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We were blessed with just one game and it was a game that was somewhat predictably a blowout as the Minnesota Timberwolves got a game back on the Golden State warriors. We are now 11 heading into the Bay, so we're going to spend just a few minutes on that game. Then we're going to have our Player of the Week section with Microsoft. Then at the tail end of the show, Jackson and I were were texting earlier today and I got this crazy, harebrained idea for a trade. So we're just going to Purely for fun, purely in fantasy land of the NBA, we're going to discuss an idea of a trade involving the Boston Celtics for this summer. As a little teaser, you guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on twitter@_jasonlt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcasts on Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about our new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook where Jackson's doing some great work and then keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments. Also, no playback tonight. We're going to take advantage of the this is our 20th consecutive live show at night, so I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to spend a little bit of extra time with my wife tonight. But we do usually go on playback after these live shows. Make sure you guys head over to Playback TV Slash Hoops tonight for our playback after show tomorrow night. But again, no after show tonight. We'll get back into that tomorrow. So let's talk some basketball. Nice bounce back Win the Minnesota Timber Wolves I just thought from the start they were much sharper staying attentive to Golden State's ball and player movement. The dead giveaway is they played him into so many of these like late clock isos where, you know, Jackson and I were joking earlier cause Jimmy Butler just seemed he took a few of them early in the game. But there were several examples where he was kind of just passing out of those situations. And it was, you could tell Jimmy kind of was sensing the moment that it was a game that might be out of reach. And so it was almost like he was kind of holding something in reserve. Stan Van Gundy was obviously a little bit critical of him about that, but at the same time you could feel it. You could feel this game as being somewhat of a landslide for Minnesota from the opening tip as they go up 13 0. But the dead give away so many of these late ISOs, whether whether it's Moses Moody or it's Brandon Pajemski or it's Buddy Heald or whoever it might be with three seconds on the shot clock with an elite defender in their face having to just throw something up. We had shot clock violations. We had shots that didn't even Come close to the rim. The Timberwolves forced a bunch of turnovers and kept getting in TR out in transition off of them for easy ones. It was just a much better defensive performance from Minnesota. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute because that's going to be an interesting trend going through the rest of the series. And then on offense, Ant is still struggling a bit with just figuring out how to attack this defense. First of all, glad to see him come back in the second half. The way he was limping, I was seriously concerned that that might have been some kind of like, severe high ankle sprain with the way that Trace Jackson Davis landed on top of him. But to have him come back in the second half, obviously a good sign. You don't want to see anybody get hurt, especially in a way that could have an impact in their ability to even be available to their team. But he's been sped up a little bit by Golden State's ball pressure, and he's definitely going to have to get that a little more under control as the series progresses into Golden State. It's a very different kind of series than the Lakers series where he was given more space, there wasn't pressure, and he could kind of like be comfortable as he was processing the defense. The idea, the whole game plan with Golden State is if they can pressure Ant, he'll rush into drives, and if he rushes into drives, he won't process the floor quick enough to be able to make the right reads when he gets downhill. And so it's going to be key for Ant to solve that problem over the course of the series. But everyone else on Minnesota took a good step forward tonight. A bunch of their shoot started to get into rhythm. Nas reed, Nasrid, Dante DiVincenzo, Nikhil Alexander Walker, Mike Conley and Anthony Edwards all hit multiple threes in this game, which is obviously good sign. A good sign after the horrendous shooting that they put forth in Game 5 against the Lakers. In Game 1 of this series, we saw a little bit of J.D. mcDaniels getting back to some of that weak side scoring that he did in the first round. Took a little bit of an audacious step back three over Draymond Green in the left corner that I thought was kind of funny, but other than that, a bunch of these, like, good, you know, closeout attacks where he's euro ing through a help defender, spinning off of a guy who's closing out on him and just hitting those little short floaters and jump shots that are shots that we know that he can hit. And then I thought Julius just had a really nice bounce back game. I thought he was really bad in game one and really started to get his feel out of the post. Just taking simple kickout reads that are there as Golden State was pinching down on him, doing some scoring in the middle of the floor. Just a nice step forward for the Wolves offense which is going to be the problem like as we, as we move forward in this series. The job is all mental for Minnesota. We're heading to Golden State and Minnesota fans, if you haven't had a chance to watch much of Golden State this year, they just have this level they can get to at home. Even without Steph on the defensive end of the floor and getting out in transition and feeding off of the energy of that crowd, they're going to be a tough out in the same way that I kind of like felt like tonight was going to be a blowout. I think both game three and game four are going to be dogfights and those. The job for Minnesota on both ends of the floor is going to be simple. On the offensive end of the floor like we talked about, Anthony Edwards not getting rushed, but him and Julius together having to process that defense when it's more engaged, when it's flying around feeding off the energy of that crowd, not turning the ball over, not settling for bad threes. Ants had an issue knifing through the defense and taking high degree of difficulty layups in traffic that he's missing at a high clip. The mental processing piece is going to be key for them on offense as they go on the road and then on the defensive end. Again, like we talked about, it was good step forward for them tonight. But that same attentiveness to all the ball and player movement. This is a team that if you can play them into those late clock isos. Cause again, it's not like Golden State's planning to take a late clock ISO. They're running their motion offense to try to get you to make a mistake. And if you make a mistake leaving a cutter open or a shooter open, they're going to take that opportunity, right? But if you can take away those opportunities in the motion, all of a sudden it's like Jimmy Butler's really the only guy other than maybe Jonathan Kamingo when he's in rhythm, which we'll talk about. He did seem to build a little bit of rhythm tonight. But Jimmy Butler is really the only player that can create his own shot against an elite defender in that sort of situation. And, and at this phase in his career, he's not as good at it as he used to be. Right. So, like, if you can be attentive and shut down the motion, you can play them into late clock isos, you got a great chance to win game three and game four on the road. But if you lose sight of that and you let Golden State feed on the energy of their crowd and a couple role players get confident they will hit open shots, as you guys know, I mean, that's what happened in game one after Steph went down. Every time Minnesota made a mistake, they knocked the shot down and it just wasn't anything that they were able to regain control of. You got to play these guys into those misses. And so it's. They have the physical tools necessary to do the job, but they've got to have the mental focus and discipline, attention to detail to get it done on the road. And I do think they need to win in both of those games. I think if they end up in a. In a scenario where Golden State takes this thing 22 back to Minnesota in Game 5, even if you win, I think Steph Curry's going to come back in that game on the 18th. And as we saw in game one, I think this is a tough matchup for Minnesota when Steph is healthy. Now, whether or not he'll be healthy enough to even be a factor remains to be seen, but I think Minnesota needs to be going to the bay with the goal of trying to win both of those games. Now on the Golden State front, we talked about this last night in playback. We talked about it two nights ago after game one. But we viewed this game too, as basically a game that Minnesota was going to win and was going to win by a lot. It's just the combination of a bunch of factors. We talked about this last night with Oklahoma City versus Denver. On the one hand, your road team is a veteran team that already stole home court advantage. So there's such a natural pullback in terms of effort, focus and energy because you know you're going home with home court advantage. We just saw that with Denver last night with okc. Also, just like okc, Minnesota is a damn good basketball team. A damn good basketball team led by really good players. So, like, they got the talent to have a bounce back at the game. It's also an absolute must win. Unlike the Boston series, Boston is arguably more comfortable on the road than they are at home. Unlike the Boston series, Minnesota could not afford to go down.02. It was like an absolute must win type of game for a great team against a veteran team that had already taken home court. There was a natural pullback that was going to happen. And so one of the things we talked a lot about over the course of the last two days was how can the warriors get some sort of positive progress out of this type of game that's going to be so, so difficult to win. And the key was a couple things we talked about. Giving Jonathan Kaminga a long leash. Now we discussed it more within the context of him being in the starting lineup. Wasn't in the starting lineup tonight, but he did get 26 minutes and got plenty of opportunity to create his own offense. And he scored 18 points on 11 shots. We'll zoom in on that in just a minute. But the second piece of it was digging way deep in the rotation and giving a ton of guys opportunity, right? Steve Kerr ends up playing, let me count, this is 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 different players tonight. So Steve Kerr gave everyone a chance just to see like Steve's gotta rebuild a basketball team on the fly here, right? Like what works with Steph is different than what's gonna work without Steph. And so Steve Kerr in a lot of ways has to come up with a, a completely different way to win basketball games from scratch here on the fly. And so he, he used game two as an opportunity to test a lot of things out. Simple thing. After the 13 oh run, Quentin Post gets the hook. Goes to Trace Jackson Davis. Trace Jackson Davis was impactful in this game. His athleticism popped 15 points and 6 rebounds. Was really providing some of that rim pressure out of ball screen action. Just rolling hard to the rim and getting vertical as, as much as Quinton Post is a very good player, we've joked on the show, he can't jump over a phone book. He's not exactly the most athletic dude in the world. Trace Jackson Davis bring some of that vertical pop. I thought that that was a kind of like a useful little bit of information that came out of this game. And then the second piece of it was Jonathan Kaminga had a little bit of success in face up situations and ISOs got comfortable as a catch and shoot player. Hitting another corner three. The one he missed in the fourth quarter too, I thought was pretty close. He looked like he was in good rhythm there. Think he hit his first eight shots in this game. He just started to build some of that rhythm. Why that matters is because in those games in Golden State, I think in order to win one of them, or let's put it this way, you give yourself a good chance to win one of them. If in one of those two games, Jonathan Kaminga has a 2022 point night and I think that he was in such a funk coming into this that tonight was the perfect opportunity to just give him a long leash and just see what he could put together in terms of rhythm building towards Game three and Game four. Again, like I said, with Minnesota on the Golden State front, the goal needs to be like obviously the goal is to win both games, but if you can get one game in Golden State and you can send it back to Minnesota 2 2, you guarantee that you're playing on the 18th, and if you're playing on the 18th,. I think there's a decent chance that Steph Curry comes back and plays and gives you a chance to win the series. If you win both, obviously you're in fantastic position. But if you can win one of those games, you give Steph Curry the chance to return in 12 days AI is redefining what's possible for your business Are you up to the challenge? Microsoft is helping leaders like you get AI ready faster with unified data and simplified platform management, unlocking up to 150% improved output. Cross industries leaders are turning to Microsoft's AI tools and guidance to rise to the challenge. For the NBA, that means using AI powered insights to deliver more personalized fan experience. 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Welcome to Course Correction, brought to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense pressure to get things right. They must rise to the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified cloud and data management, and trustworthy, responsible AI. And when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles to face. In this segment, we will highlight the player every week that has risen to the occasion when his team needed him. Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise to say, bring it on. This week's Player of the Week is Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets. On Monday night, we saw the best playoff performance that I've seen since Steph Curry scored 43 points on the Boston Celtics in the 2022 Finals in Game 1 against the Thunder. Just two nights after he led his team to a victory in Game 7 against the Clippers. On the road against one of the best statistical performing defenses in the history of the NBA. Against a team that had already won 72 games in this season, 68 in the regular season, and a 40 sweep in the first round. He goes for 42 points, 22 rebounds, six assists, a steal in two blocks in the fourth quarter. He walked the Thunder down, just dominating in the middle of the floor. He had 18 points just in that fourth quarter, keeping the Nuggets in striking distance so that they could have a chance to win the game. Late. Hit several big shots late, a hook shot over Alex Crusoe, a driving foul that got to the line, a huge three that cut the lead to one over Isaiah Hartenstein using like kind of a jab step sequence, ultimately ending the game with an Aaron Gordon game winning three in transition off the left wing to steal Game one and get home court advantage for the Denver Nuggets. One of my favorite things about basketball is the ability of a star player to transcend surrounding circumstances. Yes, it's a team sport. Basketball is beautiful when it's flowing, but in the most intense moments, defenses, especially defenses as good as okc, can reach a level where that flow is basically impossible. And you need a singular force of nature who can transcend that environment because he has a superpower. These are the moments when you see a superstar Dig deep and reach that special level that lead to some of my favorite moments in NBA history. So shout out to Nicola Jokic for giving us another one of those. They're rare and I always really appreciate them when they come around. That's it for this week's course correction. Remember, Microsoft's AI Solutions empower you to take bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas to help drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your trusted partner, you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding innovative solutions and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft.com challengers to learn more. All right, so here's the deal. I'm going to bring Jackson on stage because he's our resident Celtics fan as well, in addition to being very important to the process of this show. But Jackson and I were texting earlier today and I want to. I want to. This is a disclaimer up front. Okay, this trade's not going to happen. It's unlikely for a variety of reasons, but I want to talk about it because it's fun, we have some time, and after a boring game like that, it's nice to have a little just. Just to get into fantasy land a little bit. So here's the deal. I pitched the idea to Jackson today. Viewer GM of the Celtics, or excuse me if you were GM of the Bucks. Actually, no, we'll call it the Celtics. Your GM of the Celtics. Bucks call you and they offer Giannis for Jason Tatum. Do you say yes or no now before I want to make the case, I'm going to make the case again. Disclaimer. This is just for fun and primarily meant as a thought exercise. Okay, here's the case. It's being widely reported that the Celtics are going to start finding ways to cut payroll as soon as this summer. In this theoretical scenario, the Celtics have just. Again, this is important context here. This. I'm only pitching this in the event that the Celtics lose to the Knicks. So they lose to the Knicks. Tatum is the reason why in this hypothetical scenario, okay, so the Celtics have just lost a series as a minus 800 favorite, literally because their stars shit the bed. So the premise would be that the Celtics roster would lose a decent amount of talent as part of the cost cutting and they would suddenly drop to a second tier contender because their stars aren't good enough to lift that roster. So they wouldn't be really good enough to compete anymore. Another way to reframe the situation is this is a very short window of contention for the Celtics. Maybe next year, maybe the following year. Giannis is a Much better basketball player than Jayson Tatum and has developed into an excellent passer. This phase in his career, you'd be surrounding him with a roster that fits his skill set super well. He's the kind of player who could capitalize on that short window to get you a second championship. Presumably, he could still win even if they lost two of their core five. So let's say they lose Drew Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. Those are the two guys that they look to shed salary. You'd still have Giannis, Derek White, Jalen Brown, Horford probably comes back on a minimum. You have Hauser Pritchard, Luke Cornett. You still have like a solid rotation around him. Then in two years, when Giannis is 32 years old, if he loses the juice and the roster isn't good enough, you can still flip Giannis to another team to restock your asset. Trope case for Milwaukee, really simple. Tatum has literally four years and an option after this season, and he just turned 27. You can rebuild around him, and you probably could get a couple draft picks out of Boston in the deal that you can flip to help improve your role player talent. So essentially, for Milwaukee, it's a bet on Tatum's future, and for Boston, it's a bet on this current roster just needing better play from a star. So, Jackson, in this hypothetical scenario, you're the GM of the Celtics. They offer. They offer Giannis for Tatum. What are you saying?

Host (24:50)

It's. It's a really galaxy brain idea. And I, and I, I'm trying to not forget about the connection to the city element after we just saw what Nico Harrison did shipping off Luka Doncic. However, I do think in this hypothetical, it would be a little bit different because of how sour it would feel to lose to the Knicks in this fashion. Right. Coming off for the Mavericks, yeah, you lost in the Finals, but you got to the finals with Luka Doncic. It felt specifically kind of bizarre. And they were an underdog. If you're losing in four or five games to the Knicks in a series that you were heavy, heavy, heavy favorites, people are. I saw someone say on Twitter today, this is the. This would be the kind of thing that results in people getting fired or people getting traded. Right. And that's. And I think that's totally a valid take. What, are people expecting Jason Tatum to be traded? I don't think so. But if someone was like, we need to fire Joe Missoula after this, I would not agree, but I would be. I would understand the thought behind it. Right. So I do, I do think if you lose this series, especially if it's in four or five games, I don't think it's gonna be four, but if it's in five games, it makes sense to make a little bit of a shake up. It's hard to run that back after, after this way. The series has looked at least through two games. Trading Tatum for Giannis, though, that is a crazy idea. And I, I don't, I don't hate it. Of all the. If you're gonna offload one of your two stars, which I don't.

Advertiser (26:13)

In the.

Host (26:13)

If they're gonna shake things up this summer, which they're probably going to payroll, we're. If they lose to the Knicks, in a weird way, you're probably making some sort of significant trade. I. If you're saying you're going to trade one of a major shakeup. If you're expecting a major, major shakeup for the Celtics, like getting Giannis is the best case scenario for a major shakeup. So in that sense, I don't hate it. And I think you're actually absolutely right that it's. Even with the departure of whoever Drew Holliday, Kristaps, one or both of those guys for salary purposes, it's still a close to perfectly designed roster for around Giannis. Much better than I would even argue the championship level, the championship Bucks roster. Like, he's never played with a player as good as Jalen Brown. He's never played with a player even as close to as good as Jalen Brown, frankly.

Advertiser (27:02)

Or defenders that could shoot as well as the defenders can shoot from the right.

Host (27:06)

Exactly. And you're really surrounding him with a lot of shooting talent, a lot of versatility if you, if you plug him into this roster. So it's not the. I don't hate it. It would, it would be the kind of, it would be one of the few trades that could top the shock waves created by the Luka Dodges trade.

Advertiser (27:25)

You know what I mean?

Host (27:26)

Like, it's one, it would be one of the craziest trades. It would be up there with the, the KD summer and the Kawhi summers, maybe even bigger than both of those. Maybe not bigger than Katie, but I think it's probably bigger than the Kawhi to the Clippers somewhere. If you're ranking, you know, early July moves, as there have been many, as there's been some, some bombs over the course of the last, you know, 10 years, it, it's, it's kind of breaking my brain a Little bit. But of all the, the ultimate. Ultimately, my answer is if of all the major shakeups that would, you know, be pitched and be potentially required in a, In a summer after you lose an ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly series where Jason Tatum is not, not good, it would be probably the best case scenario.

Advertiser (28:11)

I, I'm glad that you mentioned the, the just the mood that would be surrounding the team. Cause that's the important part of this. Like, Tatum would, in this hypothetical scenario at age 26 and age 27, which is typically the age where stars figure it out, would have a playoff run where he was very important in them winning the title, but two playoff runs where he operated well below that of a top tier superstar. And essentially like when you have a payroll like what they had, it's almost like championship or bust in a lot of ways. And I, I almost look at it like the, there's like a certain amount of urgency to capitalize on this window because, like, let's take a look at like, what the scenario would look like if Tatum did not get traded. So Tatum doesn't get traded. You. You drop a couple of bodies. Let's call it Porzingis and like, let's call it Porzingis and Holiday, just as an example, even if they just get rid of Porzingis, okay, they just get rid of Porzingis. Horford's a year older. Drew Holiday is a year older. Derek White's a year older. Although Derek White, Tatum and Brown are still firmly in their prime. So in this scenario, like, you are a less talented version of this year's team that just got eliminated in the second round in embarrassing fashion. So in that scenario, like, you look forward and it's like, actually they're completely hamstrung other than draft picks. They have draft picks, but they don't have any, like, free agent flexibility at all. You're in this situation where you have to ask yourself, like, Cleveland is going to get better as Evan Mobley gets better and as Darius Garland gets better and as Jared Allen gets better. You look at the east and it's like all of a sudden the Pistons are looking a little bit frisky as a team. That could be a problem in the East. The Pacers right now are playing at extremely high level. You have the Thunder, who are going to keep getting better. You have Wemby and Dear and Fox and who knows what else they're going to do this summer. Houston could make a trade for Kevin Durant. Like, the teams around you would be getting better, while your team would be getting worse and we would have just seen them not be good enough. And so then you ask yourself like, okay, now Tatum's 28, 29 years old. Are you even close to good enough to win the title with your roster that you had? And that's where I think it gets fascinating. Essentially what you're saying is like, this roster is destined to some form of blow up anyway. Like Tatum as, like, like in this hypothetical where he's, you know, had these two kind of somewhat disappointing playoff runs, he would literally be a player that you would look at as not like you would need to surround him with an enormous amount of talent for him to win. Right. And so with that being the case, Giannis is the type of superstar talent that can lift up a roster that's just another great roster and make it into a championship worthy roster. And so I think it just kind of like makes some sense on that level. But again, I think, I think the part, the part you mentioned about the human element is real. Like, I just don't think Boston would do that to Tatum. But yeah, if he throws a couple of stinkers down there.

Host (31:18)

Yeah, yeah, I mean it could get, the discourse is going to get real ugly if they, if he has. Even if they lose, if they lose in five and he starts playing better, it's like, okay, get in the lab, you know, come back, come back better next summer. That's. But if, if he has, if he doesn't have a great game the rest of the series or even if he just has three mediocre games and they, and they lose in five, the discourse is going to get quite ugly. This course getting quite ugly. I was briefly checking out the. I was like, okay, maybe there's a way to include Kristaps in a deal so you're shedding some salary in the same trade. What can we. You want, obviously you want to give up more salary than you're getting back, but is there anyone useful on the bucks you could get back? And guess what the answer is no. Their roster sucks. Their roster sucks. Most of their rosters on one year deals. It's like I was like, oh, AJ Green's okay. Okay, he's $2 million. Like, maybe that's AJ Green.

Advertiser (32:09)

To make a great.

Host (32:10)

AJ Green would be making great Celtic. Like, I don't really want Kyle Kuzma. Brook. Brook's on, on the last year of his deal. Bobby Portis, I think he actually, no, he could be traded, but like, so Bobby Portis is okay. I suppose you could take back Bobby Portis. But it's pretty bleak in terms of the buck situation, which we knew that obviously that's why they're going to blow it up this summer. But it's, I don't know.

Advertiser (32:34)

Well, in a poor Zingus trade too, in a theoretical cost cutting move, they would look to move him to a team with cap space so they didn't have to take salary back. And so like, but that's, that's my point though is like if Boston's going to be in a substantial cost cutting like position, you have to have a serious conversation with yourself about whether or not Tatum's going to be good enough.

Host (32:53)

Yeah, I think that's fair. I think the counter for and the rationalization for me as a Celtics fan and the counter for most Celtics fans is the point you're making about the age of the two superstars they are entering. Tatum's about going to be 27 next year. Jaylen Brown is going to be 28 next year. They are entering the theoretical, theoretically the best part of their basketball career. And like not, and they're not 30 or 31 like they got. Theoretically you're entering a four to five year prime window as these stars seem to be keeping up that highly elite level at like 32, 33 the these days. So you're entering a four to five year elite elite window where you got where you the hope would be those guys continue to get better even if it's, you know, marginally better. You're not expecting a giant leap at this point in either their careers. But if they're going to get a little bit better, each of them over the summer, you're hoping that can make up for any of the, the talent drop you're getting that you're going to have to make reportedly in a cost cutting move this summer.

Advertiser (33:50)

The thing that would scare me with that is yes, players do get better in that 27 to 32 range, but they tend to get better at the expense of some athleticism. It's usually in that like 25, 26 range that you're moving really well. I mean I already saw, I saw a video today of like young Tatum, like he was, he's a lot less explosive than he used to be, even back then. And is Tatum a good enough shot maker to do this at a lower level of athleticism? And that arguably has been the thing that he's never been able to figure out. And so like there's, it happens a lot in like I, I this. I keep thinking about the comment that Matthew had on Playback. A couple like three, four nights ago where he just was like, he basically was just saying Tatum streaky. And like, like he's like, he's, yeah, yeah, he can be hot from three, but he can just as easily be cold. And so that's where it gets tricky. But I, I, in the point you're making is fair in the sense that like, if you just bet on Tatum and Brown progressing year over year, but is it enough to make up for a substantial Roston loss and roster talent? The, the last thing I'll say about it is Giannis is 30. Like you can easily get three great years out of him and then pivot, you know, but, but yeah, it's a fascinating concept and I, for the record, I'm still in the like, gun to my head. If you asked me who was going to win the Celtics Knicks series, I think I'd still, I think I would too.

Host (35:21)

I think I would too. It's this, we've seen a lot of ups and downs from this, you know, era of the Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown playoff era. And more often than not, someone said this on playback, maybe it was Mike, that more often than not, and it's true of the regular season as well, they are, they play well when their backs against the wall, they respond to adversity well, they do not respond to success well. They, when they're, when it seems like they're might be a little bit overconfident, it, it, it crumbles quickly. But they have yet to lose three times in a row this season. They're going to try to keep that streak alive tomorrow. Tomorrow, right? No, Saturday actually. Saturday actually. Actually, yeah.

Advertiser (36:01)

They got to sit with that loss.

Host (36:01)

Versus So I, I do think that the series, like I was saying, if they lose in four or five, I, I think it's going to go at least six. If I had, if I was betting, I would, I would start to do at least six. So in that sense, anything can happen.

Advertiser (36:16)

Yeah, I, I would be shocked if they didn't win one in New York and then I would be shocked if they didn't win game five. But like, yeah, if New York wins, it feels like they're going to win in six. But yeah, I, I, it still feels very open ended for me. It's just the, the hardest thing is like they're right there. They're right there. Even with the 20 point leads, it's like you get a stop on Jalen Brunson, you win game one or game two. Game, game one literally goes to overtime. So like, yeah, it's still, it's still right there. I just have been, I've been just fascinated with the concept. I've been fascinated with the concept. Cause we haven't really seen anything like this in NBA history. Not, not in a very long time. And, and so it's like I was trying to think like I, I think this would probably be the worst playoff loss, like factoring in superstar play like since LeBron in 2011 probably. But it's, it's a different, it's a little bit of a different vibe because LeBron. LeBron. No one was going to bail on LeBron because that, that one series kind of stands out as like a blip among like mostly playoff greatness, you know. But with Tatum, there are just so many of these like, kinds of examples. And then to have two in a row right in the heart of his prime, I think it would be, it would be weird. But we're going to see what happens. And it is, it was just kind of a little fun thought exercise with, with a relatively boring night around the NBA. That's all we have for tonight guys. No playback again tonight, but we'll be back on playback tomorrow night. No film session tomorrow morning either. So we're going to take a little break. But we will be live tomorrow night after the final buzzer of game three. Thunder Nuggets. Very excited for that game. We will see you guys then. What's up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and support hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. The volume AI is redefining what's possible for your business. With more unique challenges to solve and higher stakes than ever, Microsoft helps you stay ahead. Our trustworthy AI tools and guidance can empower leaders like you to drive greater impact. And with Azure's simplified platform management, we're helping businesses go further and faster by unlocking up to 150% improved output. Whatever challenges come next, let Microsoft help you keep pushing forward. For more details visit Microsoft.com challengers hey friend.

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Host (39:52)

You're listening to an iHeart podcast.