How Scary Are the Mavs Out West? | The Bill Simmons Podcast

How Scary Are the Mavs Out West? | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Kyrie made one of the great buzzer beater shots I’ve ever seen in my life Brillo uh a 20 foot running Lefty it’s a borderline Skyhook what was it almost looked like the magic Junior Skyhook but Lefty over yage to win the game and Maxi kba put his put his arms behind his

Hands behind his head like Thomas Hill after the ler shot and Luca just sunk to the ground in disbelief because real basketball players are like that shot’s [ __ ] impossible nobody should ever make that shot ever that shot is so hard okay to be going that direction where it’s

Not even really just a straightforward floater the angle that he’s at and then he throws it in Lefty it’s just you know it’s it’s part of the the Brilliance of Kyrie and and just Why when people talk about like the most skilled and that kind of stuff like we know he’s the best

Ball handler we’ve ever seen um you know there’s this love for him from other just hoopers who are like dude like some of the stuff that this guy does and I think that’s always been kind of the frustration is that you know mean I

Don’t want to spend a lot of time on all the rest of it but it’s like oh how come you guys are diseny it’s like well it’s not that it’s just you want to see somebody have a long stretch of consistency of playing because you know what he’s capable of enough time has

Passed when he had that weird Celtics season that I’ve gone back to the basketball mode of I just app appreciate watching how good he is again and that’s all I see and he’s 255 and five again he’s missed his usual 15 to 16 games what was the stat they said how many

Game how many consecutive games had he played all right so this is his 18th straight game that he’s played which is the longest consecutive streak of games played Without missing any since 2016 from Kyrie yeah in the last eight years this is his longest streak right so you

Know when when you hear some people be frustrated you’re like okay I mean that’s nuts it’s eight years what do you think of Dallas I’m I’m G to be scared of Luca in a playoff series me too because we’ve already seen it whether it’s the Western Conference Finals run and taking out my

Guys in Phoenix which is one of the most depressed podcasts I’ve probably ever done with you um yeah that those Clippers series were just incredible individual performances like he and kawhai going back and forth like that was all time kind of like that’s the kind of where I I still think I don’t

Know if you share this with me but you know it’s largely an a relevant series it it’s not like Legacy defining but it was this this wakeup call of again not even Luca a lot of the kawhai stuff you’re like this is like absurdly highlevel stuff that we’re seeing from

These two dudes so let me just throw it back to you if it’s a 72 and Oklahoma City’s a half game up now with Denver’s lost Oklahoma city has the season series against the Nuggets 3-1 so that’s why they were ahead in the tie break even though they were both 40

And 7 oh excuse me 47 and 20 start today if Minnesota or OKC’s in a 72 game series with with Dallas I I I think the best compliment I could give Mass fans is like you know I wish you had a better record against the better teams

In general because we go to those expanded standings like they’re still you know they’re still worse off than a lot of the teams that are in front of them but for Luca in that like I wouldn’t rule it out is I guess my point the two guys that’s the strength

The PJ Washington trade I just don’t think has worked that well for him although he did some good non-scoring stuff in today’s game but he’s just he has not shot the ball well at all for them and Grant meanwhile Grant’s been playing pretty well in Charlotte which

Has been funny to watch I only trust Hornets right I don’t really trust their swings but I’m scared of the two guys and if you if you separate the west and the halves and you just go 6 S 8 9 10 which right now is Sacramento 6 Dallas Phoenix Golden State Lakers watching

What’s happened to Phoenix in a couple of the games this past week I think it’s been pretty alarming what the Celtics did to them on Thursday night if I’m a phoenix fan I’m alarmed because I had my whole team today was worse today just the Milwaukee puts up 140 on them

Without Giannis that was that was really weird and Durant had a very strange game uh but if it’s Sacramento Dallas Phoenix going State the Lakers and I’m one of the top three seeds and it’s like who don’t I want to see out of those bottom five it’s clear clearly Dallas it’s

Clearly Dallas it’s not Sacramento it’s not Phoenix and it’s not going state of the Lakers yeah depending on the size match up that’s where I think Sacramento would run of problems I think Golden State would run of those problems I mean golden state was great yesterday but

Anthony Davis played 12 minutes I mean that was a completely different Jackson Hayes was in crunch time yeah I mean Jackson Hayes just isn’t the reason there was a reason he was available for a million bucks you know I know he’s going to have a couple dunks that are

Really nice but like if you really locked into defensively what they were doing and we already know the Lakers without Vando are just going to be challenged defensively to begin with and 80s cleaning up all that stuff I think the number was four points in the paint

In the 12 minutes 80 was in he leaves with the eye thing doesn’t come back and then it was like 54 points yeah in the paint I mean that was just a layup line for Golden State so even the Golden State’s put some things together I’ve actually really liked how Clay’s looked

This month it seems like they figured out the rotation okay Off the Bench yeah I thought Draymond was excellent in that game yesterday I like how the Warriors getting off to that start because the Lakers sag off of him so much but I I think you’re I think you’re

Right about the Dallas part of it because Dallas with Luca has a better player than at this point I mean Luca is better than any single player despite how we feel about KD Booker and Steph and you know the collective of Sacramento but you know they’ve got the best guy yeah

And you could feel it in that Denver game at some point when they’re trading baskets when it was close it’s you know pretty nice to have LCA on on your side and pretty nice to have Kyrie as the second option bailout thing so yeah I don’t I don’t think Dallas is going to

Win three straight rounds but I would not be afraid of Sacramento at All

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo discuss the Mavericks after their impressive performance against the Nuggets.

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