NBA Play-In time!

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. Talking to my friend Brendan Whitted about the NBA playoffs, the play-ins, and USA basketball. He joins us on the Adam Gold Show.

Let me start with USA basketball. I don't know why. I'm surprised. I really don't. But when I saw the story that, hey, LeBron and KD and Steph are running it back for Team USA, I'm like, wait a second.

We don't have anybody else that can pick up for these grandparents? What's going on? I don't like the ageism. I don't love that.

I apologize. LeBron's still great. He's 40.

I was, I was, yeah, a little light 28, 11, and 17 as the, as the season's ending, something like, you know, something like, um, he's, he's still phenomenal. I'm hoping that they're not going to be taking the bulk of some of these minutes. Like I'm looking forward to guys like Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Halliburton. I'm really interested to see what Joel Embiid does.

Usually you don't, though, these sort of international competitions don't work particularly well for the more lumbering centers. They usually like try to have Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, like those kind of guys can switch out and do things most of the time in beats and drop coverage. I'm interested to see kind of how, how well he fares. But I mean, Anthony Edwards, like I'm very, I'm, he's, he's on the, he's right on the cusp of being the face of the league. And it's not just because of the way he plays. He is dynamic. You see the athleticism that pops off the screen. This is personality, right?

Like you can, you can tell he's got a wealth of personality and isn't afraid to show it. So put him on the international stage. Yeah. Sign me up.

100% sign me up. Yeah. I mean, and we still get Steph. I mean, this will be, I mean, Steve Kerr is coaching the Olympics, you know, the, um, it hasn't gone well of late for USA basketball. I mean, is it, is it almost fair to say that there's a ton of pressure on this group? I think there's always a ton of pressure when it comes to, uh, Americans playing basketball internationally, because we have run it for so long. So it's, it's, it's one of those situations where you kind of get like an Alabama in football. It's only if you lose and that's a, that's a, that's no fun.

It's just, it's a relief if you win, right? Like you don't get the sense of joy and, and over the top sort of thing that you would get when you would normally win international competition versus there's so many great players internationally basketball is a legitimate international sport. You're looking at what's going on.

It was Janssen to the Kupo or Jokic or like Luca. Like those are the guys that are, that are, I mean, hell SGA is Canadian. Those are the guys that are the MVP. Those are the MVP race guys.

And none of them are American. So like this, this sport is completely different, but people in their minds, especially the casual fans still think of it as, Oh, it's dream team. We can roll out there and it's going to be, we're going to win by 50. Those days are done and are never coming back. Yeah.

We're, we're not playing Angola in the first game of the Olympic basketball tournament when the United States won by like 60 and the Angola team, Angola was asking Charles Barkley for autographs. No, they come to, they come to bring it right to your doorstep. All right.

That's bread and wood. And I want you to hear something and we'll pick up the conversation on the other side. We have the Western conference play in games are tonight. They are the warriors at the Kings and the Lakers playing at the pelicans. The winner of LA new Orleans gets Oklahoma city. No gets Denver. The loser goes into the second game, which if you survive that you get Oklahoma city. Here's Mike Greenberg from ESPN today.

I'm going to say something and duck because I know that it is controversial. And I know that it flies in the face of absolutely everything that the spirit of competition was born to create. And you just said Herman Edwards, you play to win the game. The Lakers should not play tomorrow night. They should not play LeBron. They should not play AD.

They do not want to be the seven seat. You want to be the eight. I'm taking my chances in a one and done at home against either Sacramento or golden state and go in against the very young. Okay.

See thunder in round one. Instead of going into the buzz saw that is Denver. I think it is worth the risk.

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Gold is a paid spokesman investment advisory services offered by capital financial advisory group, North Carolina registered investment advisor thoughts on orchestrating your matchup. Growing up. I couldn't go outside and play ball or anything until I did my homework with you. The Lakers you've been playing around all season. You are now in the playing situation, tanking and all this other stuff. You weren't good enough to win when you were trying during the regular season.

You need to go and get your dub and stop running. Like ultimately, like if you think that you are that big and bad where you can go make a playoff run, you're going to have to play them eventually. And look, I would. Would I rather play the OKC than the Nuggets?

Sure. But understand OKC was top five in offensive and defensive efficiency. I understand they don't have the the the experience. And I and I and I and I think that there is value to that and they don't have the best player on their team. Jokic, I get that, too. But they're still a really good team.

He's always here trying to duck and dodge and go in about the playoffs. You better stop playing around. That's what your food if you can win. By the way, health is not a pushover, even without anger, like not a pushover at all.

They're still a good team. Like you, you need to win at all costs. And M Davis might not even end up playing regardless of his back spasm. Sure.

Brendan Wood is joining us here. First of all, I always think it's bad form to try to orchestrate your playoff matchup because I just don't know of a time where it's worked, where he's like, well, we'd rather play them than them. And then they end up beating you anyway.

And here's the thing. If you tank against New Orleans. So you could play Denver.

I'm just looking at the last time the Warriors and Lakers played in L.A. Golden State ran him out the court. Yeah. So why wouldn't you rather be in than not? Exactly. That's the thing.

Do you want to be in the playoffs or not? Because in the one does have a look, the Kings could win, but they're not going to like the Malik Munk and herder injuries really hurt them. Malik Munk, I thought, was a six man year, sort of a guy. Right. And was really, really important for them. They just sucked towards the end of the season because all those guys, they had been relatively healthy right up until the last week and a half of the season, two weeks, whatever it was. So they kind of got a got a bad head.

So I don't I don't expect that the Warriors will lose. The words are an interesting case because one, obviously, they had they missed a mile for a really long period of time. Yeah. And they were still trying to figure some stuff out. And by the way, I really need Steve Kerr. I thought he he really drug his feet on playing those young guys. I mean, you're talking about the guy who's getting the booty community, TJ D and what he's doing, but they finally have figured that sort of stuff out. And if they can get some consistent play from Wiggins, it seems like there might be some other stuff going on with Wiggins. I know his brother into his place internationally into his season early for some personal matters. I know Wiggins has missed time for personal matters. I don't know if there's something going on there because he hasn't looked like the same guy that all star to a couple seasons ago, you look back and suddenly you have a Hall of Famer, one that's playing like a Hall of Famer, I should say.

And Steph Curry, you know, what Draymond gives you a clay has been good off the bench or starting in some of these situations. You don't like a one and done format with them. I don't think anybody wants to play that team. This this is not a regular.

Oh, this is a nice artistic. No, no, that's not what's going on. The West has been stupid stat. And this is without Memphis.

This year has been stupid stack this year there. No, you beat whoever's in front of you. You worry about tomorrow tomorrow. Let's just wrap the West on this and I'll ask you a couple of quick questions about the ace. Brendan Whitted is here at huco cell on Twitter. Is it the Nuggets conference to lose or who do you see as the strongest challenger? I think that that is the Nuggets to lose. It feels disrespectful to say that as good as the West has been Kawhi.

There's a lot of really bad chatter about his knee and it's swelling. And, you know, it's a it's about that time where they're going to lose out on somebody. If it's Paul George, if it's hard and if it's Kawhi, whomever is going to be, it felt like they were going to lose somebody because there was a moment there about a month ago where this this Clippers team looked like real dogs, right? They do have other guys other than just the Hall of Famers on that roster, but no Kawhi is that's a that's a completely different conversation to have even with Paul George shooting the lights out as he has been. Honestly, if I were to pick a second team in the West, I look at Dallas and I am I love what they did at the trade deadline for Gafford and PJ Washington. DJ Washington, shout out to the Hornets fans that are still willing to claim it in public, but like they got so much better and so much more flexibility in the front court. And you know what you have in two of the all time great scores and good and Kyrie like they have to me the perfect combination, unlike OKC and even Minnesota. They have the experience Lucas been to West Coast final Kyrie's obvious winning championship, but you have the younger guys with Gafford and PJ and DJ J like they have enough of that sort of stuff where you like. OK, maybe they've hit that perfect balance where they could stand in front of a Denver team that there are times when they just look unbeatable. All right now to the east. For the ones who work hard to ensure their crew can always go the extra mile and the ones who get in early so everyone can go home on time.

There's Granger offering professional grade supplies backed by product experts so you can quickly and easily find what you need. Plus, you can count on access to a committed team ready to go the extra mile for you call click Granger com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. How is it possible to not have confidence in a Boston Celtics team that I think unofficially one 114 games this year. They did everything that they could do during the regular season.

They did everything they proved everything that they could. They were juggernaut on both sides of the ball. I am so impressed by that culture by Missoula, and what he was able to do because they they changed out a large part of that team which when Drew comes in for Zingus comes that's a different squad even though you have the Jalen Brown and Tatum. That's a completely different team. And by the way, I was wrong with KP the KP pick up. I just didn't think he played winning basketball. He's been a lot better defensively, the things that he's able to open up for them with the with the ability to post up.

I know the post up is kind of gone. It's not as involves it used to be what it really means is the right guys need to be posting up so you can give it to KP 5678 times right on the low block, you just didn't need to give to a guy like Kendrick Perkins right like everybody who's tall, right, need basket touches. And that's what analysts have cleaned up a little bit the right guys are taking the right shot. And that gives them so much more offensive flexibility is not all driving the kick now they can get into some half court stuff and KP is is has the ability to really help them they've done everything that you can ask. We've also seen them come up short and some big spots, and those big spots were only going to happen in the postseason so fantastic all time great season for you guys.

You can look at even in the story franchise history their net ratings and say absolutely everything. However, everybody's gonna be looking and checking for you now in the postseason now is when your season starts y'all were put together to win a title and win one this year. I think they had the talent. I think they had the mental, the mental makeup to do it even after the disappointing loss to Miami last year of the number eight seed, by the way, we talked about playing early on, we had the war, we had the Lakers last year that was in the play and went to the Western Conference finals and Miami, all the way to the final, like, you've done everything, but you gotta you gotta finish it otherwise you folks gonna look at you sideways and you look at funny in the light.

All right. Final thing, are the heat going to do it again, are they going to win the play in game against Philly, then beat the Knicks, and then beat the Bucks, or the Pacers, and frankly, who knows how healthy Yanis is going to be if they even win that series so maybe it will be Indiana, always is Miami actually in a sneaky great spot for them. I haven't seen it, particularly from Butler in a long time. And I understand that they played poorly last year and they were able to turn it on in the fourth quarter of the second playing game versus Chicago Bulls, I get that.

I think relying on that is silly I think that was, that was, that was an aberration and not what someone should should expect. They shot really really poorly last year for guys that should be shooting better and then they sort of over index to progress the game late in that late late late in that season, and you start to see them kind of come back to it in the postseason. This year that hasn't been the case they've had some injuries Butler just doesn't look like same guy hero. I don't know I thought Terry Rose your pickup was good for them that helped them in the half court and some ISO situations but I just don't see it from them this year I just don't think you get too miraculous runs like that, it'll certainly be good television to have Nick's heat. If that's the way it goes in even Sixers next would be a fun series for TV Brendan witted at huco cell on Twitter.

Bison Express go go Howard. I appreciate your time man I will talk to you very soon. We're here and I know that Brendan was sweetened out about going to a hockey playoff game. You might have to come down here for that, because I don't think capital is gonna be in the playoffs all that long, all that long. So, just saying, I'm gonna say what I when I see you, bro. You got it. We'll do it soon, soon, come back. Absolutely. Best of all the go carry app is absolutely free to download on the Apple and Google Play stores go carry we're getting there is just a tap away.