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Speaker 2: All Right, welcome in What's Right with Nick Grit Episode
Speaker 2: two thirty nine. Here's what missed the cut for today's show.
Speaker 2: The All NBA teams have been announced. Lebron making third
Speaker 2: team and Kawhi making second team is flatly indefensible. There's
Speaker 2: no argument for it. I'm not even but I am.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't put in the newspaper. I'm bothered.
Speaker 2: I'm not bothered. Uh here's the thing, demons, how many
Speaker 2: all NBA voters do you think there are?
Speaker 3: I call it a hundred.
Speaker 2: So that's a smart guess. That would make sense. Nice
Speaker 2: round even number. If I told you there were ninety nine,
Speaker 2: would that seem odd? Would that seem intentional? Would it
Speaker 2: almost seem like the league is taunting me, like, hey, guys,
Speaker 2: we could have one hundred and nice even one hundred voters.
Speaker 2: A round number makes sense, makes counting, Like, hey, how
Speaker 2: do you know if someone was unanimous they got five
Speaker 2: hundred points? Because you get five points for first place,
Speaker 2: like all of it or for a first place vote,
Speaker 2: it would all be simpler. Instead, they're sitting at ninety
Speaker 2: nine voters, which to me, it's a bleep you to somebody?
Speaker 2: And am I self important enough when it comes to
Speaker 2: this to think that I should potentially be in the
Speaker 2: top one hundred NBA taste makers? Sure, but no, that's fine.
Speaker 2: So though, so as long as that.
Speaker 3: All NBA tea yeah, all NBA votes.
Speaker 2: What'd you say?
Speaker 3: Would you whould you think I fleeced on the on
Speaker 3: the votes as well?
Speaker 2: Listen, I the this is a longer discussion that I
Speaker 2: don't have time.
Speaker 3: To do today. I ask a little question, when do
Speaker 3: they vote? When do the votes take place at.
Speaker 2: The end of the regular season? It is these are
Speaker 2: all regular season awards, so they all voting takes place
Speaker 2: in the in the three days between the final game
Speaker 2: of the regular season and the start of the play
Speaker 2: so like, so it's it's supposed to be exclusively about
Speaker 2: uh the regular season or a right. What the other
Speaker 2: things that missed the cut is Lamar lost some weight
Speaker 2: and the NBA is getting a new TV rights deal.
Speaker 2: All right, Now to the actual show. Great T shirt
Speaker 2: by the way, Demonse, I don't have one of those,
Speaker 2: but that's pretty that's pretty dope. I like how that looks.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: At some point, let maybe start a mert shop. But
Speaker 2: we haven't done it yet, all right, Demanse, Let's talk
Speaker 2: Game one MAVs Wolves.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the Mavericks obviously stole Game one from the Timberwolves.
Speaker 3: The MAVs have lost both of their Game ones previously,
Speaker 3: so nobody was really picking him, but except for you
Speaker 3: and Mahomes confidently said on the show that he thought
Speaker 3: that MAVs were going to lose. So how important was
Speaker 3: it that the Mavericks stole that Game one?
Speaker 2: Oh? I listen, there has not been a single day
Speaker 2: the yeah you're in front, you're at Lucas Hookahs. There's
Speaker 2: not been a single day in the Mavericks franchise since
Speaker 2: the finals, the twenty eleven finals, where you woke up
Speaker 2: a MAVs fan and you were more likely to win
Speaker 2: the title than now. But the MAVs stealing that game
Speaker 2: when they hit six threes and Minnesota hit eighteen is
Speaker 2: not supposed to happen. Fifth time in NBA playoff history
Speaker 2: that a team has hit twelve or more threes than
Speaker 2: their opponent and lost the game. And Luca starting this
Speaker 2: series without seemingly engaging in a blood feud with the
Speaker 2: officials is a super positive sign. Kyrie recognized like Kyrie
Speaker 2: I think recognizes because he hasn't played playoff runs in
Speaker 2: so long. His body's broken down a bit. He doesn't
Speaker 2: necessarily have four quarters of flame thrower in him anymore.
Speaker 2: So he's been modulating, and in the previous round he
Speaker 2: was kind of, you know, playing more of a floor
Speaker 2: game distributing. In the first half. This game, he emptied
Speaker 2: the clip. I'm sorry he was in the previous round
Speaker 2: was doing more in the second half this game. He
Speaker 2: emptied the clip in the first half, and then Luca
Speaker 2: carried him home. And Luca carried him home on both
Speaker 2: ends of the court. The pass breakup he made on
Speaker 2: the lob was the biggest play of the game. His
Speaker 2: d on the perimeter was B plus, and his offense
Speaker 2: is always unbelievable. He made one of the best passes
Speaker 2: of the NBA season, a full court on a rope
Speaker 2: bounce pass and then it ended up being a block dunk,
Speaker 2: so he didn't even get an assist for it and
Speaker 2: up being a five point swing. And the MAVs now
Speaker 2: are significant favorites. There's only been one series ever that
Speaker 2: Luca's played in where they won game one. They did
Speaker 2: end up losing that series. That was a series against
Speaker 2: the Clippers when they won games one and two in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles. I think Chris STAPs then got hurt, but regardless,
Speaker 2: they did end up losing that series in seven games.
Speaker 2: The right now, the MAVs look like a team that
Speaker 2: can win the championship. And man, if it's Luca versus
Speaker 2: your Celtics Demanse, that's gonna that's gonna be great for
Speaker 2: this show.
Speaker 3: And ahead it seems like you want to say, I mean,
Speaker 3: that'll that'll be very interesting. I'll be honest, I was
Speaker 3: I feel like I was saying that was the team
Speaker 3: that that the Celtics would not be worried about if
Speaker 3: we saw in the finals. Yes, but I don't want to,
Speaker 3: you know, annoy you or anything. But but yeah, I
Speaker 3: definitely say that at one point, so we'll see. I'm
Speaker 3: a lot I'm a lot more scared of the Timberwolves
Speaker 3: with that that Rudy Gobert Karl Anthony Towns combo, because
Speaker 3: I don't think we have too much to combat.
Speaker 2: That well right now, you don't. You would have to
Speaker 2: have Chris STAPs.
Speaker 3: Beat Cuisine and.
Speaker 2: For them, but the the MAVs front line rotation packs
Speaker 2: a little bit of an offensive punch. But more importantly
Speaker 2: what the Timberwolves dealt with last night. And sorry Daniel,
Speaker 2: but it's true against the Nuggets, the Timberwolves big men
Speaker 2: had no They faced no resistance at the rim. The
Speaker 2: Jokic was not very solid defensively in that series. The
Speaker 2: Nuggets don't have any other bigs that are gonna provide
Speaker 2: any rim protection. And for Karl Anthony Towns and Rudy
Speaker 2: Gobert and even Nas Red, there was no Anthony Edwards too,
Speaker 2: no resistance at the The MAVs remade defense is just
Speaker 2: a different story. What were you saying Daniel, Sorry, Daniel
Speaker 2: sais in my ear. Maybe I missed it. Oh, he
Speaker 2: just said true, he's agreeing with me. Yeah, if you're
Speaker 2: a MAVs fan, you've got to be feeling great. Let's
Speaker 2: take a very very quick break right now. All right,
Speaker 2: welcome back in What's Right with Nick? Right. We think
Speaker 2: we've got the tech issues squared away, at least we
Speaker 2: hope we do. And thanks for the folks in the
Speaker 2: chat who stuck with us through it. Div X Ray
Speaker 2: asked why are so many people doubting Luca? The guy's
Speaker 2: been awesome since coming to the league. His playoff form
Speaker 2: second only to Jordan, and people picked Shay Wemby and
Speaker 2: and over him for the twenty five and under. That's
Speaker 2: in reference to the Ringer list, which with respect, and
Speaker 2: I like the work that the Ringer does and I
Speaker 2: like a lot of the people. There was a ludicrous
Speaker 2: list on its face. It didn't make narrative sense. It
Speaker 2: was the twenty five best players under twenty five and
Speaker 2: it had Wimby number one. And it's like, okay, I
Speaker 2: guess what they're they're So if that's the case, what
Speaker 2: you're saying is you are projecting forward based on how
Speaker 2: you know their contract, their age, their evolution, what they're
Speaker 2: gonna be. That's fine, But they had Shae ahead of
Speaker 2: Luca when Luca is actually a little younger than Shay.
Speaker 2: They like it just didn't that entire the the The
Speaker 2: Ringers twenty five under twenty five was a true mess.
Speaker 2: Like I'm trying to remember who they had number ten
Speaker 2: because number ten was another one at number okay, so
Speaker 2: so tied for tenth was Jah and Zion and at
Speaker 2: number eight was Jalen Williams from the Thunder and number
Speaker 2: six was Tyrese Maxi and it sandwiched in between those
Speaker 2: guys was Paolo at number nine. Like it just doesn't
Speaker 2: make sense. And so, oh, I don't listen Luca. Here's
Speaker 2: a fact that will blow your mind. Luca has more
Speaker 2: now has more First Team All nbas than Steph Curry.
Speaker 2: Luka Ancic has more First Team All nbas than Steph Curry.
Speaker 2: And so he is an all time great player already,
Speaker 2: and if they finish this off and win the title,
Speaker 2: he has an argument he's the best player alive, all right,
Speaker 2: demand dab, let's play the game that we were gonna play,
Speaker 2: bracket to unpack it.
Speaker 3: Yes, We've got a new game called Bracket's unpacket. So
Speaker 3: with four teams remaining in the playoffs, let's take a
Speaker 3: look at who you would trust the most. Yeah, it
Speaker 3: will advance a player to the next round based on
Speaker 3: what you have the most faith in with making the
Speaker 3: smart play and leaving it all in the court, and
Speaker 3: of course hitting the game winning shot. So we're gonna
Speaker 3: show the bracket for you guys. First off, we got
Speaker 3: Luca against Drew holly Day.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's Luca without a doubt. So Luke advances
Speaker 2: that one's very, very easy. What's the next one?
Speaker 3: Bottom?
Speaker 2: There?
Speaker 3: You got Tyree's Halliburton versus Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 2: I you know, this is talk about a renaissance for Kyrie,
Speaker 2: and we'll talk about this more Demonse next week, but
Speaker 2: a lot of your Kyrie faith is being vindicated this year.
Speaker 2: There are certain opinions that I have that Demanse clearly fundamentally,
Speaker 2: not just on a sports level but on a deep level,
Speaker 2: disagrees with and doesn't like that I have them. And
Speaker 2: he does I think a really good job of trying
Speaker 2: to be respectful, not in like the father son dynamic,
Speaker 2: but in the kind of the way the podcast is formatted,
Speaker 2: which is it's not really like you know his and
Speaker 2: idueling opinions. And so because of that, there are certain
Speaker 2: times that I can tell, because I know him as
Speaker 2: well as I know any person in the world, that
Speaker 2: what I'm saying is enraging him. And it happens a
Speaker 2: lot with Kyrie, with Kyrie more so than almost anything.
Speaker 2: And Kyrie has handled himself so brilliantly and been such
Speaker 2: a leader and been playing with so much joy and
Speaker 2: on the x's and O stuff, been playing such a
Speaker 2: winning brand of basketball. And did you so my answer
Speaker 2: here is going to be Kyrie. And we can move
Speaker 2: on in a second to the other. But I want
Speaker 2: to stay here for a second. Did you see that
Speaker 2: idiotic Twitter meme going around where it was a picture
Speaker 2: of Lebron and Kyrie and then a picture of Luke
Speaker 2: and Kyrie, And it was like Kyrie didn't want to
Speaker 2: follow him, but he but he's fine with fileo him.
Speaker 2: Wonder why, like wonder what changed? Is what they wrote,
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what changed, guys. Seven years. Kyrie
Speaker 2: has not played with Lebron in seven years. He was
Speaker 2: twenty five years old the last time they played together,
Speaker 2: He's a different person. He has grown, he has matured,
Speaker 2: he has evolved the way all of us have, certainly
Speaker 2: the way most of us do in our mid twenties
Speaker 2: to our early thirties. Now, what has been so impressive
Speaker 2: to me about Kyrie was he seemed to be going
Speaker 2: in the wrong direction. He seemed to be getting more
Speaker 2: erratic and less committed to winning basketball and more problematic
Speaker 2: for teams and all of that stuff. But this, this
Speaker 2: pairing in Dallas, which I did not think would work,
Speaker 2: has worked brilliantly. And you got stan Van Gundy opining
Speaker 2: on the broadcast. Are they the best offensive basket squad
Speaker 2: Ina history? They love each other, bro that Bart's very clear.
Speaker 2: Like I know this sounds a little like draft day cliche,
Speaker 2: but the story that Kyrie was the last person to
Speaker 2: leave Luca's birthday party or vice versa, Luca was the
Speaker 2: last person to leave Kyrie's birthday party, it made me
Speaker 2: smile like I do. There is like a cool kinship
Speaker 2: amongst them all. Right, we can go to the other
Speaker 2: side of the bracket.
Speaker 3: So we got Edwards against Jalen Brown.
Speaker 2: Okay, come on, it's Anthony Edwards. The beginnings of this
Speaker 2: bracket's quite easy bottom one. No, it's just it's I'm
Speaker 2: gonna take Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, okay, see anthe Jason Tatum against Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 2: That one's an easy one to It's Tatum. And so
Speaker 2: now we have the uh oh. I was gonna say
Speaker 2: the best player on the four teams remaining, but I
Speaker 2: forgot Kyrie over Tyree's. So this one's simple as well.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go Luca over Kyrie, and then we've got
Speaker 2: Aunt versus Tatum. I'm gonna go with Ant because at
Speaker 2: the end of games, you know Ant wants the ball,
Speaker 2: and you know Ant is a killer in a way.
Speaker 2: I still don't feel about Jason Tatum.
Speaker 3: Go ahead to manse who between Luke and Kyrie do
Speaker 3: you think takes the last shot?
Speaker 2: I think it is actually defense and position possession dependent.
Speaker 2: I don't think they're like Kyrie is obviously a great closer,
Speaker 2: but Luca in I think the third playoff game of
Speaker 2: his career hit a buzzer beater from twenty eight feet
Speaker 2: to win a game down one to winning the game. Like,
Speaker 2: Luca's got some huge shots. So now it's Luke and
Speaker 2: Ant in the championship part of the bracket, and I'll
Speaker 2: go with Luca. Not surprisingly. I think Lucas gonna win
Speaker 2: the championship. I think it's gonna be finals MVP, and
Speaker 2: I think this is gonna be the year, the surprising
Speaker 2: Year of Luca. Hey, thanks for watching. If you're still here,
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