Are the Play-Ins just “Playoffs”?

I wonder, do the NBA hardliners consider the play-ins playoffs? I do, because they all feel like playoff games to me. One hundred percent feel like playoff games to me. The NBA I think is just calling them play-ins, this is a play-in tournament.

I don't care what you call it. It's like the NHL was hesitant to call those opening round bubble hockey tournament games playoff games, but they were playoff games. It was serious. You had to win three to advance. Why isn't that a playoff series? So, let's ask Brendan Woodin.

At H.U. Cosell on Twitter, my friend, have the playoffs already started in the NBA? Well, nobody's one on the road.

No, absolutely. I don't really understand why they feel the need not to call it the playoffs. I don't know if it's a statistics thing, if they just don't want to muddy up the statistics of, I guess, traditional playoff games because it's a one-game segment. But, I mean, it's obvious how much this means to everybody.

Well, everybody except for the Dallas Mavericks, I guess. But, it's obvious how much it means to everybody, right? You've got these players really going after it, playing through injury and all this other stuff. Yeah, go ahead and call it what it is. If you don't win, as we saw last night, you're out. You know what I mean?

So, absolutely. Look, I was kind of confused. Zion said he was healthy, but he's not coming back till he's Zion. I don't know. I don't know what's going on there, but it's too bad we lost Brendan. Brendan went away. That's terrible. That's too bad right there.

We'll get Brendan back. If we have to do it phone, we can just do it on the phone. Here's the thing. I didn't understand that. Yesterday, I love Zion. I will apologize for Zion all day long, a hundred times in a row. But, if you're ready to go, if you're healthy enough to play, and the answer is I'll play when I feel like Zion, well then just say I'm unhealthy.

Because if you're healthy enough to play and you don't play, then nobody understands why. Anyway, we are going to talk about the Lakers and the Warriors being the favorites in their series in spite of being the seventh and sixth seeds, respectively. The Warriors seem to be an overwhelming favorite over the Sacramento Kings.

It's a pretty substantial favorite. And the Lakers are also kind of a comfortable favorite over the Grizzlies. I'm old enough to remember when the Grizzlies as a team were like the hot thing.

They were the hot thing for a while. And now was it, I don't know if it was Jaws kind of difficult season off the court, but suddenly the Grizzlies are no longer... I look at the Grizzlies and I don't understand why they are comfortable underdogs to the Lakers. Do you think that's more about the Grizzlies or more about the Lakers? I think that's definitely more about the Grizzlies.

They had the last, the late season drama. And there's, outside of Ja Morant, they're not an incredibly recognizable team. There are a lot of other good players on the team.

Desmond Bayne, Darryl Brooks, Jaron Jackson Jr., who should be a defensive player. You're still in conversations. But in terms of, it's not the star power of LeBron and AD, right? Like when we start talking about underdogs and we're talking about betting and what people recognize and don't recognize. And so that's really what it is. It's very easy, particularly in the NBA, to get caught up in the, I haven't seen you do it, so you can't do it.

You know what I mean? There's a lot of that, primarily because we have these dynasties where there's Golden State, whether it's LeBron going for 10 straight years to the finals. Like we get used to seeing the same people over and over again until you see, you actually see one of these underdog teams do it. Like Philly. Philly's a really, really good team. Like they've got phenomenal players in B and Hardy and Hardin had an excellent season this year. But nobody's picking Philadelphia to come out of the East, right? Despite the fact that they've been good all year and have been largely drama-free. It doesn't matter because we haven't seen them do it.

And so therefore, nobody believes it. We're going to get to Philadelphia in a second because I'm this close. Brendan Whitted at H.U. Cosell on Twitter. I think it's going to be a second round matchup, but Lakers-Warriors, do you think both of those teams will win their opening round series? The Warriors are playing Sacramento, the three. The Lakers as the seven are playing the Grizzlies, the two. I think those two teams are set up to win at least their first round series. I like the Warriors, but what are your thoughts on that? I like the Warriors. I know you fell in love with the Kings this year. I think as everyone did, they're a lot of fun to watch offensively. They can be, they can score with anyone in the league defensively.

I've got my questions about them. And I know it's not a statistic you can point to, but experience does matter. Small stuff, those sorts of games a lot of times can get turned in the last two minutes of a competition. And it's the small details that can kind of throw you off, missed free throws, turnover, stuff like that. And those things happen when, not to take a shot at one of my favorite players on the team, but Malik Monk is playing heavy minutes in a high-leverage playoff game for the first time in his career. He might, you know, might not play well.

Somebody might not show up in that sort of way. So I have a lot more confidence in the Warriors. The Lakers, I mean, look, they're going to have a dogfight on their hands with Memphis, primarily with what happens in the paint. Both these teams are high-level scores in the paint. Memphis is number one over on the league. The Lakers are sixth. The Lakers also give up 24 points in the paint in terms of opposition points in the paint.

And I'm going off the last 15 games, right? Some of the Lakers' season-long stuff doesn't fit anymore because they made that big trade. And so that was a completely different team. In all honesty, I don't think if they had made that trade earlier, then they would be in the seventh position and definitely certainly wouldn't have been in the play-in. So this is a different team and I'm treating it as such with some of the numbers that we've seen, but they're still trying to come up and figure it out. Now, they're still a really good team in terms of their fourth in the league in fast break points since they made that trade.

They can still take advantage of the opposition. What Memphis does well, though, is they hold opposition to keeping them out of the paint. They don't turn the ball over. They're ninth in the league in terms of turnover percentage. They're able to play well despite not shooting the three that well, which might be the Lakers saving grace. They're going to be able to put Anthony Davis in that sort of drop coverage. They're going to be able to go under those John Grant screens, keep him out of the paint being the number one thing that they're going to have to do.

So that's going to be, you know, that's kind of their big thing. Don't turn the ball over, keep Memphis out of the paint, and they've got an opportunity to win. I don't know if I would, if I were putting the bets on them, if I would say that I would favor them to win, but the Lakers, look, we saw it in their playing game.

If it's the last five minutes and it's a close game, who else are you taking other than LeBron and AD versus whomever you're going to play, right? That's going to be how they're going to have to win every single game in the playoffs that way. And Dennis Schroeder. Don't forget Dennis Schroeder. Look, this team is, I often boil them and other teams down to their star players because in the playoff series, that's what matters.

But you're absolutely right. Guys like Austin Reeves, Schroeder, who was phenomenal for them in that game. Those sorts of guys are going to need something from him. They're going to need something from the Angela Russell. The fact they're able to play well and win versus Minnesota, despite him really not showing up versus former team was maybe a good sign. But they also got to watch those turnovers.

Like some of those. I mean, the last four minutes of that game, both teams seem a bit on giving that. It was it was incredibly ugly. The lead, the overtime was terrible. It's like, we're just trying to get through it, people.

That's all we're trying to do. And you know what was unfair of me, but I'll tell you when Minnesota lost that game. It's when Tim has left in the fourth quarter and Finch brings in Carl I think towns. He had four fouls at the time and they were up to it. You didn't have to bring him in right.

You can sit and wait. It was less about what time you want to bring cat in and more about the score, dictating when you're going to put him in. He'd been playing phenomenal all night, but he comes in after about two possessions. He gets he gets a loose ball. And it was a legitimate while trying to trying to fight Anthony Davis with a rebound.

And now, like, they were just never saying even when he got back in the game, he was never as aggressive as he was in the previous two quarters. Do you do you do you like the Warriors in the West? Who do you let me just ask that, who do you like in the West?

I don't really like anybody. Everybody is giving me the nuggets, right? The Nuggets have had been the best team in the West. And so nobody's been like, no, no. And it gets back to what we were saying earlier. We've never seen we saw them in the West Conference finals bubble all that time ago.

But outside of that, we really hadn't seen it. It's hard for me to say that I can't I don't believe them because in a crowded, ugly West jungle West, they were the most consistent. They did not end the regular season, particularly.

Exactly. It's hard for me to say. Yeah, but it's the right to see the last part of the season can get really ugly and weird. I think the Nuggets have the best shot. I think that they are the most talented team. Whether or not they they show up like that in the playoffs. And I honestly don't know the West.

This has been the one of the wackiest conferences I've seen in terms of an entire season. Almost everybody seems to be picking either the Lakers or the Suns. And and I think the Warriors are going to have some. I actually picked the Warriors to come out of the West.

All right. So let me get to the east and we don't have that much time left, but I have I want to spend a couple of minutes on it. We could talk about Milwaukee's going to be in the Eastern Conference Finals. I don't see anybody on that side of the bracket. I don't see Cleveland. I don't see the Knicks. I don't think the Knicks are going to win more than a game from the Cavaliers. Yeah, I don't think the Knicks are the next.

But I like I like Milwaukee, obviously. But there's something about the 76ers that is speaking to me. I've never been a hardened fan, but he has taken being the point guard to heart. He has played offensively like a point guard. They are letting Joel Embiid cook.

They have enough pieces around them to make it work. I just I'm trying to close my eyes and see Doc Rivers winning an NBA title. I mean, another NBA title.

Keep that in mind is it's another. Oh, that's right. He was the coach of the Celtics. But yes, I didn't think that team almost coached itself, right? I mean, come on.

Don't don't take that. I mean, come on. Every every every hall of famers on the court, right? OK. And what team recently have you not been able to say that about?

Like maybe Nick Nurse and the Toronto Raptors? Like, I mean, if you got to if you're if you're going to win, you're going to have Hall of Fame. OK, that's fair. That's fair.

My just because I throw shade doesn't mean it's right. I love that team. I really do. I love the way the Sixers have played. I think they're going to beat Boston. I'm not sure they can beat the Bucks, but I think they're going to beat Boston. They can beat the Bucks. I mean, Philadelphia has had one of the most talented rosters in league for the last couple of years. Tobias Harris is their fourth best player. And that is really saying something because the visor is a really good player. I thought they figured some stuff out with having those those Melton Harden back course and bringing Maxie off the bench. I thought that was, you know, you talk about coaching. That was one of the things that while people had asked for for a while, they they implemented and I thought it made them better.

And it let Maxie kind of run his show when he when he came on, on for those second units, because he's an incredibly efficient player with real any almost any other team, probably 90 percent of the teams in the league he started for. But there's there's so good. And you have like possibly the MVP on your team. You know, I mean, like I'm not by no means am I saying that Giannis is not as good or better than me.

I don't know if it'll be. But that would be the fun conversation because you get two guys are going to be playing head up a lot of time. We all we don't often get that as fans. You get one player here, one player there. But because of where they score and where they defend, you're going to see plenty of them be and plenty of Giannis going head up. And that is an exciting proposition.

I don't know about right off Boston just that easily. But but that's the matchup I want to see for sure. Yeah, I think if it's Philly, Milwaukee, I think you have the best player in the league versus the MVP of the league. I think Giannis is the best player, but I think Embiid has been the MVP this year, especially the way he has played down the stretch. He has carried them. I mean, that 50 some odd point game was just what, 20 of 25 from the floor. I mean, it's just an absolute monster. He's averaging 33 points a game. The thing that the thing that is crazy to me is the fact that Milwaukee so good defensively and one of their defensive players, your sort of talents in Brook Lopez.

The stuff he allows them to do. Yeah. You know, they had the size that that is not going to be bothered as much by me. I'm not saying he is going to get his regardless. But like between Giannis and Lopez and Portis, they have a lot of size on that team.

And they don't. It's not going to be just big guys that they need to lumber out there the way that sometimes the beads able to cook backups for opposition. All right, Brendan, before I say goodbye, I'm going to I'm going to ask you to make a pick, but I'm going to give you an out to read to rethink this. And we'll talk again next week. So who's coming out of the east? Who's coming out of the west? And remember, we're not writing it in a write in pencil for now.

I went with them early on when right after they made the trade in hell, I might as well stick with them. So I'm going to go with the Lakers and I'm going to go with with Milwaukee. That's that's that's the we get to see the real the crowning achievement of either of King James or the self-crowned. We've already seen the crowning achievement of King James.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have an NBA title. All right. I'll give you an opportunity next week to to change your pick. We'll we'll talk again then. Thank you very much.