Welcome in. What's drive in the Great episode three twenty nine on a busy day and after an absolutely insane for my money, last night was kind of the perfect night of playoff basketball because we had one all time game with an all time comeback and one game that was over at halftime, so I finally could get some sleep. Sweet Jesus man, I have been a zombie the last month. These games every single night, they're all good. It feels like no lead is safe. But the Oklahoma City lead
over Denver, I was like, that one feels safe. So I'm gonna be totally honest with you. I didn't watch second half of that game. I've been locked into everything that one, went to bed early, felt good about it. Demons, welcome in. I applaud that you have not taken the Celtics jersey down. They maybe, by the way, might ask you to put it on and see if you can give them a good six minutes off the bench, because you'll at least go to the basket and so necessary.
That would be necessary. Also, while the West Coast is a good place in theory to be a sports fan, nights like last night kind of a bummer because by seven pm, you're just evenings ruined. Like you could have a whole, you know, nice night in front of you, but four fifteen start, seven o'clock finish, and it's like, okay, well that sucked. So we'll get to all of that. We're going to spend a lot of time on Nick Celtics and then the other things. But first, what missed
the cut? A Sue Bird has become the USA Basketball Managing director for the women's national team. Rob Blinka got one vote for Executive of the Year. By the way, I got no problem with that. Answering the phone is answering the phone. An NBA Draft lottery is Monday. The producers want me to tell you who I want to win the Cooper Flag Sweepstakes. Honestly, I want Miami to win it. I feel like Jimmy Butler did them dirty and I would like to see the Miami Oh wait,
I'm an idiot. I'm a total idiot. The Miami Heat can't win it. They could have at the end of the regular season, but since they made the playoffs, yeah, they they actually can't win it. So of the teams that can actually win it, I know I had said, I guess my answer because yeah, because Miami beat Atlanta to get to get No, I don't want him to be with these silly teams. I certainly don't want Dallas to win it. I don't know Portland. Portland could be fun.
They're trying to I don't want the Spurs to win. It doesn't seem fair. The the most fun one is Philly. Philly just gets a total Paul George get out of jail free card if they win it. But okay, let's get to the act news of the day, Demons, which is the fact that your team stinks.
Uh yeah, so yesterday Game two pretty much a carbon copy of Game one. The Knicks pull off another twenty point comeback in the Celtics lose.
That's I don't I don't know what.
To say here. It's we're still relying on the three. Seems like we didn't get less to twenty less, but still we're taking threes in spots where it's just like, go and get a bucket increased.
You didn't love the Jason Tatum up seven.
Jalen was on the ground, on the ground, Josh Harratt fifteen feet away. Yeah, how do you feel about the series or do you want me to go in China.
Oh we can. I mean I'll go, and then we can go back and forth. The Knicks can win, and they the Knicks deserve, they deserve to be the story. But they are not the story. The Knicks deserve to have us talking about how they have gone to Boston. They have been down twenty points in the second half in both of these games. They have not played great, honestly, in either game. Yesterday, Michale Bridges is terrible for the first three quarters before being awesome. Jalen Brunson is six
of nineteen in the game. With a few minutes left in the game, he had made four shots and it's not like he was getting He had made four shots and got into the free throw line once and they found a way to win. And they deserve credit for that. But the store and we will I promise we'll spend a lot of time on the Knicks, but the story
is Boston. The next story is about what I said on Tuesday, Planning for this moment meant for more than a year, and they're being a lot of similarities to what how Minnesota was able to beat Denver to what we are seeing with the Knicks and the Celtics. Let's table those and we will get to those shortly, because the story really is the defending champs falling apart in real time, physically and mentally. And now let me make this clear. I don't think it's over. I don't think like, oh,
no chance the Celtics come back. The Celtics are talented enough and good enough obviously to win four out of five against New York. In fact, most people thought they were going to win four out of five against New York. They just thought it was gonna be the first five games. This is gonna be a nice, friendly, gentleman sweep. But we are now here. Everyone's gonna focus on the three
point variants, and I get it. Twenty five of one hundred from three fifteen of sixty in Game one, the exact same percentage in Game two, except they were ten of forty. I actually don't think that is that might be the biggest reason they're down. I don't think that is the biggest story surrounding them being down. The biggest story surrounding them being down is Jason Tatum. And we gave him all his flowers and all the credit for what was, without a doubt at least to my eye,
the best regul season of his career. I understand he didn't even have He wasn't the best numbers. He's averaged almost exactly this many points. He's averaged twenty six point eight or twenty six point nine points three of the last four years his you know, his numbers in the one year he did and he averaged thirty. His numbers have been consistent, His field goal percentage have been consistent.
And it wasn't that he played more games. It was just this felt like the best Tatum year because you didn't get a great year from Jalen Brown by his standards, Horford's a year or older. You saw some real deterioration from Drew Holliday over the course of the year. And yet Tatum answered the bell on both ends of the court every night. And and this is the key piece, not the key, but one of the key pieces of it.
Responded from what was a really weird few months for him where he finally wins a championship, but he's not the conference finals MVP. He's not the finals MVP. He actually plays some of his worst basketball of the season last year in the biggest games, most notably those two series,
the Conference finals in NBA Finals. Still it's not like he was bad, but he just dropped a level that then was compounded by the fact that Steve Kerr, who obviously is at despite what lunatic Warrior fans would try to tell you, Steve Kerr, who obviously is one of the best and smartest basketball minds we have. Steve Kerr saw Jason Tatum in the Olympics and said, can't use you. Sorry, would love to, but actually you're not one of our
eight best. And he responded to all of that with a year where he had an argument he was the third best player in the league and where there was no argument whatsoever he was one of the four best players in the league. And for that to then and then let me add another piece to it. After a kind of rocky game one of the playoffs, but who cared, they won, it was easy where he got hurt. He then came back after missing a game, averaging thirty six,
eleven and six the rest of the series. It's like, holy shit, Jase, this extra level that Bill Simmons has been swearing on his children exists for years. For Jason take we're seeing it. And then in back to back games, he is twelve of forty two from the field. He is five of twenty from three. He is a total and complete non factor in the fourth quarter of these games. The only play he made last night was when the Knicks screwed up a switch and he got a wide
open dunk. And now, listen, I'll just tell you what I said to Kevin Wilds when I facetimed him yesterday. And I know this is going to sound unfair, but it's just how I feel. And it's not prisoner of the moment, because I have felt this way about Tatum forever. He's an excellent player. But what I said to Wilds is I don't care if the Celtics win the next three championships, He's never going to be the best player in the league. That guy is not the best player
in the league. And I don't I don't even think the reason I said that to Wilds is because he keeps trying to force the conversation of Jason Tatum's going to force us into some really tricky conversations. What do we do with the twenty seven year old with two rings and four first team All nbas and all of this what does that mean for where he is historically? And my answer to that is Tatum is an excellent player. He is not yet in the We need to evaluate
his historical greatness level. And I don't know that he is going to be in that conversation. There is and I can't put my finger on it, but there's something that's just not there.
I think it's a little tight in big spots, is what it seems like to me watching the games.
It feels to me like if his three isn't falling, it knocks him off the rest of his game. And what is And here is the Celtics piece. And I just did Lebotard Show, and this is the point I was trying to make the Celtics bum three strategy over the long haul. Obviously, it's just a smart mathematical strategy. As sample sizes get smaller, you put yourself more at you know, the mercy of the variants, it's you know, the team that really originated this strategy was Darryl Moury's Rockets.
But here's why. For Daryl Morey's Rockets it made total sense. The team they were trying to beat, the KDI STEPH Warriors, was flatly better than them, so they needed to shake up the snow globe and add some damn variants because if we just go go to the middle of the ring and trade jabs, we got no shot. So instead we're gonna throw some wild haymakers and risk getting knocked
out because that's our chance. This strategy for the Celtics maybe wouldn't make sense if this were the NBA Finals against Oklahoma City and they feel like they're better than us. All year long, they've been better, they have the better resume, they they're best players, better than our best player. They're better than us, So let's add some uncertainty to it. Up twenty points in the second half against the New York Knicks. The last thing you want is to add uncertainty.
It's it's an insane It's not an insane way to play. It's insane demande not to adjust, yeah, and not to have It's a team, it's a football team that their identity is chucking it deep and up ten in the fourth quarter. They refuse to run the ball that and here's the other piece of it. You've got Jason Tatum. He's six' eight, it's an amazing shape. He can get to the hoop, and it is it is stubbornness that at this point might cost him their title defense to
lose both. And it's the first twenty point lead. I said it Tuesday. The Knicks made that a game faster than any team I can remember. It was twenty points, Boston up by twenty with five and a half left in the third, and it was a six point game with a minute left in the third. So the Knicks just in the span of ten possessions made it a game. Again. Yesterday was different in that, yes, it was twenty and then the Knicks chipped away, but was go ahead.
We were holding it like we stayed out in front, in front for a minute and we just kept shooting the three, and they just kept chipping it away.
It was fourteen with seven minutes left. And so I if you look at the Celtics fourth quarter shot chart, they did you know, they didn't just shoot threes. It wasn't the third quarter in Game three. But there were just these moments, most notably was the one Wilds took the picture of. But it is it's a jarring image where it is eighty six seventy seven. Is that I want to make sure I have it. I think it's yeah or the Let me try to pull out. I should just pull up Wild's tweet because it is. It's
a wild decision by it's eighty six seventy nine. Pardon me. And I don't know why this isn't showing me that, but regardless, don't worry about it. Oh, here's why, because it wasn't. I was like, I thought it was eighty six because the score. Remember, and here's a sneaky important part of the game that will be forgotten, the history. The Knicks got an extra point during a time out because they had called a Jalen Brunson three two and
then they fixed it. Oh, Michale Bridges, pardon me. And so the score the scoreboard says eighty six seventy nine, but it was actually eighty six eighty and and Derek White misses a three. Michale Bridges then goes down misses a three, and Josh Hart tries to save it and starts the fast break, and all of a sudden and we can put the image up. Jason Tatum finds himself in this position. I don't think demon's a I like that. I well, I don't think I like shooting that three.
If I'm the team trailing by seven, like I, I don't think it's the smarter move.
I got a dunk right there because it's not recovery, like he's probably gonna try to get out.
The way recovering. And by the way, it's and here's the other thing. If Jalen Brunson is upright, you might have a dunk there. Oh yeah, you're seven inches taller than him. Horford's there. You have a full head of steam. That is an impossible decision. Now you can be like, listen, what does Jason Tatum shoot on corner threes? Blah blah blah. Again, you're up You're actually up six, but you think you're
up seven. It's bananas. And the very next possession, we don't have a picture of it, but Jalen Brown has an alley to the basket and he takes a pull up three. And so it's just.
It is the Nicks just flatly want it more, is what it seems like.
Well, they are certainly more comfortable demands if it's close late, Yeah, that is undeniable. And the fact that the Knicks have now won five road playoff games and they have won them they have played five road playoff games. They are five and zero, and they have won those five games by a combined This is really unbelievable. They have won those five games by combined ten points. One in overtime.
They won Game three against Detroit by two, Game four against Detroit by one, Game six against Detroit by three, Game one against Boston by three and in overtime, and Game two against Boston by one. It is uh, it is a remarkable turn of events. Got a lot of heart, So this is un I don't even think that my buddy knows I'm doing the pod right now. But my buddy Andy just texts me, if you're curious the odds of a team that shot uh, let me read this
exact text real quick. Sorry, if you're curious the odds of a team that shot thirty seven percent from three over a season to shoot twenty five percent or less over one hundred shots, it's less than one percent, he writes. I'm blue an orange to the bone. But we're watching somebody flop twelve sets in a night. It's a poker turn. So I'm glad this is He's the second person that's kind of brought up poker to me in this regard,
and here's my real indictment on the Celtics here. You adjust your strat as a poker player based on do I think I have a skill advantage? Okay? So let me I will try to explain something in poker terms that even if you're not a poker player, you'll understand. Okay. So let's say you're at the final table of a big tournament and you are thoroughly convinced, thoroughly convinced you're the best player at the table, okay, and there's one person there who has more chips than you, and therefore
that person can knock you out. And you get in a spot where a bunch of people are you know, get their cards. Is raising. I'm going to try to do this in Gene and Eric terms. W even not a poker player, you can understand it. And you have an opportunity to get all your money in against this the one guy who can knock you out, and he shows you his cards, okay.
And you have.
As king and he has eight nine. You are about a sixty a little more than a sixty forty favorite in that spot. Shows it to you if you truly believe you have a significant skill edge on the table. There are a lot of players that in that spot would say, nah, not going to even though in the long run this is obviously wildly profitable for me if I'm a sixty forty favorite, and again that wouldn't be the math of those two exact hands. But just stick with me. That means forty percent of the time I lose.
That means two out of five times I lose here. And I don't want to roll those dice when I think I can just grind you guys down. The Celtics saying, by virtue of how they're playing well in the long run, this is smart to me, underestimates what should be their decided advantages in this series. And by the way, that's not just hypothetical. They're decided advantages in this series during the games where they have built twenty point leads, and so it is. It is. It has the potential to
be an all time loss. That also, and this is the part demon's and even though you're a Celtics fan, maybe you could take some solace in it also has the potential to maybe stem the tide a bit against professional basketball simply being a three point shooting contest, and I think that we if you guys go back, and we should God dogg it, it might be worth putting
this clip back out there again. After the first night of the NBA season, I did like a twenty minute thought exercise on this show about how the NBA has
two major problems on its hand. One was the load management stuff, but the other one was that watching three point contests is not as good of an entertainment product as the NBA we grew up with, and that even though the league is deeper than ever, more skilled than ever, in theory should be better than ever, that you potentially might need to be proactive like Baseball was against the shift and with the pitch clock and all those things,
because your consumers won't love it. The Boston Celtics breaking every record for three point attempts. If they end up cruising to a championship, then until the rules change, everyone's an idiot for not playing that way. But if in the small sample size of a series the Celtics get whacked by what most people feel is a clearly inferior team, and a team, by the way, who was zero to eight this year against the Cavs and the Celtics and like one in eighteen against the best teams in basketball.
Uh that whether it should or shouldn't change teams philosophies and approaches pro sports are reactionary, and I think it will, so yeah, I'll say it for the health of basketball. It's good if this doesn't work for Boston. And now, thirty minutes in, I want to talk about the Knicks side of things, so everyone's gonna say some of the same stuff here. Bridges defensive stops at the end of
these games has been unbelievable. And the fact that the Knicks Tatum wasn't did you realize Demon's day that that was correctly graded by the scorekeepers at the end a steal and not a block because Tatum abandoned the shot and was trying to pass it to Jalen Brown. It was a steal.
It was a steal and not a block. Yeah, I could see how that kind of looked like a steal because he was trying to pass it in mckill.
Bridges to you, No, that's my point. In real time, I thought it was a shot that got blocked that Bridges grabbed and then threw up in the air.
Oh yeah, No, I mean he tried to like turn and kick it out right.
He abandoned the shot. That's the point I like in it was, I mean a brilliant defensive possessions. So people are going to talk about that Brunton obviously, I mean just more than earning his Clutch Player of the Year award night after night after night. Uh, Karl Anthony towns Is stretch in the second quarter when he was the only Nick doing anything, when this thing could have gotten totally away from him, might get forgotten. A bit to history. And one other thing that I will focus on even
if no one else will. Joe Mizzoula going to the hack of Mitchell Robinson's strategy when the team had two team fouls and putting the Knicks in the bonus without ever getting Mitch Robinson into the free throw line. I thought was one of the bigger coaching mistakes of his career up to this point. Just strategically, it didn't make sense.
It was as if the Knicks were gonna be caught sleeping and pull Mitchell Robinson out before you got into the bonus, which they almost did, but they didn't, or he thought they would just leave him in once you were in the bone. I don't know what he thought, but that was a mistake. But the story for the New York Knicks, and this was, if I can give myself a little credit, something I talked about on the pod and TV show Tuesday and Willigan Today is a
story of different objectives. Yes, of course the Knicks want to win a championship, but they did not build a team with that being the singular goal. They built a team to beat Boston, with the logic being the only chance we have of winning a championship is if we can beat Boston. We can't rely on being on opposite sides of the bracket and someone else beating them, or injuries or whatever. We are going to have to go through Boston. So we trade for og Ananobi, We trade
for Michale Bridges. Now we have long, switchable, defensive minded wings for Brown and Tatum. We move off Julius Randall and maybe just as importantly, Dante DiVincenzo to bring in Carl Anthony Towns so we can match some of their offensive firepower. And so if they want to play with a big, a seven footer who can shoot, in Chris STAPs, we got a seven footer who can shoot even better than Karl Anthony Towns. They built a team, well, yes,
and and that, and we'll get to that. They built a team to beat Boston, just like Minnesota hired away the guy who built the Nuggets, who to then build
a team to beat the Nuggets. And then when the Nuggets were defending champs in round two and everyone thought they were cruising to the finals, they ran into a team no one really believed in, and that team who was built to beat them, not necessarily to win a title, as they got clocked in the next round, built to beat Denver, went to Denver and took game one and then shocked everyone and took game two as well. Now they ended up losing the next three, but they won
the series anyway. The folks who run the Knicks looked at their biggest hurdle to making the first finals, making the first conference finals and the first NBA finals the franchises made this century and said it to Boston, said all right, we'll build our version and we're gonna have this added bonus. We're not going to be quite as talented man for man, and our coach isn't going to be one coach is the ultimate new school coach, and
the other coach is the ultimate old school coach. Our coach isn't going to have the analytical bent and edge Boston's does. But here's what we are going to have an absolutely fearless end of game guy, and you guys don't have it. And now I was talking about how the Knicks just needed to get one more after winning Game one in the next three to guarantee themselves they're getting a game six at home. Now Boston's got to get two of the next three in order to make
sure this series isn't over before game six. And that is a shocking turn of events. And by the way, nobody knows what to do with this series, where like the Knicks are the favorite in the series, but the Celtics are still the favorite in the conference. Like this is a weird spot because nobody thought we'd be in this spot. All right, you wanted to talk about Porzingis, so go ahead.
Yeah, So he's been am i with some type of sickness that's messing with his stamina. How does that affect our chances? You think with him being in and out of the lineup.
So the Porzingis thing is bizarre and you feel terribly for the guy. I mean, this is why he missed time weeks ago, and so I don't know what it is. It's not you know, it's not the flu. It's not and clearly they can't figure it out. But this is a huge loss for them, a huge loss, and it also everything matters, and even if they are able to get through this series, which right now my pick would be the next I don't think it's over, but right now I think that my pick would be the next.
These extra miles on Horford, Yeah, are tough for one of the oldest players in the league who's now pushed into the starting lineup. In all of that, so that you know, that's another issue. Let me before we move on, Demons, where's your confidence level and what adjustments do you want Boston to make.
I think we'll win the series, and I'd like to I'd like to just take what the defense has given us and and just kind of take note of what's happened in the last two games and just want it more. And when you when you have the twenty point lead, you know, do your best to keep that twenty point lead. I don't know, I this is it's just it's we're playing with some some competitive energy. It just it just seems like the Knicks are just flying around and the Celtics are just relying on their pedigree.
And it also, yes, the Celtics feel right now a little lase fair about it, which is so weird. All right, the producers before we move on, really want me to get to some photoshop. They did, Yeah, just go ahead.
You got any New York is coming up to you out there on the street.
Oh, I mean they, I'm telling you they love the me and the bodega with uh with a dou serve Chris Brussard sign, a do not serve James Dolan's sign. Who is that crying in the do you leave us now? I don't know. Oh it's Joe Rogan. Who is it? Oh? Oh okay, it's Robert de Niro. Sorry, it's very small on my screen. Justin Fields and plays Aaron Rodgers. The brdusers very proud of me at the bodego with the hot Cheetos photoshop. That's the extra bonus you get for
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All right, demanse, let's get to this other stuff. I said that I could have done the whole pod just on Nicks Celtics, but there are other stories we must get to, So go ahead.
Uh yeah, So you decided to jump on the Denver bandwagon, and they followed that with a forty five or forty two point loss. I can't remember which one it is, maybe you should jump the ship so things start winning again.
Russ was there?
Lee, Okay, so you couldn't miss any shots. Do you think the first game was more telling or do you think this last game was more of how it's going to be?
Well, listen, I jumping on the Denver bandwagon is maybe a touch strong. I maybe yes. I have said since the Lakers got eliminated that my pick to when the title is Oklahoma City, and that's not really a sexy pick. They are the they are now might in fact, let me look, this will be a fun thing to do real quick. What are the Thunder now minus money favorites? This is something the championship? Yeah, so here's here's something Folks get wrong a lot. They don't know that odds
on favorite is different than just being the favorite. So odds on favorite means that you're minus money, that you're priced at a greater than fifty percent chance to win. So right now on DraftKings, Nope, the Thunder are not yet minus money, but they are. They are plus one thirty.
Boston is plus three ten, the Calves are plus eight point fifty, the Timberwolves are ten to one, the Knicks thirteen to one, the Pacers fifteen to one, the Nuggets seventeen to one, and the Warriors twenty five to one.
Knocked at the Warriors having the least.
Odds, Well, that is to me, Uh.
They're saying curries, They're they're going to be screwed without him?
Is but yes, that is that is the the essentially the Warriors therket place saying maybe Steph will come back. We don't want to write them off. Like but what I do find so fascinating about it is that it feels to me, with eight teams left, you could make a credible case for any of the eight teams to win a championship. And that is that's really unlike anything I can quite remember. Okay, so there, so there's that.
Now to answer the game about last night. About last night, I don't think either game is really indicative of the series. But I think Game one is more indicative, not because the Nuggets are gonna win it, but because Game one was evidence of any game the Nuggets are going to have a real chance. Jokers going to have to be transcendent.
That is.
That is the in my opinion, the real story here. And the thunder who hadn't faced you know, they've won two playoff series together as a group. The only real adversity they faced in games that mattered was last year against Dallas and Luca got the better of them for the Thunders. For the Thunder to come out and score an NBA record eighty seven first half points and just absolutely annihilate Denver, to me, was a reminder of how good this team is when it is firing on all cylins.
How much do you think Denver let their foot off the gas? You know, feel uncomfortable? They stole that game one, so right, It's.
Not so much they let their foot off the gas. It's that I think they went into the game peak motivation, and when the Thunder hit them with haymakers, then they're like, Okay, tonight's not our night. And that's, by the way, that's fine. Like the it's now whenever you're yeah, whenever you're the inferior team, what you want to do is just keep shortening the series. And so now it's not a best of seven, it's a best of five now, and Denver as home court, Like that's how they that's how they
have to look at it is. It's now a best of five. It's first to three, and we've got three of the five games in our building. And so now are they going to go back to Oklahoma City Denver that is up three to one. No, I don't. I
don't think that's realistic at all. What I do think is Denver's goal is to then make it a best of three, and have you know they won't to have home court that in that scenario, make it a best of three, get it back at two to two, and then hope that somehow it can become a best of one game seven. And so Oklahoma City has the highest s of any team in the league. I think they've demonstrated that. And they are now seventy three and fifteen.
It's pretty good, all right, Let's get on go on to Warriors two Wolves.
Warriors won Game one on the road without Steph. I think he went out like eight minutes left in the second quarter. They still pulled it off. I think he suffered a hamstring strain. It's going to be out at least a week. Do you give the Doves any chance to win without Steph?
No? And I thought that was a great win by them, And I thought Steve Kerr was brilliant and playing thirteen guys adjusting on the fly and Buddy Heald. Like these last two games with Buddy Heeld, it reminds you of how great the Warriors were when they had prime Klay Thompson. Because the last two games Buddy Heild has been prime Klay Thompson. It's been really it's just impressive.
Did you give them no chance to win this series?
If Steph is out? Call it?
I mean, this is seven more days? Is the series over by then?
No?
They the Warriors could lose like one game.
The earliest he could be back, realistically is game six because they play tonight Saturday, so that's game Uh so let me do it like this. They already played game one. Tonight is Game two, Saturday is Game three, Monday is Game four. Wednesday is game five. Then they don't play Did I do that wrong? They play Thursday, Sat. Yeah, I did do that. No, Thursday, Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, and then the next game is Sunday. I think the if the Knicks.
Can go out there and do that to the Celtics and win the second game, I think the Warriors can go back and beat them.
Without Steph Curry. But it's just I just don't listen. I don't. I think Jimmy's been good but not unbelievable. Bud keep hitting. Yes, I don't. I think Buddy healed is you know, going to regress more to the mean there? And uh, I also think and this was do you guys remember when the Lakers went down three to one to Minnesota and I came on here and said, I don't think necessarily the series is over. It obviously was,
but the Lakers' title hopes are done. And the reason I said was because now the only way to get out of Round one is they have to play every other day, win a Game seven, and then start a series where they're playing every other day for the entirety of it, basically, and there are too old and too thin of a team in order for that to be an effective path. Essentially, that is now where the Warriors
are and you saw it immediately. Bite Steph, a player who has never had a hamstring injury in his life, ended up having to play every other day against that Rockets defense running around like that. Windy said that since they've started tracking, this Game seven against Houston was the most like mileage Steph has run on the court in a game in his career, and a quarter and a half into the next game, he suffers his first ever
hamstring injury. Like that, every game matters, and the Warriors kind of punted game five against Houston and then let go of the rope in the fourth quarter of Game six, and all of a sudden they find themselves in a Game seven. And then all of a sudden, you find yourself two days later playing in a Game one, and even though you win it, that's the ultimate when the battle lose the war. And so no, I listen, I think the Timberwolves, we're talking about three point regression with
the Celtics. Timberwolves are now like twelve of seventy over their last two games or something insane. And so I don't I think that when we get to Game five it's gonna be three to one. I think we're gonna be I think the Minnesota is gonna win. The next three is the short version of it, and I think it's gonna be three to one going back to Minnesota. And here's the other piece. They ruled Steph out a week immediately, so game six is the earliest hea could
come back. That's probably not realistic. But even if he is back for Game six. Are you gonna get a fully healthy, fully functional Steff I don't know, so, yeah, I think though, I think the Warriors are done. I think Kur has done a great job. I think Jimmy's been good and Draymond the last two games. To go along with what had been great defense, he actually provided some offensive punch. I don't think any of that's sustainable. What are your follow ups here? A couple of Aunt follow ups.
So Chris Finch, head coach, came out and said, we had one and a half one point in the first half. You're the leader of the team and you've got to come out and set the tone. If your SHOT's not going, you still have to carry the energy. Yeah. How do you feel about that?
Yeah? I so Chris Finch is not afraid to kind of call out his star player, and Aunt clearly disagreed with him. Ant said, you know, I thought I just my shot wasn't falling. I was still there on defense. I think Chris Finch has done a really good job. I also think that I it wouldn't make sense for Aunt to be tired. They only played five against the Lakers. It's only round two. He's twenty three years old. We did see last year he said he got exhausted by
the conference finals. I am not yet ready to say I think that is happening. I am ready to say it is something to monitor. But I think Ant's gonna come out and be outstanding tonight, and you know, he finally hit some shots and he'll be fine. So I'm not panicked about that. And I also am not as angry at Aunt for the laughing about the three point shooting. Brew was pissed. Brew was like, he's gotta be more serious. I just think Ant is so overly confident, that is
so incredibly competent. I should say that sometimes he feels like everything's gonna be fine, and that can be a gift and a curse. I think he'll be fine. All right, Let's quickly get to the other series. Let's quickly get to the other series.
The Pacers have stolen two now at home in the Calves building. That overrated poll came out of the perfect time for Haller Burdon. The Calves have some injuries going on. Garland's been out for the last two, Mobley and Hunter miss game two, Mitchell showing out. Though we have forty eight points. How do you feel about the what's the Cavs situation.
I think they might be booked. I don't think a sweep, but I don't know how you can recover from that type of loss. Donovan Mitchell scores forty eight. Donovan Mitchell Now, by the way, complete list of NBA players who have multiple forty eight plus point playoff games that they lost, Michael Jordan, Lebron, James, Donovan Mitchell. That's the list. Donovan has scored forty eight, fifty and fifty seven in playoff losses. But to melt the way they did where you're up seven,
here's another crazy one for you, Demanse. Since they've been tracking this since ninety seven in the playoffs, as of a week ago, teams down seven in the final minute were one and one thousand, one hundred and sixty or something. The only team that had ever come back from seven down in the playoffs in the final minute was Oklahoma City in twenty fourteen against lob City when Chris Paul tried to draw a foul in the backcourt like launched a sixty footer because he was trying to get a
shooting foul on it. They didn't call the foul, and it kind of snow on them. The Pacers have done it twice in a week. It had been done once. Ever, the Baser has done it twice in a week to the Bucks to eliminate them in the Tyres slash John Halliburton game, and then this past game and the Cavs couldn't get the ball past half court. Those plus the injuries, I mean, that kind of trauma, that sports trauma plus the injuries might just kill them. That might just be
all she wrote. And so I I think that. I also think that if Pacers fans are saying, guys, we made the conference finals last year and we took Boston to overtime and then Tyrese Halliburton got injured and missed the rest of the series like we were, nobody takes this seriously. I understand the first stration if they feel that way, but I just think the injuries now are too much, and I will take it one step further,
and again Pacers fans are going to be pissed. I think the winner of Boston New York is going to go to the NBA Finals, which means I guess by proxy, since I just said I think the Knicks are gonna win the series. I think the Knicks are going to be playing in the NBA Finals. That's crazy. It's so crazy. You think you think it's you think I'm wrong.
You just jumping ship to ship. They're all sinking. But yeah, the New York Knicks ship is going to think.
As well, what do you mean jumping ship to ship? I mean Lakers?
And then okay, well I guess about divers making the finals? Yeah, yes, it was Lakers.
Your Knicks, no, no, no, no, no, hold on to win the championship. I was Lakers, yes, and now okay, yeah, nixt to go all right? They got to play someone in the finals. I was Boston. But your team doesn't know how to shoot a layup or they're allergic to it.
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All right, let's quickly do an NFL thing before we get to listener questions.
Cowboys made a move on George Pickens, wide receiver from Pittsburgh. So Pickens is on a contract here, and we know he's had some some character things in the past, whatever you want to call them. Where do you think the chances are the chances are this going wrong in Dallas?
Well, listen, I don't think it's necessarily going to go wrong as much as I just don't think it's gonna be a wildly impactful I think that I think Pickens is a fine player. I think he's a little overrated because his highlights are so great, and I think you'd be insane to pay him early, and so I would think he's gonna be pissed that he's not gonna get
paid early. And if you don't pay him early, you traded a third round pick for a rental, which, also, given where Dallas is, that seems odd like it's just not a move I would make. Like I think there are certain guys that are just not really winning or quality, like the juice is not worth the squeeze. I think he's one of them, and I think that he obviously has this massive talent, but he fell in the draft
because he's such a pain in the ass. Pittsburgh was shopping him a year into his career because he's a pain in the ass, and he was only worth a third round pick because he's a pain in the ass. And so you add to all that that, I know people will be like, oh, now he's not gonna be getting doubled like he was in Pittsburgh. Man. Some wide receivers like being the number two option because they see
softer coverages. Some wide receivers are like, I just want ten targets a game, and so all of that, all of that concerns me in a significant way. All Right, A reminder, do you guys like rate? Subscribe, review on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, everywhere to get to some of the Tuesday questions before we get to today's. My big crow is listening from Croatia. It's very kind of you, man, And by the way,
that's on my list. My pal Zach Lowe goes there every summer, I think because his wife is from there, I've heard nothing but amazing things, and I really want to check it out. All right, go to Curtis's question Demons from Tuesday.
If you had to start one bench one and cut one of these three players, what would be your order? Joker, Luca, and Yannis.
Well that's a kind of unfair. Listen. You guys know how much I love Luca and how great I think he is. But of the you picked the two guys in the league better than him, So I mean the answer has to be you start Joker, you bench, be honest, and you cut Luca. But if you did a start bench cut with literally any other group of players and Luca, Luca would be my starter. But if you're the third best and three best players in the league and he's third, so yeah, that's what the answer is.
Bronson, Bronson that level yet, go ahead, But Danny says it feels like the search for the face of the league has become irrelevant. Do you think we should stop trying to force the issue and just enjoy the game?
Well, I don't think any I mean, I don't mind the conversation. I don't think there's any real forcing of the issue, and it doesn't prevent me from enjoying the game. So that's not a problem, all right.
Next one, negative four and two if the Nuggets make it to the conference finals, when Nicola Yo could secure the head coaching job and didn't.
I mean, listen, he is doing a nice little player coach job, which I've enjoyed watching.
Let's get to today's all right, So Eu a thunder here says about Boston chucking threes is the lazy way of playing the game. Hopefully this will send ripples through the league and resent this ugly.
Tree said this. Listen, I I don't enjoy watching it as much as I enjoy different kind of diverse styles of play, So that that is my hope to a degree that this at least stems the tide a bit. Let's go to Ryan.
Can you remember a more surprising conference finals than the potential Nicks versus Pacers series.
It's very, very rare that both teams are a surprise. It was a surprise last year the Pacers made it, you know a few years ago. It was to me a real big surprise when uh, the Blazers made it. I think some would argue last year's Western Conference Finals Dallas Minnesota was shocking. But I had picked Dallas from the beginning, so that didn't shock me, but I think it probably did shock the world to a degree. All right, let's go to Adrian.
Adrian, are we gonna Are we gonna talk about how Yo Kich really has been very turnover prone and lacking his usual efficiency for the last four to five games.
Now, Okay, so listen, I think that is a slight overstatement. So if you just go to Joker's game log, he had the one game what game was it? It was game like ten. He had seven in one of either game two or three against the Clippers, And I said, listen, yeah, it was Game two against the Clippers. He had seven turnovers, only it was eight of sixteen from the field. So what I think he's talking about is this Game five against the Clippers, he was four of thirteen, but they
won in a blowout. Game seven against the Clippers he was six to fourteen, but with five turnovers that they won in a blowout. It is true that what's you gonna call that? Zubos has given Joker trouble. Now the these two games in this series, he has seven and six turnovers. Yesterday and he had six fouls and he never got into the game and the refs seemed to be bothering him yesterday. Obviously, Joker didn't play well. No
one on the team played well. I didn't focus on the seven turnovers in game one because he did that along with forty two, twenty two and six in beating the one seed, So so listen, he five plus turnovers obviously too many, But I think his efficiency will be higher this series than it was last series, when he was exactly at fifty percent from the field still forty five percent from three, because I don't think hartensteiner Chet can give him the same problems Zubats can. All right,
I gotta run. Great job, Demond's a great job. Blewe duck, great job volume. I'll see you guys on the TV show at three and then I'm actually also doing Collins Pod later tonight, So busy day for me. See you guys there. We'll train