The Most Disappointing Players In The Playoffs So Far & Drastic Draft Lottery Reform

Summary

No Dunks – April 30, 2026

"The Most Disappointing Players In The Playoffs So Far & Drastic Draft Lottery Reform"

Episode Overview

On this episode, Skeets, Tas, Trey, and JD dive into the NBA playoffs’ most disappointing individual performances, engage in a tongue-in-cheek draft of their “Most Disappointing Players,” and debate the proposed 3-2-1 NBA Draft Lottery reform. The show also features detailed recaps of the previous night’s key playoff games—highlighting star duels, upsets, and concerning trends for top teams.

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1. Playoff Game 5 Recaps and Analysis

Epic Duel: Pistons vs. Magic

Summary:
Cade Cunningham (Pistons) and Paolo Banchero (Magic) both dropped 45-point performances, with Cade leading Detroit to a series-extending win (116–109). Despite Banchero’s heroics, Orlando’s missed free throws proved costly (16/30 at the line).

Key Points:

• Cade Cunningham’s Leadership:
  • “He put his head down, got to the line a ton. Hit all his free throws too. 14 of 14, had the three ball going and he shot a lot of times...He played 44 minutes. He’s like, ‘We’re going back to Orlando. I’m dragging us there.’”
    —Skeets, 08:51
• Supporting Cast Contributions:
  • Asar Thompson “battling a leg injury and then coming through in the fourth with monstrous blocks.” —Tas, 06:11
  • Jalen Duren: “Finally, the best Jalen Duren game in this series, 12 points and nine rebounds.” —Tas, 06:40
• Magic’s Missed Opportunity:
  • “Orlando made seven more three-pointers, but 16 of 30 from the free-throw line…literally make your free throws.” —Trey, 12:05
  • “Paolo said that he was talking about himself specifically… he missed a ton. But the whole team missing basically half their free throws… is pretty rough.” —Skeets, 12:19

Notable Moment:

• Announcer Ian Eagle on Banchero’s banked-in floater: “Putting the bank in Bank-haro.” —Trey, 13:18

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Cavs vs Raptors: Schroeder & Mobley Rescue Cleveland

Summary:
Dennis Schroeder erupts for 11 of his 19 points in the fourth, while Mobley nails critical threes. Despite injuries, Toronto pushes Cleveland in a 125–120 loss as the Cavs take a 3–2 series lead.

Key Points:

• Raptors Battle Despite Injuries:
  • “They are missing their starting point guard in Emmanuel Quickley… Brandon Ingram leaves this game… Scotty Barnes not at his full strength after a quad.” —Skeets, 16:23
• Scotty Barnes’s Heroic Effort:
  • “Despite that fourth quarter… [Barnes] kept going… was pushing it so hard. If the Raptors around him could catch some … passes—it would have been up so much more.” —Tas, 18:10
• Cavs’ Fourth-Quarter Guard Play:
  • “It was the Dennis Schroeder game. Raptors load up on Mitchell and Harden… smart of Kenny Atkinson to get a third ball handler on the court.” —Trey, 19:44
  • “Donovan Mitchell said he chose to stay on the bench midway through the fourth quarter… to keep Schroeder in.” —Skeets, 25:55

Notable Quotes:

• “Sloppy J—James Harden, the turnovers.” —Tas, 27:51

Stat/Segment:

• Nicknames and food tangents: “Sloppy J” for James Harden and the ground beef anecdote (28:00–29:00).

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Rockets Stay Alive vs Lakers: Gutsy Win

Summary:
In a 99–93 slog, Houston wins its second straight to narrow LA’s lead to 3–2. Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard bounce back from earlier miscues, helping the Rockets outplay a cold-shooting Lakers squad.

Key Points:

• Redemption for Rockets Young Core:
  • “Our two young guys who were the Goats of game three completely came through and were the heroes of game five.” —Trey, 35:00
• Lakers Go Cold from Deep:
  • “LA averaged 106.6 points per contest the first three games… over the last two, they’ve scored 96 and now 93.” —Skeets, 38:47
  • “Over their last 49 attempts, they made 12 threes… sub-25%. They’re going to need one of these games to close out the series where it’s a much better, closer to 35%.” —Skeets, 38:47

Notable Quotes:

• LeBron trash talk, caught by microphones: “‘Soft ass call. You don’t say that… You the only player out here who ain’t allowed to say that.’” —Tas, 44:56
• “Reed Sheppard threw an outlet pass for a turnover… and it got deflected and smacked off J.J. Redick and the guy didn’t even flinch. Cold as ice.” —Trey, 47:05

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2. Draft: Most Disappointing Players In The Playoffs (51:55–64:11)

Draft Rules

• 3 rounds, snake draft style.
• Criteria: Expectations vs. Playoff Performance.

Round 1

• Trey: Jalen Duren (Pistons)
  “He’s a 20–10 dude in the regular season… I think he’s the biggest reason the Pistons were in a 3–1 hole.” —Trey, 51:57
• Tas: Brandon Ingram (Raptors)
  “Going into last night: 15 PPG, 45% true shooting… Not the same guy.” —Tas, 53:06
• Skeets: Mikal Bridges (Knicks)
  “Minutes are getting reduced… only 7 PPG in playoffs… you need a little bit more.” —Skeets, 53:58

Round 2

• Trey: Jarrett Allen (Cavs)
  “8 points, 6 rebounds per game… doesn’t look aggressive at all… needs sunglasses for those bright lights.” —Trey, 55:17
• Tas: Nikola Jokic (Nuggets)
  “Far less efficient than regular season… doesn’t look right." —Tas, 57:29
• Skeets: Derrick White (Celtics)
  “Under 30% shooting from deep… He was good last year in the postseason. This is bad so far.” —Skeets, 58:44

Round 3

• Trey: Jalen Johnson (Hawks)
  “He’s been outplayed by OG Anunoby… looks out of sorts.” —Trey, 60:26
• Tas: Jamal Murray (Nuggets)
  “His true shooting percentage dropped tremendously… Had a huge regular season, but disappointing so far.” —Tas, 61:42
• Skeets: Toumani Camara (Trail Blazers, eliminated)
  “Sort of got by me… Shot 29% from the field, 26% from deep.” —Skeets, 63:34

Other Names Mentioned:

• Suggs, Black, Kessler, Caris LeVert (briefly discussed as underachievers)

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3. NBA Draft Lottery Reform: The "3-2-1" Proposal (67:05–78:32)

Summary:

NBA executives are considering a 3-2-1 weighted lottery with expanded odds/deterrents for tanking, adding new “relegation zone” penalties for the three worst records (bottom three can fall as far as 12 in the draft).

Key Points & Debates:

• Main Takeaways:
  • Flattens odds to 8.1% for the 4–10 worst records, 5.4% for bottom three, 2.7% for wild card teams (play-in losers).
  • New rules: No team can win two No. 1 picks in a row or three consecutive top-five picks.
  • “Relegation zone” means bottom three teams risk worse draft positions.
• Skepticism and Critiques:
  • Skeets: “We’re trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist… now you really could be screwing teams… sounds insane to me.”
  • Trey: “This is bad news for fans of the play-in… why try to win? It could incentivize tanking to get into 11th place for better odds.” (72:09)
  • Tas: “Most No. 1 picks don’t go to worst record teams; it often falls to 4–6 anyway… it does discourage tanking at the bottom, but maybe just shifts it elsewhere.”
• Proposal's “Iron Fist” Mechanism:
  • Skeets: “If you’re tired of teams blatantly tanking, then penalize them. Come in with the goddamn iron fist… maybe Silver finally wields serious disciplinary power.”

Memorable Analogies:

• Trey, on the odds system: “Should call this the Manu Ginobly lottery, because they remove a ball.” (78:02)

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4. Memorable Quotes, Segments and Moments

• Deflections and Wordplay:

  • “Sloppy J. Yeah. Every James is Jim. Every Jim is James.” —Tas, 27:58
  • “Softy floppy. Different definitions for me. But I get what LeBron’s saying. You flop too, dude.” —Tas/Group, 45:30

• Trivia Draft Segment:

  • Podcast hosts quiz each other, naming the top total point scorers in the playoffs up to that point, with fun banter about their process. (49:28–51:55)

• Shoes and Superstitions:

  • “Jared Allen changed his shoes… I wonder if it’s throwing him off… unfortunately, we all remember him saying the lights were too bright.” —Trey, 55:29

• On DeAndre Jordan’s Award:

  • “DeAndre Jordan, the only one who wasn’t surprised… Joe Dumars… said, that guy pours himself out to his teammates.” —Tas, 83:58

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:14] Show start/theme and playoff preview
• [04:54] Pistons vs. Magic recap & Cunningham/Banchero duel
• [16:20] Raptors vs. Cavs recap, Barnes, Schroeder, Mobley discussion
• [34:04] Rockets vs. Lakers recap; Lakers’ cold streak, Rockets’ team effort
• [47:27] Playoff Disappointment Draft (through [64:11])
• [67:02] 3-2-1 Draft Lottery Reform segment and debate
• [81:13] Upcoming games/game 7 prediction roundtable
• [83:50] Closing: DeAndre Jordan’s teammate award and outros

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Overall Tone and Takeaways

The hosts bring their trademark banter, humor, and in-depth basketball analysis, balancing sharp critical insight with playful references (food, shoes, pop culture, and NBA inside jokes). Their analysis of playoff underachievers is cutting yet fair, and their lottery reform debate delves into broader questions about league incentives and unintended consequences.

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For listeners who missed the episode:
You get a detailed, high-energy breakdown of the most important games, a thorough dissection of who’s letting their teams down, AND a spirited, skeptical review of the NBA’s latest attempt to engineer parity and discourage tanking.
Perfect for:
Anyone wanting both entertainment and sharp NBA playoff/league analysis, with plenty of laughs and memorable soundbites to boot.

Transcript

[Host/Announcer]

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[Tas Melas]

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[Jay Skeets]

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[Host/Announcer]

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[Jay Skeets]

Good morning sweet world and welcome to the no Dunks podcast presented by Fand. Thursday, April 30, 2026 I'm Jay Skeets here in the classic factory and alongside me as always, Tas Melas.

[Tas Melas]

Fans of three, two series. This one's for you.

[Jay Skeets]

Next to him is my top shot hot boy Trey Kirby. Ao ao. And over yonder, making the magic happen, super producer J.D. hello. There he is. Hit the like button. Subscribe five star ratings and reviews on today's pod, we are going to draft some of the most disappointing players in the playoffs so far. We'll do three rounds of that. We're also going to try and wrap our heads around the proposed 3, 2, 1 draft lottery reform. We teased it yesterday. Today we talk about the odds. But first, some game fives that we had on last night. We got three to break down. Let's start with an epic duel. Yeah. Cade Cunningham scored a franchise playoff record 45 points to lead the Pistons over the Magic. 116, 109 in Game 5 of that first round series to stave off elimination. All the buzzwords here today. Paolo Banchero matched Cade's 45, but he missed 7 of 12 free throws and he talked about that after. Yikes. Orlando still leads the series 3 2. They get a second chance to advance on Friday night. But Cade Paulo, the two number one picks, those teams got to draft them with the number one pick because they were bad teams, if I remember correctly. No, we'll get to that. What a battle though. And Detroit, like we expected, takes us back to Orlando.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, Cade incredible. And then just got enough chipped in by his teammates. Just those little contributions. Just like we are here in political season already here in America where you get those texts or emails saying can you chip in $5, $3, $2, anything. The Pistons got enough of that from their supporting cast. 4 Kade, listen, hey, they're better Cunningham for president. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he can do whatever he wants. Just like our president.

[Trey Kirby]

He gets to whatever stands Tobias Harris as me giving $5 to Jon Ossoff you know what?

[Jay Skeets]

Sort of.

[Tas Melas]

It's a bit of a slap in the face to Tobias because he was better than $5.

[Jay Skeets]

He was.

[Tas Melas]

He was. But start with Cade, who was getting everywhere and doing whatever he wanted on the floor. I thought that instead of Franz Vogner in this lineup, they'd go with Tristan the Silva just because of the height over Jamal Kane, but it didn't really matter. Jamal Kane was out there. He was abusing everybody. Throw. He was switching up to Bane or Suggs or Kane or Wendell Carter or the occasional one versus one battle against Bonchero. Those, those were good. Those, those were fine. But Cade was just spectacular. He could literally get to wherever he went on the floor from up top, getting to that sideline or wherever. And he was so, so good. I do say those other supporting casts from the Pistons, I do want to say they fought through injuries the entire game. Sar Thompson battling a leg injury and then coming through in the fourth with monstrous blocks where he had to recover. And same with Tobias Harris overcoming that ankle injury, hitting enough shots, playing great defense, just really, really great. And finally, the best Jalen Duran game in this series, which is 12 points and nine rebounds.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, but it was.

[Tas Melas]

But still, you know, first possession, he

[Trey Kirby]

outplayed Wendell Carter Jr.

[Tas Melas]

Finally. How about that? Yeah, and a really big key defensive play, I think when Paul Bunchero was bringing it back in the fourth quarter as a seven game deficit for them. And maybe Palo Banchero is coming back, but. Or helping the Magic come back. But our man Jaylen Durant went straight up and absorbed Palabunar really, really well there. So 12 points, nine boards. Again, that's a $5 contribution for John Ossof. I said two blocks and three ugly turnovers, but that's what you wanted and what you needed. Finally, for the second time in this series, they got contributions from other guys when Cade had a good game. You just need four of those. So this series ain't over. No, I'm still taking the magic, though. And hopefully France comes back for that. For that. I think that was kind of key here, but either way, what a show.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, you could definitely tell the Magic we missing Franz. I thought more so on the defensive end, like Jamal Kane. We probably should have gave him a shout out after the big dunk like he deserved to get a start. And that's when I think eight points and nine rebounds in game four. So you're like, okay, we'll try it again, see if he's got the Magic again. Pun not intended, but you know, just beautiful anyways. But he looks small. I thought, yeah, last night compared to Cade Cunningham. Cade realized, yeah, I can just push him off. There's a lot of times when Cade would get into his body, give him the little forearm shiver, just hit a jumper over the top. Anthony Black is another option for the Magic. He's a little quicker probably than Kane is, but he's still skinny. So I wonder exactly how he would fare against Cade. But I thought the off the dribble three pointers from Cunningham were kind of lifesavers for the Pistons. Orlando loves to pack the paint. They'll put five guys there. They'll go under every screen for Cade. He's got to hit some pull ups. He hit three of them last night. Hit another couple on catch and shoots as well. Five threes was half that the Pistons made last night. They needed every single one of it. It's like when John Ossoff emails me and says, I'm desperate.

[Jay Skeets]

Right.

[Trey Kirby]

Please save me. That was Tobias Harris hitting 13 of his 21 in the second half. That was Cade knocking down threes. That was a Duncan Robinson three here and there. A good game for the Pistons to be able to pull this off. Now they just got to do it again in game six.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, Cade decided, look, if we're going to lose as the number one seed to the eight seed and we had a 60 win and we did all this, but we're going to lose here potentially in five last night, it ain't going to be because of me and me like hiding in the shadows or obviously not taking control. Yeah, he put his head down, he got to the line a ton. Hit all his free throws too. 14 of 14, had the three ball going and he shot a lot of times, you know, especially when you considering all the free throws he got there, he's like, he played 44 minutes. He's like, we're going back to Orlando. I'm dragging us there. I need a little bit of help. And yeah, they weren't perfect games but Asar Thompson with a bunch of steals, bunch of rebounds and Tobias Harris coming through with some scoring. Just a little bit of help to take the pressure, some pressure off Cade. Whereas, you know, Paolo was doing, Paolo was catching fire there at the end. I mean, look, it looked like, wow, is he going to do this? Is he going to close them out there? But it was really, really fun. These two guys were on fire there for stretches of this game.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, the during contribution started from the get go. Put him in the post. We need him. So he gets the first possession he gets a bucket that he doesn't usually get scores in the post. And Cade threw one pick and roll to him where he threw it down like it's a thrunk or. Or just it was an and one from four feet away from the rim. That was pretty cool. So you got enough there. While Cade, although, you know, he. He operates in pick and rolls. The Magic tried to get him all the way to the sideline, and his first three was literally on the sideline from the top. He got all the way there because Suggs covered him so well. It was looking a little like Kawhi in the 2019 finals where he got the four bounce shot. Like it wasn't quite the corner, but it was all the way there. So he was special. But did you think Paulo Ben Carroll is going to be able to do it in the fourth quarter? I think the Pistons just did enough to get that lead. And they held on.

[Jay Skeets]

They held on. They did for sure. And now we move to game six. And like, I don't know if Franz Wagner is going to return for game six or even this series. This is a calf injury. And these, you know, we've seen guys try and play through calf injuries in these high stakes, high stakes playoff pressure games, and it's gone very badly where your, you know, calf injury is suddenly a torn Achilles. So, you know, then you're missing all of next season, potentially. If that were to happen, I. Who knows, who knows the. The severity of it. We were debating. Yeah. Would they at least sit him out here for game five and see if they can first off do it without him and if not, buy him a couple more days rest to then try and return in Orlando. We don't know. I don't know. But I'm not convinced he's going to come back.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, same.

[Jay Skeets]

And. But that doesn't mean they can't win.

[Trey Kirby]

Also true. This was a pretty tight game.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

And it was winnable there for the Magic in. And my guess is that Franz will try and give it a go. I mean, Tyrese Halliburton, he did play a game on an injured calf last year, and then game seven is when he actually tore it. So maybe Franz shows up and it's the same sort of thing as it was in game four. He plays three quarters of the game and then suddenly he's back on the bike. So I think he. Who knows? Who knows. He's got a couple of days here. He can at least give it a shot. But the Magic can be better, literally. Make a free throw. I was staring at the box score last night, adding up the makes and how many points these are worth in my head because it just didn't really compute to me. Detroit only made one more shot last night, 38 to 39 for the Pistons. But Orlando made seven more three pointers. So I had to. I was like doing this math so many times.

[Tas Melas]

Like wait a second.

[Trey Kirby]

It doesn't make sense that they would be so far ahead in three pointers, but 16 of 30 from the free throw line for the. For the piss for the magic. 28 of 35 from the line for the Pistons. Literally make your free throws anyway.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. And again, Paulo said that he was talking about him spells himself specifically because he missed a ton. But the whole team missing basically half their free throws on a decent amount of attempts is pretty rough. Otherwise you maybe do pull this out.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah. So they could easily win game six because it was so close. And lots of good threes because as you said, Trey, they hit seven more threes than the Pistons did. Lots of good three point shooting. Surprising from the the Magic Palo Bunchero 6 of 11. Desmond Bane 4 of 10. Okay, that's not surprising. Anthony Black 4 of 6. Yeah. And Jaylen sucks, who's been pretty poor all postseason. We'll get into the most disappointing players from the playoffs. He will be mentioned 2 of 5 from him. 40% is great. So you know, it would it all balanced out. I. I don't know what their true shooting percentage is because that calculates twos, threes and free throws. But yeah, you can't miss all those free throws. No, simple as that.

[Jay Skeets]

Anything else? Any other random notes or anything from. From the duel itself between those two number one picks.

[Trey Kirby]

Paolo Bonchero banked in a floater and Ian Eagle said putting the bank in bank harrow.

[Jay Skeets]

Yes.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Perfect.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

You like that call? Yeah, I do. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we've heard it before that I could remember. Feels like something that would have said that. Yeah, yeah.

[Tas Melas]

But he saved it for a bank shot.

[Jay Skeets]

I know.

[Tas Melas]

Totally perfect timing. He also. The big rig blew a tire. Did you see that? In the first few minutes he just fell over. He kind of fell over. He just threw the ball. I don't know what happened there. Bad turnover while sort of falling over. That was pretty special. The. I thought the broadcasters were great. Stan Van Gundy said, I don't think I have an adductor because they were talking about Kevin Herder's left a doctor strain. He goes. I don't think I have one. They said, okay, well, maybe I do, but I'm so old, I don't. It hasn't been used. It's kind of used.

[Jay Skeets]

I mean, they had some fun with it. The idea that he's been fired by both of these franchises and he's on the broadcast call, having coached both these teams pretty good.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. He's given a lot of respect to both fan bases.

[Jay Skeets]

I love them both. He said. Yeah. All right, so game six. Look, we got three game sixes tonight and another three game sixes on Friday night. Unlikely, but we could have six game seven babies on the weekend. Now, again, I don't think that's happening. But even we get half. That's pretty good for a first round.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. I think Stan Van said during the broadcast, this is a rare scenario where we have three twos, three out of four series here in the Eastern Conference. Hold on.

[Jay Skeets]

No, all four?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, my bad, my bad. I got.

[Jay Skeets]

That was the thing used with the. The Thunder for all one side of a. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

One conference. Is this the first time six?

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Nobody could answer that. Can you adductor them all together? I said a doctor. So I needed to correct myself. Basically, I wanted to make a joke, but I also corrected myself. I always say adductor, but it's adductor, right? Maybe it's when I read it. Anyway, cool story, bro.

[Jay Skeets]

How's yours doing?

[Tas Melas]

Pretty solid.

[Jay Skeets]

Good, man.

[Tas Melas]

I can tie my shoe standing up, no problem. Although I did see Jakob Hurdle lost a shoe. We always comment, guys just shove their shoe or foot back in. They don't tie it. That guy untied his shoe, and I respect it.

[Jay Skeets]

Were they the spongebobs last night?

[Tas Melas]

Shoes?

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, I don't know if he has spongebob.

[Jay Skeets]

I've heard Will Lou go on a crazy rant about Yaka Purdle's spongebob? She's got spongebob. He apparently love, love spongebob.

[Tas Melas]

Like, he's got spongebob on the shoe.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, yeah. And maybe he wasn't rocking them last night. I'm not sure. I didn't check closely.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, I got a trey zooming in right now.

[Trey Kirby]

I mean, they appear to be black and yellow.

[Tas Melas]

Well, I don't.

[Trey Kirby]

This isn't even last night. Don't ask me.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay. We're not sure. We're not sure. Anyway, I know he's a big spongebob fam. Okay, let's move on then to Dennis Schroeder scoring 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter. Evan Mobley hitting a pair of pivotal threes in the final period of a pivotal game. Cavs rallied for the 1:25, 1:20 victory over the Raps. Cleveland leads the series 3:2, game 6, Friday night in the 6 up in Toronto. Are the ice blocks still there or have they all melted?

[Trey Kirby]

Great question.

[Jay Skeets]

Let us know.

[Tas Melas]

Drake.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Let's start with you. You're a Raps fan. I mean, look, they put up a fight in this game and I will say they are missing their starting point guard in Emmanuel Quickley. The Raptors, he hasn't played a second all series and he's not going to their best score. Our best scorer in Brandon Ingram, he leaves this game in the second quarter with a right heel injury.

[Tas Melas]

Sure.

[Jay Skeets]

And then our best player by far, our mvp, Scotty Barnes, not at his full strength as this game went on, he got like kneed there in the quad from Thomas Bryant, I believe it was while he was driving to the basket in the first half and he looked like a different player in the second half. And I say all that because it was still a close game and they still got looks and maybe could have even pulled it out. We'll get and give all the credit to the Cavs here too, but I was proud of the boys.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

I know it's a loss in the postseason, but they put up a good fight here on the road.

[Tas Melas]

I wasn't concerned about the Brandon Ingram injury. They scored 120 points and the guys filling in for Emmanuel quickly hit a lot of threes.

[Jay Skeets]

Until they didn't. Yeah, until they did. They were, they were shed. Was awesome. Walter was awesome. But they got looks at the end and they didn't. Couldn't knock them down. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

But 120 points for this team is very, very big compared to what happened in game four on both sides. The Cleveland Cavaliers were able to put up those points, but that's. Yes. Just very proud of all of them. I think this is, this is Scotty Barnes. Incredible series here for him. He has been so, so good. I know the line isn't so, so big, but the way he was pushing the ball at every opportunity. Make free throws. The guy, the guy was running off. Maked free throws. Made free throws. Makes. Yeah. Make it. Made free throws on the other side. I mean, he had a hard rebound. Guys all over him. As soon as they dropped off, he ran. He was able to push it. And he got hit in the quad in the second quarter and said it affected him the rest of the way, but he kept going with darko Ryakovic in his huddle saying, scotty, keep pushing it. And he was, man, he was pushing it so hard. If the Raptors around him could catch some Scotty Barnes passes like Yaka Pearl. Took one off the head. Colin Murray Boyles literally dribbled out of bounds. Brandon Ingram before he got hurt. Dribbled, lost it. Those were three first quarter turnovers. They would have been up so much more. But the fast break points to win 26. 6. I ain't mad. I just ain't mad. Despite that fourth quarter, which was the Dennis Schroeder fourth quarter, if the Pistons lose their series, they're gonna regret big time not bringing that guy back who had a good series last year. The Sacramento Kings outbid I. I guess the Pistons, but they ended up giving carousel vert just as juicy an annual salary. So they're gonna regret that. But yes, those two guys, both Dennis Schroeder and Evan Mobley, came through late to finish this off.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, it. I don't think it's a stretch to say that shooter may have saved the Cav season here. Who knows how this game five without him going off using his speed, showing his willingness to attack, attack, attack, attack in that fourth quarter. Trey to the point where Mitchell's like, let him cook.

[Trey Kirby]

Yes.

[Jay Skeets]

You know, and that's pretty impressive for your superstar to say that. Ride the hot hand, coach. Cause he's got to go. And I think he played the entire fourth quarter along with Harden there. And then they had three guards there as Mitchell came back. But he was huge. And so was Mobley, too. He was good.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, Mobley, you said two threes, but I thought the one at the end of the third quarter was kind of part of the fourth quarter run for Cleveland. He followed that up with a dunk, then hit a couple of, like, really timely ones, like you're saying in the fourth. But it was the Dennis Schroeder game. Raptors load up on Mitchell and Harden. Anytime these guys are handling the ball up top, there's a guy shading over just like, you're not going to drive this way. We're not letting you to beat us. So smart of Kenny Atkinson to get a third ball handler on the court. The right hand scoop floater for Schroeder. This guy has hit the shot a million times in his career where he just gets a shoulder past the big guy, curls it up onto the rim, knocks it down. Eleven of his 19 came in the fourth quarter. I thought pretty interesting that the Cavs played the entire fourth quarter Basically with four guards and one big. It was either. It was four of Mitchell Harden, Schroeder Stress, Tyson and Merrill, all of whom did stuff in the fourth quarter. And then one of Evan Mobley or Jared Allen. And yeah, for me, the Raptors like, they got so many. They got three awesome quarters out of Jacoby Walter and Jamal Shed and then the ball just kept finding these guys in the fourth quarter. They both went one for. Meanwhile, Cleveland figured out a way to limit their turnovers in the second half, which made the Raptors have to play in a half court scenario. Scotty wasn't the second player or the same player in the second half. So Cleveland is able to load up on the bully ball that Barnes and Barrett are trying to do. Just smash into guys, get into the lane and shoot over the top. Otherwise it's got to be a kick out to two guys who just went broke in the fourth quarter.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, they did.

[Jay Skeets]

They just ran out of those money balls and they kept grabbing offensive rebounds even they kept giving themselves chances and it kept going in the corner to one of them and they couldn't knock them down.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Great audio Caught by Kenny Atkinson Cast head coach saying defense is great. Contest contests are good. Shed in them. Don't overreact to their threes. Shed in them. You know, I had to write that down. It's obviously shading Jacoby Walton, who again, really good shooting nights other than the first quarter.

[Jay Skeets]

Especially Jacoby Walter, who couldn't buy a 3 like for the last couple of games. Yeah, for him to catch fire and start as hot as he did in this game finishes 6 of 14 from distance. I mean, a lot of attempts for him, but played well. Did play very well. Very well. And then chud was good too, for a 10, but that's. What did I just. That's 24 three point attempts.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

For those two guys now they had 10 of them and a lot of them, you know, more than not coming earlier in the game when they built their lead.

[Tas Melas]

Yes. I wonder if somebody hears that on the broadcast in the second quarter. Shed in them, just leave them open and sends that directly to Jamal Shed. Like at half, he comes in and says, damn, that's cutthroat Kenny Shed in there.

[Jay Skeets]

I'd rather be shed than them.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. That's actually pretty impressive.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

A lot of people don't even know who this guy is. Probably casual fans.

[Tas Melas]

I had to go back. I wouldn't. I listen. I heard that yesterday and I wrote it down. But then I went back to make sure I wanted to know exactly what he said. Was it like Jamal Shed and the rest of those players or was it like just Shed and those other guys? You know, because that's what it really was. He just could only think of Jamal Shed. He didn't really care about saying Jacoby Walter. But I thought coming out of half, watching Evan Mobley miss a bunny on their first possession and they're down double digits. I think PJ Carlissimo said it on the broadcast, they're gonna keep losing or keep getting down in this game if their bigs can't hit shots. And it was totally true. But then Don Mitchell picked it up. Jared Allen hit a shot and then you had that huge Mobley dunk. It kind of like a little pump into his dunk and then you got a big to big passing from Jared Allen and then the three balls started for him. Had a big block on Barnes in the fourth quarter. So those guys came alive. His best game of the series, no question, 23 points for him. As you guys said, the, the lines there, they had, they had some other contributions like when the Raptors were up big in the second quarter, you got a Sam Merrill 50 run to keep them alive. And they got enough until the Dennis Schroeder show, which we have all seen before.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, we sort of predicted this. We're like at one point in this series, Dennis Schroeder is going to win him a quarter. Win him a half, whatever it was. He won him a quarter, no doubt last night to give them the five point victory.

[Tas Melas]

But almost had a Tech too, right?

[Jay Skeets]

Almost pick up another point for me.

[Tas Melas]

You've picked them in the. Yes.

[Jay Skeets]

So this is a revenge. It's a revenge series for Dennis Schroeder.

[Trey Kirby]

Like he's got a lot of revenge series.

[Jay Skeets]

Well, he does.

[Trey Kirby]

He's played for every team.

[Jay Skeets]

He's played for every team.

[Trey Kirby]

Literally half the teams in the playoffs.

[Jay Skeets]

He didn't like how it ended in Toronto though with him departing. So yeah, this, this was coming. We knew it was. And good job by the cast to time it perfectly. It was sort of hardened to Mitchell early in the game. And you're right, they finally started going to their big, especially Mobley in the second half. And then it was the speed and that just mentality to attack that shooter does. You're right, it's that one shot all time. Get a big three there too, set up a couple other triples. But it's just, he just, you know, he just gets you like on the hip. He's fast as hell. And he has an incredible touch to kiss it off the glass because he's screaming at the rim, too.

[Trey Kirby]

He almost stanchion every time he tries it.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, I was gonna say crashes. Crashes every time he gets. He's always picking himself up to come back on defense, but it's amazing touch that he has.

[Tas Melas]

And the team just had one turnover in the fourth quarter when they were heavy on turnovers to start the game. And a lot. Yeah, kudos to that guy for coming through. So you're saying that he's played for all the teams. I guess they want the Pistons to come through in the first round to beat their Atlanta Magic because he's played for them, but he hasn't played for the Magic.

[Jay Skeets]

More.

[Tas Melas]

More revenge.

[Jay Skeets]

More revenge for Dennis.

[Trey Kirby]

A lot of Germans on the Magic team, though.

[Tas Melas]

Just. That'll. That'll get him going.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

I mean, playing against his fellow countrymen. But he played for Boston.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. And Detroit.

[Trey Kirby]

Atlanta.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah. Just not the Knicks.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Not Houston.

[Trey Kirby]

He played for Lakers. He played for.

[Jay Skeets]

Not okc.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, yeah,

[Jay Skeets]

for sure.

[Tas Melas]

Just not the Spurs.

[Jay Skeets]

Spurs. No. Yeah, man.

[Tas Melas]

He's played for a lot of teams.

[Trey Kirby]

He's been on a lot of teams,

[Jay Skeets]

maybe at least a third of the teams, hasn't he? I guess.

[Trey Kirby]

I think he's got 11 teams or something at this point. But he. Speaking of 11, he'd only played 11 minutes per game coming into last night, so. Absolutely. Atkinson, smart move to ride the hot hands.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I read that that Donovan Mitchell said. Oh, yeah, keep him in the game. Did that happen? Did he. Did like you say to Kenny. Nah, nah, I'm good, man. Just write that.

[Jay Skeets]

Mitchell said he chose to stay on the bench midway through the fourth quarter when he would normally like sort of come back in.

[Tas Melas]

Okay.

[Jay Skeets]

And like, at least the idea of, like, don't, okay, put me back in, but don't take him out. Look what he's giving us right now, the jolt he's giving us. So then obviously, like Trey said, they sort of decided to go small. And I think a part of that. Yeah, the banged up Barns and obviously a lot of guards out there for the. For the wraps too. But yeah, man, just came up short. Game six, Friday night, though. You think we get a game seven baby in this one? Because you don't seem all that concerned about the Brandon Ingram injury. I mean, he could miss game six. I know he was not looking good and has not been good.

[Tas Melas]

No, he's.

[Jay Skeets]

And he was. Okay. Game four, he had 23 points, but

[Tas Melas]

yeah, yeah, A lot from the free throw line.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Excuse me. No, I'm not so concerned. I mean, RJ Barrett has been really solid. Good.

[Trey Kirby]

He's been really good.

[Tas Melas]

I think. Yeah, he's been really good. And call him the second best player on the team. Yeah. Capertal is alive. I'm doing lots of his best game. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

And I thought he got picked on quite a bit in the fourth quarter.

[Jay Skeets]

In the fourth. Yes. He was actually contributing on the offensive end early in the game.

[Trey Kirby]

Yes.

[Jay Skeets]

Catching some of those Scotty Barnes passes. Besides the one that hit him in the head. Yeah, he caught him a couple other

[Tas Melas]

ones, but he only played three minutes in the fourth quarter because they can rely on Colin Murray, Bos. So no Brandon Ingram means you're going to get a lot of shots for the guys that we just mentioned. You know, the Jacobes and the Jamal Sheds and the Sandro Mamu Kalashvili or more Jameson Battles. Yeah, I don't know. Not super concerned. Unfortunately, Brandon Ingram has not been great, period.

[Jay Skeets]

No. He'll probably be drafted a little bit later in the show. Potentially as a disappointing player in the playoffs.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah. This, this game five changed my draft board for sure. Evan Mobley went lower on the draft and Brandon Ingram, he got really close to the top. We'll see if he is the number one pick.

[Tas Melas]

Okay.

[Jay Skeets]

Anything else from Raps Cavs?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. New nickname for James Harden. Turnovers.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay.

[Tas Melas]

Sloppy gyms.

[Jay Skeets]

I don't mind it at all.

[Trey Kirby]

Sloppy J. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Every James is Jim. Every Jim is James. And I haven't had a sloppy joe in a long time.

[Jay Skeets]

Staple growing up in my house.

[Tas Melas]

It's good stuff.

[Trey Kirby]

Peaked in the 90s for sure.

[Jay Skeets]

But this is a, this is a random story, but sort of related to what you're talking about with sloppy Joe's sloppy jibs. My mom was just here. They just left today. My. My mom was not. And she'll admit, you know, not the greatest cook growing up. My wife is. And anyway, she's asking Nora questions and Nora at one point goes, if I could make any meal right now for you, what would you want? And my mom's answer without missing a beat was ground beef.

[Tas Melas]

Oh.

[Jay Skeets]

And it blew Nora's mind.

[Tas Melas]

What?

[Jay Skeets]

Anything? I can make you anything and just ground beef. She made me think of sloppy jokes.

[Tas Melas]

So was she. Was she hinting at a sloppy job?

[Jay Skeets]

Maybe. Yeah. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

I don't know.

[Jay Skeets]

Nora was not making a sloppy joke.

[Tas Melas]

Anyways, James Harden has a lot of sloppy turnovers. Man, they're so bad.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Six of them in this game and obviously balances out with some great shots that he made. But he said games of six. He's had games of seven. I don't remember the other three off the top of my head, but there's been some bad ones.

[Jay Skeets]

He was a little testy last night there too. James Harden getting into it with Scotty Barnes on a jump ball situation. Then an RJ Barrett. Harden went over sort of near the Raptors bench and sort of wanted to get the ball. RJ's like, hey, give me that. That's a classic. Give me the ball, Give me it. And then that got into a little pushing and shoving around.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, he had a chance to put the game away quite a few times, I thought in the fourth quarter and short, short, short, short, short from Harden. But yeah, six turnovers, but I think he only had one in the second half. It was a completely different half than the Cavs in the second half. They took care of the ball, they got more shots. It became tougher for the Raptors, and that's what the Cavs have to do. They have to limit the Raptors transition opportunities because it's tough for the Raptors in the half court for the most part. But when they're able to run like Scotty thrives running, they get way more open threes when they're able to run barricades to the hoop, that kind of stuff. So good job by the Cavs to take care of it in the second half. They did also saw Evan Mobley grab a rebound lying on the ground. Yeah, I love when that happens.

[Jay Skeets]

Rebound highlight. Got to love it. 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 return returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com nodunks for free shipping and 365 day returns.

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[Jay Skeets]

All right, last game from last night, the Rockets avoided playoff elimination for the second straight game with the 9993 victory over the Lakers. Low scoring affair in game five. So they trim LA's lead in the first round series to 3 2. It's here where I remind everyone no team has ever recovered from an OH3 deficit to win an NBA playoff series. But the Rockets are halfway there. Only four teams to start a series down.03 have even forced a game seven. So you know you gotta, you gotta get to game seven. Yeah, Game seven from coming all the way back. It'll be in Houston. Maybe they can extend the series even one game more. But your thoughts from this one in particular, again, low scoring. This is looking like a Raps Cavs

[Trey Kirby]

game or a Magic Pistons game about the Raps Cavs. They got, both teams got over 100.

[Jay Skeets]

They scored a lot of points.

[Trey Kirby]

That was actually an enjoyable watch. This I thought was a great team win for the Rockets. All five of their starters figured finished in double digits. They only had 11 turnovers the entire night, which limits the Lakers fast break points. It feels to me like the Rockets are playing better and better and better every single game. Realistically they should be up 32 in this series if they don't blow game three. Like we're talking about the Rockets having all of the momentum going back to Houston to take care of business and bounce the Lakers. But a terrible 30 seconds means they have to play perfect basketball, basically. So no teams come back from three. Oh, but teams have come back from three one. Lot of teams have come back from three two. That's the mindset you gotta have. Reed Shepherd, I thought, kind of redeemed himself after. Redeemed himself after the end of Game 3. Hit the jumper with 230 left, then gets a steal off LeBron and a dunk the next possession. Jabari Smith Jr also botched it at the end of Game 3. He was awesome last night. So I think if you're a Rockets fan, you're saying our two young guys who are the Goats of game three completely came through and were the heroes of game five. That is encouraging if you're a Rockets fan.

[Tas Melas]

Absolutely. Yeah. Jamari Smith, really, really good in this game. Yeah, I thought Reed was gonna botch it on that possession there.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, he lost the ball up top, right. It's like Jesus, man, can you dribble?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah. And then it was a no pass possession too. He did not pass the ball. He was able to dribble into the mid range and hit that shot and then stole it from LeBron as it was stolen from him at the end of game three by LeBron's Poke. So, yeah, redeeming. Although right after that, like you said, the Cavs, Raptors enjoyable at the end of this game. I didn't like that call that was overturned at the 140 mark.

[Jay Skeets]

Huge challenge. Huge challenge by Ime Udoka and the Rocket staff. You're talking about the Tari Eason, Austin Reeves. Is it a charge or is it

[Tas Melas]

initially called for a charge? And it's overturned strictly because Austin Reaves was moving. Wasn't established, but it wasn't, you know, one of those scenarios where a guy was just trying to get his feet

[Jay Skeets]

planted, like slide in.

[Tas Melas]

He's playing defense.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tas Melas]

He's allowed to be in front of the guy. So that was a difficult one.

[Jay Skeets]

That was big. I mean, I, I will give credit to Tari Eason though, for stepping then to the line and actually hitting two free throws. And I was like looking it up like this guy, like an elite free throw shooter that I didn't realize. No, not really. He's like a 75% career three free throw shooter. Fine. But that was, I mean, after the break and after the switch and all that to knock both of them down, I thought I was pretty impressed with that. Yeah. And that was just a good illustration or representation of like everybody just doing enough for the Rockets. Reed making those plays. I thought that was one of Jabari Smith junior's best games in the postseason.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, man.

[Jay Skeets]

Eason, everybody. Amen Thompson also. So, yeah, they got it done. They're going to get this to game six.

[Tas Melas]

I don't know, man.

[Jay Skeets]

This could be. I don't know. I don't know. Because before the series we questioned how the Lakers were going to like consistently generate enough points without Luka and Austin Reaves and Austin Reeves return. And we can get into his return and all that in a second. But. But they ended up winning those games at the beginning because LeBron, of course, leading the way. But then you got had the Luke Canard game and you had the Marcus Smart game. And since then, since those first two column three games, they've fallen back to earth. Like, not shockingly, but the Nard Dog and Smart, they're giving you nothing now. LA averaged 106.6 points per contest against the Rockets in the first three games. Over the last two, they've scored 96 and now 93 that's how the Rockets are winning this. But a part of it's LA just going ice cold from deep here. Over their last 49 attempts, the last two games, they made 12, 12 threes. I mean that's sub 25%. So they're going to need one of these games to close out the series where it's a much better, closer to 35% than 25%, I think. And maybe it's Nard Dog, maybe it's Reeves with the rust shaking off a little bit. Maybe it's Smart who's always like, you never know. It's like he has a huge game and he has a bad game and he had a lot of turnovers last night.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, he had brutal turnovers. This was, this was the bad Marcus smart game. But you know, they won the good Marcus smart game. That's how you got to do it. And like you're saying they won when Canard was great. Now he's back to being Luke Canard. He ain't going to shoot it. He's a little taken out of his flow. I thought playing with Austin Reaves last night, but they got to get up more threes I think is the big thing. Only 7 of 27 last night. 7 is a bad number, but 27 is also an incredibly low number. They just got to chuck more like we saw the Sixers do against the Celtics when they were staving off elimination. So far the Lakers are only averaging 25 attempts per game. They're not a high three point team in general. Like Rui wants to take a pull up mid range jumper. He wants to pump fake and get into the 18 foot range. LeBron wants to score at the rim. Reeves wants to get to the hoop, draw some fouls. He was good at that last night. I didn't think he looked that great otherwise. But they got to figure out a way to get up a few more three point attempts, like get over 30 here in game six and then that's going to be tough for the Rockets to keep up because if you're playing two point basketball, that's the way the Rockets want to play.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I want to see how this chemistry between Austin Reeves and Luke Canard and everybody else plays into on Friday. First of all, coming into this game, they had two days off that was supposed to help them. Did not help them. One day off going into Friday. See how that works. So LeBron 0 for 6 from 3 in this game. We'll see how he rolls into Friday. But Austin Reeves also a good start to this game he was three or six in the first half and then he jumps into the starting lineup second half and Lucanard goes to the bench to start the second half. So that's different for Lucanard just to be in that flow. He was over in this game, didn't hit a shot.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, he scored one point.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. And Austin Reeves 1 for 10 in the second half. Although he went to the free throw line a ton. 9 of 10 from the free throw line. So he's got a quick one day off here. So there's lots, lots of interesting stuff in here in this series. And as you're, as you're hinting, can

[Trey Kirby]

the Rockets do this?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, it's more believable because of everybody, especially young guys like Jabari Smith. Not only great game but just doing it very admirably. He seems like a vet. A vet right now. The two help blocks that he had in the first half were so big. He's not a shot blocker type of guy. But those are really big. Those are. Hey, I am buying into what you're saying imo Doka and this is a series baby.

[Jay Skeets]

This is a series. I wonder if JJ Redick will switch up how they're playing Alperin Shen because they're really like forcing him to get it out of his hands. But will they switch that up and go more one on one after they got 43 point attempts and he was making the right plays like he didn't score a lot but that was part of the game plan. They're like trying to get it out of his hands, make anybody else beat them and everybody contributed enough. I wonder if JJ will switch up the defensive sort of strategy on him. Maybe play Alperin up one on one a little bit more. We'll see. Or will he just roll with this again and say no, we'll hit some shots. Really? We've been ice cold from three these last two games. We'll be fine.

[Trey Kirby]

I mean hit some shots would be fine. But also Austin Reeves make a layup challenge. The guy missed how many easy layups with barely a defender on him as well. He looked super rusty to me. He looked out of shape and kind of slow for the most part. If he makes two of the however many layups he missed, this is a win for the Lakers. I think they will play Sengun the same way. Ayton's been playing awesome. He was incredible last night and they still forced a bunch of turnovers for Sengoon. The Rockets aren't a high three point attempt team so Maybe they'll change it up because this is a way for them. If the Lakers are doubling, this is a way for the Rockets to kind of increase their three point shooting. They have got good shooters, but they just don't take a ton of them. So I don't know, I mean, maybe just let him eight and play him straight up. He's been doing a good job.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, we'll see.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, we got enough shooting from their three point shooters in this one. We got the Dorian Finney Smith game. The guy had two points in the series coming in. He had two threes in this game. So his best game.

[Trey Kirby]

Thompson hit two.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, Thompson. So they seem to be growing and getting better.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Even though, you know they should be up 3, 2. While the Lakers. There's questions because how will Austin Reese respond? His body respond, right.

[Jay Skeets]

Does he get worse or like embiid when he came back and had a bad sort of first go of it and then looked awesome, more dominant. I'm totally different players, I get that. Totally different injuries. But this idea of like, oh yeah, game speed, playoff speed at that. Yeah, maybe he is a bit better and maybe some of those layups are dropping or shots are dropping and it's

[Tas Melas]

a different Luke Canard off the bench. It's just a different guy. So, you know, if he's involved, he can still score. He's a great shooter. But there's a bunch of questions.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, so those three last night, then that are going to game six, how many of those three go to game seven? One or zero? One, two or three?

[Trey Kirby]

Oh, three, two, one.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah,

[Trey Kirby]

I think for sure. Raptors go to game seven.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay. Okay. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

I was just reluctant to say the

[Trey Kirby]

Raptors home team advantage has been realistic in this one.

[Tas Melas]

Won every game thus far.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

What happened?

[Jay Skeets]

The Cavs never win a road playoff game. I'm thinking of the Magic Cast Series. That was all home wins.

[Tas Melas]

Yep, that was. That's what happened in the 2016 conference finals with the Raptors Cavs. Right. Every team won the home game for the first five games until Game 6 and the Cavs destroyed the Raptors in Toronto. I'm a little reluctant. Scotty Barnes leg. If you can get great shooting like this from Jacoby Walter and Jamal Shed and Tom Mitchell's gonna have a good game one day. I mean, he hasn't had one, so I'm a little scared that they scored 125 points the Cavs did. And again, no Donovan Mitchell. Great game yet.

[Jay Skeets]

So what about the Pistons or Rockets?

[Tas Melas]

I think the Rockets are my number one pick right now.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay. That's how you sort of rank them then. Sounds like you would rank them most likely to give us a game seven, baby. Rockets, especially at home versus the Lakers. Then the Pistons maybe on the road in Orlando.

[Tas Melas]

And then, unfortunately, I don't know, the Raptors are in. Pistons, things are. That's a wash for me. I have no idea. And I really don't.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Tough to figure out what type of team you're going to get from night to night in some of these series. And some of these teams entertaining game fives, though, last night. Let's take a break.

[Tas Melas]

Hold on.

[Jay Skeets]

Quick one.

[Tas Melas]

LeBron at the free throw line in the fourth quarter. I. I turned up the volume because the mics picked him up in that crypto arena. Mike's doing. Doing great. He was looking directly at Alper and Shen and he said, quote, soft ass call. You don't say that. You don't say that. That soft ass call. You the only player out here who ain't allowed to say that.

[Jay Skeets]

Wow.

[Tas Melas]

I don't know.

[Trey Kirby]

That was awesome.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, that's good. It was good.

[Trey Kirby]

It's literally. You're a softy.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

And you're complaining about me going to the free throw line. Shut up.

[Jay Skeets]

That was cool.

[Tas Melas]

I love that.

[Trey Kirby]

He's right.

[Tas Melas]

Chenglin's softy.

[Trey Kirby]

I mean, he floppies down all the time.

[Tas Melas]

Floppies. Floppies, yeah. Softy floppy. Different definitions for me. But I get what LeBron's saying. You flop too, dude. Yeah. Also, we talked about Celebrity Row at the Knicks, seeing Macaulay Culkin. That's cool. With Brenda Song. Brenda Song? I watched her in Running Point.

[Jay Skeets]

Oh, you watched it?

[Tas Melas]

I watched the first season. Yeah. While I was giving platelets. Sitting there and your arms don't really want to use a controller. I watched a full season of Running Point. I just played. That's the. The series that Kelly Olenick made a cameo right. At the end in the last episode.

[Jay Skeets]

I think I've never watched it, but I know what show you're.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah. It's Kate Hudson's the star. Brenda Songs, her manager sort of thing.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Okay.

[Tas Melas]

But I haven't watched the second season. I don't. I don't know if that's gonna happen.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay.

[Trey Kirby]

Kelly Olenek made a camera.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Just a cameo at the end.

[Jay Skeets]

Did he have a hat on?

[Tas Melas]

That's a good question. I don't remember it.

[Jay Skeets]

Low ankle socks.

[Tas Melas]

It's so weird. It was so weird. The only basketball player to show up in that whole series was Kelly Olenek in episode six or something like that.

[Jay Skeets]

I think our guy Joe Mandy, maybe

[Trey Kirby]

he's a writer for that.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Wrote that show or helped write that show.

[Tas Melas]

He was see in one of those episodes. My conflating stuff maybe, maybe you could

[Trey Kirby]

easily be thinking of hacks where he's got a. There's a great trivia show episode. That's a funny one.

[Jay Skeets]

That's a fun one.

[Trey Kirby]

Also funny moment this one. Reed shepherd threw an outlet pass for a turnover. I think this was in the first half and it got deflected and smacked off J.J. redick and the guy didn't even flinch. Oh, cold as ice.

[Tas Melas]

He's ready.

[Trey Kirby]

He's ready.

[Jay Skeets]

All right, we're gonna take a break. When we come back, still lots more to get to on no dunks here. We'll do our most disappointing players of the playoffs draft.

[Tas Melas]

I made a little four prop parlay here on FanDuel. Number one, Namiya Shakta. 10 plus points. I think he's gonna do a better job as well. The Celtics going right at mb tiring him out. How much do you, how high do you think Namish Keita's average for points per game this playoffs is?

[Jay Skeets]

What's he averaging? Is you're asking?

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean I asked in a weird way, but yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Eight.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. It's not a lot. You're right. It's 8.8.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

So 10 plus. It's a bit of a stretch. I think he can do it. Also, that was a foul trouble. He's got to redeem himself. OG Anobi plus 15. Just cuz he's OG Anobi and he's steady. Payton Pritchard plus 15, he's done that in two of the four games.

[Jay Skeets]

I like that one.

[Tas Melas]

26 minutes last game. So I think he can. He didn't play a lot so he can recover. Jamal Murray 20 +.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay.

[Tas Melas]

It's a recovery game for him too. Must win. Yeah. Right now. New FanDuel customers came back. $5 and get 250 in bonus bets. If your first bet Wins, head to FanDuel.com podcast to get started.

[Jay Skeets]

All right, if you're just joining us, do us a favor, hit the like button and subscribe. We tease this. We're going to do our draft for the most disappointing players of the playoffs so far. So far. We'll do three rounds. We'll just go one, two, three. One, two, three. One, 2, 3. But to decide between you two, who gets the number one pick, we always do A trivia question. So I think I have a fun one for you because we're going to be talking about disappointing players. The trivia question has to do with awesome players in the playoffs so far. So it's going to be one of these that hopefully goes back and forth at least a couple times, unless we have a China like response. Infamous China response. Can you name the top seven players who currently lead the playoffs in total points scored? Okay, so we'll just start with you, Tas, and then we'll go back and forth until somebody gets it wrong and says an incorrect name. Top seven total points scored.

[Tas Melas]

Jalen Brunson.

[Jay Skeets]

He is second at 141. Good stuff.

[Tas Melas]

Thankfully, that. That little pause.

[Jay Skeets]

I know, I know.

[Tas Melas]

Did he finish eighth? Oh, no, no.

[Jay Skeets]

You're good. You're good.

[Trey Kirby]

Trey Kirby, feed his pigs some acorns. I'm going with with cade Cunningham, number one.

[Jay Skeets]

163 total points. Good stuff. Just had the 45. Had a 39 in game one. That's a great call. All right, back to you. Five names left.

[Tas Melas]

Do I go with a guy who swept just four games? I don't know. I don't know. Can I get the point total for the seventh place guy?

[Jay Skeets]

No, just. Just pick the name.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I'll say. Shay.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, that's third.

[Tas Melas]

Good.

[Jay Skeets]

Don't overthink it, though.

[Tas Melas]

Sure.

[Trey Kirby]

He had a 42 point game.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, he had 135 points. Now we have four, five, six, and

[Trey Kirby]

seven TP total points.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Trey Kirby, huh?

[Trey Kirby]

Man, this is tough. This is tough.

[Jay Skeets]

Tyrese Maxey, he just made it seventh. 128 points.

[Trey Kirby]

Can I get the point total?

[Jay Skeets]

128.

[Trey Kirby]

Can I get it one more time?

[Jay Skeets]

128. Let's go. All right, Taz, back to you. This is good. We finally got one of these to work. We've never gotten this many rounds in a trivia question.

[Tas Melas]

128 points. I know. Jokic has not been his self, by the way.

[Jay Skeets]

I'm looking at Tas's computer. He is just looking at teams just

[Trey Kirby]

to refresh his memory.

[Jay Skeets]

He's not actually. I'm trusting Trey Kirby's doing the same.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, I'm just looking at the. The leaders in points over.

[Jay Skeets]

I'm just multiplying games played on points per game. Leaders in the playoffs. Don't mind me. All right, Come on.

[Tas Melas]

Between Jokic or Tatum. I'll go Tatum. Damn it.

[Jay Skeets]

Both would have been wrong. Oh, Jokic was eighth. Trey Kirby. Just see if you can get one More. So Tatum didn't crack it.

[Trey Kirby]

Who would I have said? Scotty Barnes.

[Jay Skeets]

No. Incorrect. Okay. Wow. Jamal Murray, 130.

[Trey Kirby]

He is leading them.

[Jay Skeets]

Paolo Banchero, 129. Just had 45. And Jalen Brown, not Tatum.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Nice. I think the guys you said are close.

[Tas Melas]

I mean, Tatum's got 123.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, they're right there, the jokers. So you were on it. You were on it. Okay. That means Trey gets the number one pick in our most disappointing players of the playoffs so far. Have at it. We'll do three rounds.

[Trey Kirby]

You already know who's going number one here.

[Tas Melas]

Everybody.

[Trey Kirby]

Everybody knows it's Jalen Duran.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

He had a good enough game last night. Had his best game for sure. 12 points. He's up to 10 per game this series on 50% shooting. But he's taken 38 shots in five games. That's not enough. This guy is a 2010 dude. During the regular season. Cade Cunningham goes down with a collapsed lung and he went into all NBA mode. He's going to be quite likely a top 10 player in the league when all NBA voting comes down with, you know, all of the guys sliced off for missing the correct number of games. But, yeah, I think he's the biggest reason that the pistons were in a 31 hole.

[Jay Skeets]

Way to not overthink it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a nice first pick there to get us started here. I got nothing else to add.

[Tas Melas]

That dude was averaging nearly 20 and 10 in the regular season. Now going into last night, he was 10 and 8 and those are big drop offs. And yeah, that didn't really get bounced or bumped up too much with last night's numbers, that 10 and 8. I mean, he's somewhere around there anyways. It's unfortunate. Yeah, it's unfortunate.

[Jay Skeets]

All right, who's your first pick here in the first round?

[Tas Melas]

I'm taking Brandon Ingram.

[Jay Skeets]

Wow. Wow, man. Come on, man. Guy's got a heel injury.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. Even before that heel injury. I mean, he had a great, Great regular season. 21 1/2 points per game on 57 and a half true shooting percentage going into last night. 15 points per game. 14.8. 45% true shooting percentage. Think of that percentage. I mean, you said it while we were Talking about Game 5 in Cleveland yesterday that Brandon Ingram had his best game. Game four. He did, he did. But that was just three shots that he made in a row where he was kind of feeling it. And maybe that was Glorilla's little pep speech that he talked about, but. But, man, not the same guy. Not the same guy. And he looks a lot like those two previous playoff series that he's been in, so it's not that surprising. But it is surprising at the same time.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. All right, Good picks. My first pick here in the first round. I'll go. Mikhail Bridges for the New York Knicks, who's at this point, like, the minutes are getting reduced because you're not getting a lot from those guys. He is averaging 7 points per game in the playoffs. And, like, this is not a guy that has to be the number one guy on this team. Of course not. He just has to, like, fill in the gaps here. But shooting 44%. I can barely picture a three pointer he's hit in the postseason. The numbers say he's hit a few, but he's shooting 26% from deep. He's out there. I get it. Still giving you defense, but you need a little bit more. For the Knicks to go far and win a title, you're going to need a lot more from the Mikhail Bridges in potential series. So. So I'll take him here first overall. And a guy that's like, he has no excuse. Like, oh, the first time in the postseason. First time even with this team, like, he's been there. He's had great moments, this guy. Like, once upon a time for the Nets in the postseason was like, scoring like, 23, 24 a game. Again, different roles and all that, but it's not been great. And Brown has had to make some decisions here about obviously reducing his minutes in this postseason. He's averaging 27 minutes per game, actually, through five games. So I'll go ahead. Even though the Knicks are going to likely beat the Hawks, they're just going to need more from him as we move forward. All right, Trey, second round.

[Trey Kirby]

That's where I get spicy.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

I thought those were the top three.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, that was your.

[Trey Kirby]

That was your list in that order. And like I said, I moved Mobley down, and he's going to continue to fall down my draft board because he had a really big game five, and I thought his three pointers were very important, so I'll take a different cav. Give me Jarrett Allen.

[Jay Skeets]

I had him on my list, eight

[Trey Kirby]

points, six rebounds per game. Right now he's shooting the ball the way he does. You know, he just dunks it inside. I thought he played a pretty solid defensive game for the Cavs, especially in the fourth quarter last night against the Raptors, but just doesn't look aggressive at all when Mobley was out during the season, there were times when they could play through Jared Allen and he would attack even from the high post. You know, take his one dribble and get to a dunk or layup. I just saw he even changed his shoes last night. The guys played in the same pair of shoes, basically, for the entirety of his career. A black Kyrie with a white stripe. No white stripe. I wonder if it's throwing him off. But unfortunately, we all remember him saying that the lights were too bright. So that kind of just always colors my opinion of Jared Allen when it comes to playoff time. And unfortunately, it's looking like he needs some sunglasses.

[Jay Skeets]

I had him on my list. I had him high, too, because especially when you consider in this series, we have talked a lot about how crappy Jacob has been, but, I mean, it's. The numbers are comparable, very similar. And there hasn't been a whole lot of talk about Jared Allen and really the lack of what he's giving the Cavs on that side. So, yeah, I think Jared Allen had to be drafted in here.

[Tas Melas]

Agreed.

[Jay Skeets]

Especially being he is a better player, I think, at this point in their careers than Jakob Hurdle. But it's been bad here. He's been bad.

[Tas Melas]

So, yeah. 9.6 boards, 43% from the free throw line.

[Trey Kirby]

Wow.

[Tas Melas]

How does that happen? You've had a big drop off from the free throw.

[Jay Skeets]

Taken a lot, I assume, but.

[Tas Melas]

No, but still, that is crazy. Yeah. And the Raptor second chance points have been a problem.

[Trey Kirby]

Yes.

[Tas Melas]

Until yesterday. Yesterday, he was way better. And so it seems like both Jared Allen and Evan Mobley had a better Game five.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Mobley's been much better than Jared Allen. Yeah.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Even if he's at times in the series hasn't, you know, played up to his expectations. Yeah, Allen's sort of been a, like, purdle. Pretty rough here overall. Okay. Jared Allen's gone where you go toss.

[Tas Melas]

It's a Denver nugget to me. I debated between. Between Jokic and Jamal. I'm going with Jokic. Higher expert.

[Jay Skeets]

Whoa. Nice.

[Trey Kirby]

I'll admit, I wasn't sure what to do with these guys because they are putting up gigantic, huge numbers, counting stats. But also, like, I've watched the games, they're not playing up to their standards.

[Tas Melas]

No.127 total points for Nikola Jokic. I guess he's ninth on the list. That's a lot of points. But he's far less efficient than he was in the regular season. He is an efficient dude. 67 true shooting percentage, you know, your twos, your threes, your free throws. Now he's at 53.7. Whether it's Rudy Gobert in his head, he just doesn't look right. And sometimes Rudy Gobert blocking the crap out of him. Those are great, but he's just not looking right in terms of how aggressive he is and, and his touch, where has it gone? So he looks like a different player.

[Jay Skeets]

You could also throw other nuggets, not maybe on the superstar level of Jokic and Jamal Murray in the conversation here. Right. Cam Johnson, Christian Brown, and we even said his name in this series.

[Tas Melas]

No, he's got nothing. Yeah, I would have taken. But I got Christian Brown more so than. Because Cam Johnson, he hasn't been good and there has been opportunities for him to be good, but he also did the same thing in the regular season. So the expectations were low. But still. Yeah, either way, big game five too.

[Jay Skeets]

All right. I'm taking honestly now, I think about it, a pretty similar player to Mikhail Bridges in the playoffs so far. Derek White, nice of the Boston Celtics. He is also not scoring a ton just like Mikhail Bridges. He's scoring eight points per game. Derrick White is, you know, some rebounds, some assists. Again, like Bridges. Defensively, he's never going to let you down. But it's weird to see Derek white shooting under 30%. I mean, when you're shooting under 40% in the playoffs, everybody's like, whoa, what's wrong? Under 30% guy can't hit a shot to save his life. 21% from deep on a lot of attempt. Still, he's going to keep firing away. I'm pretty convinced he's going to have a breakout game here at some point too. Either in this series versus Philadelphia or the next. But this is bad so far through five. So I'll take Mikhail Bridges and Derrick White, sort of similar what we've gotten from both these guys and they're sort of pecking order to their teams and their importance to their teams. Long term success here. And he was like, Derek White was pretty good last year in the postseason.

[Trey Kirby]

So.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, really good. I'll go Derek White off the board one more round.

[Trey Kirby]

Derek White and Mikhail Bridges, huh? They're gonna go up against each other. Whoever, like has a better series, they'll probably win the series.

[Jay Skeets]

Honestly.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, final picture.

[Trey Kirby]

It's tough. I gotta. I got a long list of names.

[Jay Skeets]

Let's throw some names out. Why not?

[Trey Kirby]

You want me to just say some names?

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, say the name.

[Trey Kirby]

Danish, Jenkins. Yeah, like, I mean, come on. Dude, that dude was a two way player.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

It was a surprise that he was good at all in the regular season. Cool that he's even getting an opportunity, but he hasn't done much. Caris Laverde blocked a shot once.

[Jay Skeets]

Who cares?

[Trey Kirby]

He did a dunk. He did a dunk last night.

[Tas Melas]

You see that? Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

Also who cares?

[Tas Melas]

It's unfortunate. He passes. Every time he's got the ball in his hands, he's passing. Yeah, he doesn't want to score.

[Trey Kirby]

Passive, passive guy. Suggs and Black, they're in the mix for me, but Donovan Klingen in the mix for me, but I'm ultimately gonna go with Jalen Johnson. Yeah, I know his 19, 7 and 5. What a terrible series for this guy. But I think he's been outplayed by OG Anunoby. He's only 43% from the field, 27 from three. After a really solid regular season where he was like 50, 35%. Yeah, he just has looked out of sorts. He looked like a guy who's adjusting to having a monster role for a playoff team, being at the top of the game plan. How do I deal with a defender like OG Anunoby or Josh Hart and the Josh Hart part of things is a little bit more so why I'm going with Jalen Johnson here because that's just like a classic game plan thing. Like we're going to put our ordinary little guy on you. Can you figure out how to beat him? And I don't feel like Jalen Johnson really has. He's been pretty inconsistent. Like there will be a game like he can go for 19. Nice. But it'll be 14 and 1/2, 5 in the next. Yeah, he just hasn't been great in half court scenarios either. So give me J. Jon.

[Jay Skeets]

You got two Jalens that are going to be on an all NBA team. So you're like, your guys are like you're comparing what they've. The lack of what they've done in the postseason to what they did in the regular season in Jalen Duran and Jalen Johnson. Who do you have for your final pick?

[Tas Melas]

I debated Jalen as well. I had, I had a Suggs, but you know that the fact that he's missing a lot of open threes, I guess it's sort of expected with Jalen Suggs. So I didn't go with that. Nine threes a game, only 27 of them. But I'm taking Jamal Murray, I'm putting him on there. I don't know what's up I don't know what's up with Denver. They may win the series, but the guy is averaging 25 during the regular season on 62% shooting, and he's still putting up points, but his true shooting percentage just dropped tremendously, you know, at 50%. So he's had the opportunity to take advantage of a season where he clearly had his best regular season of his career. That cannot be debated. But then taking it into playoffs, whereas round one looks like this, it's just disappointing for everybody at the top of the chain in Denver. So I'll take two Denverites.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Wow. Interesting. I mean, like, you're taking really, really good players that are still obviously getting numbers, but you can then look at, like. I mean, Kate's had a million turnovers, but obviously he's doing a bunch of other things. Like Elpern Shengun comes up, you know, star player, some clunkers here in the postseason. There's other guys, but okay, two nuggets there. My final pick. I'm swerving here. I guess I'm going to just run with my theme of, like, defensive mind and guys who are giving absolutely nothing offensively or really struggling with their shot. And I'm going to give credit to Evan on Blue sky who suggested Tamani Kamara. Interesting. We didn't talk about him at all during that series, and there's a reason why I didn't know. He shot 29% from the field, 26% from deep. He hit all six of his free throws. That was good. There you go. Good. Good job by him. But regular season, much better shooting splits average like, nearly 14 points per game. And that was haft. Just like, sort of bridges. Just like Derek White to money. Kamara, same thing, you know, to the point where Evan pointed it out and others said, like, maybe Splitter should have went away from him a little bit more and went to either Jeremy Grant, which you could roll your eyes at maybe shaden sharp earlier in the series, and you stuck with them, but he just couldn't come through in that series. So I'm picking a guy that's already eliminated here. But that was a good one because it was sort of like, sort of got by me or surprised me in that series. And he is a good player.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, yeah, it was awesome against Dear and Fox in game two when they won it.

[Jay Skeets]

Yes, that's right.

[Tas Melas]

But the offensive end, they were lacking. Yeah, no doubt.

[Jay Skeets]

All right, so those are our most disappointing teams so far. Lots of basketball still to be played. Trey, your team.

[Trey Kirby]

I got two. Jalen's Jalen Duran, Jalen Johnson and throw in a Jarrett. Jared Allen was my other pick.

[Tas Melas]

Okay, task a Brandon Ingram and two nuggets, a Nikola Yokich and a Jamal Murray.

[Jay Skeets]

And I got a bunch of defensive minded guys who just can't hit a shot right now. Mikhail Bridges, Derek White and then already eliminated to Monica Mara of the Portland Trailblazers. Who do we miss? Let us know. What about this guy? Hey, what about this guy? He sucked. Make your case there right now in the stream team as you are are in the comments you can tweet them in as well. No Dunks Inc. On Twitter Viori makes

[Tas Melas]

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[Host/Announcer]

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[Jay Skeets]

Harmony 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 quint.com nodunks for free shipping on your order and in 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 all right, we got one more thing we gotta discuss here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The NBA has disclosed to its 30 general managers their new anti tanking draft reform. It's deemed the 3, 21 lottery system. That includes expanding the lottery to 16 teams, flattened odds and a relegation zone where the bottom three teams would be penalized with fewer lottery balls for the number one pick. Here is a graphic to help give you a visual of the odds proposed and how they would compare to the current lottery. The key takeaway is that the odds distributed are to discourage finishing with the worst record. So three lottery balls, an 8.1% chance that the number one pick would be awarded to teams ranked 4 through 10 in the lottery. Two balls, 5.4% odds would be awarded to the bottom three teams known as the relegation zone, along with the 9th and 10th seeds in each conference. And then one ball, 2.7% chance of the number one pick would be Awarded to the losers of the seven eight. In addition, no team would be able to win the top pick in consecutive years or win three consecutive top five picks. And there would also be a rule where teams could no longer protect traded picks from slots 12 through 15. I think we've explained that decently. You know, there's a. There's a lot to wrap your head around. I do love this. This visual here.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, that helped.

[Jay Skeets]

So what do you think, Tas? Because this is apparently the new front runner here, that they were discussing all these front offices, and we'll eventually vote on it. But what do you think of the 3, 2, 1 draft lottery system?

[Tas Melas]

I think it's better than the 8% odds being allowed for all of the bottom 10 teams. That was the other proposal. Because that separation, I think, just allows teams to just say, oh, let's go stink. At least here with the relegation. What did you call it? The relegation.

[Jay Skeets]

Relegation zone.

[Tas Melas]

The relegation zone. It keeps teams from trying to lose all the way to the bottom. I think that is an improvement. So I think that part is definitely improved. And if you're one of those bottom three, you could fall as low as the 12 pick. If you have one of the three worst, you could fall. You could fall. Unlike now, when you could follow just four slots, you could fall all the way to the 12. So I know it's convoluted.

[Jay Skeets]

I'm laughing because. Yeah, it's. That sounds insane to me that if

[Tas Melas]

you have a bottom three record that you could fall all the way to 12.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, a little bit. It's like these are. This is the. We have the draft to help bad teams get better, and now you really could be really screwing teams any chances to. Obviously, there are other ways to get better, but this is a huge part. Draft young talent and keep them under contract for a while to obviously build up your franchise. So it's like this. This relegation zone and this fact that you could go so far down. I don't love it, but I'm sort of on record already. I don't even think. I think we're trying to fix a problem that doesn't even exist. Personally, that's my take. But what are your thoughts, TK I

[Trey Kirby]

think there are parts of this that I like. I think it does discourage tanking, because if you got the worst record in the league and you dropped a 12th, why would you possibly want to be the worst record in the league? Why would you want to be in the bottom three? You would be fighting hard to get in four through 10. If you're in four through 10, you're going to be fighting hard to stay out of bottom three. So I do think it helps discourage tanking at the very bottom of things. I think this is very bad news for us fans of the pit because if you're in the play in tournament, why would you want to be in it?

[Jay Skeets]

Right, right.

[Trey Kirby]

Like you could get 8% odds by finishing 11th. That's awesome.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

11th right now is like 3% odds. So I think that will be players or teams getting out of the play in tournament, like losing out of the play in tournament to get good lottery odds.

[Jay Skeets]

That's a thousand times worse than what's happening now if that is the case.

[Trey Kirby]

I don't know. I don't know if that's true.

[Jay Skeets]

Teams tanking for the play in tournament to actually try and get in the playoffs. I'm agreeing with you, by the way. Yeah, you'd almost be wise to do it. If you're. What are we going to do in the playoffs then? Who gives a shit? Game in March between bad teams, of course, sitting guys and all that to have right now in the system help their chances like that. I don't know. I guess you're saying, oh well, those two teams will now try in March in that game because they want to get out of the bottom relegation zone. Yeah, but I think the other is way worse. The unintended consequences of this I think are, are if this happens are bad. I don't think this is good at all. I don't get it. We just talked about, we're talking about the spurs, the Wolves, the Pistons. These are like they got high picks because they were bad and now they're turned it around. That's why point period, they got good players.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, but you could still get good picks.

[Jay Skeets]

You could.

[Tas Melas]

But I mean a lot of the number one picks are not the worst record in the NBA. They fall into that. Four, five, six. That's what generally happens in the NBA. It's not, not the worst record.

[Jay Skeets]

Right.

[Tas Melas]

So when the regular season it does discourage you from being the bottom three because it's only 5.4% versus 8%. You know why? That's, that's a high percentage, that 8%. I think it makes, I think it makes way more sense than they. Just the flat, the flattening of all the odds.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay, then go back to the way we used to have it where, where the worst team you were, the better chances you had as the number One pick.

[Tas Melas]

Well, that doesn't discourage tanking.

[Jay Skeets]

No, none. Well, I think we're just moving where tanking is going to happen here.

[Tas Melas]

Into four to ten, you mean?

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, exactly. I don't see how it's better though.

[Trey Kirby]

It's like I said, we'll have teams that are not under 20 wins. Now we have teams that the worst teams will have 23 wins instead of 17 wins.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I think the way Sean Sharanya sold it on ESPN, he said those teams in the 4 to 10 will want to beat down on the teams below them or not want to lose. Right. They want to stay up there instead of dropping down. So that's the way it's sold. But yeah, of course it's going to be tanking in general. Teams are going to want to get a draft pick.

[Trey Kirby]

This does make for games against teams that have been eliminated from postseason contention. Makes it better.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, like, like, yeah, okay. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Bucks Pelicans, it matters more now.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I mean, and that was the big problem.

[Trey Kirby]

As you would turn on the TV, there's 10 games in the night and four of them don't matter at all. Which is why, like local attendance was down, local TV ratings were down because teams were giving up in February and now they have to stay engaged at least through the end of April.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, that's the whole point.

[Jay Skeets]

I do like this, and this was sort of buried in a lot of the articles about this. Under the proposal here, the league would have expanded disciplinary authority to regulate tanking by having the option to reduce teams lottery odds and or modify teams draft possessions. This to me is good. If you're tired of these teams blatantly tanking, then penalize them. Come in with the goddamn iron fist and tell them to stop doing it. And like, yeah, the fines and all that. You got to go further. You got to go further. Because teams, of course, at least I think they were doing it because of this loaded draft lottery here. And the odds is the way they are still now I think it completely changes once. It's not like a huge crazy coveted draft class. So I think it would have fixed itself, so to speak. But anyway, penalize them, man. Like just as soon as you do that, they'll stop. Oh my God. They have 10 two way guys playing and sitting vets and all that. They. I think they would so at least maybe slipped in here is this idea of like if Silver's tired of it because he really wants this gun is he doesn't want it to be a talking point. I get that. Then just Come in and lay the hammer down. And maybe I'm saying more than, here's $100,000 fine. It's like, bye, your pick is gone. Or whatever. Your. Your position is gone. Your odds are lower, whatever it is, if you're found to be really angry, you know, skirting the system.

[Tas Melas]

Adam's heavy hand is. It's a good move.

[Jay Skeets]

He doesn't have a heavy hand. That's the problem. He's got dainty hands. Remember that little SNL skit where she's got the tiny hands?

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

That's Adam Silver. It is David Stern. He had the hands. He had the hands. This would not have happened anyway. That's a little frustrating, but we'll see. And it's not voted on. It hasn't been passed. It could be tweaked and all that. But I do find all of the timing of this hilarious, too. I get it. Because they need to, like, get it in front of them and then obviously vote on it as we move forward after this draft lottery. We're in the playoffs right now, and, like, all I saw in my timeline yesterday was about draft lottery reform. Pretty ironic. Is it like, we should be talking about the game sixes and the potential game sevens, and it's like, now this takes all. All the oxygen out of the room because everybody just wants to fly. Focus on this. We'll see. Let's hear from you. People have opinions on this, so that's for damn sure. Good or bad, either they're making the right step forward or they're like, what are we doing? This is going to make it worse. That's like myself thinks, well, if it

[Trey Kirby]

makes it worse, the good thing is that they can just change it in 2020.

[Jay Skeets]

That's what they did say.

[Trey Kirby]

Like, we're just gonna try it. We'll just see what's happening here, see if this does anything.

[Jay Skeets]

That's part of my concern too. It feels like short term fixie. It's like Silver doesn't like all the attention because of what we had this year and the shenanigans and all the headlines and it's like, cut it in the bud right now. Try something new and then. But I do wonder about these, like, unintended consequences. Like I said, that's gonna, like, translate from this. But right now you're right. He's like, I want us to stop talking about tanking. So if you're bad, you're actually screwed. Don't be. Don't be super bad. Just be bad, bad.

[Trey Kirby]

That's right. That's all he wants.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

You think they should call this the Manu Ginobly lottery Odds because they remove a ball,

[Jay Skeets]

it's way better than 3, 2, 1 football

[Trey Kirby]

update my notes. It used to be called the John Crow.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

This is more of a 21st century

[Tas Melas]

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah reference. It wasn't talked about enough.

[Trey Kirby]

Manu's ball.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah. That he would had it removed. Yeah, we talk about everything.

[Trey Kirby]

We gotta get the. We gotta get the word out.

[Jay Skeets]

This is their opportunity.

[Trey Kirby]

I'm gonna see if John Ossoff will put it in his emails at the end.

[Tas Melas]

By the way, was there another NBA player that had a testicle removed?

[Jay Skeets]

Topic.

[Trey Kirby]

I think you're right.

[Tas Melas]

That's the one.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Recent of the night Sponsored by Murphy AKA Mavs Muse on X Follow at max Mavs Muse on X Slash Twitter for Dwight Powell. Propaganda like this. Dwight Powell has the highest offensive rating in NBA history per stat muse 132.4 minimum 10,000 minutes. And he has a very resilient face. Dwight Powell.

[Trey Kirby]

That can't be true. I refuse to believe that over the course of at least 10,000 minutes Dwight Powell has 132 offensive rating. There's no chance that's true.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, I saw this sent into us. I didn't. I didn't double check it. It didn't seem believable.

[Jay Skeets]

Well, it's propaganda. It doesn't need to be real.

[Tas Melas]

It's totally fake.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, I remember him. Not. Yeah, see, I remember him. I remember seeing this stack going around that he had a crate. I didn't know it was that high, but that he had the best ever.

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, he led the league in offensive rating three different seasons.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, man, he's that good.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah, it is wild, huh?

[Trey Kirby]

Geez.

[Jay Skeets]

Mavs Muse also says I've been watching you guys daily since I was a kid as an old 20 something year old corpse. Now. Jesus Christ. I'm very glad y' all are still going. Keep up the great work. Thank you Mavs Muse. Thank you Murphy. And we now appreciate Dwight Powell even more.

[Trey Kirby]

That's amazing.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Would you tank for Dwight Powell?

[Jay Skeets]

Absolutely, if I want to. Correct. Maybe not. Well, goes to Kate. Kate Cunningham. I mean he had a lot of turnover. Sure. They're not on the graphic. Don't worry. Scored a franchise playoff record 45 points. Was anybody else surprised by that 45 Pistons playoff record? Oh, I don't know. Like I thought maybe, you know, of course. Isaiah Thomas, maybe like a Rip Hamilton like crazy game.

[Trey Kirby]

I was more surprised that Isaiah Thomas wasn't the leader.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay.

[Trey Kirby]

Dave bing had a 44.

[Jay Skeets]

That's right. No longer, man. Cade Cunningham. 13 of 23 from the field, 5 of 8 from deep. That was huge. 14 of 14 at the line, 5 assists, 4 boards, 1 steal, 44 minutes played. He says we're going to Orlando. And they are. Friday night, three games on tonight. Knicks, Hawks, Celtic, Sixers, Nuggets, Timberwolves. Three, two. All three of these series. How many of these go to game seven tonight?

[Tas Melas]

Good luck to all the participants. I think it's only one.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay.

[Tas Melas]

The Nuggets, Timberwolves. To me, it's a coin flip. The Timberwolves could easily win that game, but the Nuggets are the one that I believe in the most to make it.

[Jay Skeets]

So you think the Knicks and Celtics on the road wrap things up. Okay.

[Tas Melas]

It was a good run.

[Jay Skeets]

Okay. What about you, Trey?

[Trey Kirby]

Yeah, give me the Knicks winning a clutch game for the first time in this playoffs against the Hawks tonight. I would take Boston over Philadelphia and I think we're going to game seven, baby, in Denver.

[Jay Skeets]

I do agree with you guys. I do agree with you. For the Wolves though, you need a big Jaden McDaniels game. Big, big, big stuff. And he can, he's done it before. He's had 30 point playoff games. But I'm with you. I like the Nuggets to give us a game seven, baby. We're playing Zaza tomorrow morning on this show because we're going to have at least one game seven.

[Trey Kirby]

It'd be great if it's the Hawks and be perfect.

[Jay Skeets]

Be huge. Be huge.

[Tas Melas]

Zaza.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, I like the Knicks chances though, I gotta say too, they've just out played them. I mean, the games they lose, they lost five points. Yeah, I know, I know. And Celtics, Celtics, you just. Are they gonna hit threes? I mean, what type of performance are you gonna get from these guys Shooting? I like, I liked what Maxi was saying after that game five win as they go back to Philly. He was saying something like, we got to give our fans our home base a win because they have not won in Philly. And he's like, we owe it to them. So. Okay, okay, Tyrese. I like that. I like that energy heading into that game. So we'll see three games on. We'll be here to talk about them tomorrow on the Drop podcast. 10:00am Eastern Task and have worst of the week nominees. We'll have rapid fire fun as well. So always a classic on Friday. Hope to see you at 10am Eastern if you're a no bus Survivor fan. Join us at 1:00pm Eastern to talk about Mr. Beast.

[Trey Kirby]

Mr. Beast.

[Jay Skeets]

Mr. Beast. Big boy. Didn't realize how tall Mr. Beast was. Like, look at him tower over. Jeff probes here. I know Jeff Probs. Maybe not tall, but he's like six' five. He's like Trey Kirby's height.

[Trey Kirby]

Switchable defender. Well, in space, you'd be able to

[Jay Skeets]

see eye to eye with Mr. Beast.

[Tas Melas]

Oh, man.

[Trey Kirby]

Can you imagine just looking him straight in the face?

[Jay Skeets]

Honestly, I can.

[Tas Melas]

Yeah.

[Jay Skeets]

It's pretty easy, actually.

[Trey Kirby]

It's sort of like looking at one of his thumbnails on YouTube.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah.

[Trey Kirby]

Would you do a face?

[Jay Skeets]

So we're gonna talk about Mr. Beast who showed up at the Survivor auction last night and actually had a crazy twist to the game. We'll talk about that with Trey, J.D. nora and myself at 1pm Eastern. There's a link in the show notes. Come on over and subscribe to no Buffs until tomorrow here in no dunks land though. Clipper, bro, you heard it here first. Have a great time. Turn up. Love you guys.

[Trey Kirby]

Awesome.

[Tas Melas]

Thanks for joining us. And remember, teammate of the year award was handed out and it was a bigger surprise than we all expected.

[Jay Skeets]

Very true. You're right.

[Tas Melas]

DeAndre Jordan, the only one who wasn't surprised. Joe Dumars. I watched him two weeks ago at a press conference say, that guy pours out himself out to his teammates. And it's not just on the cameras. It's in the shooter outs. It's on the bus. He said he's never seen it before.

[Jay Skeets]

He seems like a great teammate.

[Tas Melas]

He does.

[Trey Kirby]

He definitely does.

[Jay Skeets]

A deserving winner for sure. First win, I assume for him, right?

[Tas Melas]

It's gotta be.

[Jay Skeets]

Yeah, yeah. For the Twyman stokes. Good stuff. DeAndre Jordan, congratulations. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Embrace the day.

[Tas Melas]

Viori makes soft, and I'm talking extremely soft clothing. I should know. I bought some before this ad came our way. I was wearing my Vuoris and my wife said, what are those? I haven't seen them. I told her my silky soft Vuori shorts. Of course, they look super comfortable, and they are, but I can go out in these anywhere. They're designed to look great beyond the gym. Whether you're running errands, heading to the office, or meeting up with friends, it works for everything. She felt them and she said, oh, they're like the PJs we buy for our kids. So Viori got my partner's approval just like that. I also told her that Viori is a Finnish word meaning mountain, so I felt as big as a mountain. She didn't really like that, but you'll like this. For our listeners, Viori is offering 20% off your first purchase. Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the [e-mail] nodunks that's V-U-O-R-I.com nodunks. The offer is for new customers only. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions.

[Jay Skeets]

I'm U.S. transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. We all get distracted when we drive, whether it's from our phones or kids in the backseat bickering. But how we handle these distractions can be a matter of life or death. Before you get on the road for your next road trip, please put your phones on silent and take a mental note to focus on driving. Paid for by NHTSA

[Host/Announcer]

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[Jay 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 quince.com no dunks for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com nodunks this is an iHeart podcast.

[Host/Announcer]

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