Speaker 1: On this episode of the Heat Check, we officially have
Speaker 1: to repeat conference finals teams. I don't think anybody had
Speaker 1: these teams on their bingo card going to the Conference
Speaker 1: finals again, especially the way that they both started out
Speaker 1: this season. We break down the Pacers and the Timberwolves
Speaker 1: and what they have done to get this far twice
Speaker 1: in a row and white people counted them out. Then
Speaker 1: we look at the fallout for the Cavaliers and the
Speaker 1: Warriors flaming out so much to get to drop that
Speaker 1: motherfucker beat that should be Rihanna Wyatt. You're you're listening
Speaker 1: to the Hottest, the Hottest. It be a podcast out here.
Speaker 1: I said what I said, it's the heat Chet Check Check.
Speaker 1: Did anybody out that was a dog, that was a
Speaker 1: puppy fighting in my fingers? Did anybody on the big
Speaker 1: board at any time in this NBA season say, you
Speaker 1: know who I think is gonna go to the finals
Speaker 1: of the Conference Finals? The Pacers? You know who I
Speaker 1: think looks really good right now, as fucking Julius Randall
Speaker 1: was integrating like boo boo, I think the Timberwolves are
Speaker 1: gonna be able to repeat again. Yeah. Here we are
Speaker 1: very similar stories. Actually in terms of how they started
Speaker 1: the season and in terms of how they've played in
Speaker 1: these playoffs, neither team has even really barely broken a sweats.
Speaker 1: If you look at the four seed four seeded Pacers,
Speaker 1: people were like, oh, the Bucks, the Bucks rematch. Johannis
Speaker 1: and Dame are both healthy. You don't want to see them.
Speaker 1: Bucks were plus one fifty to win the series. I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody expected what we saw, which was just
Speaker 1: a lamb basting a curb stop American history X, A debo,
Speaker 1: this is our bike, We'll just keep it at my
Speaker 1: house kind of a situation. But that's what happened. That
Speaker 1: is exactly what happened. Pacers then match up with the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference regular season champions, sixty four win team with
Speaker 1: the defensive player of the year on it, a guy
Speaker 1: in Donovan Mitchell who was playing at an elite level,
Speaker 1: a Monster had the Coach of the Year, defensive player
Speaker 1: of the year, Damn Near had the sixth Man of
Speaker 1: the Year and Ty Jerome. You had an All Stars
Speaker 1: on this team former All Stars too, and Jared Allen.
Speaker 1: Then they made a trade to get another defensive minded
Speaker 1: wing in DeAndre Hunter, who was third in six Man
Speaker 1: of the year voting this season loaded, and as the
Speaker 1: Calvs pretty much put pat Riley in the heat into retirement,
Speaker 1: four zero clapped him up, put him in a suitcase,
Speaker 1: winning the last two by eighty two points. No one
Speaker 1: thought the Pacers had a shot except for me. All
Speaker 1: twelve MBA personalities picked the Calves don't do that, That's
Speaker 1: not what you want to do, and the Pacers stole
Speaker 1: the lifet all the soul, stole the chain, took their shit,
Speaker 1: went up into their house multiple times, took the TV
Speaker 1: off the wall, let a pitbull inside the house, and
Speaker 1: shit all over their living room. Basically just squatted on
Speaker 1: him to nothing you can do about it. Okay, Darius
Speaker 1: Garland's toe is never right. Donovan Mitchell is always dealing
Speaker 1: with something because he's always putting the team on his back.
Speaker 1: So he had an ankle thing and a back thing.
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley had an ankle thing. DeAndre Hunter had a
Speaker 1: dislocated thumb. That's bad luck for sure, But I don't
Speaker 1: know necessarily if a healthy Calves team can beat this
Speaker 1: Pacers team right now. As it stand, the Pacers are
Speaker 1: not the team you think they are. Yeah, they play fast, absolutely,
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. Probably the fastest playoff team you've
Speaker 1: ever seen in your goddamn life. Yeah, everybody can play
Speaker 1: fast in the regular season, but no, this thing. This
Speaker 1: team's playing at mock ten in the playoffs. But then
Speaker 1: they punch you in the fucking mouth literally. Ben Mathers swap,
Speaker 1: James Johnson, swap swap. They got Tyrese Haliburton giving them
Speaker 1: the bye bye bye. Like Damian Lillard. They're a physical
Speaker 1: fucking team. Aaron Neith Smith is physical. TJ. McConnell will
Speaker 1: get inside your Jim Schortz. Even Rick Carlile, the Pacers coach,
Speaker 1: had some words of condolences for Kennie Atkinson, the Cavs
Speaker 1: head coach, because at the end of the day, all
Speaker 1: Rick Carlile did was slap a zone on him and say,
Speaker 1: figure that one out. This is what he says. They
Speaker 1: had a great year. I'm sorry that their season had
Speaker 1: to end like this. In a way, Kenny did an
Speaker 1: amazing job. They just kind of had the perfect season,
Speaker 1: and then we came along and we were hot at
Speaker 1: the right time. Hot is right fucking hot, and it's
Speaker 1: not just Halliburton, although he's very hot as well. In
Speaker 1: their close out, Game five, where you knew actually, even
Speaker 1: though Cleveland was up, you're like, this isn't gonna last.
Speaker 1: This is not lasting. Calves came out red hot. They
Speaker 1: got a double digit lead early. They tried to muck
Speaker 1: it up, play fucking slow as molasses, and they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is not gonna work. But they wore him down
Speaker 1: to a nub. Donovan Mitchell he had thirty nine to
Speaker 1: five and one. That's like thirty nine and above, and
Speaker 1: three of the games that he played he was hobbled
Speaker 1: the whole game. Darius Garland had eleven mode we had
Speaker 1: twenty four, but it didn't matter. Halliburton had six threes.
Speaker 1: Pacers as a whole shot forty three percent from three.
Speaker 1: They built the second half leading. They said, deuces, peace up,
Speaker 1: a town down, see you later. All five pacers starters
Speaker 1: scored double digits are better. The lowest net rating was
Speaker 1: plus ten for Pascal Siakam. They also played six bench players,
Speaker 1: like I try to tell y'all this team so deep, well,
Speaker 1: put your ass to sleep. Eleven total players played, which
Speaker 1: was four short of Game four, when they played all
Speaker 1: fifteen players, they hit six more threes in a game.
Speaker 1: They won one fourteen one oh five, and that, it
Speaker 1: turns out, was the difference what I'll say about the
Speaker 1: Pacers in terms of why we didn't why a lot
Speaker 1: of people, including me at times, didn't believe. Is Tyrese
Speaker 1: Haliburton the start of the year look bad? And I said,
Speaker 1: is he actually not good? Or is he still hurt?
Speaker 1: Turns out, as I thought, he's not buns. This man
Speaker 1: is still recovering from a hamstring injury in last playoffs,
Speaker 1: in the in season tournament that he was struggling. He
Speaker 1: had a little decline from the from the end season
Speaker 1: tournament on that carried over and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: we wondered whether he was not good any longer. No,
Speaker 1: he is still good. You have all these players they
Speaker 1: beginning of the season, we were wondering if this team
Speaker 1: was even gonna be a playoff team at all. But boy,
Speaker 1: oh boy, when they got their mojo back, when aaron
Speaker 1: Ne Smith got healthy again, with Andrew Nemhar got healthy again,
Speaker 1: when Tyrese Halliburn got healthy again, boy it showed what
Speaker 1: we'll get into what's happening next for the Caves. But
Speaker 1: right now, Rick Carlisle has this Pacers team playing like
Speaker 1: it's swish watch just fearless. It's they're just running like
Speaker 1: a German fucking train. Just TikTok, TikTok, everything's running on time.
Speaker 1: How fearless are they? You ask? Here's your insane Tristan
Speaker 1: Crieks out of the day. Cleveland was thirty six and
Speaker 1: five at home this year against twenty eight other NBA teams.
Speaker 1: That's an eighty eight percent win percentage, but zero to
Speaker 1: five at the crib against Indiana. They lost as many
Speaker 1: home games to Indiana as the rest of the entire
Speaker 1: league combined. Cavs lost twenty two games this year, and
Speaker 1: seven of those losses were against Indy. Tough. Indiana might
Speaker 1: just be bored dangerous on the road because they have
Speaker 1: these runs, those runs, you know what I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: where you think you're gonna win the game, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, there's only forty seconds left, and
Speaker 1: how could they possibly come back down seven? And then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Tyrese Haliburn's giving you the bye bye.
Speaker 1: They just take the home crowd completely out of it,
Speaker 1: their shell shot. It happened against Cleveland, and of course
Speaker 1: it happened against Milwaukee. We saw two stunning game winning
Speaker 1: shots from Tyrese Haliburton. Like I said this, Aaron Smith
Speaker 1: and Andrew Emhardt are the ones. Nie Smiths shooting forty
Speaker 1: eight percent from deep Nemhard shot fifty percent from three
Speaker 1: against the Bucks, excuse me and the Cavs while also
Speaker 1: putting up nearly fifteen a game. You can always get
Speaker 1: good play from Siakam. Gonna get good play if he's
Speaker 1: healthy from Halliburn. Miles Turner has been playing so well
Speaker 1: and he might not even be able to afford him
Speaker 1: after this year. Ben matherin doing his thing, getting massive
Speaker 1: contributions that have changed the course of this team. And
Speaker 1: now they wait the winner of the of the Knick
Speaker 1: Celtics series. They've already beaten the Knicks in the playoffs
Speaker 1: last year. Now that was a different team. No mckel
Speaker 1: bridges on that team, no Karl Anthony Towns on that team,
Speaker 1: and then you had injuries to ogn and obn Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 1: So I'm very very interested to see how that series
Speaker 1: ends up. If that's the series that we get, but
Speaker 1: the Pacers could be looking at an NBA Finals run
Speaker 1: for the first time since two thousand. So then let's
Speaker 1: talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves. Another team that started out slow,
Speaker 1: another team where you were like, oh, man, with what
Speaker 1: they did last year, was that just an anomaly? Was
Speaker 1: that just a one time thing? Not a single ESPN
Speaker 1: town took them to beat the Lakers, They barely broke
Speaker 1: a sweat. They took out Luca for it one, putting
Speaker 1: them in the semis against Golden State, and Nevers said,
Speaker 1: ohoh's Golden State, Golden State. Oh, Jimmy Butler, even myself,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry, they're playing so well. Those two
Speaker 1: together are clutch kings. How is this going to be
Speaker 1: able to work? A lot of people had the Warriors
Speaker 1: winning in six or seven. Golden State was about plus
Speaker 1: one fifty to win the series as a whole, and
Speaker 1: then the wheels fell off, Warriors lost Steph Curry even
Speaker 1: though they won Game one, and the realization was that
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler was gonna have to be playoff Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: in a lot more if they were gonna win that series.
Speaker 1: And Jimmy Butler did not deliver. Draymond Green did not
Speaker 1: deliver all those antics, all those fucking weird just back
Speaker 1: and forth with the Zebras. You had Brandon Pajemski looking buns.
Speaker 1: You had our man Jonathan Kaminga thinking that he's Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: You had Steve Kerr with his hand on his face,
Speaker 1: face on his hand. It was bad, It was really bad.
Speaker 1: Just like that for to one Wolves Night Night Sleep Mask,
Speaker 1: go home, Steph Curry says, don't bother me the rest
Speaker 1: of the summer. At some point we'll talk about the
Speaker 1: future of the Warriors next segment. But the Wolves are
Speaker 1: dangerous because of why. Aunt Edwards. Aunt Edwards, just like
Speaker 1: jo Kich, just like Shay, is a star and when
Speaker 1: the lights get bright, his game gets brighter. He's averaged
Speaker 1: twenty six, eight and seven against the Warriors. They had
Speaker 1: no answer. They just even when he has three in
Speaker 1: the first half, thirty five for the game. He shot
Speaker 1: fifty percent or better from three in their final three wins,
Speaker 1: where he had five or more made threes in each game.
Speaker 1: And then we got to put a little respect on
Speaker 1: Julius Randall. No one has salvage their reputation more in
Speaker 1: one month than Julius Randall. He hasn't looked good. Julius
Speaker 1: Randall has looked fucking great. He has looked at times
Speaker 1: the best player on the walls not named Aunt Edwards.
Speaker 1: He's like looking like better than he did in his
Speaker 1: most improved player season. He's looking like an All Star.
Speaker 1: He averaged twenty five to seven and seven against Golden State,
Speaker 1: and he had twenty three to five and four against
Speaker 1: the Lakers. So he's up against Draymond Green, a gritty,
Speaker 1: very physical, very intimidating guy, and he's up against Lebron James,
Speaker 1: another physically intimidating guy. And he never backed down, never
Speaker 1: back down. He said, come with it, come with it.
Speaker 1: I don't give a fuck, so he said. He has
Speaker 1: been excellent on defense. He has been tough on the boards,
Speaker 1: great on offense. One of the most overlooked things he's
Speaker 1: done is he's been more consistent than Ant Edwards. He
Speaker 1: has been steady as fuck from the free throw line.
Speaker 1: He went to the line twenty three times against Golden
Speaker 1: State and he made twenty two of them. Man, Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets could use that right now. He shot eighty four
Speaker 1: percent from the line against Los Angeles. That's just that's
Speaker 1: what you need from a big hit, your fucking free
Speaker 1: throws when you get fouled or We're not gonna do
Speaker 1: the hack of Mitchell thing on you. And he's able
Speaker 1: to stay out of foul trouble while still defending one
Speaker 1: of the best players on the floor. On a night
Speaker 1: to night basis, he's averaging thirty eight minutes per game,
Speaker 1: only one minute less than Aunt Edwards. And then we
Speaker 1: got to put a little loff, give a little flowers
Speaker 1: to oh Ludi, Oh Ludi, you gober oh Bonge Rudy.
Speaker 1: Two close out games this postseason, Rudy Gobert has averaged
Speaker 1: twenty two and sixteen. I didn't know Rudy Gobert could score.
Speaker 1: I didn't know you can't score seventy eight percent true
Speaker 1: shooting and a plus thirty nine net rating. They are athletic,
Speaker 1: they are defensive minded, and they are healthy. I don't
Speaker 1: know how much okay Se will enjoy this year if
Speaker 1: they play them. I know the Denver will not enjoy
Speaker 1: it because they had it and they were up twenty
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter of a game seven at the
Speaker 1: crib and they still went home. I don't think either
Speaker 1: team is going to cause Minnesota to lose any sleep.
Speaker 1: They say, you know what, we already had our lumps
Speaker 1: in the early part of the regular season, and we
Speaker 1: figured some shit out. Chris Finch deserves respect as well.
Speaker 1: When he took over, the Wolves were seven and twenty four,
Speaker 1: and all he's done is playoffs, playoffs, Western Conference Finals,
Speaker 1: Western Conference Finals. For a team that made the playoffs
Speaker 1: once in the previous seventeen years, four years in a row,
Speaker 1: Chris Finch goes to the playoffs. He has more playoff
Speaker 1: wins already than all previous Wolves coaches combined. Man, he's awesome.
Speaker 1: He's done in a remarkable job. He's a great adjuster.
Speaker 1: He's figured out a way to integrate Julius Randall in
Speaker 1: a way that we didn't know if it was possible,
Speaker 1: based on the fact that he had experienced with Julius
Speaker 1: Randall when Julius played for New Orleans. Remember and Chris
Speaker 1: Finch was an assistant coach. And he has a plan
Speaker 1: and that plan is fucking working. So kudos to the
Speaker 1: unlikeliest of repeat winners, the Pacers and the Wolves. We
Speaker 1: looked at the winning side, moving on, Moving on, we
Speaker 1: looked at the winning side. That's my transition sound. There's
Speaker 1: a lot more drama on the losing side. Starting in Cleveland,
Speaker 1: the entire team fan base city there shook it. Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell says he's watched Game five twice already and he
Speaker 1: cannot sleep. I would watch that game bag personally. Dan
Speaker 1: Gilbert posted a condolence message for the Cavs fans, saying,
Speaker 1: I know it's heartbreaking, but the good news is we
Speaker 1: have a talented young core that we'll learn from this
Speaker 1: and continue to get better. We appreciate your incredible support
Speaker 1: all season long. It's not how we wanted it to end,
Speaker 1: but I promise you we will do everything humanly possible,
Speaker 1: humanly possible, not humanly possible, humanly possible to address what
Speaker 1: needs to be fixed and end in a much better
Speaker 1: place next year. What is that and what's that gonna be?
Speaker 1: Everything humanly possible. Here's the thing. They're gonna run this
Speaker 1: team back. They are. They have to because we don't
Speaker 1: know what they are really yet. Even if we know
Speaker 1: what they are, we don't really know. We don't have
Speaker 1: the evidence to say. Because this is how it goes.
Speaker 1: When you've got excuses to be had to latch onto,
Speaker 1: you're gonna latch onto them. Kolbe Autman is going to
Speaker 1: say the truth of the matter is Darius Garland had
Speaker 1: turf toe. He missed four or five games. The truth
Speaker 1: of the matter is Donovan Mitchell had a bad back
Speaker 1: and a bad ankle. The truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: Evan Mobi, our defensive player of the year, was hampered
Speaker 1: by a bad ankle as well. The truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is our guy that we traded for at the
Speaker 1: deadline and DeAndre Hunter he had a dislocated thumb. So
Speaker 1: what are we really If we were fully healthy, we
Speaker 1: could have made work light work out of these pacers.
Speaker 1: Despite the fact, we know that's not true. We know it.
Speaker 1: How do we know it because we've seen it before.
Speaker 1: We've seen this story before. It's called the Utah Jazz
Speaker 1: sixty plus win season. They get eliminated early. We've seen
Speaker 1: it from the Portland Trailblazers. You can only go so
Speaker 1: far with these little ass guard duos Damon CJ, Mike
Speaker 1: Conley and Donovan Mitchell. You just can't do. It just
Speaker 1: doesn't work. We've seen it now when you don't have
Speaker 1: the wing support on defense and you've got a four
Speaker 1: who should probably be a five and a five who
Speaker 1: should probably be on another team. So they're gonna run
Speaker 1: it back They're probably gonna win less games than they
Speaker 1: did last year because there's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 1: teams that have figured out how to defend them. And
Speaker 1: the elephant in the room is Donovan Mitchell is the
Speaker 1: centerpiece of the team, and he's never been to a
Speaker 1: conference finals in his entire career, not one time. He
Speaker 1: has never played on a team that has had less
Speaker 1: than forty eight wins. The Cavs this year had sixty
Speaker 1: four wins. Only twenty five teams in the history of
Speaker 1: the NBA have won more games than his teams have won.
Speaker 1: And yet every time Donovan Mitchell's getting injured, Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: looks gassed, Donovan Mitchell runs out of steam, and his
Speaker 1: teams get eliminated early. Kenny Atkinson, amazing coach. Give him
Speaker 1: his flowers. He did an incredible job. Congratulations Kenny. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have to change your entire offense next year as well,
Speaker 1: because teams are gonna spend all off season learning how
Speaker 1: to fuck your shit up, just like the Pacers did
Speaker 1: Golden stew We'll move on to Golden State. They're another
Speaker 1: problem all together. This team is like actually buns. The
Speaker 1: Calves are like a good regular season team, but you
Speaker 1: know they don't have it, have it. The Golden State
Speaker 1: is just like a really bad regular season team that
Speaker 1: if you need them to play sixteen games eight games,
Speaker 1: they can sort of figure out how to get to
Speaker 1: the finish line. The duo of Jimmy Butler and Golden
Speaker 1: State were incredible. They really were. They were twenty four
Speaker 1: and seven in the regular season when they played together.
Speaker 1: But the truth is this bitches is old. Those bitches
Speaker 1: is old. They're both in their mid to late thirties.
Speaker 1: They're both starting to break down. You saw Steph Curry
Speaker 1: have to scratch and claw just to get this team
Speaker 1: into the playoffs. To get this team out of the plan,
Speaker 1: you had Jimmy Butler do the same. He was suspended
Speaker 1: from Miami, he goes to Golden State, he puts the
Speaker 1: after burners on. All of a sudden, just like we've
Speaker 1: seen many times before, Jimmy Butler gets injured again, pelvic contusion,
Speaker 1: but contusion. Steph Curry had his first hamstring injury of
Speaker 1: his entire career. I'm gonna say that is likely going
Speaker 1: to happen moving forward again. It's probably not the reason
Speaker 1: the Warriors lost to the Wolves. If the Warriors and
Speaker 1: Wolves were both healthy, I think probably Minnesota wins is
Speaker 1: six or seven instead of five. But it's certainly contributed.
Speaker 1: If you're a Dubs fan, though, Let's be honest, let's
Speaker 1: be real. When you see Steph not playing on this team,
Speaker 1: what do you think about? Wow, when he retires, this
Speaker 1: isn't gonna be any fun. We are not gonna be
Speaker 1: any fun to watch. We really aren't. It's terrible. Brandon Pajemski.
Speaker 1: That's what we've got to do with. That's what we're doing.
Speaker 1: We've got Gee Santos, we got like Draymond's gonna retire,
Speaker 1: We've got nothing for him, Like Trace Jackson Davis. Who
Speaker 1: is on this team? Do you like at all? Gary
Speaker 1: Payton the second Jimmy Butter's gonna retire When Steph retires,
Speaker 1: this team is dead. Jimmy averaged only ten shots and
Speaker 1: fifteen and a half points, didn't hit a three in
Speaker 1: either Game four or Game five. He's taking a lot
Speaker 1: of blame right now, and I think he just didn't
Speaker 1: want to do the Miami Heat thing anymore. You know,
Speaker 1: I didn't come here for this. I hadn't come here
Speaker 1: to play on the Miami heat of the West where
Speaker 1: I have to do everything with these fucking bumps. Are
Speaker 1: you serious? Steph's not here. If I don't have Batman,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it. I'm injured, I'm old. I want
Speaker 1: a title, and it's very apparent that without Steph we're
Speaker 1: not getting one. Warriors owner Joe Lacob said the series
Speaker 1: loss was disappointing. I really hope we could extend the series.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty positive that if we had Steph, we would
Speaker 1: have won this series. Joe Lacob, my man is Delulu.
Speaker 1: That's what he is. He He's Dlulu. That twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two NBA Championship continued his arrogance, and I am I'm
Speaker 1: ready for the fall of our dubs. As much as
Speaker 1: I love Steph and I love watching him, and I
Speaker 1: love Jimmy Butler and I love watching him, I can't
Speaker 1: stand Joe Lacob. What is not up for debate is
Speaker 1: that this roster needs an overhaul, starting with Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 1: aka cum Buckets. The tea starting to spill. Joe Lacob
Speaker 1: has a ton of skin in the game when it
Speaker 1: comes to Cumbuckets, because over the course of two years,
Speaker 1: the Warriors drafted Wiseman Kaminga, Moses Moody, and all three
Speaker 1: are nonsense. All three are pretty valueless. We won't go
Speaker 1: over who they could have drafted, LaMelo Ball for one,
Speaker 1: but suffice to say they stuck too long with losing
Speaker 1: players and they are in a pickle. They're trying to
Speaker 1: figure out a way out, and I don't know what
Speaker 1: the way out is. The latest from the athletic who
Speaker 1: says it's nearly impossible to believe Joe lacub would let
Speaker 1: Kaminga sign an offer sheet elsewhere and walk away for nothing.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, this is the best solution. As Kamingo wants out.
Speaker 1: The Warriors have no long term plans for him. Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr hates him as a player, maybe not as a guy.
Speaker 1: Probably not as a guy. He's a nice enough guy.
Speaker 1: A sign in trade would maybe bring them back some size,
Speaker 1: which is sorely needed. I just see it. As for Jimmy,
Speaker 1: he's happy, he's comfortable, he got his joy back. He said,
Speaker 1: he's very fortunate to be here. But we'll see how
Speaker 1: long that lasts, right, We'll see. He's never been happy
Speaker 1: long term anywhere. And the Warriors, I think the window
Speaker 1: is cracked for one and only season, and I don't
Speaker 1: think if they make any significant upgrades, they're cooked. Steph's
Speaker 1: gonna be thirty eight. He can't win with pods and
Speaker 1: trace Jackson Davis starting. You can't win with an older
Speaker 1: Draymond Green who needs Jimmy Butler to give him a
Speaker 1: battery in his backpack. No one can No one can
Speaker 1: win with these bumps, not even Steph Curry. All right,
Speaker 1: moving on for some news from around the league. Adam
Speaker 1: Silver is still trying to address the All Star Game
Speaker 1: and it's mountain of problems by moving it earlier in
Speaker 1: the season. Speaking on Serious XM Radio, and Adam Silver
Speaker 1: said that the game has creeped later and later over
Speaker 1: the years, mostly in response to the Super Bowl coming
Speaker 1: later and later maybe, and that as a result, players
Speaker 1: look at the late All Star break as a breather
Speaker 1: before the playoffs. Maybe there's an opportunity to move that
Speaker 1: around to create interest at a different point in the
Speaker 1: season where players could be fresher. Yeah. I always felt
Speaker 1: like they always say the last the latter half of
Speaker 1: the season after the All Star break, and it's not
Speaker 1: the latter half of the season. It's like the ladder.
Speaker 1: Third of the season, it's like thirty games left by
Speaker 1: that point, thirty one games left, So I agree. I
Speaker 1: thought that the All Star break should come at the
Speaker 1: halfway mark, which is Mlkday, which would be fucking dope
Speaker 1: MLK Day All Star game. That would be a perfectlution
Speaker 1: and make it an important holiday for the NBAS. And
Speaker 1: guess who never wants to do anything around Mlkday the NFL,
Speaker 1: because they're happy to do other things. Moving on, less
Speaker 1: than forty eight hours after the adrenaline I got from
Speaker 1: hearing my Portland Trailbazers were getting sold get kicked in,
Speaker 1: I have come back to Earth. Why do you ask?
Speaker 1: Because I thought uncle Phil Phil Knight, not Phil Jackson,
Speaker 1: was going to buy this team. And then he decided,
Speaker 1: fuck Jody Allen, not paying that extra money, and I'm
Speaker 1: old now sad he wanted to buy the team. In
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, he put out a statement in response to
Speaker 1: the Paul Allen estate announcing they were going to sell
Speaker 1: the team, and he said, five years ago, when I
Speaker 1: was a younger man, he wasn't that young then I
Speaker 1: had a great interest in being part of the Portland Trailblazers. Franchise. However,
Speaker 1: at my current age, I can confirm that no longer
Speaker 1: I have interest in acquiring the team. Well that's nice
Speaker 1: to know. That's nice to know, because what you were
Speaker 1: gonna sell it in five years you're gonna be ninety.
Speaker 1: But like, actually I just only wanted to own it
Speaker 1: for a half a decade. We're probably gonna get some
Speaker 1: lay mass private equity guy or some sound he prints
Speaker 1: by on this team, they're gonna want to move us to, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, Nashville. That sucks. That sucks. I'm sad,
Speaker 1: and I was hoping that we would be Nike you anyway,
Speaker 1: Moving on, Jason Tatum officially had successful surgery to repair
Speaker 1: his achilles injury more than less than eighteen hours after
Speaker 1: the injury occurred. He actually had the night of his injury.
Speaker 1: Why is that important? First, the doctors have reported that
Speaker 1: there were no further issues found during the surgery. The
Speaker 1: truth is, complications during these procedures are very common, so
Speaker 1: the fact that that was routine was great news. No
Speaker 1: further damage needed to be addressed. I am a medical
Speaker 1: expert now because I've been watching the pit, so I
Speaker 1: don't know if they had to do a crack or
Speaker 1: what is it called a crikey on his achilles. Anyway,
Speaker 1: they didn't have to incubate them or anything. These are
Speaker 1: all words I know now. Second, as a source told
Speaker 1: Boston Globe, the decision was made to operate immediately because
Speaker 1: swift action following achilles injuries tends to lead more to
Speaker 1: favorable outcomes. And now we're hearing that Jason Tatum might
Speaker 1: be back in eight months, which means Tatum could see
Speaker 1: the floor around March first, which is right after the
Speaker 1: All Star break, in time for the last twenty games
Speaker 1: of the season, which would be a miracle and one
Speaker 1: that we would all love to see. Awesome stuff. Thanks
Speaker 1: shout out to Wyatt. That's all the time that we
Speaker 1: have for this episode of the Heat Check. Come back Tuesday.
Speaker 1: I have an interview, conversation, whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: with the Athletics Law Murray. Great conversation. Check out the
Speaker 1: feed for past episodes and the occasional mini episodes which
Speaker 1: might come at you unexpectedly, like a crank or an
Speaker 1: intubation on the pit or a mass shooter at the pitfest.
Speaker 1: Do not forget spoiler alert, Do not forget to follow
Speaker 1: the Heat check all playoffs long. That means follow, so download, subscribe,
Speaker 1: and tell your friends, even the ones you haven't talked
Speaker 1: to in years, say, Hey, the heat Chick's pretty good.
Speaker 1: You should probably listen. Follow us on TikTok at this
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Speaker 1: I kind of understand, so definitely follow us on Instagram
Speaker 1: and on Twitter and on threads. I'm very popping for threads.
Speaker 1: I post there all the time. Anyway, we'll talk to
Speaker 1: you soon, shout out and we'll see you later.