NBA W/ Kirk Goldsberry, Randy Moss (Plus Special Appearance From Mike Tirico & Mage The Horse), Nuggets Up 2-0, Celtics/Heat & Fyre Fest

Hey, Part of my Take listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube Prime. members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. On Today's Part of My Take. We have Kirk Goldsberry in studio, talking ball N.B.A. playoffs with him. Some of the things we said, we taped it on Thursday afternoon.

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MURRAY GAME PFT I was going to say, Jamal Murray has arrived officially as like as like a clutch post-season player. That fourth quarter was awesome. Go Nuggets He 23 points in the fourth.

Quarter a game that it felt like for the first three quarters, that the Lakers, they the Lakers did, what kind of we expected. They slowed it down. It was a lot, you know, it was a lot slower pace, lower scoring than game one. Uh, you know, they had Rui Hachimura just being the Lakers.

Better, the Lakers probably steal one. Don't forget his late turnover either. He also, he lost the ball in the paint for the second straight game at the end of the game. Uh, yeah, he looked old. The Miss Layup or the Miss Dunk was hilarious because he tried to do, he tried to, like, send a message with a dunk.

You actually should Jason kidd it, and pour even more of your drink on him, remember when Jason?

I stand by Nugs in six and the dumb thought that I always have when it's hockey or when it's basketball that's being played in Denver. Is Does the altitude travel indoors? I don't know if inside a dome is, is the air inside, is a good oxygen, or is it thin air. I don't know the answers to these questions, but it certainly seemed like the altitude played some sort of a factor. Especially. You could make the argument on on a lot of LeBron's misses that he had. He was missing long, he was hitting off the back iron.

Who knows? Oh, for 10 now from three point in this series. I just let him keep shooting them, he can't make them, he hasn't been able to make them, so just let him keep shooting them.

So I like that it's a Domas play. He seems like a fun guy. Yeah, yeah.

Rui Hachimura stories before this Well, whenever a guy like goes, gets on fire this late in the playoffs, it's usually like anecdote season where everyone's like, Hey, this, one time I met Rui Hachimura. So yeah, that's true. Like, was that what? What is he holding back? There's gotta be.

Some other good ones in the tank right there, for sure, it did. Yeah, you're right, they, they, they messed up the Rui Hachimura game and it feels like he's good for one of these each series.

It is, it is also funny that you it's a great point by you. Like, whenever someone has these games, the anecdotes like. It's almost like a eulogy on Twitter, like, Oh, this guy that no one knows about, let's just start talking about him and telling weird stories.

How weird this guy is. That's scoring a shitload of points. Lonnie Walker when we had the Lonnie Walker game, that happened. The videos of him being in the hot car, where when he locked himself in a dog. To educate America about how hot it can get in a park car when it's hot outside, yeah.

And this is like, on our deathbed, hopefully we live long lives. But these are how sports fans pick up little stories about players that you'll never forget. Like you'll never forget Rui Hachimura, you'll never forget Lonnie Walker. Like all these guys, when they have their moments, they're seared into your brain forever, and you can answer trivia on them for the rest of your life.

Don't need that will always retain. Yeah, so, um, I. I watched this game with my mom again, and I made a couple notes. Because she's not, she's not what you call like an N.B.A. fan per se. I mean, she knows some of the players, but she was giving me running commentary, so I want to. I want to walk you through her analysis of the game if that's okay.

Probably a fine size. It's just his body, his his body's too big for his head is really what it is.

But that's all right, she made sure to say. But that's all right. Uh, on Austin Reeves, he's the other white guy right out of all the white guys. I like his haircut the best. I like his haircut better than Yoke yokes.

Alabama swoop going from, like, uh, 20 years ago a little bit, but it's not quite the full-on.

Frat Boy swoop It's like the Frat Boy's friend from out of town that comes to visit once in a while. Cause he wants to see what it's like in a big state school. I want to call my shot real.

Quick, Awesome Reeves is going to get a cool haircut next year. He's definitely going to. He's definitely going to, like, upgrade his look and maybe go up tattoos, yeah.

I, I would like to see him go with a mullet, actually, that'd be sick, that'd be sick. You had to show up on like a dirt bike. Um, on Rui Hachimura.

How many years did Jordan play? It was like 13, 14 or 15. Well, if you don't count the Wizards, I want to say it's like 15. Let me pull it up well, because also that's mean baseball, uh?

That's mean to just say, if you don't count the wizards, like, like, that doesn't count as his.

N.B.A. career? Well, if you don't count them, uh, you should. You should also remind your mom that, uh, we've had a great advancement in medical sciences and HGh.

Yeah, I did. I did allude to the fact that he has a strict diet of steroids and red wine.

Oh, I nailed it 15, okay, so if you take 13 if you don't count the Wizards.

So, yeah, so 13 if you take, if you take LeBron's first 13 years, who scored more points? That was her, that was her question. I don't know the answer to that question, uh, but I think it's more fair way to join, uh, to to judge it. And then she just wanted to know over and over again why they don't call traveling anymore.

Yeah, all good points. I think she knows ball. Yeah, she definitely knows ball, big time ball in the Hershey.

Haircut out there, probably of all the white guys, the white guys, yeah, out of all of them. I guess it would be, it would be a yokage, and then it would be Christian Bronc, Christian Brown, right?

Brown, Yeah, Brown, yeah. Um, all right.

Soft, There's frost on the grass, we can't play. It's a soft sport, but in its own weird way. Like you have to take into account that these are golfers, this is the most, this is the most hardcore thing that a course can do to set the tone.

Which, of course, had a great day. Um, I would like to, of course, to just step up and be like, I don't care if I frost, like, go ahead, step on me. You break a little grass, that's fine either way.

On frost, you know what's going to happen, we should. There's probably going to be another frost delay on, like maybe Sunday on the final round. And then they're just going to have to go out there and play. So the course will hopefully give another frost delay. And then just be like, bring it on, bitch.

Um, and then the other two stories from it. So Bryson did play well, which was unfortunate, although I guess the feud's over, so we can't hate him anymore. Um, and he, he also, like Bryson, just got too skinny again.

He went back to skinny Price. Yeah, I don't like it, but he. He also did hit a guy on the tea, you see that he had an errant drive.

Yes, and um, did you see the video of Tom Kim, the golfer who I've never seen anyone have? More mud on them from? Like, we didn't even get to see the angle of how he got the mud on him, but he was covered, he was absolutely covered. Did you see the video? It was incredible.

Then he goes, You want to smell my hand afterwards? Fellas, we've all been there, am I right? It was great, yeah.

On day one of the PGA Championship, I'd agree, I'd agree. All right. Anything else that we missed that we have to talk about.

Anything we missed, I don't think so. Uh, I think it's pretty clean, pretty clean. Intro There One thing that you did miss in the intro to the show? Not only do we have Randy Moss and Kirk Goldsberry on the show, we also have Mike Tirico on the show today.

Of things. And we did it. Should we put Mike, Tirico and Maish in the in the title? Yeah, we should. Yeah, it was special appearances from Mike, Tirico and Maish.

Definitely, definitely subscribe to that. Uh, we did miss talking about Dustin Johnson. Did you? Did you hear what Dustin Johnson said on Wednesday? When he was getting ready, he was doing like his his press conference. That all these guys do, where basically all the live guys go out there and then they have to answer questions about live for 20 minutes.

Also, Brooks loved having him back on. I wish he had given us the quote I would start stroking.

Could have used that on the show, yeah. Stroke them till they finish, Brooks, make them finish.

Make them finish faster, that's what you got to do, It's actually you got to stroke them harder.

If you stroke, if you stroke them and then you keep stroking them, you show that you're not kidding about stroking them. Hard, fast, consistently. And make that a thing that that they can come to expect they will finish. Maybe spit in your hand before you stroke them.

Oh, one last thing, we did forget to mention hockey, this. The conference finals did start, um, the Panthers won, and then they, they, they didn't win, so they scored a goal in overtime didn't count.

Well, I think that we said that we liked the Golden Knights out of all the four remaining teams, the best we said the nicest things. But I think everybody else, we gave what some might consider to be backhanded compliments towards. When we talked about their cities, uh, the Golden Knights are fun, I guess they're, they're the funnest team left. And Alec also said that he listened to the show to not hear us talk about hockey.

Especially this year. Yeah, we almost forgot to talk about it. Also, I just wanted to I people see I'm wearing an A's hat.

About the possum that's living in the press box. You can't bulldoze the stadium, you can't, you can't explode a possum and its entire family with dynamite to get rid of a stadium, right?

Yeah, dude, they they are. Uh, yeah. It's sad. Seeing every game where they're like, no one's there, it's basically they're doing major league where, but there's no happy ending. That's, that's essentially what's happening right now. I actually saw a stat.

You are you. My proprietary formula is right on the money again this year. So I moved off the Bucks, the Buckos, the Pirates and I'm fading the A's. Every game this season, it's it's a winning formula. It really is, uh, yeah.

Sucks. And I was just I was buying a new Cubs hat and I saw the A's. I was like, dude, their logo is awesome and I feel really bad for their fans. So I stand in solidarity. Fuck owners, fuck cities that won't help out.

They have the best grass in baseball when they get that pattern cut into it and mode. Exactly. I'm talking like light green, dark green diamonds everywhere in the outfield. That's that, to me, is like what I grew up watching, and that's what I'll remember the most about. Nineties baseball. Probably is how fucking sick the outfield grass was in Oakland and how big their foul territory is.

Goes on for days. So yeah, if you're an A's fan listening to this, show your Awl A's fan. Tweet us and let us know that you heard it because we're going to stand with you. We can't do anything except maybe we'll just bash the owner of the A's, like every couple of weeks. Who is the?

Owner of the A's Let's find out, fucking this guy, he's on our shit list. World of hurt, yeah.

Actually, it's kind of fucked up that he not only is moving the team, but he's also somewhat anonymous. John Fisher, Fuck you, John Fisher, piece of shit, you fucking dick.

You bitch, Oh, somebody should pull your pants down in public. I would distract them.

So that you could pants them with your hissing Yeah, the old double tap, Yeah, fuck you.

Tabletopped Yeah, it's been a minute since I've tabletopped somebody. All time schoolyard prank.

High, Okay, yeah, and then he'll blame me, he'll be like, God, damn it.

The town four times a week, for sure, so that's I. I saw that story and I did the math on it. Cause the town is two hours long, which means he watches eight hours of the town per week, which means he watches 17 days worth of the movie The Town per year. He seems like he's giving off weird guy. Well, that's like, No, it's like the town is a classic.

Besides golf, I knew that was coming. Um, I do like the phrase, who's whose car are we taking? They had that sweatshirt. That is kind of a rally.

I, Yeah, it's unfortunately. I am a little bit nervous. I wasn't, you know, overlooking the heat by any means, but this is just unfortunately how the Celtics are. This is the team you have to live with.

Him the ball, he traveled on two possessions back to back with under two minutes, which I.

When was the last time you saw that in the N.BA? Yeah, it was crazy. And the second one, I think that ref should actually call up and downs. I don't like that. It's a travel.

I don't think so. Uh, three times in the last 2012 was the LeBron Stair Game six, so then 20 last year. This year. Those are the four off the top of my head, so they're they're one and two.

In those series where they start, oh, and I guess, oh, and three until this year.

The the heat Jimmy Butler, uh, in the playoffs, is seven and one in series when his team wins the first game. The only one is last year when the heat lost the Celtics. So it can be done.

So it can be done, but this does take the the Jake womp off the table. It does so Jake doesn't.

Have to quit. Yeah, he doesn't worry I. So I. I do think the Celtics will win game two, but this is weird to watch where they similar to last series, they kind of around. And, uh, the heat deserve a ton of credit because the heat are better than the Sixers, and more than that, the heat are just tougher, mentally tougher than the Sixers.

The hard f-bomb on that one, I love that, but he me fricking butler Kevin Harland is the.

Is the best he he he is. He's basically a fan watching the game, but obviously incredible. calling a game like his enthusiasm matches the moment of, like, a fan watching Jay, but is also.

So smart he, I don't think he gets enough credit, you know? Like, I think that he's super tough, obviously, but he's a really smart basketball player offensively, too. And they're running a bunch of plays where Jimmy would like. Drive towards the basket and then drive away from the basket, towards the baseline and just find space on the court. The lost art of the mid range jumper Jay. But it's bringing it back.

Hank even like, Bam, one on four, there was one play where he just wrestled and got a jump ball.

Out of it and Beat is a better basketball player than Bam Bam is tougher. Yeah, I mean, it's not.

Hard to be tougher than the Sixers, like that's, that's kind of the thing where it's like, pretty much anyone's tougher than the Philadelphia 76ers. But it's still ultimately comes down to the Celtics being themselves. They had some open looks at the end of the end of the fourth quarter. They just missed, they missed a couple of threes, they had those two turnovers.

But I think if we win game two, we're back. The Celtics as a team, feel like they have ADHD, they really like as a team. They need prescribed, they need to be prescribed like Ritalin, Adderall, Vyvanse. Because they just go stretches where it's like, are they even?

Focused on this game. And they don't have the kill, they don't have. They go up 10 and it's like, Okay, this is when? is this going to swing back? They don't have the like, all right, let's just go up 25. Except for game seven, I guess, against the Sixers, but most of the time, that's also the Sixers, right?

Right, like, I think the Celtics are in more trouble.

Who won game one of the last series? That's why we compare it, so, I mean, let's see what happens, that's why we compare it, let's see what happens.

Because Jimmy Butler, just in the playoffs is totally different. My point, Max, that you got very triggered about, Uh, you're triggered, it's okay, you're triggered.

You mad? Well, I mean, it was enough.

Well, my point is, I don't think the Celtics have a margin to fuck around as much against the heat. That's really what my point is. Because you have not only the heat being a tougher team, but the heat being a superior coach team. SPoh is the best coach in the N.BA. So you, you can't, you can't mess around with the heat.

No, what sucks is you kind of squandered a Robert Williams offense game, cause he looked, he looked really good offensively.

The Celtics did win three out of the four quarters. I was about to say.

We'll go back to hank staff from last year. If you win the majority quarters, you should win the game. That's enormous. That was correct, so you're really up three to one.

Yeah, yeah, I'm aggregate, you guys are doing just fine, yeah.

I'm going to watch the town, I'm going to watch the town.

Hank, you will be in in the building, I'll be in the building Friday, yep.

I'm going to get some last minute tickets. Code Take a PMT code PMT. You know, what's funny is that that means that Joe Missoula watches. Probably, I'm going to say, two minutes of RA per year, yeah.

The Lakers are all undefeated at home in the playoffs. Boston's four and four, Oh.

Bad sports town. I think the Celtics are like two and seven, so hank, you gotta.

When you get there, are you going to do? Maybe when Kyrie had the, uh, what was it? What do you say?

Uh, I might drop another sausage, get the vibes going. You know what you should do, Hank, you should go dressed as the nun with the mask from the town sick court side. Get Missoula pumped up. Yeah, that's a good idea.

Saying, like, a super skilled ball handler who can create offense and not have. Make it so that Jalen Brown and and Jason Tatum don't have to handle the ball. Marcus Smart had 10 assists in the first half. I know, but he also you, you, I mean, there's times when Marcus Smart, Kyrie Irving.

Is a team killer. I agree with that. The Celtics had been better statistically every year. Let me.

Say it this way, Kyrie Irving skillset, not Kyrie Irving, I guess Kyrie Irving skillset would be.

Perfect for this team, yeah, one of the one of the best ball handlers in the NBA. Taking away.

Like Marcus Smart and having Kyrie Irving skillset, I think it's, I mean, it's jitsu.

Which is his least favorite type of jitsu? I like Missoula. I just think, again, it kind of is similar to last year. Is keeping the guys locked in, calling timeouts. When the other team goes on a little things like that, I don't think it's the team, the team build is good.

To win a championship, okay, um, we should talk real quick before we do some Kirk Goldsberry.

Also people that had to watch on YouTube TV, apparently. Oh yeah, oh yeah, hey.

A victory for the boomers? Oh yeah, big time. Yep I so I'm not, I don't, I'm not a cord cutter.

I guess it was like, with 10 minutes left, there was a little Mermaid commercial and then they.

Just never went back to the game. Holy shit, uh, that would drive me insane. This is why.

I would expect the NFL would just stop the game. They would have TV went down and they would just be like, Okay, we're taking an extended commercial break, the NBA. I guess they probably don't have that many people compared to the cable audience watching on YouTube TV, I'd imagine the younger audience does.

They're better than cable, there's. There's not a lot of things in life that I'm, like, super passionate about that. I would like, you know, put a lot of my effort and, uh, mobilize my energy behind. But if the NFL Sunday gets fucked up with YouTube TV, like I'll march on Washington, we ride Jan. Six, that shit, we riot, no problem.

Yeah, I actually think that Roger Goodell, he could do it whenever he wants to the league, he can there. He can schedule a games more unfairly based off rest. He can have Tuesday night games, Wednesday night games. But if you can't watch the games when they're live, then there's problems.

We get to Kirk Goldsberry and we'll talk to him about this as well. The Victor Wemba Nyama hype has gotten so hilariously out of control. Um, there was a couple of things that happened in the last couple of days, uh, Woj said. He was maybe the greatest prospect in the history of team sports. People are saying he is a bigger deal than LeBron James, which is just factually incorrect. Because Victor Wemba Nyama is coming in. A time when all the highlights are easily accessible.

On ESPN, Yeah, so. And he was on the cover of sports, illustrated as a junior, with the headline The chosen one, right? And that for all the shit that we give LeBron James, you have to give him massive amounts of credit for not fucking all that up.

A bigger deal culturally than Victor Wemba Nyama. Yes, I know that people like, just have somehow forgot what it was like 20 years ago. But again, this pre like internet being what it is today.

And everyone knew who LeBron James was, you know what? The funniest part in Retrospective LeBron James hype was when they would play his game on ESPN? And he would have to wear these big arm patches to cover up his tattoos, because in televised high school basketball, you weren't allowed to show arm tattoos for some reason. Yeah, it was a weird world back then, he also.

The craziest thing with LeBron before his first game was ever played. He did a commercial where they got like the actual players in the first game to be in the commercial. Mike Bibby in A.

Uniform guarding LeBron James. I think we talked about that and we were watching it and we were like, Holy shit, how do they NBA scripted this? They're playing the game before the game.

They're playing the game before the game. And then a Broussard brew crew shout out. UH said he has expectations for Women Yama to be one of the best players ever. If Women Yama is Katie Hakeem, Elijah One or Anthony Davis. He has not met expectations. Uh, he has to have a career like Kareem Jordan, LeBron Shaq or Duncan. That's pretty lofty expectations.

Time, Yeah, Um, I did see. If you're a Women Yama hater or a Spurs hater, you can go watch the video of Kenny Lofton Jr. posting them up, Yeah.

To the draft, either way, he's a I think it's he's he. It's probably gotten a little too out of hand for this for for him to be, if he's a failure, if he is not. Better than Katie Hakeem, Elijah One and Anthony Davis combined, that's insane, insane.

Or just be better than all those guys. He's got to win at least three Superbowl if he's not, if he's not the best N.BA player of all time. Bust, bust, huge bust, huge bust would be now we are.

Women Yama podcast. But what if he actually was, like, a real bust? I mean, that we might just.

You know what we should do? We should just become Scoot Henderson guys. Yeah, it's like Gray Golden KD. It's also very second guys actually, but actually shout out to Scoot Henderson all the confidence in the world.

Pick Ooh, I like that. I expect women yama to be so good that they. It changes how we play basketball and now no one under seven feet is allowed to play or just raise the rims, yeah.

Decides to play for the U S on the Olympic team. I like that, or I can't wait to root against him in the Olympics. If he's on France. I want everyone to dunk on him. We should get Vince Carter back on the U S Olympic team.

Yeah, just dunk on both of them. Um, okay, should we talk? We'll talk more. Basketball, Playoff basketball with Kirk Goldsberry in person.

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Friend in studio Kirk Goldsberry midway through the playoffs thought it'd be a great time you're in New York. Thought it would be great to catch up with you. Maybe clean up some of the takes you had before the playoffs.

Several chances to predict the final. That's right, that's right. Some of them are still in.

Play Okay, so, but you also said Jokic is just terrible at defense and the Nuggets will not win.

Anything, because they suck at defense. I did say that he struggles on the defensive end, but he's the best offensive player in the league. Did you write an article that was like, the problem with Jokic? Yeah, I pointed out that some of his defensive stats were problematic and I.

Stand by that. Oh, what, it was. It was like a highlight reel of five bad plays by Jokic. Yeah.

This guy stinks. Aren't you happy you came in? Yeah, I am.

In these playoffs, yes, okay, so let's start with, um, heat. Celtics, Uh, and we talked a little bit about it. But if you looking at it from the numbers and watching the games, what exactly is wrong with the Celtics?

I kind of agree with that, I'll say I'll set it up with this. They come into the playoffs as the number two ranked offense and the number two ranked defense in the in the N.B.A. during the regular season. The teams that have done that in the last 25 years have all won the championship. There's two of them, both Warriors teams.

Halftime, Uh, we. We were talking about Missoula earlier. He watches how many, what? four times a week, four times a week, he watches the town, the movie, the town. Um, so that's about as deep as our analysis of his coaching goes. Or he gets choked out, he gets choked out.

Think in that third quarter. One thing that's been pointed out is he didn't take any timeouts. You know, Ben Affleck in the town needed a couple of timeouts, you know, when it got really hairy?

But, uh, he didn't take any timeouts. Did, like Jeremy Renner, disappear behind a light pole, take a sip of sprite and then go out there and get shot to death. Take the 22nd tee there.

I think, uh. They started it with a nine point lead at the end of the halftime break and ended in that quarter. Uh, for me, that was more of a defensive lapse. I call timeout. I changed the lineup around, uh, they were getting beaten. Transition.

Yeah, he hates time. It is in Jason Tatum to me, I I can't describe it. I think he is obviously one of the top five 10, whatever you want to call them.

Yeah, totally right. And there's, I'll put it one back, like one of the bigger games of the.

So how do you stop, Jimmy dude, I mean?

I don't know, like, do you just let him score 50? I watch Mike Booth and Holzer try to figure it out, I watched Tom Thibodeau try to figure it. Both of those guys have won a Coach of the Year or championships.

Yeah, would you call him Himmy?

I would, okay, yeah, see the most him. Could you imagine if the Bulls had a player like that?

Oh my god. Or the Sixers, yeah.

Speaking of the Sixers, which you got to talk about a little bit right now. Max is shaking his head. Is Joel beat a loser? Wait, did Max change his facial hair?

He's the winner of the MVP, but his scoring average one stat I saw was his scoring average dropped significantly in the playoffs. There were games where he just did not seem engaged, you know? And we make fun of, like Shaq, sometimes for his analysis, on on on Turner. But one thing he is, he's very fair with the big men. He's like, you have to demand the ball and own these moments, right?

And obviously he's not a loser, but he kind of is like, there's a kernel of truth, he's.

Never been past the second round. He's getting that, uh, Chris Paul sort of legacy, I mean.

STaRt Are we talking regular season or playoffs? Some people in this room thought, Uh, when he scored like 45 points, like, Oh, he's changed. And we said, just wait, just wait until game six and seven. And, uh, the real James Harden will reveal twice.

Those, I mean, he did it twice, right? he did it twice. Well, you, you, you were saying that after.

Yeah, but then at the end, but then at the second one game, five, six or seven.

No, it was game four. I actually think that James Harden doesn't want to win the playoffs. I think at this point we have enough analysis and you can look at what he does at the end. In important games where you could make the case, like, why would you if you were James Harden? And you're getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars? There's a case to be made for. Just not.

Wanting to go to work I have, I have personal experience with. So when I was in the Spurs front office, we played James and Kawhi was hurt and I think Tony was hurt. And we went to Houston for a game six.

Game is weird and I think what happens. Part of the explanation for James Harden in the playoffs is it gets ref different. You get to see, you know, over and over and over, obviously they. But he doesn't get the same calls that he gets in the regular season, where he lives on the foul line or the free throw line. And then you see the trepidation he has where he doesn't want to go and attack the rim. So like all kinds of snowballs from there, like Peak, James Harden is when he's attacking the rim, getting the free throw line over and over and over again.

Seven, he just wasn't, he wasn't going to do it. And one more thing about that is the regular season checkers. Like teams, Greg Popovich doesn't concoct a really hyper-specific game plan for a regular season game in February. In a game for a game five and a game six, you're seeing coaching staffs. It's rocket science now, it is chess now.

Okay, so that brought up something I was, I'm happy you're here, cause I wanted to ask you this. The in that series, you saw Joe Missoula not go to that big lineup. Rob Williams and Al Horford, both starting till game six or seven when you were in the playoffs with the Spurs. Would PFT's watch is talking to him? Would you would pop ever? Deliberately hold back something like, do coaches going into a series, hold back a adjustment they know is going to work?

But I'll give you a great example. That involved the Milwaukee Bucks collapse a three or four years ago. And and Nick Nurse was the coach of the Raptors. And and he didn't put Kawhi Leonard on Giannis onto the combo until they lost the first two games of the series. And that's a really famous example of, like, Oh, that was staring us at the in the face. Sometimes it's a matchup.

Yeah, knowing you use that. yeah, knowing that you. Well, yeah, that's true, that's football.

Seen that double big lineup and I know a lot of Celtics fans wanted to see it earlier in that six or series thing. So late. I mean, that lineup is really what took Hank Celtics from mediocre at the beginning of last year. When they're sort of struggling to find their identity to the juggernaut. They became that won the Eastern Conference. And the fact that we'd barely seen it at all in the playoffs. Uh, when the Celtics were struggling against the Hawks and struggling in the in the early part of that six or series. It's like, Yeah, that's, that's another sort of fair question. For Joe Mozilla. It's like, What took you so long?

At the same time, pretty good, you see. I didn't know if that was what took you so long. Or he was like, I'm saving this for when we actually are. Baxter against the wall, which seems like a.

Dangerous game to play Yeah, it's a dangerous game. I don't think he would have saved it that long, right?

Yeah, yeah, three, two. So you mentioned, you mentioned ATO stuff, you mentioned. Like, set plays from out of on set pieces, as we call them in football. Uh, which coach draws up the best?

Set plays amongst the remaining four amongst the remaining four. Uh, well, let's see. It's clear number one I part of it is, who do you have out there? And it's really good if you're Mike Malone to have Nicola Jokic in an ATO play. Because the ball is going to go through him and there's going to be a cut.

Shadow government. He's definitely, he's definitely not. Because he would, he would have given some plays to Missoula. Yeah, maybe he's saving, because you would probably say that that Missoula is the last one amongst the four remaining. In terms of designing set plates, right?

He's the he is the limit, most limited resume. But it is true. Brad Stevens is in the building and he has a great encyclopedia of Atos that could use. Yeah, what about? what about hustle?

Stats Do you have any hustle grit stats, any metrics that would look at the heat? Because when you look at heat and Celtics, it's like the Celtics have a lot of players that would fall in that category of gritty players. But for whatever reason, it seems, you don't think so.

Article on ESPN last week about the Miami heat. And, uh, it was all centered around this category of stats, called hustle stats. Cause I was like, what is he? Culture? Does it show up in the numbers?

They try harder. Julius Randall even said it. He was like, I think they might just want it.

Great point. Yeah, they do. That's the debate. Do they try harder or do they want it more? I think those are two separate things.

If we can sort of zoom into a loose ball. If there's a loose ball on the floor in the Celtics series and you're saying, okay, gun to your head, who's getting that ball? I'm taking Miami Heat every time like, these guys do dive on the floor faster and more regularly than almost any team.

I've seen in a long time. Did you see our friend Greeney? The the stat that he was pointing to of why? The heat were dominating the Knicks when the games were in Miami, he said It's so hot, Miami and the heat have a hard time, or the Knicks have a hard time traveling down. There is that.

South Beach is undefeated. Or is that something else? I don't, I think it's just it's hot, I.

Think Greeney was just saying it's hot outside, so therefore cold weather. Teams play worse when?

Background to that analysis? Well, I was at a finals game in 2014. When air conditioning, you were the person who turned it off, and you were, you were upstairs. Yeah, um, yeah. And before we fixed the 2023 lottery, we had fixed the air conditioning.

It's like the old counterpoint, Have you ever been like, you know, to an old person's house? They always have the heat on, they don't want that draft, they feel that traffic.

Yeah, there's a little. yeah, there's a little draft coming in. Yeah, pop. Might've been like, we can't afford to air condition the entire neighborhood.

Moments in like, viral NBA history. Yeah, of course, you had to get rabies shot. Yeah, that.

Was insane. There was a bat that was flying around on the court and man who just hit it out of the air. And they're like, Man, you're not supposed to do that, man. Yeah, I want to say it's like.

Really cool, but the team was kind of annoyed cause like, I think he had to miss a game or two.

Cause he had to get rabies treatment. That would have been a very fun. I want to go back and look at that injury. Report. Managed to know, managed to nobly DNP rabies. What? Uh, so, speaking of?

Uh, like the elements, which is crazy to say in a basketball game. There's been a lot of talk about the Mile High with Denver when you guys would go there. What was the D? What was the difference in game prep, or like conversations beforehand for the players? I mean, all the.

Guys that played there so many times, it's just like you're going to get tired before you think you are. And you're going to have to have like a little extra element of, like, toughness to get through a 48 minute playoff game now, that's the thing that's different is the Lakers are, um, a really good defense. But the Nuggets are the best offense in the NB.A. And so now you're trying to stop the best offense in the N.B.A. At elevation.

Stops. So speaking of your experience as well. And this is might be just a dumb take, uh, cause we do have dumb takes on here. But how much can you, uh, attribute the change in a series to series? Where the Lakers spend the series against the Warriors? Chasing stuff around, chasing clay around, like all their movement and everything. And then they go up against the Nuggets, who have a big who can do everything. And it's a completely different situation that they're trying to guard. Do you think this is stupid?

Yeah, I think LeBron described it to his own teammates before. The Nugget series is like a video game like you have to. It levels up with each round of the playoffs and I think that's certainly been true.

The answer might be Dirk.

Dirk Nowitzki.

In terms of like, the size, being able to shoot everywhere.

Yes, hyper-skilled, big, right?

Yeah, and then he lost that series. Yeah, right, exactly. Scored eight points in a game, three or four.

Yeah, and I mean, the thing with Jokic is like, with all due respect to Dirk, one of my favorite players. Like, 20 some rebounds, 15 assists. It's like a 2K character who's like, putting up these ridiculous stats. A 30 point triple double. Nobody's averaged that this deep into the playoffs in the history of the sport.

Yeah, it is crazy on the altitude front. Have have there ever been like, has there been an N.B.A. team that's had the oxygen containers on the bench, like you see in Mile High Stadium?

I feel like I've seen that, but on the spot I can't think of that. But maybe they should.

They should think about doing that. Yeah, getting some oxygen masks going on on. Um, as far as LeBron James is concerned, I feel like we've started to appreciate LeBron. More on this show. He's hilarious.

He's picking his spots better, but I actually, he was the first N.BA player I ever interviewed in 2013.

What you want out of him? Because you? Every time he has a ball you got to be worried. But it does feel like teams are okay with him shooting threes.

Yeah, they should be, I think, in the playoffs. Uh, you can look it up, but I think it's like 31 or lower. Um, you know, somebody, 25, 25. He's having a tough time. The thing I would say about both him and Anthony Davis on offense, they're a lot scarier in the paint than anywhere else, and I would say the same thing about Anthony Davis.

Right now, so we're taping this on Thursday afternoon, it's before Game two of the Nuggets.

Who do you have winning? I think Denver is so good at home. uh, they've been the best team in the West all year, so I have Denver winning. So that means game two is a must win for Denver.

Triggered that just the word must win has him shaking his head. Must win is the most infuriating.

Two words in the English language. One of my favorite bits is like, when y'all guys at at at Radio Row or whatever ask the Superbowl, people like, Uh, who does that? who does that bit? Is this a must? Oh, I think that's a Dave Damashat.

James Harden knows, yeah, and we correctly told Max to pass. We told him game three was a must.

They didn't win. But if you split on the road, if you're the Lakers, then you go home, you hold serve at home for the rest of the series. Boom, yeah, I went to the NBA.

Yeah, it's a must win, it's a must, it's a. it's a. It's a no, it's not a must win. I mean the Lakers, I mean LeBron James.

When I also have it as a must compete, okay, yeah, you have to show me some life, you have to fight.

Game one that was the. The other way to look at it is that was about the Lakers best offensive shot, I think. AD at 40, LeBron at 26. They were shooting well, if you look at their scores like them, scoring 126 is a pretty rare thing.

Think of the NB.A. and the N.B.A. jam terms. Yeah, growing up in the nineties, you played that video game. I'm assuming, if you were to reduce every team to an N.BA jam duo, who wins the finals?

And who would those players be? Jokic and Murray remind me of the Spurs because they're like two foreign guys that nobody cares about. They think are boring in the national media, but they're really bad-asses, obviously, and that's underappreciated. But Anthony Davis and LeBron James would be hard to cause.

Jimmies, I forgot that I'm taking too many hems, though it can't be it's them. Yeah, they would.

Be them no, Jimmy and Kevin Love, and you put Kevin Love in the corner for NBA jam for the heat. Second guy bam.

Following, I'm sure about making Canada the 51st state, not quite there yet, I have seen that so.

Like, Alberta wants to secede from Canada and join the United States, first of all, I'm going to need to see at least like a powerpoint from the government of Alberta.

Yeah, you could, yeah. And you could also tell Canada like, do you guys ever in the history of your country ever want to win a Stanley Cup again? Join us.

Would also, I would say we'd have to kick one state out. I like 50 stars on the flag, it's easy.

To remember one state's got to go, plus the shape of the map. Like, if Albert's is like, now we have some kind of tumor growing out of, like Montana up there.

I think you just make it the Dakota, one Dakota, one dakota is fine, that's all you need.

Just give Delaware to France, or something like I told you.

A conference realignment is getting out of control.

Yeah, exactly exactly. Non-playoff. What are the Warriors going to do?

Oh, I thought we were going Wemby, the Warriors are going to, you know, have some big questions about Draymond Green coming back? He's going to either come back for one year or he's going to be a free agent. The good news is, they have Stephen Curry, who is a culture setter.

That's fair, that's fair, he says. He stinks.

Yes, with the older, one did say that if he didn't punch him, they would have won that series.

I didn't hear that. That's accountability.

Yeah, yeah, or he said, maybe it would have gone different.

Or if you punched him harder, maybe, he said, they'd still be playing.

Yeah, they'd still be playing if he had killed him with a punch.

They might've won that series, that's true, because they have somebody else in St. Jordan Pool.

Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I mean, I, I do think they should keep Draymond.

How can you not? I mean, Draymond is is that team like I was talking about earlier with the Celtics. The The Warriors Dynasty is obviously about shooting and revolutionary shooting, but people sleep on the defense. They've been a top five defense almost every time. They've has changed the way that teams play defense in this league. Switch everything, small player skills at the center position, setting up his teammates. And Steve Kerr deserves a lot of credit for building this motion offense that plays through. Draymond Green. Um, so yeah, they should keep Draymond, in my opinion, because he's such a core piece of their identity.

I said, I went as far as the second most player on, the most important player on their team.

Who's the first, Steph?

I agree, Yeah, yeah.

Let him take open shots to go guard stuff. Draymond right now, I think still has, has that defensive edge, but you know, when I look at the failure of this Warriors season, it's and Draymond takes accountability for that defense. And they have been top five when they've won the championship, including last year and this year. They were middle of the pack, they were not good on the road, obviously.

Was it a failure? do you mean to say that? or was it going to seize on that? I mean, if you look at it from a life perspective, they got to travel a lot, hang out with their friends.

They grew as individuals. Yeah, yeah, what? What if the Spurs when they lose? uh, when you?

What year did you start with? The Spurs? 15? Okay, so let's say what year they lose in the playoffs. If you walked in the offices after and you're like, guys, I don't really think that was a failure.

Like we, we learned a lot about ourselves. We walk in. So the first year I worked out, I was like, Finally, playoffs are over, we lost, you know, take a break. I was like, No, now it's time to do the draft.

Strike, that is is this. It's okay to say that we failed at our goal of the season. Yeah, and I mean, you're a bad person, it doesn't mean that you wasted a year of your life.

And that's a that's a nice sort of turn of the of the language, like, yeah, we didn't, we failed to meet our goal. Like, that's what I'm saying, and like, I actually agree with what Yana said and what Damian Lillard said earlier in the season about Rings culture. And, like, we honest saying failure, it's not a personal failure.

That is, that is obvious. Yeah, so you mentioned the draft. Um, let's talk about women, Yama, so congrats on rigging the draft in San Antonio. Great job, pop.

Yeah, I heard a democracy PFT, you know, yeah, but, like Rudy, go back to French, maybe.

He's Boris D.L. French, he's the Wine France. Yeah, yeah, Surrender France.

Yeah.

French Yeah, fully. Like he's going to bring his own guillotine or what, there's different.

Kinds of French, that's what I learned from you guys. He's Tony Parker French, he's got. He's got the heart of a champion out there. He's, he's, he's a young guy.

You like how many championships, yeah, and and how? What would be failure for his career if you look at it? Let's set the line right now.

Failure Chris Broussard, your man today, I saw on social media, he said. If he's not a Keem or KD, it's a failure. Yep, that's a little rich, but I mean, these are generational players.