The NBA Playoff Preview Guide With Kirk Goldsberry

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All right.

Coming up on the Zacklow show, the postseason is here.

And what a postseason in his Ben so far.

Just the first few games of the play in tournament.

Epic almost across the board.

Minus Orlando kind of petering out in Philadelphia.

And we have six first round series set.

You know what that means?

It's six by six, eight by eight.

Whatever we want to call it time with Kurt Goldsbury.

We're going to rapid fire preview every first round series.

X's and O's, adjustments, adjustments, the adjustments,

predictions.

We're going to put our names on the line with these predictions.

We're going to predict the play in games that are remaining

for the eighth seed on Friday.

Phoenix, Golden State, holy smokes the warriors.

Given us another memory, Steph and Dream on.

We'll break down all the playing games that have happened.

And then of course, Orlando, Charlotte for the eighth seed

in the east.

We're going to predict those games.

And we get to react to some news live on the air.

Cade and Luca eligible for all NBA MVP, etc.

They have won their appeals.

Anthony Edwards has not will react to that.

And just why does the play and feels so different

than the regular season?

We'll talk about that.

Clippers future after a loss.

Heat future after a loss.

Orlando staring into the abyss.

All coming up with Kurt Goldsbury on the Zack Low Show.

We're loaded.

The playoffs are here.

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Welcome to the Zack Low Show.

The play internament halfway over.

The playoffs six series said Kirk Goldsbury is here to help me talk about the play in.

Look ahead to Friday's games for the eighth seed and my annual 8 by 8,

which is now six by something preview of every first round series.

What a wild week in the NBA.

We have a night off tonight.

I might be a huge I maybe I'll watch a movie.

Maybe I'll just sweep for 12 hours.

I feel like I need a break after 3.75 epic play in games.

KG, how you doing?

I'm doing great.

It's the most wonderful time of the year for people like you and me.

Not only do we have this triumph that we call the play internament entertaining us all week,

we get ready to look ahead to the granddaddy of them all.

With all due respect to the Rose Bowl,

the NBA playoffs is the best sporting event in the world.

And I can't wait for it.

Let's review the four playing games so far.

Charlotte Miami bill called it the drunkest game of the season fitting.

Lamello, bad three,

back cut on defense, bad three,

turnover against full court press, fouls Tyler hero.

Somehow wins the game on a layup.

Should maybe probably be suspended for this next game after tripping BAM out of bio

and injuring him a super dirty play to a beloved player.

A loss that thrusts the into offseason chaos and question marks galore.

Then we have Phoenix, Portland coming out party for Denny,

not coming out party, but like stating correct me from on Kirkers of voter,

stating his all NBA case even though you should be done considering the evidence,

but you also don't have the ballots because a group of litigators and or

or the young and countenance are deciding who's actually eligible for these awards.

What a freaking disaster of disorganization for the NBA.

This 65 game rule has turned into and you're what do you suppose?

What are you supposed to do?

You're just a human being.

You're supposed to just tell your brain brain, ignore this game.

It doesn't even exist statistically.

It's not a regular season game.

It's not a playoff game.

It just happens in that fritters away into outer space.

First of all, just call it a playoff game.

You just have to include it in the stats.

It's a playoff game.

Just call it what it is.

Second of all, you really just haven't even got the ballot yet.

That's where we are with this.

We haven't gotten them unless they've landed since I've gotten on this

Zezoum podcast, but you're exactly right watching con Canippa really struggle

in that game, which I would say not only the drunkest game.

I think it was drunk and high, Zacklow.

Okay.

So you're point drunk and high.

And then watching Denny do what he did,

I'm supposed to not be affected by this as a voter.

I'm going to do my best, Zacklow.

I also already had Cooper flag.

I talked about that on Bill's show the other day.

But this didn't get me.

What's he mad at you?

I haven't listened to you yet.

Well, I told him there's a woman in main named Kelly flag who was asking me

what Bill's vote for Rookie of the Year was.

I said, hey, just so you know, people are watching you, Zack.

Are Bill Simmons.

And he wasn't mad at me.

But I think it was good that I was there to make the case for Cooper who

I think has a solid case for Rookie of the Year.

I don't think anybody can argue that.

But long story short, the plan's been awesome.

A great step moment, which I know we're going to talk about next.

But just hats off to the league.

I know we give them a hard time on a lot of things,

but the plan tournament deserves some flowers.

First of all, I also flipped to Cooper flag Rookie of the Year by the end.

Before the playing games and I turned my brain up, even though I don't have a ballot,

I just I respected the process.

I told my brain, brain, brain, this game doesn't count.

Brain shut it down.

And then of course, last night,

the magic, you know, couldn't even beat the Sixers without Joel and Beat and Philly.

I mean, I know the answer to this.

But like as a coach, I've ever been fired between the two playing games before

what a mess.

And then the old lions are golden state.

Why bother?

Get a lottery pick.

Why is Steph even coming back?

You know why?

Because Steph Curry and Dremon Green touched magic for us.

Maybe one last time.

Maybe they got a little bit more in them.

But boy, what a thrill to see these two guys.

And Steph in particular coming off that runners knee,

raging against the dying of the light.

Dremon Green, two all-time vintage Dremon Green defensive plays against

Kawaii Leonard late in the game.

It's two steals that ice the game.

And Steph Curry, an explosion in the second half,

three is over everybody.

Three is in everybody's face.

You get a three, John Collins.

You get a three, Brooke Lopez.

You get a three, Chris Dunn.

Everybody on the Clippers gets three.

And that one last one, the one that put them up by three,

the one where he fell out of bounds and asked the fan, like, yeah, that went in, right?

I'm Steph Curry.

That went in.

I don't even need verification, but just, just I'm playing with you.

That was a classic Steph Dremon Green pitch back play that they've run 10,000, 20,000,

50,000 times.

How glorious to see it again and boil, boil the Clippers.

An absolute catastrophe of a season for the Clippers, which they kind of salvage with the

hard and darey scarlet trade.

And we'll see how the lottery treats them with the pace or

spectate they get for Zubots.

But they start six and 21.

Great.

They recovered from that.

You know what the basketball gods reward you with?

You're gone.

You're out.

The thunder have a lottery pick because of you.

And now you almost have to root for your own humiliation because of the thunder move up

in the draft via your pick.

The Pacers might move down in the draft and you might get the Pacers pick, which you only

get if it's five to nine.

And Kauai, look, you can tell me Dremon was playing sensational defense on him the entire game.

He was where the hell was he in the fourth corner of the game?

They did they run one action other than like a high screen now.

And then where were the cross screens for Kauai Leonard?

Since when has any defense stopped for Kauai Leonard from getting to his spot at the elbow

and rising up?

He was completely invisible.

I have no idea what happened.

An absolute disastrous ending for the Clippers.

But take away number one.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, by the way, courtesy of Denny Abia, the Bulls get Portlands

first round draft.

Congratulations to the Chicago Bulls.

Late season all around.

Late season.

The higher somebody spend money, I don't know, you're the Bulls.

You're only the Bulls.

It's only Michael Jordan's team.

Take away number one, as you said, the play in is amazing.

Long live the play in.

But here's my question for you, Kirk.

An Ethan Strauss wrote about this in his newsletter.

And it was the number one thing that stuck out to me.

It's like a different sport has emerged already.

Like, yes.

Like the stakes are so different.

The crowds are so different.

The intensity is different.

The chess match is different.

And it's delightful as it is going from the end of the regular season where half the games are

trashola to this.

I do think we have to have a conversation.

The regular season is never going to feel like this.

The stakes are never going to be that high.

But there is a big gap.

And it's just like the regular season has to feel a little bit more like this.

How do we get the regular season games, the outcome of regular season games?

How do we get it so that it feels like it actually matters?

That there are actually stakes in those games.

Because the transition from regular season to play in, not even playoffs, should not be this stark.

Yeah, I agree.

I think the obvious answer for me is we're playing over 1200 regular season games.

And that's simply too many to bring that kind of emotional stakes to these events.

And one idea I think I pitched to you if the league expands to 32 teams is let's go to a 62 game

schedule. Everybody plays everybody twice.

You have a home and away with every team.

It's a completely balanced schedule.

You can have an NBA cup in the middle that's a single elimination, 32 team tournament.

And then that way, every time the Clippers play the Warriors,

it's the only time Steph's coming to LA for the Clippers, the only time.

And I think that would help.

I think scarcity is the business school professor answer to the question is like the product is

deluded when there's this many games, not to mention as you already sort of reference,

the crap all of 10 teams not necessarily trying to win those games has polluted the intensity of

a huge amount of the league's inventory during the regular season.

So for me, the answer is clear scarcity, thinning out the schedule.

I just don't know if that's realistic, Zach, for the league, its owners and its players to

agree, hey, let's go from 82 games to 62 games. So I'd be curious, what your answer to that question

would be other than just, hey, let's thin out the games and make it more interesting per game.

Well, first before I answer that question, Mr. Goldberg, we have breaking news that affects you

as an awards voter. Do you want a plot twist? We can, this is like a usual suspect level plot twist.

The NBA, according to Shamshtrania, has ruled in the union. I don't know how the NBA and the union

have ruled. I guess they're ruling on this. No one knows how this works. In favor of Lukas

Ancho and Cade cutting him, both on their extraordinary circumstances challenge for the 65 game

award rule, making both eligible for all season honors. Okay, so I was pro Luca winning his appeal,

parenting for the win, being there for the birth for the win. I know he missed other games,

he got suspended. That's the point of the rule of blah, blah, blah. This is an acknowledgement of

the end by the NBA. First of all, redo your ballot again. Turn your brain, turn half your brain on,

leave the play in part of your brain off. redo your ballot again, or you don't even have a ballot yet,

you're going to get it soon, maybe. Number two, this is the NBA shitting on a rule that it made up

and collectively bartered with the union in real time telling you, hey, we think this is nonsense.

Have a backbone. If like I'm glad day one, you don't even have a backbone to defend it,

because Lukas Ancho's got suspended and injured it. It's just unbelievable, but I'm happy for

the players they both deserve to be all NBA probably first team. So get your ballot ready.

Well, how many players are now affected by this, right? So we have Lucas slotting in. So there's

one less person on NBA Cade, which I did not expect, Zach Low. I didn't expect either of them to

win, because you know what, you made a rule and you're supposed to enforce the rule, but I'm glad

they didn't. I'm just surprised that they Cade's like this. Well, I was on this Acklow show the

morning after we found out or the morning we found out about his collapse, long, which is a terrifying

injury. And I remember thinking with you at that time, like, is he going to be eligible? This is

one of the best players in the league this season. It's a great story this season. And then I sort

of filed that away. He's not going to get to the game total because of an injury because of the

collapse, long, which is again, terrifying. Now I have to go back. Okay, Lucas first team,

all NBA with the other three foreigners. I have Jaylen Brown in that fifth spot over Cade.

Mostly now you got now we got it. So I had my first team now you need a matrix of like four

different ballots at the same time. Who's eligible? Who's not my first team with Luca and Cade

in eligible was Wembee, Yokech, Shay, Jaylen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Luca, Bumst Donovan Mitchell for sure.

And then I'd have to sit down and do I have to look at Cade's numbers again. Anthony Edwards,

by the way, his appeal, according to Shams was denied. So he's not eligible. What a what a mess.

But congratulations to both players. They both deserve it. That's awesome. Yeah. And then to your

other point, now I have to pretend I didn't see that Kauai fourth quarter last night. I have to

pretend I didn't see the Denny fourth quarter 41 point outburst. I have to pretend that Con

Kinepple didn't play his probably his worst game of the year in the play in game and go fill out

my ballot. But you know, when it comes to these two gentlemen in the headline with Cade and Luca,

this is the right call. This is the right call. These dudes deserve to have these seasons memorialized

and honored. They were both great players for their teams. They're both huge reasons why those

are both top three seeds. This is the right decision. I wish it just didn't involve lawyers and

it involved common sense. Amen. Okay. Back to the play in the regular season.

Shortening the season is the obvious answer, right? And shortening the season combined with

disincentivizing tanking so that you have to have games on the simplest terms.

Winning has to mean something and losing has to mean something bad. Winning has to mean

something good and losing has to mean something bad. What a fucking concept. Shortening the season

mess up the tanking stuff which they're trying to do. I don't know how effective they're going to be

and every game would suddenly feel more meaningful at the very least. Now all the people will tell you

well, that's so you can't do that. People will lose money. Okay. Like really? Are you sure? Are you

sure that over 25 years if you went down just to 60 to 65 games that when you factored in ticket

prices could probably increase because of scarcity. Television ratings could increase because of

scarcity, which would increase your TV deal. Is it 100% set in stone that you would lose money in

the long run? Do you only care about the short run NBA owners because you want to sell your team

ASAP? Do you care about the health of the game at all? Great. You increase the stakes with the

in-season tournament. No one actually cares about the in-season tournament really. I mean, it's cute,

but no one actually cares about it. And I also think like it's worth considering in the tanking

dialogue, the proposals that are still out there that don't just disincentivize losing,

but that actually incentivize winning. So winning after a certain date or the one I reported on last

week where it was something like the bottom two or three teams cannot pick in the top two of the

draft or something like that. And so they everyone is incentivized to beat each other and win games.

I think all of that works. And the other thing is I was glad a couple of weeks ago that Mark

Cuban brought up the concept of the 40-minute game. Twelve years ago, 13 years ago at Grantland,

I wrote, I kind of tried to make the case for the 40-minute game. And it's a controversial subject,

you know, with stars hog all the minutes, what would that do to the middle class of players,

historical records would be a little messed up and all of that. I just like the idea of a more

intense game and a little bit more unpredictability, right? The shorter the game, the better the

chances for an upset. And I think that is part of this too is you have to be careful with how

predictable you made the game. So Bill and I were talking about is one way to raise the stakes

in the regular season to give the top seeds more power in the like more home games, more of an

advantage in the playoffs. And actually the more I think about it, I'm pro the top seeds picking

their own opponent. I don't want to give them too much more of an advantage like with an extra

home game or whatever because I want the NBA is already the most predictable sport. I want to

inject a little bit more upset possibility, but like they just these games feel so different

than yeah, the regular season games and it shouldn't be that different. Okay, play and take

away number two, biggest current crisis in the aftermath of the first playing games. Miami,

Clippers or Orlando or Lando and it's not close for me. I think Miami can look at that game and say,

man, if they're out of bio was healthy, we have a different sort of in that game and we're still

playing. The Clippers always they've had sort of a nightmare season off the court, which I think

sort of pollutes their their vibe anyway. Orlando is the biggest crisis of a team we thought if you

look at over unders before this season what their expectations were internally and externally,

this is a disaster. The coaching is a disaster. The executives are feeling pressure. The superstar

or super stars on their roster depending on a classified palo and fronds are feeling pressure.

And if they lose this games act to Charlotte, man, it's going to be a really dark really newsworthy

spring and summer in Orlando. Well, and they're healthy now, right? And so how long can we just

hang our hat on? Well, when we get healthy, our starting five is plus 11 prerender possessions,

which we just need to get healthy. Anthony Blackspack, Franz is back and the offense still looks

clunky. Yeah, count the number of possessions where there are no passes or one pass and then

someone just dribbles into a long two. Watch the possessions where aloe and fronds stand on opposite

corners as if they're effective floor spacers, which will while jailing sucks runs the offense or

bane runs the offense. Neither of them is an effective floor spacer. In fact, you know, the commentators

were totally on point last night, palo just not even looking at some open threes at where is the

synergy? Where is the split action? Where is the where's the cutting? Where's all of that?

And and just like nothing from the silver, Isaac is gone, nothing from Jett Howard, nothing

from J Richardson. Where are the young guys? They're not even there. This game against Charlotte is,

I mean, we're the last stand of the Orlando magic is over. Like the fact that they're sitting

here begging for their life is the eighth seed and having to win a home game over the hornets. They

couldn't even like they lost my double digits to the sixers without imbued thrilling performances

from Maxi and edge comb for sure, but like you should be able to win that game if you're Orlando.

I guess that's the right answer. Miami, I think, is super interesting because

they just they've already had to come to Jesus moment of like this is just what the team is.

We're in the play in again. We decided that we cannot play hero and norm powell together

at like ever anymore. They staggered their minutes so dramatically that clearly one of them,

if not both of them will be off the team next year. And they have at their disposal,

depending on a few things up to four first round picks to trade this summer, I expect them to be

all in on Janus again. They went semi in on Durant didn't get them. They went semi in on Lillard didn't

get him. Are they going to be precious about it again? I understand it because if they trade

everything for you on let's say they trade Hawkeyes where hero picks you have Janus and Bam and then

like what do we have actually have enough? But they may have reached a point where the do we have

enough question is is less pressing to them because they know they don't have enough now and

why not take a shot at something different and the Clippers we already just talked about what a

disaster it is. And the other way on the Clippers front. Did you see the Chris Paul trolled the

Clippers on Instagram after that game? I did. That's an incredible punctuation mark on the Clipper

season. I did. Not sure it makes Chris Paul look as as clever and great as he thinks it might be.

It is it is funny. It's yeah I think it's noteworthy when the best player in your franchise history

trolls you after you lose. And Blake Griffin was out I was on TV last night with Blake Griffin. He

was sort of you know mentioning it to at one point and I think you know what I think you take

into the next level if you're Chris Paul. I think you go to the game dress like the funeral guy

and you sit courtside and you do I think that's what you do call your shot before the game

dress like that and sit courtside for the game. That's class exact low. All right great one.

Great one. Let's talk about the playing games real quick. Where do you want to start? You want to

do Golden State Phoenix or Orlando Charlotte? Do dealers choice baby. Let's do Golden State Phoenix.

The 10 seed versus the 7 seed Phoenix is at home. What intrigues you about this game other than

the obvious kind of warriors just give us another moment of magic and get in and get the 8 seed and

get whooped by the thunder. But still it this is fun. And Phoenix it's been a few good season for them.

They've made a lot of changes in their lineup in the last couple of weeks starting Jordan Goodwin

bringing Gillespie off the bench. Gillespie was their primary guy on step three in the regular

season. I think Goodwin will get the assignment Ryan Dunn has guarded him a little bit. He's been in

now the rotation wouldn't shock me if we get like a starting lineup change from one of these

teams like if you're the sons. Iga Daro you clearly sort of feel safer with him as the starting

five then you do with Mark Williams and he's a more steady defensive option guarding Steph Picking

Rolls. I wouldn't treat you about this game other than the Al Hwerford Renaissance which you

already should have mentioned as well. Yeah and the poor thing is so I'll do that. I'll say that

the sort of vintage Celtics front court coming back to life like I think that this is the front court

that Mike Dunn leave he had imagined playing this type of this this time of year when he made these

deals. So can they do that again Al Hwerford was absolutely massive his biggest basketball moment

in a minute in that game with those corner threes especially one of the big reasons we're talking

about Golden State playing Phoenix as opposed to the Clippers playing Phoenix as Al Hwerford's clutch

shooting the 43 points in the fourth quarter. Porzingis also doing it on both ends he had a

couple of big threes he had a couple of massive put back dunks some pick them like staff.

The put back dunks were like whoa man you must be it's so great to see because of how the last

two seasons have been with him with this illness to see that level of bounce and like joy that he

had after those was like okay I like this is a guy that the warriors are legitimately interested

in resigning does fit with Butler and Green and how they play assuming all those guys are back

might be getable on not super expensive contract because he's just been so unreliably available

for various reasons but that was awesome last night. Yeah and that for me the question for you would be

can those old guys do this one more time in Phoenix because if that's the porzingis we're

getting and that's the Hwerford we're getting I feel pretty comfortable taking Steph Curry and

the Warriors to win this game in Phoenix and steal the eight seed but I'd ask you are deep how do

you feel about that matchup specifically those old guys in the front court doing this again.

I think they can make shots for sure for zing they get a day off right they're not on a back to

back they don't have to travel far I think the schedule is good for them to me as always with the

Warriors they were 26th and turnover eight on offense and they're facing the team that forced the

third most turnovers on defense and Phoenix they have to take care of the ball that step one and

I'm just interested in like how they match up with Booker obviously Phoenix is best player

Jalen Green's been kind of and it was okay in the first playing game scored a lot of points

in their new starting five with Curry Santos Pajemski by way Pajemski sneaked he really good

season for him and then Green and and porzingis they don't have like their ideal Booker matchup

which is best Melton or Moody or Butler it makes me yeah it makes me wonder if would they start

Gary Payton the second of the Anthony Melton would they just start the game with Dremont Green

on Devon Booker and put somebody else on Dylan Brooks robbing us of the Brooks versus green

inevitable flare up I put you over under on like three and a half minutes into the game

I'm gonna go ahead and do it Kirk I'm gonna say the Warriors have one more night of magic

in them and they beat Phoenix and get the A.C. that's my official prediction yeah I wish I could

make interesting content for the podcast but that's what I see too I see I just I think there's

too many champions on that team like Alhorfer Christos Porsegas Dremont Green Stefan Curry of two of

them rise up and look Jalen Green taking 29 shots and Devon Booker taking 19 shots that's the wrong

order and I need I need to see Devon Booker be the best player in this game I need to see Dylan

Brooks be a little bit better and a little bit smarter that he was last game those things could

happen but yeah right now I'm picking the gold say Warriors to steal the A.C. or Lando Charlotte

Charlotte won the regular season series three one Franz Miss three of the games read into it what

you will a bunch of guys missed a bunch of games yeah um Charlotte obviously survived in advance

there on the road going to Orlando I think this is like a pretty straightforward game in terms

of matchups and X's and O's like Lamello has has tried to hide on like the Silva types in previous

games the Silva's not starting anymore they're healthy he'll probably guard Sugs so we'll see a

lot of Palo Sugs two man game both ways to try to hunt Hunt Lamello the Hornets are gonna run and

try to shoot threes the magic are gonna try to out physical a Hornet seem to this will smaller

than them what what say you on this one yeah I just don't see Orlando being able to score the number

of points it's gonna take to keep up with an average night from Charlotte now Charlotte had a

nightmare night shooting the basketball which is you know is their signature skill in this sort of

revival they ranked first or second in both three point volume and efficiency down the stretch

which I've never seen in years covering the league they were blending volume and if they

the long story short they're the best shooting team in the league they had a nightmare and still

won the other night so they can just have an average night if Khan can make a couple of threes

Lamello was what two of 16 from three and they still won so if they get to 110 120 125 I just don't

see the offense I watched against Philadelphia keeping up with that I think Desmond Bayne by the way

played incredible basketball for Orlando it looked like a great transaction and then I have

in front of me the rest of the magic were three of 21 and unlike that shooting night I just called

out about Charlotte that can happen with the Orlando magic that's their kind of shooting they do

not shoot the basketball and so if you can take away two point offense from Orlando and I think

Charles Leesick good enough coach to do that or at least contain it I just don't see on the score

board the most basic stat of them all the point total for Orlando getting high enough to be Charlotte

when Palo had six turnovers last night a lot of it just due to stagnancy and getting ripped in the

lane on ice so as we put by the way credit Maxi and Edgcomb they both ripped him at various times

Maxi had an awesome chase down block late in that game he's made a huge level up on defense this

year I'd have to look back and see who gets bumped to third team all NBA and who gets bumped off my

all NBA teams now that Luca and Kate are eligible but I think Maxi should be a shoe in for third team

he probably gets bumped I'm saying I'm thinking the third team and I think I'll top my head

cat and Scotty Barnes would be the casualties off my third team but so be it I'm with you

why would I have any faith that Orlando wins this game why would I have any faith that the team

is going to come together in a moment of adversity and crisis and put all the tension all the obvious

stylistic tension all the obvious coach player attention all that aside for one game against the

team that has been objectively significantly better than them for 50 plus games. The one match up I

am watching is Brandon Miller Franz Wagner which we have not seen much I think that's an interesting

pivot point for this game and whoever wins that like I think Orlando needs a big Franz game

Brandon Miller's off ball defense can sometimes waver a little bit he can get back cut he can lose

track of his guy but he's an awesome player and he hasn't been tested at this level with the

game of this stakes in a while so I'm watching that match up but I will take Charlotte so we take both

the road teams in the eight seed games why not I don't feel great about it because of that home

teams usually win these kinds of things but yeah I think we're in unusual times.

All right let's take a break and then we're going to go six playoff series six predictions six look

ahead the Zach Lo Show is brought to you by Fandall the NBA play in tournament is back you

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the way you look okay today's favorite first round series to watch is presented by state farm

on the court you can't expect everything to go as planned from upsets to buzzer beaters uncertainty

is just part of the game and life is no different unexpected things happen that's why state farm is

there with the assist but more on that later for now i'm here to assist you with the mba playoffs and

Kirk Goldberg we're going to go in my personal order of how entertained i expect to be by these

series and that's why the state farm favorite first round series is minnesota denver roman numeral three

revenge of the jimalmari or something like that um

2023 four one denver in the first round the nuggets underway to the title called it the toughest

series of their run real turning point for cat i thought even though the wolves lost he he kind of

found himself in that series now is not on the timber wolves 2024 the next year seven game

epic minnesota with a huge rally on the road in game seven against denver um some characters remain

some characters are gone we got jade and mcdanniel's guarding jimalmari we got rudy go bear probably

guarding the collio kitch but maybe they're going to monkey around with the matchups we got air and

gordon healthy we got paton watson is a maybe and he's big because he's their best defender i think

on anthony edwards apologies to christian brown who will get the nod in the starting five what

interest you my friend about denver minnesota three well a lot and i'm glad you picked it first i

can't wait for it i wish it were a seventeen game series um for all of these i have my pick i have

the best player in the series i have a big question for zack low and x factor i like it let's go

so i am going to do some solid content here for the zacklo show i'm going to pick minnesota in seven

games so i'm going to start with that and here's why i don't know if denver can stop minnesota's

offense i think the biggest red flag in the whole western conference contender picture is the

defense of the denver nuggets and is it real is it fake i leaned heavily into that twenty twenty

four series and my big question for you on this series and you can convince me to change my pick

to denver if you do a good job who is going to guard anthony edwards and slow down anthony edwards

in this series at low well it's going to start with christian brown it's going to be some if

paid in watson's healthy that's a big x factor coming off the bench and we might see some watson

plus gordon minutes uh which i like for denver and has been wildly successful in limited minutes

um and but it's a team effort right so they're going to attack yokech in the pick and roll a lot

as every team does and ant is really good at this watch for this one pick and roll though like run

first first screen with go bear let's say ant go bear yokech comes out to the level the screen

he's got his arms out he likes to be aggressive against the pick and roll it doesn't like to drop back

although they will do that some against minnesota and have and they will actually have him drop

sometimes and help inside and dare julietz randall to make shots big x factor in the series the wolves

do not win this without an a minus at least from julietz randall but that first pick and roll it gets

yokech up and will ping the ball back to go bear and run right into a handoff and make yokech defend

two or three screens right in a row and change positions and that's where they get him in some trouble

sometimes he's also going to go at jimal marie he's going to go at him hard away junior and try

to leverage that post game try to leverage his force and physicality over them draw the defense

dish it out and and when the nuggets do blitz him with yokech he's been pretty pretty good all

you're about just making this simple play like if it's go bear on the roll find trust rudy to make

the next play with the goes if it's just hit somebody on the wing to get the machine moving the

machine moves pretty well so I mean I don't I don't see any unexpected wrinkle there in terms of

just like they need to aunt to be toe-to-toe with yokech is the best player in the series they need

randall to have a good series and they need their role players to make a requisite number of three is

because I could the another thing they need to do by the way is minnesota if they're going to win

they are 25th in defense of free throw rate and denver is fourth in offensive free throw rate if

denver has an avalanche of free throws that's a problem and minnesota you know I could flip this

around on you and say how is minnesota going to stop denver's offense the number one offensive

league one of the 15 best offenses in the history of the mba and one ingredient for not doing that

is fouling and another is this is a team they can get sloppy with its transition defense and

they're playing an absolutely lethal when they want to be transition team so I would flip it

around you and say how are the how are the wolves stopping denver's offense well I would say they

can only hope to contain it to paraphrase the old sports center bit I I don't know if anybody can

stop this offense and I think mccoli ocahche of history as a guide is going to get his if history

as a guide then I have for the biggest x factor here is jalen is jimalmary versus jade mcdaniel so

to me the the the answer here is jaden mcdaniel's levels up and is able and we've seen this before to

to give jimalmary fits uh and then it then it puts more offensive burden on the edge for denver

and in the last the last thing I'll say is I think they played each other in march airing

ordinan play but it was it was pretty healthy teams except for air and hordan and I think it was

32 to 6 to your point in transition so if if minnesota can get going on offense and start getting

early offense against this team particularly before jokich can get back down the court and we have

our attacking athletic wings everybody from randall to mccdaniel's and obviously the ant man

attacking the teeth of the defense before it's set I think there's a path for minnesota to keep up

with denver so those are my two big things they have to be great in transition like they were in

that march game and then they have to use jaden mcdaniel's he has to be effective to see a lesser

version of jimalmary because you're exactly right in a world where joker and marir both

go on full speed this team is unstoppable so nobody stop and joker but conjade mcdaniel's

slow down jimalmary that's a question for me and that's the more interesting end of the floor

to me is that chess match between minnesota's defense and go bear in particular and jokich and the

jokich mary two main game if you flash back to when the wolves had cat they somewhat famously put cat

on jokich and had go bear on air and gordon or a non shooter on the floor and just had him roam

around it's a strategy that uh okohoma city likes to imitate with chat homebren not guarding jokich

and just roaming around cats gone and julie's randall can't guard jokich so go bear is typically on

jokich there has been an exception i'll get there in a second and then you run into the mary

jokich two main game and how they want to guard that and they're going to mix it up a lot

sometimes they just let mary drive and just they just basically hug jokich say you're under no

circumstances are we letting you pass the ball to him we're going to let you drive and then we're

going to send help from everywhere else on the floor to try to contest you at the rim jimal mary

or force you to kick it out to christian brown um and so that's sort of one strategy you'll see or if

jokich does catch a pocket pass they'll do the same thing and say we're not letting you shoot a

floater here's 15 defenders flying at your face and then when they post jokich against go bear

do they leave them single covered i think that's death and he'll score 45 points if they if they

he's kind of figured out that matchup where do they help can they can they they like to help like

from the blind side from behind them a little bit can they can they can they sort of rig it rig it

rig it that way and then it just if you go back and watch the christmas game just an interesting

rink when jokich had like 50 something an interesting rinkled to watch fourth quarter and over time

of that game they tried to sort of redo the go bear as a roamer strategy and they put jaden

mcdaniel's on jokich and just said front him beat him up rudy you're going to be elsewhere

and it took denver a little bit of time to kind of figure that one out and since then tons of

teams have put smaller guys on jokich i think we'll see that as a little wrinkle i think we'll see

jokich hide when he can hide on defense away from go bear like if if you know i think ternst

shane and juneer is going to be part of the rotation from in a soda wouldn't surprise me if they

hide jokich over there jalen clerk if he plays is a murry stopper i don't necessarily see that

happening but there's a lot of interesting rinkles like bones island is a big x factor and i think

jimal marie will go at him and jimal has a nice slow post up game there's a lot of fun wrinkles

and fun uh one-on-one matchups in this series like does go bear have to be on the floor every second

that jokich is on the floor is another question i have because who else is going to guard him um i

think it's a it's a it's a really fun series in the end it's just been such an up and down weird

year from in a soda to the point that chris finch actually said we have to flip the switch now i

don't want to be a flip to switch team but or switch to but but but we have to i think that's

really hard to do against a denver team that's hummin like this and if patent wats it comes back

i feel pretty good about denver i'm going to take denver in six yeah um i think i made my choice

for the content i'm not gonna show my cards but i'll stick with it i'll stick with it um i think

nicoleo kitch is the best player in the series but i wouldn't want to be the person to tell anthony

so i i i think anthony edwards would take a lot of pride in going in denver and stealing game one

or game two right uh i could see that happening um and that's the kind of stuff it's gonna take we're

gonna have to be on the zack low show on a morning being like i can't believe ant man had 52 points

and you know 12 assists and hate hit 11 threes right uh and that's one of the biggest things i'd

give him credit for since the 2024 series is anthony edwards is a better player especially as a

jump shooter and a scorer he's come a long way in that department um i think nicoleo kitch has never

been more savvy uh almost an annoying he's he's learned the dark arts of of foul baiting a little bit

in the last few years uh which could get go bear or whoever they throw at him in foul trouble um but

yeah i i got a lot of eggs in the ant man's basket heading into the series i guess if i'm picking

the the minnesota timbre wolves it's it's they could definitely win the series i mean minnesota has a

ceiling that's pretty god damn high and they've proven it in the playoffs the last two years

it's just been um a weird season for them and and we'll see sort of how much they show up and if we

get the randal from the last six weeks i think they're almost drawing dead in the series the watch

for denver to place in zone uh as well here and there so if they can rediscover the defense they

played in the first 20 games look out for the nuggets okay today's favorite first round series

to watch was presented by state farm state farm is there who assist in life's uncertain moments

with neighborhood state farm agents and easy to use digital tools like the state farm app like a good

neighbor state farm is there with the assist coverage options are selected by the customer price

and eligibility vary by state okay on to entertaining rank number two series i'm going east and i'm

going nix hawks in the three six series a series that came together on a strange last day of the

season a lot of pressure on the nix obviously after firing tom tibito hiring like brown have their

own or go on the radio and say we should not only make the finals so we should win the finals the hawks

one of the great stories of the last 40 games of the season has been has been as good as anybody in

the east outside of boston in that span weird unpredictable different kind of combinations of

players wait this with jaylen johnson's running picking roles with the small guys screening for him

they play super fast they did a little wrinkle today they announced jocke landl their backup center

is out for two weeks so he'll probably miss the entirety of this series could be a big deal against

particularly Mitchell Robinson and and the way the mix rebound the ball where do you want to start

on this one well i think a lot of this these series don't have relevant regular season matchups but

we just saw these two teams play pretty healthy and so i think it was a great game and epitomize

why i'm picking the nix i think the best player in this series is jaylen brunson and we saw that

was a classic give both teams a hundred and put two minutes on the clock and see what happens mba

game and what happened was jaylen brunson went and won the game and cj mccollum just wasn't enough

and for me that's where i would go right away is that and i i love what it land has done since the

all star break they are a different animal much like charlotte sort of turned it around this year

but that's where i'm zeroing in as a clutch and jaylen brunson and this core does deserve the

respect for winning big games in the clutch i think there were 21 and 13 in clutch games this

year and that's where i think there is a real weakness with it lana especially on offense so i'm

picking the nix in large part because of close games at the end i think there's going to be a lot

of them i just like the dna at the end of games of the nix better and brunson is going to hunt

and he's going to hunt cj mccollum when the best lineups are on the floor and that was the game

winning shoddy hits cj actually defended him pretty well uh you're right about the clutch pedigree right

like where does it land i want to run its offense through bill has bill has talked about that a lot

do we trust jaylen johnson do we trust it land of shooting in general when they particularly when

they play kaminga jaylen johnson and sometimes dice and daniel's all together the nix the nix allow

this second most threes in the entire nba part of that is they've sort of made a deal with the devil

we're going to protect the rim and if that's the cost that's the cost is it land of the right team

to exploit that kind of weakness um i'm i'm interested to see game one possession one um who is guard

and cat because on yaka congu who's guarded cat for most of these matchups in the regular season

including the one you're referring to and i just think every every time the opposing team puts

its center on cat and not josh heart it unlocks the brunson cat pick and roll and that game was the

second most pick and rolls the nix ran with that combination the entire season and it's just so

much easier to get cat going with threes with rolls to the rim blah blah blah with the congu trying

to drop sometimes they switched to try to prevent cat from shooting threes and and jaylen brunson

can cook a congu on switches it just made me wonder is quince knighter saving a little bit of a card

with putting a congu on josh heart and putting jaylen johnson or somebody like there are

dyson daniel's on cat and getting a little more switchy the nix know the counters to that you

just can use josh heart and the pick and roll and use cat as a spacer like we we they understand

that but it's it's has gummed them up in the past and made me kind of wonder um are they saving

that card for this series if it happens and now it's happening and on the other end the floor like

the nix do the opposite they put cat on dyson daniel's like a lot of teams do and they put wings

on anyaka congu and can the hawks exploit that dyson daniel's one of the best screen setters in the

entire NBA just like flips the angle of the screen changes directions slips out then he sets a

hard school like he's very hard to pin down and elana's entire offense is very hard to pin down

they're fast they're unpredictable they make snap decisions when they come together and fly

apart and if you're not like dialed into what you're switching we are not switching they get free

pretty easily but i'm interested to see where cat is defensively and who is on cat on the other

end of the floor i think it's going to be like it lanah is a feisty together just hard to grasp kind

of team i think this is going to be a competitive series yeah i agree i think it lanah will win

one two or three games in this series and you can see a world where they'd win four games i mean i

think quince citer with the chance to really zero in on how to minimize cat or defend the pick and roll

with his incredible defensive options by the way dyson daniel's one of the best options

the keel elixander walker jalen johnson there's the acongo himself just length everywhere athleticism

everywhere and we're going from checkers to chess and you're exactly right jalen brunson in the

pick and roll in that march game just diced up this defense both with cat and michael robinson as

is a pick and roll partner in that game i will give quince citer a little bit of grace here and

expect him to be smarter about how he guards that action in a playoff series where that's all

yes to worry about for two weeks and if he can slow that down i think they have a chance because

this team is again the way you look at this since the all star break that it land is fourth

in that rating eleventh in office and second in defense the post trai young Atlanta hawks are not

the october track Atlanta hawks by any means and people are going to see that on defense especially

another thing i'd like to ask you about with this series both of these teams post trai young hawks

and the new york nicks pride themselves on on cleaning up the glass and so i think a lot of this

series is going to be one in those sort of unglamorous moments where a ball ricochetes off the rim

will michael robinson be able to do what he's done in big moments and just sort of torture an opponent

with rebound after rebound after rebound or will the hawks win that battle and i think what you said

at the beginning of segment bears repeating joc is not playing uh is that is that correct we're

not going to see him at all i mean the day just said he's going to be re-evaluated in two weeks that

came out right before record so to the sign to any Bradley off the street yeah they play mogey at

back up five sometimes i think he's just too small for michael robinson and michael robinson is

maybe the biggest reason to have faith that the nicks actually could make the finalist is that he's

been pretty healthy and really really productive all year both alongside cat and when brunson and

michael robinson play together and cat is resting that's been very effective for them because it just

simplifies their offense but yeah that the rebounding is a big big x factor that the hogs

is outside the most impressive game i saw the next play all year was the mba cup and cat also gets

into uh falterable line all right so we know this so he he wishes they had eight fouls allowed but

they only have six and then the world where that happens a lot uh michael robinson becomes very

important but michael robinson and the mba cup final in vegas just absolutely deflated the spurs

that young ascendant spurs team with what i'm describing just oh my god he got another rebound

this they the the spurs were trying to get back in the game and it was just there were no stops

because michael robinson kept giving them second and third chances uh so i'm watching the rebounding

a little bit too in this series but i got the nixon seven couple of other things to watch

nixon seven i like it game seven i love the homestude i think that i what's not to love

no i mean i mean i mean i mean he's not bad he's better than a lot of guys we're going to see

try to win these games at the end he's been a great acquisition for them and it's i've said this

before it's very hard to hide a bad or weak link perimeter defender against the hawks and this

reconfigured hawk steam to that point if you're going to guard dyson daniel's with cat and that's

going to be where you park cat you you've taken one of the safer hiding places a little dyson daniel

has been amazing at manufacturing two point shots this year and you're forcing jel and brunson

to cart siege and mcconnell and that i think plays into into the hawks hands a couple other things

to watch can a congu heard small guys in the post if the nixon vert the matchups like that we

saw glimpses of that um in that game and you mentioned cat fouling he's also falling a lot and

the hawks want to run and if you give them too much oxygen and transition you turn a team that's

pretty guardable in the half court if you're diligent into one that can get you 10 12 extra points

before you know what happened and then they're in these games um i will go nixon six i just think

the nicks are are better and deeper and have more optionality particularly the doos smick bride

now is back as well okay next series in the entertainment rankings this might surprise you Kurt

Goldsbury because it looks like a mismatch on paper and it probably is a mismatch the number two

seats san Antonio smurs against the new number seven seed portland trailblazers um i just think

this series is kind of fun for a couple of reasons number one obviously the wembee factor his

playoff debut and and on both sides of the floor does portland guard him with donna been clinging

and robber williams junior or do they try to play around a little bit and hide those guys on

staphon castle that's not a great that hasn't worked very well but we've seen teams try it or

keldin johnson harris and barns off the bench and try to put like a germy grant type on victor

wembe njama and on the other hand does wembee guard clinging and robber williams and stick around

near the rim and be in the pick a roll probably because those guys are rim bound guys clinging

shooting more threes even robber williams shooting more threes we'll see or do they try to hide him on

like tomani kimara who's been pretty hot lately or chris murry or a guy like that and just say you

you are more around it's also scoot henderson's playoff debut in this starting five that the blazers

have been using with uh Jeremy grant and shade and sharp coming off the bench now has been has

been really good and just between drew holiday and matis stable and chris murry and who am I forgetting

they have just an art at tomani kimara obviously yeah they have an army of perimeter defenders who can

make life pretty tough for the spurs army of ball handling guards but this just comes down to the

simple a talent and b how can portland score enough points to actually hang in the series and

that's the question i don't have an answer for oh well that was my question or exact low as god

is my witness i have the spurs and six i have the best players victor wembe njama my big question

for zack low is how will portland get to 100 points right there in my notes because

portland has the defense of a conference finalist they are a very very physical athletic defense

tiago splitter by the way what a job by the spurs great i'm glad you said that because new ownership

in portland right uh just took over interim coach and i just hope they give him a real honest look

at the permanent job because this team's solid they play hard they're weird in terms of their

team construction and how and they've had a lot of injuries and he's made the most of it and they're

the seventh seed they're not going to win this series but this is like an objectively very good

outcome for them and a rising team and i hope they give tiago splitter a real shot at the actual

job i'll go further out to give them the job because what what else could you have wanted from

this team this year right this was supposed to be an in between year and they go into phoenix and

win the play in game now they're the seventh seed um and he has something to build around you have

denny and defense so surround get we need a little more shooting we need a little more offensive

versatility uh but yeah i i i i love tiago splitter maybe i'm biased um i don't know how the blazer

score a hundred points i have for the biggest x factor year the officials on denny's drives and one

of the biggest things we always say this time years what are the rules in mba basketball what

what is the content attach to allowance what's going to be a shooting fell in may compared to march

and denny is is a a a a master at the dark arts of get not whistle there's a world where he gives

the spurs headaches because he gets wimpy and foul trouble driving to the rim and colliding with him

um or there's a world where the refs are just like we're not doing that this time of year so i

think that's a big x factor if the spurs can protect the paint which they can i just don't see the

perimeter offensive portland being dynamic enough zack to get to a hundred and ten hundred and 15

points and beat the spurs by the way i should have mentioned this up top when we missed all three

games the teams played together uh played against each other seasons this is when these like portland

and playoffs debut of dia obviously is the full-crime of everything for the blazers i think it's

going to be castle guarding him primarily and holy smokes is that going to be fun just give me all

of that matchup of castle going you know punch for punch with denny obviya he'll obviously try to

hunt the iron fox good i mean like good luck with that with wimpy lurking uh behind you and to your

point about rim the rim in the basket area this is a this these are reasons to be also a person

stick about the blazers uh the blazers are a top ten free throw team the spurs defense has the

lowest free throw it allowed in the entirely i had that that was one of my big notes yeah that's

why i think the refs what's going to happen with that exact thing are we going to hear whistles on

that end of the quarter not the blazers are fourth in the league in offensive rebounding

primarily thanks to don have been clinging and they're actually not very good defensive rebound

team when he rests uh the spurs are first in the league in defensive rebounding so a strength

of portland again that they can uh neuter a little bit the blazers take the fifth most shots at the

rim the spurs allow the six fewest shots at the rim and you'll be shocked to know that when

winby on him is on the court that number even goes down further i just don't see any hope for

poor lint scoring enough points even though their shooting has been on a bit of an uptake even though

jeremy grant just came back and made a bunch of big corner threes in that game in phoenix even

though shade and sharp his back his three comes and goes even though scoot henderson's three looks

much better i just don't see how they score enough i will give them a game and say spurs in five i

am tempted to say spurs in four but i'll give the port the blazers again i think they're going to

get a game i have spurs in six i think this first are going to learn a little bit in this this

first two weeks of this real playoff run for them uh the start of the year for victor wemba njama

defensive player of the year is that the only question is it going to be unanimous which he

should be is every mba team this year's aqlo has an effective field goal percentage between

fifty two and fifty eight whenever victor wemba njama's on the court the opponents effective

field goal percentages below fifty he is the most impactful he turns every offense in the mba

faces into something less efficient than the brooklyn net's offense this year which is just a stunning

demonstration of of what's going to happen uh for the years to come and we're not really good at

quantifying defensive impact but he just you know he just takes away so many two point opportunities

for for opponents uh and again with denny specifically as the offensive engine of portland i think

that's a especially relevant in this series good call on all fronts we shall see i'll give the

blazers a game uh series number four in my entertainment value rank is this may surprise you

giving the injuries but i'm going houston lakers in the four five series in the rest

surprise me um no luca for now no reaves for now i am working under the assumption that they will not

play in the series we shall see i would love to be wrong about that obviously i'm happy again that

luca was ruled eligible uh as was cade for all the offseason awards here's the reason why i have this

on here it's not just the classic like does lebron have uh one met last like i'm still lebron james

i could carry us across the finish line by myself series in him i don't think that he does

it's more how are the lakers under man going to try to junk this series up particularly on defense

where they've been just throwing everything at the wall zones switches and double teams have zones

hybrid zones man demand here and there how are they going to junk it up defensively blitzes blitzes

enforce the rockets to pass out of blitzes and sort of like okay shengoon can you find um on

omand tomson with this interior pass and then we're going to swarm him and can you blah blah can

the lakers junk it up and sort of nudge the rockets offense to its worst and most stagnant impulses

and actually make this somewhat of a series uh and and you know the rockets have had an ugly crunch

time offense all season uh they play some lineups that are a little bit at a shooting deficit i

think they took the third fewest threes in the league and the lakers and jj redic find a way to

junk it up a little bit and ugly it up and and and just take away the easy stuff from the rockets

i don't know but i'm interested to see i'll be cynical i think this the zack lochow needs me to

be very cynical and negative about the lakers right now so that's what i'm going to do um i think the

rockets found something late in the year with recheppered he finally got the game is the third

pick of the draft from last year and they can make up threes from 30 feet away and is a really good

passer yeah that i hope so it's about time and he deodorized that three points stank that this team

has uh all year uh but beyond that bringing that hot run the rockets had uh at the end of the

season into this playoff series the lakers just don't have anybody at the point of attack who can do

what other western conference teams will do to rechepper maybe later in this playoff run is just

punish him on defense and and explore with him i i just don't think the lakers can really leverage

or arbitrage the recheppered experience like better western conference teams i mean lebron will

try right they're going to see like if he's on for instance canard has been starting uh now um

if recheppers on canard i would almost put to be tempted to put recheppered anywhere but canard

just because if i'm the lakers i'm like yeah please guard our best shooter and we can put you in two

main games with lebron and make you switch and rotate um but don't try but i you know

yeah lebron is forty-one or sold and they don't really have a ton of great offensive talent around

them right now so i'm picking the rockets i gave the lakers two games i like bill's joke that there's

going to be one game with 61 lakers free throws um regardless i think the best player in the series is

kevin de rant um my big question for you zacklow on this series who will be the lakers second best

player in this first round series so who are my choices dominates marca smart rui hotchamura

jake laravia brony james uh where jackson haze um drew to me i will go with rui hotchamura uh

i think him and marca smart uh we'll see if both of them start or if laravia starts i suspect both

him will start we'll start uh they'll split the kd assignment i think um kd will be trying to hunt

luke canard at all costs just like the lakers will be trying to hunt recheppered um i'll i'll go with

i'll go with rui hotchamura i don't feel i don't feel great about it um and we'll see like again

the lakers will chuck it up they'll put eight and an amand tomson now and then and try to put

marcus smart up in shinggoons shit and switch everything and just the rockets just should have

enough solves to make this a relatively easy not i mean easy in terms of length i think some of the

games could get like a little one oh six one oh one rockets just sneak it out um i will go uh

go rock i'll go rockets and i'll go rockets in five i'll go i'll go a little shorter

they've been playing well lately and uh obviously that is asterix uh depending on luke and reves

yeah and i think to go back to the 40 minute game thing another reason that 40 minute games

in the mba is the calf strain and hamstring epidemic that is killing the league and killing

players like austin reves and um luke a donchich uh you know 40 minute games we have less injuries

that's that's rocket science no pun intended but um yeah this is a series that would have been

freaking awesome if everybody's healthy and it kind of feels shitty that we're sitting here and being

like well maybe the spanish hamstring treatment is gonna get an able uh you know luke a donchich

to come back but you're right i reserve the right to change my prediction if i start to see luke a

donchich getting closer and closer to coming back because that would be awesome even just give me

luke uh in this series and and i would have a different answer i could see this being a sweep if

none of those guys play but i'm saying rockets and piers six i still don't really understand why

the spurs didn't try to hammer dendver down into the fourth seed on the last day of the season

the rocket city more it has been has been have been gifted the easiest possible route

if they win this series it's gonna allow them to sort of maybe post-blown some of the harder choices

they have to look into mirror and face because of how up and down and weird and wonky the season has

been at times obviously van fleets mistol season steven atoms has been out for a while those are

big things finney smith has given them zero i just i i don't know why when we didn't play that last

game i would have tried to hammer dendver down out out of my half of the bracket but here we are

here we are i i i think that's a great point um and as a spurs homer former employee i don't have

a good answer for it and it's sort of annoying to me too uh just a couple other notes on the

series rockets number one and offensive rebounding so the lakers will be tested there uh without

leaves and donchich much harder for the lakers to get to like viable small ball lineups with rui or

lebron at the five which is a look they've like to go to now and then just worth noting in about 500

minutes this year i don't know how relevant it is lebron without reads and luca accordingly

in the glass lakers plus 11 and a half per hundred possessions did not expect that when i looked it

up i don't expect it to sustain against the team that can throw derand will guard lebron a lot

jibarri smith juneur will guard lebron does which tarry ison on doom when they don't have read shepherd

on the floor just gonna switch everything and just make it very difficult rockets in five okay

yes and for all one more note for all the consternation about the rockets offense they ended the year

as the number eight offense and the mba uh just throwing that out there they did all right let's

take one last break we have two series to go including what i will call the indiana pacers memorial

nba tv series which will be the least entertaining of the six uh we'll be right back with kirk olsbury

series number five an old school eastern conference clash give me highlights of the boston

strangler and rootonie give me will versus russell give me tadeum versus harden wait that happened at

one point it didn't go well uh imbeade i mean i we were not going to get imbeade probably appendicitis

just unbelievable unbelievable that in the span of two years and three playoff seasons bells paulzy

and appendicitis of one of the most skilled uh and monstrous players in the history of the mba um

jason tadeum missed all four regular season games between the seltics and the sixers paul jorge

also missed all four so throw those games in the trash boston number two in offense number four

in defense against the sixers likely without jolm bd um just you know can you can you can you talk me

into how did the sixers make this a series not without joelle and beade no way it's that simple um

i have the seltics in five point five games the point five is for the uncertainty around joelle and bead

uh i have the best players jason tadeum which is controversial some people might say um

that he's not even the best player on his own team anymore but regardless i think the biggest

question obviously is will joelle and beade play any games this series echo i mean based on what i

read about appendicitis timetables i'm again going to just assume no but i would love to see him play

because i don't think without him that they have nearly enough juice to compete with the seltics

and it's just such a heavy lift for maxi and edgcomb uh who by the way edgcomb had a couple of

massively uh awesome self-created buckets in the land uh last night against uh orlando you know paul

jorge had to ISO you know try to hunt some switches and and take 18 foot fadeaways over smaller

guys it's just it's hard work without that year without that element of the offense i think they're

minus three per under possessions for the season when maxi plays without and beade something like that

i do that you know maxi has kind of turned the corner on the seltics in average 30 game this year his

speed gives them problems um in in past matchups again we haven't seen the fully healthy seltics

against the fully healthy sixers this year and so as a result the bulk of the maxi assignment has

gone to guys like who go gonzales bale or shiaman and in a landmark bossed and win jordan wash played

like made the name basically made his rotation spot by guarding thiris maxi right now none of those

guys are in the starting five and so i'm just sort of curious i my guess is daryk white will start

on him um because it's it's white brown taedum house or uh who i think maxi will try to hide on on

the other end and kada so that that's at least you know an interesting wrinkle to start with is like

who guards maxi where does maxi try to look for his offense he'll try to hunt house or i would

imagine and and invite boss into switch it's just gonna be tough sledding it's gonna be tough

sledding which tough sledding for philly against orlando last night is a decent defense but boss

ends a better defense and what i have in my notes is like this is a classic two versus seven and even if

joelle and beied we're healthy i want to be clear i would pick the seltics pretty easily in this

series maybe not four or five games but six or seven um and he's not and so i think the seltics

enter the series is the better offense one of the best offenses in the mba i'm not sure that the

sixers will be able to slow that down by any means and then on the other side of the court i

think the seltics enter the series is a top five defense and i'm not sure the maxi edge comb

paul jorge offense will be able to do anything significant against this really cohesive um great

rebounding defense that boston has put together uh again as they reinvented their front court on the

fly uh this season and great job by by joe mizou ultimately i agree this is not going to be very

entertaining not because there's not good players on both teams but just because one team is so

so much superior and so deep compared to the other couple other um interesting things

boston gives up the most threes in the league uh by design and they they skew above the break

obviously also by design philly does not take a lot of three so they're not really built to exploit

what is not really a weakness but is a a design feature of uh boston's defense philly also gives

up a lot of threes on defense and boy do the seltics like to play teams who give up a lot of threes um

and i think you know boston is absolutely merciless when they have when they smelball at in the water

and maxi as i said earlier has really made a jump defensively he's just undersized going up

against datum and brown and they're going to find him wherever he is and whatever other weak link

they think they think they can find on defense maybe put drumming in the pick and roll in open space

but if maxi's on house or gonzalez or shiamon or wherever he is they're going to bring him up and

they're going to put him in the action if he's on payton pritchard that's a big problem for

the sixers because that unlocks a really deadly two-man game between the jays and payton pritchard

of the jays and Derek white um and boston is also like an elite elite elite transition defense team

and philly with vj entire east maxi and i refuse to fucking call them vj max because

it sucks uh is they need to fly in order to have a chance in these games and they will fly there

of like vj edgcomb is already top five transition player in the ambielike he's utterly

uncontainable in the open floor the combination of speed and like a surprising amount of power

and verticality but the seltics are just such a disciplined machine of transition defense so

those are some of the things i'm watching it's also a vuch vuch began his career with the sixers

coming full circle and oh wow i think this is maybe like a good the vuch gaza question like i

haven't loved the vuch experience for boston actually think gaza has been better than him this is

kind of a good dip your toe in the water series for vuch because you have just a bear of a rebounder

and drumming and someone who just needs to be boxed out and and i think that that is why they got

food trivitch and just always going to be interesting to see does he make enough threes

that the defense actually responds to him popping for three do they rotate another guy at him do they

switch do they because i if i were coaching and seltics i would not i would just let him shoot uh

semi contested threes but those are the some of the some of the things i'm looking for ultimately like

no ambide i just see no no shot yeah there you go i was talking to one coach about the teltics

the other day and then he was saying like one of the one of the good things joe mizoula is really good

out is not just putting a weak link defender at the point of attack and attacking but to put him

where he would need to rotate uh in in an off ball roll and i think there are so many weak

lengths we are talking about drum and or whoever just joe is just mizoula is going to be able to exploit

these weaknesses and get that spin cycle going and we're going to see a lot of open threes from the

Boston Celtics i'm glad you brought up drum it again because it's so funny how his career is evolved so

when bona's on the floor and holy smokes bona i thought bona was going to smash the glass on the back

board i thought there was going to be a fight last night when he was out there i mean he i thought he

was going to deflate the basketball he smashed it so hard against the backboard when he's out there

he's a traditional picking roll dive guy um yeah they've turned drum and into just standing the corner

and get out of the way and let our guards have the floor to isolate or let Paul George isolate

against a smaller guy i i'm very curious to see how mizoula responds to that like does he just put

if you're going to do that with Andre drum it is he just going to put like a guard on Andre drum and

and have katas somewhere else he's not he's not falling for any of that because mizoula is also

the meanest cruelest coach at if we think you have a non shooter on the floor anywhere we are not

going to guard that guy like at all it's and and drum and has been a decent corner three point shooter

i don't think the southlinks are going to care i don't think you're going to be like all right

neemiest kitty you've got to be like a little just outside the paint i think they'll just be like you

do do whatever you want over there and and and we'll see but it's interesting how drum and has evolved

in that definition and it fits how these fast guards want to play just clear the lane unclutter the lane

and let these guys let these guys fly um all right one more serious to go you ready

i am this so is it fair to say that you have calves raptors as the lowest ranked series

i do um which is i think i look i'm a sucker for a good 80s NBA rivalry bossed and philly um i'm

a sucker for just like i i'm just continually fascinated by how tadeum looks and now we're going

into the playoffs and so that's sort of a subplot um and i do like i think if we are awarding

the NBA tv indiana pacers memorial NBA tv series

because there was always one like pacers hawks was just like a lock for like six p.m. NBA tv

it's not going on national tv i guess that's taking the national tv it can't be like a big market

team like the lakeers or the Celtics or the nicks it i just think you're banned from putting the top

seeds so i can't be destroyed to troit whoever um and and uh obviously not Oklahoma city sanatonio

i think this would have to be i think this would have to be the one apologies to my brothers to the

north it's also just a it's a weird toronto's a weird team they're just big and they hunt mismatches

and cleveland's a weird team and that they have to decide how often do we want to play mobily

and allen together against what lineups do we want to play them together um and the one thing i

don't want to hear the toronto people going well three oh we swept cleveland in the regular season

they were all in the fall hard and played none of them michael played missed one of them jared

allen missed two of them completely meaningless um i just think this could be kind of a slow

methodical series on both ends of the floor in terms of just harden sifting around trying to find

where to attack the raptors defense the raptors trying to okay where scottie can we get scottie

into a mismatch can we get bi into a mismatch particularly when the calves are small and have only

one big guy i just don't feel like this is going to be super fun to watch despite some star power

i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm maybe i'm more into it than you i i think the calves are going to win this

series but i'm excited to see this young raptors group and the ferocious defense they have really

throw everything at uh this offense which hasn't had a lot of time together obviously since acquiring

james harden and and all the guys have been in and out of the lineup so i think the raptors

are going to have a chip on their shoulder i think they're going to want to play as hard and

as fast as they can against it's sort of an older team especially with harden on the floor

i'm picking the calves in six i think the best player in the series is don of a michael

and my big question for us at glow is do you think scottie and angram will be able to be effective

scores against this exact calves defense i do i do think so um i mean effective is a relative term

i think they'll be fine um globally i think we'll get the scottie barns assignment a lot if not

all the time but the cap the raptors are going to be smart about using them as a screener in the

picking roll using as the ball handler trying to hunt you know streus michael harden trying to get

mismatches and then you just then you just start going through the math like who's guarding

brand and ingram when the starters are in the floor if mowbly is on barns and allen is on

portal uh who's guarding ingram is it dean wait is he is he going to start the series as the fifth

starter i think he probably will but they'll go smaller than that a lot and can brand and ingram

just manufacture some buckets over max shrews don of a michael sam maril has guarded brand and

ingram a lot i think the calves are like fine with that like brand and ingram you go ahead man you

want to take a bunch of mid range iso is over our guys like we're going to live with that but i think

i think they'll make a fair bit and then it just becomes interesting to me like what kind of line-ups

do the raptors play do they play less fertile and more like scottie barns and mom moves scottie

barns and columnary boils and how do the calves respond to that i think there's still some interesting

chest matches but like flip it around the raptors have a very good fifth in defense for the year

for the raptors is super impressive rj barrett has been the primary guy on dot of a michael and limited

action obviously and if barns is on mobile who's guarding james harden is i don't know the answer

to that question we'll see scottie barns has guarded him some jimals shed has guarded

don of a michael quite a bit and done pretty well against him and he's also guarded harden a little bit

muri boils can guard anybody i just for for the raptors quickly is dealing with this hamstring

thing we'll see if he plays or not obviously the calves will go at him but if the raptors have to

play shed more and muri boils more can they score enough dang in these games i don't know the

answer to that but they do need to get turnover from cleveland and cleveland's transition defense

has been like average to slightly below average and a little bit worse not surprisingly since hard

and came aboard so like you want to open the door to toronto that's a good way to do it is give

them free points in transition because that's they want to press you they want to put pressure on

you they want to run you off the line they want to make you throw a lot of passes under duress and

get out in transition and cleveland you know just be a little careful that's all i'm saying

yeah i think toronto can muck it up i think i want into the court when cleveland has the basketball

and and and and toronto's playing defense it's going to be a really high level series those are

both great units but i think on the other end specifically something you brought up which i think

is smart to watch is are we going to finally see jared alan and evan mowbly playing a lot of

basketball together because that gives cleveland i think they're most competent defensive look

especially against a team that can't shoot very well and so

toronto i think is fourth in the mba and points in the paint pro game they need to get to the rim

to be effective on offense and if you can take that away like this too big lineup in theory can do

and if you look at the numbers of jared and and evan together the defensive rating for cleveland

in those 41 games or 27 and 14 it's it's 639 minutes act that defensive rating goes 108 points

to which is about the best you're going to see out of a cleveland team of this season jared

alan to me is the biggest x factor not only for the series but for these playoffs for cleveland he

hasn't been a great postseason player i think that's fair to say his health has been up and down

but if he can if he can snap into form and let evan mowbly sort of roam around and be the free

range free safety type defender i think cleveland could could be who they thought they were going

to be at the beginning of the season and not only win this series pretty easily but give teams in

in the second maybe in third round some some some trouble cleveland is just sort of existing

under the radar and they have his highest ceiling almost as anyone in the east there's just a lot

i'm not i don't want to say a lot not to trust but there's hardens playoff track record

there's this teams playoff track record of being out of tough when when things get

it when adversity strikes whether it's michael robinson just murdering them under a pile of

offensive rebounds whether it's a couple injuries strike them in the pacer series and they just

seem to lose their their cool and like go the rope a little bit and start blaming other outside

factors and woe was us there's the lack of minutes that the the core four guys have played together now

i do think this is a good double big series for cleveland like a good starting place for them

if barns perdle that's a good you know mobility can guard barns Alan can guard portal or they'll

flip it around sometimes and have Jared Allen guard scottie barns and just sit back they will dare

scottie barns to shoot they're going to go way under all the screens for scottie barns um scottie

barns and cmb cmb and perdle those are all pretty like interior oriented lineups that you can go

too big against gets a little interesting like if they ever just go scottie at center with perimeter

players or scottie and mommu brand an ingram at the four with one of the centers that then you

might see the one big lineups but i think this is like a good stable defensive starting point

for cleveland that said i think toronto's size and ferocity if quickly can play i think they might

be a little bit more competitive in this series than people are giving them the credit for they

have some levers to pull that can stress cleveland out and if there's one series that just as an

objective fan i'm rooting for the underdog to steal game one or game two on the road it's this one

because i want to see how cleveland responds right away to like all right we're in toronto

this crowd's insane we're under an enormous amount of pressure we played the most like paid the

most luxury tax in the league we traded our 26 year old point guard for a 36 year old point guard

but like it's win now and all of it and we have this history this baggage and we got to deal

with it right away i kind of want to see that yeah i do too um and there are five seed they deserved it

they they held off some really ascended teams at the end of the season namely Atlanta for for

that fifth position they were winning all year this isn't a seven seed this isn't an eight seed

in the east is deeper than i think you were i thought it would be uh six months ago uh and when

you have a five seed and against the four seed i think it's that simple sometimes like you

shouldn't expect the four seed to walk all over the five seed i put cleveland in this category

of teams trying to sort of build the plane in the air at the hardest time of the year to do that

oh we're finally healthy we finally got minnesota's trying to do that uh and i think uh on the other

side cleveland is trying to do that and that doesn't always work uh sometimes a player gets re-injured

who's coming back um sometimes they're just not that cohesion uh that it takes time to to build

especially when you're trying to get james hard and assimilate it on the fly uh so i do think

there are cracks in the calves foundation and it's a lot to ask to assume they're going to go

ahead and win forward these games in a row so i think teranmo has a better chance um then then most

people did you make a pick yet i care remember i have picked the uh cavaliers and six games

so i haven't picked a seven game series yet you pick talks nicks and seven right i picked talks

nicks and then i i have my upset my wolves picked for the good of the zack losho

i want to pick cleveland and six but i'm gonna have fun and say i'm gonna pick cleveland and seven

i'm gonna say teranmo pushes them the distance the way our landowner did a couple years ago this

is just other than the mayami series last year where like i don't even know what happened the

calves shot 900 percent from three and mayami just died um so the team that doesn't make their life

easy in the playoffs also teranmo gets under their skin a little bit and it makes it a long series

but cleveland wins all right so to review we are both picking charlotte and golden state in the playing

games yeah i'm three and one in my play and picks so far i've foolishly picked the magic to win in

idiot yeah i know uh and then i'm going minus a denver in six you're going wolves in seven

yes i'm going nicks in six over the hawks you're going nicks in seven i am i am going

cleveland in seven over the raptors you're going cleveland in six i am yes

i'm going spurs in five over the blazers you went spurs in i went six i maybe that's reverse jinx

and i want these boys to learn a little bit rockets in five over the lakers what were you again

i think i had six but five seems right if after we talked it through i don't know if i made a

pick in boston philly but i'm gonna go boston in five did i say that it what sounds right to me to

zack i don't want to be too controversial especially with no joe all on b'd and again yes injury-related

exceptions and there are always going to be plot twists and this is the playoffs and this is the

best like these these saturday and sundays coming up are we get to see there's no more messing around

whatever you don't the coaches are not going to hold stuff for game three or four of a playoff

series they're going to do what they think is best option step one strategy right away in game one

and then counter from there and that the chess match is going to begin even if some of these

series don't look competitive they're going to be fun to see how coaches sort of conceive of how to

adjust what players weaknesses are exploited what players show us stuff that maybe we didn't think

they had and then we'll get one or two series that go longer than expected and get crazy and

we'll see what happens and then the second round is shaping up to be absolutely epic but the

journey the regular season slog is over and the playoffs are here critical to bear any parting

thoughts on what we have seen in the play-in and or the play-in matchups or the cade and luca news

that the hit while we were recording oh that's good now my parting thought is man this is a big

game for palo bank arrow coming up if you want something else to talk about on Friday this guy has

to play really well i think he's the most interesting player before we get to the weekend i'm

glad that you brought that up because we talked a lot about Miami and their off-season decisions

we talked about the clippers and the lottery gods and what has to happen for them and what it

cried what it just cluster fucked this year has been on every front and we talked about that with

Orlando but the stakes for if this team misses the playoffs right what an all-time bad

catastrophe catastrophe of a season for a team that had a 50 and a half over under traded four

first round picks for Desmond Bane got a good Desmond Bane season and is just mired in this whatever

this is everyone will focus on mostly right fully so if they lose this game even if they win and

get rolled in the first round right all bets are off to me across the board if they lose to Charlotte

like all like palo trade fron's trade like everything is on the board to me and so yeah those

are the stakes because if that team gets lapped by Charlotte Toronto Philadelphia with their health

issues Atlanta Atlanta like that's just flat out embarrassing for everybody involved

yeah i mean in the land a team that that sort of blew itself up in the middle of the year

this was supposed to be a three-seed right best young ascended team in these and here we are if

they don't make the playoffs i couldn't agree more i think the front office should be worried i

think the roster should be insecure and i think obviously the coaching staff is so yeah i mean

that's a really high stakes game and and and i think you alluded to this earlier but maybe they've

already had their last stand maybe with the people there i've already seen what they wanted to see

and they've seen enough but do yeah this this Charlotte game it could be a real sort of

ribbon on the top what am i trying to say it's a cherry on top of the the bad sunday for this season

for the magic by the way do you think limelon should have been suspended were you surprised he wasn't

dude kind of why was it to when i saw spoke go to the cat to the post game because he doesn't do that

and he said all that i was like okay i've never seen him that fired up and bam deserves better

we don't want to set a precedent that it's okay to do that to a star player in this league

so yeah i'm kind of surprised we didn't see more from the league on that one

all right yeah it's gonna be fun game to watch and like i like before the season

when the honest stuff was already out of control i floated palo for yana as a fun trade construction

obviously you'd have to add a lot to palo even then and then i corrected myself because palo has been

was poisoned pill this year because of his contract extension kicking in which is it's very

just mathematically hard to trade well that poison pill expires once the season is over but like

if i'm Milwaukee is that that interesting to me anymore and you can't add that much because you

traded so many picks for being it's just it's just the just a mess but you know those fronzen

palo just haven't the magic have looked their best this year with bane sugs black one of the two

forwards and a center and they can't play palo at the five they don't trust it defensively which

would be a way to get all five of those players on the floor and they just seem still 82 games later

83 games later still just confused about how does all this work so that's the stakes for friday

curt goldsbury you wrote a big piece on the ringer dot com that we should talk about

about sort of what net rating and other stats tell us about the predictive value of who could win

the title do you want to do you want to talk about that piece at all real quick yeah it's sort of

an extension of stuff that i stole from you ten years ago which is like hey what are the regular

season key metrics so the dean all over the the net rating offensive rating defense of rating

spoiler net rating is very predictive that's good news for the Celtics in the pistons and the

thunder and the spurs uh and uh shooting is the other one that would say if you can't shoot you're

not going to win this tournament that's bad news for the pistons um so i think that if you look

at history as a guide there are three clear favorites the thunder the spurs and the Celtics

right now um and i think that smells right and for me it just feels like this is the thunder's

year to to win again um i'm not predicting they will easily but the stats from the regular season seem

to suggest that they're they're most likely to win it all yeah i had a very smart front office guy

say to me yesterday i ain't there are only three teams and maybe just two that can win the title

thunder spurs Celtics and i immediately said don't don't take the nuggets out of that group i

did not get scared that's right on Detroit is it fair like we didn't we didn't mention it all

because they don't have a set playoff matchup yet i mean i think whoever faces the thunder i will

pick thunder in four or five probably four um pistons hornets just can we can we can the basketball

guys just give us that that's what we need i don't want to watch pistons magic it's going to be

ugly and slaggy and physical and fouly and every game will take three hours give me pistons

hornets debat the during lamello against that front line just give the world needs to see that

that's what we need yeah that offense versus that defense there's some bad blood there i was

going to say you know at the mba tv indiana pacer's memorial series i do think it could be a one

seed in a world where either phoenix or orlando wins these last games and we have Detroit versus

orlando that would be an mba tv candidate and i also think okay see phoenix could be an mba tv

candidate uh so that's another reason i'm rooting for the road teams on friday uh zack low but yeah

i want i wanted to see charlotte in the playoffs like a lot of us since march and so yeah Detroit's

the only way they can get there i'd love to see the Detroit pistons incredible defense with a

healthy kid cunning ham uh take on this ascendant charlotte i'll just say that's it that's what we get

i think that's going six at least that's all right but we'll see what we'll see what we get

curcodes mayor the man thanks for your time but thank you brother enjoy the playoffs

all right that's it for today's edition of the zack low show enjoy the weekend the craziness is here

four games saturday four games sunday i will be back early next week on twos day as usual

to break down everything that's happened in the playoffs look ahead to the key games coming up

thank you to the great curc goldsberry for helping us preview all the action thanks to mike

billy and johnathan on production and thanks to you all for listening to andor watching

the zack low show enjoy the playoffs

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