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All Right, welcome in What's Right with Nick Grit Episode two thirty nine. Here's what missed the cut for today's show. The All NBA teams have been announced. Lebron making third team and Kawhi making second team is flatly indefensible. There's no argument for it. I'm not even but I am. You know, I don't put in the newspaper. I'm bothered. I'm not bothered. Uh here's the thing, demons, how many all NBA voters do you think there are?
I call it a hundred.
So that's a smart guess. That would make sense. Nice round even number. If I told you there were ninety nine, would that seem odd? Would that seem intentional? Would it almost seem like the league is taunting me, like, hey, guys, we could have one hundred and nice even one hundred voters. A round number makes sense, makes counting, Like, hey, how do you know if someone was unanimous they got five
hundred points? Because you get five points for first place, like all of it or for a first place vote, it would all be simpler. Instead, they're sitting at ninety nine voters, which to me, it's a bleep you to somebody? And am I self important enough when it comes to this to think that I should potentially be in the top one hundred NBA taste makers? Sure, but no, that's fine. So though, so as long as that.
All NBA tea yeah, all NBA votes.
What'd you say?
Would you whould you think I fleeced on the on the votes as well?
Listen, I the this is a longer discussion that I don't have time.
To do today. I ask a little question, when do they vote? When do the votes take place at.
The end of the regular season? It is these are all regular season awards, so they all voting takes place in the in the three days between the final game of the regular season and the start of the play so like, so it's it's supposed to be exclusively about uh the regular season or a right. What the other things that missed the cut is Lamar lost some weight and the NBA is getting a new TV rights deal. All right, Now to the actual show. Great T shirt by the way, Demonse, I don't have one of those,
but that's pretty that's pretty dope. I like how that looks.
Man.
At some point, let maybe start a mert shop. But we haven't done it yet, all right, Demanse, Let's talk Game one MAVs Wolves.
Yeah, so the Mavericks obviously stole Game one from the Timberwolves. The MAVs have lost both of their Game ones previously, so nobody was really picking him, but except for you and Mahomes confidently said on the show that he thought that MAVs were going to lose. So how important was it that the Mavericks stole that Game one?
Oh? I listen, there has not been a single day the yeah you're in front, you're at Lucas Hookahs. There's not been a single day in the Mavericks franchise since the finals, the twenty eleven finals, where you woke up a MAVs fan and you were more likely to win the title than now. But the MAVs stealing that game when they hit six threes and Minnesota hit eighteen is not supposed to happen. Fifth time in NBA playoff history that a team has hit twelve or more threes than
their opponent and lost the game. And Luca starting this series without seemingly engaging in a blood feud with the officials is a super positive sign. Kyrie recognized like Kyrie I think recognizes because he hasn't played playoff runs in so long. His body's broken down a bit. He doesn't necessarily have four quarters of flame thrower in him anymore. So he's been modulating, and in the previous round he was kind of, you know, playing more of a floor
game distributing. In the first half. This game, he emptied the clip. I'm sorry he was in the previous round was doing more in the second half this game. He emptied the clip in the first half, and then Luca carried him home. And Luca carried him home on both ends of the court. The pass breakup he made on the lob was the biggest play of the game. His d on the perimeter was B plus, and his offense
is always unbelievable. He made one of the best passes of the NBA season, a full court on a rope bounce pass and then it ended up being a block dunk, so he didn't even get an assist for it and up being a five point swing. And the MAVs now are significant favorites. There's only been one series ever that Luca's played in where they won game one. They did end up losing that series. That was a series against the Clippers when they won games one and two in
Los Angeles. I think Chris STAPs then got hurt, but regardless, they did end up losing that series in seven games. The right now, the MAVs look like a team that can win the championship. And man, if it's Luca versus your Celtics Demanse, that's gonna that's gonna be great for this show.
And ahead it seems like you want to say, I mean, that'll that'll be very interesting. I'll be honest, I was I feel like I was saying that was the team that that the Celtics would not be worried about if we saw in the finals. Yes, but I don't want to, you know, annoy you or anything. But but yeah, I
definitely say that at one point, so we'll see. I'm a lot I'm a lot more scared of the Timberwolves with that that Rudy Gobert Karl Anthony Towns combo, because I don't think we have too much to combat.
That well right now, you don't. You would have to have Chris STAPs.
Beat Cuisine and.
For them, but the the MAVs front line rotation packs a little bit of an offensive punch. But more importantly what the Timberwolves dealt with last night. And sorry Daniel, but it's true against the Nuggets, the Timberwolves big men had no They faced no resistance at the rim. The Jokic was not very solid defensively in that series. The Nuggets don't have any other bigs that are gonna provide
any rim protection. And for Karl Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert and even Nas Red, there was no Anthony Edwards too, no resistance at the The MAVs remade defense is just a different story. What were you saying Daniel, Sorry, Daniel sais in my ear. Maybe I missed it. Oh, he just said true, he's agreeing with me. Yeah, if you're a MAVs fan, you've got to be feeling great. Let's take a very very quick break right now. All right,
welcome back in What's Right with Nick? Right. We think we've got the tech issues squared away, at least we hope we do. And thanks for the folks in the chat who stuck with us through it. Div X Ray asked why are so many people doubting Luca? The guy's been awesome since coming to the league. His playoff form second only to Jordan, and people picked Shay Wemby and
and over him for the twenty five and under. That's in reference to the Ringer list, which with respect, and I like the work that the Ringer does and I like a lot of the people. There was a ludicrous list on its face. It didn't make narrative sense. It was the twenty five best players under twenty five and
it had Wimby number one. And it's like, okay, I guess what they're they're So if that's the case, what you're saying is you are projecting forward based on how you know their contract, their age, their evolution, what they're gonna be. That's fine, But they had Shae ahead of Luca when Luca is actually a little younger than Shay. They like it just didn't that entire the the The Ringers twenty five under twenty five was a true mess.
Like I'm trying to remember who they had number ten because number ten was another one at number okay, so so tied for tenth was Jah and Zion and at number eight was Jalen Williams from the Thunder and number six was Tyrese Maxi and it sandwiched in between those guys was Paolo at number nine. Like it just doesn't make sense. And so, oh, I don't listen Luca. Here's a fact that will blow your mind. Luca has more now has more First Team All nbas than Steph Curry.
Luka Ancic has more First Team All nbas than Steph Curry. And so he is an all time great player already, and if they finish this off and win the title, he has an argument he's the best player alive, all right, demand dab, let's play the game that we were gonna play, bracket to unpack it.
Yes, We've got a new game called Bracket's unpacket. So with four teams remaining in the playoffs, let's take a look at who you would trust the most. Yeah, it will advance a player to the next round based on what you have the most faith in with making the smart play and leaving it all in the court, and of course hitting the game winning shot. So we're gonna show the bracket for you guys. First off, we got Luca against Drew holly Day.
I mean, that's Luca without a doubt. So Luke advances that one's very, very easy. What's the next one?
Bottom?
There?
You got Tyree's Halliburton versus Kyrie Irving.
I you know, this is talk about a renaissance for Kyrie, and we'll talk about this more Demonse next week, but a lot of your Kyrie faith is being vindicated this year. There are certain opinions that I have that Demanse clearly fundamentally, not just on a sports level but on a deep level,
disagrees with and doesn't like that I have them. And he does I think a really good job of trying to be respectful, not in like the father son dynamic, but in the kind of the way the podcast is formatted, which is it's not really like you know his and idueling opinions. And so because of that, there are certain times that I can tell, because I know him as well as I know any person in the world, that
what I'm saying is enraging him. And it happens a lot with Kyrie, with Kyrie more so than almost anything. And Kyrie has handled himself so brilliantly and been such a leader and been playing with so much joy and on the x's and O stuff, been playing such a winning brand of basketball. And did you so my answer here is going to be Kyrie. And we can move on in a second to the other. But I want
to stay here for a second. Did you see that idiotic Twitter meme going around where it was a picture of Lebron and Kyrie and then a picture of Luke and Kyrie, And it was like Kyrie didn't want to follow him, but he but he's fine with fileo him. Wonder why, like wonder what changed? Is what they wrote, And I'll tell you what changed, guys. Seven years. Kyrie has not played with Lebron in seven years. He was twenty five years old the last time they played together,
He's a different person. He has grown, he has matured, he has evolved the way all of us have, certainly the way most of us do in our mid twenties to our early thirties. Now, what has been so impressive to me about Kyrie was he seemed to be going in the wrong direction. He seemed to be getting more erratic and less committed to winning basketball and more problematic for teams and all of that stuff. But this, this pairing in Dallas, which I did not think would work,
has worked brilliantly. And you got stan Van Gundy opining on the broadcast. Are they the best offensive basket squad Ina history? They love each other, bro that Bart's very clear. Like I know this sounds a little like draft day cliche, but the story that Kyrie was the last person to leave Luca's birthday party or vice versa, Luca was the last person to leave Kyrie's birthday party, it made me smile like I do. There is like a cool kinship
amongst them all. Right, we can go to the other side of the bracket.
So we got Edwards against Jalen Brown.
Okay, come on, it's Anthony Edwards. The beginnings of this bracket's quite easy bottom one. No, it's just it's I'm gonna take Anthony Edwards.
Go ahead, okay, see anthe Jason Tatum against Karl Anthony Towns.
That one's an easy one to It's Tatum. And so now we have the uh oh. I was gonna say the best player on the four teams remaining, but I forgot Kyrie over Tyree's. So this one's simple as well. I'm gonna go Luca over Kyrie, and then we've got Aunt versus Tatum. I'm gonna go with Ant because at the end of games, you know Ant wants the ball, and you know Ant is a killer in a way. I still don't feel about Jason Tatum.
Go ahead to manse who between Luke and Kyrie do you think takes the last shot?
I think it is actually defense and position possession dependent. I don't think they're like Kyrie is obviously a great closer, but Luca in I think the third playoff game of his career hit a buzzer beater from twenty eight feet to win a game down one to winning the game. Like, Luca's got some huge shots. So now it's Luke and Ant in the championship part of the bracket, and I'll go with Luca. Not surprisingly. I think Lucas gonna win
the championship. I think it's gonna be finals MVP, and I think this is gonna be the year, the surprising Year of Luca. Hey, thanks for watching. If you're still here, do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button, then hit the bell so you can be notified when we have new episodes. After you've done that, one more favor, go to your favorite audio platform of choice and subscribe there as well. Don't forget we're live every Tuesday and Thursday ten thirty am Eastern Ish ten thirty five, ten forty.
It sometimes changes, but that's why you hit the bell. You hit the bell so you're notified. You subscribe so we can get to two hundred thousand followers. We're right around one hundred and fifty thousand. We'd love to get to two hundred thousand. Get demonsay another plaque, so like, subscribe rate send a rating to do all that cool stuff. Thanks guys,