1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,520 Welcome in to the newest edition of the Justin Tom Sports Podcast. 2 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:05,080 I am your host, Justin Jackson. 3 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:09,520 In this week's episode, we'll be having an NBA Special Episode where we'll be reviewing 4 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:13,760 the Game 7s of the NBA Playoffs and previewing the Conference Finals. 5 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:17,880 As always, don't forget to like, rate, and subscribe to the Justin Tom Sports Podcast 6 00:00:17,880 --> 00:00:22,560 wherever you get your podcasts, whether it be iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon, or anywhere 7 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:23,560 else. 8 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:26,560 And don't forget to follow the social media handle at JTimesports. 9 00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:34,520 I will also continue to link the YouTube channel link into the bio of this episode, into the 10 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:36,320 episode description. 11 00:00:36,320 --> 00:01:06,240 And as always, don't forget to sit back and get ready to learn something. 12 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:33,840 And don't forget to subscribe to the Justin Tom Sports Podcast. 13 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:46,120 And don't forget to follow the social media handle at JTimesports. 14 00:01:46,120 --> 00:02:06,480 And don't forget to follow the social media handle at JTimesports. 15 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:32,080 Welcome into the show. 16 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:38,120 I am excited to be here and we're recording this late into the night, 10.38 PM Central 17 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:40,720 Standard Time as I'm recording this currently. 18 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:51,440 But I wanted to give you guys a fairly instant reaction to the end of the NBA Conference 19 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:54,640 Semifinals in the NBA Second Round. 20 00:02:54,640 --> 00:03:01,040 Nuggets T-Wolves went off 45-ish minutes ago, give or take. 21 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:05,320 And I wanted to give you guys a complete, like I said, my general reaction to it. 22 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:08,720 Obviously, last we got the Insta-Release show. 23 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:10,360 This is an instant reaction show. 24 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:12,720 So kind of still sticking on the instant path. 25 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:17,520 But kind of, I want to give you guys a more authentic feel into how I'm feeling right 26 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:21,400 this second without seeing any discourse, without seeing anything else. 27 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:25,880 This is just me off the dome, just spitting. 28 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:27,640 I barely have limited notes on my page. 29 00:03:27,640 --> 00:03:30,720 Usually I have about a full page of notes, if not more. 30 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,760 I've got one quarter of a page. 31 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:36,920 So this is me just going off the dome. 32 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:39,680 Pretty much the only thing that's written down is to make sure I talk about all the 33 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:40,680 games kind of thing. 34 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:44,080 Because if I didn't have to mention Pacers' Nicks, I'd probably forget, right? 35 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:47,480 But speaking of Pacers' Nicks, we're going to jump right into that. 36 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:55,280 Congratulations to the Indiana Pacers as they defeat the Nicks in the Garden in a very 37 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:56,840 wild manner, actually. 38 00:03:56,840 --> 00:04:02,560 The Pacers set multiple NBA Playoff records, multiple Game 7 records, including best shooting 39 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:05,800 percentage in a half, best shooting percentage in a game. 40 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:13,840 They shot like 67% for the game, 76% I believe for the first half. 41 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:18,120 All in all, and yet the Pacers stayed, not the Pacers, the Nicks, however, stayed tethered. 42 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:23,320 Thanks to Dantay DiVincenzo ultimately going for almost four, they can go for 38, nailing 43 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:25,960 like eight or so threes. 44 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:30,080 The Nicks were able to stay tethered for a vast majority of the game. 45 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:33,680 They weren't necessarily close, but they were always close enough that they could pull themselves 46 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:34,680 in. 47 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:39,080 I always felt like they could pull themselves into this and make this a real game and even 48 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:43,480 overtake it and bring the Garden back alive, especially with the Garden's energy. 49 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:45,200 Stephen A. Smith was there doing commentary. 50 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:50,080 Spike Lee was in the front row, of course, and all his Nicks regalia because they were, 51 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:51,080 you know what I'm saying, they remained tethered. 52 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:57,120 This is the best Nicks team they've had, God, since the Carmelo years. 53 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:00,720 So this is where people had the most hope in New York and et cetera. 54 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:03,960 Because even with the year that Trey Young came and shut the Garden down, that team wasn't 55 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:06,440 the team that was expected to go very far. 56 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:11,920 This team, people thought conference finals was where they would land and then, you know, 57 00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:15,040 people say like, oh, we still a game in Boston, we're not supposed to win. 58 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:16,040 Maybe the Nicks are in the finals. 59 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:19,760 I mean, that's kind of the energy we had around this team. 60 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:25,560 And so the Nicks themselves just had to overcome too much. 61 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:32,560 And it's the injury guys or bad luck or I don't know, we'll talk about the tips in a 62 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:34,200 couple of minutes. 63 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:35,960 It was too much, right? 64 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:42,720 And you look at where they were even in this fight, even in this series. 65 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:43,720 He won his A finals. 66 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:44,720 I'm excited for the NBA finals. 67 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:50,960 I said a couple of times during the intros, we're like, we want to see finals, but during 68 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:54,520 these playoffs, where they even were, it's amazing they got this far. 69 00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:59,760 They, you know, just I'm going to list the guy on the top of my head that I know are 70 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:03,080 Nick key contributors that aren't there due to injury. 71 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:08,120 Julius Randall, Mitchell Robinson, Boyan Bandanovic, Bogdan Bandanovic, one of the 72 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:11,040 Bandanovic's. 73 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:15,520 You had Josh Hart came into the game hobbled, OG Ananobe came into the game hobbled, and 74 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:21,080 Jalen Brunson as the final nail in the coffin, cracks his hand or fractures his hand or his 75 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:23,600 thumb or whatever. 76 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:30,220 As the final nail in the coffin, like they just had to overcome so very much to even 77 00:06:30,220 --> 00:06:32,880 be in this position. 78 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:34,960 Because prior to tip off five of those things were in effect. 79 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,840 You didn't have Mitch Robinson, you didn't have Julius Randall, you didn't have the 80 00:06:37,840 --> 00:06:44,400 Bandanovic, OG Ananobe could barely move and Josh Hart couldn't play his usual heart filled 81 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:45,400 self. 82 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:49,520 So you went into five of those things were in Brunson, of course, like I said, fractures 83 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:52,600 his thumb. 84 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:54,760 And so it raised a lot of questions. 85 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:59,520 People have a lot of different opinions, a lot of different questions, of course, on 86 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,080 Twitter or X or whatever. 87 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:03,080 A lot of stuff runs rampant. 88 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:10,920 One of the things that ran rampant was Tibbido, was Tibbs, because Tom Tibbido, he is notorious 89 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:16,720 for practicing hard, plays hard, he plays his high, his starters, plus his high bits 90 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:18,220 guys, heavy minutes. 91 00:07:18,220 --> 00:07:21,600 It's not shocking on the first night of a back to back, everybody in the starting line 92 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:23,640 has to go 35 minutes or more. 93 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:25,320 Like it is what it is, right? 94 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:32,400 And I was talking about on Twitter that was saying that Tibbido kind of has a firing pattern 95 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:37,560 where Tibb goes in, changes the culture, builds them up, plays this guy heavy minutes to do 96 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:39,600 it, a couple of freak injuries. 97 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:43,960 The fans say if only, if only, if only, former players start talking about how he ran him 98 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:46,680 too hard, ran him too hard to the ground. 99 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:50,880 Player gets injured, fans get sick of it, running Tib out of town, Tibb get fired. 100 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:54,040 It's almost like he goes in, he's an amazing culture builder. 101 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,600 And then you make the playoffs in a year, or you make a little run in the playoffs in 102 00:07:57,600 --> 00:07:58,600 a year, you probably shouldn't. 103 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:00,600 And then you lose, people do the injury. 104 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:03,480 And then people say, man, if only I could stay healthy. 105 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:06,120 And then the injuries keep going and you fire Tibs. 106 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:12,120 It's very Chicago-esque, kind of what happened in Chicago. 107 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:15,360 Because Derrick Rose is in the game, they were up 12 with three minutes left and Derrick 108 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:16,360 Rose is in the game, right? 109 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:19,240 Derrick Rose is not in the game, who knows how that series goes? 110 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:21,040 Who knows how Derrick Rose's career goes? 111 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:26,840 Time Tibb, I mean, Rose could be, you know, only 13, 14 in Chicago as the third greatest 112 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:30,400 bull ever, kind of thing. 113 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:31,400 Who knows, right? 114 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:32,400 And then you go into this playoffs. 115 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:36,240 Now Julius Randle, I think, was kind of a freak injury. 116 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:39,720 Same with OG and Anoby, same with Mitchell Robinson. 117 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:44,600 Josh Hart was a, he's been playing, I mean, there was multiple games this playoffs, Josh 118 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:46,600 Hart didn't come out of the game. 119 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:51,440 And so he runs his guys really, really hard, especially his top seven on serve rotation, 120 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:52,440 guys. 121 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:56,200 It's not a shock for him to go seven deep at any moment. 122 00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:57,200 And so it wears. 123 00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:02,480 His team traditionally wear down, his team traditionally have star injuries late, most 124 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:05,560 famously Derrick Rose. 125 00:09:05,560 --> 00:09:07,000 But it happens at all his stops. 126 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,960 I believe he was in the temple was at one point before Chris Finch. 127 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:10,960 It happened there, right? 128 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:16,600 Like their top guys wore down and now he's in New York and they're doing the same thing, 129 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:17,600 right? 130 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:19,160 Randle again was a freak injury. 131 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:25,000 Mitchell Robinson, it was a freak injury, but like Hart wasn't wearing out an injury. 132 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:29,400 And Anoby, obviously as soon as he got to New York, he started getting like strains 133 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:30,400 and pools. 134 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:35,160 He went from, however, Toronto was practicing, which is probably a more standard NBA style 135 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:38,160 to how they play to what Tibbs does. 136 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:41,400 And he was strains and pools all over the place. 137 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:45,560 And then finally, like I said, Brunson fractures his hand again, one of those freak injury 138 00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:46,560 moments. 139 00:09:46,560 --> 00:09:53,240 But I mean, it's a narrative around Tibbs. 140 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:54,920 It's definitely there. 141 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:58,640 It's a narrative to where multiple people have spoken out about it. 142 00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:00,400 It's not something that's hidden. 143 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:02,760 It's not something that's unknown in the NBA circles. 144 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:03,760 People talk. 145 00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:08,560 And one of the things people are talking about is the fact that Tibbs teams, they're physical, 146 00:10:08,560 --> 00:10:10,160 they're hard nose, they're hard to beat. 147 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:12,840 They'll fight you in a phone booth. 148 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:13,840 They'll fight you in the mud. 149 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:14,840 They'll fight you on the court. 150 00:10:14,840 --> 00:10:17,120 They'll battle at the same time. 151 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:20,800 They're going to wear down and wear out. 152 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:25,120 And so that's something that he's going to potentially have to adjust. 153 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:26,760 But he's been coaching this way. 154 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:29,840 I said the Derrick Rose battles was in 2010, 2011. 155 00:10:29,840 --> 00:10:32,320 He's been coaching this way since before that. 156 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:41,920 So it's going to be hard to retrain him in order to, hey, you got 15 guys on this roster, 157 00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:50,680 use them sort of thing to try and limit the way his guys injury chance late in the season. 158 00:10:50,680 --> 00:10:53,120 Jalen Brunson, congratulations to him. 159 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:57,800 I mean, he leaves the series with a fractured hand and he leaves it earlier than he wanted 160 00:10:57,800 --> 00:10:59,520 to, but he was absolutely historic. 161 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:03,200 I mean, the amount of 40 point games he was putting up was Nick's history. 162 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:07,560 It was stuff that Bernard King would do an entire finals run. 163 00:11:07,560 --> 00:11:10,040 He was doing it like seven or eight games. 164 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:12,240 So congratulations to Jalen Brunson. 165 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:16,600 It was absolutely insane to watch him play this playoffs. 166 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:19,360 This postseason, he's earned himself a mass contract. 167 00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:21,680 He's earned himself to be the number one guy in New York. 168 00:11:21,680 --> 00:11:25,280 He's earned himself for the heart of the New York faithful. 169 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:26,280 So kudos to him. 170 00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:30,240 Kudos to the Nick's organization for taking that chance on Brunson, for going with the 171 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:32,240 tampering and giving him the money. 172 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:39,920 Dallas seemed to be hesitant on and going full fledged with him in order for him to be the 173 00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:41,280 number one guy in New York. 174 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:45,480 Unquestioned number one guy to have a Julius Randall decision making the off season. 175 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:50,600 I don't even know what Randall's value is right now, especially coming off the injury, 176 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:53,240 the season ending shoulder injury. 177 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:56,640 So very curious to see what his value even is right now. 178 00:11:56,640 --> 00:12:02,520 But I think that is their time to move off Julius Randall as they have their number one 179 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:07,040 guy in the building. 180 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:08,520 And then shout out Reggie Miller. 181 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:09,520 Right? 182 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:13,280 He was on TNT for some of these broadcasts in the arena. 183 00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:19,080 Of course, Nick fans found him and Nick players found him and a lot of noise and John was 184 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:20,080 at Reggie Miller. 185 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:23,960 He just kind of sat there, laughed and took it because he did it in the 90s. 186 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:25,600 He's doing it now. 187 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:30,000 He enjoyed the series because they kind of brought him back to the battles that he dealt 188 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:32,040 with when it was Nick's and Pacers. 189 00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:36,360 He was able to kind of have those moments of flashing back and enjoying himself to the 190 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:43,560 way that he has or truly couldn't since those prime Nick Pacers battles of the 90s. 191 00:12:43,560 --> 00:12:48,920 I would say mid to late, but they battled all through the 90s. 192 00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:49,920 But that was fun for Reggie. 193 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:52,360 That was fun for a lot of the Indiana Faithful too. 194 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:57,600 It was fun for the New York Faithful being able to jaw back and forth with Reggie Miller 195 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:01,280 was something they had done since the 90s. 196 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:07,720 And ultimately Reggie gets to last laugh because Indiana wins again behind a tall, light skinned 197 00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:11,440 guy with a funky shot or the funky looking shot actually. 198 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:14,960 That wasn't the traditional elbow in tuck situation. 199 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:15,960 Reggie had his elbow out. 200 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:19,080 Tyrese Halliburton does whatever he does with his shot. 201 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:25,720 But ultimately the Pacers move on to play the Celtics. 202 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:28,160 But to the game of the night. 203 00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:32,320 The game that everybody was looking forward to, Pacers and Knicks was like a prelim in 204 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:33,320 boxing. 205 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:34,320 Like yeah, the fight's probably cool. 206 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:40,120 It's got a lot of implications, but not like this one. 207 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:44,880 Timberwolves and Nuggets was everything you wanted more out of a series. 208 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:47,000 It was everything you wanted more out of a game seven. 209 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:48,960 But it did start off that way. 210 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:53,720 The Nuggets took a 15 point lead into the half. 211 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:58,360 No team has ever led by that much in game seven and lost. 212 00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:01,840 At one point the Nuggets were up 20 points in the third quarter. 213 00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:05,480 And then the Timberwolves ripped off an all time run. 214 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:11,440 And at one point they lead, they led the Nuggets by 10 points with three minutes left. 215 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:17,600 So a 30 point turnaround about a quarter and a half on the Nuggets home floor. 216 00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:23,160 The Timberwolves ultimately do win the game, set multiple records as far as the comeback. 217 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:25,720 And they did it with Anthony Edwards shooting six of 24. 218 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:27,920 But he picked it up from the defensive end. 219 00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:32,960 He himself said he had Jamal Murray in handcuffs when he was walking out of the arena. 220 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:39,360 He said he shot six of 24, was not his best, nearly his best performance, but he was helped 221 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:44,520 out a lot by Carl Anthony Townsend and Nas Reid. 222 00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:49,240 Especially in that second half, Kat and Nas Reid really took over. 223 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:50,800 Reid had a big put back dunk. 224 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:52,280 Had a block on the Nuggets. 225 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:53,280 Neal was at three. 226 00:14:53,280 --> 00:14:58,600 Kyle Anthony Townsend was hitting threes all night, hitting shots all night. 227 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:00,400 Was able to really impact the glass. 228 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:03,880 I believe he hit us with 23 and 12 if memory serves me correctly. 229 00:15:03,880 --> 00:15:06,640 They were able to, those two biggits were really able to power through. 230 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:11,520 Because Rudy Gobert, as per usual, was getting destroyed by Jokic. 231 00:15:11,520 --> 00:15:15,120 Anytime Jokic saw Gobert, he went into attack mode. 232 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:22,920 And so, that was something that Chris Finch had to make decisions on. 233 00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:26,600 For instance, I can go there and went out with this six foul. 234 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:29,880 He brought in Nas Reid for a vast majority of it. 235 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:32,760 At one point, Kat in, Gobert was off the floor. 236 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:34,720 It was just Nas Reid in the game. 237 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:39,040 So that was great button pushing all night by Chris Finch. 238 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:45,840 And it was so dangerous that even going 6'24", he took constant attention. 239 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:47,520 Because of who he is and what he could do. 240 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:51,560 I mean, really and truly, he had a spurt in the third quarter to get like nine of his 241 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:52,560 points. 242 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:59,600 Because he could have very easily finished in single digits on two of 20 shooting the 243 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:00,600 ball. 244 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:01,600 I think he went four or five of one point. 245 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:06,720 So on two of 19 shooting the ball, it would have been an all time disaster of a loss. 246 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:08,400 An all time disaster of a game. 247 00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:11,600 But when you win, no one really cares about your stats. 248 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:13,280 That's kind of what he's going to have. 249 00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:15,480 He's going to have a no one's going to care about game. 250 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:18,000 Because 6'24 is downright awful. 251 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:22,720 But it's considering that four of the six, I believe, are dunks. 252 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:27,200 So that was something he has to clean up in time for game one against the Dallas Mavericks. 253 00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:33,160 Again, we'll talk about that in a couple of minutes. 254 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:36,720 Nikola Jokic looked gassed in this game. 255 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:38,080 Absolutely gassed. 256 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:43,080 I gave credit to Timberwolves, credit to their defense. 257 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:48,720 The Nuggets were 0-1-12 this season, including the playoffs being under 100 points. 258 00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:50,200 Six of them came against the Timberwolves. 259 00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:52,840 So I don't know if they just figured them out. 260 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:55,120 I don't know what the situation was. 261 00:16:55,120 --> 00:17:06,800 But they did their absolute best guarding the Nuggets. 262 00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:08,080 Certain teams have matchups. 263 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:12,600 Certain teams have advantages where they just match up well. 264 00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:16,040 It's a matchup based, sports is a matchup based. 265 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:18,880 It's hard raw talent just to win everything. 266 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:22,960 Usually you got to get the right matchup, the right break, whatever, in order to execute. 267 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:27,280 And I think that the Timberwolves just have that when it comes to the Denver Nuggets. 268 00:17:27,280 --> 00:17:28,840 They just have the personnel. 269 00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:35,800 They just have the scheme, the defensive scheme, whatever, to really affect the Denver Nuggets. 270 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:40,160 And so they did it again tonight. 271 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:41,160 In Yolkidge was gassed. 272 00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:43,440 He played 47 or 48 minutes. 273 00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:48,960 You only set for one minute and that one minute came in the first half. 274 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:52,120 And that kind of workload for anybody is hard. 275 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:59,080 But especially when you went to the finals last year, so you didn't get your usual offseason. 276 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:02,600 Come back this year, now you're in the second round, now you're in game seven, and just 277 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:07,120 on command you've got to play 47 minutes. 278 00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:08,120 So that was hard. 279 00:18:08,120 --> 00:18:09,120 Yolkidge was a little gassed. 280 00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:11,240 He shot poorly from three point line all playoffs. 281 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,520 At one point he was 12 or 50. 282 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:21,560 I think he nailed his last couple to go 14 or 52, which is still downright awful. 283 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:25,440 But that is what the other's going through. 284 00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:27,480 Jamal Murray, I think, was dealing with a lot of length. 285 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,600 Anthony Edwards, Jimmy Daniels, and the Calaxander Walker. 286 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:34,240 He was dealing with a lot of athletic wing length. 287 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:38,120 That is something that bothers most guards. 288 00:18:38,120 --> 00:18:43,240 Most guards, especially the quicker variety, do not like to deal with length. 289 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:46,240 He was dealing with a lot of athletic wing length. 290 00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:47,240 It bothered him. 291 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:49,280 Michael Porter Jr. had an off night. 292 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:51,280 The Nuggets had an off night shooting in general. 293 00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:54,240 They were playing such elite defense, they were almost going to escape with it. 294 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:57,320 They were up 20, mid-third quarter. 295 00:18:57,320 --> 00:18:59,440 And then the Timberwolves charged. 296 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:03,080 So kudos to Minnesota for keeping the fight. 297 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:08,960 And you know, congrats to Denver on trying to do something nobody had done in five years, 298 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:15,440 which was a champion to go to the NBA finals, or make it past the second round after they 299 00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:17,120 won the title. 300 00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:18,840 But I want to talk about something really quickly. 301 00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:25,480 Then we're going to move into a preview of the conference finals. 302 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:28,480 Postgame interview is happening, right? 303 00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:30,400 And Denver Nuggets postgame interview specifically. 304 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,520 And of course, head coach Mike Malone is up. 305 00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:38,440 And a reporter asked what I believe was a good question, which was something along the 306 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:52,400 lines to the extent of how does this loss hurt extra knowing that you blew a 20 point 307 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:54,440 lead sort of thing. 308 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:58,880 So I'm going to get the clip and I'm just going to play it. 309 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:04,600 And I'm going to get the clip and I'm going to play it. 310 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:07,600 And that's, you know, I'll respond to that afterwards. 311 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:18,320 How hard is it just to absorb a loss like this after going ahead by 20? 312 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:19,320 Next question, man. 313 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:20,320 The season's over. 314 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:21,320 That's what's hard. 315 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:24,760 Fuck being a 20. 316 00:20:24,760 --> 00:20:25,760 The season's over. 317 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:26,760 You don't understand that. 318 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:27,760 The season's over. 319 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:28,760 It's hard. 320 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:29,760 Stupid ass questions. 321 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:36,840 Okay, so I played that off of Twitter. 322 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:42,280 So the audio may be a little scratchy, but the reporter asked how does it feel to be 323 00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:45,000 to how hard is it to take a loss like that of 20? 324 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:48,440 You can hear the question, but I'm sure you guys heard Michael Malone's answer pretty clearly. 325 00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:51,960 The production's giving me a thumbs up that it came through well, so we're going to go 326 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:52,960 with it. 327 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:59,640 But then Michael Malone curses during his press conference, or excuse the language, 328 00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:02,080 I'm sorry, I should have gave a language warning. 329 00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:05,760 But he curses and calls the question stupid and etc. 330 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:09,480 It wasn't a dumb question at all. 331 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:10,480 What is he supposed to ask you? 332 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:11,920 How did he feel after losing? 333 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:13,760 No, he wanted context. 334 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:17,400 How does a loss hurt especially because you blew a 20 point lead? 335 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:18,400 You blew it. 336 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:19,960 Planting simple, you blew it. 337 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:24,680 And I'm sure he's going to put out a statement tomorrow apologizing, or a statement will 338 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:28,840 put out in his name apologizing, or whatever, whatever, whatever. 339 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:34,160 But this is the same Michael Malone that on the way up, nobody really cared about, right? 340 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:39,240 Certain coaches get attention on the way up because of how they do things. 341 00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:40,520 Michael Malone wasn't that coach. 342 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:42,640 Denver wasn't that market. 343 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:48,920 So on the way up, no one cared and then he kind of came out of nowhere, but from relative 344 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:54,200 obscurity to beating the Lakers in the World's Conference Finals. 345 00:21:54,200 --> 00:22:00,200 And his complaint to the media then was no one's asking this about us. 346 00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:03,240 He was like, we come up here, my first four questions about the Lakers. 347 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:06,560 And even when they got to the finals, they were asked about the Lakers. 348 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:12,080 Oh man, so he ends up wearing a Who's Your Daddy shirt at the parade and all this different 349 00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:19,680 stuff, trolling the Lakers and trolling the media and saying that they had their hardest 350 00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:21,560 opponent with the Lakers. 351 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:27,120 Basically doing stuff to poke at the media and poke at the Lakers. 352 00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:28,920 Come back this year, they beat the Lakers again. 353 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:29,920 They beat them in five. 354 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:36,640 Now it was, I mean, I said it at the time and I'll say it now. 355 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:40,200 Six plays change and the Lakers are up 32 heading the game. 356 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:44,200 It's in crypto.com arena and who knows how history is right now. 357 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:50,160 Maybe the Lakers are going to the West Conference Finals because basically they can battle with 358 00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:51,160 the Timbwolves. 359 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:53,840 They actually enjoyed that Timbwolves matchup for the most part. 360 00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:59,600 Cause LeBron, I mean Anthony Davis tortures cat Orgo Bear. 361 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:02,360 LeBron is too big for the wings of the Minnesota Timbwolves. 362 00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:05,440 Like it would have depended on D-Lo making shots, but you know, they would have been 363 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:06,440 in the second round, right? 364 00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:12,560 They battled Denver to a draw for the most part. 365 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:15,280 So they were going to be in that series very confident. 366 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:17,880 So they said, whatever, right? 367 00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:23,080 But then they turned them back to my point, Chris, not Chris, Michael Malone coming back 368 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:24,080 and beat the Lakers, right? 369 00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:26,080 And so you can say what you want. 370 00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:27,600 You beat them in the regular season. 371 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:28,600 You know what I'm saying? 372 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,040 You got them in the playoffs again. 373 00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:33,280 Like, Hey, you're on top of the world, right? 374 00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:35,440 But then you lose. 375 00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,240 You lose a three, two lead. 376 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:42,480 You lose three games in the same playoff series on your home floor. 377 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:43,480 That's hard to do. 378 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:47,920 You lose three games in a playoff season, your home floor, especially in an environment 379 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:52,000 with as much home courted advantage as the Nuggets. 380 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:55,440 And then you get asked to me a very legitimate question regarding that. 381 00:23:55,440 --> 00:24:02,360 How does this loss feel with the added context of you blew a 20 point lead and you flip on 382 00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:03,360 the reporter? 383 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:05,280 You know, you can't be the troll guy. 384 00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:08,400 You can't be the, you know, the talk noise guy. 385 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:18,440 You can't be the guy who didn't have to show restraint during the conference and wearing 386 00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:22,680 the t shirts and saying who's your daddy and all that stuff. 387 00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:24,480 And then the reporter asked a question like that. 388 00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:26,240 You flip out and curse the reporter out. 389 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:27,920 They call the question stupid. 390 00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:28,920 It wasn't stupid. 391 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:29,920 You didn't like it. 392 00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:33,840 So if I was Michael Malone, I'd fix yourself. 393 00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:36,440 I know you're going to get a prep statement from someone. 394 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:39,840 Um, but if I was you, I would get your life together. 395 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:40,840 All right. 396 00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,880 So we're going to take a quick break. 397 00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:45,120 So this can be separated out. 398 00:24:45,120 --> 00:24:46,120 Uh, but that's the thing. 399 00:24:46,120 --> 00:24:47,120 What's quick break. 400 00:24:47,120 --> 00:25:08,960 So we're going to come right back after a quick break. 401 00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:13,360 Welcome back into the show. 402 00:25:13,360 --> 00:25:15,760 And now we're going to discuss the conference finals. 403 00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:20,040 We're going to start out East with the Boston Southern Indiana Pacers. 404 00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:23,240 So the Celtics have crews so far to play off. 405 00:25:23,240 --> 00:25:26,280 They've won two series and played a total of 10 games. 406 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:28,080 They've won both series and five. 407 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:32,760 Now they're dealing with a little bit of a Chris, that's poor Zingas injury. 408 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:38,120 Of course he didn't play a lot if at all in the Cav series. 409 00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:42,320 And now he's expected to miss at least the first two games of the conference finals. 410 00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:45,080 Um, but they should be able to handle Indiana. 411 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:46,560 That's not on the same level as the Celtics. 412 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:52,520 It's one of those situations where if the Celtics don't get it done this year, they're 413 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:53,680 never going to get it done. 414 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:55,120 You're never going to, you know what I'm saying? 415 00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:56,600 Like it's so wide open. 416 00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:59,320 You even going to Indiana and they're a little, they're a little nicked. 417 00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:01,720 They're not beat up, but they're definitely nicked. 418 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:06,320 And so you go in and you're the boss in the Celtics, your first round of series. 419 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:09,200 Who the boss is Chicago. 420 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:10,200 I don't even remember. 421 00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:12,200 They thrashed whoever it was quickly. 422 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,200 And then last, think about Chicago. 423 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:20,160 And then last round you get the Cavs and Donovan Mitchell misses the last two games with an 424 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:21,160 injury. 425 00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,080 Um, it's just, you know, they were already an over mass cash scene. 426 00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:25,800 Now the best player gets injured. 427 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:30,840 Um, it's now you go into the Pacers series again, you're the best team. 428 00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:36,440 You're easily the better team, um, than Indiana Pacers, but that Pacers team can score, man. 429 00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:42,040 I think they had something get unlocked in them dealing with the New York Knicks because 430 00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:48,280 they hadn't really put up Pacers like numbers in a while offensively. 431 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:53,760 Um, and I was saying, cause I play our game, it slows down, it's more physical and the 432 00:26:53,760 --> 00:27:00,280 rest call it stuff and the rotation is tighter and people are tired earlier, et cetera. 433 00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:04,240 Um, but I just think that they didn't have the confidence or belief that they could do 434 00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:05,240 it. 435 00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:06,840 And then they played the math. 436 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:09,680 Um, I don't know, not the math. 437 00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:16,280 They played the, um, I can't think of the next who are known for their defense, who 438 00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:21,160 are known for their toughness, who are known for their scrappiness and they said, and they 439 00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:23,920 hung a big number on them. 440 00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:26,200 Um, injured or not, they don't care. 441 00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:33,120 They hung a big number on them and they are, um, very excited to now, to me, I think they're 442 00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:34,120 building their confidence, right? 443 00:27:34,120 --> 00:27:37,840 So now they're going to go into this Boston Celtics series with a lot of confidence. 444 00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,760 We just scored 140 points on the next, you know, we're ready to go. 445 00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:42,760 We're ready to play. 446 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:44,960 Um, you guys are resting at home on your laurels. 447 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:49,600 We were figuring out our rhythm, getting our timing, getting our playoff ready to go and 448 00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:51,160 we're four wins from the finals. 449 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:52,160 Right? 450 00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:55,480 And so now everybody in this position is four wins from the finals. 451 00:27:55,480 --> 00:28:02,200 And before I move on and give predictions, et cetera, I want to take a moment to talk 452 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:08,000 about like where we are as elite and look around people. 453 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,440 Seriously, like I know we've talked about the youth movement and that's been popular 454 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:20,840 in the new era and where we are and how we're getting there, but seriously, look around. 455 00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:28,360 Like take a moment as an NBA fan, go into your NBA room in your mind and look around 456 00:28:28,360 --> 00:28:29,360 the room. 457 00:28:29,360 --> 00:28:32,160 Who's still in it? 458 00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:33,160 Tadum's the old head. 459 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,320 But I think about that for a second. 460 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,720 Jason Tatum's the old head in the room and he's like 25. 461 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:46,960 He's just, we got Tatum so young because in his rookie season, he was game seven against 462 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:51,400 LeBron in the Eastern Conference Finals and LeBron didn't go game seven LeBron. 463 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:54,720 He's in the NBA finals as a rookie. 464 00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:57,360 He's been in a couple of, he's been in two or three conference finals. 465 00:28:57,360 --> 00:28:58,880 He's been in the NBA finals already. 466 00:28:58,880 --> 00:28:59,880 Right? 467 00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:03,760 And you know how much winning is so young, you almost, you don't know how old, you forget 468 00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:04,760 how old he is. 469 00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:07,600 And it's like 22. 470 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:12,520 Luca is younger than Tatum because Luca's class, you can train in class is the same. 471 00:29:12,520 --> 00:29:15,040 And Halliburton is somewhere in the middle of that. 472 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:17,320 Like Tatum's the old head in the room. 473 00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:25,400 We have the last, the last team of the final four to win a title is the Mavericks of 2011. 474 00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:31,760 The symbols have never won, the Pacers have never won, Boston's last was 08 and then the 475 00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:34,120 Mavericks last was 2011. 476 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:37,080 Like we're looking at no recent team champions. 477 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:43,080 I think the last major player that went out of anybody in this group is Kyrie Irving with 478 00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:44,920 the Cavs in 2016. 479 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:45,920 Right? 480 00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:50,720 So just look around and see where we are as a league. 481 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:52,680 We're officially in the new era. 482 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:58,040 Because if Jokic had won, Jokic kind of feels like the bridge player. 483 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:00,920 Kind of where he's not enough to be an old head. 484 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:06,200 He's not Steph LeBron, KD old head. 485 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:15,800 But at the same time, he wasn't Tatum, Luca, Halliburton young. 486 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:21,400 It was kind of, it was kind of in the middle of where Jokic would be. 487 00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:25,640 And I could be thinking Jokic is way older than what he was. 488 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:28,240 The European guys, yeah, Jokic is almost 30. 489 00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:32,040 So Jokic and Giannis are kind of in that same thing because Jokic is 29. 490 00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,320 So Giannis and Jokic are kind of holding down that middle. 491 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:38,000 Winning in the three old heads, Steph, KD and LeBron. 492 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,880 And then the young guns are all over the place. 493 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:47,480 And so we're truly in a new era with Tatum being the old head. 494 00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:53,720 Because if Tatum doesn't win, I think, I mean, if the Celtics don't win, the champions, 495 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:58,240 either 23 year old Luca or 22 year old Ant. 496 00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,360 I mean, that's kind of where we're at. 497 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:03,760 And that's insane to me. 498 00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:08,520 The fact that we're going to have a champion so young, someone's going to buck the trend. 499 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:10,600 Let's just take it. 500 00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:15,120 Someone's going to buck the trend of, sorry, oh, Luca's 25. 501 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:16,120 Look at that. 502 00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:17,600 So Luca's 25. 503 00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:20,360 Well, how old is Tatum then? 504 00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:22,120 This whole segment could be off. 505 00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:25,120 It's not going to lie to you. 506 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:26,120 Tatum's 26. 507 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:27,120 OK. 508 00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:31,120 So it's Tatum, then Luca, then Tyrese Halliburton, I would suppose. 509 00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:33,120 I'm supposed Halliburton has to be next. 510 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:34,120 Yeah. 511 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:35,400 Tatum, then Luca, then Halliburton, then Ant. 512 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:40,520 So you're looking at a situation where Tatum doesn't win. 513 00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:47,120 You're in a spot where now there's a new guy, right? 514 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:49,120 Because Ant's in the guy category. 515 00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:53,320 When I think about guy, I think about like dogs, like men, like one of the face of the 516 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:54,920 league. 517 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:55,920 Tatum's in it. 518 00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:56,920 Ant's in it. 519 00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:57,920 Luca's in it. 520 00:31:57,920 --> 00:31:58,920 Halliburton is not. 521 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:03,480 So if Halliburton beats Tatum, Halliburton has to get into that conversation because 522 00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:05,040 he's going to be in the NBA final. 523 00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:09,600 The NBA finals will be back in Indiana for the first time since Reggie Miller got him 524 00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:11,080 in the ring, which would be insane. 525 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:12,680 I could just see Reggie Miller's face. 526 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:15,720 If I'm in the NBA, so when the title, Reggie Miller has to get a ring. 527 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:17,680 Just point that out there. 528 00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:19,560 But just look around in the new era. 529 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:21,440 You know, Jokic was the last of the mid guard. 530 00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:24,680 Not the old guard, not the new guard, but the mid guard. 531 00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:27,880 Jokic was the last of that group. 532 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:32,240 Jokic kind of re-proved that it's hard to go to the finals back to back years. 533 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:35,840 LeBron went eight times in a row and spoiled everybody. 534 00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:44,520 After Jokic, no one has won the title and gone past the second round in six years. 535 00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:45,520 It's hard. 536 00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:51,480 And so this new era is trying to take it over, but kudos to them for stepping up into the 537 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:52,480 plate. 538 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:55,080 A lot of people wondered how the league would do post-Bron. 539 00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:56,080 It's going to dip. 540 00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:57,080 It'll dip after Michael Jordan. 541 00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:00,080 It's going to dip after LeBron. 542 00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:02,800 Not a major dip, but it's going to dip a little bit. 543 00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:08,760 And then it'll bounce back full-fledged with the guys that it has carrying the mantle next. 544 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:13,440 Anyway, back to the conference finals itself. 545 00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:15,680 Boss vs. Indiana, I'm going to be honest with you. 546 00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:16,920 I don't think it's going to be very long. 547 00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:18,800 I got boss in six. 548 00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:21,960 And I think that, you know, and I always tell you guys how I break down series. 549 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:25,080 I break down how many ways can you win. 550 00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:30,960 Like in a perfect world, if you can only win one way, like you only use this card one time. 551 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:37,320 Like a spades hand, you got five, you got four, you got to get to four books in your 552 00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:38,520 spades hand. 553 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:42,360 How many different ways can you do it? 554 00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:49,000 Or if you have, if you, oh man, like if you're in your office and you got to file a cabinet, 555 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,280 like how many different ways, you can only file it one time in a shelf, how many different 556 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:53,280 ways can you do it? 557 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:57,200 You have to be able to do it four different ways, in my opinion, or at least three to 558 00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:59,520 have a shot at winning the series. 559 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:03,560 Because the odds of something repeating of one thing repeating once, okay, fair. 560 00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:07,040 The odds of two things repeating twice, less likely. 561 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,920 The odds of, you know what I'm saying, you start adding stuff to the odds of one thing 562 00:34:10,920 --> 00:34:13,600 repeating three times in the series, super unlikely. 563 00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:14,600 Right? 564 00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:20,040 And so to me, you want at least four different ways to win, minimum three. 565 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:27,040 Got Boston winning this series fast because I got Tyrese Halliburton going crazy as one, 566 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:33,000 Swingalore, a shooting baloozer as two, and then a bad Boston game as three. 567 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:34,000 Right? 568 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:39,800 The Boston winning, the Boston winning could be a shooter's game, a bench game, a Tatum 569 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:45,080 game, a Tatum and Brown game, a bad Indiana night. 570 00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:47,320 You know what I'm saying? 571 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:51,640 Like, so there's five ways to win three, I've got Boston in six. 572 00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:58,200 I think Indiana gets a bad Boston game and a Halliburton game, and that's how they push 573 00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:00,760 it to six. 574 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:03,000 But kudos to the Pacers for going this far. 575 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:06,200 Again, nobody thought they'd be this far. 576 00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:11,520 They made it, and then the Boston Soliders head back to the NBA finals. 577 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:15,240 And then the West, oh the West. 578 00:35:15,240 --> 00:35:21,720 The showdown that is the West, the battle in the frontier that is the NBA's Western 579 00:35:21,720 --> 00:35:22,720 Conference. 580 00:35:22,720 --> 00:35:23,720 It's almost over. 581 00:35:23,720 --> 00:35:29,320 Our playoffs that we anticipated two, three, four weeks out, like man, the West is going 582 00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:34,320 to be absolutely ridiculous to try and get out of and update. 583 00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:37,320 It has been. 584 00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:40,360 The second round game just went seven, right? 585 00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:46,080 Dallas got free throws at the end of their game against Oklahoma City Thunder, or if 586 00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:47,560 they were going seven. 587 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:52,520 PJ Orson just makes the two free throws he tried to make, he nailed it. 588 00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:56,920 He intentionally missed the third, but like I said, or they're going to game seven. 589 00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:00,320 The West has been a battle every single time. 590 00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:04,040 I'm talking about the Laker series, man, with six plays a different throw. 591 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:11,760 They may have won four one, but they're definitely up three two going into game six. 592 00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:15,320 And so absolutely great Western Conference playoffs. 593 00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:20,440 And it comes down to this, it comes down to the Dallas Mavericks and the Minnesota Timberwolves. 594 00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:24,560 The Timberwolves are one of the best teams all season. 595 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:25,560 Not shocking that they're there. 596 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:29,880 A little weird taking Timberwolves on the Western Conference finals, but they've earned 597 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:30,880 it at every single turn. 598 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:34,520 Like I said, outside of it being a little weird, they battle for it, right? 599 00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:35,760 They went to war for it. 600 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,720 The Timberwolves look like I said, one of the best teams all year. 601 00:36:38,720 --> 00:36:44,400 And then they faced the Dallas Mavericks, who was one of the, if not the hottest team 602 00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:46,640 over the last month or so of the regular season. 603 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,760 They're beginning to figure their lineup out, beginning to figure their team out. 604 00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:54,880 They are absolutely having a ball. 605 00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:59,280 You see Kyrie and Luca playing off each other on the court, off the court. 606 00:36:59,280 --> 00:37:01,440 They have a dream of love of each other. 607 00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:08,680 Derek Lively and, can't think of his name right now, but Derek Dale Gaffer providing 608 00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:11,120 great center of play down low. 609 00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:14,480 They're going to have to be huge against the Timberwolves because the Timberwolves both 610 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:15,480 are one of the best. 611 00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:18,360 Passive decision makers, my comment. 612 00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,640 The best help side rotation defender, Rigo Bear. 613 00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:26,520 A guy who's very capable of having guard like skills and making 5, 6, 3's in the game, 614 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:32,760 trying to get in the town, so on and so forth. 615 00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:36,600 Of the Dallas Mavericks, right? 616 00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:39,600 That's how they play, that's how they operate. 617 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:44,960 Minnesota Timberwolves man, Rudy Gobert and Anthony Edwards and Carl Anthony Towns and 618 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,000 Jamie Dangham and Carly Tender Walker. 619 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:51,240 They just keep coming in waves, Nas Reed it feels, because the Timberwolves are going 620 00:37:51,240 --> 00:37:56,160 to try and win it off of injury. 621 00:37:56,160 --> 00:38:02,960 But I have a prediction time along for the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves. 622 00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:05,640 I've got Mavs in 6. 623 00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:09,720 Very controversial opinion, I told this to a couple of my friends and I was slandered. 624 00:38:09,720 --> 00:38:11,120 But I have Mavs in 6. 625 00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:14,320 I have an odd feeling that Mavs are going to win the NBA Championship. 626 00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:18,080 I could be totally off by the time I see you guys again, it could be 3 of the Timberwolves, 627 00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:19,360 I don't know. 628 00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:24,880 But I do know that I'm going to go Mavs in 6 to win. 629 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:28,480 So Boston in 6 vs Indiana, Mavs in 6. 630 00:38:28,480 --> 00:38:34,080 Similar thing, you kind of do the how many ways to win thing. 631 00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:36,920 Like feasible ways to win. 632 00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:39,880 Minnesota has a great game and a shooter's game. 633 00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:40,880 That's it. 634 00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:44,920 Oh and a bad Dallas game. 635 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:46,520 That's it. 636 00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:48,720 The only ways they can win. 637 00:38:48,720 --> 00:38:53,960 However Dallas can win with a Kyrie game, a Luka game, a shooter's game, a bad Boston 638 00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:54,960 game. 639 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:59,240 They can just win an offensive overload game. 640 00:38:59,240 --> 00:39:02,720 Dallas can win 5, 6, 7 different ways. 641 00:39:02,720 --> 00:39:06,240 I give the advantage and I give them 4 games. 642 00:39:06,240 --> 00:39:09,240 So Dallas has 4 games. 643 00:39:09,240 --> 00:39:14,440 Dallas in 6 over Minnesota and of course Boston in 6. 644 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:20,280 I'm being nice, I thought about going in 5 over Indiana. 645 00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:22,120 That is all I have for today. 646 00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:27,480 Thank you for joining me on this shorter special episode of the Justin Time Sports Podcast, 647 00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:30,360 Championship Round Preview. 648 00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:33,680 Don't forget to like, rate, and subscribe to the Justin Time Sports Podcast. 649 00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:34,680 Wherever you get your podcasts. 650 00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:39,920 And don't forget to follow and turn on your post notifications at jtimesports.com. 651 00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:40,920 I'm here for social media. 652 00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:45,920 It's X, Instagram, threads, TikTok, the stunt. 653 00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:53,480 Before you do your social media, Justin Time Sports is there and with a handle again at 654 00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:54,480 JTime Sports. 655 00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:57,640 But I hope you guys have a great rest of your Monday. 656 00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:01,440 For those of you who are at home on Monday, it is my wife's birthday so we'll sure have 657 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:03,480 a birthday there. 658 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:05,440 But I hope you guys have a great rest of your day. 659 00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:29,320 This is your host, Justin Jackson signing out.