Speaker 1: So the first weekend of the playoffs has come and gone,
Speaker 1: and we have some storylines already that are brewing. What
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you is my three things that I
Speaker 1: found interesting from each of the series, beginning out West,
Speaker 1: ending with my breakdown of the Warriors and the Kings,
Speaker 1: because as you know, I'm in the grind and I
Speaker 1: am in Sacramento. But I did want to get you
Speaker 1: caught up first. So let's start out West, where three
Speaker 1: of the four series got interesting really fast. Let's start
Speaker 1: in Memphis, Lakers Grizzlies. Fascinating game. Fascinating game, full of good, bad,
Speaker 1: and mostly ugly for the Grizzlies. They end up losing
Speaker 1: to the Lakers one eight, one twelve, So it was
Speaker 1: the blowout folks. They pull out a row win, they
Speaker 1: steal home, weren't from the number two team in the.
Speaker 2: West, and yeah, I think a lot of people saw
Speaker 2: that coming, right.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people said the matchups don't
Speaker 1: favor the Grizzlies because there's no Steven Adams, there's no
Speaker 1: Brandon Clark, and what is Aviery Chilman gonna do. He's
Speaker 1: gonna get eaten Alive by Anthony Davis but the way
Speaker 1: that it ended up happening was in a way that
Speaker 1: nobody did see coming. So here are the three things
Speaker 1: that I took away from this game. First, the Lakers
Speaker 1: beat the Grizzlies on their home court despite the fact
Speaker 1: that Anthony data Davis got injured in that game. It
Speaker 1: nullified him essentially in the second half. That was huge.
Speaker 1: Everybody says that if Anthony Davis isn't healthy, this team
Speaker 1: is cooked.
Speaker 2: They were not cooked. When Anthony Davis could not lift
Speaker 2: his arm.
Speaker 1: He was out there in the second half barely able
Speaker 1: to function, and he was a non factor offensively in
Speaker 1: the second half. So despite that, this team can win
Speaker 1: without him in the short term. Second, the Grizzlies dared
Speaker 1: the Lakers role players to beat him, and they lost.
Speaker 2: They did.
Speaker 1: Ruy Hachi Murray had twenty nine and six, mostly on
Speaker 1: uncontested shots. In the postgame, Desmond Bain admitted that was
Speaker 1: slightly a flaw in our system. Let's see if Ruey
Speaker 1: can do it again. These role players were gonna make
Speaker 1: them beat us every single time. But the problem is
Speaker 1: Ruy only has to do it for one game. He
Speaker 1: did it once. They got their job done, and now
Speaker 1: the Lakers. All they have to do is continue to
Speaker 1: hole home court, and understanding the Laker role players means
Speaker 1: looking at Lebron as well, because Lebron Another thing to
Speaker 1: think about. Lebron just took one shot in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: only why so that he could get the ball to
Speaker 1: Ruey Hachimura and Austin Reeves. They were combined nine for
Speaker 1: ten from the floor in the fourth quarter. Think about that.
Speaker 1: Lebron James, the fourth quarter man, the clutchman himself, deferred
Speaker 1: to Austin Reeves and Ruey Hachimura and it paid off.
Speaker 2: So if you're the Grizzlies.
Speaker 1: Thirdly, you must be in panic mode because Ja Morant
Speaker 1: hurt himself. Not only did he hurt his wrist, He's
Speaker 1: doubtful for Game two and maybe longer.
Speaker 2: But the truth is that he.
Speaker 1: Was hurt five minutes left in the game and he
Speaker 1: just really wasn't a factor in that game. Jaron Jackson
Speaker 1: Junior played really well. He had thirty one, four and
Speaker 1: five and they still got dogwalk. You're gonna need big
Speaker 1: performances out of Jaron to just compete.
Speaker 2: Imagine how much things can change. The Lakers were cooked.
Speaker 1: They didn't even look like a plan team, and now
Speaker 1: it feels like they could possibly sweep the Grizzlies.
Speaker 2: Let's move on to Heat versus Bucks. What happened there?
Speaker 1: I mean, in a nutshell, Jannis got hurt before you know,
Speaker 1: the second I think before the first quarter even ended.
Speaker 2: Right, He seems to be okay.
Speaker 1: It's a tailbone issue, but they were getting blown out
Speaker 1: before Yannis even left the court.
Speaker 2: He'll be banged up, of course, in the short term
Speaker 2: moving forward.
Speaker 1: But listen, man, if you don't have Gianni's you're essentially
Speaker 1: a seventh seed. The Heat had a lead pretty much
Speaker 1: all games before and after Jannis left the court. Jannis
Speaker 1: might miss game two. Tailbone injuries are no joke. I
Speaker 1: mean Steph missed I think ten games with a tailbone injury.
Speaker 1: He had to wear a diaper when he came back.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be really interesting to see what happens
Speaker 1: with Giannis. More importantly, though, Tyler hero broken hand drained
Speaker 1: a corner three with a broken hand out for the
Speaker 1: rest of the playoffs, massive loss to the Heat.
Speaker 2: The Heat are one of those teams that when they
Speaker 2: are streaking and when they are hitting threes, they are
Speaker 2: really really good. And when they're not. They fucking stink.
Speaker 1: The team against the Bucks shot sixty five percent from three.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be something that you need to look out
Speaker 1: moving forward without Tyler Herro. What is the solution to
Speaker 1: replace Tyler Herro? Do not say Duncan Robinson. Do not
Speaker 1: say that he got six minutes in the entire game,
Speaker 1: and he's that's probably the amount that he's gonna get
Speaker 1: all series. His agent probably called Spolster and said, we
Speaker 1: need six minutes for Duncan sometime. Probably gonna need a
Speaker 1: big Oladipo game. Probably gonna need a big Caleb Martin game.
Speaker 1: Probably gonna need a big Gay visit game. I don't
Speaker 1: love that for the heat. Second, the Bucks need to
Speaker 1: find someone they can hit a three. They were pathetic.
Speaker 1: It was fucking horrible. They were twenty four percent from three.
Speaker 1: That's not gonna get it done. Jay Crowder very streaky player.
Speaker 1: Bobby port Is very streaky player. Middleton and Drew you
Speaker 1: need more from They were all combined four for twenty five.
Speaker 1: You cannot you cannot, you cannot do that. You cannot
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 2: Joe Ingles, he played pretty well from three. Maybe you
Speaker 2: feature him more.
Speaker 1: God, he's slow. Goran Dragic got a DMP. Maybe he's
Speaker 1: a part of that answer listen. And thirdly, it's the
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler show. Forty three minutes was the most all
Speaker 1: day by any player. He was on the court pretty
Speaker 1: much the entire time. He's gonna try to will this
Speaker 1: team in the second round, and it's just we know
Speaker 1: it's not gonna happen, but playoff. Jimmy Butler is a
Speaker 1: real force. I think he had thirty five, five and eleven.
Speaker 1: I think he had three steals. But that bench, that
Speaker 1: bench for the heat is fucking awful. Kyle Lowry can't
Speaker 1: be the one who helps you.
Speaker 2: He's He's just the.
Speaker 1: Kind of guy that gives you thirty win one night,
Speaker 1: gives you two the next. He's a bad lawnmower with
Speaker 1: a bad spark plug, like you don't know if it's
Speaker 1: gonna start or not on any given day. But this
Speaker 1: is a weird series. Both teams feel like they're equally
Speaker 1: in trouble. Felt very, very sure that the Bucks were
Speaker 1: going to be able to take this in five, maybe
Speaker 1: even in four. But if Giannie is out, I don't know.
Speaker 1: They live and die with Giannis. If he's hurt. You
Speaker 1: rest him as long as you can as necessary, but
Speaker 1: hopefully not so long that you can't crawl out of
Speaker 1: a hole.
Speaker 2: Very very interesting series.
Speaker 1: Did not see that heat win coming Clippers versus the Suns.
Speaker 1: You look at the box score, you see the Clippers
Speaker 1: pull out an upset. They take game one one fifteen
Speaker 1: one ten in the valley, and you say, wow, probably
Speaker 1: probably big nick Batoon game, Like wow, Russ must have
Speaker 1: had twenty five or thirty. But no, the game was
Speaker 1: not at all what you thought. It was the Kawhi show,
Speaker 1: of course, and he did not disappoint thirty eight points,
Speaker 1: including a clutch dagger after clutch dagger. In the second half,
Speaker 1: he was hitting threes. He looked really really good. On
Speaker 1: the flip side, KD carried the Suns was seventeen in
Speaker 1: the second quarter. Didn't look good in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: And the problem though with the Suns is that KD
Speaker 1: did not take a shot in the final five minutes
Speaker 1: of the game. That's a big problem. MANI did not
Speaker 1: learn his mistakes from last year. Dude ran out eleven players,
Speaker 1: which is pretty insane considering that their bench is fucking awful.
Speaker 1: You know that the bench stinks. We've always known that,
Speaker 1: ever since Kevin dray Trent Kevin Durant trade went down.
Speaker 1: We do not need to see Landrew Schmidt and ish
Speaker 1: Wayne Wright in clutch time.
Speaker 2: We do not many Williams. Why are you getting out coached?
Speaker 1: From the time that you played the Bucks till now,
Speaker 1: DeAndre Ayton.
Speaker 2: Figured to be non factor.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's happening with him, but he's not
Speaker 1: a guy that you can really rely on to get
Speaker 1: you late end of the game buckets.
Speaker 2: He's not in any rhythm.
Speaker 1: The Clippers are giving him all kinds of space to
Speaker 1: shoot mid range jumpers, and he's shooting him, and he's
Speaker 1: he's largely missing them. There is no world that DeAndre
Speaker 1: Ayton should be shooting more shots than Kevin Durant and
Speaker 1: Devin Booker.
Speaker 2: They just can't.
Speaker 1: And it's where you're shooting him. It's when you're shooting
Speaker 1: him mostly ten to fifteen foot jumpers. I don't like that.
Speaker 1: DeAndre Ayten needs to attack the rim a lot more
Speaker 1: for the Suns to really be in it. He's a
Speaker 1: really good team. They should beat the Clippers, but not
Speaker 1: when you're taking the ball out of Katie's hands. Devin
Speaker 1: Booker's hands and even to a small degree, Chris Paul's hands.
Speaker 1: Like you look at it, and he's going up against Ayton,
Speaker 1: is going up against Zubac, Plumbley, and Batoum. None of
Speaker 1: them have more than four fouls. You have to get
Speaker 1: them into foul trouble if you're gonna win those games.
Speaker 1: And we've got to give Tyler Loose some love, right,
Speaker 1: Like he's a really really good coach, really really good coach.
Speaker 1: There's a million strategy decisions that you can break down,
Speaker 1: from how smart his rotations are to the decision to
Speaker 1: play Kawhi finally forty two minutes. Like I said, Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler only played more minutes yesterday than Kawhi. That's the
Speaker 1: only player on the floor that played more. That's wild
Speaker 1: considering how listen, like TYLERU got a lot of shit
Speaker 1: for load managing Kawhi, he really did. Kind of feels
Speaker 1: like skipping minutes in March to use them in April,
Speaker 1: May and June might actually make sense. Tyler shouldet all
Speaker 1: the flowers, listen, and he should get all the flowers
Speaker 1: for this. Russell Westbrook was not believed in in La
Speaker 1: at all, and he came to the Clippers and Tyleru said,
Speaker 1: we're gonna let Russell Westbrook be him, and people thought
Speaker 1: he was crazy, But that loyalty and belief in Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook is what won them in the game. Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: won the Clippers that game. He had the worst shooting
Speaker 1: game of his entire player off career, which was three
Speaker 1: for nineteen, and yet in the final two minutes he
Speaker 1: was the most impactful guy on the court. He was
Speaker 1: hunting for his shots, he was swatting balls away, he
Speaker 1: was playing incredibly good defense. Russ went to the bench
Speaker 1: in the third quarter when the Clippers were down double digits.
Speaker 2: Kawhi made a run.
Speaker 1: It was a four point lead and it felt like
Speaker 1: Russ was never going to see the quart again. But
Speaker 1: you know what, Tye put him back in and he
Speaker 1: let him control the offense all the way to the
Speaker 1: end of the game. He didn't give a shit whether
Speaker 1: his shot was hitting. He was his usual Tasmanian devil self.
Speaker 1: In the final two minutes. He attacked the rim, he
Speaker 1: got fouled, he made two huge free throws. It was
Speaker 1: seventeen seconds left. He made the game saving defensive play
Speaker 1: on Devin Booker like. He made six plays in the
Speaker 1: final two minutes that won the Clippers the game. Without him,
Speaker 1: they don't win that game. So that's a really really
Speaker 1: interesting matchup. Can't wait to see. I think it might
Speaker 1: be a long series. Actually, I thought this would be four,
Speaker 1: five to six games. I think it might go seven.