And now the low post. Welcome to the low post podcast. We are recording this on Thursday right after the buzzer of the same game that the Lakers and the Nuggets always play. At this point, Lakers fans have to feel like Crusty the Crown when he bet on the Washington Generals to beat the Harlem Globetrotters.
It's not going to happen. The Denver Nuggets with another second half rampage. Their style of rampage, slow motion, inevitable just avalanche of slow, yogic baskets and Murray baskets and Michael Porter Jr. baskets and Aaron Gordon being everywhere, ushering the Lakers into an offseason of great uncertainty almost across the board with LeBron James having a player option.
The Angelo Russell. Oh my God. Zero points on zero of everything. Zero for life in game three.
Has had two horrible games in the series and one good one. Almost feels as if he's canceling out a good season in one week. Darv and Ham, all of it will be re-evaluated once the series is inevitably over. The Orlando Magic roared back to life at home beating the Cleveland Cavaliers who decided, hey, we've proven so much in the playoffs.
We don't have to show up for this game. Hey, we're the Cleveland Cavaliers. All we did is get humiliated in the first round last year, tank into this matchup in embarrassing fashion, give the Orlando Magic bulletin more material, blow the doors off the Magic in two games because they couldn't shoot straight. We don't have to show up.
But the headliner, as we welcome in Mo to keel from the athletic, from Bleacher Report, former video coordinator for the Los Angeles Clippers and the San Antonio Spurs, the headliner in a little bit of a spicy game. The Philadelphia 76ers fresh off the heartbreak at Madison Square Garden. The great last two minute report, scandal of 2024. The incredible just ridiculous comeback from the Knicks.
Rebound in Philly behind Joe LMB, who Mo, I called on NBA today yesterday, the great tragic hero of the NBA, did not know that he also was suffering from Bell's Palsy, which Woj broke tonight, which explains why he was wearing sunglasses and all that stuff. And sure, just pile that atop of the Joellen bead postseason malady list that just seems to grow longer and longer. 50 points on 19 field goal attempts for Joellen bead as the Sixers behind a majestic performance from a guy who still does, frankly, you got a little bouncy late in the game and we can talk about that, but still doesn't look like himself, particularly on the glass and on defense. 50, five zero points to beat the Knicks at home by nine, I think, and get back in that series.
Let's start there. What did you think of MBD? What did you see from the Sixers that matters going forward into, it's not a must-win game for, but if they lose game for without home court advantage, they're in big do-do. Yeah, I think the first thing is kind of, I think it just shows MBD was right after game two.
And I think that's one of those things, like when we talk about a lot of the adjustments, there wasn't a lot of adjustments, I think, for the Sixers. They're in both of those games, it should have won game two with the way it went. And I think the fact was, they just came out with a much more focus, much more interest, like locked in attack, early on pounding the post with MBD and letting him go from there. I thought Maxi was actually pretty rough in the first half, so he got going in the second half and really found his rhythm.
But I just think it just proved that, hey, MBD's gonna get you in foul trouble, and then the Knicks don't have an answer for that. Once Hart and Seem picks up a few fouls, then you have Mitchell Robinson pick up a couple of fouls in the first half, you're in trouble at that point, and I think MBD just feasted off of them after that. Well, you know who else had foul issues? Joellen B, who picked up three fouls in the first half, the last one was a charging call, in which he looked a little bit lurchy, and charges in Mitchell Robinson.
We should also mention that Mitchell Robinson left the game with the Spring ankle, and there was video of him leaving the arena in a walking boot, and that's a big deal potentially going forward for the Knicks, but Joellen B stayed in the game with three fouls in the first half, did not commit a fourth foul in the first half, and proceeded to just dominate the game. I thought you just nailed it with, well, actually, let's start with the spice. Joellen B was called for a flagrant one for kind of wrapping, not kind of, for wrapping up Mitchell Robinson's legs as Mitchell Robinson went up for a put-back dunk. I wouldn't call it a tackle, I would call it something you would do in football if you were in the position that Joellen B were in football, prone on your back without much else to do.
Also appeared to me, Isaiah Hartenstein in the groin, as they kind of just decided to have a collision. They look like hockey, like hockey glues. It's like, you know what, it's time for us to just collide and see who's body part, who's who's body part, and who gets hurt, did not get called for a flagrant on that. Obviously, Knicks fans fresh off their own officiating aid in game two, or a little, Tom Thibodeau had some comments after the game, which flagrant foul, which one are you talking about?
They're a little, they're a little, they're a little miffed about, and B'd maybe not getting tossed from this game. I personally was fine with him not getting tossed. They clearly have built in the flagrant criteria unnecessary and excessive, allows them to legislate around the outcome of an act, and Mitchell Robinson kind of fell softly. Should also mention Joellen B'd did a softer version of the Dremon green leg kick into the groin of, was that Hartenstein again?
Yes. Poor guy, my God. That's what you get for hitting eight floaters every game that barely even touched the rim. Isaiah Hartenstein, what an outstanding, by the way, Knicks better bring that dude back next year.
That guy's good, and he's earned a lot of money. I was fine with the decision to let him be saying the game. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but maybe I'm just delirious from watching all these games. I think I was fine either way.
It was a real judgment call. Like if they actually gave him a flagrant too for the Mitchell Robinson one of the injury, like I would have been okay with that too, but it's just a crazy, dangerous play in that instance when you're trying to grab his legs. And I think, you know, again, Mitchell Robinson leaving with a walking boot, not exactly an encouraging sign in that regard, but like if they had called it a flagrant too, Zach, I mean, like we all would have gone nuts. I still would have thought like, okay, that's actually pretty fair.
Them deciding, hey, it's a flagrant one, we're gonna keep it moving. I'm fine with that too. Like it was that close to me. It could have gone either way.
It's clearly a dangerous play, which is why I mentioned that they can kind of legislate based on the outcome of the play more than anything else. Like it is a dangerous play. I mean, if that's an airborne high velocity kind of play, that's a flagrant too. Let's talk about what might carry over, what we saw that might carry over into game four.
You mentioned that Maxie got going in the second half, and one of the reasons he got going was he finally got a rhythm with Joel in the pick and roll. And one of the ways he did that was by bringing Jalen Brunson into the play. They ran that same play over and over again, a staggered pick and roll with Kyle Lowry setting the first screen and Embiid setting the second one because Brunson was on Kyle Lowry and they wanted Brunson to switch onto Maxie. There was at least one play where Maxie just isolated him and hit a three right over Jalen Brunson.
I actually think both teams could aim their star guards at the opposing star guard a little bit more and just let them cook, but they got in a rhythm on that. Joel Embiid started hitting pick and pop threes. And then if you remember, the Knicks started overcorrecting to that and sending help flashing toward him, a third defender flashing to Joel on the pop. And Kyle Lowry got a wide open corner through that of that.
Kelly Oubre cut baseline for a basket out of that. I would expect to see a lot more of that in game four. I also thought Brunson got maybe at 39 points or whatever. He got into a rhythm, but specifically, he got into a rhythm in the third quarter going at Embiid's pick and roll defense.
Like you're going to sit back there big fella, you don't want to move. I'm going at you. And if that screen hits or better yet, if I get Maxie on me first and then that screen hits Maxie and I got air space, I'm going to go at sometimes I might try and go around you, but I'm at least going to go at you and hit jump shots. And then you can see the evolution of it and beat blitzed once instead of dropping back and Hartenstein just rolled and got an easy dunk.
Then they took Embiid and they put him on Josh Hart and said we just want him out of the pick and roll altogether. Then they played zone. And the zone in this series has made me nervous because it feels like it is solely designed to protect Joel Embiid from having to move around the floor. But it was good for the Knicks, I think to see Brunson get going.
This was like a well played offensive game by both teams, I thought. Yeah, I thought actually the offense on both ends was pretty solid. They both kind of knew where they wanted to attack. It was, you know, you just kind of outlined perfectly how Brunson attacked the pick and roll and one at Embiid and basically forced the Sixers into different coverages to try to protect Joel Embiid and all that.
I think we're going to see all of that again in game four. I think the stuff that I think we could see a little bit better from the Knicks is like, cool, when they put him on Josh Hart, bring him into the screen. Like I just think we're just, just don't let Embiid rest for the most part with everything that they're doing in that sense and allow him to keep attacking. I would think though at some point the Sixers they're just going to sell out and just try to get the ball out of Brunson's hands once he starts cooking.
That's to me the biggest weakness with this Knicks team with Randall out. Like who do you trust to play make after Brunson? Who's the secondary guy that you're just so confident is going to get you a, create a bucket for everybody else? And I think that's the thing that's missing with this Knicks team.
I think that's part of where they're missing Julius Randall and the large portion of it. And I think that's coming. They haven't really done it yet, but I think the Sixers are just waiting for one Brunson really gets going and they're in a situation where they're in a little bit of trouble. I think we're going to start to see that.
And I don't know how the Knicks counter that. And then they just kind of do it by committee. Like Josh Hart, Random Fast Breaks. David Shenzo is actually up this pick and roll volume a little bit in the series and gotten good stuff out of it.
And it'll be had probably his most self-creation of the series in this game and looked okay doing it. Well, Donovan should help. He just, I mean, Tibbs just doesn't seem to trust him to play more than 12 to 18 minutes a game. And the Sixers are hunting him on defense every time that he's in the game, every single possession.
I was encouraged, you know, it was a jump shooting game for Embiid. You did not see a lot of the power post-ups after the first quarter, which is fine. Like obviously he scored 50 points. Like he could score.
He could do anything. But I was encouraged at the end of the game in the last five minutes. He had like a crazy acrobatic closeout on a Josh Hart left corner three, where he went all out and leaped as high as he could into the air and clapped his hands above his head. I was like, oh, he, okay.
And then right after that, he got the ball at the top of the key. I think it gets precious to you. I may be misremembering that. And just was like, I'm going right at you full blast all the power I can summon and drew a foul.
And I was like, oh, okay. Like he's like, he's not totally compromised. He has, he can summon that kind of physicality late in the game. I do think his defense is something to watch going forward.
I liked, you know, I liked that lineup when they replaced Tobias Harris with Batum. I think that might be their best lineup so far in the series, although Tobias Harris is okay. In spurts, in spurts tonight. And I don't know what else from this game, what else stuck out to you.
I'm scanning my notes to see if there's anything else that needs to be said other than just a masterpiece from, from, I mean, like he's injured. He's clearly not a hundred percent. And he's gotten this out. He has Bell's palsy.
Like it's just, let's just throw more. You know what I mean? What else can we add to the list in terms of what Embiid's going to have to go through with that? But I think the other thing that's kind of encouraging with those late moves.
Is he on the Oregon Trail? Is he going to get snake bite? Like, is this one? Right.
There's the snake bite. I think he's actually getting his legs under him too. And I think getting a little bit more stamina, which kind of explains some of those bursts that we're seeing at the end of the games. Because I think that was the stuff, especially in game one, I felt like he just had no legs, you know, when it came to the end of that game.
And I feel like he's slowly getting that back. You can tell he's not a hundred percent because of defense. But on offense, it's legs and stamina is the biggest concern for me in that end. And I think that's kind of the difference with the two.
Well, no one is getting healthier because they'll get more aggressive defensively. Offensively, we know when he's feeling more, he's got more juice and more stamina, then he's going to be able to push. And I think those are the things to kind of watch for. But I also think that it's got to figure out how they're going to handle that two-man game with Maxi.
That's going to be the big thing for them that is going to keep Tibs and coaching staff up all night. I mean, this is what happens after the game, as a video guy, like on the road. Cool. Sometimes we're watching that game as a staff that night.
We're pulling clips. We're getting the list of clips of like, OK, this is for the team at it. This one we're going to show to the bigs. This one we're going to show to the guards.
This one's just for Brunson. This one's just for Weber. We're pulling all these clips out. And then you're looking at each other going, how are we going to handle these things?
And I don't think they have a great answer for the Maxi and beat two-man game, because they just do a good job playing off of each other. Maxi does a good job of really stretching that out and pulling Isaiah Hart and Stein with him. And then it opens up the pop to him beat. And like you said, they bring the third guy off and beat's going to find the guy.
He's going to make the next pass. There's going to be just so many different things that they got to figure out how to just handle that. That's the beginning coming in the game for us. What do you do there?
And it's interesting because the Knicks are not a big team of defensive tinkerers. They kind of just play how they play. They don't bust out like all of a sudden they're blitzing Isaiah Hart and Stein. And they just kind of like, oh, Jan and Obie's going to fight over the screen.
Hart and Steen and Mitchell Robinson, if you can play, or Chua, if he has to play, are going to come up probably to the level and not much higher than that. Achua can switch. And the Knicks have flirted on a few possessions here there with switching and an Obie on to Embiid. And an Obie's a big strong dude who's guarded a lot of centers, particularly under Nick Nurse, ironically, in Toronto.
Joel Embiid's a different animal. And I think that's worth mixing in, particularly if you can have the help ready behind it. Like you know you're going to do it every once in a while. You have the help ready behind it.
I think that's interesting, particularly with Achua. But Maxi is so fast. He's not a typical point guard, even for a switchy big guy. Like, Achua is a pretty good switcher.
Like, Tyree's Maxi is a turbocharged water bug out there. He can blow by anybody. I mean, there was one to play where he did exactly that against Achua. Like, it's easier said than done.
So I know when I say it, it sounds like it's so simple. But there was a play where he comes off. I think it was a handoff off of Embiid. And he turns the corner in Achua switches.
Except Achua doesn't stay parallel to the sideline, right? Like, he almost opens the door and is trying to meet Maxi at the basket. And good luck with that. Because you're already beat at that point.
You kind of open it up and you're at a 45 angle and not just kind of squared. Maxi's going to beat you to the rim every time. And the time he doesn't, it's because he decided to slow down, not because you caught him. And I think that's the big thing there.
With Maxi, that's the problem with the speed with Maxi that I think is going to be a real issue for them. And again, comes down to that two main game. Well, hopefully we get more complaints to the league office now from the next side. Compiling a fat dossier of complaints.
Does Leon Rose sent the agreements now? Or are we going to send the grievance for this one? I think Darryl Maury is still filing grievances over the 2018 conference finals against the Warriors. I think that audit is still ongoing.
A crack staff of like 50 people are still digging into that. Maybe the Rockets are going to be retroactively rewarded at the NBA championship. I picked the Nixon 7. And did you make picks before the?
Yeah, I had the Nixon 7. I was a little worried when it felt like the tide was turning at the end of the first half of this game, that it was going to be like, here come the Nova Nix in Philly, a lot of Nix stands in the stands. They're the healthier, well, I mean, Randall, sir, but they're not dealing with quite as much as the Sixers. And the other, I mean, the Sixers are getting absolutely nothing from Buddy Heald.
I think he played four minutes in this game. We should mention campaign came in and became Buddy Heald, essentially, and just reigned three as it randomly after not playing much. I do think it's worth revisiting that the Sixers traded James Harden, discovered much to their delight that Tyrese Maxi was a legitimate co-star for Duolen Bied, acquired a bunch of draft equity in exchange for James Harden, talked a lot about how they were going to use that draft equity to upgrade their team, maybe at this trade deadline, maybe in the off season when they have a bundle of cap space, max level cap space, Paul George still is not signed an extension with the Clippers. That's neither here nor there.
I would expect him to, but he was, until he has, until he has, he hasn't. And they didn't really do anything at the trade deadline to upgrade their team. I mean, Buddy Heald was a worthy shot with a bunch of second round picks. He's not doing anything for them in this series.
And I think that's a frozen moment. It's not like any big, big names were acquired at the trade deadline. In fact, Nick's got a lot of positive press, including for me, for acquiring Boyon-Boek Donovitch and Alec Burks. Alec Burks has not played in weeks and Boyon-Boek Donovitch is not playing very much.
So it's not as if there was some big giant prize out there for them to get, but, and they were also, I think a little bit frozen in place with the uncertainty of when is Duolen Bied actually going to come back? In what condition is he going to come back? It's hard to make a big bet without knowing that, but they're kind of paying the price a little bit for that in this series. No, the Anthony Melton tonight, although he was active, he did not play.
Anything else from this game before we move on? Great win, great win for the Sixers. Obviously, like, and beats had other incredible playoff games, you know, the airplane game against Toronto, that gets me played over and over again. Probably the best playoff game of his career and the most consequential game of his career.
And the fact that he's doing this all with an injury, like you just can't say enough about, I mean, I'm alternatively like awed by what he's doing and just worried that, you know, every game that he leaves to go to the locker room, like, oh my God, is this going to be the one that it hasn't been yet? And I think, you know, Doris Burke talked about how he's just sort of mentally dealing with recovering from injury and every time he lands a little funny, you know, that's an issue. But anything else from this game? No, I think you nailed it.
Colin, I'm kind of like the tragic figure, tragic Shakespearean figure in the NBA with in beat, but it was, it's awesome to see it. I'm glad we actually got a fun one out of this one here and we're ready to roll. I'd been pretty, pretty disappointed if the Sixers went down 3-0. I think we're getting lined up for a fun, hopefully a fun series.
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It's all the ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. A team that did go down 3-0 is the Lakers. We were going to have on NBA today a, a, one of those, you know, debate segments where the question was, what's the more likely outcome in the series?
Is Denver sweep or a seven game series? And we were all like, seven, seven. The Lakers haven't beaten this team in two years, like literally two years. They're going to be in three times now.
And, you know, obviously game two was just an all time gut punch heartbreaking loss for a team that has absolutely no margin for bad luck, for injury, for underperformance, for anything in this series. They had to have that game. They didn't get it. They come out like a house of fire in this game go up eight and nothing time out there up at halftime and never for one second did I sit here watching a game together with the game.
In fact, I thought, well, let me set my watch for when the nuggets are going to be up by seven in the third quarter. And just like that, the nuggets are up by seven, 10, 12. Lakers make a couple of random baskets. They just don't have any answers, enough answers anyway for this team.
And like I said, to open, like, they're not going to win this series. Maybe they squeak out game four and forced Denver to go back to Denver and close it out, but they're not going to win the series. And they're going to go into the summer with the angel of Russell, with the player option, LeBron James, with the player option, Darben Hamm on the hop seat, three first round picks to potentially trade both point cards in Atlanta, potentially available among other targets. One way or another, this team is going to look different next year once the series is over.
They've played well. They've played honorably. They've been a very good team for two months now, 28 and 14 to close the season. They had won a few more games in the regular season.
They might be going toe to toe with the Clippers, the Mavericks. The team that's still really good, but isn't the nuggets. I don't know, what's worth talking about from this game? I mean, it's just the same game every time.
It's the same game. It's I'm watching the game. And I'm like, am I really watching this again? Yeah, I mean, listen, we saw this almost exact game in game one.
It was the third quarter in game one, where the Lakers scored 18 points and nuggets good 32 tonight. It's a 34 22 nuggets win the third quarter game two. It was the fourth quarter, where the Lakers fall apart. They only get 20 points in that quarter and the nuggets get 32.
Like that's it's one quarter. That's all the nuggets need in every game in this series against the Lakers and even going back the last season, one quarter is all it takes for them to kind of run over the Lakers and go through it. But the guy has probably been the most unsung hero in tonight's game. I know you're going to say, I can't wait.
Please say it. It's Aaron Gordon, Aaron Gordon, Aaron Gordon, phenomenal. And he kept this game close in the first half. Like, honestly, this could have been a big lead for the Lakers, but it was Aaron Gordon just rushing the Lakers on the offensive boards was all over the place running a lane was every word defensively.
You put a small on him, cool. He posted up like it was he was everywhere in this game. And that first half was super impressive because that was really, I think when I saw the way he played in the first half said, I didn't care how much the Lakers were winning or half time nuggets. We're going to win just because off of Aaron Gordon's play.
If you want to see a player playing with 1000% urgency, and I don't just mean like physical flying around urgency, although Aaron Gordon was doing that, I mean, such locked in mental engagement, moving around the floor defensively, knowing where to be and when. Oh, there's an emergency over there. I got to suddenly be there, but then I'm going to get back here. Aaron Gordon in the first half, keeping them connected in this game, was absolutely everywhere on defense.
He was everywhere on defense when you'll catch was in foul trouble. And they had to start moving, you'll catch around, you'll catch guard at Gabe Vincent for parts of this game because the Lakers were playing three guards and LeBron and AD, and they wanted to protect them from both LeBron and AD. And that was the only way they could do it. And when you'll catch was on the bench, just everywhere.
And by the way, one of the stories of this series, if my math is right, after three games now, the nuggets are plus one in the non-Yolkitch minutes. You're dead, you're dead. If those minutes are neutral, you're dead, they were neutral. They were more than neutral tonight, they were plus tonight.
And the Lakers went back to AD on Yolkitch instead of AD on Aaron Gordon as the Rover. And it exposes the back line with like, once you engage AD in the pick and roll, and Jamal Murray turns the corner at all, there's nobody back there to stop him. And he gets to the rim. And a lot of those Aaron Gordon offensive rebounds are at the rim.
The other unsung hero, by the way, because they had to do a little bit tonight. The nuggets also, much was made deservedly so of their adjustment in game two of moving Yolkitch to Hachimura and Gordon on Davis to kind of muck up the Lakers, pick and roll with that. Like, OK, you want to go at Yolkitch? You got to use Rui.
And if Rui rolls to the rim, he's rolling right into AD. And you got a lot of traffic. Well, they went back. As I suspected they would, I said on TV, I think they're going to go probably back to Yolkitch on AD.
And then they had to switch it around again to go back the other way. And Aaron Gordon deservedly so gets a lot of praise for being able to guard Anthony Davis pretty well. I think the nuggets are told you want to force being Anthony Davis post up against Aaron Gordon. Go ahead.
He had some success, but that's fine. The other unsung hero of that scheme is KCP being able to guard LeBron James. So considering the size discrepancy in that matchup, he had another great defensive game tonight. And MPJ, it's not just the shots, which always just seem like these like, OK, Yolkitch is on the bench.
You got him with these. Oh, Michael Porter just made a 22 foot off the dribble foot on the line dagger in my face. He made plays off the dribble tonight. And as a passer that we're out of his game, out of his range, probably a season and a half ago, this starting five is just it's a perfect basketball starting five.
And it's going to take a plus game from any team to beat them. And it's going to take a bad bench game for Denver to lose. I mean, some of these teams I think Minnesota and the next round could put up a great challenge potentially against Denver if they get by Phoenix. But you've got to be on your A A plus game to beat the scene because they don't beat themselves.
And they're just a ruthless efficiency machine on offense. I mean, it is just how calculated and calm they are is it all flows out from Yolkitch. But I wanted to shout out some of those guys too. Yeah, I mean, it's just one it speaks to the continuity having that starting five together for as long as they've had.
They all know where everybody's supposed to be, where they're supposed to go. When this guy cuts here, I'm going to move there. When Yolkitch has a ball at the elbow, we're going to do whatever exchange on the weak side or whatnot. And then one of us will flash to the basket.
Gordon has mastered kind of working the baseline perfectly with Yolkitch. And whether it's a Yolkitch, Murray pick and roll, and then he gets dunk off of that. Or if it's just a Yolkitch post up. And then it's the other way around too.
There are plays where it's like on post ups where Gordon had. When I think it was game one, there's a great example of Gordon has a post up and Yolkitch just ducks in. I think he had a re on him. And it's an easy bucket.
And Gordon finds him like the unselfishness across the board from the team. It all starts from Yolkitch, but it's kind of spread to everybody kind of making the right reads and the passes and being quick with it. I mean, it's going to be real tough to see a team beat him. The one thing that's probably concerning, if we're going to talk about the nuggets a little bit is Reggie Jackson kind of rolling his ankle pretty bad.
Like that's another blow to their bench. And that's going to be a lot of margin for that either. Yeah. It's concerning.
And that's something we're going to have to be monitor there. The hope for them is, yo, just win this game on Saturday and buy us as much time. Let's hope Phoenix and Minnesota goes seven. And we have a lot of time before the next series.
And I think that's just their mentality is got to be hey, we got to take care of business on Saturday. Well, the Lakers are staring at again, LeBron is extension eligible, eligible for a lot of money. He's almost 40 years old. Still, obviously, an all NBA level player, but he's almost 40.
There's the Brony variable. See where that ends up. I've said before, as there's been noise, there's just noise off and on about where LeBron will end his career. The last time there was noise, it was the Warriors.
Remember the Warriors, by the way? They've been going for a while now. They tried to at least engage the idea of maybe trading for LeBron James. Not sure the Warriors have totally given up on that possibility.
But I've said all along, I think LeBron wants to remain a Laker for the rest of his career. I think that's his intention. I don't think that's absolute. Nothing is absolute.
But I think he would like to remain a Laker. D-Lo, it's just incredible how the nuggets just destroy D-Lo in a week. The Lakers fans, now they want him out. After defending them all year, I apologize to him for putting him in a million fake trades and saying no matter how well he plays, his teams don't seem to really like him that much.
And then comes out and does this. Hachamaro was invisible weirdly for the whole series. And then the Lakers defense, yeah, like Christian Wood couldn't play. And Jared Vanderbilt couldn't play.
And Gabe Vincent essentially had a lost season. I just don't think any of those guys are making a difference in this series in terms of the outcome. And look, they're just not going to run back this team the way it is right now next season, if indeed LeBron and AD are both back. I think there's going to be a lot of noise about D'Arbenham, and we'll see what they do about that.
Jeannie Bus has gone to bat for him before. But if they get swept again, I think they've done it. The interesting thing about the Lakers' Mo is that we've put the Russ trade so far in the rear view mirror that we kind of forget they're still digging their way. They're still like paying a little ripple effects from that are still rippling across their roster.
And for them to do that trade and also let Caruso walk, which was a matchable to their team. And now they save themselves by finding Reeves and incorporating Reeves into their team. But for them to get to the conference finals last year, albeit in a little bit of a down here for the West, but still, and you know, look, they just drew, they just drew the wrong team at the first round. They're a good team built around a guy who's almost 40.
And AD played, well, the entire season, like this is, these are a couple of pretty good seasons for the Lakers. It's just, it's hard to be better than that when your best player is 40. You have two guys making $120 million combined or whatever they're gonna end up making. Yeah.
And then just even going back to the Westberg trade, like it's got to kill them that KCP is such a key part to the Nuggets because that was, you know, that was one of the major pieces that they moved. Like, you know, that that trade never really made a ton of sense. And I think that's just the situation. And now every time they play the Nuggets, they have that reminder in KCP who's making big plays along those lines.
I'm just gonna throw it out there. I just, I want to see them get trade young. I think he, I think if LeBron sticking around, I think LeBron, AD, and I think trade young kind of playing a little bit more of that Kyrie Irving role, kind of looking back at the Cleveland days, I think is actually a pretty good fit for the Lakers. That's another road not taking for the Lakers.
I'm not sure how realistic it really was last year when he was being traded off of Brooklyn. But, you know, I mean, LeBron obviously lobbied for it as publicly as a difference, and specifically, not passive aggressively, not hourglass tweet, not subtle, like specifically. Yeah, get that guy. And I think at the end that they didn't get him.
I think now you got to make a run at Trey. I think that's kind of looking forward into them. And that allows them, that young guy also, takes a little pressure off LeBron. I think that'd be the move I'd be targeting if I was the Lakers, but they got a lot of questions to answer as you've kind of announced.
And they're paying for a lot of their old since. I mean, it felt like for a good two or three years after they won the bubble title, they made every mistake you could possibly make after that for the next two years. And I think now they're trying to figure their way out of it. We had a little thing on the show today where they gave us dry raceboards and like a game show.
We had to like write down our answers to questions rapid fire. And one of the questions was, because they were going to announce the clutch player of the year award tonight, which went to Steph Curry. Who's the best clutch player in the NBA? Not this year, who's the best clutch player in the NBA?
I wrote down Yolkich. I think Yolkich is the best clutch player in the NBA. He shot 55% in crunch time this year. 55% in the game was 42 of 76.
Doesn't turn the ball over. Obviously makes it right play every time. Denver was neck and neck with Chicago, bizarrely as the best crunch time team. And if you look at Yolkich, Yolkich is going to be, crunch time is the domain of ball handlers, right?
Like that's why Dirk was such an anomaly in crunch time because big guys, they need someone to give them the ball. It's harder to get them the ball. A lot of them aren't great jump shooters. Crunch time is the purview of perimeter stars.
Yolkich is going to go down as the greatest crunch time big man in NBA history. It's just uncanny what he does late in these games. And I just want to go back to that Jamal Murray game winner from game two because I didn't get to talk about it yet. First of all, what will get lost to history is the play where Yolkich threw this bizarre, he like barfed up this heave of a pass that somehow landed in Aaron Gordon's hands under the rim and he kicked it out to Michael Porter Jr.
for I believe a game time three. Then Jamal Murray hits the crazy jumper before the crazy jumper. And then on the last play, if you watch that Yolkich, Murray Yolkich, two man game, there's like a, they switch obviously because the shot ends up over Anthony Davis. There's a moment where Yolkich has post position at the nail against LeBron and could have demanded the ball.
And it's Nicole Yolkich with even with LeBron, he's got a big size advantage. And I don't know what was exchanged in that moment between them, probably they can't talk, probably just a glance, maybe not even a glance, maybe just a feel. Yolkich was like, you know what, no, I'm going to go set a screen for you, this is yours. And there's just something about the chemistry of this team and how they operate under pressure that is really, really special.
And I know they've only won one championship and I don't think they're invulnerable in the West this year. I think there are teams that could push them, particularly in Minnesota and the winner of the, let's just say particularly Minnesota because that's looming next round, potentially. We'll talk about that series. But this is a really well constructed basketball machine.
Every part not only fits together, but every player complements the strengths of every other player and supports the weaknesses to the extent that any of the players have any of each other. It's just, it's a beautiful team to watch. And once again, they're just mowing the Lakers out of the playoffs. Yeah, and extremely well coached with Michael Malone too.
Like I think, you know, the right coaches in charge with this group and all of them having been together for as long as they've been together. And when we talk about team chemistry, we forget to mention the coaches involvement in that. Because the coach being able to coach his stars or no when to pull back or what buttons to push and all that, I think is also a key element there. Well, and you know, I mentioned Yolka just clutch play and how big guys need to generally need to have the ball fed to them.
It's a second straight game where Anthony Davis, it was invisible in the fourth quarter. And I think he's a traditional big man in that sense. Like you can almost, he needs the ball fed to him. He is not a great one-on-one creator.
He had some takes tonight that were great. Like if you give him space to eat up or a match up that's comfortable or he sees a seam on the baseline and no help defender like he's good at that. That's just not his game. But the Lakers, I think it's two straight games have been guilty of kind of forgetting about him.
And maybe that's his fault too. But anyway, well, Laker's Warriors, bye, goodbye. Should we, I guess we gotta talk about Caz magic. Sorry.
The magic won by a thousand points. Jalen Suggs was amazing, guarded Donovan Mitchell. They switched up that match up. Windell Carter Jr.
started for the magic. And the magic just came out like, you would expect a team that is down 2-0 and has won a playoff game in a gazillion years, has had a home playoff game in a gazillion years. And the Cleveland Cavaliers came out like they kind of were assigned to play the game by the NBA and didn't really particularly want to be there. Darius Garland, two of 10, five points completely invisible.
Donovan Mitchell was decent at times. Caris Levert played with some of them. At some points, Tristan Thompson and Marcus Morris were in the game. Paolo Bancaro, 31 points, 14 rebounds, five assists.
And if you want, if you're my age and you like the 90s and you missed the 90s, just go watch Paolo Bancaro shot from this game because it's fadeaway jumpers, it's turnaround two point jumpers, it's face up attack, 18 footers, just eating up smaller defenders. And the magic went to their, I call it their mega lineup for a lot of this game, which is one guard, usually sugs Franz Wagner at the two, Bancaro I guess is the three, Isaac and a center, Wendell Carter and, or Mo Wagner. By the way, congrats to Mo Wagner. I did not have within one half of Mo Wagner causing a freakus in this series.
He got it on the second quarter of game one. Don't doubt Mo's, which no way is that, I guess that's true. And Paolo Bancaro in that alignment was having his way with smaller defenders, whether it was Isaac Okoro or Caris Levert or wherever he found on him. And Isaac made more of an impact off the bench than he did as a starter.
And they just made shots, like they weren't making any shots. And then they made shots. I thought Cleveland just had no juice. And forgive me if I would like a team that has proven nothing in the playoffs to have a little juice to go up.
Like I thought they were gonna come out and be like, we're taking the series by the throat. We're leaving nothing to chance, nothing. We're not gonna leave it to chance that we come out in game four, up to one and have an Orlando Magic shooting game from the first two games. And suddenly it's two and our home crowd's getting nervous.
We're not even gonna leave that to chance. We're gonna come in here and run you over. And they got run over by a truck and never recovered. I think one guy that deserves a lot of credit was the aggression that the magic got from Frost Wagner in the first quarter.
10 points in the first quarter. I thought he was super aggressive with how he attacked, was taking it to the rim, was looking to score, was, this was, it's been a down year for Franz, but I think like this is one of those things where this was a game where you felt like, oh, he's bringing it tonight. And then from that, I think that built everything up for the magic. I mean, Paulo's Paulo, he's a star.
Like I'm all in and excited for this kid going forward. Suggs brings a certain element of just like kind of FU, I'm going, I got this, I'm gonna fight. He had a nasty dunk down the lane. And I think, you know, again, it's just the aggression and the way they played like, this was a magic team that looks very comfortable.
Cause they looked so uncomfortable. I understood it in game one at being their first playoff series for most of those guys. It took them a second. And I think finding their rhythm and their flow and in game two, they just kind of got buried.
But this one was a comfortable magic team. And I think this is the thing that the Cavs got to be afraid of. Don't ever give this dude light. It's a die hard reference when John McLean's, you know, crawling underneath the table and the guy's trying to shoot at him and he tells him if you ever have a chance to kill someone, don't hesitate.
And McLean says, yeah, sure. And then it starts shooting the guy. And it's like, okay, that's the moment. Like that's the thing, you can't hesitate.
And I think the Cavs hesitated. And it won't be shocked if this comes back to bite him. They finally got something out of Cole Anthony, who had done nothing in this series. And when Cole Anthony runs a pick and roll, you have to actually honor his jump shot, whether it's with Bancare, he ran a couple of pick and rolls with Franz in this game.
It's like, oh, that's a real pick and roll. Like we have to actually do stuff. It's not two non-shooters in a two man game that we're not scared of. Not much else really from this game, except that the Cavs just had no life.
And I thought they would win. I picked the Cavs to win this series. And I still think they will. But you know, this is one of the reasons that they're a little hard to trust.
Like as soon as, even in the regular season, it's like as soon as they get a rhythm, okay, this is how a rotation works. We staggered this way. One of the big plays with a shooter and Nian comes in here and a Coro comes in here. Struce can play some power forward.
They've done that a little bit the last two games. They just lose it and their rhythm kind of eludes them. And you know, here we are, game four, suddenly a big game. I'm trying to think of there's anything else from that game.
I just, George Nian trying to score on Jonathan Isaac was endlessly, but music. Like, what are we doing here? That is an athletic mismatch of the first order. I mean, George Nian's crafty and like moves people around and Jonathan Isaac is just like a Velociraptor out there and it's just taking up every inch of the court.
Let's move to, we have three games, three game, game threes. Tomorrow night, Minnesota Phoenix, Dallas Clippers, and Bucks Pacers with Chris Middleton now listed as questionable, which would be obviously a disaster for the Bucks given that they are, would be running out of their good players at that point. Which of those games are you, how about this? Which team are you most curious to watch tomorrow or which team do you feel like is under the most pressure tomorrow of those games?
I think it's the Clippers. Interesting. All right, let's get into it. You know, I think, I know, I think the easy answer is Phoenix, but I think the Clippers are still under more pressure in the sense of, look, who I came back in game two, did not look good, at least in the first half.
Had some stuff in the second half, got a little bit more comfortable in the second half, but still didn't really get rolling. I think the Mavs have kind of figured out how they want to attack, how they're going to approach the rest of the series and the way they're going to kind of go at it. And I think they found a nice little small ball lineup. I think PJ Washington hitting shots.
I think Cleveland hit in a huge three with about two minutes left to put them up six, was a big moment for him. That was the biggest shot of the game. And it felt like Dallas was in prevent offense mode too early bailed them out. It was huge.
And I think there's a lot of that stuff. And just knowing again, like when we just talked about the Lakers future, looking at the Clippers future again, you talked about it. Paul George will probably sign the extension, but he hasn't. So we have to be a little bit aware of that.
You're constantly worried of it. This is another playoffs where why wasn't ready for a game one? Like this is kind of worrisome. You have James Harden kind of floating around.
Like what's the plan going forward with this team? Moving into a new arena. I think this is the team that has the most pressure on them, I think in the playoffs. And I think this is the big match for them.
I think the Mavs are hungry. I think they got the jitters out after game one. I think there's a element for the Mavs of like, this is their moment to finally put away the team that's put them on ice for two years. I think this is a big time.
Big game three right here is going to be huge. It's the biggest game of the playoffs so far is this game. Because it's 1-1 and it's two teams that have put everything into this season. All their draft pick eggs are in the basket.
I thought game two was a strange, strange game. Very slow, very station to station. It was almost like the cliche of the fighters kind of feeling themselves out. You could see, OK, if I do this, what are you going to do?
OK, you're going to do that. Well, I don't like that so much. But if I go here and get the ball to this guy, what's your reaction? OK, I kind of like that.
Oh, there's two on the shot clock. And it was just a very slow, just testing it out, just testing. You know, and you have all these stars. You have five legit star level ball handlers and a sixth Hall of Famer coming off the bench and Russ.
And they're all equipped to play. It was almost like, do we want to play pick and roll, like hard in Zubots, Luca Gafford, Luca Lively, and play out of that? Or do we want to go mismatch hunting a little bit because we have all these accomplished mismatch hunters on our team? And Dallas in particular has some guys that we think we can pick on a little bit of those guys stood up to it, including Luca, pretty goddamn well.
And Kyrie was the primary defender on James Harden. And that's the math problem that the math is facing this series. They have two perimeter stars. And the Clippers, when they have all them on the court, have three.
And that means one of the Dallas guys is going to have to guard one of the Clippers guys. And that was Kyrie on Harden for a lot of the game, too. But it just felt like neither team had any kind of rhythm or decisiveness to their offense. And when you have Luca and Kawhi and Harden, you don't always need that.
But I just came away feeling like the series almost hasn't started yet. Like, no one has found the right card to play. In fact, they look like mirror images of each other. Like, one star would get a good.
A good matchup, like, Paul George would draw Luca, or Harden would have whoever. And then they would double them. They would run up and double and force you to rotate out of it and pass out of it. And the defensive rotate underneath it.
And it's like, OK, I'm watching the same game. It just feels like whatever team finds the right blend on offense between their system and hunting mismatches so that you're kind of doing both within the same possession a little bit more organically is going to win the series. I weirdly felt OK about the Clippers coming out of that game better than what I felt better than most people seem to. I thought Kawhi looked pretty good, all things considered, particularly on defense.
Like, he had four steals. He looked athletic. He had a pretty explosive putback. I know he missed his shot, he missed all his threes.
I have no idea he was going to win the series. I picked the Mavs in seven because of the Kawhi uncertainty. Actually, the Clippers are a better team. But in a weird way, I feel like the series is almost not started.
Yeah. I mean, that's a great way of putting it in just that sense. Because, like, being at the game, it was an ugly game. Like, in the way it kind of played out for a while until both teams started to find a little bit more of an offensive flow in the last six minutes where we started to kind of see a little bit more of that.
I think the thing that concerns me just with the Clippers sometimes is there's a level of just, like, they're not sure who's supposed to go attack. Like, Paul George was outstanding in game one. And I really, I mean, like, he had moments in game two, but I didn't really feel him in game two in the way that he stood out in game one. And part of it was, yeah, there was no Kawhi, it was all him.
A lot of the part of the game for the Clippers was trying to get Kawhi and rid them and get him going, almost like knock off some rust off of him. And I think that kind of held them back in that regard. I'm not, like, I picked the Mavs, but I'm not, like, worried about the Clippers yet in the series. Because, again, I don't feel like anybody, like you said, has really found something where it's like, okay, well, what are you going to do now?
What's your magical adjustment that you're going to make? How are you going to figure things out? I don't think either team has shown anything to the other team yet. And there are interesting lineup quandaries in this series too.
You know, the Mavs have aimed some of their most important transactions in the last two years at, not playing Cleba at center. You know, they tank to make sure they keep their own pick and they use it via trade on Lively. Then they trade a lot of stuff, some stuff for Gafford. All right, we have two traditional centers now.
Well, the look that got you to the conference final two years ago was Cleba at the five and five shooters on the floor. And that look is still working. And it's worked really well this season. And it's worked really well in this series.
They're plus 24 with Cleba as the only big man on the floor of the two games in this series. The Clippers have to decide, well, how do we want to deal with that? You saw Tylu go to his five wings lineup. Didn't think Terrence Mann played enough in game two.
I like that lineup when all five guys can shoot threes. Russ played over Terrence Mann. That's fine. Russ was playing well.
Not shooting well. Maybe he was just being Russ. Just calls him havoc. I think Zubots has played so well that I'm not ready to take him off the floor just because the Mavericks played whatever lineup.
I think Zubots has been one of the five best Clippers so far through two games. It's just an interesting series. There's one play the Clippers ran in the fourth quarter. I'm sure you saw it.
They ran it twice. And it was James Harden setting a back screen for Kawai in the paint, designed to get Kairi switched onto Kawai. And then Harden would come up and run a hand off with Zubots. Zubots would come down and set a pin down for Kawai so he could catch with Kairi on his back.
Didn't lead to anything. Like, that's the kind of stuff I want the Clippers to run. And I want him to run it in a way that it's like, we have time on the clock to run something after that too. When they start playing like that, I feel like they're the better team in this series.
They're going to have to start a play like that. My answer to my own question was going to be Phoenix, who has gotten absolutely destroyed by the wolves through two games. Series was the start till the road team wins. What if the home team wins every game by a million points?
Since it started by them, the series feels like it started. And credit to the wolves, I absolutely adore the way Anthony Edwards is playing in this series. The easy passes he's making, the simple reads, the extra passes he's playing beautifully. Mike Connolly was essential in their game to win.
Phoenix looks alternatively like a team that knows how it should play and can execute it. And a team that has absolutely no idea that Kevin Durant is on the team or how to play at all. And all of a sudden, Yusuf Nerkichas trying to post up Rudy Gobeir from 18 feet away and 19 dribbles or Drew Yubanks is taking a floater late in the shot clock and Kevin Durant has moved in 20 seconds. And you're just like, what the hell is going on?
Like, I don't understand. Yeah, Brad Beal missed 20 to 30 games, whatever. Like, now Grayson Allen turned his ankle. I don't have, I think Minnesota's coming for blood in these two games at Phoenix.
And I think they're going to get, if you ask me right now, I think Minnesota's getting one of these games in Phoenix. I don't think Phoenix is going, but now they can surprise me. They have this, I know the talent, I know the names. They just can't seem to put four quarters of coherent basketball together.
And when they go incoherent, they go really incoherent. It's just, it's just tough to watch to be honest. Like I watch them and I go, you know, I love the X's and O's and everything that goes with it. And it's, I just look at what they're doing offensively.
And I'm like, this team has no idea how they want to attack, where they want to go. They have no system in place, no concept even of what we want to do. Every now and then they run maybe a stack or a Spain pick and roll. And that's like the closest thing we get into stuff.
And it works. And then like whoever has Mike Conley will set a screen for Durant and get a switch or Durant will attack the cat match up in a way that makes sense. Although, Cat and go bare are holding their own in perimeter match ups. And if Cat's holding his own, given the level of defense around him, you're in a world of hurt and they'll execute.
Like, oh, that's the kind of play they should run more. And then for eight minutes, it'll be like, if these guys, they know it's a playoff game, do they have a playbook? Is this, is anyone, do they have names for plays? Is anyone calling anything out?
It's just, it's just like they don't play off of each other. They don't work with each other and how to go. Like, I don't know, it just kind of makes sense to me like with those three guys run some sort of three man game or horns action or even the, what the Kings used to run under Rick Atelman in an elbow game or whatnot. Nerk is just good out of the elbow in terms of his passing and things like that.
Play through him and some of these things. They just don't have any of that. And it's weird to me in that sense. And I kind of just look at it going like, what did you do all season when you're about, cause it's not, you're not in a position defensively where at least I can go like, well, they just invested all their time defensively.
Like I just don't see really what they're going for. And when you talk about the wolves being out for blood, Anthony Edwards is looking to just gut them every chance he gets and it's, and it's to be honest, it's kind of fun to watch. Like, you know, in game two, it wasn't a particularly great shot. It was a great offense, but he goes one on one on KD and hits a pull up jumper after a series of dribbles.
And it's just like, and he's just given KD that look again. And it's, you know, we saw the video from game one and all the trash talk he's given. He's given it to everybody there. He's making a lot of smart plays and a lot of smart reach out of that.
I like the way. They're coming for them. I, this is, I know he didn't shoot well in game two. I thought he played an awesome game, like just send two to me.
Here's the easy pass. The ball's going to swing around. You know, he's going to make a play. Now he's going to make a play.
The ball might come back to me and then I'll make a play. He played fantastic basketball. Go Bear has been awesome. And I just criss-finches a good pulse for the steepest, simple little things he does.
Like when he takes Go Bear out, so their best, their best defensive player is out and they'll play with Reed with Nas Reed in towns together. Much more minimally, one of the two bigs is the only big. When he, when Go Bear comes out, you'll often notice and he'll Alexander Walker comes in from Mike Conley. And it's one of those things like we're hurting our defense up front, but we're going to help it on the perimeter so that we kind of net out.
Okay, he's just criss-finches a really good coach. And this team is playing really hard and just really, I mean, compared to Phoenix, they don't have, well, you know, the talent differential on offense is not, is actually not very big because they have Ant and Cat and Phoenix has three, obviously accomplished all star players. But Minnesota just play is playing with a lot more focus and a lot more sort of just, just focus. They're sharing the ball.
They're moving, they're cutting, they're playing good basketball. I'll say this, if Phoenix splits at home, they're not going to win the series. It's very hard to win down 3-1 when you have five and seven on the road. Obviously, it would behoove them to win two games at home.
The manor, if they win two games at home, the series is obviously overgrabs, totally overgrabs. They're fully capable of doing that. This was a 49 win team. This is not some also ranked team.
This is a very good team. They have not looked good in the series. Let's say they split and it's 3-1 and they end up losing at five or six competitive series loss, at least in terms of the number of games. The manor in which that happens is going to be very, very important for what happens in the summer is an embarrassing fashion.
I don't like, madish, be a, anything's possible. And they've undergone a lot of roster turmoil in the last year and a half and it does not appear to have gotten them where they think that they should go. And I would just be very interested to see what happens. Mo, we must, we must, we can talk about the Miami Heat.
I did, we're going there. I mean, my God, the Heat. I should have known. It's just a, I should have known.
Like Celtics and four, that was my pick. No Jimmy Butler, no Terriros year. Tyler here was just coming back from injury. Duncan Robinson's going back from injury.
Kevin Love's going back from injury. Eric Spulser's goatee is coming in nicely. Joe Missoula's watching the town. I should have known.
And so here come the Heat. It's the most inexplicable. The Celtics destroy them in game one. Destroy them.
And I write off the series. I'm like, this is, this is the series is going to be over fast. And the heater like, oh, you want it over fast? How about, how about no?