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- [00:00]
Narrator/Announcer
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Dave Dufour
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- [01:26]
Dave Dufour
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for May 4, 2026. I'm Dave Defora here with Esperahenny. Coming up, three game sevens, two, three, one comebacks. Huge weekend in the NBA playoffs and we're going to look ahead to Monday night's games. Good morning everybody. What is up S. How is Cleveland?
- [01:52]
Esperahenny
Cleveland rocks. Cleveland rocks. Apparently that's the song I heard. I hear it in my dreams nowadays. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Dave Dufour
Game seven. Man. How was it being in the building for it? Game seven, Raptors Cavs. Yes, was there for the loss for the Raptors.
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Esperahenny
Yeah, look, it was, it was very interesting because the Raptors were the ones who were the aggressors to start the game. And then I think once the Cavaliers started to hit shots and truthfully, like an incredible Jared Allen game, like the best game that he's had in this series. It, it put the Raptors to shame. Obviously. No Ingram, no Emanuel Quickley. It just felt like they were missing bodies.
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Narrator/Announcer
Sure.
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Esperahenny
And so at some point you run out of gas and it felt like this Raptors team was running on fumes over the last couple games.
- [02:39]
Dave Dufour
Anyways, Jared Allen in the bench was the the secret to game seven and then that third quarter run that he went on, he looked like Wilt Chamberlain out there. That was where you really felt like the, the Raptor's lack of size, you know, outside of Jakob Pertle, was hurting them quite a bit. And I, I'll say this, man, you. You've said this quite a bit. Oh, they missed quickly. They're missing Brandon Ingram. I don't know that they miss those guys necessarily because I think that the identity that we got to see out of the Raptors, that's a playoff defense if I've ever seen one, you know, for such a young team. And I, I think that the pieces that they need are not necessarily those two guys, but, you know, they were able to unlock some stuff.
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Esperahenny
I tend to agree with you, but I, I think the, the general outlook moving forward with this team and maybe this is more off season talk. This is going to be one of the most important off seasons in franchise history for the Raptors because they now.
- [03:36]
Dave Dufour
Seems like a lot of teams are going to be saying that this summer, 100%.
- [03:39]
Esperahenny
Because look, now the Raptors know that Scotty Barnes is a guy worth building around. They know to your point, they've built an identity with, with Columry Bos and Jacobe Walter and Jamal Shad and all these guys. To your point, that guard like crazy. They are, they. They're just a bunch of dogs on that team that play extremely hard. How do you find guys that replicate that? How do you guys. How do you find guys that can do the same thing as Scotty, really? Right. And ultimately that's the next question for them. Also finding scoring that is more efficient than what you can get from Brandon Ingram and Emmanuel Quickley. You know, I think, I think that's the, the bigger question. Of course, those guys were really big to the regular season success of this team, but now you're at a point where you want to see how you can take that next step. That's why this offseason is so important for them.
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Dave Dufour
Yeah, well, look, let's jump into this because I mentioned a couple three one coming backs. The 76ers and the Pistons became the 14th and 15th teams to, to come back from being down three one in a playoff series.
- [04:43]
Esperahenny
Three game sevens, man, in the weekend. What an incredible weekend of hoops, man.
- [04:47]
Dave Dufour
Pretty amazing. And listen, every game delivered something, you know, Pistons, magic. That whole series was a rock fight. And, and you know, game seven was no different for, you know, the first half roughly. And then I don't know what we saw the Magic do over the course of their three one series collapse historically bad offense. I mean they scored 19 points in the second half. They actually between the last two quarters of game six and the first two quarters of game seven, they were outscored one 18-68s.
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Esperahenny
Man, that's incredible. That's incredible.
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Dave Dufour
Insane. I mean just an insane. Just flub.
- [05:26]
Esperahenny
How much of a roller coaster ride of narratives have the Orlando Magic been on for the last month?
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Commercial Voice 2
Right.
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Esperahenny
To go from this team is a disaster. They have not met expectations to getting into the playoffs to going up 3 1. This team is actually underrated. Full of playoff risers. These guys are ready to now collapsing once again. And in a way that kind of shows you all of the weaknesses of this team. Inability to score outside of Paolo Ben Caro obviously missing Franz Wagner was huge. I can't discount that because they I. My hot take here is if Franz
- [06:02]
Dave Dufour
was healthy, it was his defense on Cade that the thing that they missed the most wasn't his off. It was his defense on Cade. It was a completely different series for Kate Cunningham without Franz Wagner out there.
- [06:12]
Esperahenny
100. Yeah, I just ultimately think like they absolutely needed him, not only defensively, but just as a secondary guy who can create off the bounce and get to the rim because they were lacking that outside Apollo. And yeah, we'll see, we'll see what happens because this is also another team to the point about the Toronto Raptors that is also headed towards a very, very important off season because right. You have the Anthony Black decision that you have to make. You have to decide what you do between him and Jalen Suggs. Maybe you don't make that decision now.
- [06:42]
Dave Dufour
I think the Jalen Suggs decision has made itself at this point. The just absolute disaster class of a series for him offensively. I mean the shooting just that. That killed the Magic their chances of winning the series. If Jalen Suggs can just shoot 30%, they maybe win this series. I mean it was, it was that atrocious. You know, the fact that Tobias Harris as the second best player on the Pistons in this series and you, you're the Orlando Magic and you just couldn't get anyone else to show up. I. I think that that when. When you're the Magic, you're probably looking at yourself in the mirror quite a bit like what happened to us. Yeah, but they didn't have anything to fall back on whereas the Pistons did. I mean the Pistons identity as a defensive just dog and it wore out the Magic and the, the futility that we saw from Orlando offensively just, I mean, I don't know, the Pistons, they, they won a rock fight, but we knew that it was going to be a rock fight for them in the first round no matter who they were facing because of the offensive limitations that they've got. So they were kind of set up for it.
- [07:49]
Esperahenny
Yeah. And, and on the other side of things for Orlando, I think some of their maybe over reliance on Paulo, especially in the last couple games, like his scoring was there, but it was because they absolutely needed his shot attempts, his usage and without him it was just. They were searching for answers. And so it, it kind of philosophically brings you to a question about how the Magic are run. Like, there are a lot of questions about Paolo and the type of offense that he runs because a lot of it is mid range shot making. But maybe that's by necessity. It's not by design just because of how the Magic flow. It's more he has to take these shots because these are the only ones that are available to him. I think that's something fascinating for, for their summer moving forward. It's like how do we build around Paolo Banchero and make his life easier on the offensive side of the ball?
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Dave Dufour
Yeah. And then the, the look, the Celtics blowing a 31 lead. That's probably the most shocking outcome absolutely. Of the first round. Just because we talked about how they,
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Esperahenny
I had them going to the NBA Finals.
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Dave Dufour
Well, yeah, so did me. So, so or so did I. Excuse me. So did a lot of people. So did me. So did a lot of people. You know, I like a lot of people pick the Celtics and it. Part of it was because I felt like the east was just soft and the Celtics team just seemed like they had enough of a machine that they could just go through these seven game series. But look, Tatum went out, but the, the series changed with Joel Embiid coming in and becoming the best player. You know, I, we. We hit them hard with that first night where I felt like he kind of threw them out of rhythm and, and took away the stuff that was working for him. But, but the last three games of the series, Joel Embiid was the best player on the, on the floor, period.
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Esperahenny
No question.
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Dave Dufour
If we had known. Look, I, no one picked the Sixers to win, but if we had had any idea that he was going to look like this and come back when he did, I think a lot more people would have been saying, hey, this is going to go six, this is going to go seven. Because we talked about this during the regular season. S. When they were at full strength and when, like, Paul George was playing really good basketball was great in this series, but when they were at full strength, they were going to be a very sc. Scary six seed or five seed. And, you know, again, the Embiid appendectomy just kind of threw us a curveball and I don't know, man. The Sixers knocked it out of the park.
- [10:13]
Esperahenny
Yeah. And. And I think it's kind of a perfect storm if you're Philly. Hopefully, Joel Embiid is. Is healthy for this Knick series, and I know we're going to preview that in the second. Second half of the show, but yeah, you know, he did kind of get hurt and dinged his knee up a little bit in the final minutes of that Celtics game, so hopefully he's okay to play because I do like what they have. Fully healthy against this Knicks team. And to the point about the Celtics, nobody on the Celtics could guard Joel Embiid. Not a single soul on the Celtics could guard Embiid. And that was. It was kind of like a perfect storm in the sense that everybody knew. The Celtics front court issues were the biggest part of. Of the questions moving forward with this team, especially for this postseason run. They immediately ran into an MVP big man in Joel Embiid. It just, again, a perfect storm of a combination of things that allowed for the Celtics to lose. That's not to discredit what the Sixers did. They played excellent basketball.
- [11:13]
Dave Dufour
Oh, yeah.
- [11:14]
Esperahenny
Tyrese Maxey was unstoppable in this series. The point of attack defense for the Celtics was not good enough to guard him. And I think a big question of that is Derrick White. It's Jaylen Brown and those guys and their ability to play up to their standards. This team, even without Tatum, won a bunch of games. They had developed this identity of finding ways to win without the guy.
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Dave Dufour
Right.
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Esperahenny
You would expect them to go into a Game seven and pull out that win. It's disappointing. Okay.
- [11:40]
Dave Dufour
See, but this is. I want to put this on Joe Missoula a little bit too, because you. You just brought up a great point. They won a ton of games without Jason Tatum.
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Esperahenny
Yeah.
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Dave Dufour
The starting lineup that they started in Game seven was not the lineup that they ran all year. Luca Garza wasn't out there. I mean, Shireman wasn't out there.
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Esperahenny
That.
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Dave Dufour
That was an interesting choice to. To not just say, hey, okay, Tatum's out. We got to find a way to. To fill in the gaps. I just do not understand why Missoula didn't go back to what had worked in the regular season. Unless you just felt like Kato was losing the Embiid matchup so bad that you could not tolerate it. But, you know, the other thing about this series is that I think that these guys that they played all year should have gotten a chance to play during the first six games of the series, right? So to break them off and like, hey, we're going to pull you guys off the bench for game seven and expect them to be able to rise to the moment. I just think that, you know, for all the credit we've given Joe Missoula for how he coached this team this year and the way that he developed players, I don't think he did a good job in this series. I mean, Nick Nurse kind of out coached him.
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Esperahenny
He did.
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Dave Dufour
And some of that is he has more talent. I think that you look at the starting lineups between the two teams and you probably say the Sixers have more talent in their starting lineup, especially with Embiid, who's an MVP candidate. But Nick Nurse out coached Joe Missoula in this series. I think that that's something that, you know, the lack of adjustments game to game by Joe Missoula, the stick to the process and it's, you know, the math is going to work out. I think that that's something that the Celtics are going to have to think about this summer. Not moving on from Joe Missoula. I'm not saying that, but I do think that he's going to need to look at his process a little bit and, and maybe, you know, I don't know, take some, some pages out of the Tyloo notebook where, you know, like, you might see a completely different team from first half to next. But, you know, at some point you've got to adjust, especially in the playoffs. This is three pretty bad playoff losses for Joe Missoula. As a Celtics coach, I know they won a title, but, you know, three kind of early outs compared to what we were all thinking. So this is standing out on the resume a little bit.
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Esperahenny
Can I also, since we're on the topic of coaches, just to highlight someone. Darko was really good in this series and I, I actually thought he out coached Kenny Atkinson for the most part. Like the, the put buttons he was pushing in terms of the defensive matchups and switching Jakob onto to Mobley and just doing a lot of different things to make everything hard on the Cavaliers. Defensively. I have, like, what the Cavs had to deal with on the defensive side of the ball was a lot of Darko scheming and figuring out ways to limit Harden, to limit Mitchell, to limit the front court. That was really impressive to me. That was one of those things where I'm like, whoa, this is. This is not only a guy who can rally the troops in the regular season, but he can. He can really get down in the playoffs as a coach, too.
- [14:38]
Dave Dufour
Was there anybody eliminated this weekend that.
- [14:41]
Esperahenny
That.
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Dave Dufour
Like a player that you really changed your opinion on?
- [14:45]
Esperahenny
Good way or bad way?
- [14:47]
Dave Dufour
Either one. I'm just curious.
- [14:48]
Esperahenny
Either way, I would say Donovan Mitchell. I think. I think Donovan Mitchell, first of all, had an incredible series. Sorry. He had an incredible season, maybe arguably a first team, all NBA type of season. Kenny Atkinson, pregame was talking about how this was the most efficient season of his career, how he's just been this awesome scorer. And the Cavs have, like, especially with Garland, being in and out of the lineup, have forced him to be everything for this team before James Harden got there. But I do think that there are some serious limitations to him as a playmaker and passer that just completely hinder everything you want to do offensively. Again, to the point of what I was saying, with. With Darko Rajakovic, the Raptors made it so that Donovan Mitchell had to be a passer, had to be a playmaker. He had to make the right plays. And there are moments where he's basically dribbling the air out of the ball, trying to get opportunities for himself when the easiest opportunity is to make a pass and to create an opportunity for your teammates. I just. I think the limitations as a playmaker is something that pops up a lot in playoff basketball when so much of the scoring attention is on him and he has to be able to make those reads. I think he kind of gets off on not being able to. Like, there's actually. There's a limitation to that, and I don't think we talk about Donovan Mitchell's limitation as a playmaker enough. Right. You know, we've. We've talked about it with guys in his caliber. Right. We talk about it a lot with Anthony Edwards. We talk about it a lot with Tyrese Maxey. We talk about it with Devin Booker. But Mitchell is a guy who also needs to be in this conversation as a guy who at the very least has to get better as a playmaker if this Cavs team wants to have any chance of making it far, because the Raptors took that away very quickly. Yeah, very quickly in the series.
- [16:43]
Dave Dufour
Look, I'm gonna sound like a broken record, but this might be the last time we Get a chance to talk about the Raptors for a little bit. But it's Scotty Barnes, man. I, I honestly, I actually left that
- [16:54]
Esperahenny
one for you because I knew you were gonna say Scotty.
- [16:56]
Dave Dufour
I mean, listen, I mean obviously I've watched this guy a lot, but seeing him in the playoff, you know, under the bright lights, I, I was very impressed with, with the way that he, not only the, with the way he guarded, but with the way he played offense. I actually thought that his offensive game and his playmaking really, it stood out quite a bit in this series. You, you don't see a lot of that from him actually in the regular season. He doesn't get the opportunities again, going back to no quickly and no Brandon Ingram. I just think that what we got to see was Scotty Barnes unlocking some of the things that are going to wind up turning him into. If he becomes a great player. This is the stuff that's going to get him there and frankly like to be able to do that in the playoffs against a team that, look, the Cavs are not a great defensive team, but their interior defense is good and he was constantly in the teeth of the defense and just creating stuff. So look, if his jump shot ever becomes in any way reliable, you know, like if he can just stick 35% of his threes and it opens stuff up for him, I do believe that this guy is going to be like all NBA level offensive player too. Not just on the defensive end.
- [18:08]
Esperahenny
That was, that was the thing in this series. Honestly. His shot was falling. Like the three point shot was there. The mid range shots were falling. And so that, that helped him get to great scoring numbers, put pressure on the defense, become a playmaker that way. That's, that's the way move moving forward. Also the thing is he gets exhausted.
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Dave Dufour
Yeah, the spaces that Brandon Ingram sort of occupies like they were open for him. And again, this is where I just think like you've got to. The Raptors are going to have to pick a road here. Like who is, you know, are we going to get behind Scotty Barnes? I think that maybe they have a Brandon Ingram decision to make.
- [18:41]
Esperahenny
I'll tell, I'll tell you this right now. The issue is, is that most of the players on the Raptors roster, including Scotty Barnes, are very good at playing fast. Brandon Ingram cannot play fast. He only plays slow. And that is, it's a complete contrast in terms of the styles, how they work together. You can try to find a perfect balance. I think they did in certain points in the regular season. But when it comes to playoff basketball, it just feels like there's too much of a tug and tug of war when it comes to stylistic identities there. So I, I agree with you. I agree with you on that.
- [19:15]
Dave Dufour
Who's your MVP of the first round now that we're fully into the second round?
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Esperahenny
So we, we haven't, we haven't seen this guy in a little bit in the first round because he hasn't played in like a week. But it's Shay Gil, just Alexander, man. It's, it's. He's the MVP of the league. He gets MVP of the first round, too. The way that he was scoring on the Suns, the way that he was just carved them up for four straight games. It was unstop stuff, especially in that game three in Phoenix. He just, he was unconscious. So it has to be. To me, it has to be sga because of how great he. I don't know, man.
- [19:53]
Dave Dufour
I'm going to be a prisoner of the moment. I'm going to be a prisoner of the moment. I'm going to say it's Joel Embiid. They don't come back from 31 down. I like it if Joe well's not out there. And frankly, like, again, like, it's sort of like with Halliburton last year, we talked about how heroic it was that he, you know, he was playing through the calf and then, you know, obviously the worst happens. We don't, maybe we don't give him beat enough credit for how tough he is. I mean, this guy came back from an appendectomy in like 17 days or 19 days or whatever it is. And clearly, like, he got his legs under him after that first game. Looked fantastic, but completely changed the entire complexion of that series. Just shot every idea Boston had about playing the Sixers team into space and destroyed it. And so, yeah, I'd give it to Joel, but anyway, you guys let us know who's your MVP of the first round. Stick around. After the break, we're going to preview tonight's games.
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- [21:28]
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Esperahenny
Well, you're going to take a left
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Esperahenny
Nah, I'm just kidding.
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Esperahenny
We get the same great signal as
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- [22:27]
Dave Dufour
Okay, I have to tell you, I was just looking on ebay where I go for all kinds of things I love. And there it was. That hologram trading card. One of the rarest. The last one I needed for my set.
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Dave Dufour
One of a kind. Ebay had it.
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Esperahenny
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- [23:03]
Dave Dufour
The NBA playoff second round kick off tonight. We've got the Knicks and the Sixers at msg. The two teams split the season series two games apiece. S biggest matchup in this in this series is going to be Joel Embiid, my first round MVP versus Carl Anthony Towns, who honestly, a lot of people might pick as their first round MVP with the way that he played the last couple games of that Hawks series. We saw the Knicks figure out finally how to use him as an offensive hub and actually elevate everyone else's game. What do you think? Embiid versus Carl Anthony Towns. What are we watching for in game one?
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Esperahenny
If we had like a first round all NBA first team, it would be like Embiid cat SGA Scotty and pick another player. Wemby. I Don't know, but that's basically what it would be. This is going to be a fascinating series, and I actually think Cap versus Embiid is the right place to start, because the Knicks did a great job of putting pressure against the Hawks in drop situations, especially Carl Anthony Towns as the kind of initiator, hub, pick and roll guy, but also dribble handoff guy, working above the break, working in these flex actions to find cutters. I'm very curious to see how that works against Joel Embiid in drop coverage, because that's just something that I think they can attack consistently, and we've seen teams. I think the Celtics didn't do as good of a job of it, but I think the Knicks are specifically just well balanced enough that they can put pressure on Embiid as a defender. The more you make him work defensively, the bigger their issues will be on the offensive side of the floor. That's. I think that's where the series starts, truthfully, is how much pressure the Knicks can put on Embiid on the defensive side of the floor. And on the other side, can Carl Anthony Towns guard Joel Embiid one on one because.
- [25:01]
Dave Dufour
Probably not.
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Esperahenny
Probably not. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So then if that.
- [25:06]
Dave Dufour
I mean, but that's the thing, right? So the Knicks, though, they have guys that can help. I mean, you know, like OG can help in double. I, I think that they can. They can guard Joel Embiid with a lot of bodies and they've got length, but I think there's no stopping Joel. I, I think if. Especially if he's gonna look the way he did at the end of the. The Celtic series, which, you know, obviously health is a huge factor here for Joel Embiid.
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Esperahenny
Yeah.
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Dave Dufour
But I, I want to go back to the defensive end because Embiid is going to be in a drop. I mean, it just. Physically, that is about the only way that he can play. But I thought that. And, and you mentioned that the Knicks are going to take more advantage of this, but I do think that the Sixers have the personnel to be able to cover and to pre switch and to do all these things. It's going to be where. Where. So where do they choose to attack and how do they get Joel involved with the way that the Sixers pre switch. And so, I mean, I, I just. The Sixers don't really have a weak perimeter defender unless it's Tyrese Maxey. So I think it's going to be a lot of Tyrese Maxey. We're going to get get you up on the ball. I'm. I'm pretty sure Maxi is not starting out with the Jalen Brunson assignment they're gonna have. Yeah, I don't think that that's going to happen. So I'm very curious, like, is Josh Hart gonna be the guy that, that gets him in the mix and, and gets Joel Embiid to have to rise
- [26:27]
Narrator/Announcer
up to the level?
- [26:29]
Dave Dufour
I don't know. On the other end, there's nobody really that you can hide Jalen Brunson on, On the Sixers.
- [26:36]
Esperahenny
Yeah, exactly. I agree. This, this is, this is what comes down to defensively. What kind of answers do the, do the Knicks have for the combination of Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid? Because, look, if you are sending two to the ball when Joel has it in the post, okay, that creates a rotation, an automatic rotation for the rest of your team. And Brunson needs to be on a string. OG McHale, Josh Hart, whoever else is on the floor need to be on a string. This feels like a big Deuce McBride series. He needs to be incredible in this series because they need his three point shooting, but they need his point of attack defense against Maxi. If they don't solve that puzzle, then it's just going to put more pressure on Brunson and Cat defensively. And that, as we know, that causes a lot of issues for the Knicks. This is going to go long. I feel like this is going to be a long series. As long as Embiid is healthy, this will be a very long series. And truthfully, it feels like a toss up to me.
- [27:31]
Dave Dufour
The Knicks have the depth advantage, though. I, I think that the Knicks have more guys that they can trust. But the Embiid. Embiid is the biggest X factor. Believe it or not, the MVP is the biggest X factor in the series because like you said, if he's healthy, he's the best player in the series.
- [27:47]
Esperahenny
Yeah.
- [27:48]
Dave Dufour
And I think that the Knicks, their big man rotation is going to get tough. You know, can you play too big and still score the way that you want to? Can you play too big and still guard on the perimeter the way you want to? You know, if it's Mitchell, Robinson and Cat, because Embiid is just having too good of a game now, what happens to your perimeter defense? I mean, it, it's, it's a pretty good chess match, I think, between these two teams, because it is going to be about, you know, which style can, can manage to score more.
- [28:16]
Esperahenny
Yeah, I agree. Also, we've seen these Two teams play off and. And they, like, not much has changed from them. I. I know, yeah, it was Dante and no Julius Randle when it was that Sixers Knicks series a couple years back, and now it's Carl Anthony Towns instead. So I, I don't want to discount that change. But from a maxi Brunson and Bead equation, a lot of those same questions persist. The other X factor here, I think is like Paul George, if he has a great series, if he. His shot making is there in a major way, that could. That could flip things as well. He was one of the best isolation defenders in the first round of the playoffs. If he's like that against Brunson, that could be trouble for the Knicks. What's your pick, man? I'm gonna pick Knicks in seven, but it's because I actually don't know who's gonna win this series. If Embiid is healthy, I like, I. I think the Knick. I would favor the Knicks just because I don't know if Embiid can stay healthy for another series. But if you were to tell me the Sixers win this in six, I would not be shocked whatsoever. Would not be shocked.
- [29:19]
Dave Dufour
I would be shocked if. If the Sixers pulled it off in six, I. I'll go Nixon seven. Because who knows? The Embiid thing is, like you just said, it is such a wild card, and if he's as. As good as he's been, I don't know. Sixers and six would be crazy. Unbelievable, actually.
- [29:38]
Esperahenny
But it feels like this could be. Can I just say this? It feels like it could be the year for the Sixers, right? Yeah, it feels like this could be the year. Like, perfect storm. I keep coming back to this, but it just. Them beating the Celtics was something. It's notable. And to. For them to come back and play a Knicks team that. I think most people have more questions about the Knicks than they did the Celtics going into these playoffs. So I just. It might be a perfect storm equation where the Sixers just somehow find themselves in the conference finals now, and it's either the Pistons or the Cavs, and maybe Embiid is healthy and they just. I don't know. I'm kind of selling myself on a Sixers miraculous finals run, but maybe.
- [30:22]
Dave Dufour
That sounds like you're.
- [30:23]
Esperahenny
Yeah, it's wishful thinking. Perhaps. I don't know. I don't know.
- [30:26]
Dave Dufour
I mean, I could. I can root for that. That would be a pretty fun time. I mean, it would be awesome.
- [30:31]
Esperahenny
It'd be a great story.
- [30:32]
Dave Dufour
Yeah. Yeah, Jalen Brown won't love it, I'll say that. You know, Jaylen Brown, of course. No complaining about all the flopping from everyone. All right, we got Wolves, Spurs. The Wolves won the season series two games to one. Biggest matchup to me, Rudy Gobert versus Victor Weman Yama. I don't know that Rudy Gobert is actually going to guard Wemby all that much. Yeah, I think he probably will wind up guarding Steph Castle quite a bit, which again, this is something that the spurs have already had to overcome a little bit. But coming off of the series that Rudy Gobert just had against Nikola Jokic, I wonder how much of a. Of a crack at Wimby he's going to get. Because, I mean, he was all over the place with Jokic. He guarded him on the perimeter, he guided him on the inside. I mean, I know that Wimy is a much different beast, but you don't know.
- [31:22]
Esperahenny
I guess the other question would be, what would be your solution to guarding Wemby one on one? If it's not Gobert, would it be Julius Randall? Is it Jada McDaniels?
- [31:29]
Dave Dufour
I think Julius Randall, yeah, something like that. Probably not Jaden McDaniels. I think you want Jaden McDaniels a little bit more involved up at the, at the top of the key in the middle of the paint. But I think you could see probably some Julius Randle on him. Again, you think about the guys that have bothered Wemby, and Julius Randle's a bigger version of those guys, you know, I mean, he can really get in there and bully with them a little bit, can push him out of the paint. And so I, I wonder if also a little bit of just punish him, you know, just somebody who's going to bang with him quite often, you know, and we already know Wemby has a tendency. He gets knocked down a lot, he doesn't play a ton. So if you can actually wear him down a little bit, maybe you help yourself out on the offensive end.
- [32:13]
Esperahenny
Yeah, the only thing is, if you do have Randall as the one on one guy versus Wemby, Randall's off ball awareness is not the best defensively. And so he's going to get back cut like crazy. And that, that puts just more pressure on Rudy Gobert. Right. Like Rudy Gobert has to be excellent as the weak side help. And, and again, that also puts pressure on Steph Castle to knock down his shots to draw out Gobert. It's a whole kind of snowball effect there in Terms of what happens. The other X factor I'll throw out at you is the health of Anthony Edwards, who I thought was going to come into the series much later. I thought it was going to be like game five, maybe game six. But he's questionable. He got upgraded to questionable for game one. We'll see if he ends up playing. I don't know at this point in time as we're recording, but it feels like he's going to play pretty soon. And how healthy he looks, how available he is, how limited or unlimited Anthony Edwards is, is a big, big, big part of this series. And also we've seen this team like you brought up the season series matchup. The spurs struggled to guard Anthony Edwards.
- [33:19]
Dave Dufour
Yes, they do.
- [33:20]
Esperahenny
They were great at guarding in general. The point of attack, defense has obviously been awesome for the spurs all year. There's something about Ant and the way that he kind of gets his athleticism, his like up and just jumping out of the gym quality that makes it really hard for the spurs to guard. And if he's limited, if he's not that caliber of player, then this is a different series entirely. So that's a huge factor. How healthy Anthony Edwards sounds really similar
- [33:49]
Dave Dufour
to how we set up the series that they just had with the Nuggets. Not, not sure what he was going to look like. To me, the biggest question that the spurs have to answer, what are you doing when Victor Wembanyama is not on the court? In the three games against the Wolves this season, they had a 133.9 offensive rating. So 134 points per 100 possessions with Wemby on the court when he was off the court, 102. So 32 point drop off with him on and off. And so to me, it's what happens when Wemby's not on the court. Can. Can the Wolves capitalize on those minutes again? Can you wear Wimby down to the point where he's only getting 28 minutes instead of 32? And I do think that that's going to be a big factor. One of the secrets to Wemby, I do believe, is to attack the paint. And I know that sounds counterintuitive, but I think that attacking him over and over and physically running into him, like actually creating contact with Wemby, is how you wear him down. And whether that's over the course of one game because we've seen him tired in fourth quarters or it's over the course of a seven game series, what's it going to look like, when this gets to game six and you've had Julius Randle, you know, pounding him in the paint, you've had Anthony Edwards, hopefully, you know, attacking the paint, Nas Reed, even putting pressure on the rim. I want to see how the Wolves come out and actually go at Wimby instead of going away from him.
- [35:14]
Esperahenny
Yeah, I think that's a great point. I also think, you know, Fox was really great in the final couple games for the spurs against the Blazers. If he. That's the. That's the kind of skeleton key to unlocking the minutes without Wemby. Right. Is how good de' Aaron Fox can be. And so, like the scoring ability, the playmaking. If he can put pressure on the rim, that's the answer for them in the Wemby list minutes. And that. That might make this a shorter series.
- [35:40]
Dave Dufour
Jade McDaniels versus De' Aaron Fox.
- [35:43]
Esperahenny
Yes, absolutely.
- [35:43]
Dave Dufour
Yeah. Jaden McDaniels versus De' Aaron fox. That's. That's the other big matchup. Who you taking in this one?
- [35:49]
Esperahenny
I just don't know enough about Anthony Edwards and his availability to pick the Wolves. If he is available, and he looks like the Anthony Edwards that we know. I think the Wolves could win this series, but because I don't know that I'm going to say spurs and six.
- [36:02]
Dave Dufour
So, yeah, I got spurs in six. I just think, you know, this team, they. They're a title contender. They've been a title contender for a while. I don't think the Wolves have enough juice right now. Again, they lost. They're going to be down two starters, most likely in game one.
- [36:17]
Esperahenny
Yeah.
- [36:17]
Dave Dufour
And you get off on a 0:1 footing. It's hard to come back against a really good team. And the spurs have the home court advantage and. And they've actually, I mean, bring back
- [36:26]
Esperahenny
the Fiesta color waves.
- [36:27]
Dave Dufour
First. First round would have been a sweep, in my opinion, had Wimby not gone down in that one game that. That the spurs gave up. So I don't know. I think it's going to be a good series regardless. I wouldn't want to play this Wolves team, you know, after watching them and the way that they beat up on the Nuggets. So it's going to be exciting, guys. Stick around. Second round of the playoffs kicking off. We're getting even more excited. Finals coming up for too long. That's going to do it for the show. Thank you guys for hanging out with us. For Esperante. I'm Dave Dufour and this has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us. Thanks for listening. Make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed it, drop a comment like leave a rating or let us know in the comments. Thank you guys for waking up with us.
- [37:22]
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