What took it over the top?

Blakers lost last night to the, who is it, the Memphis Grizzlies without John Marant. We've got Dylan Brooks calling LeBron James old. Like Dylan Brooks is performance art at its finest.

And hey, look, it's entertaining, just that whole thing. At some point, LeBron James might put Dylan Brooks in his back pocket. And that'll be fun. And LeBron James will probably just move on and maybe not say anything about it. Or maybe he'll just throw a very subtle shade.

Or maybe it won't be subtle at all. I don't know. We've got our friend, Kenada Edwards, not of the scribe, on Twitter, CBSSports.com.

He does the Ion College Basketball Podcast with Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander. Sir, let's talk some ball. How you doing? I am doing quite well. I mean, I'm not doing as well as Dylan Brooks is clearly feeling, but I'm in the neighborhood.

We'll put it that way. All right. I want to start with Draymond Green though.

All right. You and I have not talked about whether or not the suspension is proper or justified. I thought that the NBA had no choice, that it was a suspendable offense and that they don't want to suspend Draymond Green. I feel like they felt like they had to suspend Draymond Green. I mean, if we're honest with ourselves, the offense might be stomping alone is that that should have been a suspension.

But what took it over the top was him basically doing the Jesse the body venture routine right after that in front of Adam Silver. So, I mean, this is one of those, like you don't go poking the bear. Draymond poking the bear, the bear bit back.

This is why we're here right now. So I don't understand like, and the funny thing is, and this is the only recourse and the only rebuttal Draymond probably has is, hey, you guys have done this before. I've done this before and you've let me get away with this. And it's only this time that I've gone too far in front of company that now it's too much. That's the only rebuttal he has. And even then it still comes up woefully short. That's actually, that would be a brilliant defense.

I've done way worse than this and you haven't suspended me. That would be a better, but we have company came over, so yes, I can't put in the mashed potatoes. So yeah, it's a great way of looking at it. My friend Jay Williams said it shows the NBA to be soft. I don't often disagree vehemently with Jay, but I really do feel like that if this is not a soft or otherwise, I don't know what the opposite of that is, issue for me, it's the NBA saying we just can't allow any player to not only stomp on another player, but use that player as a trampoline because it was like the explanation for why Draymond did it or where was I going to put my foot? And then Klay Thompson, I guess it was yesterday, the day before saying, well, he was sprinting down the court.

No, he wasn't. I mean, just watch the video, Klay. I get you got to defend your teammate, but none of the explanations made any sense either.

No, no, they don't. And the funny thing is like the most hilarious part about this is, and Joe Dumars, who is, I believe in charge of like suspensions, he was like, yo, past behavior comes into play with this. And I know there were people on the internet and everyone else saying like, this should be judged as a single event. But Adam, I'm gonna ask you quite honestly, when has past behavior not taken part in judgment of anything on this planet? It is just utterly foolish.

And it's so divorced from reality that it's probably bought a European sports car as a midlife crisis gift. That's what I'm saying on this. It's just all the stuff that Draymond has done has come to lead to this. And at some point we have to ask ourselves, yo, you ride the line with Draymond, but at some point like Draymond act has probably cost them a, an obvious ring because remember 2016, 2017. And if he doesn't get suspended in that one game, the warriors win that finals. And now we're talking about Draymond act, probably costing them this series. And I granted, I don't think that the Kings have played badly enough to where you can say that, but at the same point, if he costs you this series, like we're looking at it, this might be the last run of the warriors as we know it. And Draymond might see himself out of town because he wants more money.

And unfortunately when you have stuff like this happen, it makes it really hard for people to justify paying you. Oh yeah. Well, there is a player option that maybe, probably not, maybe he will pick up at the end of this season. I want to get to this particular team, which has been woefully bad on the road all year. They've also been hurt for most of it, but even when they were relatively healthy, they were woefully bad on the road. And I'm not sure that they've had their best players all on the court at the same time, clay Wiggins, green and Curry, because there've been so many guys who've been out and missing and all of that. Um, but they haven't been good on the road, but if they can somehow get through this game, what chance do you give them to take this series? Let's say to seven games.

I feel like it's a good chance only because there are, there would be two more home games. That's the only reason I feel decent about it outside of that, the Kings have been better. The Kings have been better from just the job. We're talking about a team that has, that wasn't really good defensively start really digging in and knowing exactly what they're going to run because, Oh yeah, Mike Brown is actually a really good coach that we just hold against him.

His lack of offense and offensive skills. And Oh yeah, he also happens to know what the warriors like to do best because he was there for so long. There's a lot of this where I don't want to, I don't want to take away from the Kings. Like the Kings have been really, really good. Believe monk has been really good. Darren Fox should probably be your first team, all NBA point guard this year, because he's been that good. And he's been closing out games for them all year.

The bonus has been great. There's just been a lot of contributions from a lot of guys on that team. And I think that they were a three seed and we all like to say, Hey, the regular season and the NBA doesn't matter, but it clearly looks like it matters now because a lot of the stuff that we were saying in the first 82 about both of these teams are now coming to fruition in the first round. It's funny how that works.

Yeah. Look, it's hard to fluke your way to the third best record in the West. We do look at the, at the, you know, one through seven and go, well, it doesn't look like that's really the way it would be if we stacked up who we think are the best teams. Cause I'm not sure the Lakers aren't among the betting favorites at this point coming out of the seven stall, but, um, and we'll talk about the Lakers in a second, but it's. I think people and myself included, just assume that, Oh, the warriors are healthy. The warriors are going to flip a switch and be the warriors again. Uh, and maybe they will, but they're going to have to do it for game one for one game without Draymond Green. I hope they can, because I would love to see no offense to the Kings. I would love to see a warriors Lakers second round of the NBA playoffs.

Cause that would be tremendous. I w there are two more series. We've got to talk at least that we have to talk about, uh, in, I don't know, six or so minutes left. Um, Lakers took game one. I think they kind of did what they wanted to do.

I don't know about what happened yesterday. They took the first quarter off and they were good from that point on, but you can't take the first quarter off on the road to playoff game and expect anything. Uh, where do you see that series? Honestly, I think we have to start looking at that game. One is an outlier because we got, I think you've got the best shooting night from the Los Angeles Lakers that I think you're possibly going to see. And I honestly that's like, think about it like this game one Lakers went 16 for 30, 37 from three.

Right. You're probably not getting that again from the Lakers. And as we've seen with the Grizzlies, if John Moran's not there, they're going to run a lot more sets. They're going to be a lot more varied on offense. And the quiet part is that they're a much better defensive team when he's not there.

So when you have these kinds of factors, I understand that message is going to rely on a lot of role players. Desmond Bain for all of his greatness is an elevated role player. Number two is a number three, but at the same point, that team has something you can rely on, which is they're going to choke the life out of you on defense. And they're going to make, make you do things granted, really hot to more showing up for the Lakers is a big thing because he's showing a shooting prowess prowess that honestly, we haven't seen in his career up until now. That said, if Anthony Davis doesn't show up and he has another game where he's not showing up and Darren Jackson Jr. has a game, another game where he shows up. I mean, I feel like Memphis has got this more in the bag than we'd like to think it does, but I don't want to bet against LeBron.

And I think when you, when you poke the, again, and we're not even talking about poking a bear, you're literally poking a stick at a hornet's nest. And there's a part of me that really does believe that Dylan Brooks doing what he did, whistling past the graveyard and begging LeBron to come back and show up and be Detroit again against Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron. I wouldn't want that.

I wouldn't want to call those ghosts, but maybe that's just me and I'm a cautious individual. Yeah, no, no, nobody wants to do that and then have it come back at us. Dylan Brooks apparently is not, is not worried about that. I would say that in game one, the Lakers won because of Hachi Mora, Austin Reeves, DeAngelo Russell, those guys all had big games and Hachi Mora continues, but the other guys did not. Reeves and Russell were really non-factors in game two. And if you're the Grizzlies, those are the guys you got to stop.

Because if those guys don't contribute and Hachi Mora had two good games, but if those guys don't do what they did in game one, I think you've got a good shot because you're younger, you're more athletic, you can be more physical. But as you said, there's still LeBron. I think LeBron and AD haven't really joined the chat yet. So I don't, I think AD defensively has been awesome.

I think game one, he was a lot more awesome. But the problem is if you're going to get a very limited AD, that granted has been beaten up kind of badly because only AD gets hit in the face on a jump ball. And that's what happened last night. So like, I understand there's a bunch of this where I understand LeBron hasn't really joined the chat. And we're also like, there's a part of this where I think you've been awesome defensively. There's just a lot of this like unreliability with the Lakers where it's feast or famine really has been feast.

Like unfortunately the Angela Russell is someone that quite frankly, I'm not going to trust. No, he's one of the worst shooting. Like you've got some of the worst shooting numbers in the playoffs, period, period for as many games as he's played.

So he's not reliable. If you're going to rely on him, you're expecting to go home and five or six. Unfortunately, I want to see LeBron join the chat. I think Dylan Brooks has invited him and I think LeBron's going to take that invitation. When he's going to staples, the only thing that I worry about is, is AD going to join with him and have another one of those monster games that remind you, Oh, this is why they basically traded most of their 2020 picks for this guy.

That's my only thing. If he shows up and does that, then this is a completely different series. But for right now, give me Memphis. And I think Memphis wins this in six comfortably. Oh wow.

Very, very interesting. Memphis and Sacramento that the NBA Adam Silver would be crying in his, in his soup, if that's the matchup. So the other series we got to hit on is Phoenix and the LA Clippers. It's too bad all these things are in the West and people in the East are like not watching but Phoenix and the Clippers, which is all about KD versus Kawhi. But for me, it was kind of, I love how it's talked about Russell Westbrook had a monster game statistically in game two, and they lost and was trash statistically in game one, but I watched it and they won the game because Westbrook was great in the fourth quarter down the stretch in every other way except all the stats we look at. And but and maybe it's that when we judge whether or not Westbrook was good or not, we look at the wrong things. We look at the counting stats or the percentages when we should just look, look at, did he, was that a good?

Oh, that was a good. That was because he did a lot of good at the end of game one that obviously wasn't there in game two. Yeah.

And I think it's also a usage thing. I honestly think like if you're Phoenix, if Russell Westbrook is taking more shots, dominating the ball more than Kawhi Leonard. And I think that's kind of what you want if you're the, if you're Phoenix, right? Because even if you get a really good game, Russell has that tunnel vision that will freeze guys again, free freeze other guys, your man and everybody else. Like as much as I love Ross and I think Ross does have some usability, especially in the playoffs left. And especially with a coach like Ty Lou, the idea is a little bit of Ross might go a lot longer way, especially when you have a Kawhi Leonard, especially when you have other guys and you have as deep of a team as the Clippers have right now, because I mean, think about it like this, Robert Covington can't even get on the floor and he's one of the better perimeter defenders in three and D guys that you have in this league, even at his advanced age, there's stuff like that. Like when you have that kind of depth on that team, I think it's best if Ross gets used sporadically, even if he doesn't have a great shooting number, he's going to give you other things. The idea is just to make sure that he doesn't go full Carlton banks on you taking half court use and being the center of the offense.

As long as he does that, I think you're, I think the club is going to be fine. Yeah. Carlton banks. Oh my gosh.

I'm dying. All right. Finally is the, is the best team in the East playing tonight? Nada are the 76ers are playing in Brooklyn. Are they the best team in the East?

I don't think they are. I think the best team in the East played last night because you, so we saw what they, what Milwaukee did the right without Yannis mind you to Miami. Yeah. They put up almost eight. They put up 81 points by hack time without Yannis.

Yeah. I don't like Miami team in the East. No, I don't like Miami either. Like they are closer to having to retool everything than they are to being closer to a contender.

But even then without Yannis, that team put up 81 points by halftime. They're they're better for right now. And even then I kind of like Boston better. Cause I think Boston has some stuff to figure out, but even then they're going to be fine too.

Like, so I don't know. I fell in love with the, with, with a player I've never liked before. I've never been a Joel Embiid fan, but man, Embiid is amazing. He is like, he is, I'm not going to call him Shaq, like because no one's ever going to be Shaq, but it's in that vein.

He's fun where yeah, exactly. It's, you know what Joel Embiid Joel Embiid is your, is a, just a Schwarzenegger action film. It may not be Terminator two. It may not be commando, but you know what you're going to do when you see a new one out, you're going to, you're going to go on Netflix. You're going to click play and you're going to watch it. You're going to be in sprawl and you're going to enjoy it no matter what Joel Embiid is that right now, he's that mid tier, Arnold Schwarzenegger film that you know, you're going to love because it brings back all the classic notes that you love. He's been decent man play and it's modern and it can be modern with him.

That's the other thing, because he has a modern game, but he also has that back to the basket game that we all know and love. If you're a certain age about the NBA is a rock in fast and furious, whatever number that was, which the only fast and furious I saw was that one. And I don't know, was it a comedy? Was it supposed to be a comedy?

And it kind of, they kind of are. Okay. I found, I found it quite funny. I'm not sure it's supposed to be a comedy, but I found it funny.

Canada Edwards that not to describe on Twitter, man. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your time. Be well.

I'll talk to you very soon. Absolutely. You got it. Is, is for, are you, are you an action movie person every now and again? I mean, I saw John wick for recently. I have not seen any of the John wicks because I'm not generally a, an action movie. I'm not a, my favorite Schwarzenegger movie, kindergarten cop. Hey, I like kindergarten.

Those are my two favorites. Schwarzenegger's kindergarten cop and twins. I did see Robocop.

Robocop is fine. Was it total recall? Yeah. Saw that one, but yeah. Terminator. Not interested. Not interested. No, I'm not you.

I usually am just the company wants to watch that. So I saw first blood, the first Rambo and that was good. Yeah. I didn't need any more of them.

I didn't need any more of them. First blood. That was fine. Sometimes when you've seen one, you've seen them all. There's the same movie. Yeah.

Right. It's the same movie. Back to my Top Gun thing. I liked the first, I didn't love the first. I liked the first Top Gun. The second one is just a remake of the first one. A modern Top Gun. It's the same. They actually almost just redid the movie. Part of me wonders if they use the same like shorts as like jorts, I guess you'd call them jean shorts for Tom Cruise. Right. I don't know.

Maybe they did. The whole basically oiled up football on the beach is just so silly. Just play volleyball. Just lean into the bit. Do the same thing over and over and over again.