Regular Season Conclusion, Play-In Preview, and Awards Picks.
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And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast. Holy smokes! So much stuff happened on Sunday. It's a beautiful Monday morning. The playoffs are half set. The play-in is all set. Chris Herring from ESPN.com, were you enjoying the chaos yesterday? We're going to go over all the chaos that occurred very quickly.

I enjoyed it. I mean, I enjoyed most of it. Watching the Pacers win by like 80 was whatever. But I did enjoy it. I had to do a radio stint for ESPN yesterday where I was co-hosting. So I was trying to like watch the games and we're sitting there running through all the scenarios as the games are playing out. So that was interesting. But it also kind of shows you how silly it is to sit there and prognosticate on like, well, if this team loses and this team ties and this team wins and this and then essentially you kind of get

you know, results that are going to make all that moot like two hours later. So, but it was still fun. I'm glad to be at the end of a regular season so we can all start to talk about the real stuff. Rapid fire, just a whirlwind of fun,

Chicanery, all of it. Starting in the East where the Knicks had a little bit of a window where they could have eased into the third seed and avoided potentially Philly in the first round. Philly, Miami are in a heavyweight play-in game at 7 or 8. And Tibbs, in the most Tibbs way possible, was like, no way.

Dante, I need 50 minutes from you today. We're going for it, baby. They wanted 50 wins. They wanted the two seed. They wanted home court. They wanted to absolutely make sure they were on the opposite half of the bracket from Boston. There was like a little scenario where they could have been fourth, but that was evaporated by the time they went to overtime against the Frisky Bulls and they goddamn went for it. And I hope the basketball gods reward them. At the same time, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

who could have, they didn't know, they couldn't have known, they could have settled nice and easy into that number three seed because of the way the other games unfolded. But boy, they were too scared. They were too scared. Now, they'll tell you our plan all along was to rest these guys, play the deep reserves, Pete Nance, get in there, Pete Nance in the fourth quarter. But I'll tell you, they knew. They knew. We win this game.

There's a three-way tie. We go up to second. Oh, boy. Second. Second could mean Joel Embiid, who's been putting Jared Allen in the basket stanchion for like five years now. We don't want second. You know what we'll take? We'll take fourth. What a – what a –

And they get Orlando. It's a good matchup. By the way, congratulations to the Orlando Magic, sincerely. Like, that is an awesome season for a young team to make the fifth seed. They have a shot to win in the first round for sure. They didn't get home court. They were sliding and sliding and sliding, but they pulled out of it. Beaten Milwaukee in a disturbingly bad game for a Bucs team that seemed like they kind of wanted to win the game and just couldn't get it together. Another bad game. Yeah.

Jamal Mosley, fantastic job. I have him number two in my coach of the year fake ballot. I don't have a ballot, but my column is done. I put Mark Dagnall number one. And so Cleveland, I guess, gets rewarded with a friendly matchup. But it's a mentality that like we're cool if we just win one round. It shows you the desperation that this franchise from the top to the coaching staff has to win one round after the disaster of last year. And we're prioritizing that mentality.

Over avoiding Boston. And hey, maybe we can get a longer playoff run. Poop on that. The basketball gods saw it. They will remember it. And we will see how it unfolds. We get Milwaukee, Indiana. Game ball gate revisited. Trash talk revisited. The pace of the Pacers who are 4-1 against the reeling Milwaukee Bucks. That's fun. And in the West, Chris Herring. One of the all-time. It wasn't on Sunday. It was on Friday. One of the all-time. What the?

Just happened moments. The Denver Nuggets, with the number one seed in their grasp after a win over the Timberwolves that was so impressive, so polished, so sprint to the finish line and leave you in the dust with Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, had it in their grasp and lost to the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wimbanyama on Friday, cracking the door open for any number of outcomes. Oklahoma City seizes the number one seed. Denver...

finishes at number two, Minnesota loses its last game, finishes at number three and draws the team that beat them yesterday. The Phoenix suns in an, Oh my God, that's a first round series series. And at the same time, the Lakers move up to eighth, the Kings fall down to ninth, the Lakers draw the new Orleans Pelicans, just a disastrous end to the season for the Pelicans five and six to finish the season drop from, Oh my God, they're going to play the Clippers in the first round to, Oh my God, they have to play the Lakers who seem to have their number in the plan. And then the

and the Lakers for their reward of...

of potentially if they beat the Pelicans, their reward would be, oh, oh, the big dude from Serbia. That's no good, which has spawned Chris Herring and a very predictable and immediate discourse that the Lakers should throw the 7-8 game and risk it and go all in to try to get the eighth seed, which is disrespectful for the Thunder. And interestingly, the schedule makers, I don't know if they anticipated it or not, but they put Lakers-Pelicans first.

And on the day that the Western Conference playing games happen. So the Lakers won't know the result of Kings Warriors when they play that game. Chris Herring, I asked you to pick some winners and losers from that mess. And I picked a couple of winners and losers from that mess as well. Would you like to pick? You can pick first. Give me a winner or a loser. Loser is more fun, by the way. I'm just going to tell you, just making fun of teams is more fun.

So if we want to do that, then let's do that. Since you say that losers are more fun, or a lot of people would say that losers are less fun, I'm going to say that the loser here is Cleveland. And I understand the logic of what they did. I think we all do. But let's be real here. When we talk about that 2-3-4 scenario yesterday, it kind of fit to a tee where those three teams are at right now. Milwaukee is a team that

at best is trying to figure out what it is, what it has. That's on top of them having lost Giannis. We don't know for how long. I could imagine that he's going to miss potentially part of the series. It's scary to think that this is a really similar injury seemingly to what KD had with his calf a few years ago with the Warriors.

Being told, oh, it won't get worse. It can't get worse. Then he comes out and plays in the finals and it turns into an Achilles. So I would imagine you want to be really careful with this. Giannis is someone that averaged 42 and 13 during the season against Indiana. Yeah.

And so now that matchup becomes very, very interesting for the Bucs. But they're a team that's trying to figure it out without Giannis. They're trying to figure it out with Dame. They're trying to figure out Middleton within their rotation and kind of getting him back. And they tried their best. Like you said, they were actually trying and they couldn't get it done, which is our fear about them right now that they just might not be good enough. They got blown out late in the game.

right. They were up and they couldn't hold onto it. Dame played very, very poorly. And if you look at the regular season, Dame did not play particularly well against Indiana either. He was actually very bad against Indiana this year. Uh,

I think he averaged 20 and he was shooting something like 34% against the Pacers. The Pacers were really great against the Bucs. So on some level, you can look at them as the loser, but I think it's interesting that again, the Bucs were actually going for it and couldn't get it done. So that is kind of where they're at right now. The Knicks, if we had to close our eyes and guess what would have happened yesterday, they were going to get in exactly the type of game they had. You were going to have Dante DiVincenzo play even more than 48 minutes in a game like that. And they went out and went for it

damn the opponent whoever we get we get that's who the knicks are they're a tough team they're resilient they want to win every game it's tom thibodeau so i actually thought i actually thought when devon chenzo it was devon chenzo that missed a shot at the end of regulation i think to win it was it was brunson was it brunson in the corner oh that's right um i actually thought

I would be okay if Tibbs put the reserves in for overtime. Like they went, they made an honest shot at it. They know now all the results of the other games. I'm not going to frown on them. They went for it. And Tibbs was like, no, we're not doing it. We're going for the play. You knew he was going to do that. You knew it, right? Especially with the week off. Like you knew he was going to do that. But to your point, right? Nobody, well, I take that back because I've,

For years, I followed a lot of Knicks fans on Twitter from when I covered the team just to keep a pulse on the team and their fans.

They wanted to go for it. They wanted 50 wins. You know, there's a symbolic nature of that to get a two seed in a year where they're missing this much talent from a roster standpoint. They really wanted it. Tom Thibodeau is always going to want it. Win, lose or draw. So they go out and they get it. They win by one point against a really scrappy Bulls team that played really hard, despite the fact that they fundamentally had nothing to play for. So that kind of fits their M.O.

And then you have the Cavs. And this is why I kind of slot them in that loser role here. Because of those three teams, two of them were essentially going for it. One doing so without Giannis. They don't have enough. They're still figuring themselves out. The Knicks really want it and they're going to do everything they can to get it. And then you have Cleveland who fundamentally could have

I mean, not just could have won their game. They subbed in like every big man they had all at the same time yesterday after being up going into the fourth quarter. It was all part of the plan, Chris. We mapped it out before the game. It was all part of the plan. There's nothing to see here. Move right along. Nothing abnormal. Totally part of the plan. Brother, even if it's part of the plan, Chris.

Good Lord. Like it was, it was just so bad. So anyway, they end up going from whatever they were 10 up to losing the game by 10 in the span of one quarter where you were literally subbing it every six, 10 and up guy that you had on your roster at basically the same time. And sure, whatever you want to do, but in doing that, they end up seeding what could have been a matchup with Indiana and

which would be from the standpoint of the type of team Cleveland is. I'm not saying anybody looks forward to playing a team that can score like Indiana can, but they also locked themselves into a second round matchup, even if they win, as you said earlier, with Boston, almost certainly. So there's that aspect of it. We should add, we should add, we're going to preview all the playing games rapid fire later. We should add that everyone's penning in Philly.

At seven. Like they're going to win seven, eight. Strange things happen in the play-in. Strange things happen to the Miami Heat in the play-in.

There's a shot that Philly is eighth, and we have the heavyweight battle with – a lot of people right now would say, given the way the Bucs are playing, Philly is the biggest threat to Boston in the Eastern Conference. I actually think that's becoming more true by the day with Giannis' injury and all of that and the uncertainty about it. Sure. And the Knicks not having Randall, although the Knicks have been unbelievable with Brunson and OG Ananobi, no matter who else really plays. Yeah.

So if that's the first round matchup, the basketball gods cannot reward Cleveland that way. Although, not that Embiid would be a reward if Embiid and the Sixers upset the Celtics. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. That's all. We'll get to the play-ins later. Can we be real about the fact that, as you said, with Cleveland, I mean, we want to talk about basketball gods and the idea that, you know, they...

I mean, one of the winners and now I'm giving away two of them, but I'm also talking for Orlando could beat Cleveland is the other thing. And then we have the conversation even earlier than Cleveland wanted to, instead of being like, well, we went around Orlando.

Orlando, I don't necessarily think that they're going to, but I think that they were a winner here because I think that this is a more winnable matchup for them. By the way, Cleveland lost last year when they were met by a team that was more physical, more tough, more experienced than they were. I get that Cleveland now has more experience than Orlando, but

But Orlando is also probably a more physical team than they are. They rebound better than they do. And that was where Cleveland got beat last year, despite having home court advantage against the Knicks last year. So I just don't, if we're talking about basketball gods really punishing for this, it's not in round two. It would be a round one loss, which I think is on the table. I don't think Cleveland is just a surefire winner.

win here for them. I don't like what they did, but I also don't think that it's like a glowingly great matchup for them. I don't think, I've been telling people for weeks, like keep an eye on the Pacers because they've been an average defensive team with Siakam. And if they're an average defensive team and Halliburton can catch anything like a rhythm he got early in the season or 90% of it,

And boy, is his all NBA result going to be tight, tight, tight, I think.

They're a dangerous team. I don't know that Cleveland got a better or worse draw by getting Orlando than Indiana, but we're going to do first impressions of the four series that we know. I will do a deep dive on all of them with David Thorpe later this week, as I always do. My first impressions of Cleveland-Orlando are it's going to be a goddamn slugfest. Two big teams, two defense-first teams, two teams whose offenses have been uneven all season in the Magic's case for 12 seasons.

We have some awesome matchups like Mobley guarding Bancaro. Okay, Evan Mobley, this is it, man. It's time to meet the hype in this matchup. Suggs guarding probably Donovan Mitchell and sometimes guarding Darius Garland. That's going to be awesome. And the Cavs...

It's a must-win series. You lose this series, there's going to be changes in the organization. That's it. Period. Absolutely must-win. And you don't even get to say that you won a round if that happens. And that's kind of where I'm at, where that would be the basketball gods punishing them. And the Magic, to your point, are a...

ferocious team, rebounding physicality. They fouled the bejesus out of everybody and they don't care because they're going to get to the line more than you get to the line because of how physically they play on offense. They're going to bring the fight to you every single game. Their game to game ceiling just isn't very high because their offense just isn't good and it's not built to be good.

And that's why I think the Cavs probably see this as like if we bring our A- game every night, we should beat this team four out of seven because their ceiling is just what it is. I'm going to go just rapid fire my winners and losers. And you can react if you want. Knicks, I covered it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. I understand why people don't like it. Or look, I...

I understand why it was optimal and that they had a rare time window of certainty where it was optimal and I would have been forgiving them to do it, but whatever. The fans are... And ESPN are winners for two reasons. Number one, Milwaukee, Indiana...

We get all of it. We get the game ball. We get all the trash talk going back and forth. We get Malik Beasley saying it's going to be pain for them in the playoffs on Chris Haynes' podcast. We get Tyrese Halliburton doing the Dame time right in Dame's face in a play-in game. By the way, Doc Rivers on commentary for the in-season tournament semifinals in Vegas. I was going back and watching some film of those games. I was like, wow, that is –

I was watching the Pelicans game to get prepped for this play-in game. Pelicans-Lakers are like, oh my God, Doc Rivers on commentary. That was the last time. That was it. That is crazy. How deep... Never mind.

And also there is now a scenario where both the Lakers and the Warriors make the playoffs. I think quietly the Clippers-Mavs winner is a winner for having Denver on the other side of the bracket. I actually think Denver, given that they committed an incredible sin on Friday, kind of got off scot-free depending on what their first round matchup is.

Because, well, I mean, Minnesota Phoenix is it doesn't matter who you play in the second round. It's going to be a scary team pending Kawhi's health, obviously. But there's a chance like Phoenix could beat Minnesota in the first round. And Minnesota, who gives Denver some issues, would be out. And, you know, Denver's road is is what it is. My losers, Cleveland, we covered Sacramento and New Orleans are just kind of like my sad times. Losers like New Orleans.

I don't know what it is about the Lakers. I don't know what it is about these spotlight games, but they just come out and play like crap in all these games. I understand Brandon Ingram was out for a lot of their five and six finish to the season, and they gradually sort of felt the impact of not having another big time score to sort of ease the load and just give you another direction to go on offense. They are still minus. They finished the regular season minus 25.

total points with Ingram CJ and Zion on the floor and now they have to face a Lakers team that is clearly in their heads and has a lot of matchup advantages against them that we will get to the Kings are just injured and whatever uh Milwaukee I have as a loser just because of the way they're playing going into the tournament or going into the playoffs and Minnesota uh

Who I believe was 0-3 against Phoenix this season. Two of the games coming. All three of the games coming recently. Now draws that. I don't necessarily think that record means anything. So that's all. That's my winners and losers from a crazy. And Wemby. Wemby forgiving us.

some fireworks on Friday against the Nuggets. Yeah, I was looking at our stats and info packet that we got this morning from our friends over at SIG and thought it was funny that we had the play-in stuff, the last day of the regular season stuff, and then just an ode to Wimby, basically, statistically. I mean, the guy was

But yeah, the other winner that I had was Phoenix because of what you just said to beat Minnesota to kind of force that matchup. Because, I mean, we're you know, as we talk about the questions that are going to swirl around Cleveland after a second straight year of what would be a disappointment.

Phoenix, we already kind of just know based on what happened last year, there's not going to be much patience to be had in this situation. I don't think if they end up getting knocked out here and which is I'm not going to say it's crazy, but I mean, this is a team that finished second.

what, more than 15 games above 500? Was it 15 exactly? Whatever it was. I mean, I get that they were wildly inconsistent, which is kind of what you sort of expect on some level with the injury concerns that you know you're going to face with that roster, with that star contingent. But this is about all you could ask for at this point to get a team that, you know, whether you make a whole lot of those regular season games or not,

We'll get into it, I'm sure. But look at Anthony Edwards' numbers during the regular season against Phoenix. Look at the way that he's performed against guys with length, whether it's KD. Look at other guys throughout the season, Derek Jones Jr. A lot of guys throughout the season, they just kind of struggled to really comfortably shoot over and shoot well against KD.

And there might be something to this just beyond him looking at Gobert and the mid-range stuff and the idea that he's someone that generally wants to play drop and that obviously Phoenix has as much mid-range shooting as any team in the league. There might be something to it. And for Phoenix to play themselves into a situation where they get Minnesota in a first-round matchup is, I think, really –

fortuitous for them and probably what they would have wanted given how it's gone for them so far. A monumental turn of events for the Suns to get out of the play-in. Escape the play-in. And look, the Suns

The Suns had a choice to make when they got embarrassed at home by the Clippers last week, down 35-4 and just looking like a team that hadn't played together for one second on offense the whole entire season. Totally lost as a team. The choice was like, all right, we're lost. We look like we've kind of let go of the rope a little bit. We'll just throw the rope on the ground, slink into the play-in. That's it. Probably be changes in the summer, move on next year, or try to snap it back together again.

And figure out like, hey, we're all here to win. Like, I understand the fit's been weird. The health's been weird. Like, let's try it. And they had been playing pretty well before those two Clippers games. They won the second one when the Clippers rested everyone. They had been playing stylistically the way that I think they should play. And to their credit, they snapped it back together. The other loser that I failed to mention is Philly, who did everything, literally went undefeated with Embiid to end the season and still won.

could not get out of the play-in. Let's just do the first blush impressions of the four playoff series. We did Cleveland-Orlando, and I'm talking first blush. I haven't dove in other than Clippers-Mavs and done the film study that I'm going to do for later this week when I preview all the series properly. Let's just go Minnesota-Phoenix. You nailed thing number one, which is

the pull-up jump shooting of the Suns against the drop-back defense of the Wolves. We've seen that record with Gobert before. I think...

It's a little overstated how much of a weakness that is for Gobert. I think he can and will come out further in this series. To me, it's just a fascinating contrast to Stiles. Like the Suns are small and finesse-y and the Wolves are gigantic and physical and just overwhelm you with size and power. And I think aside from the mid-range shooting that you mentioned, I think the most interesting thing is –

Where do the Wolves put Carl Anthony Towns on defense in this series? Because Gobert is going to guard Nurkic, and that just leaves four dudes who can really shoot and dribble and are quicker than Carl Towns.

is he going to, is it going to be Grayson Allen who just signed a four year, $70 million extension, by the way? Um, it's not going to be Durant. I would, maybe it will be Durant at points. He has guarded Durant here and there before could, doesn't seem like it's going to be Booker. They're close friends. That's going to be interesting. And we saw yesterday in that game, the sons also went at Mike Conley hard on defense. So we're going to try to expose you for your lack of size. And I think that's the sort of predatory way, um,

that they need to play going forward. Any other first impressions on the first impressions? That's all we're doing on this or the Grayson Allen deal for, for 70, according to Woj. I mean, I, I think it, it doesn't strike me as a bad deal. It's just, I mean, I think the bigger question is just, man, the sons are spending so much money and, and,

I mean, while I don't think you ever would have been looking to get rid of him when he's leading the league in three-point percentage on a team where you need spacers for these guys, it just becomes like, wow, they're spending a lot. And also, as we're talking about the questions that will swirl around this team and the sorts of changes that they're going to need to make, presumably if they don't get out of this first round, we've been hearing about the changes that they're likely to make, whether Vogel's in trouble and stuff like that. So my first thought on that, I mean, with Towns,

The question you raised about who does he guard? I mean, do you feel comfortable trying to throw him on a Royce O'Neal or someone like that? Just to, you know, someone that you're somewhat confident is not going to do a whole lot of when Royce is on the floor or when any of the other sort of, I mean, Royce is not a stationary player, but the weaker you go down the chain for like a bowl, bowl gets minutes in this series. If a Kogi gets minutes in this year's guys that haven't really been getting minutes, that's where he'll go. I'm talking starters as for Grayson.

I think it's a good deal. It's, what, $17 million a year-ish? That's what a decent fifth starter slash maybe a decent bench guy on another kind of team gets. And Grayson Allen, I don't know if he finished number one in three-point percentage this year, but he was up there all season. Something like that. Yeah, and just can really shoot, has a little more off-the-dribble juice than –

people think and his defense is about to get tested by among others Anthony Edwards who has always risen to the moment in these series and the Wolves can play that same kind of hunting game on offense there they're just not quite as adept at it but Ant Ant has shown he can do it and Cat can obviously do it I don't know who I'm gonna pick in that series I got to do my deep dive on it

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Milwaukee, Indiana, we kind of covered already, you know, the pace, the flying around. They have a little more answers for Giannis now that Siakam is there. Not answers, but someone like reason. That's not like Ben Matherin trying to hang in with Giannis. Ben Matherin had his moments actually guarding Giannis. Obviously, it's just like we don't know when or if Giannis is going to come back in this series and what condition he is going to be in.

it's facile to say it, but like if Giannis is out for a few games or not a hundred percent or whatever, like I think Indiana has a great shot to what I probably pick at the end of the series. Like the bucks, the other bucks just are not playing well enough outside of Bobby Portis. Yeah. And the Pacers are good. Like they're just a good team.

Yeah, I mean, I think worst case scenario for the Bucs is Giannis not coming back. Obviously, that goes without saying, but to have to score a lot of points in a series where Giannis is not playing, where Dame, on some level, maybe you could make kind of a wayward argument, in my opinion, that

You're better off just having Dame try to be himself and not worry about fit. And by the end of the season, you shouldn't be worried about fit anyway. But again, this team just hasn't really had, even if you feel like Dame and Giannis have had the reps. Okay. Well, have they had the reps within doc system? Have they had the reps with Middleton? Have they had the reps with Middleton within docs? Like it's just so much stuff. And you would hope that maybe this just allows Dame to say, I've got to do this myself. Um,

the fear, the concern again is that he, he isn't playing particularly great. I think yesterday was his worst game of the season from a field goal percentage standpoint. And again, in a game where they clearly wanted to get this game, they had the lead through, I think half through part of the third quarter. And it just kind of unraveled on him.

They just don't look the part enough. And they, you know, I, I don't, I would pick the Pacers straight up if, if we knew definitively that Giannis wouldn't be back. I also think it's concerning if Giannis tries to come back too soon and, you know, you don't want to run the risk of something more serious happening because Giannis

Lo and behold, you've got Dame locked in this contract now. You kind of need every year to matter, and you can't run the risk of having – again, I made the comparison, and I don't know if it's a complete one-to-one. People are different. Bodies are different. Giannis is a very, very strong person, strong physically, but you don't want to have something – a long-term injury happen to him because you don't take care of this one. Yeah, I would –

implore listeners to go back and listen to my previous episode with Jeff Stotts, the injury expert who talked a little bit about this and why it's, it probably is distinct from KD, but putting it, putting it in, I think good, good perspective, um,

For people, you know, the Pacers went 4-1 against the Bucs. Yep. I don't really think it's like... I think the Pacers were 40% responsible for the Bucs making a coaching change halfway through the season, the way they embarrassed Milwaukee and the way they exposed that the Bucs had no commitment, no idea how to do it, no transition defense at all to speak of. And when you play with no transition defense against the Pacers, you are dead on arrival. And Doc Rivers came in. That's the first thing he fixed. He said, I mean, like, this is...

We're not going anywhere if we don't get back on defense. And so they at least do that now. That would be a fun series. Clippers Mavs is the one series I have completed my deep dive on because it's been set in stone. I don't want to really spoil anything.

the podcast with David Thorpe, but, uh, but this is going to be a war. I mean, this is going to be an absolute knockdown drag out the trilogy series. A lot of the same characters are still here. Um,

What are your first impressions of this? And like we said earlier, the winner now gets whoever wins the 1-8 series and not Denver in the second round. Yeah, I mean, I think just on first blush, again, this was also maybe the... Was it the only matchup that we knew definitively was going to happen before yesterday, aside from the play-in stuff? So, I mean, your first thought is, wow, a ton of star power, a matchup that we've seen...

but that we're not in any way annoyed that we have to watch again. I mean, the first thought here is that

One of these teams could theoretically win the whole thing. I mean, Dallas has been playing as well as anybody defensively. Even they've been really, really good lately, which is kind of the common thread between now and the last time that they made it to a conference finals. Luca and Kyrie, you have enough star power, enough wattage to kind of go toe to toe there. The way they played since the trade deadline and picking up PJ Washington and picking up Gafford.

It has the potential to be a great series. And I think, to be honest with you, if one of the teams wins a series easily, I think it's going to kind of build legitimacy for that team as well.

This is one of the teams that maybe could take out a Denver or something like that. I think Dallas is one of the few teams that would have a shot at doing that. But if the Clippers rise to the occasion here, they obviously had a lull in the second half after being, I think most people would say either the best looking or second best looking team in the West for a lot of the season.

um so can they kind of restore that can they get back to that more consistently but it's a series that i'm really excited for i still want to see how the two seven shakes out to see if it's potentially nick's sixers but i think even if that is the case i still think that uh clippers math might be the best series that we've got in the first round the mavs are legit i'm sold like luca is an absolute killer and they're humming

This is a fascinating series. Obviously, thing number one is Kawhi, who has been out with knee inflammation for more than a week or so now. Ty Lue has said there's hope that he will play in game one. I don't think they win this series without a big Kawhi series from start to finish. Maybe he can miss a game and they can get away with it. If it gets to be more than that, I think Dallas has a major edge.

What's interesting about this series, I bet most people will pick the Mavs given how these teams are going into the playoffs. I think the Clippers are probably going to be a little bit underrated going into this series for this reason. I think the Clippers... Look, these are two of the very best offenses in the league, right? There's no actually stopping these offenses when they're humming at full throttle. I do think the Clippers...

are a little bit better positioned to weather the Mavericks storm than the Mavericks are defensively to weather the Clippers storm if the Clippers can summon the storm. And the only reason I say that is the Clippers don't really start a weak link perimeter defender like Terrence Mann, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard.

The Clippers, they don't, at least size-wise, like you look at their starting five, Terrence Mann, James Harden is obviously a weak link defender whose defense will be tested like all hell in this series, but he's big and strong. It's not like I just post up James Harden and it's overwhelming. And Zubats will get dragged out to the perimeter too. But Luka and Kyrie,

are going to have to guard somebody. And that's, what's baked into the Clippers. They're going to have to guard one of the Clippers, three star players. That's just how it is because their centers are going to guard Zubats and, uh, and just do the math. Like they're going to guard one of the, and they've mixed up the matchups now. And then that's the sort of baked in thing of having three star perimeter players like this. Like those guys, they're both capable defenders, Kyrie and Luca, but they're going to have to guard in this series. Um,

And then the flip side of that is just the absolute supernova offensive talent of Kyrie and Luka are just, they don't care who's guarding them, what defense you're playing. They'll have answers for everything. I suspect the Clippers will move Zubats around a little bit defensively, put him on PJ Washington, try to sort of finagle the matchups a bit. I don't want to get too deep into it, but if Kawhi were healthy,

I think I might actually pick the Clippers in seven or something like that, a really long series. I understand why most people are probably going to pick the Mavs. I just don't know yet. I need to do a little bit of a final sort of thought about it. But I just think this is a fascinating, fascinating series. No, I think you're right to pick on what Ty Lue said about the hope that Kyrie – I'm sorry, not Kyrie, Kawhi will play because –

sometimes for me, and I forget that you can't really do that with him, with his injury history, that you look at guys that are out towards the end of the season and kind of just have this

ticking clock in your head of like, they're going to be back when it matters. And you obviously can't just definitively say that with Kawhi, even when in the moments where you think you can, we've seen in the middle of a series, I think against this team specifically, if not this, then it was the Utah series where Kawhi just leaves during the series and then doesn't come back. And, you know, so there's not anything definitive there, but you would really, really hope. And, you know, we talked about the basketball gods. We've had to go so long and so many times not being able to watch Kawhi play

in these moments and just the performance he's had this year, the way he's played, the way the Clippers have played when he's right, when he's healthy. I really, I still hope we get to see this for a first round matchup between these teams. I think the Clippers to win this series are going to need to play at the level they played when they were 26 and five over 31 games. I agree. That's Kawhi being available and that's Harden. Harden has been in a slump now for like six weeks and they're going to need a big Harden game

I tremble at saying it. They're going to need a big James Harden postseason scoring game at some point to win this series. You can't just be like, hey, man, I had eight points and 12 assists. Like, I did my job. Like, they're going to need James Harden to really do stuff in this series, particularly if and when –

he finds himself being guarded by Kyrie or Luka, they're going to have to go into like a Harden-Kawaii two-man game. Like they're going to have to make those guys work and guard defensively. And James Harden is going to have to be a very aggressive part of that equation. I will save the rest of it for my 8x8 slash 6x6 podcast with David Thorpe. But boy, oh boy. I mean, just the chess match and the individual talent in that series. I mean, you think back to 2021, their second meeting.

The level that Kawhi had to get to to get by the level Luka was at, that was some of the highest level individual basketball that any of us have ever seen. The two of those guys going back and forth. It was absolutely incredible. I hope that series lives up to the hype. Okay, are you ready to talk play-in? Sure. Let's do rapid fire, 10 minutes apiece if we can, on all four play-in games.

I'm going to order this discussion in my interest level in the playing games, which means Hawks and Bulls fans can wait about half an hour or fast forward until we get to their game. Sorry, guys. I'm going to start with Lakers-Pelicans. A chance...

for new orleans to avenge multiple humiliations this year including the las vegas humiliation that really uh looked like it might have become a watershed moment for zion williamson in terms of going to the lowest point of his career and climbing out of it anthony davis trade reunion in place for the play-in tournament in the 7-8 bracket um

And of course, the winner gets the Denver Nuggets. I will start here, Chris Herring, because the winner gets the Denver Nuggets. It started right away. And Mike Greenberg took it to a new level on his show this morning. And I texted him. He did. I texted him my thoughts. He read it on the air. I didn't hear him read it on the air. So he's going to read it on the air that the Lakers who play first, I think, are they Tuesday night? Whatever night the West team plays, they play first.

So if they played second and they knew that the Kings, without Malik Monk, without Kevin Herter, just limp into the finish line, had somehow beaten the Warriors and were waiting in the loser's bracket game,

Then you could at least engage me in a conversation about whether the Lakers should throw the 7A game, let the Pelicans get seven and try to get eighth to go get the Thunder in round one who they can bully on the boards and all that. Thunder, by the way, are like, oh, really? Oh, that's the discussion?

Anyone want to mention us? Like, we just got the number one seed in the Western Conference. We're just like roadkill for this 40-year-old dude. Like, that's what we are now? Okay. Like, okay. We hear it. Like, we got it. Now, but playing first means you are risking...

Losing the game, Warriors who are, I think, 10-3 in their last 13 games, 11-3 in their last 14 games, something like that, spanking the Kings. And yeah, the Warriors got to go to you in LA. Like, I'm letting it ride on Steph Curry in one game. I think this reminds me back in 2018 of...

When the Rockets were up 3-2 against the Warriors and they were running on fumes, Chris Paul had gotten injured in Game 5, and there was a suggestion that they should just sit hard and end Game 6 in Golden State, concede the game, and go all in to win Game 7. And it's – I just like you can't – It doesn't work that way. I find this to be a little bit less insane, but I just think –

We have yet to see a team mess around like this in the play in both in terms of like, should we should we get into the plan to avoid the third seed? Should we mess around in the plan? I just don't think this is a real thing. I think it's too risky. I just can't imagine that they would do it.

Maybe, but like I heard Om Young-Woo Sook on Wendy's pod said he might consider it. Greeny might consider it. Alan Hanna on Get Up was like, I'm double down, double down. Like, Greeny, you're right. Even Tim Legler, who was kind of maybe against it, was like, yeah, I get what you're saying. I just don't think you can do it. Look, no shade at anyone, certainly not at our network just in general, but I don't think that this is how NBA players think.

I certainly don't think that that's how champion NBA players think. Like LeBron James. You also can't – like we can't sit here and praise Tibbs and be like good for him for going for it and then be like also the Lakers should lose. Right. I mean this is a team that has won a championship within like relatively recent history. It's not – LeBron –

I just don't understand the thought process that a guy that we're saying is the greatest player of all time. A lot of people feel that way would sign up or would like this would be his preference to do this. I also think and granted, you're absolutely right. The Kings, we all know they've been struggling. We all know they're really banged up. So honest beats the Lakers every game.

There's that. And the fact that they have not beaten the Kings at all this season. So it's like either you're, you're seeding this game to play a team that you haven't beaten or you're seeding this game to play against the Warriors. Okay, sure. I guess I, I just don't think so. Then what if you lose both games? Like I, I,

I also think that the fact that we're talking about the possibility of them losing to anyone is a reason that you don't just give up a game to try to get what you perceive to be an easier matchup, which by the way, the Thunder matchup, I get that they've owned the Thunder this regular season.

Okay, the Thunder is still a pretty good team with a unique set of qualities that might look different with rest. They might look different in a playoff series. It might be more challenging to defend them in a playoff series. I don't know, but I just, I don't like the idea of let's just give up a game against this team that we played really well against that we have their number to play against teams that we, that are not gimme's necessarily. And also, I mean, I,

God bless him. I understand the Lakers have been healthier this year with their two best players. It's not a given that AD makes it to game two. Like from an injury standpoint, he might get poked in the eye. Well, yeah, he had back spasms in the finale yesterday and has said publicly, like, I'm playing. There's no way I'm missing the game. I'm going to take him at his word.

And I assume he'll play. Of course. This has been not a good matchup for the Pelicans. And I know it's only four games. The Lakers won the season series 3-1. Every game was a blowout. All four games were blowouts. Even the Pelicans win was a blowout. And I don't think

I think there are things sort of baked into this matchup that are better for the Lakers than the Pelicans. Number one, the Pelicans get to the foul line a lot. They need free throws. The Lakers famously, and for whatever reason you would like to think, do not foul and generally win the free throw battle. Number two, when...

JV is on the floor. The Lakers have just torn them apart with the LeBron AD two-man game, which is singing like never before right now because they have real shooting around it. They are minus 29, the Pelicans are, against the Lakers this season with JV on the floor. They're actually plus one with Nance on the floor at center, and I suspect we will see the Larry Nance card played really quickly by Willie Green if things are going badly. Did you think that was what went into it yesterday? Because I saw Pelicans fans shouting...

across the internet yesterday that i think jv only got seven minutes uh two early on and then like five in the fourth or something like that i i just think i mean he's been doing that now for like a month like starting larry nance in the second half of games now and then i just don't think they trust his defense i don't think they think jv's post-up game is very useful with their best guys on the floor like all the stuff that we've been saying about this fit for a while and and i

They probably think their only real answer here is putting Nance on the floor and switching a lot. And if we have Zion on LeBron and Zion's going to have to guard LeBron some, he probably won't start on LeBron. He typically has not. Brandon Ingram has, but they'll, I mean, another thing is like LeBron's just too big and strong for all their wings. That's why they end up defaulting to putting Zion on him, which just puts Zion right in the crosshairs of the best player ever. Maybe one of the two best players ever.

He's too big and strong for Ingram. He's too big and strong for Herb. He's too big and strong for Trey Murphy. Dyson Daniels, he put him in the basket last night or yesterday, and then they put Zion on him right after that. And they probably think it's just their best answer is to switch. By the way, in four games against the Lakers, you want to talk about a spotlight moment. You want to talk about it like we talked about Evan Mobley. This is like, hey, okay, meet the hype, buddy.

In four games against the Lakers this year, I said JV is minus 20. The Pelicans are minus 29 with Valanciunas on the floor. Minus 59 with Zion on the floor. Like, it's time, man. And he really just has not looked comfortable against LeBron.

And the Lakers have very smartly not put Anthony Davis on him much. Like you would think when they put Nance at center, okay, we can invert the matchups with a guy in Larry Nance. He's not a post-up guy. We can put anyone on him really. And AD can guard Zion. They kind of treat Zion like the wolves treat Jokic where it's like, we want our rim protector lurking behind you and ready to contest at the rim. And Zion has not really figured that one out. Um,

Look, the Pelicans have the explosive talent to win any game. They're just not playing very well right now. Brandon Ingram just came back. I would pick, even in New Orleans, I would pick the Lakers to win this game. They just seem to like this matchup, and the Pelicans seem to just wilt at the mere sight of the Lakers jerseys. And I think based on that, I completely get it. I get it, but it doesn't mean I have to think that it's a good idea of the idea of

You have all that there. If you're the Lakers, get there. Get to the dance. Try to figure stuff out as best you can there. I don't expect them. No one's going to expect them to beat the Nuggets. But you would have to play the Nuggets anyway at some point.

The Nuggets are going to be around. And so if it turns out exactly like last year turned out where it's a conference finals, then cool. But in this situation, it would probably be a situation where you're going to play them in the first round, then do that. But I kind of feel like you're going to have to go through good teams, great teams in some cases to try to get to something meaningful anyway. Yeah.

So do that. I think you have to take a situation where you have a team's number, then go after them. You don't have that guarantee in game two, no matter who you're playing. Even, I get it, if the Kings are down Monk and Herter, so be it, but that doesn't guarantee anything with them. And certainly an off night from the Lakers shooting-wise could doom them against the Warriors. I just don't, I don't think that

It's one thing to punt on a game in the regular season to try to play with seating. It's a different thing to do it when it's like you just have one off night and you're out completely. Play it the other way. What if they did it? Concede the game. Warriors beat the Kings. Warriors beat the Lakers. You miss the playoffs. That's my point. Can you imagine the backlash and second guessing they would receive in that case?

Some people would say, hey, I still get it. Like this was the downside. I accepted the downside from the beginning. There would be a lot of people who had called for it at the beginning who were like, oh, no, that turned out horribly. You can't lose that game to Golden State. But I'm like, OK, like that's what you're – you are inviting a scenario where Steph Curry goes into an inferno for 12 minutes and your season is over and you go home and that's it.

I just, I don't see an NBA team doing that. Maybe we're in a new day and that's exactly what they're going to try to do. But I think you kind of put one foot in front of the other. We hear, Zach, how many locker rooms have we been in where the coach says to us or the players say to us, one game at a time. And this would be an example of them not doing that, not following that. So maybe it's just I have to see it to believe it, but I just don't think that's

I don't think the Lakers are going to win a title anyway, necessarily. I get that maybe if you can lose this game and win the next one, that maybe it presents you with slightly better odds, better odds, however you want to phrase it. But I just don't see that as a real way to go about this, given that the second game is not a guarantee. I also can't, I can't decide. Like Denver has been my pick to win the West all season. They're the best team in the West. When they dial in, play their best rotations, which they will now start doing, they've already started doing it.

When Jamal Murray is fully healthy and he looks fully healthy now, and they can just default to that two man game when things get a little hairy and they do what they did to Minnesota, they just, they just run away with it. And in that game, that was a great distillation of Denver at its best, because in that game, the recent game that we thought was the winner take all for the number one seed, it turned out neither of them got the number one seed. Right. In that game,

The non-Jokic bench units, which were propped up by starters and sometimes multiple starters, which will be the case now. They functioned how they are going to have to function, which is they turned defense into chaos and offense. They got blocks. Peyton Watson blocked the bejesus out of everything. Christian Brown made defensive plays and they got out and they ran and they just manufactured that. And like Jamal Murray makes two tough jump shots and you've manufactured enough buckets to win those minutes. Those minutes have been a little...

There are some teams that aren't going to give you those chaos plays. Their offense is too careful and calculated. Those minutes have been a little more rickety this year than I thought they would be.

This is my fancy way of saying, like, I still think Denver is the best team. They're probably going to come out in a playoff gear. And I think this is going to happen with Boston, too. I think game one, game two of the Celtics series is going to be like, oh, the Celtics are back. I'm not sure Denver is, like, invulnerable. Like, if you pick Denver over the field...

That's a tougher bet than I thought it would be two or three months ago. I still think they're by far the best team. Not by far. I think they're the best team in the West. Okay. The only tip I would give New Orleans is I think they have let D'Angelo Russell and to a lesser extent Austin Reeves off a little bit easily on defense in some of these matchups. I think they have to be a little more calculated defensively.

in what they do, just as the Lakers are always calculating. LeBron is always going to be like, where's CJ McCollum? Bring him up. Bring him up. When all else fails, bring him up. Give me Zion. Let's put Zion in the action. Tough matchup for the Pels, but you get two chances to win one. Any other thoughts on this before we go to my second pick, which is really like for this to be the second pick in the play-in draft is an upset, I think. Yeah, I hope. I know it's when you're picking for the second one. No, I think we can move on. We've talked about this one quite a bit.

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Philly gets a chance to exercise some postseason demons from that 2022 conference semifinal series where Embiid missed the first two games and Harden limped out. It's

So then the ball never got back to me and the heat just humiliated them. One of many postseason humiliations that have been inflicted upon the Sixers in this era, a Kyle Lowry vengeance series might be upon us. Kyle Lowry actually guarded Jimmy Butler the last time these two played. It actually may be their best chance at guarding Jimmy Butler right now. We have, what else? I mean, we have him beat. Obviously we have two teams that did not think they were going to be in the play in one team that made the finals last year. Yeah.

Just we have Embiid against Bam and all the tricky defenses that the Heat are going to use. They're going to front. They're going to front. They're going to play zone. They're going to late double team late. We don't even know who's playing for the Miami Heat. We don't even know what the Miami Heat's preferred starting five is at this point. Like is Terry Rozier in it? Is Tyler Hero in it? Is Caleb Martin in it? Is Jaime Hocker Jr. in it? Probably not.

uh, is Duncan Robinson in it? I don't, they have like eight starters that could possibly play. Um, what stands out to you about this matchup? Obviously Philly eight, no coming in. They have home court. They are going to be favored in this game. The heat have just never got their offense going all season long. Um, and you know, it's time to get it going, I guess. Um, what's, what's interesting to you? Yeah. I, I think the fact that,

I think I looked at it over the last 10. I can't remember if it was the last 15. I looked at the two best defenses in the league over that stretch. Uh, so scoring at a, you know, at a premium, but it's really nice to have Joella beat in a situation where you, you feel like you're going to need some points. Um,

And it's just, I think it's going to end up being a tough matchup for Miami, depending on who they have to use. You mentioned Duncan Robinson has been dealing with the back stuff. Terry Rozier has been out as well. And it kind of comes all at a time where, to your point about their offense, they're

And I thought it was like the clips you picked for the segment were perfect with regards to the way that the Heat have been running their late stage offense late in the clock where they just don't look like they know what they're doing. And it's it almost looks like they don't know or Jimmy specifically doesn't know how much time he's dealing with. So I just have more trust in Philly right now, assuming Embiid obviously can go. And it seems like it was held out yesterday so that he would be perfect for this game and rested and everything else.

to have him and Maxie in a game like this, we don't necessarily know who's going to start, who's going to be available for Miami. Even if we do know who's out there, it becomes a question of who's going to guard Maxie with his speed and obviously his offensive ability. Miami, it's always possible with Miami. They pull rabbits out of their hat. They have the best coach in the league. Which is wild, by the way, that they have the best coach in the league.

I mean, there's no one that would rate Spoh not one of the top three to five coaches in the league. And yet, Jimmy Butler seems to forget that the shot clock exists in crunch time. Like, normally we would point to the coach and be like, why is their crunch time offense such a goddamn mess? But, like, it's Eric Spohstra. Like, how is this happening? It's just a strange, strange confluence of strange. It's been strange to watch. And, you know, from that standpoint, I just –

It's weird because I could see it's there. It's a one game situation. You can always see the other team potentially winning, but I, I just feel like between them being at home between the fact that

I know D'Anthony Mountain is out or potentially out, or it sounds like he's going to miss a little bit more time, potentially based on what Nick Nurse said yesterday. But I just feel better about the Sixers right now. I feel like there are more questions answered for them. They're playing a little bit better. Obviously, they've won eight in a row. But, you know, if Miami gets hot from outside, you know, if Robinson is able to go and is able to knock down some shots, maybe Tyler Hero knocks down some shots.

Obviously, they could win the game, but I just kind of feel like the Sixers, it's their game to lose. It should be their game to lose. It's at home. And Pete is back. He's been playing great since he's been back when he's been in the lineup. So I'm still looking forward to watching it just because this very much feels like, you know, seeing these teams play, you kind of have to remind yourself sometimes during the regular season games that they aren't playoff games. And so a play-in game between the two of them will have a playoff feel to it. Oh, for sure. I mean, these are heavyweight teams. You mentioned who guards Maxie.

The fascinating thing is it's often been Jimmy Butler and we don't necessarily think of Butler as the answer for really, really quick point guards and tightrope.

Tyrese is as quick as they come. Yeah. He even he did it in previous seasons, too. And an interesting wrinkle to that is, you know, you talk about the search for answers against Embiid and how there are no there is no one answer. Your only answer is a hope he shoots badly from mid range randomly and B, you play 25 different defenses during the game.

One thing they have actually done when Butler is on Maxie, they will switch the Maxie Embiid two-man game and put Butler on Embiid and just sort of hope that Butler can front and be annoying and be physical and just like waste enough time on the shot clock before Embiid gets the ball to mess up their rhythm. That's something to watch for. I think the Sixers are going to go hard at it.

at Tyler Hero. Like, wherever Tyler Hero is, get Jimmy Butler off Tyrese Maxey. Run a guard-guard pick-and-roll and see if they switch it, and then Maxey can go to work against Hero, get into the two-man game with Embiid. Obviously, we know that he'll play zone, all of that stuff. By the way, and they did this when Harden was on the Sixers as well. They put Butler on Harden and switched the Harden-Embiid two-man game every once in a while. You mentioned Melton. I'm not expecting much of anything from Melton for the rest of the season based on...

What I've heard – and I'm going to take the L on something, Chris. A big L. Big L for me. Two months ago, I was like, why is Nicole Leovitz starting for the Heat? I don't understand. They have all these other options that I just went through. It seems like this is kind of a Haywood-Heisman situation where it's like this is a cute placeholder thing. Can we get to the real lineup? That dude is balling out. And the Heat –

surprise, surprise, the heat coaching staff who sees him up close every day knew better than me. And we're like, no, we see something in this guy. He's bringing the ball up. He's shooting the hell out of it. He's kind of playing a little bully ball against guards when they try to hide guards on him. And the Sixers may do that in this matchup. It's, it's, I'm, he's been awesome. And, and,

Yeah, I'm trying to think what else is interesting about this game. You know, the heat. Go ahead. No, I was just going to. I'm sorry I interrupted you. But like to your point about Jimmy and the idea that you can play him on Maxie, you can potentially even switch him on and beat. You can. But man, like as we're talking about, where is the offense going to come from for Miami if they don't have a Rozier? If Duncan Robinson doesn't play it? I mean, we're used to Jimmy having a Rozier.

having a lot asked of him. But man, if you're trying to do all that, and I get that it's a one-game situation just to try to move on, but to have Jimmy be what you imagine, along with Hero, your primary creator, your primary guy offensively, but also to be...

handling the two best players from the other team, kind of switching off between them. Like it's a lot. And you're going to, and you're going to get him to play bully ball against Maxie. Like they're going to, what I just described, the Sixers would do to hero. The Heat are going to do that to Tyrese Maxie. Jimmy Butler is going to hunt him down and they're going to need one of these, like Jimmy Butler somehow gets 16 free throws and, you know, they kind of manufacture, uh,

some points. Like I said, Kyle Lowry was their answer on Jimmy Butler the last time they played. Like, we don't want to put Oubre on him. He's too, you know, Jimmy's too strong. Don't really trust Tobias Harris to guard him. Don't want Maxie on him, obviously. Let's put, let's go with Kyle, who's a fire hydrant. And it's a lot to ask of Kyle Lowry, too. Another guy that I want to give some credit to, Kelly Oubre.

has been awesome for the Sixers. And I have made much fun of Oubre in the past for never passing, like just one assist a game for his career. And it seems like an accident every time. He's had a lot of like three, four, five assist games for them in the last two months. This is the best all-around basketball he's played. He fits on a winning team right now, the way he's playing. And kudos to him for that. They're going to need him. I just think, you know, home court and the way the Sixers are playing

It's just in the way Embiid is playing. They've just, they're just been better with Embiid on the floor than Miami has this year. Anything can happen in one game, obviously to pick one game is, is folly to begin with, but they've been dominant with Embiid all season, like plus 10, 11 per a hundred possessions, whatever it is. And the heat just haven't kind of gotten it together, but the heat hadn't gotten it together last year at this time either. And they made the freaking NBA finals. So yeah, I think it's going to be a,

It's going to be going to be when when they haven't switched the Maxi Embiid pick and roll. They've had Bam actually drop back a little bit more this season to try and keep him close closer to the rim. See if Maxi can make some pull up jumpers and Boyd is Bam fight, by the way. Like, yeah, like if if you just watch that battle for position when they enter it to Embiid and Bam's on his back and they'll send help and Embiid kicks it back out because he sees the help and he wants a repost.

Before they can throw that repost, Bam will get around and get into a front. And it's just like the physicality and the battle. It's awesome. Crazy that the Sixers went 8-0 with Embiid and didn't get out of the play. And similar to how the Suns went 8-0 in the bubble and didn't get into the playoffs. I remember. Yeah. Any other thoughts? And then made the finals the next year. Not really. I mean, you mentioned Oubre. And I kind of had him highlighted in my notes just as a guy that has played really, really well against Miami this season. He's averaged...

I think like something like 18 and a half and seven with a couple of assists per game against them. So there's just someone I had highlighted in my notes, but I like that you shouted him out because he has had a really nice season. And like, you can see some meaningful improvement from the guy who's at a stage where I feel like,

Sometimes we forget how young a lot of these guys are, and you just kind of put a cap on them and say, this is all they are, and they're a cute scorer. They can be a microwave scorer, but he's been a little bit more than that for them. I mean, he's been more than that for them and could be the sort of player that turns the tide not only in a planned game but maybe in a series. Let's go to the 9-10 games with my third draft pick, 9 Kings-10.

10 Warriors. Steph and Draymond and Kaminga did not play the season finale. I don't know if Kaminga is going to play in the playing game. I would expect Steph and Draymond to for sure.

These teams obviously know each other quite well. This is the Kings' chance to avenge a heartbreaking first-round series loss last year. It's a chance to avenge the Draymond Green foot stomp. It's a chance to avenge just being the sort of little brother to the Warriors franchise for so long now. Unfortunately, the Kings are incredibly banged up. These teams played four times all before January 25th. They look very different now than they did at any of the games. There was essentially very little to no Keon Ellis in any of these games. He's now going to guard Steph Curry. Right.

There was essentially little to know Trace Jackson Davis. He has been the Warriors starting center for like a month now alongside Draymond Green, which is interesting because he's been outstanding. They've been outstanding with Draymond and Jackson Davis together, defensively in particular, allows Draymond to kind of roam around and you can see him doing a lot of damage as a roamer in this series. But you also remember that first round series. I'll bet you someone in the Warriors coaching staff has already brought up like,

Should we give old Loon a shot to start and play 18, 20 minutes? Because he beat the hell out of Domas last year. This is a good Loon matchup. I like that. The Warriors, look, the Kings have been not struggling, but they've actually grounded out some wins. But their health situation is what it is.

The Warriors have been playing very, very well. Their defense, they are since March 26th, they're 10-2, sixth in offense, third in defense. They've really shored up the defensive rebounding. They've stopped fouling everybody. They finished 17th in opposing free throw rate, which for them is a home run. Look, I mean, we know what this series is going to be.

Steph is going to whoever Sabonis is on Steph's going to run a lot of pick and roll. Sabonis is going to almost blitz trap come really high up above the level of the screen. And the Warriors are going to play four on three. I mean, we're going to see other kind of things with that. And the Kings are going to have to scramble around. And I thought their defense really was up to that challenge in the playoffs last year. I thought they defended the Warriors, all the split actions, all the stuff that the Warriors run much better than I think anyone thought they would given their defense was bad all season. Um,

But the Warriors know how to play that game. They know how to punish you. Like if they have two non-shooters on the floor together, whether it's Draymond and Kaminga, Draymond and Jackson Davis, Draymond and Looney, they know how to punish you for ignoring those guys, you know, running handoffs, running splits. This is a very, I wouldn't say comfortable, but the Warriors know this matchup. They know how it feels to,

Keon Ellis is obviously like a variable and between him and Davion Mitchell, the Kings could have 48 minutes of like as good as you can possibly do defense against Steph Curry. But this is a comfortable matchup and not that the Kings are uncomfortable in it. Like they know, you know, Andrew Wiggins is going to guard Fox and they're going to hide Curry over here and Draymond is going to do his stuff. So bonus, you know, might be able to bully Jackson Davis in a way he couldn't bully Kavon Looney. And yeah,

They have some things that they can go to, but this is, I think, best case scenario for the Warriors sitting in 10th, having Sacramento fall to them. Obviously, better case scenario would have been jumping Sacramento and having home court. But given the way they are trending going into this game, feels like a good matchup for the Warriors to me. Yeah, I mean, I like them here just based on...

the way they've looked lately, even the couple of losses that they've had, they've all been to good teams. And, you know, I think they had a really narrow loss to Dallas. I think they lost the one to the Pelicans, which was a meaningful game from the standpoint of trying to, you know, position yourself and whatnot, but they've looked solid. I mean, the other key factor I think has been having Chris Paul back and just kind of organizing stuff and kind of lining stuff up. Obviously one of the best passers we've ever seen. I, I,

I look the Kings. We, we all saw how close they were last year to getting it done. Um, it was really interesting to see like how many people were willing to pick them against the Warriors, given what the Warriors had accomplished. The key on Ellis, uh,

piece of the rotation has been huge for them and just giving them a foundation that, like you said, aside from Davion Mitchell, they really didn't have much of, which was just implementing some more defense in that lineup. Um, it's just been such a crushing blow for them to not have the first thing I think about with this team. Um,

You look at how the Warriors have built their team out. A team that has built so heavily off handoffs, so heavily off of Domas and what he's able to do with handing the ball off to whether it was Hurter, whether it was Monk, obviously with Fox. So taking two of those guys out of the mix has been so massive and has fundamentally shifted their season. A team that, like you said, several weeks ago might have avoided this altogether and now just might not have enough to get across the finish line. So

Again, one game situations, nothing surprises me, but I think of course Kings could totally win. Like no one is, no one is even, you know, it's, it's also, it's also interesting. The Warriors have had like so many different identities throughout the season. Like they, they, they start their old starting fire from last season. It doesn't work.

Like, well, that's weird. It's been an awesome lineup for a couple of years now. It didn't work. Then they bench Clay Thompson, start Pajemski, start Kaminga and Draymond. So they start small. They're like, all right, we found it. Like, they look like they found an identity. Then some injuries happen. Some other changes happen. And now it's like Jackson Davis and Draymond agree. Oh, okay. That kind of works. I guess Kaminga is going to have to come off the bench now. Okay. And then Clay Thompson starts again and Pajemski comes off the bench. And both of those iterations have been

successful. It's just like, are they, is there another pivot coming? Like if they, are they even going to put more Looney in this game? How much Draymond at center? Are we going to see where are the Kings going to put Domas? Like they've, they've toyed around like trying to take him off Draymond green when Draymond's at center and hide them somewhere else. Kaminga, Gary Payton, the second, uh, another non-shooter if there is one, uh,

Um, it's just been interesting to watch the Warriors kind of adapt and readapt and readapt and keep and landing on two things that kind of like, that's the thing about the West. Like all these teams, like you mentioned Phoenix one, what did they win? 47 games, something like that. 48 games. Um, I think 48, 49. It's something like, um, they all feel like, oh, the Warriors are 10th. Like these are all good teams. Like these are all off teams in the East.

Like, are the Warriors a 50-win team if Draymond doesn't get suspended? Are the Warriors a 50-win team if Draymond doesn't get suspended and they blew like five crazy, just inexplicable losses? And I know every team, you know, you could play the what-if game like that.

These are all good teams. They feel disappointing. We're going to talk about the disappointing teams in a second. These are legit good teams. This is just life in the Western Conference, man. Let me ask you this from this standpoint because I think that there is something to be said for adaptability, having to figure out tough questions about your rotation. We knew this coming into the season that they were going to have to figure it out with the Chris Paul thing.

Are you going to bring them off the bench? I think a lot of us figured they would at some point, even if they didn't start that way initially. They made the tough decision with Looney, for instance. They started Pajemski early in the season as a rookie, which is rare with a team that has accomplished this much. I do wonder, though, if there's kind of a threshold of like,

so many changes over the course of a year to where it's helpful to know that you can do it but also on some level having something that you stick to and something that you just know that you have um especially when you i mean it's a luxury for the nuggets obviously but like to have that lineup that even the kings benefited from that for a long time last year where they were just so healthy they just had their rotation they knew what it was um so i i wonder on some level if

All these things, if you've almost had too many seasons in one to really bring it all together to kind of have a cohesive piece that really brings you across the finish line. I think that they're very capable, not only winning this game and figuring out the next round. I don't think that the Thunder get excited about having to play the Warriors by any means, but I don't know that... One thing at a time, I guess, but I don't know that

a season with this many changes kind of on the fly that they've had to figure out. Maybe it's beneficial in having to figure it out constantly, but I also wonder if it's almost been so much and so many things in one season, as you said, to kind of just, it makes it a challenge. And the Kings still have some answers, namely...

De'Aaron Fox has had some huge games against the Warriors, and I will die on the hill of the Kings would have won that series last year if De'Aaron Fox hadn't messed up his finger halfway through. He was still great even after he did it, which was nuts.

They'll put Wiggins on him and stash Steph elsewhere. Steph's a capable defender who grinds hard. I expect Fox to – they're going to attack Steph and make Steph guard, and they're going to attack Klay and make Klay guard. If Fox just has a crazy 38-point game, who knows what will happen. Okay, last one. Hawks-Bulls. I'm not uninterested. I'm not uninterested. Trae Young's back.

Veit Krejci was not converted to a standard contract. He's ineligible. So the Hawks have basically like guards, one wing that might play in DeAndre Hunter and centers. And they've gone all in on like super small ball. They're going to, they've been starting all three of their powerful scoring guards. Zanate Murray, Trey Young, Bogdan Bogdanovich, Hunter, who will guard DeMar DeRozan and a rim running center. And the Bulls,

have been a 500 team above 500 team for like 50 games now barely barely in a very busy and fashion that's kind of boring and stodgy and like their fans just don't like the team but they're they're feisty and they play hard I assume new status for this game is a little unclear he didn't play yesterday but

It would be really useful to have him and Alex Caruso to guard the Hawks backcourt. Like that's kind of a fun, a kind of a fun matchup. We know what the Hawks are going to do. It's going to be a lot of spread, pick and roll targeting Vucevic. Like that feels uncomfortable for the Bulls who have to cover a lot of ground. Hawks have a ton of shooting. We know what the Bulls are going to do, which is DeMar DeRozan is going to do a lot of hunting of Trey Young and even DeJounte Murray try to play a little bully ball. The,

The interesting thing about the Bulls' offense is –

This is like team mid-range, right? It's old school, tons of long twos. The Hawks allow no mid-range jumpers. Now, I don't think that's on purpose. I think it's because their defense has been so bad, although it's been better lately, that they allow a ton of threes and shots at the rim. So it's like team, we only take mid-rangers versus defense like, hey, you can have the good stuff. We don't really even give up any mid-rangers. What does that mean? I don't know who wins that non-final.

battle. And the last thing is Drummond.

Drummond against Bruno Fernando, if he can play, the offensive rebounding, the Bulls' offensive rebounding rate with Andre Drummond on the floor, 38%. That means they rebound 38% of their own misses with Andre Drummond on the floor. That's an insane number. Without him, 24%. He is basically a one-man offensive rebounding team by himself. What strikes you, Mr. Herring, about this team?

Game number four in the play-in hierarchy. You mentioned one of the most important factors. I'm big at looking at splits as if I'm a gambler or something like that. But Ayo Desumu is a guy that has been banged up. He's had basically his best splits of anybody against anybody against the Hawks. I think there's one other team that he's averaging better.

20 something against, but he's averaging 21 a game against Atlanta this year. So the idea of him, the bulls are going to need some scoring. And I think that it's interesting that when you talk about the mid range stuff with Atlanta, they, they sell out when it comes to basically showing to Atlanta,

to DeMar DeRozan when he kind of has his pick and roll with Vooch. They're willing to leave Vooch alone. Most teams are at this point because of the way he shot the ball from deep. So from that standpoint, the Bulls are going to need other guys to step up, other guys to score. I think it's a really big opportunity for Kobe White. And look, the Hawks

If they get enough threes in their matchup too, I think that it's something that the Bulls will really struggle to overcome. The Bulls are obviously a team that aren't launching it well from three because of what you just said. So it's a situation where the Hawks can take advantage of that. I hate...

how many guys could potentially be missing from this, whether it's Drummond, whether it's IO, Jalen Johnson obviously said one of the most improved seasons in the league. He guarded DeRozan quite a bit. Right. And obviously Sadiq Bayes hurt. You know, I mentioned Krejci, Jalen Johnson, who would have been my pick for most improved player had he met 65 games. Yeah. It's a mash unit. Yeah. So it's going to be interesting from that standpoint. I think the fact of what we're saying about the lack of, of,

Wing defenders for Atlanta, I think, could be really big. Again, I think it presents an opportunity for Kobe White. It really presents an opportunity if Io is healthy enough to go and play, given the numbers he's put up this year against the Hawks. But like you said, it's easy to write it off. I mean, I think I read somewhere that the Bulls and Hawks have been

In ninth? The Bulls have been in ninth solidly and the Hawks have been in tenth solidly for the better part of the last two and a half months. You asked, did we know any other matchups? We knew this matchup for quite a while. We did. We did. So I get how it's uninteresting. But at the same time, there's something...

Please don't look at me and get overly excited about the end season tournament if you can't get somewhat excited about a game that decides who goes to the playoffs and who doesn't. One of these teams is going to have a one game shot to get into the playoffs and get the eighth seed. And I think it's cool.

DeRozan played more minutes than anybody in the league this year at 34, which is really cool. And I think that the fact that Trae Young is on the other side of it, I get it. We've seen Trae Young in this position before. This is literally where these two teams kind of end up.

each year but there's something to be said for the fact that like it's kind of cool to see them play with everything on the line i'm also not going to forget about the fact that it was only last year that that you know the rosens daughter you know became a you know an internet superstar for that standpoint so there's always something weird or funky to happen so i'm i'm looking forward to it even if i don't expect much out of these teams if and when they do advance one the one of the games in which chicago looked really good against atlanta

They did something that's very rare for the Bulls. They got out on the break. Atlanta's transition defense has been a nightmare all season, just totally awful. The Bulls, though, are last in transition frequency in the league. It would behoove them to try to amp it up a little bit and clean up their off-ball defense, which has been a mess, like rotating in and out the shooters. They just don't seem to know where to go and how to get there, and the Hawks are going to have a lot of trouble.

a lot of shooting. By the way, you're mentioning how long they've been locked in the 9-10. Reignited a debate that dates to the bubble when they had to kind of do a one-time only weird structure for who got into the play-in and whatever. Yes. I saw somebody tweeting about this over the weekend. Like, should there be a standings gap

between eight and nine or something, nine and 10 even, where you just don't even get into the play and you're so far behind. You're so much materially worse than teams at seven and eight. Like it's unfair for those teams to have a winner take all death situation against a team so bad. I think, and that's what they did in the bubble. Remember like they had like a, you had a standings barrier you had to break to get in. I think that's an interesting concept. It's,

It's a little hard to work in terms of TV money because it would reduce your inventory of games. I think it has merit, though, and I would be interested in exploring it more. The other thing, another hill I will die on is...

The number one seed should be able to get to pick its opponent from who gets out of the play. And like, they should be a two team pool. The number one seed, you get to pick its opponent for exactly a situation. Like if Boston would prefer not to play Joel Embiid in the first round, if that's how it breaks, they have earned the right to do that. Um, anyway, okay. I want to end by, uh, I, I do not have an awards ballot this year and you do not as well. Um,

I have made all my picks for the individual awards and I'm just going to list them. And if you remember what your ballot would have been or if you have any interesting comments, you can make them. I will not do MVP. I will reveal that choice in a column coming later this week once all the ballots are submitted. Okay. Rookie of the year. One, Wemby. Two, Chet. Three, Brandon Miller. Any comments?

I would have the same ballot there. There was a midseason point where I feel like I still was on the fence about where I stood there. But I just think when Minyama's performance in the second half of the season was otherworldly and I think he kind of broke away there.

I've seen people wonder if Brandon Miller, because of his efficiency stats or whatever, should not be third. He should be third. I'm going to keep this short because I have a big column coming out explaining all these choices. So if you feel like I've been mean to your guy or shortchanged somebody or didn't mention somebody, they will be mentioned in column form. Defensive player of the year. One, Gobert. Two, Wemba Nyama. Three, Anthony Davis. Unofficial fourth, Bam Adebayo. I think those were the four best defensive players in the league in some order this year.

I went Gobert and I will, you know, I'll expound on it further in the column. I just think best defensive player on the best defensive team. Wemby wasn't quite the guy he is now for the first 20, 30 games of the season. Um,

feels a little hard to give an award this prestigious to a guy on such a bad team, even though the Spurs were a great defensive team with him on the floor. I would have no problem with any of these four guys winning the award, though. But I think that those are the best four guys. I also wonder, too, if when Minyama, like you said, the first 20, 30 games, he had a positional change during the season, too, which seemed to really kind of help and kind of...

glamorize a little bit of what he's better at. And so I wonder too, if you, you have to try everything with the rookie, obviously to just kind of see how things work. But I wonder if that would have helped him in this argument, but I pretty much the same place. Like I, I gave a real consideration again, I'm not even voting, but like really looked over Suggs for quite a while too. It was fantastic this year, but it's hard in this day and age to give it to a guard over a wing player over a big man.

There will be room on my fake all-defense teams for people like Jalen Suggs and maybe Jalen Suggs himself. Sixth man of the year. This was a tough one. This was tough. I went Nas Reed.

Malik Monk, Bogdan Bogdanovich. I think all three could win. I think Bobby Portis could win. And I think there's a line after Bobby Portis where Norman Powell is fifth. Karis LeVert is like unofficially sixth. If it were sixth man of the last two months, I think TJ McConnell would have a case for a ballot spot. But I'm comfortable with these top three. Any of them could win. I just think

Monk slumped a little bit before he got injured. Nas Reed kind of surged toward the end of the season, filling in for Carl Towns. Bogey's been awesome all year. The Hawks are really good when he's on the floor and really bad when he's off the floor. All three are worthy choices. I just went Nas Reed.

Yeah, I had Bogdanovich here. I think you could go, as you said, any way with it. I loved that both Monk and Nas Reed were better passers this year and hugely influential on offense. I think where I struggled a little bit with those two as opposed to Bogdanovich was the fact that

Bogie, just the on-off difference was so big when he was there versus just when the rest of his team was out there without him. I think it was like a 10.5 point gap, whereas for the other guys, their team's margin of victory when they were off the floor was actually better than when they were on the floor. And so from that standpoint, it was an easier choice for me, especially given that kind of

All these guys, certainly Nas Reed, I guess, they all kind of had opportunities with the starter in front of them out.

Bogdanovich as well. And so I just kind of felt like it took on more importance for Bogdanovich given that Trey was out. So I picked him there. I would have picked him there. But again, you're splitting hairs at a certain point. I thought they were all really good. They all were basically having career seasons. I think it's going to be very close. I think Monk would have been my choice had he

This last 15 games, I've said before, I think his passing was the single most important discrete skill among all these players in terms of what his team needed. But Nas, all these guys were awesome. And again, people, if you're like a big Norman Powell fan, this will all be explained in a column. Coach of the year. This one hurt my soul, and it hurt my soul on behalf of Chris Finch because I can only get three guys on the ballot. That's what the ballot is.

Fake ballot in this case. I went Mark Dagnall with a Thunder winning the number one seed. I think he might be one of the most, he is one of the most tactically creative and smart coaches in the league. Adjust immediately to your adjustment. Awesome coach. To Jamal Mosley. We mentioned the magic earlier.

And three, I went Joe Mazzulla over Chris Finch for the third spot. I just think he deserves a lot of credit for kind of reinventing the Celtics in the way he wants them to play. He's...

I think the most tactically creative coach on defense and their regular season record speak for itself. Chris Finch could win you like Chris, those four guys, any of them four could win. And I'd be like, that totally makes sense. I just, there's only three on the ballot. I guess if I had to explain why not, but why these guys over Chris Finch, I guess I would say like,

Minnesota really sung on defense this year, and they just haven't been able to figure out their offense. I don't think that's Chris Finch's fault, but if he could have had some handiwork proof on that, maybe. But he's awesome. They're an amazing team. They're number three seed. It's a hard ballot. That's my ballot. Fake ballot. Incredibly tough. I can be honest with you in saying I somehow forgot. We talked about awards. I honestly forgot that Coach Lee was one of them I needed to consider.

I really love that you're showing mostly love here, though, just because that's still such a young team. I felt like you saw real improvement from key guys. And as you mentioned when we were talking about their playoff stuff with them and the Cavs, there's not all that much offense to speak of. There's some real skill there. Bogner, obviously, is so impressive even in a down shooting year. Bankero took

took huge strides this year, but they don't shoot many threes at all. It really doesn't even matter for them because they're so good defensively and they're still creative offensively with a lot of the stuff they do. So I really like Mosley. I think ultimately you probably would have to go with that. No, you don't have to, but I think they're the youngest one seed in NBA history. They,

are nine spots higher than where they were last year. They fought tooth and nail with some of the best teams in the league this year. I like the pick. They're top five on both sides of the ball with a team that is younger than 24 years old on average. I think it's a really solid pick. I don't think you can take issue with it. I think Thibodeau deserves a little bit of love too, just given how many guys they're missing. Again, read the column. It's all going to be in the column. Tips is going to be mentioned in the column.

There's a million guys that are going to mention the column. I'm just going rapid fire. Most improved player. There are just too many candidates to mention for this award every single season. There's a million of them. They're all in the column. I went, and you could go 20 different directions with this. I ended up going number one, Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder. Oh, wow. Me too. Number two, Kobe White.

Number three, Tyrese Maxey. Quibble, there's a million quibbles. That's just where I landed. You want Kaminga, you want Shang-Goon, you want Cam Thomas, Hartenstein, Cade Cunningham, Jalen Brunson. There's a million guys. That's just...

How I that's just where I ended up. We both landed on Jalen Williams. And I think there's some people they're going to be confused about that. And if you watched them consistently enough, I mean, the guy had the best clutch field goal percentage in the league. He was trusted to take shots, a game winner. He was trusted to handle the ball. I think he had the best off the dribble mid range percentage ever.

Since Kevin Durant was a member of the Thunder, which you're going back at this point almost 10 years to get that. He just, I mean, he got more efficient from everywhere despite the fact that he's trusted to handle the ball a lot. It wasn't an easy pick for me because Kobe White jumped by, what, 10 points from last year? He had been a higher scorer than that previously. Maxie would have been third for me. It pains me to not have somebody like DiVincenzo on that list given that he was one of the most effective three-point shooters in the league this year.

And you mentioned Jalen Johnson earlier as a guy that probably would have landed top three had he qualified and not been injured. But a really tough most improved list this year. It is very tough. All right, Chris Herring, enjoy an off day from NBA games because you got a lot of –

We got a lot of stuff to do coming up. A lot of games, a lot of drama, a lot of heavyweight matchups. Enjoy the play-in. I will be back later this week with David Thorpe for the annual 8x8 Rapid Fire first round preview. Every series, deep dives, X's and O's, adjustment. Maybe not every series. It might be a 6x6 because of the way the play-in works now. Chris Herring, thank you, sir. Thanks, Zach. I appreciate being with you always.