Play-In Seeding Battles For Teams in the Eastern and Western Conference | The Hoop Collective

Play-In Seeding Battles For Teams in the Eastern and Western Conference | The Hoop Collective

Hello welcome to the hoop Collective podcast we talk about the NBA which we’re doing on Thursday afternoon joining us from New York City is Tim bonds hello everybody and joining us from San Antonio where he’s on assignment not an assignment free ESPN but he’s on assignment is B McMahon

Howdy Partners the IT department tells me to jump I say how high and here I am you’re listen you’re Mr Texas you haven’t been banned from San Antonio so why shouldn’t you head on down to wemy land well a little bit more analysis of the job that Pop’s done this season and

Then that that banning they come all right so um look I’m just gonna cop to it we’re gonna talk about the Warriors and Lakers right now okay I’m sorry I try not to do it but and it’s I agree that it’s all over ESPN TV and this podcast is supposed to be

Separate from that but it is what it is and yes we’re going to talk about the ninth and 10th positions in the Western Conference because it’s compelling at this point um the Lakers got beat on Wednesday night by the Kings for the seventh out of the last eight times and

One of the most remarkable stats um in the NBA and if you guys disagree with me please say dadus sabonis 10 and0 in his career against Anthony Davis and if you watch this game he crushed ad so it not it has not been a competitive sweep no

The Lakers in the four games they played this year the Lakers gave up an average of 127 points now I know that the the Kings play high Tempo High uh speed offense and that you can’t necessarily look at Apples to Apples but give me a break give me a break the

Average margin of uh Victory I believe is 10 or 11 points this one was 12 I think um LeBron was under the weather he didn’t play well whatever um sabonis dominated ad at both ends of the Court uh and he has repeatedly and I’m gonna tell you

Something the Western and I know it’s not necessarily uh a versus B but sabonis not getting put into the allstar game by the West coaches ain’t looking so good right now it’s not it’s not and look this that’s a bonus dominating ad thing uh they don’t see each other again

This regular season do they not in the regular season could they very well could though with what would be the eight seed on the line and then the reward for that if you’re ad if you finally break the break through the sabonis wall it’s oh hey

Here you you it might be you get to see the European Center who dominated you in the west finals last year right well here sweep well okay right but let me say this yes it was a bad day for the Lakers because okay the nuggets for the first

Time since November woke up today on Thursday number one in the Western Conference just put that aside for a second if you are a Laker fan and I am starting I’m gonna start calling the Lakers fans the dreamers because their dreams of a magical ride back to the

Western Conference Finals uh you there’s a couple of things you need to put into your nightly prayer routine and that is now going to be few to root for the Kings to win just about every game on the way in because you don’t want the kings in the 78 situation you want the

Kings in sixth place so you don’t got to see them maybe that was part of the Lakers plan last night hey the Kings woke up this morning in the six seed like hey let’s get the Kings out of the picture here bump them up to six well I

Don’t know if it’s going to be the Kings who are going to be in six but I feel like there the the Suns will not be in six because the Suns uh have a brutal schedule the only team with a harder schedule coming in is the Hornets they’re not favorite in

Every game they play so it really doesn’t matter how good their opponent is I guess when they play the Wizards and pistons a big fact fact right now the Pistons are playing better than the Hornets so um uh other than that the Suns have the hardest schedule coming in their last 12

Games especially are absolutely brutal they begin an Eastern trip I believe this weekend um I think it begin Thursday night in Boston or right we’re recording before the game time it gets it gets rough from there so I actually think that it’s a better case for the

Suns to end up in the seven or eight um which would fav the have that TI Mavericks have the tiebreaker over the Lakers too they do so so the lake like I the six seed is gone goodbye even the dreamers cannot dream about the six seed

For the Lakers it’s over thank you for playing appreciated headed for the headed for the play in the third out of the last four years the the uh eight seed is not gone yet but they are two games back at the Mavericks and the Mavericks have the

Tiebreaker so that makes it pretty much three games behind the Mavericks and I don’t see them catching them forget forget forget the games overall the thing that matters is the win loss column and in the win loss column it’s four back of Sacramento and Phoenix and three back of Dallas with tiebreakers in

Hand for the other team with I only pay attention to the Lost column because that’s that’s what I’m saying it’s three and four and it’s with 15 games games to play so they’ve got to play five games better than Sacramento and four games better than Dallas over 15 games which

Is extraordinarily unlikely projection wise the Lakers are projected to finish two wins behind and the Warriors Three so okay so the Lakers by the way have a six-game road trip left to to run I might also add that so because they’ve been home for a month and they haven’t

Really they’ve I looked by the way um at their last 15 games coming in as we sit here and do this now over the last 15 games just because that’s the easiest to look up frankly but I could go f farther back they’re 29th in defense that doesn’t seem very good what

Are we talking about here so and they ought to be appreciative that Steph went down because the losses that the war the warriors were derailed from their their hot streak when Steph’s injury and so they are tied in the Lost column with the Warriors um which brings us to Saturday night

Saturday night Warriors at Lakers it’s a very important game even though it’s between nine and 10 well yeah you want homec court advantage in 910 so sounds crazy but it’s the truth that’s tied the they’re tied in the Lost column they’ve played twice it’s 1-1 uh Lebron didn’t play in the game

The Warriors won Steph is scheduled to return to practice on Friday assuming no setbacks I expect him to play Saturday night that’s definitely the hope the tiebreaker after head-to-head competition is division record actually it’s division ranking and division record well if they’re tied they in the

Same spot in the division and the Lakers are ahead by like four games in division record three or four well it’s it’s it’s this is a very simple equation the Warriors have to win the final two games because if they don’t they’re if they win both of better division record than

The Lakers and if they don’t they’ll have a worse one so they play twice moris the wa the lake the Warriors have to win the season series regardless to win the so if the Lakers win on Saturday they get the tiebreak bottom line or if they win the game they play in early

April they get the tiebreaker they just have to win one of the two games against the Warriors because they played an extra game in division because of the inseason tournament when they played Phoenix does that count as a division game yeah they’re gonna end up with 17

Division games Okay so the Warriors and Draymond is being bothered by a back issue um he didn’t want any part of McMahon McMahon was going to interview him the other day I no I had a nice chat with Draymond actually after the game oh two podcasters just chopping it up I

Told him by the way enjoyed his podcast work and not to listen to bond him’s constant hating on it and by the way to your point about where the Lakers were a month ago because you were on top of this they have a month at home schedule

Back then going into February 8th when this basically entire month month in the western time zone start Pacific time zone started California well yeah I mean I think they had a game in Phoenix but either way they were four losses behind the Suns four losses behind the Kings

Two losses behind Dallas so they’re literally in the same spot they were in a month ago and there’s obviously a big chunk of games out of the picture for them to try to catch up and also by the way uh Rudy goar our this podcast favorite NBA conspiracy theorist

Would likely suggest that draymond’s lower back soreness was directly directly related to Steph Curry’s absence last night that’s right if you’ll recall Rudy Rudy believes there’s a link between Draymond either sitting or getting booted from games when Steph is not available I’m not saying it’s true I’m just saying that’s that would

Be I’m not saying I’m just saying speaking of conspiracy theories with officiating I know that it’s a popular thing right now to say oh my gosh um the referees have enacted a special plan to to drop scoring in the league and Adam Silver brought them all together on a super

Super uh Zoom call and you know spoke a couple of words in Latin and they instantaneously executed the plan of lowering scoring dudes in January the NBA publicly and if you have 15 minutes where you’d like to fall asleep you can search for it and

Watch it on the NBA website they put out an update to the points of emphasis that they tell the officials and it is very dry and very boring but you can watch it and Monty McCutchen the head of the officials goes over clip after clip after clip of what they’re going to

Start focusing on the second half of the season and like out of the five or maybe did he goes over seven or eight things and like five of them four or five of them are on knocking down foul hunting like there’s clip after clip after clip of guys hunting fouls kicking out their

Leg you know doing rip through moves like it’s barely tolerable for somebody unless you’re into the X’s and O’s of officiating that happened publicly in January like it was released like January 19th or 20th and after that feel free throws have gone down because the officials have been more watching out

From the league level instructed to cut down and on the on the foul hunting it is not a conspiracy it is out there in the public that’s all I’m going to say about it you know what else is very dry and very boring talking about Noel yes

But the Warriors offense that I watched that Steph Curry watched from his couch in the beay area holy crap Jonathan kaminga was the only guy that they had in uniform who could put the ball in the bucket yeah well they’re in 10th place for a reason yep but hopefully steps back Saturday night

We can have all eyes on the NBA to see who might have homecourt advantage in that West n10 game baby all right so McMahon uh Luca left the game early on Wednesday night the Mavericks have won four in a row four in a row uh Luca’s triple double streak ended it was going

To in regardless um he only had three rebounds nine assists um and honestly he had an off game um but he left with 6 minutes and change left in the fourth quarter they are calling it left hamstring soreness and I had I have a pretty good indication that his his hammy was

Bothering him before he signaled to Jay kid hey you know I need to go um because when he checked back into the game 22 seconds earlier he had a heat pad on that hamstring a heating pad on that hamstring so he did not make the trip to Oklahoma city which they treated like

Some sort of state secret um it was pretty obvious he wasn’t going to make the trip and then everybody else had left and they obviously go straight to the airport on a back to back and I hear these horns playing and I recognize it as some

Slovenian song I Pok my head out there you being a connoisseur and knowing of Slovenian pop music yeah maybe maybe it was uh a ballkan song I can’t confirm anyways and I po my head out there and Luc had not showered yet he’s still like you know he’d been getting treatment and

He’s out there meeting with the Slovenian group so I’m like G the plane is taxiing at Love Field and Luca is still in the lot yeah she is wonder if Luca is going to Oklahoma City after he had to exit a game so anyways they are officially calling it left hamstring

Soreness not a strain um not GNA play against Oklahoma City we’ll see if he’s available Sunday against Denver um obviously tough time not to have your MVP candidate when you’re facing the two top teams in the west if and this is a hypothetical if if they decide hey Luca

Could really use S to 10 days off the next week actually would be a good week for that because they only have two games next week at the uh on the road against the Spurs on Tuesday and then at home against the jazz on Thursday I

Don’t know if you guys noticed but the Jazz aren’t real interested in winning games right now so wouldn’t be the worst time for him if he needs a you know several days for him to take it um aside from the fact that they’ve got Thunder and Nuggets in these next two

Well that’s good news for the dreamers because you know you give the Lakers a chance to get back you know you know if Luca does have to miss some time bad news for the dreamers is that you know the Nugget are in one now and as we sit here right now

The nuggets are 10 and one since the fast becoming famous jokic text that um kentavius cwell Pope talked about um do do you think kcp keep Championship players Rob pinka do you think uh jic is very active in the Nuggets group text man I would

Guess not I I don’t think I I bet she’s not a big Emoji guy like you would be amazing if he was actually like a huge Emoji guy like if he only tweet texted emojis wouldn’t that yeah maybe he does it does help I was goingon to say I

Can’t I I don’t know if I would really go either way on any of that with him feels like do you remember do you remember last year after they won the finals and he came to The Press Room um and uh they asked somebody in the press conference asked they because uh uh

Jokovic had just um Novak jokovic I think had just won I don’t know Wimbledon or whatever it was and I think became the all-time leading winner and and they said have you heard from Novak yet and he said he’s like let me see and he pulled out

His phone and he looked it’s a classic piece of video and he looks at his phone and he sees like God knows how many text messages and he just goes oh bleep and slams his phone down I’m not sure that he’s super duper into Texs but you know remember right before

The All-Star break the Nuggets dropped three games in a row and very looked bad doing it I were they in fourth at that point I think I think they hit the All-Star break in fourth I mean they were it was a sort of a jumbled up mess

At the time but they were either in fourth or I mean they were all together yeah you know but look it’s been sort Well of Time yeah it’s sort of been the inverse of last season right this time of year last year everybody was wondering about where the Nuggets were

Going to be and you know they were struggling down the stretch they’ already wrapped up the one seed and yeah people were wondering if they were going to struggle in the playoffs again or not and this year it’s almost the inverse where they got to March 1 and said all

Right let’s make sure we get home court advantage in the west and have you know put together this great streak and had obviously a bit of an escape the other day against Toronto but had the great win against Boston last week and are certainly rounded into form and look

Every bit the uh the defending they are well you you mentioned they’d lost three straight going into the break and then you come out of the break and oh my go shamal Murray’s dealing with Shin splin Like right uh uh you know how’s this

Going to go and he took they had a back toback come out of the break pretty friendly backtack uh wiz are they the Wizards now or are they still the lizards well they did they did get got some wins they got a couple wins but I I think that they

They just lost to the what’s left over of the grizzly so they’re back by the way timeout time out moment of the season for the Grizzlies poor Grizzlies fans gez the NBA tweets out this video from when the Grizzlies played the Wizards the other night and it’s tus Jones wearing a Wizard’s

Jersey going and seeing his old friends with the Grizzlies all four of them jiren Jackson Brandon Clark John Morant and Des Bane all four of them in Street close yeah this was the epitome of the grizzly season looking at tus Jones who was traded in a move that was totally

Had blown up in their face and then the four three of the best players of the team in a very important sub four the top six I would say yes not playing not playing I was like oh my God that’s the hey as long as we going on that side

Quick good news for the Grizzlies Desmond Bane and Brandon Clark uh practiced with the Memphis hustle played five on five on Tuesday and Bane actually is going to come back and play for the Grizzlies again soon um which so I would say a mild surprise given the state of things

And then just the fact that Clark was able to play has progressed to playing five on five absolutely thees that’s a huge step for him be good to see him get a little time on the court before the end of the year just to see where he’s

At right anyways we were talking about the Nuggets coming out of the break you know uh oh Jamal Murray’s got shin spin so he sat that second game of that backto back where they spanked the the Blazers leftovers since then in nine games he’s averaging uh 24 points seven assists shooting splits of

53 46 uh 79 super efficient and they are eight- one in those games so I don’t know how concerning Jamal Murray Shin are playing his best ball of the Season PT text which I assume yic was like come on boys let’s start acting like Champs uh which is kind of what Caldwell

Pope said when he talked about it um they’re 10 and one number two in offense number seven in defense uh and jic is slaying and they’re not going to catch the the Celtics um for the number one overall but getting the number one in the west is definitely doable because they have

The easiest schedule amongst all the teams in the west especially amongst those contenders um they play the wolv three times without towns so they have total control about where they’re going to be uh which you know they’re they’re down 01 in the season series but the the the the

Nuggets control that and the Thunder have a top 10 difficult schedule so the Thunder are just behind them uh and they get we’ll see what happens tonight they get Dallas on a second night of a back toback without Luca that’s that’s a nice sweetener but I like the Nuggets to get

To to get that number one seed and they’re very hard to beat at home so the path of the Lakers that they could think about was okay get through the two-play in games and I will say this you do have to give credit to LeBron and AD that in

These one-off games in the inseason tournament playin era the Adam Silver don’t tell anybody but we added games to the schedule we still care about player rest but we added games to the schedule don’t pay attention um they have won all those games they’re two and0 in the play-ins they won all three

Games this year in the single eliminations in the inseason tournament they have demonstrated the ability to win those games the Lakers would be the favorites if they could get in March Madness no doubt about it well they they’re in March Madness right now needed to win all these games

They’re not um now they’re March sadness out for the way that sabon pulled their pants down and spank their butts it’s a bonus I mean there’s some stats from that game that ESPN stats at info racked up like look it’s the same thing we’ve talked about with the Lakers now for a

Long time when they can Punk a smaller team they can be a dangerous team when they play a team with size inside it’s a different story it’s what happened in the Conference finals last year and it’s what’s happened whenever every time they’ve played against sabonis this year

And the whole time ad’s played sabonis I mean you can just look at the way this week went they played uh they play on Wednesday or not Wednesday played Monday against Minnesota and uh there’s no um believe no goar and towns in that game if I remember right and AD has an insane

Game and then 25 and 25 did he not and yeah with like a whole bunch of other numbers two and then they play all kind they play I think it was yeah and then they play against sabonis and they get beasted in a game they have to win like

That’s that’s the team in a nutshell well the war the the Warriors are small here’s your here’s the dreamers move the Warriors are small the suns are small they have the three and two they played the Suns five times this year they’re three and two against them now I

Think a couple of those wins happen before without Beal but they’re three and two against him um so that could be your play in zone and you’re hoping that the Thunder who they’re three and one against and also play small have the one seed that’s your your path to to to

Glory to get to the second the the opposite of that is you’re more than likely going to have to beat either the Kings or the Mavericks uh in the second playing game and the Kings have sabonis who as we’ve mentioned is 10 and0 all time against Anthony Davis and the Mavericks have the

Closest thing to Wi Chamberlain I’m talking about Daniel Gafford baby that’s right I don’t want to jinx the man only one first round pick forget about this they overpay they only gave up one first round pick for a swap a swap a swap now swap that could

Be awfully costly but we’ve covered that anyways Gafford going into tonight’s game 30 three straight made field goals only Will Chamberlain with 35 has had more in NBA history um but Gafford since he they’ve plugged him back into the starting lineup that’s when the Mavericks got on this winning streak um

But and and they’ve they’ve not played Maxi CBA much at Center at all I think that’s matchup specific it’s been it’s been the tag team between Daniel Gafford and Derrik ly II and I will say this give Derek Lively a ton of credit he’s a rookie who’s been the starter

Most of the season going forward is a huge piece of the of the foundation they were struggling they lost five of six one of the adjustments was to pull him from the starting lineup bring him off the bench and he’s been awesome since then he’s played really

Really well he handled it like a pro um all that to say the Mavericks have a a pretty nice Center tag team and by the way you were talking about Dallas’s upcoming schedule two of the more important games left on the schedule are Tuesday March 26th and Friday March 29th

In Sacramento Mavs play a baseball Series Tuesday and Friday in Sacramento obviously as of now we assume Luc is playing in those games we’ll see but as we sit here today 78910 is Dallas Phoenix Lakers Warriors in that order so you could have a play in featuring Luca KD and book or Luca

Kyrie ktie and Booker obviously LeBron ad and Steph which would be something and the kings are right now several percentage Point favorite to end up with the six seed and a lot of that could really come down to those two games in Sacramento if they win those

Two home games that’s a pretty massive leg up on the rest of that there’s two off days between games in Sacramento two off days correct McMahon I’m you’re going to act as your editor for the next 90 seconds find out what the Mavs are doing where are they staying those two off

Days are they staying in Sacramento I bet you they’re staying at that hotel that’s got the tunnel to the arena be my best guess I’ll be staying I’m see the Thunder during that stretch I think they’re staying in Nappa with a tunnel to the to the vineyard I don’t think that’d be the

Best idea in the world well either way either way those two games are going to be awfully awfully important because if if Sacramento can win those two games they’re going to have pretty massive leg up because you mentioned Brian I mean only need to win one to get the

Tiebreaker because they’ve won the first two against the Mavericks right well if they can win both obviously it’s that’s two swing games in their favor and as you said with Phoenix having that very difficult schedule down the stretch they’re pretty solidly projected to finish eighth so it really it really

Could come down to Sacramento and um Dallas for that six spot and they’re basically even in win projections too so that’s pretty massive coming out of that baseball Series the Mavericks are going to have a very firm idea of just how realistic their hopes of avoiding to

Play in or Yep this is um something that’s been different in in my 20 years covering the NBA teams with with off days in and around sack now go to Napa like it happens multiple times a year that never all about the wine oh no they

Would wine and gold wine and Nappa when he’s all about the wine I don’t I don’t I don’t drink wine I couldn’t tell you what’s any good I can I can’t I don’t like the taste of red wine if if um you know if this is the old days and they

Off days they’d be flying down to La they’d be getting planes down to Vegas dudes go to Napa now that is a that is a thing I I I blame Baxter Holmes I was told that uh the proximity to Apple was a a big attraction for damont sabonis it certainly wasn’t

Reflected in any sort of discount he gave the Kings on the extension but apparently Domo has a has an estate I believe uh in uh in Soma County uh all right so the Western Conference uh playin situation is shaping up by the way how’d you like the Pelicans uh

Voodoo that we put on them after talking about day oh no no I told you what happened there I figured it out as I’m you know scanning the scores last night and seeing the getting their butts kicked by Cleveland I’m like ah oh Wendy enacted the ho Collective curse because

He knew the Pelicans were playing his beloved Cavs yeah well the Pelicans had one of the worst shooting nights of the NBA season against the Cavs at home the other last night what did they shoot I don’t know the Cavs only only four for 22 from three outscored by 48

Points in the three-point line start the Cavs clock um i’ I’ve been I’ve been uh you know hey the Mavs were 6 27 last night and one at point there shooting 7 point something percent I don’t think you’re winning in 2024 when you get outscored at the three-point line by 48 I don’t

Care where the game is even even when you even when you outscore the other team by 19 at the foul line it’s hard to overcome hard to overcome 48 points at the three-o that’s true uh all right so let’s take a look at the East because what’s happened over there is there’s an

Interesting little race developing for that six seat as well um the the 76ers just can’t get wins bontemps I know you just went to two games of theirs in the last few days wa they got one in Dallas they did um and Nick nurse is you know getting more and

More frustrated and I know that embiid’s not there um but they failed to they they failed to there they just can’t score right now Tobias Harris is in a miserable slump um and they are essentially tied I think they’re a half game ahead there’s one fewer loss um from Indiana they’re a

Game uh back it’s it’s percentage points because they’ve they’ve played their one win they less and one loss less so they are 0.002 ahead of uh Indiana right now they’re very and they’re pretty heavy favorites now to be in the seven8 game in the play it hard to say that because

We don’t know if when Joel’s coming back well I’m just saying projection wise yeah they’re pretty heavily favored to be in the playin and he’s probably not coming back soon enough for in my opinion for that to dramatically change given how well nurse has been I mean I’ve watched some of his postgame

Pressors he’s he’s trying to he’s trying he’s trying to make it clear he’s trying to get these guys to to rise up and he’s just not getting it from his from his team and we are now destined for philadelph Adelphia to beat Milwaukee Thursday night ahead of uh which is

Happening after this pod but they are currently 10 they are currently 10 and 21 in games Joel andb does not play this season and 26 and eight when he does also the Buddy heel trade which I thought was really a good trade for them he hasn’t been good and they and they

Sent him to the bench um know who’s actually been playing pretty good defense since the deadline I don’t have the numbers in front of me but I believe the Pacers defense has improved dramatically since budy buddy has been buddy has been fine he’s shooting 40% from three it’s just that they they just

As a team have not been good and again well I’m sure buddy I know buddy said all the right things when he went to the bench and he headed for a free agency I’m I’m sure getting sent to the bench didn’t make him the happiest camper well

He’s he’s still getting up a lot of shots I think his his situation I think is fine they were just they are searching for anything to work because as you said other than basically the one good game they’ve had is the game that Mansa in Dallas and then Tyrese Maxi got

A concussion and missed a couple of they had a game against Brooklyn that they almost won and they had a game against Memphis that they almost won with a skeleton crew and if he had been healthy they probably win both those games and maybe then they’re on Pace to finish

Sixth instead of eighth but again we’re talking about the same kind of situation in the east as in the west where you’ve got Indiana Miami and Philly all pretty bunched up projection wise and as we see as we’ve talked about a bunch you drop a game or two you’re supposed to win those

Projections can shift pretty wildly pretty quickly and you’re again we’re still looking at a situation where it’s not like it be see it doesn’t seem like he’s coming back in the next couple days certainly so if you’re talking two three weeks whatever longer than that the way

They’ve played it’s just very hard to see them win enough games to get ahead of frankly either Indiana or Miami even though those teams aren’t playing great Miami had a really strange skid here I said the Pacers are playing pretty good defense since the All-Star break uh maybe I should say drastically

Improved they’re ranked 20th in the league defensively since the break but 21st the Philadelphia 76ers yeah there’s been very little going well and Tobias in particular has been very bad I think in another hoop Collective um Jinx uh we were talking about a week ago about how

We thought the heat had turned the corner man and you know I really thought they were almost I think I might even have said I like I think they’re staying in the top six don’t worry about them in the playin and now look they lost to the

Nuggets at home by the way that game was close at the end and then the Nuggets like yeah Denver you’re not gonna score or I mean Miami you’re not GNA score I gotta tell you like I can’t really build a strong case for why the Nuggets aren’t

Winning it if they stay healthy if they lose one of their studs okay but like I watched the end of this game last night they were just like yeah we’re gonna play defense now forget about it and Miami couldn’t score and you know I can

I continue to expect that to be the case when they need to do it but um uh the heat of loss as you mentioned uh several in a row here including to the Wizards I was gonna say I I saw the start of that losing streak uh against the

Mavericks um you know then they l so they’ve lost in that stretch at the Mavericks at the Thunder home against the Nuggets look yeah two really good teams and and and the Mavericks depending on the night you see them can be a really good team there’s no shame

In losing on the road well they have a baseball Series with the Pistons over the weekend they’re gonna have a Detroit weekend home to the Wizards what in the world not great like I said they have a Detroit weekend two games in Detroit Friday and Sunday they ought to win those games

Although the Pistons are playing better getting some wins on Monday they play a game that is on national TV at the 76ers and when ESPN got that game I’m sure they weren’t thinking that this could be a pivotal game for the six seed P Revenge game baby here we are uh

Oh by the way has played quite well since uh getting in the lineup for Philly and he is the guy who has been starting place a buddy heel the past couple games United nurse and it feels so good Tobias Harris by the way since the All-Star break shooting 42% overall

29.8% from three Kelly UB since the All-Star break shooting 39% overall 25% from three Nick Batum since the All-Star break has only taken four shots a game shooting 28% obviously most of those from three 24% from three yeah so they have I me obviously some of those games have been

Without Tyrese but that’s I me you saw it these two games against the Knicks people were talking about the Knicks defense I mean they’re playing this sixer team that just can’t they can’t score at all and it’s it’s just a it’s a it’s a very difficult

Spot hey Wendy you know when the uh Wizards won in Miami you know had a big game that night NBA 2K MVP that’s why we said it Cory kissper listen I do I have you I wasn’t on that pod it was a viral one of our classic

Viral windy moments the only issue I have with you is don’t let your son win don’t let your son win you you’ve got to teach him competitive character you can let him stack the odds you’ll play with the wizards but he’s got to learn how to

Win games without you laying down for by the way that that game updates in real time so when the when the Wizards traded players off their roster you know Gafford gets offensive rebounds in that game like that’s that’s he gets offensive rebounds in real life too when

Krit misses one out of every six threes in that game Gafford would get the rebound well they traded Gafford and that damn thing updated and I don’t even know who’s starting at center now so it’s it’s stacked against you don’t let him win make him learn how to how to

Hold out down the stretch he takes losses um he’s still learning how to play that game when we play feba I mean FIFA um he takes losses in FIFA and listen I’m just telling you we got to teach the kid some competitive character and I know he’s got confidence because I

Saw I saw a video of his of the of a step back that he made and flex in well there might have been a walk there that’s okay might have been might I mean it it was a hard NE step back but he six he was hard step back from three feet he

He he was he was flexing on the way down the floor so don’t worry about his confidence he’s got some yes um well kissper is hard to handle in that game there’s no doubt about it I don’t care what anybody says it’s true if unless unless my game set on some setting that

I don’t know about uh the dude is UN Untouchable Untouchable um Indiana is in seventh as we do this right now um they we mentioned their day they just lost Ben Maan for the season yeah um they let me take a look at their schedule here so Indiana a slight favorite to finish

Sixth ahead of Miami so we could have a Sixers heat uh Sixers heat playin game for the seven spot which would certainly be a heck of a game on a variety of levels if it happens because a you could have be playing in the game by then uh and

B despite the fact that you’re you know even by the projection system it still has Cleveland in second whether it’s Cleveland or Milwaukee in second the choic is playing Cleveland or Milwaukee or Boston in the first round right that’s that’s quite a it’s quite a spread especially because you then would

Be on the opposite side of Boston all the way until the Conference Finals in that scenario so so certainly interesting potential play in matchups all across the board the Pacers still have a West Coast trip they have to do and so you know east teams going west sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t

You know um the team that we should at least discuss briefly I I don’t think they’re moving out of the playin Zone but the Chicago Bulls continue to be a very fascinating team um they went they went on a West Coast trip like last week

And went four- one or I guess was like two weeks ago completely out of nowhere didn’t expect it at all um and and they had a big overtime victory over the Pacers um in between slacked by the Mavericks yeah lose by 30 something they’re they’re hard to

Figure uh yeah at home they they got crushed by the Mavericks well and by the way again this is again we’re in very dangerous territory because they’re playing the Clippers tonight but right but Kawhi Leonard and James sarden are both questionable for that game so it is

A backtack obviously for the Bulls but if they could find a way to win that game they’ve got games with Washington Portland Houston and a game against the Celtics probably going to lose and then Washington again so if they could manage to rip off some wins

Here they at least have the potential to make this a bit of an interesting race for that second spot in the that s eight game they’re four Los is back I don’t think they’re getting there but with the way in particular the the Sixers have been playing and plummeting in recent

Games I mean they’re they five win they’re five losses ahead but still I mean this is a team that’s as I said before they’re playing at a about a 30% win clip without in bead like there is at least a world where if the Bulls can stay anywhere near on the level they’ve

Been you know I don’t if tomorrow’s scoring 46 a night like he did to beat the Pacers last night he’s incredible way geez dear he’s making can a guy on a team that finishes ninth in the conference can he win clutch Player of the Year oh absolutely I was just about

To mention like yeah he is for sure the coone factor player of the month front runner at this point and you talk about clutch Player of the Year Demar D rozan ranked second in the league in clutch scoring with 161 points four behind Steph Curry uh clutch plus minus Kobe

White actually has the best clutch plus minus in the league by the way Kobe White got hurt in that game with a fell on got fell on late in the game by casca yaka made a great block and fell on sounds like it’s not too bad though and

Hopefully he’ll be back as soon as this weekend which would be huge he’s been great anyways Kobe white has the League’s best plus minus at plus 89 but D rozen’s plus 76 which is uh sixth they played the mo they’ve either played the most or the second most clutched games

In or minutes the season two every single game they play is a a five-point game with five minutes to go it’s always a roller coaster no and and and you know he D rozan hit the just a crazy shot to send it in overtime I mean he he is absolutely one of

The top shelf Elite clutch scorers in the league and look man like we’ve we’ve hammered the Bulls hard and rightfully because they have just refused to yeah because they’re still below 500 despite all this but D rozan is having a really really good season for a mid-30s score

Time for a gigantic four-year extension well let’s do it come on baby you can do it Bulls you can do and again like look if they if they’re in there like if they can if they can find a way to make this thing interesting down the stretch I

Mean look I the Bulls are not a very good team but with the way Kobe White’s played and the way dear’s playing I mean I you know again if you’re talking about a one- game situation like maybe they could sneak a win but the bigger point

Is the way the as poorly as these teams above them have played the fact that the Bulls have gone on a mini run here they at least have given themselves an opening to make this thing interesting over the final couple weeks of the Season which is certainly not anything I

Expected to be saying at any point but that’s both credit to the way they’ve played and how poorly some of these teams above them have been and dead serious you do not want to be in a close game with the bulls because they every game is a close game play every game

It’s like a clutch well they’re either playing close games or they’re getting blown out okay fair but like if they keep it close they’re tough man uh nut cutting it is still it is still a five it is still a five win difference in the projections too so it’s not like it’s

Expected to be this close but also like I don’t think that quite takes into account the way M Philly in particular has been playing over the past few weeks just to build on the uh the Rosen Kutch Player of the Year case though nut cutting time last three

Minutes three POS uh one possession game within three points he has 88 points that’s 20 some odd more than anybody else in the league one possession game within the last minute he has 54 points uh that is Steph Curry’s second in the league with with 43 and it’s all

Efficient it’s all shooting better than 50% from the floor and I I’d have to think about it more but it’s hard for me to think of somebody who’s going to get that clutch award ahead of him year Steph is going to get a lot of consideration um again Steph is the guy

Who has the most clutch points um Steph’s obviously a huge name etc etc uh honestly I think the rozan is gonna be tough to beat though you can make a case for joker as well but I don’t know if you want to give that to I don’t want I don’t know

If you want to double up he’s gonna get he’s gonna get the the big Crystal trophy yeah he’s gonna get he’s going to get not just clutch player he’s going to get unclutch player first quarter second quarter third quarter fourth quarter by the way the nuggets are again the number

One clutch team yeah look it’s like we talked about when we talked about that Celtic game the other day that when you get in the final five minutes of the game just you run that Murray yic pick and roll and like they’re just they might not score every time but they’re

Not going to make mistakes and they’re going to get a good shot every time and it’s just such a massive Advantage late in games to just know you’re going to get good something good every time and they’re fully confident they’re going to get something good every time too the heat really really

Sold out trying to stop that and Michael Porter slayed them because he was open on the backside he got like seven wide openen threes in that game and he made like four or five of them so that’s probably what you’re G to do you’re probably you know in a series you’re

Probably going to say well make Michael Porter beat you but of course he can beat you MH so uh especially if they’re catch and shoot threes which they were yeah and that’s and you know and again like you just we’d see so many of these teams struggle

In those situations to get quality shots and you’re talking about giving up open threes to a 40% three-point shooter who’s you know got one of the best shots in the league like right anding out to him is not that’s what I mean that’s a better outcome

That’s a that you can you can argue giving a a good big shoot is definitely a better outcome not even argue it is the better outcome but and then you say well don’t give Michael Porter Jr clean looks at cats and shoot threes oh gez you wonder how Aaron

Gordon keeps cutting for lob dunks from Aaron Gordon CL situations well don’t give him that well okay great let let Joker go one-on-one or you know deal with a Twan game with him and Murray without uh loading up on H kcp is shooting 39% too I mean this is why

You know it’s it’s why they’re so devastating in that like that those guys know where they need to be and I mean we’ve talked about it a bunch it’s why the say in the interview with the ringer with Kevin oconor at the beginning of the year which was controversial because

He apparently thought he was off the Record what did he say he said something like he said a lot of things and they were all spectacular and they were all right I think you’re referring to the thing where he sort of kind of predicted that they were about to run off a few

Championships he’s like he’s like if we I don’t have it exactly in front of me but he said something like if we take care of our business we should win you know three four whatever two three four whatever he said look they’re they as you sit here right now again it’s we got

To see how this plays out but I’m not picking anybody to beat them this year these guys are in their primes yeah they’re under contract they fit together like it’s it’s a pretty impressive group young guys are playing well it’s I mean there’s not a lot of holes lowkey boss

Move when the the Nuggets kind of knew they had that Series in hand after they won game three they won game three in Miami got homecourt back lowkey boss move for them to do a trade for extra draft picks in that series middle of the finals they execute a trade for extra

Draft picks like yeah we know we’re probably going to win this series we’re probably going to win a bunch more we need we need some some cheap Talent they could have they could have done that trade after the finals like no no probably we got it we’re up 2-1 we got

Joic we know we’re going to be just fine like it’s awesome it’s awesome that they did that and they did it during the finals I believe it was the day of game four if it wasn’t the day of game four it was like the day before game four I

Think it was the day of game four they did a they did a draft pick trade the day of a Finals game which by the way once they won they knew it was over you know joic was celebrating more after game four than he was basically after

Game five U other than when he jumped he threw Jamal Murray I was gonna say up the yage brothers they they had they had time after game five the yic brothers were with our guy friend of the Pod bogie bogdanovich uh they felt pretty good I saw him in the stands all right

Thanks for listening and watching the ho Collective podcast special shout out Ken State golden flashes it’s supposed to be rebuilding here after winning the uh the Mac last year upset the number one seed till rockets on Thursday great job Golden fashist Keep it going thank you

For uh to our producer Jackson thank you to Bon thank you to McMahon and we’ll talk to you next week K State golden flashes want a shout out from me they can send me some free gear adios amigos

Play-In Seeding Battles For Teams in the Eastern and Western Conference | The Hoop Collective
Brian Windhorst is joined by Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk some teams battling for seeding in the NBA Play-In Tournament in both the East and West including the Warriors, Lakers, 76ers and more.
#thehoopcollective #nba #espn

0:00 Intro
0:54 NBA Play-In Tournament Seeding: Warriors & Lakers Battle For Positioning
14:58 Nuggets Catching Fire At The Right Time
21:13 West NBA Play-In Tournament Seeding
29:47 East NBA Play-In Tournament Seeding
50:15 Thanks For Watching!

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