Pistons Force Game 7 & Spurs-Thunder Is On Like Donkey Kong

Summary

---

No Dunks – “Pistons Force Game 7 & Spurs-Thunder Is On Like Donkey Kong”

Date: May 16, 2026
Hosts: Je Skeets, Tas Melas, JD (Super Producer)
Main Theme:
Breaking down Detroit's dominant Game 6 win to force Cavs-Pistons Game 7, and the Spurs’ blowout over the Wolves to set up a much-anticipated Western Conference Finals with OKC. The crew delivers in-depth analysis, standout moments, and what the results mean for both winners and losers.

---

EPISODE OVERVIEW

• Detailing Detroit's emphatic Game 6 victory over Cleveland, setting the stage for a pivotal Game 7.
• Analyzing San Antonio’s dominant closeout of Minnesota, highlighting the brilliance of rookie Stefan Castle.
• Spirited debate on leadership, team construction, and postseason trends—plus fun tangents on NBA broadcasting and random observations.

---

SEGMENT 1: Pistons Crush Cavs to Force Game 7

[03:55 – 23:33]

Key Points and Analysis

• Detroit’s Dominant, Collective Performance

  • "The top seeded Detroit Pistons dominated the second half...115-94 to force a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference second round series." – Je Skeets [04:46]
  • Detroit handed Cleveland their first home playoff loss.
  • Every Piston contributed: no drop-offs when bench entered; impressive coaching adjustments by J.B. Bickerstaff.

• Who Showed Up for Detroit

  • “Who's going to help Cade? ...You can argue in Game 6 against the Cavs, they had the best first guy, second guy, third guy…” – Tas [06:08]
    • Asar Thompson’s energy and defense ("two-handed block, easily the play of the night…Smasher!") [06:46].
    • Jalen Duren: 15 pts, 11 rebs, most active he’s been all series; “the loudest 15 points he's had in the playoffs” [07:19].
    • Paul Reed: “Another great game. 17 points, playoff career high, six boards…really is why they're still playing here.” – Skeets [09:28]
    • Duncan Robinson: “Four big threes…Sam Merrill guarding him and he's felt so comfortable shooting.” – Tas [06:56]
    • Marcus Sasser provided surprise minutes and production off the bench.

• Defining Sequence

  • “Paul Reed jumping out of bounds...Duncan Robinson having to save it...score on a ledgy...Paul Reed and one which was legi-esque, where that thing just sat on the back rim for a second…that was a huge play.” – Skeets & Tas [09:40–10:15]

• Donovan Mitchell's Struggles

  • “That was a bad Mitchell performance. That's really two bad games in a row...he was really bottled up.” – Skeets [10:55]
  • Fewer assists, inefficient shooting, lack of playmaking, visible fatigue/gassed after tough playoff minutes.
  • “He's just in like this fog, it feels like.” – Skeets [13:37]

• Cavs’ Effort and Turnover Issues

  • Detroit outworked Cleveland on the glass—“13 offensive rebounds into 20 points for Detroit and…20 turnovers…resulted in 28 Detroit points” – Skeets [16:13]
  • Cavs' lack of energy on 50–50 balls and defensive lapses: “Way too easy...” [16:28]
  • Skeets: "It’s like the Cavs were taking on the impression that we had after game five—like, that’s the season, we got them." [17:24]

• Pistons’ Only Weakness

  • “Their inability…to run a fast break. Can they practice this? ...They botched like four of them…Didn't matter in the end.” – Skeets [18:30]
  • Both hosts joke about chest passes only ("no alley-oops") on the road.

• James Harden in Closeout Games

  • Tas: “Way better game...He was their guy.” [21:35]
  • Skeets: “Didn't love the eight turnovers again?...We're only saying this was a good Harden game because we're comparing it to Mitchell.” [21:53–22:02]
  • Harden’s career closeout-game stats “Yikes. That was rough. ...2–5 record, 13 PPG on 28% shooting.” – Tas [21:35]

Notable Quote:
“The Pistons go into Game 6 like they did in Round 1, able to take the game in the first quarter…and they kept rolling it. It is phenomenal.” – Tas [18:05]

---

SEGMENT 2: Random Notes & Discussion from Cavs–Pistons G6

[26:54 – 39:46]

Highlights

• Flagrant Foul Review
  • Asar Thompson’s flagrant-1 vs. Sam Merrill: proper call, not an ejection—hosts agree [27:42].
• DWade Fact Check
  • Dwyane Wade called himself a 40% postseason 3PT shooter; Skeets fact-checks: “He was wrong. 34% in the postseason.” [28:30]
• James Harden Sweat Incident
  • Dean Wade slipped on a “big, big sweat spot” from Harden—rare that the floor crew missed cleaning it [30:03].
• In-game Interviews & "Walk-and-Talk"
  • The crew debates the value and challenges of pregame "walk-and-talk" interviews; Skeets skeptical, JD and Tas like the cinematic feel [31:45–35:00].
• Favorite Block Reference
  • Asar Thompson’s two-handed block compared to Kenyon Martin by Dwyane Wade—a "nice bonding moment" for Tas and his wife [36:42].
• Who wins Game 7?
  • Both lean Pistons (“got to be the Pistons, I guess…” – Tas [38:53]), but admit it's a toss-up.
  • Series praised as physical but not flopped—refreshing for playoffs [39:13].

---

SEGMENT 3: Spurs Blow Out Wolves, Castle’s Coming-Out Party

[41:07 – 59:02]

Key Points and Analysis

• Spurs End Wolves’ Season with Authority

  • “Stefan Castle had 32 points and 11 to highlight another dominant performance from the Spurs backcourt as San Antonio crushed the Wolves by 30…” – Skeets [41:07]
  • The Spurs’ shooters: “56, 47, and 85 in an elimination game…to put away the Wolves who were at home. That’s dominant.” [43:46]

• Stefan Castle’s Historic Night

  • “He’s just the second player in NBA postseason history to record at least 30 points, 10 boards, 5 assists in a closeout win at age 21 years or younger—the other is Magic Johnson in the 1980 Finals.” – Skeets [44:12]
  • “Youngest player in playoff history to have 30+ pts, 10+ rebs, 5+ assists, and 5+ threes made.” – Tas [44:26]

• Wolves’ Third Straight Blowout Playoff Exit

  • “For the third straight year...the Timberwolves season ended with a blowout.” [45:01]
  • Finch says they just “ran out of bullets”—injuries exposed depth and weaknesses [45:49].

• Wemby Factor and Wolves’ Roster Questions

  • “I lean more towards the Victor Wembanyama factor…a new era, trying to adapt and fix your offense to get around this guy.” – Tas [45:57]
  • Julius Randle’s playoff woes highlighted: 34% shooting, -84 in the series [48:09]
  • Discussion whether Wolves shift away from Randle, adjust big rotation (Nas Reid, Gobert) [49:36–51:48].
  • West elite now clearly “Thunder and Spurs”—debate on how Minnesota can join that tier or if they’re Eastern Conference-bound by expansion [50:46].

• Ant Edwards' Future and Leadership

  • Skeets: “He needs another star beside him…did you see Ant’s postgame press conference?...He was frustrated…we can’t do this again.” [51:48–52:51]
  • Ant’s sportsmanship—dap up Spurs players/coaches with 8 min left; Dirk and Haslam: never seen that before, some critical ("you’re the leader…you're saying a whole lot by doing that") [53:59–55:46].

Notable Quote:

“That’s a clear signal that we’re done, and we have to either make some big moves with the front office or you dudes beside me, you gotta be better next year. You got no choice.” – Tas [53:59]

• Wolves’ challenge, per Ant: “You build championship habits during the regular season. We have to stop pretending like that doesn’t matter.” [57:45]

---

SEGMENT 4: Random Notes from Spurs–Wolves

[63:27 – 68:09]

• Wemby’s Weird Jersey-Grab
  • Tas: “I don’t know what Wemby was holding during one break…very close to his nipple for a long time. I’m just curious.” [63:27]
  • Further nerds-out over Wemby’s unique split-seam knee pads: “We need more on that…”
• Basketball Without Wemby
  • Noted: Spurs looked this dominant with “not even a classic Wemby game.” [65:19]
• Tiny Microphones
  • Wemby’s giant hands made a normal-sized postgame mic look mini: “Looks like one of those novelty tiny mics…” [67:16]

---

SEGMENT 5: Woah Boy of the Night

[69:54 – 70:23]

• Stefan Castle
  • 32 points, 11–16 FG, 5–7 3PT, 11 REB, 6 AST, +28 in 30 min.
  • Highlighted as the top star of the evening and awarded “Woah Boy.”

---

MEMORABLE QUOTES

• “He just came out and he was a catalyst for the Spurs hot start. He had 14 points in the first quarter and just was dominant all game long.” – Skeets on Castle [41:33]
• “We could have a rock fight…could be an ugly, ugly Game 7—in a good way, in a beautiful way.” – Skeets [39:02]
• “What happens here at the end? … The actual just getting waxed at the end of a season… is that…– Skeets [45:51]
• “Ant needs a running mate here. … Did you see Ant’s postgame press conference? … we can’t do this again, I think is what he was really getting at here.” [51:48]

---

TIMESTAMPS FOR KEY SEGMENTS

• [03:55] – Intro, show theme
• [04:46] – Pistons force Game 7 with dominant team win
• [06:08] – Who helped Cade: Detroit's shock contributors
• [09:28] – Paul Reed big game, highlight sequence
• [10:55] – Donovan Mitchell's second straight dud
• [16:13] – Cavs’ turnovers and rebounding woes
• [18:30] – Pistons’ inability to run the fast break
• [21:35] – James Harden closeout game struggles
• [26:54] – Random notes: Asar Thompson flagrant, Dwyane Wade 3PT claim
• [30:03] – Dean Wade slips on Harden’s sweat
• [31:45] – Discussing "walk-and-talk" interviews
• [41:07] – Spurs stomp Wolves, Castle’s historic night
• [44:12/44:26] – Castle’s Magic Johnson comparison
• [45:01] – Wolves: third straight blowout elimination
• [49:36] – Wolves’ roster conundrum, Randle’s negative impact
• [51:48] – Ant’s press conference: signals for roster change
• [53:59] – Ant congratulates Spurs mid-game: leadership debate
• [63:27] – Wemby’s random jersey/nipple grab and knee pad nerd-out
• [69:54] – Woah Boy: Castle’s box score and impact

---

FINAL THOUGHTS

The No Dunks crew brings wit, sharp basketball insight, and their signature casual chemistry to break down a wild Friday of NBA playoff action. The Pistons’ gritty team effort sets up a must-watch Game 7, while the Spurs’ rising backcourt—led by Castle’s epic night—signals a new Western Conference guard war with OKC.

The episode also features several fun tangents: nerdy equipment notes, production/broadcasting trends, player sportsmanship debates, and playful in-studio banter.

If you missed the games:
You'll come away understanding not just who won, but how and why—and what it means for the next round and each franchise's future.

---

Transcript

[Tas Melas]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human Amazon Health AI presents painful

[Amazon Health AI (Ad Voice)]

thoughts why did I search the Internet for answers to my cold sore problem? Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole filled with images of alarmingly graphic sores in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that.

[Tas Melas]

Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful.

[Onplus Nicotine Pouches (Ad Voice)]

Onplus Nicotine Pouches Present comfort chronicles a 10 o' clock tee time. How comfortable you show up in stretchy shorts, a breathable tee and maybe no socks. Let the dogs breathe while other sweat and pleated khakis. You're in your comfort zone. Bombing drive and in your pocket. On nicotine pouches the softest pouch on the planet. Buy a [e-mail] Products for tobacco consumers 21 years of age or older Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

[Je Skeets]

Support from this show comes from Quince. I'm way overdue for a wardrobe refresh. I'm a podcast host that is very important. I drive a Chevy Trax. I'm a man. I'm 45. Clothes shopping in person is simply not a priority for me. So I usually wear the same stuff till my wife calls me out. For these reasons, I'm pumped to say that Quints has been my new go to. I asked Nora to help me pick out a couple of items and it turns out she already had a cart ready of things she was planning on getting me from Quints. So I picked up two of the 100% European linen shirts, one striped, one solid. The material feels light and breathable and the stitching looks really well done. They're the perfect type of pieces that feel easy and comfortable but still look put together. And the best part is I didn't break the bank. In fact, everything I purchased was priced 50 to 80% less than what you'd find at similar brands. Why? Because Quint's works directly with the ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen. So you're getting premium materials without the markup. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to quince.com nodunks for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com nodunks for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com nodunks when we moved into our

[Wayfair/Quince Ad Voice]

house a few years back. One of the things that caught our interest was that the sellers described the backyard as a gardener's paradise. And let me tell you, we garden hard. Flowers, ferns, foods, compost, raised beds, hammocks. Not necessarily guarding that last one, but chilling is very important too. The one thing we're missing though, a potting table. So don't tell my wife, but she's getting one for Mother's Day and I found it on Wayfair. Whether your vibe is modern, coastal, farmhouse or eclectic, Wayfair has options to help you create an outdoor space that's uniquely yours. Wayfair makes it simple to narrow down to what works for your style and budget. Outdoor seating, grills, major appliances, storage, patio lighting, rugs, decor, potting tables. Wayfair is your one stop shop for home. Over 20 million verified 5 star reviews help you make the right call. Real customers, real feedback. Real homes get prepped for patio season. For way less, head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W A Y F A I R.com Wayfair Every style, every home.

[Je Skeets]

Good morning sweet world and welcome to the no Dunks podcast presented by FanDuel. It's Saturday, May 16, 2026. I'm Je Skeets here in the classic factory and alongside me putting in the weekend shift, it's Tas Melas.

[Tas Melas]

Podcast listeners, this is for you.

[Je Skeets]

And over yonder making the magic happen, super producer JD Hello. There he is. Here we are. Hello to everybody on YouTube here on a Saturday. Hit the like button. Subscribe podcast listeners, five star ratings and reviews. We're going to be in and out here today. We got two games to talk about.

[Tas Melas]

You think it's going to be quick?

[Je Skeets]

No. It never is. It won't be. Don't do that. Don't say that. Don't pretend. It'll be quick.

[Tas Melas]

See? What's your definition of quick? What's your definition of quick?

[Je Skeets]

Quick would be less than 30 minute podcast.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, that's too fast. Less than 45 I thought was not a possible.

[Je Skeets]

No.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Okay.

[Je Skeets]

Not when we do this. Yeah, we are pumped. So let's do it. Hit the zaza. We going to game seven baby. Game seven. Game seven. That clip never disappoints. God, it really is good. Yeah. The top seeded Detroit Pistons dominated the second half on Friday night. They be the Cavs 11594 to force a game seven in the Eastern Conference second round series. The decisive game is on Sunday night in Detroit, 8pm Eastern. So we got one. Game seven this weekend. Now we love this here at no dunks, how this one broke down. We get a game seven and we don't have a series, a conference final starting over the weekend. You know, we don't love that.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Wanted to start during the week so we can hype it up and make our predictions and all that.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I hear you. But you also pick the Wolves to win in seven. If the Wolves took care of game six, we would have had two game sevens on Sunday. So you're disappointed.

[Je Skeets]

Can't be. Can't be too greedy. Okay, we got one. We got one. We'll get to the spurs waxing Minnesota in Game 6 and maybe where the Wolves go from here. But yeah, let's start with that. Pistons win. This was just a strong collective effort, I thought from Detroit. I mean we can go through a million guys on this team. They all showed up on the road handing the Cavs their first loss at home in the postseason.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Coming into the playoffs, the conversation about the Pistons was who's going to help Cade? Who's going to be that second guy? You can argue in Game 6 against the Cavs, they had the best first guy, second guy, third guy, fourth guy, fifth guy. I'm exaggerating, but still pretty close. Yeah, exactly. And they definitely had the best coaching maneuvers from their coach. That was phenomenal. In a game where the Cavs offense wasn't really clicking. I thought the guy who stood out most for the Pistons was a Sar Thompson. Just that energy level, everything he was bringing defensively, the two handed block, easily the play of the night, I thought that was sick.

[Je Skeets]

It was the volleyball like block.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, that was a smasher. But everything that JB was pushing those buttons. Duncan Robinson coming off the bench, was it because his back was a little bit injured? Either way, he had Sam Merrill guarding him and he's felt so comfortable shooting against Sam Merrill. Four big threes for Duncan Robinson. Marcus Sasser played some big minutes. That's a guy's name we definitely didn't say coming into the series. But the fact that J.B. bickerstaff is able to pluck him and say guys like Ron Holland, Ron Holland, you said Javante Green, you said Isaiah Stewart only played four minutes in this game for Paul Reed who was so phenomenal. He was pushing all the right buttons, period. And Jalen Duran, I just want to mention that guy. He was playing fourth quarter minutes. How many times did he spin on Jared Allen? I went back and watched every spin. This guy had moves. It was 15 points, but it was the loudest 15 points he's had in the playoffs. I thought definitely in this particular series. He was so good. I thought one of his misses where he pulled a smitty. The guy tried to pull a smitty and slow down and it was a, a nice miss there. Wade on the broadcast, Dwayne Wade said, they remember what you did today, not what you did yesterday. Referring to Jalen twice.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, you went back to it.

[Tas Melas]

And that also applies to what said coming into this game where I was totally wrong. I thought Game 5 would roll into Game 6 because the Cavs gave away or stole Game 5 from the Pistons. The Pistons gave it away. I thought that would roll in. Didn't matter. Pistons showed up to take this one.

[Je Skeets]

I definitely thought of you when Jalen Duran more than once had a move where he actually attacked a Cavaliers big and dribbled and spun and yeah, he missed a couple but then also scored. Yeah, 15 points, 11 boards for Duran. He was active. He was contributing. He was hitting the glass early in this game. How many offensive rebounds did the Pistons like have in the first couple minutes and turning the Cavs over? And then Duran even blocked a couple shots. He blocked a Mitchell shot, he blocked a hardened floater. And I was like going, I was trying to remember blocks he had even had in this series that were notable or like big, big plays. He just hadn't done anything through five games. This was huge. He was feeling so good. At one point he hit a left handed layup after he sort of bobbled the ball and it went back to him and he scored and then he was like wagging his tongue back to his teammates. On the way back he was feeling a little bit more like regular season Jalen Duran, who in theory is going to be making an all NBA team here and who was an all star. And even when the ankle injury took him out, he came back and still was contributing. So that was huge. In addition to whenever he's off the floor and you set a task, it would be ball Paul and this guy. Another great game. 17 points, playoff career high, six boards and he's his just performance this entire playoffs really is why they're still playing here and have a chance to win in game seven.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I said Sar Thompson, the two handed block, probably the play of the night for me. But another play that everyone is looking to is Paul Reed jumping out of bounds to save the ball and then Duncan Robinson having to save it from the sideline. It went from baseline save to sideline save to pull it in for them. To score on a ledgy.

[Je Skeets]

Basically.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

That was the Paul Reed and one which was like legi esque, where that thing just.

[Tas Melas]

That was pretty cool.

[Je Skeets]

Sat on the back room for a second. I mean, everybody got excited. It's like, is it going to drop? Is it going to stay there? And then it fell in, of course. And.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

The N1.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

That was a huge play.

[Tas Melas]

A huge play.

[Je Skeets]

Sort of like it sort of summed up the game.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Right.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah. Somebody said it was. Was it. Wade called it a microcosm of.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Of the Pistons season. Where they got better in this game as it went along is sort of the same for the series against the Orlando Magic. You know, they were down three one. Jalen Durant specifically had his best game in game seven of that series. And here they are, they're showing their toughness as the series goes along and obviously all the momentum with them as they go home. They didn't even need a great Cade Cunningham game at all. He was.

[Je Skeets]

It was so far, he was solid.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Hit threes.

[Je Skeets]

He hit threes.

[Tas Melas]

That was huge.

[Je Skeets]

And made the right plays a lot of the times. I mean, especially when you compare it to Donovan Mitchell and really struggling in this game. I know we'll unpack his game here, but that was a bad Mitchell performance. That's really two bad games in a row. And you know, I mean, we're going back to game five. We keep doing it, but it's like Pistons could have won this series if they didn't blow that game in Game 5. But man, he was really bottled up and he was like, he was just trying to do his floater, which he can hit. We've seen him hit a million of these, but that thing was not dropping. Instead of maybe taking it a little bit more physically and maybe trying to get to the line, he just couldn't hit a shot. I mean, how many shots did he miss from two, Let alone the three ball not really dropping for him. But I just compare that to Cade's just sort of leadership of the game, even if it wasn't a big scoring game.

[Tas Melas]

Right. And too many plays for Mitchell. You could look at the effort level on both ends for me. He was guarding Marcus Sasser. Marcus Sasser loses the ball. You can close that gap real quick. Quick. But Sasser recovers it and scores. Or carousel vert coming down the floor and allowed to just shoot an open three because Mitchell just doesn't close out on him whatsoever. And then exposing the ball on the dribble. So Kate Cunningham can just poke that thing. A few turnovers for Mitchell, so not looking right, period.

[Je Skeets]

Is he hurt?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, that's a good question.

[Je Skeets]

Injured, because it is weird to try and explain what's going on here over the last couple of games. Yeah, he seems in a fight funk

[Tas Melas]

and out of it, definitely. My, my note was, I mean, what up with Mitchell?

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Is there something wrong after that incredible 40 point performance in game four and then literally 14 points through four quarters of game five and then turned it on in overtime? So did he just turn it on just because he could, you know, or needed to? I should say not could, but needed to in overtime? It's a fair question to. To ask that, but he is out there and he does make spectacular plays at times too. Like, the step back three was pretty. He is into. I don't think he's hurt. Is it just an overall, I'm, you know, kind of gassed thing? Maybe. Maybe that's it.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. He's had to go against two teams that have the personnel in the Raptors and now the Pistons to at least slow scores. Right. These lengthy, explosive, just freaks on defense that he's had to see a lot of these guys. Yeah, it's just bad. I don't love like, like the, the trend with him is if he's not scoring, I mean, he's not even playmaking. Like, it's like three assists to three turnovers last night. That's like an alarming trend we've seen all postseason. It's. He does not have a lot of assists here. Like, it's like half of what he had in the regular season. And I know the guy has to hit a shot. He's got a score when you pass it to a guy, but it's like if he's not scoring, he's not really contributing much else in terms of playmaking and leading from that part. No, I get it. It's in Harden's hands and he's taken over at times, but it's just strange. He's just in like this fog. It feels like.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. The last couple of games kind of hanging in the corner. And then when he does get the ball, it looks like he's. He's shooting and he's shooting for sure. And whether it goes in, that's a question mark. But as Harden said after game number five, when they were able to close that 90 deficit in the last few minutes, hey, he was tired. Mitchell's tired. Did you see what he had to do in game four? And so maybe that's it. Maybe it is just all sort of added up. It's possible the Raptors did tire the dude out and the Pistons have been after him and this is in, in theory the longest he's ever played in NBA season. Now going into a game seven of a second round cause he's never made a conference final. So you know, it's not a real accurate evaluation of Mitchell's career. But yeah, he could just be guessed because I don't. The body looks fine. That whole cameraman thing that he kind of hit his foot against, but he didn't hit his foot against. I don't think that's an issue. Yeah, I see it's fin.

[Je Skeets]

The pistons were up 54, 51 at halftime and I was watching this going well. We're going to find out here in the third quarter whether this is going to be a wrap for them like we saw in game five. They gave up the huge run there to the Cavaliers, but they had the run this time. They started the second half with that 12 to two run. In the third they splashed a couple threes. Tobias Harris finally found the scoring column early in the third. Asar had a put back donk and so that was great. Now the Cavs rallied, they got it to within six and then the Pistons had another 13 to two running them. And that's within that run, I believe was that crazy Paul Reed play where they did a million saves to the score. So they just had an answer there even when the Cavs got back into the game because it felt like, ooh, is this going to be an exact replication of game five here? Where it's like, oh, Detroit feels like they are completely outplaying them. I think you look at the scoreboard, you look at the diff, diff's only three and a half. Right. Like I was like, they have outplayed them. They're up by one possession.

[Tas Melas]

Right.

[Je Skeets]

But. But they had an answer in the third.

[Tas Melas]

But the Cavs did have to fight back in the second round or second quarter, I should say. And to close that diff.

[Je Skeets]

And just like game five though.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, just like game five. I didn't check how many leads the Pistons had in this game, but it felt like the Cavs just kept digging this big hole over and over and having to fight back and then having to fight back and then having to fight back more so than they did in game four or five, excuse me, where they needed that 32, 23rd quarter run, right. So it just felt like the effort level. Unfortunately it's sort of simple as that.

[JD (Super Producer)]

There's.

[Tas Melas]

There's too many of those plays. There's way too many. I. I know.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. 13 offensive rebounds into 20 points for Detroit and then 20 turnovers for the Cavs too. And that's a number we keep coming back to of like that 20 turnover number. It's like, I mean, it resulted in 28 Detroit points. Yeah, you're up against it.

[Tas Melas]

And even turnovers aside, just, just watching the game effort level, like when Evan Mobley is in a jump ball situation and he wins the thing, I mean, he wins it in that he knocks it back because he's playing against, or he's jumping against Tobias Harris, he's way taller than him. And then James Harden literally just watches it hit the floor and not go get it. And so they lose the ball. It's stuff like that over and over the 50, 50 balls. I mean, Jalen Duran had a drive. This is, this is a center we're talking about. This is a monstrous man. He shouldn't be able to drive through guys so easily. He just drove through Streuss and Harden. That created the Hormuz straight for him. Shout out to Trey Kirby, who. Who used the Hormuz straight reference once. But that was way too easy. And maybe they miscommunicated, but still, there's just way too much of that. Way too easy. Just overall numbers aside, just what up with that? They weren't ready.

[Je Skeets]

It's like the Cavs were taking on the impression that we had after game five after they stole it or Detroit gave it away and obviously took care of business in overtime. It's like, ah, well, that's the season we got them.

[Tas Melas]

Yep.

[Je Skeets]

And Detroit did not approach the game this way. Especially like early on, just grabbing every offensive rebound. There's a lot of long offensive rebounds. So it was like a collective effort. Like they were. I don't. You know, it's like you never know with an offensive rebound, right. Like where it's going to drop. But there was a lot of long ones off of missed shots, a lot of clanks. And they were the ones getting to it. They were just a little quicker and they were fighting to stay alive just like they did in Orlando. So, yeah, kudos to, to the team and to Bickerstaff for having these guys at least believing they could do it again and get it back to Little Caesars Arena. It was impressive.

[Tas Melas]

That first quarter was really, really impressive. This Cavs fan base, the arena wanted to erupt and they had no ability, no capability of doing it. There's nothing for them to erupt to. So yeah, the Pistons go in to game six like they did in round one and were able to take the game in the first quarter at least start it. And they kept rolling it. It is phenomenal.

[Je Skeets]

Every guy that came in kept the momentum going. That was the big thing. There was no drop off even like you said the Sasser moments there at the end of the third, in the fourth, that's when Cade was getting arrest and he was contributing and delivering so big stuff there. The only thing on the Pistons that was driving me insane and I did say on yesterday's show I wanted the Pistons to win this game. I wanted a Game 7. At least one was their inability, the Pistons inability to run a fast break. Can they practice this? Like this is what we do with like our 9 year old and 10 year old kids at the YMCA. Run a two on one fast break. They botched like four of them. Three in the first half, one in the second by my count. Twice they tried throwing alley oops and it was like they could have just made the simple play make the pass. I hate to sound like an old dodgy fart, you know, but like what are you doing? They botched the alley oops. They were bad passes and they blew them. And then there was a couple where Tobias Harris chucked one way too far ahead of Jenkins. And then there was one in second half, Caris Lavert. It was a two on one. They should have scored or at least get to the free throw line. He threw it away to a Sar Thompson. I was like pulling my hair out. I'm like, well you guys are just doing it to yourself again here. You just have showed me eight points. He just took off the board. They should have scored every one of those but didn't matter in the end they hit threes, they were hitting the glass and they were turning the Cavs over. So even though they had some turnovers, they were turning Cleveland over.

[Tas Melas]

I know you don't want to be an old dodgy fart, but maybe their rules should be on fast breaks only. Like chest to chest passes or bounce passes. No alley oops. I mean she's simple as that. Like Dwayne Casey. I think old Dwayne, you know, he can be their dodgy fart. He is I think some sort of form of advisor for them because you see him at Pistons games. He's there sitting with Ben Wallace and Rip Hamilton and Isaiah Thomas. He can be your old dodgy fart or you know, use Zeke I guess to just Tell him.

[Je Skeets]

Come on.

[Tas Melas]

No alley.

[Je Skeets]

Oops. Well, especially on the road. Yeah, you don't need to throw an alley up on the road. What? Why? What's the why? Risk it at home? I sort of get it. You can get a place going insane off a huge play like that. You get your. Your fan base going nuts on the road. Nothing's going to change.

[Tas Melas]

That's a good point.

[Je Skeets]

Two points. They're going to be quiet. So, yeah, they blew a couple fast breaks, but otherwise, I mean, that was my only issue with how the Pistons played in game six.

[Tas Melas]

Right.

[Je Skeets]

I can't find any other fault otherwise.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, totally.

[Je Skeets]

And Duncan being back was big, and he has. He's got good chemistry with Paul Reed. I like the way the two of them play together out there. Obviously, the gravity and just Paul Reed being a maniac everywhere. B ball, Paul. So they, like Reed's defense, got overlooked a little bit in this game because that was a big part of the third quarter when they then built the lead and extended to, like, 14 at the end of the third.

[Tas Melas]

You think Daryl Morey was watching this game, seeing Paul Reed saying, oh, no,

[Je Skeets]

another one we let get away.

[Tas Melas]

I could have had him, maybe. Instead we signed, like, a guy like PJ Tucker. No disrespect to retired PJ Tucker, but, you know, he liked the old guys instead of some of these young guys. Speaking of old guys, let's talk about James Harden a little bit.

[Je Skeets]

Sure.

[Tas Melas]

Because to see that stat come up during the broadcast, his stats in closeout games.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Yikes. That was rough. He's now 2 and 5 in closeout games. Coming into this game, he was 13 points per game on 28% from the floor. So you hit a quarter of your shots in closeout games and then a fifth of your threes. That being said, this was a way better game. I mean, he was a way. He was their guy.

[Je Skeets]

Didn't love the eight turnovers again?

[Tas Melas]

No, they're not turnovers. Scoring wise, he would boost those numbers.

[Je Skeets]

We're only saying this was a good Harding game because we're comparing it to Mitchell.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Those guys have a lot of pressure on them here. Of course, in a game seven.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, gosh.

[Je Skeets]

They both need to come through. At very least one of them does.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Because my God, if they both have sort of games like they just had in game six at home, I mean, it's like we're just going to do it all over again. But, you know, people keep getting fooled that they're going to somehow get over the Hump especially, I guess, Harden. But he's been okay. I mean, and Harden's been better than Mitchell in this series. He has.

[Tas Melas]

Yes.

[Je Skeets]

Yes. So they really need to have a good game seven, even if it came in a loss, for crying out loud. They can't be the reason why.

[Tas Melas]

No.

[Je Skeets]

Those two dudes who are obviously trying to get over basically a conference finals to a conference finals. Mitchell's never even been there.

[Tas Melas]

Mitchell's never been there. And that's. That's the big hurdle here, trying to get through a big Game 7 on the road, where I thought, while we worked for the starters, I thought a big stat board or a great stat board that we had was James Harden. As series goes on, you know, starts to get weaker and weaker and weaker. But this closeout stat board, phenomenal. Good stuff. That was really good stuff. We shall see what Mitchell can do.

[Je Skeets]

But overall, surprising, though, you knew this.

[Tas Melas]

What? Harden. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Harden shits the bed in elimination games. Maybe you just didn't. You had to see the numbers. They are. They are shockingly low. They are one of the best scores of all time.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

And like you said, in this series, Harden has been their best player and has been really good when they've won. He's been really good. But here we are. Here we are one more time.

[Onplus Nicotine Pouches (Ad Voice)]

On/ nicotine pouches present comfort chronicles at 10 o' clock tee time. How comfortable? You show up in stretchy shorts, a breeze, breathable tea and maybe no socks. Let the dogs breathe well. Other sweat and pleated khakis. You're in your comfort zone. Bombing drives and in your pocket. On nicotine pouches. The softest pouch on the planet. Buy a can at on nicotine.com Products for tobacco consumers 21 years of age or older. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

[Wayfair/Quince Ad Voice]

Inside you, there are two wolves. There's the wolf who loves moving their body, and then there's the wolf who loves lounging. And buddy, they're howling for Viori. Whether suiting up for the gym or just chilling on the couch watching the playoffs, Viori's loungewear pieces prove that comfort and elevated style can go hand in hand. Throw on a pair of core shorts and the Ponto performance crew and you're good to go. Whether you're getting a pump in or just vibing with the fellas, Viori is designed to look great beyond the gym and is perfect for whatever your day brings. Incredibly versatile and comfortable, Viori is an investment in your happiness for our listeners they're offering 20% off your first purchase. So get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on The Planet at vuori.com nodunks that's V-U-O-R-I.com no dunks. Get 20% off your first purchase at vuori.com no dunks and discover the versatility of Vuori clothing exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions.

[Tas Melas]

Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts why

[Amazon Health AI (Ad Voice)]

did I search the Internet for answers to my cold sore problem? Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole filled with images of alarmingly graphic sores in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I could never unsee that.

[Tas Melas]

Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful.

[Wayfair/Quince Ad Voice]

When we moved into our house a few years back, one of the things that caught our interest was that the sellers described the backyard as a gardener's paradise. And let me tell you, we garden hard. Flowers, ferns, foods, compost, raised beds, hammocks. Not necessarily guarding that last one, but chilling is very important too. The one thing we're missing though? A potting table. So don't tell my wife, but she's getting one for Mother's Day and I found it on Wayfair. Whether your vibe is modern, coastal, farmhouse or eclectic, Wayfair has options to help you create an outdoor space that's uniquely yours. Wayfair makes it simple to narrow down to what works for your style and budget. Outdoor seating, grills, major appliances, storage, patio lighting, rugs, decor, potting tables. Wayfair is your one stop shop for home. Over 20 million verified 5 star reviews help you make the right call. Real customers, real feedback. Real homes get prepped for patio season. For way less head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W A Y-F-A-I-R.com Wayfair every style,

[Je Skeets]

every home all right, well let's get into some random notes from game six. Let's start with this one. I want to get your opinion on the play in the early in the second quarter, I guess it was Asar Thompson shoved Sam Merrill to the ground. Then he stepped over him and they went and looked at it. And after the video replay, officials said Zack Zarba after fixing his hair, dapping off the sweat. Guy loves to look good on camera, he said. Thompson's left arm extended to Merrill's head and neck area and there was follow through. So that is why Thompson was Assessed with a flagrant one foul, though. They were showing it in Cleveland on the big screen or on the Jumbotron and people were going, oh, no, no, no. That was way more severe. He should have been tossed. You thought what?

[Tas Melas]

Accurate.

[Je Skeets]

Accurate.

[Tas Melas]

I thought.

[Je Skeets]

I'm with you.

[Tas Melas]

You can't toss him for that. But flagrant one, head area. Yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

And maybe didn't do himself any favors stepping over him too, right? Yeah, maybe. But I'm with you. Flagrant 1 was as far as I could have gone with something like that on a. You know, it's a. It's a pick play, right? It's a pick play. And yeah, Thompson's trying to power through it. Merrill's trying to hold them, you know, and then he goes high to push him off. But yeah, I'm with you. Not. Not getting tossed in that situation though. He got tossed eventually because he fouled

[Tas Melas]

out right at the end.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

What an effort though, by that guy.

[Je Skeets]

Exactly, exactly. To really set the tone. What else? Dwyane Wade saying He was a 40% three point shooter in the playoffs. In the playoffs. I was like, no, you weren't. I was so confused when he said that.

[Tas Melas]

Did you check the stats?

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, I checked. Of course I did.

[Tas Melas]

He was wrong.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Oh, now. Now it's interesting. Dwayne Wade shot 34% in his entire postseason career. Played a lot of playoff games.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

That is better than his regular season numbers. So I think maybe that's the point he was making right here. He was better from three when the games were more important. I mean, he was a really bad three point shooter in his career. He's sub 30%.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. When we get to Stefan Castle, that's very similar in that he picks it up in the postseason.

[Je Skeets]

Yes. Oh my God.

[Tas Melas]

Versus the regular season three point shooting. But where did Wade get that number? I don't think he's a guy who just.

[Je Skeets]

He had one series where he shot 40%.

[Tas Melas]

Okay, that's good.

[Je Skeets]

He had one seven game series.

[Tas Melas]

Could be it.

[Je Skeets]

Maybe. But Anyway, he shot 34% in the postseason from three and again 29% from three in the regular season. But I wanted to see. Well, what about Dean Wade? What about the other Wade? Why we're talking about this? He's shooting 31% from 3 in his career in the playoffs. That is down from his regular season.

[Tas Melas]

Way down.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Not as way down as you think. I thought he was a better three point shooter than he is. I think he's like a 36 maybe.

[Tas Melas]

Okay.

[Je Skeets]

Career three point shooter.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I thought it was better than that.

[Je Skeets]

I guess that was D. Wade on the calls point, you know, this D. Wade stepped up his game in the postseason from three at least. And across the board.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Anyway, but the 40%, I was like so confused. I was like, I do not remember Dwayne Wade shooting 40% from 3. My God, he was already amazing. Imagine he had a 40% three ball. No, that was fair. Yeah. What else you got?

[Tas Melas]

Well, the Wade that was playing Dean Wade slipped on James Harden's sweat. Big, big sweat spot. You don't see that too often where James Harden fell to the floor. Play happens and they don't go and clean the sweat.

[Je Skeets]

Did they miss it entirely or was it just poor cleaning? I'm not sure.

[Tas Melas]

I'm not sure either. But it was a big spot. Yeah, it was hardened size spot on the floor. And Wade. Yeah, that was like after, you know, a dead ball where they just didn't clean it or whatever happened. But that's. That's rare.

[Je Skeets]

I would say very rare. Very rare. Maybe it's like he did. He landed in a weird spot. Like it was out past the three point line, right? Yeah, but that was like a dagger play to me. That was like the game ended on the Wade slip. And then was it Tobias Harris that had the fast break dunk or whatever score?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I think so.

[Je Skeets]

Right. Like, to me, that was like. I wrote my notes like, well, the weird Wade slip, dagger here for the Pistons. Felt like. I don't think they're coming back after that. Yeah, but he was okay, I guess.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, but there are broadcasters were all saying, oh, is he all right because he slowly fall. Yeah, he slowly got up and looked like. Yeah, hardened sweat may have injured him.

[Je Skeets]

A couple broadcast notes for me, we got to stop interviewing a Sar Thompson

[Tas Melas]

because he's quick on the mic.

[Je Skeets]

He says next to nothing and he says. He says it in like four words. Yeah, he does not want to do it, but we've had him like a couple times now through the postseason where he's getting like a, you know, a mid game interview. We can stop, get somebody else. Anybody else.

[Tas Melas]

I think overall players are just being real quick on the mic. Yeah, I mean, I get that more so than ever. Just bop, bop. I'm done.

[Je Skeets]

Really quick though. So there's that. And then I wanted to get your opinion, J.D. i don't know if you saw any of these games last night, but we had a couple walking talks. Do you guys have opinions on the walking talks? These are pre game. We had Christina Pink with Max Struse in a hallway walk and talk. And then later we had Cassidy Hubbarth with Keldon Johnson in his cowboy hat in more of a concourse walk and talk. I think it even maybe went outside a little bit. What do you think of these? Like, they're just doing the interview, the pregame interview, but they're doing a slow walk and talk.

[Tas Melas]

I like them.

[Je Skeets]

Okay. Okay. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

I think both times the reporter isn't looking at a notebook, which I like.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

It feels more conversational.

[Je Skeets]

Sure, sure. But you know what they are looking at, unfortunately, at least in Christina Pink's situation, they're looking at where they're stepping.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, yeah. That. That is the big question concerned.

[Je Skeets]

And I would be, too. And there's, like, people going by them. Yeah. It's like you sort of got to make note of where you are.

[Tas Melas]

But I think there's somebody protecting the camera person. There should be.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, of course.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

The camera person. There's somebody behind.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

But even her walking and even the play, it's like, you know, first off, it's a hilarious walk because you're moving at a glacial pace.

[Tas Melas]

What is she. What is she looking at? What's she worried about?

[Je Skeets]

Just her steps. I'm sure she has heel. I mean, I don't know, but probably has heels on.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

There's cables everywhere or whatever. Or just like.

[Tas Melas]

Well, that's what I'm saying is that the camera person's walking in the right spot to get all into the.

[Je Skeets]

I'm saying other cables. I'm not saying from the camera.

[Tas Melas]

No, I know, but the camera person's walking. Yeah, it's clear. But, hey, I don't wear heels, so maybe that could be an issue. Yeah, that could be an issue. But there's also.

[JD (Super Producer)]

You have one shot at this. Right. When you're interviewing a player. So there's that. So it just adds to what the. What the interviewer has to think about, Right.

[Je Skeets]

Yes, yes. And what is it adding? It's just like movement. That's it. Right.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Yeah, it's more cinematic. You know, it gives you. It gives you another view of, you know, the bowels of.

[Je Skeets]

Right.

[JD (Super Producer)]

If they're in there or whatever, instead

[Je Skeets]

of standing against a brick wall.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[JD (Super Producer)]

As a director, I would much prefer a fucking walk and talk.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, I guess.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Absolutely. But, you know, as a host, I would be. This is my nightmare, because what if I fall? Especially as you say, skates.

[Je Skeets]

He's.

[JD (Super Producer)]

She's probably wearing heels, you know, and they're looking out for the camera person because they're walking backwards. But there is no thought given to the host.

[Tas Melas]

No, I don't think. No, there's nothing to worry about. They're not going to roll it in if she falls. They just won't use it because it's pre recorded number two. Yeah, it's definitely pre recorded number two. If they do roll it in and you fell down, people will talk about going viral. Okay, well, it's not a good thing. They just won't roll it down and they won't.

[JD (Super Producer)]

They become a meme.

[Tas Melas]

They won't roll it in, but I do.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Yeah, but the people. It'll get leaked.

[Je Skeets]

It'll happen.

[JD (Super Producer)]

It'll get out there.

[Je Skeets]

Can't trust the truck is what you're saying.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[Je Skeets]

Wow.

[Tas Melas]

Wow. That would be tough.

[JD (Super Producer)]

I mean, it's not just the truck. It's master control. It's whoever. Like, there's a lot of eyeballs on this.

[Je Skeets]

So look what just happened with the Summer House reunion. Man, audio leaks.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Familiar.

[Je Skeets]

And he was pissed. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[JD (Super Producer)]

I would not want to be on the wrong side of Andy Cohen.

[Je Skeets]

No, no, Definitely not. Okay. Anyway, I just wanted to get your opinion on it. If people saw it, the Walk and

[Tas Melas]

Talk feels like you're. You're with them. Yeah, I know we disagree, but.

[Je Skeets]

But it's probably just because I'm jaded and I've watched way too much sports television and I've even worked in it a little bit, so.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, but you're right in that the words, the conversation don't change. Nothing's changing. I think it's just more. They're walking. So to me, it's like that's something different if you can pull it off.

[Je Skeets]

That's what they're trying.

[Tas Melas]

We've been in many, many studios of production where they want you standing. They want people standing to change it up, right?

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. Because, I mean, they would always say it's like people flipping through channels. By the way, nobody does that anymore. But people flipping through channels are more likely to stop seeing Blake and Dirk out on a digital court than they would be just sitting at a desk, right? Yeah, or something like this. Any sort of movement, anything. Anything to get them away from the desk 100%. You guys want to do it? You guys want to do a walk and talk while we do this and just keep walking around the table? It'd be a great pick and payoff, actually. Just handheld mike. Just keep walking around with.

[JD (Super Producer)]

With one of those attachments. Attachments that it's like it's on your chest.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, yeah, that'd be great.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Yeah, that'd be cool.

[Je Skeets]

I like that shot. It's like the old Janet Jackson music video. Remember that, I think is what you're saying.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Like, it's like that body camera that like. Yeah. Moves with. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[JD (Super Producer)]

It stays on your face.

[Je Skeets]

All right. What about the, the funny train guy that loves trains.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Oh, that shot

[Je Skeets]

there's heads all like, sort of fish eyed.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Yeah, it's like a 360 cam. That'd be cool.

[Je Skeets]

Okay, let's buy one of those. We have a lot of fun with that, I think. All right, Anything else?

[Tas Melas]

Just quickly. Aart Thompson two handed block that we talked about. Dwayne Wade said, whoa, he's looking like Kenyon Martin used to do. And I thought it was a great reference. It was a good reference. Yeah, it was. It was a nice bonding moment too with my wife who used to watch New Jersey Nets games growing up, get into that arena. And she said, yeah, but Kenya wouldn't knock it out of bounds the same way like he would at times.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

And it was just a one handed block. Now she was getting into the weeds like it was one handed versus a two handed block from a star Thompson. You know, it was just a smacker, something. Actually, she didn't say that he wouldn't smack it out of bounds. I take that back. But it was more of a one hand versus two hand.

[Je Skeets]

I feel like he had a two handed one though. That might be a highlight maybe. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

But anyways, it really bonded us. While we're watching basketball, while I'm watching basketball every single night. It's just nice to have something to talk about, you know. So thank you to Sar Thompson for reminding us. Because, you know, we had. Obviously we talked about Jason Collins as well the other day and that terrible, terrible news. And Danielle brought up how he used to do stuff on the basketball floor. And he was really loved, obviously, as a player.

[Je Skeets]

So I'll tell you what.

[Tas Melas]

Talk about the New Jersey Nets a lot.

[Je Skeets]

I'll tell you what.

[Onplus Nicotine Pouches (Ad Voice)]

What?

[Je Skeets]

Collins was not doing that type of block block, God rest his soul. But he was not doing a Sar Thompson like blocks or Kenyan bursts. But that is nice. You're having a bonding moment with your wife.

[Tas Melas]

Yes, yes. Hey, listen, as we all know, they don't like the playoffs all that much in that. Here we are, we're 30 days in. I barely said any words to my wife except when a Sar Thompson blocks a shot like Kenyon Martin. So for last. But the other 29 days. Haven't talked to her once.

[Je Skeets]

Damn.

[Tas Melas]

Got another 30 days ahead. Danielle. It's gonna be great.

[Je Skeets]

Jesus, that can't be true.

[Tas Melas]

Well, there's days where there's no games if you want to get technical, but I guess finals aren't going to be till done. Till mid June.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, we got a. We got a month. Yeah, you're right. Okay, who's winning game seven just before we take a break. I know. I mean, it's got to be the

[Tas Melas]

Pistons, I guess, but I was wrong coming into game six.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, I mean, it's. I think it's. It's as difficult to answer.

[Tas Melas]

It's.

[Je Skeets]

You could. Who knows?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Who knows who comes out of the gate, obviously. I mean, we could have a rock fight. This could be an ugly, ugly game seven. It's a good way, in a beautiful way, is what I mean. It could be very low scoring. We've seen game sevens like that.

[Tas Melas]

They allow some physical play to happen.

[Je Skeets]

Yes. So, I mean, I had the Pistons in seven, so of course I'm sticking with that. But if the Cavs win, no one will be all that shocked.

[Tas Melas]

What's not. What's nice about this series, I start thinking about the physical play because it is pretty physical already. I don't think there's a lot of flops happening. No, there's not a lot of selling calls. And those are the ones that automatically get called or generally.

[Je Skeets]

I think Harden's had his instances in some of the games.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, you're right.

[Je Skeets]

But for the most part, I agree. Yeah. All right, we're going to take a break and then we'll talk a little Spurs Wolves here. This show is brought to you by FanDuel. NBA fans, this is your reminder to check in daily. You know what? Check in with your friends daily. Check in with your mom, dad, Check in with no dunks daily. And FanDuel. Why? Because every day during the playoffs, FanDuel is serving up a happy hour. We're talking special drops that you won't want to miss, from profit boosts to bonus bets and more. And the best part is every single day, happy hour every day. So whether you're betting the game seven on Sunday night or gearing up for Thunder Spurs, Western Conference Finals bets, make sure you open the FanDuel app and see what's waiting for you. Check for a new reward every single day of the NBA playoffs. And don't miss your shot to get a little extra out of the action. Fanduel, unofficial partner of the NBA can't

[Tas Melas]

believe I was wrong. It's going to be over 45 minutes. No problem. Skeets, don't listen to any of my predictions. Well, some of them are.

[Je Skeets]

I see that you're joking as I look at the time here.

[Tas Melas]

No, it's going to be over.

[Je Skeets]

What?

[Tas Melas]

Because we started. We're at 33 minutes, my man.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[Tas Melas]

It's gonna be over 45.

[Je Skeets]

No, it's not. Okay. Anyway, do you see how long a thing I gotta say in. Whoa, boy here. It's gonna take longer. Five minutes. That's what I'm saying. Oh, you're saying longer, trying to say the opposite.

[Tas Melas]

No, I predicted it was gonna be under 45. I felt like it could. The show could be under 45. Oh, I thought we'd fly through some things. Didn't happen.

[Je Skeets]

No, no, Never does. Because we have too much fun talking about basketball. Yeah, but this game should take a little less time to break down because Stefan Castle had 32 points and 11 to highlight another dominant performance from the spurs backcourt as San Antonio crushed the Wolves by 30 on Friday night. So they finished their second round series in six games. Props to you and TK for correctly predicting this series. You guys had spurs in six and this one was sort of clear from the jump test. I thought that the Wolves were in trouble and Castle was a big reason why. I mean, he just came out and he was a catalyst for the spurs hot start. He had 14 points in the first quarter and just was dominant all game long.

[Tas Melas]

Well, the Wolves tried to switch up their defense to start this game. They threw Randall on Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert on Stefan Castle who's giving him a lot of room out there. And Stefan Castle missed his first shot. First jumper, but that's how cool, comfortable, confident this super young spurs team is. The next shot he took out from the three point line and banged it. And then his next three pointer. Banged it. Hit his first five threes in this game. For a guy coming into the playoffs, many people, myself included, thought, okay, maybe they're just going to give Stefan Castle a lot of room out there and see if he can hit threes. He is a guy who gets better in the postseason in this series. 48% from three, 41% in the first series. So 44 overall shooting threes.

[Je Skeets]

This guy's like a 33 point shooter in his young career. But he did get better as season went on.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, he jumped. He jumped to 33 in this regular season. But what a big jump up yeah, it's a little Andrew Nemhard esque. No. Or Dwayne Wade esque as we talked about. But they gave him lots of room and they got to this big deficit right from the get go. I thought the, the miscommunication between Julius Randall, who's guarding Wemby and whoever was bad in the first six minutes. I just made notes of all the mistakes he met. He made the Wemby alley OOP on that cut. He just wasn't guarding him. And then Stefan Castle had a pick set for him. Randall didn't go guard in front of him at all. Castle just walked to the hoop. And then another one. Randall wanted to switch as Castle got through. Shannon couldn't recover. And one. That's too easy. So. So that miscommunication with, with Randall and, and the perimeter player didn't bode well. And then Anthony Edwards didn't start well. Too bad turnovers where he. He wasn't being doubled to start. No, just bad turnover. So the double deficit, double digit deficit could not be overcome.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. And we were just witnessing unreal accuracy from the spurs shooters to Castle and everybody. Their shooting splits were 56, 47 and 85 in an elimination game to put away the Wolves who were at home. That's dominant here. Castle flexed his all around skill set. 32 points, 11 board, 6 assists plus 28 in 30 minutes. According to Statitudes, Castle is just the second player in NBA postseason history to record at least 30 points, 10 boards, 5 assists in a closeout win at the age of 21 years or younger. Who is the other one? Magic Johnson in Game 6 of the 1980 Finals. A pretty legendary performance. So those are the stats Castle just put up here.

[Tas Melas]

I like how we get our stats from different places because my Stefan Castle stat was the youngest player in playoffs history to have 30 plus points, 10 plus rebounds, 5 plus assists and 5 plus three pointers made.

[Je Skeets]

That's the threes that Magic definitely wasn't doing in game six of the 80 finals.

[Tas Melas]

But yeah, Luca was the youngest one to have those numbers at 22. Stefan Castle just 21 and a half.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. And people say he's not even the best guard on the spurs team.

[Tas Melas]

Dylan Harper.

[Je Skeets]

It's crazy.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Yeah. But Dylan Harper's fine coming off the bench.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, I know.

[Tas Melas]

So it's a perfect combination.

[Je Skeets]

He was awesome. For the third straight here. For the third straight year here. The Timberwolves season ended with a blowout too. Don't love that part. Two years ago, 21 point loss to the Mavericks in Game 5 last season. That was in the Western Conference finals. Last season in the Western Conference finals, they lost to OKC by 30. And then here on Friday night tests 30 points at the hand of the Spurs. What happens here at the end? I mean, I think Finch said they just ran out of bullets. They of course were injured in this series and shorthanded. No. Dante DiVincenzo and Ant, obviously with the knee issues. But still pretty embarrassing that every year it ends like this to the point where I know we'll get into what Anthony Edwards even did in this game while the game was going on that a lot of people have opinions on. But the actual just getting waxed at the end of a season is that.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

What does that say to you about this team and an Anthony Edwards led team or Chris Finch led team?

[Tas Melas]

I lean more towards the Victor Wembanyama factor in this particular series. I don't think it's a, a negative that they got blown out now three seasons in a row right in the final game to finish their season. I definitely made that note. I was thinking, whoa, what, what, what a blowout at home especially. But I don't want to be recency biased here. Look at the last two years and how they respond. They got to the conference finals twice and here they are able to overcome the Nuggets and get to play Wemby. So I don't think it's. I think it's a Wemby factor really is what it comes down to. I think the Victor Wembanyama and this new era of trying to adapt and fix your offense to try and get around this guy. That's the only times they were good in this series when they were able to get around him, pull him out and score in the paint because of that. And, and also just hit some threes. If you look at it, you know, the Wolves tried to pull Rudy off the floor in this game more. He only played 21 minutes while Nasrid played 31 minutes. And in the first game when they pulled Rudy in the fourth quarter, that's when they won their game. The only other game that they won that was when Victor Wymanyama wasn't on the floor, essentially. So you look at the numbers and I think that's where the Wolves have to think about what their future is.

[Je Skeets]

Sure.

[Tas Melas]

Because Nas Reed, I know he's coming off the bench, but I think it's a factor here. Against Wemby minus 36 in this series while Rudy Gobert was minus 59. There's, there's a big difference there if you look at those numbers. But also at your. Jaden McDaniels only 15 points per game after the way he finished round one against the Denver Nuggets. That monstrous 30 point game. You see, you have to pull Victor Wembanyama as far away from the basket as possible to have guys like Jaden McDaniels produce at the rim and also guys being able to shoot the ball from three. So this is just a different world here with Victor Wembanyama on a basketball floor. I think that's. That's what I got from.

[Je Skeets]

Well, the way the Wolves. He's not going anywhere.

[Tas Melas]

No, I know.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. It feels like Tim Connolly successfully built the Wolves to beat the Nuggets. Yeah, they figured out that. They figured out how to beat Jokic on the Nuggets. They've had success there. It's all these other teams in. In the Thunder who are the defending champs now. The spurs on the rise. I mean, obviously, whereas the Mavericks lost too. It's. It's the other teams that you need to adapt for and obviously figure out and like good luck. And I don't know what they do with Julius Randle. He had three points last night, one of eight shooting in the series. 34% from the field, 421 from deep. You talk about trying to stretch the floor and pull out Wemby. He couldn't hit a shot. A combined plus minus of minus 84 for the series for Julius Randall. And it looked just as bad on the television screen as it does in the box score. That's the thing. It actually matches up for the most part of this series. And he played well last year in two series, but otherwise he's. He's had six duds now in postseason series. He's had two good ones, I'd say. So Six out of his eight have been bad overall compared to what he does in the regular season.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

A bit of a playoff dropper, unfortunately.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, there was definitely a Wemby factor in this one for Randall.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, of course.

[Tas Melas]

Because he can't stop and pop either. You know, he has to try and try and go at Wemby if that's his thing. And you know, you see how that goes. Or fire away from three. That didn't happen for him in this series.

[Je Skeets]

So what do the Wolves do here? Because they obviously have. It's. It's pretty apparent that they are a tier down from these other elite teams. Do you try and trade Randall and put Nasrid into the starting position? Spot you try and trade Rudy Gobert and obviously pivot off that sign IO desumo, sign more vets, hope McDaniels levels up. I mean, I don't where you're going here with this team.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, it's scary for them because their roster, their main guys who play are all signed up. Edwards, Gobert, Randall, McDaniels, Nas, Reed. It just can't happen naturally. A lot of those guys are signed for two more years or three more years. So what do they do? Because this feels like, like you mentioned LeBron in the east and how guys weren't able to overcome that. It feels like Victor when Minyama is part of, you know, two teams now. Yeah, it's them and the Thunder you have to overcome.

[Je Skeets]

So that's why people are saying Minnesota's best hope is to pray for expansion to come quick and that they're the team that's moved to the Eastern Conference because good luck with OKC and San Antonio on your side of the bracket. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

You know, immediately after I start to think about Julius Randall as the guy that you would move on from.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, I think they would in a heartbeat.

[Tas Melas]

But they signed him to that extension. It's.

[Je Skeets]

Our team's going to be lining up

[Tas Melas]

for Julius Randall, 33, next year and then a $35 million player option the next year. So two years is not untradable. No, no. But this is different for Tim Coddley, as you said, able to overcome the Nuggets, but now it's the. It's the Wemby factor. He's. He's changed everything, just like LeBron changed it in the east for a long time. How are you going to overcome that? I think there's no other answer other than to pull him away from the basket as much as possible. That was the only way the Wolves won in this series. And it'll be way better for Chet Holmgren doing that in the conference final. Way better for the Thunder overall and able to allow that room for shaded drive and whoever, man. Anyway, I won't get into that series, start to think about that. Anyway, they need.

[Je Skeets]

Ant needs a running mate here. Right. He needs another guy beside him, another star beside him. So are they aggressive again in trying to get Giannis and convince him to want to come out to the Western Conference? Jaylen Brown, obviously, if he's in trade rumors or if he isn't, maybe it's even more of like a guard play, like John Morant, Kyrie Irving, possibly. I mean, I'm just throwing names out here, like superstar Level guys to pair with it. I mean, did you see Ant's postgame press conference?

[Tas Melas]

I did not.

[Je Skeets]

Okay. He, you know, he's asked the classic what do you got to do type thing to get over the hump and he did the. That's not for me to decide. That's for them to decide. You know, sort of like that's on the front office to figure out. Like he was, he was frustrated. I mean they just got waxed here. But you know, I was reading into his body language what he's saying. It's a little bit like we can't do this again, I think is what he was really getting out here. We can't run this back again. Like this current construction with the bigs of Randall and Gobert and then me as the lone guy here.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

On the perimeter. And Dante would have helped for sure to obviously try and match the three point shooting of the Spurs a little bit. But yeah, big decisions because they're just not, they're just not even, quite frankly they're not close to that top tier. And you have Anthony again, banged up here but entering his prime. Should be soon here. This will be the window with your best Ant if healthy. So huge decisions. Let's talk about Ant congratulating the spurs though. With eight minutes to go left in the game, this guy got up from the wolves bench, you know, dead ball situation, but walked down and he dapped up every single coach and player on the spurs and then, and then came back and this has a lot of people going, what are you doing now? Some people like great sportsmanship, what's the big deal? Other people, you don't as Haslam Dirk, I saw after the game and fans going, save that till the end of the game. Like I know you're not coming back down 30 and you're not even back in the game. But like maybe cheer on your team, lead your team still as the game's going on. What's your opinion on him doing that?

[Tas Melas]

That's a clear signal that we're done and we have to either make some big moves with the front office or you dudes beside me. You got to be better next year. You got no choice.

[Je Skeets]

That's what he's sort of saying there. A little, you know, showing respect to the spurs, but in a weird way disrespecting some of his teammates who he thought maybe didn't show up for.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I think so for sure. Jaden McDaniels being a big one. I know that we're, you know, we've always focused on Julius Randall and Jada McDaniels kind of. He kind of flies under the radar a little bit because he's really, really good defensively and he did score some buckets.

[Je Skeets]

He's just not consistent offensively.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, he's bad, though. He wasn't efficient in this series. He's got to be. He's got to score more. And Anthony Edwards constantly always says, our X factor is that guy. And it's true. The way that he was able to finish out the Denver Nuggets, 30 plus, if he's way better than. This is a different series or. Yeah, Julius Randall could be speaking to the front office, too, but you don't see that in NBA games. You don't ant getting up that early. No, no, no.

[Je Skeets]

I mean, that's what Dirk was saying. He's like. They were like, I've been around basketball my entire life. I've never seen that.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

On one hand, I'm like, who cares? Like, I am. I'm like, it doesn't matter. But then on the other hand, like, what Haslam is saying is like, no, you're the leader of the team, and you are. You are. You are saying a whole lot by doing that. You are. So maybe that's your point. You feel you're showing a little disrespect to some of your. Some of your guys. But I assume he doesn't feel that way about all his guys. So what about the young guys that are out there playing in this game getting some reps, getting some opportunity, maybe just cheer them on for those final eight minutes and then do your thing where you do have, obviously a lot of respect for Wemby and the spurs, as you should. That's fine. No one's saying, oh, don't show sportsmanship.

[Tas Melas]

But it's weird.

[Je Skeets]

It just was weird. Yeah, it was. It was weird. If he had just gone down in a strange way to me and just, like, dapped up Mitch Johnson, the head coach, and then maybe even Wemby or whatever, just leave it at that, I think. I don't know. Maybe. I don't know. Would I still be rolling my eyes out a little bit? Yeah, sure. That competitive nature, like, where is it? Keep it for the rest of the game. But the fact that he just did it, every single guy was like, wow, he is okay. Yeah. The towel is thrown in. In his mind, so why not get it out of the way now? I guess just strange. I mean, I'm fascinated to see what people think because I've seen Both sides of the argument here, where people are like, you are making a way bigger deal out of this than you need to be. Focus on Randall not showing up. Focus on what they got to do in the off season. This isn't a story when a lot of other people are like, no, this is. That's bad. That's a bad look for a leader of a franchise.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, it's definitely, to me, it's about who they are going forward. Yeah, there's. There's a bit of a call out, whether it's front office, we gotta do something or players, we gotta be better. But you look at some of these players and I do want to point out how good Nas Reed was in this series. He really, really was. He nearly hit one of every two threes he took, you know, 45.5% from three. He was awesome. And, you know, I'm trying to draw up in my head, how the heck do you pull Wemby out? Is it more Nazri at the 5? I don't think it's getting rid of Rudy Gobert because he's so important defensively, but it's. There's this got to be a different mix up of their top three. Jaden manuals, McDaniels aside, because he is so good defensively, you can keep them there. But the three of Gobert, Randall and Reed, it's probably Randall who's got to bite it, ideally for them to move on from him because the other guys are capable. And Nas, you don't want to be playing at the five a ton. And he played beside Rudy Gobert at times in this series because he's smaller. So he's just so capable offensively in a different way that Randall is.

[Je Skeets]

And the biggest thing. And it was refreshing to hear Ant get asked about this and agree with it in his postgame press conference was like, you build championship habits during the regular season. We have to stop pretending like that doesn't matter. And this idea of flipping a switch and like, we'll make these Western Conference runs and we'll play better in the postseason, like, like, that's cool, you can do that, but you can't, you can't, like, you can't skip, like the work here to obviously win the whole thing. And he even said, like, yeah, it's through the entire regular season building these good habits and that's gonna be, that's

[Tas Melas]

gonna be tough to change from a team that does it every single year.

[Je Skeets]

I know. And so is that a coach, coach switch up? Is that, I mean, he's not going anywhere. You wouldn't think.

[Tas Melas]

Is he calling out Chris Finch and Mike Annori and Pablo Brigione?

[Je Skeets]

I don't know. So I. At least he addressed it, he agreed with it.

[Tas Melas]

That would be a totally different team if they were able to do that. But. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And maybe he was listening. As much as I mock how much Michael Jordan contributed to those NBC interviews this season, maybe he was listening to Michael Jordan who was basically saying, every game matters. You know, it was more talking about load management. But you can interpret that as every practice, every game matters.

[Je Skeets]

That's what you're saying.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. So.

[Je Skeets]

But I'll tell you, have been getting up with eight minutes left in a game to go shake the hands of the other team.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I was shocked.

[Je Skeets]

Nor. Nor would Kevin Garnett, nor would even Haslam was saying, even Wemby would not do something like that. You know, they, they were just getting up to this. Like, you got to sort of stay locked in there as the competitive dog. And it's the message you are unfortunately sending to the rest of your teammates. You are saying, I'm sort of quitting on you.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. When. When you heard. When you saw Dirk say that he's never seen that in his career. Was he sitting at the desk or was he standing?

[Je Skeets]

They were sitting some.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, they were sitting.

[JD (Super Producer)]

They do.

[Tas Melas]

They do the stand pre game anyway. That's funny. They're just standing there. They're not even walking.

[Je Skeets]

They shared their opinion on it.

[Tas Melas]

I mean, it's good. No, those guys are very, very good.

[Onplus Nicotine Pouches (Ad Voice)]

On nicotine pouches present comfort chronicles. A 10 o' clock tee time. How comfortable you show up in stretchy shorts or breathable tee and maybe no socks. Let the dogs breathe. While other sweatshirts and pleated khakis. You're in your comfort zone. Bombing drives and in your pocket. On nicotine pouches. The softest pouch on the planet. Buy a [e-mail] Products for tobacco consumers 21 years of age or older. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

[Je Skeets]

Support from this show comes from Quince. I'm way overdue for a wardrobe refresh. I'm a podcast host. That is very important. I drive a Chevy Trax. I'm a man. I'm 45. Clothes shopping in person is simply not a priority for me. So I usually wear the same stuff till my wife calls me out. For these reasons, I'm pumped to say that quints has been my new Go to I asked Nora to help me pick out a couple of items and it turns out she already had a cart ready of things she was planning on getting me from Quints. So I picked up two of the 100% European linen shirts, one striped, one solid. The material feels light and breathable and the stitching looks really well done. They're the perfect type of pieces that feel easy and comfortable but still look put together. And the best part is, I didn't break the bank. In fact, everything I purchased was priced 50 to 80% less than what you'd find at similar brands. Why? Because Quints works directly with the ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen. So you're getting premium materials without the markup. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com nodunks for free shipping on your order and three 65 day returns now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com nodunks for free shipping and 365 day return Quint.com nodunks Amazon Health

[Tas Melas]

AI Presents Painful Thoughts I I can't stop scratching my downtown. Mm, yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud. There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI. Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24. 7 Healthcare just got less painful

[Je Skeets]

when

[Wayfair/Quince Ad Voice]

we moved into our house a few years back, one of the things that caught our interest was that the sellers described the backyard as a gardener's paradise. And let me tell you, we garden hard flowers, ferns, foods, compost, raised beds, hammocks. Not necessarily guarding that last one, but chilling is very important too. The one thing we're missing though A potting table. So don't tell my wife, but she's getting one for Mother's Day and I found it on Wayfair. Whether your vibe is modern, coastal, farmhouse or eclectic, Wayfair has options to help you create an outdoor space that's uniquely yours. Wayfair makes it simple to narrow down to what works for your style and budget. Outdoor seating, grills, major appliances, storage, patio lighting, rugs, decor, potting tables. Wayfair is your one stop shop for home. Over 20 million verified 5 star reviews help you make the right call. Real customers, real feedback. Real homes get prepped for patio season. For way less, head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's w a Y F A I R.com Wayfair Every style, every home.

[Je Skeets]

Anything else? Let's, you know if you got some random notes.

[Tas Melas]

Of course.

[Je Skeets]

All right, let's do random notes again.

[Tas Melas]

Random. I'll start us off. I don't know what Wemby was holding during one break and play. He was holding very close to his nipple for a long time. And I'm just curious. I'm just curious if somebody can ask him because it was a break in play. He wasn't really involved in the play. He was out at the three point line. There was a foul and then there's a break and play and he's just holding right by his nipple.

[Je Skeets]

And I think it's Jersey, like jersey,

[Tas Melas]

but deeper than the jersey. So. And it was like a six second. I'm sorry, J.D. i didn't grab the clip but like start to finish, like holding it there, like, like more of a. A grab, like a jostle. So, yeah, just curious. I think our man Jared Weiss can ask him about that because did you see the Jerus Jared Weiss article on Tim Dun and his relationship with Greg Popovich and how he's there to be with Greg Popovich? Great article. Another article I think Jared Weiss can write is about the knee pads. I've talked about before here in the playoffs. But Wemby even adjusts his knee pads after play. So in this particular game it looked like there's. It's split. Like there's a seam stitched in between the middle of the knee pad. So you see like a chunk on the left and a chunk on the right. Gotta know more.

[Je Skeets]

So it's more protecting the sides of his knees is what you're saying.

[Tas Melas]

Both, yes. And also I think because you have that seam right up the middle, they're not connected, so they don't move up and down as much because there's just that stitching. This is getting really technical. But Jared Rice, we need more on it because some guys, I think us, our Thompson's are like, they're different. Bruce's are different. We should know more.

[Je Skeets]

Could have a whole article on knee pads for sure.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

We barely even talked about Wemba.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Pretty impressive from the spurs that we didn't have to. He didn't have, you know, he had a quiet game. Didn't really need to do a whole lot defensively, of course, a menace, but didn't have to do a lot on the other end. The way the guards have played for this spurs team.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, they were so good. That's the scary thing.

[Je Skeets]

Everybody was hitting threes.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, they were. Yeah. But you know, Dylan Harper, who some, you know, think that they're. Or he's their best guard. I mean, he came out and was able to just push the ball immediately as soon as he started playing. And that's maybe kudos to manage and obli. Or guys who are able to coach him into his role. But also kudos just to the spurs able to say we need to push it every single time. And that just as I start thinking about the conference finals, that's how they bode well against the Thunder. How many guards they just have in their four wins. Against the spurs, it was. Excuse me, against the Thunder, it was just push, push, push, push, push, push. And it worked.

[Je Skeets]

Can't wait, can't wait for the Western Conference finals. We will preview and predict that on Monday's show because that doesn't tip till Monday night.

[Tas Melas]

One random note from post game press conference. I didn't watch Anthony Edwards, but I watched Wemby.

[Je Skeets]

Okay. No, I didn't.

[Tas Melas]

So he's holding a mic and.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, he's doing the Jokic. Yeah, that was a classic Jokic. Maybe Dirk used to do that too. They would take it out. Yeah, he would have to lean back half the time.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Knock over the Gatorade bottles in Dirk's case. But he was holding the mic and the mic stick was so small. Like his, his hands were too big. So his two fingers were over the mic flash. They were covering the mic flash. That's how, that's a. How big his hands were. It was an NBA app mic flash. So I do think their mics are a little bit smaller too. So, you know, there's. That could be a part of it. But man, he's literally covering that thing. Like he's, he's holding a cigar or something. Like those two fingers were so big. It's like that's all I got.

[Je Skeets]

A normal sized mic in Wemby's hands. Looks like one of those like novelty sized tiny mics that people use on the street for social media clips.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

It's just a normal mic though. In his hands.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah, I bought one of those like super, super tiny ones. Oh, yeah, From Urban Outfitters mainly because my, my daughter was like, well, this is so cool. She loved it. So we bought it.

[Je Skeets]

Does it work?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, no, it doesn't do nothing. Oh, hold on.

[Je Skeets]

Wait, is it a real mic or just hold on.

[Tas Melas]

I'm trying to remember if I, I. Because I did that one short in a. I did about NBA dads. So I had it there, but I don't know if it recorded or not. I think it does, but maybe it didn't work all that well. Either way, it's funny. Okay, it is funny to look at that because the teeniest of tiniest. Yeah, that's it.

[Je Skeets]

It's all here. Random notes.

[Tas Melas]

I'm all noted.

[Je Skeets]

Tiny mics. I love it.

[Tas Melas]

I'm noted out and again.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, we'll talk Thunder Spurs Western Conference Finals preview on Monday Show I was about to say tomorrow, but no, no, no, we're taking tomorrow off. Yes, we'll have to rest all day as we get excited for Game seven between Pistons and Cavs. Little Boy of the Night Sponsored by Lake Break on Whatnot. It's from Jesse. Sponsored Answering Woah. Boy writes in A while back, no dunks covered Chris Bosh's medical scare and his message really stuck with me. Life is too short. Do the things you love. I took that to heart. I left my nine to five and I started my own card breaking business on whatnot. My store is called Lakebreak and it's been one of the best decisions I've made. I'm grateful to spend more time with my kids and build something I'm passionate about without stressing over people and rigid schedules and all that. My journey in the hobby is just getting started and I'd love to invite you all to be a part of it. So Jesse's gonna be live today, Saturday, May 16 at 4pm Pacific, 7pm Eastern for a Bowman University Best Case break on whatnot. So opening cards that I believe you can bid on and stuff like that on whatnot if you want to. And Jesse writes, even if you're not planning on buying anything, feel free to stop by. It would be a great to hang out and chat with the community. And if you don't already have a whatnot account, we're gonna have the link in the show. Notes gets you $15 credit to use however you'd like. We'll have a link to the show on Saturday there as well. So thank you Jesse.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, the notes are already in the chat.

[Je Skeets]

There we go.

[Tas Melas]

I'm laughing at a Stream team comment saying life is too short. Don't argue in the chat anyway.

[Je Skeets]

People are arguing in the chat.

[Tas Melas]

I guess so.

[Je Skeets]

Anthony Edwards, maybe. Anyway Jesse, thank you for sponsoring well boy, and good luck and way to follow your heart there.

[Tas Melas]

Absolutely.

[Je Skeets]

Hope you have a blast there on whatnot with Lake Break. Okay, castle gets well boy, 32 points. Game high 11 to 16 from the field, five of seven from deep five, a six at the line. Game high. 11 rebounds, six assists. And because he didn't have a blocker of steel. Look what I threw up there. I threw up a plus minus for you. Plus 28. This guy in 30 minutes.

[Tas Melas]

Castle, no blocker. Steel, huh?

[Je Skeets]

No, I know. Sort of strange.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

5, 3 fall into a steel. Usually when you're a guard like that, but nope. Great game. Guy's amazing. And now he gets to see how he does against the Thunder Guards on the other side. That's going to be a little different. No doubt. Can't wait. Thanks for joining us though, here today on a Saturday. It's great to be here in the classic factory. Thanks for opening up the factory, JD So we can hit him with another classic.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Oh, yeah, no problem.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, we will be back.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Needed more people in the house.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah. You got a packed house right now.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

You got friends from Mexico here. You've got your mother in law. You said your parents are arriving soon.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Parents are arriving. They're not staying here. Oh, and my brother's arriving with his wife and my nephew because we got

[Je Skeets]

a big graduation for Jackson.

[JD (Super Producer)]

That's right.

[Je Skeets]

On Monday.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Monday morning.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[JD (Super Producer)]

I won't be here.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, yeah, you won't be here. That's right. Ash will be here.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Ash is filling it.

[Je Skeets]

Nice. Nice. Okay. Well, good luck with the graduation. I hope it doesn't take eight hours.

[JD (Super Producer)]

They run a pretty tight ship usually, but. And it's at 9:00am Whoa.

[Je Skeets]

Wow.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Are you going out for brunch after to celebrate?

[JD (Super Producer)]

I think we're gonna fire up the grill out here, so, you know, maybe

[Je Skeets]

I'll stick around after the show on Monday morning. Please do celebrate young Jackson. All right, well, good luck with that. Ash will be here. Trey will be back from Chattanooga. We'll be talking about Game 7. Pistons, Cavs looking ahead. As I said to Thunder Spurs. Is it the Western Conference finals or is it the actual finals? Oh, Nick's fan thing. I'll be happy with that. And then of course, later in the week, we'll start previewing whoever wins that game. Seven on Sunday night against the Knicks. We're down four. Almost, baby.

[Tas Melas]

Yep.

[Je Skeets]

How many games left? Task. Do the math real quick. How many possible multiple games left? Jesus.

[Tas Melas]

21 plus 1.

[Je Skeets]

22. Yeah, right. Wow. That's it.

[Tas Melas]

It's just a. It's weird, you know, it feels like we're halfway through, but at 21, 22, that's like a quarter of the games you want to get into the nitty gritty yeah, yeah.

[Je Skeets]

Like three quarters of the way through in a weird way.

[Tas Melas]

Yep.

[Je Skeets]

But we'll keep talking about it all the NBA news till Monday. Clipper Bros. You heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys.

[JD (Super Producer)]

Awesome.

[Tas Melas]

Thanks for joining us. And remember, 10 toes in when you're standing on business.

[Je Skeets]

Mentos in. Yeah, I thought it was ten toes down.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. But there's a rap line that they use during the broadcast.

[Je Skeets]

Oh.

[Tas Melas]

So I had to include it. From who. Who performs that song? I believe it's Pastor Troy, Big Dogs featuring Call me. No, it's no Pastor or no Little Troy. It's a. It's a newer song.

[Je Skeets]

Okay.

[Tas Melas]

2024. Have you listened by the Drake Big Dogs? No, I have not.

[Je Skeets]

You got 43 songs to listen to.

[Tas Melas]

43?

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Three albums.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Okay.

[Je Skeets]

Good luck. Are they good through them as well?

[Tas Melas]

He took a photo with Wemby that's old.

[Je Skeets]

Oh, I think that's.

[Tas Melas]

It looked weird.

[Je Skeets]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen that photo before.

[Tas Melas]

Okay.

[Je Skeets]

Wendy looked younger, I thought.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, he did.

[Je Skeets]

So good luck with Drake.

[Tas Melas]

Thank you.

[Je Skeets]

We'll see you guys on Monday. Hey, embrace the weekend, people.

[Amazon Health AI (Ad Voice)]

What does it mean to live a rich life? It means brave first leaps, tearful goodbyes, and everything in between. With over 100 years experience navigating the ups and downs of the market and of life, your Edward Jones financial advisor will be there to help you move ahead with. With confidence. Because with all you've done to find your rich, we'll do all we can to help you keep enjoying it. Edward Jones Member, SIPC

[Je Skeets]

Support from this show comes from Quince. I'm way overdue for a wardrobe refresh. I'm a podcast host. That is very important. I drive a Chevy Trax. I'm a man. I'm 45. Clothes shopping in person is simply not a priority for me. So I usually wear the same stuff till my wife calls me out. For these reasons, I'm pumped to say that Quints has been my new go to. I asked Nora to help me pick out a couple of items, and it turns out she already had a cart ready of things she was planning on getting me from Quints. So I picked up two of the 100% European linen shirts. One striped, one solid. The material feels light and breathable, and the stitching looks really well done. They're the perfect type of pieces that feel easy and comfortable, but still look put together. And the best part is, I didn't break the bank. In fact, everything I purchased was priced 50 to 80% less than what you'd find at similar brands. Why? Because Quint's works directly with the ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen. So you're getting premium materials without with the markup. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to quince.com no dunks for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com no dunks for free Shipping and 365 day returns. Quint.com nodunks onplus nicotine pouches present comfort

[Onplus Nicotine Pouches (Ad Voice)]

chronicles at 10 o' clock tee time. How comfortable you show up in stretchy shorts of breathable tea and maybe no socks. Let the dogs breathe while other sweat and pleated khakis. You're in your comfort zone. Bombing drives and in your pocket on plus Nicotine pouches the softest pouch on the planet. Buy a [e-mail] Products for tobacco consumers 21 years of age or older. Warning this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

[Wayfair/Quince Ad Voice]

When we moved into our house a few years back, one of the things that caught our interest was that the sellers described the backyard as a gardener's paradise. And let me tell you, we garden hard flowers, ferns, foods, compost, raised beds, hammocks. Not necessarily guarding that last one, but chilling is very important too. The one thing we're missing though? A potting table. So don't tell my wife, but she's getting one for Mother's Day and I found it on Wayfair. Whether you're vibing is modern, coastal, farmhouse or eclectic, Wayfair has options to help you create an outdoor space that's uniquely yours. Wayfair makes it simple to narrow down to what works for your style and budget. Outdoor seating Grills Major appliances Storage patio lighting rugs, decor, potting tables wayfair is your one stop shop for home. Over 20 million verified 5 star reviews help you make the right call. Real customers. Real feedback. Real homes get prepped for patio season. For way less, head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W A Y-F A I R.com Wayfair Every Style, Every Home this is an iHeart podcast.

[Tas Melas]

Guaranteed human.