The Rich Eisen Show Basketball Podcast S2 E13. NBA Playoffs Breakdown Plus Finals Predictions

Hey, we're back.

Rich Ize's show basketball podcast. We're here. It's Friday, May 5th.

Cinco de Mayo. Congratulations. Happy celebrations to all those who partake. Adam is back in the house after missing last week. TJ is here.

What up, what up, fellas? How are we feeling? TJ, game three. Let's just jump right in. Game three tonight.

Hopefully you guys can listen to this beforehand. If not game three, Boston, Philly, what is going to happen? Because in game one, we have no Embiid still shaken up Philly, long rest with their sweep of Brooklyn, Boston extended to six games against Atlanta. We come out and harden takes over 45 vintage harding game. It was, it was kind of awesome to see as a fan of harden. I like James. I think he's a great player. I'm not necessarily against my team, but he had everything working back in the MVP days, the step back, he was getting to the basket, getting everybody involved. And then Embiid comes back in game two.

Not really sure he should have played, did shake the rust off. And then Boston shot the lights out from three. Now what do you think is going to happen tonight? Cause I'm kind of ready for anything.

I have no idea what's going to happen. Yeah. You know, first of all, let's give a shout out to our, our boy Kirk Morrison for sitting in last week on the pod. But you know, the thing is you, you kind of said this before the last game, you're like, I actually think that, you know, we'll do better with Embiid in the game.

And then you kind of broke down why you thought just because of defenses and rotations and stuff. And just, I figured he was going to be a little rusty and a little sloppy and the, and the, and the need to get him involved would kind of slow things down a little bit, which is what was so successful for them in game one, playing a quick pace. Maxie was out there. He was great. Tobias Harris was great. And harden was doing his thing.

That was kind of my vision there. And it, and it, and it, it, it came to fruition. You know, I thought he played okay, you know, and I'm glad he did play just simply because, you know, at first the fan of me, the guy who was like, oh, I don't want to see him get hurt. I didn't want him to play because we had already stolen one game, but then it's like, all right, for him to get that rust off a little bit, you just to get out there, you know, you, whenever you hurt yourself, right? One of the biggest battles to come back from is mental, right? You have to be able to trust that, that body part that was hurt.

Your mind has to trust your body. So I'm glad he did get out there. He got a little run.

Look, we got, we got handled. It was, it was a good game until halftime. And in the third quarter, you guys are up to 35, you know, but he, he did well. And, and basically things that he did kind of solidified the reason why I think he was the MVP, just because for everything Joker gives you offensively, he's not giving you what Joel's given you on the defensive side. Joe had five blocks, Joe altered shots. Joe made guys kind of second guess if they wanted to drive down the lane.

These are things that I believe make him the MVP. So now, you know, we took that L you guys hit 23s. I can't see that happening again. And if it does, then guess what?

Go ahead and get your finger measured for a ring because if you're going to do that, you're winning the title. So look, Philly is going to be insane tonight. He's going to get the MVP trophy at home in front of those fans against our most hated rivals who, you know, like Joe said, it's not really a rivalry in his career because he's, I think one in nine in the playoffs against you guys, but over history, the Sixers, Celtics have been one of the best rivalries in the history of basketball. So I'm expecting like a great game. I'm hoping that dot does make some adjustments and kind of look to see what worked in game one and what didn't work in game two. I don't know if he's going to make those adjustments, but I'm excited to watch this game. I haven't been this hype for a game in a long time and just a game that like him getting the MVP with the crowd with, you know, everybody just turned up the, you know, these go to 11. The Sixers have to win this game tonight. I really didn't truly. Yeah, probably must win for the Sixers.

Adam. I saw it a great stat today. Sixers are shooting 41% from three at home in the playoffs. Celtics are 42% from three on the road. Do you think it's a simple thing as whoever makes more threes tonight is going to win?

Not necessarily. If I'm the 76 years, especially Joel Embiid, you have to be very careful of having an emotional letdown after the big MVP announcement. I've noticed that in previous years a guy will win MVP and then the team won't play that well right after it's such a big event. So the Sixers have to be aware of that, that they're going to be so hyped going into the game. You have game three back in Philly. Everybody's so excited.

Joel's getting his first MVP that these fans have been thinking he's deserved the last five years. So it's going to be crazy pregame. You just have to be able to maintain your composure and not let your emotions get the best of you.

I think that's really important for the Sixers that they stay poised at the start of the game and don't let, you know, the, uh, the Celtics go on like a eight to two, 10 to two type of run to start the game. Yeah. Yeah. That's it.

Really interesting point. It's I was, I was trying to look up to see on the night. So, and so got their award, how they did that night.

I was trying to find that out. Like, do you remember, did Denver win last last year? I couldn't remember at all. Kevin Durant back in his day, uh, even Derrick Rose.

I just can't remember what happened in those games. I was trying to find it. Didn't, but that's a great point. It's going to be so nuts in there. Whoever's I mean, I'm sure who's ringing the bell tonight. We know, do we know? I'm sure it might be out there. I'm not sure. I mean, it's meek Mill and like, it's somebody going to be, you know, who's got to ring the bell tonight.

You got to get AI, you got to get Mo cheeks or Bobby Jones or those guys. I'm trying to see if it's out there. Who's ringing the bell tonight. Actually, today's the 22nd anniversary of Iverson getting his MVP. Yeah. Oh, that makes perfect sense.

It makes sense for, so maybe it is going to be. So yeah, that's, that's, or I think the emotional letdown is kind of a real thing tonight. If Boston comes out, it's 10, two, you got to take a time out. You got to calm everybody down. That's kind of a real thing.

Or they just come out smoking. It's 17 to four Philly to, to open the first quarter. Joe Missoula doesn't call a timeout cause it's not what he does. I'm kind of ready for anything tonight. I'm looking for a big bounce back game from James Harden. I think he was two for 14 from the field last game after an amazing game one. So yeah, he needs to step it up and I think he will write two for 14. Also the only time I can truly remember something going just really, really awful for a guy. The day he got the MVP award was back in, I think 90, I want to say 95 when David Robinson won over a came and then a came went out and made David Robinson look like a pedestrian basketball player. And he, as we know, was far from pedestrian, but it came just dominated. So, you know, other than that, I can't really remember, you know, but both what you guys are saying is valid. You don't want the Sixers to get too high and have that adrenaline dump right when the game starts.

So, you know, just go ahead and kill. But also you're looking for a bounce back game from Harden. Unfortunately, I'm preparing for a bounce back game from Jason Tatum because as I said on the big show, if you were to tell me that we're going to help Jason Tatum seven games, I'm doing this in the win column.

I'm gonna put the check right field goal didn't happen one for 70 fouls. Got him in the foul trouble early, you know, and layups picked up his fourth really early in the third quarter thing is that's probably going to be the worst game he plays in the playoffs. And you guys got that W. So that worries me a little bit. Also, you got to expect got to expect a little bit more from B tonight. You got to expect the rust has now been shaken off. You've had a day of practice. You're back at home. You're getting the award. You're going to be hype. You kind of need 30 from him tonight if you're going to win this game and hold home court.

Yeah. And another guy's Tyrese Maxey is incredibly important looking his last few games. He had 13 last game, but before that he had 26 16 25 33. So he's been scoring a lot. So I expect if the Sixers to win him to score 20 plus points and have some big three-pointers and the thing Brockman you and I texted this the other day thing about Maxey is if everyone looks like they're running that like, you know, a hundred percent max he's playing a game at like a hundred twenty five percent max just so fast guys do this.

But when I listen to podcast I listen at one and a quarter speed one and a half speed depending on if I'm trying to just breeze through it and that's next place plays it like one and a half speed on a podcast speed. He is so fast up and down the court. I know we've been talking so much about dear and Fox and in other players who just get up and down the court so fast. I think we need to start talking about Maxey in that conversation for sure. Yeah, he's just such a good player.

I really like watching him play. He needs a big night. I think I think you guys have to shoot the lights out. I think you need to make, you know, 15 to 20 threes tonight to win this one TJ. Well also we're going to need like I'm not good at math, you know this but we got about I don't know maybe 27 points from our bench off the top of my head that I can think of so our bench is definitely going to have to come a little bit more correct than they did last game, especially if Malcolm Brogdon is going to be having for 23 and you know Time Lords doing this thing.

I think he had 12 and for last game. So Philly bench, we really need someone just to kind of step up and make a mark on our bench or else, you know, we're going to fall. We're going to fall behind the series two games one.

Yeah. Okay prediction time. Let's see the play tonight to play this game play Sunday. Yeah, I played Sunday when we come back on Monday. What is this series at to to I agree to to to still we went tonight or they went on Sunday. I think Philly wins Sunday. I think they have a little bit of a light down tonight Boston wins tonight and then Philly gets the next game. All right, let's move on to the other game tonight. That really hasn't been much of a series nugget Suns. I mean, is there just does does Phoenix have not enough or does Denver have too much? You know Chris, this is what I'm saying.

This is a particular case where two things can be true. Okay, and they are Phoenix doesn't have enough. They were already playing like not remember the other day.

I text you and I put nine greater than four. Yeah, I mean the Nuggets are at least nine deep the Suns were four deep and now you've lost Chris Paul to that injury that we all unfortunately knew was going to come. So now they got to play with three guys essentially. So how does how does Phoenix win this game? You need 35 apiece from Booker and Durant you need eight and to get about 25, but where are the rest of these points going to come still only 90 points and I just 100 points. I honestly just don't see any way like I think maybe the Suns win a game this series but just to be honest with you.

There's just you know, like Mike Tomlin. He's never say never but never I just don't see any way that Nuggets don't win this. I'm super worried that Denver is going to sweep here like if I'm a Phoenix fan, I'm really worried about a sweep.

Oh and Chris Paul went down and I heard he was going to be out that definitely entered my head immediately where I was like, oh, yeah, they could they could sweep them like the Phoenix was already so low on their death to start and now that you lose your your Hall of Fame point guard granted he's not the same point guard he used to be but he's still very important. That team is in a lot of trouble. You see Devin Booker and Kevin Durant's playing 4045 minutes every single night. That's just not sustainable. These guys are going to be exhausted. They can't stop Jokic.

I don't know what's wrong with eight and like he's a good defender, but he's not he just can't hit like Jokic is working him right now. It's really bad from B. Yeah, there's that clip that's been going by. So this game by the way, I just they last played on Monday. It's now so unfair by the way, by the way. Yeah. How are they making these skips?

Have no idea. Some teams get like two weeks and we get like 48 hours off. Yeah, if I'm LeBron James or Steph Curry, I'm upset about that because they have to play every other day. I know they've been playing every other day six or Celtics and playing every other day.

This is your four days off. Nick's heat tomorrow four days off by the way, the Suns had one, two, three, four bench point for they only scored 87 for a team like that to only score 87 is kind of a nightmare. Just going back to eight and Walter Davis's sons would never only score 87 is all I'm saying. Shout out Tom Chambers. The clip that went viral this week of him just standing there while a yoga just got a ton of rebound, like right in a row.

And then I guess eight and was like, what do you want me to do? Like Fallon, do not stand out of bounds. That's what you do. Out of bounds under the basket. He has no spark.

It seems like, you know what I mean? Like there's no passion there with eight and he's, I've always liked his game. He's a talented player. He can rebound, he can defend, he can hit the good medium range open jumper, but he just seems like he's, he's, there's a mental block with him against yoke.

It's right. I get that because I know sometimes you just know, like there's nothing to stop this guy and it must be frustrating, but bro, you got to do something. How many fouls did he have? Honestly, at this point, why not?

So what do you have to lose? He had foul out, like at least hack him, make him think twice, give him a hard fall. Like they used to do in nineties basketball. Wasn't that the thing they used to say about Curry? Like people were afraid to knock him down and to this day, they still don't stay.

Let me tell you something. Steph Curry should be, you know, we said on the big show today, how, at least for me, how discerning it is that Joel Embiid is on the ground all the time. Steph Curry should be knocked down every time he drives away and people either just respect him too much to floor him. Well, you better respect him so much. You're going to find your butt sitting at home. Like it doesn't make sense, but I think eight and just knows he's just outmatched.

You have to do something that they got to do something. So we give Phoenix no chance, right? They're not going to win this series.

No, I could see them winning like maybe one of these home games, then probably Denver closing it out in five. Yeah, because look, there's still a man named Kevin Durant, right? And at some point he's going to show improving, you know, but it's going to take like a 40, like one of those Kevin Durant. This is going on the hall of fame highlight real games. He's going to have to have one of those ASAP or else, you know, so so three one when we come back on Monday, most likely. I mean, yeah, I'd say that.

I think that's fair. All right, let's talk about what we saw last night. Predictable, right? Warriors come back.

I don't know. Maybe not a twenty seven point game. Well, you can tell the Lakers kind of threw the towel in after. Yeah, I think LeBron had LeBron had a great start last night.

I think we all were expecting Anthony Davis to kind of come back down to earth. Not in the way that he did, but LeBron was shooting threes. He's been shooting sub 20% in the playoffs lately from three of the last couple of months, he's been bad from the outside. He comes out banging threes. He hit that one at the shot clock that from like 30 feet off the backboard and they're like banked in a 21 in the first one only scored two in the second half. It was clear that golden state was kind of cooking on all cylinders there.

Got it up to 20 in the third quarter. You're like, all right, well this game is over. Well, the game started on interesting. I thought it was going to be one of those games where LeBron just, you know, scored 45 and 50 points and then it would go down to the wire and then it was a close I think up until like the like four or five minute point of the second quarter and then go say it made a nice little run and then obviously they blew it open in the third quarter. But yeah, no, I thought it was going to be an explosive like like legacy type of game for LeBron and it really didn't happen that way.

Yeah. So, you know, in the postgame presser, you had a D and LeBron sitting there and in the Davis said something to the effect like, well, I took the same shots. I took the game before it's like and that was his excuse like number. Let me explain something to you when you're as dominant as Anthony Davis, like you can't just like take 11 shots and be like, well, I did the same thing.

I did the game before like nah, bro, like it like it's time for you to be that number one pick. It's time for you to be that guy that everyone thought you were going to be you have to have beat game one ad because what he did yesterday was just truly unacceptable and I'm not a Laker fan obviously and neither are you guys but if I'm a Laker fan right now, I'm pretty pissed off at the way this guy played last night. Well, I thought the Warriors made great adjustments in terms of having Draymond Green guard him and dream on green was awesome yesterday.

It was awesome games of the year. He almost had a triple-double played great defense on Draymond was making the right reads on offense Draymond when he when he plays well that team just goes on all cylinders. He's the key to that offense in a way and him guarding him guarding ad made it tough on ad and then obviously we have to talk about your Michael Green.

Yeah, that guy barely played has played all playoffs he comes in yesterday. I think he scored 15 points had 13 minutes here 15 points had a bunch of threes. So he was really important and I first four points of the game if I'm not mistaken. Yeah and hit a bunch of corner threes. So I'll in another adjustment they made was Steph Curry bringing the ball up more in game one. They didn't do that as much and it was tough for him to get the ball. And so in game two, he was the guy bringing the ball up more. So I thought Golden State made good adjustments and it's going to be a tough decision for Steve Kerr to decide if they want to stick with his game to line up again. Obviously, they said that Looney was dealing with some sort of illness even though we played a little but you start Looney in game three or do you just continue with the small ball type of lineup and have Draymond guard ad to start that'll be a tough decision for Steve Kerr.

Yeah, that's why he makes the big bucks one of the quintessential. This is this is what Draymond does. This is why you have him on your team. That's why you gotta gotta think twice about breaking up the die breaking up the crew and think about bringing them back for just ride it out till they all go off into the sunset, you know, he had a great game and they're just like man also, you know, the same does same thing with Tatum like if you go into that game and you're you know, you go in the Lakers locker room and you say hey, guess what? I have a crystal ball and tonight Steph Curry's only going to score 20 points. You're thinking all right, we're going to win this game. Yeah, we got a great chance to win this one.

We're not going to lose by 27 not the case. So it was one of the one of the clay Knights this and remember I said that I think on the big show I was like, you know, clay needs one of those 9 10 3 point games, which he's very capable of. He had 11 he had 8 he was 8 of 11 last night, you know, and man, you know that what there was one play where he was in the corner and Draymond threw him the pass and clay might be the best in the world at catch and shoot like cut the ball didn't dip it and caught it went up bam and it's just like you can't defend that. There's nothing you could do when clay Thompson is on.

I don't know how you beat this team. Yeah, I had this in a what's more likely that we didn't get to on the big show today because I had a couple of hoops ones. I had it as a warrior. You'd want taking the final shot for your life Steph or clay. I've always said shot for my life one. Give me clay or my life. Give me clay.

Well, I don't know if you I mean depending on the day you might be dead. I'm taking Steph 101 out of a hundred times on now and without question. I just love I just love clay. I'm going clay.

I love clay so much. Are we dead? We might be dead out of guys might be shot for my life. Give me clay. I'm gonna be sitting here eating popcorn going hooked.

I hope this works out for y'all. It's game six clay, then we're living game six clay. We're alive, but it could be game whatever Steph and I'm living like he comes I'm like Pearl Jam.

I'm still alive doesn't have it. I know some days clay doesn't have it. That was three or five from three last night. So, you know, another guy that's so frustrating in the Warriors is George is pool full. This guy drives me nuts. Imagine being his teammate or being a fan.

I said I tweeted yesterday that I'm not shocked that you dream on like after it was him much like that Draymond punch him in the face before the season. Like the guy is frustrating to watch. Like you said, he's got to be frustrating to play with. He has obviously a lot of talent. Yeah, he's crazy talented. Some of the moves he makes are incredible, but some of the decisions some of the wild drives to the lane or just don't even make sense. He just needs to calm down a little. And I think the Warriors are regretting signing him to that deal.

Thirty five million dollars a year for the next four years. Come on. That's a lot.

I think they messed up with that. Yeah. Shout out the pool for you want to pay me how much?

Yeah. Who's got a pen? Who's got a pen? Anybody?

Anybody? The funny thing is if Jordan Poole is playing like this and his contract expired after this year, I don't think he gets more than maybe 16, 17 a year. Oh, no chance. I mean, but he's everything. And that is everything. That's kind of the thing, too, with like kind of what Ramona Shelburne said on the big show today. You see how some of these young guys have played this playoffs and you're like, well, maybe they're not ready to take over the reins from this. Yeah. And these guys, maybe we do need to bring Draymond back and just keep running this back until you can't till the wheels fall off.

You know, this is, you know, has nothing to do with nothing, but it just kind of popped into my head. You know how everyone always gets on Kevin Durant and says, well, Kevin Durant had to go and play with the team that beat him in the win. And they always kind of not Durant for those two titles.

You know what? No one ever, ever says. They don't. No one ever goes, well, Steph, if he didn't have the rant, wouldn't have those two rings. No one ever brings up that case. And maybe they would. But I'm going to tell you what, I don't believe that they win two championships as Kevin Durant isn't on that team and that no one ever. It's always like K.D.

gets knocked. But the Warriors kind of for some reason, well, don't because they won seventy three without him. But you didn't win a championship. But they did.

They won two without him. Yeah. But he's talking about the seventy three win is what I'm saying. So I don't know.

Maybe maybe they would have. But I don't know. And I'm just saying I'm just saying that that's just an argument that you never hear anybody.

You never hear. You want to know why? Because we like Steph Curry.

Yeah. But why don't we like Kevin? I love Kevin Durant because I love basketball. That's all Kevin Durant wants. He don't care about nothing.

I think. But playing back here's why we people don't like Kevin. I like Kevin Durant. It's because he has to burn our accounts. He fights with people on Twitter. Yeah. But we all do to not burn our account. You've got a burner. Stop it. I'm out there defending myself. You might be.

I don't know. We know you're definitely reading the comments. We know that. I don't have Twitter.

So how am I reading? That's true. Some people we just like. Some people we just don't like why a rod gets slammed in the media because we don't like him.

We think as a phony. We love Big Poppy, though, like some people we just like some people we just don't like. But I don't think that we people don't like the rant. I feel like because he sticks up for himself, people have an issue. But it's like, I don't think it's that people don't like him. I think people love to troll him because they know they're going to get a response.

That's all people want. I think how many times just for you and I, Chris, you don't really get this Adam because but like how many times you and I people talk trash about us. And then we say something back and you get, oh, man, I was just joking. You guys are cool. Oh, man, you responded.

That's awesome. So people are very weird about that. Like, you're right. They do want a response and they know that they can get it out of him because he's just not going to you know, he's not going to put up with the B.S.. So I don't know.

It's just like I said, that just I just took that quick detour just because that had been in my mind for a while. And maybe someone in the comments could tell us why that maybe people don't like Kevin Duran. Well, why the Warriors don't get any kind of shade. But Duran Duran gets all the shade.

You know, we want to put an asterisk. So Steph Curry and Clay only have two rings. No, definitely not. I'm just saying just just as a talking point, you just never hear anybody bring that up.

Yeah. Well, I guess the point is that a lot of people contend that he couldn't get it done with OKC. And that was really his team. He had to jump ship whereas Steph Curry. It's always been his team. And he had somebody join.

When you jump ship and you are the best player on the team. So like LeBron for two years, Ron jumpship joined Dwayne Wade's team. But LeBron was the best player on those two those teams. So we discount his two rings to know.

But again, there's another case. No one ever holds that against D. Wade. You know what I mean? Right.

But you can hold that. I don't know. It's just I guess people are going to think whatever they want to think, and they're going to say whatever they want to say.

And I think the majority of these guys just simply don't care what you know, game three of this series tomorrow in L.A., probably the biggest Laker game in years, I think unquestioned. Does Jack come back? Does Jack Nicholson come back? I think so.

What do you think? I think I think we're going to see everybody tomorrow. That's going to be the best ticket in town. I mean, look, Jack is I guess he load managed all season, two years for two years. So now the playoffs are here.

Yeah. He's going to show up and play when the games matter. You know, we're going to see Leo Denzel.

We're going to see. Did you see the video of Larry David and Jack kind of meeting before the game and shaking hands and being like, what's up? I don't know if you guys saw it. I love that Jack was just taking pictures of everybody like McMenamin, like Rachel Nichols, like everybody was Instagramming out their own photo that they took.

It was kind of cool because stories that Jack was it was dealing with dementia and he was essentially a recluse and all of a sudden you see him at the game shaking hands with LeBron, like you said, Larry David. So, you know, I'm here. Maybe I've just been chilling, but I'm here. I like that. When we come back on Monday, what's the series who wins tomorrow? I'm going to say one also. So last night was a one off for the Lakers and they get it back together. Or is Golden State figured it out? I'm going to say we have a two to. Well, there's only one game tomorrow.

What am I saying? Yeah. Yeah. I think the Lakers are going to win tomorrow and they play Monday night. Yeah. I think I think we have to one going into Monday Lakers up. I think I think I do. I think the Lakers do get this game. Yeah. Yeah.

A.D. back to life a little bit. He bet he's kind of every other game. He better not in every other game kick. I think LeBron is a monster game. Another guy who I could see having a big game for the Lakers that could be key, who hasn't he hasn't played that well in this series is Austin Reeves.

Yeah. I can see Austin Reeves getting a 20 point game and and really igniting the crowd. Last night is the type of guy that's in early on. It looked like he was gonna be the really night. Yeah. I mean, he had twenty one. He was stroking early. It was him and LeBron kind of keeping that game close until, you know, late second quarter.

And lastly, do we care about Nick's heat? Yeah. Yeah. You find those games interesting?

Oh, yeah. You don't really. I'm I'm not compelled by that series at all. Why not? I'm not sure. I I don't know if it's the lack of star power, even though obviously Randall and Brunson and those guys are stars.

I just I don't know. I kind of just expect Miami to just roll through these guys and win in five games. Well, is Jimmy Butler's health OK? Do we know? I mean, he's going to play.

I don't know if he's going to be, you know, Butler. I'm intrigued with the series just because of the Knicks fan base. Their fans are. Have you guys seen these videos of their fans after the games? They're psychos.

They've had such a lack of success the last 20 years that like every playoff win is like a championship for like any other like, you know, teams fans. So that intrigues me. I think in Miami there's going to be a ton of New Yorkers that make the trip down there on the weekend. Oh, yeah. I bet there's going to be almost 40 percent Nick fans down there.

And that's the way it used to be back in the day, if you remember. So they put that games tomorrow. So Nick's heat is, let's see, a three thirty Eastern and then night game here in L.A. after it's an insane weekend. The Formula One is in Miami this week. It's kind of a monster sports weekend in Miami.

So I think people are going to show out. They might want to do the white. I do like the Miami White. That's pretty standard for that for them, right? Yeah. For the playoffs.

Yeah. For the playoffs. I'm just I weirdly think neither of these teams have a chance to win the title. So I'm just like kind of this is the redheaded stepchild of the playoffs. It should matter for you if you assume that the Celtics are going to win this round because that's your opponent.

You got to scout your opponent. I understand. And again, the Celtics did not play well against the Knicks this year. And obviously we know the heat playoff history in the last decade. I don't want any part of the knee. I don't want any part of the heat.

I don't want no part of it. I want no part of the Jimmy Butler experience. No, no Jimmy buckets. He single handedly beat the Bucks. One of the greatest playoff performances I've ever seen.

It was incredible. Coach Buck got fired yesterday. They pick up Nick Nurse, by the way. Is that the move for the Bucks? I think that's an easy decision to make.

I think I would do that. I don't think that's the route they're going to go. You think it's gonna be Frank Vogel? I don't know. I think I heard something about maybe an assistant coach that's on the staff. Maybe they hire internally. Maybe. I don't I don't know.

It's just kind of weird ideas. Three of the last four championship winning coaches are lost their job. That's kind of strange to me, right?

If you throw an email, Doka, that's for you know, I think that was in the finals. It's four out of five. Tight lease on these coaches. Unbelievable. It's kind of wild. You know, Simmons was talking this morning about maybe Doc Rivers to see the Bucks if the Sixers lose this round.

Why would you do that if you're the Bucks? Yeah, I don't know. It's a new voice. It's someone with experience. Yeah, but look at your team. You you didn't have a guy with experience and you know, and it's been kind of a roller coaster the last like three months.

That's true. We lost more. More games is double digit favorites than like anybody ever. We lost to the Rockets. OK, I bet the Bucks kind of regret that email or Doca signed with the the Rockets and he didn't just wait a little more time because he could have been a great coach for them.

He was a great coach for he was the toughest guy in our team and he was the head coach. And now you have to if you're him, you have to deal with the talented Houston Rockets team. But that team is so dysfunctional. It's an EU team.

He's going to have to coach an EU team. I mean, they're talking about trading Jalen Green. Did I see that? He might be I think they're all on the he's like dangled out there. They're trying to make moves. Yeah, that seemed I felt bad for their old old coach because apparently it was just chaos in the locker room there. Yeah.

Well, look, I hope he may learn how to speak French because he might need he might need to know French. OK, come in. Yeah.

Bonjour. When's the lottery? When's the draft of the picks? That's usually during the finals, isn't it? Usually during the I think it's usually during the Western Conference or Eastern Conference.

Let me check. It might be conference finals week because that's coming soon. We're going to know. Oh, the Hillary to Tuesday, May 16th. Oh, baby.

Oh, two weeks. Wow. Even let's go.

He just needs to know. Oh, the twa. And that's why Kat Singh said we'd never be.

I just learned French, you know, bone up on it just in case Crown Vic heads are on Joe. All right. What about this series? You guys like Nick's or he coming out of this? It all depends on Butler, really.

Yeah. You know, if he got that Patrick Mahone stem cell treatment in his ankle, then maybe if his ankle's Jack, then, you know, Jalen Brunson, man, just he's nice. I like him there. He's not spectacular.

But man, he's I cannot if I'm a Nick fan, I probably have a shrine built to Jalen Brunson because he's just a fun guy to watch. He's not big. He doesn't run particularly fast.

He doesn't jump particularly high. But he just gets the job done. And I can see why he's a fan favorite in the garden. There is a winner. He won.

He was in high school, I think, in college. So yeah, the guy knows how to get it done. I've just seen this movie over and over again with Miami. They just figure out a way to win.

They really do. They figure out a way to win these series where they shouldn't, which is probably the most underrated coach maybe in NBA history. He's going to the whole thing. I was going to say that when when he first was with the Heat, people were criticizing him when they lost against the Mavericks and he was on the chopping block.

And then he's he's there 13 years later, still considered one of the best coaches in the league. All right. We do this every let's end on this. We do this every time. What what are the finals on May 5th? Your finals prediction is here's a deal before we answer this. I bet you if you go back every time this question is asked, we have a different answer.

Situations and scenarios change. All right. So I'm going to go Sixers nuggets. I'm going to go Sixers nuggets as well. Really? Yeah. I think the Sixers have the series. I don't know why.

Just because here's the deal. I love big man basketball, right? I love the big fellas and the fact that the game is kind of shifted toward away from the big men. I just like two big bulls down low putting shoulders in each other, banging each other around like I want to see Joker and Embiid go at it in the final. There'd be something personal there with the MVP talk all this year. You have the winner who who is Embiid obviously going against the OK to a lot of people thought should be the winner. Embiid should have won last year and Joker maybe should have won this year.

I don't know if I agree with that, though. Nuggets had the best best record last year because Joker. But again, think about what I said during the big show. Embiid with even with a bad knee, five blocks, the things he brings defensively that don't get measured when people break out their analytics as to why Joker should win. You're not thinking about like the fact that like, OK, I'm not going to drive down the lane because Embiid's there or, you know, I'm not going to, you know, like defensively. He just is just that much better than Joker. He's a point center, the whole Joker.

It's crazy. That's fine. But you've got to play both sides. And I'm sure someone will give me some analytic. Well, there's a plus minus or blah, blah, blah with Joker. I can just go by what the eye sees right.

Right now, just off the top of her head, because we don't have these stats in front of me. And I just know that Joe defensively, just I test to me. He that that's where he separates himself from Joker. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too close to it. But that's just how I feel. Yeah.

What do you have? Well, I'm just going to stick with Celtics. So the two best teams and usually over a seven game series, the two best teams make it.

I don't know. We'll see. That being said, the finals are going to be the New York Knicks against the Golden State Warriors. Well, that would be the least watched finals. Would it be heat nuggets?

Yeah. Like if you're at one of these, if you're the exact at ABC. Well, if you're ABC exec, you want the Knicks Lakers. That's the fighters that you want.

Knicks like you. That's what you want. That's what you want. Yeah. If what's the least what's what's the matchup where you're like, Jesus, I think if if I'm an ABC and my job's on the line and I see that it's nuggets, heat nuggets, heat, I'm probably like, oh, or heat suns could be another. Oh, heat sun. Yeah.

They're just like. All right. Let's end on that. Here's the thing with this podcast, which I love. You know, we're just fans of the game and we are. We're not going to ever deep dive too much in the analytics. It's just, you know, watching and going through feel.

And that's what I like about this. You know, we just talk ball. All right. Enjoy the games tonight. Go Sixers. Go Celtics. Now go Sixers. Go Bulls. Sorry, Adam. Oh, how dare you? Well, he's not a Bulls fan anymore. Anyways. What?

1.7% I think to get Victor. Let's go. Love you guys. Peace out later.