NBA First Round First and Second Thoughts + Predictions

[00:00:00] It's Monday, you know what time it is. Front Runner Podcast Collective is back on the air and we first need to apologize about the second recording last week.

[00:00:23] The reason for that was is that I did not back it up and when I went to go get the recording, it wasn't there.

[00:00:33] So what we're doing today is we're giving you the picks for the first round.

[00:00:38] We're giving you our initial thoughts because we had this whole pot already done.

[00:00:46] And then what we're going to give you is our thoughts now that we've seen Game 1 for all the series.

[00:00:54] But before we get into all the basketball and what's going on in the league, a couple things.

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[00:01:53] So with all of that out of the way, let's get into these games.

[00:01:58] There's a lot to get into.

[00:02:00] I'll give you my initial thoughts and now that we've seen the game and see if anything has changed.

[00:02:06] And then we'll kind of go from there.

[00:02:08] We're going to start with the Boston Celtics.

[00:02:12] And they were playing the Miami Heat.

[00:02:15] My first initial thoughts and how I broke this down, I broke it down by the seed.

[00:02:21] So what I'm going to do is end up combining them now.

[00:02:25] My first initial thoughts was that Boston gets a chance to go ahead and prove that they are as good as their record,

[00:02:34] as their net rating says they are, as it looks like historically they are.

[00:02:41] And I also have another note of Jason Tatum who had a fantastic year.

[00:02:49] We can find out if he's ready for the moment.

[00:02:53] And my secondary thoughts now that I've seen the first game in this series is twofold.

[00:03:00] One, I don't think we're going to get the necessary trial by fire for Tatum in this particular series.

[00:03:10] Just because without Butler, without Terry Roger, there's just not enough offense that Miami can muster to cause any concern for the Celtics.

[00:03:22] The Celtics were firing on all cylinders.

[00:03:26] I mean like really to tell you the truth, Tatum had a really like crappy game.

[00:03:33] He was 7 and 18 from the field.

[00:03:36] He was one of eight from the three point area.

[00:03:40] And to tell you, I just didn't think he was impactful in the game as much as he could be.

[00:03:47] Now, Kristoff Porzingis, Jalen Brown showed up, Drew Holliday also showed up, and Derek White played his complimentary game that he always does.

[00:04:01] So my initial thoughts in this series were that, okay, let's see if Miami can muck it up and see if they could go ahead and make it a series and see if the ghosts would start to creep into the Boston Celtics head.

[00:04:19] And I'm going to tell you right now, I don't think that's happening.

[00:04:22] I think we are seeing what it is.

[00:04:25] The Celtics are way talented.

[00:04:28] Their starting five is phenomenal.

[00:04:31] And we are seeing it.

[00:04:32] We're seeing a really great team take care of business.

[00:04:36] And that's what you want from your number one overall seed who has been completely dominant this year.

[00:04:45] And it's good to see.

[00:04:47] So I don't really have any thoughts on that particular series as far as it changing.

[00:04:54] I think right now we're looking at Boston marching through Miami and sorry to our Miami audience out there.

[00:05:03] But, I mean, you have to see it too at this point.

[00:05:06] I mean, it's not just because of the score of the game.

[00:05:16] It's just you just didn't have enough weapons at all in this series so far.

[00:05:22] And I don't think it's going to get too much better.

[00:05:25] So I think next year maybe Miami loads up and gives them another shot.

[00:05:31] But this year, I think we can go ahead and say that Boston should be able to walk through this series pretty quickly.

[00:05:38] All right.

[00:05:39] Let's move on to the next Eastern Conference series, which is probably the most intriguing in a lot of ways to me.

[00:05:48] Let's move on to the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers.

[00:05:52] Now, my first initial thoughts of this series were twofold.

[00:05:57] One, you know, I had this whole thing about what's the same?

[00:06:05] What's changed? What's this?

[00:06:06] What's that?

[00:06:07] But what it really comes down to is can Jaylee Brunson lead this scrappy New York team past Joel Embiid and the Sixers?

[00:06:24] And you say, well, OK, well, if we're just going on name value alone, let's go ahead and say the Philadelphia 76ers.

[00:06:33] I had made a point when Joel Embiid was talking about coming back.

[00:06:38] And I think it's really at this time that I think it's very important to go ahead and bring this back up.

[00:06:45] At the time, I asked Philadelphia 76ers fans when the thought of him coming back, I was like, oh, I don't know about that.

[00:06:54] And I asked them, I asked the 76 fans at this time, was really be worth it?

[00:07:02] Will where you are.

[00:07:05] And at that time, I think they were around eighth or whatever.

[00:07:08] So, I mean, it was basically clear they were going to be in the plan.

[00:07:12] Is it something that you really want to do?

[00:07:15] Bring him back this year when you know you're up against, you know, you're up against the wall.

[00:07:22] Your chances are minimal.

[00:07:25] I definitely understand that Joel Embiid is not the most durable player in the whole wide world.

[00:07:32] And I'm not trying to diminish him at all because he is our right now, our reigning MVP until they give out this award this year.

[00:07:41] But at the same time, if you go back to 2018, there was an injury there.

[00:07:49] There was an orbital bone fracture.

[00:07:53] I think the next year that was the meniscus.

[00:07:57] The year after there was knee soreness and inflammation.

[00:08:02] The year after that, I think there was another like hyper extended knee deal.

[00:08:08] And then the year after that was another orbital bone fracture and concussion.

[00:08:15] So it's all bad luck, right?

[00:08:18] It's all bad luck.

[00:08:22] But it's following him, Joel Embiid, and he's 30 and next year he's going to be 31.

[00:08:30] So again, I ask 76ers fans this.

[00:08:34] Now that you've seen it, now you've seen him be very much diminished and he's compromised.

[00:08:43] And I don't even think Jalen Brunson put him in enough pick and rolls in the first game.

[00:08:49] Mind you, now that you've seen it, even though he darn near what he put up 30, that tells you how incredible Joel Embiid is.

[00:09:00] He's playing on one leg and he's completely compromised.

[00:09:07] And I am scared for him every time he makes a move and it doesn't look good.

[00:09:18] Now, I will say this about the Knicks.

[00:09:22] Even without Julius Randall, it seems like you guys are deep.

[00:09:28] You're super deep.

[00:09:31] Boyan Bogdanovich got out of the doghouse.

[00:09:34] I guess that he can offer some resistance on defense, so that's good enough for Tibbs.

[00:09:43] Deuce McBride.

[00:09:45] Okay, I want to give a shout out to Deuce McBride again because we bigged him up on our podcast, I want to say a couple months ago.

[00:09:55] And he went out there and had another great game.

[00:09:59] And Tibbs now has a bench tip of the spear for the defensive side of the ball, which that means that now you have a guy who can guard your perimeter player at a high level.

[00:10:16] And that's all he really needed.

[00:10:19] That was the problem in the downfall with quickly is quickly was deficient on the defensive side of the ball.

[00:10:26] And now that you have Deuce McBride, we talked about it when we talked about Deuce last time.

[00:10:32] He played at West Virginia and if you know anything about Bob Huggins who just left there I think last year, when Huggins was there and when he was in Cincinnati, this dude just prioritized defense.

[00:10:48] So Deuce McBride played a heck of a game and the Knicks did go ahead and take care of business in the first game.

[00:11:01] The other thing is that on cue, the Villanueva boys are doing it big.

[00:11:10] So you got Brunson, you got Dante DiVincenzo and you got Josh Hart.

[00:11:15] Josh Hart who shot like absolute crap early in the game hit three huge shots towards the end to pretty put it away.

[00:11:26] And they just play hard, man.

[00:11:29] That's the one thing that you don't have to worry about with the Knicks and this is why they are endearing themselves to the New Yorkers out there because that's all they really care about is that you take some pride in what you do and that you give great effort.

[00:11:46] And this is what we're seeing.

[00:11:49] This is exactly what we're seeing from the Knicks.

[00:11:52] And I honestly think that the Knicks are going to win this series.

[00:11:56] I feel bad for the 76ers.

[00:11:59] I really feel bad for Jaleel Embiid.

[00:12:01] I know that he wanted to come back.

[00:12:04] I know this was a decision that he basically kind of made.

[00:12:10] I just think that as a franchise who is looking long term and looking knowing that you have all this cap space, however you choose to dole it out whether it's through free agency really or through trade.

[00:12:27] I just thought that giving him a whole summer to recuperate going into next year was the smarter move.

[00:12:38] Obviously everybody in Philadelphia probably thinks I'm a complete idiot and that's fine.

[00:12:43] But here we are now after game one.

[00:12:49] How confident do you feel as a 76er fan knowing that your guy scored 30, Maxey had a pretty good game as well, and you still fell short because there were just stints that he wasn't out there because he just couldn't go.

[00:13:06] The pain was too much.

[00:13:08] So right now 1-0 in that series and I do expect it to go probably six games.

[00:13:15] Philadelphia is talented, but I do think New York will go ahead and get that W.

[00:13:21] Let's move along to the next one because the next one is where we might have had some of the moments of trepidation.

[00:13:30] But let's get to the Milwaukee Bucks shall we?

[00:13:33] Milwaukee, we've been down on them pretty much the whole season here at Front Runner Podcast Collective.

[00:13:43] Not just saying that we don't like a particular team, just had questions about what we were seeing.

[00:13:52] And with all that being said, you know they had a pretty good season.

[00:13:58] We just didn't think it was sufficient enough where you could make them a viable contender in the Eastern Conference.

[00:14:07] We all know some of the reasons why.

[00:14:10] Giannis is out.

[00:14:12] He's hurt.

[00:14:13] There's a chance that he can come back game three, game four.

[00:14:17] I believe it's closer to game four if at all.

[00:14:21] You know, the other question that I had was Middleton going to be okay being a number two.

[00:14:30] I thought that he was a perfect tertiary player, but asking him to be a number two.

[00:14:36] He scored 23 points in this game.

[00:14:39] Okay, we're going to get to the Indiana side in a second.

[00:14:43] But Middleton did score 23 points in this game.

[00:14:46] It was a throwback game for sure for Middleton.

[00:14:52] And then we had the first half explosion by Damian Lillard.

[00:14:59] Damian Lillard scored 35 points in the first half.

[00:15:05] Now, he didn't score another point in the game, but he made sure that his team was well suited and well oiled to go ahead and finish that game off by scoring ahead and scoring 35 points in the first half.

[00:15:26] Now remember, early on in the season, now these two teams are completely different.

[00:15:32] You know, Pascal Syakam wasn't there for the games early on in the season.

[00:15:37] And obviously, Doc Rivers wasn't the head coach for the Milwaukee Bucks in the early part of the season.

[00:15:44] But remember these two teams got real feisty early part of the year with some little scuffles, some back and forth trash talk.

[00:15:56] And then we had the little game ball situation where Giannis became the single game scoring leader in Milwaukee Bucks history.

[00:16:10] And I believe a rookie has scored his first point for Indiana in that game.

[00:16:16] And there was a question about who had the actual game ball and Giannis was going crazy.

[00:16:23] So these two teams really don't like each other.

[00:16:26] But the one reason why I brought all of this up was there was a specific moment early on in the year where if you know anything about the season series, Indiana just whipped them all year.

[00:16:42] And pretty much in an embarrassing fashion.

[00:16:45] And one time Tyrese Halliburton, who was having an excellent year before the injury, he went to his wrist and did the Dane time deal.

[00:16:59] And Dane, they asked him about it after the game.

[00:17:02] He said, well, you know, I did it to people.

[00:17:06] You know, yeah, it happens to me.

[00:17:08] And he said, you know what?

[00:17:10] What goes around comes around.

[00:17:12] And Dane made sure that he let Tyrese know what time it was by dropping 35 in the first half.

[00:17:22] Now, let's get to the West.

[00:17:24] Let's get to the Indiana side real quick.

[00:17:27] The question that I had about Indiana going into the series was, were we going to get the Halliburton of the first half of the year?

[00:17:37] Or were you going to get the Halliburton of the second half of the year?

[00:17:41] And right now it looks like we're not even getting either of those dudes.

[00:17:46] I don't know who this guy was that showed up in game one, Tyrese Halliburton, but I'm sure it wasn't him.

[00:17:55] There was no way it could be him.

[00:17:58] He took seven shots the whole game.

[00:18:03] Seven.

[00:18:06] Now, you can say he was working in his new guy, Pascal Siakam, who had an incredible game.

[00:18:17] But if you are the straw that stirs the drink, you can't take seven shots, my dog.

[00:18:27] OK, we're going to need a little bit more from you today.

[00:18:33] And as we're recording this right now, that game is going on.

[00:18:37] So I can't wait to go back and watch it.

[00:18:41] But Tyrese Halliburton was completely nonexistent in this game.

[00:18:49] And I don't know if his injury, I don't know if it was the difference in physicality that we're having in the playoffs.

[00:19:00] That's even more ratcheted up from even the last six or seven weeks of the regular season.

[00:19:05] And I don't know if he's just not accustomed to it, but seven shots cannot be what Tyrese Halliburton does in a playoff game.

[00:19:16] He's going to have to get into his traditional 18 to 22 shots.

[00:19:20] And if it's not efficient, it's not efficient.

[00:19:23] But go down like a warrior, man.

[00:19:26] Go down like a warrior and you can't be passive because then you're going to have regret.

[00:19:34] And you don't want to have that.

[00:19:37] Ask Mike Colley Jr. about this, because Mike Colley Jr. talked about a story in Minnesota in regards to his first year at Memphis

[00:19:50] and how they got real deep into the playoffs.

[00:19:54] And then he never really recaptured that in Memphis.

[00:19:58] And he said time is precious and, you know, he's running out of time.

[00:20:04] So you never know what year is your year or what sliding door happens.

[00:20:11] And, you know, you don't take this opportunity to really lay it out all on the line.

[00:20:17] Yeah, that might be something that really can derail a career as far as this concern.

[00:20:24] So we move on to the next series, which is the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic.

[00:20:32] Now we got a couple of questions about this game, right?

[00:20:36] I've been talking the last, I want to say the last couple of months in regards to Donovan Mitchell wanting out of Cleveland.

[00:20:47] Now, just because the game ended the way it did and we'll get to that in one second.

[00:20:53] I'll tell you my initial thoughts and then we'll get into what actually happened in the game.

[00:21:00] I was excited about Streus.

[00:21:03] I was excited about George Nyang in this game because I was like, that's where your three point shooting is going to come from.

[00:21:10] That's where everything is going to happen.

[00:21:14] You know, you're going to be you're going to need those guys to space the floor.

[00:21:21] Now, with that being said, we did not know that Evan Mobley was going to take four three point shots and he was going to hit two and score 16 points and provide the rim protection that he was going to in a game that got away, frankly, from the Orlando Magic.

[00:21:42] No, it didn't. It didn't.

[00:21:44] It didn't. It was like they just can't score.

[00:21:49] It didn't get away from them.

[00:21:51] They were never in it.

[00:21:54] Donovan Mitchell showed that he had playoff metal, you know, especially against a young team like Orlando.

[00:22:05] But they answered a lot of the questions about this particular series.

[00:22:09] I didn't like how they backed into this particular series, even though it looks like it turned out to be a really good idea to back into the Orlando Magic.

[00:22:23] Couple more thoughts on this game.

[00:22:25] It was just better execution on the Cleveland Cavalier side.

[00:22:31] You can see that by having people who can initiate offense, multiple people who can initiate offense is always better.

[00:22:44] People that you actually fear is even better.

[00:22:48] So when you have Darius Garland, you have Donovan Mitchell attacking the rim, then you you transition into, you know, Evan Mobley who does have some capability of handling the ball a little bit and then absolutely be able to kick it out to shooters and things of that nature.

[00:23:08] You're always in a position where you're going to get a good shot if you're working the offense correctly.

[00:23:16] With Orlando, the one thing that I talked about initially, and I want us I want us really, really drive this home to the Orlando Magic fans who might be disappointed in what they have seen.

[00:23:36] Don't be.

[00:23:38] You're a young team. You weren't supposed to be here. You're a year ahead of schedule.

[00:23:44] The things that we should be worried about in this series, whether it's four games, five games, six games, whatever it is.

[00:23:52] The climbing development of Paulo Bencaro.

[00:23:56] The role designation familiarity by Cole Anthony and Jalen Suggs, who have all games.

[00:24:04] So you're hoping that we see more growth in those guys and they start to understand what it takes to play in the playoffs.

[00:24:12] Because here's the thing about Orlando that I said previous pot.

[00:24:18] They played hard all year.

[00:24:22] They played with effort and they played with pace and they played with aggression and urgency.

[00:24:30] And it got them the fifth seed and kudos to a team that plays hard all year.

[00:24:36] But I did ask the question, what happens when everybody is playing hard?

[00:24:42] And we found out.

[00:24:45] Paulo is really the only one who can get his shot.

[00:24:50] Unfortunately, Fonz is just not the same player that he was last year.

[00:24:55] Wagner has somehow fallen off a cliff and he needs to recapture that in a major way.

[00:25:03] I don't know if it'll happen this year.

[00:25:09] You would hope and pray that you see some sparks of life from Franz Wagner throughout this series.

[00:25:17] That he regains some of the magic he had last year, but so far not so good.

[00:25:22] And then the peculiar thing happened in the last game before the playoffs is that Jonathan Isaac started at center.

[00:25:32] I wondered if he would do this again.

[00:25:35] And sure enough, that's where he was. He played like 29 minutes and provided the rim protection that you thought he would.

[00:25:44] So here's the thing.

[00:25:49] For Orlando and the fan base, I know it sounds like I'm throwing shade your way.

[00:26:01] Just be happy to be here.

[00:26:05] Yes, would you like to win a couple of games? Would you like to be competitive?

[00:26:10] Yeah, sure, you would.

[00:26:12] But right now your team is just not set up for it right now.

[00:26:16] But I think big things are ahead for Orlando.

[00:26:20] I love Paulo. He did show me a lot in this first game that he is up to the moment.

[00:26:26] I think you guys have an absolute stud and you do have a guy that when the chips are down.

[00:26:34] Now, I don't know if he's necessarily the number one option.

[00:26:39] But if you're putting a playoff team together, you can definitely count on Paulo Bencaro being additive to a winning situation,

[00:26:50] whether he's the number two option or the number one option.

[00:26:54] I think we've learned a lot even just under one game with Paulo Bencaro.

[00:27:00] All right, let's move on to the West, shall we?

[00:27:03] And the West was very interesting.

[00:27:07] It was everything that we could have asked for, honestly.

[00:27:14] It was kind of like all the questions were really getting answered.

[00:27:18] We're going to start with the OKC New Orleans series.

[00:27:24] Right off the top with this series, the Pelicans lost Zion right before this series started.

[00:27:32] It was in the first... it was in the play-in game with the Lakers and Zion is going crazy.

[00:27:40] He's got 40 points. He's dunking all fools.

[00:27:43] He's making LeBron look super old.

[00:27:47] AD thought he was helping and Zion was at the rim.

[00:27:52] It was crazy.

[00:27:54] And then he got hurt.

[00:27:56] Hamstring injury, possible return, possible return for this series.

[00:28:02] Cross your fingers. I don't know.

[00:28:04] I don't think so.

[00:28:06] We'll see.

[00:28:08] But the things that I thought about as we were getting into this series was still...

[00:28:16] I said, OK, with Zion, I don't think that New Orleans has a chance.

[00:28:22] I was like, well, that's that.

[00:28:28] There were still questions about size, though.

[00:28:31] There were still questions about physicality and how they would handle the rigors of the playoffs.

[00:28:37] One thing that I will say is I think this is going to be a real series OKC, so buckle up.

[00:28:45] So Thunder fans, I'm going to let you know right now, I'll pitch in this series beforehand.

[00:28:54] I do have a moment of pause now, but I do think you have a ton of talent.

[00:29:04] I do think that SGA showed us exactly who he is, no doubt by scoring 29 points in his first playoff game this year.

[00:29:23] He's up for the moment.

[00:29:25] So we know he's good.

[00:29:27] We also know that Jalen Williams, J-Dub, he showed up.

[00:29:31] These were questions that I was going to ask because it's different when you're doing it in the regular season.

[00:29:38] It's different when the eyes are on you and you know, unfortunately, OKC, y'all didn't get a ton of TV time.

[00:29:47] So to see this happen, to see OKC gut out a really gutty, gutty win

[00:29:56] and we'll get into some of the things we were talking about with New Orleans because there were a couple things that did show up on the New Orleans side as well.

[00:30:05] The thing that I do want to bring attention to is that Kason Wallace, the rookie out of Kentucky, was in the closing rotation

[00:30:15] and he had like three plays, defensive stops that were critical towards the end.

[00:30:23] And I find that to be interesting because we talked about him as one of our choices as our rookie team.

[00:30:32] And I had some pushback about a couple other guys, but Kason Wallace is doing what he's asked to do.

[00:30:40] He might be the most impactful seven point game scorer in the history of the NBA because he provides offensive initiation when you need him to usually on the second side action.

[00:30:56] The other thing that he does is that he shoots the three ball very well.

[00:31:00] And then he also provides an on-ball defensive presence that you know, that you don't have everywhere else, you know, unless you're using Dort.

[00:31:10] Now you have a second guy who can do that.

[00:31:13] And when you're having two guys like that, it's just a pain in the ass to deal with.

[00:31:18] And you do got one.

[00:31:21] So I thought that was interesting that he closed instead of getting.

[00:31:26] And then the other thing that I should that I saw in this game, the OKC Thunder didn't really get destroyed on the boards.

[00:31:36] It was only 52 to 44.

[00:31:39] Pelicans were favored in that.

[00:31:41] But yet and still to see the fight and everybody boarded in this game.

[00:31:47] Everybody, everybody had a board multiple.

[00:31:51] The guards were boarding SGA, Giddy, Kason Wallace, you name it.

[00:31:57] Everybody has some rebounds.

[00:31:59] Aaron Wiggins got in there, got some rebounds.

[00:32:02] So Dagnall is an incredible coach.

[00:32:07] He was our coach of the year.

[00:32:09] He seems to be I think he did actually win coach of the year.

[00:32:12] So shout out to Mark Dagnall on that and it is very warranted.

[00:32:18] And the one thing that you did see is that he did show his team or tell his team or prepare his team in a way where like, listen, we are small.

[00:32:32] We all have to board if we're collectively.

[00:32:36] And we are to have any opportunity of winning.

[00:32:39] So shout out to Mark Dagnall on the incredible coaching job he's done all year and also into the postseason.

[00:32:48] There was one thing that I did want to mention with the Pelicans is this.

[00:32:54] The question that I had with Zion being out.

[00:32:57] Could Trey Murphy the third become an emerging star in this playoff series and game one?

[00:33:07] Check that box.

[00:33:09] My man had a pretty good game.

[00:33:11] He also provides a lot of length and versatility on the defensive side of the ball.

[00:33:16] It's really hard to switch off of him and things of that nature.

[00:33:20] So the one thing you really do like about him is that he does care on the defensive side of the ball.

[00:33:26] And I'm looking forward to see if he continues this production pattern 100 percent.

[00:33:34] Because if he's got to start next year, I don't know what the iteration of the Pelicans is going to look like next year.

[00:33:45] But I can't see a world where Trey Murphy the third is not starting for the Pelicans.

[00:33:53] Alright, let's get to the Denver.

[00:33:57] No, you know what?

[00:33:58] I'm saving that because that's my personal burden to bear.

[00:34:03] I'm saving that Denver Nugget thing.

[00:34:05] Alright, so we change on the fly right here.

[00:34:08] Alright, you know how we do it at podcast.

[00:34:11] We're in a podcast collective.

[00:34:13] Keep you on your toes.

[00:34:15] Alright, let's get into this Phoenix and Minnesota series real quick.

[00:34:21] My initial thoughts on this series was twofold.

[00:34:26] One, I had a real good thought on Anthony Edwards that I wanted to get off.

[00:34:32] My first initial thought on Ant was Ant needed to be controlled Hulk.

[00:34:41] And what I meant by that is that he needed to find a way to impose his will on the game without like not getting his teammates involved.

[00:34:54] And Ant did that.

[00:34:56] Ant was incredible the whole game defensively, offensively.

[00:35:01] He was engaged on both sides of the wall and he showed himself very well.

[00:35:06] I was so impressed by his just his knowledge of when to pull the trigger on.

[00:35:17] Okay, I got to get my offense right now because we need to stave off this this little mini run that Phoenix was putting together and to see it blossom like that on a playoff stage is awesome.

[00:35:33] Nikhil Walker Alexander.

[00:35:35] He played 29 minutes.

[00:35:37] He provided great defense.

[00:35:41] Phoenix died.

[00:35:43] Not so great.

[00:35:49] My initial thoughts on on Phoenix were this.

[00:35:53] KD has a chance to change his legacy.

[00:35:56] If the Phoenix Suns are able to make a considerable run and if all the talent started to click, I thought that this could be a chance for KD to kind of wash away the Brooklyn net years.

[00:36:17] And they're just too small.

[00:36:22] And I thought that before the series I was taking Minnesota.

[00:36:27] They're just too small.

[00:36:29] And Booker also, I said he had to be he had to show a spectacular balance.

[00:36:41] Now, James McDaniels shut Booker down and Booker scoring 19 points.

[00:36:50] That's not a recipe for success for Phoenix.

[00:36:55] You just can't those three guys need to put the point production up.

[00:37:02] You got to have, you know, close to 80 between the three of them.

[00:37:09] And if you don't, you don't have any shot whatsoever against Minnesota.

[00:37:15] So it's a tall order.

[00:37:17] Yeah, Minnesota won that game, obviously.

[00:37:20] And, you know, they just look to be the better team and they were long and the youth was being served in that series.

[00:37:29] So let's get to the Dallas Clippers and then we'll get to Lakers and Denver.

[00:37:34] But that game was surprising in a lot of ways because Kawhi was out.

[00:37:42] Now, I'm going to save my Kawhi stuff for the end.

[00:37:47] But Luca and Kyrie did everything they were supposed to do.

[00:37:54] They did everything they were supposed to do.

[00:37:57] Now, the Clippers on the other hand, did what they were supposed to do.

[00:38:05] And they were aggressively attacking Luca on the defensive side of the ball.

[00:38:15] So what you saw was Ty Lue made an effort to tire Luca out as much as possible because we knew that as far as the Dallas Mavericks were going to go,

[00:38:31] Luca was going to have to be that guy.

[00:38:34] And kudos to Ty Lue on that coaching job.

[00:38:42] The other thing that we need to talk about is this, is that Harden played phenomenal early on and throughout the game.

[00:38:53] But early on, God, the Clippers off to a real good start because Paul George didn't find his shot till late.

[00:39:00] He kind of scuffled being the number one option in the playoff, in the first playoff game.

[00:39:08] But Harden and Zubats carried the water for the Clippers and they just destroyed Dallas.

[00:39:20] Absolutely destroyed them.

[00:39:22] And it was surprising because with Kawhi being out and not knowing when he's going to play, I definitely was picking Dallas.

[00:39:37] You know, I just couldn't see a world where the Clippers could beat them.

[00:39:49] Not without Kawhi.

[00:39:51] Now this one game is it was fruitful in a lot of ways.

[00:39:59] Does it change my mind on who I'm picking in the series?

[00:40:04] No, because I think I stand by that Luca is still great.

[00:40:09] He's our MVP.

[00:40:11] Kyrie has been awesome.

[00:40:13] And let me give you this stat because this was one thing that I, this is the one thing I thought of when we did the pod before that never got up because I was stupid.

[00:40:30] Is the bright lights going to be too, is going to be too much for the bigs and the first game?

[00:40:38] Yep. The light was, the lights were too big.

[00:40:41] Combined six points combined.

[00:40:44] So this is 48 minutes between Derek Lively Jr., who played really well all season, and Daniel Gafford, who has been a revelation since he got here.

[00:40:58] I'm going to talk about Gafford and Kawhi in a second, but the two centers combined for six points, four rebounds, three assists and four blocks.

[00:41:10] That's not the type of production you're going to need.

[00:41:15] The other thing is that we need more Josh Green.

[00:41:20] Josh Green was very impactful when he came into the game.

[00:41:24] I know Daniel House, all that, but we need to, we need to play Josh Green.

[00:41:32] That's what we need to do.

[00:41:33] Jason Kidd, you know, right?

[00:41:37] You Bay Area, you a California boy.

[00:41:39] So yeah, more Josh Green please.

[00:41:44] Can we get that?

[00:41:46] That would be helpful.

[00:41:48] Also, the Maxi Cleaver minutes were eye-opening.

[00:41:54] They play a lot better with Cleaver.

[00:41:58] I don't know why that is.

[00:41:59] I think what they were trying to do is get Zubats off the floor.

[00:42:03] And I don't know if it worked, but they seem to connectively play better with Cleaver on the court.

[00:42:14] So that might be something, a tweak, a rotational tweak that we see as we go forward.

[00:42:22] And then I think I did talk about Zubats.

[00:42:26] I talked about Harden.

[00:42:28] Oh, Paul George hit three of the biggest shots of the game towards the end.

[00:42:33] And that is what makes Paul George, Paul George.

[00:42:42] I just listen.

[00:42:45] I like a guy who can sit there and say, OK, I've had a bad game, but when it counts, I'm going to be there.

[00:42:52] And that's what he did.

[00:42:54] So we are loving that.

[00:42:56] But we're still going with Dallas throughout the series.

[00:43:02] Now, it would be a different story.

[00:43:03] If Kawhi was here, we would pick the Clippers.

[00:43:08] So I might change my mind if we do see Paul or we see Kawhi in game three or four.

[00:43:18] And this series is still close.

[00:43:20] So let's get to the last one.

[00:43:22] And because my dog is getting restless and I can hear him now.

[00:43:26] All right.

[00:43:27] So the last game that we need to get to in the last series that we need to get to and it's the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers.

[00:43:37] And my thoughts going into the game were this.

[00:43:40] What's the play from Michael Malone?

[00:43:43] Because he always needs some sort of competitive edge bulletin board material.

[00:43:51] Who was going to catch the stray first?

[00:43:54] I'll still working on that.

[00:43:56] I'm sure Michael Malone will give us something.

[00:43:59] The other thing that I want to talk about with the Denver Nuggets was this.

[00:44:04] LeBron James made a comment like right before the series talking about that Yoke Hitch is one of the best players in the league.

[00:44:14] And my thought initially, because again, we've done this before, was this is that Yoke is just going to show LeBron that he indeed is the best player on the planet.

[00:44:29] I would say with 32 points, 15 of 23 from the floor.

[00:44:35] I think he I think he did kind of had LeBron glance at the resume a little bit.

[00:44:43] He's like, OK, you see this right here?

[00:44:46] See, I've already won two MVP's.

[00:44:49] OK, so I'm really, really good.

[00:44:53] I'm also probably going to win a third one this year because the voters are going to vote for me.

[00:44:58] Yeah, even though Vince said that he I'm not his MVP, but I'm going to be the real voters MVP.

[00:45:10] You know, so Yoke Hitch had a real he had another Yoke Hitch game.

[00:45:14] I mean, here's a couple of things that I talked about.

[00:45:19] It was Yoke Hitch and Sean LeBron.

[00:45:22] He's he's the best player in the league.

[00:45:24] Murray and his playoff sorcery continues.

[00:45:28] And we needed to know about the bench.

[00:45:31] I still don't think we the Lakers didn't put enough pressure on Denver for that bench to be have to be impactful.

[00:45:42] Let's put it that way. Right.

[00:45:44] The Lakers, unfortunately, got a great game from LeBron, got a great game from Anthony Davis, got a pretty good game from Torian Prince.

[00:45:59] But my man Reeves didn't get enough shots.

[00:46:05] And I'm going to tell you again for all you D'Angelo Russell lovers out there on Twitter, I see you every single day talk about D'Lo doesn't get enough respect.

[00:46:19] D'Lo is it could be the MVP of this team.

[00:46:24] D'Lo is this D'Lo is that D'Lo is this.

[00:46:28] Let me tell you something.

[00:46:30] That guy in the five playoff games against the Denver Nuggets, so the four last year and now this one is three of 24 from three.

[00:46:44] And if you oh no, yeah, three or 24 for three, one of nine in game one.

[00:46:52] So for all the people talking about the Lakers should have such sign him long term and he should be getting more money and he gonna get the bag next year.

[00:47:02] And all of this one for nine, one for nine.

[00:47:09] And the game wasn't even close.

[00:47:11] The Lakers were competitive the first quarter had got out to a big lead.

[00:47:17] And I mean literally within two minutes that lead was gone.

[00:47:22] Okay, go because Jelkic is not playing no mess there.

[00:47:29] That's the best player in the league dog.

[00:47:32] There's no question about what I'm talking about.

[00:47:34] And that team is better than the Lakers.

[00:47:38] It's not it's not even close.

[00:47:42] The gap in talent is not even close.

[00:47:47] So we can we can dilute ourselves all we want as Laker fans and say hey, you know with LeBron and AD you always have the shot and their playoff experience can can lead you and what happens in a game seven and blah, blah, blah.

[00:48:05] That's the thing.

[00:48:06] They lost nine games in a row to Denver and I don't see that momentum slowing down anytime soon.

[00:48:13] So maybe a gentleman's suite, which is for one when I'm looking at Denver as the prohibited favorite and to smash the Lakers.

[00:48:29] Does it hurt my heart to say yes it does.

[00:48:34] But I'm not doing my job as somebody who comes on here and says hey, I think you guys should listen to my podcast.

[00:48:45] And, you know, subscribe to my YouTube channel and do all these things if I'm not up here telling you the truth.

[00:48:56] Denver should smash the Lakers because they are superiorly more talented than the Lakers.

[00:49:05] And here's the other thing.

[00:49:08] I softballed it all year and what it comes down to is unfortunately LeBron is not as impactful in winning as he was before.

[00:49:24] There's no shade in that.

[00:49:26] There's none because he's 39 and he should have more help.

[00:49:33] And maybe if we wouldn't have made the Westbrook trade beforehand, maybe we would have all the help that he would need via trades now more smart trades now and things of that nature.

[00:49:48] But I thought of the Lakers as a play a playing team before the season.

[00:49:55] Go back and check the archive pods on that.

[00:49:59] They were playing team.

[00:50:02] I didn't think they would be able to be able to hang with Denver.

[00:50:07] And I don't think they will be able to.

[00:50:09] And I'm about to go watch this game in a second when I sign off.

[00:50:14] So with that being said, you got our picks for the first round.

[00:50:19] You know what we were thinking and we will be back on this feet guaranteed on Wednesday.

[00:50:25] So keep a look for that.

[00:50:27] We'll have more stories coming out of the playoffs.

[00:50:30] And also we are starting to keep our ears to the ground for the rumor mill because you know what happens as some of these teams start to fade out of the playoffs.

[00:50:45] The notebooks open up.

[00:50:47] People start talking.

[00:50:50] And then lo and behold, we have a disgruntled superstar.

[00:50:54] So that you know that's what I'm looking forward to.

[00:50:57] All right.

[00:51:01] With that being said, the best part of you is you.

[00:51:05] So do not let anybody diminish your light and do and just a man have fun and just be unique and be you.

[00:51:14] And you guys have a great one and we'll see you back on this feed on Wednesday.

[00:51:22] Y'all be easy and we'll see you later.

[00:51:25] Do's.