What's Wright - Grizzlies-Warriors prediction & NBA Play-In, Lakers-Wolves + NBA awards

on them later in the show. But I had a big meeting a few weeks ago and they're like, hey, who are some brands you actually use? Like things you actually use. I'm like, well, you already took care of the sports betting with my DraftKings. That's a check. And I was like Peloton every day, five days a week during the NBA playoffs, but that's fine, five to seven days a week. I said that cars, I said, Mercedes, still looking at them. Sharpie's Sharpie. I've been trying to

get you guys for ten years. I mean your number. They're probably like, we don't need to pay to endorse it. He he advertises us more than anyone ever and Seat Geek because I had just when they had talked to me, I had just bought those courtside tickets to Lakers Grizzlies hadn't gone yet on seat Geek. I bought my theater stuff on seat Geek, and guess what, seat Geek's now a part of the What's Right team and so more on them in a bit, but appreciate them as always. Demanse,

how are you. I know you've been a little under the weather.

are pre emptively bumping our NFC over Unders. Instead of during the show, as we've done three straight shows before the show, We're now doing that Thursday because Wednesday night we're not gonna need to talk Thursday, we're not gonna talk a lot about the Wednesday Night nine ten muck play in games. So Thursday when doing NFL over unders today, we're gonna do awards ballots. But you know, we also

have to do the producers. You know, the producers all of a sudden, they care a lot about the utube algorithm, about what goes viral, and they're like, eh, Clippers, Warriors, was Sunday Lakers stuff does really well. Maybe we can trick Nick into not talking about the Masters by putting in what missed the cut. So here's what missed the cut and including what's gonna be a five to twenty minute missed the cut segment. It won't be twenty, but

it's gonna be a few minutes. Dallas drafts Pagebeckers number one. That was obvious. Max Crosby's new assistant GM in Eastern Michigan. That doesn't matter. Here's what does matter. Rory freaking McElroy in an all time Masters Sunday, an all time Masters tournament. In the last six years, Demons, there have been twelve people to walk on the moon. There have been two people to complete the career Grand Slam and Golf Rory

just became one of them. It's just facts. Since the advent of colored television, you up until Sunday were twelve times more likely to walk on the moon to complete the career Grand Slam. Just fact, and Rory had been trying and trying and trying. The five people who had completed it before they completed it, it was Sam Sneid, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player, Jack Nicholas and Tiger Woods. Fact checked me on that producers. But I'm ninety percent sure

those were the five. Sarahzn Sneed Player, Nicholas Woods. Those five guys all completed it either on their first try or their second or third try. Rory was on a had eleven tries tries, couldn't get it done, and then this weekend he goes into Sunday with the lead. So let me back it up a little bit. Thursday, Rory having one of the best masters. Oh, I gave it

to Sam Snead. It was Ben Hogan. My apologies, my goodness, gracious, terrible job by me, Good job by Sam Snead for me thinking it was him, but obviously it's Ben Hogan. I got Sarah and Wright Snead wrong. Doesn't matter. Back to Thursday, Rory announcing himself, this is gonna be my tournament. He's on his way, cruising to probably a sixty six round one in Augusta and then double bogie fifteen, double bogee seventeen. All of a sudden, a majestic round turns

into even part. What happened? Rory? How does that happen? But then he rebounds Friday with a great round Saturday, despite having another double I'm sorry, no. Saturday, another great round and then we're like, okay, he's the leader. Bryson hits a huge putt on eighteen. Bright It's gonna be Bryson and Rory, the two most popular golfers in the world, both polarizing for their own reasons. Final pairing at Augusta National.

When just last year, when Rory was looking like he was gonna win a major, Bryson up and down from the bunker at eighteen to steal it from him. Rory crestfallen leaves without talking to the press. Everyone gets mad at him. Sunday though he's got the lead, two shot lead going into Sunday. At the Masters first hole, another double bogee, it's now three double bogeys on the round. Only one guy ever has won the Masters with three

double bogies. He then follows that up with a terrible second hole, and all of a sudden, Bryson is in the lead and the Rory meltdown is on. It would appear, but it wasn't. He then rallies over the next ten holes takes a commanding lead. I think it was a four shot lead at that point. Demonsay on DraftKings he is minus twelve hundred to win the tournament, minus twelve hundred. All you gotta do, Rory is cruise. Just relax, chill,

don't worry. Cruise. So we get to the thirteenth hole. Sorry, my phone's playing the sound because I'm looking at the highlights so excited. Get to the thirteenth hole. He is a four shot lead. Bryson has melted at this point to par five. He's been going for par fives and two all weekend. Is you know what, I'm gonna be smart? No, Jean van der veldeing here, I'm gonna lay up, leave myself a beautiful eighty yards to get on the green

and he duffs it. One of the worst pitch shots you'll ever see a professional golfer hit right into the creek, right into the creek from eighty yards out, and all of a sudden he has his fourth double bogie of the day. All of a sudden, it's a tournament again, and nobody can believe it's happened. So we but very next hole another Bogeye is the Rory meltdown complete? It is not an amazing fifteenth and seventeenth hole, And all of a sudden he gets to eighteen. Justin Rose holds

the butt. He gets to eighteen, demansay, we just need a four, a four, and you put on the green jacket a four and you're a legend forever. Rory McElroy, who was such a prodigy in Northern Ireland, his dad and his buddies pulled money when he was like ten years old to bet with the bookies in Ireland. One day, my son's gonna come back to Europe, to the United Kingdom and win the British Open. The bookie was like, give me a break. He's like nope. In fact, I'm

gonna give you the exact details on that. Rory McElroy dad British Open bet. This is an all time story So Rory's dad walks in to a bookie shop in the UK. He says, I got a fifteen year old son. He's gonna win the British Open one day. Me and my friends have uh, me and my friends have pulled together two hundred dollars. Guy's like, well, all right, I'll give you five hundred to one on it. It's like, all right, two hundred bucks to win one hundred grand,

I'll take it. And ten years later Rory does it. Twenty six years old. Dad walks back in says, hope, you spent that two hundred dollars wisely, give me my hundred racks. But then Rory went a decade without winning a major. Shortly after that, still no Masters, no career Grand Slam. He walks up to eighteen knowing a four and I win the Masters. Puts it in the sand. That's okay, just get it close, Rory, get it close. He gets it to six feet this putt to win

the Masters, pulls it left missus. Oh my god, this is gonna be the most crush loss in golf history. Playoff hole. Justin Rose been steady, Round one leader, Round two leader, just chillin. All of a sudden crazy putt for him on eighteen to get in the playoff. Rory hits his second set on eighteen in the playoff hole within four feet shot of his life, drains the putt, puts on the green jacket, weeps, sobs the stuff dreams

are made of. Now one of the fifteen greatest golfers ever, one of the ten greatest golfers of the last one hundred years, Rory Dan McElroy And oh yeah, have you looked at the other majors this year? One is the PGAs that of course he crushes. The US Opens, that, of course he's won at. And guess where the British Open is? Demons in Northern Ireland where he's from. Oh my, what a what a weekend of golf. All of that

took place on me and your mom's anniversary. And I was sitting in a sports book in Philadelphia, where man sometimes being in Philadelphia being Nick Wright can suck. And I don't know if your mom gave you this story. It was I disarmed everybody all day. Everybody that came up to me, I could see in their eye like they want to talk trash to me. So every single person that came up to me. I said congrats on the super Bowl before they could say anything, and I

disarmed everyone. Everyone because of that was quite nice, except for one person who was a little drunk at a bar and really got in my face and was really quite rude to me. And here's the tricky part about that. That one person happened to be a female, and your mom was sitting right there and I was like, oh boy, this is not going to go well for anyone involved. Her boyfriend's recording I'm like, oh, she like really played

this whole confrontation. I'm like, hey, I congrats leaving you win the super Bowl, and she was like, in this stupid South Jersey accident, like stop talking all that shit. I'm like, I didn't talk any shit. I second congress to one of the super Bowl. I'm just having a good time. She was like, then, why'd you come up and talk to us. I'm like, okay, you're a hammered I'm just listening. And as soon as she said that, your mom stood up and I was like, oh boy,

time to go. Nice to meet you. See you guys later. We're out of here. But so that was Saturday, Sunday. Your mom's out shopping. The reason I even said any of this in the sports book. Sportsbook folks know me and they actually like me. So they're like, hey, Nick, we have a we have it's a ten TV setup, two giant ones and then eight good ones. They basically gave me the remote for Sunday. They're like, you picked

the games, you picked the sound. What a dream? Here, I'm signaling them when to go from the sound of the Masters to Warriors Clippers. We've got the Lakers in the bottom corner because bronis playing. I've got a bet on the Nuggets to beat the Rockets. We got that going. Oh my goodness, what a dream. So all that was Sunday, capped off by Rory McElroy and capped off by the Warriors, potentially wrecking their whole season. Now to the part of

the show. Everyone who has a financial incentive on the show wished I would have led with which is the basketball? But I care too much about the golf to leave it out. Go ahead? Uh?

the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. It's a very famous series because in those Western Conference Finals, the Thunder were up three games to one, and the Warriors came all the way back, most famously because of Klay Thompson's Game six, a brilliant Game seven, and then the Warriors, of course went on to lose their own three to one lead in the NBA Finals. Many people falsely believe the reason they lost that series was because

Draymond Green got suspended four game five. Now, that reason that belief is so absurd is because not only did the Cabs blow them ount in Game five, but the argument was, well, Lebron wouldn't never scored forty one if Draymond was on the court, and so in Game six, when Draymond was on the court, Lebron scored exactly forty one one. Again, but that's neither here nor there to

the apology. So in those NBA playoffs, the reason Draymond Green got people falsely believe Draymond Green got suspended for punching Lebron James and the groin. That is not We're slapping him in the groin, however you want to put it. That is not quite right. Draymond Green got suspended for accumulating four flagrant foul points. He got a flagrant foul in round one against the Rockets for body slamming Michael Beasley as the game was ending, in something that no

one quite could ever figure out why he did. He got a flagrant foul point for slapping at Lebron James. But in the interregnum of that, he got a flagrant foul point for attempting a layup and kicking Steven Adams dead in the groin. And so all that accumulated, and I was very vocal that that was obviously intentional, because no human being ever has ever shot a layup and had part of the layup motion b their left leg go at a ninety degree angle into the air towards

the baseline. So obviously he was trying to do it. Nine years later, I'm here to tell you, Draymond, I apologize I was wrong. Turns out you sometimes just spaz out on layups because with the game on the line down two in overtime, Draymond Green had a wide open layup, no one to kick, and in some weird failed attempt to draw a foul. I guess kicked the air, fell backwards and smoked the layup. And that was only one

of his two grievous late game mistakes. So the other one is this, and the broadcast I think screwed this up end of regulation. The Clippers get the ball, tie game, thirty one seconds left. So what that means is make or miss. The Warriors are going to get the last shot. You play solid defense for twenty twenty four seconds, you're gonna have seven to ten seconds if you're Golden State

with a timeout. Kawhi gets the ball with four on the shot clock and now eleven on the game clock and Draymond panics and takes a foul to give, which the broadcasts like, oh, that's no problem, they're not in the bonus's foul to give. It was a problem because now the shot clock resets to fourteen, there's only ten seconds left it Now the Clippers get the last shot, and now the worst thing that worst case scenario for the Clippers is overtime as opposed to worst case scenario

being losing. So Draymond messed up the end of regulation, smoked the layup at the end of overtime, and all of a sudden, the Warriors are in the play in. There's another part of that game that I must address because Steph Curry. Listen, Steph was utterly brilliant in the fourth quarter of that game, hit hell hit a shot that he thought was the game winner. I know because he did his shimmy afterwards in the end up losing.

And I even can not ding him too much for the eight turnovers in that game, even though those were rough. But when Kawhi' is locked like that and held, Chris Dunn is real impressive defensively, all of a sudden, you're

gonna force some turnovers find so be it. But the other thing that happened at the end of that game is something that has happened to Steph Curry at the end of close games, particularly close, high leverage games for his the majority of his career, which is Steve Kerr takes him off the court because he is a defensive liability.

And I understand that people get so enraptured by Steph Curry's offensive brilliance one of one shot making, the gravity as on the game, all of it and sustained excellent at age thirty seven, that people sometimes get a little over their skis and they're like, not only is he top ten? Why is he not in the goat conversation? And I have been hesitant to have him quite officially crack my all time top ten, so my all time

top twelve in order. Longtime listeners know this, viewers know this, and I will do this off the top of my head. I will know I will get it right if we end with twelve. Is lebron Kareem, Michael Magic, Russell, Wilt Duncan, Kobe Bird, dream Shaq, Steph so Shack and Steph are right on the outside barely. They are both one of

one unique forces in NBA history. They both, however, have one feature that no one in the top ten does, which is, in the some of the biggest games of their careers, their team took them off the court because of a flaw in their game that they were never able to quite correct. For Shaquille O'Neill, it was late game free throws if they had a lead late and the other team was definitely going to foul. Phil Jackson would say to Shaq, we're better off with you not

on the court this possession. And Steve Kerr, for STEP's entire career, if given the opportunity to go offense defense, we'll have one of the greatest players of all time stand next to him rather than be on the court. It's not disqualifying from anything other than jumping guys like Dream and Bird and Kobe and Donky, So it's not disrespectful. You still have him ahead of doctor j out of Jokich, out of Jerry West, out of Oscar, out of Jiannis,

hat of Durant, head of all those guys. But you saw it again, and so those were my initial takeaways, and then my further out takeaway was, wait a minute, Kaminga wasn't under the weather, Kaminga wasn't dinged up, Kaminga was a fully healthy DNP coaches decision, which again maybe that was covered during the broadcast, but I was toggling sound masters to the NBA, and so I didn't realize that that is a huge story and what that means

for the Warriors vibe check going forward and the Warriors' chances. So Golden State had it all out in front of them, where if they had just taken care of the Spurs game, which they blew in a horrific fashion. And I don't know if we've talked since then, but that Spurs loss, just like I think we did it on Thursday. I don't know. I think it doesn't matter. Really echoes through this season, much like the Spurs win over the Nuggets

last year cost them the one seed. Echoed through that season when the Nuggets all of a sudden, they are blowing a game seven to the Timberwolves. So that loss made it to where the Warriors weren't going to be able to get to the four or five line. This loss puts him in the play in and we have seen the Warriors have issues in the play in, Lebron hit the three over steph their first game ever in the play in. Draymond then smoked a layup as time expired in their elimination game of the play in. They

went to overtime and the Grizzlies beat them. And then last year, Clay has the worst game of his career and they lose to the Kings in the play in. That's over three And while no one has been less impressed by the traveling circus that is the Memphis Grizzlies than me, as of late, the Grizzlies can win tonight, and if the Grizzlies win tonight, demand the Warriors season ends.

Not because the Warriors won't beat the winner of MAVs Kings, but because the Warriors, having cost themselves a week off dealing with Jimmy Butler's quad contusion, Jonathan Kaminga's ego contusion, and then all of a sudden heading into Oklahoma City, will get absolutely cooked.

that he was going to be important. And so now the Warriors' best case scenario is they go into a two week all out death match with the email Udoka's Rocket squad, with Amon Thompson fresh off holding Steph Curry to three points, putting him in jail for two weeks. And if you're lucky enough to get out of that series only bruised and battered, you have the Lakers waiting

for you. So none of that's good man. So I think this weekend was disastrous for the Clipper or for the Warriors, and I think they absolutely could lose tonight. I know they're seven point favorites. I like, you know, Jah is a live grenade and he can go off. Yeah, And so I think that is very dangerous. I know you have another play in question. Do that and then we.

So that's where I don't like it. Where So last year's standings are a better example of when it could be good. Last year, the Bakers won forty seven. The Kings and Warriors both won forty six, So it's like, okay, they're a game apart. The Pelicans won forty nine. They were the seven. Initially the Lakers beat them, and then the Pelicans, and then the Warriors played the Kings in the nine ten. The Kings went on obviously to play

the Pelicans in the in the final playing game. But the point being under those circumstances where teams are that close. But last year, for example, in the East, the Sixers won forty seven, the Heat won forty six. Those were the seven eight, and then the Bulls won thirty nine and the Hawks won thirty six, and they're in a play in So I do like it. I don't think it should be guaranteed that we're getting it. I think we should only get it if teams are within say,

three games of making the playoffs without it. By the way, like rate, subscribe Review, especially since I said I think we might be able to hit two hundred thousand today and so we're we're at one hundred and ninety eight thousand and change. So obviously it would be great if anybody who's watching right now hits the bell or likes rate.

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are always dangerous. So again, the best possible path for the Lakers, in my opinion, was having the Thunder, Nuggets and Clippers on the other side of the bracket. And

they do they are they might. By the way, also, if the Warriors lose tonight, they'll If the Warriors lose tonight, the Lakers road to the Conference finals is Timberwolves and then either Rockets Grizzlies, and even if the Warriors win tonight and then Simbols in either Rockets Golden State and so Aunt might average thirty to a game in this series. The Lakers do not have anyone that can guard Anthony Edwards, but that's fine. Here are the other things that are

gonna happen. I don't know how you can credibly play Rudy Gobert the amount of minutes you probably want to play him. Luca just told us a week ago. He was like, what moment from your from the MAVs video got you choked up the most? And it wasn't when they drafted him. It wasn't, you know, one of his crazy buzzer beaters. It wasn't the seventy point game. It was hitting the step back over go Beer in the

Conference finals, then cursing him out in Slovenia. Luca has tortured Rudy Gobert on multiple count nicks in the Olympic Slovenia against France. He's done it when Gobert was a Jazz. He did it when Gobert was a Timberwolf, he did it. So that is a rough spot for the Timberwolves to

start with. You then add that the Lakers are getting They no longer have to deal with playoff D'Angelo Russell, which is a disaster, and instead get to go against playoff Julius Randall, which is a different type of disaster. That's nice. They don't have Darvin Ham with his hands in his pockets or drawing up on the whiteboard contest without fouling. They've got JJ who's been up for thirty nine straight hours figuring out how to blitz Anthony Edwards.

All that's good. You also have a series that because Luca is going to want to make Rudy Gobert cry, Lebron's gonna be able to sit back the first three quarters like he did in that MAVs game. So again, I think it is a hard fought five games for the Lakers, maybe six. I will tell you guys my favorite round one bet. Shout out to my friends at DraftKings, by the way, like we should. I would like to can DraftKings. Can we start getting some boosts or something?

I just if there's something I really like. I don't know. This is plus one twenty. Maybe they can throw my face on it, make it plus one twenty five for what's right, listeners. But the Lakers minus a game and a half in the series, meaning is plus one twenty. So the Lakers for the series is minus two hundred. So question is, do you think the Lakers are going to win the series? Yes, okay, you bet them at minus two hundred. You win if they win in four

or five, six or seven. Or you can get them at minus a game and a half at plus one twenty and you win if they win the series in four, five, or six. So yes, you cost yourself if it's a seven game Lakers win. But I don't think it's gonna be seven games because I think Luca is gonna light this team on fire, and I think that, uh, listen, nas Reed's gonna be a problem. You got credit where

it's due. Jaden McDaniels is an excellent defensive player, but they got We saw Luca with a worst supporting cast, beat this team in five to go to the finals last year. Now, Aunt said I got tired, which was odd, and Aunt won't be tired this time. But you also have Lebron with eight days off coming into it.

But this is where I remind you guys of one of the single most remarkable stats in basketball history, which is Lebron James' teams have played in two hundred and eighty seven playoff games. Demanse in his career two hundred and eight, So teams Lebron has been on have played in two hundred and eighty seven playoff games. Of those two hundred and eighty seven, Lebron James has played in two hundred and eighty seven. He has never missed a single playoff game in his career. So yes, fingers crossed,

knock on wood, whatever you gotta do. But also that number is.

missing the playoffs. For Ant, they trade Carl Anthony Towns. You know, they end up down at the sixth line, probably bouncing round one and the next year for Luca, they made the finals, so that like it's not like Ant is behind schedule at all. But yes, this would scutt This would Winning this round one series would do more for Ant's notoriety and facing the league stuff than winning the round two series they did last year against Denvers.

I was just at Lakers Grizzlies courtside. You guys might not have seen because I didn't tweet anything from it, but I just took my nephew to his first ever basketball game Nick Suns last weekend, and tonight I am going to Yankees' Royals because the Royals are back in town. They lost last night. That sucks playing the Yankees. And I get all of my seats from our news sponsor, seat geek. Over twenty eight million downloads. Seat geek is

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ten percent off any tickets with promo code right ten. Also, if you're watching on YouTube, just make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later. Thank you, my friends at seat geek. Again, I got those Courtside Grizzlies Lakers tickets from seat Geek. Tonight's Yankees Royals tickets Seat Geek, Tomorrow's Yankees Royals tickets,

the Gypsy tickets on Broadway. So again, seat geek promo code right ten wri Wright then the number ten one zero. You guys know what ten is? Sorry about that ten percent off? Okay, demon's a I got you Lakers tickets once on seat geek. Oh, by the way, speaking of speaking of Lakers tickets, pal, So here's the deal. Maybe maybe we got to keep our fingers crossed on the bracket falling right, and we have to keep our fingers

crossed on the dates working. But if there is a Lakers Round two game in Houston, kind of midway point LA to Houston, maybe we do a little what's right family meet up? Oh yeah, that Rockets playoff game if because the I'm not gonna it's just too hard for me to get to LA and do the show and all that stuff. But Lakers Rockets would be awesome.

Indiana right now is the healthier team. But do you realize, demons, that Jannis has not won a playoff game, has not been on the court for a playoff win since that unbelievable forty and eleven to go up three to two on the Celtics in twenty twenty two. Yeah, the next game, Giannis was just as good forty four and twenty, But that was Tatum's best game of his career up to that. Point, then they lost Game seven. Then the next year he got hurt during the playoffs and miss games, and then

last year was out. He has not won a playoff game since that game when it looked like they were going to defend their title. Not a game, forget a series, a game. He is having another unbelievable year. I would like to see him if he could just throw the team on his back and get them back to round two and then throw a scare into Cleveland. So I the anally, go at, what did you say?

so they are. Look, I was looking at my phone. I wanted to pull up the exact line that is really sorry that the exact line. I think the Knicks are minus four hundred in the series. Let me make sure that is correct. But series markets on DraftKings Knicks or minus four hundred Detroit's plus three ten. I think that's too at that price. I think Detroit is a better bet, but I think the Knicks are gonna win. I just don't think that Detroit is a push over the way that market would say it is. But I

expect the Knicks to win. And then we have what should be an absolute all out war in Round one Denver against the Clippers. Now it struck me as noteworthy demands that Jamal Murray's hamstring was just lingering, and Jamal Murray's ham was such a problem that Michael Malone all of a sudden was like, listen, we hope he's back for the playoffs. And then Michael Malone got fired and Jamal Murray's hamstring was healthy enough to play a couple

days later. That struck me as like nobody if people are surprised by the Malone firing and nobody, And again I'm not making any allegations, but the sequence of events there to me is a noteworthy one. But with Jamal Murray back, and with Joker playing like this, and with the Nuggets seemingly, you know, having I guess a bit of a cloud lifted, maybe they feel scary. The Clippers, on the other hand, look abjectly terrifying. Hardin was the best player on the court for Clippers Warriors. He was

unbelievable in overtime. He was thirty nine and ten, and Kawhi was sensational on both ends. Zubots has been great all year, all year, and uh Norman Powell was the guy everyone was playing their tiny violins for because Lebron stole his All Star spot and they've gotten excellent coach

in Tyler. So this is the hardest series to pick. However, when you add to the fact that Denver has home court, Denver has the best player in the world, and the Clippers have playoff Harden, I'm going to go Denver in a seven game classic, Denver to win the series. And let me check again. Let me check this as well. I hadn't looked at it yet. The Clippers plus a game and a half, meaning the Clippers to either win the series or lose in seven, is only minus two twenty.

That's somewhat attractive to me because I do think that the Clippers could win, but I if they don't, I do think it goes seven, but I probably would just take Denver. Denver to win the series on DraftKings is minus one thirty five. That feels about right, very very close. But best player in the world gonna get rested. I'm not even gonna bring up the Qui injury stuff because you're just not rooting for it. Uh. But it also makes them a harder team to bet on, and Harden

in the playoffs is a real thing. So that's that's to me. I like the Lakers and a hard fall but relatively quick series. Denver in an absolute classic, the Knicks to win, but not in four or five, and the Bucks in seven, because why not. That's how I feel about the matchups that we have right now. All right, let's do the Suns real quick and then get to my awards ballot.

you're up two one in the NBA Finals. You're it's twenty twenty one, You're in Millwall like you're up two oh technically, but get you get throttled in game three. That's supposed to happen. You're up to one in the finals, and you have a chance to win game three and go or game four, pardon me, and go up four games to three games to one, and it goes Booker missed jumper, Giannie is huge block on eight and Chris Paul turnover, Devin Booker miss lay up and all of

a sudden, it's a two to two series. And then it's like, okay, it's a two to two series. We're all right. We're not exactly where we want it to be, but we're all right. Game five, it's it's coming down to the final minutes. You make a furious comeback after being down twelve in the fourth quarter. You have the ball down one twenty seconds left, Holiday rips, Devin Booker throws the oop to Yana, the Bucks win. Giannis drops fifty. Then a madman buys your team, and now you're just

on your fourth coach in three years. You've traded away everything. You're on an apron. Hell, Bradley Beal is pissed because budenholtzers like play like. Drew Holliday's like, how dare you? I'm Bradley Beal. Kevin Durant, You've got to trade him just to You were this close the year after winning the championship, you're the one seed. By the way salign immediately went away, you're the one seed. Let's go back to that real quick. What happened there again? You're this

close to winning a championship. You don't you come back the next year you're even better. You find yourself, uh up three to one on the Dallas Mavericks. I'm sorry, up three to two, you blow them out in Game five, by thirty, by thirty, you blow them out. You're gonna go back to the conference finals. You're gonna play the Warriors, Chris Paul, Steph Curry. It's gonna be great. And then Game six, Luca goes crazy, thirty three, eleven and eight,

All right, doesn't matter. Game seven's in our building, no problem. And Game seven the score is fifty seven twenty seven at halftime, and Luca has twenty seven by himself, and Devin Booker won't look him in the eye. And now you're just ruined. So it's less about Durant and more about that franchise just falling off a cliff. And as far as where Durant's gonna go, We're gonna have plenty of time to talk about that over the next few weeks. I'm not gonna get into it right now, but it

this did not go the way he had hoped. He forced his way to a team that had just been to a finals and the previous year the best record in basketball, and the team won one playoff round. Ever, they lost in round two, they lost in round one. They missed the playoffs just brutal, just absolutely brutal. The NBA eighty two game grind is done. Now the real fun begins. The NBA Playoffs are here and it's time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments, and jaw

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Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co slash b ball. All right, demanse, let's do our NBA awards ballot and as much as we can, and then we'll get to our f one minute and some listener questions.

unanimous second place MVP guy. He's thirty a game with a triple double carrying a team that is terrible defensively. Some of that's on him and just fired their coach. Giannis is third, Tatum is fourth, and if you want to say Tatum's third, Giannis is fourth, that's fine. I think what Giannis has done, especially despite Dame being out,

is remarkable. But that's a debate. And then for fifth place, it was a debate between the following Donovan Caid Edwards and Lebron and I still want well, I'll talk about All NBA first team because my one through five, my MVP ballot is not my first team All NBA, and I'll explain that in a minute. But my fifth place spot goes to Lebron. And it goes to Lebron because despite the injury, still played seven games. He seamlessly did what a lot of people thought he either wouldn't be

willing to or able to. Which is fit with Luca. People are recreating history that, oh, the Lakers were headed for the play in before the Luca trade. The Lakers were the four seed the day Luca made his debut with the team. They stayed even though Anthony Davis had gotten hurt. They were on a winning streak when Luca first got to the team. They're only real losing this year happened surrounding Lebron's injury. Lebron was a Swiss Army knife defensively once they got Luca and honestly once Ad

went down. They are the three seed in a loaded Western conference. They were only Oklahoma. The city was better this year against the best ten teams in basketball Lebron's been the through line of it all. I have him his fifth place in MVP now to the top of the ballot. So here's why I find these folks who are now saying they are going to vote for Joker to be so disingenuous, and what they simply should say is he's my favorite player. He's the best player in

the league, so I'm voting for him. Last year, the numbers for Joker v. Luca were not close. I will remind you of them. Okay. Last year, Luca averaged thirty four nine and nine. He won the scoring title on good efficiency. He averaged thirty four points, nine point two rebounds, nine point eight assists, so basically thirty four nine to ten.

The league MVP was Nikola Jokic, who averaged seven fewer points twenty six and a half, three more rebounds twelve and a half, and one fewer assists nine And it wasn't close. Luka got four first place votes, and the argument was purely well, Jokers team won fifty seven games, Luca's team won fifty and Luca was not very good. Even though the team was fine defensively, Luca was not very good defensively. Those same people now this year are

saying throw those rules out. And even though Shay's team has won sixty eight games and Jokers team won fifty, the same exact number Lucas team won last year. I think Joker's gonna get it because I've never seen an offensive season like this. And my question is, didn't you kind of see an offensive season like this last year by a guy who got four first place votes? Again, Luca last year was thirty four nine and ten. Joker this year is thirty Let me get yeah, twenty nine

point six called thirty thirteen and ten. So four or fewer points four more rebounds on a team that won the same amount of games. And so that now you might say, Nick, last year were aren't you a guy that was arguing for Luca. Wouldn't that then follow that this year you should be arguing for a Joker one hundred percent if one of two things were true. One, I had an actual vote and it was impacting it, so I must vote with consistency or two. And this

is more importantly and really the reasoning. I do feel like the previous winner winners, but certainly the most recent year continues to set the precedent for the voting public

because it is an undefined award. So last year when a guy with fifty wins who's playing in the four to five game, who averaged thirty four to nine to ten, got four of one hundred votes because we said best player on the best team with really good stats is going to run away with it, to then not give Shay when Shae is again, it's like Shaye's averaging twenty five a game, He's thirty three, five and six with

excellent defense on a sixty eight win team. And the history of guys on teams who have won sixty eight plus games, all of them every team that has ever won sixty eight plus. Steph won MVP, Jordan won MVP the sixty nine win Lakers did not have the league MVP. Kareem won it in seventy two, but that is because two Lakers split votes. Wilt and West finished third and second. That's why the Lakers didn't have one. The who are

the other ones? Dave Cowen's on the sixty eight win Celtics won MVP, Jordan won sixty nine games and shamefully didn't win it ninety seven as the voters got sick with giving it to him, gave it to Carl Malone. But it's just folks need to just say I like Joker the most, so even though his coach got fired and his defense has been bad, and even though last year was about wins, this year it's about raw stats. I'm just not gonna lie. I just think it's I

think Shay's the MVP, not to All NBA. So again I don't have an actual vote, but and I know they changed the rules. I want my All NBA First Team at the very least to be two guards, two forwards in a center, and I want all of my All NBA teams to at least be credible teams you could roll out on a basketball court. So even though I had Lebron as my fifth place in MVP voting, I do not have him as All NBA First Team.

I gave that to Donovan. So I want my two guards to be Shayan Donovan, my two forwards Gihonnyson Tata, my center Joker. Second team All NBA for me was very simple. My two guards are Stephan ant Cade's technically a guard, but he's tall enough we can just put him in kind of that point forward spot. He and Lebron are second team and alburn Shingoon, who was the best player on a Rockets team that was the second seed. He is second Team All NBA, Third Team All NBA,

with apologies to Tyrese Halliburton. Halliburton had his spots stolen in Game eighty two Demons by James Harden thirty nine to ten to lock up the five seed and stay out of the play in. So it's Jalen Brunson, James Harden, Jalen Williams as a forward. Because your team wins sixty eight games, it's not just one guy. Carl Anthony Towns is the other forward and Evan Mobley as the other center. Again, that team wons what sixty four they need someone other

than just it. My Defensive Player of the Year was not difficult for me. I think Draymond really hurt himself at the end of the year. It is Evan Mobley, my sixth man.

I guess somewhat controversial. Most improved. I think it's if it's a zubots I almost had zubots On as my on my All NBA team. He jumped his scoring by fifty percent over his career. He's been great eight defensively, Clippers have been excellent, He's been huge. I think he's the most improved player, even though he's old and it usually doesn't go to old guys. Clutch Player of the

Year is Lebron. Lebron's four the only player in the league with four hundred, one hundred, one hundred and the fourth. Lebron's fourth quarter plus minus and the Lakers record in the fourth quarter, and his assistant turnover ratio is better than either of the previous Clutch Player of the Year winners and Stephan Ant and I understand Jalen Brunson's clutch numbers are going to probably make Jalen Brunts win this award.

That is in part because they do not have clutch numbers for defense in the clutch, where Jalen was lacking obviously because of his size. I think Lebron's clutch Player of the Year Rookie of the Year is very very simple. Stefan Cassel is going to be close to unanimous. Well, Resa Chale gets some votes, and I think Coach of the Year demons is Ima Udoka getting this Rockets team to the two season when Jalen Green's a nice player. Amon Thompson's gonna be an awesome player, but he's very young.

I think im Udoka deserves Coach of the Year. So those are my ballots and my full NBA awards, all right, it makes sense to everybody?

On the first lap, a big headline falling quality was Oscar Piastre, starting from pole position for the second time this season. He was able to keep his position, but the rest of them pretty much played musical chairs around the first corners, but it was pretty entertaining to say the least. The conditions and the tire strategies were a big talking point of this race. With the cooler conditions, most cars started with sauces, but the Ferrari boys started

on mediums. It kind of sucked for them at first, but after a few laps around the track, the tires came alive for them and they were doing pretty good. Piastre controlled this race pretty much the entire time, however, with sizeable gaps to the front at times Russell leclerk and for a small fraction of a moment Hamilton was

even fighting for a win. Notice how I did not mention Verstapan however, Yeah, that's because he was struggling pretty much the entire time with no grip, going into the pits multiple times to switch out time and reporting issues with his car. And there was even a safety car, but it was from debris, not exactly a crash, so it wasn't all that notable. But at the restart Pastree was still ahead, and Norris on fresher tires managed to pass both mcclerk and Hamilton, but not Russell in the

good old Mercedes. In the end, PS three got another win under his belt, finishing fifteen seconds ahead of everyone else, Russell and P two and Norris in P three. Some honorable mentions that I cannot leave out is the fact that has finished with double points this weekend, which is a big accomplishment for a team that maybe scores one

or two points here or there between two drivers. Alpine showed promising pace pretty much throughout the entire weekend, and Yuki Sonoda bagging points for Red Bull Lets Go, has the second Red Bull seat curse lifted just yet. Only time will tell. But key takeaways McLaren is a team to beat. That's pretty obvious. That's been so for a

while now. But McLaren is a team to beat. Pastre is supposed more of a threat than ever, especially to his teammate now he has he has more wins than Lando and he's threatening his position in the Drivers' championship. Little by little, Ferrari is showing better days. Hopefully within the next few races they can have their breakout performance and maybe, just maybe one of them can be on the podium.

no problem, weezy. If you have the same issue I was having, all you gotta do is download the Masters app. Thanks my right, he's the nicest person in the world. People would be shocked at how nice of a guy. Even if you think he's a super nice guy, you'd be shocked by it. Save these listener questions for Thursday's episode. We're having a few technical issues, and more importantly, I'm gonna be late to do Cowherd show, so I gotta go.

Today's show went long. You did great. Enjoy the playing tonight. Go Royals against the Yankees. Thank you to seat Geeks, shout out to them. Thank you to DraftKings. Thank you to everyone watching. See if we hit two hundred thousand by the end of the day. Thank you to Volume and Blue Duck. Thank you to Demanse. Talk to you guys soon, See you on Cowherd in about ninety minutes. What's right