it was supposed to feel or look with this team, And yeah, I do think you may end up running it back in some some regard and changing some parts of the margins, but I'm not sure that's going to be enough when you look at the other teams in the Eastern Conference and where they'll be sitting.
So it's going to be as we said, it's there's a lot of movement I think for a lot of these teams, and I think the dominoes may kind of hit one another of seeing what changes are made in different organizations that may see more player movement than we've seen over the course of the past couple off seasons. We're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna get to where you are at Michael in Dallas for the Clips and the MAVs.
Game six tonight. Welcome back to NBA.
Paul Sarracusak joined by the great Michael c Right you are in Dallas. The Clippers in the MAVs series has been one that it's been some lopsided games. I think we knew with this one it could have been a pick up series of just kind of how things would go. But I think you know, after every game so often you couldn't overreact to it because of how different it felt last game in Game five, when Dallas took this
three to two series lead. It was a big, big game for Luka Danncics thirty five points, tennisis, seven rebounds. He and Kyrie Irving have looked really good together and it was just a lackluster performance by the Clippers. Kawhi Leonard did not play, but after James Harden looked very good in the early parts of this series. He had just seven points, go two to twelve from the field. What's your expectation of what happens here tonight.
I think we see the end of the series tonight, I honestly do. I just feel like Dallas has generated some serious moment of it. You know, like you mentioned Luka Dodge and Kyrie Irving. Those guys are just so symbiotic.
They do like it's like Luca sort of sort of starts the MAVs out, starts them out, get somewhere where they need to be, and then you know, he'll sort of kind of don't let me step back for a minute and then let Kyrie Irving second half, Kyrie Irving cook for a little while, and they have they just do a really good job of playing off one another. And then those those forwards that they have now, Derick Jones, Junior, PJ. Washington even and Daniel Gaffer too, so athletic live threat.
I think in game three, I believe they had eight lib dunks in that game. And the first two games the Clippers had done a pretty good job of sort of neutralizing that aspect of the MAVs game. But when they get that lib going like that, there's nothing you can do with him now because they can you know, they can throw that lib, but they can also kick that thing out like It's just it's impossible to defend him once they get that aspect of the game going,
because now you got to defend multiple things. So I think it's gonna be over even with Kawhi Leonard, because Kawhi Leonard is just not right. In game three, I'll watched him and I said, you know, I bet the MAVs are hoping that Kawhi Leonard continues to play because he can't move. And you saw that in game three, and that's why you know, Kawhi Leonard was not his usual self. But then you see James Harden have the game he had and was it Game three or game four?
Game four, he has that big game and then you expect him to do a repeat performance or at least try to, and then in game five what he scores like seven. Can't win that way, And I just I feel like the Clippers are a little just there. I don't know how to explain it. They're they're they're frazzled at this point. I think it's good a coach as Tyler Lewis, I don't know if he's going to be able to pull him out of it.
Yeah, And I think it's that like some of it is the actual execution that needs to take place, but some of it is just the body language or the effort or the energy. And you particular saw that in the second half in the Dallas took a lead with the second half of Game five, and even you mentioned, you know, Russell Westbrook and kind of the role he's been playing. But he goes two of eleven from the field in that one. So you can't kind of put
too much stock into, you know, one game. There's still plenty of opportunity here, but it just it feels like the Clippers just don't have it anymore. And you can tell it by the look and their play in their faces. What happens from here for the Clippers, let's say tonight is is in fact it for LA what's next for this group too, that's moving to brand new arena? Still
waiting to see what happens with Paul George. Kawhi Leonard signed that big contract extension when he was playing, so, well, what do you think is next for the Clippers?
There's lots of toilets in that arena, apparently that's what they say. Well, okay, okay, what do they do? I have no idea? And I say that because first off, where is Kawhi Leonard health wise?
Like you?
Like you mentioned, you signed him to that deal, and so I think you got to get him healthy obviously. But then there's the whole contract situation of Paul George you've got to deal with. And from everything you see and read about the situation, Paul George is not taking hometown discounts he wants to. So can they pay him?
I don't know, but I think they've got to figure out sort of what they ultimately want to be because from what we've seen with them with Kawhi Leonard, it seems to me, like you you get him for so long and then at a certain point he sort of starts to break down with you know, injuries and stuff like that because of what is it now three straight postseasons that injuries have sort of knocked him out. Well obviously by now that's sort of a you know, that's sort of who he is, I guess at this point.
I mean, he is thirty two years old. So I just think that that they've got to figure it out, like what what style do we need to play? How do we play it? And like I said, also, they've got the same thing as Milwaukee. You've got a lot of aging people on this roster, and you know, do you just keep his status quo in a Western is going to get better and better? I don't know, you should put your GM hat on. It helped me out here because that is just perplexing for me to look.
At it is.
And I think too just it all circles back, especially when you've got your start, It all circles back to health. I think more often than not, we saw the moments when they were playing so well and kind of figured out the roles and they looked like they were a true title contending team, but when you have a lot of question marks and inconsistency with that, and for ty Lu too, I think not knowing what to expect how that changes the dynamic of how you're coaching. When you
have a player as impactful as Kawhi Leonard. There's a lot of factors that go into it, and one that is not to be answered just yet. They still have a chance here tonight, and as we've seen in this series, you never know. Anything can happen with the way these teams have come out, and Michael, we will look forward to all your stuff, your reports, watching you on NBA TV, NBA to follow up that game and throughout the rest
of this postseason. So, as always, thank you so much for your time and we'll talk to you soon.
You got us, Sarah.
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