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Speaker 1: Slash b Ball. All right, welcome to hop tonight. You're
Speaker 1: at the ball. You've had me Saturday. Everybody, Oh ball.
Speaker 1: You guys are having a great weekend. I've actually recorded
Speaker 1: this episode late night on Friday, after the ultimate night
Speaker 1: of the NBA regular season. Basically, here's that's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do in today's show. I'm gonna go over a
Speaker 1: few of the games from last night a couple of
Speaker 1: the things that I noticed. Then we're gonna look at
Speaker 1: both the East and the West and what we know
Speaker 1: about the playoff picture going into Sunday. We obviously have
Speaker 1: some more clarity out East. I'll talk very briefly about
Speaker 1: those first round matchups. Obviously, we're not gonna get into
Speaker 1: too much detail until next week. I will have comprehensive
Speaker 1: breakdowns of all eight first round series during the week
Speaker 1: next week. Obviously a bunch more up in the air
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference. I'll be going over scenarios for
Speaker 1: you guys. I'll talk about which matchups I prefer for
Speaker 1: all of the teams, and not too much Lakers talk
Speaker 1: for you Laker fans today. But at the tail end
Speaker 1: of the show, I am gonna go over just a
Speaker 1: couple seating scenarios which I think are valuable for Laker fans.
Speaker 1: But again, just gonna dance around the penultimate night in
Speaker 1: the NBA regular season and talk about everything that we
Speaker 1: learned and everything that we need for Sunday. You guys
Speaker 1: know the job before we get started. Subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight YouTube channels you don't miss any more of
Speaker 1: our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT, so
Speaker 1: you guys don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a
Speaker 1: podcast feed where we get your podcast on our hoops tonight.
Speaker 1: It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and
Speaker 1: a review on that front. We also have social media
Speaker 1: feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where Jackson's doing great
Speaker 1: work this year. Make sure you guys follow us there.
Speaker 1: And the last but not least, keep dropping those mail bag
Speaker 1: questions so we can get to them in our weekly
Speaker 1: mail bags throughout the rest of the season. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball, and let's start out in the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference, so the Bucks get a big win on
Speaker 1: the road in Detroit, clinch the five seed, and make
Speaker 1: Sundays rematch with the Pistons completely unnecessary. Giannis was incredible
Speaker 1: in this game. He goes for fifteen assists, his fifth
Speaker 1: double digit assist game in his last seven games, and
Speaker 1: tonight it was just this surgical point forward playmaking piece
Speaker 1: semi transition attacks, getting the defense to lean one way
Speaker 1: or another, and making great cross court and skip passes
Speaker 1: or swing passes to shooters, finding cutters on the baseline,
Speaker 1: postfeeds to Brook Lopez again and post double team kickouts, handling,
Speaker 1: blitzes and traps, well, just methodical playmaking and like obviously
Speaker 1: the blood clot for Dame is very scary and you'd
Speaker 1: prefer that he was healthy and ready to play. But
Speaker 1: this opportunity that has opened up in terms of ball
Speaker 1: handling responsibility for Milwaukee has been super revealing on a
Speaker 1: bunch of levels. On the one hand, Kevin Porter Junior,
Speaker 1: to his credit, has developed a decent little two man
Speaker 1: game with Giannis. They're good at screening and rescreening and
Speaker 1: doing what it takes to get one of the defenders
Speaker 1: out of position so that they can create some of
Speaker 1: those short role opportunities for Yannis. They got one of
Speaker 1: those in the second half tonight for a little swing
Speaker 1: pass to the week side for I believe a Gary
Speaker 1: Trent Junior three opportunities for Yannis in the pocket. As
Speaker 1: they run that two man game, Kevin Porter's found some
Speaker 1: scoring opportunities in there, working against ice coverages along the
Speaker 1: baseline giving goes with Yiannis. They have a nice little
Speaker 1: chemistry that they found there that I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: endp potentially having to lean on a lot in their
Speaker 1: first round series. If Dame is unable to come back.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, that opening in ball handling responsibility
Speaker 1: has just given the ball to Yanis a ton and
Speaker 1: there are a ton of possessions where it's just Giannis
Speaker 1: bringing the ball off the floor in semi transition and
Speaker 1: he's just playing basketball, making a quick attack to see
Speaker 1: if the defense does something, dribbling into a post up
Speaker 1: to see if the defense does something. Just a lot
Speaker 1: of really nice methodical playmaking from Yannis, and it's not
Speaker 1: the old school Yiannis like five years ago bowling a
Speaker 1: China shop stuff where he's just dropping his shoulder and
Speaker 1: trying to go through everybody. He's attacking slowly. At times,
Speaker 1: he's putting guys in jail, meaning trapping them on his
Speaker 1: backside and methodically waiting for plays to open up. He's
Speaker 1: manipulating help defenders with his eyes and with ball fakes. Again,
Speaker 1: it's not a coincidence. It's not easy to put up
Speaker 1: five double figure assist games in seven nights the way
Speaker 1: that he did. That's something that we usually only see
Speaker 1: from the top end playmaking talent in this league. And
Speaker 1: I just think that that's a very interesting trend for
Speaker 1: the big picture for Milwaukee in the sense that it
Speaker 1: used to be that you felt like you needed a
Speaker 1: Dame because of Jannie's half court shortcomings. You needed Chris
Speaker 1: Middleton because of Janni's half court shortcomings. And I'm starting
Speaker 1: to think that it's worth a shot, at least in
Speaker 1: terms of team building, if Milwaukee wants to try going
Speaker 1: this route this summer, or if a team were to
Speaker 1: trade for Giannis. I think Giannis is at a caliber
Speaker 1: as a half court playmaker now that you can start
Speaker 1: looking more towards like three and D type of talent
Speaker 1: off of jannis athleticism, defensive talent, trusting that Jannis is
Speaker 1: going to be able to set them up with enough
Speaker 1: quality opportunities for you to be able to score. I
Speaker 1: think that's a real growth piece in Janni's game. That's
Speaker 1: an exciting big picture trend for the Bucks, especially as
Speaker 1: they potentially have to head into a pivot like a
Speaker 1: soft rebuild this summer. Our Eastern Conference playoffs are officially set,
Speaker 1: or at least for the teams that are not going
Speaker 1: to play play in teams. We're going to get Milwaukee
Speaker 1: versus Indiana with Indiana having home court, and Detroit versus
Speaker 1: New York with the Knicks having home court now. Obviously,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, we're gonna do our comprehensive series previews
Speaker 1: next week, but here are my very very brief initial
Speaker 1: thoughts for Pacers Bucks. This has at times been a
Speaker 1: tough matchup for Milwaukee. All the Milwaukee's fared much better
Speaker 1: this year than they did last year, and obviously Dane
Speaker 1: being out makes for a ton of responsibility on Giannis
Speaker 1: and then obviously a lot of pressure on some lower
Speaker 1: level guys to knock down a lot of shots off
Speaker 1: of Gianni's passes. And so my initial gut feeling is
Speaker 1: to take Indie. Indie's playing really well right now. They
Speaker 1: have it more, They're obviously in a better position in
Speaker 1: terms of health, they have their identity is really clicking
Speaker 1: right now on both ends of the floor. But Giannis
Speaker 1: is playing so incredibly well that I'm really gonna have
Speaker 1: to think long and hard about this one, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna spend a good amount of time watching film, and
Speaker 1: again I'll save my prediction for next week. I'm leaning
Speaker 1: Indiana right now, but Yannis has me seriously second guessing
Speaker 1: that New York a better matchup for Detroit than Indiana
Speaker 1: is Detroit really struggled with Indiana this year. They actually
Speaker 1: beat the Knicks three times in a row. Caid has
Speaker 1: looked super comfortable attacking Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: in action. But obviously the Knicks have a lot of
Speaker 1: experience and talent, and I would just flat out say
Speaker 1: they have a more well equipped playoff roster than Detroit was,
Speaker 1: or than Detroit has. So my initial gut feeling is
Speaker 1: to take the Knicks there. Obviously, the young, inexperienced team
Speaker 1: to a star that's never been in the postseason before.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of question marks there. But New York
Speaker 1: does have advantages there. Excuse me, the Pistons do have
Speaker 1: advantages there, and I could see that series getting dragged
Speaker 1: out based on Cad being able to operate in a
Speaker 1: bunch of comfort and just him just being able to
Speaker 1: be in a groove for most of that series. But again,
Speaker 1: my initial gut feeling is Nicks and Pacers. But we
Speaker 1: will have our predictions next week with our comprehensive previews
Speaker 1: as we go through all eight first round series. Moving
Speaker 1: out to the Western Conference, the Clippers took care of
Speaker 1: business and another must win game on the road in Sacramento.
Speaker 1: Their defense was incredible all night. Kawhi basically erase to
Speaker 1: Marta Rosen, Chris Don and Derek Johnes Junior did a
Speaker 1: great job on zach Levine. They had balanced scoring across
Speaker 1: the board. Their big four went for eighty four points,
Speaker 1: got a little squirrely late. Zach Levine and Demarta Rosen
Speaker 1: finally got hot hit some shots, and the Clipper offense
Speaker 1: stalled out a bit. They had a couple of late
Speaker 1: game execution mistakes, including turning the ball over on a
Speaker 1: sideline out of bound sequence, but credit to a Vika
Speaker 1: Zubats who created two extra possessions on a critical late
Speaker 1: game possessions just by bullying some bonus underneath the basket
Speaker 1: and creating tap out rebounds, and they ended up scoring
Speaker 1: on that possession. The Clippers were able to survive this
Speaker 1: kind of crazy late game sequence with that turnover into
Speaker 1: Marta Rosen trying to split a double team for heave,
Speaker 1: and they end up getting out of there with the
Speaker 1: much needed win. So now the Clippers controlled their destiny.
Speaker 1: On Sunday, if they beat the Warriors, they will get
Speaker 1: the five seed and a date with Denver in the
Speaker 1: first round. After I get through these couple other things
Speaker 1: from tonight, I'm going to go in detail through the
Speaker 1: Western Conference seating situation. That's going to be at the
Speaker 1: tail end of the show. But before we move on
Speaker 1: to the next games, I wanted to take a minute
Speaker 1: to compliment the Clippers on what I think has been
Speaker 1: a very successful season for them and what I think
Speaker 1: was a really smart gamble by Lawrence Frank and that
Speaker 1: front office. Letting Paul George walk is not an easy
Speaker 1: decision to make. He had just played in seventy four games.
Speaker 1: He had a very good season, twenty three points per game,
Speaker 1: sixty one percent tru shooting. That's a lot of talent
Speaker 1: to let walk out the door for nothing. But there
Speaker 1: were obvious realities with the CBA and the way that
Speaker 1: you can handcuff yourself if you end up in that
Speaker 1: second abron, And so the organization just believed in their
Speaker 1: strong basketball culture. They have a smart front office, and
Speaker 1: they made a couple of moves last summer that I
Speaker 1: think should teach us all a lot in and roster
Speaker 1: building in the NBA. This was something I talked a
Speaker 1: lot about at the time, the idea of this perimeter
Speaker 1: speed finding athletes on the perimeter make life easier in
Speaker 1: the regular season, and it kind of fits into a
Speaker 1: concept of believed a long time, which is essentially that
Speaker 1: your talent is unique to what your team actually needs
Speaker 1: from you. Right. So, okay, you can't get a superstar
Speaker 1: player in free agency, right you let Paul George walk.
Speaker 1: You don't have the cap space to just sign a superstar.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't really anybody available. But what if you can
Speaker 1: get players that are such seamless fits into the roles
Speaker 1: that you have available that you can get great value.
Speaker 1: For instance, Chris Don and Derek Jones junior total at
Speaker 1: just fourteen point six million dollars per year in salary.
Speaker 1: But because you have the ballscreen game with James Harden
Speaker 1: and Ivica Zubats, Zubots's development as a player in the
Speaker 1: pocket with this deadly floater hit several more super important
Speaker 1: floaters tonight, that game with those two has generated a
Speaker 1: lot of lowman help, a lot of situations where guys
Speaker 1: are having to tag Zoo. When they tag Zoo, that
Speaker 1: leaves the corner open. And so they've been able to
Speaker 1: generate these like pretty simple reads for their three and
Speaker 1: D guys out of that fifth starter, he's basically going
Speaker 1: to cut along the baseline if there's enough of a runway.
Speaker 1: We saw a key one out of a late time
Speaker 1: out late in this game where they ran a ball
Speaker 1: screen for James Harden going towards the left wing. Knew
Speaker 1: the tag was coming because Zoo had done a bunch
Speaker 1: of damage there with floaters, and James Harden instead of
Speaker 1: throwing the pocket to Zoo just throws a lob to
Speaker 1: Derek Jones cutting out of that right corner and gets
Speaker 1: a nasty two handed dunk. Again, that is the type
Speaker 1: of runway that develops because of the hardened Zoo two
Speaker 1: man game. They're gonna get clean catch and shoots and
Speaker 1: clean runway cutting opportunities out of that corner. And so
Speaker 1: as a result, you get two players for fourteen million
Speaker 1: that because they're also guard the other team's best player
Speaker 1: and pressuring full court and doing all this stuff to
Speaker 1: make them uncomfortable, you're getting great value and maybe not
Speaker 1: an exact approximation of what Paul George does, but you're
Speaker 1: getting so much more offensively out of what Zoo is
Speaker 1: doing and out of what Norman Powell is doing through
Speaker 1: their internal development that you don't necessarily need the offensive firepower.
Speaker 1: And now Derek Jones and Chris Dunn are actually kicking
Speaker 1: ass in these smaller roles, and so it just has
Speaker 1: been a masterclass and roster building in the NBA. I've
Speaker 1: talked about this emphasis on perimeter speed and guys that
Speaker 1: can really guard the ball and how that raises your
Speaker 1: floor in the regular season. I talked before the season
Speaker 1: starts how I expected the Clippers to be a team
Speaker 1: that hung out above the play in for the most part,
Speaker 1: and they did all this season. They just have a
Speaker 1: great basketball culture, a great front office that understands the
Speaker 1: game and how to build within the confines of what
Speaker 1: your payroll can trap you into. A head coach that
Speaker 1: I think is among the best in the league. A
Speaker 1: couple are really really smart stars leading the way. Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard continues to look fantastic. He's looked so much more
Speaker 1: athletic towards the rim. He keeps trying to dunk on everybody.
Speaker 1: Now all of a sudden, like it's looking really really
Speaker 1: exciting for the Clippers, And so here we are. You
Speaker 1: hit on those two signings, and I believe the Clippers
Speaker 1: are a better basketball team today than they were with
Speaker 1: Paul George, So shout out to the Clippers again. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about some more stuff with the seeding when we
Speaker 1: get to the final segment of the night before we
Speaker 1: get out of here. Welcome to Course Correction, brought to
Speaker 1: you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating
Speaker 1: performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure
Speaker 1: to get things right. They must rise to the occasion,
Speaker 1: turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft's empowers these visionaries with AI solutions,
Speaker 1: simplified cloud and data management and trustworthy responsible AI. And
Speaker 1: when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles
Speaker 1: to face. In this segment, we explore the challenges faced
Speaker 1: by teams or star players and how they can turn
Speaker 1: things around. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with
Speaker 1: the expertise to say bring it on. Tonight, we're discussing
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets in their late game defense against the
Speaker 1: Memphis Grizzlies in a must win game tonight. The Grizzlies
Speaker 1: controlled Tonight's game for a little over three quarters. They
Speaker 1: were victimizing the week. Denver pick and roll coverage with
Speaker 1: Desmond Bane and John Morant just getting to whever they wanted,
Speaker 1: and screening actions off of you know, off ball curls
Speaker 1: for Desmond Baan, a lot of on ball stuff for
Speaker 1: John Morant, just cutting them to pieces. The Grizzlies ran
Speaker 1: thirty two ball screens including passes in the first three quarters,
Speaker 1: getting one point zero six points per possession including passes,
Speaker 1: again just cutting them to pieces. A lot of the
Speaker 1: same usual problems for Denver weak ball pressure. Jokic had
Speaker 1: some really bad at the level reps in that third quarter.
Speaker 1: He had one of the most embarrassing ones I've seen
Speaker 1: from him in a while on a player Zach Edie
Speaker 1: got a dunk where he like showed on a John
Speaker 1: Morant ball screen. John Morant just threw a swing pass
Speaker 1: and Edie just ran behind him, and Jokic just kind
Speaker 1: of started walking back, and Edie got another wide open dunk,
Speaker 1: and it looked a lot like what you've sad from
Speaker 1: Denver over the course of the last several weeks. And
Speaker 1: the Grizzlies had a five point lead with less than
Speaker 1: five minutes left, and then for that final five minutes,
Speaker 1: the Nuggets transformed into the same devastating clutch time team
Speaker 1: that the Nuggets had been in years past getting stops
Speaker 1: with strong positional defense, keeping the ball in front, some
Speaker 1: smart game plan stuff. They did some switching on job
Speaker 1: ball screens, having a Jokic sit back critically switched back
Speaker 1: on one, and John ended up missing a three going
Speaker 1: under a couple of job ball screens to keep the
Speaker 1: ball in front. They logged one of their best reps
Speaker 1: on a Jaron Jackson post up. Jared had been doing
Speaker 1: some damage from that right block, getting into the middle
Speaker 1: of the lane for his left handed hook. They got
Speaker 1: a great rep blake where Christian Brown held his ground
Speaker 1: really well. Aaron Gordon shrunk the by digging down off
Speaker 1: of John Morant on the wing, and they just barely
Speaker 1: bothered Jaron Jackson enough to get him to miss one
Speaker 1: of those hook shots. Russell Westbrook made two massive defensive
Speaker 1: plays down the stretch. He stole a pick and roll
Speaker 1: pocket pass on a play Den has been baying, curled
Speaker 1: a screening action. He literally just after he saw Desmond
Speaker 1: Man going downhill. He peeled off of him and ran
Speaker 1: to the role Man instead, and Desmond Bain tried to
Speaker 1: throw them behind the back pass ended up being stolen
Speaker 1: by Russell Westbrook just because of some great pursuit over
Speaker 1: the top of his screen. He had another play where
Speaker 1: he challenged Zach Edie at the rim on a cut
Speaker 1: an extra effort defensive player where he was kind of
Speaker 1: out of position. He just made an effort, got up
Speaker 1: there and forced Edie to miss a layup. Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: and Nikole Jokic, they had some really bad pick and
Speaker 1: roll reps in the third quarter. In that fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: they had a very strong pick and roll rep against
Speaker 1: John Morant on the right wing where Jamal did a
Speaker 1: great job pressuring from behind, and Jokic, even though he
Speaker 1: was getting sealed, jumped over his man and got a
Speaker 1: contest on John Rant, forced him to rush the floater
Speaker 1: and Josh shot the floater way long off of the
Speaker 1: off of the backboard. It was just them competing on
Speaker 1: defense and then on the other end, looking like the
Speaker 1: Nuggets on offense running in transition. They got an early
Speaker 1: Yokic po stuff in a transition situation. They got another
Speaker 1: Jokic deep post catch off of an offensive rebound. Then
Speaker 1: we saw a bunch of that classic Jokich Murray two
Speaker 1: man game, a couple of Jamal Murray mid range pull
Speaker 1: ups in the two man game, a pocket pass the
Speaker 1: Jokics for the floater. The Nuggets closed that game on
Speaker 1: a fourteen to one run. Talked about the defense. They
Speaker 1: defended twelve pick and rolls in the fourth quarter and
Speaker 1: allowed just nine points to zero point seventy five points
Speaker 1: per possession, just by doing better by competing on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. Just a casual reminder of
Speaker 1: what made this team true contenders over the last few years.
Speaker 1: I get kind of annoyed when I watch them now
Speaker 1: because it feels like a missed opportunity. This team is
Speaker 1: so good on offense. They don't need to be some
Speaker 1: sort of all world defensive team. They just need to
Speaker 1: be competent. They need solid game planning and solid game
Speaker 1: plan discipline. That is all they need to make a
Speaker 1: deep playoff run with the offense that they had. And
Speaker 1: here's the thing. At this point, it might be too
Speaker 1: late for them to really get their habits to where
Speaker 1: they need to be to win four playoff rounds. But
Speaker 1: this Nuggets team over the last couple of games has
Speaker 1: shown just a tiny bit of life here, just that
Speaker 1: tiny bit of hope as they head into the postseason.
Speaker 1: After the Mike Malone firing. That is it for this
Speaker 1: week's course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to
Speaker 1: take bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas
Speaker 1: to help drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your
Speaker 1: trusted partner, you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding
Speaker 1: innovative solutions, and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com
Speaker 1: Slash challengers to learn more. One last note from that
Speaker 1: Grizzlies Nuggets game. Switching over to Memphis, both Ja Moran
Speaker 1: and Desmond Bain were really bad down the stretch of
Speaker 1: that game. Desmond Bain tried this like weird low gather
Speaker 1: move on Russ and just turned it over even against
Speaker 1: no defensive pressure. That behind the back pass turnover to Russ.
Speaker 1: That was just a really sloppy pass or really high
Speaker 1: risk pass in that situation. John Morant twice on the
Speaker 1: two Jokic deep seal post ups, was the guy who
Speaker 1: needed to be the guy double teaming and he just
Speaker 1: wasn't paying attention, got lost off ball. He obviously couldn't
Speaker 1: get anything going offensively down the stretch in the ballscreen game.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. The Grizzlies have their issues with personnel.
Speaker 1: They're not big and physical enough on defense. They sorely
Speaker 1: miss a guy like Dylan Brooks on the wing. They
Speaker 1: don't have enough shooting. Their bigs all have flaws, whether
Speaker 1: it's Jaren Jackson's rebounding or Zach Yedee's ability to defend
Speaker 1: in space. They have their weaknesses. But ultimately, John Morant
Speaker 1: and Desmond Bane, their two primary shot creators, just aren't
Speaker 1: nearly as good as the other stars in the Western Conference,
Speaker 1: and that's what's ultimately holding them back. As I've said
Speaker 1: many times on the show, I truly believe John Morant
Speaker 1: is the type of superstar that has an upside with
Speaker 1: his athleticism to get to the point where he can
Speaker 1: be one of the guys that can compete in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference. But here we are. He's twenty five years old,
Speaker 1: and John's basically the same player he was four years ago.
Speaker 1: You could argue he's actually regressed a little bit. So
Speaker 1: I don't really know where Memphis goes from here, because
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where it feels somewhat like
Speaker 1: a turning point. This was the year where everything was
Speaker 1: supposed to go right for Memphis there for a while.
Speaker 1: It looked like it was going to, but they never
Speaker 1: could get together other than that win on the road
Speaker 1: in Boston. In a handful of other nights this season,
Speaker 1: they couldn't put together the signature wins and the swagger
Speaker 1: that they had in years past, and again it just
Speaker 1: seems like their stars are plateauing. Desbon Bain obviously has
Speaker 1: his certain limitations based on his talent. John Morant has
Speaker 1: just not been developing the way that you would expect
Speaker 1: a young player his age. It just doesn't look good
Speaker 1: for Memphis at this point as they fall to the
Speaker 1: eight seed in the Western Conference. So big picture in
Speaker 1: the West, the Grizzlies clinch a play in Birth with
Speaker 1: the loss, and the Warriors win tonight, they'll be the
Speaker 1: eighth seed no matter what. From what I understand, here's
Speaker 1: how the rest of it works. Denver and Minnesota's games
Speaker 1: on Sunday are games that they should win. Minnesota plays
Speaker 1: Utah even without Ant with a suspension. They should win
Speaker 1: that game if they leverage their athletics defensively. Denver plays Houston, who,
Speaker 1: according to their last two games against Clippers and Lakers,
Speaker 1: have shut down their starters for the season. So if
Speaker 1: that holds, in Houston doesn't play their starters. Minnesota and
Speaker 1: Denver should win on Sunday. If they both win, Denver
Speaker 1: locks up the four seed. No matter what happens, Denver's
Speaker 1: your four. So that leaves the Clippers and the Warriors
Speaker 1: in their game on Sunday as the massive swing factor
Speaker 1: heading into the postseason. That game is in Golden State.
Speaker 1: I would expect the Clippers or excuse me, the Warriors
Speaker 1: to be a slight favorite in that game. I would
Speaker 1: pick the Warriors to win that game. If Golden State wins,
Speaker 1: that pushes Minnesota all the way up to five, and
Speaker 1: then we're gonna get our rematch to the Western Conference
Speaker 1: semifinals last year with Denver holding home court over the
Speaker 1: Timberwolves if Golden State. If Golden State wins, Minnesota goes
Speaker 1: to five, Golden State goes the s then we get
Speaker 1: our rematch of Warriors Lakers from a couple years ago.
Speaker 1: That's the matchup that I'm particularly worried About'll talk about
Speaker 1: in a minute. Clippers would drop down to seven. They
Speaker 1: would have to beat the Grizzlies to get Houston in
Speaker 1: Round one. If the Clippers win on Sunday. So again,
Speaker 1: Denver beats Houston, Minnesota beats Utah, Clippers beat the Warriors.
Speaker 1: Then the Clippers jump all the way up to five.
Speaker 1: They get Denver in round one. The Wolves would jump
Speaker 1: up to six, they'd get the Lakers. The Warriors would
Speaker 1: drop to seven and have to beat the Grizzlies in
Speaker 1: the plane to match up with Houston. So still a
Speaker 1: lot up in the air. I'm personally rooting for the
Speaker 1: Clippers on Sunday because I'd much or rather face the
Speaker 1: Timberwolves in the first round as a Lakers fan, then
Speaker 1: I would face the Warriors. The Warriors scare me for
Speaker 1: one reason. I don't think they have anybody that can
Speaker 1: really make Steph uncomfortable. He's just too fast for all
Speaker 1: of them. So even though I think the Lakers have
Speaker 1: a lot of advantages and I would probably pick the
Speaker 1: Lakers to win that series, the Steph wild card and
Speaker 1: just him being comfortable all series is enough of a
Speaker 1: wild card to swing that either way, and so I
Speaker 1: would be nervous about that particular matchup if I was
Speaker 1: a Lakers fan. I think they can match up in
Speaker 1: terms of their defensive game planning way better with Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Minnesota is a team that struggles with indecision against those
Speaker 1: types of aggressive defensive schemes. I think JJ Reddick would
Speaker 1: prey on Anthony Edwards's playmaking deficiencies and their team deficiencies
Speaker 1: and aggregate connective playmaking. I like that matchup for the Lakers. Also,
Speaker 1: Jaden McDaniels can't guard Lebron or can't guard Luca. He's
Speaker 1: just not big and strong enough for him. I just
Speaker 1: think it's a matchup that favors the Lakers better than
Speaker 1: the Warriors if they were to match up with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm personally rooting for. I would imagine
Speaker 1: Denver is also rooting for the Clippers because they don't
Speaker 1: want to see the Timberwolves in Round one. So my
Speaker 1: guess is you're gonna have Denver in La rooting for
Speaker 1: the Clippers in that game. Obviously, the Warriors want to
Speaker 1: win because they want to stay out of the plan,
Speaker 1: and the Clippers want to win because they want to
Speaker 1: stay out of the plan. But everything will be resolved
Speaker 1: in that twelve thirty Pacific time slate on Sunday. Here's
Speaker 1: the deal for the show. Just so you guys know,
Speaker 1: we are not going on Sunday, but I am going
Speaker 1: with Colin Cowhard, so go to the Colin Cowhard podcast
Speaker 1: feed on Sunday evening. That's where you'll see the instant
Speaker 1: reaction to everything that went down on Sunday. I will
Speaker 1: be back on Monday morning with a reaction to the
Speaker 1: weekend's games, and then we're gonna dive literally right into
Speaker 1: series previews all week long, so tons of content coming
Speaker 1: from here on out, and then once we get into
Speaker 1: the postseason, we literally go live every single night, So
Speaker 1: that's the journey from here. That's all I have for tonight.
Speaker 1: As always, as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me
Speaker 1: and supporting the show. We will be back on Sunday
Speaker 1: with Colin, and then with this show on Monday, I
Speaker 1: will see you guys. Then it's up guys. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight.
Speaker 1: They would actually be really helpful for us if you
Speaker 1: guys would take a second and leave a rating and
Speaker 1: a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us.
Speaker 1: If you could take a minute to do that, I'd
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