Speaker 1: Swing the cards huge three.
Speaker 2: Next, lad, welcome into the NBA Pulster production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 2: in the NBA. I'm Sarah Kustack, NBA analyst for the
Speaker 2: Yes Network, and today is Friday, May third, and from
Speaker 2: our extraordinary core group of NBA journalists, We're joined now
Speaker 2: by NBA dot Com Senior writer Michael c Ryde. And oh,
Speaker 2: we had some good ones last night. An amazing series
Speaker 2: between the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. Michael,
Speaker 2: we will get to the Pacers closing out the Bucks
Speaker 2: season as well in just a bit. Uh but one
Speaker 2: eighteen one fifteen game six win in Philadelphia for a
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson led Villanova former Villanova led crew of New
Speaker 2: York Knicks and Tom Thibodeau, and Brunson was once again exceptional.
Speaker 2: He finished off the final three games of the series
Speaker 2: with forty or more points. He had averaged more than
Speaker 2: thirty five throughout the course of the series.
Speaker 1: We're a fifty five second what.
Speaker 2: Big bucket ber Jalen Brunson when you look at the
Speaker 2: the moments, the ways in which he commanded and controlled things,
Speaker 2: and really there's so much to get to with everyone
Speaker 2: because of the way we see saw Maxie perform, obviously,
Speaker 2: Joel Embiid fighting through a lot of things, and Josh
Speaker 2: Hart hitting a key, key three point shot in the
Speaker 2: Type all game with just under twenty five seconds left
Speaker 2: that really helps steal this for and next. But I
Speaker 2: want to focus on Jalen Brunson and what you saw
Speaker 2: to him the final four games. He averaged nearly forty
Speaker 2: two points per game. How, how surprised, impressed? What what
Speaker 2: word would you use to kind of categorize the way
Speaker 2: in which Jalen Brunson seemingly put himself in a different category,
Speaker 2: and how we view him after this postseason performance thus far.
Speaker 1: Well, Sarah, you know they say in the postseason that's
Speaker 1: where you make your reputation, and obviously throughout the regular season,
Speaker 1: you know, he was starting to get into the MVP conversation,
Speaker 1: So you know, I think all he did was just
Speaker 1: sort of reinforced his case for MVP. Now he's not
Speaker 1: gonna win it, but you know what I mean, Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: he did it in the regular season. Now we see
Speaker 1: what he's doing in the playoffs. But like you said,
Speaker 1: forty points and more in each of the last three games,
Speaker 1: first Nick to do that since Menara King forty years ago,
Speaker 1: first NBA player since Michael Jordan in nineteen eighty nine
Speaker 1: to close the series with forty or more points. So
Speaker 1: it was it was unbelievable what he did. And the
Speaker 1: thing about that game, though, is the Knicks jumped out
Speaker 1: like what thirty three thirty thirty three eleven I believe,
Speaker 1: and I stopped watching. I was like, Eh, this is
Speaker 1: over the Knicks. They're gonna cook the Sixers. And then
Speaker 1: I look back up and the Sixers going this thirty
Speaker 1: four to eleven run and now they're leading at halftime.
Speaker 1: I'm like, whoa. And the whole game was like that.
Speaker 1: It was like the whole series was like that. It
Speaker 1: was very exciting. And you know, when you see a
Speaker 1: guy like Jalen Brunton perform the way he did with
Speaker 1: the stakes so high, it's just it was just unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about this, Sarah. Since nineteen ninety six
Speaker 1: ninety seven, there have been five playoff games where a
Speaker 1: team trailed by five points or more in the final
Speaker 1: thirty seconds in regulation and came back to win that game,
Speaker 1: and two of those games were in this series. Game
Speaker 1: two in Game five, so it was unbelievable. I don't
Speaker 1: know what the TV ratings were, but they should be
Speaker 1: phenomenal because, oh my gosh, that was a good series.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely extraordinary.
Speaker 2: I think selfishly I was hoping for a Game seven
Speaker 2: just because I wanted to see a little bit more
Speaker 2: of it. But it was incredibly close. There were so
Speaker 2: many clutch plays this series. Within the six games, the
Speaker 2: Knicks out scored in total Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: By just one point.
Speaker 2: So it was something I really think will continue to
Speaker 2: look back and just a lot of iconic plays and moments,
Speaker 2: especially when you're looking at two organizations like this. But
Speaker 2: when it comes to Philadelphia in this is a circumstance.
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of layers to it when
Speaker 2: you look at what they have achieved have not achieved.
Speaker 2: Where did they go from here? What does it look
Speaker 2: like they've got fifty five million dollars in cap space
Speaker 2: moving forward? Tyres Maxie, I think you talk about players
Speaker 2: that have kind of maybe changed the perspective of who
Speaker 2: they are, what they are, the growth of them. I
Speaker 2: think Maxi is one of those players who was extraordinary
Speaker 2: throughout the course.
Speaker 3: Of this series.
Speaker 2: Joel embiid Steel still trying to make that conference finals
Speaker 2: with all he has done, the MVP under his belt.
Speaker 2: Just the health always kind of circles back to being
Speaker 2: an issue. Tobias Harris a player that this summer is
Speaker 2: a free agent. Tyres Maxi is an unrestricted free agent.
Speaker 2: But what do you look at this Philadelphia's seventy six
Speaker 2: ers team and think should be their potential pathway moving forward?
Speaker 3: Given how the season finished.
Speaker 1: Well, the first priority for me is to make sure
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxi is good, you know, keep him with Joel
Speaker 1: and b because that kid was unbelievable. On the night
Speaker 1: we were just talking about how Jalen Bruns had had
Speaker 1: forty and on a night like that, Tyrese Maxi has
Speaker 1: forty six and wins the game for him essentially. I mean,
Speaker 1: so you definitely have to keep those two guys together.
Speaker 1: And the funny thing about Tyres is that it seems
Speaker 1: like over the years they've done everything but try to
Speaker 1: make Tyrese Maxey the guy, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like you bring in James Harden, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: everybody but Tyrese, And then this season, Tyree's just has
Speaker 1: an unbelievable season, and now I think, you know, you've
Speaker 1: got to make sure like he's the guy that Joel
Speaker 1: joelnbid always need it right next to him. And so
Speaker 1: for me, I mean think about that was a game
Speaker 1: five six point deficit, twenty five point four seconds left.
Speaker 1: He scores a team's final six points to force ot
Speaker 1: and then he goes off in overtime. It's just you
Speaker 1: gotta have that guy on the team. But you look
Speaker 1: at Tobias Harris contract expiring, I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: He's a veteran, he's getting up there. I think they
Speaker 1: have sort of a couple of foundational pieces and they
Speaker 1: all they need to do is sort of build around
Speaker 1: the edges. I think a lot of teams need to
Speaker 1: start taking the playbook or the I guess the manual.
Speaker 1: From a team like Denver, they didn't go in and
Speaker 1: do a bunch of crazy stuff. They just you draft
Speaker 1: guys and then you bring in guys that really fit you,
Speaker 1: and you do it slowly. And so I don't I
Speaker 1: know they've got capro. I know Darryl Morey's a wheeler
Speaker 1: and dealer, but I think they should just, you know,
Speaker 1: just you add a couple solid vets. You don't have
Speaker 1: to go get a superstar, and I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: be right back in the thick of it next year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to watch just across the league,
Speaker 2: all the movement, some of the dominoes that may fall,
Speaker 2: because I think there are a lot of teams that
Speaker 2: question marks are are gonna come to. One of those
Speaker 2: the Milwaukee Bucks who lost in Indiana Pacers and in
Speaker 2: despite the fact that jamst Kupo did not play in
Speaker 2: the entirety of the series, Dame Lillard did come back
Speaker 2: and play last night, though was struggling with that. Achilles
Speaker 2: glad to see that that he's okay and obviously came
Speaker 2: out of that fine had twenty eight points, seven to sixteen.
Speaker 2: It was solid games from Brook Lopez, from Bobby Portis,
Speaker 2: Chris Middleton, but not enough for the Pacers.
Speaker 3: For the Pacers.
Speaker 2: Bench Obi top and twenty one points. TJ McConnell twenty points.
Speaker 2: You kind of look down the list in the roster
Speaker 2: of what this Pacers team does, and in what they
Speaker 2: do is score.
Speaker 3: That's a big part of the pace they play with.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be really interesting to see the contrasting styles
Speaker 2: between the Pacers and the Knicks in this matchup, and
Speaker 2: it's going to be interesting.
Speaker 3: There's storyline, storylines on storylines.
Speaker 2: Let's go back to Reggie Miller and those great series
Speaker 2: with the Pacers and the Knicks. You look at Rick Carlisle,
Speaker 2: head coach of this Pacers team. Of course, head coached
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson when he was in Dallas, and there's just
Speaker 2: a lot of layers to what this is going to
Speaker 2: look like. What intrigues you most about this matchup in
Speaker 2: the Eastern Conference, Semis.
Speaker 1: I think there's sort of a contrast of styles. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Indiana gets up and down the floor at a breakneck pace,
Speaker 1: and can New York handle that. I actually think they
Speaker 1: can because they have shown the ability to play pretty
Speaker 1: good defense. So I want to see how that plays out.
Speaker 1: And then let's be real that Madison Square Garden stage
Speaker 1: is something else. Either you shine on it or you
Speaker 1: will there's really no in between in Madison Square Garden,
Speaker 1: and so I'm interested to see how that goes for
Speaker 1: this Indiana Pacers team that is sort of young. They're
Speaker 1: pretty young team. So for a couple of games in
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee series, we saw the return of spicy P
Speaker 1: with Pascal Siaka. Well, you know, he had like thirty
Speaker 1: something points in two straight games, then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden he sort of tailed off there at the end.
Speaker 1: So are we gonna see spicy P or are we
Speaker 1: gonna see mild p?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: What are we gonna see in this round? So, like
Speaker 1: you said, there's a lot of great storylines, and you know,
Speaker 1: you've got a couple of the NBA's great coaches too,
Speaker 1: so that makes it more fun because there's gonna be strategy,
Speaker 1: you know, tactics, whatever they do, and that'll be fun
Speaker 1: to watch. But who are you, like, what are you
Speaker 1: expecting to come out of this? Like, what's gonna be
Speaker 1: the big storyline for you.
Speaker 2: To me is can the Knicks find a way to
Speaker 2: slow down Indiana? I mean that's what it's been all about.
Speaker 2: And defensively, my big, my big. I wouldn't say question
Speaker 2: Mark because he's been But does Tyrese Haliburton look like
Speaker 2: the Tyre's Halliburton we saw the early part of the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, in.
Speaker 2: Just getting back to and I know a lot of
Speaker 2: that him coming back from injury, but I think he's
Speaker 2: going to be the key component you always talk about
Speaker 2: any playoff series and who is the best player in
Speaker 2: the series, and Jalen Brunson proved to be the best
Speaker 2: player in the next series, and obviously the compliments of
Speaker 2: his cast, but he you know, Tom Sabodeau went a
Speaker 2: whole seven deep, and he pretty much.
Speaker 3: Went six I would say six deep.
Speaker 2: It's felt like throughout the course of the games how
Speaker 2: much they play, and so how does that kind of
Speaker 2: factor into what things look like with the way the
Speaker 2: Pacers play and if they get hot, if they're knocking
Speaker 2: down three, then it changes the dynamic of it. But
Speaker 2: if not, they're obviously not a team that does a
Speaker 2: whole lot in terms of defending you. And so I
Speaker 2: think it's going to be interesting to see to your
Speaker 2: point about these coaches, the chess match is given the
Speaker 2: contrast of these styles in what it looks like the team.
Speaker 2: The Pacers, though did knock out mention the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 2: It was a really it was a interesting season for them,
Speaker 2: and not necessarily in a great way. Started with a
Speaker 2: team that for the most part was sicking, sitting in
Speaker 2: second in the Eastern Conference. Yet fires Adrian Griffin brings
Speaker 2: in Doc Rivers. I'm not sure if the team looked
Speaker 2: like they had improved a whole lot and obviously dealing
Speaker 2: with some injuries, but it just felt very disjointed throughout
Speaker 2: the entirety of the season. And you get tell other
Speaker 2: a team that has had championship aspirations, but they are
Speaker 2: starting to age. Some key components are starting to age.
Speaker 2: What do you think is next for the Bucks in
Speaker 2: terms of what changes may need to be made in
Speaker 2: what the future looks like for a team that still,
Speaker 2: I imagine wants to be contending for titles.
Speaker 1: I've got a feeling that they internally feel like they
Speaker 1: would be okay just running it back. And you mentioned
Speaker 1: some very interesting points in the main one is that
Speaker 1: these guys are aging, you know, I mean, even your
Speaker 1: depth is getting old, and so that's that's something to watch.
Speaker 1: But I think part of like Doc Rivers and that
Speaker 1: whole organization, I think they feel like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: we got together sort of late. We hadn't had a
Speaker 1: whole off season together, haven't had time to really implement
Speaker 1: what we want to be as a team. So I
Speaker 1: think that the Bucks will try to They'll try to
Speaker 1: bring bring it, bring everybody back for the most part,
Speaker 1: and have a whole complete off season with all these
Speaker 1: guys and try to run it back next year. And
Speaker 1: then also these injuries that just popped up out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: It seems like those were major for the Bucks. And
Speaker 1: you know your best suit players are hurt pretty much
Speaker 1: the whole series, and you know that's that's gonna sink
Speaker 1: you in most cases. I mean Gianni's answer to coopbo
Speaker 1: didn't even play the entire season. That's a problem. So
Speaker 1: I think they running back, but they but they got
Speaker 1: to sort of in the fringes. Depth wise, you need
Speaker 1: to go get some younger people that can contribute right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and say with Bobby there was just not a
Speaker 2: whole lot of consistency out of that. But I think
Speaker 2: it's to me, I'm curious to see how they go
Speaker 2: about it, because there's reasons, and I don't want to
Speaker 2: call them excuses, but excuses for why you get knocked
Speaker 2: out in the first round, playing without Giannis, and the
Speaker 2: changes throughout the course of the season, and obviously them
Speaker 2: getting accustomed to Dame Lillard and Middleton dealing with some injury.
Speaker 2: But it's still never felt right. It's still never felt
Speaker 2: like how it was supposed to feel or look with
Speaker 2: this team, And yeah, I do think you may end
Speaker 2: up running it back in some some regard and changing
Speaker 2: some parts of the margins, but I'm not sure that's
Speaker 2: going to be enough when you look at the other
Speaker 2: teams in the Eastern Conference and where they'll be sitting.
Speaker 2: So it's going to be as we said, it's there's
Speaker 2: a lot of movement I think for a lot of
Speaker 2: these teams, and I think the dominoes may kind of
Speaker 2: hit one another of seeing what changes are made in
Speaker 2: different organizations that may see more player movement than we've
Speaker 2: seen over the course of the past couple off seasons.
Speaker 2: We're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna get
Speaker 2: to where you are at Michael in Dallas for the
Speaker 2: Clips and the MAVs.
Speaker 3: Game six tonight. Welcome back to NBA.
Speaker 2: Paul Sarracusak joined by the great Michael c Right you
Speaker 2: are in Dallas. The Clippers in the MAVs series has
Speaker 2: been one that it's been some lopsided games. I think
Speaker 2: we knew with this one it could have been a
Speaker 2: pick up series of just kind of how things would go.
Speaker 2: But I think you know, after every game so often
Speaker 2: you couldn't overreact to it because of how different it
Speaker 2: felt last game in Game five, when Dallas took this
Speaker 2: three to two series lead. It was a big, big
Speaker 2: game for Luka Danncics thirty five points, tennisis, seven rebounds.
Speaker 2: He and Kyrie Irving have looked really good together and
Speaker 2: it was just a lackluster performance by the Clippers. Kawhi
Speaker 2: Leonard did not play, but after James Harden looked very
Speaker 2: good in the early parts of this series. He had
Speaker 2: just seven points, go two to twelve from the field.
Speaker 2: What's your expectation of what happens here tonight.
Speaker 1: I think we see the end of the series tonight,
Speaker 1: I honestly do. I just feel like Dallas has generated
Speaker 1: some serious moment of it. You know, like you mentioned
Speaker 1: Luka Dodge and Kyrie Irving. Those guys are just so symbiotic.
Speaker 1: They do like it's like Luca sort of sort of
Speaker 1: starts the MAVs out, starts them out, get somewhere where
Speaker 1: they need to be, and then you know, he'll sort
Speaker 1: of kind of don't let me step back for a
Speaker 1: minute and then let Kyrie Irving second half, Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: cook for a little while, and they have they just
Speaker 1: do a really good job of playing off one another.
Speaker 1: And then those those forwards that they have now, Derick Jones, Junior, PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington even and Daniel Gaffer too, so athletic live threat.
Speaker 1: I think in game three, I believe they had eight
Speaker 1: lib dunks in that game. And the first two games
Speaker 1: the Clippers had done a pretty good job of sort
Speaker 1: of neutralizing that aspect of the MAVs game. But when
Speaker 1: they get that lib going like that, there's nothing you
Speaker 1: can do with him now because they can you know,
Speaker 1: they can throw that lib, but they can also kick
Speaker 1: that thing out like It's just it's impossible to defend
Speaker 1: him once they get that aspect of the game going,
Speaker 1: because now you got to defend multiple things. So I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be over even with Kawhi Leonard, because
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard is just not right. In game three, I'll
Speaker 1: watched him and I said, you know, I bet the
Speaker 1: MAVs are hoping that Kawhi Leonard continues to play because
Speaker 1: he can't move. And you saw that in game three,
Speaker 1: and that's why you know, Kawhi Leonard was not his
Speaker 1: usual self. But then you see James Harden have the
Speaker 1: game he had and was it Game three or game four?
Speaker 1: Game four, he has that big game and then you
Speaker 1: expect him to do a repeat performance or at least
Speaker 1: try to, and then in game five what he scores
Speaker 1: like seven. Can't win that way, And I just I
Speaker 1: feel like the Clippers are a little just there. I
Speaker 1: don't know how to explain it. They're they're they're frazzled
Speaker 1: at this point. I think it's good a coach as
Speaker 1: Tyler Lewis, I don't know if he's going to be
Speaker 1: able to pull him out of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think it's that like some of it
Speaker 2: is the actual execution that needs to take place, but
Speaker 2: some of it is just the body language or the
Speaker 2: effort or the energy. And you particular saw that in
Speaker 2: the second half in the Dallas took a lead with
Speaker 2: the second half of Game five, and even you mentioned,
Speaker 2: you know, Russell Westbrook and kind of the role he's
Speaker 2: been playing. But he goes two of eleven from the
Speaker 2: field in that one. So you can't kind of put
Speaker 2: too much stock into, you know, one game. There's still
Speaker 2: plenty of opportunity here, but it just it feels like
Speaker 2: the Clippers just don't have it anymore. And you can
Speaker 2: tell it by the look and their play in their faces.
Speaker 2: What happens from here for the Clippers, let's say tonight
Speaker 2: is is in fact it for LA what's next for
Speaker 2: this group too, that's moving to brand new arena? Still
Speaker 2: waiting to see what happens with Paul George. Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 2: signed that big contract extension when he was playing, so, well,
Speaker 2: what do you think is next for the Clippers?
Speaker 1: There's lots of toilets in that arena, apparently that's what
Speaker 1: they say. Well, okay, okay, what do they do? I
Speaker 1: have no idea? And I say that because first off,
Speaker 1: where is Kawhi Leonard health wise?
Speaker 2: Like you?
Speaker 1: Like you mentioned, you signed him to that deal, and
Speaker 1: so I think you got to get him healthy obviously.
Speaker 1: But then there's the whole contract situation of Paul George
Speaker 1: you've got to deal with. And from everything you see
Speaker 1: and read about the situation, Paul George is not taking
Speaker 1: hometown discounts he wants to. So can they pay him?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I think they've got to figure
Speaker 1: out sort of what they ultimately want to be because
Speaker 1: from what we've seen with them with Kawhi Leonard, it
Speaker 1: seems to me, like you you get him for so
Speaker 1: long and then at a certain point he sort of
Speaker 1: starts to break down with you know, injuries and stuff
Speaker 1: like that because of what is it now three straight
Speaker 1: postseasons that injuries have sort of knocked him out. Well
Speaker 1: obviously by now that's sort of a you know, that's
Speaker 1: sort of who he is, I guess at this point.
Speaker 1: I mean, he is thirty two years old. So I
Speaker 1: just think that that they've got to figure it out,
Speaker 1: like what what style do we need to play? How
Speaker 1: do we play it? And like I said, also, they've
Speaker 1: got the same thing as Milwaukee. You've got a lot
Speaker 1: of aging people on this roster, and you know, do
Speaker 1: you just keep his status quo in a Western is
Speaker 1: going to get better and better? I don't know, you
Speaker 1: should put your GM hat on. It helped me out
Speaker 1: here because that is just perplexing for me to look.
Speaker 3: At it is.
Speaker 2: And I think too just it all circles back, especially
Speaker 2: when you've got your start, It all circles back to health.
Speaker 2: I think more often than not, we saw the moments
Speaker 2: when they were playing so well and kind of figured
Speaker 2: out the roles and they looked like they were a
Speaker 2: true title contending team, but when you have a lot
Speaker 2: of question marks and inconsistency with that, and for ty
Speaker 2: Lu too, I think not knowing what to expect how
Speaker 2: that changes the dynamic of how you're coaching. When you
Speaker 2: have a player as impactful as Kawhi Leonard. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of factors that go into it, and one that
Speaker 2: is not to be answered just yet. They still have
Speaker 2: a chance here tonight, and as we've seen in this series,
Speaker 2: you never know. Anything can happen with the way these
Speaker 2: teams have come out, and Michael, we will look forward
Speaker 2: to all your stuff, your reports, watching you on NBA TV,
Speaker 2: NBA to follow up that game and throughout the rest
Speaker 2: of this postseason. So, as always, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for your time and we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: You got us, Sarah.
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