Coming up the final day of the NBA season, Masters, UFC, a two-parter. Next. We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast, Network Avenue Rewatchables. Coming for you on Monday. We have Fairway rolling, our golf podcast covering all of the Masters angles. Scottie Scheffler wins it. Congrats to him. We talked a bunch about it on Tuesday and Thursday in this podcast, and I watched all weekend with House and with Nathan, and they're going to hit everything we would have talked about on this podcast, we're talking basketball pretty much all the way through, at least in part one, because game 81, game 82, it feels like the NBA finally figured out what to do with this final weekend. I'll explain why when we talk to Rosillo, but we are going to do a two-part podcast right here. Part one is going to be all the stuff we saw this weekend and all the playoff stuff that's coming, all the matchups, everything we think. Then we're going to put that up as fast as we possibly can and then tape part two as part one is going up Part two is going to be all the awards stuff, and then we're going to save some UFC and Masters stuff for the end.

A two-part, staggered BS podcast with Brian Marcella next. First, our friends from ProJip. All right, we're taping this. It is 3:45 Sunday. The Masters is still going on, but Scottie Scheffer wrapped it up. Ryan Rousseau is here. This is part one of the two-part End of the Season, NBA Extravaganza and Rusillo. Awesome weekend of basketball. A lot of subplots. Some things changed, some things shifted. I want to talk about the weekend first, and then we can go into all the playoff matchups. But what was the number one thing that jumped out to you this weekend?

It's Phoenix Closing with this brutal, tough schedule, their last 10 going seven and three. It was off the charts harder than any other remaining schedule. When you started looking at strength of schedule, they were like, opponents winning percentage of like 650 or 660 at one point. And then the next toughest schedule was 5:40. We were like, after that San Antonio game, I'm like, all right, who are these guys? They went seven of 10, and then they just beat Minnesota, where they still... Minnesota would have been in the three seed, but now they're facing a Suns team they don't beat. So That, I thought, was the biggest thing of anything that happened on Sunday.

They didn't just beat Minnesota. They took a stick out and they smacked them around with it for two plus hours. They talk shit. There was this moment when they're up like 18 and Bill talks shit to Ant, and there's a little bit of a shoving match and a separation. I'm like, Oh, man, Ant's playing terrible. This is the worst thing you could have done. It didn't matter. Phoenix looked great. I agree with you. That didn't change for me with them? Because we talked, what was it last week? We did this segment about trick or treat. Don't allow yourself to get tricked by a team. I wasn't going to allow myself to get tricked by Phoenix because I just didn't believe in them. I didn't believe they were big enough. I didn't think the three guys looked good together. But Bill, over the last five games, it really jumped out in the Sacramento game, which I thought was a great win for them. Then this game, too, Biel was just awesome. He looked like, I don't know, a cross between 2017 playoffs, Bradley Beel, and then near the end of the Wizards before it went sideways, Beel.

But we haven't seen that version of him at all. The game today was the first time I felt like it was the three of them and not just Katie and Booker with Beel. I wasn't expecting that. I didn't know if he had this in him. Were you expecting that?

Look, I think we all know how talented he is. I think the frustrating part of it is there have been times where I feel like, okay, look, they're sending two to Booker, and Durant can get a little stagnant at times, as great as he is. He'll wait on the other side, and then it's like, all right, well, if this is what the defense is doing, Beel should be able to attack something that's far easier than what these guys have to attack. Even though he's always going to put a big numbers and we know how talented he is, for so many parts of the season, granted, it took so long for them to finally get in any rhythm, which is why I think he was going off in one of the postgame pressers recently when they won. He's like, It's time, it's time. And by the way, the Ant thing, there was video, and I'm glad I saw this because I likely could have missed it switching around. But at the start of the second half, Ant and Beel were screwing around.

Did you see that? I saw.

So I just was thinking about, okay, if they face each other in the playoffs, is there going to be some lingering thing or whatever. I mean, and it's just bad against the Suns. He was three of seven today. They load up on him defensively. His shooting numbers are sub 30% in the previous two. It actually went up going three for seven today. He has not been good against Minnesota.

When you left out, he had five turnovers like halfway through the second quarter.

They had 24. The story of today is two things. It was the turnovers, and it was bad early. I think they had nine turnovers the first eight minutes of the game. But then integrating Kat back into it this late, I think it also is a factor with the Pelicans getting smoked by the Lakers today, where you go, It's great you have him back. But I think they were slow offensively initiating stuff. It was easy to load up on Ant. Kat's trying to find himself. I actually think physically, Kat looks really good. I think some of the passing has been good since he's been back. But yeah, I think to your original question, are you ready to buy back in? Are you picking Phoenix against Minnesota in the first round? That's really what we're doing here.

It was so funny to watch the Lakers last week in person play the Timberwolves without towns. I was like, Man, this team looks locked in. They know who they are. The Ant's really growing as a playmaker. Then you watch the game today. He was abominable. That was the worst game I've seen him play all season. Towns, I texted you at one point. I was like, Where is this rank in the unlikable Towns game performances? It was the perfect storm. It was the lunging offensive, like why in charger block, just putting the reps in that over and over again. It was just doing dumb, stupid shit on defense. Him calling for the reviews on plays that weren't ever going to be reviewed in a million years. He was playing all the hits. It was like a Greatest States Town concert. I'm like, Why did I believe in this team to make the finals? What am I doing with myself?

I still think, I don't know if you agree or disagree, I think physically he looks pretty good. He had a show where they doubled Booker, and he had to retreat, and I think, recovered a Bowl Bowl, and I thought he may have blown out both MCLs as he got back in the position because the way it was so awkward. But it's the first thing I look at. Embiid, I thought looked terrible. He still scores 30. Oh, my God. But He looks better now.

Did you see Friday night?

Well, that's an entirely different thing because we were talking about a new injury and the fact that they were like, You know what? We're going to sit him tonight. I mean, that's a little bit of a net story that we're not going to spend any time on. But I I don't know what to do with Phoenix right now. I don't know what to do because it looks like, based on everything we've seen, and it's not like some of these season series that you look at, you go, Oh, wow, this team's one three out of four. When's the last time they played? Oh, January third. A lot of the Dallas stuff that you were looking at, although they're The projections were clearly against only the Clippers, but the way the seating was working, there's just some of the season series stuff. You can look at the record, and then you got to dig a little bit deeper to see who played, who didn't play. And then it's like, When they haven't played each other in three months. But this is two games in nine days. It's scary if you're Minnesota.

Yeah, and they were guarding towns with some of their guards, too, today. They're like, Hey, man, you should try this. Gobert had a good game, but it seemed like the sons were fine with it. Biel's last 22, he's 19 a game, six assists, shooting 54 %. He's over 50 % on threes, 89 % free throws. If you're making that trade, you're basically giving up nothing for him, right? He makes so much money. Nobody else in the league wants him. Miami might have wanted him If they didn't get Dame, we'll never know the full story on that.

But it was so pricey. He also had no trade.

He had no trade. It was so pricey. There was not a lot of market to begin with. But the guy that we watched the last five games, I was really... The Sacramento game, I thought, was just as impressive as this game because near the end when they needed baskets, it was shocking. They were running stuff through Biel and Durant, not Booker and Durant. Do you notice that? Last play of the game when Nerkich ended up getting the free throws and he made one or two, it was like Beal's game to win or lose with the ball, 107, 107. They're trying to get out of the play in. I was like, Man, that's not nothing. This guy's gained trust. I also think he's played really hard. I've vacillated back and forth on whether I was a fan of his game, but the Beale that we've been watching the Suns lately, I think has played really hard both ways. I was watching with House today because House is here. House, of course, had the full experience with him on the Wizards. He was just like, This is why the guy's so frustrating, because we knew this was in here.

It's like, All right, now we're seeing it. I don't know what it means for the playoff, so I'm with you.

Yeah, he said a great tone to start the game today, and this is ideally what you're doing when you put this team together. Bob Myers was doing a Denver game the other night And they were just talking about, and somehow they got on the topic. It was good, though. They were talking about what they thought the West would look like because this feels like a free-for-all, which is exciting. It really does. But he goes, When I looked at Phoenix and they put everybody together despite the lack of depth, and then piecing together with minimum guys because I would have thought they'd be a two or three seed. So when you look at the five, the point differential for those five guys, it's one of the better ones in the league. It has been for a while. I didn't really care about their overall stats for such a large chunk. But it's just funny that there are these moments in a season where I'm holding out hope, holding out hope. And then the back to back against San Antonio where they lost by two points and when Binyama didn't even play. There were so many bad habits in that game.

They come back and they beat Denver, but that was without Murray. They lose to OKC by 25. They beat New Orleans. Cleveland's a mess. They beat Minnesota on the fifth. Then they lost that New Orleans game where New Orleans came back and we're sitting there feeling great about New Orleans again. We know there's the peaks and valleys of every season with every team. But this has been just every week.

Yeah, this has been packed in a week. It's a little like what following football is like during the regular season when it's like, All right, week four, I'm doing my Sunday Night podcast. You're doing Monday. And it's like, Miami, are they for real? And then the next week, it's like, Miami, they're not for real. And you just bounce around. So I asked you what jumped out to you the most. I'm going backwards to Friday night with the Denver San Antonio game, which became something of a Black Swan event for the season. And it's one of those where if you just saw the box score and you're like, oh, my God, Denver, how did they lose that Spurs game? What the hell are they doing? But we went back, House and I, we came home that night and we watched the second half on League Pass, just the replay. They're up 20 halfway through the third quarter, the Nuggets. They're putting this away. They're getting the one seed. They're playing the Spurs on Friday. They're playing Memphis on Sunday. This is a wrap. They look great. And then Wemby does the thing where it's like when we talk about all NBA in part two, I feel like we're at least going to have to talk about Wemby for three minutes because Wemby just takes over the game and goes nuts and culminates with a 30-footer from the arc.

Even then, the nuggets are still up. They're up 10. Fourth quarter, they're up 6. They're in control. They're in control. And then the last three minutes, it's Devante Graham, who I didn't even know was playing anymore. I knew he was a contract. Some guy named Mamu, who's only been playing recently on the Spurs, he has a 15-letter name. The announcement were just calling him Mamu. Kind of liked his game, by the way. And Wemby. And it's the of them going against the Nuggets. And it's not like the Nuggets didn't care. The Nuggets were fucking trying, and they ended up losing on this crazy Devante Graham shot. They still have a second left. They can't inbound the ball, and they lost. And you could see Mike Malone was just like, What the fuck just happened? We had this game. The Spurs, they weren't playing Sohan. They weren't playing Keldon Johnson. They weren't playing Vassell. This was Wemby and the fucking G League, and this caused the Nuggets to one seed. Now they're in the two spot. If the Lakers beat New Orleans, now all of a sudden they have to play the Lakers in round one.

I just feel like that was such a fluke and so weird. I'll never forget watching that for an end of the weekend game.

One of my It's one of my favorite games of the season. It starts with Wemby scoring 17 points in three minutes.

In three minutes?

Three minutes. Here's the thing. I knew it was coming because I was just going through all of the games, and I just was like, Look, try to see as much as you possibly can tonight because it's going to matter so much more going into Sunday. You're thinking, All right, well, Denver's playing it out. Okc gets their guys back. Everybody wanted the one seat. There's some years where I'm just like, Why would you punt on game seven at home? We know historically it was overwhelming filming, and then I think it's been watered down a bit. I don't know what the year cut off would be of like, hey, game seven at home hasn't mattered the way it used to traditionally. I knew the 17 point thing was coming because I was late on it, and I was just sitting there being like, when's it going to happen? When's it going to It's like a horror movie where you knew the scary scene.

Yeah, right.

It was still that much fun, even though I knew... Because I saw a clip, I'm like, What did he do? I was like, Oh, so I can't wait. I watched the entire second half of that. You're like, Man, Mr. Ketilviva, Haley, who is a Seahaw legend.

Did you just say his name correctly?

Maybe.

I'm going to call him Mammu.

Yeah. Those guys played their asses off.

It was amazing.

One of my favorite things to do when you're watching a team, because it was both things. San Antonio played like everything mattered. When they won, Wendby spikes the ball and was super into it. It's just all these things we love about him and his personality. But then you're also like, What the hell are you guys doing on Denver? It reminded me a bit of when Boston blew the lead to the Cavs, and you're like, Hey, guess what? Dean Wade's making shots. Might want to close out on him. Hey, guess what? You still have to box out in the fourth quarter. You have to find who your guy is. There were these straight line drives by Mammu. It was just absurd. The thing I'll look for is I'll watch the assistance on the team that's pissed off. It's Ryan Saunders, it's Adleman's kid. They're seeing these straight line drives by San Antonio or somebody loses somebody in a box out. And the two assistants were like, look at each other and put their hands up like, what the fuck? It's always a very good sign that it's not just things are going wrong. They're like, why are our guys just like, what are we doing out there?

And there was a few possessions in a row where I would be like, I'm going to watch the assistance after this possession. And then San Antonio would score again. And those guys would just look at each other. Who knows how this playoff story will be told, but there's a couple of games in there.

But it could be one of those games. What was that game that year when it was game 82 and some weird result happened and it shifted the order and we were like, Oh, yeah, that's stupid game where so and so. I'm blanking.

Wasn't the Spurs when they lost late and they ended up in the 3-6 match? Yes. That's when Chris Paul hit the game winner.

Right. That was it. I remember. I would urge anybody who likes basketball and who cares about the future of the league to watch the second half of that Nuggets Spurs game because it wasn't just Wemby. He finished with 34 and 12 and five assists, whatever he had. The way he was guarding Jokuj was unbelievable. That was the first time I've ever seen Jokuj 100% trying and not always getting the shit he wanted against one-on-one matchups. Where there's a couple of times when he's just Oh, he beat him and he still blocked it. But he had a play in the fourth quarter. They posted him up on the right block against Aaron Gordon, and it was like, Oh, this is stupid. What are you guys doing? And he went like he was going to go right and then just did this crazy spin move, Freddy Kruger arm, layup thing. And you could see Aaron Gordon was like, What the fuck? I'm like, What are the best defenders in the league? What just happened? But Wemby is like, This is why the All-MBA I think is tough with Wemby. I think he's in the conversation because if you're going to make the Halliburton case, and we'll talk about it in part two, if you make the Halliburton case, it's basically Halliburton was so awesome for those first 10 weeks.

He has to be third-team All-MBA. Wemby has been so awesome in the last, I don't know, two months that I'm willing to throw out every single rule I have. I'm like, I'm never voting for a guy in a losing team. It's like they're trying to tank and he's ruining it for them. He's winning games by himself with these shit players. He's beating the Nuggets who are legitimately trying by himself with Mamu and Devante Graham. I'm stupified by him. I can't believe how good he is. And by the way, kudos to Windhorse, because I remember when Windhorse was the guy who was the Wemby student, he had gone there a bunch of times, watched him a bunch. And he said last year, Wemby will have these stretches where he just takes over the game for four minutes, and he just like, annulates the game. He's like, You know when it's happening? He does it and you can see it, and there's just no way to stop it. He did that to the Nuggets with the 17 points. He had 30 footer, 32 footer. Anyway, it was awesome. But it changed the playoffs because now the Nuggets are second.

Okc is one. If the Lakers somehow lose this 7-8 match up to New Orleans, they're playing two games in three nights. It's always tough to beat the team the second time. Denver could get New Orleans. That might work for them, or they might get the Lakers, a team that is not going to be easy to beat.

No. It's also if we're pivoting to OKC because you spent a lot of time on the Spurs there. But you're right. We did. Well, it's worth bringing up just because of the Denver part of it, because you were sitting there looking at Denver after the win against Minnesota. You go, Okay, so they've got Memphis and San Antonio to close. This is a wrap. Yeah, this isn't going to be an issue.

I I think they were 18 point favorites against the Spurs.

Yeah, and when I was looking at some of the seeding probabilities, it was just off the charts because of who they were facing the rest of the way. Then you're like, All right, well, good for Denver because they actually prioritized, We want a game seven in the Western Conference Finals. If it happens, we want it in our place, and that's going to be a pain for everybody else. Now you're like, Okay, so OKC avoids that. The best part for OKC is like, Cool, now Denver is on the other side.

But it was even worse than that because after But after Friday, it's like they might be the three seed. Denver went from we have one locked up to we're going to be the three seed, and we're only going to have home court in one round. What the fuck just happened? And then Minnesota helps them out by losing today. So they still end up second. But I see you ended up being the big winner.

I have no idea what to expect from New Orleans, LA, because today was horrifying for the Pelicans. I mean, Lakers were so aggressive. The Lakers looked like, Oh, you guys want to see what a playoff preview is? Okay, this is what it is. Lebron's just, what, 13 assists at half, super aggressive, tougher defensive assignments.

And then closed them. He still finished at 28. He definitely likes going against Zion. There's a little bit of a, Oh, you were supposed to be the next guy? I can feel that with... He really goes at him. Fandel texted me today, and they were like, Let's do a boost for Sunday. And I'm like, Let's do the Lakers. This is like a LeBron game. This is a playoff game for them. This is the difference to the regular season versus this is a one game. They're rested. They're going to go at them. They eviscerated them. That game was over. When did you know the Lakers were going to win that game? Six minutes into the first quarter?

It just looked like two different teams playing different pace. I don't know if it's because New Orleans has had a brutal week. I mean, you want to talk about the ebbs and flows of a season. New Orleans goes 8-3 over Then they lose four straight. Then they had this unbelievable close where they have the comeback against Phoenix, which you already talked about, Portland, whatever.

The Sacramento game. Really nice win against Golden State.

Then Sacramento, that I've said all season long, of all the times you spend putting the hours in, grinding the tape, you're like, New Orleans is an awful matchup for Sacramento. Then even have Ingram in this one, and they could even go small, and they got a big, Sacramento came back into the game, and then it's a reminder of, no, we're just at a different level where you see some of these teams. It's like the Denver thing where it's just for most games, they go, Okay, now we're going to show you the separation between us and you. Then to your point, the Golden State game, that was tough because Golden State comes almost all the way back. Steph had a three at the very end. It felt like New Orleans had to win that game three different times. I don't know if that's part of whatever happened today. We'll find out here in 48 hours.

Well, 36 hours later on a Sunday afternoon in New Orleans. But yeah, I'm with you. That Golden State game was the best win they all season, New Orleans, because Golden State's going full tilt. They kept coming back. They left everything out there. Curry was, I think, the most tired, I think I've ever seen him in a game at the end of that game. Actually, I couldn't tell if he was hurt or whatever, and we were like, Oh, he's He was completely exhausted. I thought that was actually an alarming loss for Golden State because they needed it, they wanted it. They just didn't look athletic enough.

At one point, he definitely dinged himself up in that one, not to go back to the old case, Steph is hurt. So he gets a pass for everything. But he did. He was hurt in that one. And even with a potential movement today, they just were like, Hey, we're shutting everybody down.

Which- Would you see, I was going to do this in all NBA, but I'll just do now quick. He's played the most minutes he's played since 2017 this season. And I think he's looked tired for the last couple of weeks. You can see it. They've been spot-resting him and stuff. But now, the way this played out for them, just talking about the order really quick. Actually, let's take a break and we'll talk about the order because this Golden State piece is a big part of this. The Bill Simmons podcast is presented by FanDuel. The NBA Playing Tournament gives teams the chance to play their way into the postseason. It only seems right that new customers on FanDuel can play their way into a $150. Just place any $5 bet and you'll get $150 in bonus bets, win or lose to use during the NBA Playoffs. Bet on Threes made in Bulls Hawks. First basket score over and totals much more You also have FanDuel now live in Joe House's hometown, the nation's capital, Washington, DC. Just go to fandil. Com/bs to get started. Fanduel, official sports betting partner of the NBA. You must be 21 plus, 18 plus in DC.

President selects states. Get them a problem call, 1-800. Game where visit rg-help. Com. First online real money wage or only $10 for a first spot is required. Bonus issue is now with trouble. Bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook. Fanduel. Com. We're talking about the West order, which became... It changed 19 times over the course of the last five, six days. But Golden State's best case scenario to make the playoffs, and again, I don't think they're any a threat compared to the Lakers. I think the Lakers and Golden State, just in terms of threats to win multiple rounds, there are different levels. But if you were saying, Hey, Golden State, what would you want to happen here? You'd be like, Well, we'd love to play Sacramento in the 9-10 game. Don't really care where that is. Then it'd be awesome if we got New Orleans instead of the Lakers in the next game. Then you know what else would be cool if OKC was the one seed because that's the one team we know we can go up and down with. All three of those things happened. Golden State is a classic, Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in.

Because Friday, it's like, Their season's over. This is a wrap. But now, I don't know what to think.

Well, I don't know that I ever was at the point where I'm going, All right, their season's over. When they were 19 and 24, and Clay looked like he should retire, which, again, I didn't feel that way, but it was a really rough stretch for Clay. If you go from that point on, I think they were 19 and 24. That means they finished up at 27 and 12. That part of it gets lost in the moments where you want to see them just run away. Like, look, when they beat the Lakers in LA, and I went to that game, that's the second time that Anthony Davis has been out of the game against them. So I don't know that those results because going back to last year in the play, when they played each other, you're like, okay, well, they got through Sacramento, but the Lakers, this is just a brutal draw for them. And it played out that way. It was just too big. It was like every possession over and over again were just too small to compete with them. So when you look at the Sacramento part, they finished with the same record, lost the tiebreaker, but they still punted on today, knowing that if they got in the win and Sacramento gets the win, they would have been the nine.

They didn't care.

We know why they didn't care, Rasila? Yeah. They're 21 and 20 at home this year. I mean, one of the secret stories of the decade is Golden State switched buildings and completely lost their home court advantage. And I know they spend a lot of time and money and energy trying to figure out how can this place be awesome, how are the acoustics going to be great, but it's just not the same. I think the people that go to the games are different. It doesn't have the magic that Oracle had, and I don't think anyone is afraid to go in there. So that's changed for So maybe it doesn't matter that they're going to play two playing games on the road and then be the eighth seed. 21 and 20 at home is awful.

Yeah, but they were 33 and 8 at home last year.

Yeah.

That's an absurd number. Remember last year, the whole deal was like they sucked on the road. They had 11 wins on the road, which was less than Dallas and Utah. They didn't even make them play in.

Well, this year, they're 25 and 16 on the road at 21 and 20 at home. I blame the new arena. It's my working theory. I don't care. You can throw all the data you wanted me.

It was enough carry. It was like carry-over. Last year was the gap year. Remember how bad the defense was on the road? It was like, Wait, what? What's going on with this team? I think your bigger point, though, is the right one, because when you start looking at paths, and that's why I didn't really finish with the Oklahoma City thing, they're like, Great. This is incredible. It may not be great if you get the Lakers, but now you know that in the last week, it worked out that it wasn't like you were going to drop out into four because the Clippers and Mavs were going to catch you. But you're not stuck in the two, three side against a huge Minnesota or a huge Denver, even though I know the season series, you wouldn't look at it and go, Hey, this is a problem, but I think the playoff part of it. So now they're just one of those two teams is going to beat each other if they're there, and now you don't have to deal with it, so real.

Kyle, turn the camera. I want you to record this. Okc cannot beat the Lakers. Yeah. That is a worst-case scenario if that's the 1-8. I think the Lakers, the way this played out, potentially for them, is unbelievable. House and I were talking about it, do you throw the 7-8 game so you can play OKC? We actually had that conversation. I would never advocate throwing a playing game, but it's like you could win the 7-8 game and play Denver, or you could lose the 7-8 game and play OKC, a team that you've played a couple of times this year, and you seem so much more bigger and more physical and overpowering than them, and they have no experience at all in the playoffs, and they're young, and you have this veteran team that rises to the occasion in some of these big-ass games. I just think if you're OKC, a lot of people have been tweeting and talking about if you're the one seed, should you get to pick who you play? Which I think there's no way they can do that with the scheduling. But I'm just telling you, okay, so you would not pick the Lakers.

That would not be their first choice in the group.

No, If you go through it, season series is three, one Lakers. If you look at the health of the two teams through it all, basically everybody was healthy. Rui missed one, Gideon missed one. But the Lakers, they played one game post January 15th. They played March fourth.

I went to one of them. They overpowered them. It was the combo of Davis and LeBron. They just didn't have enough size. I think it's a bad one for O KC.

I'd be worried if I were I agree. You can't screw around the plan.

You have to try to win it.

Because if, say, Golden State beats Sacramento or whatever, it's one game and all of a sudden Steph and Clay go crazy or whatever, and then you're just like, Oh, wait, what did we just do? And then we lost two. We're not even in the play. So you're right, you can't do that.

They won't be afraid to play in LA. Yeah, you got to win.

So you're picking the Lakers.

I somehow did the first take where I created a dumb argument with myself and then argued against myself. But it's just funny. I guess the real point is the Lakers are in a best-case scenario now where if they win the 7-8, great. We're the seven seed. We did it. We don't even have to play a second playing game. Now we'll get five days rest LeBron. The other thing with LeBron is in a Especially in the first round when you have these breaks, if they can win the seven seed, get four days until game one, then it's another couple of days until game two. And anytime he has two days rest, I feel like he's awesome. But then if you somehow lose the seven, eight, you still have the eight, nine game at home. And then if you win that, you get to play OKC, a team that... I'm sorry, LeBron, there's no way he's not going to be excited to play OKC. That team is no size. Anytime he puts his head down and goes to the rim, he gets to the rim.

Yeah, look, Denver's 3-0 against him this year.

Denver, I wouldn't want to see.

The thing that's going to scare me is just the Lakers are a bit like Golden State where you go, Hey, draw a line in the sand from this point on. This is a good basketball team. With the Rui part of it, D'Angelo continues to shoot it really well. Lebron, I figured at some point, we just overanalyze it, or at least I do, where I look and be like, Okay, is Is it finally slowing down? Is it finally going to slow down? And then you look at the shooting numbers and you go, he's just found different ways, and he'll find ways to take time off in the game so that he's fresh late. The way he played in that Golden State game that we talked about last week, her favorite shootout game, once he just dialed up the physicality and the aggressiveness, which is, I think, a lot of what we saw in the first half of today. It was like, okay, it's on. He keeps doing the impossible. Based on the history of Denver or Oklahoma City, you're right. Why would anybody go, Yeah, let's play Denver instead of Thunder?

Well, another thing happened because we have to mention this, that for two months, everybody in this team was in a trade rumor, basically, or all the typical trade things. And I think we've I've seen this pattern with these LeBron teams. We're December, January. There's some bumps, there's some ebbs and flows. This guy's in a deal, that guy's in a deal. Somebody wants this. Lebron's mad about something. And we do two months of that. We get past the trade deadline, and then the team plays better. It's like, I wonder what What's going to happen? Oh, everybody knows they're on the team. I think the way they're playing now is really good. I don't think they can win four straight rounds, but I wouldn't want to see them over the course of two weeks when they have rest between every game. Their home crowd is going to be really good and fired up for whoever they get. If you're telling me to rank Golden State, Sacramento, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, those four against each other, to me, the Lakers are clearly the best of the four at this point. I don't trust New Orleans at all.

I know that they're a trick or treat team for us. If you catch them on the right day, they look awesome, but I just don't trust it the way I trust LA. I can't get the in-season out of my head either. When they dialed it up, I thought maybe that ship had sailed for them, but they got it back. I still feel like they're susceptible against teams with good wings because I think they have problems defending wings. I want to see if they played Phoenix, that would be a really fascinating matchup where I think both teams can do things the other team can't really stop. But the fact that the Lakers, I'd given up on them as an impactful playoff team, but I think they're in the mix now. I don't think they're going to make the finals, but they're in the mix.

Yeah, because they were so average in January, and I had just caught it, and it was the thing if you're only paying attention to the Lakers or covering the Lakers. There's just these schedule stretches where you go, Hey, this schedule is going to be tough because of this, and they're playing this many teams, and they're on the road here, and there's a bunch of travel in there. And people were saying it like, Hey, look out post-in-season tournament, where we were there, and it was really impressive, but you just go, Okay, so I guess I think you're going to win this thing. I have you on that short list of teams. They can win an NBA title, and I don't think any of us really ever got there. But right around the deadline, which is the eighth of February, that day, they lost to Denver. But then they've been on a tear, really. Ever since, I think the Rui part of it has been huge.

I don't know why it was- They're 27 and 14 second half of the season.

Yeah. I don't know why the rotations have been such a struggle, where I think Ham is experimenting. I think other times, I don't know. Sometimes it can feel a little bit late, but the Anthony Davis part, I'll ask you, I don't like the pie chart of, do we talk about this guy enough? But I don't know that we ever thought this guy was coming back. In 75 games this year, the most he's played since 2018. And it's not the perfect ceiling version of him when he was younger of what we thought he was capable of. But whether he's in the argument for defensive player of the year, what he is on a nightly basis, it's almost overlooked because we just assumed he would be this disappointing version of himself based on what our greatest hopes were of him. And now he's this overlooked guy that when I was doing the all-MBA stuff, I was like, Oh, one of the first names I write down on the second team is Anthony Davis. I don't know that we thought we'd get back there.

He's over 2,700 minutes this year, which is the most he's played since 2018. If If you told me Anthony Davis is going to play 2,700 minutes again in his career last summer, I would have been like, There's no fucking way. That'll never happen. But he did it. It's been the best possible season at the age he's at because he was in a 2012 draft. So this is, I think, year 12 for him. 25 and 13, 55% shooting, two and a half blocks a game, huge PR. All his advanced numbers are really good. I test why it's like even the game against New Orleans today. New Did you notice the New Orleans knew they were going to lose in the second half? So they were like, Let's see what we have if we have Bal and it's just the tack AD, and we'll post them up. Let's just plant the seed here and see how this goes. And he got a couple, but then AD stuffed them a couple of times and stopped him and was like, No, don't think this is going to work in the playing game because we're going to stop this. I just thought, I don't think he would have done that two years ago.

I've been impressed.

No, depending on how the defensive assignments happen today with Zion, when he ended up with Davis, everybody plays often. But I think for some teams, it's a mistake because it just allows him to gain all this momentum on the exit ramp to the rim. With Davis, you could just see, All right, I might think I have an angle, and he just doesn't. Look, I'm happy for him because at one point last year, I was like, I don't know that I can do it. I don't know that I can do it anymore with him falling down and then wondering if it's going to be two weeks. I think even the Golden State thing was a reminder. But on the whole, he's somebody that... I don't know how many people, how many Lakers fans are really, sincerely thinking, what can you get from him on the market? But you're never going to get anything even close to what the best version of him is.

He seems like he still cares about getting better and being durable and all the stuff he was then picked on. I think he's addressed some of it. I've been satisfied with the Anthony Davis season. Quickly with the West, It looks like we have OKC. Well, this is OKC versus the Lakers or Pelicans. That's definitely happening. Denver versus the Pelicans or the Lakers or whoever wins the 9-10. So we'll find that out. Minnesota versus Phoenix, Clippers versus Dallas. Who did you think was favorite in Clippers Dallas, out of curiosity? Clippers. So the Clippers are minus 102, and Dallas is plus 120. It's basically even.

Well, LA's, they're two and one against them. The last game was December 20th. None of that matters. It doesn't mean anything. Since the trade deadline, Dallas is fourth in defense, 12th in rebounding. And if you go last 15, they're number one in defense, and the rebounding numbers are even better. And if you look at who played and who didn't, Kyrie missed one, Paul George missed one. That means nothing. I imagine when you go to espn. Com or whatever, and it's like, Hey, the NBA guys picking the series. I'm going to be shocked if anybody picks the Clippers, even though they're the favorites here. But the Clippers have a lot of Phoenix stink on them right now. Or maybe I should say Phoenix has some Clipper stink on them because as much as this Clippers thing after the peak of it, I'm almost tempted to zag on a Dallas team that looks like they're as good as anybody.

The two things Dallas have going against them are, number one, what you just laid out. Literally everybody's on Dallas. Everybody thinks Dallas is going to win. Then number two would be the press conference two days before game one when Kyrie is like, Hey, guys, I have some thoughts.

I know everybody thinks it's coming like you're a troubled child. You're like, No, things have been better. Then the phone rings at 3:00 AM.

Hey, guys, can you just gather around? I just have some 15 minutes of material I have for you guys.

We were doing stuff where we had our own internal countdown for the show where it'd be like, it's been a really quiet 12 Kyrie Three weeks.

Three weeks. Listen, man, he's- But you know what?

As much as it's funny, and I can't believe I'm at a point where I'm about to say this, I don't think that's happening.

No, it's- I don't think it's happening.

I'm not saying forever. I don't think it's happening during this play-off. These guys are so happy, and it's the first time I think Luke has ever been totally cool getting rid of the ball, swinging it. But the momentum of who Dallas has been, and it's all deserved. They're They humiliated Miami the other night. When Miami is trying to figure their stuff out, they're on the list of teams being like, I don't really even know who you're going to be when this thing all starts up. I don't know how many national people will pick against Dallas right now, and I'm I'm thinking of doing it only because I'm like, Wait, am I just going to write the Clippers off after seeing that their ceiling at one point this season look better than every other team in the league?

Yeah, we just haven't seen that Kawhi A game gear for I have one week stretch for a while. He's going to be second team on NBA. I think he's one of the 10 best players in the league by any calculation.

I think of the Phoenix series last year, though, when you were like, Oh, I wonder what these guys are going to look like. Then the At the beginning of it, you're like, Oh, my God. Kauai's back?

Right. So that's why. The line's very fair. It's definitely a let's be careful line. So then you have the 3-6, Minnesota-Foenix, which I'll get a line on after we go to break. But the New Orleans-Lakers thing, you mentioned how the Lakers are three and one against them for the playing game. The three wins were like ass kicks. They weren't just wins. They were like, We killed you. I noticed a weird history with these teams? They're two of the most random cities to be linked with basketball. But you go back to the Lakers got Magic Johnson because the New Orleans Jazz stupidly gave all this money to Gail Goodrich and lost two first-round pitch. Like, Oh, yeah. Well, we got Gail Goodrich. She got hurt. They had the Chris Paul no Trade thing in end of 2011. He was supposed to go to the Lakers. That got flipped. Then you have the Davis mega trade, and you still have Ingram on the Pelicans as the legacy of that trade. It's weird that these teams, the Pelicans have the Lakers pick, potentially. Maybe they don't. They could roll it to next year. But it's just weird that they're linked.

Jackson-hays?

Yeah, Jackson. I forgot about the Jackson-Hays Revenge Series. Then Sacramento Golden State for the 9-10. So this series is 2-2. Sacramento, both of those wins were by one point. Sacramento has not won a playoff series in 20 years. This stat stunned me. Golden State, if they don't make the playoffs will be the third time they've missed the playoffs in the last five years.

Well, Curry played five games that one season.

It's just a stat.

I wasn't mad.

It's a no-context stat. Last five years, three missed playoffs? That's why, as Curry is our guy, I really wanted to make the playoffs just so... My dream scenario would be Golden State and the Lakers to both make the playoffs because it's just a more fun... Golden State, OKC as the 1-8 and Denver, Lakers as the 2-7 is the most fun. I know you love New Orleans. I know you have Zion attachments. But just as basketball fans, my mom would care about who the gold state in the Lakers being in the playoff. It's better for the league from an interest standpoint. It doesn't mean it's going to happen.

I'm in a walking boot, and I was sitting around the other day, pretty miserable, and I was like, What could put me in a better mood? I go, Steph's 30 minutes down the street. I go, I'm just going to go, even though I can barely walk. I found my seat and I just sat there the whole time. It was just a little reminder. It was like, Hey, Steph Curry's playing basketball within driving distance. Yeah. It was a good go. It put me in a better mood. Speaking of some of the weird matchups that could happen- Can we go back to the walking boot? Oh, yeah. I don't know. Really? You want to?

Injury? Like stepping out of a car, pothole, basketball?

You know what? It's such a cool answer. I don't think I'm going to share it because it's only going to make it sound like I'm trying to sound cool. But I tore my calf, but in a very cool way.

You tore your calf like a It's a strain or an actual tear?

No, it tore, popped, couldn't walk for a day, wheelchairs into the hospital.

Oh, my God.

Yeah, but I'm fine.

I love how you just hide shit like this. You're definitely the weirdest person I have in my life. I'd be like, Where are you? I'm in Iceland. I'll be back in two days. I have a torn calf. I'm in a walking boot. Can there be a newsletter that just tells us what's happening with you?

You know what's really funny is I didn't really realize that. You're right. Somebody had said something to me the other day. They reminded me of some story because you're listening to this Black Crow's album, 1994, Amorica, Solen. Start to finish. I was like, Oh, yeah, I remember that winter because I left home after Christmas immediately and I lived in my fraternity, even though I was still young and lived in the dorms. I didn't live in the fraternity. I lived there for three weeks by myself in the winter. And they were like, What?

Yeah, nobody does that. That's like an Alexander Payne They're like, Yeah, that actually now it all makes sense, reverse engineering what your deal is.

So when you're by yourself a lot, you don't understand how weird some of the stuff is. But yeah, walking boot, but dodged a bullet, thought it was the Achilles. But I remember everybody that's ever torn their Achilles saying, You can walk and it doesn't really hurt. It's just this weird feeling, and I couldn't walk and it killed. I was actually happy. And day eight, fine. We'll be fine.

Before we go to break, do you want to guess the Minnesota Phoenix Line? Phoenix does not have home court. Minnesota has the game seven hammer, three-six matchup. Who's favored?

I'm I'm going to go with the same thing that had me say Clippers, and the way you're setting this up, I'm going to guess they're going to say Phoenix is the slight favorite.

No, but it's close. It's actually the exact same line as Dallas Clippers, Minnesota minus 102. Well, this was the last thing I had written down. Then we'll go to break. Have you ever felt less confident in a conference than the West?

Never. No, this has been the talking point for a month.

No, but I always had Denver. I was always like, You know what? When in doubt, I trust Denver.

Wait, you're off of them now?

Because I'm not off them. Not off them. I was like, I trust Denver. I trust their execution at the end of these games. I trust it. I think the See, everything's going to go up and down, and we're going to go nuts, and this happened, and that, and they do the upflow thing. Then ultimately, Denver is going to be standing there at the end because they execute better than anybody. Then you watched them the last month, and what is it? Four, five, six games where they've lost in the last four minutes. Games were like, Here they come. This is the part where they win. And it's like, Oh, no, actually, they didn't win. Like the San Antonio game. They didn't lose a game like that ever. That game was done for an hour.

They don't lose that game. They don't lose that game. If there's one team, Boston, you tell me they lost that game, I'd be like, All right, whatever.

Exactly. If Boston lost that game, my dad would have been like, Fucking Joe Maz. How did he not know Devante Graham? They weren't going to call time out. But when the nuggets happen, it's like, Oh, It's a fluke. I would still have Denver, but I don't feel good about it.

I feel great about Denver still. I thought that game was fluky. If you look at their losses once they started to crank it up, post the All-Star break, they lost an overtime to Phoenix. They lost the Kyrie skyhook game.

Two close games.

Right. That's what it took to beat him. They lost to Phoenix in another rematch where Murray didn't play. They lost again in Minnesota, I think, when Murray didn't play. That was a close game. They have some Murray losses in there. But throughout all of it, we're talking about three months here. Well, I guess I should say February. Yeah, two plus months with one loss where you're like, How did that happen? So Wemby did the impossible for you. He actually is getting you to doubt Dallas in a way you didn't think was possible.

No, it started with the crazy Kyrie shot, the 20-foot lefty. That was when I was like, Oh, man, Denver would have won that one normally.

Here's why you can't do it, because the same thing happened with Mahomes this year in the regular season, because I did the segment, where you went through it and you go, Okay, here are four games where it's like, Oh, my God, the greatest thing in sports, Mahomes down a score has to go the length of the field. They went like, Oh and four in those spots in the regular season. It's like, Okay, is this who he is now? Or did they get called for offside? Did the guy have a drop? Was there a PI that wasn't called? I still think when I was trying to figure out clutch player voting, which is like, I don't know.

I don't know what you do. I hate that award. Is it possible to abstain from that award? It's the dumbest award they have. Most improved. They should have come back player of the Year, though. Isn't that Most Improved? They did the Most Improved, but Comeback Player of the Year is different. I think they got rid of it because it always went to the guy with the injury. But I was thinking Poku today in the fourth quarter against Cleveland. It was like, Comeback Player of the Year, Poku, the running place for him. I still have Denver, too.

By the way, are we doing... Are you going to bring it up?

Yeah, we're doing that. I still have Denver as well, but I don't feel as concrete at them as I did a month ago. But if gun to my head, I would still pick them.

I feel fine. If they end up with New Orleans, the way. That's going to be ugly. And Murray missed two of the games. Zion, he played in all three. Joker's numbers, 29, 15, and 13, 60% shooting in his games against New Orleans, and he takes shots against him, too. But he's not afraid of that matchup, much like most of them.

All right, one more break. All right, we're almost 45, 50 minutes in here. We didn't talk about the East yet. The East is a little less interesting, but did have the subplot. If we're talking about weekends storyline still. Nobody in the East wanted the two seed. I remember this happening before. And then the next were like, You know what? We want the two seed. We'll take it. We're not afraid. Because you know what? When you get the two seed, you get a home court in the first two rounds, and we actually have a good home court, and this matters to us. So they tried to take it. And the Bulls, who locked up the nine seat, who had literally nothing to play for, were like, You know what? Fuck it. We're going to try to sweep this up for you. And then It ended up being a really good game that went into overtime and was fascinating on a lot of levels. But I'm going to start here, Rasillo. The two best players in the conference are Embiid and Yannis. I have no idea what to expect with either guy as we head in the playoffs.

We watched Philly the other night, Thursday night, Friday night, I can't remember. Embiid left in both halves where it seemed like his season was over and then went back. He does not look healthy to me. I don't know what's going on with him, but the thought of him playing four straight rounds seems like a long shot to me. So you have that. Then you have this Yannis calf injury where they're a little dodgy about, Oh, no. He should be ready to come back at some point in the play. Then you read any data about this injury. You do any comparisons, Dame, Durant, anybody who had these strained calves with whatever that muscle is called. It's like two and a half, three, three and a half, four weeks. I think Milwaukee is in more trouble than Philly, but both of them, it's just hard to even figure out what to say. Do you have anything to say?

I do. Can we just give a moment of appreciation for the Knicks pulling out a two seeds with the injuries and what Brunson has been? I would just like to direct all Brunson traffic for MVP towards each other. You guys can hash it out. It's just... If Brunson had hit that game winner today, he still gets that shot off in the corner against Caruso, who's out there just dildoving it, where you're like, Is Caruso going to need an IV for 48 hours after this game? And he still, Brunson, finds a way to almost hit it and it rattles in and out. And then you're thinking, there's going to be such an absurd push because the voting is still this week, we haven't done the ballots yet of first team Brunson. If you really define the word valuable, this creative license that we've taken with the definition of what this word is in sports, when I think the forefathers were probably like... It just means who the best guy was. It's evolved a bunch of different things. I remember when I cared about this stuff a ton, when Mo Vawn got MVP over Albert Bell.

That was amazing.

Right. You're with your buddies, you're like, Yeah, dude. I mean, that's the point. It's most valuable. The only reason you're arguing that is because your guy won when Bell was a better player.

I just think- And a great guy.

Yeah, just everybody liked him. So it was a popularity contest. It was tough for Movon to win that one. This Knicks thing, it's just absurd. Cleveland's a mess. Orlando's got their problems. Milwaukee's had the injuries, all these different things. So they went and grabbed it, and they find a way to close out the season like this. But I've never cared about the Knicks, but watching some of those fun Brunson games in MSG has been one of the best parts of the season.

Great monolog. I'm really glad you did it. They actually gave a shit, not just about winning the two seed, but being good night after night after night when they had a lot of reasons to check out and be like, Let's get the seven seed, let's get the six seed, let's try some different guys. They lost their center for, what, two-thirds of the season, Mitchell Robinson? They lost Randall for 60% of the season. But when you watch, especially tonight with the Bulls, where they have to get a stop down the stretch, and the Bulls, who we've talked about many times, are the best bad team in the history of the league. I've never felt more confident in a 38 and 42 team in my life than when I watched the Bulls in the last minute of the game. You see who the Knicks have out there, and it's like, We're going to put Ananobi on Derozen. It's like, Guess what? This guy is really hard to score against. They have Ananobi and Hart and DiFrancenzo, who's the signing of the year who's turned into just an awesome, awesome, awesome rotation guy. Brunson and Hartenstein, who is going to come up in our part two and do the awards.

Those five guys play really well.

Not for best white defensive guy.

No, not for that. Those five guys play awesome together. I watch some of these teams, and I'm always thinking, End of the game, who's your five? Who's your five? Who's your five? The Knicks, we know who the five is, and they know who the five is. And that makes all the stuff a lot easier for them. And then Brunson just put the superhumanian. It's so similar. We live the Isaiah Celtic season. It's so similar to that, where he's just hit this zone where it just feels like you know he's going to get his 28 to 40 every game. It doesn't matter how they defend him. He's hitting crazy shots. I'm with you. I thought he was going to hit that game winner, which would have been outrageous. It was like over the backboard. But the fans love him. They won 50 games for the second time this century. This is an awesome story. They're not seeing Celtics until round three. This couldn't worked out better for them.

I'm glad you brought up the Isaiah Thomas thing because I've had a few Nicks fans in my life arguing that if you really define valuable, what we were already touching on here, then who's actually been more valuable than Brunson? And I would say I still think there's a couple of guys that have been more valuable than him. And we'll discuss when we do the voting part of it. But I've gone back and was like, I remember these arguments that you made about Isaiah Thomas in 2017. So I get that you've been consistent because no one was making that argument. He ended up fifth in the MVP voting that year. The Celtics were a one seed as a 53-win team when LeBron was in the coasting part of it. Hell, I think Chicago would have been a three or four seed in the East if this team was transported to seven years ago, because I agree with you, they're the best bad team we've seen in years. But Brunson's clearly way better than Isaiah Thomas. This Knicks team is better, I think, just talent standpoint than that Celtics team. But there are these similarities of like, Can this guy actually save them again when he has the ball every single time?

And they're running, pick, and roll for him, and he's going to take 20 to 25 shots. Is this sustainable? When's he going to get tired? And it got even better. It got even better to close the season. By the way, over-under, DiVincenzo, 84 minutes today. I'm taking the over-under.

What did he finish with?

53.

I liked him on the Warriors. I never thought he was more than a ninth man, maybe. But he's turned into this one of the better three-point shooting swingmen in the entire league. He really tries hard. He's like a glue guy. He's fun to play with. His teammates love If they get the Sixers, by the way...

What an amazing signing. Seriously, if they get the Sixers in the first round with MSG in the NBA, just as a neutral fan of the drama of it all, I hope that's the series.

Yeah. In the East, it's going to be Boston against either Miami or Philly. It's going to be the Knicks against Philly or Miami with the possibility of a 9, 10 thing that who knows. Milwaukee versus Indiana and Cleveland versus Orlando. If I'm the Knicks, I want to play Philly because I don't think it beats healthy. I I think playoff history of the Sixers in general, they could throw people at Embiid, and I just think they'll put in an obi on them. I think they'll have all these tricks. It's like the crowd will be nuts. I mean, it's going to be really hard to win there. I would personally want to play Philly. Who would you rather play, Philly or Miami? By the way, I should mention Philly is like, what's their record? Like 30 and 8 with Embiid this year, 31 and 8?

They went 8 straight to close the season.

Yeah.

I mean, it's I think Embiid looks thicker, and I thought he looked bad physically the first came back, which is to be expected. I thought he looked dramatically better. It's just his movement and stuff. And of course, he's putting up massive numbers. I mean, the guy's ridiculous. It didn't even matter how engaged he is because defensively you were like, Okay, well, he's going to use his energy down here. And then the Orlando injury happens, and I couldn't believe he's coming out for the second half. And then there was still something in play today. So it's like, Okay, they're just going to shut it down because Brooklyn, despite the new twin towers of Klaxton and Clowny, I don't know if you get to experience any to close the season. Really? Yeah, I'm not.

Is that a Kevin O'Haw, a Save the Job, Rinkle, Twin Towers?

I've enjoyed some of it. So that game was over. Zack Lo's piece this week I don't know that I've ever read one of his pieces where each section I was like, Yes, I agree. Great point. He got into some of the Butler stuff where Miami is also on the list of what are you supposed to look like when this starts up for real in a couple of days? Because you're going into the playoffs where I don't know what the thing is that you lean. I know it's supposed to be Jimmy Butler, but the Butler stuff late has been bad.

Zack did a good job of hitting all those. It was great. Because their crunch time, it's not even just that he's missing a crunch time. Sometimes it's Magic Johnson at the end of game 2, the '84 Finals, not even getting the shot off. Or you're like, What? Did you guys realize If there's only four seconds left, it's really bad. Now, Hero just came back. Hero is a 20-pointy game scorer. They clearly need a little more oomph.

They need him because so many of the offensive sets seem to break down that he can solve the problems of the first 14 seconds of the shot clock. He's that good offensively of getting his own thing. But I would rather, despite the Embiid injury part of it, I think I'd rather play Miami knowing that what if Embiid's okay? I'm not signing up for that.

I'd rather play Philly. I'm still afraid of Miami. With literally no reason. There's no reason to be afraid of them. They have revealed all year who they are.

No one suffered from heat PTSD more than you.

I'm trying to think. To use the NFL example again, they're the 10 and 6 team that just... They're like the Stealers, like Rothsberg or second of last year, third to last year, when they weren't the Stealers anymore. People were like, I don't know, man. You let them get in. Big Ben and Tomlin, and then they would just get killed. And part of me wonders if that's Miami in this point. The league just got better and they stayed the same. I don't think Butler's looked the same as he did last year, especially at the end of games. I just don't think he's been as impactful. With that said, I'm terrified of them flipping the switch. But the thing is, we've seen this in basketball and football, specifically, those two sports, the flip on the switch team, sometimes you're hitting it and it's just not going on. I would still rather play Philly because of the... I just don't think Embiid's healthy. I don't. I don't think you're going to... I just think you're going to be able to take advantage of that.

Can I ask you a question on Embiid? Because a lot of the level of... Really, the level of criticism you receive as being a star player in this league is based on the tier you're in. Clearly, Embiid was the MVP last year, even though I still think there's... I don't know if it's a handful of guys, but there's a list of guys I'd rather have than him. I'm talking just straight to player, even without the injury part of this. But it's not like I've gone, Hey, we need to shit on this guy more because I don't know. I don't really want to go, Hey, who's the list of the six guys? We really need to give a hard time. But he's escaped it, and we talked about it last year. He's escaped it being a guy that's at this tier one status with the MVP, the numbers that he was putting up this year of like, Okay, but he never got out of the second round. Normally, we really start trashing this guy, even if it's his fault or isn't his fault.

He took no heat for last year, which I'd never really fully understood. Everything was about harder than Doc last year.

Right. And then he had Simmons before, but it was Simmons' fault. It was a completely different series than that Atlanta series going back to '21. So I'm just wondering, I think it all gets kicked down the road again because of his injury now, coming back late.

We say it's not going to be 30 years old.

It's not to say the '24, '25 preview shows, you need to start being rougher on Embiid, but it's just a very rare path of a star in that you actually haven't got dumped on nearly as much because all these different little things have come up.

Well, what you're describing is the it's always something guy. It's It's always something.

Is it, though? Okay, but what if the somethings are all legitimate?

I know. I think they have been. But I'm saying some guys have a career where it's always something. Then other guys have a career where it's never anything. Lebron has never had a major injury in any year where he had a chance to win the title. And this guy has been in the league for two decades now. You think of it like, some guys are just more durable than others. Some guys are just luckier than others. In In this case, though, I think if it's Nicks Sixers, I think that, and he's not 100% in shape and feeling great, I think that's an awful matchup for him. I would not want to see the Nicks. In some ways, the Celtics aren't a great matchup either. That's why I just can't take Philly seriously as a contender. I know all the numbers.

You pick New York against either team?

Yeah, but I'd be a little more careful with Miami because that's just going to be an ugly... We know what that is. Super ugly. They'll throw all these taller dudes on Brunson. They'll try to make it a little like they did last year, like these '86 to '80 ugly games. The team that I am much more committed to shitting on right now is Milwaukee. A, because I don't think Giannis is going to be back until midway through the series. And even if he's back, I don't think he's going to be 100% healthy. They're playing Indiana in the 3-6. Indiana, now a lot of these games happen the first part of the season. But Indiana torched this team. They went 4-1 in the regular season series. They averaged 129 a game. None of those games were with Siakam. So Halliburne is a little worse, but Siakam is better than Bruce Brown. Indiana is 24 and 17 with Siakam. The Bucks are 20 and 21 in their last 41 games. You are who you are if we're talking half the season. They started 24 and 8. They finished 25 and 25. And the thing that really struck me tonight, so House and I, I have a quick betting story for you.

Me, House, Sal and Hinch, we bet at the All-Star break. We did a big bet on Dallas and Milwaukee to win their divisions, and it was like 4 to 1 odds. And it was a roller coaster ride. Every time we thought we had it, something dumb happened. Dallas wins the division. Somehow we can't get there with the Bucks, and we need the Bucks to beat Orlando, or we need Cleveland to somehow lose to Charlotte. Those are the games happening simultaneously. We need one of those two results. The Bucks come out hot, and within a half hour, we're like, Oh, my God, Orlando is going to kill them. They seem so much faster than them, so much more athletic. Milwaukee literally can't get good shots. Dame is getting swallowed up. Dame was one for 11 at halftime. Orlando just sucked him up and swallowed him up. So now we're like, We got to root for Charlotte. We need Charlotte here. Charlotte's down. Cleveland, they lose their only guard because they're the rest of their other guards. They have a Amani Bates' playing point guard. They're up like 10, and then they just throw away the two seed.

They put in all the worst players in their team. Charlotte has some dude, JT Thor, who just fucking put the team on his back. Charlotte ends up beating Cleveland. House and I are jumping up and down in the house and hugging each other. And my wife comes in from the other room and she's like, What is wrong with you guys? We're like, You don't understand. This is one of our greatest bets. But my point with Milwaukee is, Milwaukee looks so fucking slow and unathletic against Orlando. I don't see it with them. I don't. Yannis being hurt on top of it. I don't know if I would have saw it if he was 100% healthy. I don't see it with those guys. I think they're too old and too slow.

They're still with Yannis, my second favorite team in the East, but it's not really saying much. Cleveland thing is hilarious. Just so the audience knows this, Bill's texting me at Cerrutian House incessantly about Charlotte, Cleveland. I'm thinking like, there's only so many TVs for the number of games that are on here.

There were three TVs. They got one of the TVs.

Yeah, but with the masters, I was like, How is Cab's Hornets making the cut?

Yeah, I just explained it to you.

It's nick Smith out there. Don't forget McGallins. It's JT Thor, McGibrice was out there.

The cherry on the Sunday was Poku getting real run, getting to see him again. I was thinking, is he the greatest tanking weapon we've had in the last 20 years? You put Poku out there and it's like something, but it's also your team's going to be worse when he's out there. Anyway, they threw him out there.

Well, he inbounded to the official. Yeah. I don't know if that'll be interesting. They lost him.

It was an amazing video.

We had 32 minutes from Leaky Black today. So The thing that happened for Atlanta, because all these things today was awesome. So Orlando is down early. And then, as you mentioned, that second quarter, put the clamps on him. Milwaukee closed the last seven minutes of the first half without a field goal. They were held to 12 points. It was just awesome to see this young Orlando team be like, We have to win this with defense. Isaac starts. Carter did play.

Isaac didn't just start. They supercharged his minutes. And I'm wondering, is that going to be playoff subplot for them? Because as we've discussed, he's Bill Russell. He came from the future as Bill Russell from the 1960s. If the answer of what would Bill Russell be like in 2024, it's like, Just watch Jonathan Isaac for five minutes.

It's so much fun. Then I think you made a really good point, though, about how slow Milwaukee can look in the perimeter at time, which I think has always been... They've still been really good. When you have the ring in your back pocket, you can get away with some of the stuff. How good are they in the perimeter defensively with some of the matchups they end up with? Then it changes when you go from Drew to Dame. But every time they're having the bad night, I'll watch the other guys off the ball defensively. I don't know what's wrong with those guys, where it's just like, Well, I'm I saw my guy. I don't have to do anything. Brook Lopez closed to a guard in the corner because he had to go out and contest him in the corner. And he got Lopez up because Lopez is a seven-footer racing to the corner, trying to chase you off the line. And he just goes right past the baseline and dunks. Jay Crowder was the lowman on the other side. Jay Crowder didn't even bother. It didn't look. And then you first, we were talking about the assistant coaches.

Lopez is just like, What the fuck? Just so mad and looks back going, I did my job. It looks bad because I got beat off the dribble. But the whole point is I'm supposed to run him off, and then you guys are supposed to step up. It's not very often in just half-court, somebody gets a free run to the rim and dunks it. That's what always feels like Milwaukee's problems are. But Yannis has been Superman coming back from the injuries, whether it's last year in Miami where he found a way to come back, which didn't matter because that was one of the worst performances of just- It's different.

The caps are different, though. You can't fuck around with them because you end up with the rent in the 2019 finals.

But when he had the ankle thing against Atlanta in '21, he played the first four games. That series was 2-2, and you're like, What? Is Trey Young going to end up in the NBA finals? And then he came back and was ready and played 41 minutes a game against the Suns. Can I ask you a question?

Yeah. When you watch the Bucks without Giannis, does it make you appreciate the Giannis season even more?

Because I actually think-He's third for me and MVP.

Yeah, I actually think it made me want to elevate him in the MVP rankings because I'm like, You're the only athletic guy in this team.

No. What Giannis has done, I'll go back and look at my MVP voting history, and the first thing I'll probably do, be like, How come? What was I thinking? I had Giannis one for a while last year. It took me into the very end of the season because I changed my mind a bunch of times. Last year was a really tough one. This year to me isn't as tough, but if I end up with Luca two ahead of Giannis, I almost feel guilty about it just because of like Giannis put together another absurd season. So if he comes back, and I know the CAAF part of what you're talking about, the concern. But he has a good history of coming back from stuff that guys, mere mortals, can't come back from as quickly as he does. And with the Knicks, they're still going to have limitations. The CAAF's punning on everything like they did in the fourth quarter today. Orlando, who we I love watching them, but their offense, I don't trust. The Pacers are sneaky like better now. I'm glad you brought it up. But when I put all that together and then Philly with their problem, Miami, I still think Milwaukee has a chance despite months of bad data.

Well, if you're Indiana, you're like, This is amazing. We love playing this team. And by the way, the one guy that scored 64 on us the one time we lost to this team is hurt and might not be back in time for the first part of the series.

And it's nasty, too.

Yeah, they have some- The missing ball. They have some bad blood. Oh, yeah, there's some bad blood. They didn't have Siakam in any of the games somehow. But I thought Halliburton... Dame trying to guard Halliburton was alarming this season. Halliburton was also 100% at the time. I don't know where he is now, but Halliburton was destroying him.

Halliburton. Halliburton. Garding anybody isn't going to be good. I'm going to put it at two and a half is the line on Neesmith flagrance.

Two and a half.

See if we get a boost on that.

Bucks Pacers. What do you think the line is? Bucks have home court on FanDuel right now. Minus two ten. No idea when Yannis is coming back. Bucks are minus 245, which is honestly too high. And then Orlando, Cleveland. We will tell you on the other part of this podcast, because we're going to do a little Orlando, Cleveland, a little Celt at the top of part two, and then we'll do all NBA awards. And we have to talk about Max Holloway because holy shit. Maybe a tiny bit of masters, too. This was produced by Kyle Creighton and Steve Serruti, as always. We will see you in a little bit for part two. I want to see them on the wayside, never on day. I don't have a few years with them. On the wayside, on the wayside, never on day. Must be 21 plus, 18 plus DC, and present in select states. Fandil offering online sports wager in Kansas under agreement of the Kansas Star Casino, LLC. Gamble problem? Call 1-800-Gambler or visit fandil. Com/rg in Colorado, DC, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and Vermont. Call 1-800-Next Step or text next step to 533-42 in Arizona.

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