Jalen Williams's and Wemby’s Injuries, Game 3 Previews, and Mets Corner!

- Coming up on this Aquilo show at Thursday, we have three huge games tonight, including two pivotal game threes, Nick's Hawks and Thunder Wolves. We'll talk about those a little bit.

And then Steve Jones Jr is coming on to talk about all the stuff that happened last night and all of Friday's major game. Steve Jones Jr, you know from Twitter, from the Dunkerspot, one of those guys

“where if you want to understand what happened in the game,”

you gotta follow him, you gotta follow his Twitter. Detroit Orlando, the Pistons, even it up, what did they do, what are some counters for the magic? In game three, Oklahoma City Phoenix, it looked like the headline was gonna be,

whoa boy, J-Dub is all the way back. How scary is this freaking teen?

And then in the third quarter,

he pulled up with a hamstring issue, we'll talk about the implications of that for the Thunder, when do they actually need J-Lim Williams back, how do they adjust? Without him, Phoenix, Devon Booker,

when at the officials, there was some shaky calls in game three, we'll talk about our game two, we'll talk about whether they were right at wrong. And then Steven, I will get into Lakers, Rockets, Houston. Hello, the playoff started, and six are Celtics.

J-Sarano comes on to talk about spurs, blazers, his life is a spurs fan, his relationship with his dad, Denny Obdia, Scoot Anderson, that whole series going back to Portland with or without Wemby and Game Three will see.

And then it's time. That's corner. Together, one, throw a goddamn parade.

“That's corner, I'll come it up on the Zaclosho.”

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or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut. (upbeat music) - Welcome to the Zaclosho Day 6 of the NBA playoffs, it's three more big games tonight, including pivotal game 3s between the Wolves of Nuggets

and Nix and Hawks, too fast in ending series. Who you got in those two series, Steve John Jr., if you've made picks, did you make picks? - I had Nix and 6. - Me too.

Wolves are the only set. - Nuggets Wolves. - I had Nuggets and 7. - Okay, I had Nix and 6. I'm still feel good, despite the hilarity

of the last game, and I had Nuggets and 6. Still feel pretty good about the Nuggets in 6 or 7, but that's gonna be a fun one tonight, as those resumes will see what adjustments come to bear.

Let's talk about the games from last night first.

Oklahoma City Phoenix looked very much like the headline of that game was gonna be, whoa, jailed Williams is like all the way back. He's spinning through double teams, he's roasting also a guitar on switches,

he's running in transition, his size on defense, you feel it on the wing, his Phoenix is like, is he, where is he? Is he gonna rotate here? Is he gonna rotate?

Oh, we just turned the ball over again. And then the headline shifted to Uh-oh, hamstring pulled up in the third quarter. He'll have an MRI today, we'll know today tomorrow, whenever what his status is,

I would assume they treated this, it was the other hamstring in the regular season, but they aired on the side of extreme caution in the regular season because they're, where the number one seed, the whole season,

they didn't need to do anything up to O in this series. I would expect him to also air on the excited, maybe less extreme caution, but I would expect, so I'd but I do expect him to miss some time, just you know, you have the luxury of it.

Steve, what do you actually need jailing Williams? Could they win the title without jailing Williams? - I mean, based on the success they had all year, you could make the argument that they could because they had the depth,

they still had the line-up virtually, the defense is still strong.

“- I think part of I'm glad you mentioned”

that the shame of the injury is that you really felt the fourth study played with on both ends of the floor and how you can elevate them, sure a reminder of how good jailing Williams is for this Oklahoma City Thunder Machine.

So for me, I think to win a championship in this Western Conference, they will probably need him absolutely by the conference finals by the latest.

- I run a great second round.

- I think next round, which we will talk about, even if it ends up being the lakers with Luca and Reeves at just a wildly optimistic, they're both 90% of themselves.

I think they can beat the lakers without jailed up. That's how good they are. They have a, you know, they have a jailed Mitchell, they have case in Wallace,

they have crucible now play every game

They went double big a little bit more right away last night after jailed up, got hurt. But the shame of it is not only was he playing well, a couple of things happened right before he got injured that I was like super excited to see.

Number one, they ran an empty side pick and roll with him in Hartnstein on the right side of the floor that ended in a lob dunk for Hartnstein with Shay off the ball. And like that's one of the things that having AJ Mitchell's a very good player.

You can move Shay off the ball a little bit when they share the floor. Jay Dub is bigger,

“which you actually really feel I think defensively”

when he's like the second biggest guy on the floor

and they're at the five or whoever at the five lineups, they're one big lineups. But he's also like disguise in all NBA level ball handler and all NBA level secondary option. And it just opens up more stuff for Shay.

And they also finally, I've been waiting for this Steve Jones Jr. They tried it out. Shay Caruso, AJ Mitchell, Jay Dub and Shet, which is a five-man lineup that played seven possessions

in the regular season. I'm like maybe they just don't want to try this out. Maybe it's too small. Maybe it's like they want Lou, they want Kasin. They finally tried it out and I was like, yes, let's go.

And then he got hurt right away. But I do think as great as they are, whoever gets to the conference finals, assuming Wemby is healthy and knock on woodie will be after this concussion,

assuming the nuggets whoever gets through that side of the bracket is healthy. I just think those teams are so good that the margin from as great as Oklahoma City is to how they're sealing is nudged up

with the six, eight monster like that. I do think they need them to get to the finals. - Yeah, I agree. Especially if it stands on his ability to poke them defensively and then dimmer their ability to score on the other.

“And I think you need Jay the Williams in his force.”

Especially without teams when a guard should. You put Jay the Williams one pass away. You're trying to help, but it makes it a huge difference. - I don't know what to really say about this series. Oklahoma City is plus 25 per 100 possessions.

The sun's offense is drawing dead. The sun's if turn the ball over on 21% of their possessions, which is you have no shot. The thunder are just making them shoot a ton of contested pull up mid-range jumpers.

Their threes are way down. Their rim shots are way way down. And only 19% of their shots have come at the basket. They just have no answer for the thunder defense. So let's talk about the officiating

because that became a story last night. David Booker called out James, was it James Williams? I think by name for having a crap game. Maybe it was James Capers.

I can't remember what James was. It was one of them. And we had, let's see, we had a unnatural, a most shooting motion offensive foul on Devon Booker. We had Devon Booker getting called for a technical

for kind of saving the ball in a scrum play there. There was actually a foul call, but he saved it and he had big jail of Williams in the butt. He got called for a technical. And I understand the frustration.

Do you understand the frustration?

“Did you think that was officiating like shaking him?”

I mean, I never really think too much about the officials.

That's my dad's fault. But I think for if you're in the perspective of Devon Booker, yeah, they're really physical. They're hitting me, they're showing their hands. Every drive I'm getting hate, I'm kind of tired of it.

I'm not getting the calls. I need, I'm how to rhythm. I'd like to go home and get some calls. So I understand that portion of it as far as it goes. I think OGGC's defense has been too overwhelming

for me to say, hey, they are purely winning this. Because it's called, no one. No one's going to say that. But I mean, I think if I'm Devon Booker, and this is the playoffs, we play a little bit of game

of thrones here. Let's talk about the rest so we can change this, so I can get some quick whistles, I can get rhythm, and we can have some fun when I go home. So I think that is more of the play.

It's not even something he usually does.

He's like, what, the first time that he's really just gone

out like this to this degree? I like it. I respect him because he does not do this. Like you know that there's going to be Dylan Brooks Chicanery in this series, and there was a lot last night,

and it was delightful. First of all, Shay and Lou Dort with Hall of Fame level facial expressions in reaction to Dylan Brooks, just Hall of Fame, Shay's like, look at this guy over here,

and there was a, I couldn't decide if he flipped the burger or not, it was like he's pointing, but in the act of pointing, the middle finger is elevated, and then he's quickly switched to the thumb, they're like, oh, look at this guy.

And then Lou Dort, when they got tangled up under the room, gave it just a great, like, whoa, okay, all right. But I hated the, first of all, I hate all reviews, but I hated the offensive foul on Booker, where he went up into Caruso,

and they called it in unnatural shooting motion. Look normal to me, and then like a few minutes after that, maybe it was even the possession after that, Shay isolated on Gillespie. Now, Gillespie puts his left arm out

There's a reason why guys defend Shay with their hands behind their backs sometimes. And then Shay picks up his dribble, sticks to ball underneath Gillespie's arm, and raises it up and gets a foul call.

It's a rip through, it's a, it's a, I guess a foul, but like, it's a wildly unnatural shooting motion. Like it actually looks like if you watch the shooting motion, it looks like he's gonna shoot a two handed underhand shot up around Gillespie's arm.

“If not, if that's not an unnatural shooting motion, what is?”

And then Shet had the classic, like, pump fake guy kind

of bites on a little bit in the second half,

and I just like barf into him and get a foul call. So I get the frustration, and the technical was bullshit. Sorry, that was a bad technical. (laughs) So you didn't have the best effort in that game.

I didn't, I don't think it matters because Oklahoma City's defense is just so good. And you just watch these booker, green, whatever, Gillespie, Pickin' Rolls. And here comes, you know, they bring the big guy up.

Also comes up. Shet, I heart, big Jill and Williams, whatever it is. They're up pretty high to cut off the ball handler. Two shooters on the weak side, incomes the low man, as you pointed out on Twitter,

they seem to like having Shae, as the low man, the sons, even though Shae is just blocking shots at the rim like fucking decaying the tumbo in the series. And then, and then there's one other guy, and you really, this is where you really feel

Jill and Williams-sized when he's the zone up guy, between Shae's guy and the corner and the other shooter on the wing, the sons try to bring that shooter up toward the top of the arc to make that Jill and Williams defender defend the most space possible.

And it just doesn't even matter because the thunder are so big and so fast, especially when they have J-Dub, the size factor, and so tenacious that you can see the ball handler's pause

and second gets themselves.

Like Booker had one, you highlighted on Twitter, where Igadaro was like wide open under the rim. Rolled to the rim, rolled behind the big guy defender. Booker rises up to shoot or pass or something, 12 feet away, looks like an easy dump off,

but he sees this monster, six, eight, Jill and Williams rotating down toward Igadaro, kind of panics because he's coming real fast and he's big and tries to throw it against his momentum back outside and it gets picked off.

And there was like three of those where Devon Booker went left on a pick and roll, got up, thought he had something, realized, I don't know, what I have, I might have something, it's not what I thought I had

and I might have that or the thing over there, but they're coming that way and through this pass against his momentum and it was stolen or went out of bounds and they're just,

they're just under talented against his team.

They don't have enough offensive firepower. I would be surprised if they won a game, but the defense is obviously a warning shot to the rest of the league. But we have another gear we can get to

and we're already at it. - They just, they close window so quick

“as you said and I think the biggest thing is like”

in theory if your Phoenix, Devon Booker should be able to get this coverage that should open this up and Oklahoma City's too versatile and they have too much nuance to where their bakes can be at the level, they can mix in a switch.

We can help them a week side. You're thinking there's an advantage that's gone next time we give you something different. So how many times you've seen Phoenix try to run a set, go off ball, try and get book or off ball,

try and control hand off, play through Oso. Oklahoma City denies their physical and you look, they're 14 on the clock and either Dylan Brooks, Devon Booker, J. and Green has the ball with a pause of okay.

Guess I have to go find one. That's not ideal. They've just taken a lot of things off the offensive menu for the sounds. - Yeah, I mean, we consider and talk about like,

maybe they'll start Roy Soniel for some more shooting and he's certainly loosened up the offense last night. Maybe Grayson Allen gets healthy, that would help. Maybe Mark Williams gets healthy, that would help. And there's not, I would be surprised no matter who plays

if they want a game in the series. No shame in that.

“The only thing that's gonna matter coming out of the series”

is J. and Williams' health. And we'll learn about it more in the next 42 to 78 hours, whatever it is, or 48 to 72 hours. I don't know why I went with the other numbers. And knock on Woody's obviously had a brutal season

of just one injury after another from the wrist, which he played through last year, to the right hamstring, to the left hamstring. And you just want, use it all NBA player, you want to see him healthy.

He obviously had legendary games in the finals last year that they needed every bit of them against the Pacers. And as great as they are, and as sexy as a hot take, it might be to say, they don't even need them to win the championship.

Yeah, there's a universe where they can win the title without him because they'd be favorites over someone coming out of the east and all that. I just find it hard to believe that they can get through at least the last two playoff rounds

without him at that level of competition. Maybe they cut, but I think their margin shrinks to a dangerous place. OK, any other thoughts on this series or can we switch gears and leave the sons in the desert?

Orlando Detroit.

“Steve, if you like offense, you should probably”

watch a different series in the regular season, the worst offense in the NBA, the Brooklyn Nets averaged 108 points per 100 possessions. Through two games in this slug fest, Detroit 101 points for 100 possessions, Orlando 98 points for 100 possessions.

It's 14th and 16th in offensive rating among the playoff teams with Phoenix sandwiched in between them. They are 15th and 16th among 16 playoff teams in three point percentage. So everybody is missing everything.

But Detroit came out last night. They played a much cleaner defensive game. You could count the real mistakes on one hand after what I call the frazzled performance in game one. And they had some counters to Orlando's scheme

of switching the K-dern go underneath and switch and try to take Dern out of the game. Dern didn't have-- I thought Dern had another game. He looks really, really frazzled and sped up and forcing it on offense.

But Detroit discovered some things about how to counter that. What did you see from the pistons offense in terms of, like, OK, we saw what Orlando did in game one.

Here's what we're going to come out and try to counter it in game two.

Well, one, I thought K coming him set the tone early in a Sartons and helped, as far as just trying to get to a space where OK, you had success mixing in switching and being at the level and dropping back. I'm going to-- I'm going to force your hand early.

So I'm going to turn the corner and win no card junior. You come with me. Come in the paint. A Sarton, please, try and do a healthy treat. Please, try and set a flare, I'll find you late.

But also, hey, say that this high screen for me, as soon as I see when no card junior jump out, I'm just going to give you a pocket pass. Get a roll of jail and Dern, get a feel for something. So we can get something. Here's a Sartons and kind of in the corner.

That was big.

“I think little things like working to just set a pin down for a big,”

whether it was Isaiah Stewart or Jayland Dern, to try and get Orlando's big on the move. So where OK, you may want to switch. But it's not as comfortable because you're running up to where I'm at. So I think you got to go on one early in that game. I think it was an adventure for Jayland Dern.

Like, you can quite get the drives going.

I think he was thinking a lot, especially in that first half.

I think he felt it. Like, there's a position about one 30 mark in that second quarter. Jayland Dern's screens for K-Cunningham, right? In Orlando's switches, frauds, vodka on to him. And K-Fires, right, did you volunteer to be on the right wing?

Because he's thinking, OK, Jayland Dern is going to roll and seal. Let's get you one big fella. And Jayland Dern is buffered at the elbow. And it's like, oh, OK, and K, it's like, OK, give me the ball and then he scores on when the card junior. I think the big thing, if we're talking purely about Jayland Dern in the third quarter,

was his ability to position himself to make sure that he got a roll. And so he did a good job of flipping the angle of his screens. And so typically, if you're going to set a screen, the defense is going to just kind of slide in, give themselves a position where they can get under you. And in that way, you can't roll you're rolling into their body.

He just kind of worked to position it where he could get a touch and then release. And that allowed him to get a roll. And so they went to the super high picking rolls. And he set them flat. And he's like, I'm actually not really hitting you.

I'm just going to touch you and get out of here.

And so then being able to get him rolling, I thought was really important that third quarter.

The other thing was K-Cunningham, kind of looking at everyone on the Orlando magic side saying, I think I can score on you. Hello, let's dance. Franz, doesn't Bay and Jill and said, let's go.

“And I think part of that is poking at the switching aspect where, okay, I don't want you to be as comfortable.”

I feel comfortable attacking and getting to my spots. And if I could cycle through these naturopes, like, it's not apples, apples. But the Miami Milwaukee series were doing well. They just didn't care who was guarding him and said, it doesn't matter. And now you're searching for something, if you're Detroit, can we get K to position where,

okay, maybe we get during rolling, we also have K playing at this high level. Does that make Orlando change what they want to do defensively? And is that open things back up for us? Whatever playoff questions you have about Detroit. If we can get during rolling and we can get rotation from Orlando,

we now at least have openings as opposed to just what game one was. Yeah, I don't want to exaggerate it. Like, the piston scored 99 points per hundred possessions last night. They had a bad offensive game, partly because they're turning it over, like, 20 times a game. And and during is a big part of that, he's in his own head.

He's, you can see him being like, I got to do something. I haven't compromised the defense, but let me just drive it. Window card in junior and see what happens. And what's happening is window card in junior is just like, thanks. I'm going to take the ball and you're going to fall over.

And I'm going to dunk it on the other end. But to your point about, like, the switching going under and switching, gum them up in game one. And last night I was waiting to see how they would adjust.

Jill and during slipping so hard out of these picks, sometimes not even setting them.

Like, not setting a screen at all. Just like getting into the area where a pick were to happen. If it were to happen, what happened here. And then I'm out and Kate understanding that and delivering the past early. Like, you can't switch.

You don't have time to switch. And you saw during get a, he got one dunk out of it. He got flagrant fouled by window card or junior. And then he hit a star Thompson for two dunks on sort of the big to big kind of past you saw that. And then you saw, like you said, Kate being like, oh, okay.

But I'm Kate cutting him. You're going to switch window card or junior on to me. He can't guard me. I'm just going to go buy him.

And yeah, there's going to be some traffic around the Basque because we play a lot of

guys who are non shooters. But it's not traffic I can't navigate because the biggest guy on the floor is the guy guarding me. And I'm going to get by that guy.

“And like, what am I, I'm afraid of Palo being caro around the room?”

I'm afraid of Desmond Bane. No, I'm just going to go. And that the other thing to your point was he started to hunt other guys. And the magic are not like a super Hannibal team. Like, they have a lot of good defenders.

But Kate cutting him can do damage against Palo being caro 101. Kate cutting him can beat Desmond Bane 101. He can post up Desmond Bane. And particularly if Bane is on Dunkin Robinson.

And I think last night was a reminder of how critical Dunkin Robinson's shooting

and movement is to their team. If Bane's on Dunkin Robinson by all means start setting some Dunkin Robinson screens for Kate cutting him and start randomly flaring out here and there, slipping out of them, getting switches. And you even saw like they've had Dunkin Robinson and Durin set like really sort of random.

I wouldn't even call them staggered screens just like they would just run up together like a big rugby scrum and set picks for Kate cutting him and make the magic guess. Like what direction is Kate going to go, wait, who's screening for who and where and why is it a back screen? Is it not where's Dunkin Robinson going just sewing that kind of confusion?

It's not again, it was a bad offensive game. But when they defend like they did last night, they just need like an okay offensive game. And I thought they made some of the right adjustments. And now the question for you, put your coaching hat on Steve Jones Jr. You just saw that as Orlando.

Your offense is a whole other mess that we can talk about. But you saw what Detroit did against your defense, the counter came. What's your counter to the counter? If they have, they haven't figured anything out. But if the pistons have at least like found the right levers to pull against our go

under and switch thing which worked in game one, we're going to see those same levers again. What's our adjustment for game three?

“Well, that's what I was looking for in that third quarter because Detroit really got some”

casual rules. But if I'm Orlando, I'm thinking, okay, we do not want to give to on the ball and just purely give them the roles. We could go drop and just drop back and try and contain and say, hey, this is the shot you get. We did take turns that way. Or we could kind of stick and just try and mix and, okay, let's make sure we protect and

have jail under and slips. Hey, you fight over, you know, show some nuance. And let's try and mix things up to where we're not going to get this automatically. And so I think for Orlando, it's more they have to keep terms within what they've done. And so far, I'm getting one game to, they can't necessarily like Detroit as not great offensively

as it was until, until reality, they can't let them feel unlocked. So I think it's, okay, maybe we just switch harder. Maybe we show help earlier to take away the jail under and roll. And we just kind of recreate that way. It's where we got this switch.

You don't necessarily have the role still and now we get you back to thinking a little bit. And so it could just be doubling down harder on that. But I don't know how much they want to just give Detroit traditional picking all coverage is overall. Yeah, I could see them going under on Kate and not switching just like we'll stay home.

Well, we'll still go under screens. And like if you can beat us with jump shots, beat us with jump shots, it maybe you will. I could see them like if they switch, I could see them like sending a double team at Kate and just every once in a while just throw them off rhythm and say, hey, look, we're going to double you get the ball at your hands and we're going to force you to make a bunch of interior

passes because again, you're not going to have clean spacing on the floor. Someone's going to be in the dunk or spot someone's going to be here. Just mix it up a little bit like that. What about Orlando's offense, which was good enough certainly in game one and was a little bit of a mess last night.

“I think fell into some of their more static bad habits, bad shot selection.”

It's funny like the magic talk a lot about how we can't let our offense dictate our defense. Like we have a bad offensive game. Sometimes our defense isn't good enough because players let their offense dictate their defense. I feel like sometimes the magic let their offense dictate their offense. Like if they start to go through a rut on offense, they don't dig out of it.

They actually just fall back on their absolute worst habits offensively of just standing around ISOing, not going at the right matchups. But how can they attack what was one of the three best defenses in the NBA this year?

Carron, he said, "Please come here repeatedly.

Let's attack you and let's use that as an adchup."

“And so I think it's more so okay, let's use Palabin's strainer.”

See if we can get cade in actions, even get Dunkin Robinson action. I don't know how much of this is going to be a pure movement series for Orlando's because of how they wanted to degree control tempo in the half court and trying to attack matchups with matchups and leverage the high confidence of their top four players against Detroit and keep this in close in the fourth quarter, you got to deal with us.

So I'm thinking there'll probably attack matchups, trying to get Palabal closest in the block, try and probably establish fronts. So I wouldn't be surprised if hey, cade, you're in action, Dunkin Robinson, you're in action, and Tobias Harris, you might be in action. We're going to try and poke at you guys in a way to where, okay,

because at first quarter, you felt Detroit's energy in effort when they were rotating,

protecting drives, getting back out rotating in that second quarter, which wasn't the prettiest, you felt Orlando while not really scoring, still having the confidence of we know we can get a

“basket. And so that's what it's like, it's a mirror series because they both need their defense”

to allow what they want to do offensively to make sense. But if I'm Orlando, we've got to find pressure points, because when Palabal has it going, gets the line, Detroit may send a double, why don't I think there was one, they didn't want to switch Dunkin Robinson. And so Tobias stayed on them, Dunkin was like, "Well, I'm going to double," and it opened up at three, three dozen bands. So it's like one pass away, and it was actually, I think it was

one where Palo did not have a switch, you just had Tobias Harris on him, and they rushed at him, Dunkin Robinson double, as you said, from Bane, and I was like, why are you, like, what the worst case scenario is, Palabal and Carotix in 18 foot fade away, over the guide that you have assigned to guard Palo Bane, Carotix. Just stay home, Dunkin. But Desmond Bane 3 is like a gift for them, chill out on the help. But I agree with you, like Palo in the playoffs has 17 post touches,

that's number one among all players. 1.8 points per possession according to second spectrum

tracking data out of those plays. And I just like, they're going to try to hide Dunkin Robinson on Sugs or Anthony Black who needs to do a little bit more in this series, or whoever is not Desmond Bane, but a lot of times he's stuck on Bane, because Bane's guarding him a lot on the other end. On those possessions, you could not let that go to waste. Dunkin Robinson is guarding your most dangerous shooter by a country mile. A guy who can catch and shoot off movement,

an accomplished screen, flare guy, bring him into the action, have him set a cross screen for Bancaro underneath them. Whatever it is, there aren't a lot of places to attack the pistons. That's one. And, you know, maybe just more pick and roll is aimed at Durin because he can be, he can have some hiccups on defense, but these are just like Orlando's just not a good offensive team, and it's just going to come down to turnovers, be bounding, free throws,

“like all those kinds of things. But it will be, I think this is going to be a series”

a long series now, and I don't know how much of an attractive chess match it's going to be, but last night was I thought a good, the right kind of response from the pistons on both ends of the floor, not a spectacular one although that 33 run was like, whoa, that is an avalanche. But, you know, I think we're set up for a fun series. I picked Detroit in five because I just thought they would come out like they were shot out of a cannon, anxious to end the home playoff,

losing streak. I just didn't know what to make of Orlando, but that game one performance was eye-opening. I would switch my pick now to Detroit in seven. I think it's going to be a long series. Oh, seven. Okay. I also will, I also will pick, I think we're having a confrontation in game three. I think we're having double technicals, a shoving match involving over under 4.5 players, because Isaiah Stewart was doing Isaiah Stewart's stuff last night, including challenging

every shot at the rim and winning like 80% of them, and then Palo got him. And the game, if the game had been closer, I wonder what would have happened because you could tell Palo was like, shut shut up. I got you on that one. And Isaiah Stewart was like, I'll bring, I'll be here next time, like you want to do it again. I'll be here next time. It's like something's happening in this series pretty soon. All right. You want to move on to the West? Yeah. This is probably the game I'm

most excited about Friday. Oh. Rockets, Lakers. Okay. I thought Houston's, I thought Emeodocus coaching performance in game two was borderline insane. I just did not understand anything the rockets were doing on offense. Reed Shepherd, Kevin Durant, an Alperon Shengun, played four minutes together, the entire game. That threesome is your only road map to functional NBA offense. Against the team who is missing it's two best players, which should be shouted from the rooftops

all the time. The rockets are struggling against the team missing it's two best players.

Those three guys playing four minutes together, Reed Shepherd coming off the bench and playing 11 minutes and he didn't play well. He didn't make shots. He was a little like a little frazzled himself. I just thought was like a coaching self sabotage of the level that I have not seen in a long time. There are offense is so bad that there are so many possessions where nothing happens until there's 14 on the shot clock. And then one thing happens. It doesn't do anything.

Like it doesn't switch the match up in any favorable way for the rockets. And then they act like 14 on the shot clock means we're done. We just can't do anything else. And Alperon Shengun or Amend Thompson is like, all right, I guess I'm just going to dribble from 20 feet out and pray that's something happens. And they miss shots or Marcus smart strips them. I just can't believe the lack of functionality in their offense. A lot of it just comes down to if Reed Shepherd's going to

play 11 minutes. They don't have any guards who can run a functional pick and roll. They don't have anybody but to rant to do it. And he had nine turnovers. He's 37 years old or whatever he is. They don't have enough. They play a bunch of lineups with two, even three guys who are complete zeros from three point of range, including Shengun who has forgotten how to shoot three. And so there's just like even if the lakers have to send help somewhere and they're jumping

up the series with switching and doubling to rant every time. They don't care because they can double the rant behind him are Clint Capella, Joshua Kogi, and Amend Thompson in a traffic jam that the lakers can navigate. I just think I don't understand why why is Reed Shepherd on the team? Why did they draft him? They're only path to offense is that triangle of players and to play it four minutes in a game that you didn't necessarily have to win but no one wants to

be down to zero. It's kind of a crisis and you couldn't score at all and you had no offense or they're okay. Someone just do, we'll do one thing and then someone dribble 50 times and get to the rim. I just thought it was like unconscionably bad.

“Not here. I mean, I think Houston was searching in that game to throughout the game. Why”

it's trying to find what they do. And I think they have to commit offensively to search versus Re Shepherd playing hide and seek in the locker room. What are they searching for? Are you sitting on the bench? Like, well, no, let's think about it. You go back to the start of the

second half. They ding the Alperon shingun and pick a roll. Pretty good. Give the Andre and roll

and they find some skip passes. They go to switch. They switch and double. And so that's when Houston went small and said we're going to switch everything and that's when they really had the lineup where people like why are these people playing together and they may tap the defense button. So, does he have any other buttons? Is that the only button? Is it like the button that Zach Alphanakis has on between two ferns or just one button that you just tap over and over again?

Like, it's like, anyway. I'm just, I just was like, watching the game in complete shock. Well, well, one, you got to give a lot of credits of like your defense for the timing on these

“dull teams. There's no grace consistently. It's been, it's been incredible. And I think for Houston,”

tempo has been a concern all year long as far as getting to your stuff sooner, give yourself a little bit more room for air, get to a second action. And so I think there were pockets in the third quarter where they were able to get to something that resembled flow and they're going to have to make quick decisions if Kevin Durant is going to get a double to this level. So, we're okay.

It may not be a perfect world, but you got to drive some of these clothes out. It can't always

be a three. You got to make some shots, but drive a clothes out. Get the ball back to Alperon shingun. There were moments where, okay, Kevin Durant gets double at the timing with excellent about the Lakers. But he advances into Barri Smith. Javari tries to drive, gets to Shingun. But now Shingun is able to get to Kevin Durant and get a roll out of it. Use what the Lakers are doing against them to degree. Because the reason they're switching in doubly is because they don't want

Alperon Shingun rolling. And they, so we don't want Kevin Durant to have the space. We don't want Alperon Shingun to roll. It's going to place you in this box. They have to leverage that against them.

“And so I think using Arm and Thompson as a screener, they did that once I could believe in the”

third quarter, the problem was LeBron sniffed it out. So it didn't really matter. But hey, can you just

use him as someone who can poke at Polaker switching? I think the double edge sword for the Rockets often is you don't have Alperon Shingun going. Because the Lakers, especially a game one ain't game two, said, okay, we're going to push your catches out. We're going to show baseline help. It may to be a hard double. What are you going to do about it? Is that going to affect your aggression level? If it does, okay, we're not leading on that. Now we overly non Kevin Durant

trying to use him to screen per se and doing trying to use him off wall and staggerers and pin down to take 48 seconds, trying to use him to drill a hand off. But they've got to find a way to

there was a set there in, and that, I think it was the fourth quarter. Kevin Durant, picking

Roll, got the switch, Marcus Mark couldn't double, turn the corner finished. The problem is

like the Lakers are comfortable and they adjust on the fly and they're willing unlike many teams, like you put people in the corners, usually the defense stays flat, right? We saw last year in the playoffs, they'll just come up to the elbow anyways and say, whatever, make this pass. And so now that you have the rhythm of what they've shown you, can you poke at it and make it a little bit untenable? I don't know, to your point, but to your point, they opened the second half with a

functional basketball play, clearly ascripted one. Kevin Durant came off a Joshua Coggy pin down on the left side of the floor. Why is that important? Because Luke Canard is guarding Joshua Coggy and the, the rockets cannot just sit there and let Luke Canard exist in this series without going at him and they did that way too often. Just let him exist without punishing him. Switch of Luke

“Canard on Kevin Durant. Great. That's a great accomplishment. That's what you want. Step one,”

Lakers double, step two, Kevin Durant passes to Jabari Smith on the right wing. Step three, defense resets. This is the moment on so many rockets possessions where everything just dies. And you know what happened on this possession? Jabari Smith went right back to Kevin Durant, Shengun flew up and set a second, a pick and roll for Kevin Durant and the Lakers like, oh, we got to defend another thing and they're moving at fast and Shengun rolled to the rim.

The help was not there. He kicked it to Jabari Smith, junior in the corner who missed a wide open three. Great process. Did make the shot. And it's like, why can't we do that every time? And

they have a vibe of like, I always remember year one of the LeBron heat when they were trying to

figure out how to use weight and LeBron and like first world problems. The delta between the stuff they would run out of timeouts and the stuff they would run in the flow of the game was so wide. Like they would run the sophisticated five man stuff out of timeouts and they do it once and then the game would be going on and it was like they didn't know how to do any of that in the flow of the game. The rockets have that vibe to them and I'm like, can we just bottle that?

They had another possession where after a Lakers make, it was in the first quarter, I think. I'm in Thompson ran like, ran sprint dribbled up the floor. I think a cogey set of screen for him with 20 on the shot clock. I paused it. It was like 20 on the shot clock after a make. The Lakers were not back on defense. They were not set. They had nobody back at the rim. Thompson got ahead of steam against Canard and laid the ball in and it's like, oh, we're allowed to do that. We're allowed

“to like do something with 20 on the shot clock and go, I said, yeah, do more. That's the only way”

we're going to score because the Lakers to give them credit, super high IQ team. They have the rockets on their heels because they don't know what to expect defensively and offensively, look, they're only scoring 113 points for 100 possessions, which is like average to below average. But given the talent on the floor, they are dictating the terms of the series offensively and getting pretty good shots across the board. I mentioned Palo's post numbers. He's 17 post

touches. Lebron is number two with 16 post touches and they're getting 1.4 points for possession

according to second spectrum out of those post touches. And a coge is the only guy on the team who

can kind of not get bulldozed, even if it's like a slow motion bulldozed, like just like six dribbles. If you give him six dribbles, Amen Thompson is going to be under the basket. Tarys and is going to be under the basket and between that and canard and I have to give JJ credit, like people don't think the Lakers are a good shooting team. They actually have a pretty decent amount of shooting now and they're getting stuff out of smart eight and pick and rules and the brown eight and pick

and rules and the reason they're getting stuff out of it is on the strong side is Rui Hachimara and he's a good shooter. And on the weak side is Luke Canard setting some screening action with whoever is the fifth guy on the floor that's just meant to distract the defense because it's Luke Canard and it's working. They're just totally glued up on both of those guys and eight is getting dunked at the rim like the Lakers are running good stuff in this series but this all comes down to

if Houston just can't score at all they're not going to win this series and if they lose this

“series in disappearing fashion, I think the offseason ramifications could be massive but we can”

come back to that any of any final thoughts on what you're seeing X's and O's wise here? Well, I was going to ask one question, because they tried to put reach up at one pass away from coming around a few times in that game. Do you think Houston can have enough success to make you the Lakers dial it back? Is that dialed back? The doubles? No because the velocity of the doubles. I don't think so because I just think the Lakers are going to survive with junk defenses anyway

think so, but to your point about Reed Shepherd, it's like like you run a shepherd Chengun pick and

“roll and you have a guy who knows how to compromise the defense Kevin Duran on the week side.”

Now you've got something, Duran and Reed Shepherd two-man game together with Chengun lurking over here and now you've got something. It's going to be threatening. I just don't know that the Lakers have any other response of it and just continue to junk it up a little bit to their credit they're doing it quite well. I'm so frustrated because I understand Van Vali at his heart, Dorian Finney Smith has been his hero. Steven Adams is the whole ingredient in your offense that's gone. By the way,

I should have led with this. The rockets are scoring 105 points per hundred possessions, which would have been dead last by a mile in the regular season. To have that number, while rebounding 43% of your own misses, like that's like a record setting level of offensive rebounding and your points per possession are still so bad. It's almost so bizarre that it's an accomplishment of some kind. But I'm just frustrated because if I let's say they lose in six or five

“or something that's not like we made a real strong comeback and got it to game seven and whatever,”

what have I learned about my team if I get to the offseason and the rotation is the way that it's

been in the first two games? The whole blessing in disguise, which I never bought for a second

about Fred Van Vali getting injured was, well, I'm going to learn a lot about what I have in Reed Shepherd and I'm in Thompson and that's going to inform how I build my team going forward. Right now, I don't feel like I'm in Thompson is not a point guard right now and that's fine. He's still very good for what he is. I haven't learned enough about Reed Shepherd. I haven't learned anything useful about my team and I've got to go into this offseason facing massive decisions

about my coach, about Janus, about whatever and if I'm a team like Miami and this all goes hey, why are for the rockets? I might just poke around like, hey, you guys still want to rant because like we can we might be able to like the ramifications are huge, but I just feel like I'm frustrated because I don't have as much information about my players as I should based on the roster. That's it. So so so so so so rockets and six. I don't know. I picked rock. I mean, I just

I can't believe I picked the rockets to win the series. Obviously, Durant missing game one was a little bit of a wild card. I just can't believe how bad they've looked against the Lakers team with no Luka and no Reeves. It's just it's shocking to me. All right, six or Celtics. Let's wrap with that. Sixers awesome win in game two in Boston, Vijay and Tyreys Maxi, who I will not call them by their horrible nickname. We're outstanding. A lot of it is just in game one. They shot

4 of 23 on threes. The sixers did in game two. They shot 19 of 39 while the Celtics shot 13 of 50. But you were on this right from the beginning in game one. Where people were shooting on Nicknors. People were shooting on the sixers for looking overmatched and it will prepared. And I was watching it. And I was like, I think they've actually got some good ideas. And I said this, I think with Bill on Sunday, I think they've actually got some good ideas on how to

exploit Boston's tendencies on defense. And those good ideas didn't work in game one. They worked in game two. I'm wondering if you can kind of explain in Laman's terms what Philly is doing and how they are leveraging Boston's habits on defense against them. Well, our Boston was white out in game one as far as dictating terms to Philadelphia and saying, Hey, we're going to keep our big back. This is the team that's really good at collapsing, protecting the paint. When my favorite

thing to watch, if you're trying to drive it's Boston, you're going to see jerseys just emerge

and bodies in your way. But basically, Tyreys Maxi here, your options. You will have space. We're going

“to trust our defense to navigate this screen. So if you want to take the pull up, it's going to be”

contested. If you want to turn the corner into the space that you see, there will be a wing or a guard that meets you somewhere near or around the paint to protect the big. So they can stay back and then you have to meet the decision on if you would like to kick the ball and they didn't make the shots in game one. And then if you would like to actually fully turn the corner if you're able to at some point, there will be other bodies around you. So we're just going to dictate

these are shots you get. Paint types are going to be tough. You're not going to get pull ups. It worked really well. They're very active in game one. Game two. So it often was like, well, what if we just make the shots? And Tyreys Maxi was just I'm going to make very quick decisions. So okay, that's fantastic. Let's make sure we force this over. So the navigation is not as strong. Let me get to a pull up. And this is great. The biggest back. If I'm going to drive one on one,

and you want to show this elbow help, I'm going to get off it real quick. And we're going to play out of it. If I'm Paul George, give me painting Richard, Quinn Grimes, come one pass away. You want to help? Kick like they were just very decisive. And so BJH comes saying, oh, that's right. You

or from three like they understood what shots were available and they knocked them down. And I think

for Boston and the balancing act was okay, as a defense you want to dictate terms. But sometimes the other team agrees. So now do we lean in on what we know has been successful? Do we lean in on

“still trying to protect the paint? How do we balance that? I think they stuck with their guns”

because the sixers have the formula as far as, okay, let's try and get Boston bought down light in the shot club. Let's be active. And let's make shots and see what happens. They just kept doing that and Boston didn't necessarily have the offense or the defense answers to kind of push them back into the place. Yeah. To be clear, if MV does not play this series, I still expect Boston to win in a short series. Nothing that happened in game two changes my

prognosis for the series. I just want to give the sixers credit because I think they position the puzzle pieces or the chess pieces in the right way. So just imagine this. Like it's very simple. They know how Boston is going to play defense aggressively, as you said. So let's just imagine Tyre's Maxi and Boena run a pick and roll. They don't do it in the middle of the floor. They do it from the right side of the floor. They're just saying to write the right wing. And Tyre's is going

to go left so he's going into the middle of the floor. The next shooter in line is not at the top of the earth. He's on the opposite wing. There was far apart, Tyre's in the next shooter,

are as far apart as basically possible for two guys to be sharing that space at the top of the

arc. Everyone else is in the corners, on the dunkers, by whatever. And the point of that is, when Tyre reskits into the middle, the sixers know that guy guarding, let's say, Grimes or Edgcom, on the other wing is coming into the nail. He's going to meet me at the nail. And what Boston likes to do is have that defender switch on to Tyre's Maxi and have Tyre's Maxi's defender zoom over and peel onto the shooter, the Grimes Edgcom spot on the other side of the floor. And what Philly

is doing is saying, we're going to make that switch impossible. It's too much distance for you to cover. And so you're not going to be able to make that switch. And you're going to have choices. You either don't help and Tyre's is going to get into the lane. Or you help like that. And we're going to pass it to Vijay Edgcom before you can even come close to executing that switch. He's going to get an open three, or he's going to have a wide open alley to attack the rim. They also

baited Boston, sometimes they'll switch it up. And they'll have a shooter in the strong side corner and a guy in the dunkers spot in that corner. And Tyre's will go toward that corner, knowing that Boston likes to do that same thing, have that corner defender zoom over and take him and then have Tyre's defender peel out and take the corner guy. And they're getting ahead of that switch and getting open three out of it. And Missoula talked after the game about,

“well, I think we overhelped a little bit. And I think you'll see Boston dial some of that stuff back”

particularly from the corners. Which we're just not going to make that switch from the strong side corner. And in the fourth quarter, when Philly won the game, Boston dialed back its coverage

just a little bit. And basically said to Tyre's Maxi, we're not sending that third guy at you.

We're going to play you two on two. And Tyre's Maxi was like, cool, here's some like pull-up three in your face. And then then they did the next thing, which was, okay, he's making pull-up three. We're going to bring Cata up much higher to the level of the screen. And Tyre's Maxi was like, sweet, I'm just going to blow by, and Amy is Cata, and get a layup. And so you saw scheme by scheme, Tyre's Maxi with some smart positioning from the sixers, be the counter to the counter to the counter.

And the Celtics, I think, are going to mix it up, but probably dial back to help a little bit. And basically say, we don't think you can do that one, two, three more games in this series. Also, we didn't play a very good offensive game ourselves. We've got some buttons we can push. But I thought Philly did a nice job arranging the board to debate the Celtics into doing things to Celtics like to do and use it against them.

That's the fun of the playoffs. You know, one team is trying to take something away. We respond

“and poke right back at it. And so I think also just working to clear wings too, and just be like,”

actually, you know, there's actually not someone you can show help to. We're going to just have this space and work with it. But I, I like seeing Boston establish themselves defensively, and now have to find a way to dial back and just kind of contain Philadelphia. And to your point, I think early, they'll just dial it down a little bit and say, make shots. We're not going to hand you shots, make place. And now if we need to, we can up the activity, we can up the rotations. But I like seeing

a scene respond to what a team is done and saying, actually, we can make this something that's difficult for you to deal with. Yes, I fun. I thought Game 2 is really fun just because Philly made it a series and Philly is stressed Boston a little bit in a way that I wasn't sure they're going to be able to do it. Like, oh, actually, no, we can hit you a little bit in one of your

glow here and there and see how you respond. I didn't think the Celtics offense had a game. I thought

they're a little sticky. I love when Boston doesn't just give Tatum or Brown the ball. But get some ahead start, like run them off a down screen and they catch it on the move on the wing or they come off a pin down and catch it on the move with an advantage. I didn't see enough of that. I don't think they hunted Maxi aggressively enough, especially when he's on Sam Howell. That's your best shoot or man, put him in more stuff. I just thought they played a little bit of a bla game other than, and

obviously missed the shot horribly from three. I just didn't think they ran kind of enough of their best stuff. And I was also surprised. I don't know if you were, I thought Shireman did not play enough. I thought Jordan Walsh and Shireman, particularly Shireman because of the way he keeps the ball moving on offense. I thought he would have played more. I was a little surprised he didn't play very

“much. I've left it minutes, I think. I know he's an important piece. I think it's interesting for”

Joe Mizzou as far as trying to figure out which one of these energizer buddies as I like to call them. Do I place in some of these series at times? I think Shireman could be the most effective because of his shooting. I love when they set a flare for Jason Tatum when he's trailing a play and let him get down and he'll run pick and roll. Did this feel like a Boston Celtic stopped flowing and fell into bad habits type game or did it feel like we aren't necessarily creating the shots we need to.

No, it was not quite fall into bad habits. It was just like I've seen the Celtics play a offensive games with Tatum and Brown back and press a lot of the right buttons and press multiple of them on the same possession. This felt like a B-C+ just a little doll, a little predictable in a way that I thought they were. I mean, every team has these games every once in a while. I just think they're gonna be fine. I would expect them to. I picked them in five. I'd probably

just even stick by that pick. I think they can win both games and filly. But at least we have a little bit of a series, but yeah, it's an intro there. They play the Celtics play a very interesting style on both ends of the floor and very much, it's very much ingrained within them that the two ends of the floor are tied together and what we do on one end, very much effects

“what we do on the other end. And people think of that a lot is like, well, that's why they have a”

low turnover style or that's why they don't take a ton of shots at the rim because they don't want to compromise their defense. I think a lot of what they do on, like I think one of the reasons

they like this aggressive help in switching defense. I think I've never asked Missulu about it.

I think one of the reasons they like it is it messes up all the matchups so that if they get a stop, all of a sudden, because Jason Tatum has flashed from here to here and switched on to that guy, you've got the wrong guy, close to Jason Tatum or you've got the wrong guy, close to Peyton, pretty sure like everything is scrambled up and all of a sudden they've got to run in the other way with an advantage. I would like to actually talk to him about that because they're they're just

a very interesting team on both ends of the floor. No, that's a good point. It's a good point and also I think, you know, they're ability to take care of the ball, get back in transition to tough matchup for filling overall. But I'm, well now you've got to be thinking about the cross matching, that's an interesting concept because it's not an easy thing to kind of deal with. And I think we have Boston and Mazda and really tapped into, hey, we're going to put a wing on a big and just

switch things. It's kind of kept it vanilla to a degree as far as it's dropped. So it's like, what do they have up their sleeve? That's true. Could you put just, do we, are we that worried about a demo on a, why don't we put some houses around him or somebody on him? And I know Bill has talked about playing Tatum at center. I personally think that Bill is a little too into that line up for my taste, but they can certainly do it. But even just inverting the matchups, it risks

some offensive rebounding, like drum and is a legitimately all-time great offensive rebounder. But I just, look, all I'm asking for in these kinds of series where there's a big heavy favorite

and the best player on the other team or the second best player, I guess, is injured. So like,

just get me to a game for where it's exciting. And we're there. No matter what happens in game three, especially if Philly wins game three, then game four is like, whoa boy, exciting. But even if Boston resets to norms in game three, game four is kind of fun. That's all I want. Steve's

“don't Steve Jones Jr. 1/2 of the Dunkerspot with the Kaius Duncan. If you want to know what happened”

in the game, not whose legacy is on the line or who choked or whatever, the Dunkerspot is a great podcast for you and Steve and the Kaius their Twitter, their highlight and plays, they're doing the Yomans work for you during the game to be like, oh, that's why they did that thing. Thank you for your time and your insights, sir. Thank you. This act, low show is brought to you by fan dual NBA fans. This is your reminder to check in daily because every day during the playoffs

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All right, we have another series to discuss spurs blazers one one and look who it is, old friend who it is. She's Serano. What is going on? What's up Zachariah? How the hell have you been? I've been all right, multiple times so many times I lost count best selling New York times best selling authors. She has her on a five times. Five. Five of them things like Timmy like Timmy. Same number of rings is your favorite team. It series took an unfortunate turn where recording this Thursday morning

and we won't know about Victor way. But Yama's availability for game three until I'm guessing probably pretty close to the game or a day of game. So what can you do? The fall was a little scary. And this blazer steam she is frisky. They defend really hard. Scoot Henderson was unbelievable

“in game two and I would say if Wendy does a play game three, I think that's a toss-up game and”

I would pick the spurs to win the series even if it goes to one Portland. But are you mentally prepared for like word down to one in game four in Portland? When it comes back like are you ready to feel the or are you going to be just like as long as Wendy's back for game four, you're going to be so confident that it's fine. No, I'm terrified. I was terrified going into the series going into the series. I had convinced myself that Scoot Henderson was the new Allen Iverson and that and that

Denny was Dennis Rodman and Michael Jordan mixed together. Like that's the level of nervousness I was already going in and then Wendy goes down and now I'm going to full on panic. We could be up three oh and up 45 points in the fourth quarter. I'm still terrified. There's one play officer following you know. The two guys you mentioned were the lead stories I think of game two and Scoot you know Scoot came back about two weeks into his return this year. I did a let's revisit

“the Brandon Miller Scoot Henderson segment because I was like I think Scoot actually looks pretty good”

considering this came back. He literally wrote it. His pull-up shooting the other day was outrageous. He had no assists. I think that's actually like indicative of with Denny being the point card

basically and with Drew Holiday out there is like another point card. He's found this comfort zone where

he actually doesn't have to do too much. The game is a little simpler for him. You don't see a lot of wild turnover from him. He almost is able to play a more streamlined game. That helped him. Denny is just a monster getting to the rim. He's going after Fox on defense. I didn't love the way Fox closed the game for the spurs once when being hurt. That was a little rough but what can one do? So we got a series in like look. I'm pretty confident the spurs win is long as when Benjama misses only one game.

Sean's reported last night I don't know if you saw this that he did some conditioning work yesterday which means he started to clear the first hurdles of the concussion protocol. But you know we'll see you get you buckled up. Well we were we were two and one against them in the season series without win. He didn't play in any of the games. So like if I want to try to call myself down I can say we can beat these guys we should we should beat these guys. But yeah

watching everything fall apart at the end of game two we're up 13 14 points with eight minutes left and you're like all right we're good. We're going to win this game. Win be can sit out the next two just get totally fine. Come back to San Antonio maybe up 3-1 maybe tied to two. We can beat them but yeah I'm still I'm still I'm still I'm still you know it's crazy. I came for game two. I didn't start watching the game I got home from I'm coaching a high school basketball team for

Springball and so we had a game that night and I did I got home during halftime turn the game on

got my little snacks ready and then the third quarter started and I was like why is

Luke in there and what the like I had no idea I turned my phone on. Oh my god the please god

also shaping up to be a really interesting battle between the blazers and when be on both

“ends of the floor so you know this you watch every spurs game some teams guard when be with their”

centers some teams guard and with the wing and try to hide their center on Steph castle or here some barns or killed the Johnson who's ever available and the blazers went right to that well immediately like Kamara you're just going to get up under Wemby we're going to put clinging over here on castle dare castle the shoot castles like oh cool I'll just I mean he's not shooting efficiently but he said some three he has had some bulldozer drives into his ever in front of him and it was just

Wemby seen that before they were ready for it he knows all the counters to it from everything from run them off pin downs from Devon Vicell run have him set pin downs for the best shooter on the team Devon Vicell have whoever the center is guarding set pin downs from Wemby to get that switch get offensive rebounds post up all of it they know how to do it and it was so interesting to watch him figure it out again in real time under playoff physicality then Jew holiday took the

“assignment and Jews like all about it this is like the best thing that's ever happened to Jew holiday”

I get to guard this guy and just be true holiday up under him being annoying and on defense it before he went out did you get a chance to go back and watch the first half of it yeah yeah so I'm looking at I'm looking watch in the first half and I'm like man they're they're putting Wemby in a lot of pick and rules like they're having more than usual it felt like to me they're bringing him in to the action because it's this existential Wemby debate of like do we want to have him away from

the ball where he's just this roving menace with a million foot wingspan or do we want to bring

him into the action and try to loosen up the other parts of the floor and I looked it up on the tracking data and it was on track to be the second most picks any team had put Wemby on in a game this year before he went out like if you do it per possession it's the second or third highest so they were trying something new and now now we just get to wait for for game through

“it's just tomorrow what's your what are you going to you're going to watch with you what's your”

good what's going to be your routine I'm going to watch it at the house it's going to be probably one of the twins will be home if I had to guess and he'll probably wander down every so often my youngest son will be there but mainly during the playoffs everybody is like leave dad alone

when the game is on you know I mean so to me and the dog always watching the game

uh together because she doesn't interrupt too much but that's my that's my that I'm just and it's sitting locked in in the living room what I really wanted to talk to you about was your game one experience so yeah you've written a lot over the years about at the ringer about going to games with your dad going to spurs games with your dad when you were a kid and watching your dad at those games watching how he behaved what those games meant to you as a kid and then game one of their first

playoff game in seven years you and your dad got to sit courtside near the spurs bench yeah but and I I just wonder sort of I just what what what what did that mean for you to be able to give him or share with him not only a spurs game but from that that vantage point and like what do you guys talk what how what how was the whole thing the whole thing was really really cool and and a little more emotional than I was anticipating I knew we were going to have a good time

we always have a good time at a game doesn't matter where we're sitting but there was a point where

we literally at in like the alimodome sat in the very last row of the like the seat hold that that stadium hold 70,000 people or whatever we were in the top top like we were we were all the way from the very very top now to the to the very very bottom but it was just so it was just so neat we were as you mentioned caddy corner to the spurs bench so so all the guys are right there were what we were right there during the the lineups but also Timmy was it Timmy's my favorite basketball

player all time Reggie Miller was a commentator in the games my second favorite basketball player of all time David was there pop was there girven was there shonelli it was there like everywhere you looked there was like oh my god I love this guy this person means a ton to me my dad at the games is a very mellow sit there drink his look coke clap his hand like a stoic old Mexican man and I'm like just standing I'm standing on my feet for for 47 of the 48 minutes just screaming

out on the court but I would be screaming and lean down high five like you're just doing all things you do with your with your dad but I mean you know this because you're a parent your husband you spend so much of your life as the husband as the father and very rarely do you get the chance to be like oh I'm the kid again in a situation and going to the game sitting there with him he drove us there and have to worry about it like he did the parking handle all of that you just

these superheroes play basketball sitting next to the superhero who who raised me is really beautiful experience had he ever sat that closer to game and was there any part of him that felt

uncomfortable sitting that closer to game he had never sat that close I had never sat that close

he was a hundred percent comfortable he's like we should we should we should do this every game

“every single game these should be these should be our seats I think you're right dad so I took my”

dad so you so before we get there you one of the pieces you wrote for the ringer about watching games with your dad you wrote about what did you write about you wrote about him like I can't remember exactly what it was which I should remember it but something like little things that he would say to you during the game I don't even remember if it was about the game or about like but there was one or two things that like stuck with you that I mean the

memory that I have is you would be driving home when you'd pass a clock tower yeah or and you

would be just amazed that that you were awake at 10 30 p.m. is a little kip it there was a couple of

I can't remember there are a couple of marks that dad like said to you that just like embedded themselves in your brain maybe about even the spurs or sports or something and what do you remember what those were yeah I remember I remember all of the I've mentioned when we were driving home from this game the clock here you're you're representing is this like a digital like a just a one of those ones that's lit up in lights and it's at the security service bank off a highway 90

in San Antonio we had we had drive paths at the get home and I told him when we were driving home we live on the other side of town now but I was like dad let's drive past security service so I could see the the clock I know exactly to talk about but so the one the one the one that stands out the most to me is we were at a spurs game this is this is a hemisphere arena so we're in SBC center now or or ATT center whatever you want to call it it was Alima dome was before that and

then before that was the hemisphere arena this is pre David Robinson like that's that's when I started going to the games but we were at a game this spurs are getting blown out at the time he was a bus driver for for via which is like metro bus system here in San Antonio and they were just give tickets away because nobody wanted to go to spurs game because they were so terrible

“so we that's how we started going to the games we were at a game we're sitting up a way high”

high in the seats watching and I don't remember who the players were I don't remember what the teams were but I know we were on offense the ball got knocked back to the other side of the court when the spurs players was running after it like it's fast as he could trying to catch it before what out of bounds and then he just dove like full body dove right around the free throw line trying to catch the ball before it rolled out of bounds and he dives the ball rolls out of bounds he

doesn't get it and everybody just starts clapping and cheering and I didn't understand he didn't do what he wanted to do what's going on that why are they they cheering for this guy who didn't accomplish a thing and then he very in like that very old I guess at the time he was a young dad but in that very dad way he didn't even look at me he just said because he tried son and I was like I just stuck with me forever and I was like oh you just got to try all you got

to do is try if you try great that's it that's all you that's all you can control that one is that will be in my head forever it's funny what you remember from these things so um baseball is my

dad's sport and um the first game I ever went to was a meds pirate's game in Pittsburgh because

my mom's family's from Pittsburgh and I of course loved baseball I didn't have a team at that point but the meds were the local team for me growing up and I just and I don't remember anything I remember three-brothers stadium, ugly stadium, extra turf, both teams are pretty good it was like

“the mid-80s the only thing I remember was mookie Wilson led off for the meds top of the first”

and they show all the stats on the screen I'm six or seven years old I don't really know like what these numbers mean and he's batting over three hundred and my dad just says to me just I must have asked like what does all that mean and he just said but anything over three hundred is good like just that's and that's all he he's not gonna explain like the ratio and how walks factor in and whatever I just but I remember vividly like mookie Wilson's hitting over three hundred

and over three hundred is good and all these 40 plus years later that's stuck in my head and then I asked about your dad being comfortable or uncomfortable because last year I took my dad to a meds Dodgers game at city field I took my dad my life and my daughter I had won these tickets at a silent auction like right behind home plate and so you get like the VIP entry through the Delta club and all this and like Otani's right there 10 feet in front of us in the context circle and

there you know the Delta club all the free food you can eat they're bringing my daughter ice cream bars and all this my dad grew up on like a farm in New Hampshire and he was wildly uncomfortable he was like I don't think this is how people should watch baseball games like this he would have

it was just so funny to watch him see it from that vantage point yeah it's really any time

your dad or any parent is like out of the out of where they're supposed to be or where they feel they're supposed to be it's the most adorable thing I do wonder I do wonder with my own sons who when they were born and Houston we were living in Houston at a time so we would go to two basketball games every year because the spurs would come to town so we would just go watch

“whatever the spurs and rockets would play we would go to that and I think a memory that I always”

have of them as we went to the spurs game the game starts Houston goes up like six zero at the start of the game and it's whatever you're watching the game and then I look and one of the twins is crying and I'm like son what's wrong he just said you said we were good we're not

any good he thought he thought the game was over we're down by by six points I do wonder what

like what are kids are good she can remember the ice cream bars at the game with her dad what what's her she you know she talks about the ice cream bars all perfect every time every time we watch a game I tell them she's like remember how they brought those ice cream bars to our season we may even have to pay for them like yes she talks about she talks about she fell in love with Francisco and or at that game so she talks about him constantly she's she's into it and I actually

wanted to you talked about a multi-generational thing and one of the from your generation to your

“kids you you talked about how proud you were when your kids started to actually care about the game”

and pay attention to the game and not want to go play on the you know the little like play areas that they have for kids during the game and I've gone through similar things both with the mets and when we were in Toronto for the holidays my wife's family lived in Liz and Toronto my oldest my wife's older sister is a season ticket holder with the raptors and we bought two extra tickets for my daughter and her cousin who's about her same age and they

got to sit in their own seats like away from the adults I was in the press section and it was like raptors nuggets uh my daughter doesn't care about the raptors and I could see them from where I was sitting and I was watching them to see like are they gonna just be goofing around or not paying attention and they were super into the game and the game ends with nuggets up by three brand and anger him hits like an almost half-court shot to tie the game and everyone's going crazy and

send it into overtime except the raptors ruled that the shot is a little bit late and so we reconvene after the game and I'm like did you guys have fun and I've expecting to be like it was so funny how the jumbo tron the raptor mascot did this thing and my daughter was like we thought that shot was good we thought we were going over it like it was going to go over it did they review it like was after I got like that that is the so you've had similar experiences right

we're like now they care yeah what my my my my my my my favorite one of once they really started being like into the game was was this is again in Houston we've got a bunch of games here in San Antonio but the Houston ones they were so much younger you know six seven eight nine years old whatever and we were at one Houston spurs game and this is when the Marcus was on the team and it was close game close game and then the spurs pulled away at the end like in the last

minute or so they go up by six or seven the people around us we're sitting in the it's in Houston we've got our spurs gear on we're in the middle of the enemy territory and everybody's being cool like we were all talking trash with each other nobody's being disrespectful right because it's kids they were everybody's chill but the game's going we go up it's clear we're going to win and they start getting up to leave and so I just start telling everybody I have a safe drive home

I have like that doing that sort of thing and then the twins started doing it too they were like can we can we it I say yeah yeah you can and because they knew and Anderson was going out of that point and they're just be safe have a safe drive home like I don't know that the little things like that are so much fun man you also talked about and I wonder if you've actually talked about

“this directly with your dad you wrote about how you must you you thought your dad must have”

felt a certain responsibility for and hope that the spurs would be good because he had foisted spurs on you and now you obviously have to feel that with your kids but if you ever talked about that with your dad like did you did you actually because I have a story about this too but just because I can very much relate to this like I'm inheriting this fandom kind of not by choice and I hope it works out we talked about it a little after when they

won their first title in 99 was the first time that we had any sort of him I'm so glad that they

won I'm so glad that you got to experience this because I never did and I was a little nervous

that you were going to be 50 years old and never have this feeling and so we talked briefly about it but he's never been I mean if you know any old Mexican dudes they just don't say anything

but what's your what's your thing so my dad is from New Hampshire as I mentioned so he's a Boston fan through and through a huge red sucks fan and so when I was a little kid I started to like baseball was baseball was the game in the 80s right and I wanted I was going to just be a red sucks fan because that's what you do you take your dad's fandom and he actually

took me aside when I was like six seven years old and was basically like I can't do that to you

“it's just like it's just too I cannot voice that on you I think you should pick a national”

league team you can't there's no you you're not allowed to pick the Yankees like you it was explicit like you cannot be anything and he was like the national league team is the match they're pretty good your mom is from Pittsburgh so the pirates are pretty good they're a national league team how about one of those two teams then we went to that game and we decided to ever win that game is going to be my favorite. They played for your heart. Thank God the basketball of you.

Thank God the Metz won and then 86 became a very awkward moment in our household because that was a crazy diehard Metz fan like Darrell Strawberry was my favorite player and it's obviously ends in like extruding heartbreak for my dad but now my daughter is a Metz fan because of me and I don't know if you're following baseball they just snapped a 12 game losing streak last night

“and our like a clown show and getting mocked all over the world like the New Yorker mocked”

them the New York Times wrote a story mocking them and just like sad sack mats and I'm like what have what have I brought now and she's too young to really care but I'm like if I done the if I done the thing my dad didn't do to me to my daughter I'm concerned about it. The Metz are are one of two baseball teams that I know about but only because I follow Sean Fantasy so I just catch all of the Metz like I will I found myself the other day reading Metz

fix like a Metz theme I'm just letting I subscribe to Metz fix yeah that's it so yeah I know about them and I know about the Dodgers because my buddy Peter Maria is like a huge huge Dodgers fan but those are only two team I don't know anything else by the way another thing speaking of 99 that I could really relate to is that you wrote about the spurs is they win the title

“and you remember your dad running out to the car and just to subscribe just to subscribe.”

Yeah the spurs ended up winning the championship and for whatever reason he just ran outside and started honking the horn in his truck just blah blah blah and everybody the neighborhood was doing it when we won game one driving out of there people were honking it's like a thing in San Antonio

right and and yeah I just what now I never will forget the sound of the neighborhood just sort of

you realize everybody's watching the game we're at the area at the home you're watching it with your family whatever game five and it just hearing all over the place and him running out to participate in this be it see in your dad be excited about something is one of the like strangest things the first time it happens you know what I mean like he like he ran he don't want he ran out of the house to he didn't hug us he didn't we did it he just ran out of the house

blah blah blah blah and the in the in the in the cars incredible my dad quietly and silently silently wept and just silently wiped away tears when the Red Sox finally won the world series and that's the reason for it that was the extent of it but the honking I could really relate to because I don't care about football at all like not at all one of the giant's Patriots super bulls that the giants won recently that mean in the last 15 years recently I was in New

York City and watching it at a friend's house and then we're my wife and our walking back to our apartment and the streets were just over like every bar was overflowing with people going crazy hogs the horns were honking at all this and I didn't care about it's like it's just so cool like to be in New York for an event like this and then fly forward four years ago the opposite this is like moving to the suburbs just just in one anecdote um Croatia beats Brazil in the world cup in

penalty kicks and like an epic comeback penalty kick win my wife is from Croatia and we're going crazy in the house running around the house she's crying we're screaming she opens the door like thinking there's got to be some communal recognition of what just happened and of course there's no Croatian people there's nothing no one was watching the game it's just like silence as she comes back in the house and immediately calls the closest Croatian restaurant and makes a reservation for like 16

people because we're just going to invite everybody to a place where they're actually acknowledged but that communal acknowledgement and celebration is like so fun and I was in San Antonio the year they

couldn't they they won the 2014 title which they clinch at home and I have never seen a scene like

bars and restaurants aren't of its Kevin Art of its our mutual friend drove us home from the game to our hotel we literally could not get to our hotel every street was blocked off with police and crazy fans people were hanging on like out of cars in the back of pickup trucks on top of cars and we eventually just had to speed down a runway row the wrong way down a one-way street to get back

“to our tour like we have to like type we got pulled over I think if I remember we got pulled”

over in Kevin had like explained to the cop like we're just trying to get back to it was an absolutely crazy scene San Antonio's crazy yeah it's a beautiful basketball town that was that's my favorite championship we've we've ever won of the five because there's a small part of you that thought it was over we weren't going to ever do it again with that core anyway we had lost in 2013 you're like man

it's just never going to happen again and then yeah that gave that gave five oh win avalanche

by San Antonio ever never forget bike brain screaming when Mono hits the three with like three threes in a row and yeah when the spurs are good San Antonio is like just alive in a way that not a lot of place to start because it's our only professional team we don't have any there's no football there's no base we've had minor league stuff but as far as like the professional there's nothing competing with it and so it's a basketball town to military city basketball city

“and yeah when it's leaving the arena game one just being in the arena before the start of game one”

and you could feel like it had been years oh my god we're back we're playing high stakes basketball it just grabs a hold of everybody here even at night non basketball fan my wife doesn't care about basketball at all like not at all and she took the kids to there's this place called the rock in San Antonio where they have like a giant screen and they like show games there she was like there to watch the game with the kids because like again she could she could tell

you two people who play in the NBA but she was like I want to you just want to be a part of the like it just grabs a hold of you it's it's it's magic when sports does that and now you're in it then now let's let's just briefly turn to game three Portland you're going to another great basketball city in Portland where the fans are crazy we don't know if Wendy's gonna play it's a home game so presumably the owner of the blazers will actually fund like the two way players going to the game

maybe the team photographer can get like an Uber ride paid for if he doesn't have a car from this house to the game but put your coaches head on like what when be a side like what give me something you're watching for in this game or something about the blazers that's getting under your skin like what do we got in it what's in your vision I do not like Denny at all like I do not like watching him play basketball he's so good and he's so smart and just the thing that he does where he gets

about a 3.9 and you're like well he's about to just crash into everybody and then make something happy doesn't every single time there's done you can do about it I don't like I don't like it at all if I if you were playing anybody else I would love it but I hate that what what I'm most excited to watch what I'm like most curious to see you touched on a briefly at the end of game two you didn't like the way that Deer and Fox played the the the last like I mean I wouldn't say didn't like he missed a

couple of shots when he was going at Denny Denny at 5,000 going at the wing and on the drop cover you missed a couple shots and then they were loading up to him like there was one where he turned the corner on a like a handoff play and they just brought everybody in and forced him to kick it to the corner and that's when Drew Holiday blocked a 3 in the corner so like he would they were making it hard for him and he just missed shots it wasn't like he was shining away from the moment

or he choked but in that moment that with Wemby out and Castle and Harper's their first go around

that's when you want like a 28 point Fox game yes that's exactly right so I'm I really want to see that I really I I feel like Wemby goes down it's sort of hard to get your feet back onto you in the moment if you're if you're one of the first players there I imagine right so I'm anticipating they're gonna come in here and both Castle and and Fox are gonna be like okay we we gotta go win this game it's gotta be us us two the other guys will follow whatever whatever we do so I really

“want to see that happen I think it's going to happen we watched it a number of years ago with Derek White”

the game in Denver when he's like I'm just gonna go win this game he like made the leap that night I would like I want to see that happen in the playoffs the same with Devon Vaselle this is first time in the playoffs he's like he's are are like a stassen player let me see you go do it on the road let me watch you go make it happen I'm really interested in seeing what we do there I really love Portland basketball games I got to go to one I happen to be in Portland for like a work thing

and the spurs were in town and I was like I'm gonna go watch the spurs play and it was the first I

think it was the first game back after LaMark is left Portland to go to San Antonio so they

pass the game ball down through the stands yeah to the to the I'd never seen that before I just as

“it's it's it's it's gonna be a madhouse in there and and I'm a little bit nervous I do think we're”

gonna win but I'm a little I'm a little bit nervous about it but that's mainly what I'm watching for I just want to see I just want to see I love Dylan Harper can I tell you my Dylan Harper theory what's not about Dylan Harper but yeah of course I've not gotten to tell anybody this on a podcast you don't want to make this public but I have this theory of like if a father played an NBA in a son plays an NBA the roles always get inverted whatever they

were the son becomes this other thing so like you look at Michael Thompson right a role player great role player clay Thompson comes in superstar right Dale Curry role player Steph Curry superstar LeBron James superstar Ronnie James role player if you're if I'm looking at Ron Harper and I'm like we get a superstar version of Ron Harper who Ron Harper was already a monster but if we get a better

version of Ron Harper I've been very high on Dylan since since of first the summer league game

our first summer league game he played against Cooper flag everybody's a Cooper flag who's a Cooper and he locked them up locked them up that's like hell yeah he's got the dog you know I'm very

“excited about Dylan Harper I really I'm he's so steady and calm I think it I think it translates”

well to the road I think we win the game I think they're gonna play great fingers crossed yeah I mean look pre injury Ron huh pre knee injury Ron Harper was a monster and Dylan Harper has a chance to be better than that defensively that's been my favorite thing about him since I started watching his clips at Rutgers like that guy and you've seen them they they gave it they've given everybody a try on Denny like the primary guy's castle but I don't know if I do wonder if in this

game they'll try and Portland has some agency in this too try to play Denny and scoot a little bit more conservatively like make them shoot jumpers go under screens again Sam is said to give him them lanes to attack but again Portland can disguise things to make it harder to do that and I'm glad you mentioned this so like he has really amped up in the last month the non-shooting parts of his game defense like he's getting he's flying in for these like really well like contested defensive

rebound he's he had a couple shot blocks and deflections and game one that guy is starting to put together all the elements of his game so I'm interested to see sort of all those things it should be a fun game three I guess I guess the dog's got to get ready for fun okay he's got to get ready my beloved penny it's gonna be on that recliner with me I think that's the proper way to watch a big a big postseason game is either by yourself or with the fewest amount of people around you

as possible because you don't I mean if you're anything like me you don't want people to see you like

“that if it goes that like that side of me is not for anyone else to consume yeah you need to”

watch a game with a person who is the same level of fan as you are when you get to this stage of the playoffs because you're both gonna be maniacs you remember when when when Castle had a 40-point triple double in the against the barracks in the I was at that I was at that game I went with our friend Kurt Goldberg right I came down from Austin he said hey I'm gonna be at this game you want to come I got to take it for if you want to come on me you up there great I'll be there and Kurt

Kirk is Kirk he gets great great seats so we ran one of those like open air boxes and I'm sitting there I mean Kirk just sitting there chatting and then Mono comes and sits right in front of us and him and Kirk and Mono or buddies and then RC Beaufort comes sits behind us I was like sandwiched in between these two like oh my god I'm watching a game with these guys but I'm sitting there watching a game and I'm screaming my head off the whole time like and I didn't realize like most of the

people in the boxes were not doing that because I'm just watching the game going and then at the

at the third quarter I get a tap on my shoulder and I turn around and it's RC it is like oh you're

you're a real fan and I was like oh my god Am I not supposed to be my fan I didn't do it no no it's great it's great we love to see this is going on but yeah you got to watch a game with people who like react the way that you react to basketball otherwise you look like a crazy person I when you started on that sorry I know RC well enough to know he would have loved to see unhinged shape yeah yeah he would not have ever been like sir this is a this is a professional

I chase Toronto you know I'm from everywhere good luck in game three to you and your family thanks for coming on and I will see you down the road my friend all right later well I thought a couple weeks ago let's just wait until they break the losing streak

obviously an emergency and then the meds did a thing last night that they had not done in 12 games

“they want a baseball game against the Minnesota twins not surprisingly they won three two”

because the only games they can win are three to something or two to something or one to something because God knows they're not going to score more than three runs and in a game they held on for dear life they're now 8 and 16 Sean I just don't even know I know where I want to start but you have you you have experienced more pain than the last 15 years than I have because I took a little gap a gap so I just yield the floor to you how are you doing if we had spoken

two nights ago or yesterday my voice would have been raised I would have been ranting I might have been crying today I feel weirdly weirdly okay and that's baseball for you you know one win and all the sudden the gear started turning in my head and thinking like is there a way out of this is this could this be okay and this is the insidious nature of this sport and this team

“that has been be develing me for 40 years is even after probably I think the most sustained”

awful stretch that I can remember and I know there's so long so losing streaks in my lifetime but this is this was bad I'm so glad I came back I'm so glad I feel like I've really 45 and 24 I didn't even bother doing the math for like I wonder what their record is after 45 and 24 best reckon in baseball last year because I just it's right I feel like I'm experiencing just the worst right away so continue I'm sorry no no I mean I think they have like a

400 winning percentage since that 45 and 24 stretch which um where do you where do you really want to start I guess is the question like do you want to speak specifically about the team and its failures do you want to speak about the manager on his future do you want to speak about the injuries no speak about David Stearns and his construction of the roster sure let's talk about that

well I want to start with first of all Soto came back you know and Lindor immediately got hurt

and we're awaiting MRI results on Lindor Lindor who um after 21 games was on pace for eight RB eyes for the season and then quadrupled his RB eye toldo with one swing and had another one last night and seemed to be turning the corner and of course as soon as like Lindor maybe had been alive you got hurt Soto came back immediately hit a long fly ball in the first any two

“advance beshit from second to third and I was watching with my daughter's like oh that's what it”

looks like for a guy to hit a ball hard and far like how hard high and far I forgot forgot all about that I want to start here I'm 48 years old I was an absolutely insane meds fan as people know from my awareness till 2003 or 2004 and there were a lot of good times in that span there's a world series the late nineties were generally very good the 80s and early nineties until the bottom fall out in 91 were okay obviously the only thing that I'm asking for

living in Fairfield County Connecticut where it's like 75% Yankees fans the only thing that I'm asking for is don't fucking embarrass me don't make me go around and have to get laughed at and pity now it's pity now it's like well you're really going through a tough time by all the fans of the evil empire and right away this is just everyone is clowning the meds so just a sample of things that I saw the twins the fucking twins tweet out like things that come in dozens

eggs and meds losses the New York Times runs an entire article about the curse of mom Donnie meeting Mr. and Mrs. Matt and makes a mistake in the article and instead of having any journalist to integrity about the mistake turns the correction into a joke at the max dispensing oh we messed up the day that they suffered their eleventh game lost whatever eleven straight loss they were off even the meds can't lose on and off day you know like New York Times screw you screw you

I'm a subscriber I'm a games app subscriber yes I am as well

maybe I won't be about that yes the associated press ran a story for their first home game

where they send a reporter to go to the game and talk to fans and just about why are you at this game in this empty cold stadium and one of the fans is like yeah I try to get my wife to go

and that the story is accompanied by photos of guys in the paper bag like where the saints

“in the 1980s and this is even worse for me because tomorrow”

the meds are hosting a group from my hometown kids and parents from my hometown for something I won't it's just a nice little fun thing and so this has been known for months and there's like a hundred people from our school going to the game I'm not going to go because there's three NBA playoff games that night but it's all everyone's been talking about like oh we're everyone's going to go the meds game we all have a bunch of cheap seats so this is just fresh

in my community everyone talking about the meds and then as gradually more and more people realize like oh we might go there might be on a 14 game losing streak when we go are they're going to get boo I've been prepping my daughter like they're going to get booed just be and she's like why they're trying their best you why don't those fans go up there and try to hit a baseball so this is all I'm asking for is don't turn the meds into the continuous walking punchline

of my life and this is what they are now it's just humiliating I don't want to be humiliated

is that too much to ask a plus rant I couldn't have said it better myself that was amazing

I didn't realize when you dubbed this segment meds corner that it was meant to mirror the boy in the dunce cap in the classroom sitting in the corner like that would be R is two freaking losers wearing a dunce cap spending every afternoon or every evening in your case checking in on what's going on with this pain cave but everything you said is true and you know nature of poor is a vacuum and nobody loves a loser you know like that's just these are just facts that

“the meds are just losers man like I don't know what the heck is going on I honestly thought going”

into the season that they were going to be good the first meds corner of the season I was like god they're going to be really tough to pitch to this line I was going to be really interesting could I have been more wrong about anything in my entire life the roster is a joke every night I can't imagine they're going to score more than three runs it is astonishing how boring the team is I'm maybe it was false optimism in an effort to be more positive at the stage of my

life I really did think that something interesting was going to be happening this year and it's actually the opposite and it's exactly what you're saying which is it's embarrassment it's a pathetic quality that it's not just Yankee fans it's not just um you know trolls online it's like everyone is justified to mock whatever this is all baseball fans anybody who's aware of American sports is justified in making fun of what the team is doing and there's rational logical and a

political reasons why but then there's also this other thing there's this cosmic cloud and I know many fans of many teams feel this way right like if you're a Bengals fan you feel like you're cursed if you're a brown fan you feel like you're cursed if you're you know a savers fan you feel like you're cursed there's a lot of franchises that have these negative feelings the Vikings

have never won a Super Bowl for example but the meds man they tend to make their

awfulness operatic and this has been an operatically bad stretch um i mean they have the highest payroll in baseball and they're eight and sixteen that's that's the number one reason why every fan of any team is justified in mocking them that should be impossible to do before the season your optimism our optimism was not misplaced they're over under was like 90 90 and a half 89 and a half like solid playoff contender kind of number i keep the 91 wins

Keith law predicted that they would make the world series and lose to the mariners and I understand all my rational baseball friends i'm on a few techs change first of all one of the techs chains last night a cubs fan tim was been mentioned many times tech there's three of us it's a small chance two meds vans and cubs fan texted us in the ninth wake up your kids as in like you got like they might win wake up your kids like even he's just you know like getting into it

i don't even know where i was going with that but it's it's oh the rational like my rational my other techs chain with two mariners fans and some other people they're like you can't even look at the standing still memorial day none of this matters the meds will be fine like i did they didn't even like register that's something historically terrible was going on partly because

“the mariners and i think good season either and i'm like really because it feels like the season is over”

and they're awful and none of them can hit and everyone who is an injury risk is already injured and the bullpen has been a disaster again um not again i mean like Diaz Diaz is not pitching well for the Dodgers but airbender is bending nothing um and airflinder and now there's like

or maybe it's at any point in the season so yeah forgive me if i feel like the season is over especially if Lindor is now going to be injured send goods like they don't even count no if they can count on him anymore we're two weeks at three weeks a month into the season it's like well we're not sure about peter sin is he going to be in the rotation and we'll use an opener for him and sen go we'll have we got to really get him right and now they're starting to hit this guy

Christian Scott is starting today we're already at this stage of the season we're random dudes we had a six man rotation with a maniah's seventh guy and now a random dude is starting a game what's happening well it's it to Scott's credit he was a high profile prospect three seasons ago he got injured and got Tommy John and he has been working his way back in Tommy John three seasons ago there was a

“feeling like this was the number three starter of the future i'm still hopeful that that's what Christian”

Scott is and what Christian Scott represents and what Nolan McLean represents i think is thank god for no thank god i thank god for him those that to me that's i think what the general manager of the team is is banking on for the long-term health of this team so we can talk about that at some point is like what is this how does this look in the long-term versus how much a pain we're going to enter this season but this season snowmclane clay homes and frapper altar have been good

like friend he's been decent decent i would say he's been above average i would say that's fair i would say he has done more than enough to win all but one start he has made oh i pity are starting pitch i was watching we were watching clay homes last night my daughter and i'm like uh i taught her what run support means like like it would be nice to give them some run support she was like what is it exactly does that mean i explained her i was like i feel bad for these guys they throw out

seven innings one run loss no to sit no never get any wins none of these starters look at 10 wins

the way this is going cool clay homes is is quietly climbing that very long list of met starters

“who you genuinely believe in where like every time he's on the bump i'm like i think i think he's”

going to throw seven innings and give up one run today and that's so strange because he's a converted reliever who's in his thirties but he's got this incredible pitch mix he's really fun to watch pitch he's a real bulldog anyway they've gotten good starting pitching from their one two three and their rotation mclean who you know has carried a perfect game into the sixth inning in two games already this season looks like a like Jacob de Graum i mean he looks like a dude

who we're going to be pouring our heart and soul into from the next 10 years god willing so like that's the good right those are the those are the three good things that we have is those guys Peterson and sanga neither of those guys are part of the long-term future of this team they neither of them are probably going to end the season in the rotation it's sad

Peterson was the first round pick i've rooted hard for him over the years all star last year

“he was an all star last year i i thought that that was him coming around you know there's that”

adage about lefties kind of figuring it all out in their late twenties and then going on to have long careers but he's really backslid we'll see if he can be effective out of the bullpen but the lineup makes me want to drink bleach man i i i can't believe how painful how pathetic how sad it is to watch these guys hit i like the approach is baffling now we've got a whole new coaching staff aside from the general manager new hitting coaches this is uh it's not just that this

team spends a lot of money in its payroll which is publicly available it's that they spend a lot of money across a lot of bands of the organization the analytics teams and the coaching staffs have these very specific backgrounds and one assumes they're all supplying a tremendous amount of data and strategy to the players on a daily basis and what i see is a lot of guys thinking first ball fastball trying to get ahead early and try to get ahead early in the count so we've getting the

pitch that they're looking for which is a you know a codified baseball strategy right now but that

is leading to 100 million ground balls the second base i i i i i can't believe how many ground balls

this team hits and i can't believe the lack of action to your point about one soda hitting one long fly ball that was caught being the 12th most exciting thing that's happening to team this year it's astonishing and it's it's really to a man other than Francisco Alvarez every single hitter this season aside from Francisco Alvarez when they're up at the plate i'm like this is going to be a putout at third base and they're going to go down one two three and there's going to be no

strategy mendoza's going to take no chances like we're in a place where they just got it like try to bump three times in a row you know you know try to do some yeah bring back the bond bring back the bond even Alvarez that's supposed to button 2026 but try something even Alvarez just classic style line for the meta season four home runs five rbs like awesome just none of this every home runs a solo home running now um he hits the ball hard though not why i'm to play every day because

right like the set is going to play better than they had double last night scored the first run uh Polanco's already injured robber's been all right simian just i i i mean nimo is hit it has an 863 OPS right now and that like you can combine three guys in our line up and not quite get to an 863 OPS um pp has not been very good for the world's this one assumes he will come around but yeah you know this is the other thing why everyone's justified to make fun of them because they have

the highest payroll and baseball so you're not allowed when you you're paying one solo three

quarters of a billion dollars and you have the highest payroll and baseball bill yeah but in three

years we're really well set up like if it's like it all these you can't know you don't get to do that and you let a franchise icon all-time home run leader walk for nothing you uh traded

“the longest tender player on the team i think in nimo who i could take or leave but at least like”

the guy was good for 20 to 25 home runs and hit the ball pretty hard and Diaz is not lighting it up but uh the you know it definitely has just been awful but i i want to go back to what he said before so i i remember we talked about this one on one of our earlier segments like the meds being a cosmic joke to me kind of caught me off guard because in my time as a as a diehard meds fan yeah they they had six straight sub five hundred seasons from 91 to 96

or six six i think six uh and and there's like the mince coalman firework thing like there's some embarrassment in there but i mean every team other than the Yankees goes through troughs like that and they weren't like horrible horrible other than what are two of those years i grew up they were awesome and they won a world series and they went deep into the playoffs in other years then in the mid nineties to late nineties they got really good again they made another

world series uh and then i kind of so i remember talking to you like i don't like why are they considered this joke of a franchise and you filled me in on some of the collapses of the Willie Randolph era and this and that and now it's like oh now i get it now i'm living it now i'm now i'm getting my real taste of it this is what it feels like for sure i was trying to think back because you know the fillies have been awful this season too and they actually are now the owners

“of not just the basement in the nationally east but the i think they now have the worst record in”

baseball and the worst run differential and was texting with Chris Ryan a bit and our friend Tracy who's also a cubs fan and we were i was wondering when was the last time the met and the fillies were both bad and this was a time when you were not following the team i had forgotten that in 2017 the met and the fillies combined to win i believe 136 games they won 66 and 70 games and they were the bottom of the national league east that's not that long ago that's only nine years ago

that the met's 170 games in the season and the fillies were even worse so it's not like this can't happen to big market clubs that spend money but the met's in 2017 when they were still under the

willpons ownership were not spending $380 million like this team and if you look at the way the

money has been allocated on this roster it's scary dude don't forget the Frankie Montoss is making like $18 million this year don't forget that Luis Robert is making $20 million this year don't forget that boba shed is making $42 million this year with a he's got a player option right

“with a player option that i think elevates it to $50 million i mean if you play as like this you can”

pen that went in right now like of course i'm opting in you know i i think that there is something kind of fascinating about the fact that there's only three guys under contract in 2022 and we can look down the road and we can say well awesome you know christian scottle be in the rotation and no one McLean will be leaving the team and Jonah to on will be up by then too and jack went into and we'll have this super rotation of 24 year olds and hey maybe we're not in

Clifford will be up and by then Carson venge will be in all star and we can kind of like game out what we what i think David Sterns really wants and what i suggested to you over the the winter what i thought he was doing but the short-term moves to make the team competitive now while you've got all these guys and even the trade for parolta which featured two big prospects what i think are not off to the greatest starts in Milwaukee but that was a heavy price to pay all of that could

look it could look it could go from looking really stupid to catastrophic very quickly and then we're gonna wake up one day and it's gonna be 10 years and the mats are gonna have one 91 season under Steve Colon i mean the team is just not been successful and they're calling they're we like we can't avoid this topic anymore they had one 100 win season which was the culmination of a group of players who were developed under a different ownership coming into their true primes their 26 27 28

year old seasons plus stepping out and spending big on a couple of pitchers like Mac Scherzer which was the big announcement that Colon made an additional acquiring Francisco and door so they had 100 win season that year and collapsed the mightily in the playoffs and embarrassingly since then

2024 was a lot of fun but doesn't it feel flukish when you look back on it now it's it's amazing

just like yesterday in sports terms um don't know i also makes 25 million dollars by the way

just for the record he's not i'm not even in the rotation i mean he's barely in the bullpen it for all the lack of an extension for him is interesting we'll see what happens there a lot has been written about that just to just some things 30th as of going into yesterday's game 30th and i'm base percentage 30th in um slugging percentage 30th in OPS buster only had this piece out where he was talking on one of his tidbits about how teams were throwing more than the usual percentage

of fastballs against the mats which was i i guess like is considered almost disrespectful of your lineup like we can even dial up our fastball even more because you can't hit the straight thing or the seamer or whatever um it's just it's it's shocking and i would actually you brought up Steve Cohen rather than me say it um would you like to talk about his twitter account

“yeah you should delete it i'm i don't i don't i don't understand i do i do understand his mentality”

because i'm very appreciative of him as an owner because i i found the bullpons to be baffling as an ownership group and their cheapness and i know that there were some specific reasons especially in the 2010s why they got even cheaper than they had been prior to that but Steve Cohen has spent money every single year he has owned the team he has thrown a ton of money into the organization they've clearly improved the way that the farm system operates the way that the

um department's beyond what happens on the field operate it's going to city field is a lot of fun you know it's a great it's a great ballpark so all of those organizational things i can log them and appreciate them his communication with the fan base leaves a lot to be desired

scolding the fan base in the first ten games of the year after the collapse of last season

is nightmare PR and i realize he's extraordinarily wealthy and there's probably no one who can speak to him about why this is a terrible idea but from the free ticket sales you know the free ticket giveaway that he spoke about and then the lack of people showing up for that and him scolding fans about that followed by in the midst of the losing streak the the infamous green shoots tweet which is i i thought was just a deplorable act of communication like i can't imagine

a stupider thing happening to the meds this year and they were like five to six games into the losing streak by that point and you sent it to me you texted him i hadn't seen it i i mean green shoots in a six game losing streak is for pick your small market rebuilding team exactly like it's not it's not for this team exactly that's not near sports fans are obnoxious and they're they're they're anxious and and they're prone to anger but they're not stupid

like we're not stupid we watch the team every night i watch the team every night like they can't hit we can tell this this idea that like a long fly ball from market simian is reason to be optimistic is embarrassing market simian is a 35 year old second baseman who has not slugged above 400 in three years what are we talking about don't like don't don't embarrass us is really what i want to say is running a ratio did he do something wrong to somebody i feel like we brought him up here to

game winning hit and i've never seen him again he's in the minors and i see these updates like

Ronnie Maricio was three for four and triple and i'm like what's he's like we might be able to use him

“for something i don't know like i think if lindor goes down for a long period of time it should just let”

Maricio be the full time short stop let bishop play third base and stick him there because that's where they're going to need him and he's still developing as a third baseman and i think they should just let Maricio never given Maricio more than like a 10 or 15 game stretch to see if he's a player who can stick in the in the league and he's now presumably fully recovered from his injuries two seasons they go and i'd like to see it but you know i also wanted Marcia and to us they get consistent

playing time and he's gotten it you know he's doing dumb shit i can't wait and hit my site i've been running through a stop sign last night um two nights ago trying to get the force out a third base on a bun when he's not that elegant a fielder he just he's got brain lock in a couple of different ways that's the other thing like the team is wildly on discipline's act

“and that i that's what the manager man they make a lot of mistakes up running but we just got”

an update uh writing Maricio is on his way to queens and will be recalled with Francis Corlindor likely headed to the aisle okay great there you go i think that's your starting short stop for the next three weeks whatever whatever it is um on the undisciplined thing i've been a protective of our daughter on the stream of lindor like what like why did you not charge the ball

that he got hurt but i've been protecting her because those have been those have been also

“bad look i mean here's where all that out there eight and sixteen is there a small part of my”

brain that's like hey why not make history if no team is ever lost twelve in a row they've got all this talent why not you know every impulse of my body ninety percent of it wants to say

the season is over this is disgusting and it probably is there's always going to be the why not

thing going on here and like give it a month right if they haven't crawled within three games of 500 if they if they don't start making up some ground you don't have to go on a 12 game winning streak to metal for 12 in losing streak you just have to do the opposite of the slow drip of what happened last year if they don't do that in a month then the season is over it probably already is over but look i'm not i'm not i'm not bailin i'm here i'm interested to see how Mauricio plays

i'm i'm not going to give up hope it's just it's just so disparating because the season is so long and there's so many games and all you want is to have some stakes in the games and worse it's already feels like okay there's another loss i have bailed on many

a next season i've bailed on the occasional jet season i've never bailed on a met season i always

stick it out i'm always interested because the failure tends to inform what will happen in the off season and i'm the met's have only had off seasons for the most part in the last 35 years to think about and so this was an off season then i was so fascinated by i was so interested to see i knew the the breakup of the core was going to happen and i was preparing myself for it and i wasn't surprised by it it's a little hard to look at the nimo thing and i when we did talk three

weeks ago i did say this simian trade might end up looking terrible and it does look terrible so far now also branded nimo is injury prone and tends to break down over a season if he finishes the

“year with a above an eight fifty ops i think automatically that trade is not a good deal even though”

nimo still has four more years in simian as two more years you basically punted on a valuable season and you picked up a deeply declined player but the one thing i just want to say really quickly because i think our instincts are to say okay well we lost peat we lost nimo we lost mcneal we lost ds and we replaced them with these guys these guys in these guys this is not a binary the choice was not only Jorge polanco or pidalonzo look in chicago at minotaka maracami

who's playing third base and hitting the ball four hundred and eighty feet every night when it took americami went to the worst team in baseball or what was the worst team in baseball on a cheap deal where were the meds on because he strikes out too much right that was the thing strikes out you were like that's that kind of translate but they were afraid he couldn't hit fastballs they were afraid he couldn't hit a american major league fastballs and you know who can't hit

american major league fastballs that's um i i will to conclude it's do you talk about the offseason and failure informing i am i again not knowing much about the mechanics of baseball in terms of front office machinations and trade deadlines i'll learn all that i did text you like if this were the NBA and i understand all everyone good has a no trade close on the meds i get it if this were the NBA there would already be rumors of like teams calling about sodo and teams car

the meds can is that just not a thing in baseball like would why would a team not try to I'd or why would the meds not be like hey maybe it's time to pull the rip cord and trade

disguise for like eight amazing prospects that's just not a thing that happens the sodo thing is unusual

“because i think he has an opt out after five seasons so he's in a second season with the team and”

i believe you could get a ton for him but not as much as you might think because of the size of his contract and there's not very many teams that are willing to carry seventy five million dollars per year whatever his annual salary is lindor the time to trade lindor was last offseason you know that was the time and i i didn't want to do it i wasn't advocating for it but his value was incredibly high and he has effectively i think an eight or nine year contract left and if you

look at some of the contracts that were given out to players who are far less gifted or or whether far weaker resume than lindor you could see people just picking up the remainder of his deal happily and trading prospects for it now you know you got off to another slow start he broke his handmade bone and now he's got some sort of calf injury and he's a 32-year-old shortstop who is not in the prime of his career anymore i love the guy i love that he's brought to the team

i was baffled by his mistakes earlier this season but i'm hopeful that it was just like he was going through something personal and it was leading some brainfarts like i have to hope that that's sort of was because he's actually one of the savviest and smartest meds i've seen in the last 20 years so him doing those things was bizarre those two guys to me obviously have the most value beyond the stud pitching they're if they continue in this way and they're like ten games under five hundred in the

middle of June they should be selling everything they can they should be selling off they should

wonderful to see you you know Sean from the big picture of course and associated other ringer

“appearances he also just started a sub stack things we think but do not say which i'm going to”

subscribe to right after we get off this i can't wait to read it and maybe it will inspire me who

knows but you're a beautiful writer and it's nice to see the writing coming back and we'll be

convenient at some point and maybe we'll maybe we'll be just eight games under five hundred still

“would maybe be five hundred between now and the next one who the hell knows is that thank you very”

much and let me tell you this let's go meds yeah let's go why not what what's the what's the opposite let's go meds look we've decided to figure my style let's go meds let's go let's go let's go not Sean fantasy thank you sir why's that all right that's it for today's Zack low show

“enjoy the games tonight enjoy the weekend i'll be back Sunday night with build to recap whatever”

madness happens in the NBA over the playoff weekend thank you to Steve Jones Jr for his incomparable insight thank you to the great chase sarano for coming on and tell him some fun stories thanks i guess

to Sean fantasy for some meds therapy thanks as always to Mike Billy and Jonathan on production

and thanks to you all for listening to and/or watching this act low show see you next week 21 over in president select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 and over in president and DC can tuck your Wyoming gambling problem call 1 in 100 gambler or 1 800 my reset call 1 888 789 777 777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut or is it md gambling help.org and Maryland hope is here visit gambling help line m8.org or call 800 327 50 50 for 24 7

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