The NBA Finals are here, and we finally have the matchup we anticipated prior to recording last week's episode. In a very unlikely near comeback, I will say, uh, I was sweating a bit. I did put the pampers underneath my armpits to absorb all of the sweat. And we've got the nuggets. We've gotten the heat and we'll go into the series expectations and more with Nugget beat Rider TJ McBride. See that's a little bit of hip hop
for you on today this episode. I'm Miles Gray and I'm Jack O'Brien and this is Jack Jack Ship Dakers. Got there. You go and be driving Spinny Curry a three bad stop Curry from downtown again, be honest with the Okay, shoot time, what you go?
Yes, what happen? And everyone yea heat nuggets? A joke about like what it? What is this lunchtime? Heat nuggets? What is this instruction for frozen food? Heat nuggets?
Oh?
Has officially been done? Has been done?
Oh?
You heard my mixtape straight heat Nuggets.
Somebody even put in case Miami wins this like here's my draft and like weted it out like a week before it actually happened, so we've all been beat to it. I was going to come up with that joke on my own in like four days. So okay, yeah, that's cool.
But first, let's welcome TJ. McBride. Are very team Jay. Yes, so DJ, you're from La, right, yes?
Originally yep.
And then you came up as a Lakers fan.
Yes, I did, born and raised Lakers fan, watching Derek Fisher hit point three second shots, growing up on Kobe. That was my entire childhood. Kobe roud La and that was everything that we ever knew was basketball people, and it's.
Win here today, fantas and then. But but now you now you find yourself covering the Denver Nuggets for almost a little over a decade now, yeah.
Pretty damn close to a decade now. I think it's like nine and a half, ten years. I think I think July is ten years, so it's it's a long time. When you say it like that.
Wow, So you've you've seen it all.
I was there for you just for a Summer League game in Vegas. I've seen the very very very start of this all the way through now right right.
And you saw it coming from the start. I remember yeah, said never. You said when he got drafted during that Taco Bell commercial, you were like, that's we're going to be framing him a screen.
King Sorito will be the second most impactful thing in that screen right there. Yeah, that's crazy that you go back to that summer league. He was abnormally good, like you watched him, and it still didn't make sense the same way it does today. And yet he was still doing these preposterous things on a basketball court even back then.
That was what twenty twelve he was doing that. So it was absolutely insane to see him come here, but no one thought he would be the MVP back to back, arguably should have been three times and now in the finals. So yeah, it's insane to see where he come from to this point now.
Totally.
So I've been saying I've been posing this question to everybody I talked to you about the NBA that they look heading into the finals obviously could change like they might be the best NBA team I've witnessed since the Kevin Durant Warriors.
Yeah, yeah, I All season long, I've been saying that there's been this inevitability feeling with the Nuggets no matter what the score or the time is that they're going to find a way. And that was very reminiscent to me of that exact Warriors team where you would just hit that third quarter and it didn't matter if you were up by fifteen or if you were down by six, you were losing that game by twenty. And that's how it's felt all season long, and even in the playoffs
it's felt exactly the same way. I mean, this is a Nuggets team that is what is it first and offensive rating, a couple points away from fifth and defensive rating and is just far and away the best net rating team in basketball, no turnovers, hitting threes from everywhere, best talent on the court, role players coming through. This team is just turned into a monster, and there's so many ways that they can hurt you. I've been saying that they have more optionality than any team in basketball.
They can hit more buttons and find more counters than anybody else. And that's why they've gotten here. They haven't had any moment where it felt like there was an obstacle they couldn't get over no matter who they played.
Now on the other side of the versus sign a team that didn't feel inevitable heading into the playoffs or at any point this season until I would argue heading into the Eastern Conference Finals like they were, you know, massive underdogs, but they just felt like something inevitable, like based on how they were playing in the playoffs, based on how Boston was playing in the playoffs heading into the series. I picked the Heat in seven just based on the mathematical pattern of Boston went to six in
round one. They had no right losing that series or even not sweeping that series. They went to seven in round two, had no right going to seven in that series with that Philly team. I think it's gonna keep going, folks. And it did, even though I forgot that and thought that the Heat were screwed heading into Game seven.
I thought it was done. I thought there was no chance. It was like the extremely slow object hitting the extremely flimsy wall, Like where's the Celtics gonna collapse mentally? Or were the Heat going to find a way to drag this out to seven and make it an ugly, ugly Eastern Conference Finals win? And that is exactly what played out.
Yeah.
Yeah, But I.
Will say I don't have the same feeling of you know, the people are sleeping on the heat here heading into the finals that I did heading into the Eastern Conference front.
That feeling for me would have been at its height because again, last episode, we were on the precipice of them sweeping and I was like, well, okay, this shit looks like it's a rap, it's a Christmas gift. And yeah, when I was like, even if they went to six games,
I think I would have still felt good. The fact that it went to seven, I'm like, oh, yeah, they they they're capable of, you know, getting touched and and then and obviously being on the receiving end of the battering of being a Lakers fan, I was like, oh yeah, no, no, no, yeah, y'all got nothing for this because what I what happened out there, I don't want to remember again, although it was a fantastic series just to watch like again just to be like, oh, this is the best team in
the league, and yeah, this is what it takes, like this is the level you need to be at if you want to say we're going to the finals or we are the you know, the champion.
And as much as being elite, there's there's no mistakes made from Denver. I mean you walked down the Lakers series. They have the lowest turnover percentage in all of basketball. In the playoffs right now, they just continually machine through you surgically and there's just nothing you can do about it.
Yeah, buzz Saw is the machine that I've heard them compared to the most. But let's talk about so. I mean, Boston did make it extremely interesting. The second half of Game four was uh you know that that was I texted Jabari in the third quarter and said, first three to zero, comeback because they just that's that's the feeling that Boston gives you when they're playing their best. I think Charles Barkley said it at one point that like, if Miami plays their best and Boston plays their best,
Boston's gonna win every time. Yes, And it seemed like they had just kind of put it together for a while and then things slowed down in Game six. But Game six was epic.
Yeah. Yeah, that that game winner from Derek White almost I almost ruined a family trip. I was so devastated when I was like, I was like, oh no, that's that. No, the buzzer went off. Now I was late, and then the second down I'm like, no, oh my gosh, and more so to be like I can't At that point, it really felt like, oh, is the universe about to like shine its light on the Boston Celtics right now, because that I was getting a little bit wobbly there for sure.
One one bomb, but the buzzle sounded the wife, what's on? It'll be reviewed after protect the offensive rebound? Whoa he got rid of it?
Me a Celtics Game seven, and that that game six game winner was of course after Jimmy Butler did what Jimmy Butler does and stormed back and just forced his will on the Celtics and the you know laws of physics, Like I still just feel like I'm seeing something that is unlike anything I've seen before on a basketball court, Like when he just gets it going because he's like trying really hard to get it going.
If it's a cheesy anime world where he's like finding the power of plogharm and just like developing more from nothing. Yeah, it's incredible, and it like it's at the point now that you can't quantify it, like is it gonna be enough to beat Denver? Eight? Damn will could be like who's gonna pick against Butler doing this like they are not going to win this series unless he is at that level of godly basketball player. But at the same time, it's gonna take seven games with that to be able
to do so. But he is in a world that you just don't see people reach as a basketball player. But that Ain'tkle looks bad like he had no pop in Game seven at all, and I'm worried about seeing Butler try and turned corners going into this after seven game series in altitude against Denver in Game one of the finals two days later.
Altitude is believable.
I think the altitude is being underrated a little bit. I talked about it a lot in the Lakers series because as somebody who experienced altitude climbing a volcano a couple of years ago, and I was doing it with a bunch of like twenty somethings, and I was like, oh, this is like hangovers, Like this is one of those things that just gets way worse with age. So I felt for Lebron heading into that. I was like, uh, oh,
this could be bad. And then Jimmy always looks gassed like he he'll do an amazing thing and then will look like he just did an amazing thing and that that required like all of the life force in his body.
Or he'll get hurt and rolling ankle and suddenly find his jump shot. Like the guy plays never I've never seen anybody.
Like Yeah, he's like Maximus and Gladiator. Yeah, you know what I mean. Like, I don't know, out of kind and we'll see what happens.
You're like, what all The altitude thing is so interesting though, because I've talked to so many people about it after covering a decade of hoops in Denver, and every single one says a different thing. Like some say, oh, no, you just have a quick like first wall, you hit a altitude and the second you push through it, then you're usually fine on your second wind, and that takes five six minutes in the first quarter. Other people say it destroys them. Some say they don't feel it at all,
like the Nuggets love to steer into it. Even says fifty to eighty on the hot on the free throw line. They love steering into it. But I don't know if this is as much of a real scientific impact as people want to make it out to be. Considering these are the best athletes and some of the best conditioned athletes that are on earth.
So are you implying that when I climbed the volcano, I was not one of the best conditioned athletes.
Absolutely, not a Jimmy Butler athlete, no, nothing but respect. But that's a different level, and they tend to push through. So I wonder if the altitude is as big as a deal as people like to make it.
Well, I mean because on some level, right, like a lot of elite athletes, they train at high altitude for the reason that it's a benefit to your endurance. So I think like on some level, right, it's like passively they're already training at an elite level by the altitude. But it is hard for me to say and that's all it is, because that's not true. You know, the otherwise powers of.
Being in Denver to begin acclimating, and then you just have to push through that first layer of oh wow, I'm feeling my first you know, struggles a little bit earlier than I normally would in a regular game. So it's not gonna like derail series.
That's kind of right to It got to the point where I was I was in my conspiracy theory bag during an hour series with that, I was like, I don't know, man, because Jack, you were like, look, it's not Lebron being thirty eight and ortal, it's the altitude. I'm like, yeah, that's what it is. He's doing it.
He looked more gasp than he did for sure, But.
I think that's probably confluence of things. But so, like in but I started googling, I was like, okay, what a how are these other Denver teams doing. I'm like, what's like, how the white Caps doing, you know what I mean? Or the Raps I'm sorry, the Rapids doing because I'm like, yeah, that's that's Vancouver. I was like their MLS team because I was thinking, like, that's another cardiovascular intensive sport, and I'm like, that must come out. There must be proofing.
The putt in there of their record is not that great, Son, combination of franchise history is not great. But yeah, but I think it's seven game series smiling right now against a thirty a team that where the whole heart of the team is a thirty eight year old.
I think there's thirty eight. Stop saying it like it's a bad thing. I can't. I can't. It's as someone who's thirty eight years old. I'm tired of hearing this thirty years.
Old fossil for MBA. He's still standing at this point with what his needs have taken.
Oh yeah, but it's just so funny to me continuously when that number is like just parroted and like thirty eight and I'm like, I'm you know, I have a little bit of it bands pain, But that's I can just because.
Not even legal to have an elderly person like that playing in the league or dentures get knocked out. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back and we will preview this series that we're all facing down and we're back and all right. So, I mean, one thing we didn't really touch on on our recap Game seven incredible performances all around Caleb Martin in particular, is Caleb Martin having the best playoffs by someone who averaged under ten in the regular season.
Like, I don't remember another one like this. I mean, you might want to go the Andre iguidalar out simply because he didn't play in the regular season and he decides to play in the playoffs. But I haven't seen a player who was put so low. If you would have ranked the NBA players like he was not a starter on his own team. He was the sixth or seventh guy on the heat, let alone one of the best scorers efficiency wise in the playoffs.
Right now, I've.
Never seen someone become this much more of themselves in this kind of a setting.
Yeah, it was Caleb Martin him for sure, because I was the same. I was like, well, who I was ignorant. I was a little bit like, huh.
Got to put some respect on the Martin twins names. Even going back to Nevada, those two were dogs every single step of the way they've been fighting. I got a lot of respect for them.
Yeah see, And again I shown my ignorance and it has come back in my face because I was like, oh no, no, no, no, he's this is something. But yeah, that, like that sort of turnaround is kind of unheard of because I think the other examples that we could think of were people who we knew were like a little more established, so it wasn't too much of a surprise, whereas Caleb Martin is yeah like Rondo, yeah yeah right, yeah, yeah, absolutely see.
Max Strus and Caleb Martin and Gabe Vincent and Dusted off Duncan Robinson just off the shelf doing all this is the most heat thing it can imagine.
Yeah, but all right, so the series the finals. First of all, you're going to have a historic underdog winning the title this year. We know this because the biggest underdogs to win the NBA Championship at start of playoffs since nineteen ninety two nineteen ninety three, the Heats odds were plus twelve thousand, five hundred. The implied probability there is less than one percent. That's the lowest odds. The twenty eleven Mavericks were had an implied probability of five
point three percent. Nineteen ninety five Rockets implied probability of five point three percent. The fourth longest odds would be the Denver Nuggets this year nine point one percent, which, yeah, you're like, for people paying attention, it has felt a little inevitable, but like it just seemed like it got missed by the mainstream sports media or the betting public, like just because they're a small market, I guess.
I mean, they're a flyover city. And this is why Michael Malone's been yelling so much, Like you have an orthodox star player, you have a city in the middle of the country that no one wants to go to because the airport is so far from downtown, and you have just a group of people who are playing team basketball with no hero ball whatsoever, trying to make it work in an old school let's build it ourselves chemistry sense, like that doesn't work. It doesn't appeal to people. There's
no theatrics. It's not drama filled, like they just go to work and they handle business. I think this is why people like Chris Mannix and all these conversations about the Nuggets being boring or not compelling.
Is it's wrong.
But I can understand how they get there in a lazy sense, like you look at them on paper and you're like, what is there to like get really excited about. But you get into the weeds and you see what they've come through. It's a heck of a lot more exciting. Jamal Murray has probably returned from an ACL injury as best as anybody has. I've never seen anyone come back from ACL diad it in their first season back be able to put together a run like this and play
this long without their need failing them. Nikola Jokich is one of one. We've never seen anything like him before, so the idea that this isn't interesting to me is crazy, and the fact that people missed it was just ignorance, Like this is something that people just didn't take the time to watch the Nuggets because frankly, they weren't as
interesting as the Lakers failing. People would rather watch the Lakers go through the chaos they did when Russ was there and get excited about the hype of Malik Beasley, who did not even play against his former team in the Western Conference or in the Western Conference semis like. I don't know why we feel that way, but the entire grand narrative of the NBA is always going to be transactional. It's always going to be about trades and rumors and who is doing what. It's not as much
about basketball. We haven't trained casual fans as media well enough for them to even know what a horn's action is. Like we can sit back and watch a cover three get played out by an NFL analyst in every single football game, but nobody knows what it is to put a horn set out there, or to have a see corner play, or what a flare screen is. So I feel like.
A lot of the.
Yea one of them. But that's the problem. I mean, we it's hard to enjoy basketball for basketball when the fans watching it aren't necessarily watching.
I remember, like in the Warrior series where Lebron clocked like that hammer play on the inbounds, people are like, oh, he's a genius. Like people like that's a play.
Yeah, that was like in every single playbook and existence from eighth grade basketball through like, this is not an unbelievably inventive way of playing the game.
And we've talked about this Jack that there is this like sort of outsized emphasis sometimes like who messed up? Ye? Who more fundled?
Who?
Yeah? Exactly who's don Beebie this time?
Yeah?
The coverage is Boston's collapse and the Bucks, the Milwaukee Bucks collapse, And it's like, I don't know, are you sure that's what we're watching? You sure?
Yeah? That's what? You're not really good that the Nuggets are.
You used to wanting to click on that They're only going to click on stuff like that and they're never going to read anything actual.
Yeah, Because I mean I can say this, I just again, watching even as such a partisan fan, as a Laker fan, I knew go. I was like, oh no, this team is so good, Like it's difficult to watch because I'm rooting for the team that has no chance of winning, but pardon me, loves basketball enough to go they're so good. Yeah they can't.
I want to say on this, Matt Moore made a great point. Works for the Action Network. He's on NBA Twitter like crazy. Everyone probably knows who he is. But he made a point that it's not the national journal journalism media that don't know. It's the TV people. It's the ones that sit down, have a game to cover, get a one sheet of information, and they talk about
the game in front of them. Most national reporters, Howard, Bakmeir and Fader, all these different people who write long feature stories, they all know what the Nuggets have been doing. This isn't surprising. It's the ones who are usually television based, who don't have a need to be able to know everything and are only going to use very base level and surface level analysis anyway, who haven't taken the time
to learn. It's like Lisa Salter is saying she hadn't watched Ki since he played in the bubble, thus three years ago not watch that could be in either of his two seasons. So I wonder if a lot of this is the talking heads that we always see are the ones that we're hearing from the most about not knowing and the actual national media who was writing in a day to day basis traveling to learn about these games do know. They're just not the ones on TV yelling at it.
Ye, I saw everything I needed in the bubble. I think I think I got this guy figured out, figured clear.
Indicator of who a player is in the bubble.
That makes total sense, right, Oh yeah, look Jamal Murray, I saw him in the bubble. No thanks, Wait what you saw him?
These are that same Jamal Murray a couple of weeks ago too, So you definitely aren't feeling that anymore.
No, No, I was like, oh no, Lise, I mean to that, like, you know, where where? How did you like, where did you predict the Nuggets would be? Did you are you saying they were going to be in the finals this year? Winning?
So on the Nuggets going to the finals this year, I just knew what they needed, and they needed a perimeter defense and dog who can actually fight and keep guys in front of them, because if you can do that, you could just no longer that your defensive liability. And if they can shoot threes and handle the ball like KCP and Bruce Brown can, that gives you more optionality. You can attack in different ways and you have the
defense to back it up. Now with my experience in the postseason with defensive rating, but they are point six points away from being fit. So this is not just like some mid level defense. This is a team that has been putting together exactly the process that they want to play with, can play multiple different styles and have stopped Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Anthony
Edwards all the way down the list. So this is a defense that can really defend now and that's been one of the biggest differences.
But to be fair, you picked the Nuggets to win the title the last six seasons, right, I did not.
I did not think.
I didn't grab Nuggets fans, so don't. I don't have a whole lot of hope. And I honestly didn't think they were ready until this year.
So yeah, So I mean, one thing I have to ask is somebody who watched Anthony Davis try his best to try and car jokicch and at the time, I was like, man AD's defense is something else? What I mean from your perspective, as you know, like I hate to sound like a court side pundit, but what did the Heat have to do to to to handle the Nikola Jokic question? Is it that Kevin Garnett thing I saw him say. He's like, I'm coming after boom, non stop,
make him run, try and gass him out. Is it like or are you saying there you cannot defeat doctor Manhattan.
You can. There are ways to make Yokic uncomfortable. The Heat don't have the ability to do those things. You need to put layers of big bodies in front of him, and that's why you saw the Lakers put Ruey on him and put Ad on Gordon and just put bodies after bodies between him and the rim. You can't do that as the heat. We need to put Caleb Martin on him, pull Kevin Love off the bench like Hayward high Smith isn't gonna check Yokic one and be able to box out. You can't do that as the heat.
Even if I do like some of those guys, and I think Bam out of Bio is a top three defender in this league pretty much. Inarguably. I am one of the biggest BAM fans. But I put some clips on Twitter. It doesn't matter, like Bam at a bio can do everything he wants. It does not matter. He is lacking an inch of height and about thirty pounds of weight and a whole lot of leverage that Jokic has that he does not. He's been able to go right through the one on one, So I don't know what you do at that.
Point, right. Yeah, it's to the point where I'm thinking of AD like you know how, like Michael Jordan started working out after that Pistons defeat, Like AD needs to go like work with horses or something to serve you, and I feel like a solace like the horse. Yeah, get on, get a get on, get on that program whatever, because it's working. Yeah, but there's not.
I think we're gonna see a lot of like NBA players start adopting what Jokic does, like chilling with horses during the off season, just to like try and.
The Nuggets have been doing this. I always asked on a radio show at it earlier, who's the player who's benefit the most from Nikola Jokic, And I said Aaron Gordon, Because Aaron Gordon has spent his entire time in Denver
learning to see basketball through Nikola Yokic's eyes. He went and just traveled the world during the offseason, met Jokic and I believe the Czech Republic to watch the Serbian team play international basketball, and just like sent some love, continued to watch film and came back with the intention of seeing the game through Jokic's eyes. And we've seen
who the player he's become. He's no longer trying to pretend he's Lebron Like, this is a guy who can help any team in basketball and be a third or fourth guy on a championship team. So it's Jokic impacts people and the way people see the game in a way that you just don't see.
Yeah, so that helped his three point shooting.
Yeah, wellieve he's not having to take jackup shots off the dribble with the guy in his face. He can sit in the corner.
Now.
Yeah, I will say people are still somehow sleeping on Denver, like the so in this series Miami, so Miami were plus four hundred heading into the Cellde series, which you know, that made them one of the biggest underdogs in the conference finals in years. By the way, heading into the playoffs they were plus six thousand to make the finals.
But yeah, now they are plus three hundred against the Nuggets, and I guess that's probably because you know, people just saw them beat Boston and everyone thought Boston was But like, that doesn't a track to me at all that you would be a bigger underdog versus Boston than Denver when we've seen what Denver just did to the West. Like that feels silly to me.
It feels a lot like there's a lot of sharps who are out there trying to get value by picking Miami early and has moved the line. That's what that feels like to me. Because the Nuggets have been substantially more favored than the Heat for a lot of the books throughout, but as we've gotten closer and closer to the series, it seems like people are starting to overweigh the Heat because I think there's some big bets going on the Heat, So I wonder if that's part of it.
And also I think like more of you know, the betting markets are determined by betters and who's putting money where, And just the Boston Miami series was very high profile and went to seven, and you know a lot of people were watching that more recently so.
And Denver's had nine days showing at home. You could get back to Serbia and come back in this.
Yeah, this is our first gambling advice. I would say Denver is undervalued a little bit.
Yeah, this is not financial advice, though, don't.
Take me for financial advice. I chose journalism for a career. Did you not take financial advice from me?
Or as we're podcasters?
So what do you what do you think? I mean, it sounds like we've got your pick. It's probably like heat in six or seven. Despite that, what uh is?
There?
Is there anything Miami can do at this point? You think it's gonna be a sweep. You think it's gonna be like five six much.
Respect for Jimmy Butler and Eric Spolstra to call sweep. I think this is gonna most likely be a six game series. I'm leaning closer to five, but I'm gonna give Spolstra and Jimmy Butler a game or two without a doubt, probably two. But when you start looking at the battlegrounds, the turnover battle is going to be huge. Both of these teams thrive scoring in transition. Denver has the lowest turnover ratio in the league, so they're not gonna turn the ball over very often, which is gonna
hurt the heat. But it do happen to end up getting destroyed in passing lanes, that'll be a big boost for Miami.
That was one nice thing that Boston did is that they they gave them the ball at which is really nice and like, you know, care a sign of character I think.
Is it is you have to be able to let everybody thrive sometimes. But I also think the three point variant is going to be fascinating because if they just shoot the lights out of the ball and they decide, you know what we're gonna we're gonna guard youkich one on them with bam. If you want to take twos while we take threes, We're gonna live with that because we don't know how else we can score you, and we don't know how else we can be able to
keep up with Nicolie. If we're gonna send two Adam so I think that's gonna be an interesting part of this as well, is can they just outshoot them? And the Tyler hero thing is interesting. Everybody keeps talking about Game three Tyler Hero could that make a big difference? And Tyler Hero is going to get cooked the Nuggets when they played them in every single game. I watched the last four years of Heat Nuggets basketball, and every single time Tyler Heroes on the Florid, didn't matter who
had the ball, they were attacking Tyler. It was an all out blitz to attack him. And while he did get some shots up on the other end, you can't have a defensive seed like that in the finals. You just can't. And especially when he's coming off of injury, you cannot do that. And when you put KCP and Bruce Brown on them and say that's your guy, glove him, it's gonna be very difficult for him to create space and create any kind of impact.
Yeah, I would not try and bring him back. If what we'ven in we're gonna.
End up here and they're gonna be like, we don't have ball handling, we don't have shooting, we need somebody else get Tyler Rough.
Yeah, I feel like they the Miami Heat probably are one of the teams least likely to make desperation moves.
But yeah, wait, yeah, but Spoe also knows that if he doesn't have options, he'll hit nuclear buttons. He'll do whatever it takes. That's who Heat is and has always been.
Right.
How uh, the zone does not seem like it will work out very well against Nikolajic.
And stats for you on the zone I looked at. I was wondering right after the Heat were officially going to be the finals opponent. That's the first thing I looked up. The Nuggets were the number one offense against the zone in the regular season. They scored I have it right here, one point one five points per possession on fifty six percent shooting and forty five percent from three against the zone. This year and in the playoffs they've been the best team against the zone as well.
So that would be a very rough call if you're going to run a lot.
Of zone against them, which was what Miami did against Boston. Boston should have been good against the zone, right they're off there shooting, They.
Just evolved into your turn, my turn, had no cohesion whatsoever, and just took a lot of really contested mid range twos and three pointers that they weren't making. So there's this is a real systematic defense that is going to very specifically and intentfully attack this team against the Miami Heat regularly. They're gonna know exactly what button's depressed win depressed them entry in the series. It's not going to be like Boston, who's like, we have more talent, let's
just sleep through it. Denver will not be entering the series in that same way. So I don't think you can compare the way that Boston played against that zone the way that Denver is going to bus you got yo kitchen the middle of the court, good luck and dealing with that in the zone.
Miami could just be playing Boston in the finals. I feel like they'd be.
That'd be a great I feel like I've seen that somewhere.
Just do that for them. Yeah, exactly, all right. Should we take a quick break.
Let's take a quick one. Yeah, come right back for the fastest segment in podcasting.
History after this and we're back. Yes, j McBride, Uh, poor soul, you've wandered into the fourth quarter, rappid fire round of questions.
This feels like when Sway does the five Circles of Doom or whatever. Yeah, like, I feel like that's what I'm getting stuck in round.
Get ready? Yeah, how's your freestyle?
They fall for it every time. Okay, they fall for it every time.
Play the Shook Ones Instrumental Classic Class. It was something different today anyway. So here we go, TJ. This is the fastest I guess segment in sports podcasting history. I'll say that. I think I can say that quite confidently. We're gonna ask you a question. Don't think about it, just answer, just reflexively, just chest pass it right back, got it? Okay, And if we start dragging on, we are entrusting you with keeping this entire segment moving. So you got to cut us off.
Mountain Iron on the heart.
Don't give me this too much power. I'm going to wield it. It is way too much fun too.
I can't say, well, guess what. We're gonna have a real.
Drug button in front of someone and say don't press it.
Hey, well you got the big red button, and I hope you're ready. I'm Jack, be ready, I'm ready. Here we go.
Where do you go first?
Yeah, I'm gonna go first.
Let's go, let's go.
Yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
This is.
My time, my quick.
Lost again coming back.
The problem this is this is Miles and Jack got mad boost He's not.
TJ got a spicy mouth, all right, start back up, TJ McBride, is there a single NBA player you would take right now over the chance of taking web Yama with the first pick this night?
Wow?
That was quick after we just heard everything that this man has said about Nicolo. Yes, he's still gonna take we yes.
Just.
We weren't doing this. I thought this was rapid fun. I came off the chest.
Asking a follow up question, which I believe is in the byline.
I just we've never seen anything like this. This is a beyond Lebron level prospect. I mean, you don't see someone miss a three, follow it up, grab their own offensive rebound and throw it back down. The guy is incredible, and I believe in his body, the way that they're actually working on his pliometrics and they're working on him at his flex.
Well, we heard it here first sucks U TJ. We're talking teams we want to cover in the off season. Spurs are is shoe in because of the aforementioned big Ama. What uh, what's the team you're expecting big things from? We got Spurs, we got okay, see, we got the magic. Who's Who's another team that people might be sleeping on that we're gonna wake.
Us up, Wake us up?
The Suns. I know it's very low hanging fruit, but you give an off season for Kevin Durant and Devin Booker to figure things out and retool around them and get eight and out of there, that's gonna be a scary team no matter what. That team was not ready for the playoffs this year. The Nuggets caught somewhat of a break because they were so fresh together. And I think now we're going to see a much scarier Son's team next year than they were this year.
Maybe like we can plan out some like dates or like some things that they can do together to build something and experiences.
Yeah exactly.
I mean, yeah, what's that golf that everybody does top flight to top golf, top golf, I might say top flight sad story.
I lost a golf club into the driving range last time once the top golf never went back, like lost it and it was gone. It might have been the sweating from the beer. But that's neither here nor there.
Got it? Got it? I get that, TJ. Next question, Jalen Rose's hair.
Is that a question? Is the answer?
No? Yeah, there was a I heard I heard a question mark on there.
You heard me?
Yeah.
The answer is just no, and I'm gonna leave it there.
Wow.
No, no, wow, Okay.
You're gonna leave it there.
No elaboration, yeah, from I mean, the question was vague, so I think the I know there is.
Dream in game commentary team who takes over? Body does these finals?
Uh? Sadano sideline Doris Burke in the booth with Iron Eagle, who does the nets call?
Yeah, Iron Eagles?
So good, so good, so good.
I've had enough. Brea. Although it was funny watching Jamal Murray pointed him and screamed, bang last time you hit was a moment right there.
I remember that a little too vividly.
I had a friend when we were playing a mule ball who would always shot bang bang every time the ball left his hand. Uh, every time, and he was like a thirty percent three point shooter. So bang bang bang bang.
Kind of okay. Next one, since you have la roots, I gotta ask you rank these three la chains in and out fat Burger, Tommy's fat Burger.
In and out. Tommy's fat Burger is fastly superior to most burger spots. And I will get shakes there anytime. And magine Johnson is part of it.
And that's the king of La right. Okay, okay, that's fair, that's fair. I like that.
Then we in and out?
Next? What are we doing in and out next? Okay? Wait? Well, how come Tommy's is love? You don't like to check in and out.
I'm just partial to it. I like the fries, it in and out. I like to shakes it in and out.
Hey, look at that. Someone would taste who likes in and out fries like me? Everyone comes for in and out fries and I'm like.
They're like, what, you don't like natural potatoes? That's the problem here?
Yeah, like a floppy I.
Love me some in and out fries.
Go in and out for sloppy fries. Pour water all over them. Uh all right. You can take any former Denver Great, put him with this current group with the Nuggets. Which former Great are you choosing to make a run in today's NBA.
I'm gonna go with Alex English. I want to pick David Thompson, but Alex English would have been a little bit more team oriented. It would have been a little bit different with otherwise. But Alex English is a guy who has watched the Nuggets team closely to he still is a part of this organization in a loose sense. So I very much so would think Alex Engler's that
scoring was out of this world. And you put a wing like that next to Nicola, he'd be a little bit he'd be Michael Porter Junior actualized.
Yeah, Okay, follow that question.
How much does it bother you to see Russell Wilson court side when he's uh sitting court side? Do you think that that could like that's one of the potential things that's making me believe in the heat is like when Russell Wilson's court side.
Yeah. So the la past of mine is a Raider, is a Los Angeles Raiders pass. So everything Broncos needs to burn, I'm done. I hate it. I may not be get die hard without Raiders fan anymore, but I hate everything to do with the Broncos still to this day. So anytime I see any of that, I'm out. It's the most annoying thing when Peyton Manning on the JumboTron or Russell Wilson. The JumboTron is the loudest that it
gets in Ballerina. So I'm out on everything, Broncos, you could have picked anyone out of a hat.
What's your favorite ball offering in terms of glass storage jars?
Oh, I actually have the Mason jars in my cabinet as my glasses because I do the old school poor thing of find him at the grocery store for like six bucks. And this is a cup. So those ball Mason jars are the elite cups.
Yes, I got the big with the screw next.
To me, but I have all the lids and everything. It's the way I just added that.
Question to He just added that question and now, and he knew that was coming this one.
No where are we going, Jack or Miles?
What do you mean? I don't. I don't follow Jack with everything else. This is going to be the way we do this because I think that I'm going to have to go Jabari.
Okay, wow, you know what I answer?
All right?
Whatever whatever answer man, all right, all right, Taylor Jason McBride, Taylor D J McBride, thank you so much for joining us on. Miles and Jack got mad boosties. That was tough. It's been so much fun. Where can people find you? Follow you, read, you do all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, just at tj mcbrod NBA. That's where everything goes through on my Twitter. You'll see everything I do there. I'll repost this whenever it comes out as well, so you'll see everything that I do from that Twitter feed.
Go click on the link to this episode and listen to it a second time.
Yes, exactly the numbers boots exactly.
Shout out to our Boosti's listener of the week Matt Chambers for the recent show review by the Way review the show we we love reviews it helps people find it. Matt Chambers said, title of the review.
That's exactly what you guys have been going for. Body.
You've avoided them all year in favor of more and beads segments, But now you have to talk about the Spurs. Jack Wemby's gonna bring the spur Is into another decade long fifty game streak. I think also he was using Jack the way that Joe Biden does, like as an old person. I don't think he's talking to specific.
Hello Jack, it's like that kind of Jack.
Yeah, yeah, anyway, make sure you give us a fall on Twitter at mad boost E's at m A D B O O S T I E Y S.
Yeah exactly, And that's it.
We did it.
Another one in the books, a perfect Thanks for doing it, and yeah, we'll check in with the finals with y'all next week on more Miles and Jack Got mad boost.
E's when we have a new producer, because I'm tired of this Jabbari. Who is this guy so called Jabbari winning the Miles and Jack segment crap