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These NBA 1st Round Series are Heating Up! · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beecher.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: We are here in the thick of it.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: First round of the NBA playoffs.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: This is my favorite time.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Of course, you got the anticipation of game ones and game twos.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Once we get to game four, game five, that's the ones that matter the most to me because you really get to see the coaching aspect of it all, right?
0:22
SPEAKER_00: How is this team defending differently in game four than they were in game number one?
0:27
SPEAKER_00: How are the rotations different?
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Who's a guy that may not have played the first two of games that's going to get an opportunity here because our back is against the wall?
0:35
SPEAKER_00: This is the fun time, the adjustment time, the learn and adjust, man.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: So this is a great time of the year.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: Um so I'm here recording this Sunday night.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: I came into the office uh early because I wanted to watch Lakers versus Rockets just in case the game was good or ended in a sweep, and I could do a recap video and then quickly get my initial thoughts out.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: But the Houston Rockets play such a great game that there is no sweep.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: There is gonna be a game five.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: And you got to give them credit because I could assume it would be easy for them in that locker room to look at the fact that they were down 0-3 in like some embarrassing games, like embarrassing fashion, especially that last one where you're up by however many points with however many seconds left you blow it.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: It will be easy for them to say, okay, this is not our series.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna lay down and let the Lakers go on to the next round.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: Especially when you think about the fact that no team has ever been down 0-3 in the seven-game era and came back to win a series.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: But they came out and played an amazing game.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: The Lakers really struggled, couldn't shoot the three-point ball.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I thought the Houston Rockets did a really good job of, you know, eliminating some of their bigger threats.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: And I'm in Thompson had a couple good possessions in this one.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: You say, oh yeah, you know, so shout out to the Houston Rockets.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: So this next point I'm about to make maybe not the best time to make this point, because again, the Rockets did just play such a good game while being down 0-3.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: But in my mind, I've thought about this for the last couple years.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: In my mind, I love a seven-game series.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Let's be real, I don't want to be one of those people that's advocating for a five-game series, but I'm kind of advocating for a series to be a five-game series, y'all.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: Under under one thing.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: I think actually it should be a seven-game series only if both teams have at least won one game through three.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Right?
2:12
SPEAKER_00: With no team ever being a team to come back from down 03 to win the series, especially in the first round.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, why are we here?
2:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, I I did do still want seven-game series, regardless if it's a sweep in the second-round conference finals and NBA Finals.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: But in that first round matchup, think about how many sweeps we've had.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: It was like, why are we even here for this last game?
2:29
SPEAKER_00: Or you get it, you get the sweep, or I'm sorry, the gentleman sweep, where the team takes one, but they never really stand a chance in the entire series.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: So if you win one of those first three games, don't worry, we got a seven-game round on our hand, but when you're down 0-3, it's just be it.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Close the book.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: Now the Rockets played a great game.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: We'll see what the Suns do tomorrow because they're the other team that's down 0-3 in their series.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: But like, you know, let's be real.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: Not many people think the Suns are gonna come back.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Not many people believe that the Rock's gonna come back.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: And watch, the one year I'm saying this, the one year I'm pitching this to y'all, is gonna be the one year one of those teams do it.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, 0-3 teams gonna come back and win, like, Kenny, you you said you wanted to be a five game series.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: I know we've had times where we've had the you know 0-3 down and get all the way to a game seven.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: I think that happened just a few years ago with the Miami Heat, right?
3:13
SPEAKER_00: With the Miami Heat and the Celtics just a few years ago.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: So it has happened and ended up being a good series, but again, that wasn't the first round.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking specifically in that first.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: You let me know what you think.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: All right, before we get into some individual series, I do want to do like some big picture things that I've been thinking about.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think the number one thing that has been the case for this playoffs, last playoffs, the last couple playoffs, where it feels like injuries continue to kind of take over the league in a way.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And maybe this is just recency bias, right?
3:40
SPEAKER_00: Maybe when I was younger, there were also major injuries, and I just didn't think about it.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: But it does feel like over these last couple years, there has been a ton of bigger injuries in the playoffs, or let's just say right before the playoffs.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Here's a list of guys that's going to be missing some time in the first round of the playoffs just because of injury.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Dante DiVincenzo tears towards damn Achilles, man, which is one of the saddest things.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: He's having such a great season, and um, you know, was a really important player for this Minnesota Tim Wolves team.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: So even though they are up 3-1 in their series against the the uh Denver Nuggets, without Dante, we get out of the series.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: That's one of them guys you could use and really need in that second round series versus a San Antonio Spurs team.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Edwards hyper extended his leg, his knee is gonna be out a few weeks or a week or so with a bone bruise.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: That's that's tough.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: J Dub also out with a hammy.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Jordan Goodwin injured himself like a couple minutes into the first round of the postseason versus OK.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: I think he played like five minutes, man.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of nuts.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Mark Williams got injured right before, but Mark Williams, the starting center on the playoff team, just basically couldn't play the entirety of the playoffs.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Kevin Rennes has only been able to play one out of the four games because of his injuries, is two of them.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: Luka Donj just also reads, haven't played a single second just yet.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Gordon was injured, tried to play through it, only was able to give them 23 minutes before a coach is like, ah, this is just a little bit too much.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: Paynewatch still ain't played a second yet.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: Wimmediama misses a game because of concussion, even though he had the quote that was like, I don't like the way it was handled, and I cannot wait.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: Because he said, ask me at the end of the season.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: I hope somebody does ask him because I'm so curious of what the hell happened.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Because previous to that, he said, like um the medical staff here and then all the doctors, they were great.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, who else?
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Is it the league he's talking about?
5:16
SPEAKER_00: The league making him miss game three?
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the team won.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: When beat, like it was it didn't matter at the end of the day.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh so Wimbenyama and then Joel Abi just played his first game tonight.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: So, like, a lot of those guys between Ant and Dub and KD and Luca and Wembanyama, NB, these are all NBA talents that we've missed for some, or we will be missing for a lot of this playoffs, and that sucks.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: That sucks for just the the NBA fan.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, this is the time I care about it.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Let me tune into 76s versus Celtics.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we missed Joel and B for the first three games of it.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Everett is gonna be out, right?
5:53
SPEAKER_00: And the one thing is that, like, again, some of these injuries happened before the playoffs even started.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: None of them seems to be, I can't say super.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Wimbanyama, they still won that game.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Joel Embiid came back, they still didn't look that great.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Dub and the OKC Thunder, they should be able to win without him.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: The one that is actually really big is the Anthony Atwards one, right?
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh no Dante really does suck, but like you could still feel like, hey, man, we get to that second round.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: We got Ant, we got Io, we got Rudy, we got uh Jaden McDabe, so on.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Randall, I ain't mean to snub you, but Julius Randle, we still feel like we can win the next series versus the San Antonio Spurs.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: But if he misses just a little bit more time and he misses some of the next series, then like, man, we waited all this season.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: We waited 25 weeks of the regular season, and some of our best guys, not gonna be 100%.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: I know it's the way sports is.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: I know.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: But still, it's frustrating.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: It's really, really frustrating.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: So it feels like another year, well, of course, you have to win these games, you have to be super talented, but the healthier of the team is gonna win a lot of these series.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: OKC obviously was a super dominant team in the regular season last year, but they were one of the healthier teams once we got to the postseason.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: Dub, of course, had the hand thing that he played through, but for the most part, they didn't miss many games when it came to their top guys, which mattered, right?
7:05
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder like who else could be in that group where you have to be, of course, really good, but also you have to be healthy to move on.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: I also want to talk about some of the unpredictability of this postseason so far, which is really cool.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this only series that I feel like is going exactly the way I anticipated it to be was like Cavs, uh Cavs versus Raptors.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not happening exactly what I expected, but I did expect it to be a good six-game series.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: And right now we're 2-2, so like that's really on track.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Thunder Sun's going exactly like everybody expected it to go outside of Phoenix, right?
7:37
SPEAKER_00: And then Spurs and Blazers are going that way too.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: And if it was not for Wimbenyama going down with the concussion, maybe that series is already over.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: But all of these other series has had ridiculous things happen.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: The Lakers being up 3-1 on the Houston Rockets without Luca and Austin Reese is ridiculous.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: The Wolves being up 3-1 against the Nuggets, maybe not a crazy, crazy surprise.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: I guess the fashion of these wins that make it unpredictable.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: We also got Magic versus the Pistons.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: The Pistons, the one seed are down in a series as of today.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Like this is crazy.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: The Knicks are 2-2.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: I guess that's kind of going away, but like the Knicks have lost on Buzzerbeat, so that's why I didn't say it was predictable.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: And then like Celtics in 76 is going pretty, pretty much like how we predicted.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: But there's a lot of unpredictability here, which is cool because of the four major American uh leagues, the MLB, you're not supposed to say that, right?
8:25
SPEAKER_00: You're not supposed to say the MLB.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to say MLB.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: So MLB, NFL, NHL, they have a big variance of like the the higher C doesn't always win.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: In the NBA, the higher C wins major, like the greatest percentage of the time compared to those other leagues.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: This is one of them years, like, oh, it's shuffling the nice a little bit.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: We might see a one C genuinely go down in the first round, which is nuts.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: But it's the cards are on the table right now.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: It's cool, it's super cool.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited about it.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: There's no game where I sit down in my office and I say, I'm not looking forward to this one.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: And it's the first round.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Like, again, that that has happened so much over the years when we get to that first round matchup.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: These two, this one of these teams just don't deserve to be here.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Even the teams we thought didn't deserve to be here, like they're letting them ask up in their series.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're up in their series.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: There were questions about the 76ers being a wild card with Joe Le B came back.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they got smoked.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: But like you in the back of your mind, you're excited for these gays because there might be a return.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: And it was a return.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: They still got smoked.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: So it's been unpredictable.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: And unpredictable is good for everybody.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's good for the diehard fan, it's good for the casual fan, it's good for every everybody except for the people that are rooting for it to be predictable.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: If you are the one seed and your team is down 2-1, you kind of want it to be predictable.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: You want to scrape that first team and beat them in four.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: Not the case this year.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: All right, we'll come back.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: I'll get to some very specific things with each one of these series.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Before we get to individual series, I do want to talk about the differences within the conferences, right?
10:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh, out west, you got 3-1 series, 3-1 series, 3-0 series.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, it may be unpredictable, but like the team that is winning is winning.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: But out east, it's like kind of crazy.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: 2 2s, 2-2s, 2-2s, 3-1.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, come on, man.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: And I'm really enjoying that because I don't, I don't think there's a single one of these teams out east that's really convincing me that they're the team.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: And obviously, somebody has to win the East, somebody has to represent the Eastern Conference.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: But I just look at how much of a dogfight each one of these teams are in, again, except for the Celtics, and I ask myself, do I see whoever comes out of the East as a team that could even beat the team that comes out of the West?
10:39
SPEAKER_00: It's rough to have a yes to that question.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm trying not to think ahead, but like, I'm gonna go back to like the first two games of Cavs versus Raptors.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: The Cavs look so damn good.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at their side of the bracket.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hmm, whatever happens in them when they match up.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: I think the Cavs can beat Detroit or they can beat Orlando in the second round.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the Cavs are gonna get their first conference finals appearance in a very long time.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: And then they lose two games against the Raptors.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, that's damn.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: And you look at that and be like, mmm, maybe the Pistons, they just gotta get out of this first round.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh no, maybe they don't even get out of the first round.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Can the Orlando Magic be representing the top half of the bracket in the conference finals this year?
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Could the Toronto Raptors do that?
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Which is so crazy.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: This is so crazy because I think that the Detroit Pistons believe that they can win a championship and they went into this postseason with the idea that we are going to win a championship.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: The Boston Celtics went into the postseason with the idea that they are going to win a championship.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: The New York Knicks came into this postseason with the idea that they are going to win a championship.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: And the Cleveland Cavaliers are one of those teams as well.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Their four teams believe they had a chance.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't think the Raptors go into this postseason thinking that they're a championship attendant, but damn it, it's been a little while since we made the postseason.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: We maybe got a favorable matchup, depending on how you look at it.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: And we'll just we'll figure out what happens when it happens.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: They could.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: They could.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying they will, but they could legitimately be in the conference finals, dog.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: They're playing with no stakes whatsoever.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: And then the team they might say the second round, maybe it is the Orlando Magic.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: They're not playing with no stakes either.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: So it's like it's a lot of randomness going on.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: So I want to stick at this Cavs Raptors here because I think it's so fascinating.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Through the first couple games, again, I was like, oh man, the Cavs might be the team to beat on the first half of the bracket.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: And they win their two games at home.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: Um at the end of game number two, I said it in my recap video that like the Toronto Raptors kind of not saying they figured some things out, but they I think they walked out of that game number two, even though they were loot, they lost it, saying, hmm, we we still got a chance in this one.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And they take the two games at home, and they're great games for the Toronto Raptors.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: I want to I'm gonna specifically talk about game number four because I did do a recap on game number three, where game number four was the ugliest game of the postseason.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: 93 to 89 is disgusting work, and that's that's with the influx of scoring when it came to that fourth quarter.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Because for a lot of this, you know, there's a 17-point quarter here for the Cavs, a 14-point quarter for the Toronto Raptors, another 19-point quarter for the Cavs, a 22.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: It was a nasty game.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: And then once we got to the fourth quarter, boom, here's a 30 and 30, 33 for the teams.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I I would I saw somebody ask, like, can somebody please do the research on how much worse teams are in that matinee game, that afternoon game versus the night game, because I do feel like that first game of the day on these weekends in the postseason, they've all been like rock fights, rock fights, rock fights.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: And it is kind of cool to see that.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, there's a lot of misshots in this, but I do believe there's also a lot of great defense.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: When I talked about earlier in the episode about me enjoying game fours and game fives and so on, and the adjustments, I was really kind of thinking about Dark Areyakovic more than anything.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, Kenny Akison also made an adjustment in this game where you know he had Dean Wade scoot over and not guard um Brandon Ingram, but it guards Scotty Barnes.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: So you see that adjustment there.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: In game number three, they make the adjustment where Scotty Barnes is going to be guarding James Harden or Don Vamitsu, whoever's on the court.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: And if they're both on the court, then it will be James Harden.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: And that's just some super cool stuff to see.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: You're seeing some more unique lineups with the Toronto Raptors, you're seeing like some pseudo-sones in there for the Toronto Raptors.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: And I really do admire that from Dark Are Yakovic.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: He even said in his post-game interview, something along the lines, that like, I really enjoy the playoffs because during the regular season, you can't really you can't really prep.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: We got a game on Friday and on Saturday against two different teams.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: How can I get my team locked into this game and the great schemes that we can draw up and also get them ready for the next one?
14:34
SPEAKER_00: You just really can't.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: You have to use some in a lot of cases a lot of blanket stuff and then hope that things fall the way you want.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: But in the postseason, when you have a day or two-day rest, when you're going against the same team time and time again, we can do some interesting things.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: And the Raptors, again, it's a dog fight of a game and a rock fight of a game, but the Raptors coming out and winning those two games are really important.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: They always say to AJO San, a series does not start until the home team loses.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: And so far, the home team has won every single one of these games.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: So I guess the Cavs are still in the driver's seat just based on the fact that they have home court advantage.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: They played a series like this a couple years ago, against the Orlando Magic, right?
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Where the home team won every single game and then they went to seven, and then the home team won game seven.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: So who knows?
15:16
SPEAKER_00: But the Cavs, again, me thinking about them through the first two games, hmm, this team can be in the conference finals to me saying, don't really love that.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: The biggest question mark I had, if you remember that episode when we were previewing some of these series, was like, can the Toronto Raptors be more physical than the Cleveland Cavaliers?
15:33
SPEAKER_00: And how much could that impact the game?
15:34
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that over these last couple, it has impacted the game a ton.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: This is another time through the last two games where Evan Mobley and Jared Allen looked behind.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Those two guys are all-stars, the former all-stars.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: One of those guys was an All-LBA player just last season.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure he's going to get some votes for this year as well.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: And they have these tendencies of being super slow at processing the game on the offensive side of the ball.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: They're like when Darko and company, when they decide to deny ball on the all-star guard when it's only one of them on the court and allowing the team to go four on four, it's really tough for the Cleveland Cavaliers because they're two all-star, other all-star caliber guys, just don't process the offensive side of the game as quickly as you want them to go to do it.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you come in and give you some Dennis Schroeder uh upside, which happened in this game as well.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, you see Scotty Barnes denying ball on Donovan Mitchell in the first quarter.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: Once James Harden goes to the bench, it's like, oh yeah, now they're playing four-on-four, and we trust our four defensively more than we trust the four that they have on the offensive side of the ball.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: And not just that, there's time they're sending two at the ball.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: So let's, okay, so we're denying so that Donovan Mitchell does not get the ball in this half-court set.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: But when he does have the ball, we're sending two.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And we're making the Cavs play four on three.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: And the amount of four-on-three opportunities I saw the Cleveland Cavaliers lose was ridiculous to me.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: That's good defense, but it's also lack of execution on the offensive side of the ball.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Hey, man, James Harden had a ton of turnovers again today.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: And there's not one that hurts more than the one with like three and a half minutes to go.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: He just lazily throws the ball up on the left side wing and it turns into a turnover.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: And not just that, he tries to intentionally foul lacks a daisically and doesn't do that, and it ends in an easy basket for the Toronto Raptors.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: I remind you, this game final score was 93 to 89.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: That play mattered a ton.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: Shout out Jamal Shay.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: The eight-second backcourt violation mattered a ton.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest plays you'll see that, you know, wasn't an actual basket in the NBA.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: So those two guys, man, I mean, it's more than them, right?
17:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm not blaming Jared Allen and Evan Mobley for this game or this performance.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: But like, you were like the first couple games, Evan Mobley looked great.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my God, there's a 25 piece.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: The ball was finding him.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: He was getting he was putting his head down, getting to the basket.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: I thought through the first two games, you know, the always rivalry of Scotty Barnes and Evan Mobley, I thought through the first two games, Evan Mobley was winning.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: It's just then Scotty Barnes has straight up looked like the best player in the series, man.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: He just straight up has.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: First couple games was Donald Mitchell.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: By far, he was putting up 33s and 32s and thirds.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: But Scotty Barnes, man, even in the games like today's game, he didn't get 28 or 30 like he could in maybe some of these other games.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: But his impact on defense, not just steals and blocks and so on, but man, I'm telling you, eliminating one of those guys at all time is going to be a heartbreaking outcome for the Cavs, more likely than not.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: CMB is kind of ridiculous.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: I saw him as a really good prospect, right?
18:41
SPEAKER_00: Defensively, the question was always the offensive side of the ball.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: But we're getting this influx.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: He's a more of a four-five in the big, so it's maybe a little bit different than like uh Thompson Twin or Dyson Daniel, some of these guys that are perimeter players that can't shoot.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: But him finding a way to still be effective offensively, it's just like good coaching and also just him being a good player.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Also, in his post-game interview, Dark Arayakovic said that CMB is one of the most talented players he's ever had the pleasure to coach because just last week or a couple weeks ago, he started to practice floaters and now he's doing floaters in NBA playoff games and hitting them down the stretch.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: He has a knack for just straight up finding where the ball is going to miss and getting extra opportunities for the team.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: And he's all of what six foot?
19:26
SPEAKER_00: Let me see what they actually got him.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: CMB NBA.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: Can I just type?
19:29
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, it comes up.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to him.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: He already got the initials locked down.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: He's listed as six foot seven.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: So he's a six foot seven big going against Evan Mobley, who I would assume is listed as 6'10 and Jared Allen, or Evan Mobley's 6'11, and Jared Allen, who continues to shrink every year of his career.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: I think he's listed at 6'8, 6'9.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, so he's going amongst trees and putting his shoulder down and doing left-handed hooks and all of these cool things offensively to make himself valuable.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: But on the defensive side of the ball, I don't know if the numbers back me up.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: So, so maybe take this with a grain of salt.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: When him and Scotty B are on the court together, I just feel like they're shutting fossils off left and right.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be hard to score.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: Especially since they changed the matchup.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: So it's still anybody series, like I said.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: The home team has won every single game.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: And as much as I'm singing praise for the Raptors right now, we could come back in a week from now and be singing praises for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's just the way the NBA is.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look in the regular season-wise, when those two uh guys played together, they had a 108 defensive rating in those 600 minutes they played together.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: So in the postseason so far, they have a oh my goodness.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, a 128 defensive rating.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: But again, that's counting for the first two games where they had they hadn't figured it out.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: If I could just go last two games, I would, but I can't do that right now.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: Can't do that right now.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to the Toronto Raptors.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Did not expect them to be in this spot in this series.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: We'll see what they do in the next game.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: When I come back, we'll get to some of the other series.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Before we go any further, I want to say thank you to our partners over at DraftKings.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: You may know all about DraftKings pick six by now, where you can pick more or less of different players' stats for the upcoming games.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to pick some of my favorite players to watch, looking at their points, rebounds, assists, put them in a pick set, and sit back, relaxing, and see if I made the right decision.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: Y'all be the first to tell me that right now I'm not on my hottest streak.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: So play it, play at your own risk and tell if you want.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: But again, I'm telling you, I'm not, I'm not on the hot streak right now.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: But I will put together a little pick set.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Again, I don't know since I'm filming this late at night.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the actual lines as of today, but I'll tell you what my mindset would be going into the next games that we have coming up.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: All of these games are on Peacock tonight.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: So be sure to tune in.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: Starting off at 8 o'clock Eastern time, we got the Detroit Pistons versus the Orlando Magic game that they desperately need to win.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Because if they go down 3 1 as a 1C, my goodness, the conversations are going to be crazy.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: The thing I'm looking at is Desmond Bain.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Desmond Bain's had a game where he had, what, seven threes, and some of them were contested, some of them were wide open, but he was really damn electric in that game.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: And I do believe he's one of those players that feeds off of the crowd around him.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: And that crowd was really, really good in game number three.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to go, again, depending on what the number is, I'm looking to go more on Desmond Bain's total points today, not just three pointers.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: Total points today, Desmond Bain more.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm also looking at when I'm thinking about the Pistons, just Kay Cunningham in general.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody else in this team that's making me feel really confident to think about their points, even their rebounds or their assists.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: K Cunningham has been one of the more consistent of them, even if he just had his really high turnover game just last game.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: So I will look at his points.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, straight up, just look at the points.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: It feels like the Orlando Mass have done a good job kind of eliminating others in the series, but Cade has still been able to average his 30 plus plus points.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: So I will look at Cade and I would go more depending on what that number is at.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: Next, at nine.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, why did he tip off so late?
23:01
SPEAKER_00: We got a 9.30 Eastern time tip between the Thunder and the Suns.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh uh Shea just had his most efficient game of his playoff career where he dropped a playoff career high of 40-something points.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: He was talking at trash.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: I love when players that don't normally talk get up and pop that collar.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: So he's been really good.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not looking this direction.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at his his counterpart, the guy that has been guarding him all series long.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm looking at Dylan Brooks to put him to the picks.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm going more on points than Dylan Brooks.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: He's averaging 27 points per game in this series, seven rebounds, and about an assist.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: He's also, again, tasked regarding Shea, but he's been able to at least score the basket.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: Don't ask about the efficiency.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we're here to talk about.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: He's been able to score, and I'm looking at what that number is, and I'm thinking about it for sure.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm also thinking about Chet Holmgrim.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, one of those guys that when he's got to go into Superfund, uh, I can't imagine his number will be anything too crazy.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking about potentially putting him in the pick set as well.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Last game we got is a 1030 Eastern Time tip.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: An opportunity for the Minnesota Timberwolves to close out their series.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, no Anthony Ellis, no Dante DiVincenzo, and again, Eric Gordon played 23 minutes.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he will be on the injury port for this game.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: But but I I am part of me is like, yo, it's back against the wall.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: Not the first time in his career, but like maybe the most consequential series if he does not win, and maybe we'll talk about that later in the episode.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: So you would expect, you know, maybe the best in the world to come out there and have a ridiculous performance.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: So far, he's only aver I can't say only, my goodness.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: But I'm I will say only.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: Only averaging 25, 14 and a half, and eight.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's only averaging 25, 14, and 8.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: But it's like you've been watching these games, you know it's not the same as his normal 25.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, but maybe this is the game.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: Um wow.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: I just I just decided for no reason other than just look at the eye test.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: This team right now is better with Jokic off the floor this postseason so far.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: They are eight points better without him off the floor without him on the floor this year in the postseason.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: Small sample, right?
25:18
SPEAKER_00: We're talking 116 minutes on and only 30 minutes off.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: But I bet there's no other series in his career with that has been the case.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: So that's just that's just different.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: All right, that is my hypothetical pick set.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh when we come back, we'll get into some more of these series.
25:33
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25:37
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25:41
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25:50
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25:53
SPEAKER_00: Right at the upside with Pick Six.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get to that Wolves versus Nuggets series because I think that has been the best series so far.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: And I think mostly because of the rivalry of it all, um the potential implications of it all.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna do a big show about this tomorrow, I think, where I'm gonna kind of talk through what teams on the brink of elimination would have the biggest turnaround or biggest changes if they did lose in the first round.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to put that together.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: And it's late tonight, but I still I'm gonna put it together tonight and do it tomorrow morning.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: But I do believe that the Nuggets are one of those teams that would be in that pool.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: I I look at this team that decides to struggle with injuries all season long, whether it be Yoke himself, whether it be, you know, Peyton Watson, who was having a breakout season, again, Aaron Gordon going down for the second year in a row in the postseason, which is just unfortunate timing.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: And and I ask myself, if they do get eliminated, how how would this team go into the offseason to get better?
27:01
SPEAKER_00: In their mind, they did that this year, right?
27:03
SPEAKER_00: And it might net a first-round exit.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty interesting.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: Like I said earlier, there's never been a series where you've had it, whether they won or lost, and I'm talking about the Denver Nuggets, whether they won or lost, you've had a series where you say, hmm, Jokic did give his best in this one.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't really a Jokic series.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Of course, Jokic, non-Jokic games happen all the time, right?
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Even one of the last times they played against Minnesota, one of them closeout games, he was just not the best version of himself.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: But never has it been we like we look at it and say, hmm, from games two through five, games two through six, Jokic was not not the he wasn't the best player on the court.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: That's that's weird.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder how that can change the way we talk about Nikola Jokic.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Because you think about as as quickly as we we jump on to a player being amazing, we even faster with jumping off.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't say I don't think anybody's gonna go on and say that Jokic is a bum or anything along those lines, but he has probably had the most positive individual PR for the last couple years, right?
28:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the guy's three MVPs.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Is he deservingly?
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Like, I think I voted for him every single year that he had those MVPs.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even, I'm not acting like he don't deserve those MVPs, but he's had those MVPs.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: He's had the title of best in the world.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm saying stuff that I've said.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: I've said this on the show that he is the best in the world.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: He's had the title for best in the world for what, three seasons now?
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Like, so it hasn't really been much you can say negatively, other than the fact that, yeah, the defensive side of the ball is a struggle almost nights.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: But you think about the production, hmm, 28, 14, and 13, hmm, I'm a he gave up some layups, okay.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: But now he's giving up those layups and more.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: And that 28, 14, and 14 ain't the 28, 14, and 14 that we're used to.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: So I would have changed.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: I do believe that there already has been conversations about who's the best in the world just this season, based on, you know, Shay shooting 55% on twos as a guard, which I'll bring up all the time, and him being on his way to get his second MVP in the role, right?
29:04
SPEAKER_00: I think even when Luca was just going on his run, people are saying that Luca is the best player in the world.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: Wimedyama is the most impactful defensive player.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the blocks that he got in his return from a concussion?
29:15
SPEAKER_00: He's the most impactful defensive player in the world.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: Oh, his offense is all in the caliber too.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: So maybe he's the best in the world.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: This is like the first time we really had the conversation for the last couple years.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's always been people in different pockets, but I mean like a unilateral, I don't know if I'm using that word right, conversation about it all.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: I think that's interesting.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get to talking about windows and how open they are and how closed they are based on this.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Last year they go seven with the eventual NBA champion.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: NPJ is wearing a football pad on the shoulder, and Aaron Gordon can't run, jump, do anything, and they went seven.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: Could this just be wrong place, wrong time?
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Like these are the type of conversations you have to ask yourself if you are in charge of this team.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Is David Adelman the best player or the best coach for the position?
30:10
SPEAKER_00: Do we believe that next season, let's say relative health, do we believe that we can right our wrongs on the defensive side of the ball?
30:18
SPEAKER_00: Listen, David Adleman is going to continue to tell you stuff like, and it's because I've been watching all of the post-game interviews, and I'm very curious about like how the coaches and the players are feeling.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: David Adleman would be the first one to tell you, like, hey, I don't think we're playing bad defensively this postseason.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: It was like, okay, okay, maybe not in the in the entirety of it, but there are stretches, and some of them being down the stretch when it matters the most, where the defense is completely falling apart.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: And how many teams are in the postseason this year?
30:43
SPEAKER_00: Let me do some quick maths.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: 16.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: It took me way too long to do that, man, by the way.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: Um 16 teams are in the postseason, right?
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Right now, the defense is 12th.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: And the teams beneath them are teams that are like the Suns are about to get swept, y'all.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: The 76 are down 3-1.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: The Trailblazers are down 3-1.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: Atlanta's offensive rating is pretty low too.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they actually have a chance to win, and they're right below the Denver Nuggets.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: But like the, you can talk about how 12th out of 16th is not that bad, but the teams beneath you, again, other than the Atlanta Hawks, are teams that are also on the brink of elimination, or teams that like are kind of just happy to be there.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: The Portland Troy Blades fans are happy to have home playoff games for the first time in a minute.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: 76er fans aren't happy to be there.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: They're just kind of dead inside.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: It's just the Philadelphia way.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, Suns fans are happy to be there.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Nobody thought that they were gonna win 35.
31:41
SPEAKER_00: They won way more than that.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: You were a team that we thought were gonna be a championship team.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: And the offensive side of the ball, for whatever reason, is significantly worse.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: The only team in the postseason, the only team in the postseason with an offensive rating worse than the Denver Nuggets is.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: Can you guess real quick off the top of your mind?
32:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is that one-seeded Detroit Piston team.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you knew that though.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: You knew that just based on you've been watching these games.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: Um So do you believe that there's moves to be made that can fortify this defense?
32:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, we talked about it in the regular season of how the Denver Nuggets have not been a clutch team this season at all.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: One of the worst clutch seasons in there in the Jokic, the clutch, worst clutch season in the Jokic era, right?
32:29
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about that unwritten rule thing though.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: There is a video on YouTube, and if you're a YouTube watcher of mine, and I mean like a a guy that completely, completely um is here for all of the content, I will I do want to say thank you for that.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: There is a video that I have called Unwritten Rules Are Stupid.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: At least something.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to find it on YouTube right now, where it's called Unwritten Rules Are Stupid.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: And I was looking at it from a baseball perspective because I was jumping back into baseball for the first time in quite some time, and there was something that happened that led up to this, and I was just like, This, this whole unwritten rule thing is is really trash.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's way more unwritten rules in the game of baseball about what'd you do when it's a 3-0 count, what'd you do when your team is already up by so much, don't steal bases, don't swing for the fences when it's a position player in, and blah blah da la la.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: The NBA got some unwritten rules that I don't like either.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Because they they they pick and choose when it should matter.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: Jokic is upset and Jokic and Addoman and the whole fan base is upset with Jaden McDaniels because he went down and scored the layups.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: But you literally just tried to score the possession before.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: Like it was it was a second before, like it was a second before.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: So because you missed, because you missed and you decided it was over, it had to be over.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: You just tried to, you was just pressing the possession before that to try to prevent us from scoring.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: You just played defense last possession, y'all.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: You just intentionally fouled me the possession before that.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: So how do me, how does me, Jaden McDaniels in this case, you just were playing to the buzzer.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: At least that's what it felt like.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: So I will too.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: Now I know Jaden McDaniels is not thinking that.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: He's thinking, ha ha ha, we're up 3-1 on y'all, and I hate y'all anyway.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: But how do we pick and choose when an unwritten rule is worth enforcing?
34:29
SPEAKER_00: That's my thing.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: You know?
34:33
SPEAKER_00: And the answer to that is just eliminate them.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: You don't want them to score, then stop them.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: Simple.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: You see times where players are joking around.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna dribble out this ball, but I'm gonna act like I'm gonna go to the basket.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: And the player is half-heartedly defending them as well.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: Just do that.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: And if he actually goes to it, then just stuff bothers me.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how this series will conclude knowing that Anthony Ewitz is probably not gonna be here for the rest of it.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Io just had a 43-point game when they desperately needed it.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: I I love me some Io Desumu, as you know, I dropped a whole video called Ayo Desumu Safe Basketball.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: So y'all know how I feel about it.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: But I do think that that was right right place, right time.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm not expecting Ayo Desumu to go out there and drop 40.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't expect him to drop 30 next game.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: If he does, oh my goodness, I don't expect him to drop 20 next game.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: So how do we keep our offense looking great if we don't have our guy, Dante DiVincenzo, and we also don't have our best player, Anthony Edwards?
35:30
SPEAKER_00: And does that leave the door open for the idea of a Denver Nuggets comeback knowing that those two guys are not coming back in this series?
35:38
SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: We will soon see.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'll be back to talk more NBA hoops.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some quick hitters.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: My quick hitters are never really quick.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, but how I'm feeling about some of these other series.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: So the Knicks are in a 2-2 matchup versus the Atlanta Hawks, and in game number four, they came out and actually had like a true win, if you will.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: Like this is the first time.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I guess game number one kind of gave that vibe too.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is the first, one of the first times where I just felt like the Knicks looked like that better team that they have been all season long.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: Carnthony Towns just played one of his best games on 10 shot attempts.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: And the one thing I admire about Carnthony Towns, if for y'all that didn't watch, he had uh 20 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, set a career high and assists in the playoff game, first triple-double in the playoff game, all of the all of the bells and whistles attached to him.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: The thing I admire a lot about Carlton Towns, specifically in the series, I know that in the fourth quarters in game number two and game number three, he had zero made field goals on zero for four between the two games, so that's not great.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: But I kind of feel like in his previous stop when he was in Minnesota, you know, he had a couple, how many playoff runs they go on when he was the last couple years in Minnesota?
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Whether it be because of the defense or because of the crazy fouls, which he still gives us crazy fouls all the time, there were series where the box score told you one, two, three, four, five.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: So he played six series, seven series when he was in Minnesota, where the box score told you the Carnegie Towns game.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: Right?
37:06
SPEAKER_00: I felt like that was the case for a lot of his games in Minnesota.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: You could look at his fouls, you could look at his total points, you could look at the shooting percentage and say, hmm, Carnage Towns had a good game or a bad game.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that with him anymore.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: And that's really impressive.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: He's getting to the point where, yeah, I only took 10 shots, but my goodness, was I the best player on the floor?
37:23
SPEAKER_00: Finding little ways to help his team win, whether it be the rebounding, whether it be the passing, whether it's low-key be good positional deep, huh?
37:31
SPEAKER_00: Good positional defense.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: And he has looked amazing for the better part of the series, which I think is really intriguing, because you know that he also is one of the most talented offensive players in this series.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: So you just imagine that one of them games, it won't be 10 shots, instead it'll be 20, and he'll have 37 points instead of 20 points.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of the best well-rounded games for the New York Knicks, which is really impressive, whether it be OG, uh Miles McBride coming off the bench.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: He still stole a bunch of minutes from Mikhail, but I'm happy that Mikhail Bridges at least scored in this one so people can get on his off his case and push that five first-round pick talk later down the line.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: The next game that he has bad.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: Just time and time again, it felt like from the very start to the very end, the Knicks were in control of this game.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: And they again, they hadn't been that team.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: Even then in like the other game that they won, they did allow Atlanta to go on a few lift restrictions.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: You're like, mm-hmm, here come the Hawks.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like that happened at all in this game.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: So maybe that is the momentum they need going into game number five, and game number five is super important.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: As you know, the team that wins game number five wins the the series majority of the time.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: So we'll be looking out for that.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Carnth and the Towns and them.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to see what the Atlanta Hawks could potentially do to keep this going and keep the momentum that they have built.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: I do think that it is interesting that like Nikel Zinn Walker for the most part, he's looked pretty, pretty regular in this series.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: I think Jalen Johnson, for the most part, he's looked really, really regular.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: And outside again, they had the they hit two game winners in this one.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that they've been playing on both sides of the ball amazing basketball.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think some of the defense they did in those two game two and game three is really fun.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: Um CJ made it happen down the stretch.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: And then of course they have the run in game number two to still that one.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, they haven't been playing super great ball, and I want to see Nikil have his great game.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: I want to see Jaden Johnson have a little 30 ball or something along those lines.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: It just has not happened just yet.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: Um only time will tell.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: And then Kaminga had one of those games.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: I said it in this last video when he was one of the most impactful players of game number three, that he giveth giveth and he taketh away, and he took away that damn game, and he was just not very good.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh, next one we got is he's San Antonio Spurs.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: We'll go over this really quickly.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: When he comes back and oh, did I I don't know if I talked about their previous game.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: Regardless, when he comes back and he just continues to have monster performances, the actual stat line ends up being 27, 12, 7 blocks, four steals, three assists, four A for A from the free throw line.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: But this one was the De'Aaron Fox game.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: At times, it feels like De'Aaron Fox is more of a luxury than a necessity.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: I think in this game, he was a necessity, right?
40:00
SPEAKER_00: Down by 15-ish points at one point in his game.
40:03
SPEAKER_00: Third quarter comes out guns Blaze, and they look like the team that a lot of us believe could win the championship this season.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh, getting turnovers and turning that to three-point shots.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: I think Champagne hit two in that quarter alone.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: And then De'Aaron Fox was really in that mode.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: He had a corner three-pointer, he got to the basket, he was playmaking.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: This was one of those games where you really, really needed him.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: A lot of those assists that Stefan Castle put together, eight of them, just were straight up lops of Victor Wamidiyama.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: And even in a game where they really struggled with the first two, and they were down by almost 20 points, they end up winning by 21, which is like pretty damn impressive.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: And I saw a clip that it might have been, I don't remember who tweeted it, so my apologies, where it showed that coach Tiago Splitter had knew what play was coming up from the San Antonio Spurs and called out to his guys, and they still could have defended.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: And I just can imagine the frustration as a coach to like know that was happening.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: Nobody was there to really, really stop it.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, so shout out to the Spurs, and like they will be moving on.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: I guess Wimby was talking a little trash when he set out that game.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: He's he said something along the lines, y'all should be down four, or y'all should have been swept already, but it was only game three.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: But I get the sentiment, Wimby, go ahead and talk your trash.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and talk your trash, man.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: You are one of the GOATs, I guess.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh so the next one we'll get to Is that Celtics?
41:15
SPEAKER_00: I was so hyped, got the notification earlier, like Vic, um, that uh Joel LeB was now listed as questionable.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, ooh, I mean, they don't just upgrade you for questioning, just send you out, so he's probably gonna play.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: And then he did play, and I'm hype.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting in front row.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: He came out, he scored the first eight points for the teams.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, he there.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, I just want good series.
41:33
SPEAKER_00: I just want some good series even in this first round.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: And then all the threes that they missed in that game that the 76ers won, they made them all today.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: They set a franchise record for most threes.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: Peyton Pritchard hit six.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: Like, just an underrated and ridiculous ball player, Peyton Pritchard is.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not just a three-point shooting, it's the creation, it's the finishing at the rim.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he had the most shots in the game, were a game where Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, and Jordan B played it.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm burying it a little bit because it's the same amount as Jordan B.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: But he he, you know what I'm saying?
42:08
SPEAKER_00: It was his night.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: It was the Peyton Pritchard night.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: Ended up hitting all the shots.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, Derek White had a two chase down blocks.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, I don't even know why teams are still trying Derrick White out there, but they are for whatever reason.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: So he has a good game, and now they're up 3-1.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: And again, the back of mine was like, hmm, Jolin B comes back, they win this.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: It's a 2-2 series.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: Is anything happened?
42:27
SPEAKER_00: But Vijay Edgecomb struggled, uh, only got up nine shots, and it just wasn't the greatest game for them.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's it for that series, more likely than not.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: Again, that Lakers game ended, and the Rockets ended up winning.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the Rockets for keeping that alive, even if I believe this series should have been over at 3-0.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: Um Braun only scores 10 points in this one.
42:48
SPEAKER_00: Eight.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I didn't realize they got up to eight turnovers.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we got to watch those.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: Eight turnovers, nine assists.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: They had asked on a broadcast, or maybe it was the pregame show, about the fact that this game, this team went into overtime last game and Braun played 46 minutes.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: How do we believe that a 41-year-old LeBron James' body is going to react two nights after going to an overtime game?
43:07
SPEAKER_00: And it seemed like maybe not, maybe not the great, maybe not the greatest.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: The Lou Kennard moments, or maybe over after this 27-point game and 20-whatever point game.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: DeAndre Aiden was their best player, and then he gets ejected on a flagrant two.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: Iman Thompson was really good in this one.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: Again, there's a couple possessions down here where there'd be his freakish athleticism where he gets an offensive rebound and one big swoosh, take the ball up and then put it back into the basket.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, the mid-range jumper, a couple different shots for the mid-range jumper for him.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: Rhys Shepard starts.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: He plays just 28 minutes.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: He hits four threes in this one.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: Aaron Holly comes up and hits three threes.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: So really good win for them.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: I know they're in the locker room believing they could do it.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if there's a world where Kevin comes back, though.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if there's a world where Kevin comes back.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, only time will tell.
43:53
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, have you seen anybody lose 40 million dollars in two weeks' time?
44:00
SPEAKER_00: 40 million annually.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: Because that's kind of what Jalen Duran is doing right now.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: And I hate that for him.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Duran's one of our guys.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: He was on a show back in Summer League 2023, I want to say.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: Really cool dude.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: The root of him since then.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: But the way he's been unable to do anything in a series on either side of the ball is pretty scary.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, for their sake, whether it be this series or next series, they come back to win this one.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: If they want to do the thing they want to do, which is win as many games as possible and go on to raise Hilario B, they're going to need him to be the best version of himself.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: Or how about 80% of 90%?
44:34
SPEAKER_00: Because right now I feel like we're getting 35% of him, man.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: We're in a game where Sar Thompson was all over the place.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: K Cunningham had a great fourth quarter.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: Toby had 23 points, and they still lost.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: And it like they had a cool, fake little comeback, but they still lost.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: Because they just can't figure it out.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: I was I love to see that B Ball Paul ended up playing some minutes, so that's that's cool.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: Because I think that guy's just straight up an impactful NBA player.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: But Jalen Dern has to pick it up.
44:58
SPEAKER_00: He has to pick it up.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: When we come back, I got more small ball with Kenny Beachum.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: Over the last week, I got asked a lot about the Bulls, their past, and their future.
45:17
SPEAKER_00: A bunch of tweets went with NBA Twitter viral, talking about the fact that the Bulls traded away so many really good players from DeMar to Zach to Caruso to Larry Marketing, which was fake true, but we'll I'll keep going.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: Larry Marking, Wendell Carter, Io Desumu, Kobe White, and Lane.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: This goes on and on and didn't get any first round picks.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: First of all, we did get a first round pick in a Larry Markins trade, damn it.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: And that first round pick conveyed this season.
45:42
SPEAKER_00: So whoever that might be at the 15th pick, he's gonna be the GOAT, and y'all gonna stop talking about it.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: But watching Io, I was again 100% in favor of IO having that game.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: It was having so much fun, but I did see some Bulls fans that are like, it's bittersweet, and I understand that.
45:55
SPEAKER_00: Chicago kid wanted to be here his whole career.
45:57
SPEAKER_00: We trade him away, we get nothing in return.
45:59
SPEAKER_00: He has his best game of his life.
46:01
SPEAKER_00: And it was like, Kenny, this new front off is gonna come in.
46:04
SPEAKER_00: What are your expectations?
46:05
SPEAKER_00: Who do you want to see?
46:07
SPEAKER_00: And my answer to the second part, at least, to who do you want to see is I don't know.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, I thought that we got it right when we we got Mark Eversley and Artunes Carney Chauvis.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: So that lets you know how little you really know or I really know about who's in charge and who's making these decisions and so on.
46:24
SPEAKER_00: Because if you remember back in 2020, I think it was when we ended up getting those two guys, they actually were the hottest names on the market when it came to front office positions.
46:33
SPEAKER_00: We got the top guys, and they ended up being really bad.
46:38
SPEAKER_00: So no matter who we ended up bringing in, I'm not gonna judge a book by his cover.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna go through their resume and say, hmm, he was here when this team was built, and he was here when this team was built.
46:46
SPEAKER_00: Because what we continue to see is that doesn't really matter.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to see, you know, there's rumors about, you know, we're down to our final three that's rumored, and that we got some in-person interviews next week that'll determine a lot of different things.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: If I'm if I had to take a guess, if I had to take a guess, I think it would be the Lloyd guy um from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
47:11
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is because he had already been here as a part of the Chicago Bulls for like 17 years.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: He had worked with Gar Pax throughout that running, and he is a Chicago kid, if I'm not mistaken.
47:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, Matt Lloyd in Minnesota.
47:26
SPEAKER_00: So if I had to guess, that would be the guy we went with.
47:29
SPEAKER_00: And when he was first rumored, when we got rid of those guys, I watched two interviews for him.
47:33
SPEAKER_00: Seems like a good guy, a knowledgeable guy.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: But who knows?
47:35
SPEAKER_00: Like, who knows?
47:36
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, these are people that are going to be making trades.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: And in Minnesota, he was, of course, a part of building the team that you see today.
47:42
SPEAKER_00: And how much say and input that he had in those things, I don't, I don't know.
47:47
SPEAKER_00: But it's some interesting stuff.
47:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, Bryson Graham from Atlanta, he's also one of the finalists.
47:53
SPEAKER_00: Dennis Lindsay of Detroit, he's the guy that you you hear the most about as far as like I mean, you know the most about.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: We've heard his name many, many times before from like the Utah Jazz and everything.
48:02
SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited to see.
48:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of the Utah Jazz years are really good.
48:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously, you have Rudy Gobert there, and he prioritized having a really big center that can defend, and Lord knows I like a really big center that can defend.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm really just excited, but like all the questions as crazy as sounds become somewhat overwhelming the amount of times I've been asked it, and kind of like reciting the same thing over and over and over.
48:27
SPEAKER_00: Hey man, whoever it is, I'm just hoping that he's good and I'm gonna be rooting for him, but I'm not gonna go in and saying, oh, this is a good hire.
48:34
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a bad hire because you never really know.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: I remember when um Leon Rose got picked up by the Knicks, and it was a great story about like, oh, what does he, what he's a he's an eight, he's a former Asia.
48:44
SPEAKER_00: Can he build a team?
48:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, listen, the Knicks ain't won a championship, but think about where the Knicks were pre-Leon Rose.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: Think about where the Knicks were pre-Leon Rose.
48:53
SPEAKER_00: Leon Rose got there, they won 41 games, 37 games, 47, 50, 51, 53.
49:00
SPEAKER_00: And before that, they they won 21, 17, 29, 31, 32, 17, 37.
49:08
SPEAKER_00: He he built them their first 50-win team in a decade plus.
49:11
SPEAKER_00: So, like, you never know at the end of the day.
49:14
SPEAKER_00: It's the only point I'm making.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: You never really know who's gonna be the good hires until they get in there and they start making decisions.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: Whoever is in charge of the Bulls come next month has two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a lot of expiring contracts, and maybe a change to the way the lottery works starting next season.
49:32
SPEAKER_00: So, whew, big off season for the new guy.
49:35
SPEAKER_00: First day in the job, and I'm the most important guy.
49:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh, let me know what you think about this episode of Smallball.
49:40
SPEAKER_00: I'll be back again next week to talk all things hoop.
49:42
SPEAKER_00: I will see y'all then.
49:44
SPEAKER_00: Peace.