Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / I Ranked Game 1 of Every NBA Playoff Series

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I Ranked Game 1 of Every NBA Playoff Series · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beacham.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: It is finally time.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: The last, I don't know, five, six episodes.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: We're doing nothing but prepping for the postseason, prepping for the postseason, prepping for the postseason.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: And ladies and gentlemen, it's here.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: And boy, oh boy.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me be honest with you.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Games have been cool.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: We ain't had no crazy game just yet, but I promise you it's gonna happen.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Hey, it might even happen tonight because uh Monday, the NBA playoffs continue with Raptors versus Cavs, Hawks versus Knicks, and Wolves versus Nuggets on NBC and Peacock Tune, y'all.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: So I've been excited.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: I've been having a lot of fun.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh this whole weekend just consisted of me sitting in my office watching basketball.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Some of the games I watched completely solo.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Some of the times one of my daughters came in, watched it with me, low-key.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't really watching, she was watching the other TV because Vita the Vett was on.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Vita the Vett.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: You be holding this, you be holding the Beatsman House down for sure.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, but just ball watching from I don't know, 12 to 12 every single day.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: The first weekend is always really fun.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: As we know, it's not gonna be that much basketball from here on out.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: So I took in and I had a lot of fun.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: On today's episode, a way for me to talk about every single game that we got to some capacity.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna rank them.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: The most fun, the most fun for different reasons, you know.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: Was it a cool outcome?
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Was it an individual performance that made it interesting?
1:29
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna rank all of the eight games, okay?
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Starting off with I think the most interesting game of them all.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes, again, it's about a good game, good performances, um, big implications with game one.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: It is game one at the end of the day.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: But I think the most interesting one was the Orlando Magic winning game one, going into Detroit, the one-seeded Detroit Pistons team home and beating them 112 to 101.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: I just, I don't know, man.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: We did we did our previews on numbers on the board.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: And one thing I said in that preview is that though I'm taking the Detroit Pistons to win the series, and even after game one, I'm still going Pistons.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: They've earned that benefit of the doubt.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Like I've said before, you don't accidentally win 60 games as a 61 team.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: But I did believe that the Orlando Magic matched up well against them because, as we all have known, and we talked about time and time again, the Detroit Pistons' biggest flaw is that they don't have secondary creation outside of K Cunningham, and they just don't have shooting.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: And the Orlando Magic is similar in the sense that they don't have a ton of shooting, right?
2:34
SPEAKER_00: That has been their Kelly Seal over the last couple seasons, but they have some creation on multiple occasions, like multiple different levels.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Sugs is a self-creator and creator for others.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Desmond Bain, and this is in again varying degrees.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Desmond Bain, Franz Wagner, Paloman Carroll, they could, if they had a creative coach, get pretty creative on the offensive side of the ball.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: And again, you don't accidentally win 60 games and the Pistons won 60.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: They just feel like in a seven-game series, if the coaching was right, if the personnel was right, they would be a team that you can scheme up against.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not burying the Detroit Pistons stock.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: I still believe that the Pistons will come out of the series, but I mean game two goes.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: I may have to flip my vote.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: But this was a really tough watch if you're a Detroit Pistons fan.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Before we get into that side, I'm gonna give the flowers to the team that won because this is a huge, huge win.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Just a few days ago, I thought the Orlando Magic had no chance of making the postseason.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: They lost that game against the Boston Celtics last night of the NBA season.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: They go into the first game with a play-in, they lose that to the 76ers, and then they go into the second game.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And I think everybody, the America's team, Charlotte Hornets, is playing that night when we all went to see Charlotte, and they wiped the floor with him.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: And the effort level on both sides of the floor stood out.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, hmm, if they play this hard in the next round two against Detroit, then at least it'll be an interesting series.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: And it starts off as the most interesting game one outcome, at least in my personal opinion.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Palo Bancaro, the last two games, the last play of game in this game one, looks phenomenal.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: Just straight up.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Looks just like the player that everybody fell in love with two years ago or last year when we were saying that one of the top 25 players under the age of 25.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: He looked great.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Franz Vagner didn't look great for the entirety of the game, but in that fourth quarter, boom.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: There was a possession where he had the ball top of the key, and it probably was Wendell who we'll give credit to in a minute here.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Wendell Carter setting him a screen on the on his right-hand side.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: He rejects the screen, and there's two Detroit Pistons players and help from the left wing and the left corner.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Not a single one of them rotated over, and Franz Vagner got an easy layup.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: That felt like the thing that was happening a good amount of the time in the fourth quarter.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Sugg set the tempo from the very beginning.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: So so many great performances all around.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: And just like Detroit Pistons, they didn't shoot the ball well either.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: And the fact that Detroit won, the fact that Detroit won the free throw battle by as much as they did, which is, you know, uh, they hit 15 more free throws and they still lost this game by double.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: This is not a good sign.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: But anything can really happen.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: I still believe the Pistons are the team to win in this series, but who knows?
5:10
SPEAKER_00: On Detroit, this um this is happening exactly the way a lot of us anticipated it to happen.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, we didn't anticipate it to happen in the first game of the postseason, right?
5:21
SPEAKER_00: They've earned that benefit of the doubt to at least be out of the first round.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: But because they never went out to acquire a secondary creator, or they weren't able to acquire just anybody outside of K that can create his own shot, stuff like this is going to happen.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: JB Biggerstaff and his staff decided that down the stretch, uh, second half of the game, fourth quarters, that instead instead of playing a top three DPOY candidate in Asar Times, shout out to Asar.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: They just announced that he was top three behind, uh maybe not behind, but alongside Wimbenyama and Che Hongrim.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: Instead of playing one of the most impactful defensive players in the league down the stretch, he opted to go with Dennis Jenkins.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: And I've said it, that is uh it's a really good story, right?
6:01
SPEAKER_00: It's a good story that Dennis Jenkins played 23 minutes total last season.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: Now he's one of the premier six men in basketball based on this season.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: But down the stretch, they had to go to him because he's the only guy outside of Kay Cunningham that can create for himself, right?
6:17
SPEAKER_00: And though he did not have a good game by any means, I and I don't agree specifically with JB's decision.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: I I understand it at the bare minimum.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: I understand it because it was rough, man.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: If the Detroit Pistons aren't gonna create turnovers and in this game they created 12, which actually more than it felt like on paper with the eye test, if they're not gonna create opportunities through the half court or through the full court, then they are just going to struggle in the half court, specifically against a team in the Orlando Magic that just scrambled defensively and made it tough.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: A two-man game of Kay Cunningham and Jalen Duran is not as impactful in that first game because your Orlando Magic were prepared for it.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: Right?
6:58
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Duren is dangerously close, in my opinion, to being an all-NBA player this season.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: He was on my personal ballot.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: In this game, if you had never watched either of these teams play together, you would have guessed that Wendell Carter was an all-NBA big fella and not Jalen Duran.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Some scary stuff.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, part of that is because, again, he's not a self-credited himself.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: And if K can't get the two-man game or Dennis Jenger can't get the two-man game, then that don't put Jalen Duran in a position to really have a great game anyway, offensively.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: But the defensive side of the ball is what scared the most about Jalen, scared me the most about Jalen Durham's performance today because it felt like last year.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: It felt like last year.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: Last year in the postseason, I remember walking out of that one saying, hmm, Kyana was fine, just not as not good enough, but damn it's his first playoff series.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: We'll give him a pass.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Dura was just not very good.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: And you question if he really is the center of the future.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: This is last year.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, this season he has a most approved player candidacy.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: He's an all-all-star and all-NBA player.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: So you hope that he wouldn't be able to revert to the guy who looked lost offensively in a playoff series, but he did.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: And the magic are not this stalwart of a, I don't know if that I'm using that word right, of a great offensive team, and he still struggled in this one.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: So that's not good.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: You win three-point battle somehow.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Um and you win the free throw battle by as much as you did, you still lose this one.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Ah they should have probably gone out to get K some help.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Am I overreacting to the first game?
8:23
SPEAKER_00: Probably, but that's what this is supposed to be about.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to react to the footage we just saw.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: And the Orlando Magic looked like the thing that was prepared, and the Detroit Pistons came out flat, and a lot of times coming out flat could be the main thing to cause you to lose a game like this one.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: Especially if need if you're not a team that has the offensive punch to do something crazy.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: I said in my recap video that again, you don't accidentally win 60 games.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: You have to be talented enough, you have to win those games for sure.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: But this team is not like a 60-win Warriors team of pass.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: It's not a 60-win OKC team of pass where on some series, just straight up in some series, we can out-talent you.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: This team cannot out talent many playoff teams.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: So if they're gonna go on a deep run, they have to play every single minute and take every single possession as if it matters because it does for y'all.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think they did that tonight, right?
9:17
SPEAKER_00: So uh huge win for the Orlando Magic, the most interesting outcome of it all because now you got, you know, it's one game out of seven, but it has the Detroit Pistons at least a little bit on their heels after one game.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: I think was every other game in this pretty chalk as far as like the favorite one.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's not true.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: That's not true.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get to that Lakers Rockets game.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: It's high on my list as the most interesting outcomes.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: All right, when we come back, we'll to continue our list of ranking NBA playoff series based on game one uh in certain order.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you may hear it in the voice, your brother is still still sick, but I gotta do what I gotta do.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: Common code is not gonna hold me back.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a comic code.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't miss work often.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: So if I miss work for sickness, no, I got the flu.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm on this note, I am dangerously close to, you know what I'm saying?
10:17
SPEAKER_00: All right, the second most interesting game of the first round for me is the Cavs versus Toronto Raptors.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, sneeper pick.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the Cavs won 126 to 113.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: The reason why this was so interesting is because I went into the series thinking that the Cavs were the better team and picking the Cavs to win the series in six.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: That was my initial reaction, and maybe that is still the case.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: But I said that reluctantly.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Like I did believe the Cavs were a better team.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: But I said that, like, hmm, I want to give a lot of credit to the Raptors, even though they struggle to be good teams throughout the season.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: But I think that they call, they have something at least that could cause some trouble for the Cleveland Cavaliers, right?
10:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's the level of physicality they play with defensively.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: I think that on the opposite side, that because the Raptors are not a super big team, and because the Raptors don't shoot the three-ball well, that the Cavs have advantages in that front court where they can run Evan Mobley and Jared Allen together for a lot of this game, and they ended up doing that.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: But I ultimately went with the Cavs.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: I went into this like, hmm, could could the Raptors punk this team?
11:14
SPEAKER_00: And I thought Evan Mobley was great.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: I thought Evan Mobley's great a couple couple times getting it on a short roll and just putting his head down, getting it to the rim and dunking on him.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: Um the Raptors really struggled in this one, though.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh and my no says I'm just gonna read a verbatim.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh Raptors no pace, slowest pace of the entire season.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: And that's that is truly the thing.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: And we know the postseason, the pace always slows down.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: And my biggest question for the Raptors, what will happen when the pace slows down?
11:38
SPEAKER_00: The answer is absolutely nothing offensively.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Because the Cavs are one of those teams, because of James Harden, um, that just doesn't allow you to they don't really turn the ball over a lot.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: And because they get decent and good looks on a possession-by-possession basis, I think the Cavs got every single look they possibly could have won in this one.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: Max Struuss was phenomenal.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh, just down the list.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: You could go down the list.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: But because the Raptors were able to get no stops, that means no transition, that means no cross-matching.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: Two things that they did amazingly well for the entire regular season.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: And if they're not able to do that, then they're kind of dead in the water.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: So they need to find ways to get stops.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Thing that jumped out to me, RJ Bears' defense, my goodness, James Harden was bringing that brother into this action, and he was dancing, dancing, dancing.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, whoa, I mean, RJ, RJ, RJ.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: He was legitimately hunted in this game.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: And I just didn't expect to really see that, honestly.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the one thing that would scare me the most about this, and you know what?
12:33
SPEAKER_00: I know Raptors fans.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, some of them quoted a uh a take that I had before the season started about them being not a good team, and they ended up being at least a good team.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: Um they're not really optimistic either, right?
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Like I don't know a single Raptors fan that was like, yeah, we're gonna win this series, and that's saying something.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: But for the Raptors to hit as many shots as they did, right?
12:52
SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about them, you know, Scotty Barnes hit some threes, Jamal Shea hit threes.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: For them to hit as many shots as they did and still walk out of this losing by a lot, final scores is 13.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: It was more than 13.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: That's got to be scary at the end of the day, right?
13:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, because I think the Cavs defense basically forced the Toronto Raptors to take the shots that the Cavs wanted to them to take.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Like Scotty Barnes took four threes in this one.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: Again, he hit three of them, but he shoots 30% on the season from three.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Those are possessions that you as a Cavs fan and a person in that locker room say we won that possession, even if, even if Scotty Barnes hit a couple of those threes.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: Jamal Shed took six threes and he hit him.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: But like, he's a 32% three-point shooter.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: That is a shot we're willing to give up.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: And damn it, if he hits it, he hits it.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: But again, a win of a possession for us.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: Brandon Ingram in the first half felt like, you know, he was getting some cross match occasionally and was able to pull up over somebody else, and eventually down the stretch, he didn't get any looks.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Now, in his post-game interview, he mentioned how Darko Rayakovic wanted to use some more as a screener and so on and so forth.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: But some of these games, I I went went back to rewatch bits and pieces of it.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't really buy that, Brandon.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna lie to you, man.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't really buy that that was the reason why we ended up with one total shot in the second half of that game.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, I can't pinpoint exactly what it would have been because I thought there were opportunities for him to get aggressive where yes, he was being used as a screener for sure, but that was he didn't play 20 minutes in the second half specifically setting screens.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: There were opportunities for him to get create.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: There were opportunities for him to get easy ones, and that just didn't really happen.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not buying the oh, I was just there as a screen set.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm not buying that noise, Brandon.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Cavs look great.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: James Harden.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: We know that it's eventual, eventually, James Harden's gonna have a couple stinkers.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: That's the James Harden way.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: I don't know a single playoff run James Harden has had where he didn't have stinkers.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: But boy, oh boy, when he has games like this, where the final box scores 22 and 10.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: They ain't jump off the page too crazy.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: The eye test jumps off the page.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: That guy was in control of this entire game.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, Donovan Mitchell, somehow in the game where it felt like he wasn't out there going crazy, ended up getting basically his game one season average of 32 points per game.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: I already gave the flowers to Evan Mowgli.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: Max Struess off the bench.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh, was questioning how they would start.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: It made sense to go with Dean Wade because of the size of Brandon Ingram.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: If you were with Struce, or you were with Sam Merrill, Brandon Ingram has a big advantage there.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: They go Dean Wade.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: Cool.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: Dean Wade is a guy that his on-off numbers always tell you that he's a winning player.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: He had the highest plus-minus in this one.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: Not that plus-minus means a ton.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: But Max Struess coming off the bench, hitting the shots that he did.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Tyson using the hell out of those fouls that you're given.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: You get six of them.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna remind you, he used four of them.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: That's a win.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh, a couple of them were just real stupid.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but huge win for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: The next most interesting game to me was the Lakers beating the Rockets.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: What?
15:39
SPEAKER_00: No Luca, no Reeves, don't worry because Nuke couldn't hard.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I said nuke with an am because he's gonna shoot it, and this is gonna be a great game from him.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Now, not bearing the lead, as we know, um, right before tip-off, a little bit before tip-off, we found out that Kevin Durant was not gonna play.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: He had bumped knees with somebody a couple days before.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: He gave uh uh little shoot around, but they said ultimately he wasn't moving well enough to play this game.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Sucks because I love to see Braun versus Kevin Durant.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: We ain't got it in the postseason series since what?
16:08
SPEAKER_00: I think they said 2018 or something like that.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: So it's been some time.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: So I'm really excited about that, but they they rule him out cool.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: The Rockets still should win this game, right?
16:18
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
16:19
SPEAKER_00: Even without Kevin, they are the deeper team.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh the team don't have Luke and they don't have the two best scores, and they still lost.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: And I just gotta get flowers across the poor.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: LeBron James, not to glaze him.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: LeBron James is 41 years old.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: 41.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: And in a playoff series game one, he was the best player on the court.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: How insane is that?
16:52
SPEAKER_00: In a game one, he was the best player on the court at 41 years old.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: My nose is very itchy, y'all.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: Best player on the court.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, Kevin Durant, he gets he gets ruled out.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's like it sucks because again, we want to see those two go against each other, but it's not the end of the world, in my opinion, because the Rockets have been a good team this season without Kevin Durant on the floor.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, they can still win this one.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: That was the case.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: And you look back and you think about it.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about it while watching this game that like last year's Rocket team was so interesting.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: It was a fun, young, exciting team.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, Fred Van Vlee.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, these guys jumped into the scene after winning a few games the year before that to 50, 50 wins.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: They nuke it, right?
17:29
SPEAKER_00: Fred Van Vlee goes down with an injury that's gonna hold him out for the entire season.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: They trade Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks in order to bring Kevin Durant in.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Kevin Oran can't play game one.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: So this basically is last year's team.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: It's last year's team, minus three starters.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: No Fred, no, no Jalen, and no Dylan, and the guys you traded him for, he didn't suit up.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: So it's just like, ah, maybe, maybe we, you know.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, um, Lu Kernar, golly, because there was no guys like KD on the floor, guys that are great ball handlers for the Houston Rockets, a guy like Lu Kennar, who had been played off and out of rotations for playoff teams for his entire career, was able to really stay on the court for a long time because there is no mismatch hunting on the other side.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, at least they can try it, but like we're we're gonna we're gonna pack it in because we don't trust any of your shooters, even if Tar Easton had a really good game one.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: So Luke Canard benefited from no Kevin Durant out there, right?
18:24
SPEAKER_00: He benefited from no creation from him.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: LeBron showcases what being an A-plus passer can really do, even if you don't have an A-plus supporting cast.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: The man was just generous.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: That first quarter, the fact that he had his most assists in a first quarter of his playoff career, just this game, sounds wrong, but it was the case.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: The guy was just getting good looks across the board.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: Rihachimura, um, I love his, I think it was a perfect game for Rihachimura.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: I love him because he is a no-wasted movement type of player.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he don't got a lot of wiggle.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: He's a stiff-ass ball player, but he was great defensively and he was great offensively.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Aiden did a phenomenal job on Al Principlom.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the whole team did a phenomenal job on Alprin Shinko.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think a good measure to showcase how good the defense was for the Lakers, here's a crazy stat that I weren't read this morning, that the Houston Rockets ISO more in this game one than they did on average this season.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: And remember, on a normal game this season, they've had Kevin Durant on the roster.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: An ISO king.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: They ISO more in this game with no real isolation threats than a normal Kevin Durant game.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: That is a testament to the great defense and a great game plan from uh uh Coach JJ Reddick and the LA Lakers.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: Alpert Shangoon could not get anything going.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: Part of that is because they don't have anybody else on the team that can really give him the ball, and part of that is because they really did.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna use my boy Derek Derry's word, they really mucked it up for Alprin Shangoon.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: And this was a horrible, nasty looking game from Al P.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: And for their sake, they need a redemption.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: But him and uh Amin Thompson, the two best players on the team, I don't think either of those guys left a real imprint on the game, and they need that to change.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: They scored 98 points against a Lakers team that again is not that great defensively.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Now, when we come back, we'll continue to rank NBA playoff game ones.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Before we go any further, we want to say thank you to our partners over at DraftKings.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: You may know all about DraftKings pick six by now, where you can pick more or less the different player stats for the upcoming games.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Look for the game.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: We're in the postseason, y'all.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Look for players, look at their stats, decide more or less, sit back, relax, and see if you made the right decision.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: As I said in the intro, we do have three great games, three great game twos here on Peacock NBC.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: So be sure to tune in.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna pick some things from every single one of these games for my hypothetical pick set as I record this.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Those lines are not just out to chat.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just gonna again just tell you what I would be looking for based on how game ones won.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: I already told you about that Cavs Raptors thing, and the one thing I'm looking for in this one is I think that the Raptors should try to get the ball out of James Harden's hands a little bit earlier.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I will be looking at James Harden's assists and putting it in my picks and probably going more on it, man.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: I think they're gonna get him off the ball, and that may lead to more opportunities for Dean Wade's and all these other guys.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: His shots, I mean, in game one, he was phenomenal getting off the ball when necessary, but also creating when necessary.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: But I think this is an opportunity for James Harden to also do that thing.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm expecting a bounce back for Brandon Ingram, too.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that number will look like, but I bet not.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: And I mean I bet not see one shot for Brandon Ingram in that second half.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go more on his points as well on my pick set.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: Again, contingent on what that number is going to be.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: Second game is Knicks versus Hawks, a game that I think I'm talking about.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, I'm talking about very soon.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, Knicks versus Hawks.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: What I'm looking at for Knicks versus Hawks is a bounce back screen.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Scoring game, specifically scoring, because I don't think Kat had a bad game.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that later.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: A bounce back scoring game from Carl Anthony Town.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: So I would be looking at his number and probably putting it on my pick set with a more.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: And on the Atlanta Hawks side, um, you know what?
22:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna leave the Atlanta Hawks for the time being.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pick two from the first game, one for the second game, and one from this game, too, to give myself a four-player pick set.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: And that last game is the Nuggets versus Timber Wolves.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: I think that Jokic, and we'll talk about this in a second, didn't have his best game, even if the counter sets still ended up being crazy.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: So I'm kind of thinking about his rebounds because I think I think he can get more boards in this one.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: I think I'm gonna go more on rebounds for Jokic, more on points for Carl Anthony Towns, more on points for Brandon Ingram, and more on assists for James Harden.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: And that is my pick set.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Again, I don't I don't have the lines to set so contingent on what those lines might look like, but I'm really excited for this second slate.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: It's so great to have postseason basketball back.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to explain it.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and also back on NBC for the first time in what 20 years?
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Like we got the games tonight on Monday, but we also got another three-game slate on Tuesday here on Peacock and NBC.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: So I say that all to say, be tuned in, man.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Be tuned in.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: All right, when I come back, I'll keep I'll keep my rankings going.
23:16
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23:21
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23:25
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23:34
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23:37
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23:45
SPEAKER_00: Next game in our ranking system will be the New York Knicks beating the Atlanta Hawks.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: This is what I will say about this game.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: The Knicks won 113 to 102.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Great win for the New York City uh Knicks.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: I thought the crowd was phenomenal as they always are.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Um Carter Towns in real time.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: In real time, it didn't feel like Carlton Towns was really having a good game.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: But because this game was a couple days ago, right?
24:11
SPEAKER_00: The next morning I woke up and you know, preparing my notes and stuff for videos and then this podcast.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, let me go re-watch bits and pieces of this game.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: And on the second rewatch, I thought Carnity Towns actually had a really great game, even if the scoring wasn't exactly what he wanted, even if some of the turnovers was boneheady.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: I thought Carnothe Towns was actually pretty good, y'all.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, he found a way to be really impactful.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Even again, that score wasn't that great.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Good screening, hockey assists, um, running the cat and Brunson pick a row happened a good amount.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: It happened a lot the last time the Atlanta Hawks and the Knicks played against each other.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: I think they set the record for most times they've done it since they've played together in that last regular season game a few weeks ago.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: And part of that is because there's possessions and periods of time in this one where the Hawks opted to be guarding Cartheny Towns with the wing.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: And that is a pretty good matchup to see that double or that that two-man uh thing that we wanted to see happen all season long, right?
25:10
SPEAKER_00: And I think that part of the reason why it did not happen as much as we expected is because Jalen Brunson is a good passer, not a great passer, right?
25:16
SPEAKER_00: And he's small.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times, especially if you're gonna get a switch, you're gonna get a hard hedge.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: It's harder for a guy that's six foot one, six foot two to make the passes on the read.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Cool.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: But in this one, when it's two wings, instead of it being a big fella, they may switch it, they may do this, it just opened up opportunity a little bit more for uh Carnthane Towns with that.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Even the first stretch of uh Jalen Brunson having just an explosion of what 17 points in the first quarter, whatever ended up being, go re-watch a lot of those, man.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: A lot of that is based on Carlton Townsend's screening or Carlton Towns hitting a cutter who and then swing swung it one more for Jalen Brunson.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: I thought Brunson was really good off the ball in this game as well, offensively and defensively.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: Say, what?
25:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, as good as he could be.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: I thought he did a good job of scram switching when necessary.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: And as you know, every team that the New York Knicks are going to see in their run or for the rest of Jalen Brunson's playoff career, the opposing team is going to try to hunt him.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: He has the smallest man on the court and he just don't got a good track record of being a good defender, especially with the offensive load that he has.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: But I thought that Brunson did a pretty damn good job.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of that, Josh Hart, excuse me, there's a sniffle from this from the sickness.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: I thought defensively, Josh Hart unlocked everything for the Knicks in that second half.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: I thought the first half, there was a lot of miscommunications from the Knicks behalf, especially in that second quarter.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: I think Nikil got an easy look at the top of the key.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: Same thing with CJ McCollum on like back-to-back possessions.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: But I think Josh Hart unlocks so much.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is Josh, one of Josh Hart's sole uh things to do defensively was try to limit Jalen Johnson, another all-NBA player in this game.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: And if you can do that, and we don't have to waste a big defender on him, that can we can uh uh have it so that OG Ananobi, who could do a little bit of everything, that's why OG was over all defensive tape, we can allow him to be the in the roamer role, right?
27:04
SPEAKER_00: So if Josh Hart just contains Jalen Johnson, we don't have to switch that later in this game, then our defense should be better.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what he did.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: I thought Josh Hart was so active defensively in this one.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: Pass the lanes, diving on the ball.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously hitting the glass, and even if it didn't lead to an offensive rebound, just opened up the game so much more.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: So Josh Hart tipping the cap because he was great.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: I was also excited to see hack a Mitch in this game.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it happened.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Mitchell Robinson got hacked, and I think he went one or four, but it actually ended up being way more impactful, and it shows a double-edged sword that is a hack of whoever is because they hacked the Mitch down the stretch in this one.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: The Knicks were in a bonus early, right?
27:47
SPEAKER_00: So there was a loose ball foul that led to extra free throws from New York Knicks because you wanted to hack Mitchell Robinson to get him off the court.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: It worked because he got off the court, but again, it led to more free throws.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: Led to more free throws.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: The one thing I will say is that towards the end of this game, I do think the Hawks were starting to maybe find the rhythm and maybe get a little bit more comfortable.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm excited to see how they adjust, and Quentin Snyder's obviously a good coach to see how he adjusts for game number two.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, but what a great game.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: I thought that game was fun from start to finish, from Jalen Brunson's start to so on and so forth.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: The next game in our ranking is the Nuggets beating the Timberwolves.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: Um I think this is a scary game for Minnesota, mostly because I don't even think, I don't think the Nuggets played close to the game that we know they could play, and they still walked out of here with a victory.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: Minnesota starts this game off really hot, you know, got that crowd in Denver a little bit scared in that first quarter, but I think the first turning point in this game, and this is a place that every single team that goes against Denver in the postseason has to get to, when Nikola Jokic sits, your job as a team is to dominate the non-Jokic minutes.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Jokic on off has always been so crazy because his bench has never really been able to hold their own when he's not there.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Jokic went to the bench, his first set was over.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: They were down by 10 points.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: When he checked back in, they were down by two.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: You lost the non-Jokic minutes specifically in that first step.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: The first non-Jokic minutes by eight, that can't happen.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: Straight up can't happen.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Shout out Brucey Brown.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: Straight up cannot happen, y'all.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: And I think that was one of the turning points in this one.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: So for the Nuggets to win this game, where like Murray got to the line a ton, and I thought, you know, he was phenomenal in drawing fouls in this one, but he didn't have a great shooting night.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: I don't think Jokic was close to a great performance from him.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: It was a good performance, but that was great performance.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Gordon and foul trouble all game up, and y'all still couldn't ah ah.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: Burying it a little bit before this game started, Ant was questionable foot for it going into it, and you can tell why.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: They said it was runner's knee, second case of that.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, uh the Warriors dealt with that with Steph Curry.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: I guess Steph Curry said it's not something that'll be healed, but something he's got to play through for the rest of his life.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if Anthony Everton at that level of runner's knee, regardless.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: You could tell that he was not 100% both sides.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: There was only a couple different stretches where I'm like, there's Anthony.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: And I think his overall count stats make sure, like, oh, okay, fine game.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: But no, it didn't really feel like that.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh a couple stretches where he did like the normal version of himself, but ultimately, if he is not ready to go, go, then this is a series that I was really excited for.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: It may not be as interesting as we want it to be.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: Man, Minnesota wasted a phenomenal.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, a phenomenal Rudy Gobert game.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
30:30
SPEAKER_00: I thought, man, what does Gobert finish with?
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Gobert finished with, man, 17 to 10?
30:36
SPEAKER_00: Bro, Gobert don't be dropping 17s, y'all, in playoff series.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: I remember last year he had a couple games.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: We had five points, four points.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: He had 17.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: He was a second lead score.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, you wasted that because I thought also on the defensive end, he was pretty damn good, as good as you can be against Jokic.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: Jokic is still like the best player in the world.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, but so he was as good against Jokic as you can maybe be, and they still wasted that one.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: That's trash.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: My least favorite thing about this Minnesota Timbos team is somebody that is like rooting for them because Io plays for the team, and Io I don't know.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: I said it before, Io's advanced stats are always bad.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: His own offensive was he was a minus eight, but like somebody showed a stat that was like the offensive rating was like an 80 when he was on the court in those 27 minutes.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Was like, I feel like me and my guys can put up an 80 offensive rating.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: So I don't, I don't know.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: He's never his the advanced stats is never going to say that he's been good.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, my least favorite thing about this Minnesota Timbulls team is that they can let a minor inconvenience, a missed call, a bad call, whatever it may be.
31:41
SPEAKER_00: And it was a it was a good amount of those.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: I'll be honest with you.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: It was a on both sides.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: I just thought the refereeing in this one, and I'm not a guy that talks about refereing often, it wasn't the greatest game.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say that.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: They let that minor inconvenience turn into a possession or two where they just don't care about basketball.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: I think Nas Reed, how many minutes did Nas play?
32:01
SPEAKER_00: Nasre plays 17 minutes.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: I think Nasree's used 17 minutes of talking to the refs and looking upset about the referee.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: That is frustrating.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: Whether it be Nas, whether it be like Luca was doing it a ton to start the season, whether it be whoever.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: If a call doesn't go your way and instead of getting back on defense, you you're talking, I'm always gonna be pissed.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: As a neutral fan, if it happens on my team, I hate it.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: And they let that happen a lot.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: And obviously things get chippy, you know.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: JD McDaniels push Jokic that caused Eric Gordon to get in here, and you know, a lot of conversations like, oh yeah, shout out to JD McDaniels, man.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: Show them what's what it's about.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: And like probably was like, yeah, get the chippiness going.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: But other party's like, damn, is Denver just winning the mental battle already?
32:54
SPEAKER_00: Already?
32:55
SPEAKER_00: Like y'all beat this team what twice, right?
32:57
SPEAKER_00: Y'all beat this team twice in the postseason, if I'm not mistaken.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: You can't let y'all can't lose the mental game like this.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, maybe you think the referee was bad.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: You can't let that be.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: This game still goes on regardless.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
33:08
SPEAKER_00: It still goes on regardless.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: And I thought the Minnesota Timbows did a very poor job of letting the game go on, even if they felt like they was they were not getting the fair whistle or whatever.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: Julas Randle, I don't know.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: I I maybe I just expected too much because last year in the postseason, he was so damn good in those first two series.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: I think all season long, you know, the Wolves fans told me, like, hey, you gotta check out Jules Randle.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: He's been so up and down, more down than up.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: This is one of them down games where he also just felt like he wasn't giving full effort.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: And and I think Jokic had his best time offensively when he was matched up against Julius Randle.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: So it was a fun game.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm hoping that the next game is even more fun because it got potential if Anthony Edwards can come back and that runner's knee is not a problem because boy oh boy, I think the yeah, he had 22, 7, and 9.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: Again, count stats-wise, don't look too bad.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: You had to be there.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: You had to be there.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize he played 38 minutes, though.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: If there's any silver line, he played a lot.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: All right, we're gonna come back.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: There's a few more games left, and I'll be honest with you, they're not as exciting as the ones we just talked about.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: Three series left.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: The first one, or not the first one, the sixth one, six, seven, the sixth one on our tier ranking.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: Spurs versus Blazers.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: Candidly speaking, I'm filming this episode right after this one has recapped, so there has not been a second watch, there has not been any rewinding or whatever.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: I watched this with straight up live, no pause, no nothing.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I listened to part of it because I was on my way to the studio.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, and when I was listening to it, it was uh mostly halftime, but it was Reggie, Reggie making a bad joke, but like such a bad joke that I actually audibly laughed in the car, but myself felt weird.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh, either way, Victor Weminyama's debut in the playoffs goes exactly the way a lot of us expected it to go.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: Pure dominance, 35 points from Wemby, five made threes on six attempts is what stands out.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: But some of the plays, man, there was one play that we saw in the first quarter that I'm only assuming that it's gone hella viral on social media where he's at the top of the key, does a spin move, and it gets to the basket, dunks the ball, will barely even jump him, jump it.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he didn't jump at all.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: There's another play later in the game, fourth quarter, where they throw a lob to him and he's so far away from the rim, but somehow he's able to corral that ball and miss the dunk.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I'm using miss dunks as a a barometer of cool plays because I thought it was still pretty damn cool.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: But Wimbenyama's impact was really showcasing this one.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I honestly speaking, a lot of that is it, man.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Like when you have a guy with this level of talent on the court, and then the second best guy, or the best guy on the opposing team, who in this case is Denny Abdia, who had a great game too, it's it's such a big drop-off between the two.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes just having that one guy is enough.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: Now, Den Vassale had his own personal like 10-0 stretch in the when the sph the Trailblazers were starting to have this little push.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: I think they got it within like six, and then Denver Sale went out there, he hit a couple threes, and just like that, is back to a lot of bigger game, and then I don't know, they went on another what felt like 15-0 run, and then the game was completely over.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, the Spurs look great.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: The fans were phenomenal, man.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: The the different colored jerks in the different sections.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: Golly, I'm I just hope that next time my favorite team is in the playoffs, that we could do something as cool as matching shirts and the shirts being different colors.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: We don't have Fiesta cover colors like they do.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it would be cool.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: On the opposite side of things with the Blazers, I thought Denny picked up where he left off in that one playing game, first half.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: I think he had 19 points in that one, downhill, three-point shooting, so on.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: Reggie was making the uh talking about how you know they're just waiting and hoping that somebody comes along for the ride with Denny, and nobody really did.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: And you know, that's that's part of what this team is, right?
36:47
SPEAKER_00: They don't have a very potent offense, they win their games defensively.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: So if you're if they can't generate a ton of turnovers within this game, how did they how many did they generate?
36:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh, a good amount, 13.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: Four of those somewhere.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so um if they're not able to capitalize on a bunch of turnovers, then like yes, in the half court, it might be a little bit Denny only, and they were waiting for somebody.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
37:08
SPEAKER_00: There are times in this one, let me let me mute this real quick.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple plays in this one where uh School Henderson actually looked pretty, pretty good.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: And if there's any silver line into it, you know, he hit that first jump shot in the corner to start the game.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: Um if there's any silver line into what this series might end up being, is like if Scoot continues to have games like this, it's like, okay, all right, you know, because he is a quite I won't say a question mark with any organization, but I think to the fan, it's like, oh, we have Drew Holiday, we're going to have Damian Lillard next season, where we have Satan Sharp.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Where does Scoot Henderson find his way?
37:41
SPEAKER_00: And in this one, he looked pretty good for his first time in the postseason.
37:44
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Scoop.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: Number seven on the list.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: I gave it, I gave it to Celtics versus 76ers.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: This is a coy flip between these last two series because boy, oh boy, were they exactly the way we thought it was gonna be?
37:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the 76ers without Joel Lavida kind of dead in the water before anything even starts.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh Tyrese Maxie had a really good regular season against them.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: They said on the broadcast he averaged 30, the only player to average 30 versus the Celtics.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: A lot of those games ended up in losses, according to the broadcast.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: And in this one, he ended up with 21 points in his 36 minutes on eight of 20 shooting, but it's just not enough.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: And the only potential save and grace they could have is if Joel B comes back.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: But honestly speaking, if Joel A B was back, I still don't think they'll have enough juice to really compete for seven games versus Boston team because they are they are that well connected, man.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: It is actually kind of scary to see them and OKC play because obviously they're really they're speaking and they're communicating offensively, but it feels like they are one, they have a high mind defensively.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Um and Tatum, I thought both sides of the floor this is one of his best games.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: Look past the six missed threes, one of his best games since he's come back.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: And if he is playing this way, because that was my biggest question mark for them, because I even if Tatum's at 50%, they're winning a series versus a Joel and B list 76ers team.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: So I went into this with like, okay, how good will you know Jason continue to look throughout this one?
39:10
SPEAKER_00: Because he ended the regular season on a high note.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: My goodness, this was Jason Tatum, just straight up, forgot the fact that he tourist Achilles 10 months ago.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: That's how good Jason Tatum looked on both sides of the floor tonight, on the switches, getting to the basket, couple big time dunks down the stretch.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: So, like, great game.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: And it's just a good old classic Jays game.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: Both him and Jalen just doing exactly what they've been able to do the entirety of their tenure playing together.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: So just straight up, straight up, great stuff.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, Mizzula Ball was full on in effect because they ended up with I thought I said three turnovers, eight turnovers in this one.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: Um and some of those is looch.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: Now, I just made a little short on buzzer talking about this, but like I obviously I'm a neutral fan in this.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: My job is to cover these games as non-biased as possible.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: But one thing I do like to do when my favorite team is not in the playoffs, which is they're never really in the playoffs, is like root for former players of my favorite team.
40:10
SPEAKER_00: So like it is cool to see Voots play meaningful minutes, even if the ball is gonna go through his hands every time they throw it to him.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: It is cool to watch on the opposite uh side of the bracket, Alex Caruso still wreak havoc because when he played for us, my goodness, he was my guy.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: So uh the Celtics just did great things, and I don't I don't want to put the what do they say the cart before the horse?
40:33
SPEAKER_00: Is that the saying?
40:36
SPEAKER_00: But this series really is just about Tatum getting his legs and getting ready for probably the Knicks in the next round.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: No disrespect to 76ers.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: Hey, hopefully I'll make it a series because good basket.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: I just want to watch good basketball.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Dalen Terry tech into this game.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: Dalen Terry take into this game.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to my boy DT, who actually was in the studio with us just a few months ago and then he got his ass traded.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, the last one on the tier ranking or the ranking that the game wants.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: Hey man.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: The Suns scored 84 points.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: 84 points.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: One of my least favorite things about this game is my boy Jordan Goodwin left very early on with like what they said, leg soreness, knee soreness or whatever.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: So that sucked because Jordan Goodwin has played his way into a Katie for real all-star.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: And look, he played five minutes, and guess what?
41:30
SPEAKER_00: Plus minus of a zero.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: So OKC wasn't really doing nothing until he got injured, if you really think about it.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: This was a good old-fashioned beat down.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: Um it was truly not a second in this game where you thought that, oh okay, maybe it's something.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: No, it didn't happen once, y'all.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: It didn't happen once.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: And it's even with Shay just not scoring the ball well.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: Like, he got to the foul line, he's Shakers Alexander, but like he had a really rough shooting out uh outing.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: And they still won by a bazillion.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: Like, come on, man.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: Similarly to like with the way I'm watching the Boston Celtics series about Jason Tatum, I'm doing that exact same thing about J Dub.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he had a couple really good games leading into the postseason, which is a good sign, but I'm really watching to see how good J Dub's looks on a nightly basis in this postseason.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: 22-6-6-7.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: And I don't even think that tells a full story of Dub's playmaking in this one.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: He was phenomenal.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, they showed him on the bench a few different times.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: He had like the ice on his wrists, and hopefully that's just precautionary measures and nothing deeper than that.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: But I'm 100% sure they can win this series versus the Suns without Dub playing 100%.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm even I'm even very confident they can win the next round series without Dub playing 100%.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: But it's a series after that, once they get to the conference finals versus Denver or Minnesota or the San Antonio Spurs, where they're going to need at least at least 80% of dub to really win that series.
42:58
SPEAKER_00: So I'm watching these.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: It's like some preliminary stuff, like how good will he look?
43:02
SPEAKER_00: Chet Homer, phenomenal today.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: Man, it got so bad for the Suns because Mark Williams is out.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: That common malwatch, whose name I still don't know if I'm pronouncing right, because I I saw the I heard the broadcast pronouncing, and then I saw Twitter, and they were like, even Twitter don't know his name.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: So I mean even the broadcast don't know his name.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: So like he checked in very early into this one.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: And this is a rookie, project rookie, getting thrown into the fire versus the greatest team in the league right now.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: And it went as bad as you really would have expected it to go.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: He got baptized like the first possession that he was out there, and it got even worse when they went ultra small, and there was a lineup that had Chet and I heart on the other side.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: Also, the Blazers went ultra small once when Wimby was on the court and it was like, oh snap.
43:44
SPEAKER_00: What you expect happened?
43:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, it happened exactly where you thought it would.
43:48
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, there's this outmatch.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: The size, the the defensive intensity is unmatched when it comes to OKC against the Sun Same, which again has been a really cool story, but I just don't think.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: They got enough juice at all.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, how much book and book ended with 23 points, and I was gonna say he led the team in shots.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: He did in the game.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: Book never really leads the team in shots.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not true, but like sometimes it feels that way.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, Dylan Brooks actually did.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: Is it weird that Dylan Brooks be talking all this trash as his like Canadian teammates?
44:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, like Dort and Shay is on the other side, and he's talking all this trash.
44:26
SPEAKER_00: He hit Chet in the mouth at one point in this game.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: It's like, how do you how do you feel about that as Shay?
44:31
SPEAKER_00: It's like this guy's my friend in the offseason, but this guy's my friend during the regular season.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: How do I well right now I'm playing with Chet, so now we on Chet's side, but I don't know if they think about that often.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: Those are all of the game ones ranked in order by me.
44:45
SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we got more small ball.
44:53
SPEAKER_00: Before we leave, I want to kind of talk about the games that I think have a good chance of like splitting.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, splitting good old one-one, right?
45:02
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a really good chance that the Detroit Pistons come out in game number two, set a tone early on, and don't come out laxadaisical, and they even up the series.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: And if they do, huge win for the Orlando Magic.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: All you want to do as a team that is starting off on the road is take one.
45:16
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you love to have two, but taking one is good enough, right?
45:22
SPEAKER_00: And Detroit, hey, hey Detroit, you better take your business.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not, I'm not saying that as a fan of you or anything, but boy, who man, it's gonna be some, boy.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: So take your business.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a chance.
45:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, every single series has a chance that the the role team will win.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: Let me not act like some teams are at zero, even though it might be a team that might be at zero.
45:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, but like I said, the way the Atlanta Hawks ended their game lastly against the Knicks, it makes me feel like they're gonna have in this game too tonight, um, that they're gonna have some level of like, I don't know, more more confidence going into game two that makes me feel like they may be able to split.
46:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, and maybe that's me being like, what's the opposite, a pessimist sometimes when it comes to the Knicks?
46:14
SPEAKER_00: Because even though they're such a talented team on paper, sometimes they just disappoint me as a neutral.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's me expecting like a little turn down game from the Knicks because they've had a good amount of those.
46:26
SPEAKER_00: But I think the Atlanta Hawks could potentially do something.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: I want to see Brandon Ingram take more opportunities in this game, next game versus the Cavs.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I admire about a guy like Jalen Green is like, even though we know that like he could get really high or really cold, that brother knows that if there's opportunities to take shots, I'm going to do that.
46:50
SPEAKER_00: I just want a little bit of that effort in Brandon Ingram's mindset.
46:54
SPEAKER_00: Even if he is saying the truth that Darko Ryakovich wants to use him like this and do this and do that.
46:59
SPEAKER_00: I want to see B.I.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: go out there and say, just brush Darko off a little bit.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: Because guess what, Darko?
47:05
SPEAKER_00: If the shots is going in, you ain't gonna pull me out if I ain't setting the screens like you want.
47:08
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to see it.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: I want to see a little bit of that.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: A little bit of that.
47:12
SPEAKER_00: I would kind of expect the Rockets to tie the series.
47:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
47:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if Kevin's playing game two.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it just feels like a team that will be prepared for game two.
47:22
SPEAKER_00: And if not, my goodness, Ime Udoka.
47:26
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
47:27
SPEAKER_00: There's that tweet that says Ime Udoka's halftime um game plan is like you can find that tweet.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I don't think I can say that here.
47:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and sometimes they do feel like that when they don't do a lot of halftime adjustments based on what the opposing team did in that first half.
47:42
SPEAKER_00: So if they go into a series where they're heavily favored because there's no Luka Doncic and there's no Austin Reeves, and even if Kevin Durant is there or not, you're heavily favored and you lose that series, or you lose two games like that, even if it is on the road.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be conversations about you make you Doka as a coach.
47:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't think there's much of a chance that the Blazers take a game two.
48:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's much of a chance that the 76ers take a game two.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't think there's much of a chance that the Suns take a game two.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: So we kind of are leaving it out there.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: And for my fans that say, hey, Kenny, game ones were kind of trash.
48:16
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
48:17
SPEAKER_00: Kind of.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: Kind of, I would agree with that.
48:20
SPEAKER_00: But it's not the game ones is just the starting point of the series.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: Everything that you just saw in that game one, everything that I just talked about matchup-wise, this and that, all of it is going to be continuously shifting because that's how you win a playoff series.
48:34
SPEAKER_00: If you are the Atlanta Hawks, you are figuring out, hmm, how can we guard Kat differently?
48:38
SPEAKER_00: And if you are Mike Brown, you're like, hmm, how would they try to guard Kat differently?
48:42
SPEAKER_00: And how can I be prepared for that?
48:45
SPEAKER_00: It is a huge, huge chess match on a game by game basis, and even deeper than that, a possession by possession basis.
48:52
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're here for, y'all.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: It's what we're here for.
48:56
SPEAKER_00: Quickly.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, hey man, there's a guy that plays for my Chicago White Sox that can't stop hitting home runs.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: And my goodness, I'm having so much fun.
49:07
SPEAKER_00: Even though the four games before this, the three games before this, the White Sox couldn't hit anything.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: My goodness, my my boy Moona uh Murakami has had three straight home run days, and I'm so excited about that.
49:21
SPEAKER_00: Coas and Montgomery hit a home run.
49:23
SPEAKER_00: And yes, my entire team is hitting 189.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
49:28
SPEAKER_00: Let's just go against the A's every single game.
49:31
SPEAKER_00: We'll be all right.
49:33
SPEAKER_00: I forget that baseball is one of them slow starting sports where like everybody looks kind of mid to start the season, and then eventually some team's gonna go into 10-game win streak, and that's gonna be enough to be the best team.
49:42
SPEAKER_00: But like everybody in the AL is just kind of like 500, and that's kind of enough.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: All right, that's small ball, ladies and gentlemen.
49:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we'll be coming back next week.
49:51
SPEAKER_00: We'll have more playoffs to talk about.
49:53
SPEAKER_00: Leave a like, subscribe.
49:54
SPEAKER_00: I'll see y'all next time.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: Peace.